Name: Epeelyn, Epee for short.
Gender: Female
Age: 16
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
Rank: Candidate
Appearance: Epee is just what she appears to be: a ragged vagabond. She’s of average height, about 5’6, and is very thin, carrying the sharp appearance of the malnourished. Joints seem bony, limbs seem frail. However, Epee is corded with muscle. Turns of performing to earn marks have strengthened this seemingly delicate girl into a tough and world-wise young woman. Scars and scrapes cover her tanned skin, roughening what would be an otherwise pretty appearance. The figure she possesses is boyishly slim, but that simply gives her an advantage with her tumbling. She’d be unable to perform with any kind of skill if she were very top-heavy.
Long, thin hands and an aristocratic face betray her once noble heritage, but that is long forgotten and covered up by chipped nails and ground in dirt. The aforementioned face is roughly oval in shape with a wide brow and a lengthy, thin nose; cheekbones are high and well-defined. Epee’s eyes are what draw you in, her one highlight. They are slightly tilted at the corners, wreathed in thick lashes. The irises within are a light brown, bordering on amber. Their fierce stare will often catch passersby and hold them for a few moments, simply unable to move. Within their depths swim a welcome light-heartedness despite the tough life Epee lives. Despite this, her gaze seems to imply she’s lived hundreds of lives, seeming so ancient in her young face. Her eyes seem to say, “I’ve seen the world and its wonders, but I find it sorely lacking.”
Surrounding her face in a cloud of bistre is a mane of wavy hair. When clean, it likes to fluff and ripple with every movement of her head. People often mistake her for having black hair, especially when inside. However, outside, the sun of Rukbat lights up her hair from black to just an extremely dark, rich brown. Any clothes Epee has at the moment are probably patched up and frayed. She has a lot of hand-me-downs from her deceased foster-father and wears them like a badge of pride. However, she’ll never say no to newer donated clothes.
Personality: Most of the time, Epeelyn is a jovial young woman. Usually, there is some sort of smile on her face, though they always seem to vary widely. She gets along well with most people; she has to if she wants to earn her marks. Generally, she does enjoy people. Epee loves watching them discreetly, studying their actions, learning likes and dislikes to assist her in being able to please more people. Because of this interest in people, she has learned to detect what people are thinking or feeling by their expressions and their stances. Using this information, she normally targets the people who need cheering up, since they normally seem to tip well at her performances.
The thought and time she takes in judging her potential audience shows the keen intelligence hidden within the young woman. Her time on the streets has honed her intelligence and bred a manipulative and crafty nature. Besides her tumbling, she’s also known to have the newest gossip and news. She’ll give it to you for a price. Nothing she ever does is for free. Just because she doesn’t ask for something right away does not mean she’ll forget the debt you owe her. Eventually, she will call in a favor, which may not always be to your benefit. Epeelyn also knows how to dish out the dirt. If you need to know someone’s dirty little secret, Epee is your girl. Depending on what you want to know, she’ll charge you a reasonable price. If you try and double-cross her, you’ll probably live to regret it, since more than likely, she’ll probably have something on you too.
Epeelyn is a girl who gets cross at you very easily. However, that’s a sign she likes you. To people she does not know, Epee is friendly and courteous, seemingly reserved. If she lets herself get annoyed or angry around you, it is a sign she likes you enough to let loose. Though there are a lot of things which annoy her, nothing annoys her worse than incompetence. There is no room for error in what she does or the services she performs. In her eyes, if you don’t know what you’re doing, let someone else who knows how to do it and go home. While she can get annoyed easily, she very rarely gets angry and even when she is, it is very hard to discern the emotion. The only evidence would be the steely glint she’ll get in her eyes.
Besides her dealings in information, what she most loves to do is her tumbling. She considers it an art form and herself an artist and everyday she strives to master her personal craft. Ever since she was young, she has practiced the art and has become very limber and graceful when performing. Always, she is trying new acts to please her watchers, her flips and handstands always seeming to earn applause. This one practice brings joy to her life, for she loves making people happy.
One of her weaknesses, and the girl has many though she may deny it, are flitts. She loves those little buggers to death and will do anything to assist one. Her own are flitts she has rescued from eggs thought duds. They are very well-trained, which gave her an idea for another position in the community. Ever since she realized her gift with flitts, she will hire herself out as a flitt trainer, assisting owners who have no idea how to control their little loves.
