Post by Kate Mercia on May 28, 2007 11:15:53 GMT -5
Name:
Catalina Juliana Mercia Alexander (known as Kate Mercia)
Age:
17
Gender:
Female
Status:
Single
Physical Description:
Kate has long-ish, curly dark brown hair and olive-grey eyes, with a Spanish look to her. She is relatively tall, and is slender. She has quite small hands that are often blistered and callous - which she hates - thanks to the heavy work they do do on board ship. Her nails are often bitten down to the quick - it's a habit she has never been able to break, and besides, you can't do menial work with long talons, can you? She doesn't often wear make-up, but does stick to the main beauty rules thought - drink plenty of water, get enough sleep, cleanse, exfoliate, tone, moisturise...
Clothing Description:
Anything goes, really. Living on a ship, you tend to stick to what's practical. Linen and other natural fabrics are good because they're light and easy to clean. She doesn't really wear bright colours, preferring dark or neutrals. She does wear denim. She rarely wears skirts, usually wearing trousers or cut-offs. For those cold days, she has a long dark-brown leather coat. Shoe-wise, she'll wear boots, but a lot of the time she feels comfortable going barefoot.
She owns a classic leather pirate hat, which she'll sometimes wear just for the hell of it.
Past:
One night, seventeen years ago, on the shores of Lundy Island, England, a ship was wrecked.
There had been a terrible storm. Waves blew up to 8 metres high, lightning lit up the sky and could be seen miles away, the thunder could be heard in Calais, one gust of wind could blow a man for miles, and the rain reminded all those who saw it of the flood in Genesis.
A Spanish merchant ship was sailing to Queenstown, Cobh, Ireland, but was blown off course by the storm. It crashed into the dangerous rocks just off Lundy Island, Cornwall.
The next morning, the locals of the island went down to the bay, where pieces of the broken ship were scattered all over the bay, to look for survivors. None were found. All had drowned that night.
But they kept searching, and that night, Marcus Alexander and his son Adam were looking around the caves, when they heard a sound.
A baby's cry.
They followed the sound to an open sea-chest that had been washed up into a cave. In the chest was a Bible, written in Spanish, a set of ebony rosary beads, a tortoiseshell comb and, wrapped in a white cotton blanket, a baby girl with a shock of dark hair.
Her parents had obviously put her in the chest to float ashore, knowing that they wouldn't survive.
So, Marcus took her home to his wife, Juliana, who dropped a glass in shock when she saw the child.
Juliana had always wanted a little girl, but there had been complications when she gave birth to Adam, which meant that she could no longer have children. When she saw the little Spanish infant, she fell in love with her, and persuaded her husband to keep her.
It was all very old-world.
They named her Catalina, after the name written on the flyleaf of the Bible, "Catalina Magdelena Mercia", but called her Kate for short. They assumed that Catalina Mercia was the baby's mother. Marcus and Juliana kept the sea-chest and all of it's contents in their attic, knowing that there would one day be a day when Kate would need to see it.
Kate grew up happily, but her dark hair and exotic looks set her apart from her blonde-haired, pale-skinned family, and a lot of the time she would wonder why she was different, and often felt like she didn't belong.
When she was eleven, and had just started at the local secondary school, the other children started to call her horrible things and hurt her, because she was different. One day, it all got too much, and she fled the building, and ran down to the bay where, unbeknownst to her, she'd been found all those years ago.
She had always loved the sea. It was always changing, always beautiful, and always there for her. The motion and sound of the waves could calm her like nothing else, and already Marcus had taught her to sail like a professional, and she loved nothing more than to be out on the sea, surrounded by it.
As she was sitting there, John had got home from school - he was in his final year - and explained to Juliana and Edward what had happened.
So when Kate got home, her parents were sitting in the living room with the sea-chest and all of its contents in front of them.
After the explanation, she still called the Alexanders her family, but part of her was always intrigued by the Mercias, the parents she'd never known. And it always seemed fitting to her that she had probably been born on a ship.
Sadly, a few years later, Marcus died suddenly of a heart attack. Juliana was devastated, and wasted away without him. She died a year to the day later.
Adam and Kate were devastated by these tragedies, obviously. They still continued to live in the house, but Kate would spend days at a time out in the boat, trying to stop thinking about the fact that all of her parents were dead, and she was now truly an orphan. Now that they were gone, she felt more and more out of place on Lundy Island, and all she wanted was to get away and sail. She taught herself Spanish, and waited for the opportunity to get away.
So when Adam got married to his long-term girlfriend Maia, Kate packed up her things in the old sea-chest, still keeping the things that she'd been left with, and took a bus out to the pirate port of Cobaya, where she signed up to join the Star Of The Sea... so she could live her life with the thing she loved most - the sea.
Personality:
On the surface, Kate is sassy, fearless, bad-ass and hardcore, but scratch the surface and you'll find a girl who is shy, self-conscious and prone to melancholy. She isn't scared of many things, but she has a deathly fear of spiders. She loves the sea and gets stir-crazy when they're staying in port. She would love to travel to Spain, to see her homeland. She's as smart as hell and would have become a doctor before she got the chance to become pirate.
Likes:
the sea
the occasional glass of rum punch
monkeys
hot guys
music
Dislikes:
being cold
spiders
being stuck in one place
liars
Skills:
cooking, swimming, climbing the masts, putting up with things uncomplainingly, fixing things, playing the guitar, is good with a sword, can speak Spanish and French, knows basic medical skills
Pets:
a squirrel monkey named Paolo that she bartered off a drunk dealer in Cobaya for a bottle of muscat and a bottle of rum.
