User Profile
Add Friend
Add Note
Track User
Send Message
Send V-Gift
tifaunlocked's Journal
Created on 2007-02-04 04:05:41 (#12202689), never updated
0 comments received, 1,151 comments posted
Plus Account [Gift]
0 Journal Entries, 2 Tags, 0 Memories, 0 Virtual Gifts, 15 Userpics
Basic Info| Name: | Tifa Lockhart |
|---|---|
| Birthdate: | 01-03 |
| Location: | TX |
BioREPO! The Genetic Roleplay
Three Crossings
This journal is an RP account for the above games. Go go Gadget Pasta!
REPO! The Genetic Roleplay
Name Lu
Contact AIM: LuTheDoctor
Name Tifa Lockhart
Fandom Final Fantasy VII
Age 22
Gender ♀!
Appearance Tifa stands at 5'7" and walks the fine line between slim and muscular. Vivacious and competent, she carries herself with the confidence of someone able to fend for herself. Her long hair is dark brown and falls to mid-thigh when she lets it down; typically, she keeps it tied back at the waist in a compromise between femininity and functionality. Full and feathered bangs fall into her heart-shaped face, or would if she didn't brush them all off to one side, and her big brown eyes and fair skin belie her fighting capabilities.
Tifa's sense of fashion is somewhat equivocal, ever caught between freedom and functionality; as a bartender in a bad part of town, there is the constant unspoken imperative of allure, and as a woman in a bad part of town there is the necessity of movement to facilitate self-defense--or offense, as the case may be. Not ashamed in the slightest to show off what she's got, Tifa is also unafraid to prove she can't be trifled with, and has been known to unflinchingly throw punches when an confrontation turns sour.
Personality Hard-nosed and cynical, Tifa has a quick wit and sharp tongue that she is not at all bashful about unleashing upon anyone she thinks deserves it. After being left to fend for herself at the age of fifteen, Tifa quickly learned that kindness did not begat kindness; in her eyes, nothing comes free, and everything can be gotten for a price. The question is whether or not she's willing to pay.
You could say that her scruples are really the only thing holding her back. Unwilling to sell out even if it means buying in, Tifa would rather claw her way through life in visceral defiance than cash in her heart for a little more luxury. Nursing something raw and bloody and angry, she would never admit it but she takes some sick joy in lashing out at the establishment, and can rejoice in her own misfortunes provided they embody her exultant rejection of Gene Co., the evil corporation perpetuating this savage and brutal status quo.
Despite her stubborn clinging to poverty to nurse her pride, and usually far outweighing her vindictive outrage, Tifa is rather overwhelmingly inclined towards kindness. There is little Tifa wouldn't do for someone in need, though she tries hard not to show it--imagine how much people would take advantage of her if her selfless streak became common knowledge.
Hard-pressed to turn a blind eye, Tifa strives to act a lot more aloof and uncaring than she really is; her shrewd demeanor rather crumbles when someone in genuine need is brought into the equation, however, especially if children are involved somehow. So motherly it burns, Tifa fights to keep her heart closed to everyone; she knows every attachment is a weakness, and in this ruthless world where so many have to fight to survive, any weakness could be crippling. With a heart as big as Tifa's, though, it's often a losing battle...
Background Born in one of the tragically backwater towns struggling to subsist, Tifa was surprisingly healthy considering her genetics. Her mother was constantly ill throughout Tifa's childhood, and despite some organ financing and a few transplants, there simply wasn't enough money to keep her mother alive. She died when Tifa was seven; the loss greatly devastated the family, and Tifa and her father became heavily co-dependent.
The money they spent on her mother was never recovered, and Tifa's father struggled to raise her while in the throes of crippling debt. Unbeknownst to Tifa, her father had actually contracted for a new heart he'd needed replaced just before her birth, and with her late mother's constant invalidism, he'd opted for a long-term refinancing of the organ. His late wife's bills compounded by the boosters and supplements he made sure to provide Tifa throughout her childhood (he was taking every precaution to make sure she grew up healthy and strong) finally ended him; when Tifa was fifteen, a Repo Man came and murdered her father before her very eyes, with no explanation whatsoever.
It wasn't even until later that she learned her father had ever had a heart transplant in the first place. Through the course of the repossession, Tifa's town somehow caught fire; she's always associated the fire with the unjustifiable brutality of the Repo Man, but the half-assed investigation turned up nothing conclusive one way or the other about the cause.
