Application for Abax
player information.
name: Ashe
age: 12!!! plus 10
personal lj: batsu_espada
email/msn/aim/plurk/etc: aim: nevra solstice, plurk: asheling
characters in abax: None, homies.
in character information.
name: Shelby Rook
age: 23
gender: F
height: 5'5”
weight: 119 lbs
canon point: Right before Garrett's kidnapping by Francesca von Magica.
physical appearance:
Shelby is 5'5” and extremely thin. In fact, she would look almost unhealthily so if it weren't for the clearly defined ropes of muscles all along her body, telling a story of a woman who is capable of strength. Her hair is dark brown in color, thick, and almost always pulled up tight so that it can't be used as a weapon against her. Her eyes are dark brown in color. Skin extremely pale, and there are a number of old scars along her body. She usually dresses in plain clothing, dark in color, because it's easier to blend in that way, but she's adaptable. Her face is much more expressive than her voice, usually, though she often looks very blank.
world information:
The world Shelby comes from resembles any medieval fantasy world. There's very little technology, especially by modern standards. Magic exists, but it is on a decline in studies and in the power that wizards and mages are born with. Currently, only the capitol of Risdall houses a university for teaching magic. Multiple gods are still worshipped, many of them shared by the countries in this world.
There were once dragons in this world, but as with the decline of magic, people hunted out the creatures, and they're thought to be extinct. There are pygmy dragons still in existence, but none would consider them “true” dragons, because of their size and inability to fly. Many believe the extinction of dragons and the slow decline of magic are related, and that when the dragons return, so will magic.
As Shelby's story mainly deals in Kinniburgh and Risdall, that's what I'll mention the most. However, here are some links for other information on the world: Countries, including main god, business, capitol, and a blurb and Gods commonly worshipped.
Kinniburgh is very much how we would perceive a country if it was run by the mafia as we know it. Centuries ago, there once was a royal family. That was around the decline of the dragons. Citizens, angry with the monarchy, overthrew the nobility in French Revolution-style, installing their own government. Since then, stability in the country has declined, but not their power. The nobles control the Parliament, through money or threats. However, they are a country of the arts, producing and manufacturing more entertainers and goods than any other country, especially their neighbor to the north. Underneath of their false pretense of being a pleasant place, a cult exists among the nobility. The worship of the trickster gods, the Many Faces, is a brutal one. They require human sacrifice, mainly of a the firstborn child on their tenth birthday. A celebration is usually held at this time as the cult members hope the gods will help them continue to reign. To understand Kinniburgh is to basically look at it as though it were a parfait: layers and layers.
To the north, Risdall is a more and stable country. The monarchy still exists there, the Taliesin family having been in power for a century. 100 years ago, they took the throne from the family who had ruled Risdall. The von Magicas and the Taliesins were families with the most powerful magic, but as the decline of dragons occurred, so did magic, and both lines fizzled out. Until Francis von Magica, a wizard in Risdall with his power had thought to be extinct. And it was until future queen, Natalia, gave birth to her son that the Taliesin family had their own powerhouse of magic. Since the birth of the future king of the Taliesin line, a small insurgence has been brewing in Risdall, with Francis and his daughter leading it against the usurpers of the throne.
history:
Shelby was born in Capone, Kinniburgh to a young prostitute by the name of Elisa. Her earliest memory is of the brothel house she lived in, the noises of arguments and sex, the heavy smells of perfume and makeup, cigar smoke and sweat, and the gentle hands of her mother. Then Elisa grew sick and died, and the madam of the brothel didn't want a mouth to feed that couldn't give services in turn.
Four years old, and Shelby was on the streets without nobody to care for her. To her young mind, it felt like years. No food, no ability to care for herself, she curled up in an alley to wait for death. It was her first taste of it, and she didn't shy from it.
In her favor, however, an assassin from the infamous Insidia guild, Kristoff Rook, came upon her nearly dead form. For reasons of his own that he never quite told Shelby, Kristoff picked her up, wrapped her in a cloak, and brought her back to the guild, This was the beginning of her new life. He gave her his last name and so began the training that would define her life. The early years were easy and often she trained with some of the children. Running, agility, days of starvation to help them understand the pains of it, lessons on survival, reading, writing. Her master called her a scrapper, a survivor, and it made her an easy contender among the others. And also an easy target.
