Peppercorn Sauvichild

[Peppercorn]

Race: Human
Age: 25
Appearance: Peppercorn is 5'9" and weighs just around 130 lbs. She has straight chestnut-brown hair down to her shoulders, typically kept tied back with a decorative leather hair-band. She has maple-brown eyes set in a slender yet softly round face. Her body is toned and, likewise, slender. Pep mainly dresses in what others consider a mannish style - tailored leather trousers, plain lace-up cotton shirts, leather vests whenever the weather chilly enough. Once Pep might have been seen in a dress, but it is arguable whether that's a rumor or not. Though considered mannish, Pep would otherwise be very attractive and most men bemoan the fact that she refuses to capitalize on this fact.

History: Peppercorn was born in Marn and has lived there her whole life. Her family has owned a well-liked leather shop in town for generations, and while not rich, they are comfortable. She went through school averagely well, not standing out and not getting in unnecessary trouble. The most her parents (Sauvi and Jaepeth) could complain was that she didn't apply herself to the feminine pursuits, and instead showed interest in physical training (rough-housing with her male friends) and generally spending time outdoors. She also spent a fair amount of time hanging around her father's shop, helping out with things as he needed. As she was nearing the end of her schooling, Her parents were pushing for her to go to University in order to acquire some useful skills she might use in her later life. However, toward the end of that same year, her father fell very ill with a sudden fever. Sauvi did all she could afford to get him healed, but - call it Fate or poor luck - everything failed. He died two weeks later. Sauvi took it very hard. With no other prospects to take over the leather-works, Sauvi turned to Peppercorn, who at least had a working knowledge of the shop. Feeling like it was her duty to step up, Peppercorn set her emotions aside over her father's death and willfully took over. Once in the swing of work, she decided to confront her "sorrow" (or what she thought she ought to have felt as such), decided that it wasn't exactly sorrow but more of a social obligation to feel bad, decided to get over that, and lastly, decided to ascribe her father's death to Fate, after all.

Since her father's death, she has done a good job of stepping into the role as owner of the leather-works. She continues to learn more and more about leather-working, enjoys it well enough, and earns good money. With it, she helps support her mother who agreed that it made the most sense for Pep to live with her and house her horse in the small family stables where it had been before her father's death. That first year was rough and Pepper spent long nights sweating over books her father had kept, deals her father had made, things that hadn't panned out. But, once she sorted through it all - she decided that the best way to take things over was to take them over in her own style. And, with her charismatic approach and ability to read people, it went well after another half year or so. Since, the business continues to do well. In fact, the business does so well that - after several years of working alone - Pep decided that some help and some time off would be good. Thus, she found Karrion who now works the shop with her. She takes at least 2 days off a week, though often more than that. On her time off, she generally spends time in physical training, wandering through the rest of the market, and spending time with her mother or friends around the city.

As far as ideology goes, Pep falls in with the common thought of Marn, not really questioning it and not really feeling bothered by it. She doesn't have a strong opinions. If asked, she goes with the flow and seems as though she agrees with common thought. One thing, though, is that her skepticism comes out when it comes to faeries, vampires, were-animals, and other such extreme magical things. She simply doesn't believe they are real. Instead, she likes to think that these are just stories made up by people who saw other people doing really fucked up things with magic - screwing themselves up and such. If she encountered one (which she never has), she'd definitely treat it with a hefty dose of denial and avoidance. She acknowledges that the government and gnomes use magic, but then in the same sentence will deny that magic is ever okay to use (classic double-think)

