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_iris (328641)

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Name:

Helen Briony Heywood // Iris

Website:

Peripeteia

Location:

Athens, Greece

Bio:

BRIONY HEYWOOD

BASICS

Myth
Deity Name: Iris
Other Names: n/a
Role/Function: Messenger of the gods (Zeus and Hera, but particularly Hera- Hera's handmaiden, really), personification of the rainbow. Is thought to be link the gods to humanity- a sort of peacemaker in nature. Goddess of the sea and the sky.
Powers: ?
Objects and Familiars: Herald's rod (kerykeion), Water-pitcher (oinochoe)
Parents: Thaumas "the wondrous", a marine-god, and Elektra "the amber”, a cloud-nymph.
Siblings: Sister to Aello, Ocypete and the Harpies, and was also twin sister to Arkhe, messenger-goddess of the Titans.
Spouse: Virgin Goddess.
Children: None.

Mortal
Name: Helen Briony Heywood (Her first name is usually kept a secret, however, due to her dislike of it. Her parents are the only ones who call her Helen. As a child she would put up with Nell from school chums, but she is known in professional circles and to fans as Briony Heywood)
Date of Birth: 4 May 1986
Nationality: British (Bromley, London, England, UK)
Social Class: Upper-middle
Parents: Clive Heywood (bank manager) and Sarah Cunningham (barrister)
Siblings: None.
Significant Other/Spouse: None.
Children: None.
Overall Health: Good- gets plenty of exercise biking around during the day and performing at night. Loves swimming. Also loves Greek food and smoking…
Education: 7 GCSEs, but no A-Levels.
Career: Former concert violinist and solo entertainer. Current bicycle messenger and busker.

AESTHETICS

Deity
Height: 5’3”
Weight/Build: 108 pounds, slight or even waifish build
Hair:Long and straw-blonde, usually held back in a band so it’s not whipping about her face
Eyes:Brown
Skin/Other: Fair
Description: Golden wings and a rainbow gown. Usually she carries a herald's rod (kerykeion), and sometimes a water-pitcher (oinochoe) in her hand. Has a confidence about her, a grace and poise that her mortal counterpart possesses only when she plays the violin.

Mortal
Height: 165cm (5'5”)
Weight/Build: 118lbs. Slight build.
Hair: Shoulder-length blonde hair (a bit on the natty side)
Eyes: Chocolate brown
Skin/Other: English rose complexion
Description: Is very clumsy with an awkward gait except when performing. While playing her violin, Bry appears transformed into a poised, confident, elegant young woman completely in control of her universe. Dresses in loose, comfortable clothing- mostly shorts or well-worn jeans and screened tshirts during the day while she's on her bike, then almost always sundresses/light blouses and skirts in the evenings. Little to no makeup. She rarely has anything new, so most items are slightly faded, though pride keeps her from wearing clothes that are shoddy. Because of her violin playing, her nails are kept short and unpainted.

PSYCHOLOGICAL

Deity
Personality:
Extravert/Introvert:
Sensing/Intuition:
Thinking/Feeling:
Judging/Perceiving:
Hobbies and Interests:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Loyal, generous, helpful, peaceful. Little tolerance for fools and men who treat women badly. Creative and hardworking. Loves to swim and fly- loves to travel at high speeds.

