lily in the mud. {tboft}
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❝𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝔀𝓻𝓮𝓽𝓬𝓱𝓮𝓭 𝓯𝓾𝓬𝓴𝓲𝓷𝓰 𝓫𝓮𝓪𝓼𝓽.❞
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✥ 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬 ✥
𝐍𝐚𝐦𝐞: Essa Din Shallows
𝐀𝐠𝐞: 19
𝐁𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 + 𝐙𝐨𝐝𝐢𝐚𝐜: 16 June + Gemini☉ Scorpio ☾ Sagittarius ⇡
𝐁𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞: Leaker Landing, Brandelbellan𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: Edder & Aspalis Shallows
𝐌𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥: Betty Schupp
✥ 𝐏𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 ✥
While Essa does not possess most of the traits her sister was praised for, she does have an inversion of them. Almost like she was born backwards, in a way. For instance, Enna was magnetic for her disarming aura while Essa is magnetic for all her wickedness- she attracts an ilk of mates that...are largely her friends for the shock value more than any real connection. She's despised at Court for, not only legitimate reasons, but also because she is of low-birth and seems to have somehow bewitched a wealthy widower into obsession with her. Essa is horrible- a thief, a liar, a manipulator, and often needlessly cruel- but she isn't guilty of the larger crimes she's accused of (such as the murder of her sister or the entrancing of a once respected man). It's given her a lot of room to feel sorry for herself- she does like to sulk on her own and brood when she's not getting her way. Socially, Essa's a pariah with the up-standing members of Court (even with the King Himself), but she has managed to draw a little circle of heathens to herself because she does like a bit of company, a bit of story-telling and gossiping and sweet drink. Men fancy her, but any relationships are kept secret because they don't wish to have their names sullied alongside hers. She's really cultivated for herself a very lonely existance, even if she won't ackowledge that fact. No one really wants to be tied to her other than the widower whose mental state is currently a question mark. So, Essa really can't wait to get into a new environment to possibly try to network her way into a "tidier" situation than the one she's currently got at home- perhaps in another Kingdom where she doesn't run the risk of slipping straight into the earth wherever she goes. More than she'd like to admit, Essa is looking high and low for some sort of acceptance- she just doesn't know how to get it without lying her arse off.
✥ 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 ✥
Essa and her twin sister, Enna, grew up quite poor in Brandelbellan's Leaker Landing. While Enna was always a happy, adventurous child- well-loved and popular, Essa was more of a conniving creature with a penchant for delving out harsh-truths and needless venom. (Her mother liked to say she has "a mouth like a Nix".) The twins were identical yet dissimilar in spirit as night and day. And it was no secret that Enna was the favourite. When Essa was thirteen, her sister drowned in the fathomless mires of Leaker Landing- and Essa was blamed for having let Enna go into the deep bog alone. Enna's body was never recovered, thoroughly taken by the bog, and Essa was essentially run out of Leaker Landing by its inhabitants (for some were convinced she murdered Enna out of jealousy and they wanted the girl to hang for it).
Essa ended up in Din-Mire (she never liked the deep marshland anyway) and managed to fenegal her way into the home of a lesser noble family- the Mwdryses. She made many claims in which to make herself appear pitiful- one of which was that her father had killed her sister in a drunken rage and that he was now after Essa. Out of a desire to keep her safe, the Mwdrys Lord and Lady offered Essa a bed until other arrangements could be made for her. However, the "arrangements" were hardly what Essa would have expected.
They sent her to work in the House of Midden-Hel. As a kitchen girl, no less. Essa never had grandeurous ideas about her future, but she at least did not see herself soot-covered, feet aching, hair stuck to her forehead from the heat of the fires. She took every opportunity to get out of the underbelly of the House, if only to fill her lungs with the cool bog air, but for the most part, she remained choked (and angry as hell) in the kitchens for close to two years. Then, a misfortune-turned-fortune.
When Essa was sixteen, she was caught by the Head Cook eating a tray of fare meant for a guest of the Midden-Hel King- and it was evident that this was certainly not the first instance. She was promptly taken before the King for punishment- and his order was that Essa be beaten. This, all before the eyes of the entire assembled Mudling Court- and it happened to be that Lord Mwdrys was among them. Instead of the beating, Mwdrys stepped in on Essa's behalf, asking to remove her from the Royal House altogether by taking her back into his own. Midden-Hel, thoroughly indifferent at that point, allowed it.
It turned out that the Lady Mwdrys had died a year previously, leaving the Lord alone. However, it was apparent to Essa that whatever moved Mwdrys to take a virtual stranger and an apparent thief back into his home, it wasn't as simple as pity or heartsickness over the passing of his wife.
For the past three years, living in the House of Mwdrys, Essa has been considering a number of things. Furthest from her mind, however, is the notion of marring Mwdrys- as the widower has asked (begged) for her hand now at least a dozen times. (He's a foul man, whatever he portrays himself to be at Court.) No, her considerations have much more to do with poisoned cups followed by nights upon nights of lascivious partying with her friends (the few she has as she is quite despised at Court). Possibly it's more of a daydream than an actual consideration. Possibly...
Her daydreams aside for now, Essa will be leaving for the Lillium Academy, if for nothing more than to create some space from Lord Mwdrys and to satiate her desire for a new element- one where she is not so...infamous. Besides, how quaint is it to have made up a little school that teaches something so banal as peace? Just a darling concept- stupid but darling.
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