Personality

Emilia is like a frosted multi-layered cake where each layer is a little bit more concerning than the last.The frosting is her hollow flirty side, sweet and empty. It's the hallmark of the alluring redhead, with bright green eyes and a peachy freckled smile, spurring butterflies and fluttered hearts in those around her whose names she may never learn. It's not hard to see this side of her, especially when at the inn; bartending and waitressing have her busy, but keeping the patrons happy and feeling special helps keep things smooth during her shift. It's the side of her that still holds from her time in the guild, and only grows thicker in her early days of Mistria. Back when keeping allies pacified but an arm's distance (here today, likely gone tomorrow), endearing yourself to as many people as possible was merely a survival tactic. Having top-pickings for who you are sent on assignments with is a better guarantee for survival if you're a stick-out in the minds of the strongest or the most well-liked. Effort, something she doesn't consider herself to be worth, is what it takes to break past this part of her.The second layer beneath it, however, is tart. It's a sour, snippy, harsh citrus, a biting brattiness, and far from everyone's tastes. Push her buttons, pry too deeply, call her a child, short, noisy, annoying, and you'll reach this layer before you even wanted to. It hits like biting into a red strawberry only to realize it's been picked too early and out of season. This side of her is far more prone to pouts and teasing over winks and sweet nothings. It's the bark and the bite, it's the warning shot. Perhaps you've started to piss her off, or perhaps you're simply getting too close. A lifetime of attachment only begetting punishment fostered this side of her for fifteen years, and as much as she would rather fight you than admit it, the idea of getting close to others again, only to risk something (anything) happening to them is something she simply cannot put herself through anymore. If you're not turned away by this side and are determined to stick around, or end up breaking past it by matching her energy, you'll break past the "tsun" and hit the "dere".The third layer beneath it is sweet to the point of feeling almost like a reward. It's a flavor not advertised on the package. It's soft and decadent and unexpected, a cinnamon and vanilla hug when you'd expected a punch. It's the side of Emilia that has long since been tucked away as a liability. Hunting monsters in the dark has no room for hugs, scrappy scowling guild halls have no room for squeaky laughter. Perhaps the years of repressing it has only turned it even sweeter, like a distilled concentrate. She finds this side of her to be embarrassing – the side that likes dresses that twirl nicely, the side that wants to stop and smell the wildflowers, the side of her that holds her duck like he's a baby and sings him to sleep. Anyone that reaches this side of her will have a redhead on their hands for life, whether they want to or not. It's the phase of friendship that she only has ever tasted for herself post-Guild. As a girl who's better at actions over words, this deeply sentimental side of her is so wholly unpracticed that she often won't really know what to do at this point. It's the ’cakes in your mailbox’, the ‘tiny notes of thanks’, the ‘surprise gifts that remind me of you’, the ‘heart drawn in your coffee order’. It's nervous and unpracticed and full of awkward moments like a baby deer learning how to walk, but as long as you don't laugh too hard at her attempts, or mind some aggressive physical affection, it's perhaps the layer that makes it all worth it.

History

table of contents:

• ➤ circumstances of birth & cultural heritage
• ➤ early life
• ➤ middle / adult life
• ➤ inciting incident
• ➤ life in mistria

CIRCUMSTANCES OF BIRTH & CULTURAL HERITAGE

27 years ago off the coast of Caldosia, Emilia was born on a docked ship to Delphine Goldhart, a crass, selfish, and hauntingly beautiful seafaring woman with zero interest in a wailing little party pooper. For the sin of wanting and the shame of crying, her mother had initially opted to toss the unwanted bundle of noise into the sea. At the considerable behest of her crewmates, she opted instead to drop off the child at the doorstep of the orphanage of Oar’s Rest, the town they’d docked at, having placed the child into a basket that’d previously held a handful of baguettes, stolen earlier that day. Delphine didn’t even bother knocking, figuring that the crying child was annoying enough to grab whoever’s attention was necessary. In a bustling and boisterous port town, the newborn Emilia’s desperate cries for help were lucky to not have been drown out in their entirety.

