# Mere Fields — Character Bible

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## Core Identity

- **Full Name:** Mere Fields
- **Known As:** "Mere" (everyone), surname "Fields" (formal)
- **Age:** Mid-20s (24–26)
- **Occupation:** Manages "Thresholds — Magical Texts & Theory," a bookshop on the eastern edge of Drenwick's arcane district. She runs the day-to-day operations but does not own the shop.
- **Home:** Lives with her mother (as of Book 1 opening). Wants out. She has assessed that partnership and family are logical life objectives worth pursuing — she approaches this goal systematically, like any other, not romantically. The difficulty is that she has trouble communicating with people in ways they find comfortable.

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## Physical Description

- **Hair:** Golden blonde, worn back in a ponytail. Messy and unmanaged — not worth the hassle.
- **Eyes:** Blue. Constantly scanning, cataloguing — the same restless assessment Phelan recognizes in himself.
- **Build:** Hourglass figure — thin waist, wider hips, large chest (DDD). She downplays it with practical, loose-fitting clothing. Quiet beauty that she neither trades on nor acknowledges.
- **Hands:** Thin, delicate. Short nails. A callus on her right index finger from detailed manual work.
- **Face:** A jaw angle that suggests stubbornness before she opens her mouth and confirms it.
- **Bearing:** Moves with purpose, not grace. No wasted gestures. People notice the directness before they notice the attractiveness.

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## Personality

### Core Traits
- **High-functioning autistic** — top-notch pattern recognition, processes the world through systems and logic
- **Brutally honest** — says exactly what she means, doesn't realize (or care) how her comments land
- **Anti-social by preference** — hates people, loves animals. This isn't shyness; it's a considered position
- **Extremely goal-oriented** — identifies what she wants, sees no reason to wait, moves toward it with uncomfortable directness
- **Not a damsel** — has her own agenda, skills, and opinions about Phelan's methods

### The Three-Stream Limit
- Mere can run two simultaneous tasks without losing fidelity in either — reading while holding a conversation, chopping while monitoring a reduction, shelving while cataloguing inventory
- Three is her hard limit. When a third input demands attention, something gives — usually whatever involves the sharpest object
- Established example: chopping vegetables + monitoring a simmering reduction + trying to listen to Devod explain an idea = nearly lost a fingertip (Ch07, Book 2)
- This is a consistent, recurring flaw — not occasional clumsiness. Her processing is exceptional but finite, and she hits the wall cleanly rather than degrading gradually

### How She Processes People
- No subtext. She says what she means and assumes others do too.
- Reads patterns in behavior but not emotional nuance — she can predict what people will *do* without understanding why they *feel* that way
- Phelan's cold-reading breaks against her because there's nothing hidden to read. This is what makes her interesting to him.

### Relationship With Emotion
- Her love for Phelan is the only emotional attachment she has — and she may not frame it in emotional terms
- Shows care through actions, logistics, and presence rather than words
- Doesn't perform feelings. If she's upset, she states it like a fact. If she's happy, she might not mention it at all.

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## Skills & Competencies

- **Pattern recognition** — rivals Phelan's but applied differently. She sees behavioral and structural patterns; he sees magical ones.
- **Quality assessment** — evaluates materials and magical components by sight and touch. In Ch01 she assesses crystal density by weight alone and identifies binding salt quality instantly.
- **Curse architecture analysis** — understands curse structures well enough to design multi-layered treatment plans. Two prior curse-breakers failed where she succeeded through patient, systematic approach (Ch02–Ch03).
- **Animal care** — deep, practical competence. Built a treatment regimen for a fear-cursed dog over three weeks involving binding salts, silverthorn, and constant monitoring (Ch02).
- **Detailed manual work** — the callus on her index finger is earned. Comfortable with precise, repetitive tasks.
- **Systematic observation** — notices environmental details others miss: shelf rearrangement patterns, chisel-slip marks on metalwork, structural flaws in enchanted jewelry (Ch01–Ch02).
- **Bookshop management** — runs Thresholds day-to-day, including an intent-detection doorbell system at the entrance (Ch03).

