Geordie Riddell (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
keepsmehonest) wrote2012-09-02 08:04 pm
keepsmehonest) wrote2012-09-02 08:04 pm
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Character
Name: Geordie Riddell
Fandom: Newford series by Charles de Lint
Gender: Male
Age: 26
Time Period: Two years after the short story “Timeskip” and a year before “Paperjack,” both found in the anthology Dreams Underfoot. So approximately 1979.
Wing Color: The black/blue of a raven’s wings.
History: Geordie Riddell is born in the early 1950s in the small, rural community of Jackson Pond. He is the youngest of three brothers born to abusive parents – a father with a temper and a mother who presumably is just as bad. Geordie’s childhood is haunting at best: bullied by his parents at home and equally bullied by school kids who see him, Christy, and Paddy as little more than country hicks bussed in to the school every day. None of the boys succeed well academically and all act out, but none as so much as the eldest Riddell boy, Paddy, who is already in juvie by the time Geordie leaves home.
While Paddy gives in to the inherited temper from their father, Christy escapes into fairy tales and writing and Geordie into music. At some point in his childhood, he finds an old Czech fiddle that belonged to his grandfather and takes an interest in learning. Upon realizing Geordie’s preoccupation with the fiddle, his father locks it in a tool chest in the basement to prevent his son from having that outlet. Geordie opts instead to save up money doing chores for neighbors to buy a cheap fiddle that he does eventually learn to play on.
However, when reaching fifteen, Geordie is no longer capable of living under his parents’ roof anymore. He breaks into the tool chest, steals his grandfather’s fiddle, and runs away from home to the city of Newford. There, he spends the next couple of years living on the street. At some point during this time, his brother Paddy is sentenced to a term in prison for murder, where he hangs himself only a few weeks in. Neither Geordie nor Christy go to his sentencing.
By the time he meets Jilly Coppercorn, at age nineteen, he has a small apartment on Lee Street and is working odd jobs in addition to busking. He and Jilly meet while working the Christmas rush season at the post office November of 1972. They bond almost instantly, becoming inseparable friends. He’s made an honorary member of Jilly’s tribe of small fierce women (her friends from Butler University) – their boy mascot. In June of 1973, he agrees to accompany Jilly on a road trip to her old home in Tyson, where war stories of their childhood are shared and cement their lifelong friendship. Already infatuated with his friend by this point, Geordies one shy attempt at flirtation is unknowingly shot down by Jilly – leaving him carrying a torch for her in the years to come
In the next few years, he continues spending his time with Jilly, busking on the street, and now playing gigs with fellow Newford musicians. The money made from gigs and busking is presumably enough for him to stop working the odd jobs he had as a teenager. He meets Samantha Rey, his first real acknowledged and reciprocated love, in a record shop two and a half years prior to his arrival in Luceti. It takes Geordie a half year of harmless conversation before Jilly forces him to ask Sam on a date. Unfortunately, their relationship is short lived when Sam is transported back in time by a ghost and Geordie is incapable of doing anything to save her. In the two years since, only he and Jilly remember that night, and remember Sam Rey as something more than a woman from the year 1912, though Geordie prefers not to remember the unusual circumstances altogether.
Personality: Despite being a fiddler by trade, Geordie Riddell is actually a very pragmatic, easy going man – the type of person who’d just as easily show up to a fancy event in jeans and a t-shirt and think nothing wrong of his attire. Appearances aren’t at all important to him, so much so that his brother’s girlfriend thinks that he still is homeless when they first meet. Life is okay to go through scruffy and poor, even if he does clean up rather well. He has a wry sense of humor and likes to gently poke fun at things. He’ll even go on silly kicks with his music, such as trying to learn all fiddle tunes with the word hag in it.
