Hydaelyn Role-Players

So here's the backstory I've got for Mikki so far, this is an off the cuff creation of about 30 minutes of time, all the while being  hassled by my two year old so it's likely to be rife with spelling and punctuation errors.  Let me know what you think of the story so far and what, if any, more details I should include..or possibly exclude!

The Story of Mikki Viper
(According to Mikki Viper)

So you want to know all about me, hmm?  I imagine I'll run into this alot now that I'm off to be a heroic adventurer.  Adoring fans, lovestruck admirers and bards singing songs about me!  I can't wait!

*She looks around, realizing she's gone off on a bit of a flight of fancy*

Ahh, I mean.. it's the name right?  You wanted to know my story because of the name?  It's okay, everyone asks, they see a beautiful miqo'te like me, come up and ask my name and instead of what one would expect from a miqo'te, they get Mikki Viper.  Well, I don't mind, I'm honestly quite used to it by now.  So I guess there's nothing left but to start at the begining of things.
I was born an average miqo'te child into the average miqo'te family...probably.  Truth is, I don't really know where I was born or who my birth parents were.  You see, as my Da tells it, my family must've been a part of a merchants caravan traveling thru La Noscea, probably on their way to Limsa Lominsa or something to sell their wares.  Unfortunately the caravan was attacked by highwaymen and everyone was killed.

Well, not everyone, obviously I'm still here.  Funny thing how that happened to!  You see, somewhere in the battle, I was either thrown, or dropped, or rolled or otherwise most likely unceremoniously ended up in the ditch on the side of the road, right smack in the middle of a nest of pit vipers.  You know the kind, the scary, rattle tailed, long fanged venomous sort that sane people avoid.

How'd I survive that?  Why did the highwaymen leave me there?  What's the meaning of it all!? Well patience and I'll tell you.  Why did the highwaymen leave me there, well I imagine it was because of two very simple reasons.  Firstly, a child, as far as saleable goods are concerned, is not an ideal commodity to the average highway robber.  Secondly, being that a child is of considerably less value than their own lives, I don't imagine any one of them had the nerve or the will to reach into a nest of pit vipers to retrieve me.  On the off chance any of them might have considered it, what were the chances that I wasn't already bitten and just minutes away from dying right?
Anyroad, I guess it was about six or seven hours later that a hyur farming family, the Allistairs, wandered by, heading back to their farm after selling at a local market.  Donnel, the patriarch was telling one of his famous long winded stories about something or another when Sera, his wife, heard my mewling little cries from the side of the road.  I say mewling, my older brother, Garen, would say bleating...but never to my face. 

Being the kind hearted couple they were, the Allistairs used some sticks to move the vipers aside and recovered me, accruing no injury to themselves or to me, thank the twelve.  Donnel, forever more refered to as my Da, couldn't fathom how I survived without so much as a scratch.  A nest of vipers like that should've made a quick snack of me, but instead it was like they either ignored me, or possibly even protected me to some extent.

The point is, I survived that nasty ordeal, and no I don't know why the vipers spared me, I only know that I'm mighty grateful that they did.  I was brought to the Allistair farmstead and raised as their daughter.  Of course seeing as I didn't come with a nametag or any proper paperwork or nuthing, they had to name me.  Thus Mikki Allistair was my given name, well it would've been had my Da not thought that the whole thing with the vipers was such an amazing story as to forever dedicate it's amazingness to the world by gifting me with the surname of Viper.  He said it'd be a great conversation starter and a way for me to always remember the strange and amazing things that can happen in our world.
One thing's for certain, he was right about it being a conversation starter.  It seems nary a day goes by where I don't have to explain my name to someone or another.  I should probably write it down and just hand it out in pamphlets, that'd save me a good deal of time actually.

*realizing she's once again gone off on a bit of a flight of fancy she blushes and smiles and promptly returns to the story at hand*

So, my formative years were probably spent with me crying and doing baby and toddler things.  Nothing too special or otherwise interesting there.  When I was old enough to start helping the family around the house and farm tho, that's when the story gets a little more fun.  I learned early that around the house I was barely useful, I couldn't cook to save a life!  I could over season, under-cook, or otherwise ruin even the simplest of dishes in record time!  I wasn't that much help when it came to the cleaning either.  That's not to say I was or am a filthy person.  I tried my utmost to be as clean and presentable as I could be, my Ma says that's the miqo'te in me.  It's just that when it came to cleaning up my surroundings, well I lacked any form of motivation to do it rightly.  I could stitch a thread here and there, but I wouldn't say I was that great at it to be honest with you.
It took a while, but I realized that indoors I was more of a hinderance than a help so I looked outwards towards the fields and the work to be had out there.   My Da had no qualms with me offering a hand, seeing as my Ma and my two sisters....oh right, I never mentioned them..well I have them.  Marcella, the oldest, and Luccia the middle.  Anyroad, since my Ma and sisters had the inside stuff more than covered, I was able to learn the ways of planting and harvesting.  I really liked it too, and my Da says I have a knack for it.  For me it wasn't really so much work as it was just paying attention to the needs of the seed, or the plant.  My Da says I could get tomatoes to grow out of the rocks if I had the inkling to do so.  I don't know about all that but I do know that when it comes to planting and harvesting, I'm more than comfortable and capable doing so.

I was helpful besides just planting and growing too.  I could gather up wood and other wild supplies without causing too much if any harm to the plants I was gathering from, and I adored spending long hours on my own just foraging about to find what I could find.  I suppose all of this could've been an early indicator that I had some kind of raw talent for the arts of conjury, but my family didn't know about such things.  So it wasn't until my seventeenth year when we all realized something was amiss.

