Paprika Stone, no-one of consequence.

[Poolson]

The day has come. I honestly expected it to be sooner, but hey, it was a blast.

Dillusionist was a boss, to invest his free time and help me along in Paps' story. Abala was also cool for getting a lot of it rolling with one indirect cast of Finger of Death.

A very special thank you to the Silver Faced Knave, for that one fateful attack one late night, that got me hooked onto the Moonspear plot.

And thank you to the rest of you, who made the character memorable. I could spend all day naming you, RPG, Wench, Nazey, NND, Bio, etc, but let me condense this with a single, heartfelt thank you for probably the best character I've played on COR. The roleplay kicked some serious ass.

At first, Paps, conceptually, was a disaster. I didn't make her with a plan, other than she was a bastard child seeking her father. I first applied for her to be a Winespill, to earn her stripes, daddy dearest's love and then proceed to suck as a formal retainer. Next came the concept of the Arbiters, following the Knave situation, where the character felt she could do real, worthwhile work in restoring 99. Like an inner city cop, not Judge Dredd.

Both of those didn't pan out and honestly, it was for the better, after everything that transpired.

Her story:
[hide=Background fluff]

Paprika (Paps) Stone. Age 31. Alignment: Neutral Good (formerly True Neutral, changed by Saibhon Dumein's influences). Deity: Father Harvest.

Born to Margaret Gladwell, a ginger haired hunchback, Paprika never grew up beneath a father, living a humble life as a farmer (or, more accurately, a gardener. Soil is not as abundant in a city.) alongside her mother, in a typical by-blow gardener's neighborhood. They lived in poverty, scraping by with only a mere palm full of coin.

Life was well enough, when put in comparison to the ruin that spewed forth from the countless follies of ambitious men. Every now and then she asked about her father, though she never received a direct answer, Margaret politely deflecting her questions. Neighbors came and went, friends and childhood loves were forged and broken, and enough teasing as a ginger child being named Paprika pushed her to adopt a shorthand of the name "Paps". But even the good times weren't to last. At the age of 16, her mother perished from a fungal lung infection, with only Paps at her side and no-one else. Without anyone else to run the garden with her, she had little choice but to sell the property. What else was she to do, with so much work and only one set of hands?

It was hard. The money came easily enough, but what was next? More gardening? No. There was so much more to life than digging through soil. There was even more answers that she wouldn't be able to obtain by simply reaching out and asking- she had to see it for herself. The rings were dangerous, so she had to come prepared. The first thing she did was make for the nearest corpse vulture and purchase an old, bronze, floral patterned suit of mail, recently acquired by some awakened who didn't make it far. The second was his chipped sword. It was far too big for her then-feeble arms, but she figured she'd grow into it. The next thing she did was seek a master- and she found one, but perhaps not the master for her just yet. She met Grahoom the Savage, fresh in his prime and manic as ever. His tutoring was brutal and unforgiving and in the end, she couldn't cut it. She was driven away from his camp for being a weakling, leaving its grounds hurt and bitter. What was she thinking, trying to become a swordsman?

Paps sat in a depressive downwards spiral, wasting her hours and remaining coin away, but it wasn't all hopeless. A frequent goer of the Casino- Kirgil the Amazon- had taken notice of her and sought to raise her spirits, just as she had done for countless others as a leader of a warband. Under her instruction, she built body strength, stamina and learned how to hold a sword. With a surge of confidence and the vigor of youth within her, Paps tried her hand once more to learn the brutality of combat from Grahoom the Savage. The harshness of her lessons resumed, meeting constant failure by impossible standards, suffering physical and verbal abuse for each misstep, no matter how she strove to correct herself. Eventually, it became too much and she stormed off, never to return- but Grahoom's lessons had taken their intended effect upon her. She had learned to hate.

There was something fundamentally wrong with Paps' life, when she stewed in angry silence after parting Grahoom's camp. She had never truly belonged as a bastard child, and it made her feel alienated on a deep level. Where was the mercy, the karmic gift for her sadness to make things right? Where was the fairness in her mother's passing, where she died alone and loved only by one? Where was the fairness of being thrust into a cruel world of rabid dogs and rambling mad men? Where was the fairness in just accepting a life lived, wallowing in misery and lamenting her stars?

This realization, stoked by Grahoom's instigations, awoke a dormant anger within her, and it formed a sense of spite in her to survive, just to have petty satisfaction over the harsh reality that was her new life. Each effort was a struggle. Each defeat was a fuel for that fledgling fury, to improve and resist the brutality of the world- and many defeats did she suffer. The failed ousting of Laughing Manny's local goons. The sewer-skulking Sibilant scouts and their nearly lethal ambush. The dispensaries fought over and brutalized by the competition.