As for relationships: Pepper is close to her mother, but more as a partner than an "authority" since Pepper stepped into her father's shoes. The stability that Pepper has supplied to her mother has pushed her to accept Pep as an equal. There were tensions in years past, especially that of the first year - fights even - but Sauvi eventually came around to realise that Pepper was trustworthy and self-sufficient. Those fights are in the past, now and the two get on well. Decisions, generally, are made together when necessary, though Pepper keeps the workings of the leather-works to herself and Sauvi doesn't object as that was how Jaepeth ran things anyway. Though, Sauvi will be getting old soon and Pepper secretly worries about what she'll do when that becomes an issue. As for Karrion, it can't be said that they are close but the two work well enough together. Karrion minds his own business and does his job well, and Pepper pays him what he is due. When it comes to decisions at the leather-works, Pepper makes the serious ones and trusts Karrion to make smaller ones. When the two do have to work together, conversation is limited to business matters and there is a subtle terseness in the air that Pepper chooses to ignore and go along with because Karrion does a good job and is trustworthy and self-suficient - like herself. She has no idea what his personal life is like, nor does she pay it any mind. As far as friends go, Pep has what she lovingly refers to as 'pub friends'. They hang out in the pubs, they drink together, they laugh and jostle one another, they don't really amount to too much. The crowd she hangs with is mixed, but the majority are males and other single "mannish" females. Pepper, herself, is still single and doesn't bother spending time with anyone other than her pub friends. Professionally, Pep is well-known throughout the city for being honest and direct with her dealing, while making a point to keep them short and genial.

Profession/Abilities/Strengths: Leather shop owner. Leather-working, haggling/bargaining, managing business dealings (money, trading, etc), charisma, having a good sense of people's motives, horseback riding, street fighting (hand-to-hand and knife-skills), bow-hunting, running, swimming, climbing

Weaknesses: Denial over the magical forces in the world, social double-think, a tendency to glance past issues because they seem inconvenient to confront, head-strong, loss of finger-dexterity due to all the strenuous activity, decreased sense of smell due to all the leather-working

Possessions: Leather-working materials, a long hand-blade kept in a case on her hip, short bow for hunting small animals, a long bow for hunting larger animals, a gathering of arrows in a leather quiver, a decorative arm bracer, several decorative leather hair-bands, a saddle with two saddlebags, daily profit from the leather-works (split 60/40 with Karrion) a small purse and a small shoulder bag, clothing and shoes made from leather at the shop (a few cotton shirts and a pair of cotton trousers), a horse named Variant

[Saruna]

Hiya! Welcome to Thar and thanks for the app.

I like the direction you're going with Pepper, especially her sort of go-with-the-flow social blending. You have put a lot of personality in her, as well as fitting her neatly into Marn, and I appreciate that effort.

What I would like to see is maybe one or two personality strengths in profession/abilities/strengths, and some physical weaknesses of some kind in her weaknesses to counter her very fit and rather skilled strengths. Perhaps something related to leather working (loss of dexterity in fingers, lessened sense of smell, something totally off the wall -- whatever floats your boat).

Where does she keep her horse? Does she keep it at a stable, or is her family well off enough to have a small stable of their own? How long has she owned the horse? Does she struggle to make enough money to pay for its housing/feeding as well as her family since her father's death?

How did the death of her father affect her? Does she only have male friends? Is she used to being thought of as one of the guys? Is her relationship (friendship or business, not necessarily romantic) with Karion important to her development as a person? If so, how did she meet him? How long has she known him? What influence does he hold over her opinions? How does her mother influence her?

Please leave a reply in this thread when you are ready for your app to be looked at again. In the meantime, if you have questions you can ask them in this thread, hop into chat, or send a pm to myself, Niabi, or Frug. Cheers!

[Peppercorn]

Hey Saruna, thanks for the welcome. Also, thanks for the suggestions.

I've fleshed things out and added where you thought needed some more depth. I'm hoping that other details (such as who my friends are specifically) can come out in game-play, but if you think it's best to have all that established first, just let me know.
Also, is there a way to change my status listed to citizen once Peppercorn is accepted?

[Saruna]

Looks good to me. The outsider/citizen thing is affected by posts/length of time here. I'm not sure if Frug can manually alter it; I know it's come up before in the past and I can't recall if he did or not. You can try sending him or Niabi a pm and see how that pans out.

Approved.

You can check out current active threads here: http://www.tharshaddin.com/rp/viewforum.php?f=2

And also characters not in a thread here: http://www.tharshaddin.com/rp/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1497

We highly recommend pming players of established threads or available characters, as it's the fastest way to get into a thread.

[Frug]

They're called ranks and they're generated automatically. I can manually create them, too. They're not very useful though and I might get rid of them.