Eddie Tinsley

If crows don't sing, what a joke!
Edward Lawrence Tinsley, "Eddie"

Born 2 January 1993

Eddie stands about 5'10" and not quite scrawny but not particularly buff, either. He has medium length, brown, sometimes slightly stringy hair, hazel eyes and a way of managing to be both clean and scruffy all at once. Clothingwise, he's fairly neat and trendy most of the time but occasionally bums around. Said bumming clothes are rather specific, too, consisting of tattered jeans and band t-shirts, often for bands that one would not necessarily expect a classically trained violinist to like. His voice is a little bit gruff at most times but also generally calm and either soothing or irritating, depending upon the intention behind his words.

If crows don't sing, what mirrors and smoke to be you... be you...
Eddie often seems ridiculously calm and collected for a seventeen year old but that is just one of the many ways in which he does not act his age. Having been a child prodigy, he never quite got the hang of socializing with those his actual age because the majority of his time was spent amongst previous generations and most particularly his grandfather's musician friends. While he was on or near the expected level in most things at school, he was also always within the highest percentile for grades, which didn't make him the most popular of people in most instances. Not that he minded, really, as he tended to have trouble relating to the childish materialism of his peer anyway. That said, he still has some trouble understanding the value that people place upon things that he finds more luxurious. To him, most things that he owns are merely objects and he could live just fine without them. If he possesses something that is not functional, either physically or spiritually, then it was probably a gift.

Along such lines, it is also worth noting that Eddie is a Buddhist. Well, not entirely but he has studied Buddhism, has a very Tibetan inspired aesthetic and tries very hard to follow the five precepts: non-violence toward all living things, taking only what he has been given, refraining from sensual misconduct, speaking only the truth and avoiding all forms of intoxication. He makes concessions to some of these precept in his own way but does his damnedest to limit those concessions as much as possible. For instance, while he is a vegan and a pascifist in daily belief and action, he will concede to limited violence in a defensive situation, moreso in the defense of others than himself. Also, while he considers "sensual misconduct" to include impure thoughts, he is admittedly still a teenaged boy and understands that he does not yet have full control over himself. Again, though he never lies, he will at times omit certain portions of the truth. And though he considers his medication to be an intoxicant, he takes it because he understands that he doesn't always have the necessary control on his own to not let his less pleasant emotions black out the entire dormitory.

If crows don't sing, what a laugh!
While the technical name is something like "umbrakinesis" and some might call it "shadowmancing," Eddie just thinks of his ability as glorified shadow puppetry. The funny part is that, having spent so much time alone and trying to amuse himself as a child, Eddie is, in fact, extremely adept at traditional shadow puppets. Now he can just drop his hands out of the light and use his mind to move the those splotches of darkness around the wall. He doesn't actually need his hands or even a direct light source to use his ability, of course, they just make things easier. As previously mentioned, however, he is currently medicated to control how his emotions affect his ability, as he has also been known to create 3D shadow forms and, under stress, to black out entire chunks of buildings.

If crows don't sing, what a cartload of crap,
Born in the town of West, TX, Eddie never knew his father or anything about the man, save that there'd been a wedding at some point due to the pregnancy but he'd obviously not stayed around very long. Nor had he been in contact since in order to file for a divorce. Not that it mattered to Eddie. He was a perfectly happy child. Content to just be raised by his mother and unbothered by the jibes and jeers from the other children regarding his lack of a "proper" dual-parent household, he was also just as content to spend the majority of his time alone. His friendships were generally of the more fleeting variety, always few and far between, and only became more so when, thanks to his grandfather, he picked up the violin.

Eddie was a prodigy. Beginning his very first lessons at the age of seven, he took to the violin like the tired cliche of a fish to water. By the age of nine, he could play better than most of his grandfather's graduating high school students. By twelve, he could have played in the national symphony. The only problem? Eddie couldn't read music. He knew what the notations meant but playing from a page gutted his sound of its passion. So he simply continued to play by ear, for himself and for his family and occasionally neighbors and friends.

The mess began when Eddie was fifteen. His mother was diagnosed with a rapidly growing brain tumor exactly one month after his birthday. Three months later, she was gone. Those months were, without a doubt, the worst that Eddie has ever been and expects to ever go through. He does not talk about them any more than he discusses having blacked out his grandfather's entire apartment building for thirty seconds when he was told.

No one could connect the black-out to Eddie, of course, and no one ever would have tried even if it had been a more substantial length of time but somehow he knew. It was the way that it had felt, like there had been a raging inferno inside of him and he had quenched it in that moment, as the damn broke on all of the pain he had collected over the past three months. He wanted to be in the dark and so he was, in complete, pitch blackness. Then his grandfather spoke his name and the lights cut through the dark again.

Over the next two years, Eddie's internal panic over what he had done, could do, became a determined fascination. Having loved shadow puppets as a child, always amusing himself with them during his extensive times alone, the thought that he might be able to control some sort of darkness was amazing to him. At first it was always just by accident, of course. His shadow would move without him, a room would black out when his emotions spiked, but eventually he began to weild some very small control over the waters in his heart.

Then QCI arrived. Offering specialized programs, the school was far more appealing than his own. His grandfather hoped that the music program might fit him better. Eddie just hoped to find himself amongst other prodigal children. What he got upon his entrance was more than expected but exactly what he wanted.

'Cause they clamour and call,
In-game History

If crows don't sing, what a thing!

 * Lear Shapiro: Fluffy rainbow.  Eddie appreciates having another well-meaning, pacifistic vegan around.  It makes life a little less lonely around here.
 * Liam Keaton: The roommate.  Eddie is probably a better fit for Liam than Liam is for him but that doesn't matter.  He's content with the arrangement anyway.

If crows don't sing, then context is king;

 * Emily Koizumi: Tiny spider.  Eddie is quite fond of Emily and her adorable spazzitude.  Besides, anyone with a thing for Liam is bound to need someone keeping an eye on them.

Pray for beauty in beaks, in fluttering wings,
"If Crows Don't Sing" by Rock, Paper, Cynic

''I could sing you a song, / I could crow what this means to be wrong, / I could sing you a song, I could sing and be you... / And I could sing you a tune / Of a crow with a voice, and a girl with a croon, / Of little boy blue, and the girl in the moon, I could be you...''

"Amazing Life" by Matt Pond PA

Amazing life / We've been given / I know that you had some troubles / I have had some troubles / We been wasted / We've been complacent / We've given in to getting through the days

"Something Beautiful" by Alexi Murdoch

may the grace of God be with you always in your heart / may you know the truth inside you from the start / may you find the strength inside you to know that you are a / part of something beautiful

in birds that can't sing and in you... in you...
Eddie is mine, Thomas Dekker is not.