Post by strawberrymilk on Apr 20, 2024 19:21:05 GMT -5
Antoinette Biancardi
Other Names: Annie
Epithet: None
Height: 5' 1"
Build: Lithe
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Race: Human
Occupation: Pirate!
Bounty/Rank:
Total X-Poinz: 400
Used X-Poinz: 400
Used Account X-Poinz: 0
Aspect Vouchers: 3
Technique Vouchers: 1
X-Poinz Record:
- +400 (Starting X-Poinz)
- -100 (A) (Cut and Run)
- -300 (T) (Étrangler la Vigne, Parade Fleurie, Saule Déchirant, Fleur Qui Tourne, Pétales Balayants, Bouquet D'épines)
- +3 (A) (Starting Aspect Vouchers)
- -3 (A) (Dancing Queen, Silver Duelist, Memory Metal)
- +1 (T) (T1 aspect: Cut and run)
- -1 (T) (Épine D'argent)
Personality
Headstrong but well spoken, brash and quick to act and yet seemingly unaware of consequence Antoinette paints the perfect picture on a first impression of a spoiled noble girl who has never been told no in her life. In truth it's not that far off but there is a bit more to the girl than that, why she speaks up makes a great deal after all. Seeing someone hurt or taken advantage of will see her leaping to their defense, drawing steel even to hammer her point. For her, being free to battle injustice where she sees it how she sees it is one of the benefits of being free. Free of titles, free of responsibilities, free to make her own choices. She even views the consequences of her actions to be 'freeing' in a sense, finding the idea of being attacked back, of being chased or given a bounty for her actions to be exhilarating.
Few have a greater disdain for nobility than her, but Antoinette is quite good at hiding it, very good at acting actually. She loves using her well dressed figure, her eloquent manner of speech and other skills to get into high class hotels, restaurants and other places with ease, before stiffing them on the bill. She knows how much money these places make, she knows how little a few people taking advantage of them truly hurts them and how many people they likely hurt to get there. Yes, she very much has a 'take from the rich' mentality, although her grasp of what counts as rich and poor is a bit...shaky.
How much could a banana cost? 2,000 beri?
Her tastes are also still indisputably of the higher class. Her interests in food, drink, clothes all speak of a girl used to wealth. Perhaps it was inevitable given how she was raised but the kinds of clothes or food available to those of the particularly poor seem practically shocking to her, often leaving her wondering how they can eat such things and even survive...although surely they have so it must be fine but...
Appearance
(Art By)Despite her short stature Antoinette cuts an imposing figure, often seeming taller than she really is thanks to the dignified way she carries herself. This is accompanied by stark, beautiful silver-white hair worn long and extremely well cared for, and a lithe, well toned body shaped by years of fencing and exercise. Her eyes are like silver coins matching her hair, and the only blemish on her body is a scar over her left eye, something she's rather proud of in fact.
Antoinette wears a variety of outfits, but they're almost all of extremely fine quality, gowns, blouses, silken shirts, high quality leather gloves, fine shoes, extremely well made boots, but her 'working outfit' is a black gown paired with a fine grey shirt topped with a dark grey kavat attached to a brooch with a red gem and tucked into black fingerless gloves. With this comes fine, leather shoes, good for moving around in and stepping quickly.
Fighting Style
Rose au Cœur
Antoinette was taught everything she knows about the rapier by a renowned swordsman hired by her parents, but spent many years honing her skills on her own and turned to a curious avenue to do so, that of dancing. As a result in battle Antoinette appears as if she is dancing with her opponents, stepping lively around them, blade meeting blade in skillful parries, playing around her foe until she creates the opening needed for a decisive strike!
Aspects
–
The Silver Duelist (Tier 1)
High Class Dexterity
The style of swordsmanship that Antoinette was taught focused far less on strength than other types and as part of this practice her dexterity has been honed to an edge as keen as the tip of her rapier, able to wield it or other tools with a shocking level of skill, sleight of hand, deft maneuvers and more come to her effortlessly.
Dancing Queen (Tier 1)
High Class Agility
Her parents were thrilled when she asked for a dedicated dance instructor, and gave no heed to the number she dismissed. If only they knew that her flippant disregard was in search of one willing to teach her more than just the waltz or cotillion. Antoinette learned dances of all kinds and studied them carefully, and as a result her agility, especially in regards to footwork, is top notch.
Cut and Run (Tier 1)
High Class Speed
Antoinette did not need a teacher to practice her speed. Her swordsmanship already gave her one avenue, but it was simple enough to find times in secret to truly practice sprinting at full tilt, determined to never be caught again, that if ever she found herself in a situation where her sword would not suffice she could simply take off running and leave her pursuers grabbing at dust. The years of dedicated practice paid off and she's quite a speedy young woman, which certainly has its benefits in battle. Plus it helps with a good old fashioned dine and dash.
