Idea: Performance
Species: Edeia
Special Trait: Fission
Gender: Nonbinary
Pronouns: Any
Masterlist: #407

Fragments: Soliloquy and Audia
Age: Born sometime during the Age of Secrecy
Height: Approximately 9’ (without the hat)

Personality

When it comes to Performance as a whole, their personality could best be described as exuberant. They are the life of the party and enjoy being in the center of attention and socializing with others, especially if it involves a large gathering of individuals. Additionally, they are naturally very charismatic and charming, their mere presence commanding attention and respect. Truly, there is never a dull moment with them around, and anyone and everyone is practically guaranteed to be amazing, entertained, and awed while in their company.

However, like all other fission Edeia, Performance has a very strong sense of internal dichotomy — although they as a whole are generally a very extroverted individual, how they interact with others can be very different depending on which fission fragment you’re interacting with. Their perception of themselves also fuels this divide – the divide between an audience member and a performer is something to heed, and while they’re united in the joy of the show, they fundamentally serve different purposes.

Soliloquy, the more flashy one, retains most of their lively attitude, being very confident and self-assured while simultaneously keeping the needs of others in mind. They strive to keep others engaged with whatever antics they’re currently up to, delighting in putting on a “show” where audience participation is highly encouraged. They are an excellent host with impeccable manners, though they can also get a little eccentric in their mannerisms and behaviors when it comes to more niche interests of theirs.

Meanwhile, Audia, the more observant one, is similarly very confident and self-assured, although their energy is generally more directed inwards. They do not particularly enjoy being the center of attention and prefer to simply watch and enjoy the show among the crowd; Audia finds particular comfort in sharing these kinds of experiences with others. They can also be an excellent host but prefer to take more of a calm and dignified approach to organizing events and gatherings rather than directly lifting people’s spirits.

Abilities

> Come One, Come All | Performance is able to warp a certain radius of the world around them to better suit their needs when it comes to putting on a show. Most of the time this new setting is entirely harmless to the audience and serves to further aid in their immersion. As part of creating this new setting, Performance may give life to characters and creatures in a story, thus allowing them to interact with each other and the world around them. These characters are bound to the story they originated from and thus only really know the information they’d feasibly have access to given their particular context. Additionally, Performance may also change the weather, the time of day, the temperature — any and all sensory inputs needed to fully sell the illusion of being in a different place at a different time.

Furthermore, a mundane individual will suspend their belief entirely and truly believe that anything that happens during these shows does actually happen (e.g. a “dragon” really does exist when it flies overhead), and can thus “directly interact” with the setting. For ideated individuals and other Edeia, this suspension of belief has a much smaller impact and really only goes as far as the individual wills it to, thus mitigating its effect significantly. Performance takes special care in ensuring no harm comes to those that watch their shows, and their props/stage harmlessly revert back into its original mundane state once it is no longer needed.

> The Show Must Go On | To further add to the above ability, Performance may permanently change a particular location/animal/prop into whatever they need it to be for a particular show, though this ability takes a lot of care and time to fully pull off. Once transformed, it is almost as if the location/animal/prop was always like this and thus has fantastical properties imbued into it, lasting well beyond the show itself is over. Performance may gift these items as souvenirs to those that saw the show it originated from (and they sometimes forget who has what). However, Performance specifically chooses not to transform other individuals into characters in a show, nor do they give their character creations life beyond the show; they believe this latter part is going too far.

> Fission | Since Performance’s view on themself is quite dichotomous, Performance is able to split themselves into their fission fragments Soliloquy and Audia. While they have a stronger sense of independence from the other, they still strongly care for the other and consider themselves to still be the same person, albeit with different preferences and priorities.

History

“Life needs some excitement from time to time, and what better way to thrill an audience than to put on a spectacular show? Come one, come all! Lose yourselves in the beauty of the performing arts!”

Caesar knew that they were going to make it big one day. It was only a matter of time, and they just had to keep waiting. 

Any day now… Any day…

Caesar was born into a poor working family in Austria, their parents a lot more focused on keeping their finances stable than raising their kids. Thus, Caesar, along with their 4 other siblings, were mostly left to their own devices growing up in the bustling city of Vienna. 

Things weren’t so bad, though; they had food on the table most days, and though they were never quite full, they filled themselves with the beauty of music and operas all the same. Of course, they couldn’t attend such events in the traditional manner – they barely had enough money to live in a cramped house with passable clothes on their backs – but those wonderful, oh so wonderful moments they could steal via open windows and unlocked backstage doors made the risk worth it every time.

Things changed when one of their oldest siblings was accepted into a prestigious apprenticeship by a nobleman astonished by their talents. More and more money came in, which meant Caesar was able to spend more and more time out of the house, away from the shoe-shining shop they and their younger siblings operated. They were even able to get away with stealing a violin from an inattentive merchant, and thus their love for the arts finally had an outlet.

And God, did they play. They practiced with every second they could steal, any chance they could get, and their talents soon were noticed as well. Just a child, still marked by inadequacy, yet they were a prodigy like the other composers and performers before them. Eventually, they, too, were able to start an apprenticeship program with one of the up-and-coming performers in Vienna. During this time, Caesar noticed that their appetite was simply not what it was before, and since they felt just fine being able to get by with less food, they sent those saved expenses back home just like their siblings before them.

As time went on, they began to gather more and more fame and recognition for their multiple talents; turns out they weren’t just a deft violinist, but they could also sing with unmatched tone and range, and they could also deliver lines that moved others to tears. Truly, Caesar seemed to be good at almost anything that related to performing a show, and for a time, they were happy.

