Full Name: Birdie Eloise Cooper (Aka Robin Eloise Cooper)

Called: Her real name is Robin, but she never goes by her real name. Nor does she advertise it. It's always Birdie.

Status: Commoner.

Age and date of birth: Aged 24, born on 26th December (modern calendar).

Place of birth: A small fief on the River Olorun, Tortal.

Magic: None. She's quite uncomfortable with the Gift and the Sight, for reasons that even she can't even pin point let alone understand. Something happened in her past, insignificant enough to forget, but large enough to create an uncomfortableness in regards to the Gift.

Occupation: She makes a modest income as a candlemaker. Candles are made from beeswax, collected from the hives of bees as they make honeycomb. The beeswax is melted over a boiler or wax pot and a wick (piece of string) is partially dipped into it several times, allowing the wick to harden. The wick is attached to the middle of a stick, which is then placed over the opening of a glass or container. Small amounts of melted beeswax are ladled into the container and it's left to set.

She doesn't own the business herself, though one day she hopes to. It is owned by an older retired women named Lucie. She worked the business until she became too old and too frail to do so. The job then fell to her only other employee; Birdie. The business is located on Charry Orchard Street, Lower Corus.

Where she lives: She has a small dingy apartment on Jane Street. By small, I actually mean tiny. It has two rooms; an open plan living, kitchen and bedroom and a privy. She pays more rent on it than it's worth, but it is all that she has available to her.

Fighting Skills: Her grandfather was a member of the army, then worked as a forester for the noble owner of the fief on which they lived. He taught her some basic fighting skills, enough for her to be able to defend herself if need be. She's highly unlikely to use them in any other circumstances.

Important people:

Family:
Michelle Cooper - Mother, deceased - Birdie's has little to no memory of her mother. She left them for the Copper Isles when Birdie was just two, where she passed away from consumption. Her mother was a little mentally disturbed.
Bryant Cooper - Father, deceased - She never met her father. He died in service as a member of the army. His father Edwin, who he worshipped, was in the army, so Bryant naturally decided to follow in his father's footsteps. He and Michelle were in a steady relationship, though unwed. He left for the army, leaving a one month pregnant Michelle behind. Bryant didn't know he was to be a father.
Edwin Cooper - Grandfather - Since the departure of her mother, Birdie was raised primarily by her grandfather. Who, was and still is a very hands-on grandfather. He was and is an active participant in everything concerning his granddaughter's life. Edwin was a member of the army, however, he retired from the army at the age of 40 years. Edwin then worked as a forester for the noble owner of the fief on which he lived. He and a small band of men were responsible for patrolling the woodlands on the fief, looking for poachers, criminals in hiding in the woods and negotiating the sale of timber and wood from the woods. As he aged he found that his body could no longer keep up with his occupation, so he left his job and moved Birdie and himself to Corus. Edwin now works as a weapons and strategy tutor for the sons of lesser nobles.

Appearance:

Hair: She has really fine hair, the kind where it's almost impossible to keep tied up for long, and to stop fly-away hairs. It's rich, almost chocolate brown in colour. Because her hair's so fine, it's lively. It falls in her face, refuses to be tied down for long periods of time and it's easily disturbed by the smallest of breezes. She usually attempts to tie it up in pony tail, however, by just half an hour most of it's escaped.

Eyes: Her eyes are deap set and heavy looking, in contrast to her other features. A olive green in colour, they have a warmth and a softness to them. Her eyes are unique in shape; quite round and open, with thin sharp corners. They're framed in long, fine eye lashes.

Face: A love heart shaped face, with smooth, soft features. She has a natural beauty that's really quite distinct and eye-catching. Wonderful high cheek bones that aren't really defined, but give her face body and fullness. Her cheeks colour a little when she's embarrassed or blushing. A soft jawline, that runs downwards from her ear and curves gently inwards to a square, slightly dimpled chin. A button nose, that dips in a little along it's length, but curls out again slightly. A cute mouth, with a seemingly permanant smile. Her top lip point upwards, flattening out a little, the dip shallow and soft. Her bottom lip, fuller than the top and falling outwards.

Height: She stands at around 5'8 or roughly 1.7 metres.

Body: She's thin and lanky, though not in a frail way, more in a feminine, graceful way. There's very little to no fat on her body. Small boney shoulders, visible collar bones and long arms that reach down past her hips. Thin, graceful wrists with big feminine hands and unusually long, slender fingers. Her body shape curves outwards to a medium sized bust, then slopes inwards at her ribs and stomach, to flow out again a tiny bit at her hips. Her hips are small, as a result she doesn't have much of a butt either. Like her arms, her legs are thin, which make them look longer than they actually are. Though, most of her height comes from her legs. She moves with a kind of fluid grace, but with slight uncertainty and lack of self-confidence.

Colouring: She actually has quite a dark olive skin tone. Almost flawless skin. The only blemish being a birthmark on the small of her back that's shaped like a cloud.

Other: She has several burn scars of insignificance, on her hands from pouring hot wax. Her ears were once pierced, but now healed over, but the place where they were pierced is still visible.

Clothing: Mostly dresses or skirts. Long dresses or skirts to be more specific. Mostly gypsy style skirts that fan out around her. In dresses she prefers the kind that falls from her body and don't have sleeves. When she wears skirts, she'll accompany it with a light shirt. In summer, rather, in any month that isn't winter, she lives in sandles. In winter to keep warm, she wears an undershirt or underskirt, a coat or hooded cloak and suitable boots. She wears all different kinds of colours, but mostly pastel colours. They tend to suit her skin tone better.

