[Subtleknifewielder] Alexia Price

--General--
Full Name: Alexia Price

Alias: Lexi for family and friends, Alex for casual use by others, Miss Price for formal usage

Age: 18

Age Appearance: 21

Residence: Mara

Job: Heiress of Price Shipyards, and one day hopefully the Shipbuilders' guild.

Gender: Female

Species: Human

Alignment: Lawful Neutral

Faction: The Merchant Guilds



--Appearance--
Picture:


Physical Description: Alexia is on the tall side for a woman, at 5'9" and with a slender figure to boot. Even when a lot of her job is meetings and paperwork, she does her best to stay fit and active, and it shows in the toned muscles, at least the ones she allows to be on display. For such a tall and slender figure, she also has a decent bust, a mid-sized C. Her hair is long and flowing, going all the way to her lower back when unbound, its pure white color contrasting sharply with her dark, dusky skin, and some bangs to either side frame a pair of eyes that, depending on the lighting, look either lavender or pink. She would tell anyone who asked that they are definitely pink. She generally wears her hair up in a large bun or simple braid, or sometimes a more elaborate hairdo depending on the occasion (though she is considering more and more that she might get it cut, if it gets any longer). Her face often bears a smile, polite or friendly depending on the circumstances, though her brows, as pale as her hair, furrow noticeably when she's concentrating.

Clothing: With her family being among what serves for 'aristocracy' in Mara, Alexia is not (usually) one to buck common trends. Her clothing is colorful and flashy. She doesn't wear full body coverings like some of the more foppish merchants, as she *is* still practical, to some degree, with bare midriff whenever she can get away with it, nor are the colors she typically wears clashing, she likes to at least be tasteful in her ostentatiousness. Typically these consist of freshly shined boots, pants that are loose around the leg but tight around the waist, a crop top, arm coverings and/or gloves for handling her flute and other tools, and maybe a jacket if it's a cooler day or she wants to feel even just a little more fashionable (still often hanging no further down than her crop tops). Of course, this her day to day wear, whether casual or formal or somewhere in between, not when she is attending to more practical matters in person. When she goes to a site to witness and learn of a job in person, for example, she wears the appropriate clothes and safety equipment for the job. One thing it all generally has in common--concealable pockets into which she can slip the pieces of her flute if she wants to hide its presence on her while having it close at hand. She does make one concession to vanity much of the time, however--a pair of gilded, jeweled earrings that dangle from her lobes, or other such bits of jewelry as she feels the occasion calls for or as the aesthetics appeal to her--but the first pair of earrings are what she most often wears.

Armor: Any Armor? If so, use the following spoiler to list and describe each piece.



Weapons: Any Weapons? If so, use the following spoiler to list and describe them:



Miscellaneous Equipment/Items: Any items you may carry around that serve a function other than as armor or weapon.





Bonded Object

Object: Flute

Appearance Pictured here is a shorter, simpler version of the flute, but the one in the picture is just as ornate, resembling several wooden sections banded by silver and capable of being separated at those bands for easy storage. The one she has is quite lengthy, and capped just as the other is, with the head of a draconic figure that appears to be preparing to breathe fire--and aside from the ruby made to mimic the flames in its mouth, it appears to be made of silver too, though what it's actually made of is far stronger even before taking into account the sturdiness of bonded objects.



Source of Bond: It was a birthday gift given to her by her grandfather, the person who most encouraged her hobbies and pursuits outside of the family business. It can be deconstructed and stored safely into four parts, and it resembles wood and gold, but is in fact made from the bones of a particularly durable monster.

Powers Choose a maximum of 3 to start, remember the powers must be related to the object thematically, and the stronger the power the more severe the drawbacks should be

Ability Name: Euphonious Empathy

Ability Description: They say that 'Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,' and for someone with the power Alexia holds, it is certainly true. In short, Alexia is capable of projecting emotions, and muting them, inciting fear, soothing tempers, inducing calm rationality or boredom, soothing away your cares or in turn magnifying the worry you already possess. As a budding businesswoman, this is the power she's had the most cause to use over her time, and thus the one with the most practice put into it. Therefore, she knows she is capable of both subtly and overtly affecting a decently-sized group of up to two dozen individuals at a time at her current maximum effect, though she has never had cause to need it over a lengthy period of time. Nor is she limited to her original requirement of using the flute directly anymore--a whistle, a hum, even just flowery, poetic language, is capable of activating the effects if she chooses, so long as she is the one producing the sound, and she is capable of selectively choosing who in the room she affects, though this is more taxing on her control than making it omnidirectional. It is also a little easier if the sound is related to the emotion, i.e. a screech, shout, or discordant notes to project anger or fear, or a lullaby or soft hum to soothe them.

