Celise Darrick

Celise Darrick
Celise in the Goblet.
Ex-Assassin, Sellsword, and Cook
Gender	Female
Race	Hyur
Clan	Midlander
Citizenship	Limsa Lomina
18	Age
32nd Sun, 5th Umbral Moon	Birthday
Azeyma, the Warden	Patron
5 fulms, 3 ilms	Height
120 ponze	Weight
Single	Free Company

Celise Darrick is a sellsword from Ul'dah, though she claims Limsa Lominsa as her current place of residence. She works with Starfall Trading Company, a Free Company focused on providing their crafts to clients, as a guard and their cook. She is excitable but awkward in her mannerisms, with a high energy level that often finds itself at odds with her tendency to keep to herself. She doesn't speak much about her past in Ul'dah, but rumors swirl, and her occasional (or frequent) jokes and hot-headed attitude haven't yet dispelled that.

Character

Appearance

Celise isn't a very tall woman, but a physically active life has put some muscle and some curves on her. Her half-Ala Mhigan heritage is clear in her darker skin tone and black hair. She wears her hair short, though her bangs can fall just in front of her forehead. Notably, she has streaks of red highlights dyed into her hair, and she has a penchant for colorful (and sometimes outlandish) earrings that suggest her sense of fashion. She also has red-brown eyes, which can look crimson in the right light. Her cheeks are dusted lightly with freckles.

Typically, Celise prefers pants and shirts to dresses. She likes Ul'dahn fashion (though men's fashion more than women's), despite relocating to Limsa. Snug-fitting tops and baggy pants, like sarouels, are her preferred clothing. When in combat, she will often wear snug-fitting leathers, though she also has a taste for armored jackets and even Garlond Ironworks gear.

Personality

Celise is most notable for being excitable. She is a boisterous, outgoing sort who balances that with being guarded and awkward. Her upbringing did not leave her a great deal of time for socialization, so despite a desire to be outgoing, she has a way of stumbling over her words. Her past also makes her tend to be guarded, especially when it comes to discussing it.

She has a sense of humor, with a tendency to make jokes and puns. This is also a defensive mechanism, to either try to reach out to others or deflect attention from her. She also hesitates to say what she really feels, with a tendency to qualify it or mumble it, rather than outright say it -- but in doing so, it can be obvious what she feels.

She has a sense of pride, though, and when it's rankled, Celise can get huffy. She doesn't get angry in a serious way easily, but she can be more than a little grumpy if her pride's rankled. Eventually, though, her feathers smooth out. This is especially true of those that she is close to.

Celise is very loyal to those she becomes close to. She will open up more to them. She will also become fiercely protective, even to the point of fighting to defend them or dispatch someone that she feels is a threat.

Skills

Combat

Celise is a talented rogue; she is skilled at being stealthy, at using her daggers to strike from the shadows, and moving along high places quickly and dexterously. She is quite skilled at jumping and climbing; "parkour" would be an accurate description of how she moves. She knows how to blend into shadows. She is also accurate and quick in her knife work. Typically, she wields two daggers simultaneously. She is skilled at dodging and parrying with them, if she needs to do a head-on fight.

She also knows how to mix various basic poisons. She usually puts this on a knife, but could make a fairly amateurish poison to put in someone's food. She isn't skilled enough to make poisons that do more than make someone very sick (or kill them); she also has no magical or mystical component to her poisons.

Trades

Celise is still learning to cook. She fashions herself as a peerless chef, which is half true. As a cook, she is excellent: she has dextrous knife work, excellent "moves" in the kitchen, and she can follow complex recipes without trouble. When it comes to creating recipes, however, she leaves something to be desired. In the best of circumstances, she makes something strange but tasty. In the worst of circumstances, she makes something utterly inedible.

Tendencies

Likes

• Cooking, trying new foods.
• Knives and daggers, of all kinds.
• Fat chocobos, which she finds adorable.
• Heights.

Dislikes

• The Syndicate, especially the Monetarists.
• The smell of Morbol breath.
• Cold climates; she's a Thanalan girl.
• The Garlean Empire, being half-Ala Mhigan.

Quirks

• Plays with her hair, especially when nervous.
• Likes decorative earrings.

