J'lyneth Khal

J'lyneth Khal
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Gender	Female (Cisgender - she/her pronouns)
Race	Miqo'te
Clan	Seekers of the Sun
Citizenship	Limsa Lominsan
Age	18
Marital Status	Single
Occupation	Privateer
Height	5 fulms 4 ilms
Orientation	Pansexual
Relatives	J'khal Nuhn (Father) J'lhethra Uhrtono (Mother) J'lhator Tia (brother) J'lhiira Khal (sister) J'lhathus Tia ~aka Ilthus Dawnsinger~ (brother) Half a tribe worth of half-siblings and cousins

Basic Info

J'Lyneth Khal is no one noteworthy, just another tribal Miqo'te who left the wilderness for the (debatably) greater opportunities available in the city-states. She didn't even get off the boat before she'd fallen in with disreputable sorts and now she makes her, admittedly meager, living on the seas when she's not playing messenger, trader and all around errand girl for her Captain in far flung and land locked corners of Eorzea.

She is generally good-natured, though prone to snark and utterly incapable of remaining serious for more than a minute or two outside of a dire, life or death crisis. Her friends mostly find this endearing. until it isn't.

LIKES ■ Waterfalls ■ Wildlife not currently trying to kill her ■ Calm seas ■ A well told tale ■ Pleasant company

DISLIKES ■ Cold and damp, with extra loathing for a combination of the two ■ Intolerance, bigotry, zealotry and xenophobia ■ Self-important and/or humorless people ■ Wildlife that is currently trying to kill her ■ Silence

OTHER ■ Alignment: Neutral Good ■ Vice(s): Likes to drink. Mostly in company but sometimes to dangerous excess. ■ Favorite Food: Pan-fried Mahi-Mahi ■ Favorite Drink: Mulled wine or a rich red ale ■ Favorite Color: Green

Appearance & Personality

Soft-featured with very large eyes, she looks a fair-bit younger than her eighteen years, though calling her "kid" is a real quick way to get the full force of her well-practiced snark turned on you. Her taste in clothing has slowly shifted away from the practical fight-ready garments she once favored to tailored coats in fine materials and a massive collection of hats. With feathers. She carries herself confidently in a manner that belies some martial training. She hasn't been sailing long enough yet to have developed the sea dog's bow-legged swagger but if she's been out for a lengthy sojourn a slight wobble in her gait will be evident when she gets back to port. This is made much worse by the amount of carousing she tends to do when in port, as well.

Biography

"I do so love a well told tale." -J'Lyneth Khal

Home

Lyneth nocked an arrow and stared down the length of it at her target; a sandscale peiste, skinned and stuffed. She had just watched her elder sister Lhiira put an arrow through the hole where the eye had been. She didn't think that she could make that shot herself, but that gaping maw would serve almost as well.

She was painfully aware of the Nuhn's eyes on her back and of the importance of showing him her progress. Khal was a busy man, with many children to oversee. Another chance to impress him might not come along for moons.

Her arms were shaking with tension by the time she released the arrow, and watched it sail wide, missing the target utterly. There was a murmur of laughter from behind her that fell abruptly silent as her sire turned to glare at the gigglers. His expression softened when he returned it to her face. She blinked rapidly to try and clear the tears from her eyes.

"Keep practicing, Netha."

That was all. The small crowd that had gathered dispersed as the Nuhn strode away, leaving Lyneth to collect her scattered arrows and put away her gear in shaky silence, teeth clenched against the sobs fighting to bubble up from her chest.
@~'~~
"Hells with him," Lhathus said from her doorway. Lyneth wiped her eyes and tried to pretend it was a nap he'd interrupted instead of a lengthy cry.

"Him and every bugger who laughed," her brother continued, flopping down on the bed beside her. "I was watching faces. Some people are going to find an unpleasant surprise in their bedding tonight."

The yawn she was faking gave way to a laugh and she shimmied up to kiss her brother on the cheek. "You're very sweet, but please don't. Don't want to give our sire even more reason to think I'm still a child."

"You are still a child, Netha," Lhathus ruffled her hair, laughing as she turned her head to bite at his hand.

"Don't call me that," Lyneth sulked. "I hate it. It's a baby name."

"Would you rather just be 'Tia'?" Lhathus was still laughing but there was a bitter edge to it now. "That's all I am, half the time, when the Nuhn deigns to speak to me at all. Don't be so quick to throw away that affectionate pet name, Lyneth. You're the only one us he ever gave one to."

