Name: Stroud MarinusNickname: none so far
Age: 27
Birthday: Sept. 3rd
Sign: Virgo
Gemstone: Sapphire, starstone – sardonyx
Blood Type: A+
Fav. Food: Coffee, a pipe
Hated Food: anything not coffee and a pipe
School: N/A part of the workforce
Hobbies: Antiquary – a student of the past, specifically of antiquities. Her specialty is in furniture and restoration. Stroud has a large warehouse apartment and studio where a lineup of miscellany tables, chairs, bureaus, curios, and picture frames all await sanding, polishing, refinishing, and repair. She finds the work not only rewarding for bringing superior artistry and damaged goods to life again (compared to the plywood and particle board crap everyone buys at box stores), but relaxing. While working, she likes to have her music up at chest-vibrating levels and get into a trance-zone of Zen.
Patron – She’s found her niche, and she’s good at making it make money, but she hasn’t forgotten how hard it was during college and just out of it to make ends meet. Stroud likes to go to gallery openings, fiction jams, open mike nights, dance halls, and even walk late night streets looking for buskers. She collects art, cds, t-shirts, or whatever grabs her attention. She enjoys anything that has been taken to the level of ‘art’, be it basket weaving or screen printing, penny whistle or mime/pantomime. She likes to grab phone numbers, emails, websites and blogs as well, letting her keep up with her favorite artisans. Art alone earns her regard: Se non è vero, è ben trovato ("Even if it is not true, it is well conceived").
If she can be said to have a specific soft spot of patronage, it is for large scale art-installations or sculptures, large paintings…anything where the experience is palpable and completely engrossing. These objects cause a 'flow' of a specific experience, funneling emotions and perceptions, and she enjoys it to the utmost. She picked her warehouse apartment in order to have space for her studio, yes, but also to have space to display any large scale works she buys.
Smoking – It is an art, and she enjoys it that way. But not inside her apartment, with all those precious antiques! She’s had some metal-artisans build her a smoking room out of her porch out some windows of her apartment. It has an air filtration vent like at a store, a humidor for her tobacco, and a set of antique, men’s lounge furniture. She smokes only pipes, or her own hand rolled cigarettes that use pipe tobacco instead of the usual sort. She likes the smell better, and it involves less tar staining on everything one owns.
Virtues: Analytical – Stroud is sensitive to her surroundings, body-aware, and concerned with the general vibe of any person, place, or object she finds herself faced with. She wants to know if something is un-Zen, and in reading what is going one around her, how to best re-establish the Zen. Peak efficiency is only possible when balance is achieved.
If she's participating in a street improv, and someone is trying to put on a brave face but is actually terrified, she'd be one of those old stage hands who might pick up on the constant shifts in weight from foot to foot combined with the stretch lines at the corners of their smile that prove it to be fake. In the same situation, she might pick out a steady veteran, pair the two up with some small talk, shore up the weak link and increase the chances of the improv going off without a hitch. By the same token, she's the sort who notices magazines being out of place in a stack, or where on a table top there is still heat from a recently removed coffee mug, and she can put two and two together to figure out that someone is lying to her about not having anyone over. Stroud reads situations to weigh risks - how many cops patrol the area and how well lit is that alley? Alright, probably get caught if we started a graffiti jam. But the three of us are fast, and that dumpster is a good launch over the chain link fence to get into that park. Good to go!
Occam’s Razor – the realm of complication, of filigree and reaching theory is that of art. Outside of art, Stroud lives and breathes by practicality and necessity. That which isn’t necessary is cut away. When problems arise, solve them expediently. The less cluttering her heart and mind, or those of others, the better. She only keeps close friends who prove they have direction in life, she only keeps contacts that can provide her with clients, and she only supports other artists who have vision.
In daily life she doesn’t buy extra unless she’s expecting company, and she frequently goes through her belongings and donates, recycles, or upcycles anything that is no longer needed, worn out, or no longer inspirational for her. Unless there’s a reason, she doesn’t waste energy lying or manipulating others, because she wasn’t put on this earth to be a babysitter. Usually people enjoy her straightforward way of dealing, as it means she’s a voice of reason and objectification. If forced to deal with inefficiency, Stroud avidly looks for solutions to the problem, throwing all her analytical skills to work. Does she need to throw money at the problem? Done. A few well-placed lies? Done. Does she need to just kick someone’s teeth in to frighten the minions into line? Someone better call the dentist, because there’s going to be an accident. Her manner will grow curt, and her flaws will kick in – but the situation WILL be remedied. She won’t split hairs about how it has to happen, legal or illegal. Equilibrium will be restored. She gets jobs done, and that has earned her respect.
