Zhavi Streetrunner

Zhavi Streetrunner
Gender	Female
Race	Miqo'te
Clan	Keepers of the Moon
Citizenship	Limsa Lominsa

Character

General

Well call me an honest scrumbagger and pinch me cheeks, lookit what the dockrats dragged in.

Name & Aliases

• Zhavi Streetrunner (formerly Gutterborn)
• Commonly Goes by: Zhi or (the more familiar/affectionate) Zhio

Note: in lieu of being able to pronounce the hissing sound denoted by the 'h,' a sort of 'szh' sound -- similar to juh -- as might be used in Mandarin is acceptable.

• Known as: Pinch, Resin, Nim, Slant, Dax, Sparrow, Kink

Quick 'n' Dirty

• Height: 5'2"
• Age: 19
• Race: Keeper Miqo'te
• Profession: Runner/Courier/Information Fence/Sometimes Seller of Illicit Goods (aka scrumbagger)
• Residence: Streets of Limsa Lominsa

Notable Features

• Kinked tail. There's a distinct bend in the last fourth or so of her tail, which has earned her the name "Kink" -- those looking to hire her use it as a way of describing her to their own underlings. "Ya know, the Miqo'te lass wi' that kinked tail."
• Scabs. Zhi is often frequently covered in them.
• Unguents. Due to the above, she is usually slathered in some cheap remedy or another -- giving her the name "Resin."
• Smell. Typically Zhi smells like the city: awful. The sea, a smell of offal, rotting fish, bilgewater and a faint whiff of meat are the individual components. Unless she's taken a dip lately, and then she'll mostly smell like fish and saltwater.

Description

Godsspit, if y'wanted a touch o' pretty y'can shove off t'the doxies' corner, y'blimmin' scrag.

Ragged is one word that could be slapped onto Zhi. Life has spat in her face numerous times, the bint, and it shows. Her fur is often matted, dull, and infected with fleas or lice. Nicks and scrapes have, over the years, resulted in small scars that alone aren't worth comment, but together give her something of a mottled, bedraggled appearance. Her clothing is secondhand, and invariably worn, stained, and mended several times over. She doesn't own a whole lot, what with her lot in life being a mean one, but she has her dastardly looks and enough sheer grit to fill a merchant's hold. As for her build, it's spare and rangy. Zhi doesn't have much in the way of excess fat, rendering her able to pass for a boy when she so chooses. Her hair is an unremarkable brown (often more a product of dirt than actual color) that has a coppery sheen when washed, with her fur/skin a dusky blue-grey. Her eyes are reddish-brown.

With her greasy hair cropped short and a face that could easily qualify for shifty, Zhi obviously belongs to the lowest social run Limsa Lominsa boasts. Even so, she holds herself with enough arrogance to make any cat proud, and can offer up several choice words to fit any occasion, and then some. She has the tongue a fishwife can appreciate, and enough attitude to make a pirate proud. But sassy or not, she's not stupid. Zhi can switch from braggart to simpering dog in an instant -- she values what's left of her hide first and foremost. She's not big enough or tough enough to handle the main gangs who have the run of the lowtown, and as an independent runner she has exactly no reliable allies to back her up. As a result, she's gotten used to groveling when necessary, and is like to be waspish to any gutterborn who tries to rise above the status quo. Zhi is a product of her birth, make no mistake.

Still, she's fit enough to be a courier of sorts in the lower streets, and that's better than any number of gutterborn can claim.

Personality

'Snot likes we wasn't chumsy, but yer gil's not quite got the right shine to't, fancy?

Zhi is social. Zhi is so social she could make your teeth hurt from the meaningless patter that leaves her mouth. She's all about making contacts and collecting information and potential employers. As such, she only makes for a good listener when there's something in it for her, and is not above leaving mid-conversation should she determine nothing worth her time is forthcoming. Still, she knows her own version of polite (though her manners never quite rise above street), and is capable of being some sort of sweet when she works at it.

Most of the time, Zhi comes across as brassy and smug. And while she is a bold person at heart, the majority of her behavior has been learned as a matter of defense, a way to protect herself against the numerous backstabbers in the world who lie in wait. The environment she grew up in has lead to her being selfish, ultimately willing to betray just about anyone in order to come out ahead. Might makes right in Zhi's world, though she'll still caterwaul if things don't go her way.

She's not the sort of person to hide her expressions, choosing to keep what she's really thinking and feeling hidden behind a veil of over-exaggerated emotion.

Zhi has come to accept her lot in the world. Her ambitions have been kept to the underbelly of Limsa Lominsa, without wider dreams of leaving the city or her position as a sometimes-criminal. While she doesn't want to stay smallfry forever, as far as she's concerned there's nothing more she can get out of life. Stories of adventures and riches are beyond her, dreams that don't belong in her reality. She's a hardboiled realist, forged in the fires of poverty and necessity.

Combat

Ain't no use in nothin' 'less you keep breathin'.