Larme D'argent (Wazamono)
The Larme D'argent is a rapier of breathtaking quality and beauty, the entire thing seemingly cast from a single continuous piece of a gorgeous silver-white metal, as if someone had taken a cloud and spun it into something solid, with a blade as thin as a needle yet more than capable of piercing through the heart of a foe.
Memory Metal (Tier 1)
Weapon Flexibility
The rapier is renowned not just for its beauty but for the peculiar property it has, the blade possessing tremendous flexibility able to be bent to absurd degrees and yet always snapping right back, straight and true without the slightest bent or imperfection in its form. This makes it tremendously difficult to break, but could potentially have other uses too.
Techniques
–
Étrangler la Vigne
The Silver Duelist
A defensive technique, the 'Strangling Vine' is meant to be used in response to a foe's thrust or when weapons are locked in a bind, the trick is simple, twirling her rapier around her foe's weapon, it's sheer flexibility and the speed of the twirl make it appear as if the blade is wrapping around the opposing weapon like a vine, before with a firm flick of the wrist the weapon is diverted. An unprepared foe could even be disarmed, and an unarmed opponent might come away with shallow gashes along their arm.
Parade Fleurie
The Silver Duelist
An elegant and beautiful parry, as the opponent attacks Antoinette spins her rapier in her hand, the speed making it seem like a blooming flower with thin silver petals before she sweeps it to the side and aims to slam the point where blade emerges from guard into the side of the foe's weapon and let the momentum of the spin aid in diverting the attack to the side. If her opponent was charging they may even stumble directly past her exposing their back to a dangerous counter thrust.
Saule Déchirant
Dancing Queen/The Silver Duelist
A technique based around not just dodging but using that dodge to empower a vicious counter thrust. It starts with Antoinette bending backwards, her body dramatically swaying to where her back is parallel to the ground itself to let a foe's strike pass harmlessly over her, before immediately lunging body surging forwards and blade extended to run the foe through!
Fleur qui Tourne
Dancing Queen
A beautiful evasive technique where as an attack comes towards her Antoinette steps into the side and turns that step into a spin, using it to twirl her body around the side of her opponent to potentially reveal an opening, some techniques used after Fleur qui Tourne become more dangerous, the spin adding extra momentum to the attack.
Pétales Balayants
The Silver Duelist
An actual attack rather than a parry or dodge, Antoinette sweeps her blade in front of her, horizontally or diagonally. While not meant for cutting a rapier can still slice through flesh and aimed properly a clean hit to a sensitive area can cause harm or impair a foe, but can also be a useful tool in spacing, a quick step during the move letting Antoinette retreat a short distance from a foe. It pairs particularly well with Fleur qui Tourne, the spin giving more speed to the slice.
Épine D'argent
The Silver Duelist/Cut and Run
Perhaps her most straightforward technique, Épine D'argent is nothing more or less than a fast hard thrust towards the heart of a foe, using her footwork and skill the lunge has a dramatic pose, imparting as much speed and force upon the rapier as possible. When used following Fleur qui Tourne it becomes even more dangerous coming out faster and with less time to react than normal.
Bouquet D'épines
Silver Duelist/Cut and Run
Next to Épine D'argent, Bouquet D'épines is her most outwardly offensive technique designed to overwhelm a foe or even take down a group of them. A Bouquet of Thorns could only fit a flurry of attacks, using her sterling swordsmanship and her impressive speed to deliver a furious barrage of a dozen pinpoint thrusts in the span of but a few moments. Even if one can avoid one or two or three there are another ten coming right behind them!
Background
Antoinette Biancardi was born into the lap of luxury and with next to no responsibilities to dread as she grew older. The daughter of a noble family on the Red Line they were not world nobles by any stretch they were still of great wealth and influence, enough that both her three older siblings felt no need to concern themselves with much of anything. Growing up she saw their supreme lack of care, her brother only being concerned with getting a prestigious position in the Navy and her sisters with, to a toddler, nothing at all. Her confusion was noticed by the private tutor the family hired to teach her and her siblings. Whereas they barely paid attention to most if any classes, she asked questions was interested and couldn't understand why her siblings didn't seem interested at all either. Her tutor recognized immediately that she hadn't yet been corrupted by the idea of, "there is nothing we could ever need or want that we can't have."
