Post by Lulah Hayes on May 30, 2012 16:47:21 GMT -5
First Name: Tallulah
Last Name: Hayes
Nickname/s: Lulah, Missy
(Play-by: Aleksa Hayward)
Age: 22
Birth Year: 2495
Height: 5'4”
Weight: 122lbs
Appearance: The first thing that anyone notices about Lulah, is her bold, red hair. Although she's naturally a ginger (with a dusting of freckles on her shoulders to match), she prefers to dye her thick mass of heavily albeit messily layered hair using henna dyes, or bolder colours (when available). Currently, she boasts a bright, crimson red shade (though the lighter roots are already starting to show again). There is no fringe, but the shortest bangs fall just below her fleshy cheekbones. Sometimes she wears it loose and shaggy with no particular style save for the odd braid; the long strands falling past her shoulders. Other times she will tie it back messily away from her eyesight, gripping the many rebellious strands with rubber bands and cheap, colourful plastic clips.
The next stand-out feature, are her large, sky-blue eyes, fanned by long lashes that she likes to flutter for favour. When she can get her grubby hands on cosmetics, she'll accentuate her eyes the most, followed by a preferred dusting of peach over her fleshy cheeks. The rest of her face compliments her heart-shaped and youthful complexion devoid of any scarring. The nose is lightly hooked at the bridge but otherwise straightly points down to a pert pout and pointed chin.
The last remaining feature of notice, is the adventurous tattoo across her shoulder blades; a spread set of bird wings inscribed in black and white ink. As Lulah is quite proud of the artwork, she tends to show it off through her choice of vest tops or halter-necks.
As for clothing, if Lulah ever came into a great deal of money, she would no doubt be a slave to fashion. Really she has quite a fetish for clothes, so she likes to experiment with different styles and would more than likely be caught trying on other people's garments. Alas, on a daily basis, she manages to scrape by in comfortable dungarees or fitted slacks with tank tops and boots. Sometimes cargo shorts with tie-dyed tops, while dyed leather wristbands and necklaces serve as accessories. Earthy colours tend to be the standard go-to, but if she had a choice, she'd wear all sorts of bright colours and fancy dresses to suit her more girly and feminine tastes. Especially colours in the spectrum of pink, red, purple and blue. The sad thing is, hand-me-down clothes tend to swamp her figure unless customised to fit her properly with a belt or good ol' needle and thread to turn the hemlines up.
Overall, she possesses a petite body shape, being both short and pear-shaped. Her best attributes are therefore her hips and rear, while her shoulders are narrowly spaced and her chest average verging on small. Complexion is generally a very light-olive, but she can still be prone to burns.
Persuasion: The Independents
Military Service: N/A
General Skills:
¬ Very basic knowledge about ship parts and how they work, but more from a piloting perspective rather than engineering
¬ Rookie piloting skills, but much better at;
¬ Navigations & Co-piloting
¬ Capable of driving ground or hover buggies, and operating forklifts
¬ Knows how to shoot a pistol, even if her aim might be a little off
¬ Attention to detail & good memory
¬ General deck-hand experience; mostly fixing meals and taking care of other chores
Talents:
+ Navigations: This is her main talent, including co-piloting. She does well at planning routes in advance while also keeping a plan B and C up her sleeve. Though she's not a trained pilot, she has a knack for it simply because it was always her dream to be one – so she learns fast. Though she isn't 100% confident with solo-piloting, she'll never decline an opportunity to give a ship a very rough spin.
+ 'Gift of the Gab': aka a Silver tongue. Lulah can talk her way out of some situations, not all of course, but she'll certainly try. There's rarely a silent moment around her because she'll make conversation out of pretty much anything. This leads into;
+ Persuasion: Not solely limited to verbal, but her silver tongue is usually all that she needs. Still, Lulah isn't adverse to playing all sorts of charm cards in order to get her own way. Mostly she relies on her youth and the occasional, feminine charm, but at the same time, she would never do something that she feels would degrade herself. (Not without a lot of persuasion and pressure at least.)
+ Lucky Hand: Although certain personality traits don't make her the best gambler, if she focuses on holding a polka face properly, then she can be quite good at card games – especially polka, ironically. She learnt a few card and 'magic' tricks off an old friend that serve as nifty distractions, or just show-off parlour tricks – including the old 'coin behind the ear' trick.
+ Sleight of Hand: In addition to knowing a few card tricks, Lulah has a knack for 'borrowing' things out of people's pockets without them noticing.
Flaws:
- Physically weak: Lulah isn't a violent person or a trained fighter, and although she wouldn't be too worried about defending herself with her fists if it came down to it, she wouldn't last long on her own. Stronger opponents could easily overpower her, especially with her;
- Low pain threshold: As in she bruises quite easily and will complain about it 'til the cows come home.