Tifa herself remembers very little beyond the murder. After a valiant--but stupid--attempt to defend her father, she wound up unconscious, and woke up in the city over a week later, in a shoddy bed in a skeevy hotel with a shady clerk who wouldn't tell her how she'd gotten there, or what'd been done to her in the meantime. The clerk just handed over some money and winked at her. "Guess he liked you," was the most informative thing she got out of him.
It still grosses her out to think about it. But without any scars (and oh, did she check) Tifa was at least fairly confident that she hadn't been under the knife, and that was something of a small comfort. She left the hotel and carved out a little piece for herself somewhere on the fringes of the city, where life was cheap and death was cheaper. The money her mysterious benefactor (and...perhaps client? Ugh...) left her turned out to be a great boon; she managed to keep her head above water without having to lay herself low, and to this day Tifa has never stooped to the drug market or whoring...though there may be a few not-quite-legal magazines floating around with photographic documentation of her teenage years. These days, she runs a real dive of a bar, some shit rundown hole in the wall called 'The Bleeding Heart', and spends her free time getting back at Gene Co. however she can.
Genetics & Alterations Tifa has never been under the knife. Her parents were both sickly, however, and she is strangely healthy considering her genesis. She took many supplements and boosters growing up, which might account for her vivacity, but Tifa secretly wonders if it can explain everything.
First Person Sample To the nameless fucker who kicked off the brawl at my place last night:
You're lucky you ran like a bitch.
Third Person Sample Broken glass crunched like fallen snow, Tifa noticed as she hefted the last unconscious slob up off the floor and carted him across the floor to pitch outside. It compressed, ground, and popped under the treads of her boots and reminded her of the mountain overlooking her village.
Throwing the mostly vestigial deadbolt on her door, she tugged off her fingerless gloves and wiped her bangs off her face, gingerly prodding the cut on her cheek from a very unsporting ring some jackass had been wearing. It wouldn't need stitches, thank God. If she never saw a doctor again, it would be too soon, and while she could probably have stitched up a flesh wound in her leg to no real detriment, stitching her face was a little beyond her.
After slapping a pair of glue sutures over the disinfected cut in her dingy bathroom mirror, she set about cleaning up, whistling low as she noticed the slightly splintered panel of one wall behind the bar. Shit shit please don't be broken... Slowly, carefully, she pressed on the panel and then slid it away, revealing a narrow hole, maybe two feet wide by about five tall. Light fell through the passageway and revealed a tiny sunken room, concealed from the world by metal walls, a concrete foundation, and breached only by the single movable panel that was thankfully not broken after all.
Her bedroom still accessible, she shut it away again and sighed, resigning herself to yet another late night of cleaning up after the scum of the earth. It was humbling every time she remembered that she was one of them.
Three Crossings
Player Name: Lu
AIM Screen Name: LuTheDoctor
Character Name: Tifa Lockhart
Series: Final Fantasy VII
Age: 22
Physical Description: Tifa stands at 5'7" and walks the fine line between slim and muscular. Vivacious and competent, she carries herself with the confidence of someone able to fend for herself. Her long hair is dark brown and falls to mid-thigh when she lets it down; typically, she keeps it tied back at the nape of her neck in a compromise between femininity and the sweltering heat. Full and feathered bangs fall into her heart-shaped face, and her big brown eyes and fair skin belie her fighting capabilities. When toiling away as barmaid in her establishment, The Blind Tiger, Tifa usually wears a loose undershirt and one of several corsets she has in her wardrobe, along with full skirts, as befitting a lady. She does, however, wear dark brown leather boots that come knee-high, and though her lacy stockings are rather ladylike, the way she hikes her skirts up and tucks them into her belt is most definitely not.
In addition to keeping her skirts out of the way to combat the heat, Tifa's leather belt also holds a few belt pouches and perhaps more importantly, houses her dirk and dagger, both of which she is quite proficient with. As a barmaid, she lines her eyes with lampblack and rouges her lips, though she seems little point in much more than that in the tropical heat. Not ashamed in the slightest to show off what she's got, Tifa is also unafraid to prove she can't be trifled with, and has been known to unflinchingly pull her weapons when an altercation turns sour.