He ruffled her hair again before sliding off the bed. "Anyway, dinner's ready, stop sulking and come eat, eh?"

Exodus

The whole tribe clustered around the ring of stones, festive chatter filling the air, a stark contrast to the grim silence that had hung over the last challenge. Lyneth let it wash over her, tried to let it lift the dread from her chest. The last challenge had cost her a brother. She wondered what this one would cost.

"You'll only be in the way," Lhathus said, turning his back to her firmly. "I'll barely be able to feed myself in the city, won't need a child hanging off my tail, dragging me down."

Challenger and Nuhn knelt on opposite sides of the ring, equidistant from the weapons in the center, and waited on the cry that would signal combat. Lyneth felt her eyes dragged onto Shihan. To the dark braid hanging over his shoulder, the sweat glistening on his brow, the tense pursing of his lips.

"Like a fall of rain in the heart of the wastes." Shihan whispered against her lips. His thumb grazed along her cheek, leaving an aching heat behind it as he drew away, slipping from her side as the rest of the hunting party caught up to them.

Across the ring and apart from the crowd, Rhosahl paced. Favorite mate of J'Lhator Nuhn and heavy with his child, she stood to lose a great deal if this challenge was successful. Lyneth felt a brief stab of guilt for wishing such hurt on her.

Lhathus ducked to the side, spinning away from Lhator's blow and the Nuhn stumbled. He had overextended, leaving his side exposed. One strike and the challenge would be over. And Lhathus simply laughed and tapped his brother's side with the flat of his blade, as though this bout were merely sport. Lhator growled and answered with an uphand swing that opened a gash across the Tia's face, from cheek to forehead, spraying blood across the sands.

The crowd fell still in anticipation as the moment approached, all eyes on the combatants. The cry sounded and they moved as one, darting across the sand to lay claim to their weapons and gain the first strike. Speartip was batted aside by blade, counter thrust sidestepped and spear brought round again in a whistle of wood and bone. So it begins.

Lyneth felt Shihan's back tense against hers and her feet started to move, matching his turn, keeping them back to back even as she loosed one arrow and drew another. The bolt struck the amalj'aa warrior in the shoulder but did not slow his charge. She took a spinning side-step of her own and Shihan moved with her, spear at the ready to gut the enemy as he fell upon them and her second arrow lodged in the beastman's throat. The Amalj'aa were falling back. As the victory shouts of the tribe rose up around them, she met her hunting partner's amber eyes and laughed and laughed.

Lhator kept the fight close and fierce, pressing the advantage of his greater size and weight. Shihan ducked another blow, but he was tiring and clearly growing frustrated as his every attempt to gain enough ground to make use of his weapon's greater reach was thwarted. His eyes rose to meet Lyneth's and she darted her own, briefly, to the left. He feinted in that direction and the Nuhn followed, realizing the mistake an instant too late. His leg was overextended, the knee a tempting target, and his opponent spinning into a strike.

"You had him! One strike and you'd have won. Why did you tease him instead?" Lyneth scowled at her brother from the doorway.

"You think I wanted to kill my brother?" Lhathus hissed at her between gritted teeth trying not to tear the stitches on his cheek. He would keep the eye. And the scar. "You think I ever actually wanted to be Nuhn?"

"You acted like you did," Lhiira sneered as she packed up her medical supplies. "Sneaking off into the brush with a different huntress every evening. What did you think was going to happen?"

"Exactly what did happen," he said bitterly, rolling onto his side, back to the door. "Get out, the pair of you. The wounded need to rest."

The shaft of the spear came down on the Nuhn's knee with a sharp crack and Lhator screamed and crumpled to the sands. Shihan took a step back, spear at the ready for an advance but none came. The blade slipped from the Nuhn's grip and the crowd exploded into cheering, save for Rhosahl who rushed to her mate's side and Lyneth who watched her hunting partner being swarmed by the congratulatory crowd with an odd sort of detached dread.

There was a ripple of movement from within Rhosahl's stretched stomach and Lyneth drew her hand back quickly. The older woman laughed. "She's feisty today."

"Doesn't it hurt?" Lyneth pressed a hand against her own, flat, stomach with a grimace and Rhosahl laughed again.

"You'll have one of your own, someday. If we ever get a Nuhn who isn't one of your brothers."

Lyneth made a face. "Long way off, then. Thank the Twelve." A hand fell on her shoulder, making her jump.

Shihan backed up a pace, laughing. "Whatever were you talking of, I wonder, to put you so far off your guard?"