In the wider world of Eorzea, Zhavi is weak. However, on the streets of Limsa Lominsa she's about average for a gutterborn, capable of defending herself against a petty thief or thug. Still, any serious fighters would be able to wipe the floor with her, and that's why she's gotten real good with sneaking and running, not necessarily in that order. Whatever dirty tricks are necessary to stay alive, Zhi will use them.

Zhi isn't against learning how to fight properly, but in the grander scheme of keeping herself in business, she just doesn't have the time. Or the capital, really. No-one teaches such things for free, not that she's found.

Relationships

Friends're nothin' more'n scrags with coins held in front, an' daggers in back. Common int'rests, that's th'only baited line ye'll find here.

PC

Positive

TBD

Negative

TBD

Neutral

NPC

Positive

Brindle: 14|male|Hyur

A young lad Zhi keeps in coin to watch the docks for her. She doesn't trust him, though they've kept to their verbal contract for the past two years. Zhi is annoyed that he has outgrown her as of last summer, and now towers over her by a whopping two inches. His name originated from his sun-streaked blonde hair. He is one of very few who calls her Zhio. In her own way, she looks after him like she might a younger brother, though she believes it's only a matter of time before he betrays her for his own gain -- she considers it a rite of growing up.

Skarp: 32|female|Roegadyn

A frequent client of Zhi's. Their relationship is amicable enough -- formed out of a love of cheap insults -- but strictly business. Skarp is an employee of a specialized acquirer of certain goods that typically aren't available from larger "trade" operations. Zhi is often used to move sometimes bulky goods from Skarp's warehouse (how Skarp's employer gets these items into the city Zhi isn't sure, though she's been trying to figure it out for years) to specified locations. Zhi also runs coded messages for Skarp as part of a loose prearranged agreement.

Negative

Solitaire: 22|male|Hyur

An egotistical buffoon whose success in being a courier/smuggler is something Zhi refuses to understand. She hates him on principal for his airs, and often underestimates his legitimate skill. Though he isn't the only runner Zhi has competed against for work, he is one of the few who has actively tried to kill her over lucrative work. To be fair, however, she sabotaged him first. Since then, the two have entered a no-holds-barred rivalry that has no friendliness about it. While Solitaire isn't the only competitor Zhi has entered into this sort of rivalry with, it is the most ruthless by far.

Agha: 29|female|Miqo'te

The leader of the gang Zhi was formerly in. Though she has ceased hunting Zhi, she has made it known that Zhi is not to step foot in their territory.

Neutral

Galine: ??|female|Lalafell

Zhi's former master and patron. The two don't exactly get along, but Zhi isn't so dumb as to act in a way that will piss Galine off. Galine will occasionally contact Zhi to do various tasks for her; due to the debt and the psychological hold Galine yet has over Zhi, these things usually get done free of charge.

History/Timeline

What's it to ya? I ain't no storyteller. Scram.

Zhi was born to a doxy, which is a common enough story among the poor. She was left to her own devices most of the time, and grew up with the other brats who litter the streets like festival garbage. She learned to steal early on, had no particular attachment (or, at least, she likes to tell herself that) to her typically exhausted and grim mother, and eventually stopped relying on her mother early on in her teenage years.

Zhi joined a street gang in order to survive.

--stuff happens! wip, 4 years pass--

After leaving the gang at age 16, Zhi took to avoiding their territory. Still, there's plenty of city to roam and she gathered up what resources and connections she'd made with her former gang. She was determined to live independently, without the need to rely so heavily on others. It was a naive thought in a city like Limsa Lominsa, but she was on the edge of desperate. Not as desperate as she could be, as it turned out. Not even six months after she'd run from her gang, after being blacklisted and hunted (leaving a gang generally considered to be a no-no), she indentured herself to a certain shady individual in order to clear her debts.

--stuff happens! wip, 1 year passes--

Embittered, hardened, and cleared of (most) of her debts (not to mention any lingering illusions about the world), Zhio had awakened to the harshness of life. Through the connections of her former owner, she began to work as a runner. She was fast, and she knew the city as only someone born to it could. Slowly but surely, she began to build a reputation for herself as being discrete and reliable. Eventually she learned how to chat others up, and realized how invaluable information was. She started to take on more dangerous (and illegal) jobs when she was 18, eventually expanding to buying and selling information with what little excess gil she had.

Since then she's found herself in a comfortable position, with her prospects looking up. Her next step will be to start trying to expand into brokering information (more than the little tidbits she uses for the extra gil here or there or leverage). Seeing as how there are already individuals who do that in the city, there's a possibility she'll be stepping on toes. Not that she cares. So long as she can keep her head above water, Limsa Lominsa's underbelly is her oyster.

OOC Notes

Zhi's situation is able to work purely out of plausible deniability. Those who hire her usually don't do it themselves, they're apt to use a no-name underling -- therefore if she gets caught she will be unable to pin it on anyone. The only exceptions are those like Skarp, who are good enough at what they do to ensure that it will never come to a point of squealing.