Amanda Smyth

[Amanda Smyth]

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[atrb=border,0,true][atrb=style, background-color: #000000; width: 350px; border-left: 1px solid white; padding: 15 5 15 5px;] [STYLE=text-align: right; color: #cc3333; font-family: georgia; font-size: 27px; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: -22px; padding-right: 10px;]Amanda Rose Smyth[/style] [STYLE=width: 325px; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 5px; text-align: left; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px;]nickname Dread Ponytail (or at least, her crew is trying to convince her to go by that...) age twenty-seven gender female sexuality homosexual position pirate/mercenary (she primarily raids other pirates - why not let them do the work for you, after all? - and is interested in using those she captures for her own gain) powers none; her weapons and her mind will have to suffice species human play by kyuubei yagyuu, gintama [/style] [STYLE=text-align: right; color: #cc3333; font-family: georgia; font-size: 27px; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: -22px; padding-right: 10px;]personal[/style] [STYLE=width: 325px; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 5px; text-align: left; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px;]personality Amanda is a young woman with clear goals...which don't necessarily agree with what people like to see from others, such as being the biggest pirate ever. At least she knows what she wants? She's incredibly decisive, and rather mulish about it - if she wants it, get out of the way or get bowled over. She's sharp-witted and sharp-tongued and has no time for disobedient idiots. They're better off headless in the sea than on her decks, and she doesn't hesitate to make this a reality. She's got a controlling streak a mile wide. She's fairly level-headed, at least, and not easily provoked into stupid things - so many pirates are, and it would be such a shame if it didn't mean she couldn't capitalize off of them. Which she does. (She also dumps the people she can't use to the waters below). She is incredibly deliberate and focused, not to mention methodical. Everything she does is purposed towards advancing her power, be it "good" or "bad" by the standards of other people. Amanda has her own peculiar brand of morals - well, really, everyone has their own peculiar set, but people with similar enough morals decide theirs are normal and brand everyone else's as peculiar - which are influenced partly by old stories, partly by reality. She's very chivalrous where she can afford to be - short and snarky ladies are a weakness, you see - and for a disinterested party it can probably get a little annoying. She's not all that flirtatious, though. She's more the "I'll stare at you until you look at me and then I'll smile" type. Amanda believes in working hard and standing up for yourself. She's got no patience with shyness or helplessness, and though she demands obedience, she's doesn't demand it mindlessly. She tries to listen to people when she thinks they've got useful advice or just anything she can learn from (even if it's how to turn skirts, which she doesn't wear, into pants - who knows when that might come in handy?) She's got a voracious appetite for knowledge, not just treasure and power. Her real "gods" are knowledge and the self, which she believes carry more power than anything else. She has a rather negative view of the deities, despite willingly worshipping Cymopoleia and Aeolus (can't hurt to hedge your bets, after all; who knows when the right wind or wave could save your butt). She's dubious that worshipping stuff is worth it, and feels deities get too much faith and credit placed in them - they don't seem to have any more sense than humans, if the current state of the planet is any indication, so she feels compelled to wonder, on occasion, why people bother with them. Not that she airs these opinions - it's easier to keep her mouth shut about it. It's not unwillingness to offend people, but pragmatism, that drives this. A crewmember who fervently worships Cymopoleia might be a better ally than someone with her opinion on the matter, depending on their skill set, and she wants the best she can get under her. It only makes sense to not alienate these people. She's what might be termed a "builder of bridges" between others, working to turn others to her side. She may capture a ship, but she won't execute everyone on board - she will offer the entire ship the choice to work for her. Refusals are treated by decapitation and sinking, acceptances are greeted by ships surviving encounters intact, with a new batch of alcohol, and only half their valuables transferred to their new mistress. (Betrayals, however, are dealt with viciously - no one on the ship gets to survive that, so sad for them, and she'll probably sell the ship - or upgrade a crew from a smaller one to it). Amanda takes everything seriously - perhaps too seriously, some would say, especially if those 'some' are clowns or unruly people. Everything is treated as though it holds the gravity of a life-or-death situation, even something as simple as deciding what to eat for breakfast (for all she knows, it could be poisoned), or what to rename a captured ship that lacks its crew (the theatrically fear-inspiring must be balanced with "will it fit on the boat?" and "is this just stupid?"). She can attend to the 'big picture' and the tiny details both, without allowing either to interfere with the other. She sees the importance in small things enough that she does not neglect them, but also can see beyond herself and the present moment. She's very good at understanding what