Elyon Verdelet

[mirima]

Name: Elyon Armoros Berith Verdelet
Nicknames/Aliases: Ell or L, Verdy, L. V. (as in, El. Ve.). Mainly, though, she goes by Verdy.
Gender: Female
Age: 30
Species: Hare
Occupation: Long Patrol Lieutenant

Physical Appearance:

General--
Verdy is of normal height and build, neither a giant nor a dwarf, neither skeletal nor bulging with muscle, though she does lean towards the 'plump and short' side rather than the 'thin and tall' one. Though she always keeps herself fighting-fit and her muscles toned, she is just a little bit heavier than the average fighting hare. She blames this on her father's wide paws and thick bones, which slow her down some. She puts these both to good use, however, using them to keep herself grounded in a fight.

While Verdy got her body from her father, she got her looks from her mother. Slightly more masculine-looking than she would have liked to be, she has dark, unassuming brown eyes and short, monochrome fur that maintains the same sandy shade all over her body. With annoyance, she notes every morning how imposing her face looks, how the natural set of her jaw suggests fierceness even though no fierceness is present.

No scars mark her body: Verdy claims that, in battle, blades avoid her compulsively, and that she has nothing to do with the fact that she is only rarely injured. In truth, she is just too careful with herself to be hurt in minor skirmishes, or really in major ones, though the matter is out of her hands in a large battle.

Attire--
Verdy values clothes, believing them to be a reflection of the creature who wears them, so keeps her own clean and neat. When not in her Long Patrol uniform - which is her favorite outfit - she wears soft colors so that no unnecessary attention is drawn to her person. Since she hasn't grown for quite a while, most of the clothes in her closet are the same ones she wore when she was a private. The most recognizable of all her outfits is one her mother made her: a pale blue tunic with red stitching, complete with a sewn-on black belt and hook for her to hang her saber's sheath on. Verdy only wears her 'fancy attire', as she calls it, for special occasions.

As far as accessories go, the lieutenant likes to wear two copper anklets while off duty; she moves them to her right wrist (she's left-pawed) while working so they don't interfere with her sword work. Often, she wears a thin chain around her neck as well. Her saber is undecorated, and says she'd have it no other way because it is vile to celebrate a killing instrument by decorating it and trying to hide its true nature beneath trimmings and trappings.

Possessions:

Unlike many other hares, Verdy enjoys jewelry; she owns only a few pieces, but that does not stop her from wearing them. Other than her two anklets, her wardrobe includes: an elegant black belt for off-work; a rough brown one for fighting and marching; one thin chain necklace she was given as a baby, and has taken to wearing now that it fits her properly. Her only other possessions are her sword and a small sling she cannot use very well.

Personality:

The Verdy that you see off-duty is not the kind of hare you would expect to be quickly moving up through the ranks in the Long Patrol; certainly, looking at her strong, decisive face and thick bones, you would think her to be imposing, slightly sadistic, and eager for a fight. However, she is unassuming and gentle when not working; she adopts a kind of ça ira, ira ('what will be, will be') attitude towards the world. She is most of fond hares her own age and older, preferring more mature conversation, and likes to exercise the charms of her personality on everyone around her. Usually, though, they are ranked officers and not young leverets or new Long Patrol recruits. That isn't to say she doesn't like the young privates - she does - but she doesn't automatically treat them as equal to the their elders. She doesn't mean to be biased, but she cannot help but try and avoid the childish conversations the she assumes all privates have, which tend to rub her the wrong way.

Other things to bother Verdy all have to do with a strict set of morals that she lives by - things such as 'always admit mistakes' and 'never lie' are rules never to be broken. Really, short of harming someone that she loves, breaking one of her 'rules' is the only way to provoke real anger.

Verdy doesn't mean to do a lot of things, and often it's easy to forgive her for a slip, though she doesn't often forgive others of theirs. Her attention drawn away by daydreams or by the thought of swordplay or training, most of her transgressions involve accidently ignoring creatures or saying something out of line. With her sweet, attentive disposition comes a flighty personality: focused on one thing, she is likely to disregard or neglect others, something that she loathes other people doing to her. Also, she tends to be completely candid, which often inadvertently offends creatures. She has a history of making careless mistakes while off-duty - like confusing the days of the week or jumbling her words, so that she calls tarts pies and pies tarts - while her attention is caught on some other matter. For this she has earned several amusing nicknames. One odd thing about Verdy's career in the Long Patrol is that, a Romantic, she likes swordplay and fencing (she thinks about it whenever she isn't daydreaming about honor or food), but doesn't enjoy killing; to her, the first is admirable and should be rewarded and the latter is despicable and should be punished. However, her sense of duty is extremely strong, and she felt - and still feels - that it would have been wrong of her to choose to learn swordplay without joining the Long Patrol.