History: Vaguely, Epeelyn can recall when her mother would tell her of their regal heritage. Her grandmother and grandfather used to be big-time traders. In their day, they reigned supreme and were unofficially recognized the lord and lady of traders. Epee’s mother would tell her daughter of how she and her brother always had the best of everything. However, disaster would strike at the wealthy traders. It had been rumored that they had traded with a small cothold, giving them contaminated wine, causing the sickness and eventual death of many of the cothold’s members. The stigma followed them, no matter where they went, even to the extent that her grandfather’s father, a lord holder, would have nothing to do with the family. The family fell into ruin and did what they could to survive.
Epee’s mother eventually left her mother and father, hoping, in some way, she’d be able to make a life for herself. However, she ended up on the streets, selling herself for money. Epee was the result of that. Her mother loved her, despite all odds, and would never have thought to rid herself of her baby, no matter how easier it would have made things. The woman did what she could to support her little girl, though when Epeelyn was six, her mother eventually succumbed to a disease she had caught.
Epeelyn lived on the streets for about a turn before she was taken in by a kind man whose practiced eye had caught sight of her skinny form. He had seen her in the crowds that would gather around him as he performed, identifying her as a possible pupil. The man was getting older, and wanted someone to carry on his art. Epeelyn agreed, enchanted with the fact she’d get to learn something that looked so beautiful. So the man taught Epee everything he knew, his craft and his ideals. She lived with the man, traveling with him, until she was thirteen turns, when he finally died at the age of 59, already too old to perform any longer.
After his death, Epee fell in with a group of thieves who taught her the art of information gathering. After learning from them what she could, she broke away from them, making herself a home base and setting up her own information network. Though it took turns, she had a large network running by the time she was fifteen. It was through this network, she learned of a flitt hatching which would soon be happening in a nearby lord’s house. Curious, she set up a post there to await the event, never having watched one before.
Safe in the boughs of a nearby tree, she peered in the window as the hatching began, watching on as the lord and his family stuffed the overeager flitts which hatched. When the hatching wound down, a few eggs were left over, none moving. These were quickly taken away by servants, tossed out like yesterday’s garbage. Interest caught, Epee shimmied down the tree and scurried to the trash pile, where the eggs could be seen. She collected each of those left, three in all. Never having seen a flitt egg in her life, she committed their appearance to memory so if she ever happened upon a viable one, she’d know what it was. To her complete and utter surprise, one of the eggs she held in her hand began to wiggle. Though it was rather large, it hadn’t moved at all during the actual hatching so all thought it to be dead.
That was the night bronze Duran was born, surviving against staggering odds to bond with the vagabond known as Epeelyn. The flitt became the girl’s constant companion, confidant, and spy. It wasn’t until a turn later that Epee found her second flitt.
Duran had suddenly returned early from his errand, eyes whirling an orange-red, thoughts echoing a shared pain. Confused, Epee quickly followed where he led, coming upon a gaggle of young boys surrounding something. Pushing past them, she saw what had them so interested. A green flitt, hide still shiny with egg-fluid, sat in their midst, creeling in pain.
This being a coastal town, one of the boys had happened upon the egg earlier and brought it to the streets, where it hatched. Most boys seem to be cruel at this age, and this situation was no different. One of the boys had thought it would be fun to poke at the green with a stick. Green ichor dripped down her membranes from where the point of the stick had been driven through her wings. Very angry, Epee had scooped the poor thing up, amazed she’d yet to between, berating those boys while sending Duran for food to feed the poor green she held. That was how Little Sister came to join Epee. The green soon healed and was trained by Epee to be like Duran, becoming the bronze’s partner in crime.
Life became routine for Epeelyn. She performed for crowds and sold information. Comfortable with her life and the tiny empire she had created for herself, she thought nothing would change for her. For once in her life, the young woman was happy. Then one sharding blue rider had to come and ruin everything. It had been a normal evening, Epee performing for a crowd. When she was done, she was approached by a by a man she’d never seen in these parts before. All he’d said was, “You’re coming with me, girl,” and dragged her off, a grip of steel around her thin wrist. She had been spirited away without another word, her only possessions her flitts, the clothes on her back, and the coins she had collected that evening. But while her candidacy was forced on her, she was happy with this new turn in her life. She now had a lot to look forward to, after all.
Pet(s): Bronze flitt Duran and Green flitt Little Sister
Other: None