Now before I continute I want to stress that what I'm about to tell you wasn't my fault, I didn't do it on purpose and any way you look at it, my older brother had it coming.  So anyroad, I was working in the fields, minding my own nevermind when Garen snuck up behind me and dropped a field worm down the back of my shirt!  Without so much as thinking about what I was doing, the next thing I know I'm willing up a handful of rocks clear out of the earth and flinging them thru the air at my brothers backside without so much as touching a single pebble!

He wasn't hurt, not seriously.  Just a tanned bum and a few bruises, nothing he didn't have coming his way.  The point is, everyone realized right then and there that I had a talent and in order to nurture it, I had to leave the stead.  Don't get the wrong impression now, they didn't kick me out, in fact my Ma didn't want me to go, but how couldn't I?  Here I suddenly realized I have the ability to do something special and that there was a whole wide world out there that I could explore.  It was the first time I really began to think about the outside of the farmstead and I was struck with a wanderlust, I wanted to, no I NEEDED to get out there and go!

So my parents scraped together some gil, got me some nice new clothes and a ticket aboard a carriage headed towards Gridania where I'm going to learn what there is to learn about conjury!  That's pretty much my story so far, anymore details and you'd have to buy me a drink first.  Anyroad, best of luck to you and yours out there, hopefully you'll be hearing more about me in the days to come!

I like it, it has a great simple beginnings to it that I think is under-rated. The name is unique and is in fact a conversation starter. Im still trying to has out a beginning myself so Im glad I could see a well put together one like this

Thanks, racooperii.  I like to keep backgrounds simple and let the truly interesting stuff happen thru RP.  Not that there's anything wrong with super interesting backgrounds either, they're all fun!

Hey good work there Viper!

It's nice to see you are not just another Lemming (sorry, I had to) ready to follow everyone off the cliff with the same old story.

Well done!

Maybe we can meet up in game sometime and RP!

Konner

I have a tendancy to overthink my backgrounds lol. I like some twist but it takes a while to really get my hundred thoughts narrowed down...

I hope to hear more on Mikki Viper though, so be sure to continue the story of her better adventures.

Kitten kitten kitten kitten kitten kitten kitten kitten... Magic! Magic!
Kitten kitten kitten kitten kitten kitten kitten kitten... Magic! Magic!
Kitten kitten kitten kitten kitten kitten kitten kitten... aaaaaarrgh snaaake aah snaaaaake it's a snaaaaaake oooohhhh it's a snaaaaake!

o_O

Err, sorry.

I meant to say it was an interesting read, but my memory was suddenly assaulted with that badgerbadgerbadger song.

The way it's written in first person also gives some interesting bits of the character's personality, in addition to the background story. Like how the whole thing is told rather casually and how Mikki gets distracted halfway through.

thank you everyone for the feedback so far.  This is still a rough work and I'll shore up the rough edges over the next few weeks.

I do like to tell character stories from their own perspective, it helps me sink a bit farther into their character but I think also lets the readers get a taste.  I'm not 100% that I'm getting her "know it all" attitude in there tho, so like I said, the work will change over the next few days.

Hmm.. can't say I got a know-it-all vibe in there but then it's 2am and know-it-alls shows in social situations more than in storytelling. Especially if the story is about oneself, the know-it-all DOES know it all so yeah.
That's something that would show more in RP, I think.

(06-26-2013, 02:20 AM)Asyria Wrote: [ -> ]Hmm.. can't say I got a know-it-all vibe in there but then it's 2am and know-it-alls shows in social situations more than in storytelling. Especially if the story is about oneself, the know-it-all DOES know it all so yeah.
That's something that would show more in RP, I think.

Yeah, I was struggling with tyring to find a place to stick her bratty attitude in there, but it's hard to be like that when all you're doing is letting someone know your basic history.

I think the information on the wiki for the character will let people get a more defined vibe of her actual personality.  In this case I think, or hope, people are getting the idea that she's talkative, not shy at all, easily distractable (especially when it comes to her own self / ideas) and in the casualness of her discussion that she's not altogether an unfriendly sort (when she's not riled up)

Yep, definitely got all that and suspecting she's a pretty tough one too, seeing as she can speak of everyone dying so casually. Of course it's not like she knew them, but it's still her parents she was talking about and I did get the nice and friendly person vibe so she couldn't be callous... meaning she's either got used to telling the story or she's tough. Or both. Probably both.

I love the background story. Keep up all the good work.

(06-26-2013, 02:41 AM)Asyria Wrote: [ -> ]Yep, definitely got all that and suspecting she's a pretty tough one too, seeing as she can speak of everyone dying so casually. Of course it's not like she knew them, but it's still her parents she was talking about and I did get the nice and friendly person vibe so she couldn't be callous... meaning she's either got used to telling the story or she's tough. Or both. Probably both.

I wouldn't call her callous at all really, not sure I'd call her super tough either, though she certainly would say she is.

I think it's more akin to the fact that these were people who died 18 years ago who she never knew for a second.  Her life with her Hyur family was a good one, she never felt that itch to find out more about where she came from or who she was because as far as she's concerned, she came from a little farmstead in La Noscea and she's the youngest daughter of the Allistairs.

As far as having explained the story alot, yeah she'll have definitely done that.  Ultimately it's a tradgedy that it happened but it ultimately has no emotional impact on who she is, She'd likely say it's hard to feel more than what everyone would feel when told of such a thing.  A passing twinge of sorrow at the souls lost, anger at those who'd do such a thing..and then on with the rest of the day..  

It's hard for her to place herself in the picture as related to the folks that died there, she never didn't have a family to lean on..

Gotcha!

I really like the style with which you wrote this introduction. It was a fun read and full of personality. Looking forward to running into ya in game. ^^

Thanks again to everyone for the great feedback.  I do look forward to RP'in with all of ya.  Blade I'm looking forwards to joining that linkshell of yours as well!