I decided to go with a handmaiden for Manasa Stark. (: This is the edited/touched-up version [hider=Tayila Waters] [center] [img]https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/23/68/78/23687892aa52d652933e4cc05550f8a1.jpg[/img] [i]Light-boned and slight, with large green eyes dark enough to pass for brown, Tayila's hair is thick and brown, with the occasional wave rippling through.[/i] [b][u]Quote About[/u][/b] She’ll turn anything into a mummer’s farce. [u][b]Quote By[/b][/u] I’ve seen babes die upon falling from their mothers’ wombs. I’ve seen one beggar spear another for a burnt block of bread. I’ve seen children with large eyes that only got wider as their cheeks turned hollow and those big eyes became sunken pits. I’ve seen death and ruin, come close to them, and I will avoid them like the bloody flux. Call me a craven if you wish; go forth to dance with death. For when you lie in a scarlet pool of your own folly, death will have you, and I will have my cowardice with my unnumbered heartbeats. [u][b]Name[/b][/u] Tayila Waters [u][b]Nickname[/b][/u] None; but it might be worth noting that she introduces herself as Tayila to all, without mention of her surname, for loathe of the stigma that follows bastards. [u][b]Age[/b][/u] 15 [u][b]House [/b][/u] -Non-Applicable- [u][b]Parents[/b][/u][/center][b]Mother[/b] – Ilia Freid, a whore from one of the taverns. She was a comely woman – as most whores are – who was a tad too comfortable with the ale. She passed away early in Tayila’s life, but she does not remember much of her buxom, red-headed mother. [b]Father[/b] – Unknown [center][u][b]Siblings[/b][/u] None she knows of, but she wagers she has plenty scattered around King's Landing. [u][b]Personality[/b][/u] Wily, cunning, and living to her bastard name, Tayila is as malleable as the ocean, changeable and inconstant when needed. She can play the part of a blushing maiden; she can smile and flutter her eyelashes alluringly if she must. She can giggle and gossip like a heady girl; she can run and tumble until her hair is tangled and her knees are scraped bloody and her breaths are coming short. Tayila is willful, and she will do whatever she needs to survive and thrive in a place as cruel and heartless and political as King’s Landing. She is smart, and growing up in Flea Bottom has enabled her to dismiss her morals when she must be unscrupulous. But she is not without discipline; most of the time she plays along, and stays in her place. But her ears are always hearing and her eyes are always observing, and she is unafraid to show defiance when she wants. But never to the king or particularly influential highborn. She does enough to remain in good graces, but can be dangerous if incited. She will not actively withhold information of her bastardy, but it is not something she mentions in casual conversation to those she meets. It is nothing she is ashamed of. [u][b]Skills[/b][/u][/center][b]Needlework[/b] – Initially poor at this skill, Tayila eventually learnt how to sew fine stitches and threads when put to it. Not a half-bad seamstress now, she can make a few dresses, and has the knowledge to hold a household together. [b]Escaping[/b] – Born on the streets, with her fair share of trouble-making, Tayila knows how to dart through uneven and cobbled alleys, slip like a slippery fish through a crowd of jostling elbows and humid air, and disappear in a breath in a stream of rowdy merchants. In the castle, she has explored secret passageways, and when she wishes not to be found or caught she can slide away easily, by taking twisting corners and labyrinthine corridors. [b]Agility[/b] – It helps her escapades to be light-boned and quick on her feet. She can dash and sprint well, and dodge lunges swiftly. [b]Literacy[/b] – When she was taken in, Tayila had been taught to read and write, to better serve in the castle. She took to the quill and ink well, and is eloquent with her words, penning letters easily when asked. Though perhaps not as intelligent or well-read as highborn children, she is certainly not dim-witted. [center][u][b]Religion[/b][/u] The Seven. [u][b]Bio[/b][/u] Tayila was born to a whore, and spent the best part of her life skipping through the markets and harbour on sunbaked days. She would play in Flea Bottom, and splash in the Blackwater. Her days were carefree and happy, even after her mother’s death. Her childhood was marred at times by the grim straits of the populace, but she once did dance over a warm corpse in the market. One learns to overlook these things, even if they stay in the back of your eyelids for days. The whores in the brothel were thick as thieves, and cared for each other like their own. Tayila lived with them, grew up as they went about their business, and was raised by them. Promiscuity was their way of life and income, and Tayila picked up on their sultry skills. She saw grown men drool and become enamored by them, knights shedding their chainmail with their honour before their flirtatious beckons and smouldering looks, and learnt of all the advantages to be had by playing others as they wished to be played. Tayila always assumed she would either live the rest of her days nicking from carts in the marketplace or join a mummers’ band – she could tell a tale convincingly enough. But one day when she sneaked into the Red Keep just so that she could tell the other street urchins she could, a guard grabbed her by her ratty collar and plunked her down before the king. Tayila had stared up at King Daerys, had remembered tales of his mercy from the pardoned peasants themselves, but saw only a graying man with stern wrinkles. So she burst into tears, hoping a girl’s saltwater would soften the king’s tempered heart and send her out the gates with little more than stern warning. Instead, she had been granted a place at the hearth of his kitchens, and served as handmaiden to Princess Viseria for a year, during which she learnt to read and write, and to listen to those who spoke around her. When she crept in shadows in play, the walls had ears, and - oh - did people talk when they thought only darkness remained to hear them! [u][b]Other[/b][/u] Now that the King’s Wards are coming, Tayila will serve Lady Manasa Stark of Winterfell.[/center] [/hider] *edit: just changed the picture.