a rose by any other name
MUSE NAME: Bae Suji (Suzy)
PB NAME: Lee Priene
GROUP: Miss A
MUSE LJ:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
priene
MUSE IM: #lee.priene
AGE: March 20, 1992; 24
RESIDENT OR IMMIGRANT: Immigrant
OCCUPATION: Self-employed; Crafts teas from home
RACE: Demigod
PARENT: Mother; Persephone; Greek
ABILITY: Agrokinesis (major); Ecological Empathy (minor)
BIRTH
Lee Taehoon was a young, up and coming designer out of Seoul. Already, at the age of twenty-two, his designs were making international fashion headlines. In March of 1991 he left on a trip to Paris to discuss expanding his brand when he met a young, beautiful woman named Persephone. Their love affair inspired what would be his most famous and successful clothing line - a vibrant collection full of floral patterns that took the next year's spring season by storm.
In the many years that would follow Taehoon would continue to find immense success, however nothing quite lived up to the legend his Spring 1992 Collection became.
The first month two months of their relationship were wonderful, full of passion and joy. The true identity of Persephone as the ancient goddess remained unknown to Taehoon, who believed her simply to be an exceptional woman for the entirety of their relationship. In early May, however, Persephone changed. Distraught, she told Taehoon she was with child. Taehoon had not been prepared for a child, but he was head over heels for Persephone and welcomed the surprise. Persephone did not seem quite so happy about the revelation. After another month Persephone left without a word and Taehoon was left heartbroken.
The goddess had run to her mother, Demeter, for help. In less than three months - before the child could be born - Persephone would have to return to her husband and the Underworld. Hades had sired countless half-mortal children over the years, but Persephone knew he would not accept this, not when he had been so filled with rage when his wife had simply been tricked into conceiving two godly children with Zeus.
There would be no keeping Persephone from the Underworld, however. On the first day of fall, now almost eight months pregnant, Persephone returned to her winter home and was forced to face her jealous husband. Just as she expected, he was furious. For weeks she endured his rage, thankful only that her unborn child was not the target of it. As the her due date approached, however, the god became more aware of the child who would become a symbol of his wife's infidelity.
Hades allowed Persephone to give birth. He allowed his wife to hold the baby girl in her arms. He even allowed to name the child Priene, after an ancient city where humans had once worshiped Persephone and her mother. Then Hades took the child, and forbade Persephone from ever seeing or speaking to the girl again.
It was Hades who presented the newborn infant to Lee Taehoon, explaining to the man he had fallen in love with a goddess and not some mere mortal, and that the child they had created would be no average girl. Along with that news came a warning. Priene would not live an easy life. She would pay for the sins of her parents.
EARLY LIFE
Priene lived a fairly happy early life. Her father was rarely around, usually working and traveling, and so the child was put into the care of her paternal grandmother. Kim Sooyoung was a woman of only fourty-seven, still young and healthy enough to keep up with a baby girl. From the moment she set eyes on the baby Sooyoung was in love.
There were many things Priene found joy in, even from a young age. Before she could even properly walk, she loved to be in the dirt of her grandmother's garden, digging and planting and playing with plants. The child had a knack with plants, though her grandmother never suspected it might be something more, even knowing who her mother was - the family didn't fully understand the meaning of Priene's demigod status. Once she was old enough to understand what gardening actually entailed, the plants Priene spoke with always seemed to grow a little taller, the produce harvested from them a little more tasty. Still, her grandmother assumed it was simply a green thumb.
The hardest part of her life was the absence of both parents. While other kids her age talked about mom and dad, Priene had only her grandmother and was too young to fully understand why. Priene became a wallflower from early on in life, preferring to sink into the background. She enjoyed being around people, just never the center of attention.
In early 1997 Priene's father returned from a trip abroad with unexpected news; a young model who had endorsed his brand was expecting a child and they would be married.
Their marriage was, of course, a rushed affair. The woman who would be Priene's step-mother was a stranger to her, but the five year old girl was excited at the prospect of having a mother. A little brother or sister. A real family. Her step-mother did not warmly accept the girl, but that didn't stop Priene from doing everything in her power to impress her in the month their wedding was planned.
It was on the day of the wedding that Priene's life would change forever. She was sitting in a room with the bride, watching as last minute wedding details were fussed over so that everything would be just perfect. The flowers of the bride's bouquet were wilting, clearly unhealthy. As the bridal party cursed the florist and started throwing fits, Priene went to see the flowers for herself.