Skilled as she is with her dirk and dagger, Tifa is also a rather adept skinfighter, and will often appear in her own ring, though her wardrobe alters dramatically for the occasion. For her fights, Tifa braids her long hair back and winds it into a bun, securing her bangs beneath a mossy green bandanna the same color as the breeches she wears--and actually cut from the same cloth, so to speak. Her breeches, which end in tatters just below her knees, barely tuck into her boots. The breeches were once full length, but have since been ripped off at the knees, the cloth recycled into the bandanna she wears. Also, Tifa prefers men's shirts to fight in, the loose sleeves and large sizes afford her more freedom of movement. However, because of the low V-necks of most men's shirts, Tifa also wears a simple leather vest, dark brown like her boots, that laces up the front of her stomach and works wonders for keeping her loose-fitting shirts in line.
Personality: Hard-nosed and cynical, Tifa has a quick wit and sharp tongue that she is not at all bashful about unleashing upon anyone she thinks deserves it. After being left to fend for herself when the war began, Tifa quickly learned that kindness did not begat kindness and instead only drew lazeabouts and freeloaders to her doorstep. She'll spare a smile for a weary soul when the mood suits her, but for the most part, she will only exchange words with strangers if those strangers are filling her coffers and draining their tankards.
Her shrewd, cold demeanor doesn't hold up when children are brought into the equation, however. During the pirate raids that strike Tartarus, Tifa will hide children seeking refuge in the secret room beneath her bar while she joins the men in the fighting. So motherly it burns, Tifa fights to keep her heart closed to everyone; she knows every attachment is a weakness, and in the cutthroat world where she often has to fight to survive, any weakness could be crippling.
Abilities/Strengths/Weaponry: From a very young age, Tifa began studying the art of proper swordfighting, and her fencing master even taught her to wield a dagger, kris, and dirk. When she was fifteen, her formal study was cut short when she had to flee to Naraka, but fortunately there her study and practice gave way to real-life application of her fighting skills. On Naraka, Tifa also very quickly became acquainted with skinfighting, and during her years on the island, her fighting style integrated the graceful and fluid motions of the blade with the rough and gritty twists, jerks, and ducks inherent in skinfights. These days, Tifa is quite the force to be reckoned with; her fighting style is quite unique and unpredictable, and opponents are hard-pressed to take her down in a fight.
Weaknesses: For all her abilities, Tifa does quite poorly with guns. She has bad aim and is inexperienced with all manners of firearms, and they also frighten her somewhat--a dagger held to her throat will hardly faze her, but a gun to her head would get her to fold fairly quickly. Tifa also has a soft spot for kids, particularly orphans and homeless children, and will go out of her way to help them, even putting herself in danger to do so.
History: Born to a wealthy couple in Dardenelles, Tifa spent most of her childhood as the pampered and beloved only child of the governor of Dubrovnik. The Aegean King appointed her father as the city's governor only weeks after Tifa was born, and the family moved to Sir Lockhart's newly refurbished mansion in Elysium's northernmost city. Though Tifa's mother spent a lot of time with her, Tifa also was privileged enough to have a nanny who instilled in her the ways of proper behavior and ladylike etiquette...and who made Tifa so sick of polite company that she eagerly embraced her father's suggestion that she learn to wield a sword.
Her nanny and mother were entirely against this practice, but Tifa's father hired a competent swordsman to begin training her when she was only five years old. In later years, Tifa suspected her training had less to do with her learning to defend herself and more to do with her father wanting a swordsman always around her in case anything should happen. Because swords were so large and unwieldy for the small girl, her master decided to train her first with the dagger, which was a small and rather ladylike weapon. She evolved from the dagger to the kris, which was mostly meant for assassinations as the curvy blade could easily hold poisons in its grooves, and just as she turned eight years old, Tifa began to learn to use the dirk, a weapon not at all befitting a lady.
Her studies stalled, however, when her mother, who had always been somewhat fragile and invalid, took a bad turn and passed away that year. Distraught after the funeral, Tifa went wandering off alone, climbing to the head of the escarpments surrounding Dubrovnik and peering through the morning mists to the Sanzu, that river of the dead where her mother had allegedly gone. The rocks gave, and Tifa plunged into the sea far below, the water soaking her dress and thick petticoats, dragging her down. Even now, Tifa doesn't remember anything else about that day, except for a brief moment when she came to and found herself in the arms of what seemed to be a pirate. She lost consciousness again after that, and was apparently quite ill for an entire week; when she finally awoke and inquired about the pirate, no one seemed to know what she was talking about and blamed the bump on her head. Even her father discounted the story--she was found, according to him, drenched and unconscious on the narrow beach below the city.
