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We are, as a species, addicted to story. Even when the body goes to sleep, the mind stays up all night, telling itself stories. | |
—Jonathan Gottschall |
Sage Idason [he/him] is the son of Little Ida from Little Ida's Flowers.
He is currently in his final year at Ever After High. His reputation at the school is rather polarised - one either views him as the adept Theatre Vice-President, who works endlessly on any upcoming musicals, or one views him as the intimidating, paranoid conspiracy theorist.
Character[]
Personality[]
Who is Sage Idason? It depends on who you ask.
There are some things that anyone would agree on, like his organisation skills or tendency for colour-coding. There are some praises that the Theatre students would say about Sage - they'd call him their "Theatre Dad", mention his serious cultivation towards quality performing arts. Others would point how his dramatics, how Sage's sentences are articulated with hyperbole, with metaphor, so much that one cannot distinguish exaggeration from truth.
He is organised and driven, with a fondness for brown manila folders and colour-coordinated highlighters and markers. If you asked him where something was, you'd receive a clear, articulate answer. Sage backs up all his notes onto flashdrives and a separate harddrive and then to the Cloud. As for those aforementioned manila folders, he has a cabinet in his room, carefully labelled, dedicated to storing them. While Sage has a tendency to accumulate data, the impressiveness of that is overshadowed by his ability to pinpoint hexactly where the facts are.
It's this tendency to accumulate data that helps us see what sort of person Sage is. Sage is, fundamentally, a boy who loves the arts and humanities. He loves fiction, he loves dance, he loves music. He loves those things because art will elucidate the human condition, because art brings people closer together in understanding one another. He is curious, always seeking for new knowledge to create a new lens to view the world. Performing arts is his medium for this. Sage uses it to understand how to express the truth through lies.
As an actor on stage, Sage wants to use his experience to understand greater things, other institutions who are acting just as he is, like politicians and the government and newspaper agencies. Sage fundamentally believes that the fairytale world is corrupt, that the information fed by Ever After High is pure manufactured consent. He's perpetually scared that the world he grew up in is being sanitised and censored, and is aiming to find "reality" beyond what's handed to him. In a way, he views himself like a prisoner trapped in Plato's cave, longing to be free.
Behind the stage, Sage could pull the curtain and forget about that reality. But he doesn’t, because Sage believes that he’s amongst only a fair few that can discern this truth. | |
—Of Spring, cont'd |
With such strong beliefs, you can't hexpect him not to be outspoken. In his writings, Sage will pour his thoughts into narratives. It is hexactly why he loves to write poetry and plays. Often, when writing his fiction, Sage knows that he doesn't have the answers, but hopes to find the answers as he explores the psyche of his characters. It's his own way of feeling empathy, it's his own way of making sense in a world that doesn't. Furthermore, he wants others to know how he feels about the world.
Making snarky commentary on authority is slightly harder when one has to disguise the satire, but Sage tries to manage. | |
—Of Spring, cont'd |
But being highly aware of the world isn't the best of things. Sage knows that he has to be careful, that he has to be cautious, that people in power could see what he writes as treason. Because of this, Sage is highly protective of himself, covering his tracks and making sure that either a) he cannot be traced or b) if he can, he's able to dismiss his concerns. He's good at being sneaky, easily concealing himself in hiding points due to his small stature and brilliant acting. Being an actor, he's one for the dramatics, and has absolutely up'd the ante of his public persona, the concerned conspiracy theorist.
This public persona of Sage is, by all means, rather irrational. This persona will insist on buying food organic, on wearing a gas mask indoors, on hiding his appearance in long coats and scarves. Sage will talk about 'chemicals in the air', and show you how he'd duct-taped the camera on his devices. It's definitely an ironic portrayal of himself, one that Sage eventually aims to "age out of" once he leaves the school.
