[center][img]https://image.ibb.co/e8P5Mz/penelope_updated_2.jpg[/img] [b]Penelope Vermillion[/b] Age 22 [hider=Before Timeskip] Bio/Personality : Born to both a peasant and a noble, Penelope has found that he life is a mixture of both. Raised by her noble father, a knight who was devoted to his kingdom, Penelope was quick to follow in his footsteps. She trained relentlessly alongside her half-brother, Layth, to become the knight she is today. She’s a skilled fighter, eventually earning herself a spot amongst the royal guards. She has been working as a royal knight for about three years now. Two years before that were spent in harsh training for her job that she holds so much pride in. Her father and brother, whom she had been hoping to work alongside, are currently off guarding one of the kingdom's borders, far from home. Penelope is a valiant knight who’s morals and beliefs do not always align with that of her king’s. She has a great deal of empathy and understanding for others that often isn’t found in her fellow knights. Because of that, Penelope is often used to acting much more coldly than she would on her own. However, the knight does have a strict and stern side to her that was likely passed down to her from her father. Perhaps the one thing she got from her mother was a sense of humor and a bit of playfulness. She also tends to over-think things and due to this, is a bit of a worry-wart. Penelope also tends to be rather selfless when it comes to those she cares about, such as family and friends, as she is willing to put herself in harms way if it means they’ll be safe. [/hider] Timeline for Penelope : [b]Year 1[/b] [hider=My Hider] - After taking about a month off from being a knight, she's finally about to go back to her old job, however, she still doesn't want to accept the fact that their mission was a failure. She convinces William to accompany her on a last ditch effort to try and figure out who took the staff and with any luck, get it back. - Their efforts are far from successful. The closest they get is running into a mercenary that seems to know the language but refuses to tell them anything and instead tries to kill them. Penelope earns a nasty scar from her forehead to her jawline during this fight. William ends up killing the mercenary and argues with Penelope until she finally gives up in her desperate search for the staff. It seems that war is unavoidable and she begins to try and let go of her hope for a life with Crow. - On the way back to the inner cities, Penelope stops to visit Abraxas' family as well as his grave. She pays her respects and personally apologizes to the family for causing his death. Her apology is not well received once the family learns the full story. Still feeling terribly guilty about his death, she doesn't beg for forgiveness and does her best to move on. - Penelope returns to her old job. Eventually she runs into Olivia, who is quick to pester her about Crow. After some skillful digging, Penelope tells Olivia a bit about Crow but leaves out some parts, especially the part where she was going to run off with him. Olivia merely knows that Penelope was forced to give him up in order to return to her old life. - A couple months into the first year, Penelope is approached by a baroness named Mia and offered a position as one of her lieutenants. Penelope accepts, deciding to try and focus back on her career now that she can't be with Crow. - Penelope and Olivia begin to hang out more, becoming friends of sorts. They occasionally go out drinking together. Penelope also picks up on a thing or two from Olivia's influence and has a couple of meaningless flings and one night stands. Mainly as a way of trying to move on from Crow. - Later into the first year, John and Layth come home from the outer villages. John confronts Penelope about her failed mission and her crazy effort to try and track down the staff. He thinks she's becoming reckless so he forces her to step down from her position as a knight. - Penelope's forced to study more deeply into the habits and behaviors of average noble women. She gives her teacher, an older noblewoman named Beth, a very difficult time. With her job and main reason of staying behind now pried away from her, she nearly considers leaving it all to go be with Crow since she is unable to protect her family like she originally planned. - Despite being against the lessons, Penelope does learn much more about what is expect of noblewomen who aren't knights. She learns to dance, organize the staff, and more about business. Most of it doesn't really interest her though. - One day, Mia appears and argues with John until he agrees to let Penelope return to her regular duties. John, however, isn't happy with the situation and decides that if she must continue as a knight then she should be married. Finally coming to an agreement, Penelope is able to continue her career as a knight, but is unhappy about having to marry. - Penelope begins to work alongside Mia, both training and helping with organizing preparations for the declaration of war on Younis. She finds that the baroness is rather enjoyable company and begins to admire the impulsive yet clever woman. - Now that Penelope is back working with Mia, she meets a few new faces amongst their forming battalion of knights. One of them is Naida, who's company Penelope comes to enjoy as they have similar dislikes of noble life. She even begins to become friends with the other female knight and before long, Naida begins to spend time with Penelope and Olivia, forming an interesting trio that occasionally stirs trouble. - Penelope's family is more distant than ever as she is not on board with her father arranging for her marriage and Layth has grown envious over her new rank as lieutenant for Mia. Layth eventually makes a scene about his displeasure with the situation. It ends up causing a sparing match between him and Penelope. Penelope nearly won but Layth broke the rules to over power her. Mia dismisses him and develops a strong distrust and dislike of Penelope's half brother. - John finally finds a proper nobleman to court Penelope and plans for them to meet soon. Penelope has very low expectations, believing that the marriage will likely feel like a business deal. - The time comes for her to meet Gavin. And it goes just as poorly as she expected. He seems just as arrogant and self-centered as any other noble that she knows and his interest in the marriage seemed to boil down to nothing more than a business move. As a knight from the outer villages, courting her, a higher ranking guard, would allow him to advance his rank as well. - Gavin and Penelope continue to spend time together. At first, things are still rocky as Gavin proves to be very by the book. He makes efforts to charm Penelope and at the very least, befriend her. Begrudgingly, Penelope tries to get along with him despite her general dislike of the other knight. - Mia and Penelope