PAP|Ayotunde|Southerner

So, summer means RP GROUPS YAY. And since I couldn't decide on a character, I took advantage of the allowance for making two, so her "brother" will be coming along shortly. eve

I freaking love pirates. So. Much.

Ayotunde

_{"Most people who know of the true power of voodoo stay away. It isn’t a lark humans should dabble in. It can possess you, steal your soul if you allow it."}

RP Status: Open  
Preferred Methods Of RP (in order): group chat, notes, google docs, skype

Basic Information

Rank: Fresh Meat
Alignment: Southerner
Occupation: Vodou Priestess/merchant pirate 

Name: Ayotunde
Goes By: Ayo 
Nickname(s): AYO DAMNIT
Age: 28 years
Birthday: June 23
Gender: Female
Height: 5’8"

Sexuality: Asexual...She has no other real interest but her work, but you can try, I guess. Who knows.
Marital Status: Not looking, go away.
Religious Reliefs: Voodoo
Nationality: Haitian

Birthplace: African Congo
Current Residence: With Carter on Nassau, but they shall soon be sailing again. 

Personality, Appearance, and Background Information

Physical Description: 
Ayo is a very purposeful woman, and doesn’t make unnecessary movements. Everything she does, she does with a sense of grace and wisdom. She is at ease with most everything around her and always seems to be standing above the fray, not in it. When she looks at you, you seriously wonder whether she is reading your every thought – or she just likes your shirt. Her eyes fluctuate across the brown spectrum, going from dark brown to a bright amber depending on the light.

She has several tattoos – a black skull on her right shoulder, an X over her heart, a voodoo symbol on her clavicle, and an Aztec snake on her ankle. She has dark brown hair – usually in dreads - with a golden streak that runs through one side that nicely complements her rich-colored skin.

Clothing Style: Depends on what she’s doing: when she’s on the high seas she’s usually wearing whatever is most handy (ie, my excuse for drawing her in whatever), but when she’s practicing Voodoo, she wears all sorts of ceremonial items (bones, teeth, skulls, fur, feathers, skins, bandannas and whatever else).

Personality: 
Ayo is pretty standoffish generally, she observes and collects information in case it might be used for future ventures. She can be interpreted as antisocial that way, she’ll avoid crowds when she can, and is usually quietly at the back of the room. However, a conversation may prove that she’s fairly snappish and seemingly grumpy most of the time. She is a kind person at heart, but she doubts that everyone else is.

Ayo is particularly good at making charms and talismans, and more often than not she makes more money practicing Vodou than she does as a pirate. Whenever the ship would make port and the men would go off drinking and gambling and whoring, she would advertise her services and gained a reputation as a very good priestess. She has an uncanny ability to read people like a book – their intentions and sometimes seemingly their thoughts. She also has a limited prophetic side that Carter’s father used secretly when he wasn’t sure about engaging a ship. She also makes excellent cures for all sorts of ailments and can make a very mean hex – although that isn’t something she does often because it taxes a very heavy price spiritually. But she won’t hesitate to if she finds herself or Carter threatened.

Whether you believe in magic or not, no one can deny that getting on Ayo’s bad side almost always results in some unpleasantness, such as severe itching or sneezing or just all around bad luck. And whatever you do, don’t touch her wooden trunk – there are all sorts of ingredients and talismans inside that not just anyone should touch unless you know what you’re doing. Also, that’s Monte’s favorite sleeping spot. So don’t go in there.

General Attitude: Observant, detached, quick to anger.

Talents/Skills: Voodoo magic (spells, cures, hexes, potions, talismans, charms, prophesy, etc.)
Likes: Chickens! Gold, snakes, incense, fruit.
Dislikes: THE FRENCH, politics and governments in general, men in general, most everyone in general (she’s pretty antisocial), iguanas (MY GOD they just get into everything, and they pester Monte).
Fears: Never regaining the other half of her soul (read her bio), failing at protecting her adopted brother Carter
Facts + Trivia: 
- Is very good at reading the weather
- She's brave, but smart too. She knows when she's outmatched and will get the heck out of Dodge.
- She doesn't drink alcohol. At all.
- She speaks with a thick accent.
- She's fluent in French, Spanish, English and some butchered African languages.

(Not so) Quick Bio: 

Ayo is a zombie. And she’ll tell you that just to see the look on your face. She considers herself part of the living dead, but not quite in the way you might think.

Ayo was born on the slave ship transporting her mother from Africa, and it’s a miracle in itself that she survived the journey. She grew up on a French plantation with her mother in Haiti, and grew to resent life there. Her adopted grandmother was a Vodou queen, and taught Ayo everything she needed to know to become one herself. Practicing Vodou was looked down upon by the plantation owners and could be severely punished (which, as a side note, caused the incorporation of Catholicism into Vodou, because in order to disguise their religion, the slaves used Catholic saints to symbolize their own deities).

