Bonjour xx — Roleplayer Guild

ALETHEA
 I once asked the gods for a lace ribbon, but I quickly found out they didn’t work like that. So I stole the ribbon and instead asked them for forgiveness.

Full name: Alethea

Titles: She has no titles or names beyond that of ‘Alethea’. It was the name given to her as a child, that and no other. Though she does take a certain degree of mirth in telling people she is Alethea of No Name and Nowhere. Her chosen profession as earned her several names, some of great admiration and others of scorn depending on who you ask. Her favourite so far has been Poison Ivy.

Social rank: Alethea has no memories before the orphanage and workhouse her and her identical twin sister grew up in. Born the poorest of the poor, the girls guessed they were either orphaned or given up because they were the result of less than pure activities.

Job or societal position: Alethea takes great pride in her work for, though she would not want to tempt fate by being hubris, she is very good at it. Very good at it indeed. Alethea is a thief. Not the petty thief she was in her childhood who would steal from market stalls and people’s pockets. No, such trivial things are long behind her. Alethea’s speciality lies in entering otherwise untouchable places and taking the treasures they house. As much as Alethea loves the thrill of stealing for herself, if one can find a way to her (and there are very few as over the years her chosen profession as earned her a few enemies as apparently people don’t like having their possessions taken from them from right under their noses - who knew?), then she may be willing to steal what you desire - providing the theft is enticing enough to tempt her.

Age: Alethea suspects she has passed her twentieth year, but by how many seasons is unknown to her. Hazarding a guess, she would put her age in the early twenties, but she wouldn’t swear by it.

Gender: Female

Appearance: 
Alethea has never been bothered with her appearance. She has been told that she is beautiful, but instead of feeling flattered she views her beauty as a nuisance. She would rather be unremarkable and go about unnoticed. Alethea has deep brown hair that doesn’t quite reach her shoulders and lovely, sea-green eyes. She stands at 5’5, a little taller than the average woman and she has slightly darker skin than most of the residents of Borhilon. Having been malnourished as a child, she is rather lanky and lacks feminine curves. However, her muscles are strong. Alethea has a branding on her left hand, her dominant hand, of the sign of a thief from where she was caught stealing as a child. The skin around the branding is slightly pinker than the rest of her, but the branding itself has turned white where the skin is raised from it. Not wanting to draw attention to herself, Alethea never takes her fingerless gloves off.

Personality: Alethea gives off a very calm demeanour to the outside world and is rarely moved to doing something out of anger. Her temper is kept in check, as is her tongue. In years gone by her tongue would earn her lashings, but since those childhood days she has learned to keep what she thinks to herself. These days, not much riles her and if it does, she would not show it. Why let people know what she is thinking?

Alethea has no great love of the expensive things she steals. Her love and pride that she takes in her profession come from the thrill of a successful theft - the more difficult and dangerous, the more satisfying. However, Alethea is no idiot. She would no rush in blindly to a heist or simply take a job because the payment is large. Meticulous research is done behind the scenes on both the location she will have to breach unseen and the person’s motives behind hiring her. 

She cares little for petty feuds between people and has no time for those wanting to hire her services as a means for  seeking revenge. Then again, the intricacies of human nature and its relationships have always been a mystery to Alethea. She has yet to find a lock she cannot eventually pick and only wished people were so uncomplicated. Jealously, guilt, love, hate, grief, loyalty - the whole range and spectrum of human emotions are something that make her uncomfortable. 

Alethea thinks that people might think of her as uncaring - if she allowed people to know her, that is - but there are things she cares about. She despises when people overwork their animals and then beat them for it. Those people always find themselves missing their coin purses not soon afterwards. Another thing to affect her is children. Perhaps because no one gave her a helping hand growing up, she keeps an eye of the children who live in the alleyways and are seen as a pest by most people. Coins are dropped in the laps regularly for them to buy food and medicine by her as she passes by.

History: Alethea and her twin sister do not know where they came from, but they were raised in a rundown orphanage in a neighbouring kingdom. As soon as they were old enough, both girls were put to work in the town’s workhouse to earn their keep. The work was hard for such young children, but it was their lot in life and neither girl complained. It was several years later, when they were to be separated due to the growing number of children the workhouse had, that the girls dared to brave the outside world they had been warned against. “Thieves, cutthroats and bandits - no an honest man amongst them out there” was the warning they had headed for so long.