Ability Drawbacks: Obviously, while this power can work on those who are not paying attention, being sound dependent, it cannot work on any who can't hear, which means the further away, the less effective it is, as well--and if it's a noisy environment, she needs to work harder to activate it to its fullest extent. Nor can she control how the listener reacts to the emotional manipulation, she can only set the tone in the moment, and she has to be persuasive in that moment, too, because the effect does not linger very long after her departure unless she makes sure to drive her point home before the effect wears off. And at present, she still needs to be the one to make whatever sound is used to project the effect.

Ability Name: Sonic Sending

Ability Description: Alexia's second power is the capability of manipulating sounds in her environment. Muting them, magnifying them, or making them sound like they came from a different place than they really did, or making them sound like something else, though this is the most taxing aspect depending on how much she changes them from the original. Notably, they do not need to be sounds she herself has made. When she first unlocked this power, she frequently used it to project her own voice or deaden her footsteps for mild pranks on family and servants, or to sneak off to see her grandpa when she was theoretically supposed to be doing something else, meaning this power is the second most practiced of hers.

Ability Drawbacks: While she no longer needs to be using the flute directly to do these things, it needs to be out with both hands directly touching it, not just on her person--and fully assembled. She cannot create sounds from nothing (though it is rare anywhere for a place to be so silent there's nothing to work with), nor can she completely deaden a sound that is louder than a whisper. She obviously cannot project a sound to a place she herself cannot hear from, and this is unlikely to ever change.

Ability Name: Medium Manipulation

Ability Description: Beyond being beautiful to listen to or horrifying depending on the intended effect, sounds can affect the elements and objects they travel through. So too can Alexia. In theory she could throw sharp gusts at an enemy to knock them off their feet or soothe a gale to provide allies with a moment to be sure of their footing, douse someone with a bit of water or remove the air from a room to put out a fire, or cause glass to vibrate and shatter with the right pitch, solidify the air or water to walk on it longer than the traditional air jumping, soften the earth, and more. All in theory, of course.

Ability Drawbacks: To put it simply, this is the power Alexia has had the least practice with, and to date can still only use it through the flute. She is not capable, currently, of affecting gale force winds to stop or start. Plus, nature abhors a vacuum--removing water and air from where it wants to be and putting it somewhere else is extremely taxing, at least at her current level--it is easier to 'convince' it that it wants to do what she wants, and she absolutely cannot create something out of nothing or transmute something into something else, only work with what already exists in her environment. She cannot affect elements or objects within another sapient being's aura, which includes bonded objects, clothes, and other items on their immediate person, as well as the air in their lungs (though she could remove the air from around them with a lot of effort--more than she is currently capable of). Shattering crystal, glass, and other similarly structured objects is interestingly, the easiest thing to do with this power, as it is simply a matter of patience and a little deductive guesswork. Lastly, she needs to understand, at least in part, how the sound travels through a thing to be the most effective on it--and if something deadens sound too much, it is extremely difficult or impossible to affect directly. This means that, in theory, she could affect water the most, as it is extremely conducive to carrying sound, but in practice air is the thing she understands best, and to a lesser extent, the industrial metals her family's workers use to make their ships. Perhaps with more practice, she could use her power to more quickly grasp intuitive understandings of the sound conductivity of objects in her vicinity, but for now that quickness is beyond her.



--Important Information--
Personality: In public crowds, Alexia is bold and charismatic, but also generally unfailingly polite and diplomatic, even to those she doesn't have to be. As the face of the next generation of Prices, she is well aware of the value of a public image as her parents taught her, and she cultivates that image relentlessly. She is a patron of the arts, or at least, she encourages those who create music, art, literature, and more, even if she doesn't have as much time as she would like to create such things herself. Among peers, she is a little more reserved, but retains the diplomatic outlook even as they are always jockeying for position or favors from her and her family, but wary of declaring anyone a true friend--it is hard to tell who is actually a friend and who is only interested in your money when your family is so insanely wealthy and powerful. So, among them, she generally implies much, but promises little. Among family, she's not afraid to let her hair down, at least some. They know where her interests lie, and as long as she's gotten things done that day, she's free to play the music she loves, or read that book she's really been wanting to dig into. But it's really only her twin Ameira and her grandfather Fisher who truly understand her. On the whole, her strong sense of duty sees that she is extremely devoted to the family and continuing the legacy. However, if she had the option free of obligation, she would choose to focus almost exclusively on her music, tour the world, see sights and devour books, perhaps playing mild but harmless pranks on people here or there, maybe even choose to adventure a bit with her sister. However, due to the wealth and privilege she was born into, she does struggle to understand the plights faced by the poor, and can thus often come off as naïve or even haughty or arrogant when discussing such subjects in anything but the most abstract of contexts.

Likes: Solving puzzles (word and math), playing the flute, reading novels, riddles, basically anything that tests/stretches her intelligence

Dislikes: Pointless seeming drudgery, repetitiveness with no tangible result, conversations that go nowhere--basically anything that does not provide some benefit to her mind, body, or family's interests, though the benefit could also be as simple as something to help her relax and destress.