Shelby was small and easily overcome by the bigger children, who would often attack her in a pack. It was during one such event when she was six that she met Chuck, a child she assumed to be a young boy, who appeared out of nowhere and took down every single kid attacking her. From then on, the two were best friends. Shelby recognized immediately that this other child who had saved was a noble, and she treated “him” as such, and she spent the next four years under the impression that Charlene de Pretennes was really a young boy. Puberty, of course, ruined that. But it didn't matter to Shelby. She was already in love with Chuck, despite her young age.
The following year, the real training began. She was often beaten, and if she cried, she was hit again. Kristoff explained to her that an assassin couldn't be overly emotional, and that pain was part of life. There was pain and there was death, and she shouldn't be afraid to accept either when it happened. It was a lesson she learned quickly. Her first kill was made at nine, when the children were given a pet to care for. Shelby loved her dog, and the day her master told her that she needed to kill him was the hardest one she experienced. But she did it. It broke something inside of her, and she spent a year isolating herself as she coped with the machine she was being pushed into.
At twelve, she made her first human kill. It was her first mark, a woman known to kill children. It nearly ended disastrously, but despite almost dying, Shelby completed her task. It was the first time that Kristoff told her that he was proud of her, and it was the first time that Shelby realized that this was exactly what she wanted to do with her life.
Training continued as the years passed, and Shelby continued taking on marks. She also continued her friendship with Chuck. She didn't know how much longer it would last, but she would take what she got. Until the day that Chuck announced that she was getting married, and again, something inside the young assassin broke. She was in love with her best friend and knew she didn't want to be in this life, be part of her family. So Shelby killed Chuck's betrothed and told the woman that it was time to run. And they did.
It was while they were on the run, penniless, that they noticed the signs. The next country over, the kingdom of Risdall, was offering a large reward for the rescue of their “princess in a tower”. Thinking it was a joke at first-after all, it was like something out of an old story-they both agreed the money would be worth it. Not only that, but if they could hold this princess hostage, maybe they could squeeze more gold out of the royal family, be set for life together. It was decided. They set a course for Risdall, for the tower.
It wasn't easy. There were knights to take care of, armor to steal, and the matter of one pygmy dragon that stood in their way. It was something they could handle. What they didn't know what to do was how to deal with the fact that their delicate princess was really a prince with a mouth. Still, they had their prize and they had a new asset: the dragon Shelby named Bubbles. For the next week or so, Garrett attempted to escape as the women got a message to the Taliesin family: give us more money, or never see your son again.
The women found themselves in a conspiracy to steal the throne. Once the hand-off was arranged, the wizard Francis von Magica attacked. It was then that all three of them-Shelby, Chuck, and Garrett-realized they needed to work together in order to survive, and in order to get their money. Thus began the misadventures of these three.
The dynamic in their group slowly shifted. Garrett, while being a spoiled brat, was still one of the nicest people the girls had ever met. He was interesting to Shelby. He treated her and Chuck kindly, even if the two fought constantly. It wasn't until Chuck was kidnapped by thugs hired by her family to bring her back that Shelby realized that she was beginning to have feelings for Garrett as well. She begged him to help her find Chuck, and he did. They rescued her.
This wasn't the only obstacle that stood in their way. They were constantly hounded by Francis von Magica, who was desperate to get Garrett back. Garrett was the key to his coup. If he could get Garrett to marry his daughter, not only would he have an easier claim to the throne, but more magic would be poured into his bloodline. But they always managed to stay one step ahead of the wizard in their attempt to protect their cash cow.
A few months into their adventures, Shelby began to notice that they were being followed. And this time, it wasn't Chuck's family or Francis. It was her guild. She had left them, and that was a crime. You never defected from a guild. Realizing that Chuck and Garrett were in danger with her around, she killed the man who had been sent to negotiate with her. Wounded, she left before Chuck and Garrett could be told what was going on. She disappeared for a month, hunting down the other trackers who had been after her. This was her last farewell to the guild who had given her so much, but her family was more important. She tracked down her family, and while they continually pestered her for answers, she never gave any. The past was the past now.
