Puck Epsion
07-30-16, 10:03 PM
http://liquidtyphoon.webs.com/Puck/009.jpg
Name: Puck Epsion
Nickname / Alias: Snow Black
Age: 102
Race: Half-Elven
Height: 5’9”
Weight: 120 lbs.
Occupation: Thief / Tracker
Eye Color: Mismatched. Left cornflower blue, right chocolate brown.
Hair Color: Her hair is short, spiked and naturally blonde. Puck has a tendency to dye it into mixed shades of red, purple, and blue whenever possible.
Appearance: A lovely young lady who, like most of her race, is beautiful though hardened due to her father's human blood, as evidenced by her lack of pointy ears. Her face still retains some femininity, but upon looking at her one cannot tell right away what her gender really is. Her deceptively compact figure is shapely, toned, and lithe as a blade from years of martial arts and training, slender but very powerful. In short, she's a tomboy and has a very androgynous look to her; her face is feminine and soft while her body is more muscular and defined. She has very small breasts which she wraps tightly, as she loves being mistaken for a boy, especially if such a thing gets her closer to her goal of bedding any women in her line of sight. She often wears darker shades that contrast sharply with her smooth, pale, slightly golden tinted skin, the most notable being that Puck actually goes out of her way to wear darker lipstick for added contrast. Puck has varied piercings and plans on getting more, though has yet to find an artist she trusts. She also sports scars in her back and legs, both from training in her chosen martial art and because of her various...indiscretions over the years.
Distinguishing Features: One of Puck’s pride and joys; it's a magical phoenix tattoo, colored red, orange and gold (http://liquidtyphoon.webs.com/Puck/PhoenixTattoo.jpg). She got it from a magic user that could control the ebb and flow of ink that injected it one tiny dot at a time with a special needle. The final product looked like it was hovering just a millimeter below the surface of the half-elf’s skin. The phoenix sweeps from Puck's shoulder to down her back, its tail began as the form reached the lower curve of her spine, several long and delicate feathers spreading on each side to the outer curve of her hips. The tattoo moves with Puck and seems alive, its soft multi-colored glow showing through lighter shaded clothes.
Personality: Puck carries with her a huge chip on her shoulder - she is hot-tempered but notoriously lazy and doesn't bother with situations she doesn't think she's needed in, or doesn't want to be bothered by. She thoroughly enjoys a good fight, and is very confident and prideful of her ability, rough-cut as it may be. However, she also has an oddly charming, charismatic atmosphere - in a swashbuckling sort of way. Despite her sometimes rough ways and speech, inside, Puck is a genius - although her ingenuity runs more along the lines of insanity rather than anything resembling rational thought. In the end though, somehow, she makes it work as if it was her plan all along no matter how many bumps in the road there were. She is a tough-as-nails fighter in not only her punishing style of her chosen martial arts, but in all manners of the word.
Skills: Dagger Proficiency: While fairly confident in her skills with a dagger, he father had only commented on how Puck was ‘adequate’. Though using daggers is very much like riding a horse to Puck, she rarely uses them and much prefers to use her hands.
Silent as the Grave: Combining unnatural grace and skill, Puck has the ability to move at will and make no sound while moving. To be clear, if she were to bump a vase and it feel, that would make noise. However, Puck herself makes no noise while moving. This skill is harder to use if Puck is hindered in some way, such as being drunk or high in some manner.
Hand-To-Hand Combat: Puck’s favorite way to fight, should any situation come to it. The half-elf feels that using weapons kind of cheapen any given fight. So well did Puck excel at her father’s training that he barely had anything left to teach her before he eventually stopped her training altogether. Puck has been favoring close quarter combat for longer than most humans have been alive, and it shows in even her everyday movements.
Puck is a skilled dancer of many different styles of the world (having learned many while in Concordia), but breakdancing is her favorite. She loves how unpredictable it can get and, when combined with her Artes, seems to make and endless flow of erratic movements that were hard or often impossible to predict or scout. Puck's thought on her style is 'If you never do the same thing twice, how can someone tell what's coming?' She still takes bits and pieces from all the martial arts she does know as taught to her by her father and bits and pieces she’s learned from other travelers and foriegners. Instead she takes what she believes would benefit her own style and adds it to her ever growing list of moves (already at an impossible amount) that she can summon up at any time in battle. And while her mind can recall the moves necessary to pull off the amazing feats she does in battle, what Puck doesn't admit to anyone is that a large part of what she does is simply 'making it up as she goes', which adds more unpredictability to her fights.