motivates others (if all else fails, threaten beheading - but there's usually something less bloody), and thus, good at convincing people to follow her lead. She is not stupidly courageous, nor is she an intelligent coward. Some lead from the front, others lead from the back, and Amanda would like to say that she leads from the middle. She will be in the thick of it, but not before she's had the opportunity to understand what she's launching herself and her people into. She's unafraid of labels, too - a rival calling her a coward for engineering a retreat will receive merely the word "Practical" from her lips, rather than a reckless attack or long-winded time-wasting rant, and they're lucky if they receive even that much from her. She isn't exactly what one would call talkative with her enemies, nor is she much for talking to her allies, or even her friends. appearance Amanda is extremely tall, a little over six feet, and of a slim, fairly muscular stature. She has brown eyes and fairly long black hair, which she usually slicks back into a ponytail. She was born blind in her left eye, and has covered it with a black eyepatch since she was very young. She typically is found dressed fairly masculinely, with a long white coat she made during her brief time as a seamstress, and a dark blue shirt and pants beneath, along with thick black boots and a sturdy leather belt. She's not one for lots of clothes - the only other things in her wardrobe are a pair of extremely old jeans, a plain, undyed cotton tank top, and one very lonely too-short russet-colored dress that go with a well-preserved pair of gold high heels. She does not wear makeup, preferring her face as it is, and her only "jewelry" are the weapons she wears at her belt (two guns- and a shortsword that she primarily uses for decapitations). history Amanda was born to a couple on Terran. She doesn't remember much about them beyond the stories they would tell her and read to her from old books. She remembers pirates and dragons, knights and damsels, and kisses to the forehead. She remembers that she adopted the eyepatch because of the stories. She remembers that they died of a disease that swept through Terran when she was about eight, which she somehow escaped. She doesn't really remember how she got onto a pirate boat, just that she became the cabin girl on a decently successful one. She spent her life out at sea starting at about ten, bringing aboard only the clothes on her back, a couple of the storybooks she'd held onto from her parents, a sewing kit she half-way knew how to use, and a few half-formed ideas about where she wanted her life to go - formed from being powerless on the streets. She caught the attention of the first mate of the ship during a fight with another cabin boy - the crew encouraged fights for their entertainment, and the kids knew it might get them noticed in a positive way. She soundly trounced the older boy without having a hand laid on her, and it impressed him just enough to take an interest. She had raw talent and strength, but he taught her the real art of fighting, eventually teaching her real weapons, not just the hand-to-hand she had started out with- guns and swords became fluent parts of her fighting vocabulary, thanks to him (though swords are impractical to use in most real battles, most pirates employ their use for executions). He also taught her how to be vicious (moreso than she already was). At about sixteen, she was a full member of the crew (as well as the go-to person for actually making new clothes instead of just fixing them). She and a few of the younger members of the crew had the good fortune to be on Terran one day, carousing about, when their ship was attacked and captured by another ship, which was in the process of building a fleet. Inspired, and annoyed at their loss of livelihood, she gathered together the other few that had escaped the end of the rest of the crew, stole a small fishing boat, tracked down and boarded their old ship in the dead of night. It hadn't been added to the other fleet, and no one was on it but a few guards, though it was moored to the capturing ship. They killed the guards, unmoored their ship, and set the other one ablaze. Amanda became the leader of the group mostly because she'd spent their collective childhoods fighting them and winning. She took a different approach to being a pirate than the previous captain of their ship, attacking other ships instead of Terran. They came away with better pickings than what they could get from normal raiding, and occasionally took crew on from the boats they attacked. After one such raid, they actually learned about the concept of fleet-building among pirates. There were a couple of successful ones going on, and they'd just happened to catch a ship that was a member of one such fleet. Given that they already were pretty good at naval warfare, they made the choice to turn down that path as well. It's worked out pretty well for them, so far. Their other ships raid Terran, and, since they renamed their ship upon retaking it, her personal ship can come to harbor and be mostly unquestioned. (Bribes help, too...) This enables them to work on land as well as at sea, meaning they have a good awareness of everything that happens on Terran, not just the surrounding waters. [/style] [STYLE=text-align: right; color: #cc3333; font-family: georgia; font-size: 27px; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: -22px; padding-right: 10px;]roleplayer[/style] [STYLE=width: 325px; background-color: #ffffff; padding: 5px; text-align: left; font-family: arial; font-size: 10px;]alias chama other characters n/a [/style]

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[Andee]