Name: Anastasia Li

Age: 24

Job aboard the Moirai: Companion

Sexuality: Bisexual

Physical Description:
Anastasia looks younger than she is, always a good thing for the longevity of a Companion’s career (and at least in part a product of her training). Upon first meeting her, guesses of her age can start at as young as 16 or 17, though more perceptive people are usually more accurate. At 5’4”, she’s not exactly tall, certainly shorter than many Companions. But her beauty is worthy of her guild. She is slim without being skinny, soft curves easily detectable yet not remarkably buxom. Her skin is clear and quite pale, her face a lovely heart shape. Her eyes are a golden brown and her gaze sticks in the memory, capable of remarkable intensity yet still softened away from uncomfortableness by the feeling of naturalness that comes with it. Her straight hair is a dark brown, falling to the middle of her shoulderblades when left out, and with a long fringe. With her training, she can do all sorts of fantastic things with it, but her favourite style is to pull it back loosely and pin it up with decorative bronze pins, fringe falling naturally over and around her face. She prefers a very minimalist makeup look, with only a little darkening around her eyes, letting her youth and natural beauty do the work for her. She always dresses well, even when she's not on a job. She has a large wardrobe and likes dressing in elegant styles, often with lace or tastefully draped silks or sheer fabrics as accents, usually in dark colours. Her jewellery choices are a little different from most Companions’, with a fondness for bronze in sharper designs with almost an industrial feel. Perhaps her childhood on Beaumonde is showing through. Somehow it manages to work, setting off the elegance of her clothes and innocence of her face. All her movements are enviably graceful. Her voice has a faintly sweet quality to it, and all traces of lower-class Beaumonde have been trained out of it.

Personality:
Anastasia is naturally intelligent and very well educated, and loves learning new things. Because of her upbringing and training she is at ease with people of every class. She is generally a positive person, trying to look for the best in every situation and person (though sometimes she fails). But she doesn’t come across as bubbly. Her training has given her a calm air. Her smiles, though easy to provoke, are quiet, almost mysterious, and her voice is hardly ever raised. Even when she’s angry she doesn’t usually get outwardly worked up, instead resorting to sarcasm in so sincere a tone of voice that you might just be forgiven for thinking she’s serious. She’s a very good listener, always willing to hear other people’s views or problems. She’s willing to help in whatever way she can (within reason) and is good at comforting people. On the other hand, she’s not so good at letting other people know when she is troubled herself, bottling up all her hurt. Happiness they can see, anger she might indulge in, but she never wants other people to worry about her. Like her training recommends, she manages to avoid getting emotionally involved with her clients, but she also finds herself a bit wary of romantic relationships outside of that sphere, not really sure how to work it in alongside her job. She’s always a bit quiet, though not dishonest, about her past, a habit learnt during her time living and working amongst the upper classes. Though she looks like some precious fragile ornament, she’s not afraid of hard work or getting her hands dirty (though as a Companion she does her best to see they remain physically clean), and always sees that her debts are paid. She is also a fan of revenge, more than she should be, she knows.

History:
Anastasia was born on Beaumonde, to an upper-lower class family. Both her parents worked in factories, her father as a floor manager, and the most that could be said of them was that her father was responsible and respected by the other workers, and her mother bore the worry lines around her eyes well and didn’t complain even though she was always sick. Anastasia always expected she would end up working in a factory like everyone else she knew, and since the age of nine she had even started doing small odd jobs in her spare time for her father, but fate would take her on a different path.

When she was ten, she was running a message for her father one day when she bumped into the most beautiful lady she had ever seen. That woman was a Companion, Amrita Sharma, holding the arm of a man who owned several of the factories in the area and wanted to show them off. Anastasia expected to be shouted at for her clumsiness and told to go away, but instead the woman reached down and turned Anastasia’s chin up so she could see her face better. She had spotted potential there. The Companion and her client walked away and Anastasia never expected to see her again, but Amrita was a noted philanthropist, and made a few enquiries. When she found out that Anastsia did very well at school, she decided to take a chance and contacted Anastasia and her parents, telling them that if Anastasia continued to get good grades in her schooling and could pay her own way to Sihnon when she was 12, Amrita, who was influential in the guild, would vouch for her admittance to the training house there.

Her parents leapt at the opportunity eagerly, especially her mother, who had been made very ill by the pollution on Beaumonde and wanted a better life for her daughter. Anastasia also wanted it. It wasn’t that she thought she couldn’t cope with the life her parents had, but there had been something about Amrita that she longed to possess herself. As well as that, she had always loved learning new things, and she knew she would never get any better opportunity than this one for that. For the next two years Anastasia barely left the house, her mother insisting that she stay out of the city’s pollution as much as possible so as not to risk harming her beauty, working hard on her schooling instead. Her parents worked harder and longer hours than ever before, and with that and a few donations from friends, they scraped together enough to get Anastasia to Sihnon when she was 12 and even pay for her board for one year. Her mother died soon after Anastasia left, worried to the last that Anastasia would eventually develop some illness as a result of the pollution she was exposed to as a child. Anastasia has always suspected that, even knowing she was sick, her mother worked herself to death for her daughter’s sake.

Anastasia’s face and her patron’s name got her through the doors of the Companion training house, but it was hard work to stay there. It was unusual for someone from her background to be accepted, most of the students coming from good middle or upper class families. The subjects taught were nothing she had ever experienced before. Dance, martial arts, meditation, calligraphy, music, literature, languages, psychology, philosophy, politics, carriage, conversation… All were new to her, exotic and intriguing. She had to work hard to keep up with her classmates, most of whom had more exposure to such things, but she had never been afraid of hard work. She loved dance and literature especially. She did well enough in her studies that after the year she had been able to pay for ran out, her patron offered her a partial scholarship to continue, if her family could continue to pay half of her board. They did, and Anastasia continued with her studies. She only made one close friend among the students. Most of them were friendly without being friends, polite but not able to come to terms with her “lesser upbringing” (though they would never admit that that’s what it was, and Anastasia didn’t hold it against them). Her philanthropic patron maintained an interest in her and her teachers were pleased with her progress, so for the most part she did feel like she was genuinely welcome in the guild. She was happy enough, liking what she was learning and the capable woman she was becoming.

Anastasia finally graduated at the age of 20. Since then she has been working on the core worlds, building her experience and finding her feet as a Companion. She has been keeping only the bare necessity of what she earns, sending the rest to the Guild and her patron, wanting to pay them back for their support, or to her father, but she has now decided she has paid her debt. Most of her classmates don’t look for anything outside of the social circles of the core worlds, but Anastasia has always had a different view to them. She wants to see the worlds, meet new people, discover new things, and if she has to take something less than a luxury liner and make less money to do it, then so be it. She knows her life could be far worse.

She's been on board the Moirai for a month or two.