As she continually failed over the years, the desperation to do better, coupled with the yearning for a life not spent broken upon the battlefield, all of it, eventually manifested in the warrior Paps now is today. A flawed, but tenacious warrior, with a heart full of passion, to break out in such raw, emotional energy, to interact with the world in the purest expression possible.

Much shaped her life in recent time, though. People she met along the way, life lessons learned with their time together.[/hide]

[hide= events that shaped her as a character thus far.] It began with Solvegia. Paps had been adrift as a castless woman, just looking to belong. Solvegia was a natural born leader, and her charisma truly touched Paps in a way she hadn't quite felt before. She felt welcomed, to be in her presence, almost as if she were a kindred spirit. Both Solvegia and her were brutes in their own way, yet had a measure of comradery she hadn't ever quite felt before. Things were looking up. But it was not to be.

Solvegia's killing spree struck a rude awakening in Paps, and she was struck with shock, unable to best process what had just happened. Through Solvegia's brutality, she saw a ghost from the past- Laughing Manny- and fell into despair, to have been so blind... Paps had come to accept the fact that their paths would collide- even if, in the moment of truth later, that battle was denied by the tactical expertise of Ticker Square during Solvegia's march on the square, blocking her path to deny the crossing of swords. A regret that rests within her that she's simply come to accept as fated.

Soon after, her ghost-chasing of the Knaves caught up with her. Chasing a foe that got to choose where the battlefield was and benefit of first blow was deadly work- and when the Herald of House Moonspear arrived to announce the coming of Prince Trystan, she was ambushed, put on the ground and at the silver-faced cutthroat's mercy, until the Herald rose to defend her, at full risk to himself and at no charge. It was inspiring and refreshing, to see such qualities that had long left Ring 99. It was enough to pledge a life debt, to strive and make Ring 99 the sort of place worthy of the Prince's return.

Hot on its heels came another figure of great importance to her, Saibhon Dumein. In this new age of goodly men coming to grace the realm of 99, Saibhon Dumein brought with him sage wisdom, philosophies and a loving heart, and shared them freely with a troubled and adrift Paps. Even in his time of religious doubt, he provoked this new point of view towards life. Not selfish survival, but this communal mindset that, together, this life can be a beautiful thing to be built with all hands invested. He taught her the bonds shared by humanity, and its greatest strengths, of how the relations built were stronger than any bond created by blood. It changed her, in a deep, meaningful way. It was not to last, though.

It was during the height of their time together did the doppelganger incident occur, where a creature wearing Saibhon's face appear, taunting and jeering him, wrapping itself in a veil of stars and threatening him with peril. Fearing the confrontation to come to blows, Paps lunged forward to get the first strike- and was immediately felled by the beast of unimaginable power. She had suffered defeats before, but none quite as deep rooted as that.  Symptoms came and in no short supply. A deep chill struck into the core of her being. Wind no longer blew against her but through her. Sleep no longer rejuvenated her, as she slept dreamless nights and awoke the next day without any rest. Her appetite for food had vanished and her taste had turned to ash. Oftentimes, she started steering from referring to herself in the singular sense, but in the plural (we, us). Regularly, she felt as if she weren't where she is currently standing, as if observing some location from far away.

Nothing quite put the fear in her, like Saibhon's failings. He was a master healer, yet for all his great knowledge, he could not diagnose what exactly had happened to her. There was a brief hope, when he could stem her symptoms temporarily, but the future seemed bleak. She tried everyone. The Arbiters offered nothing but a re-assuring pep talk. The Prospectors certainly wouldn't know. The Wakefield Detective Agency showed some promise, as they lead her to Saint Outis, who offered a surprising insight into the curse of the Manor and how many of her symptoms were similar to the others that had suffered before her, but no promise of a cure.

In the depths of desperation and despair, she had finally met Father Maxwell Artfall, Numerologist and Scion to Moonspear. He had sought her for some time, in his quest to bring the family name back into power. He was a kind hearted man, even handed in his dealings and, indeed, beneath the facade of a professional remained a man, true. Despite the curse that ravaged her from the inside out, she began growing close to both him, and in a similar measure, her brothers and sisters in arms. Adelbert would prove to be the outlier later, who's slaying of Anseau would birth a great hatred in her. She considered, briefly, that perhaps Solvegia was right. That holy men that dealed in absolutes were fallible- and the thought alone scared her to her core.