He’s extremely personable, open to befriending anyone regardless of race, religion, or social status. This probably stems a lot from his childhood and brief life as a runaway on the streets. Being abused at home, tormented at school for being a bussed in country hick, he’s extremely aware of what it’s like to be the one everyone despises. Both he and his brother, Christy, work hard to separate themselves from that life and build themselves into better people. In Geordie’s case, making a good part of his living as a busking musician, it’s very important to be friendly and at ease around anyone.
Although Geordie does play gigs with his fellow musicians, and will take on almost any sort of musical job, busking is his preferred way of performing. He believes that busking keeps him honest as a musician and a person: if a person enjoys his music, they’ll stop and maybe throw a few coins into his case and if they don’t, they’ll just keep on walking by. And that, in his eyes, is the most honest opinion a musician can receive on his music. He’ll be one of the first musicians on the street in the spring and one of the last to retreat indoors in the winter. Although his preference is towards Celtic music, he’s very aware of most of the current trends.
Both the Riddell boys are described as extremely loyal again and again in the books. A promise made by Geordie is a promise kept. It doesn’t matter how ridiculous the promise might be. If a homeless man asks Geordie to make certain his body is cremated in order to protect his soul, Geordie will do it. The Riddell boys are also known for tempers they both keep in check (as not to be like their father) and their horrible luck with women. They set their sights too high, view themselves as pathetic. Geordie’s utterly obtuse when it comes to knowing if a girl likes him and completely shy when it comes to asking someone he likes out. He carries a torch for Jilly for over twenty years before really acting on it. Even with Sam Rey, his first significant girlfriend, it takes six months and a threat from Jilly before he asks her out. While he goes for glamorous girls, he does like them to have substance, too. He’s a romantic, seen by how he imagines a life with Sam shortly after their first date, and then carrying a photograph of Sam in his fiddle case as memory after losing her to a time-travelling ghost.
Finally, it should be said that Geordie is very pragmatic. He’s really the skeptic in his group, preferring what he can see with his eyes and touch with his hands. He considers himself a secular humanist and would rather focus on the here and now than any questionable reality. Even after losing his girlfriend to a time travelling ghost, he has a hard time believing in the unknown. He lost Sam, yes, but the how becomes very iffy in his mind as time goes on. It’s a point of contention between him and his brother. While Geordie is willing to humor Jilly and her larks on the supernatural, he’s less forgiving of Christy and his theory of consensual reality – things exist because we all agree they exist. He’s gone so far as to say that Christy has such an open mind that he has a hole in it. They have a complicated relationship, forever pushing each other’s buttons and not always getting along. But they try, for the sake of a shared horrible family past.
Geordie and Christy, generally, have difficulty spending large amounts of time around one another. Both have worked hard to shed their past and become successful in their chosen careers. Family is what you make of it, not where you come from. Even though both generally despise their biological family, after losing their older brother Paddy, they’ve worked on forming some sort of brotherly bond. Still, it’s a very tenuous bond – mostly with neither never quite knowing what to say to the other. They have to force themselves to see each other on a semi-regular basis and work better in a group setting when there are others to add to the dynamics. They want to be a family but have no idea how to go about doing so. They never really had a proper family as children and both hold a lot of anger and resentment from this time. Not a lot is said about their relationship when they meet again in Newford after leaving home, but it can be assumed that a lot of the reason why they decide to give each other a shot has to do with Paddy killing himself.
When alone, nitpicking and teasing occur. Geordie bugs Christy about his smoking habit and open-mindedness. Christy, in return, does not understand Geordie’s pragmatism. The love and respect is there, however. Christy considers Geordie a highly talented musician and, while Geordie is not fond of the supernatural themes about which his brother writes, he will credit Christy as a talented writer. The bond between isn’t necessarily the result of having been born in the same family but the mutual choice of being friends and brothers. And its a bond that both take seriously. Some years past his current canon point, when Christy’s girlfriend Saskia goes missing, the first person Christy thinks of calling for support is his brother. Geordie is more than willing to come over to Christy and Saskia’s home in the middle of the night to help out in whatever way he can – even if it’s just offering the silent, moral support of a hand on a shoulder. He even goes as far as to indebt himself to a fairy queen in order to help Christy find Saskia. But for Christy’s (and Saskia’s) happiness, is worth the risk. Likewise, Christy’s willing to help Geordie out when he’s in need, such as lending his car out to Geordie for a road trip shortly after Geordie and Jilly first meet, even though there’s a good chance it will fall apart and he’ll never get it back.
