The following is an extended version not used for the competition!
Amelia (last name not passed on)
Stats:
++++Age: 32
++++Sex: Female
++++Strengths:
++++++Flying
++++++Fighting (rapier sword fighting is best, steamlock pistols are also good)
++++++Strategy
++++++Spying
++++++Feigning innocence or ignorance
++++++Acting like everything's alright
++++Weaknesses:
++++++Tendencies to spread herself thin
++++++Lack of good sleeping habits
++++++Won't eat unless forced
++++++Being upfront about her feelings
++++++Hand-to-hand combat.
Race: Human
World Setting: Steampunk Victorian Era (or just pre-Victorian Era)
About your character
Amelia is probably the only responsible one in her entire bloodline. Her mother is a gullible idiot who clings to a corrupt comptroller, her father is an unknown fling between her mother's two high-profile marriages, and her half-sister is the Child Queen Victoria - whose reign is in mortal danger.
Brought into the Palace at 8 by her mother, the only affection the woman could have shown in her circumstance, Amelia became the young Victoria's child-maid. She cared for her half-sister with all her heart, despite Victoria's ignorance to the fact that her favourite maid was, in fact, her sister. However, a cruel system built by the corrupt comptroller to the Duchess, Conroy, tore Amelia from her young charge. At 15, she was thrown on the street, left to live on her own.
For years, Amelia struggled, resorting to prostitution and theft to live. However, she was saved from a life in the brothel from a maid who recognized her from the Palace household. The Irishwoman sent her to a relative and Amelia's life in the sky began. Showing an immediate aptitude for the piloting of all things steampowered, the man the Irishwoman sent Amelia to hired her as an apprentice Engineer on his ship, the Eboreus.
Years later, Amelia was elected the ship’s new Captain. However, her heaven was not to last - Conroy's plots to make Victoria dependent on him had failed and, her coronation fast approaching, his plans turned to murder. Hearing of unrest in her home country, Amelia turned the Eboreus to the skies of England, in hopes of saving her younger sister from whatever cruel fate awaited her at the hands of Sir John Conroy.
Death:
”Amelia!” It was Connor’s voice. Strange, she’d never heard it so panicked.
“Captain!” There was shuffling all around her, much too loud for her preference. What is wrong with these boys? Are they all cowards, now? Amelia wondered, too bewildered to piece together their panic.
“Doc, she’s needin’ ta be moved inside, yea?”
“Aye, move her in-“ Her arm was jerked hastily and a pain she hadn’t been aware of shot through her side. “Gently, you idiot!”
“Sorry, sir, le’s move ‘er in, boys!” A pistol went off nearby. “WATCH THAT MAN! Get yer gunners out, boys, we still ain’t outta this fix yet!”
* * *
“Captain, can you hear me?” Morrison’s voice was grave, but even more so than Amelia was used to.
“Yes, yes, I can.” Her voice, however, was softer than she’d expected. The female Captain of the Eboreus lay on her bed in the Captain’s quarters, her ship rocking in the wake of cannon fire and white phosphorous rounds. She suddenly bolted upright. “s**t, Morrison, I can’t be lying down! Connor! State of the shi-“
A searing white pain shot through her left side and Amelia crumpled, nearly falling from the bed but for the ship’s doctor’s firm hands guiding her back safely.
“Amelia, please!” Morrison’s use of her first name confirmed what Amelia had feared – the sharp pain she’d felt earlier on in the battle against one of Conroy’s paid-off army dogs wasn’t just a strained muscle, it had been something more. “You’ve a round in your side that I fear has done you serious harm.”
His words fell on deaf ears as Amelia gripped blindly at his arm, biting back cries of pain. This hurts… It hurts… Oh, Vicky, please… It hurts!... The woman’s body was contorted in agony, blood pooling in a garish puddle on the bed and floor. The doctor held his captain’s body as her convulsions slowly subsided and her hands fell limp.
Amelia lay still on the bed, her face quiet and calmer than he’d ever seen her in life. Morrison pulled her stained white sheet over her head and turned to the door. He pulled it open, drawing his steamlock pistol for the first time in recent memory – and sight of the bloodstained doctor sent the crew into a grief-fuelled rage.
Fate
Had Amelia not gotten a second lease on life through Serendipity - a world she much appreciated for its skyline - she'd most certainly have met her end facing Conroy's paid-off army dogs or his misinformed rioters.
Her life, she felt, had never been hers. She'd always belonged to Victoria, as a maid, a subject, and as a sister. She was 9 years older than the young Queen and, despite being unable to voice her relationship to her, had always felt accountable for keeping her safe and in check. Conroy's Kensington System, and his subsequent exile of Amelia, was more of a threat to Victoria than to the young Amelia. For this, and for believing that he could use her younger sister to his advantage, the girl swore her life to take Conroy's.
Though she was a smart fighter, in the face of heavily armed military command steamships and superior weaponry, Amelia's chances of survival were slim. Even when she was not facing army bastards hell-bent on senseless slaughter, she'd have been risking her life elsewhere - information gathering missions on land among traitorous rioters, high-risk negotiations for information on Conroy, assassination missions she didn't want her men to risk.
She'd have been a marked woman, dead either way. Her survival would be a miracle, and the survival of the young Queen Victoria an even more unlikely one.
For:
Additional Picture Ref:
Community Member
I like it! I feel really bad for Amelia, too. And I really like the way you structured the "Death" part.