Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Any subject is good for opera if the composer feels it so intently he must sing it out." - Gian Carlo Menotti

NAME Basilio Emiliani
ALIAS Uccello Bianco (Literally "White Bird") is what he prefers to introduce himself as.
STAGE NAME None at the moment.
GENDER Male
AGE 19

HAIR COLOR Black-brown
EYE COLOR Brown
COMPLEXION Olive
HEIGHT 5'10"
NATIONALITY Italian
LANGUAGE Italian, English, and rudimentary French, German and Russian. The last three are almost solely for the purpose of singing, though he speaks broken French with some proficiency and can understand the majority of all three when spoken to him. His accent in German and Russian is particularly atrocious should he ever try to say something in them. When he sings, however, these flaws disappear, so it's quite a shock to realize he can barely get out a sentence.

APPEARANCE Uccello isn’t a stunning beauty, but he isn’t totally unfortunate looking either. Overall he has very sharp, thin features which is most noticeable in his jaw and nose. His chin is slim and long with defined edges, and his cheekbones are high and distinct. Likewise he has a nose that is long, thin, and slightly hooked with a beaky point. His bright eyes are usually obscured by a pair of brass-rimmed glasses that perch delicately on his nose without any arms tucked over his ears. Both their eternally accurate prescription and ability to not fall unless purposefully removed (or, alternatively, knocked off with someone's fist) are magical.

He has short, dark brown hair that usually just looks black, matching his dusky complexion appropriately. It's straight with only a faint wave to it that makes the bangs curl across his forehead. It's kept a little longer than necessary, but still qualifies as short, and this length allows it to look fashionably disheveled now that he doesn't have the time to preen in the morning.

Though his build is a little awkward with skinny, long limbs and a bony structure, Uccello has a presence. He holds himself very confidently and moves like he's on stage. He talks with his hands, and makes lots of meaningless gestures with them while conversing. His voice hardly needs any help, however. He has a very powerful, magnetic voice that easily expresses emotion, and because of that he has a very hard time disguising when he's upset or angry. He speaks English very well, but his first language is distinct in his pronunciations.

LIKES Being alone in an empty opera house, performing in front of a full opera house, having an audience, hearing new music (even if he doesn't actually like the music itself), social gatherings, crowds, people, lively cities, churches, choral music, birds, water features such as canals or fountains, classical architecture, the finer things in life, plans, goals, organization.
DISLIKES Bird dander, cleaning up bird cages, overt uses of magic (he'll just opt to ignore the more subtle uses), cats, pressure to be sincere, accusations of having antiquated views, people without goals, not having a goal himself, crass people, getting dirty, his intelligence being insulted, world hopping, being parted from his birds for long.
HOBBIES Witnessing others' performances, writing extensive To Do lists, adopting new projects only to abandon them again soon after, reading "intelligent" books, researching new genres of music, keeping a journal, playing the violin, working on his French, ballroom dancing.

PERSONALITY
Uccello is very high energy. He likes to keep moving and likes to accomplish things, and without a project he becomes restless. Generally he is a very productive person who rearranges his living area often just to keep it feeling fresh and spends a lot of time out and about. He loathes staying in all day and insists he has to go do something at least once a day to feel satisfied. When he gets bored, he addresses a list of projects he keeps on hand that range from fixing things (with varying degrees of success) to trying to make a chair or a birdhouse (with often even less success).

Uccello loves company, and will choose the companionship of someone that irritates him over being alone. He's typically charming and classy, but gives off an impression of being rather shallow and spoiled, and sometimes even insincere. Uccello has a difficult time really understanding and sympathizing with people and his attempts can feel hollow. Still he feels he has to try and be nice about complaints and things that are upsetting them on a day to day basis. Unsurprisingly Uccello has, in the past, held onto very few close friends because he has a tendency to shift through interests and topics of conversation like they were going out of style.

