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ESSENTIALS

* Name: Cadence Hall.
* Nickname: Cay (pronounced Kay).
* Age and Birth Date: 22 years, October 16.
* Occupation: Barista and secretary at the Brewed Awakening coffee shop.



APPEARANCE
Cadence is 5’4” and almost painfully thin, not in good shape at all. He has chin-length, layered, very fine white-blond hair that tends towards white, light blue eyes, and fair skin with light freckles over his nose and cheeks. Not surprisingly, he sunburns badly in the summer. His face is almost oval-shaped, but somewhat long and narrow for that, and he has a small nose, thin lips, and delicate bone structure. His hands are long and slender, with bony wrists and graceful fingers, not the hands of someone who does hard work, although perhaps they are the hands of someone who does precise work. Over time, he’s acquired a few small scars, a near-miss during a mugging here and a cut from barbed wire there. The worst is a short, ugly vertical scar over his right collarbone, from a chisel or something similar. That injury also broke his collarbone, and it didn’t quite heal properly, leaving a slight bump near the scar. It’s close enough to the center of his chest that it’s visible when he wears T-shirts, and he prefers it not to be.

The coffee shop’s uniform is a black button-up shirt and slacks, with a dark blue apron. When he’s not working, he favors comfortable, concealing clothes. If at all possible (and it usually is), he’ll wear black or dark-colored sweatshirts over a plain shirt or turtleneck, and jeans and sneakers. Sometimes the jeans are splattered with paint from his art experiments. When the sweatshirts aren’t plain, they’ve got muted logos, things like a music note or the name of a city. It’s a miracle that he hasn’t suffered an attack of heatstroke yet.

PERSONALITY
Cadence likes harmony. Clashing colors or patterns (though not necessarily loud ones, as long as they go together) make him cringe, crooked frames make his fingers itch, and he has to look away from messy desks, lest he go over and start organizing everything. In most situations, some sort of disorder is almost inevitable; he’s only really comfortable in his room, and in the coffee shop when he’s had time to organize and neaten everything up.

He also prefers harmony with people, and is friendly enough, if not outgoing, but diplomatic to the point of being a pushover. Even being in the vicinity of an argument makes him attempt to unravel the hem and sleeves of his shirt or jacket out of sheer nervousness. If he can’t avoid being in conflict, he attempts to soothe it as quickly as possible, which often leads to him capitulating to his disadvantage. His quiet, friendly, accommodating attitude serves him well as a barista; he’s well-liked by most of the regulars at Brewed Awakening. It’s a quiet job, with not much possibility of advancement, but he’s got no aspirations to be a manager, or to be much else.

The main thing he dislikes about his job is that stress sometimes piles up. Another worker will be late, someone will spill coffee all over the floor, the oven will break, all sorts of little problems, and despite his quiet, accepting nature, he hates being expected to clean up all the messes and mistakes. When his frustration builds up too high -- which he tends to let it do -- he sometimes snaps, shocking those who know him with a sudden flash of unreasonable anger. Once he calms down, he’s inevitably embarrassed by such outbursts, but he always lets it build up again, in a sort of vicious cycle.

ABILITIES
Heaven forbid Cadence meet a flight of stairs or a heavy box -- especially the latter. His right shoulder’s range of motion is somewhat limited, and it hurts to lift things with it. His lightning-fast metabolism means that he has to eat a lot, but he doesn’t eat very healthily. As a result, he’s both thin and physically weak. He is, however, very skilled with his hands. Somewhere along the way, he’s picked up making drinks and snacks, mending and altering clothes, relative pitch, and identifying musical instruments by ear. He also has a surprising tolerance for alcohol, at least for his size, and on the few occasions when he braves bars and clubs, he always tries new drinks. If he likes one, a new recipe will soon show up in his collection.

He doesn’t truly excel in any academic subject, more out of lack of interest than lack of intelligence. And, although he does some simple sketches and artwork, he’s not talented. Any skill is from long practice, not training or innate gift. His mind is actually best suited to puzzles. Mechanical puzzles, logic puzzles, hidden object puzzles, mazes, crosswords -- if it has a recognizable pattern of some kind, he can solve it, and he enjoys the process.

In social situations, he’s quiet and not very outgoing, but he’s a good friend to have, thoughtful, empathic, capable of soothing most frustrations, and willing to listen and offer advice as needed. However, if asked his opinion, he will give it, whether it’s one the asker wants to hear or not, and when he’s asked to mediate a disagreement, he won’t let personal prejudices color the decision -- something that’s gotten him in trouble before. He’s weak-willed, too willing to jump to other people’s requests and needs, and a pushover. Of note is the fact that he’s a determined bargainer when he’s trying to get something for a collection, virtually the only time he refuses to back down.

HOBBIES
Collecting. Not jewelry or crystal figures, nothing expensive; he collects and organizes small, unusual things, from a box of buttons painstakingly sorted by material, number of holes, and color, to an album of postcards organized by place of origin and composition. He visits flea markets, trinket shops, garage sales, and online auctions whenever he has the time and a little extra money on hand, and often comes home with an addition to a collection or the start of another collection.