While her style is still rough at best, Puck believes it to be a supreme form that, if used properly, cannot be beaten. Her entire life (since the style's inception) is based around it, from her very build (being lean and somewhat lanky provides her with the speed necessary to pull of faster moves to dazzle and confuse) to the very way she simply walks (very much remenisant of the stalking of a panther) seems to breathe just how much time and effort Puck has dedicated to her Arte. To Puck, her Form isn’t so much as fighting as it is a way she can express herself, despite having little inclination to fight if it can be avoided. It’s sadly the case that the half-elf finds herself in many situations that requite violence, and she’s more than ready to prove she won’t be an easy opponent.
Abilities: Blind Luck: Not really something that Puck can turn on or off, but also so prominent that even she’s taken notice. When it comes to any given situation, either high pressure or even lax and lazy, Puck seems to experience some unnatural luck. Whether she’s playing a game of chance or escaping a legion of guards, Puck can find or talk her way out of just about anything. There have been times when it’s seemed to ‘disappear’ or ‘turn off’, but that’s just how Luck is, right? Comes and goes as it pleases. Xeo often joked that Lady Luck was in love with Puck, and that was why the half-elf seemed so lucky. It was one of the only times Puck hadn’t brushed off such a notion with a scoff, as she often did see a woman of ethereal appearance that was there one moment and gone the next. Puck does note, however, that her special brand of luck does not seem to be very prominent when she’s actively engaging in violence, and therefore she believes that if Lady Luck has indeed blessed her with a continuous lucky streak that she must abhor violence.
Locked Abilities: Aura Tracking: Everyone has a different aura, and Puck has the ability to latch onto any given one and track it. Her father and mother suspected this was the case when their daughter first explained it to her, and her mother believes Puck was blessed with this ability due to her mismatched eyes. The need to track someone’s aura came later, an art that Puck only recently really started to use when she became stumped when she was searching for a bounties trail.
Phase Shifting: Using her slight frame and utilizing her years of training, Puck is able to burst in any direction with such speed that it often appears as if she’s disappear completely, only to reappear in another location. The thief is only able to perform three ‘jumps’ in any given fight, as she hasn’t quite mastered the ability quite yet. The farthest she’s managed this feat is about ten feet, give or take.
Equipment / Weapons: Cursed Amulet: One of Puck’s first forays into the world of women was a Priestess named Amber, who fell for Puck and her antics almost immediately. When she found Puck being unfaithful to her, the Priestess found a cursed object, an amulet, that she gave to her lover in the guise of a gift. The amulet was cursed to being out the animal form of the person that wore it, and Amber was sure that Puck would turn into something like a pig, or hog. Instead, Puck now has the unfortunate ability to turn into a rather small cat for a needed hour or so a day. Puck can usually feel the transformation coming a good time in advance and hides until she ‘pops’ out of being a kitten. She can speak while in this form and in the time she’s had the amulet Puck has figured out how to nominally control when she can and cannot transform. The curse isn’t lifted, however, but Puck has learned to live with it as best she can. The form she takes is simple; a black cat with a red scarf. As for her belongings, they seem to disappear when Puck transforms, and come back with her when she turns back into a half-elf. Also of note is that the amulet will always return to Puck regardless of how it was taken or where it is. It’s simply apart of her, forever, until the curse is lifted. In all fairness, Puck hasn’t attempted to find a way to lift the curse and rather likes the relative safety the transformation provides her when she’s looking for a place to sleep or, more often than not, a way to escape a dire situation. She can also communicate with fellow felines, though Puck mostly stays to herself while a kitten.
http://happygosunshine.webs.com/Puck/PuckKitty03.png
Magical Lockpicks: A normal set of, no real special look about them. Puck does notice they seem to be a bit warmer then most metals, but not burning hot. Just warm, as if reassuring it's owner that whatever lock it's going to pick, it's got it. Able to pick (damn near) any lock or pick any door in existence. It's never failed once, but Puck hasn’t given them any real test outside of your run of the mill locked door or chests.
Iron Daggers: A set of iron daggers that Puck keeps sheathed on her belt. She keeps them sharp and often uses them to hunt small game that she can kill in one shot by throwing.
History: “It was...inevitable.”
Puck never questioned her life, or how she lived it. She simply did what her father told her to do and stayed by her mother's side as often as she could. In all her years, the only thing she ever really wanted to do was stay by her mother. Everything seemed so much better with her there. She was the most beautiful person in the world as far as Puck was concerned. Her voice was always gentle, as she never raised her voice even when her husband was being temperamental and gruff. Her laugh melted fears and lightened moods. For what seemed like centuries they wandered in search for...something, her father never told her. They stayed places for long periods of time, though, the searching being put off as her father would work in a city and Puck would stay at home with her mother, not doing much of anything other then practicing her drills and katas her father put her through.
Life carried on this way, staying in one place for a decade or so before moving on. The young girl once overheard her father telling her mother that their 'resources' were running thin and their 'options were running out', but she didn't quite understand, at the time, what that meant. All she knew was that, towards her eightieth birthday, her mother fell asleep and, for days, didn't wake up.
