Post by lydia katherine banes on Jan 29, 2009 15:06:51 GMT -5
►►LYDIA KATHERINE BANES
► The Basics
Nicknames: Lydia, Lyd, Liddy, Dia, Di, Dee, Kathy, Kath, Reny, Kat, Kate, Katy
Age: 35
Height: 5'7
Weight: 121lbs
Hair Color: Naturally brown, currently blonde
Eye Color: Brown
Clothing Style: Conservative/Smart/Formal
Piercings: Ear lobes
Tattoos: None
Member of what Band: Ice Cream in Terror
Instrument/Position: Band manager
PlayBy: Jessica Alba
Description: Lydia, in her own eyes, is a rather plain looking woman. She, as many people do in America, dyes her brunette hair a shockingly close to platinum shade of blonde, though she has been going for softer tones more recently. It is one of the only things that she likes about herself, though, as, when it curls (naturally, of course, not by use of curling irons), it reaches the bottom of her shoulder blades and, when straightened (this requires a professional standard of ceramic straighteners), is even longer.
Her eyes mimic the colour of the hair she was born with, and appear to be so dark sometimes that one would think they were entirely black, though this just tends to be when she's really angry. Normally, her eyes would be either a deep, soulful and entirely pleasant hue of brown, or a light chestnut tinted with sparse flecks of what appear to be gold. When she is happy, her eyes sparkle and dance, and fun and radiance simply exude from her. However, catch her on a bad day, at a bad time, or just say something to get into her bad books, and beware. Though her eyes much prefer to dance with fun, they can just as easily dance with fire or ice, and beware if her eyes are narrowed into thin slits. She will kill you.
She stands at roughly 5'7 when she wears flats (which isn't often, unless she's had a bad night out the night before), and is rather slim, considering the fact that she's 35, and most people start to let themselves go. Jolene is slender, but not so much so that people don't notice her curves. She has slightly tanned skin, due to her mother's heritage.
► More Detailed
Likes:
Dislikes:
Fears: dying alone, the band not making it, ending up homeless/poor, getting cancer, becoming blind or deaf, bats, fake hair
Ambitions: being the person to make her band famous, to settle down with a nice man, to learn how to make a souffle
Biggest Secret: when she was 16, she ran away from home to record an album. she was/is a one-hit wonder.
Personality: Lydia is very unlike her mother almost every sense. The only thing that they have in common is their stubbornness. Neither one ever backs down from an argument, and woe betide if one of them has an opinion, because no-one will hear the end of it for weeks if a 'spirited debate' gets started. You see, Lydia was very much the rebellious teenager, and a daddy's girl at heart.
Now that she has a child and a band to manage, though, Lydia doesn't see her mother that often, and, though her stubborn side hasn't deteriorated any, there is less to spark it off, and so she seems so much less tense when with the band than when she takes Jaden to visit (and Jaden can vouch for this, as she normally sits and watches the arguments like a tennis match, back and forth, and to and fro).
Lydia loves to have her own way, that much is true, but she is also not averse to letting people have what they want, as long as it is in the general region of what she wanted, or it didn't cause any kind of difference to what it was that she was doing or thinking about doing. It was her assertiveness and people skills, apparently, that got her the job, though she just figured that she was in the right place at the right time, and just lucky that she got to them before anyone else did. The band she manages, Ice Cream in Terror, were a band that she 'discovered' when she was in an underground club scouting for some new talent, as was her job. She was a PR agent for a large firm, and so she was normally the one to go out and offer her advertising skills to people, generally large companies. She had decided to go down to this little known club on a whim, really, without really knowing why, but she was positively ecstatic that she had, because that's where she found the band.
Although Lydia is strict and seems to be something of a parent to every member of the band and crew, she knows how to party. She can let her hair down with the best of them, and still be standing by the end of the night (if she's not on her back for a guy that claimed to love her). She takes her liquour well, though it's a different story when it come to criticism. In her book, she's the only one with the right to criticise, no-one else.
► Background
Family Members: Mike Banes, ex-husband. Jaden Emily Banes, daughter.
Family History: Lydia was born to, naturally, two parents that loved her. Jamelia and Holden Carpenter were the perfect couple... Or so they seemed. In public, they were touchy-feely and lovey-dovey, but it looked so cute that nobody cared. Behind closed doors, however, it was a different matter. Now, reading this, one would assume that Holden was violent, vulgar, or both towards his wife, but the fact was that neither of those thing were true. It was, in fact, the opposite - Jamelia had Holden running around like a headless chicken even before she was pregnant, and everything got five times worse once she found out she was having a baby, and worse still after she had the 'thing', as she named it.
This was in Ontario, in 1974. In May of 1974, Jamelia gave birth to a girl that she didn't name herself. As a matter of fact, she outright refused to give the 'bundle of joy', the 'ray of sunshine', a name. And so it was, to the best of his ability, that Holden named the child. Lydia Katherine Carpenter. There was nothing wrong with that, right? .. Wrong. Jamelia could find countless things wrong with it, though what they were I wouldn't be able to name. After the birth, nothing seemed to go right between Jamelia and Holden, and it transpired that the thing that made Jamelia angry all the time was guilt. Jamelia denied having affairs, but they all knew the truth - everyone except Lydia, who, at two years old, was blissfully unaware of what was going on when her father left and only saw her twice a week.
