Penelope Fields

About

Abilities & Competencies

Penelope Fields is a young Elezen, though not your typical one! Sporting a cervid-like face (complete with a set of small antlers) and a fluffy tail, they look more like a forest spirit than your average elf -- they clearly put the "Wild" in Wildwood! Indeed, they seem a bit more feral than their compatriots, preferring to live out in the woods, and spending more time talking with animals and Sylphs than people.

That's not to say that Penelope isn't a people-person. In fact, they're a proud Captain of the Twin Adders, and are a proficient bard. It's not uncommon to see them even in the furthest reaches of Eorzea, either tackling a Grand Company hunt or playing a jaunty tune. They take both very seriously, and fiercely defend Gridania and the Black Shroud from any threat. Garlean Imperials, monsters, voidsent, bandits, and poachers have all felt the harsh sting of Penelope's steel.

History

(Note: I am the type that refuses to believe the canon MSQ timeline happens over the course of only a year or so. I feel like 5 years (from ARR to EW) makes way more sense. Sorry Yoshi but 1 year makes no damn sense!)

Nobody remembers where the child came from.The Shroud has always had its fair share of strange sightings and supernatural beings. A place so rife with magic, especially one guarded by the unknowable, fickle Elementals, is bound to have many things lurking out of view.The Wild Child was one of them.Gridania has its fair share of lost children, of course. It's rare to find a city that doesn't have orphans, and for some children to disappear. So at first, the sighting of a child out in the Shroud didn't raise that many eyebrows. There was the typical pity, of course -- "Ah, another child lost to the forest... probably dead or stolen by Voidsent by now. A pity. I do hope the parents are okay."But the child's description didn't match any known people. None of the parents who had lost kids could confirm it was theirs, and none of the children who did come back could say they recognized them either. It looked like a fairly regular kid, by all accounts. Many turned to the idea that it was a spirit, perhaps a vengeful being that represented the pain and loss of every forgotten child. It made sense, in a way; the sightings were always in shadow, lurking just out of view, running and disappearing the moment you tried to call out to it.And so for nearly a decade, the Shroud had a ghost, slippery and unknowable. And as those years went on, the child got older, and the sightings were more concerning. Stolen supplies from camps. Signs of rummaging through the cottages and grain stores. Clothes going missing. Weapons going missing. And every time, a brief sighting of the child.Animals found dead, killed by crude tools. Bones and fur and feathers found in the oddest of places. Then, finally, a hunter found mauled to death, beaten and scratched and bitten and bludgeoned, left unrecognizable. This finally led the locals to mount a search. At first, the Adders, Wailers, and Gods Bows were hesitant - such vigilante justice may not end well - but such a terrifying death required an investigation, and so the forest was swept through. Doubled patrols, confusion, paranoia, hunting, hunting, searching for this ghost.There was a child. A lost child, who didn't remember how they ended up in the forest. But they remember they were abandoned, and they were scared. They were hurting. And the noisy people always kept coming closer. They had to learn how to fend for themself, and how to run from the loud folk who wanted to bring them back to the bad place. They don't remember the bad place, but they do remember the pain. It hurt a lot. They didn't like it. They didn't want to go back. So they ran. They stayed out of sight, slipping away from those who might catch them. And as the years went on, the child got older, and they became more cunning, and they realized the danger they were in. The bad people didn't just want to find them. The bad people wanted questions and answers, pain and justice, and bars of a cage. The child did not want that. The child wanted to be free. But they had to take and steal and forage and hunt, and as they got older, their emotions started to become stronger.And so one day the child was attacked. They don't remember what happened. They don't want to remember. It was a bad day. They cried so much after that day. They knew they did something wrong - not just in the eyes of the loud people, but in their own eyes as well. They were scared and panicked and hungry and desperate and they did things that day that they do not want to ever remember.And they heard the loud people. They were angry. They were coming closer every day. Seeking and hunting, with revenge in their hearts. And the child wished to tell them they were sorry but knew it would not be enough and they would be put in a painful cage.The child fled, and found themself among magical beings, tricksters and pranksters, who were tickled by the sight of the strange child. But the beings saw the pain in the child's eyes, and began to take pity. They took the child in, hid them away, let them play in the deep woods under their watchful eye, helped them learn how to hunt better, how to talk, how to read, how to dance, how to laugh. The child was adopted, in a sense, by these spirits of the forest. Perhaps it could be seen as a rescue, of them being saved from a dark path they wouldn't be able to return from.And so the fae protected this child, hid them from the loud people, and the child grew to love their new family.Then, the Calamity.Eorzea was torn apart. The Battle of Carteneau was the turning point of history, and hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands were injured or killed.The Elementals shielded the Shroud from the blast and meteors, but the surging aether was strong. The fae and the child hid in a small cave, with many wild animals having come in to shelter from the storm as well. And they prayed. They gathered their own energy, and tried to help fortify the shield, even if just a little bit. Let me be one with the forest, the child begged. Let me stay with my family, let me protect those I care about, let me prove I am good.Their prayer was heard, but not in the way they expected.They came out from the shelter changed. They weren't sure how to explain it, but some have thought that the surge of aether, the prayers, and the presence of the fae and animals may have been a catalyst for change. Now, they looked different. They looked like they belonged with the forest.The rebuilding after the Calamity was arduous. The Shroud may not have been affected physically, but the other effects were immediate. Refugees wished for entry (most being turned away of course), trade roads became dangerous, supplies needed rationing, and of course, so many who went out to fight never returned.The child was nearly grown now, and felt a pang in their heart. They were always wary of people, and especially of Gridania, but they watched from the shadows as people mourned, became bitter and angry, and as Gridania become even more sheltered. It didn't feel right. They were taken in by those who, by all rights, should not have done so. They learned that the Shroud is a bounty. They didn't know why, but they wanted to help. Perhaps with their outward change also came an inward change, one of penance and compassion.So they came forward, and offered to help. The people were concerned at first, with a strange-looking child appearing so suddenly. Conjurers were brought in to check on the child, and obviously found odd aether within them. Finally, a Hearer was called in. The child was nervous, of course, but allowed the Hearer to check them. In the end, they were left scratching their head, unsure of where the child came from or why they appeared this way, but came to the conclusion that they were not a threat, nor did they detect any taint of Voidsent or other malicious forces. An anomaly, but benign.The child was free to go, free to be in Gridania under supervision, and they provided a simple backstory - they were an orphan, whose parents were lost in the Calamity and who hid in the woods and woke up looking like... well, this. Their story was half-true, of course, and with how many people were lost after Dalamud's fall, nobody could find any fault in the story.The child took the name Penelope, and worked with the Adders and Wailers to help find food, water, and resources for the people. The noted they knew the land better than any of their scouts, and could sniff out Voidsent and Garleans quicker than anyone. After a few short years, Penelope reached full maturity, and was asked to officially join the Adders, being told that their skills were second-to-none and that their presence would help all in Gridania and the Shroud.Penelope accepted. It was not easy, of course. Gridania had always been wary of outsiders, and after the Calamity, this reluctance was rapidly changing into outright xenophobia. This didn't sit right with Penelope, and they worked hard to make things right. It wasn't uncommon for them to be whispered about behind their back, insulted, or sometimes spat upon by the citizens. In their eyes, the Black Shroud was a bounty to be shared and loved, not to be closed off to the world.Now, after several years, Penelope has risen to the rank of Captain, fought many battles and protected both citizen and outsider alike. They have proven themself time and time again to be an open-minded (though closed-off) individual who values compassion, unity, and freedom - to the point that they've even been reprimanded by their superiors for breaking laws for "the common good".Their duties are often split between the Adders - patrols, training, paperwork, scouting, tracking, and hunting down bounty targets - as well as their new job they have undertaken. A new orphanage opened in Gridania not long ago, funded and supported in large part by Penelope, and they volunteer there several days a week, giving lost children the second chance they deserve.

