Personality

CALCULATED | JUDGMENTAL | VICIOUS | PROFESSIONAL
PRACTICAL | DRY-WITTED | METICULOUS | MOTIVATED

Alcippe is the soul of pragmatism raised to an elegance worthy of a master mathematician's proof. A blade can be both beautiful and sharp, as long as its function comes first. She runs her missions with a chill concentration on results. Petty and particular in her memory, her files are extensive and her ledgers are meticulous. Unafraid of red in her own, she will exact blood to the ounce to pay for any debt owed to her.

She prefers the skillful to the socialites, not discriminating between any class if they have an ability that interests her. She prefers the capable, looking for the people of practical use to her. Alcippe bears no loyalty for any person that has not paid her for it in some way. The payments can differ from commercial to social, but they are all paid.

She is viciously ambitious, a shrewd business acumen unshackled by conventional morals. She prefers her employments to the chattering and the chicanery of others. Strangely...it seems more honest.

As honest as the muzzle of a handgun. Deadly.

She has stared more condemned souls in the eye than ignored them. Alcippe usually does not see the point in lies.

Economical with her humor as well as her life, Cipp's is a dry wit, sharp in her observations and well honed in her turn of phrase even if only the closest to her get to hear it. She is not one to be open with many. She has no concept of jealousy with relationships and does not consider sex inherently more meaningful than any other activity. She is aware that she does not function emotionally like others and has studied behavior enought to manage these needs of others like she manages any other need.

Alcippe, at heart, knows herself.

[305 words]

History

Alcippe's life before the Trespasser matters little to her. It happened, past tense and all, and it is not something she dwells on longer than necessary. She grew up in an orphanage in a city until she could escape to the streets. Once there, she learned the mechanics and politics of the small gangs. She learned how to fight and she learned how to survive.

She also learned that her companions had no idea how to manage the money they scrounged from their marks. Gangs formed and splintered to infighting and splurging. Having learned to read in the orphanage, Alcippe determined to learn more of how to make the dirty business functional. Making sure to scrub the grime from her heels, she applied and apprenticed to an accountant during the day.

From them, she learned how to manage funds as well as people. She also gained insight invaluable to her growing following--information on the accountant's clients income as well as pertinent expenses such as security. Careful to not leave a pattern behind, she used the information to learn how to evaluate other prizes with the same hallmarks. Her crew grew as did her reputation.

She was offered a spot aboard the Trespasser by Vidar herself. Aboard, she served capably--brilliant at managing both the mundanity and the murder. She became first mate and found a wife and frequent and varied lovers. If she were ever prone to sentimentality, she would admit these years were the happiest for her.

Then it all went wrong.

Her life, her friends, her wife, all fractured and shattered in an event that did not involve her. It started promisingly--a joint venture between the Clinkscales and the Trespasser. They were after some fantastical haul, some dream conjured up by Vidar and Brass. She hadn't minded. Repetition breeds certainty and they'd proven time and again their dreams came true.

She stayed in command on the Trespasser while they were ashore, guarding the harbor against any approachers. When Vidar returned, alone, and ordered the anchor weighed and the sails filled, she set the crew about. She didn't ask. It wasn't her business.

Then it was.

Vidar's grief was catastrophic. The once-brilliant mage seemed to have her vision knocked askew. The dreams they now chased were nightmares. Fights were picked against any sane recommendation that left them limping away. Losses piled up, both in bodies and in booty. Alcippe tried reason, attempted to provide what little ability for comfort she had--Vidar neither wanted to talk about what happened or to hear any sense on her course of actions. When they put into port to stock up for Vidar's latest insane idea, Alcippe left a kiss on her cheek and walked down the dock.

That last mission was the most disastrous. The Trespasser, splintered and sinking from a battle she could not have hoped to win. Alcippe heard whispers and reports from the survivors as they limped into port or later from sightseers as they toured the infamous wreck. Uncharacteristically worried for a woman married to a living corpse, she sought for weeks for news of whether Vidar had survived. Had this been before, she would have known instantly that Vidar could survive anything. Now? She wasn't sure her wife would--without the will to do so.

In the meantime, Alcippe built her brand on shore. Between Nymene and Ivras lay an island that was plenty big enough for some small civilization. It existed in perpetual limbo, owned by neither country outright, with the safety granted to it of being an international nuisance to straighten out. Each country nominally listed it as theirs on their maps but neither could establish a sufficient presence there to actually manage it without threatening the alliance of the other. Instead, it was owned by those that lived there. There were many names for the place, all surrounding some ideal of freedom or hedonism--both practices that certainly flourished there. Alcippe had heard it first and most often referred to as Ryddid Isle. She reached out to contacts she had fostered while being the face of business on the Trespasser and built a business out of fencing items for other pirates. She interfaced with land gangs, allowing them access to shipping routes by buying space in disreputable ships' holds. She laced together a network beyond the law. Familiar faces returned as customers, some begrudgingly and others jovially.

Vidar dragged herself back from the depths and she and Alcippe reshaped their relationship until it fit their changed needs. The time was enough to heal the chasms Vidar had been carving in their partnership. As Alcippe no longer left her business in the other mage's hands, it was easier to forgive mistakes. Years have now passed as Vidar seeks a way to sail again and Alcippe digs even further entrenched roots into this world.

[804 words]

Immunity