WOOD, lyra melanie[doneee]

[lyra wood ♥]

Player Details

Name: Ashley
Age: 17
RP Experience: Since Feb 2007
Other characters: none

Character Basics

Full Name: Lyra Melanie Wood
Nicknames: Lee, Melli
Age: 22
Birthday: March 4th?
Profession: Inn Keeper

Family and History

Mother: N/A
Father: N/A
Siblings: N/A
Other family: N/A
Relationship with family: Her actual family is deceased but for Lyra she believes the orphans and street urchins, like she used to be, she associates with are sort of like her family. And she also considers Cathleen Cox to be family. She gets along pretty well with her.
Hometown: Oxford
General History:
Lyra was born on March 4th[ish], 1854 to two unnamed parents. They raised her in their small apartment only grudgingly. They already had five other sons and daughters to take care of. It was hard for them to scrounge the money to take care of another kid. But they did, for awhile at least. Two weeks after her second birthday her parents decided it was too much. They commissioned one of her older siblings to take her to the local orphanage and there they deposited her on the stoop. She was left there bawling her eyes out for her mommy. But Lyra was only two and adorable. She was soon adopted by an upper middle class family.

Lyra's foster mother loved her dearly and was very kind to her. She treated Lyra well and doted on her, she was not able to have children of her own. Her foster father, Lyra's that is, was a different story. He came across nice but he liked to get drunk. When he was drunk he would hit Lyra and scream at her, never in his wife's hearing of course. Occasionally, drunk or not, he would touch Lyra in places that when he touched her it made her feel very uncomfortable. Around the age of four he raped her.

At five Lyra ran away. It hurt her to leave her foster mother who had always been so good to her but she couldn't take being near her foster father anymore. By seven she was in London and had taught herself to read,write, and do simple sums. She had also taught herself how to pickpocket and who to pickpocket. It was easy for her as no one noticed the poor little girl sneaking about. And that was how she spent her years up to the age of twelve. Around the age of twelve things changed.

One evening in the October of 1866, Lyra was hiding outside of McAdams stable for the night. She knew it wasn't the safest place... In fact she knew that it might be the most dangerous places she could sleep for the night. However it was one of those really dark nights that without a light you really could not see a hand in front of your face and she didn't want to get lost in the darkness, so here is where she was going to rest her head. Plus it was cold and rainy. She didn't want to risk going inside the stable, and she had managed to find a small overhang that would keep her dry. But then a light flickered through the window below which she was trying to sleep. Lyra stood, peering through the window to see what was the matter. She heard shouts but she couldn't make out the words, and then she saw the owner of the stable, William McAdams, shaking and strangling the figure of a young boy. Lyra wanted to do something but she was frozen in place. Suddenly the man through the boy as hard as he could. The boy hit the wall and the boy's skull cracked open. As this happened Lyra saw the face of the boy and she let a scream loose from her throat. The stable owner heard this but before he could do anything about it, Lyra was long gone.

For a long time she had nightmares about this, but things died down a little when she started to become friends with James "Crow" Prince. They were about the same age and he was nice to her, some of the time at least. If he had been nice all of the time she would have wondered what was wrong with him. But then one sunny June day in 1867, Lyra and James went walking. It seemed like one of those days where nothing could go wrong and of course something did. Suddenly, James tripped and fell on his face in the street. Before he could do anything, a carriage ran him over, splitting him in two. Lyra was once again frozen in place, but something within her had snapped.

She went into hiding then, lurking in alley ways and anywhere she knew was a lonely place. She refused all human contact and for awhile it worked. But then one day someone came looking for her, not in a bad way though like it was her foster father. In a good way, because the person searching for her was a woman by the name of Cathleen. Cathleen was a sort of friend of Lyra's, despite the age difference, and Cathleen had once saved Lyra from her foster father. So in part when Cathleen found Lyra, Lyra was relieved. From then on she lived in one of the rooms in Cathleen's Inn, and she would work in the Inn to pay for her room and food.

Around the age of sixteen, Lyra met or re-met one Pitivo Costa. They had known each other when they were Urchins, and now were re-meeting because Lyra worked/lived in the Inn that Cathleen owned and Cathleen was married to Amir who's sister, Mahnaz, had adopted Pitivo. So they met at various occasions and at first they were friends.

Over the years they sort of developed feelings of the romantic kind for each other. It was an awkward sort of courtship for a few years, with Lyra kind of dancing around being tied down to one person and such. But eventually she was convinced of his feelings and she settled down slightly. A month or two back from now, they did the "deed". And though Pitivo doesn't know it yet, Lyra is pregnant. The stress of that, has brought back her nightmares though. Lyra isn't exactly sure if she is cut out to be a mother.

