[hider=Penny][center][i][/i][/center]

[color=7ea7d8][b]Name:[/b][/color] Penelope Abernathy (nee. McGinnis) Nickname: Penny
[color=6ecff6][b]Age:[/b][/color] 36

[color=6ecff6][b]Physical appearance:[/b][/color] Penny is an attractive woman. She stands 5’ 6” tall and slender. She has long black hair, cascading down her back or swept over one shoulder. Her dark brown eyes, mysterious pools. She is actually stronger than she appears, lean, conditioned from years of hard work and exercise. There was a time when she dressed in more fanciful attire, but her husband passed away four years ago. He left her nothing that was his. She was on her own, plying the verse for an income. She maintains investments in the inner planets but found passage on ships by working her way from planet to planet. She tends to wear loose fitting cotton trousers, a low-cut work boot and button-down blouses of varying color. She prefers more vibrant colors but has a few solid shirts as well. She even wears short-shorts and has a fleece lined bomber jacket, hat, and gloves for inclement weather.

[hider][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/scFsDJY.png?1[/img]
[sub]Courtesy: Lana del Rey[/sub][/center][/hider]

[color=6ecff6][b]Skills:[/b][/color] Penny has been working jobs as a deck hand and as a cook for the past four years. She grew up on a farm and knows well how to tend to the livestock as well as harvesting the crops when needed. Penny knows her way around a firearm, her father taught her well and the boys who lived on her family’s farm reinforced those lessons and more. Even as a female, they included her in their roughhousing, teaching her how to defend herself.

[color=6ecff6][b]Personality:[/b][/color] Penny is confident, vivacious, with an excellent sense of humor. She has moments of sarcasm mixed in with a serious streak of honest empathy for others. She easily invests herself in someone until they prove her wrong. She has no filter at times saying what comes to mind rather than bite her tongue. She is easy to excite, be the life of the party and just as quickly flare into anger if someone or something disturbs her. She does not hold grudges and comes down within twenty minutes of being angered.

[color=7ea7d8][b]Character Back Story:[/b][/color] [Told as an interview by the woman herself.] [i]So, you want me to tell you my life story?

[right]…umm. OK. Not sure where to begin…Ok. I will do that.[/right][/i]

My name is Penelope Abernathy and ah grew up on a farm on Hera. My daddy owned the farm. He had darn near three hundred fifty acres o’ land. We farmed, we tended cattle, horses, chickens, goats, pigs, you name it. Our farm provided food for near half the planet.

Abernathy? That were mah husband’s name. Ah was a McGinnis. Ah have a [i]Ghuh-Ghuh[/i] named Walter. He was named fer our pa. My brother? [i]Mi Tian Gohn[/i], ah honestly don know where he run offt to. He somewhere in the ‘verse. Mebee trolling the dark fer all ah know?

Daddy loved tah farm. He an’ momma took in orphans too. We had at one time eight boys livin’ on our farm. They came to us as toddlers or infants. Momma didn’ take no teens. They was all [i]Yīng'ér.[/i] Well, they was close to me and Walter’s age, but we was babies too. [giggles]

They was Lenny, Jake, Paul, Winston, Jo-Jo, Derek, Carl, and Theo. Lenny was the oldest. Momma called him Lenny and referred to him as Bad Apples. You see, Lenny was mean. He muss’ ah come from a bad place. Ah conjure his daddy beat him when he was young. That’s why he came to live with us. He didn’t like the name, “Lenny”. His name was Leonard. He told the other boys and me to call him Leo and we did. Leo was mean. He beat the other boys merciless. He never laid a finger on me, but my brothers? He beat them to pulp sometimes. This is when they was young too.

Ah remember him beating Jo-Jo this one time. Jo-Jo an me were about ten year old and Leo was a head taller ‘n Jo-Jo. Joe was a dark boy. We had two dark boys, Jo-Jo and Theo. Theys the only ones the rest was white. So, Leo tried to get Jo-Jo angry. But Joe kept his cool. He knew what Leo was doin’. Leo didn’ care. He kicked Jo-Jo hard in the stomach. The boy doubled over in pain and fell to the ground. Then Leo kicked him in the head, the ribs, the thighs, the testies. You name it. Leo kicked that boy near tah death. But you know. Leo did that tah all the boys.

