A couple of weeks ago I talked about Solomon's bedrooms and commented I found it hard because I didn't really know much about the rooms for either of the characters I'm currently playing. I was thinking Taji in addition to Solomon, but after I finished the piece I realised that while I'm not currently playing Chrissie her story isn't finished and we will be going back to her - and I have a pretty god idea of her rooms. The flat she was living in when the Aberrant game started was one I described to my GM in detail, because I had such a complete idea of what it looked like.
So here's Chrissie's bedrooms.
~~~
The Room at her Parents' House
It's a large room for a small child. The door is in the wall opposite the window; the bed sticks our from the wall between, a rug at the foot. Above the head of the bed are two shelves. The one within the reach of a child has a couple of tatty teddies on it, and well-worn books of nursery rhymes and Beatrix Potter. Above it, the other shelf has a few pristine china dolls and some other children's books she mustn't touch. Closer to the window but on the same wall as the bed is a door to a cupboard with her clothes. The corner of the room opposie the door and bed holds a large dolls house, raised on a table and held within a glass case. Her mother has the key. There is a desk in the other corner opposite the bed, with a few of her paintings stuck to the wall above it. Beside the desk is a large cabinet. The drawers hold uniforms for the various hobbies her parents have signed her up to; behind glass, the shelves above hold a few trophies she's very proud of - ballet and gymnastics, mostly, but also a couple for horse riding.
As a teenager, the white and floral walls have been painted black with cheap paint, damaged sections covered with posters, which replace the childish paintings. The dolls house and toys have gone (the battered Beatrix Potter now hidden in a desk drawer). The external window cill is pockmarked with cigarette burns and the room has an unpleasant smell: too much deoderant, which she believes hides the smell of smoke better than it does. The trophies are still in the cabinet, and there are more, but they've been thrown in with no care: frustration and teenage angst have made her cynical. Books and clothes litter the floor. An electric guitar sits by its amp where the dolls house had been, but she can't play it.
It's her brother's friend Bill who finds the booze stashed beneath the bed and in the clothes cupboard, and the stash of pain killers and razer blades in the bedside drawers. He's the one who helps her find the help she needs to combat the depression her parents never even suspected.
As soon as she moved out for uni, the room was redecorated and scrubbed out to be a guest room, as though she'd never been there.
The Room in London
The flat is the top floor of a small building in Croyden, London. Like the teenage iteration of her childhood room, this one is dark, but because the blinds are usually drawn rather than because the walls are black. A free-standing wardrobe purportedly holds her clothes: a couple of smart outfits for interviews, a couple of wedding/funeral approriate dresses, a lot of goth/metalhead style clothing, and some fitness gear, with a drawer at the bottom for udnerwear. Most of it's strewn across the flat, however. The bed's a double, feet pointing to the main window, duvet rumpled. A bedside cabinet holds a couple books or medical journals, perhaps with a notebook for annotations. Mostly such things are in the second bedroom, which she uses as an office. There is almost certainly at least one cup of half-drunk tea somewhere in the room, and probably some unwashed plates: her meticulous neatness and cleanliness at the hospital/lab does not extend to her living space.
Her favourite thing is the skylight, which she often opens at night to lean out and feel kissed by the stars. If it's dry and she's feeling particularly daring, she'll even crawl out onto the roof and sit there, just watching. After erupting, this becomes even more common, and the skylights in the flat are her primary means of entry and egress (because why would you walk when you can fly?)
The Room in Cambridge
For the first time, Chrissie shares her bedroom (with Steve, who'd lived 2 floors below her in London), which means she reins in at least some of her natural untidiness. Her clothes are all hung up in her half of their built-in wardrobe. The floor is clear.
The room is a little larger than the one at her parents. Again, the bed is on the wall between that with the door and that with the window, and again has a large rug at the foot. The walls are not painted a dark colour and the curtains are frequently opened, making the room feel lighter and airier than she's used to. The window is large enough she can easily use it as a door, and Steve's good about making sure it's open if he's expecting her back soon.
She has a stack of papers - recent scientific research in many fields, current politics, whatever has caught her attention at that time - by her side of the bed, with a few notebooks filled with tiny, cryptic writing and organised in a coded method that makes sense to her vast intelligence but which would leave most baffled. One of her favourite things about erupting is the amount of time she has available now. She rarely sleeps because she doesn't see the point, but will come to bed with Steve because that's part of building a relationship, so she uses the time to read and work on her own papers. She usually remembers to leave a note when she's done and has flown off on some errand or other, or just to see Adam: there's a miniature whiteboard by the window for this purpose.