- Nervous disposition: Certain traits always give her away when she's nervous, such as gum-chewing, hair-fiddling, facial expressions, and extreme rambling.
- Emotional & Hot-headed: Easy to anger after a few insults are hurled her way, which in turn can cloud her judgement at the worst times. Pretty much sums up her marksman skills too – shoot before aiming.
- Illiterate: With very basic reading and writing skills verging on dyslexia, Lulah learns through pictures mostly. Fortunately, she's able to pick up and memorise star-charts and doesn't really struggle with numbers. Reading an entire book though would take forever.
- Impressionable & Trustworthy: Too trusting, which means she sets herself up for a lot of disappointment when she puts too much faith in the wrong person. As 'individual' as Lulah likes to think she is, she gives into peer pressure too easy and is easily influenced, even if it means going against her own morals and values. As a result, she has a few regrets she now has to live with.
Personality Traits: Lulah was just an ordinary girl with a sensitive soul and big dreams, until she escaped a series of tough ordeals that inevitably made her both stronger and weaker. Naïvety is still very much her key trait, and because of her knack for being so gullible, she still manages to trust people far too easily. Usually the wrong sorts of people, which is why she's better off not being left to survive on her own. Lulah thrives on a secure, family environment with people she holds near and dear, and although she likes to think that she's independent, she's actually very dependable on others. Definitely not a shy person, she could talk for the entire verse, but mostly just to make herself feel more comfortable. The fact is, she doesn't like silences or awkward tensions, especially around people she doesn't know too well. Unsociable people manage to make her more nervous, and therefore, she'll ramble more. It's easy to see when she's feeling uncomfortable though, because she'll chew gum more than usual, ramble and pull emotive faces. She also tends to twirl hair around her fingers and in most extreme cases, even chew on her hair. Once she feels more comfortable around someone though, she can calm down enough to (sometimes) appreciate a comfortable silence.
Lulah tends to feel emotions quite easily, and never struggles to express them. Though most of the time she's remains in a good, chirpy mood, she does also have a tendency to blow hot and cold with mood swings that change like the wind. Being hot-headed at the worst of times, if someone offends her, she'll definitely make sure that they, along with anyone in the nearby vicinity, knows about it. Most of the time, she'll forgive and forget after an apology, or after giving as much as she got. Only in extreme cases will she hold onto grudges.
As much as Lulah likes being in space, she gets bored and agitated if her feet don't touch the ground every now and then. Equally, if she's too long on the ground, she'll want to be back in space - there's just no winning with her really. Aside from that though, she's quite easily pleased as she values even the little things in life. Even though it can seem at times like she's all talk and no ears, she does in fact value people and their odd little quirks. When she starts to build a relationship with someone, she really does like to know as much as possible about them so she can build her own little profile about them in her mind.
History: As the middle of five children, Lulah comes from an extremely poor background. Born on a hops farm outside of New Huntsville, Beaumonde, the first eight years of her life were probably the best part of her childhood. Just a pity she can't really remember much of those tree-climbing and stone-skipping, country-bumpkin days. One fateful day, her parents speculated on an investment that efficiently gambled away their life-savings along with ownership of their farm and all the bonuses that went with it. After that, the large family were forced to move into the city where her mother and older brothers found work in the Blue Sun Corp factories. Meanwhile, her father was often away from home plying his trade as a mechanic. Grandma Hayes educated the children as best she could, but it was mostly up to Lulah to look after her two younger siblings and do chores during the day.
Despite often needing to beg on the streets for extra pennies, Lulah always tried to look on the bright side. In particular, she loved to watch the transport ships that occasionally soared over the slums, with the dream of one day being able to fly one. That dream took a side-seat though when the Unification War started. The tourist trade was starting to dwindle in the capital city, while illness due to city pollutants was spreading like wildfire. While her mother's lungs suffered day in and out, her father and older brother soon got caught up in Brown coat meetings. Lulah knew very little about it at the time though, as she was still only eleven verging on twelve. As the war grew warmer and more public over the years though, so did her understanding of it. While she was proud to see her father and by then, two eldest brothers standing up for a just cause, she also worried that their methods weren't quite so just. Besides, there was the constant fear that she might never see her father or brothers again. During this time, she managed to move to the underground slums with her remaining family, where life was generally one big struggle to survive on minimal war rations. With her mother too ill to work in the factories, Lulah took over as the main bread-winner. Working twelve hours processing tins on a conveyor belt line, was hardly the high point of her life.