The girls stayed together throughout the years that followed. They pick pocketed and barely survived the winter’s cold each year. The days of unending hunger are burned in Alethea’s mind to this day. Stealing food and coin became easier as their skill set grew. Marga, her twin, would in time, become a seasoned grifter. She could manipulate people into revealing their darkest desires without them even realising. Alethea grew into her role as thief too. The shadows became her home and she could pass unseen by all and locked doors were no longer an issue or obstacle.

What ultimately separated the girls was a man. Alethea fell in love and entertained the foolish notion of being able to marry and raise a family with him - to finally have everything she had never had before. She gave the man her heart and virtue. However it was Marga that won the man’s affections. Alethea knew no man would resist her sister. Though they were identical in looks, Alethea did not have the way with people as she did. Thus, the man she loved fell in love with her sister and they married. Alethea knew her sister married the man for his good fortune and standing in society, but a part of her wondered if Marga had done it out of jealousy. Though Alethea would never admit to the hurt their marriage had caused her, she has not visited her sister since the news that Marga was expecting her first child. That was five years ago now. 

Alethea left the kingdom they had grown up in, claiming their were richer pickings in Borhilon and not once has she looked back. Though her heart aches for her sister, she doesn’t see a future where she could come to terms with what has passed between them and thus, she stays away, only sending money to Marga once a month. Since her first, and really only, experience of love, Alethea has closed herself off to such things, deeming them unnecessary.

Without Marga by her side, Alethea had to learn how to thief again. She no longer had a partner to steal the secrets of hidden treasure boxes or weaknesses in a home’s defence. Given that she had no other skill set, she hurriedly evolved into a solo artist, lest she become destitute and have to turn to other means to feed herself. Alethea thus learned to pick out faults and possible entrances into places by herself on sight alone, or closer inspection once night had fallen. She learned how to read guard routines, knowing she could no longer rely on Marga for distractions. Most importantly, she learned how to pick locks. Her first night in a jail cell was a harrowing experience and one she did not care to repeat if it could be avoided.

Alethea has only gained a reputation in recent months. A year ago she was relatively unknown, but after a series rather risky endeavours in the rich region of the Great City, that is no longer the case. This new turn of events brings with it benefits and cons to Alethea. She is now sought out and payed handsomely to steal for others, but it means that if caught, the punishment would be certain death, not a mere branding as was the case when she was caught once as a child.

The other new addition to Alethea’s life is a child of about ten years who had tried to pickpocket her one day several moons back. Alethea had been highly amused by his cheek and had spent the next few days watching him before she stepped forward to offer in a few tips to avoid him being caught and punished. Since that, he’s followed her from region to region, almost like her second shadow.
 
Skills: Hand Alethea a sword and she will be able to tell you the region it was made in, the extent of its quality, what its true value is and then what she could sell it for and to whom. However, ask her to wield it and she wouldn’t have a clue. Alethea survival skills in a situation involving conflict are to run - run hard and run fast. Being a thief, combat is not something she factors into the equation during a heist. Passing unseen and undetected however is. Alethea is proud of her skills in lock picking. She is also very adapt at climbing as scaling walls of great height is just part of her profession. Thankfully she has the necessary grace and balance to allow running along an embarkment or a rooftop without the fear of falling. Passing unnoticed and being light of foot are good attributes of hers too. Her only skill with weapons of any description would be a crossbow as sometimes a line is needed as part of her escape or entry into a domicile and daggers. Though her daggers are more for show than anything - an insurance policy almost.
 
Dreams and fears: Alethea once dreamed of raising a family and no longer having to steal, though would never admit it. Nowadays she just prays she is not caught. Having no combat skills, she does fear that one day her luck will run out and she will not be able to escape a heist if her presence in undetected.

Favored equipment: Two daggers are hidden underneath her clothes for protection - one strapped to her thigh and the other hidden inside her boot. Otherwise her only constants are her lock picking kit, her dark-coloured cloak and a green bandana to cover the lower half of her face. All other things she can steal.

Extra: Just an FYI, I'm open to the idea of romance with this character.

Let me know if anything needs changing or if there’s stuff you don’t like.
Bonjour xx Member

all you need in life are dogs and memes

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