something's bound to begin

[thetoastofmayfair]

Sally Bowles WIKI « MAILBOX « PHONE « CR « VISUALS « PLAYLIST « PLAYER «

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▶ the basics
▶ external
     ▷ appearance
     ▷ voice
     ▷ scent
     ▷ touch
     ▷ demeanor
▶ internal
▶ information for psychics and other magic users
▶ relationships
▶ other items of note

▷ the basics ▶ CANON: Cabaret ▶ PLAYED BY: Imogen Poots ▶ FULL NAME: She's not telling. ▶ ALIAS: Sally Bowles ▶ AKA: The Toast of Mayfair ▶ AGE: 19 21 ▶ DATE OF BIRTH: October 19, 1910 ▶ BIRTHPLACE: a little town in Lancashire, England ▶ NATIONALITY: English ▶ HOMETOWN: none ▶ ARRIVED FROM: Berlin, Germany — spring 1931 ▶ IN DARROW SINCE: September 30, 2015 ▶ GENDER: female ▶ SPECIES: human ▶ SEXUAL ORIENTATION: heterosexual, though she can be flexible under the right circumstances ▶ RELATIONSHIP STATUS: single ▶ RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION: raised Anglican, no current system of belief ▶ DRINKS / SMOKES / DRUGS: yes / yes / yes ▶ MBTI: ENFP ▶ CURRENT ADDRESS: A mansion on the western side of town, belonging to Magnus Bane. ▶ PETS: none ▶ FINANCIAL STATUS: surviving somehow ▶ LIVING CONDITIONS: Wonderful, magnificent, expensive, not one bit hers. ▶ TRANSPORTATION: whatever she can get ▶ EDUCATION: Minimal. Sally attended school but was never the best student, too flighty for it. Expelled from school at 16 for getting pregnant out of wedlock. ▶ LANGUAGE(S): English, the barest amounts of French, German, and Italian gleaned from a variety of tourists and a largely forgotten education ▶ SKILLS: moderately talented singer and dancer; excellent in bed when she feels like it ▶ OCCUPATION: performer at the Nightingale club, caretaker of Magnus's mansion ▶ TRIGGER WARNINGS: Drug use, alcohol abuse, abortion, physical abuse, prostitution, sexual assault, abandonment (kicked out by her parents). Also, while Sally is relatively open-minded and accepting of different sexualities, she's a bit naive in her understanding of them and can be unconsciously homophobic and transphobic. Her world view is heavily colored by the era in which she grew up, no matter how much she'd protest if anyone said as much in front of her, and she can be casually racist and sexist. Possible brief references to the Nazi party, though she's from the beginning of their time and could barely even tell you what a Hitler is. ▶ CURRENTLY: just arrived ▶ LAST UPDATED: 10.19.2016 ▷ external ▶ SIGHT: Bright, brassy, glamorous, mysterious, Sally Bowles is visually a mix between an elegant English rose and a teenage girl headed to Coachella. There's a kind of world weariness to her despite her youth, and she'd very much like you to know it. She always looks like she's off to a party somewhere, usually somewhere less than savory, often with a cigarette tucked between her fingers or her lips. » HAIR COLOR: blonde » EYE COLOR: blue » HEIGHT: 5'5" » BUILD: slight and undernourished, though she covers it up well » DOMINANT HAND: right » TATTOOS: a flight of sparrows on her left shoulderblade » PIERCINGS: ears » DISTINGUISHING MARKS: None. » DEFINING CHARACTERISTICS: Sally continues to wear the heavy makeup typical of the late '20s and early '30s, and often wears as little clothing as she can get away with. Her nails are always painted beautiful colors, mostly jewel tones. Almost always this is a brilliant emerald green. Her fingers are slightly yellowed from handling cigarettes, so it's not the best look, but that won't stop her for a second. Though her manicure is sometimes chipped, she makes a point of maintaining it, so wear is minimal. » STYLE: See here for examples. Sally loves anything that makes her look glamorous, exciting, and sensual. She doesn't care a bit for the idea of maintaining some sense of "mystery" by covering things up, perfectly comfortable exposing as much skin as she can. In 1930, she liked stockings rolled up over her knees, slip dresses, silk kimonos, and big fur coats. In this modern day and age, you can expect her to keep these same elements as the building blocks of a retro boho-chic style. She wears patterned tights, often ripped, and cut off shorts, short silk robes with fringe and embroidery, crop tops and lacy bandeaux, tiny slip dresses, cropped bustiers, corset-style lingerie as tops, oversized hats, bold prints, lace, glitter, feathers, sequins. While Sally enjoys things that are form-fitting, she's more likely to be found in sheer clothes over visible lingerie, loose and flowing and exposed all at once. She likes bright colors but she positively lives in black. She doesn't really care if patterns "match" or