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 Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:40 am
The Freo Doctor, a.k.a. I think I feel a change in the weather.
A quest for The Fremantle Doctor.
Hello and welcome to my quest thread, a place to collect, refine and get criticism about my ideas for Abbey, the spirit of a sea breeze called The Fremantle Doctor. This thread is likely to be under semi-constant construction, with sections being tweaked and even revamped completely as needed. I love feedback and would really appreciate hearing back from people on my concept, so just post and let me know what you're thinking. Thank you!
.........{ Table of Contents }
oo:: Introduction&Navigation
o1:: A Fremantle What? { The Spirit }
o2:: Tintern Abbey { Abigail }
o3:: Is this karma? { The Guardian }
o4:: Dumping Ground
o5:: Idea Scraps
o6:: Origin Point { Credits }
o7-1o:: Reserved for... who knows what ^^;
.........{ Timeline }
o3.1o.o7:: Reserving posts and thread work started.
o3.11.o7:: Added more information on Abbey and Clare. Dumping Ground has been updated with a potential beginning. A tenative outline of Abbey's personality is up now as well.
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:41 am
{ A. F r e m a n t l e .W h a t ? }
Fremantle, a coastal city in the west of Australia, is thought to be the origin of a cooling, afternoon sea breeze which spreads through Western Australia, reaching as far in as 100km. The Western Australian vernacular term for this wind is "The Fremantle Doctor" or "The Freo Doctor", because of the relief it brings in the summer, cooling the suburbs of Perth by up to several degrees. The wind is strongest near the coast, often blowing between 15 and 20 knots and making afternoon beach visits unpleasant. The sea breeze itself is born because of the major temperature difference between the land and sea.
The Fremantle Doctor is strongest in December and January, when the temperature differential between the land and ocean is greatest. In February and March the breeze is not as strong, because the ocean temperature is a bit warmer. Though October and November are not as warm, the ocean temperature is cooler resulting in the sea breeze in these months.
Other months have a weak or no Fremantle Doctor. In the winter months, the land temperature is usually cooler than the ocean temperature, and this sometimes results in the weaker land breeze in the early morning.
When the Fremantle Doctor first arrives it is from the west-south-west (WSW) direction. Later when it is at maximum strength, the direction is usually from the SW or SSW. By the early evening, the direction is from the south. This change in wind direction is due to the Coriolis Effect. Other factors like the prevailing wind of a particular day can also have an effect on the direction.
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:44 am
{ T i n t e r n . A b b e y }
N a m e ::
Her name is Abbey, or 'Abigail' if you want to get formal and strange about it. The first name she was given was Abbey, because it was the only name-like word to come to poor Clare's shocked mind after discovering a baby in a scarecrow. The name is actually a consequence of Clare's job, as, only two days before the baby-in-a-scarecrow incident, Clare had taught a lesson on the poem "Tintern Abbey" by William Wordsworth to a bunch of mostly-bored English students and happened to have it on her mind.
Abbey was later given 'Abigail' as a full name, more as a formality than anything. Sometime afterwards 'Wolfram' and 'Isabella' were shoved in there as well for varying reasons making her legally Abigail Wolfram Isabella Avilova.
Spirit:: The Fremantle Doctor
Gender:: Female
Eye Color:: Sea-green.
Skin tone:: Heathy peachy-tone.
Hair:: Abbey's most peculiar physical trait is her hair. Her hair starts off a grey blond (not unlike the color of sun bleached ocean sand) near her roots and proceeds to get lighter and lighter until it becomes translucent and fades away into nothing. Constantly moving (no extra wind required), always floating and constantly shifting in length, Abbey's hair is almost like another living being attached to her skull, except it tends to share (and demonstrate) her mood at any given time, even if she would rather keep her mood under wraps. Trying to pin up the Spirit of The Fremantle Doctor's hair is not a task to be taken lightly, and usually only leads to disaster, so it's usually just left down.
