Region: Born on the Southern tip of Auvinus, lived some years in West Auvinus, and currently resides in Roserock, Mishkan.
Appearance: Short in stature, but lean and muscled; Naturally olive skin that is tanned more so by a preference for outside versus in; Shoulder length, medium brown hair that is usually tied back in a haphazard ponytail; Grey-green, inquisitive eyes; A bit disheveled most of the time
Personality: Simple at first glance, Andie is the type who can survive with very little. Even if left with next to nothing, she holds a deep determination within her to do well and prosper with what she does have. It was a life of hard work, both at home and on the farm, that instilled these traits in her and she takes pride in her origins. However, not all of her drive comes from will alone. There's a nagging little something in the back of her mind that won't allow her to stop moving forward for fear of letting someone down. The only thing worse than screwing up is having anyone—family, friend, or stranger alike—think less of her ability.
One of her biggest challenges is accepting the fact that failure is sometimes inevitable, or perhaps more specifically, that she may fail. She has a complex about her, the insistent belief that she can do anything she puts her mind to, and can do it near-better than anyone else. Accepting help is difficult, even if work would go faster with an extra set of hands or a better idea. Andie often grumps and argues when someone attempts to show her a more efficient way to do a job, which tends to slow the process down even further. She tries, but patience and acceptance aren't quite her strongest suits.
Work-oriented, but not completely stiff and serious, Andie actually has an obvious love for many things childish. Games, puzzles, anything to flex mind or muscle or both are right up her alley. Likewise, she has a soft spot for kids and will go out of her way to make them smile.
An observant type, she takes great offense to being judged with no context, and would in turn reserve her own judgment until she knew someone better. Constantly gathering a mental map of each new face she meets, she does her best to be accurate in her assumptions, but in the end, they are just that, and Andie is not immune to understanding someone incorrectly. Still, she has a keen eye for detail and a great love of learning and analyzing and has gotten pretty good at it over time. Though Stubborn, she is outwardly friendly and willing to help.
History: Andie was born to a lower-middle class family in a port city on the Southern tip of Auvinus. Her father, a crate stacker at the harbor, brought home enough to keep the family in modest comfort, with bread, gravy, and meat, and sometimes a nicer treat on Sundays. While few of the children she played with had much in the way of toys, almost all of them could make up a decent game, and Andie spent many days running and laughing and being scolded away from the edge of the water.
With all the exercise, she grew fit even as a young child. However, it wasn't until the unfortunate drowning of a small city boy half her age that her father took her to the docks one weekend and taught her to swim. It became a pastime she simply couldn't get enough of.
At the age of ten, Andie's mother fell ill with fever and it was around that time that she learned frivolities weren't always an option. Her father, the only provider, had to continue work despite his worry. In his and her mother's stead, Andie cleaned and cooked for the family. When her mother had first taken to her bed, her father had told her there was no time for tears or moping, that mother would never get better unless she worked hard. Those thoughts, and the will to provide for her ailing family, helped motivate the young girl to a life of responsibility. In time, her mother regained her health, but Andie continued to help around the house.
A few years later, when Andie was twelve, a decree shut down port trade with neighboring continents, dealing a blow to the workload of multiple locations, including the one where her father was employed. He was let go, and seeking work elsewhere proved a fruitless endeavor. Without an income, life for the family would become unlivable. Understanding this, her father made plans with other folk, and one day had the family pack as much as they could and set out, bound for what they believed would be a better life in Mishkan.
The trip was a difficult one, littered with barren plains and sometimes without signs of civilization for days. On the second leg of the journey, having finally come across a place to replenish supplies, nearly half of the group chose to stay behind, tired of the perils and insecurity of lonely travel with little money and fewer assurances that they would even reach their final destination. Andie's family was one of them.
While remote and small, the farming village they settled in was one of friendly people and land aplenty, on lease to the villagers from a nobleman whose main landholdings were otherwise many miles away. The travelers from Southern Auvinus worked together with the natives of the area to build houses and prepare the land for farming. With what little currency they had remaining, her family built up a just-quite-steady-enough farm over the years. With the amount of work necessary to keep the farm afloat for a small family of three, Andie's formal childhood education ended there. Knowledge, her father would say, came from learning the ways of the world much faster than a schoolhouse could ever teach.