Hooks

Some simple RP hooks include...

Gallery

Dawntrail / Current Appearance

Endwalker Appearance

Not their current look, but I love these pics enough that I wanted to show them off!

Other Stuff

Hello! Welcome to my Carrd!List of all of my characters can be found here.I have autism and ADHD, so do be patient with me if we talk. I might miss cues or fail to pick up on reading between the lines. And I do apologize if I take a long time between responses in RP -- I sometimes will write up entire paragraphs only to go "Ah, no, my character wouldn't say that" and rewrite the whole dang thing. Trust me, I do my absolute best to provide good responses both in casual conversation and in RP.I am in Mountain Time (MST) though my hours can be funky.I am not up-to-date on every little bit of lore in the game. I may get things wrong. Though, my character is already an anomaly in terms of lore, so a little bit of bending the rules isn't something I'll bat an eye at. Still, if I get some stupidly basic part of the game's lore wrong, lemme know.As of the time of writing this, I have only just finished Endwalker. I have not done the post-patches or Dawntrail. Please avoid spoilers if possible.I do not mind M/ERP but it should be discussed beforehand. It is very rare that I will jump into something mature with a stranger.My F-List can be found here (18+ ONLY!)And please keep in mind: just because I'm sharing this doesn't mean it gives the go-ahead to immediately start discussing sexual stuff with me. I'm sex-positive, but I'm also, y'know, a real life person behind the screen. Try not to be weird. Compliments and lightly flirtatious comments about my character are fine though, and I find them quite flattering.