early life

The minute Emilia could walk and talk and steal, she began falling in with the more rough and tumble crowd of Oar’s Rest’s youths in lieu of staying at the orphanage, waiting for the chance of a chance to find a family who would love her. The older kids would be enough, a fistful of brothers she didn’t have to wish for, who would have her tiny back as much as she could have theirs. At an unfortunately early age, she learned how to use her big green eyes and gap tooth smile to get away with petty theft, then graduated to batting her eyes for free cookies from the local vendors and older scamps. As more and more older kids started getting into the local Grand Capital Guild, Emilia became more allured at the prospect – somewhere stable to sleep and eat, and all she had to in exchange was do basic tasks? Learn to use a sword, hit things with it, and be rewarded with warm bread and even warmer blankets? It sounded like a deal she couldn’t refuse, and at the age of 8, she enrolled in the Caldosian Capital Guild.Months passed like the pages of illegible books, poured over by emerald eyes, taking in the diagrams and doodles left behind by older monster slayers before her. Depictions of fascinating creatures, full of claws and tusks and talons, filled her wild imagination. The words on the page meant nothing to her – the guild taught to rumble, not to read – but everything from sword grips to bite marks to attack patterns embedded themselves into her minds eye. Her bookish fascination would prove to aid her well, no matter how much the larger children mocked her for it. She was small, and cute, and a girl, and spent all day staring at old drawings, but every part of her they deemed unworthy of becoming an adventurer only became a boon. She was small but she was hard to hit. She was cute, and it made her disarming. She’d been studying, which meant she knew how to hold a sword, what monster names were, and how to handle them when the time came.And the time would come sooner than it should’ve.All adventurer hopefuls must undergo a Final Exam of sorts in order to graduate into the ranks of Junior Adventurer, and Emilia was certainly no different. The grouping however, was unusual; rather than the usual four or five, the guild sent out an unprecedented eight guildies to handle a local town’s request for aid. A baby gryphon had been eating their crops and damaging their farmland. It took the effort of all eight to bring down the menace, but their pride and celebration was cut short by the enraged cry of the monster that’d been stalking them like prey for hours and miles.It was this day where Emilia made several new memories.
The indistinguishable smell of ones’ own blood mixed with everyone else’s.
The shriek of a gryphon with nothing left to lose.
The feeling of a white knuckle grip of life on a hilt too big for nine year old hands.
Eight left. Eight returned. Four on foot.And then she turned ten.It lingered within her, the smell of blood and the scream of the gryphon, and it held her as a prisoner of her own mind. It wasn't until Lutey, old enough and long-since tagged with the guild’s insignia, gave her a pep talk that reformed her worldview for years to come: sitting around and grieving the lost is a waste of the time that surviving has afforded you. You must continue, remember, and survive. For your sake, and for theirs. Their names and faces can remain in your heart and mind, but life is short , and they merely bought you more time. Make good on it, but never stop, never reflect, never linger.From this point forward, Emilia was an adventurer for the AGCG, hunting whatever monsters were to be taken down, accepting any quests on the board with however many mates tagged along. Each mission, she would leave behind potential friends with a “see you tomorrow”, knowing it was never a promise, but a wish.

MIDDLE / ADULT LIFE

Years and names and fasces all blur and go by while Emilia’s primary focus leans into serving the guild. Despite the sights, the nightmares, and the fading memories, she cannot bring herself to bite the hand that feeds. Shelter, food, and training, over the course of her formative years, has rendered her into a polished weapon for the AGCG, and her rank climbs in kind. Emilia’s resolve to enjoy her life for those who no longer can serves as a buoy for her personality; her levity is uncommon for the other in her ranks, her ever-keen awareness for the brevity of life pushing her to ‘enjoy’ it to the fullest by whatever means necessary. Her endearing cheekiness, smug smile, and cocky laugh remained as mainstays in the mess hall, while soft singing voice carried old Caldosian folk songs though the air on long trips on-foot. It was a happiness of desperation, a jubilance out of spite. For every person that Emilia kept at arm’s length for her own sanity was another comrade charmed to her side in a hunt, someone she hoped would carry her home just as much as she hoped she wouldn’t have to carry them.On the eve of her 25th birthday, Emi reaches Monster Dispatch Division Rank 1-A, the highest rank in her division. It’s a lonely achievement, accompanied by little more than her old sword and the daggers that’d got her that far. She celebrated in the mess hall in a sea of grinning, charmed, unfamiliar faces she was too worn down to commit to memory anymore.