Those many years later, things once again started to change, and it came as nothing more than an absolute surprise. The Plague found its way to their borders, halting life there to a near-complete standstill and leaving its population so heavily decimated that the economy no longer stood a chance of recovery.
Andie's father was not the most educated of men, but he was no fool. He knew that if they were to survive, they would have to pick up and leave again. When he proposed it to the family, there were looks of worry and unwillingness, but no argument good enough to counter it.
Within the week the family had packed their meager belongings and gathered as many rations and barrels of water as they could hope to carry. The animals meant to pull the cart where obviously already tired before the journey began. They could only pray that the border of Mishkan come soon. It had been their destination years ago after work in Southern Auvinus had dried up and it was their destination once more.
A few weeks after Andie's twenty-first birthday, the family reached Roserock and their new life. Her father was able to find work in manual labor, and she at a small market owned by an elderly couple, but the family's recovery was slow nonetheless.
saedusk
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Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2014 8:33 am
plague
Name: Poury
Personality: Poury is very much a learner, curious and inquisitive to a near fault, and doesn't seem to know when it's best to stop sticking his nose into business that isn't his. Unfortunately, being told "no" never did much to discourage him from doing essentially whatever came to mind at any given moment, good or bad. However, he doesn't usually go out of his way to be hurtful, just a little naughty every once in a while when it suits his fancy.
Playing pranks is a bit of a beloved pastime for Poury, he enjoys the challenge that comes with getting one over on someone else, and proving that he's got the smarts to back up whatever he damn well pleases. Generally harmless, these pranks have been known to spiral out of control at times, but when someone is genuinely hurt by his mischief, he does tend to regret it. The idea that he can lose control is a very discomforting one to him.
That control is something he covets, along with his independence. The idea that he may not be the ultimate authority in his own life makes him uncomfortable and angry, and while he's quite open to any and all opinions, in the end he believes he is the only one who can shape his own destiny. He'd defend that belief tooth and nail if it came to it, even against his own keeper. He and Andie have come to a head on more than one occasion over who exactly is in charge.
Despite needing some semblance of control, Poury is vastly okay with trying and failing in order to find a better solution. Unlike Andie, he doesn't dwell on the past and gives no second thought to what others think of his mistakes. In fact, he'd be the first to admit that almost nothing he does comes with instant success, in both everyday life and experimentation.
It is in experimenting that he feels most at home, especially within the realm of plant life, growth, and breeding. He enjoys nothing better than tending his own little garden, though it's purpose goes far beyond looking or tasting nice. He's out to discover new things, to make leaps for himself and for others, so they can see the brilliance of his mind and work, as well.
Because of this, he spends a good amount of time holed away tinkering, and isn't the most socially adept character. He understands the workings and feelings of plants much better than people, and is often thrown odd glances for the way he chatters from his throat around plants as if communicating with them. Even when speaking to people, he's prone to short sounds and grunts before switching to words and is, in general, not much of a talker.
Item History: Andie's residence at the time, so very small and isolated, was always slow to receive news. In fact, it was nearly a week after two of the village women had taken to bed with a cough that a sheet of paper stuck on the public bulletin board warned of the Plague spreading through the nearest town, a two day walk, at least. In the beginning, the people thought nothing of it, but when the two women turned to four and three men, chatter began to spread amongst the close-knit community about curses and misfortune.
After three weeks, none of the victims had risen from their beds and at least one had a family who now hadn't been heard from, either. The villagers, once caring, began to spend less and less time together for fear of catching what their neighbor most certainly had. Better safe than sorry in a place where disease could spread even faster than gossip. The tiny market was nearly empty unless one couldn't last another day without a loaf of bread. Even the fields, the lifeblood of the place, were left mostly untended and weary.
