Name: Waif
Age: (Roughly? 12. Acts older.) Tells people she's 14. No one argues.
Rank: Rookie
Appearance: Innocent. Pre-Raphaelite looks-long dark brown, almost black hair with a hint of chestnut and a bit of a wave to it. Very straight-backed, good posture, will most likely be quite tall when she gets older & loses some of her baby fat, but for now is still in metamorphosis. Her eyes are "too large, too dark", and doe-like, while her beak has a bit of a pinkish tinge to it. Her feathers are a peachy-white, so she is most likely Korsain, but even she doesn't know what. But hers is not a memorable face, luckily for her. Something about her looks doesn't quite meet the current standard of beauty, so she is dismissed by most as an ugly duckling that will never become a swan.
Attire: adapts the "schoolgirl" illusion: plaid, pleated skirts, pretty white or pastel blouses /tiny tees, Mary Janes (with retractable blades) and frilled socks--or high white boots edged in marabou with ripped fishnets. Often her hair is braided with ribbons.
Accent: street Ingallish.
Weapons: a slingshot with deadly accuracy
Personality: She may look innocent, but don't let that fool you, for Waif has the soul of a mercenary and a heart to match. Brazen and brassy, she voraciously denies any likeness to any who have come before, or ever will again. She can speak "proper" Ingallish very charmingly, but prefers the dialect she grew up speaking, unless it is vital to speak "regular". Also is a great mimic of accents, once you get her started. She is an incorrigible imp, and has a tendency to grow on you. And all she'll ever eat is cotton candy and other sugar products-with the exception of raw rhubarb.
History: born Gina Batt, second child to Kitty Batt (altered from Battwing), then common prostitute, Kitty rose out of the gutter to become mistress to influential men. Her daughter remained a secret ill kept. Growing up, Gina was an even uglier child with only a hint of potential beauty. Extremely clever, very intelligent, and a smart-alecky mouth to go with it. She only had freedom b/c no one would ever suspect her identity, and by age seven was the best child cardshark in the neighborhood. But Kitty changed employers, and Gina was confined to her new quarters (the first stirrings of claustrophobia blossomed here), where her mother informed her that she was fragile and sickly. Gina didn't believe it, but there was always that niggling feeling of doubt. She often crept out byway of the coal cellar.
Exactly 2 months later, she discovered a yen for "money-seduction tactics"-that is, sitting on men's laps and charming them out of their money-and if that failed, robbing them blind. She was nicknamed Waif by a friendly police officer, and the name stuck. However, once she turned eleven, Waif's new world shattered when her mother's protector was assassinated by his own men and Kitty Batt went to seed. Her new love was what we know as heroin, and they moved into the deep, innermost ghettos of East Lunnen, virtually unchanged from its infamous days in the last century. In this "den of villainy and vipers", where the hunter was the hunted and only the ruthless survived, Waif found her niche as the Maiden Jade (original name, huh?). She is untraceable: there is no record of her birth, and no one remembers her face. She is anonymous, and likes it that way. With this came arrogance, an illusion of omnipotentence. That nothing was impossible. But no one is immortal, and as Waif's wildness grew, so Kitty's addiction escalated, as did her desperation: she sold her daughter for three weeks worth of fixes. Waif faked her own death, and booked it out of there-first class, no less, on the buyer's money. Within months she had established herself in Keltor City, where no one had ever heard of the Batts, the Battwings, or the streets of Eas' Lunnen. And if they had, they stayed away. Those of East Lunnen had a reputation to maintain.
She had a few brief stays with various teenage gangs, drifting lethargically from one to the other but never staying for too long. These were petty thieves-stereo systems and TV sets, gangland murderers and drug pushers. Occasionally an expert thief would take her on to try to hone her fledgling skills, but that was it. The gang members were like walls, suffocating her, and once claustrophobia hit, she had to move on, or go crazy. Most of the leaders were killed off in gang wars, eventually, and Waif was left alone for the most part, and fell back into her old ways. She also had a run-in with the Brotherhood of the Blade, which she doesn't like to talk about.
She met the Shade by accident-this is rather murky. But it had to do with Phoenix, a stolen kiss, a Roman candle, three Brotherhood members, and a heist gone wrong. Let's just say Waif got the goods away from both the BoTB and the Shade, and leave it at that. Cartha was a bit reluctant to take her in, but the Phoenix, for reasons unknown to him, pleaded her case.
Likes: cotton candy, fresh air, Phoenix.
Dislikes: being treated like a child, perverts, enclosed spaces for prolonged periods of time.
Said of her: "Saucy little moppet, ain't she? "
Overheard:
???:"I canna be watchin' ye all the time."
Waif: "Who sez ye 'ad ter, anyways? No un died an' lef' *ye* in charge. "
--"Whosaever dies wit' th' mos' toys wins. Innit tha' roight, mum?"
Other: She is a complete and utter klutz (that's what happens when your feet are too small for your legs and your beak doesn't fit your face--when nothing fits anymore)-unless she knows someone is counting on her to get the job done. Has a tendency to overcome most things (including her claustrophobia). She has an on-again off-again crush on the Phoenix and is fiercely possessive of him, much to his embarrassment. Another note of importance is her case of hero-worship on Hestia-emulation does have its bad points, and occasionally it's dire consequences too...
--Waif once had a surrogate brother named Luke, a dreadlocked duck with dreams of a better life. He was killed in a gang war. She never forgot him or how hew tried to save her from herself.
Know Your Friends (Back to the Shade Profiles)
Shade Lair (Back to the Shade Lair--duh.)
Know Your Enemies
(Back to the Brotherhood)
Email Opehlia at:
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This character copyright © 1999 Ophelia MacBeth. So NO STEALING! WE'RE the thieves, NOT you! ;o)
*I* made the page. Me. Starsong. Not Leila. So there. ;o) Ok, so I copied her format...so what.