Con Hổ Nguyen the Human(…?) Engineer
aka Hoa (pronounced “hwa”)
Con Hổ Nguyen was born in the jungle, under mysterious circumstances, and grew up as an orphan. Nobody is quite sure how she was raised as a baby, but she appeared in a jungle village at age four or five (she’s not quite sure) not able to speak the local language and wearing only animal-skin clothing - and a necklace made of some sort of unique metal, engraved with the name Con Hổ Nguyen. She’s not sure if it’s actually her name, but she adopted it. She was taken in by an elderly couple in the village who were never able to have children of their own, who took to calling her by the nickname Hoa.
Obviously bright as a child despite not having language (…human language, anyway), she quickly absorbed the local dialect. Strangely, later in life she found difficulty in learning other languages, but can now speak both the eastern and western common tongues passably. However, she is often able to rudimentarily communicate with non-humans. She vaguely recalls being better at this before she arrived at the village, but her memories are foggy from that time.
In the jungle, everything is covered with foliage or heavily chemically altered by water and bare rock is rare. One of Hoa’s favorite places near the village was a ravine that a river flowed through, where tall cliffs on either side were exposed and relatively fresh. Within the exposed surface was visible cracks and intricate folds in the layers of rock - to Hoa, these hinted at a fascinating story about how the mountains formed, but lacking scholarly resources (and any contact with the outside world for that matter) in the village she was only able to come up with her own fanciful ideas.
At age 14, her elderly adopted father passed away, followed shortly by her adopted mother. Though they loved her dearly, she had not really made any other friends in the village. For some reason, the other children didn’t like her. She realized later they were scared of her, but at the time she just felt excluded.
So, she packed up and left the village - she followed the river that she so loved downstream, eventually reaching a port city on the ocean. There, she quickly adapted to the city (as big of a shock as it initially was, coming from the jungle) but as a young girl felt constantly in danger. She was taken in by a man who seemed quite friendly and eager to help her. She worked for a brief time in his shop, which is where she met the famous female pirate of the eastern seas. Hoa could barely understand the eastern common tongue yet, but was immediately taken with her.
Later that night, the shopkeeper who took her in betrayed Hoa’s trust, as men do. Though she didn’t intend to, she ended up killing him. Soaked in his blood and fearing what would happen to her, she stowed away on the pirate’s ship, which set sail the following morning.
After a few days of hiding aboard the ship and scrounging for food the blood started to smell quite bad, which led to her discovery. To Hoa’s surprise, the pirate understood without hesitation and invited her to stay in her quarters. For the next few years Hoa was raised as the pirate’s protege. They amassed an impressive library of scholarly works, from which Hoa learned about the structures she’d seen in the cliffs at the river, among many other things.
At eighteen, Hoa came to terms with something rather crucial, now that she thinks about it - the sea doesn’t really agree with her. She’s not sure if it’s the salt or the constant movement but she always feels a bit uneasy.
So she’s decided to head off on her own, on land of course, having heard about the open invitation by the King of Ridwhick to delve into what she’s decided is her calling - the subsurface.
But first, she needed a crew - she wasn’t sure why, but she decided to go back to the jungle village where she was raised. As expected, nobody there was interested in helping. They all seemed so backwards to her now, anyway. As she started walking away, the wind rustling in the trees caught her attention and she turned to look - in the direction of the river gorge. She decided to go have a look at it for old time’s sake, and was rather taken aback by what she found - several female tigers sunbathing on the rocks. Upon seeing her, they became alert. Scared, she started to slowly back away as the tigers approached. She reached for her sword, at which point the tigers started purring. They bounded up to her and started rubbing against her, and she slowly let go of her sword’s handle as a smile crept onto her face. She’d found her crew.
Structural Geologist (4)
Intuitively understands subterranean structures, both natural and otherwise, and geometry. Pocket transit (geo compass), basic rock hammer/pick.
Stealth Pirate (3)
Super-sneaky. Does not require shadows, but they help. Silent shoes (…sneakers). Eye patches for increased night vision. Pirate sword. Can’t handle alcohol very well, actually.
Non-Human Whisperer (2)
Can communicate, rudimentarily, with non-humans (especially cats). Anti-static - fur does not stick to clothes. Feather on a stick.
Dealer’s Choice (2)
Editor’s note: though my backstory is riddled with cliches, I’m not sure if my attribute cliches are quite cliche enough, so let me know. Also, as my backstory is significantly longer than 200 words (849 words) I guess I get an extra point, but some others with stories didn’t take the point, so I’m not clear. I expect this thread isn’t where our final answers will ultimately go so some changes will be made I suppose. Anyway I feel like I’m starting too strong if 6 is the max and I have 4-4-2-2 (which is how I’d distribute, as per my story my whisper ability isn’t very developed yet) already but then I don’t really know how the game works yet so I don’t know.
