Welcome to Gaia! ::

Name Eli (Can be pronounced as feminine “Eh-lee” or masculine “Ee-lai”) Piper

Gender Simultaneous Hermaphrodite

Age Twenty-one

Species Human

Occupation Juggler of Cirque du Noir

Appearance Golden-blonde shoulder-length hair with the tips dyed pink complement cornflower blue eyes surprisingly well to make an attractive, but honestly quite androgynous appearance. Eli's features, body and build are an absolute balance in between male and female that baffles some and amuses others. The only way to figure out Eli's true gender is simply to strip the juggler naked, so due to common decency, as well as the fact that no-one's been able to do it despite several scandalous attempts, this remains an inspired secret. Many of Eli's clothes carry a theme of asymmetry and are mostly black, white or grey.

Picture (Optional)

Personality At first glance, Eli, the Juggler of Cirque du Noir is quite a simple person: Fairly innocent and naive, though prone to drop an occasional pervy joke here or there. Easily bored, with only two modes of activity: hyperactive and lethargic. The juggler is also very 'touchy-feely', with as much respect for personal boundaries as a person passing out free hugs on the street. Eli is generally quite optimistic and outgoing, to the extent of being perceived as childish, not to mention popular with children. Eccentric at times, and with a strange dismissive attitude towards many

Abilities As a juggler, Eli obviously possesses hand-eye coordination that’s far above average, and also an ability to focus on multiple things at a time. However, the blonde also possesses an air of innocence and honesty that makes it easy to befriend and gain the trust of unwary individuals, especially children. Eli also seems to be able to detect movement especially well, even the smallest of twitches or blinks, this being something to do with the balance of rods and corns in the eyes. Strangely enough, the blonde also has an uncanny skill of pretending to be asleep when actually awake. Though not an advocate of violence, you can never know what to expect in the Cirque du Noire, so Eli has been known to carry around a Swiss army knife at times. The juggler also seems to have a network of informants throughout the local town, namely the children.

Weaknesses With Eli’s brightly colored hair and asymmetric style of clothing, it might be a huge surprise or not at all that the juggler is completely colorblind. Since this is a genetic trait, Eli's been colorblind since birth, and therefore has no concept of color, not that this is much more than a small annoyance at times. Eli also has a minuscule attention span, and a tendency to hoard junk like a packrat. Junk as in broken bottles, ragged dolls, handouts received on the street, anything that could possibly be deemed as "potentially useful in the future". All of the articles mentioned above and much more are all stored in a dark, dangerous corner of Eli's tent that no-one besides its owner ever should go within a meter radius of lest be buried beneath an avalanche. Obviously, Eli's organization skills are less than exemplary. Eli's hyperactive personality is known to be annoying to more than a few people, and this blonde can sometimes be downright immature and obnoxious. But during arguments and drama within the 'Noire family, the blonde has a policy of neutrality and 'sitting on the fence' which can lead to several problems. A lot of the time though, the juggler's biggest vices are just... Bull-headed stubbornness, a lack of foresight, an absolute disregard for safety whatsoever, and an unwillingness to learn from past mistakes, which translates into pure stupidity. Sometimes you really have to wonder if Eli's got some sort of crazy death wish.

Backstory

The day Eli was born; the doctors delivering the new baby were faced with a slight dilemma. It went something like this:

”Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Piper, you have a healthy baby… Boy, I think. It’s a boy right? … No wait, is this? Are you kidding m- Er, okay… Mr. and Mrs. Piper, your new child is, in fact… A hermaphrodite.”

Therefore, it is due to this genetic slip-up, Eli has been bestowed with not only one, but two genders, which ,for most of the blonde’s youth, made it a pain to fill in registration forms, make introductions to people, and lastly, figure out which pronoun to use when referring to self. (As of now, Eli still hasn’t figured that last one out) But for most of the time, even now, Eli just lets everyone assume what they want, usually that Eli’s just a very flat-chested girl, and if they don’t ask, then don’t tell. It’s been the most effective strategy so far.

Eli was what many would call a ‘latchkey child’, and spent most time in between school and dinner out on the streets. It was here that the blonde child met a street performer. Young Eli was enraptured and entranced by the way the performer was able to juggle so many balls, and not even just balls, even shoes, bottles, cans and beanbags, so effortlessly, seamlessly tossing them from one hand to another, from the other into the air, and then catching it without the slightest hesitation. For a young, impressionable child who had never seen anything of this sort before, this was practically magic. The street performer spotted the little kid who stood there watching him for nearly an hour, and offered to teach the blonde a few basic juggling tricks. By the end of the day, it was discovered that the child had a natural talent for the skill.

