Percival Rigel
|
[edit]
Percival Rigel is a lancer-gone-rogue (pun intended) born in Ul'dah. Formerly passionate about pursuing the art of the lance due to stories shared with her as a child, events that transpired during her membership ultimately drove her away from the guild and the city-state of Gridania. Taking up a new outlook on life and a pair of knives, she now works for the Dutiful Sisters of the Edelweiss as a rogue, having found a new brand of courage in steadfast adherence and enforcement of the Code. As such, after leaving (in her mind, fleeing) Gridania, she set down a new set of roots in Limsa Lominsa, and although she still travels from time to time to visit friends and family, she rarely stays gone for long. Technically homeless, she's not particularly picky about where she spends her sleeping hours (which are not necessarily nighttime), although some would argue that for all intents and purposes, the Mizzenmast Inn is her place of permanent residence, as she most often chooses to pay to maintain a room there, even on nights where she does not necessarily stay there. Though not necessarily interested in politics, she has some very strong views about the role of the State in relation to the Individual, although she's not very good at articulating them and how they relate to her views of the Code enforced by the Rogue's Guild for which she works. She keeps up with what's happening in the world as a matter of necessity and disliking the prospect of being uninformed or being caught off-guard, and as such if one were to catch her in a rare moment of inaction, she'd probably have an issue (recent or not) of the Harbor Herald that she would be flipping through idly or maybe using as a coaster for coffee brewed black. InventoryWhile Percival's worldly possessions are few and the things she actually keeps on her person are fewer, there are a few things that are worth listing. Last updated: July 3rd, 2016
Height: 6 fulms Weight: 145 ponze Complexion: Fair, though she tans easier than one might presume given her freckles. Hair: Brown. Eyes: Green, but her right (a viewer's left; the one covered by her bangs) eye is lighter than the other. There's no particular reason why, though; her eye has been that way since she was a child, and she has no notable vision problems. Indicative of her Highlander blood, Percival's features aren't quite as soft as one might expect from a woman (or would see on a Midlander woman of her age for that matter), though they're far from burly or manly. Primarily, she simply lacks the excess squish, though her face is definitely noticeably more heart-shaped than rounded or square. Her lips are thin, and her eyes are almond-shaped and have seemingly-omnipresent dark circles under them, indicative of her lack of sleep. Her hair is styled such that her right (a viewer's left) eye is hidden, although even behind her bangs it's pretty easy to see that her eyes are mismatched and one is lighter than the other, although she doesn't take too kindly to being asked if she's blind in that eye (hint: she's not) despite the fact that there's scar across it that starts most of the way up her forehead and ends about even with her nose, though it's set at an angle toward her jawline so that's just approximating the length. While it cuts through her eyebrow, whatever inflicted it left her eyelids (and thus, her eye) alone. Percival is tall and almost entirely made out of sharp angles. Her time as a Lancer toned her muscles quite a bit, but she doesn't tend to keep up with her exercise regiment nowadays, and favors agility over strength. Nowadays, that definition is mostly gone, leaving her lean. She doesn't have a lot of fat on her body, and while she has curves as a matter of course, they're somewhat slight especially given her choices of clothing and this, combined with her shoulders (a bit broader than a typical Midlander woman's), make her look a bit androgynous at times. At least she never has to remind anyone (male or female) of where her eyes are, though – or at least, she hasn't felt the need to quite yet. In regards to her voice, she fakes a Lominsan accent. It's well-practiced, though, so those without particularly trained ears likely wouldn't be able to tell, and if called out on it, she would fervently deny any accusations. She only drops her accent around people who are aware of her past, but she's kept up the act for so long that the fake accent and manner of speech bleeds ever-so-slightly into her regular speech pattern. With Time Comes GraceBorn on the 32nd Sun of the Fifth Astral Moon to a Highlander woman living in Ul'dah named Elise Blair (though Percival herself never