Sam and Geordie, sadly, do not get a lot of text devoted to each other. What text is given shows that their relationship is fun and carefree, the kind that stems from thinking they have all the time in the world to get to know each other (Or so they think. Sadly, this time is cut short). Before Geordie is forced to ask Sam out, he’s pure nerves - too shy to do little more than hang around the record store at which she works to talk and lightly flirt with her. He says this is because he doesn’t just want to sleep with her, but because he wants to share the rest of his life with her. He puts her on a pedestal before they grow close, part of the reason why he has a difficult time asking her out initially. Why would a girl like Sam be interested in a scruffy musician like Geordie? Their first date is simple: a dinner at a diner and a walk to her home. It’s on that walk that they discuss the ghost she sees in Crowsea everytime it rains. Even though he’s invited up for coffee, he’s too much of a gentleman to do much more than kiss her goodbye. As short as the night was, he still considers it one of the best times of his life.
Romance is the keystone of a relationship with Geordie. He spends several weeks getting to know Sam before they finally sleep together. And even then, waking up with her beside him is indicated as being just as good (if not maybe a little better) as making love was – that hint of the future he wants to build with any girl he seriously dates. It’s also hard for him to stay with a girl if that future isn’t obvious in his mind, part of the reason why he and his future girlfriend Tanya don’t work out. She had her Hollywood lifestyle that didn’t really fit in with his more Bohemian one. Although he tries his hardest and does stick it out a long, long time, when Geordie realizes that it will never really work out in the long run, he doesn’t have the heart to continue to force something that just wasn’t meant to be. And it is easier for him to move on when he’s the one making that choice - though it rarely happens. With Sam, having had her ripped away, it takes much longer for the wound in his heart to heal than it does with other girlfriends.
Geordie has a generally eclectic bunch of friends. He does tend to be one of the quieter ones in the group, preferring to listen rather than speak, but is generally considered to be easy-going, amiable, trusting, a little bit snarky but non-judgemental. But he will speak his mind and is happy to initiate conversation. Through Jilly, he gets to know Sophie and Wendy – an artist and a writer, and two of Jilly’s other closest friends. He’s adopted as their “boy mascot”, as he tends to be the only male in their group and spends much of his time with them. He also befriends a number of Newford’s local musicians, especially those in the Celtic scene, and finds a regular playing partner in piper Amy Scanlon. The two of them often play gigs together, and are open to finding other musicians here and there to round out a performance. The Newford arts and music scene is generally considered close-knit, where most musicians and artists and writers are friends (or at least friendly) with one another.
Geordie’s also more than happy to befriend the local homeless people who’ll listen to his music when he busks. He doesn’t so much pity them as try to help out in small, almost unnoticeable ways that would not impede on their dignity. For example, he offers to buy Paperjack (a homeless fortuneteller) a pretzel because Geordie plans on getting one himself and it would be rude not to offer to company. In his eyes, they’re human beings, just like anyone else he knows – someone to chat with, listen to their stories, and maybe above all, appreciate his music.
Strengths:
Physical: Talented musician. Geordie practically lives and breathes music, hearing a rhythm and melody in just about anything. As Christy describes it: “He plays his fiddle on street corners or along the queues in the theatre district and makes a kind of magic with his music that words just can’t describe. Listening to him play is like stepping into an old Irish or Scottish fairy tale. The slow airs call up haunted moors and lonely coastlines; the jigs and reels wake a fire in the soul that burns with the awesome wonder of bright stars on a cold night, or the familiar warmth of red coals glimmering in a friendly hearth.”