Mortal
Personality:
Extravert/Introvert:
Sensing/Intuition:
Thinking/Feeling:
Judging/Perceiving:
Hobbies and Interests:
Strengths:
Weaknesses:
Briony's general emotional state is cheerful and optimistic- even though she often speaks before thinking and can bitch about superficial things with the best of 'em, Bry is the sort of person who looks for the good in every situation/person, even the things she makes fun of, which makes her a sort of peacemaker, even if she's the one who was complaining to begin with. Her temper flares quickly but she gets over things fast. She is very helpful but extremely naive (not as much as she has been in the past, however), loves animals and gets along well with them- especially horses. She loves travel and exploring new places. She's become a little jaded recently, and while this may cause her angst in private she still appears on the surface to be a happy-go-lucky person. She is laid back to the point of laziness when it comes to anything not related to her music and her friends, yet she gets broody when she's failed at something, before her optimism kicks in. Handles criticism well in public, though she may bitch in private. She is very loyal, easygoing, openminded and adaptable. Is usually very inventive/creative, mostly around her peers. Bry loves trying new things and will always try anything once. She is extremely enthusiastic, and very persistent. Loves to swim. Her empathy for people and naivete get her in trouble quite often. She is a smoker and someone who curses liberally. Hanging from her window are dozens of cds on fishing line- Bry loves the way they catch the light and make rainbows on the cd faces.

RELATIONS

Deity
Friends: ?
Enemies: ?
Romantic Status: Virgin
Significant Other: None.
Sexual Preference: Irrelevant.
Present Interests:?
Past Relationships: None.
Likes: Flying, Swimming, putting liars to sleep
Dislikes: Doing mean things to people at the bidding of her Queen

Mortal
Friends: Alexius the Greek bellboy, tall, dark and handsome with a secret shame only Bry knows (he grew up as an organist in the Orthadox church and is a classically trained pianist) and a penchant for horse gambling; Lara and Warren the twenty-something Australian couple who started as a housekeeper and dishwasher in the hotel nearly five years before and have improved their Greek to a degree where they have moved on to administrative assistant and electrician positions; and Carly and Peter, American and German, respectively, both filmmakers who had waited tables at the hotel restaurant before moving on to the American embassy and a graphic design company. These are the people who have become Bry's family- Lara and Warren like older siblings and Carly and Peter like younger siblings, despite the fact that they are in their late twenties. Carly and Peter are free-spirited partiers to Lara and Warren's less-socially-subversive (though still fun) personas.
Enemies: None, though she would like to kick Mr. Herman in the junk if she ever sees him again.
Romantic Status: Single
Significant Other: None
Sexual Preference: Heterosexual
Present Interests: Alexius is interested in her, and Carly and Peter have been hinting for weeks now that Bry is always welcome to share their bed, but she has no pressing interests on anyone at present
Past Relationships: Mr. Herman
Likes: The violin, composing, music of all genres, eating, smoking, biking, performing, playing video games, clubbing
Dislikes: Reading, cooking, chores, responsibility

BIOGRAPHICAL

Myth:
From theoi.com: Iris was a goddess of sea and sky--her father Thaumas "the wondrous" was a marine-god, and her mother Elektra "the amber" a cloud-nymph. For the coastal-dwelling Greeks, the rainbow's arc was most often seen spanning the distance beteween cloud and sea, and so the goddess was believed to replenish the rain-clouds with water from the sea.

She is sister to Aello, Ocypete and the Harpies, and was also twin sister to Arkhe, messenger-goddess of the Titans. In her main role as messenger, Iris was able to travel not only between the gods and men but to the Underworld as well. As the rainbow, Iris was assigned the task of supplying the clouds with the water needed to deluge the world.

She also served as handmaiden and personal envoy of Hera, often times sitting and even sleeping by the goddess' throne to be ready at a moment's notice for her lady's direction. One of her least favourite tasks was, per the Queen of Olympus' instruction, threatening all the cities of Greece, demanding they refuse to aid Leto, one of Zeus' lovers, who was in childbirth with Artemis and Apollo. However, after the other gods had tricked Hera into freeing the kidnapped Eileithyia, Iris whisked the goddess of childbirth off to the island of Delos to Leto's side.

Iris often acted as the intermediary between Hera and Hypnos the god of sleep and led the procession of gods at the wedding of Thetis and Peleus.

At Zeus' command, Iris was charged with the responsibility of collecting the waters of Styx for the gods' sacred oath. If any of the gods pours a libation of this water and is forsworn, they lie breathless, spiritless and voiceless for a year, never tasting ambrosia or nectar. After spending one year in this state, the god is cut off for nine years from the god's councils and feasts and cannot return to Olympus until the tenth year has passed. Fun job.