Clothing:: Loose, well flowing clothing, always. Sun dresses, skirts, shorts, jeans, loose tank-tops, and the like, with accents of bangles and long necklaces when she's older. When it gets cold she will opt for layers, wearing loose hoodies with jackets over dresses over jeans and so on for outdoor traveling in an attempt to keep the claustrophobic feeling away. Once she gets back into warmer temperatures she will promptly ditch the extra clothing.
Likes:: the ocean, tea, dancing, wind, wind power, travel, roller-blading
Dislikes:: winter, cold earth, being in small spaces, being pinned down, feeling trapped
Quirks:: Has a secret love of ice cubes, is positively fascinated by wind instruments and likes to try and make them play using real wind when their musicians aren't paying attention, thinks wind power is a very wise thing, always smells faintly of the sea, has no sense of direction whatsoever, collects stuffed hedgehogs (the leader of which is named Ranna and she goes to sleep with him at night).
Personality:: Abbey is friendly, blunt, mischievous, a touch cocky and more than a touch manipulative when she wants to be. She really, really likes getting her way and is not above doing whatever it takes to get what she wants. Whether that is bribing a friend with cake, giving them the kicked-puppy look (of Doom) or kicking them in the shins, if she really wants something, you will know and it would be wise to give in to her.
Abbey's a child of impulse, most of the time. If something is important, then she might give it the time and thought it deserves, but otherwise she's rather prone to acting on whims. Here is where her mischievous nature shines- she has a tendency to think up rather stupid and mischievous ideas and act on them for no other reason other than it seems like it'll be an interesting endeavor. Obviously, this is going to cause some problems someday.
The girl is something of a speed demon as well, and is particularly cocky in regards to any activity which involved going very fast with the wind rushing through her hair. Her favorite thing to do is go roller-blading but she also loves downhill skiing and biking. She hates helmets (which is going to lead to no end of conflict with Clare, who's convinced Abbey's going to bash her skull in someday) with a passion and, when she's older, will undoubtedly wiggle out of wearing them however she can. Riding in cars is fun too, but she's actually much more fond of moving at high speeds on her own power .
She's quite fond of her mother's moped, but one of her dreams is to own a motorcycle (though, a convertible would be good too). When stuck in a more 'normal' car she tends to stick various appendages out of the window (even in winter) and if there's a sun/moon roof it's quite likely that she'll try and stick her head out, much to the chagrin of her family.
Abbey's mood is often tied in with the weather. During the summer her energy is much higher, as is her motivation. She's more likely to be more stubborn, loudmouthed and demanding in the warmer months. The winter will bring about a more subdued and lethargic feeling to her. She'll become a lot more cooperative and more willing to get what she wants in a roundabout way rather than demanding it outright, as she normally does.
During the summer she'll drag her friends around, but during the winter they had better be prepared to sling her over their back and give her a ride if they want to get her to go somewhere.
Notably, warm drinks and high-speed activities in the winter are a good way to lift her up and rejuvenate her a bit.
Abilities:: Abbey can create- and will eventually be able to direct- small, cool wind currents on her own. Key word being small. If she's around a cool sea and hot landmass then and only then will she be able to create larger winds (location, location, location, eh?).
If she's around cool sea waters she can express a light ability to hover over water. Yet again, this only works on cool sea water when it's warm out. If there's no great temperature different between sea and land she'll just fall in.
Abbey will, eventually, be able to use her hair to her advantage, controlling it to a certain extent. When she's younger it will mostly act in tune with her subconscious (becoming limp when she's exhausted, shifting and growing when she's excited, spiking out in every direction when she'd freaked out, ect) and will even serve as a defense mechanism, becoming a cutting current which will lash out at any attackers.
History:: Coming soon to a theater near you....
Extras:
Image Song:: Homecoming - By Bond
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:47 am
[ I s . t h i s . k a r m a ? ]
Full Name: Clare Avilova
Age: Early 20s
Gender: Female
Occupation: Substitute Teacher, waitress-delivery girl
Clare is a Gaian, born and breed. Normal (unless there's something lurking in her that she's never bothered to poke at) Clare is quite aware of the strangeness of her home world. She's heard countless stories of people running into their past and having to deal with it, finding babies on their doorstep and being possessed by inanimate objects. While she doesn't doubt that it happens, she is (or was, or will have been, whatever) rather proud of herself for never having it happen to her.