After that, her father seemed to be more somber, and eventually the trio settled in Concordia. Her mother had always spoke fondly of the place, and her father had agreed, not putting up much of a fuss as he normally did when they talked of moving. This made Puck worry, but she didn't mind because their previous trip to Concordia was eventful and fun. Her father, with his vast martial arts training and weapon knowledge, took up with the Rangers while still continuing the lessons with his daughter when he could, teaching her what he knew of Artes and the skills she required to be at least competent with daggers. He seemed more detached during their lessons, though, and soon they stopped altogether as her father spent more and more time with his ailing wife and completely ignoring his daughter’s existence.
While she wanted to spend time with her mother too, Puck knew she couldn't, not with her father there. She grew angry at him as time slowly crept on, and the girl couldn't figure out why. So, like all 'teenagers', she started to go out and live life on her own, to see what life in Concordia had to offer when she wasn't stuck at home or being growled at by her father. At first she wasn't impressed, not really. Life seemed pretty boring most of the time, with the only action coming from taverns and various gentleman's clubs (her favorite being a place called The Wonders, as this was probably the start of the blonde’s attraction towards women as she saw them dance) when people were tossed out or fights occurred. She looked forward to seeing them, wishing she could joining in before, like a light bulb going off in her head, she decided that she could. Why not? Her father didn't seem to care and her mother was sleeping most of the week now. A little trouble never hurt anyone, right?
The training she endured under her father's watchful eye was...well, a bit much for the people she actually hurt. While the woman knew she could fight she had never really gauged her own strength against anyone other then her father, who was the strongest man she'd ever known. She ran from the scene of her own crime and, oddly enough, felt elated as opposed to guilty that she had shown her strength and dominated. She didn't make this a habit, of course, but she liked the taste of what she had wrought and wanted more.
The next time she was out enjoying the nightlife, the blonde was approached by a man who had seen Puck fight and was interested in 'recruiting' her. Not really knowing what she was bring recruited for but confident she could easily talk (or if need be, fight) her way out of any situation, she went with him. The man turned out to be a recruiter for a guild called The Cat's Paw, a small guild that was lesser known but still had a name that people whispered, though more often than not in annoyance than fear. He introduced her to a woman named Xeo Hurlan, a fiery women with long, flowing red hair and barley a stitch of clothing on her dark brown skin. The very sight of the woman sent shivers down Puck' spine, and she knew immediately that she'd do anything Xeo asked.
The redhead tested her in every way, combat to sneaking, breaking and entering, lockpicking, purse cutting. Puck wasn't the best pupil due to her lazy nature, but she did well enough for Xeo to declare her a 'natural...that is, if she could only get off her lazy ass to commit to something'. Puck didn't mind the harsh words, as those were being flung at her every day she returned home to her father, who now seemed to live at his wife's side. Puck didn't care, as now her time was spent learning how to be a thief, as well as catching only moments with her mother, who was now sleeping and only had few precious minutes of conciseness, though Puck was never there to see them.
Her father, now long expelled from the Rangers due to his lack of attendance, was no longer the breadwinner of the family; that act solely fell on Puck's shoulders and she rose to the occasion magnificently. The jobs she went on with Xeo were numerous, the loot plentiful. Puck used this money to get her first tattoo as well as piercing and continued to add to the collection as the days turned into weeks which turned into months. She didn't mind bringing home food and such, and her cooking skills only improved the more she tried it, as her father barley even fed himself anymore.
It was at this time that the would-be thief began to shine on her own. While Puck 'wasn't too shabby' fighting (according to Xeo), it seemed as if her real talents lay in a different area; strategy. More specifically, the planning that came about when a plan fell apart and everything seemed to be going to hell and back. In several jobs, when hope looked bleak, Puck managed to pull not only herself but her fellow guild members out of the flames through some seemingly half-baked scheme that not only ended them getting out of the fryer, but with a bigger profit as well. Xeo would have thought, after a few times this happened, that her own guild was trying to prank her; how could some of those plans have worked? They were ludicrous and seemingly insane. And yet, somehow, Puck and the team she was with always seemed to pull through, and the stories that came of them became something the guild repeated many times over in the presence of each other.
Xeo never looked a gift horse in the mouth, however. She saw that maybe in Puck, she had something that many rarely saw because, were her ego to get in the way. But Xeo was a rational thinker, and knew that Puck had not only real talent in the field of strategy and planning, but the more important ability to keep cool and calm under pressure which was just as, if not more, important to the guild than any other quality. Too often had Xeo seen a group fall apart and turn on each other (thieves being such fickle creatures and all) just to save themselves. Xeo explored this side to her friend as often as she could, shooting out scenarios and situations just to see how the blond would handle it. She often got questions that baffled her (“I dunno, sweets...would I have access ta candles, a flask a’ whiskey, three spoons an’ a sponge?”) but in the end, after many explanations, finally left it alone. The type of genius that Puck displayed was seemingly otherworldly, but it was her own and unlikely to be understood by other that weren't inside of her brain.