It was easy for Shelby to tell, at this point, that Chuck and Garrett had gotten closer while she had been gone, and she realized that there could be a possibility, one day, for the three of them to be together.
personality:
Shelby is sort of emotionally retarded. That's not to say that she is emotionally cut off, though she does sort of exhibit a few signs of antisocial personality disorder. Her views just make things look different in her mind. Where people see an emotionally traumatized young woman, Shelby sees a tool who was lucky to have been given the life she has lived. She doesn't believe the things she's been through and have done are wrong. That's not to say that she doesn't believe that injustices done to others don't exist, just that she's been broken down to the point where she doesn't think she's quite on the same level as other people. And that's okay. Because she doesn't care what people think about her. On her adventures with Chuck and Garrett, they come across a village that has been burned to the ground. While the other two are horrified by the sight of the dead children, Shelby says that it's best that this has happened to them, because any life they would have been granted wouldn't have been any sort of life at all if they were left alone in the world.
Her personality is very much shaped by her early childhood. She was broken down psychologically, beaten relentlessly, and trained to be a killer at a young age. There is no black and white to her, only gray. She's basically developed beyond the point of trauma. She killed her first human at 12, was trained in the ways of sexual pleasure at 15. Death is death to her, sex is sex. Killing a person is nothing, since a target is a target, an enemy is an enemy. She doesn't see herself as a villain or a hero.
Which leads into her lack of self-esteem. It isn't just low. It's practically non-existent. Kindness isn't something she's really been shown by many people. She's an object to be used, a tool. The guild she was raised in has taught her that assassins have no lives, they are simply extensions of a whole, and while she has grown beyond that point, part of her still believes that she is not a whole person. Logically, she realizes that she's physically appealing-and she is quite pretty-but there are other factors that she knows can take precedence over that. Her body is scarred, and she isn't exactly the curviest in the bunch. But there's also that she's a low born orphan that was raised in an assassin's guild. She has no worth outside of that, and her only appeal would be purely sexual. About the only thing she has any real confidence in is her skill set as an assassin and her love for Chuck and Garrett.
Despite being quite aggressive as a killer, Shelby is a passive sort of person. She likes having orders. She's quiet and mild mannered and is more than happy to let other people take the reigns while sort of guiding them in the right direction without them needing to be aware of it, since she works in the background. Her sense of humor is dry and cynical, even if she doesn't realize it. It's awkward to make jokes, since nobody quite understands how her mind works. She rarely gets angry, either, or at least outwardly unless there's a good reason for it (and there rarely is).
However, despite her passive, quiet, emotionally dysfunctional self, if there's one thing that can trigger Shelby, it's dealing with Chuck and Garrett. She's loyal to them and only them, protective. When it comes to them, she has the ferocity of a dragon in her blood. The fact of the matter is that Shelby is completely in love with them. There's a fiery need to make sure they're okay, and Shelby will fly into a cold rage if anyone, anyone attempts to harm them. She would do anything they asked her to do. If they wanted her to kill someone for them, she would. If they asked her to leave, she would.
Shelby is also incredibly intelligent. She's logical and works through problems easily as long as it doesn't involve becoming completely irrational over the two people she loves, and she absolutely loves to learn new things. She's well-read, knows anatomy, plants, hunting, cooking.
In spite of her logical reasoning, there is a soft, childlike quality to Shelby. She's someone who looks like she needs to be protected: and in a way, it's true. She really does need to be. There is a fragile quality to her that she doesn't even realize exists. There is a childish idealism to her still, in the way she deals with her love for magic and magical things, like dragons. It's something that even her training couldn't take away from her, and it's something that she holds tight to, despite everything else.
