"I want to hunt like David, I want to kill me a Giant Man,
I want to slay my demons, But I've got lots of them
...
I want to slay my demons, But I've got lots of them
...
Name: Ianthe Lindstrom (ee-AN-th)
Age: 29/30
Gender: Female
Job: Doctor, Hedgewitch
Place of Residence: Palisade
Songs: David - Noah Gundersen Dust to Dust - The Civil Wars
Appearance: She's short, she's blonde, and she's perpetually angry looking. Her overall appearance is deceptive in regards to her age, but the dark circles under her eyes give an appropriate representation of what insomnia can do to one's body. While not a rail, she lacks much in way of curves.
Her clothing is distinctly feminine and often a step above her living-wage, albeit everything is obviously well-worn, stained, patched. Yellows and pinks dominate everything, ribbons decorate her hair, gloves adorn her hands, and an apron stained with dark patches covers her front.
Personality: Telling you that the honey badger is Ianthe's spirit animal should be enough of an explanation in regards to her personality. No, really, it should be. But since it doesn't look like anyone's going to let that lie, here's the deal:
Ianthe is not a personable ....person. In fact, she's an incredibly broken one who just manages to keep the pieces of the vase that is her sanity from spilling all over the floor. Some times she can't accomplish this, something sets her off, and she'll break down in frantic sobbing while some sort of internal panic grips her psyche and entire physical being. Anxiety, PTSD, call it whatever suits your fancy, because you won't see it when it happens. Ever. The tape that holds her together is more like chains; full of gaps, but strong, and usually she can hold the padlock until she's alone.
The parts she chooses to show of herself makes up an angry, loud, demanding, yet extremely intelligent, self-reliant, and hardworking person. And it isn't a facade. That is Ianthe, and almost always has been to varying degrees. Not to say that she doesn't enjoy things in life, but such things are few, and may not be noticeable to, or strike the attention of, those who do not know her well. And I do mean well.
She is a tough nut to crack regarding personal details. Any potential friend of hers needs to be extremely persistent unless they're far too similar to her, or insane. Such may explain why she has exactly....zero living friends.
Comforting thought, no?
All that aside, the other aspects of Ianthe are 1. her extreme work ethic and attachment to her profession, and 2. her truth-seeing.
1. Ianthe is a doctor. She calls herself one, she was trained by one, she is one. Trying to tell her, or imply to her, otherwise, will result in an argument-turned-screaming-match where she completely believes that she will win.
In terms of her views on medicine, she would be considered far ahead of the curb were this an equal and open-minded society. But since it is not, the more 'proper' parlor term would be that she's a medical heretic. New-age ideas and practices is where her mind sits, and trauma surgery is where her interests lie; the bloodier it is, the more she excels. Granted...now that she's in Palisade, things are a bit slow on the trauma train, but she continues to work just as long as always, meaning all day and night. 'Insomniac' is a good term to peg on her.
2. Ianthe is also a hedgewitch, and a truth-seer to be more precise. To get it out of the way: Her abilities have NOTHING to do with her skill as a doctor, nor intelligence on the subject. The two are actually quite disconnected, though because her abilities lack an On/Off switch, it's a constant part of her life and can occur while she's practicing medicine.
Her ability is technically called Psychometry, or token-object reading. While not something usually pinned up there with TRUTH SEEING, it has its connections in regards to her. When Ianthe touches an object (whether voluntarily or involuntarily) that is of large emotional or sentimental value, or has been in an event/lifetime/etc of extreme emotion and the like, those emotions and experiences are transferred and felt by her. The greater the value of the object, the stronger the feeling, and the more she can see of the object's 'history,' and subsequently that of its owner.
Unlike everything else about her, this is probably one of the very few things that Ianthe will openly tell people about. It's all very matter-o-fact to her, and she's found that explaining it readily helps dim some people's misconceptions about hedgewitches, or at least her in general: it's a thing she was born with, it's there, and not every hedgewitch is all HOCUS POCUS BULLSHIT BAM, supposed 'communicators with the wolves', or the drunk on the corner in the lower streets.
History:
Ianthe was born in Falun of the country Snowland (Sweden), a copper mining town made up of hardy, gray folk who worked hard, drank harder, and looked out for each other. Her mother died during childbirth, and she was raised by her father and two older brothers, as well as neighbors and her father's coworkers. While always a serious little girl, Ianthe had a good childhood. Her father and brothers, whom she loved fiercely, taught her to hold her own battles of of witts and tongue lashings, since her tiny stature wasn't going to win a fist-fight, but they also went along with her penchants for dresses, ribbons, and braiding hair.