Despite this, he's friendly and well spoken. He fancies himself an intellectual and gives off upper-class vibes while seeming very well-educated. He also has a taste for the finer things in life, which matches his aristocratic airs, and he likes to indulge himself regularly. Uccello certainly likes to have fun (and has a shockingly high alcohol tolerance for his stature) but usually he keeps a good balance between work and play. Although often irresponsible with his money and in his personal behavior, he’s good at not letting his poor judgment hurt his responsibilities. He will show up for practice and work on time no matter what and won't sacrifice his duties.

Though typically a happy person who knows how to enjoy the small moments, Uccello seems like he will never be totally satisfied in life. He has incredibly high standards for himself, his lifestyle and the company he keeps, but he tends to gravitate towards things that don't live up to there fairytale ideals. He often hated the life he led in the opera, but saw it as the closest thing to gaining satisfaction. He's a little self-destructive in this respect, as he’ll keep going back to what makes him unhappy as if this time things will be better. His golden standard has recently become his old life in the opera, and he can't seem to accept that he really is happier in the circus with no money and with these people he would have never spoken with before. Realizing this will be a gradual process.

Before running away, Uccello felt as if he had his life all mapped out. After losing it all, everything he had taken for granted was severely shaken. By nature Uccello is a planner and thrives on having goals and a mapped out future. This was something that Lord Monteverdi and the opera always provided him with, but now that he's without a target beyond "don't get caught" Uccello feels lost and unstructured. At his core he's an emotional wreck and needs organization to help him regain the illusion of being in control, which was always his crutch when his life was not really his own. He's apprehensive about his new path with the circus, but despite his reluctance he doesn't resent it or blame it for his being uprooted. If anything, it saved him.

Uccello has a few problems with the foreign setting that is the cirque. His strict upbringing has taught him that women are delicate flowers, and the ladies of the circus are anything but. He's frequently scandalized by what they do (and what they wear) and feels the need to be the gentleman in every situation. He bows and kisses hands and pulls out chairs, and even when he's been told to knock it off he stubbornly persists. Another problem he frequently has is with the use of magic. He's used to magic being quiet and subtle and all around easy to ignore, but that's rarely the case in cirque. Large displays of magic and obviously nonhuman people can easily spook him and leave him feeling tense and on edge.

HISTORY Anything that appears { like this } indicates information that Basilio doesn't know.

Basilio Emiliani was born to very humble beginnings as a member of the lower factory-going city-dwelling class. His parents abandoned him to the care of the mother’s much older sister when Basilio was only a toddler, but he didn’t totally lack love even without parents. His three older cousins and aunt and uncle were a decent stand-in family, though re remained a little separate from them. But soon Basilio found purpose in the local cathedral to fill what holes in his life remained. While not totally possessed with religion, he was gifted with a stunning voice that the church’s chorus helped to hone. Because of his skill, he was invited up to perform as part of the chorus in a cathedral in the richer city districts, and it was then that at nine years old he was discovered by a wealthy parishioner, Lord Ottavio Monteverdi. Lord Monteverdi was the owner of Venice’s grandest opera house, one that people all over the tiny world flocked to, and even some not of their world. He saw talent in the young boy, and after a year of courting the family (and a few healthy monetary donations) custody of Basilio was signed over to him. He promised that it would be the best life that the child could ever hope for.

And as Ottavio promised, it was a vast improvement. Though he was worked hard and practiced long hours, as soon as lessons were over he was readily pampered and given whatever a preteen boy could want. However, he was also enlisted to be his guardian’s assistant in the dark magic he dabbled in. To Ottavio’s disappointment, his young prodigy wasn’t quite as gifted of a magician as he was a singer. In fact, he showed almost no arcane ability at all. Regardless, life went on like this, but after his debut Basilio became a minor celebrity whose name only continued to grow. As a result, in his teens he developed a taste for the expensive. Lonely and isolated, he threw himself into the lifestyle of a lush and Ottavio encouraged the behavior. He allowed Basilio to fall into an insurmountable pile of debt, and it became clear that leaving the opera house would never be an available option. Basilio resigned himself to this fate and didn’t change his behavior or try at all to work out from under Ottavio’s thumb. He was practically the Lord Monteverdi’s property.