Then, it all changed. She came home one night to find her father actually standing, a man next to him. For the first time in hundreds of years Puck was witnessing her father weep, and the very scene broke something within her. The cause, of course, was obvious. The look on her mother's face was peaceful, but then again it always was. Puck, not really knowing how to handle such a situation, could do nothing but stand as the conversation between her father and the other man continued.
“The daughter...does she know?”
Her father shook her head. “That she caused this? No. This...” He put his palms to his face, shaking with grief. “It was inevitable.”
The words seared into her mind, Puck fled and never looked back.
Xeo was thrilled, however, when Puck told her that she would be staying with the guild permanently now, and was immediately promoted to Xeo's Right Hand, a position that had been curiously vacant for numerous years. And while her heart grieved for her mother and the truth behind her death, it was from that point onward that Puck perfected a mask she placed between herself and the rest of the world. Not even Xeo, who took on Puck as a lover, breached those walls, though it wasn't from a lack of trying. And while in the beginning it was very much a lopsided relationship, with Xeo being dominant and very much in charge, the fact that they were equals in her eyes made things a tad more...complicated.
Xeo wasn't the type of person to let things go easily, and she knew there must have been some reason why Puck had left her family behind. The dark-skinned woman knew of her mother and father, of course, but no more than they existed and Puck often used her share of the spoils to help with room and board and the like. She still knew where they lived (for she was paranoid of every new recruit, and knew much about Puck that the blond probably didn't think Xeo actually knew), and went out herself to see what had happened.
What she found...was nothing.
It was like no one had lived there for the years that Puck has been in Concordia. The room was barren, even dusty, but Xeo knew her scouts were flawless in their reports; they saw Puck talking to a older man and a woman that never seemed to get out of bed. The room they inhabited was almost as if the whole thing was an illusion, and the curiosity only drove Xeo to find out more. Her curiosity needed to be sated, and she was going to get it out of Puck one way or another.
Their fallout was inevitable.
Puck left the guild, feeling betrayed that the person she trusted most had actually given her the ultimatum; to tell her what had happened and why her family was gone as if they'd never existed, or leave her and the guild. Puck, in her rage and feeling abandoned by the person she (secretly) loved, left, vowing never to return again.
Xeo never gave her the chance. The Cat's Paw Thieves Guild was soon gone from Concordia altogether, in much the same way Puck's father had cleared out their old living space. Of course, The Cat's Paw was much larger and left behind many things which Puck took and sold...all except the one thing that Puck knew Xeo left on purpose, as if she'd knew her former lover would find. The fact that it was Xeo's most prized possession didn't escape Puck's notice, though it didn't lessen the sting of yet another person leaving her life.
The enchanted lockpicks that could open any lock or door was quickly pocketed (though unsure on how to work them and after a few tries simply gave up), and Puck, unsure of what to do next, simply began living her life as a vagabond, stealing when necessary and sleeping in houses she knew to be empty and had a very low risk of being entered while she was sleeping or bathing. Her laziness increased as the days wore on, but her skirt chasing only got worse and worse. She contemplated trying to find the answer to the puzzle at the bottom of a bottle as many of the people she saw around her do, but didn't. Her loneliness made an empty void in her chest, what with her father abandoning her and Xeo doing the same a scant few weeks later. The void was momentarily filled with each new conquest of women, the riskier the prize the more fulfilled she was. But it never lasted long, and her loneliness only grew.
The departure of the Cat's Paw raised more then a few eyebrows, though, and soon the affect was felt all over. Many rumors in the underground flew as to why the guild left, but no one could pinpoint an actual reason and people naturally believed what they wanted anyways. Puck, being selfish and hurt, wanted to believe that it was because of her but also knew that Xeo wouldn't have let their own personal relationship uproot the guild in such a manner. If she thought about rationally, Puck would have paid more attention to the small details and found out why. But the anger and sadness she felt festered until she couldn't really think of the guild nor her former lover without feeling almost physically ill about it. It wasn't until she found the corpses of three of her former guildmates in the back of an dingy alley and, a few weeks later, two more by her haunt by another tavern she frequented that she was pulled from her funk by the thought that, maybe, someone was out there hunting down members, or maybe even former members, of the guild for some unknown reason.
At the thought of being hunted, Puck merely scoffed. In an odd fashion it scared her to think that she hardly cared about her own well being, and the mere thought of going to Xeo for help or even warning her gave her a headache she would rather much avoid.
