Post-it Notes and Grocery List (4 stars)
Choose a character or characters that you like, or choose a movie, world, whatever! Then, create Post-It notes in an image editor–multi-colored squares with handwritten-looking-text–that the character or characters in your chosen world would leave for themselves around the house. The Notes can be reminders, inside jokes, to-do-lists, grocery lists…whatever you want, write it down, then share it here! Make sure to let us know which universe/story/character you’re referencing, and include outside material (videos/clips/music, etc.) to help us understand the setting/context!
Story Behind the Story:
First off, let me start by saying that I love working with my character. Sometimes it baffles me how I came up with so much detail (and maybe a little concerning; she is a creepy character). If you would like to take a minute to get the background on Stella, click here. It will probably make the post-its a little more understandable.
Stella is all about manipulation; I decided to make her post-its reflect that aspect of her brain. All I kept thinking was, “Stella would never use post-its.” That is when the idea hit me. She would use them as a way to send a message or let someone know she was on to them. Each one of the post-its is a false clue or a call out to the person reading them. They have no real value to her life other than to mess with peoples minds. She is a sociopathic psychologist — manipulative post-its just scream her name.
Post-it Explanations: (starting from top left corner)
Stan Reins is the private detective hired by Fitz, Stella’s husband, to investigate his accusation that Stella is a sociopath. (The background information of Stella and Stan’s relationship is linked here) Currently, Stan has only run into Stella once. She claims to not know who he is, so he has portrayed himself as a prospective client. They have scheduled multiple appoints together, and Stan still has no concrete evidence to her husband’s accusations. However, Stan believes Fitz and doesn’t want to give up.
At this moment, Stan is in a session with Stella, but she gets a phone call that she, apparently, cannot miss. What he doesn’t know is that Stella planned the phone call with the hopes that Stan would go look at the post-its neatly placed on her otherwise empty desk. He of course takes the bait. Stella wants to see him squirm. She also has a suspicion that he is not who he says, and his reaction to the post-its will show her what is really true.
#1: 15798
This could be a house alarm code or a bank account number. Stella doesn’t even know what these numbers do, but she wants Stan to believe she has the code to one of her clients accounts or access to their house. She picked five random numbers in hopes that they will lead Stan to a dead end.
#2: Today’s appointments: George @11, Break, Blaire @ 2
George is one of the clients working with Stan to uncover Stella’s secret. According to George, he has not had an appointment with Stella in about 2 months, but if you read about the first interaction between Stan and Stella linked above, then you know that Stella came to George’s apartment to tell him she thought he needed to start coming to see her again. Coincidentally, this was also the first time that Stan meet with all of the clients who are suspicious of Stella, and then she just happened to show up during that meet-up. The other clients hid in another room while George, Stella, and Stan introduced themselves. It was almost as if Stella knew what was happening inside George’s appointment.
So, this post-it purposefully put George’s name as an appointment block to show Stan that Stella was once again moving into George’s mind. She actually didn’t have an appointment with George that day; he had called to cancel and say he would no longer be using her services. She uses the word “break” as a vague reference to make Stan believe she is trying to hide what she is doing between noon and two. She is wanted to create fake alibis to make Stan think she was occupied at those times and couldn’t possibly do anything.
#3: Stan Reins
The idea behind putting Stan’s name on the post-it is to worry him a little. With no other context or explanation, it could just be a reminder that she has an appointment with him or it could be a reminder to look him up to discover his secrets. Stella wants to get his heart racing a little at this point.
#4: “Everyone sees what you appear to be, few experience what you really are.”
Once again, this quote is to allude to Stella’s sociopathic tendencies. She has a feeling why Stan might be watching her, so she decides to give him a little nudge and ruffle some feathers. However, it could easily be a psychologists quote: she could tell it to clients to let them know they should always be who they truly are and not what other people want you to be. Stella is a crafty little something.
#5: Dr. appointment @ 12:30
In the orange post-it description, I mentioned that Stella purposefully put “break” instead of specifying where she would be. However, in this post-it she lets Stan know she has a doctors appointment at that time. But of course, there is no doctor’s appointment. This is just to give the allusion that she has some normal activities in her day. It is also a way for Stan to maybe question the meaning he has gathered from the other post-its. Maybe Stella is just not a personable person? Or maybe she just doesn’t express emotion well?
#6: stop by h–
Now Stella is just having too much fun messing with Mr. Reins. She intentionally didn’t finish this thought as a way to get Stan to panic a little. Stop by what? Why didn’t she have time to finish her thought? This sentence means absolutely nothing to her but to Stan it’s going to mean a couple of hours of searching the letter “h.”
#7: (531)-928-7194
This number means absolutely nothing to Stella. But when there is a number with no name, the intrigue rises? A clever rouse to get Stan on the wrong track.
#8: Grocery list: duct tape, rope, knives…find what you are looking for, Stan?
Clearly things have taken a new turn. She is provoking Stan. Letting him know that she is aware of his real plan. However, this is a bluff. Stella is still unsure of Stan. She plans on gauging his reaction when she comes back into the room. If Stan has seen these notes then he will know she is on to him and quickly give himself away by either the paleness of his face or the rush to leave.
#9: Charlie @ the boathouse
Here is where Stan starts to get confused. Charlie is another one of the clients that he is working with, but he also remembers Charlie as the one who barely spoke even when telling his story. Of all of the stories about Stella, Charlie’s was the least informative, almost as if he was forced to be there. So it is entirely probably that she may actually be meeting with Charlie and that is how she has become suspicious of Stan.
Right before she walks back into the room…. Stan realizes what these post-its really mean. He knows she has anticipated his nose scrounging around, so he sits calmly back in his chair and waits, using the time to pinch his cheeks, regain some color, and slow his breathing.
Work Itself:
Narrate the process:
This is was a hard one to come up with. I knew Stella would never use post-its, but I really wanted to do the assignment. I figured since she is a sociopathic psychologist the best solution would be to mess with someone’s mind.
I thought of all of the items that are normally used as evidence in criminal investigations: phone numbers, itineraries, locations etcetera. Since Stella is a smart cookie, I had her use all of those attributes in a manipulative way. However, I couldn’t just let it be that simple. I added the twist of her giving away her fake post-its by calling Stan out in one.
I completed this assignment by using GIMP, a free photoshopping application. I simply found a picture of blank post-its, dragged it into GIMP and then added text to each post-it. In order to save it, I exported the photo and saved it as a jpeg, then uploaded it to flickr and embedded it in this post by copying and pasting the URL.
