Full Name: Pura Saint-Saens Valencia
DOB: February 17, 4987
Particulars: 5'9", 160lbs of pure Muster muscle and tattoos
Distinguishing Marks: Yes
Rank: Second Lieutenant
Affiliations: Muster commander, former Charioteer, current Muster liaison to the Hazat
Notes: Pura has a long history on Vargo, having started out as the 10-year-old NPC puppet of Teya Saint-Saens. After Pura ICly reached the age of majority, she became a bona fide PC with a shiny little +sheet of her own. Awww.


Desc:

Pura is a young woman, maybe twenty or so, but looks to have had a hard life so far. She's not pretty but nor is she ugly - mostly, she just looks like a soldier. Her most immediately noticeable feature is a black tribal tattoo across her right cheekbone; it looks to have been a scar done by an Ur-Ukar, then later outlined in black ink. Those hazel-green eyes of hers are distrustful and angry and almost always obscured by cigarette smoke.

While she falls short of actually having cleavage, her body does actually manage a curve in the appropriate places. It's almost lost in a sea of muscle, however. Her 5'9" frame is extremely well-muscled and toned, almost manly, the obvious product of endless hours of Muster training and workouts; the girl looks like she could bench-press a truck. Her dishwater blonde hair is just barely long enough to be swept back into a short ponytail at the base of her neck, the ends of which dangle above another tattoo. It's done in blackwork and depicts the hilt of a broadsword; the blade descends down her spine and disappears under her shirt collar. Another tattoo, this one of a snake and done in what appears to be actual gold, wraps itself around her left forearm, but it's usually covered by her sleeves. Both of her hands are calloused, scarred, and hardened.

Black cargo pants fit neatly over her hips, pockets running down the outsides of both legs, the bottoms tucked into a pair of combat boots. Her top is black as well, fitted but stretchy and loose enough to be comfortable. The neck is high and modest, the sleeves long enough to cover the tops of her hands. Silvery flashes of of chain at the back of her neck speak of dog-tags that hang under her shirt. A black leather jacket is either worn or looped around her waist, depending upon the weather. Completing the outfit is a nylon gunbelt carrying a pair of Sumpter Urthquakes, which have custom-made mother-of-pearl grips that look small even for a woman's hands, and a Muster whisperpin clipped to her shoulder. A nervous energy seems to pervade her being, like a caged cat at the end of its chain, and her stance is a deliberate, agressive posture even when relaxed.


Personality:

Fire, fury, rudeness, confidence, strength, rashness, loyalty.


Relationships:

Porter Valencia, adoptive father. Pura has a serious hero-worship for her dad and is essentially a smaller version of Porter, with breasts.

Teya Saint-Saens, adoptive mother. Teya found the girl on the streets of Pandemonium and brought the girl to Vargo. They get along much better now that Pura's not an angsty teenager. (Instead she's an angsty twenty-something.)

Carnait MacKenzie Valenica, stepmother. Due to some complex matrimonial history, Porter and Carnait are married, making Carnait Pura's second adoptive mother. Yes, Pura has two mommies. But not like that.

Llewellyn Valencia, stepbrother. Llew is three and apparently idolizes Pura. She finds this completely insane, but charming.

The Muster Guild. Having joined the Muster at age 12 after a brief service in the Charioteers, Pura regards the Muster as family.

Devante (insert long-ass Hazat name here). Friend, confidante, possible romantic interest, and professional liaison between the Muster and House Hazat.

Deuce, friend, fellow Muster, drinking buddy, and occasional provider of a much-needed sucker punch to the chest.

Raquel Mendoza. Longtime acquaintance. One of the few people who have known Pura since she was ten and still don't hate her.


History:

It is known that Pura was born on Pandemonium in 4987. It is further known that Teya Saint-Saens picked her up off the streets there in 4997. The intervening years are a blank slate to all but a very, very small handful of people. It can be generally assumed that she was a thief, since her younger years on Vargo consisted largely of shoplifting, breaking and entering, filching money from the Church's purse, and spending it on tattoos and body piercings.

