Áine (The Caregiver)
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Name
Áine
on MUX as
EveArchetype
The CaregiverOccupation
Big Top RingmistressApparent Age
TimelessPlayed By
Alison BrieFaction Membership
Big Top Ringmistress
Make My Cult!
There are a number of professions that involve care. The people that conduct those jobs are often of a certain mettle and merit, to be sure. However, when that care is given freely, due to the sheer good will and caring nature of another, it transcends a boundary that defines a caregiver from a caretaker. Semantics, perhaps, but after all, human beings are as much product of nurture as they are nature.
Some people can't help it. Caring for others is their very root and stone. And sometimes, it brings as much detriment as delight.
You nurture, protect and guide those who need it most, and nothing makes you happier than being needed. You're always ready with a shoulder to cry on, some bandages and a few encouraging words.
Role in Carnival
Coming to America
Adaptation. It’s a large part of life. When you have immortal life, it becomes imperative.
Áine began as a goddess, the domain of fertility and love and femininity, summertime and Celtic sovereignty, the sun and the moon and so much more. Her name stood with symbolism over thriving motherland, a very piece of Ireland to for the stalwart Irish to carry. She was the radiant pride and joy of an ancient land full of wild mysticism, green barrows, and the people that lived, fought, and died there.
Blossoming with magic, eventually the tales turned— she became Áine of Knockaine, Queen of the Faeries, the most powerful muse and creator of the Leanan Sidhe. Literature wrapped her up to be known as other names and concepts too. She is known as The Lady of the Lake, Titania, or Queen Mab, the Faerie Queene inspiration for poetry and art. But no matter what she was called, she persisted as a rooted force of belief while the land turned to settled sprawl.
She and her people were responsible for two of the major superstitions among the Irish, and as such, the belief carried to the shores of America with the waves of immigrants seeking new land. But new land didn’t mean the old beliefs died, which gave her footing and method to root herself in this fresh soil. Still, the people told tales of changelings, children stolen and replaced, stories of great men fated to die in a matter of years once they’ve fallen for the lure of a faery lover and muse.
And all of that is precisely true, if modified to suit these shores and the hardship passage of modern time. The problem is… it’s just not enough. She was the sun and the moon once. Now, like so many others of old, she’s just a fading star.
Eve the Ringmistress
Áine felt the fading during the years of the Great War. The Irish weren't coming in the same waves the prior century had known. The beliefs were tempered by the rise of science and technology. She found herself in a way to bounce back during the Roaring Twenties, drunk on the rising writers, artists, and stars of the movie industry, all of them in need of a muse. Rudolph Valentino was the last star she put in the sky. Then the Crash came. And so did Veles. She was one of his first, made of magic and inspiration for the wonder of the Big Top.
Known as Eve, she started as a main draw act, an illusionist with unearthly beauty and feats the rubes had never seen the likes of, leaving them starstruck. Taken under Veles' wing, she was groomed to extend that magic while directing the show as Ringmistress, priming the audience for wonder and awe to help sustain the growing ensemble of performers under their banner. Sometimes, she puts out more magic than performances can compensate, all to ensure the rest of the Big Top gets their due. But there's always children willing to see the tent after the show...
Eve
Faces (Ringmistress)
The Ringmaster doesn't often direct the big performances and has groomed Eve in his stead. She reserves her magic for shows and therefore doesn't maintain a glamour to appear more mundane. Though her true form is distractingly ethereal, it works well for the role.
Sheet
| Brawn: Poor | + Inhuman Resilience (Positive)
She's physically weak compared to other gods and creatures. She's still not human, though, and can bounce back.
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| Finesse: Normal | + Zips Around (Positive)
Though she's no longer capable of evasive flight, the Fair Folk are known for being speedy and hard to capture.
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| Brains: Good | - Fatigue Prone (Negative)
Occasionally, Eve magically overextends and ends up forgetful and spaced out. When impacted, it's difficult to focus on details or even remember things properly. If not addressed, it impacts her wits, senses, and behavior.
+ Sharp Senses (Positive)
When Eve is feeling alert and herself, she has very good eyes, ears, and wits.
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| Spirit: Good | + Charismatic Muse (Positive)
As a muse, she has to be careful with her heart's song and attentions. Being too lovely, charismatic, and inspiring can be a problem. It also makes her hard to resist, and because of that, she tends to get things her own way.
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Perks and Quirks
-- Will not cross a thick line of salt or enter a salt circle.
-- A four-leaf shamrock allows one to see through her glamours.
-- Will not give chase over fresh running water.
-- Will not steal children tucked to sleep with daisies or nails in their pockets.
-- Accepts suitable offerings in exchange for good will. (milk, honey, fruits, shiny trinkets)
-- Grants one favor if captured.
-- Iron hurts.