Shelby also has a penchant for telling stories. Horrible stories. Mostly about assassinations, some that she's done, some that she's heard of. They're usually graphic, and no. She doesn't understand what's the problem with talking about them. She's dysfunctional like that.
abilities/powers:
Shelby has a wide skill set. She's gifted with poisons and daggers, fair with a sword, pretty good with bow and arrow. She knows how to track and hunt. She's quick, agile, and can blend in where ever she is, almost becoming invisible.
first person sample:
[It takes some time as Shelby pokes around the new bit of technology, unaware that the video feed has already been turned on. Her lips purse a bit as her eyebrows shoot up.] Does it run on magic? [The view shakes rapidly as she shakes the tablet. Finally, she discovers how to turn the video on and off, on and off, on.] Given its appearance, it would seem it's meant for communication.
[Shelby leans in, glaring.] I am looking for a dragon. Waist high, dark gray in color. He answers to the name Bubbles. I must ask that you don't run, should you come across him. He is small, but it means little to his nature. [There's a pause as she glances around her surroundings.] I am also searching for a woman named Chuck and a man named Garrett. They're likely looking for me as well.
[A nod, and then the feed cuts.]
third person sample:
Shelby paced. There was a fire in her body, a need to move, an energy requirement she couldn't satisfy. Chuck's words hammered in her mind over and over, keeping in pace to the pounding of her heart against her ribs. They were going to force her to marry. And her firstborn would be sacrificed to gods she didn't even worship in a ritual she couldn't stand. Shelby's skin crawled. There were many tragedies in the world, but sacrifice was never something she could stomach.
She had to save her. It was as simple as that. She thought she would be okay with letting Chuck go when the time came. They weren't from the same worlds. She was nothing, and Chuck was a noble. They could never run in the same circles, Kristoff told her once, and Shelby had nodded. Agreed. It was true, and she wasn't blind to it.
But she couldn't do it. She needed Chuck. To lose her would be like losing herself, that part of her still alive and vibrant. Chuck was fire and warmth and love, everything Shelby lacked and craved deep down.
Murder for the sake of murder. It was exactly what she was mulling over now. No. Not for the sake of murder. For freedom. Freedom for Chuck. She couldn't let her friend go through this, have her freedom taken from her and twisted until she didn't even know herself anymore. Shelby could do it. She could free Chuck. The consequences of her actions were acceptable. Her life, forfeited to save Chuck? That was fine.
case no: hit me with w/e
name: Ashe
age: 12!!! plus 10
personal lj: batsu_espada
email/msn/aim/plurk/etc: aim: nevra solstice, plurk: asheling
characters in abax: None, homies.
in character information.
name: Shelby Rook
age: 23
gender: F
height: 5'5”
weight: 119 lbs
canon point: Right before Garrett's kidnapping by Francesca von Magica.
physical appearance:
Shelby is 5'5” and extremely thin. In fact, she would look almost unhealthily so if it weren't for the clearly defined ropes of muscles all along her body, telling a story of a woman who is capable of strength. Her hair is dark brown in color, thick, and almost always pulled up tight so that it can't be used as a weapon against her. Her eyes are dark brown in color. Skin extremely pale, and there are a number of old scars along her body. She usually dresses in plain clothing, dark in color, because it's easier to blend in that way, but she's adaptable. Her face is much more expressive than her voice, usually, though she often looks very blank.
world information:
The world Shelby comes from resembles any medieval fantasy world. There's very little technology, especially by modern standards. Magic exists, but it is on a decline in studies and in the power that wizards and mages are born with. Currently, only the capitol of Risdall houses a university for teaching magic. Multiple gods are still worshipped, many of them shared by the countries in this world.
There were once dragons in this world, but as with the decline of magic, people hunted out the creatures, and they're thought to be extinct. There are pygmy dragons still in existence, but none would consider them “true” dragons, because of their size and inability to fly. Many believe the extinction of dragons and the slow decline of magic are related, and that when the dragons return, so will magic.
As Shelby's story mainly deals in Kinniburgh and Risdall, that's what I'll mention the most. However, here are some links for other information on the world: Countries, including main god, business, capitol, and a blurb and Gods commonly worshipped.
