THE PHYSICAL:

Hair: Straight. Dark red, almost the color of blood. Fairly thick. Short. Worn in a well-maintained, shiny bob.

Eyes: Average set. Average size. Deep brown. Barely detectable eyebrows.

Nose: Almost cartoon-ish teddy-bear-like black button nose.

Mouth: Average lips with a natural reddish-brown color. Full set of unusually flat teeth in average condition.

Skin: Reddish-brown, but visible only on her hands and feet because of pale brown peach-fuzz fur.

Face: Rounded chin and broad face, ears are high up on her head like a teddy bear and poke out just a little through her hair.

Age: Indeterminate because of foggy memories, but somewhere between 35 and 40.

Height: On the short side (about 5’4”).

Weight: Healthy weight, maybe a little plump when she gets comfortable.

Body: Fairly average for a woman from another dimension. Good health. Good posture. Slightly claw-like fingernails and toenails, black with dull points. Right-handed.

Ethnicity: She’s from a dimension farther away than Thursday’s but closer than Weaver and Dax’s. No information.

Distinguishing features: Bear-like appearance which manages to somehow be aesthetically pleasing as well. Most people are surprised by how magnetically attractive she can be even without looking human.

Voice: On the high side of alto. Smooth, non-specific American accent. High, calm laugh that sometimes is described as sounding like a bell.

Gestures: A very calm, confident gaze. Sometimes has a faraway look in her eyes. Often sits cross-legged. Often adopts the speaking style, body language, and characteristic gestures of her present company. Moves slowly and deliberately, but gracefully.

Clothing and style: Prefers roomy clothes, often jeans and tee shirts or sweatshirts (depending on weather). Wears slipper-like moccasin shoes and a digital wristwatch. Usually rolls her pants legs up. Almost never wears jewelry.

THE PERSONAL:

General mood: Calm and peaceful. Optimistic. When other people are upset and take their problems to her, Adele’s demeanor is so patient that sometimes they feel silly about getting so worked up in the first place.

Talents and abilities: Her most obvious talent is her ability to know things. She has many different flavors of precognition, some of which can be called upon purposely through different kinds of divination. Future and remote images also come to her during sleep. Adele can also control the pool’s gateway and tell where it leads at any time. As the story progresses, she makes some progress learning some other abilities honed by inspiration from Nina: She develops the ability to communicate images or words without speaking. She has good eyesight and a slightly heightened sense of smell by human standards. Also, she can attain an alternate consciousness that allows her to walk and marginally navigate while asleep. Mundanely, she is a talented weaver and needlecraft artist, has an excellent memory, and reads very fast.

Weaknesses and shortcomings: Does not like to move fast and has slow reflexes. Has become slightly jaded because of being treated in an annoyed or sullen fashion when she gives too much advice, so has bent backwards the other way and chosen to give very little unsolicited advice. Tends to develop a superior attitude occasionally.

Interests: She likes reading, listening to stories, learning, playing literary or mentally challenging puzzle games, experimenting with divination, meditating, and taking care of people.

Pet peeves: Being disrespected, being disbelieved despite her track record, being in a hurry.

Phobias: None.

Eating habits: Eats when she remembers to, has no real regular schedule. Loves sweet things, wheat and grains, and unusual vegetables.

Education: By human standards, very intelligent, though part of that is just wisdom. Has no formal education in this dimension, but was tutored personally in her old realm and has a very impressive knowledge of literature.

Language abilities: Good, deliberate speaker. Speaks English and has a working knowledge of Latin (she taught herself that), and still remembers a workable portion of the language her people spoke in her old dimension. She calls the language “Shioan.” Learned English in her home dimension, however, from humans who live there as she lives in this world.

Occupation: No “real” job, but functions as a counselor for the group. Also solves crimes in the newspapers and sometimes alerts police about them.

Political affiliation: If Adele paid attention to the goings-on of politicians, her response would be largely a disbelieving shake of the head and a cosmic shrug.

Religious beliefs: Has a general practice of Earth spirituality but does not actually believe any creation story or religious dogma.

Sexual orientation: Even after all these years she still finds humans funny-looking, but bottom line is Adele likes men.

Marital status: Single and unattached, by choice.

Family information: None. Does not remember pre-Earth family, but considers the house crew her family.

Friend information: Has a very close relationship with Nina—refers to her as her “spirit-child.” Has a long-standing bond with Weaver, Dax, and Alix because of their pre-house experiences. Later develops a mutually respectful friendship with Nicholas. Had a long-distance pseudo-relationship once, with a pen pal named Webster.