Fate eventually turned around, when she met the Witch Hunters Imzel and Agiano de Rossa. Where all other options had failed, their expertise shined a new path. With keen understanding of the occult and obscure, eldritch powers, they moved to bind Paps to what was torn from her. Through that bind, they located the double, leading to a highly dangerous melee, tearing through cramped tunnels and hallways to slay her double and make her whole once more. Its humanity and lack of want for violence stunned her, plaguing her to her death with doubt over whether or not she made the correct decision in slaying her double. If she had just heard it out...

But it mattered not. For saving her from a curse that would have had her crumble from within, Paps found herself in their debt- and to ensure such a hardship would never fall on another person, Paps bent the knee to Agiano, becoming his disciple in the Red Hood. Their adventures have taken her far- and remarkably, her two loyalties find themselves entwined, as both Agiano and Maxwell find themselves as brothers in arms, with their critical quest to strengthen the relations and foundations of House Glitt, so as to have allies in a ring that is increasingly hostile to their presence.

In that regard, she's warmed up quite well to Lady Mairead Glitt. Her crass demeanor and upright outlook on life resounded well within her, making her a natural friend.  They've traveled far and wide as one merry band- and even in Mairead's time of need, they observed the deep recesses of her forgotten memories. A heart tugging, emotionally compromising event strengthened her empathic bond for Mairead tenfold, shining a light upon the woman's true nature. What Paps saw was noble. She saw a friend to the end.

The end came swiftly for Paps, as when Maxwell found himself shoved past the shield line, he swiftly became ravaged by the enemy. Paps hastily charged into the thick of it, mending his wounds and dragging him back through the clatter of weapons, only to be blasted in the back with a heart seizing spell. She fell to Maxwell's feet, laying on the damp bridge boards, the chaotic sounds of battle surrounding her beginning to dim. She was sad at first, for it to be over, to pass just as her mother did, alone. but just as the light began to fade from her eyes, Saibhon's wisdom shined through one last time, like the last beam of light from a setting sun. Family was not just the bonds of blood, but the bonds made through the truest expression of self. Maxwell, Mairead, Genovalio, Agiano, Imzel, even Landuin, were closer to her heart than an absent father, as close as mother dearest, taken from her too soon.  A small smile grew on her lips- and then, peace. [/hide]

I took some screenshots. I don't have a lot, so, feel free to share.

[hide=The end of the Simulucrum.][/hide]

[hide=Comedic gold.][/hide]

[hide=A trip down memory lane.][/hide]

[hide=The beginning of the end.][/hide]

[hide=Treasure][/hide]

The end.

[Random_White_Guy]

Ever fun Pool antics and really enjoyed our short but brutal/panicked encounter.

Nothing funnier than an assassin who retired, being accused of being an assassin, turning into that tense meeting in the warehouse.

A+ fun and thanks for the tension.

[Cat]

Paps was one of those chars that even though she was not outstanding (and you know I <3 you and don't mean it in an insulting way) she still made an impact and had a lot of depth to her. As always Pool, you did a wonderful job.

I still always go back and laugh at the drive by dispensary one shot you did to me that one time.

[Wakefield]

Paps had a lot of heart and dealt with a lot of strife. You played a fantastically complex character who had grown every time I saw you pass by. It was a pleasure to play with her the few times I got to!

[Ironside]

Well done!

[Nazey]

A grounded and well-characterized PC that made for some great interactions.  I'll miss Paps, excited to see your next.

[Maxwell Artfall]

The curse of the timezones. I spent ages trying to bump into Paps after hearing one of her sendings being pro-Moonspear and it still took a random dispensary encounter to finally meet Paps Stone. The final member of Max's post-reveal entourage to join, and the only one to survive in the crew to the very end to die together in that brutal final sibilant showdown. An awesome character. With a grounded and interesting personal story and personality that really shines out for those that take the time to scratch beyond the surface. I didn't get to spend as much time interacting with Paps as I would have liked but for a good stretch a time she was synonemous with Moonspear in the timezones that really count for a lot of people, and helped carry a lot of the PC end of that story and was a solid foundation that kept things going. She's a type of character that I hadn't seen before in CoR, not because lower class commoner growing up in the Peerage controlled 99th Ring hadn't been done before, but because of how subtly it was played. Oppressed farmer's daughter wasn't a cartoonist theme she'd throw in your face every moment you interacted with her, but it was buried very lightly under the pragmatic mercenary turned retainer she'd grown into and those layers made for a really dynamic character that I think anyone who spent the time to investigate into the person of the character wouldn't be able to help but enjoy.

Glad to have had you along for the ride, and thanks for being a part of my character's journey and my latest fun here on EfU.