Likewise, Iris was also sent by Zeus to Demeter to persuade the goddess to return to Olympus after the abduction of Persephone by Hades. Despite Iris' pleas, Demeter, in her grief, refused and remained in Eleusis.

During the Trojan war, the rainbow goddess carried messages and orders to gods and heroes alike on both sides of the conflict. For Zeus, to the Trojans and Hector, and for Hera, to Achilles and many others. Iris also helped escort Aphrodite off the battlefield and back to Olympus after the goddess of love was injured.

As the years progressed, Iris went about her daily routine as messenger, flying about the land and helping mortals she saw in trouble, putting to sleep people she saw lying to others, collecting Styx water and doing Hera's bidding. The coup came as quite the surprise to her.

War:
Iris was loyal to Hera, which meant she was involved on the side of the revolutionaries, though honestly she tried to keep out of things as much as possible, even going so far as to let her desire for peace be known loud and clear, though she also made it known that she would remain loyal to Hera no matter what.

Mortal:
Helen Briony Heywood was the first and (so she thought) only child born to Clive Heywood and Sarah Cunningham on May 4th, 1986. Clive and Sarah were supportive but generally distant parents- especially Sarah. Sarah was a divorce lawyer and buried in her work, while Clive was a bank manager. A distant relative of Clive's, whom Clive has always called his aunt, visited when Briony was three and discovered that the child had a great gift for distinguishing musical notes and remembering musical sequences, rythmn, and creativity. This great-aunt gave Bry a violin for her fourth birthday, as well as an enrollment at the Royal Academy of Music. Briony began attending RAM's Primary Academy on saturday mornings and excelled in the programme from an early age. The violin became her reason for living and she believed she would be quite happy building herself a life around playing it. Her parents' distance towards her began to mean less as she found herself gaining attention in the music world.

An adventurous child, Briony was exploring the house one evening when she was ten and found evidence (her mother's diary, as well as some old pictures of a nursery with two cribs) that her parents had been expecting twins, but upon Briony's arrival the second child had been stillborn. Beginning to understand why her parents (especially her mother) were so distant towards her, believing it was because they felt of Briony as half of what she should have been, Bry vowed that she would never be the type of person to dwell on the past, always looking forward instead.

Bry had begun performing with orchestras and symphonies from age seven, and by fourteen had been writing her own music for three years. She was approached then by a music producer of the classical crossover vein. After signing a lucrative deal, Bry began recording with and touring with several opera-crossover boy and girl bands, and even rock bands. Completing several GCSEs via correspondence by age sixteen, Bry left standardized education behind to pursue a fulltime music career under the watchful guardianship of her great-aunt.

Despite earning very well with mainstream music (as mainstream as classical crossover is) Bry wrote tracks for two of her own classical crossover albums but also got two legitimately classical albums produced, giving her a following with classical purists as well as crossover fans. She travelled throughout the world with various music groups, but her life was extremely sheltered under her chaperone's hawk-like gaze, as well as the fact that Bry was thoroughly involved in her music above all else, making her content in her sheltered surroundings as well as very naive among her peers. Though a very friendly person, Bry had no close friends and no sense of really belonging anywhere.

Though she'd had odd, vivid dreams and nightmares her whole life, Briony usually found that channeling these into her music meant she could welcome them and remain healthy rather than being negatively affected by them. Shortly after her twenty-first birthday, however, Bry found herself being unable to cope with the dreams and nightmares to the degree that they began distracting her from her music rather than contributing to it. When the stress of the dreams became unbearable a few weeks later, Bry decided to take a break from an international tour and began touring Europe alone, just for fun, liberally spending money. Though a very low-maintenance person in terms of her personal needs, Bry enjoyed buying rounds in pubs and thowing parties. Greece seemed to offer Bry the mose peace in terms of quelling her nightmares and dreams. Staying in a posh hotel in the Kolonaki district at the end of 2007, she met a charming, older American businessman who was a great fan of the arts and lauded himself as a great patron of artists. He had a vision of establishing Bry in her own concert hall and developing her own concerts with other musicians. Dazzled by the idea, the twenty one-year-old subscribed to it wholeheartedly. She also found herself being completely swept off her feet. A few weeks after their first meeting, Bry stopped protesting Mr. Herman's advances and let him spend the night- her first experience with a man. Waking up early in the morning from a particularly nasty nightmare, Bry found her hotel room empty. Her jewelry, violins, credit cards, cash, computer, and passport were gone, as well as Mr. Herman. She was left with nothing except a hefty bill for two hotel rooms.