Mental: Geordie is strong-willed and determined, running away from home at age fifteen and still building a successful life for himself despite living on the streets for a few years. He doesn’t ask for charity or help and instead takes on odd jobs in addition to his music playing so that he can afford an apartment and make it so that playing music can be his only career by his mid-twenties or so. He’s also smart and clever, teaching himself how to play the fiddle, learning by ear, and memorizing the pieces of music that he learns.
Emotional: Capable of putting trauma behind him to be the cheerful, friendly fiddler. Upon meeting him, it would be very difficult to guess that he comes from a troubled childhood. His ability to focus on the present lets him separate himself from that past. He’s also very level-headed and caring, which makes for a good balance for Jilly’s recklessness. Good at keeping his tempter in check.
Weaknesses:
Physical: Typical human weaknesses. He’s not particularly athletic though he does keep himself healthy. He spends more time playing the fiddle than at the gym. He’s described as having strong features instead of handsome but still attractive.
Mental: Can be very contradictory with himself and others. Geordie doesn’t necessarily like mopey people, but when he gets himself worked up, he can easily become just as mopey – as seen after losing Sam. He also doesn’t handle illnesses well.
Emotional: Low self-esteem. Nothing was ever right or good enough for his parents and the misconception that he couldn’t do things right carried on into adult hood. He’s aware that he is a talented musician but when it comes to girls, he has a hard time understanding why any would be romantically attracted to him. He also possesses a horrible temper and while generally good at keeping it hidden, slow to growing grudges or disliking someone, he is equally slow to forgive. The temper is said to be something inherited from his father. Also, his love for Jilly can be something of a weakness. When his temper comes out, it’s usually because she’s threatened. He’ll do just about anything for her, even if it means putting himself at risk.
Samples
First Person: Training Wings Posts: here and here.
Third Person: There are some things Geordie tries hard not to think about. For the most part it’s easy. The wings are pretty forgettable during the day, only really noticeable when he tries to sleep or dress or lean against a wall. That guilt that comes every time he sees Jilly and remembers about how she’s been trapped here a year without him isn’t as intense. He can even almost pretend that the stranger people, the ones that he’s almost positive are supposed to be fictional, are nothing but normal. And remember that animals really do not talk.
He’s certain Christy would have an explanation to all of this. Something about that consensual reality he’s going on about. Geordie doesn’t believe, doesn’t agree with the rest of them, and therefore doesn’t remember. It’s not something he’d complain much about. He’s always considered himself a pragmatic kind of man.
Today is one of those kinds of days. When everything seems almost remotely normal and he can forget that he’s in some strange place called Luceti. It’s just another little town, the kind he sometimes passes through when Amy talks him into doing a gig outside of Newford. He whistles while he walks, leaving the apartment he’s claimed as his own to browse the shops for anything useful. They’re not a bad place to spend time in, a lot like the junk and antique stores he frequented with Jilly back home. His apartment is still sparsely furnished but Geordie’s never really been one for clutter. He has a bed, a couch, and a desk. That’s good enough for him.
What he’s looking for is something much more important. Three weeks in and it’s the longest that he has ever spent without his fiddle since he taught himself how to play. Any attempt he takes to remind himself that it is just an instrument is met with failure. It might be just an instrument, but it’s his instrument. And Geordie misses it like a parent would miss a child.
He’s still whistling when he enters the shop, an Irish jig about the cliffs of Doneen. He picks up various odds and ends as he walks through, examining them with thought. A couple of paintbrushes he pockets as he goes along to give to Jilly later. But he comes short when he notices a light twinkling off something in the back. Like a magpie attracted to a shiny trinket, he walks closer to get a better look and laughs.