It is odd to be more interested in the ideals of a thing than the reality, but Verdy is. She honors bravery and strength on the battlefield, but loathes the idea that, to prove bravery, one must often kill many foebeasts. She holds swordplay in a place of honor in her mind, believing one's ability with a blade to be a show of character, but is interested only in the technicalities, not in the practical work (she is good enough, however, that she can win by technicality alone; she isn't the best fighter in the Long Patrol by far, but she is good enough). Honor and valor are to be praised; deaths are to be lamented; battles should be fought; yet life must be preserved; good must be defended; no offending party should suffer from said defense. Though all these traits could possibly lend themselves to making a very good swordsman and a very bad fighter, Verdy has taken to ignoring the negative side of each of her ideals, allowing her to work freely in a battle. For example, when fighting one-on-one, she focuses only on the technicalities of her swordplay and on bringing her enemy down honorably, not on the fact that to 'bring her enemy down' she must kill him. The only time she is ever fully focuses on something is when she is working, and she is very proud of her skills, for it was her dedication to swordplay, plus her technical skill and willingness to practice, that helped her earn her current position.

Strengths:

• Willing to learn and to improve herself
  
• Gentle disposition, so she gets along well with other creatures
  
• Devoted to her job and to her ideals
  
• A perilous fighter; though she can't box, shoot, or use a sling, she can manage most any kind of blade.

Weaknesses:

• Fight by the book, and not by impulse. This means that her movements can be predicted and prevented fairly easily
  
• Can only use bladed weapons
  
• Constantly distracted
  
• Cannot stand infractions on her code of morals that she has set for herself
  
• Loathes killing, and takes great pains to avoid it

History/Background:

Though the Long Patrol seems to accumulate many hares with pasts that were interesting or traumatic or just plain weird, Verdy grew up in a relatively normal Patrol family. Both her father and her mother were in the regiment, and both still are, so she always looked upon the Patrol as a sort of inevitability. Her older brother, Koko, had entered and done very well, and there seemed to be a promising future in front of Verdy. Except - she did not want to be in the Patrol. As a leveret, her mother frequently entertained her with stories and these filled her mind, until she hated killing with a passion and did not want anything to do with it - anything, of course, except swordfighting. Verdy was adamant about learning swordplay. For four years, starting at five, she was stubborn: she never wanted to join the regiment, but she did not want to give up fencing because of it. At the time fencing was a sort of magical thing to her, not very real at all, but something out of a fairy tale, but she did not care. When she finally did budge of the matter, it was only after much persuasion on the behalf of her father and brothers. She showed little talent at first, being too clumsy to really do anything save stab people in the feet accidently. However, she took what she learned and broke it down into infinitesimal pieces, perfecting one at a time until she could put them all together. It is probably because of that that she relegated herself to nearly all technical fighting later on, but there were other factors involved in the decision to forgo improvisation in favor of perfection. As she spent more and more time in the Patrol, Verdy proved her worth, moving from private to corporal at 19, from corporal to sergeant at 24, and from sergeant to lieutenant at 29 and three seasons, most all of her promotions coming by virtue of her personality and desire to improve her skills with a sword.

Relationships:

• Father: Orias Lerajie Imamiah Verdelet. Olive (his initials spell 'oliv'; the 'e' is silent anyways, so he is called 'Olive') is slightly put-out by his only daughter's Romantic tendencies, as he himself is a very down-to-earth Patrol hare, and by the flighty, distracted air she always carries about with her. However, she loves him dearly, and models her devotion to swordplay after his. He loves her as well, so puts up with her whims. Olive is very proud that his daughter is doing so well in the Patrol, too.
  
• Mother: Semyaza Ore Verdelet. Semmy is a kindred spirit to her daughter's: she was the one who instilled most of Verdy's ideals in her mind, after all. Both get along excellently, frequently sitting together outside and talking about nothing in particular.
  
• Younger brother: Ruatha Caim Eligor Verdelet. Verdy's and Rue's relationship is that of a typical brother-sister pair: Rue, the youngest Verdelet, enjoys tormenting Verdy, especially because he knows she'll never complain about him. Verdy, in turn, mothers her brother, purposefully embarrassing him in front of his friends to get back at him.
  
• Older brother: Kokabiel Valefore Verdelet. Koko is much more serious than Verdy, so he generally spends most of his time with her chastising her for her silly mistakes or lecturing her about the severity of the real world. Their relationship is fairly tense: Koko believes his sister needs to get her head out of the clouds, and Verdy believes her brother needs to lighten up considerably. Both have had violent arguments with the other in the past, and Koko is the only one that Verdy is known to avoid.

Other

None

[Wildrun]

Looks good, it's just that there's an application for a Long Patrol position. Take care of that and you'll be good to go.

[Tracy]

Accepted for LP and added to roster.