Currently, Clare lives in a moderately sized apartment which she shares with her childhood friend Zachary Charon, who she considers more of a brother than any potential relationship.
Clare works at a small bakery/cafe in Durem, delivering pastries, cakes and the like to people around Gaia, acting as a waitress when she has to and substituting at schools when she can. She's thinking of becoming a teacher someday, but isn't sure if she has that kind of tolerance, so this is like a trial run.
She likes to dance, read, play video games, watch movies and the occasional television series, drink tea and make jello shots. She's quietly convinced that finding Abbey is an act of Karma, brought about by a bout of drinking where she and Zack proceeded to cheerfully mock of the poor people of Gaia who seem to be finding babies everywhere nowadays.
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:48 am
[ T h e. D u m p i n g .G r o u n d. ]
A place to dump writings and ideas.The Beginning. A.K.A. In Which Clare Should've Known Doom Was Approaching When She Was Told She'd Be Teaching Part of the Romeo and Juliet Unit. There was something... well, something ridiculous, in Clare's mind, about trying to teach a bunch of middle-schoolers about Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. For one thing, it was a lame romance which was considered epic and Clare could never understand the point of trying to teach it anyway, except for the fact that Shakespearian was a good language to expose yourself too. After all, how long had Romeo and Juliet known each other? A week? Had they really talked? Did they know each other? Sure, the play painted a rosy picture of two people in love, but were they really in love? After all, before Romeo had decided that Juliet was his one true love he'd been all angsty about his previous girlfriend who wouldn't sex him up. Honestly, would their relationship have worked out or would Juliet have later run away with a pretty blacksmith or something?
Perhaps she wouldn't be so frustrated if she hadn't had to teach the same lesson four times during the seven hour work day. But she had, and now she was desperate to escape the middle school, drag her roomie out to the nearest bar and drink until the bad taste she'd gained from defending her least favored Shakespearian play against some of the more vocal protesters of the classes was drowned out by the alcohol.
A soft voice broke her out of her frustrated mental growling and haphazard daydreaming of refreshing liquor.
In front of the desk Clare had taken over stood a girl, looking small and uncertain in the face of the teacher she'd only known for one day.
Immediately calling up the smile she used when delivering packages, Clare looked at the girl kindly, "hello, Nina was it?" class had just finished up and the rest of the students had already flown out the door. In all likelihood, a straggler meant trouble of some sort.
"Uh... yes, I mean, yes I'm Nina," she murmured, wringing something Clare couldn't see in between her hands, "um, Miss Avilova?"
Still smiling, Clare nodded, "what is it Nina?"
"Well, uh... I said I would bring the costumes back to the stage, but I just remembered that I've got a dance lesson right after school and-"
Clare waved her off, "I'll take care of it, get going so you won't be late."
Nina grinned abruptly and Clare felt her own smile softening, becoming a little more real.
"Thank you, Miss Avilova! And thank you for the class today, I think I'm starting to get the crazy Shakespeare talk. Have a good night!" and then she was gone.
Clare shook her head. "Ah, right, that's why I'm thinking of becoming a teacher," she muttered to herself as she stood up, stretching languidly before heading over to grab the costume box that'd been left in the middle of the floor.
The box was big and bulky and, as she waddled awkwardly down the hallway, Clare silently wondered if Nina even would have been able to get the monster to the stage herself without it falling on her.
It was a relief to swing the door to the stage open using some fancy footwork and gaining what felt like a bruised foot for her efforts. After banging inside Clare moved to the designated costume area and finally sat the box down near a rack of costumes which were hung up on clothes hangers, heaving a sigh of relief the moment the cardboard slipped from her fingers and fell to the floor.
Humming to herself the Gaian toed the box and the costumes therein. "Do you belong on one of these racks I wonder?" she murmured to herself, wishing Nina had explained this part of the costume duties.
