Image Credits: frame Arkane, figure Dark Academia Dress Up

Name: Elinora Sykorea

Gender/Preference: Female, she/her, aggressively bi

Age/DOB: 20 in 1855; 1st Day, Month of Earth (born first)

Faction: Independent, Shop and Cafe owner

Family: Mother deceased during the Rat Plague in early 1837; father recently passed; aunt Kemmarly (father's side) helps run cafe; twin sister Ingarette

Height/Build: 5'6" / petite, curvy, more agile than muscular

Hair: charcoal brown-black, shiny and thick (straightened from wooly) and kept with snug braids or styled, generally about high back length, when natural it isn't poofy but it is difficult to tame

Eyes: rich brown, almond shaped with a strong epicanthal fold, under finely done brows, wears a small amount of makeup to enhance her existing beauty

Appearance: yellowish tan skin without marks or scars, though she does seem a little on the 'needs to see the sun' side of this; if she doesn't have a smile on her face, something is very wrong - and she'll let you know just exactly what in a strong but high voice that's suited to carry over a crowded cafe; tends to wear subdued greens and hazel brown clothing

"This one is seen to be the charm to her sister's wit, but in truth they are both equally sharp."

Skills and Occupation: Elinora is quite a bit more outgoing and enjoys listening to the chatter in the cafe, and is quite well versed in preparation of foods, teas and coffees, drinks mixing, and the like; she sources herbs and ingredients, often going out to barter or pick up specific items, and she is the one who will go on short trips to other cities arranging deliveries. Very much a people-person, she can hold three or four conversations in her head at once, and has yet to forget an order. She has a good grasp on taste and scent combinations, so if she's experimenting with the cafe's offering, be sure to take her up on a free sample.

Residence:Gristol / Dunwall, Kaldwin's Bridge Midrow Substation, in the third story of The Wren's Nest; Elinora's rooms are fastidiously organized and clean, though positively packed with maps and notes, small figurines, bonecharms and idols, and other such gifts that the patrons of the cafe provide. She does also have a set of coffee mugs that are her passion: if a student or visiting traveler notices a special request on the cafe's wall, they can bring her 'tourist trap' mugs for a special brew! Elinora does assorted cooking or preparation in the kitchen, while Ingarette does most of the accounting in the shared nook.

Notable Possessions: she and her sister inherited The Wren's Nest building on Kaldwin's Bridge; on the lower floor is the Cafe, serving mostly coffee and ales along with a few finger foods and snacks, catering to the students of the Academy and other locations around the area; on the middle floor is the Bookstore, having a stunning number of higher-end textbooks, research materials, maps, personal journals collected from old adventures, and the like; it does have a few 'very' heretical books and magically endowed items scattered among the texts, but no Overseer has even been through the place in recent memory. On the third floor are their two connected apartments, a common room, a kitchen, and business nook. There is a balcony on each floor that looks over the Wrenhaven River not-quite-due-west, and a rooftop area where the twins and their aunt often spend off time relaxing and feeding the gulls.

Personality: Much higher energy than her sister, Elinora may sample her wares a little more than she should - but her room is so clean and organized! While tea is the more typical drink found in the Isles, their mother introduced them to coffee and now it's pretty much all she will drink (with or without added booze at times). So yes, that sort of sums up her personality? Not really - she is aggressively able to pursue intellectual ideas, and has a vast array of trivia or knowledge at her fingertips

Likes and Dislikes: she enjoys being 'wired', and has even experimented with a drop of whale oil in her morning brew... She will try things herself before foisting them on the patrons, since she is never sure whether it's just her palate or something they could make money from. She is disappointed when older stodgy folk come through and expect her to be 'merely' a bar maid - she is at least as intelligent as most professors and can definitely hold her own in anything she's researched.

Fears or Interruptions: If there was ever a time to be alive, it's now - but there are still people who want to plunge their society into chaos and 'the good old days of the Lord Regent'. Whenever she discovers those 'Regenters' among the patrons of the cafe she very carefully finds a way to get them to leave. This hasn't made her popular with them, and she worries that she's actively making enemies. But she's got too much on her mind and in her hands to do anything much about it.

Their family is from disparate portions of the Isles; mother a native of the far north Wei-Gon islands, and their father from Potterstead in Gristol. He had been selected to attend the Academy of Natural Philosophy in Dunwall, and in the attempt to find an apartment for their new family, discovered an open building along Kaldwin's Bridge, over the Wrenhaven river. When Ora sought to open a book shop and coffee cafe (boldly bucking the trend of yet another tea-house), Renult realized that he was not only happier running the shop than studying at the Academy, he could still learn to his heart's content by listening in to the conversations in the cafe below! By the mid-1830s their family was doubled - not merely by Renult's sister and another cousin who came down from Potterstead, but by having their twins Elinora and Inagrette. Unfortunately at this time too, the Rat Plague began to swarm over Dunwall, and when the twins were barely two, their mother was bitten by an infected rat and died - though she also helped advance Sokolov's research into the disease even in death. The cousin also fell ill, but had the sense to leave the area and not infect the children or their remaining family.

The girls were educated by many of those students who still came through the area; Sokolov was much too busy and important to do so, but some of his own students would stop by the shop and were given books or coffee in trade for tutoring them.