not; she finds a way to make it work. Despite conventional wisdom, she can often be found pairing heavy eye makeup and bright red-pink lips. Usually her eyes are kohl-rimmed with heavily mascaraed lashes, her complexion pale, and her nails painted. She likes jewelry. Nothing she owns is of any particular value. Some days she wears tons of rings and not much else. Other days she'll pile it all on, arms stacked with bracelets, neck ringed with long necklaces. She loves heels and boots. For all her fuss about her looks, though, she's unfazed by mess and doesn't care if she gets dirty or her clothes get ripped up. If that's the price of doing whatever seems fun at the time, then so be it. ▶ FIRST IMPRESSIONS AND MANNERISMS: Sally is larger than life. She's expansive, full of bold gestures and wild expressions, her eyes wide and hands on the move. Her whole body gets into it when she has something to share. She has an air of bright confidence, warm and assured and eager. She's prone to talking over people and changing subjects without warning, self-absorbed but very charming about it. She comes off as very much putting on an act, and yet she's so utterly wrapped up in it that it seems to become her real self. She's most at home when she has someone to entertain or engage, whether it's one person or an entire audience. She delights in a crowd, no trace of nerves about her. In those rare moments when Sally allows her vulnerability to shine through or can't hide it, she is much smaller and much younger, unwilling to meet anyone's eye, scarcely willing to move or speak. ▶ SOUND: Sally has almost musical tones to the way she speaks, words lilting quickly along. Her voice is low and sweet, dipping deeper for emphasis and often when she's singing, with the kind of smoky throatiness to it that comes from smoking so much and a complete lack of training. She plays up the girlishness of her voice when she's performing or flirting, particularly for numbers like "Don't Tell Mama." For things like "Mein Herr," she plays up the roughness of her voice instead. Actually, her manner depends largely on what she wants from a person. It dips and rises, ebbs and flows, roughens or softens. Sally Bowles is an ocean, tempestuous and calming by turns. Her accent is London-based, primarily Chelsea, and upper class, though to anyone actually from London it might ring a touch false. Someone particularly familiar with English accents might catch the occasional trace of a more Northern accent, betraying her Lancashire upbringing. Imogen's voice can be heard in this clip from Christopher and His Kind where she plays the inspiration for Sally Bowles: here. Emma's can be heard in clips from Cabaret here. Emma is my primary reference for this interpretation of the character and, as such, is who I largely rely on for sound and diction, but Imogen gives a good resource for the sound of her accent as well. ▶ SMELL: Cigarettes and cheap perfume, the sticky sweet scent of spilled alcohol (gin primarily), clean sweat, sex, Worcestershire sauce, cocaine, florals. ▶ TOUCH: Sally has no real concept of personal space. She'll sweep in and touch wherever she pleases, get as close as she likes, even kiss a person without warning. She's extremely physical, even exaggeratedly so, as if her whole life is a stage performance. Her jobs have never been typical manual labor and she takes as good care of herself as she can under her circumstances, her skin quite soft. Grabby though she can be, her touch is usually gentle. ▷ internal ▶ POSITIVE TRAITS: clever, charming, optimistic, capable of surprising sweetness and compassion, determined, ambitious, creative, confident, expressive, open-minded, adaptable, loyal to a chosen few ▶ NEGATIVE TRAITS: petty, bitter, cynical, willfully ignorant, stubborn, lazy, petulant, spoiled, vain, judgmental, hypocritical, tactless, irrational, childish, reckless, greedy, materialistic, calculating, flighty, temperamental, blunt, impulsive, self-centered, self-serving, insecure, arrogant, manipulative, careless, cruel, inconsiderate, frequently drunk, gullible, irresponsible, poor impulse control, forgetful when it serves her or if she doesn't care but will hold a grudge forever, a compulsive liar ▶ LIKES: Green nail polish. Excess. Attention, indulgence, temptation, shocking people. Gin, cigarettes, cocaine, sex, power, money, praise, adoration. Her fur coat. Freedom or the illusion thereof. The bliss of ignorance. ▶ DISLIKES: Men who don't keep their promises (which is, frankly, all of them, darling), not having enough money, being ignored. Those dreadful prairie oysters, honestly, but what's to be