Though the incredulity disheartened her, Tifa never entirely gave up the notion that a pirate saved her life that day. Redoubling her efforts to master swordsmanship and nursing a rather robust and frowned-upon obsession with pirates, the young girl grew quite adept with her dirk before finally graduating to a lightweight rapier when she was eleven. Her father encouraged her pastimes wholeheartedly after her mother's death, delighted that his daughter was vivacious and healthy, unlike her rather fragile mother. He also tolerated her interest in pirates with the love of a father toward his only daughter, and Tifa had many books and old treasure maps in her personal library. One year, when she was thirteen, she even dressed as a pirate for Hallow's Eve, and the costume caused a scandal throughout the entire city.
By the time she was fourteen, Tifa had all but mastered the ways of the sword under the proud tutelage of her swordmaster and had earned herself a reputation for being a somewhat eccentric and boyish girl. Neither this reputation, however, nor her father's appallingly open support of the democratic revolutionary movement beginning to spread throughout the islands, dampened the turnout at her Debutante Ball when she turned fifteen. It seemed many young bachelors were willing to overlook Tifa's oddities for the sake of getting to know her better--she was, after all, quite beautiful, and the governor's daughter to boot.
Sadly, Tifa never got the chance to decide whether she enjoyed or reviled the newfound attention. Shortly after her debut, her increasingly more and more revolutionary father was murdered in his bed one night, assassinated by a few profoundly royalist members of the king's council who hired someone to dispatch with the whole problematic family. The murderer was never brought to justice, either; Tifa's swordmaster stole her away that night, and the two of them escaped the planned demise to Naraka.
There, Tifa very quickly became acquainted with the violent and gritty style of Narakan skinfighting, mostly by being on the receiving end of it. Against the vicious, underhanded Narakan fighters, most of Tifa's formal training was somewhat useless, since these opponents moved much more erratically than she was used to. Angry at her father's brutal murder and her abrupt uprooting and subsequent flinging into the pathetic slums of Naraka, Tifa poured herself into fighting and learning the new style, though she mostly succeeded in getting the shit kicked out of her. Fortunately, her master was usually watching over her from a distance, ready to intervene if the fighting got too serious.
But even Tifa's mentor wasn't spared from her misguided anger, and one day, after exploding at him, she ran off to the beach, livid and looking for a fight so she could vent. And what a fight she found. The three older boys made short work of her, and Tifa quickly found herself facedown in the sand, her vision spotted and swimming before her. For the second time in her life, Tifa was saved by a pirate, who soundly thrashed the men and carried the barely-conscious Tifa into a nearby inn where he left her with the innkeep to recover. Though she could barely remember what the pirate looked like, this time the innkeep confirmed her suspicions when she awoke, and Tifa is convinced to this day that it was the same pirate.
Three years later, when the war broke out, Tifa had grown skillful enough at fighting for her loving mentor to feel she'd fare all right on her own. Leaving her behind to join the revolution, her mentor never returned and was presumed dead. The war raged on, and when Tifa was eighteen, pirates raided Naraka, preying on the women and children left behind. Joining some of the other more adept female fighters, Tifa fought off most of the invaders but managed to get herself captured in the process. The pirates then dragged her across the Sanzu on the most horrifying voyage Tifa had ever experienced. When the large ship finally resurfaced and converted back to normal, Tifa managed to steal two blades from her captors and fight her way free, diving into the ocean and swimming toward the nearest island, Tartarus, after tearing her skirt off to avoid sinking in the water.
The swim hadn't looked quite so long from the air. Tifa washed up onto the beach and proceeded to pass out from sheer exhaustion. After making it into town and managing to barter her stolen blades for some clean clothes, Tifa began to establish a new life for herself on Tartarus. She enlisted herself in the skinfighting rings, which were hurting for combatants with the war going on, and quickly made enough to reequip herself with her favorite fighting weapons, the dirk and dagger she has to this day. Eventually, Tifa bought herself an establishment and dubbed it The Blind Tiger, which was a tavern until the war ended and the Prohibition set in. At that point, the secret room underneath the tavern, which Tifa had been using to hide children during the various raids, was converted into an illicit gambling room and skinfighting ring to circumvent the Prohibition's enforced tranquility and anti-gambling laws.
