Assistant Cook ReinePersona Information: Name: Reine Age: 21 Gender: Female Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual Rank/Craft: Assistant Cook Mother: Jaren, 41, Cook Father: Tiyor, 45, Baker Siblings: Tarina, 19, Candidate (Fort Weyr). Foster Parents: None Significant Other: None, but boy is she looking! Children: None. Persona Appearance: Reine is a very pretty brunette girl, with a sparkle about her that makes people smile at the sight of her. Her hair is a medium brown, with more red and blonde in it than black hair; her skin is an even light brown. Tans are becoming popular in Daragon, as they're almost impossible to avoid; pale people freckle, so those who tan well are best off. Reine looks good tanned, and her short, round figure (not plump, you understand, just well-padded) is often clad in reddish browns that make her tan seem more noticeable. She braids ribbons into her hair when she has the time, though usually it's back in a knot to keep it out of the soup. Persona Personality: Some women are constantly complaining about how men rule the world; Reine isn't one of them. She doesn't want much from life - just a happy family and lots of good cooking - and all that can be found in a hold, whether the men are "chauvinist pigs" or not. She understands that no matter what happens to the world, cooks will always be necessary, and she's settled happily into her adult life. Ever the optimist, Reine simply refuses to take a cynic's view of life; as the world has never done any harm to her, the young woman sees no reason to be bitter, and is annoyed by "perfectly well off" people who are. Reine is developing something of a notoriety in the hold among young men; it is a fairly well-known fact that she wants to find a man, who will look after her and help her raise lots of babies. She'll take any man who's reasonably even-tempered and isn't missing any limbs, but she won't give him anything until their marriage day, much to many men's annoyances. She's a pretty girl, and determined; she doesn't think it will take too long. Persona History: Reine was brought up in Fort Seahold, where her parents both worked in the kitchens. From an early age, she was taste-testing and sticking her hands in the bread dough and otherwise being a nuisance; her parents realised the easiest way to deal with her was to just let her work in the kitchens, chopping vegetables or stirring soup. Reine loved being in the thick of things, and the crowded, noisy, gossipy kitchens was heaven for her. She never formally apprenticed, but since she'd been helping the cooks since she had six turns, she developed an instinct for good cooking. She was an excellent cook by her eighteenth turn, and her meat pies and wherry stews were much in demand during cold Fortian winters. She also made a lovely summer dish of fresh packtail and citrus fruit - very exotic, for Fort Seahold. She was disappointed, however, to learn that she couldn't get a good, paying job at the hold; there were plenty of cooks, and no matter how good she was, she wouldn't get more than a quarter-mark a week from the Seaholder - a pittance, really. She heard from some sailors back from a trip to Daragon that they had precious few good cooks, so she made the boldest decision of her life, and bought passage south with all the money she had in the world: six marks. Her parents wept, her sister hugged her and gave her a finely-embroidered scarf, and Reine went south. She cooked on the twelve-day voyage for all the sailors, and her fish stews and her puddings proved quite popular. She landed at Daragon on her twentieth birthingday. She sought an audience with the hold steward, and was given the post of assistant cook and a wage of two and a half marks every month - not bad! She set about learning the food likes and dislikes of the Seahold's population (much the same as up north, but not so much for hot food). During her free time, she bummed around the beaches, looking for firelizard eggs; the first time she'd seen one she'd been enraptured, and as she saw four more on her first day at the Hold (they nest on Daragon beaches) she determined she'd have to find one. After many unsuccesful gren clutches, she finally managed to track down a gold clutch; with her pack full of fresh fish, she impressed a tiny blue, whom she named Dap, short for Dapper. She is a very happy person, and is currently searching out a mate; Reine would like to make some grand-babies to write home about to her parents and sister. Pet Information: Pet Name: Dapper (Dap) Pet Breed: Firelizard Pet Color: Blue Pet Appearance: Dap is still a young flit, at one and a half turns. He is slender and has a snakey look about him, with a very long neck and tail and thin body. His wings are proportionally huge, and give him great speed in flight. He is a pale blue color, like a winter sky on a cloudless day. His eyes are large, and he has a piercing whistle-screech sound that he makes when angry or scared. Pet Personality: To use one of Reine's favorite expressions, Dap is a blithering idiot. His head is probably full of nothing more than dust and lint; he has all the sense of a headless wherry. He has a knack for getting into trouble with larger flits, or canines, or runners, or wherries, or boys with slingshots, or anything that he should be avoiding; he also likes to collect shiny objects, which has lead to various petty thefts. Reine is constantly returning his trophies, and the blue is too slow to realize she's taking them from him. He's not deliberately troublesome, but he is definitely a hazard. All references to worlds and characters based on Anne McCaffrey's fiction are copyright© Anne McCaffrey 1967, 2001, all rights reserved, and used by permission of the author. |