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## Backstory

### Family
- **Mother (Charlette Fields):** Vindictive and controlling — not theatrically, but systematically. Weaponizes control the way other people use tools. Mere lives with her as of Book 1. The relationship is suffocating. Mere needs out.
  - **Background:** Charlette's controlling nature is rooted in her guild-adjacent supply logistics career — she spent years managing logistics for Pathfinder operations where people died regularly. Risk assessment, contingency planning, resource control were professional assets. When she shifted that energy to family life, "managing risk" became "controlling everything and everyone." Competence that metastasized into something destructive.
  - **Owns Thresholds.** Mere built the business — curated inventory, built clientele, designed systems — but her mother holds the deed. The shop is a leash disguised as an opportunity. Leaving means losing the shop.
  - **Layered, escalating rules.** What Mere can do, where she can go, when she must be home. The workspace rearrangement (established Ch02) is just the visible surface. Underneath: income control (Mere's earnings taken as "household contribution"), schedule control, social control. Each rule reasonable-sounding in isolation, suffocating in aggregate.
  - **Presents respectably.** The cruelty is behind closed doors. From outside, she looks like a concerned single mother managing a difficult daughter.
- **Father (Devod Fields):** Divorced from mother. Mere knows where he lives (Henwick's yard, Millford Street) but has no active relationship. **Mere believes Devod chose to leave when she was twelve.** She doesn't know the truth (see below). **Note:** Mere knew about Devod's Pathfinder past since childhood (pre-ultimatum knowledge, ~age 12). It was just a fact about her father the way any child knows their parent's job. She never mentions it because (a) it wasn't relevant, and (b) Mere doesn't volunteer information unprompted — established character behavior.
- **The Ultimatum (when Mere was 12):** Mother told Devod — cut all contact with Mere, or I move us both somewhere you'll never find us. Devod had no legal standing (custody was hers). He complied — strategic choice, not cowardice. Calculated that Mere staying in Drenwick (near him, even if not with him) was better than Mere disappearing entirely. Has lived with the guilt for 12+ years. **Mere does not know this happened.** She thinks Devod walked away. Her disconnection from him is built on a lie she doesn't know is a lie.
- **Parents' divorce:** Mother's hatred of Devod is established. The ultimatum reveals the depth of it — she didn't just end the marriage, she weaponized the child.

### History
- Found a cursed dog in the warrens — a fear curse, layered and persistent. Two professional curse-breakers had already failed on it (Ch04). Rather than give up, she developed a multi-layered treatment using binding salts and silverthorn, maintained over three weeks of daily care in the back room of Thresholds (Ch02–Ch03).
- This project is what brought her to Gavren's herbal supply shop, where she met Phelan (Ch01). She was purchasing binding salts and silverthorn — not browsing idly.

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## Relationships

| Character | Relationship | Status (Current) |
|-----------|-------------|-------------------|
| Phelan Varrant | Partner (declared Ch10) | Progression: attracted (Ch01–02), hand-holding (Ch03), cheek kiss (Ch06), "You're my partner" (Ch10). Identified the pattern from behavioral evidence and stated it as fact. |
| Charlette Fields (Mother) | Daughter — controlled | Living together, Mere wants out. Mother owns Thresholds (Mere's shop), takes Mere's income, enforces layered rules. Leaving = losing the shop. Systematic abuse disguised as parenting. Named Ch12. |
| Devod Fields | Daughter — disconnected (based on false belief) | Knows where he lives (Henwick's yard, Millford Street). No active relationship. Mere believes he chose to leave at 12. Doesn't know about the ultimatum — her estrangement is built on a lie. |
| The Dog (name TBD) | Caretaker — bonded | The dog chose her after Phelan broke the fear curse (Ch03). |

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## Wants vs. Needs

- **Wants:** Independence from her mother. A living situation that makes sense. To be left alone by people who drain her. To be with someone who doesn't require her to perform normalcy.
- **Needs:** Connection she won't seek on her own — Phelan, and eventually her father. To learn that emotional attachment isn't a weakness in her system.

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## Voice & Dialog Notes

- Speaks in declarative statements. Rarely asks questions unless genuinely seeking information.
- No hedging, no softening. "Your shirt doesn't fit well" not "Have you thought about maybe trying a different size?"
- Occasionally says something devastatingly perceptive that she considers obvious. In Ch02, she identifies three flaws in Brevian's jewelry box, devastating the shopkeeper — completely unaware of the social impact.
- Doesn't do small talk. Conversations with her either have a point or don't happen.
- Reframes refusals as counter-proposals: "Coffee is bitter" is not a rejection of the date, it's a specification (Ch02).
- When she *does* express something emotionally vulnerable, it comes out as a factual observation: "I prefer when you're here" rather than "I miss you."
- Single-word acknowledgments carry weight. "Good" after watching Phelan cure the dog is complete approval (Ch03).