It might not be his, but there’s no mistaking those silver tuners. It’s a fiddle, through and through. Until someone else claims it, he’ll be happy to give it a home.
Name: Geordie Riddell
Fandom: Newford series by Charles de Lint
Gender: Male
Age: 26
Time Period: Two years after the short story “Timeskip” and a year before “Paperjack,” both found in the anthology Dreams Underfoot. So approximately 1979.
Wing Color: The black/blue of a raven’s wings.
History: Geordie Riddell is born in the early 1950s in the small, rural community of Jackson Pond. He is the youngest of three brothers born to abusive parents – a father with a temper and a mother who presumably is just as bad. Geordie’s childhood is haunting at best: bullied by his parents at home and equally bullied by school kids who see him, Christy, and Paddy as little more than country hicks bussed in to the school every day. None of the boys succeed well academically and all act out, but none as so much as the eldest Riddell boy, Paddy, who is already in juvie by the time Geordie leaves home.
While Paddy gives in to the inherited temper from their father, Christy escapes into fairy tales and writing and Geordie into music. At some point in his childhood, he finds an old Czech fiddle that belonged to his grandfather and takes an interest in learning. Upon realizing Geordie’s preoccupation with the fiddle, his father locks it in a tool chest in the basement to prevent his son from having that outlet. Geordie opts instead to save up money doing chores for neighbors to buy a cheap fiddle that he does eventually learn to play on.
However, when reaching fifteen, Geordie is no longer capable of living under his parents’ roof anymore. He breaks into the tool chest, steals his grandfather’s fiddle, and runs away from home to the city of Newford. There, he spends the next couple of years living on the street. At some point during this time, his brother Paddy is sentenced to a term in prison for murder, where he hangs himself only a few weeks in. Neither Geordie nor Christy go to his sentencing.
By the time he meets Jilly Coppercorn, at age nineteen, he has a small apartment on Lee Street and is working odd jobs in addition to busking. He and Jilly meet while working the Christmas rush season at the post office November of 1972. They bond almost instantly, becoming inseparable friends. He’s made an honorary member of Jilly’s tribe of small fierce women (her friends from Butler University) – their boy mascot. In June of 1973, he agrees to accompany Jilly on a road trip to her old home in Tyson, where war stories of their childhood are shared and cement their lifelong friendship. Already infatuated with his friend by this point, Geordies one shy attempt at flirtation is unknowingly shot down by Jilly – leaving him carrying a torch for her in the years to come
In the next few years, he continues spending his time with Jilly, busking on the street, and now playing gigs with fellow Newford musicians. The money made from gigs and busking is presumably enough for him to stop working the odd jobs he had as a teenager. He meets Samantha Rey, his first real acknowledged and reciprocated love, in a record shop two and a half years prior to his arrival in Luceti. It takes Geordie a half year of harmless conversation before Jilly forces him to ask Sam on a date. Unfortunately, their relationship is short lived when Sam is transported back in time by a ghost and Geordie is incapable of doing anything to save her. In the two years since, only he and Jilly remember that night, and remember Sam Rey as something more than a woman from the year 1912, though Geordie prefers not to remember the unusual circumstances altogether.
Personality: Despite being a fiddler by trade, Geordie Riddell is actually a very pragmatic, easy going man – the type of person who’d just as easily show up to a fancy event in jeans and a t-shirt and think nothing wrong of his attire. Appearances aren’t at all important to him, so much so that his brother’s girlfriend thinks that he still is homeless when they first meet. Life is okay to go through scruffy and poor, even if he does clean up rather well. He has a wry sense of humor and likes to gently poke fun at things. He’ll even go on silly kicks with his music, such as trying to learn all fiddle tunes with the word hag in it.
He’s extremely personable, open to befriending anyone regardless of race, religion, or social status. This probably stems a lot from his childhood and brief life as a runaway on the streets. Being abused at home, tormented at school for being a bussed in country hick, he’s extremely aware of what it’s like to be the one everyone despises. Both he and his brother, Christy, work hard to separate themselves from that life and build themselves into better people. In Geordie’s case, making a good part of his living as a busking musician, it’s very important to be friendly and at ease around anyone.
