mercy fletcher

OOC Information


Name: liz!
Age: I am an entwife
Pref. Pronouns: she/her
Contact: ragweed @ plurk; middlemarching#9936 @ discord
Current characters: Kit Marlowe, Pippa & Emery Ward, Adhemar Normand

IC Information


Name/Alias: Mercy Fletcher
Age: she isn't sure, but has seen at least 40 birthdays. Probably 42 or 43.
Occupation: Midwife
Born with The Vice?: No

Appearance:
Tall and willowy in a way that suggests she must have been a frail child, though she outgrew it. Mercy often wears her long blonde hair in a loose braid or messy bun, which emphasizes the streaks of silver at her temples. She dresses for utility; simple wool dress, an apron when attending to her work, solid boots for trekking through the woods.

History:

Giant content warning for childhood physical abuse.

Mercy was born (roughly 1270) and raised in Northcliff Pass and has, with the exception of some travel for work, lived here all her life. At the time of her birth her own parents were barely more than children themselves; her father Amos worked his father's farm, and any time Amos wasn't struggling to avoid a beating from his father was spent instead drinking and subjecting his wife, Alice, and daughter to similar treatment. When she was approximately 11 or 12, her mother left the family after a screaming row with Amos, and Mercy became the primary outlet for his feelings of anguish and betrayal. Despite multiple attempts made by distant relatives and the late village vicar to moderate his aggressive behaviour, all that improved was Mercy's ability to hide the bruises.

So life continued for the next four or five years, with Mercy aiding her father on the farm while he was sober, and struggling to stay out of reach when he was not. To put some distance between herself and her father's aggression, Mercy spent a great deal of time within the village walls, and took a shine to the village midwife. This is where she began to pick up the basics of the craft, though she would not put it to practice for some years yet. At around 16 (roughly 1286), Mercy accompanied Amos down to Northcliff to sell a portion of their yield, and returned alone. When asked what happened to him, she would only answer, "He drowned." No one asked many questions.

She spent the next ten years alternating between aiding her ailing grandparents in working the family farm, and putting in additional time with the village midwife as she, too, succumbed to the rigours of age. She buried all of them in her late 20s, and shortly thereafter met and married a sweet-natured soldier named Sam Fletcher. Together they had one child, a boy named Tim, but their life together was a brief one as Sam was killed when the avalanche swept through Northcliff Pass in 1302, leaving Mercy to raise their son alone.

Mercy has been the village midwife since roughly 1300, and now that her boy is old enough to apprentice to a cabinet maker in the city, she has little else to occupy her but her work, and her secrets.

Personality:

Mercy is emotionally distant without being cold; a "still waters run deep" personality who prefers to keep her counsel private and appreciates the company of others who respect that and do the same. She alternates between deeply reviling the gods for subjecting her to an abusive father and a negligent mother, for stealing away from her the only people who have ever treated her with tender kindness, and revering them for the few opportunities they have presented her for settling the score.

She takes her work as a midwife seriously, and has a steadying bedside manner.

Abilities:

Midwifery and all that entails.

Could manage a farm again if absolutely pressed, but definitely does not want to.

Some reading and arithmetic courtesy of the midwife who mentored her, but not enough to read a book.

Reputation: A quiet and respectable widow who has gone through Quite A Lot, what a shame she never remarried.