Three Crossings
This journal is an RP account for the above games. Go go Gadget Pasta!
REPO! The Genetic Roleplay
Name Lu
Contact AIM: LuTheDoctor
Name Tifa Lockhart
Fandom Final Fantasy VII
Age 22
Gender ♀!
Appearance Tifa stands at 5'7" and walks the fine line between slim and muscular. Vivacious and competent, she carries herself with the confidence of someone able to fend for herself. Her long hair is dark brown and falls to mid-thigh when she lets it down; typically, she keeps it tied back at the waist in a compromise between femininity and functionality. Full and feathered bangs fall into her heart-shaped face, or would if she didn't brush them all off to one side, and her big brown eyes and fair skin belie her fighting capabilities.
Tifa's sense of fashion is somewhat equivocal, ever caught between freedom and functionality; as a bartender in a bad part of town, there is the constant unspoken imperative of allure, and as a woman in a bad part of town there is the necessity of movement to facilitate self-defense--or offense, as the case may be. Not ashamed in the slightest to show off what she's got, Tifa is also unafraid to prove she can't be trifled with, and has been known to unflinchingly throw punches when an confrontation turns sour.
Personality Hard-nosed and cynical, Tifa has a quick wit and sharp tongue that she is not at all bashful about unleashing upon anyone she thinks deserves it. After being left to fend for herself at the age of fifteen, Tifa quickly learned that kindness did not begat kindness; in her eyes, nothing comes free, and everything can be gotten for a price. The question is whether or not she's willing to pay.
You could say that her scruples are really the only thing holding her back. Unwilling to sell out even if it means buying in, Tifa would rather claw her way through life in visceral defiance than cash in her heart for a little more luxury. Nursing something raw and bloody and angry, she would never admit it but she takes some sick joy in lashing out at the establishment, and can rejoice in her own misfortunes provided they embody her exultant rejection of Gene Co., the evil corporation perpetuating this savage and brutal status quo.
Despite her stubborn clinging to poverty to nurse her pride, and usually far outweighing her vindictive outrage, Tifa is rather overwhelmingly inclined towards kindness. There is little Tifa wouldn't do for someone in need, though she tries hard not to show it--imagine how much people would take advantage of her if her selfless streak became common knowledge.
Hard-pressed to turn a blind eye, Tifa strives to act a lot more aloof and uncaring than she really is; her shrewd demeanor rather crumbles when someone in genuine need is brought into the equation, however, especially if children are involved somehow. So motherly it burns, Tifa fights to keep her heart closed to everyone; she knows every attachment is a weakness, and in this ruthless world where so many have to fight to survive, any weakness could be crippling. With a heart as big as Tifa's, though, it's often a losing battle...
Background Born in one of the tragically backwater towns struggling to subsist, Tifa was surprisingly healthy considering her genetics. Her mother was constantly ill throughout Tifa's childhood, and despite some organ financing and a few transplants, there simply wasn't enough money to keep her mother alive. She died when Tifa was seven; the loss greatly devastated the family, and Tifa and her father became heavily co-dependent.
The money they spent on her mother was never recovered, and Tifa's father struggled to raise her while in the throes of crippling debt. Unbeknownst to Tifa, her father had actually contracted for a new heart he'd needed replaced just before her birth, and with her late mother's constant invalidism, he'd opted for a long-term refinancing of the organ. His late wife's bills compounded by the boosters and supplements he made sure to provide Tifa throughout her childhood (he was taking every precaution to make sure she grew up healthy and strong) finally ended him; when Tifa was fifteen, a Repo Man came and murdered her father before her very eyes, with no explanation whatsoever.
It wasn't even until later that she learned her father had ever had a heart transplant in the first place. Through the course of the repossession, Tifa's town somehow caught fire; she's always associated the fire with the unjustifiable brutality of the Repo Man, but the half-assed investigation turned up nothing conclusive one way or the other about the cause.
Tifa herself remembers very little beyond the murder. After a valiant--but stupid--attempt to defend her father, she wound up unconscious, and woke up in the city over a week later, in a shoddy bed in a skeevy hotel with a shady clerk who wouldn't tell her how she'd gotten there, or what'd been done to her in the meantime. The clerk just handed over some money and winked at her. "Guess he liked you," was the most informative thing she got out of him.
