Fiametta is a character in 80 Days. She is a Venetian gondolier who struggles to keep her business afloat as she has to compete with the new automated gondoliers of the Scuola.
Background[]
Fiametta offers people gondolier rides for a living in Venice, but struggles with completion from automaton gondoliers. As a result and because of her personal dislike of them, she has a grudge against the Scuola and their allies, believing that a human worker will always be better than an automaton counterpart. This also leads to her being frustrated with the Italian Risorgimento, as it gives the Scuola wider control over the country as a whole. Other frustrations of hers include Dmitri Sophos, who at some point wronged her brother in some way, and automatons in general, agreeing with the Pope that they are soulless and inhuman.
Role[]
While in Venice, Passepartout can meet Fiametta one night while she is out with a group of her friends, and clearly very drunk. Being as dizzy as she is, a friendly introduction from Passepartout is all it takes to make her lose her focus long enough to fall into the canal. After getting no help from her laughing friends she can be saved by the heroic Passepartout, who can decide whether or not to jump in after her, alhough she won't be very grateful towards this gesture. The next day he might hear a familiar voice while walking around the City of Canals, and he can discover Fiametta at her job as a gondolier, apparently unaware of ever meeting the valet the night before. This may also be their first meeting, potentially. She then furiously tries to get Passepartout to ride on her gondola rather than one of the automaton-captained ones of her competitor, Zorzi. If he chooses to ride with Fiametta, Passepartout will get to ask her about the automatons, the Scuola, and Italy as a whole before departing; should he vocalize his disagreement with the Scuola and their methods to Fiametta she will give him a Zouave Braid at the end of their ride, revealing herself as a secret member of the organization.
Those events can also happen the other way round, with Passepartout first meeting Fiametta as a gondolier and later drunk and falling into the canal. In that case, she remembers Passepartout and is friendly towards him, although she still reacts poorly to the rescue attempt. Her friends mention that something bad happened to her brother, and when asked Fiametta will tell Passepartout that a man called Sophos is responsible for his death. Fiametta says that one can meet him on the airship from Rome to Athens and asks Passepartout to stab him in the heart for her.
Character[]
Fiametta is feisty, passionate and easy to anger, holding grudges against people who she feels have wronged her. However, she is quite accommodating of people who are willing to listen to her and side with her ideologies, like her vehement hatred of automata. She has a love for gondolier and the canals of Venice, which her friends laugh at her for but are fond of regardless.
Trivia[]
- The name 'Fiametta' is Italian in origin, and means 'flickering fire', probably an illusion to her passionate nature.