Though, this ironic portrayal is fun, Sage will admit. In fact, he rather relishes in it. Growing up with a single mother who is often busy and overworked, Sage isn't particularly used to so much attention and focus on himself. Because of this, over his Legacy and Third Years at Ever After High, he's fallen into the persona more and more, constantly seeking the attention that it gives him. Now, in the last stretch of his Senior Year, he's seemed to have mostly shaken it off, too aware and focused on his own future to keep up with it all the time.
All in all, Sage is one spell of an actor.
Appearance[]
For a guy who wants to hide his identity and become an enigma, Sage sure dresses like it. Very rarely does he show any skin, covering himself up in large trenchcoats and face masks and infinity scarves. His bulky clothing hides his stature and many distinguishing features. Ironically, his attempt to be unrecognisable is exactly what makes him easily recognised.
Behind his clothing, Sage is actually quite well-built, the product of dance lessons since childhood and a habit of carrying heavy equipment around. As a result, he looks quite bulky and menacing – if it weren’t for the fact he’s also short.
He has a mop of dark brown hair that's slightly lightened in places. It’s very flat and straight and just flops over his head. Medium-length, just up to the base of his head. His eyes are an intense brown. Height-wise, Sage is short - somewhere between 5'3" and 5'4".
Hobbies and Interests[]
Performing Arts[]
Sage's mother runs a dance studio, and that is where he grew up. And having spent his summers at programs hosted by the Copenhagen Theatre, having matured in an environment where there was nothing but music...
Well, the Performing Arts are his life. Sage would be damned if he gave them up. It's not just in his past, but it's also his future - he recently accepted his study program after Ever After High, an internship at a prestigious theatre where he can work on his stagecraft.
Theatre: At Ever After High, Sage is currently Vice-President of the Drama Club, The Drama Kings and Queens. While he loves the group, he hates how the school constantly gets on their backs, and frequently has to fight the administration for agency on his artistic visions. One frustration he has is the frequent typecasting - because of his height, Sage often gets typecast as fairies or children. And royalty and other upper crust students would tend to get lead roles, and Sage believes he's being pushed away from his potential to shine.
Sage, aside from a performer, is also an avid composer and playwright, and tries to write his own original content. So far, he's produced a repertoire of one-act plays and some snazzy orchestral pieces.
Orchestra: Aside from song and dance, Sage plays the saxophone. Specifically, he's skill in both tenor and baritone, but plays the baritone more often. This is also his instrument of choice in EAH's Ogre-stra.
Voice Range: Sage is a baritone.
Dreams[]
I blame the summer between Legacy and Classics Year, personally. The dreams were getting more vivid, even when I nap… |
Being the next Little Ida, Sage has the current family curse. This is his real magic touch. Sage Idason may sleep at night, and sometimes he dreams. When he does, those dreams are vivid and feel exactly like real life. In other words, Sage Idason is sometimes essentially awake 24 hours a day.
In these dreams, Sage has to face his fears like it's reality. It's like a Theatre performation, it's like a rehearsal for real life. Over time, Sage has come to believe that these dreams are like some training. Sure, they're scary. But what's scarier? Real life. And these dreams are training him so he can fight the world. Because of this, Sage believes he has an inherent duty to "do good" and "fight for what's right".
Conspiracy Theories[]
Do people even remember who I was before the conspiracies? I sang, I danced, I acted-- I wrote plays, did anyone care about those? | |
—Sage, in Veritas |
Sage Idason - if you don't recognise that name from Theatre Club pamphlets, there might be another place you recognise it...
Conspiracy theories.
To most people, Sage isn't the skilled playwright or actor or saxophone player. Most people don't know Little Ida's son as the clever, creative composer. Outside of the group he's close to, Sage has a public persona that is rather different from his reality.
Dressed in a trench coat, with a gas mask over his face, carrying aluminium foil and yelling about 'the System', Sage publicly appears as a paranoid extremist, with inconceivable takes and ideas on the land of Ever After. He pretends that the gas mask is to filter out toxins in the air, he claims that there are always "people watching, listening in". Above all, he believes in the Authors.