It still grosses her out to think about it. But without any scars (and oh, did she check) Tifa was at least fairly confident that she hadn't been under the knife, and that was something of a small comfort. She left the hotel and carved out a little piece for herself somewhere on the fringes of the city, where life was cheap and death was cheaper. The money her mysterious benefactor (and...perhaps client? Ugh...) left her turned out to be a great boon; she managed to keep her head above water without having to lay herself low, and to this day Tifa has never stooped to the drug market or whoring...though there may be a few not-quite-legal magazines floating around with photographic documentation of her teenage years. These days, she runs a real dive of a bar, some shit rundown hole in the wall called 'The Bleeding Heart', and spends her free time getting back at Gene Co. however she can.
Genetics & Alterations Tifa has never been under the knife. Her parents were both sickly, however, and she is strangely healthy considering her genesis. She took many supplements and boosters growing up, which might account for her vivacity, but Tifa secretly wonders if it can explain everything.
First Person Sample To the nameless fucker who kicked off the brawl at my place last night:
You're lucky you ran like a bitch.
Third Person Sample Broken glass crunched like fallen snow, Tifa noticed as she hefted the last unconscious slob up off the floor and carted him across the floor to pitch outside. It compressed, ground, and popped under the treads of her boots and reminded her of the mountain overlooking her village.
Throwing the mostly vestigial deadbolt on her door, she tugged off her fingerless gloves and wiped her bangs off her face, gingerly prodding the cut on her cheek from a very unsporting ring some jackass had been wearing. It wouldn't need stitches, thank God. If she never saw a doctor again, it would be too soon, and while she could probably have stitched up a flesh wound in her leg to no real detriment, stitching her face was a little beyond her.
After slapping a pair of glue sutures over the disinfected cut in her dingy bathroom mirror, she set about cleaning up, whistling low as she noticed the slightly splintered panel of one wall behind the bar. Shit shit please don't be broken... Slowly, carefully, she pressed on the panel and then slid it away, revealing a narrow hole, maybe two feet wide by about five tall. Light fell through the passageway and revealed a tiny sunken room, concealed from the world by metal walls, a concrete foundation, and breached only by the single movable panel that was thankfully not broken after all.
Her bedroom still accessible, she shut it away again and sighed, resigning herself to yet another late night of cleaning up after the scum of the earth. It was humbling every time she remembered that she was one of them.
Three Crossings
Player Name: Lu
AIM Screen Name: LuTheDoctor
Character Name: Tifa Lockhart
Series: Final Fantasy VII
Age: 22
Physical Description: Tifa stands at 5'7" and walks the fine line between slim and muscular. Vivacious and competent, she carries herself with the confidence of someone able to fend for herself. Her long hair is dark brown and falls to mid-thigh when she lets it down; typically, she keeps it tied back at the nape of her neck in a compromise between femininity and the sweltering heat. Full and feathered bangs fall into her heart-shaped face, and her big brown eyes and fair skin belie her fighting capabilities. When toiling away as barmaid in her establishment, The Blind Tiger, Tifa usually wears a loose undershirt and one of several corsets she has in her wardrobe, along with full skirts, as befitting a lady. She does, however, wear dark brown leather boots that come knee-high, and though her lacy stockings are rather ladylike, the way she hikes her skirts up and tucks them into her belt is most definitely not. In addition to keeping her skirts out of the way to combat the heat, Tifa's leather belt also holds a few belt pouches and perhaps more importantly, houses her dirk and dagger, both of which she is quite proficient with. As a barmaid, she lines her eyes with lampblack and rouges her lips, though she seems little point in much more than that in the tropical heat. Not ashamed in the slightest to show off what she's got, Tifa is also unafraid to prove she can't be trifled with, and has been known to unflinchingly pull her weapons when an altercation turns sour.
Skilled as she is with her dirk and dagger, Tifa is also a rather adept skinfighter, and will often appear in her own ring, though her wardrobe alters dramatically for the occasion. For her fights, Tifa braids her long hair back and winds it into a bun, securing her bangs beneath a mossy green bandanna the same color as the breeches she wears--and actually cut from the same cloth, so to speak. Her breeches, which end in tatters just below her knees, barely tuck into her boots. The breeches were once full length, but have since been ripped off at the knees, the cloth recycled into the bandanna she wears. Also, Tifa prefers men's shirts to fight in, the loose sleeves and large sizes afford her more freedom of movement. However, because of the low V-necks of most men's shirts, Tifa also wears a simple leather vest, dark brown like her boots, that laces up the front of her stomach and works wonders for keeping her loose-fitting shirts in line.