Upon arriving on Vargo at age ten, Pura almost immediately met Porter, by way of finding him and Teya arguing in the hospice. The guy was cool. He was smoking in Sanctuary Aeon despite the fit Teya was throwing about it, and! he was totally covered in blood that wasn't his. And he was armed. And from a ten-year-old's perspective, he was huge, solid muscle, complete badass. Pura was in that kind of ten-year-old love which is known as Hero Worship. A couple of months later Porter was getting badly beaten by a Vorox (you just know he provoked it) and the grimy ten-year-old actually threw herself into the fight and started punching the Vorox's leg.. in defense of Porter. This attitude has persisted throughout the rest of her life.

Some time and a large number of fights later, Teya and Porter were married, and adopted Pura as their own. Teya had needed to send reams of paperwork and a good chunk of money across the Jumpweb and back to secure the legal rights to do so. But it was Porter who had the child's loyalty. Porter immediately became "Dad," though it took several years and a lot of encouragement from Porter for Teya to become "Mom."

For her eleventh birthday Porter gave Pura her very first-ever present: a metal pin in the shape of her butterfly. She still wears it, but the pin part has long since broken off. For her twelfth birthday she got her second ever present: a custom-made pair of Sumpter Urthquakes. For her thirteenth birthday, the third present: A dog. Bogatur, a big scruffy mutt, died of old age in 5008.

While she was eleven, she joined the Charioteers and learned how to fly the Hospice's airborne ambulance, a present to Sanctuary Aeon from Yenz. Funny story about Pura being in the Chariotters, but we won't relate it here. A year and a half or so later, she left the Charioteers to enter the Muster.

About this time, at the ripe old age of twelve, Pura and Porter were in a shuttle accident.. in theory. Actually they hid from the assassination attempt, and disappeared for a year. The very day of the first Triumvirate's formation, they were found and retrieved from the the city of Laredo by Vatrena of the Charioteers. It was Porter and Pura that broke the news of the Kurgan invasion.

At age thirteen Pura started to be given some Muster responsibilities, involving cleaning weapons, doing paperwork, and guard duty. Her dad taught her how to fire guns, fight with her fists, and do pushups every morning. The discipline and hard work were excellent for the girl, though they didn't help her cocky and overconfident attitude. Neither did Porter, who'd also been teaching her how to drink, and eventually how to do drugs. Around this time, Porter and Carnait were married. Pura did not approve - but then again, Pura has always shown an unhealthy level of jealousy and fury over Porter's always-complicated love life. From Pura's perspective, women mess with her dad's life and mind, and are just more Voroxes to defend him from. We can imagine how well this goes over at home.

Porter sent her to Muster Military Academy training on Bannockburn when she was fourteen, and Pura wasn't seen again on Vargo for six years. In that time she grew up into a hard, confident, and extremely competent woman with stories, hinted at rather than told, of her time at the Academy and then her covert assignments afterward. She also came back with an Ur-Ukar tattoo on her cheek, a thing of which she is immensely proud and which Porter desperately hates. It is a source of tension between them.

After a few months on Vargo, Pura was recalled to Bannockburn. Very few people know why or what she was doing other than that it was Muster business. It seems that the Ur-Ukar friend who gave her the tattoo is dead, along with the small cohort of men she graduated from the Academy with and had commanded since then. She arrived on Vargo again at age twenty-one, even more of a woman and soldier.

Since then she has met some new faces and been re-acquainted with old friends. (If "friends" is the term for the adults one knew when one was a child that used to steal from them.) In particular, she spends a good deal of time with House Hazat, enough to have become their more or less official liaison to the Muster.

She has also been in battle against the Kurgans, commanding troops at Terqa Pass and losing quite a few under her command. For her service she was granted the Star of Alvaro, the highest military medal awarded on Vargo. It's now tattooed onto her shoulder. A few might know that there are new plans and goals in the works, both personally and professionally. Pura has a great deal of work in front of her - but Pura has never yet backed down from a challenge. No matter how many arms it had.