Relationships

Family

Celise's birth family is long dead. She misses them and they played an important role in her development, but she never grew to know them well. Nonetheless, they left an impact. She has a sympathy for Ala Mhigo from her mother; her love for cooking came from her father, who loved it too. She hasn't found a new family quite yet, though some individuals come close.

Friends

A'mahri Kahz: A'mahri is one of the leaders of Starfall Trading Company. Celise came to trust her quickly after being hired by the company, and think highly of her employer. She feels a little guilty when her past comes up.

Dezmond Neophytos: The man who hired her! Celise thinks the world of Dezmond, for giving her an opportunity and a home in Starfall Trading Company. She tends to call him 'Boss.'

Sareyu Ejinn: Starfall's lead healer quickly became one of Celise's favorite people within the Free Company. She knows Sareyu looks after her, much like she looks after others in the company. Celi is grateful for this, finding Reyu to be reliable and fun to spend time with. She isn't the best at expressing that gratitude, still.

Balther Strongblade: Celise has gotten to know Balther better after joining, learning that the guard is a lot more than his relaxed personality might imply. She knows they have a connection over murders in their past, and that bonds them together. She is getting used to the teasing, slowly.

Haru Hattori: Celise likes Haru well, having worked with her on a few missions. The antisocial behavior is something Celise can understand and has indulged in, and she is curious about her homeland.

S'arraqinis Seveno: Sev is another of the younger members of the Free Company, whom Celise likes. She is still getting to know her, but she considers her a friend.

History/Timeline

Sixth Astral Era

Celise grew up in Ul'dah, the daughter of poor craftsmen who could barely make ends meet. Her father hailed from Ul'dah, where he worked with the Weaver's Guild. Her mother came from Ala Mhigo, among the wave of refugees that fled in the wake of its fall to Garlemald. She was orphaned in a fire that burnt down her family's home while she was away from it. Afterward, she fled to the streets, and spent a week homeless and alone there.

Ultimately, a rising young merchant named Monolimo Papomo found her. He took her in, but his rise in business and politics meant he needed a tool. He had her trained from a young age as his personal assassin: taught in the use of daggers, poisons, and stealth.

This upbringing was hard. By age fourteen, Celise had participated in thefts, assisted in assassinations, and been treated mostly as a very expensive and prized tool by the man who wasn't her saviour, but her master. She came to deeply resent this. As she grew older, she saw herself for what she was: not his adopted daughter, as he would sometimes claim to her, but rather a favored knife that he could ultimately discard.

She realized that her hands were stained with blood, before she knew better than to stain them.

Seventh Umbral Era

For Celise, the Calamity was something that happened to the rest of the world. She was still young, then, and while life had hardened her, she lived entirely in the world of Ul'dah. The rain of fire from the sky after Carteneau was terrifying, but distant in its own way.

Her training continued and intensified after the Calamity, as Monolimo hoped to expand his fortunes in the wake of disaster. He began using her to do even more of his dirty work, killing business rivals and sabotaging their mercantile efforts. She also murdered his father and brother, to insure his inheritance. She started to hate him more for that.

The final straw came when she discovered that he was responsible for the fire that killed her parents, and that he bought her -- quite secretly and illegally -- from them as a slave. Then, to avoid paying them, he had their apartment burnt down.

Six months ago, Monolimo met an untimely end. Officially, the family claimed that he died of an illness... but the funeral had a closed casket. The truth, of course, could be seen in Celise's bloody knives left near his corpse. Celise took off for Limsa Lominsa before questions could be asked of her.

Seventh Astral Era

Celise worked in Limsa Lominsa as a sellsword and an adventurer, which led her to explore more and more of the world. In search of more stable work, she accepted a contract from Dezmond Neophytos to join the Starfall Trading Company. It proved to be an important decision in her life: giving her, for the first time, individuals she came to see as friends and, perhaps, family. It also gave her a home in their headquarters in the Goblet.

OOC Notes

Availability

Typically, I'm available on weekends and some weeknights. I may not be around to RP every night, but I'm happy to meet people and take walk-ups (if I'm not in the middle of doing PVE content). Scheduling can be better, as I have a sometimes busy work schedule.

RP Hooks

• If your character was involved in the Ul'dahn underworld, they may know Celise. She worked as an assassin and a thief for a merchant, who sent her on a variety of illegal tasks.
• Celise is learning to cook. She is happy to share her food with people; she also will be the main cook at the Starlight Bistro.