Said tutor seized upon this girl, desperate to try and teach someone something, to try and make one of these children who would one day hold influence over some politics of the world a fitting leader. He nurtured her curiosity he spurred it on, seeking out any means he could to keep it going and the thing he lit upon was her interest in the world outside. Here in the family's manor she could have all manner of things, but there was only so much she could see. The family's answer was that they could vacation where they wished, and did indeed have properties in other places on islands in the blues that they visited occasionally. On one such trip, the tutor was able to accompany them, and he was able to show Antoinette something beautiful.
The pure night sky, no lights dimming its splendor, its beauty, and telling her that the night sky looks different depending on which corner of the world one was in...and that it was more than just the stars that were different. This was one of two key moments that would help shape Antoinette into the woman she'd become, the second was the first time she saw a "Celestial Dragon." Her entire family bowing, being talked to like servants, her father scurrying off to do exactly as told and one of her sisters...leaving with them, and not by choice. Her parents, her aunts and uncles spoke of the event afterwards with excitement, one of their family chosen by the Celestial Dragons, how wonderful! They aspired to try and marry into such a family and Antoinette felt...disgust towards her family for the first time. She had been eleven years old at the time.
She knew at that time that this life of nobility was one she wanted no part of, but her childish attempt to run away had her retrieved immediately and firmly reprimanded. Her tutor tried to console her, advise her on what she should do. He didn't want her to leave, in her he saw a faint, fleeting hope for nobles of a better class. However unwittingly he wound up teaching her that if she wanted to leave, she would have to be far more careful and play a longer game. First, if she wanted to avoid being captured and brought back she needed to defend herself, and so one day she brought up to her parents that she wished to learn to fight.
Her parents found the idea quite amusing. They weren't opposed, two children as vice-admirals or even admirals would be a wonderful thing after all! More than that with an older sister and brother she wasn't of such importance that she had serious responsibilities in her future. Most importantly, cute daughters attempting to look tough and intimidating were all the rage at that time and they were delighted to encourage her, hiring a woman from far off, a master of the sword, of the rapier specifically.
For Elena Dewford this was a cushy job and a break from bounty hunting. Get a fat paycheck and spend a couple hours a day pretending to spar with some pampered brat who probably wouldn't even train for more than ten minutes for fear of growing callouses on her soft little hands. Instead she met a surprisingly sharp eyed and sharp tongued girl who demanded to be taken seriously, willing to spend hours in a single day practicing a few basic steps. Instead of a pampered noble she found a genuine student and slowly respect formed between the two, and Elena began to take Antoinette more seriously, unfortunately this nearly cost the woman her life.
Training has its risks, training to fight, training with swords, even moreso. It was a simple accident as the two practiced Elena pressing her student hard the two covered in sweat and Antoinette exhausted. The two clashed...Antoinette's training sword broke, and a fragment cut into her face, given the scar that formed it was a miracle Antoinette didn't lose her eye outright. Antoinette didn't mind of course but her family was furious, they ordered Elena arrested, imprisoned! Some in the family were even floating the idea of execution, and Antoinette couldn't stand it.
It had been five years since she'd run away and her family had long since forgotten it. Several nights later she snuck out again but not to run away but to break into the prison that Elena was held in. It actually worked, albeit barely. However sneaking past guards, stealing the key, getting caught and standing back to back with her mentor as they raced out of the prison and to safety...it was exhilarating. If there was even a chance that Antoinette's desire to leave had faded this turned that flame into a roaring inferno to the point that she begged Elena once they were safe to take her away with her that they both leave together!
Such a foolish thing to ask, and when Elena explained why Antoinette did understand. Her family wouldn't hesitate to call it a kidnapping and they'd both be hounded to the ends of the Earth. So Antoinette had to return and wait...but oh how the wait tore at her. She occupied herself with planning, figuring out what she wanted to do, where to go first. She took up 'dancing' instead of swordplay to mollify her family who while never realizing she was the mysterious figure that broke Elena free still did not like the idea of her continuing so 'dangerous' an activity. Instead she took up dancing...and used her allowance to pay her dance instructor to teach her everything, far more than just high class dances, that she could incorporate it into her swordplay and still find a way to exercise and improve even while having to practice the rapier in secret.
Then the final step of her plan. "Mother, father, for my 19th birthday I would very much love to visit North Blue!" They had a vacation home there, and they were happy to do just that, not realizing that Antoinette had no desire to return from this trip at all. She did at least stick with it until they reached their island manor, but a few days after that...she vanished. She stole a ship from the port, a ship small enough for her to manage herself and with the stars and a map in hand set her course, eyes on the horizon and a life free of the curse of nobility.
A life of piracy.