Violet (Vi) Grace Hughes
Grace – what a joke. She’s the most graceless person on the planet. Unless she’s cooking, then she’s okay.
32 – 33 in July. But who’s counting. Another trip around the sun is a good one.
Short and skinny, but will pick a fight. And win it too. Shaggy blue/black hair. Colors it to keep the blue shiny. Does the tips silver for Halloween. Brown eyes like two deep swirls of chocolate. Or shit, if you ask Sam. But nobody does.
Went to art school even though her parents hated the idea. Thought she should go into business or nursing. Or anything with an actual career path. But fuck ‘em. She liked to paint. And along the way she realized she liked to do sculpting and sketching and model building and all the other shit art kids do at art school. If she did it with her own two hands, it made a mess, and looked rad after – it was for her.
So, she got a day job at an art gallery. She mostly files customer orders and cleans after hours, but she likes the crowd. And occasionally her boss lets her bring in a few of her own pieces. To make ends meet, though, she had to pick up a few shifts at a diner down the street from her apartment. But that’s not too bad either. She can cook nearly as good as she can paint, and early morning patrons aren’t too picky if she’s got paint under her nails when she’s frying them up bacon.
Leans atheist. But could be persuaded into paganism if the right conversationalist was involved. Trees and plants and the moon are cool. But she’s too preoccupied to put any more time or energy into it.
Would call her style queer grunge. Loves the eighties styles. Leather jackets, ripped jeans, biker boots. But can dress up in a pinstripe suit. Wears slacks and blazers to the art gallery though. Has several tattoos. Her first one was a paintbrush on her forearm as a ‘fuck you’ to her parents. Her favorite is a copy of her favorite painting on her back. Other than that, she gets random pieces depending on what her artist wants to work on that day.
Other distinguishing marks would be the scar on her chin from when she was attacked by a dog as a child. Never trusted dogs since. Doesn’t mind being around them, but she leaves at the first sign of aggression. Better not to take her chances.
Favorite things – punk or jazz music. The random rhythms in jazz match her mind when she’s creating art. And punk music is just plain fun. But she won’t scoff at dance music either, since every now and then she likes to let loose on the dance floor as much as the rest of them.
Loves burgers and shakes and would eat it for dinner every night if her friends would let her. Color is tangerine because it tastes as good as it smells and she likes that in a color. A pastime would be stargazing and being reminded just how small we all are on this giant floating rock. And other things to entertain her would be spending time with her friends – her found family – watching movies, or playing cards.
Has no children and doesn’t really want any. The world’s too fucked up, ya know? But she does have a pet parakeet named Stu because it’s nice to have someone else in the apartment making noise once in awhile.
Hobbies are of course art, music, and astronomy.
The secret of the family is her, because how dare she be gay as well as an artist. What a shame she is to her family.
Her worst fear is being abandoned by those she loves. Again. Because, ouch, mom and dad, couldn’t look past the lesbian thing, huh?
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Female main character to my next book project. Currently titled ‘Don’t Let me Forget About the End of the World.’