For years Ottavio’s pet project had been a collection of many large parrots, which he thought he could make to sing so well as to replace a human. But his experiments were all failures, often with horrifying results. Because he was no use in the lab, Basilio’s job was mostly to care for the animals prior to experimentation and then clean up afterwards, which was sometimes a gruesome task. After some rough spots with these chores he became steadily more comfortable with them and grew to like the birds. At the age of eighteen, Basilio was still hopeless with magic, but he had become an even more spectacular and greatly renowned singer, and still a useful helping hand in the experiments. { But meanwhile, Ottavio knew that he was missing a key element in his formula, and had come to the conclusion that by fusing a human soul to the parrots they could become almost human themselves. His initial candidate was Basilio himself, but he was bringing in audiences and money. Though in reality, for all of Ottavio’s practical business-mindedness, when it came to actually planning the inevitable murder of his charge... he simply couldn’t. Basilio really was like a son to him after so many years. }

It was around then that Basilio was introduced to Brigitta Cardia, a famous young female opera singer from a rival company. The two kept their distance at first, but Ottavio encouraged Basilio to socialize with her and enjoy his youth. He had so few friends anyway, and perhaps another singer would understand the life he had to lead. His guess was correct, and Basilio and Brigitta quickly became fast friends, much to the chagrin of those in charge of her career. As they had feared, the close friendship turned into a whirlwind romance, but both of the singers were very happy with the situation for a time. Brigitta was hot-headed, so she and Basilio fought frequently, and their on-again-off-again relationship was a popular source of gossip amongst their peers.

Still, it was wonderful, at least until the night of her disappearance a few months after the start of the affair. That evening she was to visit Basilio so they could make up for a most recent and public argument, but then she appeared not to arrive at the home Basilio shared with Ottavio. Dejected, he went downstairs to the laboratory to complete his work for the day and saw the dead and maimed body of Brigitta with Ottavio standing over a desk a few feet away. He seemed totally unconcerned, and, if anything, excited. { By killing Brigitta and bonding her soul to the three remaining birds, he had succeeded. They were not making pleasant noises, but they sounded beautiful and human. He was sorry it had to be someone so close to Basilio, but he figured would explain the situation in the morning and all would be well. }

Basilio was devastated and threatened to turn him in, but Ottavio said that he belonged to the theater and would do no such thing. He told him at the very least he would be arrested as an accomplice, and in fact would probably be held solely responsible for the murder since he was Brigitta’s lover and they had been last seen arguing. Ottavio commanded him to clean up the mess and that he was to help dispose of the body. Terrified of what would happen if he didn’t obey and equally numb over what he had witnessed, Basilio thought he had no choice but to comply. He was sent alone to drop Brigitta's body in a distant canal.

News of her murder spread quickly, as there are were few places to hide bodies in this Venice and hers was quickly found. It wasn’t long before fingers were pointed at Basilio. She had been going to see him that night, and, as Ottavio had said, they were known to fight. Rumors began to emerge that perhaps she had been pregnant, or maybe she had cheated on him, or he had cheated on her. Some said she had been trying to leave him, and in a rage he had killed her. Basilio panicked, fearing Ottavio and doubting his promises to protect him from arrest. It didn’t take long before he decided he had to run. After composing and sending a quick letter implicating Ottavio in the murder of Brigitta, that same night he prepared for his escape while Ottavio was away. At the last minute, however, he decided to free the three remaining birds. He doubted that he’d be able to get them to follow him but didn’t want them suffering more though Ottavio’s continued experiments. Amazingly, however, they did follow Basilio as he fled through the alleyways. After one night of being alone on the streets, he stumbled across the Cirque du Coeur Torve as it was packing up. Impulsively, Basilio decided that this was the best way to get as far away from Venice as he could. He smuggled himself and the birds (who refused to leave his side) onto the nearest wagon and prayed he’d be overlooked until the circus moved onto whatever exotic locale was next on their list.