Although Geordie does play gigs with his fellow musicians, and will take on almost any sort of musical job, busking is his preferred way of performing. He believes that busking keeps him honest as a musician and a person: if a person enjoys his music, they’ll stop and maybe throw a few coins into his case and if they don’t, they’ll just keep on walking by. And that, in his eyes, is the most honest opinion a musician can receive on his music. He’ll be one of the first musicians on the street in the spring and one of the last to retreat indoors in the winter. Although his preference is towards Celtic music, he’s very aware of most of the current trends.
Both the Riddell boys are described as extremely loyal again and again in the books. A promise made by Geordie is a promise kept. It doesn’t matter how ridiculous the promise might be. If a homeless man asks Geordie to make certain his body is cremated in order to protect his soul, Geordie will do it. The Riddell boys are also known for tempers they both keep in check (as not to be like their father) and their horrible luck with women. They set their sights too high, view themselves as pathetic. Geordie’s utterly obtuse when it comes to knowing if a girl likes him and completely shy when it comes to asking someone he likes out. He carries a torch for Jilly for over twenty years before really acting on it. Even with Sam Rey, his first significant girlfriend, it takes six months and a threat from Jilly before he asks her out. While he goes for glamorous girls, he does like them to have substance, too. He’s a romantic, seen by how he imagines a life with Sam shortly after their first date, and then carrying a photograph of Sam in his fiddle case as memory after losing her to a time-travelling ghost.
Finally, it should be said that Geordie is very pragmatic. He’s really the skeptic in his group, preferring what he can see with his eyes and touch with his hands. He considers himself a secular humanist and would rather focus on the here and now than any questionable reality. Even after losing his girlfriend to a time travelling ghost, he has a hard time believing in the unknown. He lost Sam, yes, but the how becomes very iffy in his mind as time goes on. It’s a point of contention between him and his brother. While Geordie is willing to humor Jilly and her larks on the supernatural, he’s less forgiving of Christy and his theory of consensual reality – things exist because we all agree they exist. He’s gone so far as to say that Christy has such an open mind that he has a hole in it. They have a complicated relationship, forever pushing each other’s buttons and not always getting along. But they try, for the sake of a shared horrible family past.
Geordie and Christy, generally, have difficulty spending large amounts of time around one another. Both have worked hard to shed their past and become successful in their chosen careers. Family is what you make of it, not where you come from. Even though both generally despise their biological family, after losing their older brother Paddy, they’ve worked on forming some sort of brotherly bond. Still, it’s a very tenuous bond – mostly with neither never quite knowing what to say to the other. They have to force themselves to see each other on a semi-regular basis and work better in a group setting when there are others to add to the dynamics. They want to be a family but have no idea how to go about doing so. They never really had a proper family as children and both hold a lot of anger and resentment from this time. Not a lot is said about their relationship when they meet again in Newford after leaving home, but it can be assumed that a lot of the reason why they decide to give each other a shot has to do with Paddy killing himself.
When alone, nitpicking and teasing occur. Geordie bugs Christy about his smoking habit and open-mindedness. Christy, in return, does not understand Geordie’s pragmatism. The love and respect is there, however. Christy considers Geordie a highly talented musician and, while Geordie is not fond of the supernatural themes about which his brother writes, he will credit Christy as a talented writer. The bond between isn’t necessarily the result of having been born in the same family but the mutual choice of being friends and brothers. And its a bond that both take seriously. Some years past his current canon point, when Christy’s girlfriend Saskia goes missing, the first person Christy thinks of calling for support is his brother. Geordie is more than willing to come over to Christy and Saskia’s home in the middle of the night to help out in whatever way he can – even if it’s just offering the silent, moral support of a hand on a shoulder. He even goes as far as to indebt himself to a fairy queen in order to help Christy find Saskia. But for Christy’s (and Saskia’s) happiness, is worth the risk. Likewise, Christy’s willing to help Geordie out when he’s in need, such as lending his car out to Geordie for a road trip shortly after Geordie and Jilly first meet, even though there’s a good chance it will fall apart and he’ll never get it back.