took nor used this surname), Percival's childhood was marked with struggle. Despite frequent financial aid from a father unseen until her third year, there was constant effort needed to make ends meet; her mother, poor in health rather consistently throughout Percival's life, took up work with the Weaver's Guild spinning thread and making cloth, although she wasn't quite skilled enough to do much in the way of commissions or making repairs more complicated than sewing buttons back onto things. She kept young Percival at her side and indeed it was for Percival in the first place that she worked so tirelessly and Percival who saw most of the benefits from this work. As she grew older, her mother began teaching her things such as how to read, write, and do arithmetic, and although Percival would rather help her mother with her weaving, the lessons were quality time that she would come to miss once enrolled in formal schooling. A few moons after Percival's tenth nameday, her mother's health began to rapidly deteriorate, but it being that they were strugglign to make ends meet, she did not seek medical attention and continued to work herself practically to death to ensure that Percival had a good life. And of course, her daughter knew roughly what was going on; however, the grim reality of death failed to hit her until Elise finally passed away on the 27th Sun of the Second Astral Moon. Both Percival and Percival's father – Aaron Rigel – remained by her side until she passed, and in the aftermath, her father readily took Percival in. But she quickly found that there wasn't exactly space alloted for her in their family – the only room there was was for her father, her father's wife (Camilla Rigel), and her half-sister (Mintaka Rigel). While her father accepted and loved Percival unconditionally – as a father rightly should – Mintaka's reaction to suddenly having a half-sister was tepid at best, and her father's wife rejected her outright. Her arrival drove a wedge between them, and after around a moon and a half of arguments and strife, Camille divorced her father and ceased residence at their home. While Mintaka still saw her mother occasionally, she still came to resent Percival for driving her mother away. Percival's father enrolled her in formal schooling shortly after takign her in – although the environment never resonated well with her and her marks were generally poor. Her difficulty adjusting, poor grades, and taunts from her peers in regards to her heritage led her to cause a fair bit of trouble in the classroom, until eventually she was placed in Mintaka's class despite being two years older. Her grades improved, but she gradually came to resent her schooling and by age fifteen had stopped attending altogether under the pretense of pursuing an apprenticeship, although most of the time she simply wandered the streets of the city or helped around the house. Occasionally she'd find work with someone or another hauling things about or doing other odd jobs in an effort to make some gil of her own. Only a fortnight after her eighteenth nameday did all of her efforts come to fruition; she set forth for Gridania to take up the art of the lance, leaving only a note with assurances that she'd be fine behind. With her gil she bought first a weathered spear, then some food for the road ahead – and finally, a chocobo carriage ride first to Camp Drybone and then to the Black Shroud beyond. Proof of MightHaving taken an interest in lance-wielding in part due to stories her mother told her about her grandfather, living at the time still in Ala Mhigo (though certainly presently deceased) and his service in the Ala Mhigan military and his skill with a lance, Percival set forth for Gridania with the singular goal of emulating her grandfather – and perhaps seeign the sights along the way. Having lived all her light in Ul'dah and the surrounding deserts and badlands of Thanalan, first seeign the Black Shroud in person was a little bit overwhelming, although it was certainly a change she welcomed. In a way, it was a fresh start. The city of Gridania quickly found a special place in her heart, and she found her way to the Lancer's Guild just as quickly with her weathered spear in hand. However, she never excelled at lance-wielding, at least insofar as natural talent was concerned; she conformed strictly to Ywain's teachings with little question and rarely thought to do much different or innovative. But there, she at least felt at home; she faced each day with a smile and renewed determination to do something great. Then came a Duskwight named Foulques. Having made the mistake of standing her ground instead of winding