View source for Stacey Harkness

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{| class="wikitable" style="float:right; width:22em; margin-left:1em;"
|+ Stacey Harkness — quick reference
|-
! Name
| Stacey Harkness
|-
! Age (at fabula start)
| 32
|-
! Height
| 5'7"
|-
! Pronouns
| she / her
|-
! Essence
| The Seeking Orphan
|-
! Archetype (Jung)
| The Orphan
|-
! Narrative function (Propp)
| The Victim-turned-Seeker
|-
! Core drive
| Belonging
|}

'''Stacey Harkness''' is an Englishwoman whose effortless charm conceals a person-sized hole in the heart and a self she is no longer sure exists. Everyone she meets is charmed; she suspects there is nothing underneath the charm to meet.

== Essence ==
Stacey is '''the Seeking Orphan''': an [[#Psychology|Orphan]] who belongs nowhere and watches everything, whose wound has become the journey itself, driven by the need for '''belonging — a table where her seat is never in question'''.

== Appearance ==
Brownish-gold, medium-length hair; hazel eyes that change colour with the light. Slim but not straight — she moves with easy, effortless grace, unless she knows she is being watched, at which point the grace deserts her. When she begins talking about something she loves, she transforms from an averagely attractive woman into something like an enchantress; her passion animates her features in a way that is rare to find.

== Psychology ==
* '''Archetype (Jung):''' The Orphan — belongs nowhere, watches everything.
* '''Narrative function (Propp):''' The Victim-turned-Seeker — the wound becomes the journey.
* '''Core drive:''' Belonging — a seat at the table that is never in question.
* '''Self-honesty:''' Moderate-to-poor; she has rehearsed a vaguer, safer version of herself.

'''Strengths:''' creativity (sees doors where others see walls); reading people; pattern recognition in the mundane.

'''Struggles:''' obsession — once a thought is picked up she can't put it down. She is '''neurodivergent and does not know it''', reading the friction as being "bad at being a person." The thoughts that circle at 3 a.m.: ''But why did X do Y? Why didn't Z answer me? Did X notice what I did? Does anyone ever notice anything I do? Am I boring? I'm pretty sure I'm boring.''

== Origins ==
She hides her origins behind a vaguer rehearsed account. Childhood was solitary — "There was no table. Meals happened alone, in passing, in shifts." She remembers it as a half-forgotten blur of loneliness and cartoons. She raised mostly herself, earlier than anyone should.

If she could secretly trade one condition of her birth, it would be '''where she was born''' — she longs to be from somewhere more "exotic" than what she experiences as boring, dull, grey England. She hides her childhood rather than mourn or romanticise it.

== Relationships ==
* '''Friendship:''' She knows everyone, but too shallowly to truly count any of them a friend.
* '''The 3 a.m. jail call:''' Her landlord — he always answers his phone and harbours a "slightly moist" crush on her.
* '''Trust:''' Slow. '''Love:''' falls easily in theory but tends not to attach at all "so far."
* '''On romantic love:''' Talked about the way people talk about God — does she really believe in either? Who knows. She expresses love through '''time''' and craves '''words''' in return.
* '''Soulmates:''' Explicitly no. Implicitly — "does hoping count?"

== Authority and power ==
Before authority she becomes '''invisible''' — a survival skill learned young. She wants power '''everywhere''', and would be horrified to hear that said aloud. Given a consequence-free year she would abolish "ceremonies closing down public walkways and roads" — nothing and no one should be important enough to get in her way when she needs to get somewhere.

== The wound and the fear ==
* '''The deep fear:''' Being truly seen — intimacy itself; the mask removed without permission. Equally: social rejection, exile from the group.
* '''The wound:''' She wrote a poem she loved and had laboured over, read it aloud for a class assignment, and everyone laughed. That was the moment she decided she wasn't talented and that what she had to say was of no consequence.

'''The engine:''' ''She desperately wants to be seen, but her fear of social rejection makes it hard to lower her mask enough for anyone to peek.''

== Arc ==
'''Masked → unmasked''' — the terrifying mercy of being truly seen. She meets someone unlike anyone she's met, feels things she's never felt, and realises she must lower the mask so far she can feel the wind on her freckles — because how can anyone see her while she stays in costume? By the end: ''"I am far more interesting when I just allow myself to be me."'' This story '''resolves the fear''': she walks willingly into the thing that would destroy her.

== Texture ==
* '''Alcohol:''' Socially needed, otherwise she'd rather not. Her celebration drink: bubbles ("bae-bee").
* '''Colour:''' Bright, cheery orange.
* '''Home:''' A cluttered, book-stacked apartment where every object has a story.
* '''Aches toward:''' The Cotswolds — she saw pictures and it looks absolutely lovely.
* '''The work that is her:''' "The Chain" by Kerala Dust.
* '''Body:''' A disguise — it doesn't match who she is inside, in ways small and vast.

== Notes ==
The mask reads as charm — warm, funny, remembers your dog's name. Underneath is emptiness: she performs a self and privately wonders whether there's one beneath. The lie she tells so well she believes it: ''that she'd love to travel one day but who has the time'' — a double lie, since she'd hate to travel and has more than enough time.

She has a person-sized hole in her heart, but a very specifically shaped one — not just anyone can step through it. She feels useless, meaningless, and unseen even as everyone she meets is charmed. She has a kind word for everyone, remembers people's birthdays and their children's birthdays. Dogs love her, cats rub her calves, children want to sit on her lap, and men flock to her in ways their wives distrust.

Her mask is so thick she struggles to know who she is or where she fits. She could do incredible things but is somehow never in the right place at the right time. She wants to be loved in theory but has never fallen in love. Her locus of validation is entirely external, and it has sabotaged her at almost every turn.

'''Casting reference:''' Renée Zellweger in her Bridget Jones era. Muse reference TBD.

== See also ==
* [[Michael (Bediako) Mensah]]
* [[Li Wei]]
* [[Prof. Ishikawa Tomohiro]]
* [[Klé Tomohiro]]

[[Category:Save the Date]]
[[Category:Characters]]
[[Category:Internal reference]]