Reeda

Character Details

Noora Lappi as Reeda Bracken

Name:	Reeda Bracken
Aliases:	???
Faction:	The Riverlands
Organization:	House Bracken
Occupation:	Outcast
Rank:	Noble Lady
Age:	Feb 24 99 (22)

Description

_{This Riverlander woman's house sigil is nowhere in sight, but she's as long and thin in limb as a Bracken horse. She's a hair under six feet. Many wear their height with grace, but she's more apt to keep her head down and shoulders in; make no mistake, though, withdrawing or demure are far from strong descriptors for this one. She's an assortment of ungainly limbs, kept close and ready to lash out.}

_{She's fair-skinned and painted in freckles. This is no delicate light dusting: the gingery speckles are splashed heavy-handedly over her entire face. Where she's been singed by the sun, they're nearly as red as a blood spatter. She has a long face, a flat plane but for the small nose, strong bump of high, broad cheekbones and the pushed-forward, slightly overbitten mouth with big lips. Her eyes are forest green and narrow, each bottom lid practically a straight slash across. Her fine hair tried to be a lively red, but gave up somewhere along the way, landing indecisvely on a diluted red-tinged straw colour.}

_{Reeda's attire's an odd bit of nobility gone wrong. Most often, there's a dull red cloth tied over her head, knotted at the back like a bandanna; as all else, it seems to serve a practical, personal purpose. Her brown dress bears well-stitched golden-yellow embroidery, but all other ornament and binding has been torn off — loosened, the edges of the white cotton layer underneath show at the front. A workman-like, pocketed leather half-apron, used to the point of looking bruised, is strapped around her waist.}

Background

A cousin or so away from the main line of House Bracken of Stone Hedge, Reeda Bracken was blessed with at birth in that she was the fifth in a line of sisters. While this meant she was yet another girl when her father was pressing for a boy, it also meant that there was already a line-up of growing noble Riverlander ladies to marry off before Reeda. After all, she took to the prospect with ambivalence. Freckles and all, the girl could have the face of a beauty, at least at some angles (and horse-like at others, bitter mouths like the Blackwoods might say), but her lack of social graces was a matter of embarrassment for her mother Marianne; at least her sisters could be preened to make up for Reeda's perceived shortcomings. By no means did this lessen her mother's harshness upon her in any other way. Small blessings, though, are still blessings.

Lady Marianne was as devout as a person could be without being dubbed Most Devout. Her devotion to the Faith of the Seven was so intense that it might as well have burned every trace of Bracken's former following of the Old Gods. There were rumours that some suspicious violent Lothston blood followed Marianne to the Brackens. Her daughters received the worst of her extremist views; her idea of motherhood seemed to be instilling fear and devotion to the Seven or paying the price. The price was "reflecting", which the children knew to be a cage fashioned out of branches, river reeds and tough vines tucked away in the forest, overlooking a stream, where they'd be placed and expected to stay no matter the weather until they'd decided to make amends for whatever deed they'd done. It was not easy living under Marianne's strict, often unpredictable rule (to which their kindlier father was not immune).

Reeda was a frequent inhabitant of the cage, often for reasons she couldn't understand well enough not to repeat offend. She preferred fishing, exploring outdoors, collecting bits and pieces of nature, practicing archery, caring for animals and, of course, riding, to the strict itinerary laid out by her mother. However, it wasn't a call to arms or, precisely, a shunning of ladylike pasttimes. She was simply out of sync with the position she'd been born to. Young Reeda was an uncommon mind: an inventor's mind, a scientist in a landscape not cut out for the knowledge she wanted to pursue. Her intelligence was often so hidden under a layer of surly refusals and short words that she was often called stupid, instead. She didn't simply accept what was in front of her; she overturned everything to see how it worked.

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When she'd be caught playing in the dirt, collecting leaves, cataloging old bones, or taking apart the fish she'd caught to see what was inside, she'd be chastised for her curiosity. She couldn't grow up to be a maester and earn links in knowledge, but her mother threatened her regularly with making her become a septa like her aunt Zena. Reeda's oldest sister Jona, though married tensely to a Blackwood and rarely about in Reeda's youth, was the kindest, most understanding face in her life; they could speak freely, a rare thing for the quiet younger sister. One visit, Jona wandered off in the night and was never again glimpsed. Some blamed madness, others wild animals; some despair, others Blackwoods.