continue to work together. Penelope learns a few more tricks and improves her fighting skills even further. - Penelope meets Millicent, a very talented archer who's a little older than her. Despite being older, Millicent shows great admiration for Penelope and all she's accomplished. Penelope doesn't really understand why though, thinking most of her accomplishments to be failures or flukes. She also doesn't like the archer very much because Millicent seems to hold the law in much too high of a regard as well as being rather stuck up. Olivia and Naida don't seem especially fond of her either and tension is often high when Millicent attempts to push her way into their group. [/hider] [b]Year 2[/b] [hider=My Hider] - Mia decides to send Penelope out on a mission to one of the inner villages to speak with her sister and brother-in-law about preparations for the upcoming war. Gavin ends up joining her for this mission. Along the way, Penelope begins to learn more about Gavin and his reasonings for wanting to rise up in rank. Though she originally disliked how their courtship felt like a business deal, she grows a bit of respect for him wanting to aid the outer villages. Gavin, on the other hand, begins to actually fall for Penelope. - Penelope meets Nina and Bennet. Bennet is intimidating until Penelope and Gavin realize that he's wrapped about Nina's finger. Gavin impresses Penelope as he seems to get Nina and Bennet's respect rather quickly, making her mission rather easy. - The two young knights return back to the castle. Along the way, they run into a commotion in a marketplace, apparently caused by a young thief. Gavin is determined to track down the thief, Penelope is much more hesitant and tries to insist that they merely return to the castle and let the local knights handle it. Gavin doesn't agree and goes after the thief. Penelope follows his lead begrudgingly. They eventually track down the young thief, who's around 16 and inexperienced. However, Penelope prevents Gavin from capturing the thief and instead lets him get away, feeling sympathy for the young boy (reminded of both Crow and Hartley). - There's a bit of tension between Gavin and Penelope after this and she worries he'll say something about her refusal to enforce the law. However, he doesn't. She hopes this means he'll just ignore her actions. - Readying for war, Penelope finally meets Mia's other lieutenant, Tomas. Despite being a noble, he's quite humble and quickly befriends Penelope. She's also quick to notice his feelings for Mia, as he does a poor job of hiding them. - The war has officially begun but Mia and her forces won't be sent out to the frontlines until later. Bennet leads his forces out first. Penelope works on her training, feeling nervous for the approaching day that she and the others have to leave for battle. - Gavin and Penelope spend time together. He eventually questions her about the thief and her previous mission with Crow. Penelope eventually tells him a little bit about the mission and admits to merely being friends with Crow, explaining how it lead her to grow better understanding for those who break the law. Gavin seems to accept her despite his usual strictness. - Gavin and Penelope begin to grow closer as they realize they have similar views on the kingdom, despite a bit of difference. It surprises Penelope but she actually begins to develop feelings for him. She grows bit more hopeful for this courtship. - Penelope meets Bran, Alan, and Erica. Bran seems to think she has potential but looks down on her due to her age. Alan, she finds out, is a close friend of Gavin's and speaks fondly of his friend. Erica is William's new squire and Penelope is actually glad to hear that William is doing well after not seeing him for quite some time. - Olivia takes Penelope and Gavin out for drinks. Mainly as an excuse to interview the new man in Penelope's life. Of course, Olivia also attempts to flirt with Gavin, who quickly denies her due to his feelings for Penelope. After that, the two don't get along very well as Olivia believes Gavin is much too strict and boring for Penelope and Gavin dislikes Olivia's willingness to go after the man her friend is courting. - John announces that he'll be staying back to work as a palace guard for a while before he joins his children in the war. He tries to talk Penelope into stepping down from her position but she refuses. Tensions are still high between her and her father. - Mia requests a favor from Penelope, one that the female knight doesn't like. She asks for her to speak with her uncle about contributing more to their battalion, believing having another baron contribute to their battalion would be rather beneficial. Penelope reluctantly agrees. - She journeys to her family's manor, accompanied by both Gavin and Oliva. Her uncle, Edward Vermillion, is anything but welcoming to them. He at first denies Penelope's request and makes a point to mock her in front of the two. Gavin both defends her and manages to use his charismatic nature to get Edward to agree to contribute more to their battalion, even if a bit reluctant. - Gavin begins to put a bit more effort into seriously courting Penelope, since it is no longer just a business move for him. He arranges for them to spend a day off together. They two continue to grow closer, sharing a bit more with each other though Penelope still keeps her history with Crow hidden from him. Their courtship finally evolves from what felt like a business deal to an actual relationship. - Penelope finds outthat Edward has recruited Layth as his lieutenant, while this particularly doesn't bother her, Mia isn't happy about this development. - Penelope heads out with the rest of the battalion, traveling to the border for war. [/hider] Bio/Personality : After growing so close to the infamous thief of Brerra, Penelope was not completely the same upon returning to her position as a knight. She's become less concerned with enforcing the law and no longer acts as coldly as she once did in order to live up to the standards of a knight. Many have come to see her as a bit rebellious due to this but her skills and accomplishments keep her reputation high among other knights. Though she doesn't go out of her way to fit in with the standard anymore, she has a tendency to bottle up negative emotions even more than before, something that seemed to naturally develop as she had to keep about what happened with Crow to herself, and is usually a difficult person to get close to as she has built up walls that very few people get past. So far it seems the only person to have gotten past most of the walls is Olivia, merely since she knows more about what happened with Crow than anyone else. However, Penelope hasn't completely changed. She is still stern, empathetic and selfless. Though her sense of humor and playfulness has died down a bit, it occasionally comes out when she is with those she is close to. [/center]