inciting incident

Her rise in the ranks did not go unnoticed, however. In the underbelly of the guild, the powers that be took notice, and deemed her ready for a reassignment. After all, when one reaches the peak of their first mountain, why not offer them a second? The news came briskly – Emilia were to become a Rose Thorn, lowest rank of the Peacekeeping Division’s Hands of the Nobility. Little was known about them, especially to her, but she was far too deep into the hold of the guild to turn them down. It was less of an offer and more of a demand, and she knew better than most that obedience meant food, and subservience meant shelter.She took to her new assignment like a fish to water, her previous experience with daggers and throwing knives making for a smooth transition from hunting one type of monster to another. Training went smoothly, though the underlying implications were growing harder and harder to ignore. What the Hands were for, and the type of ‘monsters’ she’d be assigned to hunt from now on, were smaller, upright, and intelligent.The Hands of the Nobility were hitmen. Knowing what she would inevitably have to do sat in her stomach like a stone and loomed over her like an encroaching shadow, but she knew that there was no other choice. The guild, and its royal clientele, functioned in absolutes.It was the evening of WInter 6 when she was sent out on her first assignment. A gala, celebrating the achievements of a particularly shrewd businessman and his latest successful venture. The guild had dressed her to play the part – a red silken dress to blend in with the splendor of the wealthy. It was supposed to be easy, just a quick slip in, lure away, and removal of the nobility’s little swindler.However, seeing the fear in his eyes, feeling the blood on her hands, seeing her knife in his chest, having missed its target in anxiety, and having to hear those words from a wiry brown haired monster who could feel and speak and beg:“Please… It’s my birthday.”In the dark of night, Emilia fled the gala, the capital grounds, the city limits. She had nothing to her name but the dress of the night, her old change of clothes, a now-empty satchel of tesserae, and a sun-bleached fluttering flyer gripped in her clammy hand like a lifeline. Whatever this “Mistria” was, looking for adventurers to farm, was her only chance.She couldn’t keep doing what the guild had asked, yet she shouldn’t bite the hand that fed.She could never go back and face them as a failure, but she could flee from them like the coward she was.She could live a life of half-truths, the former adventurer who just needed a change of pace, ready to charm and help and grow whatever greenery she needed to in order to appease them.She knew the guild would come looking, to collect their investment, to seek retribution for their little ‘sunk cost’. Perhaps, if she could just stay out of their grasp for long enough, she could be free, taste the sweets of the outside world, be a normal girl, even if just a little while…

LIFE IN MISTRIA

Coming soon...

Gifts

loved

┃ (Caldosian Sword) "Wha-? A sword from back home?? This… this is actually really kind, I’m… thanks."┃ (Golden Duck Feather) "Aww, this looks like one of Finnie’s baby feathers! Thank you, I love it!"┃ (Coconut Cream Pie) "…bold. I like that in a lad."┃ (Mermaid’s Comb) "…heh. A mermaid’s comb for a seafarer's daughter? That’s sweet, thank you."

liked

┃ (Any liked baked dish) "Was my stomach really bein’ that loud? Ha, sorry! Thank you though!"┃ (Any liked fruit) "Looks juicy! I can’t wait to take a bite."┃ (Any liked flower) "For me? You’re way too sweet!"┃ (Caldosian Artifacts) “Aw… thank you.”

💚 neutral
“Thanks!”
• Foods: Oo, yum! Thank you!”