Personality:

Birdie is...scatterbrained. She flits from thought to thought very easily. She's been described as; cooky, dizzy, flighty, silly, lighthearted, frustrating, emotional, friendly and adorable. All of those descriptions are accurate at sometime or another, but they don't even begin to fully describe her. She's generally outgoing, approachable and friendly. Birdie's a real extrovert. She tends to draw energy from being around people, and fades to a shadow when she's alone. She loves people, being around people and having conversations with people, even if those conversations are nothing but small talk or are silly in nature. She has the capacity to draw just about anybody into conversation and to maintain conversation. The trouble is, she's sometimes hard to understand or to follow, flitting from thought to thought, topic to topic, emotion to emotion without warning.

She mostly comes across as bubbly, energised, and happy. She likes to be active and doing things, rather than sitting around inactive. She cooks, she cleans, she sews and she sings while doing so. She actually does have quite a pleasant singing voice, she cooks well, she usually cleans when something's on her mind and she sews with moderate skill. She's the kind of woman who is fully of energy and overflows with happiness, affecting those around her. But, when she's sad or unhappy it's actually quite heartbreaking. She's completely out of sorts when she's sad or upset. She lacklustre, quiet and withdrawn. She does have a temper that's mainly produced by frustration. It's not of the violent sort, it's more of the sulky sort that's really rather inneffecive and actually quite amusing. She does frustrate easily, through lack of patience more than anything else. She's also very stubborn, refusing to give up on anything until she succeeds. In arguements, she doesn't tend to raise her voice, storm off, or admit how she feels, but instead she can be quite unyielding and determined. Especially if she feels she's right, or she's the one with in the right.

She makes friends quite easily, it's just deeper attachments that she has trouble forming. Mainly because of the fact that she loves getting to know people on a deeper level, but inwardly fights them trying to get to know her on the same level. It has a little something to do with an inability to trust that if she gives herself completely over to them, they're not going to hurt her. Also, a little more to do with the belief that if someone gets to know her fully, there's no way they'll stay with her. She places a high value upon friendship, and getting to know people, but she struggles to talk about herself and how she's feeling or what she needs or even to ask for help when she needs it. She tends to get really awkward, even more scattered and uncertain when it comes to talking about herself. It takes a while to decipher what she has to say. It's not a purposeful thing, it just tends to happen.

She's the kind of person who'd do just about anything for her friends. She's extremely loyal and devoted to her friendships. But, the loyalty isn't unconditional. She expects the same kind of loyalty in return. If her loyalty's betrayed, she can actually be quite unyielding in terms of forgiving them for the transgression or the injury. She has a tendency to completely withdraw from people who hurt her, refusing to even talk to them, be in the same room as them or even acknowledge them. It rather depends on the circumstances, the injury and her level of relationship with the person. She will eventually forgive them. It just takes perserverance on their part.

Because of how she was raised, she doesn't tend to treat or interact with people of different classes, any differently. She can interact with nobles and commoners alike. She doesn't discriminate, or treat people differently because they are different, or of a different social class. But, she's quite sensitive to things like unprovoked fights, murders, rape's, people being beaten. It tends to effect her a lot. If she's witness to a crime or she's gotten word of a crime of that nature, she can become a little fearful, wary and paranoid for a while. Really, she just wants someone to look after her, reassure her and to take her in until it passes and she's back to normal. She has this innocence to her. She's been protected and sheltered by her grandfather, so it kinda makes sense that if she thinks she's in danger or she's afraid of something, she's going to seek protection, shelter and reassurance.

Birdie's not the most observant person. She's pretty well blind to other people's body language, bad moods, sadness and uncomfortableness at first. This includes her even friends and those most closest to her. As conversation and interactions progress she becomes more attuned to them. It's a slow process, unless they make it clear to her how they feel. It isn't through lack of intelligence or self-absorbtion though, it's more through how scatterbrained she is. She has a lot going on in her head at once that she isn't able to turn off or easily ignore. I suppose it could be construed as self-absorbtion, but it's certainly not something she's conscious of.

History:

She lead rather a normal, unexciting childhood to be honest. Never really knowing her parents, she was raised by her grandfather on a small fief that borders the River Olorun. Her grandfather doted on her, spoiled her, made sure she was healthy, educated and could defend herself if necessary. And she, kept him young, healthy, and hero worshipped him. As a forester for the fief, their family - small as it is - had a slightly higher position in the fief, which allowed Birdie to have a good, solid education, friends from different classes and a protected childhood.

As time went on her grandfather became too old to work as a forester. His body could no longer handle the physical demands of the job and to be honest, his heart was no longer in it. So, not so long ago, he moved his tiny family into town (Corus). He found himself a job as a weapons and strategy tutor to the sons of lesser nobles. And, Birdie found herself a job working for an old candlemaker. A business, that after only a few weeks, she now runs and is saving to buy when the time comes.

Likes: People in general, being around people, talking, cooking, sewing, singing, morning and evening sunshine, snow, animals, candlemaking, making and having friends, her grandfather, happiness, sleeping, aged grape or pomace brandy, slightly warm brandy, grapes, being looked after and protected.

Dislikes: Being alone, serious crimes like murder or rape, midday sunshine, soaking rain, getting wet while fully clothed, talking about how she feels or what she wants or needs, mushy fruit, fruit brandy, frustration, being hurt or witnessing people being hurt, being sad or unhappy, seeing people sad or unhappy.