Most people often write off Sage as silly or un-researched. That doesn't mean that they don't love the sensationalism - his blog, where he writes about his conspiracy theories (dispersed between promotions for Theatre, of course), gets frequent hits. Is this persona just a giant advertising campaign?
If I sound too serious about what I say, if people can’t write off what I do as ‘ironic’... | |
—Sage, on why he's so dramatic on conspiracy theories. |
Well, yes. And maybe no. Sage does want to spark ideas and thinking, but also wants to conceal his real takes. He plays up the ridiculousness, he plays up the drama. If he does that, then perhaps people won't see what he's writing as a threat.
Organisation[]
Does this deserve its own header? Absolutely.
Sage is impeccably organised. His room is full of filing cabinets, and in them are brown manila folders. He always carries coloured pens and highlighters on them and proudly flexes his colour-coding skills.
Other[]
- Sage also collects porcelain dolls and stuffed toys, which are displayed in a glass cabinet in his room.
- He is capable of ventriloquism.
- While botany is no means a major interest of Sage, he is very adept at distinguishing between various types of flowers. He has fond memories of the Botanical Gardens in Copenhagen - the very gardens that inspired Andersen to write the fairytale.
Fairy tale – Little Ida's Flowers[]
How the Story Goes[]
A little girl named Ida talks to a student about flowers. He makes up a story about flowers partying hard. Ida goes to bed and dreams of flowers partying hard with her ragdoll and the flowers telling the ragdoll that they're all gonna die and that Ida better plant the flower corpses in the garden. After the trippy af dream, Ida wakes up and yells at her ragdoll for not reminding her. So she plants the flowers in the garden in a box, and her cousins from Norway fire crossbows over the flowers' grave.
How does Sage come into it?[]
The previous Ida fulfilled her destiny soon after Ever After High. Later in her life, she eventually married and had Sage, but ended up divorcing her husband, though they always remained on mutually amicable terms. Currently, she runs a dance studio in Co-pen-hag-en.
Sage, being her only son, is obviously the candidate for destiny. He is already set for destiny - he has two cousins living in Norway, he has a ragdoll that would serve as the next Sophie, and of course, he has those painfully vivid dreams.
Opinion on Destiny[]
Sage is a Neutral. He's old, he's a Senior who's signed the book before, and who believes that there are greater forces beyond Ever After High as an institution. He finds the Rebel vs Royal movement highly interesting and loves to debate the nuances of it, but also knows that he'd help others more if he invested his energy into other things, like improving the Theatre Program and spreading information.
Why is our story so illogical? Are the flowers even real? What’s the point– the moral– the literary beauty of Little Ida’s Flowers? | |
—Sage, in "Of Spring" |
For all his opinions on the rest of the world, Sage seems unsure what he's meant to get out of Little Ida's Flowers. For one, it's a very short fairytale with little lasting emotional impact - he'd be done with it in a night and a morning. No one is remotely harmed, nor are there any repercussions of the story he must deal with. In short, Sage Idason fully hexpects to follow out his fairytale, for there is no point in not following it out.
Still, what is the point, what is Ida meant to learn? Feminine duty, perhaps, for she's the one hexpected to bury and care for the flowers? Sage isn't sure. Maybe, once he follows through his story, he'll be able to reflect and determine his own meaning.
Parallels[]
- The student tells Ida speculative stories. Sage, much like Ida, loves stories, especially speculative ones.
- The flowers are shown to be at a dance. Sage's mother not only runs a dance studio, but Sage is adept in Theatre and other stagecraft. Similarly, Sage's father is a florist.
- Little Ida is a story about an intense dream that bleeds into real life. Sage's Magic Touch reflects this.
- The lawyer in the story is rude and demeaning towards Ida. Sage does not like the law.