Ayo, only 12 at the time, had been turning down constant proposals for quite some time, and was getting quite sick of being pestered. Little did she know, the man was getting quite sick of being rejected, and he turned to a Vodou king for retribution. With a combination of black magic and some datura powder, Ayo was poisoned into a deep, sleeping death. With all of her vital signs seemingly lifeless, Ayo was sadly pronounced dead and was buried the next day.

That night, the Vodou king exhumed her body and administered the antidote. When she awoke, foggy and exhausted, he told her that in punishment for constantly humiliating his client, he had extracted half of her living soul to keep for himself and that she was now his own slave metaphysically – his personal zombie. To lose one’s soul, in Haitian culture, is a punishment worse than death. Ayo managed to escape her captor and return to her family in hopes of finding a way to release the curse.

But finding his hostage gone, the Vodou king told the plantation’s soldiers that Ayo was a heretic and consorted with the devil. Before she was able to find a way to break the curse, Ayo was caught and chained to a cross in one of the fields as punishment in the hot, Caribbean heat. She was left suffering for at least a day.

 During that time, the plantation was bombarded by canon fire from the harbor by a ship with crimson sails. It was a pirate raid, and it wasn’t long before the scoundrels made landfall and were making a mockery of the small group of French Soldiers. Without any means to escape, Ayo was forced to endure in hopes that she wouldn’t be killed by canon fire or a stray bullet – or even a malicious pirate. And she thought she was surely to die when she was spied by one of the heathens on the outskirts of the fray. But much to her surprise, instead of harming her he cut her loose without any reason at all. Seemingly just as surprised at what he had done, the kid – slightly older than herself - raced off to join his comrades.

It was then that Ayo made a split second decision: she could either stay on the Plantation, constantly avoided because she was one of the living dead, or she could follow the lad and get off of the cursed island even if it meant death – which at this point was more favorable.

She hid as the pirates plundered her master’s store of rum and sugar, and snuck aboard the ship just as they cast off. Of course, the girl was soon found and threatened with death (because a woman on board is never a good sign). Quickly, she threatened them back with her own knowledge of hexes and curses – and this was confusing. Because which is worse, having a woman on board or being hexed by an angry Vodou priestess? At this point it was either one or the other. It was then that the boy who had set her free before stepped in hurriedly and gave a mumbling excuse that he would take full responsibility for her and if anything happened he would hold blame just please don’t send her back.

Well, seeing as the Captain was his father, she was allowed to stay on the condition that she pull her own weight. And so it was that the 14 yr old cabin boy Travis Carter took under his wing little Ayotunde as his “apprentice,” and the two grew up as brother and sister: Carter grew to be a fierce swashbuckler, and Ayo honed her magic. She considered it her duty to make sure she protected her adopted brother from the many dangers that followed such a privateer with so little forethought. Carter never really believed in Vodou or Ayo’s supposed “magic,” but he couldn’t deny the fact that she was quite the good luck charm. She made a good pirate, and an excellent sidekick.

However, when Carter’s father died, the crew didn’t quite think so. Carter thought he would gain the captain’s position on the ship, but he was quickly ousted with a ‘no-hard-feelings’ mutiny and was kindly dropped off (tied and gagged) at Nassau. Ayo, of course, stayed behind with him – after all, if left to his devices he would only get into trouble… or die because no one would probably untie him. So now their only option is to do the odd jobs around Nassau until one of Carter’s get-rich-quick schemes finally works and they manage to steal buy themselves a ship (which Carter has always promised Ayo the first mate position). Carter always has a grand dream – and Ayo is always there to make sure that when his plans go awry, he doesn’t get himself killed. And someday, she'll find that Vodou man who stole half of her soul. She'll get it back - and she'll make sure he pays for it.

 

Relationships 

  Neutral

 Acquaintance

 Friend

 Close friend

 Best friend

 Crush

 Lust

 Love

 Uncertainty | Dislike

 Despise


Carter

Partner/Spouse:  ~
Known Family: A mother somewhere in Haiti, and adopted brother Carter
Children:  ~

Inventory 

Vessel: ~
Crew: ~


Pets:  Monte, the python. They've been together for a long time (he snuck aboard on a slave ship), and he's always very sleepy and stingy and never wants to do anything. He's grumpy when you wake him up and all he wants to do is sleep in his trunk and why do you bother him geez. Go away. And he's pretty much just a big scaredy cat.

 

Other Information

Total Exp: 600

Weapons Of Choice:  She doesn’t much like to physically fight, but she didn’t live on a pirate ship for nothing: Prefers falchions, but has a basic sword. She is particularly fond of small daggers and poison darts.
Fighting Skills and Techniques:  Not particularly fond of fighting, but as a pirate and Carter’s future first mate, she can parry and thrust with the best of them. She is a crack shot with blow darts and is a skilled fencer. Very quick and graceful. Good strategically – pretend to throw a curse on some lout and they’ll run away pretty quick.
Weaknesses and Strengths in Combat: Not very strong and tires easily, not so good with a pistol or heavier swords.