A few years later, still a child of one and ten, Reeda uncovered a human skull in the forest while exploring after a bout in the cage. It's unlikely that it was her sister's; if she'd perished so close to home, surely the dogs would have found her. Yet Reeda formed an attachment to the thing that was both wistfully sentimental and scientific. It was soon thereafter that that her deep fascination with understanding the mysteries of the living things progressed. By the time her mother uncovered the depth of Reeda's secretive exploration, she was a teenager, and rather well self-taught in archaic biology. Her interest was seen as morbid, her earnestly academic experiments thought to be a sign of a blooming penchant for evil. The one tenuously saving grace in it all was her increased skill in the healing arts, in both medicine for humans and vetting of the horses.

As she continued to grow and age into an adult, Marianne's hopes began to stir that Reeda, now the one leftover daughter, would be married and placed well away from her morbid pasttimes; as talks with another house hinted at a union, Reeda inadvertently, unceremoniously dashed them when rumour circulated that she liked to dissect dead animals. Evidently such things are not favourable.

It was settled by both her parents — treated rather like a child despite the fact that she was quite the opposite and becoming progressively more strong in both intelligence and independence — that Reeda was to be sent to the motherhouse at Bechester to be placed under the keen eye of her aunt, Septa Zena. Before she was to depart, she would, too, ruin those plans. An elderly relative fell ill and passed on, delaying her trip. Seeking out where he lay, she thought it wise in the moment to dissect his throat, the source of his ailment, to better understand what went wrong. She, apparently, went wrong, as — though she sewed him neatly up, after — her handiwork was recognized by the maester and seen as a rather gross desecration. Septa Zena — like her sister Marianne, faithful but not so forgiving — advised that Reeda would not be welcome at the motherhouse, and suggested she be sent elsewhere.

Ostracized, Reeda was packed up and kicked out of her home, with word sent ahead to the motherhouse in Oldtown by Marianne to expect her. She wasn't going to act like a lady, she would not be treated like one: she was given a scarce supply of coin, directed to the back of a merchant's cart headed for Oldtown and sent on her way — with no plans to pay a visit to the motherhouse just yet.

Quirks

Budding Scientist	Morbid Interests
Ostracized	Sensitive Underbelly
Woman of Few Words	Wealth: Hard Times

RP Hooks

Ω Medieval Science — Reeda is as close as one can get to an aspiring scientist in the world in which she lives; an experimenter and inventor of sorts, particularly focused on the biology of living things (and as a result, the dead), and is rather hands-on in her approach.

Ω Hunted By the Faith — Perhaps hunted is not the right word, but Reeda is expected at the motherhouse in Oldtown and is decidedly not there yet. The head septas were aware of her impending arrival, circumstance, and her family's plans to assure she stay in those walls and become a septa or Silent Sister.

Ω Riverlands Ties & Proud Bracken — Although Reeda is not directly on the main line of her noble family, there are a few things of note that those familiar with the Brackens may know: her mother is Lady Marianne, a Lothston turned Bracken who is notoriously extremist in her faith; Reeda's sister Jona was married to a Blackwood and went missing roughly a decade ago (some Brackens blamed the Blackwoods, though it's unlikely); and Reeda herself is rumoured to be an unfriendly woman who prefers the company of dead things over the living. So there's that.

And, although she's been cast away from her immediate family, Bracken blood still runs strong in her veins and with it the feud that's existed with the Blackwoods since long before a time in anyone's memory. She's set in her ways.

Ω Better With Animals — Reeda is currently a Bracken without a horse and will most likely linger about stables and approve of people with animals more than not.

Ω Noble In Need — She has what she brought, in way of coin, and that's it. Cut off from the comfort of her House, she will be in need of earning — within reason, and without charity.

IC Events

Reeda Logs	Related Logs
Logs featuring Reeda. (121-05-27) Family Fugitive (121-05-27) Corpses Of Course (121-05-24) The Feats of Feisty Girls (121-05-22) What's It Matter	Logs that refer to Reeda.

Relationships

Elys Cousin

Gallery