Being brought up by Jamelia didn't have many advantages, as she was rather a bitter and hateful person, and she seemed to live to cause arguments. She was never wrong, in her own opinion, and she seemed to be incapable of agreeing with her daughter on anything.
Therefore, it was simple for Lydia to do what she did, aged just sixteen. She ran away from her home, stayed in a hostel for a weekend while, during the day, she recorded an album. Now, it wasn't a huge success, but a few people started to recognise her on the streets. This was how she met Mike. They were married within a year, and within three months of saying their wedding vows, Lydia found out that she was pregnant.
Both of them were ecstatic, though Lydia, ever the practical and rational one, did tend to worry about what she was doing to her body and the baby even by doing the smallest of things or eating something that she thought the baby couldn't handle, even an extremely mild curry.
When Jaden was born in March of 1991, her name was formed from the names of Lydia's and Mike's fathers - Jacob and Holden. Her middle name, Emily, was just a name that Lydia had heard and instantly liked, though it was, in her opinion, too plain to be a first name. And so it was, Jaden Emily Banes became the new addition to the family.
They were perfectly happy. At first. But when Jaden was five years old, Mike started to get secretive, covert, and just a little bit suspicious. Being the relatively good natured and somewhat naive woman she was, Lydia thought nothing of it, putting it down to stress at work, or general tiredness. It wasn't until Jaden was eight years old that Mike confessed to what he had been doing for the past three years - he had been seeing other women. Only two, in his defense, and at separate times, but it still made no impact on what he had done to Lydia. For two years, for the sake of their child, Lydia tolerated Mike and Mike, in turn, tried to be around a little less.
It was fruitless, though, and everyone knew it. When Jaden was ten years old, Lydia and Mike filed for a divorce. Lydia was 28 years old, and almost at the point of promotion. All she had to do was to convince one more company to use her firm for advertising. She decided to travel, more because of home circumstances than her work, as she wasn't fully happy in her job anyway, and this took her all around Canada and North America. It wasn't until she returned to Ontario a year later, though, that she found what she needed - a career change. Not a complete one; just to transfer to a different department within the firm - she was going to be a band manager.
Twenty nine years old, and the manager of a band that wasn't particularly well known. Don't ask why Lydia was over the moon, because, to be frank, she wasn't sure. She felt this incredible potential when she saw the band perform, though, and she knew what she had to do.
That was six years ago, and Lydia's never looked back. The band are getting more and more famous as time goes by, and Lydia believes that it's only a matter of time before they hit the big-time.
Band History: To be honest, this band was an experiment. As such, they’re a complete gamble. The tour was reluctant to take them on. They’re from Ontario, Canada. The group have been friends for a while, and the lead singer convinced them they ought to form a band in their free time. They sound a bit like a fusion between Fall Out Boy and Panic At The Disco. Lydia signed on as their manager just over five years ago, but it wasn't until Jaden was older and her parents divorced did she join her mother and the band on the road. At first, Jaden used to stay on the bus with one of the crew members when Lydia was working, but as she grew into a teenager, Lydia would take Jaden with her. Now her daughter deals with photography and merchandise.
► Extra Information
Extra Details: Lydia's a serial dater.
Rules Word:T-Rex
RP Example: Caelie had issues. Well, OK, not her specifically, but the way she was currently living. She was in a house in Tuskawilla, which was the residential area that she'd lived in ever since she had been forced to move from a respectable area in London to this little heard-of town in the middle of Florida. More than that, she had had to move into a small house with her father in an area that was considered to be the slums of Clearwater. Not saying, of course, that Tuskawilla was a bad place to live, but it definitely wasn't the best place, and having to be there with her father made it automatically, instantly and infinitely worse.
Luckily, though, she was no longer in her father's house, due to moving out because her boyfriend had discovered what the man was doing to her, and insisted that she didn't stay there for a moment longer than possible. For the previous five months, they'd gotten along like a house on fire (strange choice of words, I know, but a common phrase for some reason). However, another issue had arisen; an issue that was harder to resolve than the one between her and her overbearing father. You see, her boyfriend, Hell Dark, was something of a medical wonder. He didn't eat, he rarely slept, and he took so many painkillers that it was a wonder he woke up in the morning. He drank copious amounts of alcohol; the same amount, Caelie exaggerated (but only slightly), that a baby elephant could drink and would immediately keel over from. It was this latter habit of his that caused a huge argument at five o'clock one Friday morning, and it was this that was driving an ever expanding wall between them.
