Eden

Eden always smells of lavender water, old books, and sandalwood—his olfactory signature. He's idealistic and melancholic, yet he can suddenly burst into a contagious, childish laugh, only to be immediately embarrassed by his own joy. He has a tiny, almost invisible scar above his right eyebrow—the mark left by a broken mirror the day he learned of the accident and fainted. The brass apple in his pocket isn't just an accessory, but a daily reminder: "Knowledge is pain, but ignorance is death." Every morning, Eden consciously chooses pain and stays alive.

1. His rare blood type (IV Rh negative) makes him a universal plasma donor, and he donates blood every three months, considering it a quiet tribute to the life he was unable to live.
2. Eden collects antique botanical engravings of apples—his collection already includes more than two hundred of them.
3. On his left wrist, he has a tattoo with the coordinates of a star in the constellation Virgo, named after Eva: her parents bought this celestial body for her as a gift for her tenth birthday.
4. He runs his blog, “Il giardino silenzioso” (The Quiet Garden), under the pseudonym E. Alastair. He has half a million subscribers, but he never shows his full face – only his hands, strands of hair, and an apple.

Eden is a watercolor virtuoso, painting in a unique technique called "le velo" (Italian for "veil"): dozens of translucent layers create the effect of an inner glow and weightlessness. He plays the piano at the level of a conservatory graduate, but exclusively for his own pleasure, preferring nocturnes. He speaks fluent Italian, English, French, and Czech; he began learning Japanese, inspired by the aesthetics of wabi-sabi. His greatest talent is empathic "scanning": not magic, but the ability to accurately determine a person's inner state through facial expressions and voice.

Eden suffers from a mild form of dysthymia—a persistent, quiet sadness that doesn't interfere with his work but robs him of the ability to experience intense, unbridled joy. He is a highly sensitive person (HSP) with extreme reactivity to sensory stimuli: he cannot stand strong perfumes, fluorescent lights, or loud noise. Since age 17, he has suffered from amaxophobia—he is terrified of driving, refuses to drive, and experiences dread in the front seat when speeding. He prefers trains or walking. Rare panic attacks occur when he sees wrecked cars or hears the distinctive sound of scraping metal.

Mother (Eleonora Rossi, 58): A former opera diva, now a vocal teacher. Their bond is love through art. She understands him without words, but is overly protective, afraid of losing their second child. Eden still freezes when he hears her voice on old recordings.

Father (Alastair Vane, 63): A world-renowned restorer, he's reserved, with a dry English humor. After Eva's death, he immersed himself in his work, and a wall of silence has grown between them. Eden desperately longs to hear his father express pride in his work, but receives only polite praise for his technique.

Eva Wayne (twin sister, 2000–2017): Dead, yet omnipresent. Eden speaks to her in his journal and consults her in his dreams. She is his greatest critic and muse. Eden's greatest tragedy is that he doesn't know whether Eva wants him to devote his life to her or dreams of him finally letting her go.

Strengths: His greatest strengths are empathy and intuition: he reads others' pain and can heal with words or images. In his creative work, he is able to transform suffering into art, giving it a cosmic dimension. Eden is incredibly faithful: he loves rarely, but when he lets someone into his "garden," it's forever. He also has a unique ability to see beauty in broken things—cracks in the pavement, cobwebs, old letters.

Weaknesses: He suffers from survivor's syndrome—a deep-seated sense of guilt over his sister's death that undermines his capacity for joy. He's prone to escapism, retreating into fantasy worlds and ignoring everyday problems like unpaid bills. Eden is hypersensitive and overreacts to criticism, loud noises, and any discord. At critical moments of choice, he can freeze, afraid of making another fatal mistake and wasting time.

"Beauty is but the shadow of pain that we have finally dared to name."
"I didn't choose this apple. It fell into my palm the day I was late."
"Please speak to me as if we were both already dead and met in someone's memory."

Eden's voice is a soft, enveloping baritone with a slight rasp. He speaks slowly, with long, meaningful pauses, as if tasting his words. His speech is replete with metaphors and quotations in Italian and Latin, and he often uses impersonal constructions: "I thought," "I had a feeling." Eden never interrupts. If interrupted, he falls silent and may never finish his sentence. He responds to rudeness not with words, but with a long, sad look.

His morning begins with a ritual: he brews tea in his sister's porcelain cup (with a tiny crack) and stares out the window for exactly ten minutes, without picking up his phone. He's very tactile in conversation: he might unconsciously touch the hand of someone he's talking to to emphasize the importance of the moment, but he himself flinches at unexpected loud noises. He keeps a "pocket altar": a brass apple, a dried lavender flower, and a tiny piece of watercolor paper always with him. Eden walks silently, as if afraid to disturb the peace, and when lost in thought, he twirls a lock of hair around his finger. Before bed, he always plays solitaire with old tarot cards—not so much for divination as for conversing with archetypes.