Kinniburgh is very much how we would perceive a country if it was run by the mafia as we know it. Centuries ago, there once was a royal family. That was around the decline of the dragons. Citizens, angry with the monarchy, overthrew the nobility in French Revolution-style, installing their own government. Since then, stability in the country has declined, but not their power. The nobles control the Parliament, through money or threats. However, they are a country of the arts, producing and manufacturing more entertainers and goods than any other country, especially their neighbor to the north. Underneath of their false pretense of being a pleasant place, a cult exists among the nobility. The worship of the trickster gods, the Many Faces, is a brutal one. They require human sacrifice, mainly of a the firstborn child on their tenth birthday. A celebration is usually held at this time as the cult members hope the gods will help them continue to reign. To understand Kinniburgh is to basically look at it as though it were a parfait: layers and layers.
To the north, Risdall is a more and stable country. The monarchy still exists there, the Taliesin family having been in power for a century. 100 years ago, they took the throne from the family who had ruled Risdall. The von Magicas and the Taliesins were families with the most powerful magic, but as the decline of dragons occurred, so did magic, and both lines fizzled out. Until Francis von Magica, a wizard in Risdall with his power had thought to be extinct. And it was until future queen, Natalia, gave birth to her son that the Taliesin family had their own powerhouse of magic. Since the birth of the future king of the Taliesin line, a small insurgence has been brewing in Risdall, with Francis and his daughter leading it against the usurpers of the throne.
history:
Shelby was born in Capone, Kinniburgh to a young prostitute by the name of Elisa. Her earliest memory is of the brothel house she lived in, the noises of arguments and sex, the heavy smells of perfume and makeup, cigar smoke and sweat, and the gentle hands of her mother. Then Elisa grew sick and died, and the madam of the brothel didn't want a mouth to feed that couldn't give services in turn.
Four years old, and Shelby was on the streets without nobody to care for her. To her young mind, it felt like years. No food, no ability to care for herself, she curled up in an alley to wait for death. It was her first taste of it, and she didn't shy from it.
In her favor, however, an assassin from the infamous Insidia guild, Kristoff Rook, came upon her nearly dead form. For reasons of his own that he never quite told Shelby, Kristoff picked her up, wrapped her in a cloak, and brought her back to the guild, This was the beginning of her new life. He gave her his last name and so began the training that would define her life. The early years were easy and often she trained with some of the children. Running, agility, days of starvation to help them understand the pains of it, lessons on survival, reading, writing. Her master called her a scrapper, a survivor, and it made her an easy contender among the others. And also an easy target.
Shelby was small and easily overcome by the bigger children, who would often attack her in a pack. It was during one such event when she was six that she met Chuck, a child she assumed to be a young boy, who appeared out of nowhere and took down every single kid attacking her. From then on, the two were best friends. Shelby recognized immediately that this other child who had saved was a noble, and she treated “him” as such, and she spent the next four years under the impression that Charlene de Pretennes was really a young boy. Puberty, of course, ruined that. But it didn't matter to Shelby. She was already in love with Chuck, despite her young age.
The following year, the real training began. She was often beaten, and if she cried, she was hit again. Kristoff explained to her that an assassin couldn't be overly emotional, and that pain was part of life. There was pain and there was death, and she shouldn't be afraid to accept either when it happened. It was a lesson she learned quickly. Her first kill was made at nine, when the children were given a pet to care for. Shelby loved her dog, and the day her master told her that she needed to kill him was the hardest one she experienced. But she did it. It broke something inside of her, and she spent a year isolating herself as she coped with the machine she was being pushed into.
At twelve, she made her first human kill. It was her first mark, a woman known to kill children. It nearly ended disastrously, but despite almost dying, Shelby completed her task. It was the first time that Kristoff told her that he was proud of her, and it was the first time that Shelby realized that this was exactly what she wanted to do with her life.
Training continued as the years passed, and Shelby continued taking on marks. She also continued her friendship with Chuck. She didn't know how much longer it would last, but she would take what she got. Until the day that Chuck announced that she was getting married, and again, something inside the young assassin broke. She was in love with her best friend and knew she didn't want to be in this life, be part of her family. So Shelby killed Chuck's betrothed and told the woman that it was time to run. And they did.
It was while they were on the run, penniless, that they noticed the signs. The next country over, the kingdom of Risdall, was offering a large reward for the rescue of their “princess in a tower”. Thinking it was a joke at first-after all, it was like something out of an old story-they both agreed the money would be worth it. Not only that, but if they could hold this princess hostage, maybe they could squeeze more gold out of the royal family, be set for life together. It was decided. They set a course for Risdall, for the tower.