Flow – Stroud has followed eastern meditation techniques her whole life. She adores and usually exists in this mental state of single-minded immersion that harnesses a balanced emotional sphere in order to maximize energy, focus, and activity. She adores helping others find this state as well, and hopes to find a friend or friends to merge with in a state of one-consciousness, her own circlemates in life and art.
Flow increases motivation, aligns energy and energizes those who reach it, not just in meditation but in any task where one has achieved this altered mental state. Since she spends a lot of time in this state, Stroud is more free from anxiety or depression than most people in modern society. To be satisfied with life, according to many psychologists, a person needs at least two of three primary things: Autonomy, Complexity, and a Connection between Effort and Reward. Stroud experiences all three regularly, as daily Flow increases her work output of bringing beautiful antiques back to life, of selling product and making enough money to more than live comfortably, and of providing her with new and exciting technique and restoration challenges. She is often a mix of jubilant and relaxed. A healthy individual mentally and spiritually, she is motivated and self-confident. Stroud knows who she is, what she is about, what her boundaries of ability are, and that she can find a way to achieve any goal with enough elbow grease. And most things in life aren't done well alone, so she's often approaching other people to chat them up, learn about their interests and goals and make connections. She's eager to find other driven people with many different skills, whether they are successful financially or not, whatever their field and trade knowledge and experience. 'Rome wasn't built in a day', but with Flow and the right ten people we can build in it a week....and party every night while doing it.
Flaws: Libertine – Mama always said if you can’t be an example, be a warning. Stroud does differentiate between ethics and morals. She can be an ethical person, thinking about and understanding the right and wrong as defined by the society that she is living in. But she will follow her own path, right or wrong. Stroud wants to live art, create art, and become art, because she knows when the chips are down – everyone is dead and that is all there is. The point is whether or she lived with a vision, a purpose and left something behind worth staying the ages. When dealing with other rich at lavish openings, or with the metal scene at bars, choices presented aren’t always moral. She likes it that way.
Spoken for? Are they right there to contest it? Oh, they are? Well, they should join in, then. Two drink limit at this club? Time to find a better club.
Abrupt / Obstinate – Because of the Razor, Stroud has little to no grace for anyone or anything that does not prove meaning and efficiency. For example, people who talk more than they need to, whether out of fear of silence or personal pride, or rules with no reason but to cause inconvenience. If it isn’t art, and something is unnecessary, than it should be prevented, removed or destroyed. Similarly, she understands social ‘grace’, but most systems of manners fall under ‘unnecessarily complex’. Stroud will say what she thinks, what she feels, and act on these things, regardless if it will hurt others, or lead to possible injury for her. Others need to be less superficial. If it involves her fist and someone’s face, they are welcome to do the same back. It would make sense. Love openly, hate openly, and take care of it with swift independence. Some people might consider this level of honesty a virtue, but they would be ignoring the fact that Stroud isn’t doing it out of a sense of bettering others and honor. It's because you make her sick. The *only* exception to this bluntness is in lying, if lying/acting proves the more efficient way to manage a situation. But she won't be able to keep it up forever if the problem keeps pushing her buttons.
Grim Judge – Stroud considers her own views enlightened by their simplicity and appreciation of what truly matters. It is a point of ego that she is not likely to relinquish, having spent all her years in pursuing efficiency and perfection of purpose. She considers herself a leader, and those who have no purpose shall be left behind and unmourned. Those who prove ill-suited need refinished as the antiques she so loves to work on. Those who prove crooked of purpose (not in reference to the morals of their purpose, but inconstant/waffling about their purpose) need both broken down and fitted to new mold, or to be discarded. She will not hesitate to perform any of these functions, and others, making herself judge/jury/executioner even if it's stepping on a superior's toes. Most people fall into the category of forgotten and left behind for having no purpose or aims to their lives, woe to those who do not.
If she cannot remedy the situation immediately for some reason, she will not hold a grudge so to say, but will act as soon as she is able. This may lead her into troubles with the law, ‘superiors’, or friends. She will not argue, she will act. If they prevent her, they will be judged. If they can prove superiority, then they can leash her.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION 
(obviously staff artists would make a much less fail, more than 2-colour shading Stroud, and can play with the features and make her look awesome)
Eyes: Hazel
Hair: tight ponytail, straight to mid-back. Bleach-white (roots may or may not be showing, but it'd be awesome if they were. Her hair is naturally an dark ashe blonde). Widow’s peak.
Face: a ‘celestial nose’ (smaller, upturned), diamond facial shape
Clothes: hip hugger black jeans, a pre-wornout t-shirt with Magritte's La trahison des images silkscreened on it that mid-drifts (she's tall and lanky and bought it short on purpose). Really rocking awesome belt and belt buckle of some sort. A starburst pattern of microdermals (Look up work by Chris Saint in CA) is shown by the open collar on her chest. Stroud is wirey, but with defined muscles from hauling around furniture, woodworking and metalworking.
