Ember Weaver

Name: Ember Sarantha Weaver
Age: 23
Sex: Female heterosexual
PB: Dido
Appearance: One dark amber eye, one bright green. Blond hair that she keeps short and tidy. Short, clean nails. Tends to wear conservative clothing; doesn't show a lot of skin just as a matter of course - due to the way she grew up, she simply doesn't feel comfortable in more revealing outfits.
Special abilities: Dreamweaving. She has a loom and a dark room to keep all her jars of raw dreamstuff in, in the basement of her shop/home. She's also quite good at "homemaking" skills, including sewing and cooking, and making basic taper and pillar candles, that sort of thing.
Supernatural Affinity
Species/Group: dreamweaver
Power(s): gathering, sorting, and weaving dreamstuff
Personality: Bright, determined, and generally speaking quite kind. She's not loud and obnoxious, but she's no shying violet either. She's also rather high-strung; definitely not a zen person at all. She hates having nothing to do. She doesn't sleep in a bed at night, she weaves on her loom. She doesn't sit still for ten minutes, she's sewing while she's waiting for the water to boil in the pot so that she can cook some pudding to give to the kids she's teaching to make taper candles.
History: Ember was the youngest of four, with three older brothers and an old-school parents; she was put in a pre-arranged engagement from the time she was in grade two with a boy she'd never met before from clear across the country. Because of this, Ember's life was somewhat more restricted than even most dreamweaver girls'. She wasn't allowed to go to college because she was expected to be a housewife and therefore all the money went to her brothers' educations, or her dowry. At the very least she proved proficient at old-style homemaking skills, like sewing, candle making, cooking, and other things that would likely be more at home in times before electricity.

She graduated from high school - though her parents nor her fiance really saw the point in her staying past her sixteenth birthday - and was quite literally married the next day in a small, private ceremony.

From the first, Greyson, her husband, controlled everything about her life down to who she was with during the day and even what she wore. Her parents, being the old-school individuals they were, told her to grow up when she complained to them. They said he was the head of the household, it was her job to submit to him. Ember didn't. He wanted children. She also wanted children, just not with him, and she secretly went to get the birth control shot every four months.

Her not being able to conceive was a mark against his manhood, and instead he started beating her. To this day she still has scars on her back from where his belt buckle broke the skin.

He died two years later in an industrial accident; while she never got the details (luckily), it was a malfunctioning valve that blew extremely hot steam. He died of severe burns to over 90% of his body. The minute she got the news from the police, Ember sold everything except her loom, her car, and her clothes and she got the hell out of there. Her lawyer was given explicit instructions to never inform either of the families where she was. Ember inherited everything.

Now she has a second-hand store, with an apartment above it and a basement below it. In the store, besides selling second-hand items, she also makes clothing; she'll occasionally take commissions, if given enough time. She also makes candles, sharpens knives, and other assorted small things that people usually can't be bothered doing themselves. She's doing fine for herself; she's in no way worried that she won't be able to pay the mortgage on the place, since she used the inheritance money to buy it outright.
Weaknesses:
1.) All Alone - Ember doesn't have anyone to fall back on. Her family has either completely disowned her or they're actively looking for her - to put her in another marriage so that she doesn't shame them in front of the other weaver families. Either way, she doesn't care. She won't have anything to do with a family that encouraged a husband to control a young wife with the end of a belt. She will care if they come looking for her, though.
2.) Severe Seasonal Affective Disorder - when the light starts fading away? She needs those sunlamps. She gets miserable without sunlight. Just absolutely miserable. She can't afford to go to sunny, warm places for the entire winter. So, in winter, especially during snowstorms, she can reach critical levels of clinical depression. She loses the energy to do anything at all, including basic, every day activities. Hell, it gets to be a chore just to eat.
3.) Naive - the girl had a really sheltered upbringing. Now, it's been a couple of years, so this is starting to fade as she's seeing how the world really works, but she's still pretty naive, definitely.
4.) Scared of Heights - she is simply unable to go up a ladder or something past five or so feet in the air. It just doesn't happen. She has to drug herself with hellish amounts of sedatives just to be able to get on a plane.
Strengths:
1.) Handy - well, sort of. Give her "traditional female chores" like cooking, cleaning, sewing, candlemaking, etc. etc. etc. and she's pretty damn good at it. All that upbringing, y'know? Doesn't mean she's The Mistress of Awesome Candles and China Painting but she's okay. Damn good at sewing and embroidery and petite point and those things, though.
2.) Survivor - she survived a mentally and physically abusive husband for years. Like hell she's going to let herself be put in that position again ever. Not only that? She probably regularly volunteers at the local women's shelter or something. She's just that determined.
3.) Patient - seems that she has an infinite amount of the stuff. Technically, she doesn't. But she's used to working with hard-headed people who are set in their ways. And with little kids. She's got this stuff in spades.