When Leo was 18, he left the farm and we all said, “Good riddance!” He raped a girl in town, then he killt her. They say, he killt her just to see the girl die. He laughed when she died. He found her death amusin’. He was juss a mean ole cuss. No one liked him.

But what Leo did to the boys was teach them to fight. Ah conjure he thought hisself a hand to hand combat instructor of some sort, but he was juss an asshole. He would tell the boy he was fightin’ tah put his hands up. To not let them drop. Then he would box the boy and jab him in the head, the face, the chest or the stomach. He would laugh when he punched the boy. Eventually, the boys got good at fightin’. They fought amongst themselves. They learned from Leo, regardless of how painful it was. 

Fighting amongst the boys turned into a game. They practiced fighting but didn’t punch each other as hard as Leo did. That boy was simply mean.

When ah was a young girl, my momma would teach me to cook. We cooked all sorts a recipes including cakes, pies, cookies, and muffins. Not juss meats, soups and sauces. Ah enjoyed the cookin’. Mebee it’s because my best friend, Jo-Jo was always with me. He and ah were best of friends. We did everything together.

When we was 17, ah wanted to kiss him, but momma kept a close eye on us and ah didn’t want her getting’ upset. Ah never had a beau, juss Jo-Jo. Ah do believe he was sweet on me too. Ah think the only reason he learned to cook.

But then the war happened. The boys all joined the Heran Militia and went off to war. None of em came back home. They all died in that God awful war. [visibly saddened by her loss] Ah really do miss mah Jo-Jo. He was such a dear sweet boy. 

When the war ended, the purple bellies came to the farm. Walter an me were in the barn that day. We decided it best we did not go outside straight away. From the barn we saw them drag our ma and pa from the house. One of them beat pa in the head. He fell to the ground. Mamma dropped on top of him. Ah heard her wailin. Then another a’ the purple bellies raised his rifle and fired two shots. One into ma and ta other into pa. They killt em juss like that. Fer no reason. 

Anyway, Walter and ah waited until dark and left out of the farm. Ah hear the purple bellies seized the farm, hired workers to take care of it, now they’s providing food for the big whigs on Londinium. Anyone we met on Hera who knew us, we tole ‘em to say we was kilt juss like our folks. We didn’ want no one chasin’ us.

Walter an me left Hera. We jumped a ship and left. He worked as a deckhand and a mechanic. He fixes engines on cargo ships. Keeps em runnin’. Ah worked as a cook for a bit, but somehow juss took odd jobs for a few years. I even learned proper diction; how to elucidate syllables. I was educated in history, social studies, music, art, literature and politics. It was to enable me to find better employment for some very wealthy men. I performed whatever service they needed. They enjoyed my company and paid quite handsomely for my...friendship. 

James Abernathy, a businessman from Ariel City claimed me as his own. Not as property. He rescued me from a coveted life and provided me with different form of coveted life as the wife of a wealthy businessman from one of the central planets of the universe. Being a farm girl from Hera, I did not know much about business or legal matters. When James died four years ago, I learned, the bastard left me nothing. Well, nothing except my daughter Isabella Rose, aged 11. Izzy is my sweet angel. She comes with me everywhere I go.

I did manage to squirrel away some money. I have an account in the inner planets valued at over 55,000 credits and I have a satchel with roughly 2500 credits in my belongings. The money in the account, I can only access when I am in the central planets. This is why I carry so much on me when I am in the rim or in the black. That account is mine and only a fraction of what that bastard had accumulated.

I have been traveling most of the time. I pick up odd jobs here and there. I have worked as a cook on a cargo ship, even done some time as a deck hand. [giggles] Yes, little ole me working as a deckhand. I do enjoy my life now and would like to have a better life for Izzy even if that means we have to travel on various cargo ships.

Anyway, I was deposited on this planet two weeks ago and am looking for employment as a cook. I’d even be willing to move crates around if I have to. 

I do carry a few firearms. My daddy taught me to shoot, and I would be remiss if I couldn’t defend myself. I carry a .357 revolver and a 12-gauge shotgun. The shotgun’s barrel has been reduced to 16 inches from its original 24. It makes the weapon great for short range and easy to maneuver around in tight places. I have considered buying a rifle, but I just haven’t had the opportunity.[/hider]