Vivian Li Carter
| Vivian Li Carter | |
|---|---|
| Vivian in 2011. | |
| IC Information | |
| Use Name: | Li Carter, Vivian |
| Gender/Sexuality: | Female/Lesbian |
| Species: | Human |
| Place of Origin: | Philadelphia, PA, USA |
| Age/Birthdate: | 25 (September 27, 1989) |
| Zodiac Sign: | Libra |
| Height: | 5'9" |
| Hair Colour: | Black |
| Eye Colour: | Brown |
| Romantic Status: | Single, Open |
| Romantic Identification: | Casual, polyamorous |
| Occupation: | Assistant librarian, Yuriba Free Library |
| Preferences | |
| Likes: | Sunshine, flowers, authentic Chinese food, crowds, the ocean, high places, skirts, dangerous women, flirting, being in control of a situation, drinking |
| Dislikes: | Pollution, driving, drugs, English food, heavy meals, being typecast, pants, winter, people who assume Vivian isn't her real name, Republicans, Catholic guilt, men ogling her |
| OOC Information | |
| Source: | Original Character |
Vivian Li Carter is a woman from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who arrived in Yuriba in early May of 2011.
Contents |
Character
Outward confidence is Li Carter's forte. She carries herself with an air of casual poise most of the time, a bit of vivaciousness bleeding into actions that are otherwise subdued. Though energetic and a creative-minded sort, she's also a thinker and tends to act like it. The end result is that she comes across fairly approachable and not overly excitable, generally keeping her cool without reining in her emotions. She's quick with a smile and quicker with a laugh, and she tends to tease or flirt with even those she's on platonic terms with. Vivian is extremely outgoing and tends to actively seek out new people, believing in keeping a circle of acquaintances who tickle her interest in one way or another. She has no real boundaries on who she makes friends with and tends to think most people are fairly decent at heart, though occasionally this has led her to put her trust in people beyond what might otherwise be reasonable. She's not necessarily trusting, but she values loyalty and sticking by your friends and family when times are tough. She also values good conversation and the occasional adventure. Those who struggle to come out of their shells are among those she struggles to get along with; while they're trying to get their foot out the door, she's usually halfway to where she's going.
Beyond being outgoing, Li Carter is exceptionally intelligent. She tends to be somewhat left-brained and is particularly strong when it comes to math, science and logic. She prides herself on being to cram numbers together without the use of a calculator, and she's followed her interest in logic and data into the study of the sciences, particularly marine science - she's an aspiring marine biologist despite coming to Yuriba throwing a wrench into her studies. Artistically she is not especially gifted - she can draw stick figures at best and can't carry a tune to save her life, much to her embarrassment. She's a strong idea person and tends to belt out concepts and creative notions off the top of her head, jumping to conclusions quickly - though she'll occasionally bite off more than she can chew and come up wrong, again much to her embarrassment. She's a good cook and adept at putting together Eastern-style dishes with authenticity. She's also fitness-conscious and spends a little time each day doing a little cardio and basic exercises to keep herself in good shape.
Li Carter typically dresses with an eye towards showing off just a bit. Among her more irrational lapses towards vanity is her insistence on wearing blue-green coloured contact lenses behind her glasses, as she feels her natural brown eyes are unremarkable and "predictable" given her ethnic makeup. Beyond her issues with her name she's grown fairly comfortable with her racial identity and has begun to better embrace the Chinese aspects of her heritage, though it took her a long time to reconcile things.
Spiritually Li Carter identifies as a Dianic Wiccan. Though she was born Roman Catholic, she lapsed fairly early in life and abandoned the faith for Wicca during her teenage years. She was a member of a small and somewhat eclectic coven back home but practices solitary in Yuriba. She tends not to wave her faith around overmuch but otherwise tends to find Yuriba somewhat more intuitive than others, though Wicca and Yuriban animism aren't the same thing.
Romantic preferences
Li Carter self-identifies as polyamorous but doesn't actively look for commitment. She's casual by nature, and she's the type to flirt openly with people who interest her and to collect a loose circle of fleeting romantic partners - friends with benefits, really. Though she's not averse to more long-term relationships she tends to frown on leaping into formal arrangements, believing that strong relationships develop organically through good chemistry and mutual interest in one another. She's not above forming relationships based entirely on sex, though she doesn't see them as long-term emotional investments and tends to be closest to those who can keep her mind active and play to her own active personality. She's drawn to similarly playful people. Li Carter insists she has exacting standards, but in fact it's more that she's a good judge of character and refuses to jump into bed with people she doesn't feel are worth it. The end result is the same: She tends to grant benefits somewhat carefully and scrupulously tries not to put herself in a position where she's seen as easy.
Being quite aware that people occasionally find her exotic, Li Carter sometimes plays the role to the hilt and is not above putting on air of mystery and inscrutability to entice people into her good graces.