Personality: Hard-nosed and cynical, Tifa has a quick wit and sharp tongue that she is not at all bashful about unleashing upon anyone she thinks deserves it. After being left to fend for herself when the war began, Tifa quickly learned that kindness did not begat kindness and instead only drew lazeabouts and freeloaders to her doorstep. She'll spare a smile for a weary soul when the mood suits her, but for the most part, she will only exchange words with strangers if those strangers are filling her coffers and draining their tankards.
Her shrewd, cold demeanor doesn't hold up when children are brought into the equation, however. During the pirate raids that strike Tartarus, Tifa will hide children seeking refuge in the secret room beneath her bar while she joins the men in the fighting. So motherly it burns, Tifa fights to keep her heart closed to everyone; she knows every attachment is a weakness, and in the cutthroat world where she often has to fight to survive, any weakness could be crippling.
Abilities/Strengths/Weaponry: From a very young age, Tifa began studying the art of proper swordfighting, and her fencing master even taught her to wield a dagger, kris, and dirk. When she was fifteen, her formal study was cut short when she had to flee to Naraka, but fortunately there her study and practice gave way to real-life application of her fighting skills. On Naraka, Tifa also very quickly became acquainted with skinfighting, and during her years on the island, her fighting style integrated the graceful and fluid motions of the blade with the rough and gritty twists, jerks, and ducks inherent in skinfights. These days, Tifa is quite the force to be reckoned with; her fighting style is quite unique and unpredictable, and opponents are hard-pressed to take her down in a fight.
Weaknesses: For all her abilities, Tifa does quite poorly with guns. She has bad aim and is inexperienced with all manners of firearms, and they also frighten her somewhat--a dagger held to her throat will hardly faze her, but a gun to her head would get her to fold fairly quickly. Tifa also has a soft spot for kids, particularly orphans and homeless children, and will go out of her way to help them, even putting herself in danger to do so.
History: Born to a wealthy couple in Dardenelles, Tifa spent most of her childhood as the pampered and beloved only child of the governor of Dubrovnik. The Aegean King appointed her father as the city's governor only weeks after Tifa was born, and the family moved to Sir Lockhart's newly refurbished mansion in Elysium's northernmost city. Though Tifa's mother spent a lot of time with her, Tifa also was privileged enough to have a nanny who instilled in her the ways of proper behavior and ladylike etiquette...and who made Tifa so sick of polite company that she eagerly embraced her father's suggestion that she learn to wield a sword.
Her nanny and mother were entirely against this practice, but Tifa's father hired a competent swordsman to begin training her when she was only five years old. In later years, Tifa suspected her training had less to do with her learning to defend herself and more to do with her father wanting a swordsman always around her in case anything should happen. Because swords were so large and unwieldy for the small girl, her master decided to train her first with the dagger, which was a small and rather ladylike weapon. She evolved from the dagger to the kris, which was mostly meant for assassinations as the curvy blade could easily hold poisons in its grooves, and just as she turned eight years old, Tifa began to learn to use the dirk, a weapon not at all befitting a lady.
Her studies stalled, however, when her mother, who had always been somewhat fragile and invalid, took a bad turn and passed away that year. Distraught after the funeral, Tifa went wandering off alone, climbing to the head of the escarpments surrounding Dubrovnik and peering through the morning mists to the Sanzu, that river of the dead where her mother had allegedly gone. The rocks gave, and Tifa plunged into the sea far below, the water soaking her dress and thick petticoats, dragging her down. Even now, Tifa doesn't remember anything else about that day, except for a brief moment when she came to and found herself in the arms of what seemed to be a pirate. She lost consciousness again after that, and was apparently quite ill for an entire week; when she finally awoke and inquired about the pirate, no one seemed to know what she was talking about and blamed the bump on her head. Even her father discounted the story--she was found, according to him, drenched and unconscious on the narrow beach below the city.