Other information: Tends to experience doubt in herself sometimes when her predictions are not entirely clear. Sometimes wears lipstick for no good reason. Used to have very long hair, but cut it off when the group acquired their house. Always seems to be in her element, comfortable. Very much a philanthropist. Prefers talking one-on-one to talking in large groups. Rarely leaves the house.

THE STORY:

Her solid memory begins upon arriving in this dimension with a mission. Her memories, however, were foggy (going to other dimensions, however she did it, tends to disrupt memory). She had little idea what she was in this world to do, but felt her mission was to find someone who had a predisposition for using precognitive abilities and act as that person’s trainer. She wandered around, learning about the world and trying to find a place to live while following her intuition and keeping her unusual characteristics hidden from the world under a heavy cloak. Eventually she found Weaver, Dax, and Alix, and became one of them, functioning to take care of them in an almost motherly way.

Adele would make trips to the city for supplies and for her own sanity (she likes to be alone), and ended up finding Ivy on one of these trips. Ivy was about four years old. She took the little girl back to their home on the beach and learned surprising things about her, then stepped in as her mother to give her care, attention, education, discipline, and a home. Adele “tamed” Ivy fairly well and continued her work perfecting her divination skills and working to discover her purpose.

Adele found two more children, Tab and Thursday, and shortly thereafter she discovered a distance-ignoring water portal on their land and learned about it, experimenting. Then the group decided to get a more comfortable dwelling, so Adele, with Ivy’s help, did a divination and found someone to help them get a house. The house was built (by Ivy), and the group has lived in it since.

She focused on bringing in new roommates (through Ivy’s missions) to support the house’s lifestyle, and then she did a divination that brought up the existence of Nina. After Ivy brought the child home, Adele bonded with her (as she, finally, was a child with precognitive abilities) and began to teach her about the art. The two of them continued their work and enhanced their relationship, and beyond that Adele has been helping various people with both ordinary and extraordinary tasks here and there. Adele feels there is still one more person she’s supposed to train, but that is for the future books.

FAVORITE ADELE QUOTES:

“I think I already know what you want to know.” –Book 0, chapter 5

“You’ll learn not to take anything lightly if I precede my words with ‘I am certain.’” –Book 0, chapter 5

“Would you like to cite for me an instance of my being wrong?” –Book 0, chapter 6

“Give that mouth a rest or next time I’ll just leave you to your fate.” –Book 0, chapter 6

“If you can’t make a child obey you, you just have to make her want to.” –Book 0, chapter 11

“Ivy, we’re both well aware of your tendency to get distracted, though only one of us admits it openly.” –Book 1, chapter 1

“Just how often do you suppose I operate on guesswork?” –Book 1, chapter 1

“Well, if the world is a scarf, we do live on the fringes.” –Book 1, chapter 2

“You should slow down every once in a while.” –Book 2, chapter 12

“You can’t expect me to just drop everything and play psychiatrist whenever you snap your fingers.” –Book 3, chapter 19

“Let’s put it this way. Nobody has your fashion sense.” –Book 3, chapter 23

“Ivy, you talk like this is a storybook where you can just turn to the end and read the outcome.” –Book 3, chapter 23

“There’s not always an easy answer to everything. Even if you’re me or Nina.” –Book 3, chapter 28

“You can’t expect that you should go off to your own life for long periods of time and then come back here to find nothing changed. Time does continue to move here without your presence. And time changes people and things.” –Book 3, chapter 28

“The question is simple, indeed. The answer is another matter.” –Book 4, chapter 20

“It’s not a simple thing to make a prediction, Ivy. Whenever I tell you something I’ve ‘discovered,’ it really is just my logical opinion of an impression I don’t totally understand.” –Book 4, chapter 20

“It isn’t lazy or stupid to ask others’ advice! It’s actually very wise. If you never asked anyone for help, it would be like assuming you already knew the right thing to do in every situation, and that you had nothing whatsoever to learn from others. What kind of attitude would that be?” –Book 4, chapter 20

“Don’t you heckle me, child.” –Book 4, chapter 37

“Nicholas is the type of person who would swear up and down that UFOs have landed on our planet, while I would only admit that intelligent life on other planets is likely.” –Book 4, chapter 37

“Sometimes a question can’t be answered if it hasn’t arisen.” –Book 5, chapter 11

“I hate to be the one who says, ‘I told you so,’ but it seems I’m always cast in that role.” –Book 5, chapter 11