"The Nuhn requires you this evening," the messenger gave a small bow at the doorway and Lyneth's heart leapt into her throat. She glanced over at her eldest brother, injured knee propped up on a cushion as Lhiira finished securing the splint.

"He wastes no time," Lhator huffed, laying his head back in Rhosahl's lap. She, at least, would not be called for until after the child was born.

Lyneth set down the knife she had been using to cut bandages and wiped, suddenly clammy, hands on her breeches. She rose on trembling legs to face the messenger only to be met with a mocking smirk. "Not you." The two words knocked the breath from her and she sank back to her seat in a daze as Lhiira looked up from the finished splint and nodded, rising gracefully to follow the messenger from the room.

He hadn't made it ten paces before Lhathus turned and swept her up into a fierce embrace. "I'll come back for you, Netha." he whispered. "I promise. As soon as I've scraped enough together to make a half-way decent home for us. There's a world out there where we can be whatever and whoever we wish, not just play the roles laid out for us by tradition. I'll map it out for the pair of us. Just be patient til then."

Lyneth leaned against the wall of her room and waited for the tears to come. They wouldn't. A steely resolve was rising in their place, flooding her senses, drowning out all else.

"I can't wait for you, Lhathus. I can't stay."

Songs at Sea

Lyneth padded across the decks in bare feet. She'd grown accustomed enough to the rolling of the ship not to be in danger of losing her meager dinner with every swell, but her legs were still unsteady. The Roegadyn woman glanced up as she approached and gave a little nod to indicate that company would be welcome before returning to the tuning of her instrument. Lyneth perched on a crate to watch her fingers move across the strings, a pluck here, another bit of fiddling with the knobs that tightened them, a strum, a frown, more fiddling. The Seeker watched the waves and the sky, the distant shadow on the horizon that promised land soon. A series of plucked notes in proper tune drew her eyes back to the larger woman.

"Sing the song about the mermaid," Lyneth said softly. It was a silly song with all the dirty words replaced at the last moment with more acceptable alternatives that did not rhyme, leaving the audience to guess what the replaced words had been. Lyneth had found it to be quite an education though she still wasn't sure what was supposed to rhyme with "dispatch."

"That's a song for a crowd, isn't it love?" The blue skinned woman said with a smile. "And a jollier mood than this mist has left me in." She strummed idly for a moment and Lyneth watched in silence, marveling at the deftness of her fingers and the complicated rhythms they could draw from six stretched strands of metal wire. After a moment a somber melody emerged and then the woman's voice lifted to join it.

I have put my days and dreams out of mind
days that are over
dreams that are done
Though we seek life through
we shall surely find
there's none of them clear to us now
not one
But clear are these things
the grass and the sand
where sure as the eyes reach
ever at hand
with lips wide open and face burnt blind
the strong sea daisies feast on the sun
The loves and hours
of the life of a man
they are swift and sad
being born of the sea
hours that rejoice and regret for a span
born of a man's breath
mortal as he
Loves that are lost
ere they come to birth
weeds of the wave
without fruit upon earth
I lose what I long for
save what I can
my love, my love
and no love for me

Lyneth could find no words when the song was done, eyes drifting back to the waves if only to avoid having to meet her companion's gaze. After a moment the older woman laughed.

"It's not my song, nor writ bout any of my own troubles. I've no wish to burden you with a confession, little one," She stowed the instrument, still chuckling. "Still a proper enough lament for them as takes the sailor's life. Sea's a fine place to go to run from the pain o' the past. And no one aboard'll ever be so chiseling as to ask ye what you're running from."

"Not from," Lyneth answered, eyes still on that promise of land on the horizon. "To."

OOC Roleplaying Notes

I am always happy to have walk-up RP and if you want to claim to know my character from someplace, I will usually play along. Best bet for that angle is to claim to have met her in some tavern somewhere. She doesn't clearly remember a lot of those encounters anyway. Also, despite the character being incapable of staying serious for long, her player is more than willing to delve into dark or disturbing themes so long as permission is asked before causing the character any serious, long-term physical or psychological damage.