done about it? Coming up short, being embarrassed, being left. Prudes. Men with terrible tempers, though she also can't seem to resist them. Physical violence on the whole, in fact. War. Politics, philosophy, religion. Talking about politics, philosophy, or religion. Small talk of any kind. Catty women. Backstabbers. Babies. Boredom. Predictability. ▶ GOALS: To become disgustingly rich and famous. To be loved. To survive. To forget. ▶ MENTAL HEALTH: Sally seems fine most of the time, but she's a mess of neuroses and hurt. She does not have any mental disorders, but teeters on the edge of alcoholism on her best days, and there's some implication that she experienced situational depression for a while when she was younger. She's also clearly had a number of abusive ex-lovers. All of these things make her skittish, and she tends to push her feelings back as much as possible rather than talking about them. On bad days, they float right back up to the surface. ▶ PHYSICAL HEALTH: At the time of her arrival in Darrow, Sally has just had an abortion, which is extremely emotionally and physically taxing. Sally has had abortions previously under highly dangerous circumstances (how many she's had depends on who she's talking to and her mood). Because she's usually limping along between jobs and men, her nutrition is hit or miss. It's probably safe to say she's a (more or less) functioning alcoholic, she smokes all the time, and she does whatever drugs are on hand, though she's particularly fond of cocaine. The only reason she's foregone heroin is because she dislikes how track marks look. ▶ MAGICAL ABILITIES: None. ▶ INFORMATION FOR PSYCHICS AND OTHER MAGIC USERS: » Sally's self-absorption is absolute and genuine. Someone who can tap into her thoughts or feelings, though, might find that much of it is fueled by insecurity, denial, and fear. » Her thoughts are about as flighty as Sally herself is, bouncing around that brain of hers with little focus or care. » She's terribly afraid of being left alone, though she'd be the first to tell you we are always, always alone. ▷ relationships ▶ PARENTS: Her father is a Lancashire mill owner, her mother an heiress. They are estranged. ▶ SIBLINGS: ? ▶ SIGNIFICANT OTHER: none ▶ CHILDREN: none ▶ CLOSE FRIENDS: Chuck Hansen, Katherine Pierce, Magnus Bane ▶ NOTABLE PAST RELATIONSHIPS: Too many to name or count, of course, but the two most recent are the most relevant. » MAX: One of the owners of the Kit Kat Klub. Sally held his attention for long enough to win not just a starring part in the Klub's nightly shows but a place to live, with Max, in an apartment above the club. He dumped her on New Year's and fired her in one fell swoop. Luckily, she already had her eye on her next target. » CLIFF BRADSHAW: An American novelist who happened to be at the club the night Sally was fired. He was charming and new and he spoke perfect English (even if it was American English), and she saw something of herself in him, too, though she didn't quite realize it yet. She wheedled her way into sharing an apartment with him, but in short order, she not only found she was pregnant (with no way to be sure who the father was), but she fell in love for the first time. It didn't work out. » LIP GALLAGHER: Ex-husband. Thanks, magic chocolate. ▶ CURRENT AFFAIRS: » CHUCK HANSEN: Good friend, good lay. » JACK WILDER: Currently in pursuit of him. He's got a kind heart and he's as adorable as he is hot. » LIP GALLAGHER: She's still crazy about him. » NAPOLEON SOLO: Extravagant one night stand. » PHILIP LOMBARD: She's rather half in love with Philip, though she knows he has others. ▶ GOD-MODDING RIGHTS: Chuck Hansen, Magnus Bane ▷ other items of note: » My portrayal of Sally is my own. Emma Stone's version of her during the 2014 Broadway revival comes damn close to how I read Sally and clips of her performance are likely to bear the closest resemblance to my Sally. Natasha Richardson's 1998 performance has also had significant impact on my understanding of Sally. The rest comes from my own reading of the events and dialogue of Cabaret and many long conversations with Laine. Additional details may be drawn from The Berlin Stories by Christopher Isherwood. » Sally is a shallow, self-absorbed, spoiled brat. She's not stupid, not really, and she's not blind. She's just stubborn, afraid, tactless, thoughtless, petty, and her denial is entirely willful. She's likely to be annoying, a bad friend, a worse girlfriend (if it ever comes to that), and may take an entirely irrational dislike to various people. As ever, Sally's thoughts and actions are her own and not representative of my own opinions.