As the years passed, Eli fell into some bad company, and eventually one thing led to another, which resulted in the blonde dropping out of high school at sixteen. Somewhere along the way, one of Eli’s friends suggested that they try getting some easy money. Their first plan entailed Eli putting on a little juggling performance in the town square in order to distract the audience as they were pick pocketed by various accomplices. The plan turned out to be successful, but as in the Boy Who Cried Wolf, they soon realized that they could only play the same tricks on the same people so many times before the jig was up. The scams got more and more elaborate as they moved from one place to another. Before long, at the age of eighteen, Eli had become a professional con artist.

However, no matter how beautiful a crime is, in the end, it's going to be exposed. Eli and company were caught and arrested for their scams and sentenced to two years in jail for their crimes. Much of the juggler's art was perfected during this time due to a lack of much else to do. Eli learnt to juggle all sorts of things in this period of time, from balls to bottles to shoes to bowls. Upon release, the blonde was without job, money nor education, and so took refuge in a church for a while, making money through street performances. But of course, this arrangement didn't work out very when Eli was discovered not only to be a closet bisexual, but was also found attempting to hit on one of the younger priests. Being literally kicked out of a cathedral is no fun.

In the end, Eli was able to find a job in the Cirque du Noire as a humble juggler, and appears to have turned over a whole new leaf. Whether that's true or not remains to be seen.

Facts
Eli likes making random little bets that are bound to result in failure for the juggler. But then, it may not be such a smart idea to make bets with a former con artist.

Eli does not like cooking, especially when following recipes from a cookbook. ("Now bake until it turns a golden bro- Oh give me a break!")

It's kind of hard to tell the difference between a sober and drunk Eli. Until the attempted juggling begins, that is. Note, 'attempted' being the operative word.

Hangovers suck, especially 'cause Eli can never remember what happened the night before.

"While we're still on that tangent, I have a tattoo of the word "Sexyback" on my left collarbone that I don't remember getting. Does anyone know about this?"

Sometimes accidentally says things that carry unintended innuendo, but doesn't understand why it's wrong. Oh young, virginal Eli... (Eli… Is a virgin, right? )

"Huh? Jail sentence? Me? Sorry, dunno what you're talking about!"

Eli loves pretty people in general. The blonde is just instantly attracted to anyone deemed 'pretty', which is most people, to be honest.

Sample

In the half-lit illumination of the moon, foreboding shadows stretching across the ground in a mass of dark entities, an uncommon silence hung over the city of tents in which the performers of the Cirque du Noire resided. Aside from the occassional hiss of snakes, no doubt the pets of a certain scaled beauty, the pad of footsteps on the ground, or the rustling of nearby trees, all was quiet. No doubt some of the men had gone drinking in the nearby pub while the more reserved members of the circus were either asleep or practicing for the upcoming show.

While Eli certainly didn't count as a 'reserved' person in any way shape or form, neither was the Juggler quite 'praciticing' for any act, despite what appearances may lead to believe. It was safe to say that no performance in the Cirque du Noir involved juggling a pair of high heel shoes, a black balled-up lace brassier and three bottles of beer. Smiling while going through the familiar routine of catching and throwing, the blonde couldn't help but notice the sound of hissing reptiles growing closer.

Distracted by this observation, the blonde's hand accidently slipped when catching the third- or was this the second?- bottle of beer, and this resulted in a badly aimed throw, which in turn messed up the whole cycle. Luckily, all the alcohol as well as the underwear and the stilletos were saved from crashing to the ground by a toss of all the items into the air, and the Juggler catching them one by one, either in hand or balancing them on various body parts. Letting out a small sigh and the close call, Eli resolved to concentrate more next time, and not allow such a novice's mistake to occur again. After all, even Jugglers had pride in their acts, no matter how mediocre they were compared to the other acts in the circus.

Placing all the items on a small table, the blonde decided to go out and investiage what was vexing the resident reptilian so much, which was evident by the annoyed tone of her companion's hisses. Walking out of the tent, the blonde smiled and simply hugged said fellow performer from behind in a childish manner, clinging to her.

"Hi Sin. Out looking for trouble?" Eli laughed.

I love this character!

I was just reading through, though, and one thing made me giggle.

It's rods and cones, if you're talking about the photosensitive cells in our retina, not rods and corns xDDD

Also, if he/she has cones, he/she should be able to see some sort of colour. What kind of colour-blindness does Eli have? biggrin