in fear when he turned his lance on her after she returned to the guild after a training exercise, he took an interest in her – and from then on continued to meddle in her training, with an unfortunately tragic end result. So great was she, the woman who killed Foulques of the Mist. Of course, most reasonable people would argue that it wasn't her fault; that there was nothing she could have done. Ywain blamed fate; Percival blamed herself. The bitter taste left in her mouth drove her to leave the lancer's guild with no notice, no warning – and leave Gridania and the Twelveswood behind shortly thereafter, being unable to bear the sight of the city that would so easily dismiss the death of Foulques – a man Percival regarded perhaps not as good, but certainly as brave. And perhaps she could have saved him. Namebrand CourageShe found herself in Limsa Lominsa after a bit of wandering, and quickly found that she could blend right in among a largely transient population. She reinvented her image, though refused to abandon her name – she took up a new lifestyle and started practicing a fake Lominsan accent in the mirror until it was perfected. She found her way among the rogues that comprised the membership of the Dutiful Sisters of the Edelweiss, and the idea of a strictly-enforced code only solidified her decision to join their ranks. She found courage in their code, in fact; although, any errant observer would be able to tell that her hands did not originally wield twin daggers; Percival Rigel, after all, is not what one would exactly call light on her feet. But perhaps, she never quite found a purpose; never quite found a rhyme to the reason. She also took up membership with the Culinarian's guild and found work with the Bismarck, although even with gil from both shady and legitimate sources, she has no true home of her own. She's more or less taken up permanent residence at the Mizzenmast Inn – or the Dutiful Sisters, if she's gone and overworked herself and needs to crash. Because of her twin career paths however, much of her time is filled, and though technically classified as an adventurer, she'd effectively taken up permanent residence in Limsa Lominsa (although the classification does help her when she needs or wants to take time off to travel around or visit friends). With Time Comes GracePercival during this time period is generally lax and a bit too loose-lipped for her own good. Bright-eyed and optimistic, she yearns for new opportunities and is looking forward to what the future brings. However, she tends to deflect the focus off of herself. While her dreams and goals (which she is fond of gushing about) seem selfish, it becomes apparent that she's learned either a bit too much or just enough compassion, depending on who you ask. Proof of MightStubborn to a fault when it comes to the pursuit of her dream of being a master Lancer, Percival is almost unbearably orthodox when it comes to the guild's teachings and, in battle, rarely deviates from the way she learned to move. She's become a creature of habit, and while she's still fairly good-natured and willing to follow through with her goals, as time goes on she becomes less naive and less optimistic than she had been when she was younger (as time tends to do). Foulques's influence eventually begins to embitter her towards the Gridanian establishment as she begins noticing more and more how Duskwight Elezen are treated in the city-state, which accelerated the deterioration of her optimism. Namebrand CourageIn the wake of Foulques's death, she cast off the mantle of a Lancer. In an effort to conceal any previous affiliation with the guild or Gridania, she became secretive and aimed to reinvent herself, going as far as to reherse and mimic the Lominsan accent and dialect to fit in better amongst locals. Having lost a sense of purpose, she's turned to the underbelly of the city to sustain her, policing it as a rogue and partaking in things such as gambling and getting mixed up with all sorts of shady characters while intoxicated. She throws herself into her work and often works on only five bells' worth of sleep between her work at the Bismarck and with the Rogues, and will actively refuse any time off. She's also become aggressive and stand-offish, even toward familiar faces. →Flaws
→Fears
→HobbiesPercival doesn't have many hobbies on account of the fact that she, these days, spends most of her time working herself to the bone between her work for the Dutiful Sisters and the Bismarck. She actively refuses to take days off, but these are some small hobbies that she's picked up over the years – but that by no means means she keeps up with them.
