Beautiful People - Regina

pinterest: tempus regina

Sky and Georgie played a sneaky trick on us this month, so for the Beautiful People meme, we get to choose our own ten questions.  I cheated a bit and snitched most of Jenny's, but we won't talk of that...

Having "finished" The White Sail's Shaking, I'm slowly turning Tempus Regina over in my mind.  I have not given it much attention, nor is anything concrete yet, but I wanted to introduce you to my main character Regina.  Many of these questions delve into aspects of her personality that I haven't considered before and which may even change down the road, but here is at least a rough sketch of her.

regina

1. What does she look like? What are her hair and eye colour?

Regina is tall and slender, moves with a grace that fits her name, and can seem, altogether, as lifeless and unapproachable as a statue.  Her complexion is pale, making her eyebrows standing out startlingly, and if she were out in the sunlight more she would have very light freckles over her cheekbones.  Her hair is thick and dark brown, much like the above picture, but her eyes are on the green side of hazel. 

 2. How old is she?

The story begins in 1849, when Regina is twenty.

3. What is her background? Where did she come from?

Regina is English and Welsh, primarily the former, by blood.  Her family was not wealthy, per se, but they had a fair income and no need to worry about money - until it came to light, just after Regina's brother was born, that her father had gambled most of the money away.  At that point he abandoned his family, and his wife was forced to give up their house in the country and take her children to London.  Having lived all her life away from cities, the noise and pollution of the capital quickly took their toll and she died when Regina was twelve.  Since then Regina has raised and provided for her younger brother alone, and that responsibility brought her early to a hard kind of womanhood.

4. What does she do?

Anything legitimate to earn money.  She works off and on in factories, but prefers jobs that allow her to bring her brother along.  At the start of Tempus Regina, she is just about to apply for a place as a maid to an eccentric bachelor.

5. Is there something she is particularly good at?

Regina has tried her hand at nearly everything and can do any business passably.  She once embroidered and played harp and piano quite well, but it has been nine years since she had an instrument on which to practice, and she has no use for embroidery now.  She used also to play with her father's pocketwatch, taking it apart piece by piece and then reassembling it, so she has more than a passing knowledge of clockwork. 

6. Is there something she is afraid of?

Regina does not express fear readily; she keeps it bottled with a tight lid on top.  She is terribly afraid of something happening to her brother, for she promised her mother to take care of him - and, too, if she lost him there would be little purpose left in her life.  To a lesser degree, she fears the dark.  Not that she is afraid to go asleep at night, but pitch-black rooms where the darkness seems sentient utterly terrify her.

7. What is her personality?  Introvert or extrovert?

 She is an introvert, perhaps more from habit than from inherent personality.  Generally she is aloof, often cold, showing little emotion: she cannot afford to.  At most times she is engaged in her own thoughts (thinking, most likely, about how to get food), but she can be filtering what others are saying at the same time and come out of her reverie with a fair idea of the conversation.  The wear of responsibility on her nerves as left her with a quick temper.

8. Is she married or does she have a sweetheart?

Neither.  Whether that changes will appear in the course of the story.

9. What is her favourite outfit?

Her wardrobe is, at the moment, very limited.  Her favourite colour is cream and she once had an old-fashioned dress in just the right hue, bound with a wide blue belt and possessing rather ridiculous gigot sleeves.  Now she keeps to dark colors (which don't do her complexion any favors) and simple cuts.  She is particularly fond of a dress she finds in an old trunk, composed of a chiton-like dress in burgundy over a sleeved, high-collared black "underdress."

10. If she had a song, what would it be?

Although "Street of Dreams" by Blackmore's Night is quite suited to her story, I would probably choose "Memories" by Within Temptation.  While I don't care for the band in general, this song fits not only Regina's storyline, but her personality as well.

all of my memories 

keep you near 

in silent moments 

imagine you'd be here 

all of my memories 

keep you near 

the silent whispers, silent tears