Gallery
Mo Rí Ádh
Bally of the BurlesqueBoth fabled fair folk arrived in the Colonies with the indentured Irish. Given their similarities, it didn't take them long to find each other with old alliance in a new land. They got footing, they grew with the city boroughs of working class kinsmen, and they pulled each other out of offering snares, iron traps, or salt circles of the superstitious. After nearly a century of revelry and having each other's back, they went their separate ways around expanding country for decades. But when the downturn came and Áine was pulled into sanctuary by Veles, she made certain her Luck King was along for the ride. Given their familiarity, they're a bit of a riot together like a fae contagion, especially once they're both deep in the milk and honey.
Rí Mo Chodladh
ApothecaryÁine lived so long without really needing human things like sleep. She always slept, of course, but she slept for pleasure and dreams, not to recover energy. Now, as Eve, a fading deity that over-extends herself on behalf of the show, she requires it from time to time. Magical fatigue tends to make her spacey, and she needs Hypnos to put her in a state of recovery that’s deeper than natural sleep. He’s quietly her own personal caretaker when she starts to wear down, and she’s quietly trying to fill a little bit of the lonely hole left by his brother in trade.
Madra Le Scéalta
Sideshow Bally TalkerThough she didn't know him before the Carnival, Eve thinks the Dog with Stories is absolutely hilarious, and she enjoys torturing his animal instinct side with illusions. It happens all in the name of good fae fun, of course. She serves as a bally for the Big Top, in her own way, and she enjoys getting with the other ballies to share stories and come up with ideas. Some of the best creative sparks tend to emerge from drunken cups when it's time to wind down.
An Créatúr Álainn
UnicornDecades before the Carnival, Áine tracked down the single unicorn she knew to be in this land, simply to have a portrait painted astride him for artistic authenticity sake. She owed him for that good will and she can't help but feel a kinship to the beautiful creature, a reminder of ancient times and the creatures in the Celtic Otherworld of Tir Na Nog. She often visits or gifts him and her current artist consort is dying to re-enact that painting.
Theodore Walker
(Carnival)Set Designer and Artist
Theodore Walker is an artist from St. Louis that never had much but creativity and the ability to see the world in colors. He had trouble in school due to dyslexia, but he was handsome and easygoing and well-liked. However, what fueled his artistic nature, in part, was Bipolar Disorder, so he also had trouble keeping jobs as an adult. Often working as a street artist with odd bits of varying work on the side, when the Great Depression hit, everyone wanted those jobs and no one had money to pay for trinket art. He was at a suicidal downturn when Eve found him. And he hasn't forgotten how much the beautiful muse saved his life, even though he's not long for it as a result.
It was easy to leave everything behind and go with her, to accept Lawrence's own placement in Eve's life, and eventually Emmett's addition. Theo works as a painter and set designer for the various Circus acts and tends to know everyone due to his friendly grin and easy nature. There are many magnificent things he sees to immortalize on canvas.
Lawrence Kelly
(Carnival)Ticket Sales and Accounting
Once upon a time in Manhattan, Lawrence was a gentleman with a trust fund and a family name to uphold. The stock market crash changed that, his family fortune died, and he could no longer be a man of fine leisure and bearing. Though university educated, he was always more of a bohemian at heart than a society man. He always wanted to write the next great American novel of a generation, to leave a mark on history and literature with a great tale, he just never had time to start, nor did he have a well-rounded life experience to fuel the necessary creativity. Unlike many of his society peers now falling destitute, he saw the new struggle as a fateful challenge. The following year, he met Eve.
Running away with the Circus and Eve felt like fate. Now that he knows she's a muse and a piece of old magic, it feels like destiny. And when he's not working in the business tent budgeting and balancing the collections from ticket sales for spending and distribution, he's working on that novel with a plethora of magnificent fodder to draw from.
Emmett Blake
(Carnival)Laborer
Emmett doesn't talk a lot, so most people don't know a lot about him. He shows up, he unloads the train, he sets up tents, he does maintenance, and he's good at it. He's got the physique to ensure the heavy things get moved as needed and sometimes he walks the midway as a bouncer or security when he doesn't have things to do. Not because it's his job or anything, but because he's big and good at being rough when something calls for it. The rumor is that he was a bootlegger in Chicago in the Twenties, and that he got caught up in a lot of bad things. That said, he doesn't seem like a bad guy, just surly and quiet with a temper that he sometimes has to take on a walk. He hasn't been in Eve's company all that long, compared to the other two consorts, but he has been on the tracks almost two years.
He's different than Theodore and Lawrence, as far as his obsession with Eve goes. He doesn't see her as a typical muse for the arts or expression, but instead tends to prefer her company for himself. The other two men speculate her presence serves as a form of centering and healing for him, instead of a means of inspiration. And it's something he's willing to give everything for in return.