Better just to drown her sorrows in wine, women and, occasionally when she felt like letting her voice loose, song.
Name: Puck Epsion
Nickname / Alias: Snow Black
Age: 102
Race: Half-Elven
Height: 5’9”
Weight: 120 lbs.
Occupation: Thief / Tracker
Eye Color: Mismatched. Left cornflower blue, right chocolate brown.
Hair Color: Her hair is short, spiked and naturally blonde. Puck has a tendency to dye it into mixed shades of red, purple, and blue whenever possible.
Appearance: A lovely young lady who, like most of her race, is beautiful though hardened due to her father's human blood, as evidenced by her lack of pointy ears. Her face still retains some femininity, but upon looking at her one cannot tell right away what her gender really is. Her deceptively compact figure is shapely, toned, and lithe as a blade from years of martial arts and training, slender but very powerful. In short, she's a tomboy and has a very androgynous look to her; her face is feminine and soft while her body is more muscular and defined. She has very small breasts which she wraps tightly, as she loves being mistaken for a boy, especially if such a thing gets her closer to her goal of bedding any women in her line of sight. She often wears darker shades that contrast sharply with her smooth, pale, slightly golden tinted skin, the most notable being that Puck actually goes out of her way to wear darker lipstick for added contrast. Puck has varied piercings and plans on getting more, though has yet to find an artist she trusts. She also sports scars in her back and legs, both from training in her chosen martial art and because of her various...indiscretions over the years.
Distinguishing Features: One of Puck’s pride and joys; it's a magical phoenix tattoo, colored red, orange and gold (http://liquidtyphoon.webs.com/Puck/PhoenixTattoo.jpg). She got it from a magic user that could control the ebb and flow of ink that injected it one tiny dot at a time with a special needle. The final product looked like it was hovering just a millimeter below the surface of the half-elf’s skin. The phoenix sweeps from Puck's shoulder to down her back, its tail began as the form reached the lower curve of her spine, several long and delicate feathers spreading on each side to the outer curve of her hips. The tattoo moves with Puck and seems alive, its soft multi-colored glow showing through lighter shaded clothes.
Personality: Puck carries with her a huge chip on her shoulder - she is hot-tempered but notoriously lazy and doesn't bother with situations she doesn't think she's needed in, or doesn't want to be bothered by. She thoroughly enjoys a good fight, and is very confident and prideful of her ability, rough-cut as it may be. However, she also has an oddly charming, charismatic atmosphere - in a swashbuckling sort of way. Despite her sometimes rough ways and speech, inside, Puck is a genius - although her ingenuity runs more along the lines of insanity rather than anything resembling rational thought. In the end though, somehow, she makes it work as if it was her plan all along no matter how many bumps in the road there were. She is a tough-as-nails fighter in not only her punishing style of her chosen martial arts, but in all manners of the word.
Skills: Dagger Proficiency: While fairly confident in her skills with a dagger, he father had only commented on how Puck was ‘adequate’. Though using daggers is very much like riding a horse to Puck, she rarely uses them and much prefers to use her hands.
Silent as the Grave: Combining unnatural grace and skill, Puck has the ability to move at will and make no sound while moving. To be clear, if she were to bump a vase and it feel, that would make noise. However, Puck herself makes no noise while moving. This skill is harder to use if Puck is hindered in some way, such as being drunk or high in some manner.
Hand-To-Hand Combat: Puck’s favorite way to fight, should any situation come to it. The half-elf feels that using weapons kind of cheapen any given fight. So well did Puck excel at her father’s training that he barely had anything left to teach her before he eventually stopped her training altogether. Puck has been favoring close quarter combat for longer than most humans have been alive, and it shows in even her everyday movements.
Puck is a skilled dancer of many different styles of the world (having learned many while in Concordia), but breakdancing is her favorite. She loves how unpredictable it can get and, when combined with her Artes, seems to make and endless flow of erratic movements that were hard or often impossible to predict or scout. Puck's thought on her style is 'If you never do the same thing twice, how can someone tell what's coming?' She still takes bits and pieces from all the martial arts she does know as taught to her by her father and bits and pieces she’s learned from other travelers and foriegners. Instead she takes what she believes would benefit her own style and adds it to her ever growing list of moves (already at an impossible amount) that she can summon up at any time in battle. And while her mind can recall the moves necessary to pull off the amazing feats she does in battle, what Puck doesn't admit to anyone is that a large part of what she does is simply 'making it up as she goes', which adds more unpredictability to her fights.
While her style is still rough at best, Puck believes it to be a supreme form that, if used properly, cannot be beaten. Her entire life (since the style's inception) is based around it, from her very build (being lean and somewhat lanky provides her with the speed necessary to pull of faster moves to dazzle and confuse) to the very way she simply walks (very much remenisant of the stalking of a panther) seems to breathe just how much time and effort Puck has dedicated to her Arte. To Puck, her Form isn’t so much as fighting as it is a way she can express herself, despite having little inclination to fight if it can be avoided. It’s sadly the case that the half-elf finds herself in many situations that requite violence, and she’s more than ready to prove she won’t be an easy opponent.