However, the little village could never understand the severity of the situation until one day, unannounced, strangers appeared in the area. Their faces were covered and they spoke to no one, hardly acknowledging the curious glances of the people as they finally left their homes in an attempt to discover just what was happening. In their wake, these strangers left seven small shacks marred with unusual symbols. Even the house right next door to Andie's own, full with a friendly family that she had known all too well, was marked and trailed down three dots, two for the couple, and one for their six-year-old son.
Andie swore up and down that some of the villagers had even gone missing after the strangers finally packed up and disappeared, but her parents only called her claims foolhardy. It was nearly impossible to tell regardless, now that the excitement of the strange people had passed, most everyday folk had holed themselves back up again.
With each passing day, the amount of supplies the family had stored began to dwindle to near dangerous levels. Though it couldn't be said they had much to begin with, it was now near impossible to spend what little money they had to save themselves. At this point, the village's economy had been spooked to a standstill. There was no one to sell vegetables to and no one to buy bread from.
It was a hot, balmy day when Andie finally decided enough was enough, that she had to do something to try and find food, or she and her family would surely starve. She was sure to wait for her parents to sleep before slipping unnoticed into the night lit by a half-moon. At first she scoured only their own fields. Everything had withered, unsurprisingly, but a swirl of worry and determination in her gut kept her searching straight out of their own growth and into the fields of their neighbors.
While Andie held a great respect for the family that lived next door, she knew they hadn't been out of their home for some great time now. If there was anything left—she wasn't holding her breath—they likely wouldn't miss it. As she hunted, it became apparent that most of the plants here had gone in the direction of her own family's, poor or dead. Yet, among a patch of wrinkly old pumpkins, something caught her attention.
The smell, at first, was not quite as awful as it was unusual. As she cleared away the crinkled leaves and vines, a black-coated pumpkin came into view. Despite its oozy surface, the plant underneath actually looked unharmed and surprisingly ripe. Hoisting the heavy thing, she brought it back home, wondering all the while how it could have survived when nothing else had. The smell had her wobbly as she went, but she made with with perseverance.
Something welled in her stomach with every step, something that told her this pumpkin was special. It was a feeling she couldn't explain, an illogical one, but rather than bringing it inside to cook, she nestled it into the tall grass at the side of the shack. There she kept it, the pumpkin cursed by the plague, a victim just like the rest of the village. Andie spent an usual amount of time after that observing her find, outside when no one else would leave their homes. It interested her, its ability to live despite the death of nearly everything else. She sought to understand, but her though her basic knowledge of plants was great, it did little to explain just what had caused this.
The chatter of curses and misfortune had become whispers now, but those who bothered to look out their windows began to aim their superstitions at the strange woman who spent far too much time playing host to a rotten pumpkin.
Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2014 8:47 am
extra
Planned Faction-to-Be: Council of Sciences
Faction Plans:
After moving to Roserock and working for some time at the small market where she found work, Andie would begin to seek answers. The town is a far cry from where she felt most at ease, working the land, and she would have an interest in learning just what the Plague was and why it was such an awful, destructive force that had uprooted her life twice. Because of this she would seek the Council and find lay work among them in some form of manual labor. (I'd love to see her find some sort of farming or crop tending work among them if possible, but I believe she'd be just as suited to work such as cleaning or maintaining within a Council base.)
Once established, and with her Plague ever the inquisitive one, she would likely seek education in Science at Trisica, relying largely on her status as a Grimm to gain admittance. From there she believes she can learn better what her charge is up to with his tinkering and help him advance his goals.
While she is open to learning, she is not as intellectually sound as Poury, and would likely become an almost assistant to his experimentation with what she learned (after, of course, some growth where she realizes she doesn't need to be the one in charge all the time). Besides that, she would continue her work within the Council and, as influenced by her Plague once again, begin moving around to towns in an attempt to quell the rise of the disease in those areas.
A few off the cuff ideas that may or may not happen:
I imagine them ending up somewhere in the general chaotic-good alignment.
Poury could use his knowledge and interest in plants to help as a healer of some kind (plus Council of Sciences looking for a cure). This is contradictory to his makeup as an infitialis and could lead to some interesting plots/character growth.