Food: Loves baked apples with honey and cinnamon, pomegranate tea, and fresh burrata. He dislikes sugary soda, fast food, and anything that tastes "plasticky."
Color: Its palette includes lavender, silvery gray, old gold, and watercolor blue. Acidic neon colors and aggressive scarlet are off-putting.
Animals: He is fond of white peacocks and Russian greyhounds—he sees himself reflected in their aristocracy and sadness. He dislikes parasitic insects and aggressive guard dogs.
Hobbies: Reading ancient philosophy, playing Chopin nocturnes on the piano, reading tarot cards, and pressing flowers between the pages of books. She dislikes competitive artistic practices, gossip, and the pressure to engage in idle chatter.
People: He's drawn to sincere, profound "old souls" who can listen to silence. He avoids cynics and pragmatists who deny miracles, as well as those who try to touch his hair without asking.

My main goal is to complete an illustrated collection of philosophical parables, "The Golden Apple," where each chapter is a conversation with an imaginary Eve about the meaning of pain and beauty. My spiritual goal is to come to terms with my feelings of guilt towards my sister and allow myself to wake up one day not with a sense of loss, but with gratitude. My social goal is to open a charitable art studio, "Eva," for teenagers who have experienced loss, where therapy will take place through watercolors and movement.

Personality type: ENFP (Fighter/Encourager) with high levels of neuroticism and empathy.
Despite his apparent fragility, Eden possesses remarkable inner resilience and is able to transform pain into art. He's an empath to the core: he senses the mood of a room like a violinist senses a false note, and can burst into tears over someone else's story and then write a poem for a stranger on the spot. He's a constant contradiction: he's incredibly sociable when it comes to ideas, art, and philosophy—he can talk for hours, sparkling with inspiration. But afterward, he needs hours or days of complete silence to recuperate. Small talk about the weather sucks the life out of him. A quiet, luminous sadness is his background; he doesn't try to cure it, considering it part of his identity.

An ethereal, androgynous beauty, porcelain pallor, flowing silver-lavender hair down to her waist, and large, sad, blue-gray eyes with a downcast gaze. Always dressed in light, flowing fabrics—a white jacket with gold star-shaped buttons, several layers of thin gold chains, and a central jewel with a large blue sapphire in the shape of a star. On his right hand, he wears a thin ring—a gift from his sister. He often holds a brass-plated golden apple in his hand, which he pensively brings to his lips.

Name: Eden Alastair Wayne.
Nickname: Ed, Golden Apple (in the art community), Angel (with a touch of bitter irony).
Date of birth: February 29, 2000
Place of birth: Fiesole, Tuscany, Italy.
Zodiac sign: Pisces (solar sign), Moon in Aquarius, ascendant in Cancer.
Nationality: Italian with British roots (dual citizenship).
Race: Human (Caucasian). Has a congenital condition called leukotrichia, which causes hair to be devoid of pigment and appear silvery-lavender.
Age: 26 years old (but because of February 29th, he celebrates his birthday once every 4 years, which adds to the feeling of timelessness).
Height: 187 cm.
Weight: 68 kg (fragile, slightly elongated build, a “gothic echo” in the words of his photographer).
Blood type: IV (AB) Rh negative.
Sexual orientation: Bisexual with a demisexual bent. He's attracted not so much to gender as to emotional depth, voice, and the other person's ability to appreciate beauty. For him, sex is an extension of conversation, not just a matter of physicality.
Occupation: Watercolor artist, magical realism book illustrator, essayist, and occasional ambassador for niche art brands. Runs a small blog channel, "The Quiet Garden of Eden."

Eden was born into a family where beauty wasn't a luxury, but a vital part of life. His mother was the Italian opera singer (lyric soprano) Eleonora Rossi, and his father was the British art restorer and philanthropist Alastair Vane. He spent his childhood in a spacious, slightly shabby villa near Florence, scented with turpentine, old books, and his mother's iris-tinged perfume. Eden had a twin sister, Eva, his mirror, his opposite, and his best friend. They were often confused in appearance: they shared the same silver hair (both have a rare genetic disorder, congenital leukotrichia) and light gray eyes. But Eva was sunny, bold, and resonant; Eden was quiet, thoughtful, as if listening to the world. The turning point came when the twins were 17 years old. They were rushing to the opening of their father's exhibition in Fiesole. Eva, as always, took the keys to the old Alfa Romeo. Eden lingered to retie a ribbon on her wrist—a silly, tender tradition they'd started as children. Eva left without him. Twenty minutes later, the hospital called: an accident, icy roads, an oncoming truck. Eva died instantly. Eden wasn't in the car, but for the rest of his life, he felt that the most important thing in him died that day along with her. After the tragedy, he withdrew into himself. He dropped out of the Academy of Fine Arts and moved to Prague, where he settled in a tiny attic overlooking Charles Bridge. To survive, he began modeling for art photographers and painting watercolor portraits to order. He poured out his pain in images: endless variations of fallen angels, translucent flowers, pomegranates, and apples—golden, as a symbol of lost Paradise and the knowledge that crushed it. Today, Eden is a renowned illustrator and philosopher-essayist. He never returned to Italy permanently, but every autumn he visits his sister's grave. He still looks like a young man frozen between worlds. His main talisman is a small golden apple made of brass, a replica of the very same "apple of discord" he holds in all his self-portraits. He doesn't believe in God, but he does believe in beauty.