Relationships
Li Carter's closest friends in Yuriba are likely the librarian Fujiko Tanaka, the priestess Jessica de Alkirk and the wandering swordswoman Gianna. She met Fujiko by chance and has begun to piece together a friendship with the redheaded woman, finding she shares a similar personality with her - playful yet low-key. With Jessica she discovered chemistry rather quickly and has struck up a flirtatious acquaintance with Althena's priestess. Gianna she met fairly early, but she's found the woman's curiosity engaging and has taken to exploring the island with her. She's found herself amused - in a good way - by the water sprite Allya. Other acquaintances include the flirtatious elf Amberlee Moonwind and the entrepreneur Miyako Tanaka. Though she struck up a friendship with Natsuki, she's found herself struggling for a way to handle the girl's more obvious affections without hurting her feelings.
History
Li Carter is of mixed black and Chinese ancestry - her father, Trevon Carter, is descended from black slaves who escaped the South and landed in Michigan, while her mother, Li Yuefeng ("Julia"), came to the United States in 1986 as a scholar on a student visa to study business at the University of Pennsylvania. The two met on campus and fell headlong into a whirlwind romance which produced three children: Jacob in early 1988, Vivian in 1989 and Matthew in 1991. Growing up on the outskirts of Philadelphia, Vivian lived in a fairly nice home for the first four years while her father worked in a factory and her mother did clerical work at an accounting firm. Generally she was a pretty well-behaved kid who spoke very early, proving fairly mentally precocious.
Things went south fairly quickly, though. In 1993 her father ran his truck over a median during a rainstorm and smashed headlong into another vehicle, suffering serious spinal injuries in the process. The heavy machinery operation his job called for was suddenly out of the question, leaving him on disability and in constant pain. The cash from his once-lucrative job at the plant dried up quickly, leaving the family to scrape by on Julia's much smaller salary. With the dollar signs dangling over them, the Li Carter family relocated to a two-bedroom apartment in West Philadelphia, taking a massive leap down the economic ladder and into a section of the city known more for crime than prosperity. Stress dominated the family's fifteenth-floor apartment in a barely-decent tenement building. With three mouths to feed, they struggled to scrape by, with Trevon sinking steadily into depression. The gloomy mood in the household left a very young Vivian feeling powerless to stop it.
With her home life a mess she focused instead on her school life to find release, bundling up her happiness and taking it with her to the schoolground. As she grew up she proved to be popular with her peers, largely by using her good looks to her advantage. But she also dedicated herself to her studies and became something of a brain, burying herself in subjects like math to give herself something hard and logical to focus on. By the time she reached the age of twelve things had gotten a little easier, with a bit more money flowing into the family thanks to a new job for her mother. Her own academic achievements and circle of friends gave her confidence, which she took to heart, gaining a strong sense of belonging despite the challenging circumstances around her. As she passed into high school she gained a little more exposure to the seedier side of the city when her brother Jacob found himself in frequent trouble with police. She experienced a few police run-ins of her own, mainly due to profiling, managing to escape without charges but taking away a certain resentment of typical American law enforcement structures.
Though she hadn't gone to church since she was eleven, Vivian began to seek other outlets to her spirituality during her high school years. Her search led her to Wicca and eventually into the company of a few similarly like-minded young women. They dabbled pretty clumsily at it for the first little while before coalescing into an outright Dianic coven. Finding the faith helped her to see things in a different light, and she began to dream not just of a world beyond West Philly, but America altogether. Around that time she startled her parents by coming out as a lesbian after a year-long behind-the-scenes romance with a classmate by the name of Kiara Smith. The two remained together for about a year and a half afterward before splitting up, largely because Vivian's growing leanings toward polyamory left Kiara cold.
The whole thing bothered Vivian's parents to no end. From their perspective, one kid was in and out of prison for valid reasons, one was a witch, and young Matthew simply didn't have the motivation to do anything with his life. Thus it was with no small relief that Vivian welcomed her acceptance to the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, her skyrocketing grades practically guaranteeing her acceptance. With the cash she'd hoarded working in a call centre, she moved herself into student housing with Kiara and devoted herself to the study of biology. For a time she took up stripping to put herself through college but found it uncomfortable dancing for men, instead heading back to the call centre.
Yuriba
Vivian arrived in Yuriba entirely by chance. With the cash she'd saved over the years she opted to take a trip to China in the hopes of learning more about the 'Li' in her heritage. Her plane passed through the Devil's Triangle on May 3, 2011. She recalls the jetliner hitting turbulence, and when she blinked she found she'd been moved to Yuriba in the split-second her eyes closed, winding up sitting in a grove with her luggage arrayed in a spiral around her.
Away period
Vivian vanished from Yuriba in mid-2017. She returned in the summer of 2022, apparently no older than when she left and initially convinced only a week had passed. She claims the time was spent swimming in a great lake without end, possibly through some dalliance with Issui.