Name: Helena Maria
Age: Eighteen
Gender: Female
Height: 5'3"
Facial expression: Not a very good description, but I want her to have a soft expression. Not happy or sad, but soft.
Hair: Her hair is styled in a fishtail side braid and falls down to her hip.
x. The color is black.
Eye color: Her eyes are an unusual shade of turquoise.
x Skin color: She is fair skinned
Profession: Physician's Assistant
Casual outfit: • She wears a simple dress, much like the one depicted here:
x. The undershirt is still white, and of the same styling but the corset is light brown with no pattern and the skirt is a shade of turquoise that nearly matches her eyes. (If her feet poke out anywhere from under the skirt just have her wearing flats that are the same brown as the corset.)
• Around her neck she wears a simple silver ring on a piece of black leather chord. It is positioned in the same way as the necklace in the picture of the dress.
• Lastly, she has a medium sized scar slicing diagonally across her chest as though she has been cut with a knife.
Personality: Though Helena does not remember the night that bred her deep-seated trauma she is privy to the fact that something terrible happened and is reassured every day due to her strong aversion to being touched. This makes her day to day rather stressful and unpleasant as she is faced with an overwhelming panic attack whenever someone even brushes by her in the marketplace. It is because of this that she mainly remains indoors and asks others to run errands for her, though she hates the sensation of utter helplessness and her need for dependence on others. This is made even worse because she cannot remember the root of the problem and therefore has no way of addressing the problem outright; regardless of how desperately she may want to.
Now it may seem strange that she has somehow managed to retain her job as a physician’s assistant if she cannot be touched by anyone without flying into a fit, but she has managed to find a small fix to a much larger problem. If she is the one initiating the touch the fear she is normally struck with is much less violent and she is able to keep herself in check. What is meant by this is: if an injured or sick person is reaching for her hand she has the option of taking it or leaving it which gives her the power, but if they simply reach out and snatch at her it has the opposite effect and that is when she panics.
Despite the obvious issue clouding her life Helena is considered to be a very strong woman both because of the ailments and injuries she is confronted with each day, and because she possesses an iron will. She is soft but outspoken in that she is not afraid to scold others for invading her personal space or for violating her orders. She is a gentle soul but still capable of being one worth admiring because each day she motivates herself to fight to become the woman she truly wishes she could be, a woman absent of the fear that clings so tightly to her and one who can leap into action without a moment of hesitation.
She deeply cares for those she treats and wishes for nothing more than their swift recovery and comfort. She dedicates her time to studying various remedies and to tending to her garden of medicinal herbs so that she always has a fresh supply on hand. She remains in poverty because she does not do her job for the monetary gain, but to ease the suffering of those she shares this world with.
Though Helena would likely make a fantastic candidate for a trainee position once she recovers from her terror fits, her dreams remain fixated on a different course. She has no interest in learning how to use maneuvering gear or a blade, she only wishes to treat those who do and ease their pain if they return from the field. Though she tends to hide her gentle side and devotion near a somewhat aloof exterior.
Helena mainly keeps to herself and leads a life akin to that of a hermit so her true passions have strayed from the realm of idle gossip or chatter. More than anything she loves caring for her lavender plants that keep the outside of her home smelling spicy and fragrant, and crafting various foods and teas from them. And whenever she begins to feel lonely she sits on her bed and writes letters to the parents she doesn’t remember telling them of her day and the feelings that she encountered throughout.
History: The sound of a waterwheel gently churning outside the humble cottage was the only sound to be heard on the star filled night that Helena’s life was forever changed. Her mother and father slept comfortably on their rickety bed pushed to one side of the home, while Helena lay awake playing with the simple doll her mother had crafted for her from some extra fabric off of a bag of grain. Aside from the daily struggles of poverty all was well for the quiet little family, but fate had a mind to change that. The dilapidated door was thrown open and, along with a chilly draft of air, a sinister force that would never be forgotten slipped in.
Her father was a kindhearted ploughman who worked hard for a critical and ethnocentric lord that saw peasants as nothing more than mere farming tools. He was never pleased and seemingly took pleasure in withholding the minuscule wages he promised to those under his supervision. Though this was done more out of cruelty and stinginess than a reaction to poorly done work. In spite of the harsh conditions under which he was forced to live, Helena’s father never complained and he never allowed bitterness to rule his thoughts or actions. He simply took what was dealt to him and treated every day as a fresh start with a possibility of bringing about something better. He was a family man through and through whose greatest joy in life was coming home to his wife and daughter.
Helena’s mother was an equally hard working individual who started each day well before dawn. She cooked, cleaned, mended clothing and worked in the fields like many other women in the lower ranks of society, and all while caring for her restless daughter. Unlike her father Helena’s mother was not the type to quietly accept ill-treatment when she saw it, but for the sake of her husband’s job and her daughter’s future she kept her mouth shut. However, the animosity of it all made her a hard woman who really only appeared to be affectionate around her family. She was not a social butterfly like her husband and preferred to keep to herself, stewing over her bottled up emotions.
The family did not have much, which was what made the events of that night even more senseless and tragic. The lord her father had so strenuously toiled under for so many years appeared, unannounced, at their house that night and unceremoniously kicked in the door. It was apparent that he was drunk as he had brought an equally as inebriated man with him in order to claim that Helena’s father had kidnapped one of his personal servants and that he wanted her returned to him, namely Helena’s mother. The entire thing was a lie but because of his wealth and position no one would question him, not even the man standing beside him who clearly knew of the lack in credibility of the claim.
It was on this one occasion that Helena’s father decided to fight back, to abandon his normal submissive behavior. It was because of this that he lost his life, but only after watching his beloved wife and daughter receive the punishment for his crime. The screams of torment and sorrow fell upon deaf ears as those within hearing distance either cared little for a trivial thing such as disturbing one’s tools, or they were afraid that the same would happen to them.
When Helena awoke the next morning her homemade dress was torn and flecked with blood and a large gash across her collarbone still bled. Her parents were nowhere to be seen but, due to the trauma, her mind constructed a block so she would not have to relive the horrors from the night before. The only tokens she had from the life she once knew were a scar and a single silver ring from a pair. It was a few days later that she was found in a catatonic state walking along wall Maria. She did not speak for many months, and even after she did begin to talk the mystery of her past would never be revealed as she had forgotten much of it.
After receiving the name Helena Maria from the stationary guard who had found her she was taken in by an older gentleman who worked as a physician to the outer districts. It was from him that she learned all she currently knows about wound care and herbs, for he had originally intended to groom her as his permanent assistant until he passed away from an illness he contracted from one of his patients.
She had been in his charge for ten years and as such continues to grieve the loss. She has yet to pair up with another physician and has remained in the home of her former teacher, still practicing to the best of her abilities.
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