Taking the flowers in hand, she could feel how ill they were and it broke her heart. Flowers lived to be beautiful, to share that beauty with the world, and here these ones were dying before they could have their grand moment. She poured her heart into them, wishing they would find a second wind and come back from the brink of death. They did. With joy in her heart and on her face, Priene brought the refreshed flowers to her new step-mother.
Expecting an excited reaction, she was stunned to find the bride horrified.
How the hell did you do that? She's a demon! Get that child out of here! Don't let her touch the bride, she'll be cursed!
Priene had been pushed out, not just out of the room, but out of the wedding hall. The five year old was cast out onto the street. Neither she - nor her grandmother, who had rushed out to Priene's rescue - attended Lee Taehoon's wedding. That night, without saying anything else to Taehoon or his bride, Priene and her grandmother left the country.
THE CURSE
Sooyoung chose Tokyo for what would be the first of many new homes over the years. It was close enough that Taehoon was able to visit and help them get settled, making sure they had everything they needed and were completely provided for. In the coming years, as they would travel, they would never have need of money. Priene may have been exiled, but her father would not abandon her completely.
From then on, Priene's powers began to develop. She found that any prolonged time away from plants left her feeling ill and weary and so they soon left the city of Tokyo so that Priene could be more immersed in nature. Even when they did find themselves in a city, though, Sooyoung always made sure Priene had access to a sizable garden. Priene never went to school, instead studying under her grandmother's tutelage with a focus on language and biology. Sooyoung sought out other demigods and, as they learned more about the world, other supernaturals to learn from and mentor Priene in the ways of magic.
Priene's bright and easy going nature made it simple for her to make friends on her travels, but she found it difficult to truly attach to anyone. It was difficult to open up to anyone new after being rejected by the majority of her own family and often she was afraid to show her abilities to new people, even if they were also of the supernatural. A few times she tried to keep in touch with people she had met, but for one reason or another it always fell through. She always tried to leave their lives better than she found them, though, usually by bettering their health and lifting their spirits through the teas she eventually began crafting.
In late 2006, Priene the tender age of fourteen, the node in the city they were living in died. Immediately Priene fell deathly ill. No human doctor could tell Sooyoung what was wrong with the girl. In a last ditch effort to save her granddaughter, Sooyoung had brought Priene back to Korea to see a shaman well known to the family. Almost instantly Priene's condition improved. After being examined by the shaman, they discovered that Priene could not live out of proximity of a node. Not only did her abilities fade, but her life itself faded with them.
Having been born in the underworld, despite being half human, Priene was a child of it. That was where she belonged, but by the power of Hades she had been freed. In a world where his power could not reach, she could not live. Eventually the underworld would reclaim what rightfully belonged to it.
With nodes dying left and right, life became increasingly difficult for Priene. They had to move more often, always trying to stay one step ahead of the dying nodes. Priene, however, knew her days were numbered. By the time she was twenty she had accepted her fate, vowing to make the most of the life she (and the nodes) had left instead of running in fear from one place to the next.
MOVE TO HONG KONG
Eventually Priene had only two choices left on where to move. A part of her wanted to attempt the immigration to Vancouver, BC, where she would have more access to open areas and plant life. With Taehoon's connections and her own history of travel, it might not have been impossible. It didn't feel right, though, so she chose to migrate with the rest of her kind to the last place that would take them - Hong Kong.
Sooyoung had aged, and as Hong Kong was a relatively short flight from Seoul, Priene insisted that her grandmother finally return home. She had human grandchildren she had never met, after all, and a son who loved and missed her very much. Priene knew she would be alright on her own and, after years of relying on her grandmother, relished the opportunity to break out on her own.
Taehoon established a generous trust fund for Priene and bought her a nice flat in Happy Valley where she would be able to plant and cultivate a large garden. He and Sooyoung would make trips to visit when they could. Everyone in the family knew it was only a matter of time before Hong Kong's node died out as well, and when that happened, Priene would be out of options.
ARGOKINESIS
Priene can not create life from nothing and she can not revive something that has already died, but she can augment the growth cycles of living plants. She can make a flower bloom in the middle of winter, provided the plant is simply dormant and has not died. She can take a seed and grow it fully into a fruit bearing tree in a matter of minutes.