Abilities: Blind Luck: Not really something that Puck can turn on or off, but also so prominent that even she’s taken notice. When it comes to any given situation, either high pressure or even lax and lazy, Puck seems to experience some unnatural luck. Whether she’s playing a game of chance or escaping a legion of guards, Puck can find or talk her way out of just about anything. There have been times when it’s seemed to ‘disappear’ or ‘turn off’, but that’s just how Luck is, right? Comes and goes as it pleases. Xeo often joked that Lady Luck was in love with Puck, and that was why the half-elf seemed so lucky. It was one of the only times Puck hadn’t brushed off such a notion with a scoff, as she often did see a woman of ethereal appearance that was there one moment and gone the next. Puck does note, however, that her special brand of luck does not seem to be very prominent when she’s actively engaging in violence, and therefore she believes that if Lady Luck has indeed blessed her with a continuous lucky streak that she must abhor violence.
Locked Abilities: Aura Tracking: Everyone has a different aura, and Puck has the ability to latch onto any given one and track it. Her father and mother suspected this was the case when their daughter first explained it to her, and her mother believes Puck was blessed with this ability due to her mismatched eyes. The need to track someone’s aura came later, an art that Puck only recently really started to use when she became stumped when she was searching for a bounties trail.
Phase Shifting: Using her slight frame and utilizing her years of training, Puck is able to burst in any direction with such speed that it often appears as if she’s disappear completely, only to reappear in another location. The thief is only able to perform three ‘jumps’ in any given fight, as she hasn’t quite mastered the ability quite yet. The farthest she’s managed this feat is about ten feet, give or take.
Equipment / Weapons: Cursed Amulet: One of Puck’s first forays into the world of women was a Priestess named Amber, who fell for Puck and her antics almost immediately. When she found Puck being unfaithful to her, the Priestess found a cursed object, an amulet, that she gave to her lover in the guise of a gift. The amulet was cursed to being out the animal form of the person that wore it, and Amber was sure that Puck would turn into something like a pig, or hog. Instead, Puck now has the unfortunate ability to turn into a rather small cat for a needed hour or so a day. Puck can usually feel the transformation coming a good time in advance and hides until she ‘pops’ out of being a kitten. She can speak while in this form and in the time she’s had the amulet Puck has figured out how to nominally control when she can and cannot transform. The curse isn’t lifted, however, but Puck has learned to live with it as best she can. The form she takes is simple; a black cat with a red scarf. As for her belongings, they seem to disappear when Puck transforms, and come back with her when she turns back into a half-elf. Also of note is that the amulet will always return to Puck regardless of how it was taken or where it is. It’s simply apart of her, forever, until the curse is lifted. In all fairness, Puck hasn’t attempted to find a way to lift the curse and rather likes the relative safety the transformation provides her when she’s looking for a place to sleep or, more often than not, a way to escape a dire situation. She can also communicate with fellow felines, though Puck mostly stays to herself while a kitten.
http://happygosunshine.webs.com/Puck/PuckKitty03.png
Magical Lockpicks: A normal set of, no real special look about them. Puck does notice they seem to be a bit warmer then most metals, but not burning hot. Just warm, as if reassuring it's owner that whatever lock it's going to pick, it's got it. Able to pick (damn near) any lock or pick any door in existence. It's never failed once, but Puck hasn’t given them any real test outside of your run of the mill locked door or chests.
Iron Daggers: A set of iron daggers that Puck keeps sheathed on her belt. She keeps them sharp and often uses them to hunt small game that she can kill in one shot by throwing.
History: “It was...inevitable.”
Puck never questioned her life, or how she lived it. She simply did what her father told her to do and stayed by her mother's side as often as she could. In all her years, the only thing she ever really wanted to do was stay by her mother. Everything seemed so much better with her there. She was the most beautiful person in the world as far as Puck was concerned. Her voice was always gentle, as she never raised her voice even when her husband was being temperamental and gruff. Her laugh melted fears and lightened moods. For what seemed like centuries they wandered in search for...something, her father never told her. They stayed places for long periods of time, though, the searching being put off as her father would work in a city and Puck would stay at home with her mother, not doing much of anything other then practicing her drills and katas her father put her through.
Life carried on this way, staying in one place for a decade or so before moving on. The young girl once overheard her father telling her mother that their 'resources' were running thin and their 'options were running out', but she didn't quite understand, at the time, what that meant. All she knew was that, towards her eightieth birthday, her mother fell asleep and, for days, didn't wake up.
