Post by Captain Gwen Grey on Jun 17, 2011 0:55:18 GMT -8
BEHIND THE QUOTES
NAME; Sass
AGE; 24
ROLE PLAY EXPERIENCE; Not much, sadly!
HOW'D YOU FIND US; Trolling through ads on a million other rpgs.
MEANS OF CONTACT; PM
OTHER COMMENTS; Fantastic site and stellar writers! Treasure hunts are kinda my thing! XD
IN THIS SKIN
FULL NAME; Gwendolyn Grey
ALIAS; None, yet!
GENDER; Female
AGE; 24
ALLIANCE; Herself / Pirates
POSITION AND RANK; Captain
SHIP; The Morning Star
PERSONALITY
Upon first meeting Gwen, it is extremely apparent that she has an attitude problem. She tends to envision the worst-case scenario and plan accordingly, trying to minimise her own disappointment in what she perceives as being the weakness and unreliability of others. Her independent nature means that she is quite happy working alone, and were it not for the fact that a ship requires a crew in order to sail Gwen would be content to sail the seas alone for the most part.
Having a crew, however, means that she needs to trust people. While in principle this isn’t such a hard thing to do because of her upbringing Gwen doesn’t think there is a person alive who wouldn’t swindle her as soon as look at her. She has made friends in the past who have been killed or vanished onto the horizon, and so these days she prefers not to bother and believes deep down that the only way to avoid getting hurt is to avoid getting close.
For the most part, owing to her terrible language, foul mouth, drinking and gambling habits this is rarely a problem that crops up.
PHYSICAL APPEARANCE;
Gwen has a heart-shaped face that gives her an appearance of innocence that is more than she deserves; her slightly tanned complexion serving to hide the cynicism that often haunts her velvety brown gaze. Her nose is a little bit on the large side but is balanced out by her full lips, which are rarely seen without some form of smirk dusting them. Owing to the deep burnished red of her hair she is peppered with freckles, which is something that used to irritate her when she was younger but which over the years she has come to accept.
While she isn’t by any stretch of imagination genteel looking, Gwen seems to possess a wiry frame that looks as though it was made for hard work. She is well-proportioned and has an excellent sense of balance as do most who spend their lives on the rolling sea. Her body possesses those attributes that all women boast, however Gwen prefers to hide her curves whenever possible beneath clothes that were obviously made for men. A pair of well-worn leather gloves are employed by Gwen whenever she’s ashore in order to hide the ‘P’ that was burned into the back of her left hand.
As she is very much a tom-boy, Gwen tends to employ the physical mannerisms of men. She walks like a man and sits like a man, belches like a man and can certainly punch like a man. As she’s never had a female influence in her life she doesn’t think anything is wrong with this. When talking to people she is generally confident, holding her shoulders back and making eye contact without hesitation. She tends to generally wear a serious expression, saving her smiles for those who are worth them... whenever she happens to come across one!
HEIGHT; 5’8”
WEIGHT; 57kgs
HAIR COLOR; Red
EYE COLOR; Brown
ANY SPECIAL MARKINGS; Aside from a few minor scars gained by life on the sea and a sprinkling of freckles across her nose, the only other marking that Gwen has is a scarred-over ‘P’ burned into the back of her left hand.
WHAT'S YOUR STORY, SAILOR
FAMILY;
Gwendolyn’s only family is her mother, Nora, who lives a pauper’s life in Port Royal. Gwen uses the money she earns aboard The Star to try and make her mother’s life more comfortable. Her father was a pirate and owned The Star before she did, but Gwen lead a mutiny against him when he attempted to sell her to a passing slave-ship for grog.
BACKGROUND;
Born and raised in Port Royal, Gwen was always a little too big for her boots. She would get into scraps with bigger children, often boys, and sometimes came out of top although she also took a few beatings in her time. Her father was away at sea, leaving her and her mother Nora to their own devices. Nora worked hard at the work house by the fort, and Gwen did what she could by stealing bits and pieces from around the town to help make ends meet. She was caught on two occasions and kept in the stocks, but where the authorities thought it might help the girl to learn her lesson it only made her more determined to improve her skill and not get caught the next time around.
