Post by Spookery 💉 on Jun 17, 2019 16:20:46 GMT -8
«──────«⋅ʚ Percival Duval ɞ⋅»──────»
This is the one song everyone
would like to learn: the song
that is irresistible:
the song that forces men
to leap overboard in squadrons
even though they see the beached skulls
would like to learn: the song
that is irresistible:
the song that forces men
to leap overboard in squadrons
even though they see the beached skulls
Class: Siren (Performer/antiquarian)
Resolve level: 0
Appearance
- Age: 24
- Sex: Male
- Physical Description: Petite (5’5 without boots), hourglass shaped, rather effeminate for a man. Percy has fashionably unruly black hair with two long locks in front of his ears and blue eyes. He has two obvious dark beauty marks, one underneath the outer corner of each eye (he has many more beauty marks dabbled across the rest of his body, but they’re typically hidden by clothes). He likes to “paint” his nails by dying them with ink and dyes bits and pieces of his hair blue in the same way. He has various small piercings along his ears, but only wears a few earrings at a time.
- Attire: Adores flowing shirts with V-necks, high-waisted breeches, and tall boots. His typical performance outfit is the best piece he owns of each of those categories, often with additional trinkets for a little extra percussion and flair--bracelets, necklaces and chokers, coin skirts, earrings. His performance boots have golden heels. He loves to wear shiny things, but also loves to incorporate marine themed things like shells and pearls where he can. Percy also wears a thick, black collar with a gold plate and ring on it. The gold plate is engraved with dragons. (More info in misc.)
Backstory Synopsis:
Percy is the son of a woman forced into prostitution; she died during childbirth and he was raised by her older colleagues that managed to escape trafficking. They raised him as their own and taught him how to play instruments, dance, and sing, since they had been expected in the past to be performers in multiple senses of the word. As he grew older, he took the instruments the women taught him to play and headed away from the city. They asked him to see the world for them, and he promised that he would return with enough money to help them all safely move away. Looking for odd jobs in port cities got him caught up with pirates--who, while otherwise abusive people, taught him plenty about thieving. He’s often overheard a rumor from crews about antique treasure in a cursed cove and while he doesn’t know of anyone who searched it out and returned to tell the tale, he thinks he’s fearless enough to find and bring home this treasure to his makeshift family. He’s sure he can charm a few locals into helping him with the task.
Full Backstory:
Percy’s mother was fairly young when she passed away giving birth to him. Her friends that had managed to escape working for the brothel by simply being “too old” to be desirable any more (and had been working to help her escape), felt responsible for her son and took him in as their own. Since they were older than her, they referred to him as their grandson. Before his mother passed away, she had told them she had wanted to name him Percival--the name of a valiant, mythical knight that went on journeys with King Arthur. It was what she wanted for him: bravery, and a sense of purpose so strong he would follow it out into the wild unknown to explore the world for good reason.
Percival (affectionately called “Percy” by all) was taught how to perform multiple genres from a young age. Since his aunts had been expected to be able to be entertainers as well as courtesans, they taught him everything they remembered. He learned French through the aunt that taught him to sing, learned myriads of dance styles from his ballerina aunt, literature from his bookish aunt, and how to play the lyre, harp, and percussion instruments from his musician aunt. He caught on quickly to the arts and fell deeply in love with them. He performs and reads wherever he goes, and is constantly on the lookout for new things he can learn about.
Once he was a young man, his aunts wished for Percy to leave the city they had raised him in. They’d managed to keep him hidden thus far, but it would be dangerous if any of the brothel administration stumbled upon him--the spitting image of his mother. After all, the son of a prostitute raised by other, former prostitutes would have horrifying truths to tell the city about the brothel they had all worked for, and they were known to have a wide web of informants. He gathered his things, wished them all tearful, hug-filled goodbyes, promised to return for them all to repay their generosity, and left the city in the dead of night on his seventeenth birthday, stealing away onto a local cargo ship. It wouldn’t matter where he went, so long as he knew the name of the city to return to when he had earned enough money.
Though fearful and homesick at first, Percy soon grew to be enthralled by the freedom he had come into. He had been raised in a port city and felt at home in them rather quickly. He found his niche in performing in taverns and on streets, and it only took some strategic sultry pouting or flirting for him to get his way if trouble ever arose. He bounced from place to place by taking odd jobs on ships or promising to perform for crews to soothe their nerves for room and board. This all worked rather well until he found himself caught up with pirates.