Though the incredulity disheartened her, Tifa never entirely gave up the notion that a pirate saved her life that day. Redoubling her efforts to master swordsmanship and nursing a rather robust and frowned-upon obsession with pirates, the young girl grew quite adept with her dirk before finally graduating to a lightweight rapier when she was eleven. Her father encouraged her pastimes wholeheartedly after her mother's death, delighted that his daughter was vivacious and healthy, unlike her rather fragile mother. He also tolerated her interest in pirates with the love of a father toward his only daughter, and Tifa had many books and old treasure maps in her personal library. One year, when she was thirteen, she even dressed as a pirate for Hallow's Eve, and the costume caused a scandal throughout the entire city.
By the time she was fourteen, Tifa had all but mastered the ways of the sword under the proud tutelage of her swordmaster and had earned herself a reputation for being a somewhat eccentric and boyish girl. Neither this reputation, however, nor her father's appallingly open support of the democratic revolutionary movement beginning to spread throughout the islands, dampened the turnout at her Debutante Ball when she turned fifteen. It seemed many young bachelors were willing to overlook Tifa's oddities for the sake of getting to know her better--she was, after all, quite beautiful, and the governor's daughter to boot.
Sadly, Tifa never got the chance to decide whether she enjoyed or reviled the newfound attention. Shortly after her debut, her increasingly more and more revolutionary father was murdered in his bed one night, assassinated by a few profoundly royalist members of the king's council who hired someone to dispatch with the whole problematic family. The murderer was never brought to justice, either; Tifa's swordmaster stole her away that night, and the two of them escaped the planned demise to Naraka.
There, Tifa very quickly became acquainted with the violent and gritty style of Narakan skinfighting, mostly by being on the receiving end of it. Against the vicious, underhanded Narakan fighters, most of Tifa's formal training was somewhat useless, since these opponents moved much more erratically than she was used to. Angry at her father's brutal murder and her abrupt uprooting and subsequent flinging into the pathetic slums of Naraka, Tifa poured herself into fighting and learning the new style, though she mostly succeeded in getting the shit kicked out of her. Fortunately, her master was usually watching over her from a distance, ready to intervene if the fighting got too serious.
But even Tifa's mentor wasn't spared from her misguided anger, and one day, after exploding at him, she ran off to the beach, livid and looking for a fight so she could vent. And what a fight she found. The three older boys made short work of her, and Tifa quickly found herself facedown in the sand, her vision spotted and swimming before her. For the second time in her life, Tifa was saved by a pirate, who soundly thrashed the men and carried the barely-conscious Tifa into a nearby inn where he left her with the innkeep to recover. Though she could barely remember what the pirate looked like, this time the innkeep confirmed her suspicions when she awoke, and Tifa is convinced to this day that it was the same pirate.
Three years later, when the war broke out, Tifa had grown skillful enough at fighting for her loving mentor to feel she'd fare all right on her own. Leaving her behind to join the revolution, her mentor never returned and was presumed dead. The war raged on, and when Tifa was eighteen, pirates raided Naraka, preying on the women and children left behind. Joining some of the other more adept female fighters, Tifa fought off most of the invaders but managed to get herself captured in the process. The pirates then dragged her across the Sanzu on the most horrifying voyage Tifa had ever experienced. When the large ship finally resurfaced and converted back to normal, Tifa managed to steal two blades from her captors and fight her way free, diving into the ocean and swimming toward the nearest island, Tartarus, after tearing her skirt off to avoid sinking in the water.
The swim hadn't looked quite so long from the air. Tifa washed up onto the beach and proceeded to pass out from sheer exhaustion. After making it into town and managing to barter her stolen blades for some clean clothes, Tifa began to establish a new life for herself on Tartarus. She enlisted herself in the skinfighting rings, which were hurting for combatants with the war going on, and quickly made enough to reequip herself with her favorite fighting weapons, the dirk and dagger she has to this day. Eventually, Tifa bought herself an establishment and dubbed it The Blind Tiger, which was a tavern until the war ended and the Prohibition set in. At that point, the secret room underneath the tavern, which Tifa had been using to hide children during the various raids, was converted into an illicit gambling room and skinfighting ring to circumvent the Prohibition's enforced tranquility and anti-gambling laws.
ConnectExternal Services:
 | tifaunlocked@livejournal.com |
Friends [View Entries] Friends (3):
Mutual Friends (2):
Communities [View Entries] Watching (5):
Feeds [View Entries] Watching (0)