As long as she is properly rested and well fed, her abilities are fairly reliable. A day of tending her plants is comparable to a day of moderate physical activity, and as she has trained and honed her skills her stamina has improved remarkably. Larger feats like growing a tree, however, take significant amounts of energy. The first, and only, time she accomplished this she felt immense physical strain and fainted shortly after, not waking up until two days later. Needless to say, she has no plans to make a second attempt.
Mostly she uses her powers to gently strengthen the natural process of growth in plants. Those she cultivate are known to be fuller and more beautiful than their counterparts grown by humans. Produce grown in her gardens are especially flavorful and nutritious. Teas brewed from their petals and leaves are much more potent in their properties.
Being cut off from nature also takes a great toll on Priene. Not communing with plant life for more than a day or two leads to a drop in energy and symptoms of depression which only worsen the longer she's out of contact. Living in a city is actually quite uncomfortable for her, but it's preferred to living away from a node and being cut off from her powers completely. For this reason she has always kept at least a small personal garden and spends much of her free time in areas rife with plant life, like parks.
ECOLOGICAL EMPATHY
Developed later in life, Priene can simply sense the health and condition of plants and environments. This assists in caring for her plants as she can tell almost immediately what they need. In order to tell their status, she must be touching them. As for environments, she must be touching a living plant attached directly to the local ecosystem and can only sense the condition of said ecosystem for roughly one square kilometer surrounding the point of contact. In theory she knows she could use this ability to track what might be killing off a certain system of sickly plants, but she has never had need to attempt it.
MISC
- Vegan, prefers to either grow her own food or eat organic
- Speaks Korean and English fluently; almost there with Cantonese; conversational in Mandarin; little bits and pieces of others
- Frugal despite having no particular need to be, will barter prices for pretty much everything
- Has a puppy named Ceres
- Flat is on the first floor, two bedrooms, two baths and connects to a relatively large yard where she grows her plants
- When in town on business, her father usually drops by for a visit, which happens more now than ever
- Has multiple human half-siblings, but has never met any of them
- A highly forgiving nature makes her easy to take advantage of
- Has lived on every inhabited continent
- Does not like taking about her mother
- Grows a few less than legal plants in her garden, but does not sell and will deny it to most
PB NAME: Lee Priene
GROUP: Miss A
MUSE LJ:
prieneMUSE IM: #lee.priene
AGE: March 20, 1992; 24
RESIDENT OR IMMIGRANT: Immigrant
OCCUPATION: Self-employed; Crafts teas from home
RACE: Demigod
PARENT: Mother; Persephone; Greek
ABILITY: Agrokinesis (major); Ecological Empathy (minor)
BIRTH
Lee Taehoon was a young, up and coming designer out of Seoul. Already, at the age of twenty-two, his designs were making international fashion headlines. In March of 1991 he left on a trip to Paris to discuss expanding his brand when he met a young, beautiful woman named Persephone. Their love affair inspired what would be his most famous and successful clothing line - a vibrant collection full of floral patterns that took the next year's spring season by storm.
In the many years that would follow Taehoon would continue to find immense success, however nothing quite lived up to the legend his Spring 1992 Collection became.
The first month two months of their relationship were wonderful, full of passion and joy. The true identity of Persephone as the ancient goddess remained unknown to Taehoon, who believed her simply to be an exceptional woman for the entirety of their relationship. In early May, however, Persephone changed. Distraught, she told Taehoon she was with child. Taehoon had not been prepared for a child, but he was head over heels for Persephone and welcomed the surprise. Persephone did not seem quite so happy about the revelation. After another month Persephone left without a word and Taehoon was left heartbroken.
The goddess had run to her mother, Demeter, for help. In less than three months - before the child could be born - Persephone would have to return to her husband and the Underworld. Hades had sired countless half-mortal children over the years, but Persephone knew he would not accept this, not when he had been so filled with rage when his wife had simply been tricked into conceiving two godly children with Zeus.
There would be no keeping Persephone from the Underworld, however. On the first day of fall, now almost eight months pregnant, Persephone returned to her winter home and was forced to face her jealous husband. Just as she expected, he was furious. For weeks she endured his rage, thankful only that her unborn child was not the target of it. As the her due date approached, however, the god became more aware of the child who would become a symbol of his wife's infidelity.
