Post by Bella Swift on Jun 15, 2007 14:37:03 GMT -5
Player
[/u][/center]Alias: Nana
Gender: F
Contact: (optional)
Location/Time Zone: UK gmt
Character
[/u][/center]Name: Arabella (known as Bella) Swift
Gender: F
Age: 25
City: Port Caynn
Status: Prostitute/Rogue
Personality
Bella is most definitely larger than life and most people know when she's walked in a room - a big personality on a little woman. Given that she was raised amongst adults and rogues and player folk at that, Bella has never had trouble holding a conversation with most people. She doesn't curb her language for anyone, nor affect airs and graces and is proud to be part of the rogue.
She is quick witted and happy to banter with pretty much anyone, as long as they can take her playing, flirting and jibes in equal measure without too much offence.
Given her profession, she is blessed with a sweet tongue and can wrap most men around her little finger without too much effort, although few get the pleasure of her company without paying for it. Many a stranger has made a new found friend in Bella just to find their pockets lighter at the end of their acquaintance.
She accepts that it would have to be a singularly outstanding not to mention seriously understanding man to be her other half. Bella freely admits that although many men like the idea, few men have the stomach to be the best beloved of a prostitute and besides, she's unlikely to find the steadfast and true amongst the taverns and brothels of Port Caynn.
Bella has always been able to handle herself in a fight and has started more than a few herself. She learned to defend herself with knives at an early age and is an okay shot with a pistol if needs be.
Bella has few obvious prejudices and is happy to make friends with and accept clientele from pretty much any walk of life, race, creed and even gender. This comes from the way that her family were sometimes treated as players passing from town to town. She vowed that everyone deserves one chance, besides; a prostitute can't afford to be too fussy.
People generally take to Bella quickly, but deep down she has few people she would consider true and trusted friends and even fewer that she would be willing to let past the front that she shows the world.
Bella is street smart, but her education was limited to basic reading and folk songs and dances that she performed with her family. She is not a strong reader and although she is quick witted enough to understand things that are explained to her, she would struggle to read books and understand their meaning.
She is fairly religious and worships frequently at the temple to the Goddess, this is because she believes that in her profession, a woman needs the protection of the Great Mother more than most. She believes in the strength that she gets from the female deity.
Bella is a fine singer and dancer and when she's not working, she can often be found in the Soggy Boot dancing up a storm or entertaining a crowd. There aren't many shanties she doesn't know and the bluer the better!
Personality Flaw:
Naturally Bella's profession has left its scars on her. As much as she gives off a devil may care attitude, she is sometimes degraded by the things she has to do to earn money. She keeps these moments of pain to herself and would never admit them to anyone who asked her.
She can be viciously blunt and sometimes oversteps the line when making fun of people or needling them and this has got her in to trouble before.
She has a naturally selfish streak which is probably more about self preservation than anything else and this extends to protecting herself physically. If push came to shove, she has a 'rather you than me!' attitude and wouldn't be above using violence to protect herself.
Appearance
Bella is small at 5ft2 but is built on curvy rather than skinny proportions. She has a very hourglass figure being quite busty and curvaceous but with a small waist and she uses corsetry to emphasise her assets. She rarely dresses in anything that could be called a conservative fashion though. She is not especially muscled on her upper body and her small frame is mostly soft and feminine, although she has well turned out leg muscles and arches in her feet from a youth spent dancing.
Her face is quite striking without being necessarily traditionally beautiful. She has what she calls an 'adquate' nose and a slightly too pointed chin, but her lips are full and attractive and she is blessed with high cheekbones. Her eyes have a permenant hint of mischief about them that draws people in. She has dimples when she smiles.
Her hair is an auburn/red colour which she wears cut just below her shoulders, but frequently pinned up. Her eyes are dark green in colour.
Her skin is fair and freckled and she has a small tattoo symbolising the Great Mother on her shoulder as she has an almost superstitious reverence for the Mother Goddess.
Appearance Flaw:
Bella has a large "port wine" birthmark on her lower back above her right hip. It generally poses no real problems for her but she is deeply conscious about it and worries that clients will reject her for it or more importantly someone that she really likes.
History
Bella was born to travelling player folk which meant her childhood was never spent in any one place, hence her lack of a formalised education. She travelled on the wagon with her Mother - Ria, her father Micah and her various aunts, uncles and cousins, both related and adoptive, who were part of the troupe.
Bella experienced a unique kind of life with a mixture of welcome and scorn being heaped on the players depending on what town they rolled in to. For many in this day and age, players were still seen as disreputable and they were frequently accused of being thieves, liars and charlatans as much as they were being praised for their performing.
Bella's troupe performed traditional folk stories, songs and music and both her parents were accomplished musicians and so Bella's youth was steeped in these tales and traditions. Bella was very much her daddy's girl and she would spend nights by the fire with him learning stories and making new ones up.
By the time she was 8 she was performing in the shows, dancing and singing and accompanying the other performers. She also did a nice little sideline in collecting money from the crowd and dipping her hand in a few pockets as she went. Although her family were mostly honest, times sometimes got hard and Bella felt like it was only right that the wealthy people in the towns and villages 'help out', as she called it.
When she reached her teens, her obvious assets were beginning to bloom and she attracted more than her fair share of attention from the crowds that came to see her dance. She often had admirers come calling after the show and Bella's mother grew more and more worried by Bella's free and easy attitude to leading young men on and then leaving them behind. She worried that misfortune would befall them, either in the form of an extra mouth to feed or at worst that a spurned lover would take out his anger on the troupe. Sometimes they were harried by the guard in various towns as it was.
Bella and her mother argued more and more over Bella's behaviour and Bella's father tried to play the mediator without much success. Bella threatened to leave them if they wouldn't allow her to live the way she wanted. After years on the wagons, she thought she knew how to take care of herself.
When her family were performing in Port Legann that was precisely what she did, heading up the coast to the lurid splendours of Port Caynn. It broke her heart to leave her father and, although she would not admit it, her mother but Bella felt that her time with them on their endless journeys had come to an end. She wanted to seek new thrills.
Aged 17 and never having been to the city before, with little more than a few coppers in her pockets, Bella arrived and her less than flush finances meant that she found herself at the bottom of the heap, scrabbling for money in Keepsakes. She begged, danced and sung and picked pockets, doing whatever she could to earn room and board for the night.
It was a matter of days before she was propositioned by one of the many types who would prey on a young girl. Although she was savvy enough to dodge the worst of them, she was also strangely fortunate to run in to the proprietor of Lady Buckwynne's, the so called Lady Buckwynne herself who offered her a room and furnishings, protection of the Rogue and a burly doorman and as much money as she could make once she paid her dues. To a broke and desperate Bella it sounded like an offer that was too good to be true and despite frequent promises to get herself on the up and up, that's where Bella's been ever since.
She's come to think of Buckwynne's as home and the girls and their Madame have a familial bond, although they're not above cutting each other out of some business if it goes that way. Bella enjoys a lively life, dividing her time between her work and kicking it up at the soggy boot as much as possible. She often makes vague promises of bettering herself and leaving prostitution behind and yet it never quite seems to come to fruition.
Family
Mother - Ria
Father - Micah