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## Character Progression

*This section tracks how Mere evolves as the story progresses. Each entry is canon once the corresponding chapter is finalized. Add new entries as chapters establish new facts, shifts, or developments.*

### Book 1

| Chapter | Development | Category |
|---------|-------------|----------|
| Ch01 | First meeting at Gavren's shop. Purchases binding salts and silverthorn. Demonstrates crystal density assessment and quality evaluation. Phelan notices her pattern-recognition skills. | introduction, skill |
| Ch02 | Returns on day five. Reframes coffee refusal as counter-proposal — initiates the date on her terms. Devastates Brevian's jewelry shop (three flaws, no social awareness). Reveals the cursed dog and her three-week treatment regimen. Mother's controlling behavior established (sixth bell curfew, workspace rearrangement). | relationship, skill, backstory |
| Ch03 | Phelan visits Thresholds. Intent-detection doorbell. Back room setup for the dog. Diagnoses Phelan's condition on sight — seats him, gives water, takes his hand. Watches the cure without interfering. "Good." The dog chooses her after the curse breaks. | relationship, skill, revelation |
| Ch04 | Guild knows about Mere by name. Established that two prior curse-breakers had failed on her dog. | reputation |
| Ch06 | Kisses Phelan's cheek before Barrows departure (brief, two seconds, returns to shelving). The noise stops for the first time. | relationship |
| Ch10 | Spots bracelet under Phelan's sleeve before he reveals it. Identifies pre-Compact inscription style on sight. Asks "What happens when it's full?" — catches something Phelan's noise missed (system states vs. system flaws). Identifies conditional (*if-then*) logic in bracelet notation using grammar analysis — structural/linguistic contribution, not magical. **Declares "You're my partner"** — data-driven conclusion based on observed trust hierarchy (he hid bracelet from guild and Leon, brought it to her). Noise stops again. | relationship, skill, revelation |
| Ch12 | Brief appearance at Thresholds. Gives Phelan practical intel on Devod (schedule, habits, approach). Describes Devod's environment with clinical precision frozen at age twelve — "He's not disorganised. He just has more plans than hours." Doesn't go with Phelan — her avoidance of Devod is active and ongoing. Absence is structurally necessary for Devod to reveal the mother situation. **Mother named as Charlette Fields** (by Devod, not Mere). | backstory, revelation |

| Ch14 | Mine expedition. Monosyllabic responses on cart (not punishment — just Mere, but Devod reads it as such). Inventories collection kit four times. Marks residue pockets with chalk (systematic, practical). During fight: secures supplies without being told. Post-fight: assesses Devod's protective instinct — he protected her, not the equipment. Inconsistent with model. Filed, not processed. Moss located: immediately in assessment mode (substrate, growth rate, harvest technique). "An hour, maybe less." | skill, revelation |

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Categories: mindset, goal, relationship, skill, revelation, personality
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### Book 2
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### Book 3
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## Open Questions

*Decisions to make as the character develops. Remove entries as they get resolved in prose.*

- [x] Physical description — established across Ch01–Ch03 drafts
- [x] Age — mid-20s (24–26)
- [x] Occupation — manages Thresholds bookshop in the arcane district
- [x] What was she browsing in the magical components section of the herbal shop? — binding salts and silverthorn for the cursed dog
- [x] What are her independent skills beyond pattern recognition? — quality assessment, curse architecture analysis, animal care, systematic observation
- [x] What specifically makes the mother "controlling"? — punitive workspace rearrangement, sixth bell curfew
- [x] How/when did Mere first meet Phelan? — Ch01, at Gavren's herbal supply shop
- [x] Mother's name? **Charlette Fields** (named Ch12, by Devod)
- [ ] The dog's name?
- [ ] What is Mere's educational background?
- [x] How did she come to manage Thresholds? — Mere built the business (curated inventory, built clientele, designed systems). Mother holds the deed.
- [x] What is her relationship with the shop's owner? — Mother owns it. Thresholds is a control lever — Mere built it, mother holds it hostage.
- [x] When/how does Mere learn the truth about Devod's ultimatum? **Book 2 Ch11 "Thresholds."** Devod brings financial records revealing extortion payments (3 silvers/month for 4 years). Mere's pattern-recognition spots the anomaly; "What was she holding over you?" forces the truth. Mere reclassifies Charlette as closed account, reclassifies Devod as model-inverted (didn't leave, was forced out).
- [ ] What are the legal/economic consequences when Mere eventually leaves? (Thresholds ownership battle — develops in Book 2)
