n i n a manganiello (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
serenadings) wrote2018-07-29 01:31 pm
serenadings) wrote2018-07-29 01:31 pm
Entry tags:
( character sheet )
N I N A
i would wait a million years, say you'll remember
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history
When Nina was three years old, her fifteen year older sister, Luggrezia, ran away from home. She quite simply upped and left Naples, most likely for the US. The family didn't hear from her again. Nina doesn't know what she looks like now. Without the school photo that was taken only a couple of weeks before her disappearance, all that's left of her big sister, she wouldn't know what she looked like then, either. Whereas she might have been too young to remember, she eventually grew into the loss, it followed her as she got older, too. It has become a defining part of her character; Nina is the one who waits. For Luggrezia to return to her.
In the meantime, she has settled into Naples with all that she is, the city is her aesthetic, a three-dimensional print of her soul. These days, she makes a meagre living as a waitress by night and a street-singer by day, singing arias to prerecorded music on the various piazzas where the tourists gather. She keeps a particular eye on the American tourists, especially on the wives of the American tourists, if they look in their mid-thirties, hoping one day to catch a glimpse of her home-come Luggrezia. So far, she has been looking and waiting in vain.
personality
Nina is a pretty ordinary mid-twenties gal who lives a pretty ordinary life, getting by on the money she can scrape together by singing for the tourists and by waiting tables at a local restaurant, hanging out with friends and enjoying her hometown for all its worth. Above all, however, she waits. For her sister, Luggrezia, to one day return home. Such is her loyalty to her lost sister that she never leaves Naples, fearing that should Luggrezia return, she wouldn't be there to meet her.
There's a childish streak of innocence to Nina. Her stark belief that one day Luggrezia will come back bears an air similar to little children believing in the Easter Bunny or Santa Claus. It's a fact, however far-fetched and unexplainable. The way it takes up space in her daily life as well, with how she keeps an eye on the wives of the American tourists in the hope of one day glimpsing her sister in the crowd, functions like a ritual, like children leaving cookies out or collecting Easter eggs. It all comes back to her loss and to her desperate attempts at making sense of what happened with Luggrezia, with her family, with herself.
Her happiness hasn't been totally snuffed, though, and once she moved into her own place at age 18, she began blossoming. She's a naturally optimistic, dreamy sort of person who is accustomed to finding the bright sides in the worst kind of situations. Having been introduced to basic singing techniques by local nuns, it left her very smitten with opera, an art form that she attends at any given opportunity. One day she got the idea to sing some arias herself for the tourists at the nearby piazza and maybe make some extra money that way and since she has a naturally light, clear voice that can easily fake an operatic style, it worked exactly as she'd foreseen.
Nina isn't as such in any relationships at the moment. She's mainly attracted to women and currently, she's involved with the American Beryl, a visiting tourist from New York City, distinctively married, who has a friend called Lucrezia whom she often talks about. Nina keeps asking about her, too, thinking that she might be her long-lost Luggrezia under another variant of spelling.
abilities
singing: Nina can fake-sing Italian opera, she's a very untrained soprano, but the tourists of Naples can't tell the difference, so she earns some extra pocket money on that account. Think of her a bit like Susan Boyle; she's truly talented and loves the art form, just never has received any real, professional training.
visuals
Credit for the bio sheet to transilience.