Considering what they'd said to each other, the general consensus was that they were over, but the problem still remained that the only other place she had to go was to her father's. Hell hadn't been angry enough at her to force her to go back there so, once again, when Caelie awoke on the morning of the first day of the second weekend of their alleged break-up, the bed seemed uncomfortably empty. Caelie always slept curled up in a ball, and seemed not to enjoy the sanctity of having a double bed to herself. Instead, as she threw the duvet off her legs, she shivered and contemplated apologising, just so the bed wouldn't seem so empty (not that Hell took up much more room than she did).
Trudging sleepily into the en-suite bathroom, Caelie avoided her own gaze in the mirror as she brushed her teeth, instinctively avoiding the backs to some of her piercings with some skillful, half-hearted maneuvering. She spat out the white foam, and repeated the process several times, suddenly aware of a horrible taste in her mouth. That taste, guilt, was something that she'd quickly grow accustomed to, and she'd soon realise that the taste couldn't be washed from her mouth by any amount of toothpaste or mouthwash. Rinsing her mouth liberally with a glass of crystal clear and ice cold water from the tap (or faucet), Caelie ran a hand absently through her hair, pulling out several of the pins she had had in the day before out of the pink mass with a copious amount of pain. Groaning more in annoyance than actual pain, Caelie slowly moved her fingers through her hair, extracting hair pins one by one and putting them on the shelf of the medicine cabinet, being more and more careful as the pile grew larger. By the end of it, there were 17 long, slim pins on the cabinet, and Caelie was massaging her head gingerly, ignoring the times that her fingers ran over long-healed cuts and scars.
Running a brush through her hair, Caelie hummed a song quietly to herself, then stopped, scolding herself for a display that could have been seen as indifferent to the situation at hand, or positively cold. Dropping the brush with a clatter onto the sink, Caelie rolled her eyes at the reflection in the mirror, figuring that she should dye her hair again soon. This action took mere seconds, and she was soon stood in front of a full length mirror (built into the wardrobe, otherwise it never would have been there) trying to decide what to wear. It took almost half an hour for the young woman to decide to just close her eyes and wear whichever matching items her hands managed to pull out of the modern armoire. It just so happened that the first two things she pulled out matched perfectly - a 'to hell and bach' tee and white jeans. To complete her look (she had decided to leave jewellery for a little while), she picked up a pair of white heeled sandals, choosing to uphold the rules of the house by waiting until she got into the hall to put them on. Transferring her necessities (keys, phone, money and iPod) into an overly large messenger bag, she slung the item over her right shoulder after clipping on a badge she had found on her dresser, and picked up her shoes again. She cast one glance around the room before shaking her head and leaving, though she wasn't sure, at nine in the morning, exactly where it was she was going. All she knew was that it was better not to stay in the house when Hell was there if it could be helped. She had also taken to avoiding Reaper, though that was quite beside the point.
Sliding into the driver seat of her small second-/third-/or fourth-hand silver Fiat Punto that she had bought only a month earlier from a dealer that she could only trust because her manager had suggested them, Caelie rearranged her brightly coloured hair for the third time that hour, and once again her mind turned to the colour that it should become next. She was thinking black underneath, blonde on top, and maybe, just to give it a little kick, some blue. Of course, it could all be experimented with. That was the beauty of having such outrageous hair on a regular basis - anything that went wrong could be perceived as something that was purposefully done, and no-one would be any the wiser. Shaking herself out of her reverie, Caelie backed out of the driveway and onto the streets, thankful that there were never many people up before noon on a Saturday. Always slightly below the speed limit, Caelie constantly checked her car for signs that it was going to give up the ghost. It wouldn't, though, and, five minutes into the journey, she finally believed that, and started thinking about where it was she was going to go. She knew, first of all, that she wanted coffee, which was a good start. But she also knew that she didn't want to deal with people or massive queues, which counted the obvious destination out. No Starbucks for Caelie today. Instead of heading straight through the traffic lights, Caelie swung a right and parked in front of an old diner that she had found completely by accident about nine months earlier.
Grabbing her bag from the passenger seat, Caelie clambered out of her car and conscientiously locked and tried the doors. Satisfied, she took one last glance at her car before pulling the door open and allowing a couple to walk back out onto the street before she stepped inside, immediately blasted by a waft of cool air and the aroma of well-blended coffee. Not one for waiting around, Caelie immediately placed her order at the cash register, then gestured in the general area that she planned on sitting in, as if they could miss her bright pink shock of hair.
Pulling her phone out and proceeding to text one of her close friends, she didn't notice a guy messing around absently with a sugar cellar, and therefore jumped almost completely out of her skin as the offending object smashed right in front of her feet. A small piece of glass had nicked her foot, and it was bleeding slightly, but it wasn't that that Caelie noticed first. Rather, it was the sugar in her shoes and on her jeans.
Swinging around the table to sit down and unbuckle her shoes, she glanced at the boy that was offering his profuse apologies. Smiling brightly, although she didn't much feel like smiling at all, Caelie shook her head. "Honestly, don't worry about it, it's just a bit of sugar. I'm wearing white jeans, no-one will even see it." She reassured him, gently, brushing the course grains of sweetness from her shoes and the soles of her feet. "No harm, no foul, no bruise. It's all good. I'm Caelie, by the way."
