Origin
A descendant of the people of the Space Between, Fig Keele was raised in an unhappy home which she escaped by entering magical worlds and alternate realities which she later believed to simply be vivid imaginations. As a teenager she began to hear the voices of houses, and became a teen detective for some time. Following a mental breakdown and subsequent recovery she became determined to become an architect, though by her senior year she was failing out, and was increasingly haunted by the image of a mysterious House. One night her house was invaded by a Pair of the Conception. Fleeing, she found herself at the entrance of the House of Mystery.
Creation
Fig was created by Lilah Sturges and Luca Rossi. She made her first appearance in House of Mystery #1.
Major Story Arcs
Room and Boredom
Finding herself to be among the few who are unable to leave the House, Fig repeatedly attempts to escape, in between taking up the newly-vacant position of waitress in the House. She finds herself falling in love with the bartender, Harry, who reciprocates. During a stress-relieving practice of smashing the hell out of a room in the House, Fig attempts to smash through one of the walls, breaking the House’s heart. It begins to collapse on her and the other occupants, in an effort to kill itself in despair. Fig apologizes to halt the collapse, and the House tries to forcibly eject her.
Love Stories for Dead People
Fig tries to leave the House but almost immediately turns back, as she is confronted by the Pair of the Conception and her father. She accompanies Harry and Ann into the basement of the House seeking a way out. Instead they encounter former waitress Miranda, a living nightmare called Bête Noir and, horrifyingly, Fig’s father. He attempts to drag her out of the House, but she refuses to abandon her friends, and returns to help defeat the nightmare.
The Space Between
Now that her father is trapped in the House with them, Fig learns about the Space Between and that she has the ability to “fold” or “cross” space, allowing her to travel across dimensions. When the Conception, allied with the Thinking Man’s Army, assault the House, Fig uses her ability to cross the entire House to the City in the Space Between.
The Beauty of Decay
Now trapped in the City, Fig tries to ignore the increasingly desperate situation in the House. She is finally convinced to accompany her father to the Pathfinder’s Academy, the City’s repository of knowledge on folding. There, her father attacks and nearly kills Jordan in an attempt to get the blood necessary to cross out of the city. She saves him and flees to the House, finding it under attack by Ceorel, who is an agent of the Conception, Cain, and hundreds of ghosts. When the Pair of the Conception arrives she agrees to a deal, in which she gives up everything she loves and eventually agrees to join them if they save the House and its remaining occupants.
Under New Management
The House is permanently relocated to the Goblin Market, and Fig uneasily shares management of it with Cain. Her younger brother, Strawberry, about whom she had forgotten, and who she had also forced everybody to forget, appears in the House. He attacks her, but she is saved by Jordan, who later murders Strawberry.
Safe as Houses
Fig is approached by the witch Queen Diana, who is kind to Fig in order to convince her to travel to the Summerlands and help defeat the Thinking Man. She and the others are briefly imprisoned in the castle dungeon, but they are rescued by her toy rabbit, Walden. She is convinced that her reality-warping powers exist, and uses them to help defeat the monsters besieging the Summerland, enabling the witches to defeat the Thinking Man. She attempts to rescue Walden’s dimension, but is too late. She returns to the House.
Conception
When the Pair arrive to take her with them Fig hides in the House, which promptly lifts off with only her and Cain inside. They journey through smaller and smaller versions of the House, which contain within them scenes from Fig’s past. Slowly, she comes to realise that she is actually the creator of the Conception. Arriving at the Conception’s homeworld, she is captured and taken into their custody.
Desolation
Fig meets the architect of the Conception, who is herself. She and the Conception speak about the Omneity, the art project that has driven all of the previous death and destruction, and she watches as it is completed. When the final piece is placed and the worlds fall into Omneity, the Conception attempts to kill both herself and Fig, both because she does not believe herself worthy of living in a perfect universe, and to make everybody else suffer the loss of her. Fig is saved by Strawberry, and the pair travel to Lotus Blossom’s new House, where the world is rapidly collapsing. She stabilizes the universe and writes herself out of everybody’s memories. She creates her own version of Harry to live with, and writes up the events from her perspective. She returns to the House one final time to give her old friends the story from her perspective.
Powers and Abilities
Fig is a reality warper who is able to create fantastical alternate dimensions using her mind. She can also use this ability to create independent sentient beings, and to generally alter reality in her home dimension, with no known limits. She is able to “fold” or “cross,” allowing her to move between various dimensions and times at will, and she can take others and even large objects with her, though this can be straining. She possesses a deep connection to houses.