Sam and Geordie, sadly, do not get a lot of text devoted to each other. What text is given shows that their relationship is fun and carefree, the kind that stems from thinking they have all the time in the world to get to know each other (Or so they think. Sadly, this time is cut short). Before Geordie is forced to ask Sam out, he’s pure nerves - too shy to do little more than hang around the record store at which she works to talk and lightly flirt with her. He says this is because he doesn’t just want to sleep with her, but because he wants to share the rest of his life with her. He puts her on a pedestal before they grow close, part of the reason why he has a difficult time asking her out initially. Why would a girl like Sam be interested in a scruffy musician like Geordie? Their first date is simple: a dinner at a diner and a walk to her home. It’s on that walk that they discuss the ghost she sees in Crowsea everytime it rains. Even though he’s invited up for coffee, he’s too much of a gentleman to do much more than kiss her goodbye. As short as the night was, he still considers it one of the best times of his life.
Romance is the keystone of a relationship with Geordie. He spends several weeks getting to know Sam before they finally sleep together. And even then, waking up with her beside him is indicated as being just as good (if not maybe a little better) as making love was – that hint of the future he wants to build with any girl he seriously dates. It’s also hard for him to stay with a girl if that future isn’t obvious in his mind, part of the reason why he and his future girlfriend Tanya don’t work out. She had her Hollywood lifestyle that didn’t really fit in with his more Bohemian one. Although he tries his hardest and does stick it out a long, long time, when Geordie realizes that it will never really work out in the long run, he doesn’t have the heart to continue to force something that just wasn’t meant to be. And it is easier for him to move on when he’s the one making that choice - though it rarely happens. With Sam, having had her ripped away, it takes much longer for the wound in his heart to heal than it does with other girlfriends.
Geordie has a generally eclectic bunch of friends. He does tend to be one of the quieter ones in the group, preferring to listen rather than speak, but is generally considered to be easy-going, amiable, trusting, a little bit snarky but non-judgemental. But he will speak his mind and is happy to initiate conversation. Through Jilly, he gets to know Sophie and Wendy – an artist and a writer, and two of Jilly’s other closest friends. He’s adopted as their “boy mascot”, as he tends to be the only male in their group and spends much of his time with them. He also befriends a number of Newford’s local musicians, especially those in the Celtic scene, and finds a regular playing partner in piper Amy Scanlon. The two of them often play gigs together, and are open to finding other musicians here and there to round out a performance. The Newford arts and music scene is generally considered close-knit, where most musicians and artists and writers are friends (or at least friendly) with one another.
Geordie’s also more than happy to befriend the local homeless people who’ll listen to his music when he busks. He doesn’t so much pity them as try to help out in small, almost unnoticeable ways that would not impede on their dignity. For example, he offers to buy Paperjack (a homeless fortuneteller) a pretzel because Geordie plans on getting one himself and it would be rude not to offer to company. In his eyes, they’re human beings, just like anyone else he knows – someone to chat with, listen to their stories, and maybe above all, appreciate his music.
Strengths:
Physical: Talented musician. Geordie practically lives and breathes music, hearing a rhythm and melody in just about anything. As Christy describes it: “He plays his fiddle on street corners or along the queues in the theatre district and makes a kind of magic with his music that words just can’t describe. Listening to him play is like stepping into an old Irish or Scottish fairy tale. The slow airs call up haunted moors and lonely coastlines; the jigs and reels wake a fire in the soul that burns with the awesome wonder of bright stars on a cold night, or the familiar warmth of red coals glimmering in a friendly hearth.”