Hades allowed Persephone to give birth. He allowed his wife to hold the baby girl in her arms. He even allowed to name the child Priene, after an ancient city where humans had once worshiped Persephone and her mother. Then Hades took the child, and forbade Persephone from ever seeing or speaking to the girl again.
It was Hades who presented the newborn infant to Lee Taehoon, explaining to the man he had fallen in love with a goddess and not some mere mortal, and that the child they had created would be no average girl. Along with that news came a warning. Priene would not live an easy life. She would pay for the sins of her parents.
EARLY LIFE
Priene lived a fairly happy early life. Her father was rarely around, usually working and traveling, and so the child was put into the care of her paternal grandmother. Kim Sooyoung was a woman of only fourty-seven, still young and healthy enough to keep up with a baby girl. From the moment she set eyes on the baby Sooyoung was in love.
There were many things Priene found joy in, even from a young age. Before she could even properly walk, she loved to be in the dirt of her grandmother's garden, digging and planting and playing with plants. The child had a knack with plants, though her grandmother never suspected it might be something more, even knowing who her mother was - the family didn't fully understand the meaning of Priene's demigod status. Once she was old enough to understand what gardening actually entailed, the plants Priene spoke with always seemed to grow a little taller, the produce harvested from them a little more tasty. Still, her grandmother assumed it was simply a green thumb.
The hardest part of her life was the absence of both parents. While other kids her age talked about mom and dad, Priene had only her grandmother and was too young to fully understand why. Priene became a wallflower from early on in life, preferring to sink into the background. She enjoyed being around people, just never the center of attention.
In early 1997 Priene's father returned from a trip abroad with unexpected news; a young model who had endorsed his brand was expecting a child and they would be married.
Their marriage was, of course, a rushed affair. The woman who would be Priene's step-mother was a stranger to her, but the five year old girl was excited at the prospect of having a mother. A little brother or sister. A real family. Her step-mother did not warmly accept the girl, but that didn't stop Priene from doing everything in her power to impress her in the month their wedding was planned.
It was on the day of the wedding that Priene's life would change forever. She was sitting in a room with the bride, watching as last minute wedding details were fussed over so that everything would be just perfect. The flowers of the bride's bouquet were wilting, clearly unhealthy. As the bridal party cursed the florist and started throwing fits, Priene went to see the flowers for herself.
Taking the flowers in hand, she could feel how ill they were and it broke her heart. Flowers lived to be beautiful, to share that beauty with the world, and here these ones were dying before they could have their grand moment. She poured her heart into them, wishing they would find a second wind and come back from the brink of death. They did. With joy in her heart and on her face, Priene brought the refreshed flowers to her new step-mother.
Expecting an excited reaction, she was stunned to find the bride horrified.
How the hell did you do that? She's a demon! Get that child out of here! Don't let her touch the bride, she'll be cursed!
Priene had been pushed out, not just out of the room, but out of the wedding hall. The five year old was cast out onto the street. Neither she - nor her grandmother, who had rushed out to Priene's rescue - attended Lee Taehoon's wedding. That night, without saying anything else to Taehoon or his bride, Priene and her grandmother left the country.
THE CURSE
Sooyoung chose Tokyo for what would be the first of many new homes over the years. It was close enough that Taehoon was able to visit and help them get settled, making sure they had everything they needed and were completely provided for. In the coming years, as they would travel, they would never have need of money. Priene may have been exiled, but her father would not abandon her completely.
From then on, Priene's powers began to develop. She found that any prolonged time away from plants left her feeling ill and weary and so they soon left the city of Tokyo so that Priene could be more immersed in nature. Even when they did find themselves in a city, though, Sooyoung always made sure Priene had access to a sizable garden. Priene never went to school, instead studying under her grandmother's tutelage with a focus on language and biology. Sooyoung sought out other demigods and, as they learned more about the world, other supernaturals to learn from and mentor Priene in the ways of magic.
Priene's bright and easy going nature made it simple for her to make friends on her travels, but she found it difficult to truly attach to anyone. It was difficult to open up to anyone new after being rejected by the majority of her own family and often she was afraid to show her abilities to new people, even if they were also of the supernatural. A few times she tried to keep in touch with people she had met, but for one reason or another it always fell through. She always tried to leave their lives better than she found them, though, usually by bettering their health and lifting their spirits through the teas she eventually began crafting.