- Just as Little Ida had a ragdoll named Sophie (a name that means 'wise'), Sage also has a ragdoll named Sage Junior (Sage being another name that means wise).
- "Little Ida's Flowers" can be regarded as HC Andersen's first published fairytale. It was published in Andersen's first collection of stories, and was the only fully original one of five.
- Sage is often regarded as the oldest of my OCs.
Outfits[]
Sage's theme colours are dark green and brown, chosen for the natural motifs of his story. Furthermore, dark colours are employed to emphasise how his story happens at night, and his premise of being a conspiracy theorist.
Sage dresses fairly bundled up and protected, with lots of pockets available to him to store notebooks and highlighters and other small items.
The main motifs in Little Ida are flowers and dance. Sage's outfits also make reference to Sophie the ragdoll, as well as the Botanical Gardens of Copenhagen. Sometimes, the act of "burying" the flowers may also be nodded to.
All flowers used in Sage's outfits are flowers present in Little Ida's Flowers. One day I will produce a list of all of them.
Art | Sage's Outfits |
---|---|
Basic[]Long Cloak
Sweater
Boots
| |
Milestone Doll: Graduation[]Zena's Milestone Dolls are designed to represent a stage of their life. To spellebrate their graduation of college, an Ever After High graduate Sage Idason was released. Sage comes with a decorated graduation cap, a stole to represent his affiliation as a Hans Christian Andersen legacy, and a graduation cord that represents his involvement with the Theatre community in EAH. His tie is green with white floral patterns. While it is not illustrated here, he wears nondescript dark trousers and dark shoes. He also comes with a bonquet of flowers. The accompanying "diary" is the short story Daffodil through the Winter Dew. However, instead of being stylicised after a bookmark, the short story is stylicised after a diploma scroll. This doll was inspired by the yearly graduation Barbies. |
Quotes[]
There are three things that come to Sage Idason more easily than breathing. The slow steady step of the waltz. Harmonising. And being genre-savvy. | |
Oh, must I abandon my goal, when my height prevents me, and curses me with this eternal struggle? | |
—tfw you're short and can't reach the shelf of a costume cupboard |
Trivia[]
- Sage was chosen as it was a flowering plant, as a nod to the flowers of the fairytale, and for its second meaning - "wise".
- Interesting enough, Little Ida's doll is named Sophie, which also translates to wisdom. Similarly, Sage's own ragdoll, the next Sophie, is named "Sage Junior".
- Idason is merely a surname that means "Ida's son".
- Sage breaks the Zena OC formula by being the only OC in my cast to have a character concept before I had a role decided for them. The concept was a Theatre nerd who was also an avid conspiracy theorist. Little Ida was already a fairytale dear to childhood me. Combining the two was a revelation.
- His favourite cafe in BookEnd is "The Little Red Hen Cafe".
Gallery[]
old art |
Further Reading[]
Fanfiction Appearances[]
- Of Spring: a short fic about Sage's general childhood
- Veritas Virumque: Sage appears in a few scenes of Veritas Virumque, mostly to offer advice to Turnus Wyllt.
- Master of the House (by Bluebutterflychan): Sage & The Drama Kings and Queens put on a production of Les Miserables.
AUs[]
- Kiss Gun Secret Agent AU: Sage features most prominently in Mirror, Mirror (On the Call), where he works as an agent in the FBI (Fairytale Bureau of Investigation).
- Zena's Space Opera: Sage is a travelling Theatre actor in the System Intergalatic.
- The Destiny Games: Sage is a tribute in the Destiny Games.
- What Happened in the Destiny Games - summary of the Games by Nyx.
- Storybook of Victors: Sage is the victor of the 34th Hunger Games.
- Love in the Time of Crownlera
Other[]
- Sky Sailing - Flowers of the Field
Sage's original infobox bio |
Below is Sage's original infobox bio! His infobox was eventually updated to include more puns and references to his fairytale role, as well as to properly reflect his updated character.
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