Real name: Lydia Harris
Occupation: Counter girl at the Books and Beans/Student
at Columbia University (Art Major)
Identity: Lydia's identity as the Gothic Coffee Wench is
well-known. Her identity as a comic artist is not.
Legal status: United States Citizen with no criminal record.
Other aliases: "Lyd"
Marital status: Single
Known relatives: Her parents are alive and well, living in
California along with her sister Christina
Group affiliation: None
Base of operations: Columbia University/Books and Beans
First appearance: May, 2001
History:
Lydia Harris is the oldest daughter of Ira and Susan Harris. She has a younger sister named Christina who is in the 10th grade and still lives in California with her parents. Lydia was born in San Francisco in August of 1981. Her mother is an ER doctor and her father is an accomplished plastic surgeon. Mr. and Mrs. Harris tried to spend a lot of time with their daughters, but their schedules often prevented it. Lydia and her sister grew up in a huge house just outside of San Francisco, fully staffed with groundskeepers, cooks, maids and nannies who became like a second family to the girls while their parents were away at work.
One summer when Lydia was eleven and her sister was seven, they were outside playing when one of the groundskeepers on their parents' estate was fixing the shingles on the roof. Lydia called up to him and waved, but as he turned to wave back, he lost his footing and fell to the driveway two stories below. Christina ran to the house to get help, but Lydia ran towards the driveway. The man had been killed in the fall, and as Lydia approached the scene, one of the gardeners tried to keep her from seeing. Lydia still managed to catch a glimpse, and then she started screaming.
After what happened, the girls' parents made extra efforts to spend time with them and give them extra attention. After a few weeks of nightmares, Christina began to forget the incident. Lydia, however, became quiet and withdrawn. She spent less time playing outside and more time up in her room by herself. Her parents were concerned by her change in behaviour, and enrolled her in art classes to try and bring her out of her funk.
Lydia took to art instantly, and found that it was an excellent way to express herself. (Much better than piano, which her parents had tried unsuccessfully to interest her in.) Lydia worked with a variety of mediums and most of her pieces involved fantasy elements - Dragons and Vampires and what not. Most of Lydia's work had a darker side, however, adn this only increased as the years progressed. Lydia also began wearing all black and listening to heavy metal and industrial music.
At around age 16, Lydia began falling in wit the goth crowd, dressing in black and listening to industrial and heavy metal music and later frequenting many clubs in the San Francisco area. Lydia attended a private school, but found that she was often ostracized for the way she dressed and the "attitude" she had. She spent more and more time on her own working on her artwork. She recently started her own web comic which actually deals with her own life and focuses on a young woman (whom she calls ) and her interactions with a world that doesn't understand her. It's hosted at keenspot.com and she has a bit of a fanbase, but nothing too substantial. Throughout school, Lydia maintained good greats - nothing remarkable, but enough to graduate in the upper third of her class. She was accepted to Columbia University, which was /well/ within her parents' budget. She currently studies art there.
Height: 5'6" Weight: Average, let's leave it at that.
Eyes: Brown, covered by contacts Hair: Short, dyed black,
spiked and streaked with colour
Unusual physical characteristics: Lydia looks typical 'Goth'
and often wears designer contact lenses and puts unusal colouring in her
hair. She has many piercings in her ears.
Strength level: Lydia has the average strength of a woman her
age who engages in regular exercise.
Known superhuman powers: None.
Other abilities: Lydia is a fairly talented artist who
maintains her own webcomic based loosely on her own life.
Weapons and paraphernalia: A pen and paper and
occasionally a scalding hot cappuchino.
Other notes: Lydia may seem like a hard ass, but once
you get past the layers of black eyeliner and fishnets, she's
actually... A hard ass. Hmm...