Cinder

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Seeming Wizened Chatelaine
Court Summer Court ••
Freehold Seattle
Player Jane Izumoto

Name: Cinder
Seeming: Wizened
Kith: Chatelaine
Freehold: The Seven Hills (Seattle, WA)

Date Taken: 1975
Date Returned: 1989

Mortal Alias(es): Cynthia Cooke
Birth Name: Emily Carter
Zodiac Sign: Virgo
Profession: Cook and housekeeper of The Driftwood House
Date of Birth: 1944
Apparent Age: Early 30's
Place of Birth: A modest farmhouse on a quiet American farm


Contents

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I Know What You Wish For

Inspirations:
I always wondered what happened to the real mothers of all those fairy tale children who wind up having a wicked step-mother. So I wrote a story about one of those mothers.


Of Song:

Siúil A Rúin (trad. Irish)
I wish I were on yonder hill
'Tis there I'd sit and cry my fill
And every tear would turn a mill

I wish I sat on my true love's knee
Many a fond story he told to me
He told me things that ne'er shall be

Siúil, siúil, siúil a rúin
Siúil go sochair agus siúil go ciúin
Siúil go doras agus éalaigh liom
Is go dté tú mo mhúirnín slán


I Love You... I'll Kill You (by Enigma)
I see love, I can see passion
I feel danger, I feel obsession
Don't play games with the ones who love you
Cause I hear a voice who says:
I love you... I'll kill you...
Loneliness, I feel loneliness in my room...
Look into the mirror of your soul
Love and hate are one in all
Sacrifice turns to revenge and believe me
You'll see the face who'll say:
I love you... I'll kill you...
But I'll love you forever


Of Personality:
Vir Cotto - Babylon 5 (TV series)
Hairy Meg - War for the Oaks (novel by Emma Bull)
Hoggle - Labyrinth (movie)

"The dreams of youth are the regrets of maturity." -Darkness, Legend (movie)

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Looks Can Be Deceiving

Mask: Cynthia Cooke is an unassuming, shy young woman of indeterminate ethnic origin. She is often assumed to be of a minority common to the area she happens to be in. She is petite and usually dresses in simple, utilitarian clothes.

Mein: Cinder is a small woman with hair like soot, eyes like coals and skin the color of broth. She smells of chocolate, cookies and herbs. Her apron holds a myriad of things, from common soup ladles to rare gemstones.

Notable Traits:



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Hell Hath No Fury

Once upon a time, there was a farm girl. Her family had very little money, but they never considered themselves poor. She grew up milking cows and goats, rousting chickens from their roost to gather eggs, and riding their old mare from one end of the pasture to the other. Her mother sewed beautiful dresses just for her, but mostly she would wear her brothers’ handed-down jeans and t-shirts.

On weekends, they would take their eggs and milk and cheese to the farmers’ market where they would sell it to the busy city folk who yearned for simple country pleasures. It was there that she met him, a plain boy with hair that fell into his eyes. His family lived in the next town over. His mother made smiling needlepoint angels to sell and his father worked in a factory.

Their marriage ceremony was simple. Her mother made her dress and his mother baked the cake. They cut it with his mother’s knife and laid the slice on her mother’s china. Both mothers waved and cried as the new couple drove off toward the city.

She did not think to see him in the city, the tall man who she thought was from a neighboring farm. She would see him at dusk sometimes when she was riding the old mare from one end of the pasture to the other. He never waved or smiled or even spoke, but he watched her. She would always urge the old mare on faster as if she could out gallop his gaze.

They found a small apartment in the city that was maybe a quarter of the size of the house she grew up in. She worked as a waitress and he worked as a grocery clerk. More than anything, they wanted children. She dreamed of sewing dresses for her daughters and he dreamed of throwing football in the park with his sons.

One day, at dusk, as she was walking home from work, she passed the tall man in an alley. “I know what your dream is. I can grant your wish.” She shook her head and left quickly. At least once a month, for many years, or so it seemed, she would see the tall man and he would make his offer and she would refuse.