It wasn't easy. There were knights to take care of, armor to steal, and the matter of one pygmy dragon that stood in their way. It was something they could handle. What they didn't know what to do was how to deal with the fact that their delicate princess was really a prince with a mouth. Still, they had their prize and they had a new asset: the dragon Shelby named Bubbles. For the next week or so, Garrett attempted to escape as the women got a message to the Taliesin family: give us more money, or never see your son again.
The women found themselves in a conspiracy to steal the throne. Once the hand-off was arranged, the wizard Francis von Magica attacked. It was then that all three of them-Shelby, Chuck, and Garrett-realized they needed to work together in order to survive, and in order to get their money. Thus began the misadventures of these three.
The dynamic in their group slowly shifted. Garrett, while being a spoiled brat, was still one of the nicest people the girls had ever met. He was interesting to Shelby. He treated her and Chuck kindly, even if the two fought constantly. It wasn't until Chuck was kidnapped by thugs hired by her family to bring her back that Shelby realized that she was beginning to have feelings for Garrett as well. She begged him to help her find Chuck, and he did. They rescued her.
This wasn't the only obstacle that stood in their way. They were constantly hounded by Francis von Magica, who was desperate to get Garrett back. Garrett was the key to his coup. If he could get Garrett to marry his daughter, not only would he have an easier claim to the throne, but more magic would be poured into his bloodline. But they always managed to stay one step ahead of the wizard in their attempt to protect their cash cow.
A few months into their adventures, Shelby began to notice that they were being followed. And this time, it wasn't Chuck's family or Francis. It was her guild. She had left them, and that was a crime. You never defected from a guild. Realizing that Chuck and Garrett were in danger with her around, she killed the man who had been sent to negotiate with her. Wounded, she left before Chuck and Garrett could be told what was going on. She disappeared for a month, hunting down the other trackers who had been after her. This was her last farewell to the guild who had given her so much, but her family was more important. She tracked down her family, and while they continually pestered her for answers, she never gave any. The past was the past now.
It was easy for Shelby to tell, at this point, that Chuck and Garrett had gotten closer while she had been gone, and she realized that there could be a possibility, one day, for the three of them to be together.
personality:
Shelby is sort of emotionally retarded. That's not to say that she is emotionally cut off, though she does sort of exhibit a few signs of antisocial personality disorder. Her views just make things look different in her mind. Where people see an emotionally traumatized young woman, Shelby sees a tool who was lucky to have been given the life she has lived. She doesn't believe the things she's been through and have done are wrong. That's not to say that she doesn't believe that injustices done to others don't exist, just that she's been broken down to the point where she doesn't think she's quite on the same level as other people. And that's okay. Because she doesn't care what people think about her. On her adventures with Chuck and Garrett, they come across a village that has been burned to the ground. While the other two are horrified by the sight of the dead children, Shelby says that it's best that this has happened to them, because any life they would have been granted wouldn't have been any sort of life at all if they were left alone in the world.
Her personality is very much shaped by her early childhood. She was broken down psychologically, beaten relentlessly, and trained to be a killer at a young age. There is no black and white to her, only gray. She's basically developed beyond the point of trauma. She killed her first human at 12, was trained in the ways of sexual pleasure at 15. Death is death to her, sex is sex. Killing a person is nothing, since a target is a target, an enemy is an enemy. She doesn't see herself as a villain or a hero.
Which leads into her lack of self-esteem. It isn't just low. It's practically non-existent. Kindness isn't something she's really been shown by many people. She's an object to be used, a tool. The guild she was raised in has taught her that assassins have no lives, they are simply extensions of a whole, and while she has grown beyond that point, part of her still believes that she is not a whole person. Logically, she realizes that she's physically appealing-and she is quite pretty-but there are other factors that she knows can take precedence over that. Her body is scarred, and she isn't exactly the curviest in the bunch. But there's also that she's a low born orphan that was raised in an assassin's guild. She has no worth outside of that, and her only appeal would be purely sexual. About the only thing she has any real confidence in is her skill set as an assassin and her love for Chuck and Garrett.