Strengths: Her family (it is sizeable) and their wealth and resources, connections among her peers in the other guilds, the bonds she has with her sister and grandfather

Weaknesses: Ignorance of things beyond her privilege, lack of experience with the world outside of Mara's cities and her family's holdings, lack of true combat experience outside of (admittedly rigorous) training

Skills: Oration, including charismatic persuasion; number crunching; speed-reading; reading, writing, and composing music; a general grasp of the kinds of labor that go into ship-building (though without the full knowledge or experience a competent laborer who's worked at it for years would possess), swimming; dueling (short swords, long swords and rapiers); shooting (handguns only); reading body language and tone rather than just hearing a person's words

Talents: Perfect pitch; an almost perfect memory; agility and reflexes; quick thinking

Motto: To some extent, Alexia subscribes to the family motto; "Everything is for a price--except a Price."

Goal: To prove worthy to succeed her father when the time comes to take over the family business, as well as give meaningful contributions to their future legacy--but she also hopes to be able to set aside enough down time to relax now and then, as she can see the stress the job puts her parents under. And, hopefully, perhaps become a moderately successful musician. Might as well shoot for it all, she figures.

Music Video:


History: The Price family is an old one--they claim they are among some of the original founders of the Maran nation, the typical appearance of one would certainly seem to back that idea up, or at least lend it some credence. At the very least, they are, very provably old. They've been in the shipping business since near the end of the First Great War, according to public records, and their ships were majorly represented among the vessels that allowed humanity to retake the lost lands they had been driven off of by the Harbingers after those monsters were defeated. Stories even say one of the founding members of the family was among the great warriors that defeated those hateful monsters, though most people (including the current membership of the family) agree that much is probably just a folk tale meant to drive home their almost mythical status within Maran society.

What is known about are the near monopoly their family has on building the best ships in the world, and the almost fanatical loyalty the clan induces toward itself within its own members. While within any large group it is natural there are factions and divisions within it, it is extremely rare for a Price to betray another Price to someone outside the family clan, and those that are proven to have done so tend to not live long. Even those who marry into it tend to get swept up in the fervor of loyalty--and this in no small part has been what has led to their success over the eons, that indivisible front to the world.

This is the history, the atmosphere Ameira and Alexia were born into, from the time they could walk and talk taught that the family was everything. They didn't have to like everyone in the family, but they must respect that all of them were Prices. The family always came first, before anyone else. And above that, finding some way of improving the family's situation. For the twins, they it was clear both were capable, and it was deemed very likely one or both of them would end up being the heir of the next generation, and so they were raised with that in mind. To be clear, the line of succession to the head of the house did not always follow such direct paths, but truly the family agreed these two were the most capable of their generation.

Another thing that was apparent very early on was the bond they had with one another; communication came easy between them, to the point where some joked they had to have a psychic connection, though the truth was, from the time they could speak and write simple sentences, they developed their own, unique code between themselves, before they even understood what 'code' was. And it afforded them oh so many opportunities for mischief during their exploratory and rebellious phases of maturing into children, teens, and eventually young adults.

However, their rigorous training in all aspects of the family business, from learning how the ships were made to managing the finances, and even defending oneself from those who wished to take it or just inflict harm on oneself, eventually began to temper Alexia's desires to rebel, as well as tempering her more exploratory nature as well. It did not suppress these things entirely, but it did force it to make room for other priorities. But, whenever she was down, she knew she could always visit her grandfather, and he would cheer her up.

In fact, it's probably safe to say their grandfather Fisher was responsible for helping them maintain their sanity, and their own identities, over the near two decades of their existence. His gifts to them on their birthdays and other celebrations were always the most treasured, as they were always thoughtful, from the heart, not just something practical or that he 'thought they might like,' that most of their family tended to give them. It was on her tenth birthday that he gave her the flute, knowing her passion for music, and what's more, taught her how to play for it, and care for it--because you should never abuse your instrument, you should always clean it after every use. Even with that more tedious side of his instructions, though, it was the single greatest gift she can ever remember receiving in her life.

She still treasured it as she grew up into a responsible young adult, still having the occasional yearning to go out and explore the world, to just see and do things. To that end, she began pushing strongly for encouraging artists, writers, and especially musicians, even going so far as to publicly sponsor a school for such creative arts and allow them to name it after her. More importantly, that muted passion, was why she encouraged Ameira to go make something of her dreams when her sister was thinking of running away. Of course in the end, after it happened, she passed it off to their parents as a means of encouraging Ameira to find her own, unique way of contributing to their family's legacy, but the truth is, on some particularly bad days, she almost wishes she'd had the will to run away herself--wishes she drowns either in work, or music when there's no work that needs immediate attention.



Stats

Level 2