With a light shrug she began to look around. If there was an empty clothing rack fully equipped with barren clothes hangers she would assume that hanging up the costumes was necessary, otherwise she'd just leave them be.
The back of the stage was large and quite well stocked in the costume and props department. It was almost like a maze of cloth and plastic figures and very soon Clare found herself lost in it, more intent on examining the costumes and guessing at the plays that they belonged to than finding an empty clothing rack.
She had almost reached the opposite side of the stage when a loud 'wumph' sounded behind her, startling her into a panicked jump. On instinct she grabbed the nearest clothes hanger and brandished it like a weapon as she whipped around, causing the dress that had been hung upon it to fly to the floor. Images from the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer Clare had watched the night before jumped to her mind and she scanned the nearby area with narrowed eyes.
There was no one behind her, of course, and as the situation caught up to her she flushed scarlet with embarrassment. With an annoyed sigh Clare raked a hand through her hair and nearly poked her own eye out with the clothes hanger she hadn't realized she was gripping. Now cursing her own idiocy under her breathe she picked up the dress from the floor and moved to put the clothing hanger back. Stupid nerves. Stupid over active imagination. Stupid Buff-
A shriek hit the air and Clare jumped again, this time colliding with the edge of the clothing rack. Both she and the clothing rack went down in a heap.
The shrieking cry behind her didn't abate even as Clare groaned and picked herself up, rubbing at now sore arm and side.
"The ******** was that?" she snapped at the empty air, throwing the clothes hanger she'd been gripping into the pile of fabric that now lay on the floor.
Her annoyance at being startled, not one, but twice now, had quickly killed whatever fear the noises had stirred in her. The shriek, which had at first sounded so crisp and sharp that she'd be sure that there had been someone being brutally murdered behind her, was muffled now, though no less loud. The wail echoed about the curved room and into the auditorium beyond.
Except there was no blood covered person behind her to explain the noise. There wasn't anyone behind her at all.
There was just a long box with postage from somewhere called "Australia" haphazardly slapped on it lying across the floor.
Frowning Clare quickly looked around, but inevitably her gaze slid back to the box. There was no mistaking it, the screams were coming from the box.
"What in the...?" the Gaian murmured, quirking an eyebrow at the shrieking box. Brow furrowing she glared at it. "If there is some sort of shrieking toy in there I swear I'm going to smash it to pieces," she ground out through her teeth as she stalked forward.
Clare didn't even think about simply leaving the shrieking box be. No, it had bloody well wronged her and whatever was inside was going to pay.
It wasn't hard to get the box open. It was frayed at one corner to the point that the cardboard had begun to peel away. Already there was a small hole and it wasn't difficult to force a few fingers in and rip the box open.
After a few more seconds of ripping Clare was able to peel away one of the longer sides and peer inside.
Within the dark box wasn't the technology she'd expected....
Instead there was a scarecrow. It looked to be well made and probably belonged in some play or another event.
Clare eyed the scarecrow, which had, upon her ripping the box open, shut up.
"A screaming scarecrow, huh? I bet you're for the Halloween festival. Or something. Either way, you've lost your right to scream. I'm taking possession of your voice box," she decreed haughtily as she heaved the thing out of its prison.
Only to jump back as the scarecrow's stomach moved.
She stayed where she was, froze, sitting on her butt amongst the dust and dirt which speckled the floor, simply watching as something beneath the cloth of the scarecrow's shirt poked upwards, oddly reminiscent of a baby chick poking at the hard shell of its egg to escape.
It, whatever it was, was making strangely chick like noises as well.
After several minutes wherein Clare didn't move an inch, the movement stopped. A moment later Clare heard what could only be described as a muffled sniffle before a keening cry began to sound from the no longer moving scarecrow. The cry was different than the screams of before and Clare twitched as strange maternal instincts kicked in at the noise.
Before her sense of self preservation could kick in, she shuffled over to kneel beside the scarecrow and unbutton its top, muttering a half hearted apology for entering the inanimate object's personal space bubble and undressing it like this.