They grew older. She became the waitress lead at the little family run diner and he became the grocery store manager. On holidays they went back to visit their families, but still, no matter how many times their mothers asked, there were no children.

When they had almost given up hope, when they had relented and turned what they were saving as the children’s room into a plain, spare bedroom for relatives who never came to visit, she found that she was with child. Those were the most joyous months of their lives. They painted the spare bedroom a light lavender color, pretty enough for a girl, but dark enough for a boy they decided. Her mother gifted them with an old wooden changing table and his mother gifted them with an old wooden crib. Both mothers showered them with burp cloths and blankets, booties and bonnets, all in appropriately neutral colors like purple and yellow and dark red.

She expected pain, but not so much pain. It hurt so much she had a hard time thinking. At first she thought it was that dinner disagreed with her. But it became obvious that something was wrong. She tried to tell her husband, but she couldn’t make her mouth form words. She heard him call 911, then leave the apartment to open the secured front door downstairs.

The tall man stood at the foot of her bed. “I know what you wish for. Come with me and I will grant it,” he said in a calm, clear voice.

“My… baby…” were all the words she could manage to say.

The tall man nodded. “Your baby will live if you come with me. If you do not…” he shrugged nonchalantly, “who can say.”

When he returned to the apartment, the sound of his son’s cries greeted him. His wife lay on the bed as cold as clay with eyes as still as glass beads.

The tall man, her lord, Lord Sumorsǣte, told her that he loved her, that he had been watching her since she was a child and that she had grown into the most beautiful of women. He took her to his crystal castle upon the Hill and dressed her in silks and velvets and decorated her with pearls and jewels. All he said he wanted to hear was that she loved him too, but she could not say it, for she kept thinking of her husband whom she had loved for so long and her child whom she had known so briefly. She dined on chocolate leaves and plump fruits and honey wine. She slept on fine satin sheets with fluffed down pillows in a room hung with beautiful tapestries. She had a garden full of sweet smelling plants where she could watch the sun or the moon rise or set as she wished. Song birds sang for her, waking her in the morning and singing her lullabies at night. For many years, or so it seemed, Lord Sumorsǣte would ask her for her love and she would deny it.

Then dark times came and her lord was called upon to pay a heavy debt. With downcast eyes, he sent her away to live in another castle, a castle of shadow. Here there were no fine silks, only the sacks from the food in the pantry. Here there were no satin sheets, only the ashes by the fireplace. Here she was made to cut and peel and stir and mix and toil in the kitchens and she was lucky enough for a taste of soup here, a pinch of mutton there and potato peelings for desert. For many years, or so it seemed, she bustled around the kitchen in fear of the taskmaster's lash. She learned the names of herbs and cuts of meat and roots dusted with dirt and all the utensils in the castle kitchen. Her skin became brown like broth and her hair became as dark as hearth soot. Bent over a cutting board or peering into an oven or hunched over a cauldron, she shrunk down just to that size.

And then, one day, without warning, she was cleaned up, packed up and sent back to her Lord’s castle. Overjoyed, she ran to his arms and told him that she loved him, just like he had always wanted. But he thrust her away, called her horrible names and pushed her down the stairs when she tried to follow him. For many years, or so it seemed, she fell down the stairs. She screamed and called down every curse she could think of upon his head. When she finally landed, she was battered and bruised from head to toe. Familiar smells lead her to the kitchens in the heart of the castle where she was immediately put to work.

Although there was much work to do in the kitchens of the crystal castle, she found it easier than the work in the shadowed kitchens where her lord had sent her. Here there was food aplenty, the head cooks were generous with leftovers and there were straw pallets for sleeping. Here she worked, creating the dishes, from the delicate to the flamboyant, that she once dined upon without a thought of from whence they came.

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Companions

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Whispers and Rumors

Cinder carries wishes in her pockets.


Played by Jane Izumoto, email at Coffeekraken at Gmail

Retrieved from "http://changeling.cam-wiki.org/Cinder"
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