RUMORS Some of these rumors are untrue or are greatly exaggerated. Please feel free to add your own rumors under PC! ◢ Common Rumors (Easily overheard) ■ "Lyneth? I don't know. Try the tavern." - Dockhand in Limsa Lominsa ■ "She's a trustworthy courier. Gets the goods where they're bound and usually gets the promised price for them. I've no complaints." - Merchant in Aleport ■ "Not much of a sailor, truth to tell. But she's so bloody enthusiastic it's hard to turn her away." - Mordyn, The Seventh Sage, Limsa Lominsa ◢ Moderate Rumors (Moderately difficult to overhear) ■ "If she promises you anything after her fourth drink, you'd best get it in writing or give up the idea entirely, for she certainly won't remember it the next morning." -Tavern patron in Gridania ■ "Any tale you tell her will find it's way back to you in a few moon's time, embellished beyond recognition. The girl has a positive gift for outlandish fancies." -Landenel, Camp Tranquil ■ "Quite the wandering eye on that one. Always admiring any handsome men that cross her path. Never seen her take one back to her rooms though." - Dancing girl in Ul'Dah ◢ Rare Rumors (Very difficult or rarely overheard) ■ "Voice like a bloody siren. Sweetest thing you've ever heard. Don't let her catch you listening, though. She'll clam up right quick if she thinks she has an audience." - Ale-soaked sailor in Limsa Lominsa ■ "What, that skinny Miqo'te wench that hangs about the place, mooning over the Captain? Yeah, I know her. Who's asking?" - Bodyguard at the Seventh Sage ■ "There's a brother out there somewhere she's been hunting for. Best of luck to her. Poor bastard's probably long dead." - Bartender in Vesper Bay ◢ PC Rumors (Rumors from the character's of other players) ■ "Sure, she can be a handful, but I guess I'm not really one to talk. She's good to those around her though, that's what's important. Wait, did she put you up to this? - Piers Hayward ■ "The dread pirate Lyneth? Have you been hiding under a rock? She is the Seductress of the Seas, the Dame of the Depths, the the Crimson Rapier! I once saw her enter a tavern, gut seven men who looked at her funny, command the loyalty seven sailors, and charm seven more to follow her fates know where... All I know is that they are the luckiest ones of all...." - Xehn'a Hmyr ■ ■

RELATIONS ♥ Romantic Interest ♥ Platonic Love ● It's Complicated ● Good Standing ● Poor Standing ♥ J'Lhathus Tia (aka Ilthus Dawnsinger) : Lyneth's elder brother. He was her personal hero through most of her childhood and she would have joined him in exile after his failed challenge without hesitation if he'd have allowed it. She hasn't seen him since he left the tribe but she holds out hope of finding him still and will hear no suggestion that he might be dead. ● Ragnarok Boyd : Lyneth met the Hyur in Gridania and was taken in by his somber gentleness. She became very fond of him despite his social awkwardness and frequent bouts of melancholy gloom. He made some awkward attempts to court her which she, quite frankly, had no idea what to do with. Her attraction to him very quickly cooled under the intensity of commitment he expected from her and the speed at which he expected it. After her attempts to bring things back to a more casual arrangement failed miserably the two opted to give one another some space to sort out their respective feelings. They have barely spoken since. ● J'Zhani Khal : Lyneth's half-sister who also left the tribe, though for very different reasons. They chanced upon each other again in Gridania where Zhani is studying conjury. While the encounter was not without it's awkwardness, Lyneth is happy to have found some family out in the wider world and will be there in a moment if ever her sister calls. ♥ Piers Hayward : A young wannabe gladiator fresh off the farm who Lyneth rescued from an Amalj'aa's spear and nursed back into health. Their relationship has since evolved from her 'showing the kid the ropes' into a genuine adventuring partnership. She appreciates his wit and if the pair of them get to bantering it's quite likely to continue for hours on end, provided the palpable romantic tension between the two doesn't boil over and distract them into other activities. ● Devereau Beauregard : It was the clothes. She's never even tried to pretend otherwise. There was simply no way to walk past the man without saying something complimentary. Then he started talking and it was all over. She was hooked, and had to know more. Her friendship with the flamboyant elezen has been largely casual and intermittent with her using him as a cultural translator of sorts, when she's able to translate anything the man says. She's fairly certain he's getting paid by the syllable. It's the best explanation she can come up with. ♥ Xehn'a Hmyr : A chance encounter in a Limsan tavern. Romantic fictions batted about over a bottle of brandy. He offered another encounter and then another; windmills, waterfalls, rooftop chases, swordfights in the rain. A swirling dance of chaos that, looking back, is going to turn out to have been either the worst series of choices she's ever made, or the best. Time will tell.

Gallery

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  "Mooning Over" the Captain

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  Lyneth and Piers

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  Lyneth and Xehn'a

Footnotes

Template by Bancroft Gairn

Theme Song: Rye by the Sea