Knowing November
(Disclosure: November is a player-alt of Annapurna, the game owner.)
General
If you played on The Reach MUX, yes, this is the same November. Older, more powerful and hopefully wiser! Everything that happened on TR is counted as part of her backstory.
A Mortal's View
To the mortals of the world, November is an eccentric blend of wealth, privilege and peculiarity. Especially these days, the Sublime merit means that humans... well... there's just something Not Right about that rainbow-haired so and so.
Still, she's an entrepreneur, a philanthropist, and has an established reputation as a good, reliable employer in the area.
- Ninth Spectrum Paintball (NSP) - The second of its name, NSP was opened in late August 2015, bringing friendly violence and mischief to the side of Flat Top Hill out on the southeastern border of Fort Brunsett. The original NSP is located in Aleswich, ME and is operated by a manager.
- Also located in Aleswich, Maine, while she no longer holds majority shares in the business, she retains a financial interest in and responsibility for the cliffside Regius Procella resort hotel and its five-star restaurant dining.
- Rising Sun Tourneys (RST) - Opened in mid-October 2017, the perpetual jousting tourney serves as a place for roleplay, fun with costumes and well-researched period foods, as well as the ever so convenient side effect of providing local Changelings with a mundane reason for learning how to wield swords and shields and weaponry which won't break deeper inside the Hedge... It has stable space for mounts, and if not all of those mounts are necessarily horses, well. She'll look the other way.
- The Light Museum (TLM) - Shhhh. This is a sneaky secret. Nobody ICly knows that November is the one who created this museum; she had it built and designed by an alias, Alis Rodriguez, an Albanian/Hispanic Manymask. Opened in September of 2019, the museum teaches visitors about many, many forms of light, both naturally occurring and human-made.
Her tastes, to human eyes, are eclectic, and as varied as her hobbies. And her cupcakes. She does so enjoy baking.
- Storyteller - November can often be found in parks, at hospitals, at bookstores, or simply wandering the streets, telling tales ancient, modern or invented on the spot. She is often hired for children's parties to play the role of faerie queen or godmother.
- Librarian - She is trained in library sciences, and has a great thirst for the written word, whether fact or fiction.
- Musician - While she doesn't have a regular gig, she floats about from temporary group to temporary group, serving as drummer, vocalist, guitar or backup dancer as need be. If you like making music, good! So does she!
- Accidental Masochism - Or self-oriented sadism. Take your pick. Pride be damned, but she enjoys learning new things, even if they result in a puddle of rainbows splatting arse-first on the dirt. Siiiigh.
- Recreational Weaponry - She tends to stick with polearms, the naginata in particular, and occasionally enjoys testing her skills. By human standards, she's a passable fighter. By faerie...she's a turnip. A BAD turnip. Good thing she has a day job.
Through Faerie's Eyes
A Changeling, and utterly unashamedly so, the rainbow has embraced the world of faerie and all it has to offer. Would you like to be one? There are plenty of Fae out there who would be pleased to broker deals, and most will listen when she asks. She IS almost their peer.
As one would expect, November is a problematic figure. On the one hand, she is responsible for a great deal of good...
- Founder - While it isn't something she bruits about, November was one of the founders of the Fate's Harvest freehold, back in May 2015.
- Waylady - Having taken over from previous leadership when other responsibilities interfered (read: the character idled out) November is the current Waylady of the Fate's Harvest freehold, leader of the Waykeepers subgroup. She is in charge of the upkeep and maintenance and management of the Wayhouse, which serves the area as a hostel, gathering place and neutral territory.
- Dawn Courtier - The rainbow is very intensely Dawn. Potential is everywhere, and she keeps a watchful eye out for potentialities which would harm her interests. Thankfully, those interests generally align well with the safety and sanctity of the freehold...
...and on the other, she quite seriously understands that she, and every other mortal/Changeling, holds the seeds of divinity within them. A member of the Lost Pantheon, she holds the archetype of the Trickster, with lesser aspects in Colour, Knowledge, Balance, Illusion and Creation.
It is worth noting that she very deliberately never tells anyone which aspects she represents. SOME knowledge should be gained in independent study.