Despite being quite aggressive as a killer, Shelby is a passive sort of person. She likes having orders. She's quiet and mild mannered and is more than happy to let other people take the reigns while sort of guiding them in the right direction without them needing to be aware of it, since she works in the background. Her sense of humor is dry and cynical, even if she doesn't realize it. It's awkward to make jokes, since nobody quite understands how her mind works. She rarely gets angry, either, or at least outwardly unless there's a good reason for it (and there rarely is).
However, despite her passive, quiet, emotionally dysfunctional self, if there's one thing that can trigger Shelby, it's dealing with Chuck and Garrett. She's loyal to them and only them, protective. When it comes to them, she has the ferocity of a dragon in her blood. The fact of the matter is that Shelby is completely in love with them. There's a fiery need to make sure they're okay, and Shelby will fly into a cold rage if anyone, anyone attempts to harm them. She would do anything they asked her to do. If they wanted her to kill someone for them, she would. If they asked her to leave, she would.
Shelby is also incredibly intelligent. She's logical and works through problems easily as long as it doesn't involve becoming completely irrational over the two people she loves, and she absolutely loves to learn new things. She's well-read, knows anatomy, plants, hunting, cooking.
In spite of her logical reasoning, there is a soft, childlike quality to Shelby. She's someone who looks like she needs to be protected: and in a way, it's true. She really does need to be. There is a fragile quality to her that she doesn't even realize exists. There is a childish idealism to her still, in the way she deals with her love for magic and magical things, like dragons. It's something that even her training couldn't take away from her, and it's something that she holds tight to, despite everything else.
Shelby also has a penchant for telling stories. Horrible stories. Mostly about assassinations, some that she's done, some that she's heard of. They're usually graphic, and no. She doesn't understand what's the problem with talking about them. She's dysfunctional like that.
abilities/powers:
Shelby has a wide skill set. She's gifted with poisons and daggers, fair with a sword, pretty good with bow and arrow. She knows how to track and hunt. She's quick, agile, and can blend in where ever she is, almost becoming invisible.
first person sample:
[It takes some time as Shelby pokes around the new bit of technology, unaware that the video feed has already been turned on. Her lips purse a bit as her eyebrows shoot up.] Does it run on magic? [The view shakes rapidly as she shakes the tablet. Finally, she discovers how to turn the video on and off, on and off, on.] Given its appearance, it would seem it's meant for communication.
[Shelby leans in, glaring.] I am looking for a dragon. Waist high, dark gray in color. He answers to the name Bubbles. I must ask that you don't run, should you come across him. He is small, but it means little to his nature. [There's a pause as she glances around her surroundings.] I am also searching for a woman named Chuck and a man named Garrett. They're likely looking for me as well.
[A nod, and then the feed cuts.]
third person sample:
Shelby paced. There was a fire in her body, a need to move, an energy requirement she couldn't satisfy. Chuck's words hammered in her mind over and over, keeping in pace to the pounding of her heart against her ribs. They were going to force her to marry. And her firstborn would be sacrificed to gods she didn't even worship in a ritual she couldn't stand. Shelby's skin crawled. There were many tragedies in the world, but sacrifice was never something she could stomach.
She had to save her. It was as simple as that. She thought she would be okay with letting Chuck go when the time came. They weren't from the same worlds. She was nothing, and Chuck was a noble. They could never run in the same circles, Kristoff told her once, and Shelby had nodded. Agreed. It was true, and she wasn't blind to it.
But she couldn't do it. She needed Chuck. To lose her would be like losing herself, that part of her still alive and vibrant. Chuck was fire and warmth and love, everything Shelby lacked and craved deep down.
Murder for the sake of murder. It was exactly what she was mulling over now. No. Not for the sake of murder. For freedom. Freedom for Chuck. She couldn't let her friend go through this, have her freedom taken from her and twisted until she didn't even know herself anymore. Shelby could do it. She could free Chuck. The consequences of her actions were acceptable. Her life, forfeited to save Chuck? That was fine.
case no: hit me with w/e