Catalina Juliana Mercia Alexander (known as Kate Mercia)
Age:
17
Gender:
Female
Status:
Single
Physical Description:
Kate has long-ish, curly dark brown hair and olive-grey eyes, with a Spanish look to her. She is relatively tall, and is slender. She has quite small hands that are often blistered and callous - which she hates - thanks to the heavy work they do do on board ship. Her nails are often bitten down to the quick - it's a habit she has never been able to break, and besides, you can't do menial work with long talons, can you? She doesn't often wear make-up, but does stick to the main beauty rules thought - drink plenty of water, get enough sleep, cleanse, exfoliate, tone, moisturise...
Clothing Description:
Anything goes, really. Living on a ship, you tend to stick to what's practical. Linen and other natural fabrics are good because they're light and easy to clean. She doesn't really wear bright colours, preferring dark or neutrals. She does wear denim. She rarely wears skirts, usually wearing trousers or cut-offs. For those cold days, she has a long dark-brown leather coat. Shoe-wise, she'll wear boots, but a lot of the time she feels comfortable going barefoot.
She owns a classic leather pirate hat, which she'll sometimes wear just for the hell of it.
Past:
One night, seventeen years ago, on the shores of Lundy Island, England, a ship was wrecked.
There had been a terrible storm. Waves blew up to 8 metres high, lightning lit up the sky and could be seen miles away, the thunder could be heard in Calais, one gust of wind could blow a man for miles, and the rain reminded all those who saw it of the flood in Genesis.
A Spanish merchant ship was sailing to Queenstown, Cobh, Ireland, but was blown off course by the storm. It crashed into the dangerous rocks just off Lundy Island, Cornwall.
The next morning, the locals of the island went down to the bay, where pieces of the broken ship were scattered all over the bay, to look for survivors. None were found. All had drowned that night.
But they kept searching, and that night, Marcus Alexander and his son Adam were looking around the caves, when they heard a sound.
A baby's cry.
They followed the sound to an open sea-chest that had been washed up into a cave. In the chest was a Bible, written in Spanish, a set of ebony rosary beads, a tortoiseshell comb and, wrapped in a white cotton blanket, a baby girl with a shock of dark hair.
Her parents had obviously put her in the chest to float ashore, knowing that they wouldn't survive.
So, Marcus took her home to his wife, Juliana, who dropped a glass in shock when she saw the child.
Juliana had always wanted a little girl, but there had been complications when she gave birth to Adam, which meant that she could no longer have children. When she saw the little Spanish infant, she fell in love with her, and persuaded her husband to keep her.
It was all very old-world.
They named her Catalina, after the name written on the flyleaf of the Bible, "Catalina Magdelena Mercia", but called her Kate for short. They assumed that Catalina Mercia was the baby's mother. Marcus and Juliana kept the sea-chest and all of it's contents in their attic, knowing that there would one day be a day when Kate would need to see it.
Kate grew up happily, but her dark hair and exotic looks set her apart from her blonde-haired, pale-skinned family, and a lot of the time she would wonder why she was different, and often felt like she didn't belong.
When she was eleven, and had just started at the local secondary school, the other children started to call her horrible things and hurt her, because she was different. One day, it all got too much, and she fled the building, and ran down to the bay where, unbeknownst to her, she'd been found all those years ago.
She had always loved the sea. It was always changing, always beautiful, and always there for her. The motion and sound of the waves could calm her like nothing else, and already Marcus had taught her to sail like a professional, and she loved nothing more than to be out on the sea, surrounded by it.
As she was sitting there, John had got home from school - he was in his final year - and explained to Juliana and Edward what had happened.
So when Kate got home, her parents were sitting in the living room with the sea-chest and all of its contents in front of them.
After the explanation, she still called the Alexanders her family, but part of her was always intrigued by the Mercias, the parents she'd never known. And it always seemed fitting to her that she had probably been born on a ship.
Sadly, a few years later, Marcus died suddenly of a heart attack. Juliana was devastated, and wasted away without him. She died a year to the day later.
Adam and Kate were devastated by these tragedies, obviously. They still continued to live in the house, but Kate would spend days at a time out in the boat, trying to stop thinking about the fact that all of her parents were dead, and she was now truly an orphan. Now that they were gone, she felt more and more out of place on Lundy Island, and all she wanted was to get away and sail. She taught herself Spanish, and waited for the opportunity to get away.
So when Adam got married to his long-term girlfriend Maia, Kate packed up her things in the old sea-chest, still keeping the things that she'd been left with, and took a bus out to the pirate port of Cobaya, where she signed up to join the Star Of The Sea... so she could live her life with the thing she loved most - the sea.
Personality:
On the surface, Kate is sassy, fearless, bad-ass and hardcore, but scratch the surface and you'll find a girl who is shy, self-conscious and prone to melancholy. She isn't scared of many things, but she has a deathly fear of spiders. She loves the sea and gets stir-crazy when they're staying in port. She would love to travel to Spain, to see her homeland. She's as smart as hell and would have become a doctor before she got the chance to become pirate.
Likes:
the sea
the occasional glass of rum punch
monkeys
hot guys
music
Dislikes:
being cold
spiders
being stuck in one place
liars
Skills:
cooking, swimming, climbing the masts, putting up with things uncomplainingly, fixing things, playing the guitar, is good with a sword, can speak Spanish and French, knows basic medical skills
Pets:
a squirrel monkey named Paolo that she bartered off a drunk dealer in Cobaya for a bottle of muscat and a bottle of rum.