In late 2006, Priene the tender age of fourteen, the node in the city they were living in died. Immediately Priene fell deathly ill. No human doctor could tell Sooyoung what was wrong with the girl. In a last ditch effort to save her granddaughter, Sooyoung had brought Priene back to Korea to see a shaman well known to the family. Almost instantly Priene's condition improved. After being examined by the shaman, they discovered that Priene could not live out of proximity of a node. Not only did her abilities fade, but her life itself faded with them.
Having been born in the underworld, despite being half human, Priene was a child of it. That was where she belonged, but by the power of Hades she had been freed. In a world where his power could not reach, she could not live. Eventually the underworld would reclaim what rightfully belonged to it.
With nodes dying left and right, life became increasingly difficult for Priene. They had to move more often, always trying to stay one step ahead of the dying nodes. Priene, however, knew her days were numbered. By the time she was twenty she had accepted her fate, vowing to make the most of the life she (and the nodes) had left instead of running in fear from one place to the next.
MOVE TO HONG KONG
Eventually Priene had only two choices left on where to move. A part of her wanted to attempt the immigration to Vancouver, BC, where she would have more access to open areas and plant life. With Taehoon's connections and her own history of travel, it might not have been impossible. It didn't feel right, though, so she chose to migrate with the rest of her kind to the last place that would take them - Hong Kong.
Sooyoung had aged, and as Hong Kong was a relatively short flight from Seoul, Priene insisted that her grandmother finally return home. She had human grandchildren she had never met, after all, and a son who loved and missed her very much. Priene knew she would be alright on her own and, after years of relying on her grandmother, relished the opportunity to break out on her own.
Taehoon established a generous trust fund for Priene and bought her a nice flat in Happy Valley where she would be able to plant and cultivate a large garden. He and Sooyoung would make trips to visit when they could. Everyone in the family knew it was only a matter of time before Hong Kong's node died out as well, and when that happened, Priene would be out of options.
ARGOKINESIS
Priene can not create life from nothing and she can not revive something that has already died, but she can augment the growth cycles of living plants. She can make a flower bloom in the middle of winter, provided the plant is simply dormant and has not died. She can take a seed and grow it fully into a fruit bearing tree in a matter of minutes.
As long as she is properly rested and well fed, her abilities are fairly reliable. A day of tending her plants is comparable to a day of moderate physical activity, and as she has trained and honed her skills her stamina has improved remarkably. Larger feats like growing a tree, however, take significant amounts of energy. The first, and only, time she accomplished this she felt immense physical strain and fainted shortly after, not waking up until two days later. Needless to say, she has no plans to make a second attempt.
Mostly she uses her powers to gently strengthen the natural process of growth in plants. Those she cultivate are known to be fuller and more beautiful than their counterparts grown by humans. Produce grown in her gardens are especially flavorful and nutritious. Teas brewed from their petals and leaves are much more potent in their properties.
Being cut off from nature also takes a great toll on Priene. Not communing with plant life for more than a day or two leads to a drop in energy and symptoms of depression which only worsen the longer she's out of contact. Living in a city is actually quite uncomfortable for her, but it's preferred to living away from a node and being cut off from her powers completely. For this reason she has always kept at least a small personal garden and spends much of her free time in areas rife with plant life, like parks.
ECOLOGICAL EMPATHY
Developed later in life, Priene can simply sense the health and condition of plants and environments. This assists in caring for her plants as she can tell almost immediately what they need. In order to tell their status, she must be touching them. As for environments, she must be touching a living plant attached directly to the local ecosystem and can only sense the condition of said ecosystem for roughly one square kilometer surrounding the point of contact. In theory she knows she could use this ability to track what might be killing off a certain system of sickly plants, but she has never had need to attempt it.
MISC
- Vegan, prefers to either grow her own food or eat organic
- Speaks Korean and English fluently; almost there with Cantonese; conversational in Mandarin; little bits and pieces of others
- Frugal despite having no particular need to be, will barter prices for pretty much everything
- Has a puppy named Ceres
- Flat is on the first floor, two bedrooms, two baths and connects to a relatively large yard where she grows her plants
- When in town on business, her father usually drops by for a visit, which happens more now than ever
- Has multiple human half-siblings, but has never met any of them
- A highly forgiving nature makes her easy to take advantage of
- Has lived on every inhabited continent
- Does not like taking about her mother
- Grows a few less than legal plants in her garden, but does not sell and will deny it to most