After that, her father seemed to be more somber, and eventually the trio settled in Concordia. Her mother had always spoke fondly of the place, and her father had agreed, not putting up much of a fuss as he normally did when they talked of moving. This made Puck worry, but she didn't mind because their previous trip to Concordia was eventful and fun. Her father, with his vast martial arts training and weapon knowledge, took up with the Rangers while still continuing the lessons with his daughter when he could, teaching her what he knew of Artes and the skills she required to be at least competent with daggers. He seemed more detached during their lessons, though, and soon they stopped altogether as her father spent more and more time with his ailing wife and completely ignoring his daughter’s existence.
While she wanted to spend time with her mother too, Puck knew she couldn't, not with her father there. She grew angry at him as time slowly crept on, and the girl couldn't figure out why. So, like all 'teenagers', she started to go out and live life on her own, to see what life in Concordia had to offer when she wasn't stuck at home or being growled at by her father. At first she wasn't impressed, not really. Life seemed pretty boring most of the time, with the only action coming from taverns and various gentleman's clubs (her favorite being a place called The Wonders, as this was probably the start of the blonde’s attraction towards women as she saw them dance) when people were tossed out or fights occurred. She looked forward to seeing them, wishing she could joining in before, like a light bulb going off in her head, she decided that she could. Why not? Her father didn't seem to care and her mother was sleeping most of the week now. A little trouble never hurt anyone, right?
The training she endured under her father's watchful eye was...well, a bit much for the people she actually hurt. While the woman knew she could fight she had never really gauged her own strength against anyone other then her father, who was the strongest man she'd ever known. She ran from the scene of her own crime and, oddly enough, felt elated as opposed to guilty that she had shown her strength and dominated. She didn't make this a habit, of course, but she liked the taste of what she had wrought and wanted more.
The next time she was out enjoying the nightlife, the blonde was approached by a man who had seen Puck fight and was interested in 'recruiting' her. Not really knowing what she was bring recruited for but confident she could easily talk (or if need be, fight) her way out of any situation, she went with him. The man turned out to be a recruiter for a guild called The Cat's Paw, a small guild that was lesser known but still had a name that people whispered, though more often than not in annoyance than fear. He introduced her to a woman named Xeo Hurlan, a fiery women with long, flowing red hair and barley a stitch of clothing on her dark brown skin. The very sight of the woman sent shivers down Puck' spine, and she knew immediately that she'd do anything Xeo asked.
The redhead tested her in every way, combat to sneaking, breaking and entering, lockpicking, purse cutting. Puck wasn't the best pupil due to her lazy nature, but she did well enough for Xeo to declare her a 'natural...that is, if she could only get off her lazy ass to commit to something'. Puck didn't mind the harsh words, as those were being flung at her every day she returned home to her father, who now seemed to live at his wife's side. Puck didn't care, as now her time was spent learning how to be a thief, as well as catching only moments with her mother, who was now sleeping and only had few precious minutes of conciseness, though Puck was never there to see them.
Her father, now long expelled from the Rangers due to his lack of attendance, was no longer the breadwinner of the family; that act solely fell on Puck's shoulders and she rose to the occasion magnificently. The jobs she went on with Xeo were numerous, the loot plentiful. Puck used this money to get her first tattoo as well as piercing and continued to add to the collection as the days turned into weeks which turned into months. She didn't mind bringing home food and such, and her cooking skills only improved the more she tried it, as her father barley even fed himself anymore.
It was at this time that the would-be thief began to shine on her own. While Puck 'wasn't too shabby' fighting (according to Xeo), it seemed as if her real talents lay in a different area; strategy. More specifically, the planning that came about when a plan fell apart and everything seemed to be going to hell and back. In several jobs, when hope looked bleak, Puck managed to pull not only herself but her fellow guild members out of the flames through some seemingly half-baked scheme that not only ended them getting out of the fryer, but with a bigger profit as well. Xeo would have thought, after a few times this happened, that her own guild was trying to prank her; how could some of those plans have worked? They were ludicrous and seemingly insane. And yet, somehow, Puck and the team she was with always seemed to pull through, and the stories that came of them became something the guild repeated many times over in the presence of each other.
Xeo never looked a gift horse in the mouth, however. She saw that maybe in Puck, she had something that many rarely saw because, were her ego to get in the way. But Xeo was a rational thinker, and knew that Puck had not only real talent in the field of strategy and planning, but the more important ability to keep cool and calm under pressure which was just as, if not more, important to the guild than any other quality. Too often had Xeo seen a group fall apart and turn on each other (thieves being such fickle creatures and all) just to save themselves. Xeo explored this side to her friend as often as she could, shooting out scenarios and situations just to see how the blond would handle it. She often got questions that baffled her (“I dunno, sweets...would I have access ta candles, a flask a’ whiskey, three spoons an’ a sponge?”) but in the end, after many explanations, finally left it alone. The type of genius that Puck displayed was seemingly otherworldly, but it was her own and unlikely to be understood by other that weren't inside of her brain.