As she grew older and began to be noticed by boys, Gwen discovered that she was of interest to them. The boys who had bullied her and fought with her in her knobby-kneed youth now stared at her openly, causing her to feel disgusted with them. She took to wearing boy’s clothes that she would steal from washing-lines about the Port, concealing her girlish form. This gave her the courage to face down her harmless admirers, and soon they talked more about how strange she was rather than how pretty she was becoming.
At the age of 12 her father returned home and Gwen was instantly fascinated with him. She had never really believed her mother, who had told her that her father was the captain of his own ship, and when he took his daughter aboard to humour her Gwen instantly knew that a life of sea was the future for her. He was ashore for a full week and while her mother and father entertained each other Gwen was making plans, stealing food and waiting. At last her father said his goodbyes and went to the docks, but Gwen was too quick for him.
Having concealed herself in a rough sack aboard the skiff he’d used to run in to port she was heaved onto the deck and hid until nightfall. Her father was annoyed that she had snuck on board and threw her in the brig for two days before he allowed her to emerge. Forcing her to crop her hair short and keep to the boys’ clothes she had taken to wearing he passed her off as a cabin boy. By the time the crew noticed something wasn’t quite right, they were – for the most part – used to her presence.
But her father was not the man he pretended to be in that short week he had come ashore. Onboard his ship it was clear that he was God and none other; his men were terrified of him and for good reason, for he had a heavy hand and a hardness about him that was too strong to break. While he never openly abused Gwen she found the way he dealt with the other crew members to be cruel and terrifying, and when he drunkenly offered to trade his daughter for grog with a passing slave ship Gwen had had enough.
One by one she convinced her father’s men that they would sail better under a new captain: her. Finally the bedlam broke loose on deck and the fighting was close and ugly. Those who did not join the mutiny were set adrift in a dinghy or had their lifeless bodies tossed overboard, and the latter included the former Captain Grey. Having killed her own father had a profound effect on Gwen as many might expect, and she has never truly recovered from the consequences of her actions.
Stopping in at Port Royal from time to time, Gwen provides for her mother as best as she can but it is often not quite enough. She also feels guilty about having to lie to her mother regarding her father’s death, and deals with it by drinking excessively. Until recently The Morning Star had been sailing from Tortuga and scouring the coast for shipwrecks that could be picked over for treasure, but when she had her hull cracked open by a sharp protrusion of reef Gwen admitted defeat. She is currently beached not far from Port Royal and is camped nearby while she gathers materials to fix The Star. However, the Authorities at Port Royal are ever out for profit, and the cost of having her ship there is significantly drawing on what little funds she has.
AND BEYOND
PORTRAYED BY; Isla Fisher
PICTURE; Gwen Grey
ROLE PLAY EXAMPLE;
The early morning sunlight drenched the beach in a buttery glow, rays quavering atop the glassy calm of the ocean in front of her. Birds were singing and the unpleasant smells and noises of Port Royal harbour were far enough away so as not to be a nuisance, and yet Gwen saw none of the beauty surrounding her. She had slept poorly aboard The Morning Star, which lay tilted precariously on one side on a beach not far from Port Royal’s busy hub of activity. Her bunk was affected by the lean and no matter which way she had turned all night her face had been pressed to the gently sloping hull; the hull that was the measure and sum of her present woes.
If only she had been able to get around that reef, she would have still been at sea, amassing more of a bounty. Keeping The Star here was costing a small fortune, and her so-called loyal crew had abandoned ship for the most part, now that there was little profit to be had and a lot of work to be done. Gwen tried not to think about her misfortunes as she slid down a limp hawser to the wet sand, ignoring the way the whitewash tugged at her bare feet with icy fingers. A small pile of wood had been gathered at the side where the other planks had been stoved in by the reef and she sighed as she moved to take up the hammer who, aside from giving her blisters on her hands, had become her best friend over the last two weeks.
The tapping of the nails being driven into the patchwork quilt of timber she was turning The Star’s hull into was louder than it would have been at the docks, and it disturbed the peace in such a way that made Gwen grimace. She probably should have laid off the booze the night before, but when a gal had woes it was best to drown them. On the other hand, when a captain had a ship to fix, it would probably be best done without a raging hangover.
PIRATES OR NINJAS;
Arrr! PIRATES!