relationships

Adeline
Adeline attacks paper the way Emilia used to attack monsters – with a fervor and passion that Emilia admires immensely. The pink haired noble is dependable, intelligent, diligent, and kind… many of the traits that Emilia wishes she could find within herself. As much as she finds her inspiring, she can’t help but be a bit jealous; it must be nice to know your role in the world and be good at it. Because of this, Emilia tends to shy away from her from time to time, especially with so few things in common.Balor
The mental pendulum between familiarity and fright swings wildly when it comes to her feelings about Balor. On one hand, he seems shrewd enough to remember any and all faces he’s come across, and there’s a non-zero chance he’d seen Emilia in the glittering attire of a high-ranking guildie in her older days. On the other, his closet seems to be just as full of skeletons as hers is. If they can maintain their avoidant song and dance about each other, then perhaps a friendship can blossom from such a mutual understanding, but to her, there will always be the worry of her past coming back to haunt her by a ghost in blue.Caldarus
Having never become a farmer, nor having ever convened with his statue, Emilia is more or less unaware of Caldarus’ existence. If he ever came to the bar, however, she’d have quite a bit of intrigue. Her old title of ‘wyrmbleeder’ though? May have to keep that one a secret.Celine
Emilia considers Celine’s kindness as welcoming as it is jarring. It was rare for people in the capital to spare even a passing glance in the crowd, and the blonde’s seemingly bottomless niceness is everything Emilia was hoping for and nothing she was built to handle. However, that sweetness is like a thick sweet frosting on a spice cake – from her vantage point of the bar, she watched the entirety of Dragons and Drama with horrified fascination; she’s got the beauty of a rose and the thorns to match.The Dragonguard
As someone who's always wanted children as her own, Emilia finds The Dragonguard to be a delightful trio. Should be sneaking them baked goods when their mothers aren't looking? Probably not, but the look on their faces when she does makes her heart melt every single time. They remind her of the kids back at the Oar's Rest orphy, or the youngest of AGCG recruits. She hopes their little adventures with stick swords and fake monsters stay imaginary, and that they never face horrors like the ones she's seen.Eiland
They don't talk much, as she rarely understands him, but they bond heavily over sweets quite often. She always splits her big cookie with him every time she gets one, and in turn he teaches her little bits of Caldosian history.Hayden + Henrietta
Emilia respects Hayden's passion and care for animals, and owes him forever and always for giving her the chance to raise Finnegan. She's seen first hand what large strong men are capable of, and for him to turn his strength into kindness endears himself to her considerably. It's not uncommon to see her visiting his farm to pick up groceries for the Inn.Hemlock + Josephine
Having given her somewhere to stay when she first rolled into town without a Tesserae to her name, Emilia quite honestly owes her current life to them. She is always grateful to work and live in the inn, and enjoys their company. It doesn't take long for them to start treating her as a third daughter as well -- with no parent figures of her own, she looks up to them for what a loving healthy relationship looks like. They often coax her to sing old Caldosian folk songs in the inn as well, and with enough toddy, she just might give in.March
They do not get along and should rarely ever be in the same place. No amount of alcohol changes this. She thinks he has a bad attitude and makes the rest of the town's redheads look bad. He thinks she's stuck-up and has stupid tits. They argue like two alley cats whenever they cross paths.Olric
Bless his heart... he's trying to get Emilia to get along with his brother. It's not working.Reina
If Hemlock and Josephine are the parents she never had, Reina is the sister she's never known. Having grown up in a sausage fest, Emi doesn't really know how to 'sister' well, but Reina is more than happy to teach her. Everything Emilia knows about cooking, she learned from 'Reirei', and the two often gab about boys together after hours. She trusts Reina with her deepest secrets.Terithia
Things are awkward between the two, as Terithia is well aware of who Emilia's mother is, and tries very hard to think of nice things to say about her.Valen
A lifelong fear of doctors, due to questionable experiences with the witch doctor of her former guild, has her avoiding Valen at any and all costs.

dialogue

around town

💜 0 hearts
• First Meeting: “Guid mornin’, kiddo. Name’s Emilia. Remember it, you’ll be needin’ it for your dreams tonight.”
• “There’s somethin’ about the charms of a wee town that you just cannae get back in the capital. You made a smart choice comin’ here.”💚 4 hearts
• “Not enough people really appreciate ducks, don’cha think? Near perfect burds, really. Round, soft… works of art.”
• "I wonder what Hayden's up to. Swear the mannie won't take a break even if I beg 'em to. Maybe I should bring him a quiche later and force him to sit for once."💛 6 hearts
• When Raining: Ahh, a fresh rain! Know what’s great on a dae like this, laddie? Splashin’ in puddles? Nae, visitin’ the smithy! Tell ‘em I sent you if you pop by, I’m sure he’ll be delighted.”
• “The petals in the wind today... Mother Nature's a wee bit of a romantic, isnae? Haha!"🌸 spring
• “The cherry trees are so beautiful this time of year! Really makes gettin’ through the winter worth it, aye?☀️ summer
• “It's. Too. Hot."
• On the Beach: "Why'm I sittin under the umbrella? It's hot, lad! ...Get in the water? A- ahaha! I would but uh... floatin's for the ducks, y'know?"🍂 fall
• “Haaaaaah! It's cooled off! Mistria's at her finest in the autumn. Why? 'Cause the trees start lookin' just like me." wink❄️ winter
• “Remember how I was complainin' about the heat, lad? I take it back. I take it all back an' then some."
(In the Inn)
• "Ah... nothin' like the hearth an' a bowl of Reina's best to really make life worth livin'."

around town

• Emilia: “Mornin’ cowboy. What’s the craic?”
• Hayden: “Uh, I don’t know, Miss Emilia. What is the craic?”
• Emilia: “... yer so cute.”• Emilia: “Do you think my Finnie is gettin’ a wee too big?”
• Hayden: “I think we should call him… well-loved.”
• Emilia: “Hehe! You’re not wrong there!”
• Finnegan: “Quack!” (Finnegan rasps gleefully.)(In the inn)
• Emilia: “Rei! Look! I made a cat out o' coffee foam!”
• Reina: “Oh my goodness it's so cute??”
• Emilia: “Do you think folks will take kindly to it?”
• Reina: “It's... it's too cute... Like, undrinkably cute ...can we even serve this?”• Emilia: “... blacksmith.”
• March: “... farmer.”
• Emilia: “Nailmaker.”
• March: “Barwench.”
• Olric: “I’m glad they’re finally getting along!”

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