[hider=My Hider] [b]Portrait:[/b] [hider=Kiááyo] [img]https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/559132432805265510/586010087395688449/541610a82e3b3b07b8f40c90cdd4a913.jpg[/img] [/hider] [b]Name:[/b] Kiááyo Tatanka (Margareta De Luca) "The Woman With Two Names" [b]Age / Date of Birth:[/b] Was April 22nd, 1753, making her 28 years old. [b]Gender:[/b] Female [b]Sexuality:[/b] Bisexual [b]Class:[/b] Musketeer [hider=Stats] [b]Strength:14[/b] [b]Willpower:15[/b] [b]Dexterity:16[/b] [b]Speed:[/b]12 [b]Luck:[/b]0 [/hider] [b]Skills:[/b] -Tracking -Healing -Swimming/Diving -Leadership [b]Equipment:[/b] -Musket -[url=https://i.pinimg.com/736x/6c/e9/a3/6ce9a39a4ce8200dcb1ec632830a9993--beadwork-designs-throwing-knives.jpg]Knife[/url] -2x [url=https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/559132432805265510/591679030387015710/dcbjys7-1441819a-e6fd-4649-b68b-77736f685d2b.png]Turnover Pistols[/url] -Satchel of various medicinal herbs and bandages [b]Appearance:[/b] Taller and more well-built than most of her female counterparts Kiááyo stands at roughly 5'9" and carries herself as she was even taller. When in a resting position her arms are folded behind her ramrod straight back, chest jutting out proudly. Black eyes shine out from a bronze colored, hawkish face, black hair kept in a neat bun. The powerful muscles of her arms and legs are almost always visible under her clothes, her toned core and back usually concealed unless she's swimming. The native woman hides her ears, the most obvious signs of her nonhuman heritage, by keeping the pointed tips tucked up into her hair or wearing a hat. While she's certainly not ashamed of her ancestry she finds it simpler to hide them from most people. Also kept hidden are the curse-deadened veins in her arms and legs, a few lines of blackened blood running up and down her body. The trails of curdled blood are positioned so that long sleeves can hide all of them, for now anyway... When out on the high seas or trailing her quarry on land she wears an outfit of soft buckskin pants with hide boots and a simple coat to keep out the elements. A cloth scar wrapped around her mouth serves as a convenient mask to keep out dust or to use as a rag for cleaning her weapons. Leather belts wrapped around her waist and torso provide places to store her guns and powderbox as well a place to hang her satchel full of herbal remedies and bandages. She has two sets of formal clothing, one from the Old World and one from the New. Her Old World outfit consists on a black suit jacket and pants embroidered with golden thread, silver buttons polished to a sheen. A beaver felt tricorn hat and ruffle of white linen complete the ensemble. The clothing from her tribal upbringing is much simpler, her standard coat covered by a heavy bearskin cape with designs of crows and elk painted on with a careful hand. Strands of beads wrap around her neck, a bonnet of eagle feathers on her head. Simply made dyes of black and red cover the upper portion of her face, her mouth and chin left bare. [b]Personality:[/b] Kiááyo is always paying close attention to how other people are acting around her and adjusts her own mannerisms as needed. A social chameleon, the native-born Cotsch has two distinct personalities for dealing with certain types of people. When interacting with other natives or the rough gangs of bounty hunters and brigands she does business with her natural accent is allowed to roam free as she introduces herself as Kiááyo Tatanka, sometimes even it making it stronger than it naturally is. Curses and slurs slip easily from her mouth in between gulps of cheap ale and puffs of smoke, spitting the foul mixture to the floor every now and again. In sharp contrast is the personality used when speaking with people of higher social status. If she were to meet a wealthy Arian merchant or a Caulish nobleman she would introduce herself as "Margareta De Luca sir, at your service." a well-mannered lady who speaks only in polite euphemisms and measured tones and eschews low quality swill for wine fine and gallows humor for gossip about this royal family or that trade empire. No matter which name she uses, she's driven by her goals. Her people have been battered and pushed around by the fleets and armies of the Old World for far too long. Cochise's recognized borders aren't enough of a deterrent to keep the colonizers away, so she will carve out a new set. A country where pirates, bandits, outlaws and outlanders would fight side by side with the first nations of the New World and anyone who opposed the Old. A pirate nation that will scrape out it's own territory and bleed dry anyone who steps foot in it with the intent to steal it. One that will combine the stalking and harrying tactics of the tribes and bounty hunters with the arms of the foreign militaries they oppose. She will achieve with flattery, bribery, threats and promises and back up her words with colt steel and hot lead. She will stop at nothing until her country is formed and her names immortalized! And she'll do it before the curse kills