The winter after she turned 11, Tarquin appeared at her family's window. The pale bird wasn't injured or malnourished, nor a fledgling who had lost his way. From the second they saw each other, bird and girl were almost inseparable. Ianthe's family didn't really question it, nor did much of the town. It was clear Tarquin was a familiar, and Ianthe's father had always noticed something different about his daughter, but he never thought it needed to be fully understood. It was her thing, and there were a couple other familiars around Falun too.
When Ianthe was 12, there was a cave-in in the mine her father and brothers worked in. People tried for days to get those who were trapped out, but it was to no avail. Everything was too unstable. The tragedy wrecked Ianthe, who more than once broke through the scene's barriers and tried to move things herself with her bare hands. She was always pulled away kicking and screaming bloody murder.
After that Ianthe didn't talk for a long time. She lived with some neighbors for a while, getting shuffled around. The town tried, they really did. When she turned 13 she voiced that she wanted to go and stay at a nearby convent (for god knows why), so her wishes were granted and she stayed in a convent with nuns for awhile. She never was, nor is, religious, but convents were often used as places for healing before hospitals became more commonplace.So there she stayed until she turned 16 and a priest came through and she left with him. There was a war going on in another part of Snowland, and he was going there to 'help souls pass on.'
Ianthe's truth-seeing abilities interested him, and he agreed to escort her and drop her off at another convent along the way. Well, she lied about her intentions about the convent, but it meant little in the long run. The priest met up with a friend along the way who was a doctor, and because apparently Ianthe could be persuasive and interesting when she wanted to be, she was able to start tagging along with him instead.
The doctor's name was Mikhael Adamsson, but he was Doctor Adamson to Ianthe. Her hedgewitch abilities interested him, but he didn't let her tag along because of that. Instead it was her already-gained knowledge of medicine that made him raise an eyebrow. And Tarquin. Adamsson liked birds, and a familiar was no exception.
Even though he knew it was far out of anything ordinary, Adamsson started teaching Ianthe, well... everything. She had a talent for quick problem solving and not breaking under pressure, allowing her to excel in trauma cases, and she could hold her own against just about anyone who questioned her ability.
For years Ianthe and Adamsson went about Snowland, aiding in wars here and there, going to big towns, small towns, anywhere they were actually needed. Between the two of them there was never any sort of affection in THAT sense. Adamsson was a mentor, maybe a father figure, but mostly he was a friend, something Ianthe hadn't had since she was little (Tarquin aside). Life had become OK again, to a degree. That is until around the time Ianthe turned 25.
In that year there was a rebellion, nothing huge, though nothing tiny either. It was a freak accident, someone's gun going off in a tavern bar. The bullet went straight through Adamsson, and he was practically dead by the time he hit the floor. There was nothing Ianthe could do, but she tried. She tried for an hour to make him stop bleeding, to make him wake up, until she fell into frantic sobs, covered in his blood. When someone tried to move her, she lashed out, screaming, and was dragged out of the tavern for the time being. But instead panic gripped her after, and she ran. She never came back, never said Goodbye to Adamsson. It's one of the biggest regrets she has.
Instead Ianthe practically immediately left Snowland with nothing but Tarquin, the clothes on her back, and a tiny bag that had always hung about her hip. A month at sea landed her in Sunderland. Northport, to be precise, and it's there that she lived until very recently.
In Northport there is the wealthy and the not-so-wealthy, and under the not-so-wealthy there is the poor and even-more-poor. On the west side of the town Ianthe was eventually able to set up an area to, well... be a doctor. A femal doctor is still a taboo, but Ianthe succeeded in getting past that, and even getting a reputation. How? Because when one is poor and sick, and a skilled doctor doesn't ask for anything in return, they're not going to care if that doctor is a man, woman, or monkey.
So for roughly four years Ianthe lived in Northport, doing whatever she could. It wasn't until six months ago that she moved to Palisade, though she has yet to give reason for doing so. She forced residence upon an equally grouchy doctor named Cordel, and while she didn't actually climb in through his window one night and never leave, she doesn't refute that story.
Other stuff: Her 'hedgewitch abilities' are not correlated to her medical skills. She also still has an accent, but trust me... she's quite understandable.
... I've got lots of them"