She'd gotten two buttons undone and was working on the third when something pressed up into her hand. Something soft.
Slowly Clare unbuttoned the third button and abruptly a tiny head, half covered in straw, emerged and a pair of bright, wet, sea-green eyes stared at her from within a small tear stained face.
Clare stared back, frozen once again. This was worse than some sort of face eating alien. This was... a baby. A crying baby even.
In a scarecrow.
Suddenly her mind flicked back to a two days beforehand, when she and Zack had gone out drinking then watched Shaun of the Dead. They had ended up on the subject of the Gaian population and its strange baby finding tenancies. And they had mocked it. Mercilessly.
This was karma. This was bad karma catching up with her in the most evil and heinous way it could.
The baby reached up for her, still whimpering and, numbly, Clare picked it up, extracting it from its straw prison as gently as she could. She held it to her chest because, honestly, she didn't know what else to do.
Clare's gaze swung towards the ceiling as the child, wrapped in what looked to be a strange onesie made of bandages, latched onto her shirt and sniffled, calming down quickly now that it was out in the open air and had a life sized shocked Gaian plushie (TM) to cling to.
"I'm sorry," she whimpered furtively to the empty air, "I didn't mean it. Really. I'll... I'll never do it again if you take it back."
Nothing happened. The baby didn't disappear in a puff of smoke as an overdressed witch emerged to lecture her about mocking others. It stayed right where it was.
Sucking sleepily on her ********," Clare groaned and hung her head.
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:50 am
[ C r e d i t s] Incantation of the Spirit (c) Incantation Esprit
Concept & Characters:: (c) chaoticdivinity
Quest Art:: (c) chaoticdivinity
Fan/Gift Art:: (c) to their respective artist(s).
Sources of information on the Fremantle Doctor:: [x]
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:53 am
VII/XV
"I know that when it's over we'll be holding one another.
We only ever wanted to feel..."
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:58 am
VIII/XV
"If only I were taller I'd see past the clutter and plan an escape~"
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:59 am
IX/XV
"These infectious little lies are barely breathing they're barely alive...."
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Posted: Sat Mar 10, 2007 12:03 pm
X/VX
"Through the mist, through the woods, through the darkness and the shadows, it's a nightmare but it's one exciting ride."
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 4:23 pm
And the thread is open! Though it needs more work -eyes the personality section and the peeling wallpaper of the thread-
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 4:38 pm
I really like that you worked the concept around a specific wind! It gives her a lot more personality - er, that is, once she has a personality? It gives the concept personality, at least. I'm interested to see where you go with that.
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 7:14 pm
Thanks Brize~! heart I'm so glad that the specificity helps and brings some extra personality to her concept. I wasn't sure if it would, though choosing a specific wind was really helpful on my end, since it started to solidify her strange, demanding concept in my mind xD :3
I hope to have a better idea of her personality soon. Right now, every time I think I have it pinned down, it changes on me (my muse is the most sarcastic, fickle, sadistic thing I know sometimes >>) but I'm sure it'll solidify relatively soon anyway 3nodding
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Posted: Sun Mar 11, 2007 7:53 pm
-feels inspired- there! A very, very tenative personality outline for Abbey is up. It shall probably be tweaked tomorrow, when I'm more awake xD
-goes off to attack the homework she's been ignoring-
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Posted: Mon Mar 12, 2007 5:50 am
I know what you mean when it comes to changing concepts. I went through about three before I finally settled on the Atomic Clock (thankfully, I didn't make up threads for all of those - that would be a lot of work!) The IotS concept itself allows for a lot of flexibility in choosing what the spirit shild will be based off of!
Anyhow, I think it's awfully neat how Abbey's personality changes with the season. It almost reminds me of something akin to seasonal affective disorder? Same goes with the location influence of her abilities. It's fitting that something like a breeze would be so merculrial.
Though the game is based in Gaia, I wonder what would happen if she actually went to the section of Australian coast where the Fremantle Doctor blows...?
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