Mental: Geordie is strong-willed and determined, running away from home at age fifteen and still building a successful life for himself despite living on the streets for a few years. He doesn’t ask for charity or help and instead takes on odd jobs in addition to his music playing so that he can afford an apartment and make it so that playing music can be his only career by his mid-twenties or so. He’s also smart and clever, teaching himself how to play the fiddle, learning by ear, and memorizing the pieces of music that he learns.
Emotional: Capable of putting trauma behind him to be the cheerful, friendly fiddler. Upon meeting him, it would be very difficult to guess that he comes from a troubled childhood. His ability to focus on the present lets him separate himself from that past. He’s also very level-headed and caring, which makes for a good balance for Jilly’s recklessness. Good at keeping his tempter in check.
Weaknesses:
Physical: Typical human weaknesses. He’s not particularly athletic though he does keep himself healthy. He spends more time playing the fiddle than at the gym. He’s described as having strong features instead of handsome but still attractive.
Mental: Can be very contradictory with himself and others. Geordie doesn’t necessarily like mopey people, but when he gets himself worked up, he can easily become just as mopey – as seen after losing Sam. He also doesn’t handle illnesses well.
Emotional: Low self-esteem. Nothing was ever right or good enough for his parents and the misconception that he couldn’t do things right carried on into adult hood. He’s aware that he is a talented musician but when it comes to girls, he has a hard time understanding why any would be romantically attracted to him. He also possesses a horrible temper and while generally good at keeping it hidden, slow to growing grudges or disliking someone, he is equally slow to forgive. The temper is said to be something inherited from his father. Also, his love for Jilly can be something of a weakness. When his temper comes out, it’s usually because she’s threatened. He’ll do just about anything for her, even if it means putting himself at risk.
Samples
First Person: Training Wings Posts: here and here.
Third Person: There are some things Geordie tries hard not to think about. For the most part it’s easy. The wings are pretty forgettable during the day, only really noticeable when he tries to sleep or dress or lean against a wall. That guilt that comes every time he sees Jilly and remembers about how she’s been trapped here a year without him isn’t as intense. He can even almost pretend that the stranger people, the ones that he’s almost positive are supposed to be fictional, are nothing but normal. And remember that animals really do not talk.
He’s certain Christy would have an explanation to all of this. Something about that consensual reality he’s going on about. Geordie doesn’t believe, doesn’t agree with the rest of them, and therefore doesn’t remember. It’s not something he’d complain much about. He’s always considered himself a pragmatic kind of man.
Today is one of those kinds of days. When everything seems almost remotely normal and he can forget that he’s in some strange place called Luceti. It’s just another little town, the kind he sometimes passes through when Amy talks him into doing a gig outside of Newford. He whistles while he walks, leaving the apartment he’s claimed as his own to browse the shops for anything useful. They’re not a bad place to spend time in, a lot like the junk and antique stores he frequented with Jilly back home. His apartment is still sparsely furnished but Geordie’s never really been one for clutter. He has a bed, a couch, and a desk. That’s good enough for him.
What he’s looking for is something much more important. Three weeks in and it’s the longest that he has ever spent without his fiddle since he taught himself how to play. Any attempt he takes to remind himself that it is just an instrument is met with failure. It might be just an instrument, but it’s his instrument. And Geordie misses it like a parent would miss a child.
He’s still whistling when he enters the shop, an Irish jig about the cliffs of Doneen. He picks up various odds and ends as he walks through, examining them with thought. A couple of paintbrushes he pockets as he goes along to give to Jilly later. But he comes short when he notices a light twinkling off something in the back. Like a magpie attracted to a shiny trinket, he walks closer to get a better look and laughs.
It might not be his, but there’s no mistaking those silver tuners. It’s a fiddle, through and through. Until someone else claims it, he’ll be happy to give it a home.