…They were happy, right?

They had succeeded! Their name was recognized! They were able to live a posh and comfortable life, their family’s economics had significantly improved, and they were even invited to tour across Europe giving the same performances that inspired them so many years prior! So why were they becoming so disillusioned?

It took some time for Caesar’s introspection to pay off; they realized at some point that the shows felt empty. Art was meant to bring people together, sure, and while that definitely held some weight for their own creations, it became abundantly clear that those that attended their shows were hollow. Their performances lacked the magical spark that inspired true emotions, and the satisfaction in a job well-done now felt… Empty.

What was wrong?

Caesar, now distraught with their relationship with their art, abruptly stopped touring and isolated themselves. They were now desperate to recapture the awe and excitement they had once felt before in their previous shows, but nothing seemed to be working.

Well, fine! If they weren’t meant for the stage, then perhaps they were meant to watch and appreciate instead! Thus, they donned a much lower profile, went by the name “Johanne”,  and discretely traveled all across Europe to witness the performances others had worked tirelessly to perfect. This period of their life was marked with minor successes and enjoyment as they were able to focus on a completely different side of them – a side they had forgotten for far too long while Caesar was swept up in the role of a performer – but it still simply felt like something was… Missing.

And then came a fateful encounter. They were visited by Merit, a fission fragment of Karma, who had disguised himself as an ordinary fan of Caesar’s prior work. That much was genuinely true, but they were wondering why Caesar had suddenly stopped creating and where they had gone.

The conversation they had was initially rife with questions, distrust, and suspicion, but Merit was eventually able to find an opening to be level with the distraught artist:

“You have lost what it was that brought you joy with your performances. You are stagnating. Maybe I can help with that.”

Caesar was taken aback by such a plain-yet-entirely-factual observation, and out of spite, they accepted Merit’s help. From there, the Edeia bestowed Caesar with a few gifts of increased focus, satisfaction, and creativity; to Merit, they have long since earned such blessings given how much joy they had created prior. And, now imbued with these powers, Caesar was finally able to recenter and focus on recapturing the essence of their art: beauty, joy, and tension. They were also increasingly aware of how much their sense of self had split during the tumultuous period prior – Caesar was finding that their stage self and their audience self, although connected and similar, felt like they occupied different spaces. They were the same person, they thought, but did different things, and had different perspectives, and approached things differently, and…

Once their working relationship with Merit had evolved into a friendship, Caesar privately voiced their irritatingly-persistent struggles in not only their creation process, but also their sense of self. Merit listened sagely, nodded along, then asked Caesar to stand and to look at them. Confused, Caesar complied, and much to their utter surprise, Merit was no longer alone – there stood another being, a mirror image of the person, yet they introduced themself as Tavarious. The two spoke in perfect unison, explaining that Caesar was Ideated, yet perhaps what they were still missing was a deeper connection with their Idea. Neither were entirely sure what it was, but they had a suspicion that it had to do with their craft. Merit and Tavarious also explained that perhaps their split sense of self was an indication that they might be capable of fission later on, just as they were.

Caesar, stunned, bewildered, yet oddly not entirely surprised, asked for a moment alone, and once the Edeia had left, they stood by themself and their thoughts. Puzzle pieces were starting to click into place, but there was too much happening.

They were Ideated? What does that mean?

Their split selves was not something to be feared? But it wasn’t normal!

Their art… Their craft… Their performances… It all meant the world to them… Their disillusionment with their abilities weighed heavily on them, but they knew they still had it in them to keep trying.

It then dawned on them.

They were working for others. Their shows were for others. It was for the patrons, for the audience, for the laymen and the cultured. They had forgotten their own satisfaction backstage, they had forgotten how to be a good host for themself. The right crowd will come, so long as they create something worthwhile to them.

Caesar finally figured out what was missing – their own heart, their own soul.

Reignited with fanatical fervor, Caesar took to their desk and began to write. And score. And monologue. And script. Yes, yes! This is it! Finally, finally!

Art poured from their very veins and out into the world, and when they returned to the stage, they had never felt more alive. They were a host, an organizer, an actor, a director, a musician. They were the very joy of the performance.

During their last act on stage, they noticed two familiar faces in the crowd. The two seemed to be enjoying themselves, with one happily nodding their head along while the other one closed their eyes with a peaceful smile on their face. Yes, they were two, but they were one. Two halves on a greater whole. A similar sense of exuberant satisfaction washed over Caesar as they thought of Johanne, how they would love to be here watching them, too.

As the audience roared with deafening applause, Caesar looked up to the lights. They had done it. They really, really had done it. Their heart and soul was finally honored. Their childhood memories of delight and awe were finally honored. They took a bow, allowed the curtain to close, and closed their eyes as their form shifted and was made anew.

It certainly took them long enough to Actualize.

Abstraction

Their Abstraction is set in a permanent twilight with arcs of light streaking through the indigoes and violets. There are stars that dazzle the onlookers below, although the spectacle doesn’t stop there. Below, an amalgamation of different European cities stretches out for as far as the eye can see, with bustling shadows of people making their way through the paved streets lit by purple flames.

At the center of their Abstraction is a colosseum in all of its glory. A complex array of circles, spheres, and geometric shapes float almost precariously above the center of its interior, and the seats are sloped down to create a stunning amphitheater. The stage is made of luxurious wood and awaits the next big play.