Then, it all changed. She came home one night to find her father actually standing, a man next to him. For the first time in hundreds of years Puck was witnessing her father weep, and the very scene broke something within her. The cause, of course, was obvious. The look on her mother's face was peaceful, but then again it always was. Puck, not really knowing how to handle such a situation, could do nothing but stand as the conversation between her father and the other man continued.
“The daughter...does she know?”
Her father shook her head. “That she caused this? No. This...” He put his palms to his face, shaking with grief. “It was inevitable.”
The words seared into her mind, Puck fled and never looked back.
Xeo was thrilled, however, when Puck told her that she would be staying with the guild permanently now, and was immediately promoted to Xeo's Right Hand, a position that had been curiously vacant for numerous years. And while her heart grieved for her mother and the truth behind her death, it was from that point onward that Puck perfected a mask she placed between herself and the rest of the world. Not even Xeo, who took on Puck as a lover, breached those walls, though it wasn't from a lack of trying. And while in the beginning it was very much a lopsided relationship, with Xeo being dominant and very much in charge, the fact that they were equals in her eyes made things a tad more...complicated.
Xeo wasn't the type of person to let things go easily, and she knew there must have been some reason why Puck had left her family behind. The dark-skinned woman knew of her mother and father, of course, but no more than they existed and Puck often used her share of the spoils to help with room and board and the like. She still knew where they lived (for she was paranoid of every new recruit, and knew much about Puck that the blond probably didn't think Xeo actually knew), and went out herself to see what had happened.
What she found...was nothing.
It was like no one had lived there for the years that Puck has been in Concordia. The room was barren, even dusty, but Xeo knew her scouts were flawless in their reports; they saw Puck talking to a older man and a woman that never seemed to get out of bed. The room they inhabited was almost as if the whole thing was an illusion, and the curiosity only drove Xeo to find out more. Her curiosity needed to be sated, and she was going to get it out of Puck one way or another.
Their fallout was inevitable.
Puck left the guild, feeling betrayed that the person she trusted most had actually given her the ultimatum; to tell her what had happened and why her family was gone as if they'd never existed, or leave her and the guild. Puck, in her rage and feeling abandoned by the person she (secretly) loved, left, vowing never to return again.
Xeo never gave her the chance. The Cat's Paw Thieves Guild was soon gone from Concordia altogether, in much the same way Puck's father had cleared out their old living space. Of course, The Cat's Paw was much larger and left behind many things which Puck took and sold...all except the one thing that Puck knew Xeo left on purpose, as if she'd knew her former lover would find. The fact that it was Xeo's most prized possession didn't escape Puck's notice, though it didn't lessen the sting of yet another person leaving her life.
The enchanted lockpicks that could open any lock or door was quickly pocketed (though unsure on how to work them and after a few tries simply gave up), and Puck, unsure of what to do next, simply began living her life as a vagabond, stealing when necessary and sleeping in houses she knew to be empty and had a very low risk of being entered while she was sleeping or bathing. Her laziness increased as the days wore on, but her skirt chasing only got worse and worse. She contemplated trying to find the answer to the puzzle at the bottom of a bottle as many of the people she saw around her do, but didn't. Her loneliness made an empty void in her chest, what with her father abandoning her and Xeo doing the same a scant few weeks later. The void was momentarily filled with each new conquest of women, the riskier the prize the more fulfilled she was. But it never lasted long, and her loneliness only grew.
The departure of the Cat's Paw raised more then a few eyebrows, though, and soon the affect was felt all over. Many rumors in the underground flew as to why the guild left, but no one could pinpoint an actual reason and people naturally believed what they wanted anyways. Puck, being selfish and hurt, wanted to believe that it was because of her but also knew that Xeo wouldn't have let their own personal relationship uproot the guild in such a manner. If she thought about rationally, Puck would have paid more attention to the small details and found out why. But the anger and sadness she felt festered until she couldn't really think of the guild nor her former lover without feeling almost physically ill about it. It wasn't until she found the corpses of three of her former guildmates in the back of an dingy alley and, a few weeks later, two more by her haunt by another tavern she frequented that she was pulled from her funk by the thought that, maybe, someone was out there hunting down members, or maybe even former members, of the guild for some unknown reason.
At the thought of being hunted, Puck merely scoffed. In an odd fashion it scared her to think that she hardly cared about her own well being, and the mere thought of going to Xeo for help or even warning her gave her a headache she would rather much avoid.
Better just to drown her sorrows in wine, women and, occasionally when she felt like letting her voice loose, song.