He was lucky and avoided discovery just long enough to get out of his own world and into the next... But a stowaway is rarely cause for excitement. Basilio, claiming his name was Uccello Bianco, begged for a job, promising to do whatever it took to not be thrown out on the streets.

WORLD Early 1800’s Regency Italy (Type B)
Uccello hails from an place that’s fairly similar to ours, but in this version of Venice, Italy around 1813, some things are a little more extreme. The signature channels of the city are present in excess. The city as a whole seems riddled with canals and streets for walking on are thin sidewalks and bridges that overhang the water. The main mode of transportation is, of course, boats. But the poverty level is higher and the world a little darker. Nighttime lasts longer and the days are foggy, and although history books tell of a world outside Venice, all the foreigners that enter the city seem to be from various other dimensions rather than the rest of Europe. One has to wonder if there is really anything beyond the city at all, or if the bridges and crooked waterways just go on for eternity without ever changing. The natives of Venice seem to care little for theorizing on this.

But the fact of the matter is that Basilio's Venice is a magical construct, a fake Venice created by some seriously powerful magician (or maybe a group of them) looking for a place to spend the rest of their days. He or she highlighted what they liked the most in Venice (the canals, the nights, the carnival) and from there it grew as humans were brought into the city to find new lives. Because of it's nature as a small unnatural pocket in time and space, it's very easy for people from other dimensions to reach it and it's almost like a bright beacon calling people towards it.

The city itself is a continuous loop, so if you walk in one direction long enough, you will eventually turn up on the other side of the city. Imagine it like a city that encompasses one tiny planet entirely, but there's nothing suggesting it has actual roundness when you're walking down the street.

Magic is uncommon, but still permeates the lives of Venice’s inhabitants. Many buildings are lit with magic and modern conveniences like automatic doors or boats that drive themselves to and fro without anyone at the helm are common. It’s a scientific art that relies heavily on charts and math, often taking place in large scale laboratories. Still, it requires a certain spark that the majority of the population does not have.

Because of magic, Venice is a little technologically slow. Magic allows for simple mechanics to happen independently, but it's still not actually science. Science is still pursued when it comes to biology and medicine (there is no healing magic) but invention is replaced by magic. Still, they would need to invent a machine to perform the actual duty... and then they could come up with an attached spell that makes the machine run on it's own. But their progression in the sciences is a little more stunted because of the unnatural nature of this Venice. Since most manual labor can be made automated, this is what causes the high poverty level.

Inaccurate chibi.
Inaccurate headshot

Art (c) Earthkid

Wow! I like him already! biggrin He looks like an awesome character and his background is really neat. I like that he's not adapted from another story of yours. Characters that are created specifically for the Cirque seem to fit into it better and become stronger concepts more easily than characters that are from somewhere else.

I could draw parallels between the birds and Sarava, or between Basilio's musical history and some of his appearance to Iosif, but I don't think that's very fair of me. He's a really cool character and his act fills a niche that's not really thought of yet. I'd love to see him make it into the game.

--->FILL IN HIS LIKES, DISLIKES, AND HOBBIES. Please?

Oh, and it's off-topic, but could I commission you for some avi art?

WHAM!

APPROVED

Maybe Violin or Harpsicord? It's probably a good idea to think about what things do and don't exist in his world. Like, I know Lu has no idea what a piano is and was totally lost when Iosef tried to explain one. I like how you noted that he doesn't like big displays of magic. Could you elaborate on this?

I'm honestly a little confused by his world. Magic replaces science? I understand that it's pre-industrial revolution, but would the industrial revolution even occur? It seems like they have magic that negates the need. Is the world kind of stuck?

And even if it's not important, what is outside of Venice? Why do travellers only come from other dimensions? Is something sinister going on?

smile

Aha! I like that idea a lot. smile It's really neat.

But the chibi is just so damn cute. :3