Someday they could be inventors of some kind of new plant species, but I don't know if that's too meta.
I imagine they eventually would spend a decent amount of time apart due to their interest in spreading their ideas. More ground can be covered by two bodies.
Andie ends up, for whatever reason (injury maybe), much less able-bodied than she was before. Identity crisis?
saedusk
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Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2014 10:34 am
Now ready for review/crit!
Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2014 7:08 pm
Hey saedusk! This looks pretty good, except for one point, which is that most if not all of the land in Panymium is owned by ~somebody~, so I'd like to at least have a -little- mention of like whether she's a tenant of a knight, or whether the land is owned freehold by the people in the village, and if so who they bought it from. I'd also like to clarify that Panymese ships and docks still operate WITHIN Panymium, they just no longer travel to continents outside of Panymium. That being said, that would still ensure that there was remarkably less work for sailors, presumably enough for some to seek a change of occupation.
Andie's and Poury's personalities are both fine, but I don't see much about Andie's education, so I'm wondering about that, and also about what makes her become interested in the Council/what type of role you were hoping she'd play? We have room in the Council for people who don't have a great deal of formal education as workers and such, but I was wondering if she'd pursue education at Trisica, or get a job running messages, or work in Gadu, or if she knows anything about sailing, maybe work as a sailor for Council ships, or stay at a Council base in Mishkan or what. You don't need to go into detail, I just kinda want to know that you have some kind of plan so we won't have a crisis down the line when we need to think about successfully integrating these guys into the faction. Poury's fine, I can see how he'd be interested in becoming a Council Plague, but I don't necessarily see it immediately with Andie.
Everything else looks good! Just get this stuff sorted by Sunday, and I'll approve it for the activity trial.
saedusk
kotaline Vice Captain
Deathly Darling
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Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2014 9:43 am
Thanks for the crit, Kota! I changed and added a few things based on your questions and suggestions. Under the cut are the edited paragraphs for reference.
Andie was born to a lower-middle class family in a port city on the Southern tip of Auvinus. Her father, a crate stacker at the harbor, brought home enough to keep the family in modest comfort, with bread, gravy, and meat, and sometimes a nicer treat on Sundays. Thanks to this, she was also afforded a basic education. She found quite quickly that while she wasn't top tier at book learning, her grades average at best, she did quite enjoy the lessons that allowed her to observe the nature of something on her own, rather than accept only cold, hard fact.
--
A few years later, when Andie was twelve, a decree shut down port trade with neighboring continents, dealing a blow to the workload of multiple locations, including the one where her father was employed. He was let go, and seeking work elsewhere proved a fruitless endeavor. Without an income, life for the family would become unlivable. Understanding this, her father made plans with other folk, and one day had the family pack as much as they could and set out, bound for what they believed would be a better life in Mishkan.
--
While remote and small, the farming village they settled in was one of friendly people and land aplenty, on lease to the villagers from a nobleman whose main landholdings were otherwise many miles away. The travelers from Southern Auvinus worked together with the natives of the area to build houses and prepare the land for farming. With what little currency they had remaining, her family built up a just-quite-steady-enough farm over the years. With the amount of work necessary to keep the farm afloat for a small family of three, Andie's formal childhood education ended there. Knowledge, her father would say, came from learning the ways of the world much faster than a schoolhouse could ever teach.
Also, as far as Andie's work within the Council after becoming a Grimm, I added that to the extra post at the bottom. I didn't feel like it fit in with her history, since I believe it would be something achieved through actual ownership and rp, so I hope that's okay!
Please let me know if there's anything else that needs fixed or any of my updates that don't make any sense or wouldn't be allowed. Thanks!
kotaline
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2014 6:34 pm
Change the thing about grades. All lower education in Panymium happens through tutors and fosterage for noble children, and church schools and occasional lessons from nomad teachers, especially in Imisus. School in Panymium is nothing like modern high schools. Other than that, this quest is approved. You're go for the activity trial, so once Poury's journal is set up, you have a month to actively write for him! If you complete the month with noticeable activity, he'll officially be yours.
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