He especially enjoys solving puzzles of all types, and he’s always looking for new ones. He usually keeps one or two mechanical puzzles tucked into a pocket or backpack, and if he’s got a quiet moment, out they come.

Although he’s not a terrific artist, he likes to do small sketches of people or places to pass the time. He also listens to a lot of music -- classical and instrumental, mostly, with tracks from all over the world; his battered mp3 player is always tucked into the pocket of his jacket or jeans. He has very good relative pitch, and is able to name instruments and songs by listening to short, distinctive fragments, but he can’t play any instruments himself.

HISTORY
Everything associate with the name 'Cadence Hall' starts when he was eighteen, but it’s a patchy record at best -- he was a drifter, doing odd jobs in one city, disappearing, then staying in a motel in another city. The more solid part starts when he was nineteen, when he landed a job at a tiny antique store in London. He settled there for a while, making friends at the local trinket shops and getting close to another employee, Andrea Willis.

That relationship, not just friendly and not quite romantic, ended explosively, as several noise complaints indicate. Days later, the police arrested the owners of the antique store for forgery of antiques, and Andrea for embezzling. After extensive questioning, Cadence himself was set free -- alone, without work, and with a bitter taste in his mouth. He visited Andrea just once, and she would only tell him that he should go to Irnsquare.

He stopped by the closed shop, then left London. There’s no visa, passport, or ticket filed under ‘Cadence Hall’, since that isn't his legal name -- he makes no pretense of that. However, he keeps all documents with his legal name inside one of his (many) puzzle boxes. Finally, he reached Irnsquare, and a temporary stay became not-so-temporary when he found a job at the Brewed Awakening coffee shop. Despite his sketchy history, the owners were charmed by him, and after he proved his skill at making coffee and coffee-based drinks, they hired him. He’s settled again, hopefully for good this time, and he’s started making friends and visiting trinket shops again -- chopstick rests seem to be the collectible of the day.

Lately, though, his life is beginning to get stagnant, almost too quiet and orderly, and he’s looking for something -- some hobby, some person, some place -- that will liven things up without destroying the life he’s established.

His parents: He doesn’t talk about them and never contacts them, and it’s apparent that their contact ended badly. But out of something -- sentimentality, lingering loyalty, or perhaps masochism -- he keeps a photograph of them tucked inside his copy of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Andrea Willis: formerly a very close friend of his, though their interactions often tipped into flirting. That relationship ended badly, with Andrea yelling so loudly that noise complaints were filed. She was later arrested for embezzling, and he hasn’t heard from her since. It left him with a lingering wariness of even becoming friends with people; no telling what kind of secrets could pop up and ruin everything.
Julian and Ophelia Irving: brother and sister, co-owners of the Brewed Awakening shop. They look after him, having converted an unused storage room in the back to a small bedroom for him, and sometimes they all go to dinner after a shift. He’s very grateful to them, and goes out of his way to do nice things for them, like buying fresh flowers for the tables and decorating the blackboard menus.

SAMPLE

Cadence was just leaving the trinket shop when he spotted a flier outside. The fact that it wasn’t blaring with loud colors and pictures kept him looking, and eventually he stepped closer to read it properly. Ordinary enough, but at the same time, it was...different. Different enough that he found himself digging around in his pocket, retrieving a pocketknife and using the scissors to cut off a tab. It took effort to put away the pocketknife and not clean up the jagged edges from where other tabs had been torn off, but he managed.

It couldn’t hurt, even though he would probably forget that it was happening until long after, throw the tab away, and not remember it enough to regret it.

Oddly enough, none of that happened. When he got home, he went to the small bulletin board hanging next to his bed. The tab found a temporary home, wedged in a clip labeled ‘events’ that he almost never used. For the next three days, it dangled next to a small calendar with just the days and space for writing, and below a short, hand-written list of phone numbers. He found himself looking at the tab, considering going, and for once he didn’t manage to talk himself out of it.

The day of, he didn’t do anything special. He just tossed on a pair of jeans and a T-shirt and hoodie, took the tab, and left the closed coffee shop. It wasn’t hard to find Doors at all; he found himself walking down the alley, faster than usual, like he knew exactly where he was going, to the door, down the stairs, and into the nightclub.

Well, why not? What was the worst that could happen? He’d dodge a couple of touchy people and go back to the shop, throw away the tab, and forget about it.

As it turned out, none of that happened, either.

In his room, Cadence has a small bulletin board with a calendar, lists, and things like fliers or notes that he wants to save. Important events/bits of information will go here.

The calendar: Major holidays, shift hours, and the birthdays of the owners of Brewed Awakening are marked down.

Events: A clip, with only a tab with an address and a key stamped on it.

Phone numbers: Emergency services, the home and cell phone numbers of the owners and other employees of Brewed Awakening, various food and coffee suppliers, and a florist.