News of her brother and father's death came at the end of the war. Her eldest brother was declared M.I.A, his body never actually found. Supposedly they died in the Battle of Serenity Valley, if not before. For a while afterwards, the sixteen year old Lulah had many misgivings towards both the Purple Bellies and the Browncoats. She refused to wear the red scarf her brother had given to her, and barely after a month of grieving, she spontaneously chose the selfish route to preserve her own sanity. Lulah made the same mistake that many other teenagers thought to be the best option; she ran away from home. Hitching a ride to Beaumonde's thriving space port with only a handful of credits, she was overwhelmed to the point of making a very bad decision. An overly-friendly old woman called Mag, promised to transport her to Persephone for a cheaper price of passage than what the other ships were offering. She even took Lulah to a local bar and bought her a meal; it was all just too good to be true, and although warning bells were going off, Lulah figured an old lady couldn't be that harmful surely. That's when the drinks came rolling in, and the questions. Then, the drowsiness, and the “you look peaky, let's get some fresh air.” The next think Lulah remembers, was waking up in a cage with fiver other young hopefuls. She'd been conned by a slaver. Fortunately for her and the other naïve youths, it was sheer luck that a group of independents intent on taking the law into their own hands, were already hot on the trail of the slavers before they managed to get off the planet. It wasn't just an issue of morality though; these brown-coats desperately needed a ship, so who better to steal from than a group of slavers? While the handful of other misguided hopefuls were set free, Lulah begged and begged her rescuers to take her under their wing. She eventually used her father's involvement with the brown-coats as a trump card, along with her promise to repay what she felt like an owed debt to them.
The first year on board the slave vessel turned transport ship, was tough. Captain Roth hoped that the newest recruit would opt to leave, so he kept her busy with mundane tasks and skivvy chores. To both his dismay and his surprise, Lulah instead thrived on the new environment and the people in it. Primarily working as a deck-hand, she was soon shadowing the pilot and picking up all the skills needed to one day fly the ship herself. Even the grumpy Roth begun to secretly enjoy the teenager's lively and uplifting presence on the ship, even if her yapping was occasionally annoying. Any credits she earned were saved up to send a big portion home to her family on Beaumonde whenever she was nearby. For two whole years and a half, she crammed as much information as possible, until a betrayal amongst the crew caused a temporary grounding. As much as the captain tried to make sure that Lulah didn't get involved in the politics of the missions he took, this time it was impossible to alienate her from the situation. The first mate had been desperate, and desperate people are known to do desperate things. On what had seemed like an honourable mission to Ezra turned into an ambush. While half the crew, including the captain, were in the middle of the desert picking up a package that wasn't even there. Luckily, Lulah had opted to drive the buggy this time. If she hadn't, she'd be on the pile of bodies that awaited the crew when they returned. Four bodies, including the first mate, and no ship. The remaining four crew members, unable to report the theft, bought shelter in the nearest town. Credits were minimal, and the town residents were suspicious. Roth managed to send a message to an old friend, but the crew were waiting around for a whole month. Lulah managed to find odd jobs around the town in exchange for food, but it had to be one of the toughest and longest month's in her life. The worst thing was, no one ever found out who the traitor was. With trust barriers broken and suspicion pointing in every direction, the remaining crew opted for shore leave when help finally arrived. Lulah never expected to see them again.
By now, the almost nineteen year old Lulah was back where she started. Almost creditless and unemployed, and broken in so many ways. The recent money she'd saved by was gone with the ship, and now, even her surrogate family had parted ways. It was high-time she faced her past, so she spent the last of her credits on transport back to Beaumonde. Though her grandmother still lived, strong woman that she was, the ghost of her mother greeted her along with more shocking news. Her youngest brother had joined the military, while her sister was balancing factory work with a doxy lifestyle at night. It was like spitting on the graves of her father and brothers. Even worse though, was the frosty reception from her younger sister, regardless of all the money she'd sent over the past two years. Family no longer felt like family, no matter how welcoming her nanna was. “There might be an open spot in one of the factories,” she'd said. But Lulah couldn't do it. She couldn't go back to that life again. At least, not forever. So, taking up a bar job at the port city, she worked day in and out for six months, until an old, familiar face walked in one day. Captain Roth. A personal invitation to join his new crew, working alongside the 'friend' who came to their aid on Ezra, was just an offer that was too good to be true.
Lulah now found herself as navigator and co-pilot in a small crew of only six people. It suited the smaller ship though, and the engineer was a familiar face at least. Switch Morgan, her first real crush. It was just like old times again; drinking whiskey around the table, sharing jokes and stories, and learning card tricks from Roth who had become like a father figure to her. But peace in paradise wasn't to last forever. Roth had never gotten over the betrayal, and was still trying to trace the culprit. Three months later, one lead brought them to Paquin. Lulah saw a different side to Roth and the crew. She saw people being held at gun-point, bar brawls and threats. This was how things worked in the real world, but these were brown-coats! She'd always thought they were righteous people, not thugs and ruffians.