His trips with pirate ships were always by far the most grueling. They were long, they were violent, they made him do extensive hours of manual labor, and pirate hands were always wont to wander and grab whenever he was near. He always managed to squirm free from any lascivious drunk crew members, but oftentimes he only managed it too close for comfort. On one ship, he became romantically involved with the captain for a time--a handsome, outgoing man named Alexander who showered him in praise and gifts and taught him how to make some extra cash in ports by pick pocketing, a man who Percy eventually fell in love with. And it was wonderful until it turned sour. Physical abuse drove him to run away at the next port stop they made, but months of experiencing such cruelty at the man’s hands had done its damage. Since then, Percy has not pursued anyone romantically, despite popular belief.
Percy did not look for another ship to jump onto when he managed to escape from Alexander in an overpopulated city. Instead, he decided to take a look into a rumor the captain had told him about that very city. Much further down the coast, there was a tale of a cove with jagged rocks, unyielding storms, unnatural sea creatures...and antique treasure. Enough to last one man more than a lifetime. And certainly enough for Percy to repay his debt to four women that were worth more to him than any treasure in any cove. Alexander would never find him there since he had told him himself he thought it was too risky to take such a large vessel through a narrow, dangerous strait to look for a treasure that might not even exist.
Perhaps the treasure was all legend. But perhaps the alleged monsters that guarded it were, as well. Percy had already been alone at sea with monstrous men, anyway. Nobody had lived to return with any spoils from the cursed cove--but he is now determined to take on the challenge for himself and his aunts.
Quirks:
+ Cove Adventurer: Percy has spent much of his life in port cities or at sea. If something is maritime, no matter how unsettling, it will still be less unsettling to him than if it were from another area of the estate.
+ Man Slayer: Percy is skilled at catching human enemies off-guard or stunning them, making him a deadly opponent when the opponents are human.
- Kleptomaniac: He can’t seem to control himself if there’s money or jewels lying around, granted that taking them won’t prompt someone to hack his fingers off.
- Thanatophobia: A paralyzing fear of death can overcome him if wounded too grievously. He desperately wants to return home to his aunts and repay his debt to them.
- Deviant Tastes: Percy refuses to go near the brothel for personal moral reasons, which is probably for the best, anyway. He might cause some stress. He’s on thin ice at the bath house.
Misc. Notes:
- Percy is a big fan of perfume for both the nice scents and the delightful little bottles.
- He has a sonorous singing voice. He’s been called a siren by more than a few men, and thinks there’s no higher compliment for his performances than hypnotizing his audience members.
- He tends to swish his hips when he walks, especially when performing.
- While Percy is extremely outgoing and friendly, he’s also very insecure. He worries that people only want to be his friend because of his looks, or that they’ve heard he’s an easy lay. When he’s alone, he tends to be much quieter and more somber than one might expect.
- He is a completely hopeless romantic. However, since the relationship he had with Alexander turned physically abusive, Percy is now extremely wary of getting into committed relationships.
- Alexander gave him the ornate leather and gold collar he wears. When Percy was enamored with him, he thought it was nothing more than something pretty from the captain's personal treasure trove, but now it feels like a slave's collar. He hasn't been able to get it off yet since the clasp in the front was melded closed, and he's too embarrassed to ask for help. He lies to people by telling them it's something he found on his travels--not that it's a sign of ownership. He's afraid someone will recognize it and report back to Alexander that they've seen him. (Collar not pictured in character doodle below)
Skills & Equipment
- Weapons: Percy carries a large knife in his boot and a sickle at his belt, but otherwise relies on outwitting his opponents or letting other party members do the fighting.
- Armor: A tough leather vest and boots, but that’s about it. He usually stays in the back of the party and only gets into fighting range if absolutely necessary. His job is to keep the stress of the party under control and to disrupt the enemy's attacks.
- Other gear: A lyre with a cross-body strap, a small knife used only as a tool, caltrops.
- Musical talent: Percy plays the lyre and handheld percussion instruments (e.g. tambourines) and is a skilled dancer. He knows a few slow ballads, but prefers to play music that evokes excitement. He loves to get a crowd riled up--something that works in his favor on expeditions. His passionate music inspires battle readiness in his companions and uneasiness in his enemies.
- Combat prowess: Percy can only lift up to about 90 pounds if he tries hard enough. He doesn’t have much combat skill outside of the self defense his aunts taught him. When faced with the threat of combat, he’ll attempt to charm his way out of it one way or another, but he’s a squirmy, dirty fighter when pressed, and won’t hesitate to bite and claw, or kick a man where it hurts. His learned distrust of men lends him a form of strength when it comes to fighting them; men specifically have hurt him and his family enough times that he's quick to anger the moment one lashes out at him. Fortunately, he shows some promise with ranged weapons, but it'll take some practice before he's a reliable shot with them.
Pros: Outgoing, amiable, generally honest (sometimes to a fault), a hopeless romantic
Cons: Tends to freeze up when fearful, can be obnoxious at times, vain, emotional, not particularly robust