To her, being a god is little different from being a human. She has power humans don't have, but really, an identity is an identity. Labels are only as convenient as people make them. She demands nothing; if people offer worship, that's their choice, and she'll reward it in turn. It's only fair.
Much to her delight, Adithan Varma, while sadly not of a mind to offer said worship, was willing to write a prayer on her behalf, styled after the Hindu prayers with which he is most familiar.
Glowing with the light of all colours And perceiving the world in them, by them,
You speak their language, the tongue with no words,
The concepts undiscovered, the names unspoken.
You are the ice that burns, the warmth that is cool
On the hottest of days.
You are the rainbow, a bridge between planes,
A luminous spectrum of intent.
As light, meaning, and language are ever-changing,
So are your appearance and your ideas,
Your blood and your definition.
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You are the hidden truth behind the veil, And I sing your name, November an Nua.
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You are secrets and lies, surprises and memories, And you are change and illusion and truth.
You are trickery and enlightenment,
Sacrifice and self-awareness;
You are colour, which is all of these.
You are the good of the many over the one,
And the protection of the one.
You are the kindnesses which cut
And the trap door under the hearth rug.
You are cherry cola with a thesaurus
And the laughter of a child with shoes that light up.
You are she who knows flesh and material reality are mutable.
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You are the hidden truth behind the veil, And I sing your name, November an Nua.
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In this place, connected to all places, I sing your name, November an Nua,
You who are efracted through every facet and every shard.
In this place, hidden and secret or brimming with change,
I sing your name, November an Nua,
You who are snowdrops and petrichor, of hoarfrost and first melt.
In this place touched by light and darkness,
I sing your name, November an Nua,
You who are the bright new green of spring and the myriad autumn leaves.
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You are the hidden truth behind the veil, And I sing your name, November an Nua.
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In this place where knowledge beckons, close or common, I sing your name, November an Nua,
You who are the surface and the depth, who reflects and hides, who clarifies and reveals.
In this place of beauty both natural and made by artifice,
I sing your name, November an Nua,
The hidden thought behind the shining word,
Who enlightens through obscurity and deception,
Who provides paths to learning and discovery.
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You are the hidden truth behind the veil, And I sing your name, November an Nua.
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I bring that which pleases you and ask nothing in return: I bring knowledge of creation in your name,
I bring the fruits of labor done with the thought of you.
I have built impermanence beside that which lasts
I have brought the ancient beside the ever new
I have placed focus before illumination
That those who seek knowledge have the opportunity to find it
In a different light.
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You are the hidden truth behind the veil, And I sing your name, November an Nua.
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I have found the lost and discovered the forgotten And I offer them restored or repurposed, or as they are,
For the end of one story is the potential for beginning.
I have found seeds beside the road,
Carried by wind or creature or hand or vehicle,
Unknown distances from their origins,
And I have planted them in a garden
Just to see what grows.
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You are the hidden truth behind the veil, And I sing your name, November an Nua.
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I have searched through the books of a grandmother Through battered boxes of yellowed cards
And found the secret that she did not live to tell to child or grandchild,
And I have followed the instructions written therein
And brought you cupcakes from the past
Made fresh by my hand.
I bring you silence in a meadow,
I bring you coffee in the morning.
I bring you the sunrise I beheld on my anniversary,
The constellations on the night of the oldest human's death,
And the weather on the morning of the youngest human's birth.
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You are the hidden truth behind the veil, And I sing your name, November an Nua.
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I bring you the puddles in a parking lot after the rain And a budding musician's fumbling cover of the Rainbow Connection.
I bring you photographs of Sumerian cullet at the museum,
Shown from myriad angles and in different lights,
Displaying every color by the perfection of its imperfections.
Whatever I bring you, it is gathered or made or remembered
In your name and solely for you, as my intent is to earn your smile.
I bring you red velvet cupcakes, November an Nua,
And I sing your name,
For you are the hidden truth behind the veil.
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It's amazing how a little tomorrow can make up for a whole lot of yesterday. – John Guare
[Librarians] are subversive. You think they're just sitting there at the desk, all quiet and everything. They're like plotting the revolution, man. I wouldn't mess with them. – Michael Moore
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