Life on the ship turned sour as Roth's insatiable need for revenge rotted away at his core. Even the work he was taking seemed to be tempting the eyes of the law more and more. Things eventually went too far when an innocent man got caught in the crossfire of a bank heist. “Alliance credits to feed the poor,” Roth had reasoned. “The town won't miss it.” How wrong he was though. By then, Lulah was in too deep. She tried to reason with Roth as they escaped from the crime scene, but he'd argued that they were “close, so close, to finding out who did it.” He didn't even care that an innocent had been killed, not when thousands had been lost in the war already. Death to him was just a part of life; people live and people die and there's nothing you can do about it. Or so he said. The next shock came when he asked is Lulah would do something for him. A 'business man' on Beaumonde with a reputation for being the local doxy pimp, had some information Roth needed. She was to pretend to be a wannabe doxy, and use her 'charms' to distract him long enough for Roth to bypass his bodyguard. The plan had been messy though, and as a result, Lulah stole the life of another. She hadn't meant to shoot to kill, but her aim was off. Worst of all, Roth was furious. He couldn't understand why she didn't just 'hold out' for a little while longer. Not even if that meant ruining her pride and integrity.
Regardless of the cold atmosphere that took over the ship, Lulah remained part of the crew. Half scared that she wouldn't be able to find another 'family', and half torn between her loyalty and love of the crew. Even Captain Roth. Taking every chance she could to redeem herself, she turned twenty in space, and soon after, her hard work paid off. A member of the bandit's who had stolen the first ship on Ezra was tracked down, and the name 'Connor' was spoken. From that day everyone knew the identity of the traitor. Lulah thought that things might calm down after that, but Roth had tasted the dangerous life already, and wasn't going to give up on his addiction to 'pissing off the purple bellies' any time too soon. One day, she received a transmission from an anonymous source that simple read “get out.” Seven days later, and the purple bellies were hot on the ship's trail. The pilot managed to outmanoeuvre them, but it would only be so long until they managed to track them down again. Paranoia crept in, and the crew decided it would be best to split up and lay low for awhile. So they split, each going their own, separate ways. Except for Roth and his pilot first mate. He branded his crew yellow-bellied cowards, and vowed that he'd never leave his ship without putting up a fight.
Two months later, with no word from anyone, Lulah found herself working at the Eavesdown Docks on Persephone. Driving buggies around and helping transport cargo from ships, she earned enough to eat, drink and sleep under a roof. Then, a news headline read “Brown Coat criminal finally caught” with Roth's mug next to it. She knew then, there would be no going back. From now on, her life would need to move forward. As to the identity of the cryptic message, she could only hope and suspect that it came from an old friend. Moreso; a brother.
RP Sample: It had been at least three weeks since the day that she'd said goodbye, and there hadn't been a day since where Tallulah Hayes didn't worry about the safety of both herself, and her old friends. Life had to move on though, even if she was hoping for a message at any given second. A wing and a prayer that would lift her up from sand and dirt and smoky air, back to the starry and welcoming arms of the immense verse. She missed the dark abyss. The silence and the peace. The compact spaces and even the protein high porridge.
Today, she swore she saw an old, familiar face amongst the crowd. Iced blue eyes staring back at her underneath a firm scowl of mostly thick dark brows mottled with strands of silver. Captain Roth's glare probably melted hearts when he was younger and more attractive, but these days, it only made hearts skip a beat with fear. This glare was different though; it was the same one she'd seen on the day that she'd been marooned with him in the Ezra desert. It was a look that said “I'm not done with you yet. Not by far,” and meant every word of that promise. The look of death's card warming up in the hand of the reaper, ready to be dealt at an unforeseeable moment.
Unlike many others who chose to run in such situations, Lulah had frozen still. Her big blue eyes staring widely back at the ghost of her past. The cogs in her mind asking the one, all-important question. 'Is that really him?' The coin of fate flipped, as that unforgettable face was suddenly lost in the crowd. When the blockage cleared, Roth was gone. Undeniable relief pressed down on her tensed shoulders, but to say she was entirely at peace, would be an absolute lie. Regardless of all she'd been through, her head and her heart programmed her feet to rush forwards. A rage of urgency washed through her, as she pushed aside random bodies who were cruel enough to be obstacles on her path. Until she reached the exact point she needed to be in. The empty point where a father had stood.
Lulah knew there and then. Roth, was really, well and truly gone.
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