Fiddler Angel (from Wells)

Wings courtesy of https://www.shutterstock.com/search/angel+wings

First time at this blog? Check out Home for details on the project and the Character Index for an overview of the projects and characters.

Fiddler Angel (12)

Project: Television mini-series (“Wells”)

Known as: Fiddler Angel

Real name: Cameron Reid

Group affiliation: None

Physical description: Fiddler is very handsome. Tall and well-muscled, he has delicate features and long blond hair. His eyes are two perfect, featureless golden orbs (he can see quite well) and his skin color is reminiscent of gold as well (not that he looks like a statue brought to life). Oh, and he has two large, white-feathered wings growing out of his back.

Personality: Fiddler is very gentle and quiet. He smiles easily, and his smiles always make others feel better. He knows little of the world, but this makes him an astute listener. He is typically content to let others do the talking. He is never angry and in fact seems content in the majority of situations.

History: Yesterday we learned of Cassidy Reid. Cameron was her twin brother, and like her was abducted by the witch Baba Yaga at age 12. He was also part of the witch’s experiments to create an army of monsters but ended up serving a different role. When Baba Yaga began to change Cassidy into Spring-heeled Jane (first of the Morlocks), Cameron automatically began to change in other ways. Baba Yaga always suspected that Cassidy and Cameron’s unique connection was somehow key to her first and greatest success (Cassidy). She never again found siblings with such a connection and was forced to use Cassidy as a “template” for her later creation of Morlocks.

Cameron in some ways developed opposite characteristics during his sister’s transformation and in other ways the changes were complimentary. She was given a fierceness that would inevitably overwhelm her, while he gained an unshakable clam. She grew knives for hands, he grew wings on his back. She gained physical prowess, but while his form seemed perfect Cameron gained a sort of fragility that sometimes made him sick and listless (during these times, his wings would drop feathers). She maintained her memories, but his began to melt away. She became something that many would label a demon while most would call Cameron an angel.

Not even Baba Yaga knew why this happened. She suspected she had tapped into something primordial. The beliefs of people about angels and demons, or perhaps she made a connection of some sort between the twins and creatures of another plane. Baba Yaga might have pondered this further had she not been so pleased with the result. In Cassidy she had her finest creation and the seed of her army. Cameron of course was an unplanned disappointment, but she kept him in case his continued existence was somehow connected to Cassidy’s.

At least, she told herself that. Certainly she did not love Cameron, for love did not exist in the heart of Baba Yaga. Yet she could still appreciate beauty. Cameron in his new form had a beautiful singing voice and seemed to have a natural talent for musical instruments. He was especially good with a violin. The pitiless Baba Yaga put him in a large cage like a beautiful bird and had him sing and play for her. Cameron forgot himself and had become a creature of such serenity he never even tried to escape. Imagine if you will how heartbreaking it must have been to see and hear him the finest musician you’ve ever heard treated more wretchedly than any deserve.

While her army grew so did the legend of the Fiddler Angel. Some claimed to have heard him or even caught a glimpse of him in Baba Yaga’s fabled hut. Tragically, Baba Yaga had separated the twins early on, and told Cassidy her brother had died. His transformation was so great that Cassidy never suspected that Fiddler Angel was indeed her brother.

Wells had heard the stories of Fiddler Angel, and suspected that Baba Yaga and he might both be alive but in hiding. In his story “The Wonderful Visit” he bound the magic of Fiddler Angel in a tale of a being from somewhere else that seemed much like an angel but was ill-suited to our world.

Thus when Wells moved forward in time to 2018, Fiddler Angel was swept along. He was separated from Baba Yaga, and thus enjoyed a new-found freedom. However, when he was discovered he was of instant fascination to people of the modern world. Virtually no one believed he was a transformed person. Instead, most believed he was some sort of costumed performance artist who lived his role. Wealthy benefactors gave him a place to live, and he soon becomes a celebrity. His “benefactors” parade him about like a prized possession and his every move becomes a social media frenzy. He goes from being one person’s possession to everyone’s.

But sometimes he falls ill. And as Morgan starts to believe that the fantastic is real, Fiddler becomes someone she has to investigate.

Role in the narrative: First I would want to be very careful that Fiddler doesn’t seem like an example of someone who is happy to be a possession. He is only content because he’s always content he has been damaged/cursed to be that way. The fact that he is cursed not to seek freedom doesn’t in any way justify Baba Yaga’s treatment of him (quite the opposite, really). I’m not too concerned about this being misunderstood as Baba Yaga will be evil incarnate.

He will however be used as a commentary on the modern world. Beloved people are now photographed, recorded, shared, liked, and commented upon. To remain popular, they have to cultivate an image and engage with their fans. Fans often feel they are owed things by the celebrities their next book, the details of their personal lives, etc. Fans have a sense of ownership over what they love, and a delicate creature like Fiddler may not survive that.

Plus, he will be important to Jane’s story. I hope I can figure out how they can be each other’s redemption, and balance be restored between them. Unfortunately, so far all my ideas about them are darker than that (they may end up a tragic story despite my own impulses).

Abilities: He is a beautiful singer and a virtuoso violinist. He is incredibly calm. Other than that, he has no exceptional abilities.

Except he could fly if it ever occurred to him to try.

Inspirations: Maybe a little bit of “Twins” here Jane got the anger and the power, and Fiddler was what was left over. Obviously the real HG Wells story is an inspiration (that character at least starts “affable” as well). The number of angel characters out there are legion (despite my X-men fandom, I don’t see Warren as a direct inspiration). Really, Fiddler was mostly a side-effect of my ideas for Jane and Baba Yaga. I might need to think about him some more but given how often female characters were created to flesh out male ones in history, perhaps I can be forgiven one going the other way.