After getting over the initial shock, Bry realized there was nothing to do but carry on, being too ashamed to tell her parents or aunt what had happened. A bellboy she'd befriended at the hotel (Alexius) gave her a bicycle on loan and told her of a cousin who ran a courier service in need of a bike messenger. Though she'd never done much physical work, Bry was fit and desperation overcame discomfort. The boss was also willing to advance her the amount of her hotel bill, which was incentive enough. Moving into a room in a seedy flat in Exarcheia populated by Alexius and four immigrant workers who had all been employed by the hotel at one point or another, Bry got to work paying off her debt. She was eventually even able to buy a cheap violin, and could now work as a courier during the day and busk at night in the tourist districts. Her first night playing Celtic and Greek fiddle reels earned her more than enough to pay for a ticket back to London. And yet she stayed.

Settling into her new life, Bry's nightmares have abated to a degree where they are tolerable and now that she has five extremely close friends in her flatmates and a sense of peace, she refuses to dwell on what she's lost. Due to the fact that she is happy doing what she is doing, Bry has no desire to return to her former life as a concert violinist.

She now has a room in a four-room flat in Exarcheia district. Bry shares the flat with five flatmates. She also works in and around Kolonaki during the day, and busks in the Plaka and Syntagma at night.

Bry has had dreams for most of her life. Until recently, she used these in a creative way, as a healthy outlet. Around her twenty-first birthday the dreams began to affect her not just in sleep but in her thoughts and feelings, distracting her from her everyday routimes. They remain this potent currently, but since arriving in Greece Bry has found it easier to cope with them. Bry mostly feels that the dreams are a part of her creative process and that her trouble in coping with them is a personal flaw that she has to overcome. Her flatmates are very supportive, and Alexius will even stay up with her when she awakens screaming some nights. The dreams mostly involve winged women, usually twins- one with golden wings, one with iridescent. Bright, vivid colours in rainbow hues. A lot of travel to strange, fantastical places, many under the ocean. Some involving the fending off of unfamiliar creatures. Most are violent, all involve quests or journeys to be completed. All involve subjugation to a queen. On the night of her losing her virginity, Bry's dream involved the angel being subject to a tyrannical king, grovelling, being humiliated and forced to do things to people against her will and to watch as violence was done to others.

DISCLAIMER

This journal is part of a game, and not affiliated with the Grecian gods and goddesses in any way. This is for entertainment/gaming purposes only. No malice or infringement is intended and the contents of this journal and it should NOT be taken as true/authorized. Billie Piper owns herself.

Layout profile code thanks to ReversesCollide

Interests:

14: adventure, bicycle, biking, classical, composing, eating gyros, music, orchestral, smoking, snooping, swimming, symphonic, traveling, violin

Schools:

None listed

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Friends:

	17:	__hera_, __poseidon, _aphrodite, _apollo, _ares, _demeter, _iris, _nike, _persephone, dionysus_, eris_discordia, hebedia, iokheaira, mods_peripeteia, omgs, phobos_, that_deimos
	3:	peripeteia_myth, peripeteia_ooc, peripeteia_rpg

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Member of:

6: greek_swim, myth_swim, ooc_swim, peripeteia_myth, peripeteia_ooc, peripeteia_rpg

Account type:

Free Patient

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