→Favorites
Weaponskills and MagicInsofar as Percival’s fighting style, it’s mostly just your typical rogue stuff these days, although she’s notably more heavy-handed with her knives, preferring to deal heavy blows than employ the usual hit-and-run sort of tactics that one might expect of a rogue. While she may have learned from the best, after all, that doesn’t mean that she took the lessons to heart. The preference for heavy blows is one of the things that carries over between her fighting with a lance and with her knives. Speaking of lances, she was at one time as skilled with those as she is with her knives now. And with just as many showy-but-impractical moves in her arsenal, even! She was more open to actually learning from lessons back then, but in battle she was always somewhat textbook in her approach. She preferred actual lances to spears, halberds, or tridents – but she would definitely use a spear if the situation demanded it. Plus sides? Well, the faster you can off or incapacitate an enemy in a real combat situation, the better – at least insofar as Percival’s concerned. The downsides? She leaves far too many openings in dealing those heavy blows; where most would, say, cut shallow with their knife, she would prefer to bury it deep, which is a definite hindrance up against more than one enemy without backup, and while lunging forward with a lance still leaves her about a half of a lance-length of leeway with avoiding any counterattack if she misses her mark or misses outright, with closer-range weapons like knives, that is definitely not the case. As for her lancework, being somewhat standard and consistent with what she learned is obviously good because well, what she learned is effective enough, but anyone versed in fighting Lancers or others who wield the weapon but do not claim the title would be able to fell her easily using equally-textbook counterattacks. While not particularly talented and not particularly interested in any class falling under the umbrella of “Disciple of Magic,” that doesn’t mean Percival is aetherially incompetent. While she hasn’t learned any specific ways to manipulate it, she still can – although given that she fights most of the time up-close and personal, she doesn’t get to showcase the skill very often. Nor does she wish to. By and at large, any really big thing would likely be unconscious on her part – and it would only really come to the forefront if the situation was dire – which really, are the sort of situations she doesn’t get into as a regular person who’s just trying to be a rogue and live her life. Pretty ironically, given that her guardian/patron deity is Azeyma, aligned with fire, any aetherial manipulation she preforms, consciously or unconsciously, generally manifests in the form of ice-aspected skills. Whether or not this is a fixed aspect is left to be determined and not really something she’s experimented with as of the onset of 3.0, but the fact that it just is doesn’t sit well with her because of a certain Duskwight that also used techniques involving aether/magic aspected with the element of ice… Foulques’s Ring of Frost is a pretty good illustrator as to the most basic extent of her abilities: she can freeze the ground beneath her. Not useful in most situations, because she’s so undisciplined in these skills that it would probably end in freezing/binding herself to the ground if she uses herself as the center. There's probably more that she could do, if only she learned. But with the help of her knives and weapon poisons, she can use her knives as the center instead, though given that this moves the skill from conscious to unconscious it’s nowhere near as powerful simply because she’s not interested in/a little afraid to tap into everything. It also requires that she commission a special concoction that would be definitively aspected to ice and that the aspect wouldn’t fade over time – a task that she usually doesn’t have the time to do, but she’ll bother with if she’s planning for a big or bloody confrontation, just as one last trick to keep up her sleeve. She’d coat her blades in it as she would any weapon poison and voila, a shortcut. CraftingAs a culinarian, she's skilled at cooking, though she's definitely better with the savory aspect than the sweet aspect. She hasn't paid much mind to honing her baking skills, preferring to work with things such as meat over things such as batter or dough. She can identify herbs and spices by scent and she seems to intuitively know what flavors work best together... But that doesn't mean every culinary concoction she makes is... The best. She also has retained a few sewing skills that she learned from helping her mother when she was a small child, though she's not good enough with it to make a career out of it. Mostly, it comes in handy if she needs to make some hasty repairs on her clothes or somesuch.
RP Yes/NoAs a writer, I write to tell a story; consequentially, I prefer plot-based RP over RPs in which everything is improvised. I'm most interested in developing Percival as a character through plotlines and pre-established relationships, especially things that relate to Percival's past.
Links
More links forthcoming, probably. The vast majority of my OOC information is on my blog, along with the vast majority of my RP since most, if not all, of my RP is done via tumblr and not in-game because I prefer formats that allow me to write a lot and don't necessarily take place in real-time like in-game RP does. It's also far easier for me to keep track of and archive interactions on my tumblr than it is to archive and keep track of interactions in-game. My tumblr is not mobile-friendly and contains sections containing important information that only renders properly when on computers. As far as I'm aware, the resolution matters little, but it is optimized for Google Chrome, 1366x768 resolution. Misc. Notes
CreditsThis template created by Rihxo Matoi with the help of Nanagi Nagi and has pieces from the templates of Unnamed Mercenary, Roen Deneith, Cyrus Wolfe, and Coatleque Crofte.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