her. [b]Biography:[/b] Kiááyo's story begins before her birth with a Fioretzan pirate and his bride to be. Alonzo De Luca had met Margaret Arundel in a port town tavern, a gunman who had spent some ill gotten coins to see a few tricks from a talented mage. She didn't disappoint, impressing him enough with colored lights and clever illusions that he promised to come back after his next voyage. And he did, returning multiple times with gifts of jewelry stolen from all over the world. The pair struck up a friendship that blossomed into a genuine love affair that could have been a happy ending for both of them. But some men just don't know a good thing when they see one and end up ruining it. Alonzo was one of those men. Not content with his little trysts with Margaret every few months or so the pirate convinced a Cochisic woman to follow him. Inayat was only sixteen years old to his thirty-four and was easily swayed by honeyed words and promises of adventure. But instead of swashbuckling action and tender romance she was treated to terrible food and brutal "lovemaking", learning very quickly that she was nothing more than a way for Alonzo to keep himself occupied. Unsurprisingly she ended up pregnant and unable to flee. Pirates have always been known for their love of drink and Alonzo's crew mates were no exception. One night as he stayed on board the ship with his captive, his "beloved' learned from a drunken cabin boy just what Alonzo had been up to. When they next met she very nearly burnt him alive with conjured flames but couldn't bring herself to kill the man she once loved. Instead she cursed his unborn child. The girl would be afflicted with a magical malady that would worsen throughout her life, slowly killing her from the inside. Margaret coldly explained the effects of her spell before walking out of his life forever. Alonzo wasn't especially broken up about it but needed a way to calm the frantic mother of his bastard child. So he returned with Inayat to her homeland so she could be with her family while he supported them with bounty hunting and robbery. When his daughter was born he looked to his old flame for naming inspiration, calling her Margareta. The girl's maternal family all called her Kiááyo and she grew up learning to speak Fioretzan and the various languages of the tribes in her area. The effects of the curse started appearing early in her childhood. Kiááyo couldn't run as a long or play as hard as her peers, doubling over in coughing fits that would leave her sidelined. An inconvenience sure, but if this was all the curse did than she could live with it. But it revealed her true nature around the age of seven, the coughing fits lasting up to a minute at a time and forcing her to gasp desperately for air between spluttering and choking gurgles. Her spit would be tainted with reddened mucus that was sometimes tinged with black as her blood was poisoned, some of her veins looking as if they were filled with ink. While stronger than many of the other children she was left behind more and more, unable to keep with them at all. But she refused to be made an invalid. She might have had limited time but she was going to make the most of it. She learned to wrestle and brawl, able to hold her old against bigger opponents by letting her thick arms bear the brunt of an assault before unleashing a powerful haymaker into their jaws. Like most of the people in her tribe she learned to hunt and make useful medicines out of various plant and animal matter, foul-tasting mixtures that she used to keep herself alive. She found out that she had a natural inclination for diving far beyond most people's, able to hold her breath for nearly ten minutes. And most importantly, after much pestering Alonzo taught her to shoot. It was a life changer. She didn't have to watch her quarry disappear into the woods as she lagged behind, didn't have to live at fear that some bandit would tire her out and slaughter her while she was defenseless. With practice she would be able to take on anyone. And practice she did, blasting away at birds and crudely carved targets hung off trees. She kept practicing until she could hit a target with a bullet more than her fellows could with a boy, even joining her father on some of his manhunts when she turned fifteen. By the time she was twenty she was a fully fledged bounty hunter in her own right, making a name for herself by working with gangs of thugs to track escaped convicts and wanted assassins. It was good money, but not enough to fuel her ambitions of forming a country. And the clock was ticking. As she got older Kiááyo became more and more aware of her occasional fits, tracing a finger over the black lines in her arm as she contemplated her own mortality. If she wanted to achieve her goals she needed three things: money, an army, and an heir. So when she received her letter of marque she leapt at the chance. Piracy would provide the money which would lead to the army, she could provide the heir herself. So the Woman With Two Names packed up her equipment and set out to follow her father's footsteps. [/hider]