V A N E S S A - Q U I L L
Details
Full Name: Vanessa Quill
Race: Human
Sex: Female
Age: 37
Height: 5'11''
Weight: 162lbs
Birthdate: 2nd of Ash, Cinderfall, 85th year in the Age of Steel
Birthplace: Zaichaer, The Knob
Profession: Bodyguard. Prior experience as a pirate and dockside extortionist.
Housing:Spacious apartment above a bar.
Partners: None
Titles: None
Factions: None
Fluencies: Common
Ineptitudes:
Appearance
Vanessa stands tall and proud, years of hard manual labor leaving her muscles toned and hands covered with rough callouses. She wears her dark brown hair down past her shoulders almost exclusively, and has never been known to comb it with anything other than her fingers. Her natural almond skin is darkened further by long hours in the sun leaving her with obvious tan lines.
Across her back is a criss-crossing of scars from shoulder to waist. Some long and jagged, while others short and flat. There is no method to them, each one running into another and adding to the tattered tapestry like wrongly made stitches on a quilt. Anyone with appropriate knowledge would recognize the wounds immediately, and it would be clear that Vanessa had been keelhauled.
Across her knuckles the words 'HOLD FAST' are tattooed. When working as a bodyguard it is not uncommon for her to cover the tattoos with makeup.
Personality
Loud and self-assured, Vanessa exemplifies the best and worst that a life of cheating and stealing could provide. Vanessa suffers even minor insults badly, her first instinct has always been either obscenities or violence. Despite her ill temper, Vanessa otherwise commands attention. She is crass regardless of who she is speaking to, and seems to pay no heed to rank or station.
Yet there is still a deep sense of responsibility buried deep in Vanessa, and one she would certainly deny. It was a fierce loyalty that could only be given freely. Whenever called upon by a friend, Vanessa responds to it as naturally as she breathes. Her unfailing loyalty has cost her much, yet it remains her guiding light even so.
History
Vanessa remembered little about her parents, losing them both to a fire when she was young. Left in the care of an unwed uncle, Vanessa was raised to the best of his ability. He worked the airship docks, and she had begun to accompany him when she was old enough to carry his toolbox. Years passed, and she took to sailing on whatever crew would have her. She started on river routes on maritime vessels, but soon found her way onto an airship's crew. The captains willing to take her were often the seediest the ports had to offer, but Vanessa cared little so long as she was paid. It was hard, satisfying work. Months spent away from shore and at the whims of the winds. It was a freedom like no other, and at once it seemed Vanessa had found her home soaring on the breeze.
It all ended after a particularly devastating storm left their vessel with a blown gasbag and barely aloft with the cargo tossed overboard. Even if they made it to port, the insurance would surely have found a way to avoid paying and left them all to choke. And so when a passing merchant sloop helpfully offered them aboard for safer passage, Vanessa and her remaining crew robbed them blind.
The life of piracy began there with the press-ganged crew of the sloop joining those that remained from her original crew. She took command of the vessel, re-naming it the Queen Bitch, and used it to pilfer and plunder all that she could. Seldom did she scuttle the ships she boarded, and most crews were left with enough healthy souls to make it back to port and report their losses. She robbed for the better part of a decade, taking breaks from piracy to instead extort honest captains to ensure the safety of their cargo. She managed to dodge the military for a time, but soon found their eyes upon her, but not for the reason she expected. Dragged beaten and bloody before a prominent Blueblood, Vanessa was given a choice. Accept a job requiring utmost discretion, or die.
The choice was obvious.
Gold was exchanged, a mission given. Smuggle a wizard into the city. The work was arduous, and twice Vanessa thought to abandon it entirely. Yet she pushed onward, and managed to deliver the mage under the cover of darkness to the noble family. Then her ship was scuttled and the wreckage thoughroughly burned, taking with it any evidence of her involvement in the plot.
Left with no ship and now knowing full well that she was being watched at the docks, Vanessa begrudgingly looked for more reputable work. She became a bodyguard for Anton Michaelis, the job paying inordinately well considering that the boy seldom left his home. It was understood that this position was patently a bribe, an easy way for Anton's father to keep Vanessa comfortable while also never letting her too far from his sight.