Personality

Likes:

• Singing
  
• Pickpocketing
  
• Pitivo
  
• Tips
  
• Cathleen
  
• The Cox Family
  
• Other urchins and orphans
  
• Her ferret[RIP little ferret]
  
• Being sneaky
  
• Her job
  

Dislikes:

• Getting caught by anyone
  
• Going without food for too long
  
• Rich people[some]
  
• Death
  
• Nightmares
  
• Crying
  
• Her foster father
  
• Gropers
  
• Carriages
  
• William McAdams
  

Strengths:

• Music
  
• Pickpocketing
  
• Her job
  

Weaknesses:

• her nightmares
  
• getting caught
  
• shes very ticklish
  
• shes not very fast
  

Overall personality:
Lyra
The name Lyra means Lyre, and Harp. Lyra loves music, an odd thing for an urchin to like but she doesn't care. She can't dance and she can't play a single instrument but that girl can sing and she loves it. Once in awhile she sings in order to earn some pennies but most of the time she hides her talent for fear that someone will make fun or her. If you can't find her at work then its likely that Lyra will be sneaking around some high class establishment searching for a way to hear the music played inside.

Melanie
Melanie means black. Once in awhile if she hasn't eaten for awhile Lyra goes to a dark place where she feels very depressed. There she thinks about why her parents could ever have given her up or why her foster father could have abused her in such a way as he did. She hates going there but sometimes she does and then she has to deal with it. Lately she also goes to that place when she thinks about Oliver and James. She witnessed both their deaths and now it haunts her dreams.

Wood
In a descriptive sort of sense, Lyra is very much like wood. She is very inflexible and stubborn. If she has an opinion she believes in it wholeheartedly. No one, not even the Queen of England, could make her change her mind if she believes in it. She hates it when people try to convince her to change her mind.

Pickpocketing
Lyra is a very good pickpocket. She works well alone and with a group. No one pays her much attention and she finds that to her advantage. She can sneak about places easily and for her hiding is simple. She's tiny and hiding is easy then. Less so now though. She doesn't really need to pick pocket but she does at times, especially if some drunken male has been especially pervy to her. She calls it Karma.

Education
Lyra isn't very bright but she knows the basics. She can write her name and read messages and even do simple sums. However when it comes to other things like history or commerce or science, she is absolutely clueless. She doesn't even care about those things, she's just happy she knows her basics. Nor are they hugely important to her.

Love
Considering where she came from, Lyra has a huge capacity to love people. She loves a lot of people in a lot of different ways. She loves the people who give tips because she needs the money. She loves her friends because they're always there for her. And Lyra loves her adoptive family, the ones that she has adopted to her not the ones that adopted her because no one has officially done that since she was two, because they are simply her family who cares if they aren't blood. Lyra also loves Pitivo but she isn't sure how to tell him that.

Motherhood
As she is about to become a mother, this is something Lyra has thought a lot about. She isn't sure whether she wants to be a mother, or if she'd even be a good mother. Either way she wants her child to have everything she didn't. She wants her child to be well and loved and taken care of. She wants her child to not have to worry about anything ever.

Appearance

Height: 5'3"
Weight: 119 lbs
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Dirty Blond
Clothing: Raggedy Dresses, less raggedy now but not exactly high quality stuff.
Distinguishing features: N/A
Celebrity: Taylor Swift
Celebrity Pic:

Overall appearance:
Face
Lyra has a round face with a slight bum chin, as she likes to call it. Her eyes are a bright inquisitive blue and hide her emotions well. Her eyebrows have no shape except for the one they choose to grow in and her lips are quick to smile or smirk. Her face is untouched by makeup and chooses not to wear it because she feels no need for it, nor does she have to money for it.

Hair
Lyra has long dirty blond hair that if it were washed often and brushed daily it would be gorgeous. But since it isn't it hangs in long dirty blond matted and tangled waves. Less so now, because she has the ability to bathe every so often and she owns her own comb/brush. Because she can wash her hair now she realized that her hair is not so dirty blond but actual blond.

Body
Lyra is still tiny, but not as tiny as she used to be, only 5'3" and 119lbs. She fits well into small hiding places and has a fragile, I-can-be-blown-away-by-the-wind, look. Her body isonly slightly curvy, as she doesn't have the weight to pull anyhting like that off. But she does have a chest area now[xD] and she really doesn't remember why she was so scared of puberty when she was little.

Other

Status: Taken-ish
Role play Sample:

The petite twenty one year old was off campus and not in her house. She was at the Spcae Needle, on the observation deck, with the little girl who dictated how her world revolved. Isabelle was dressed as she usually did, randomly. It wasn't too cool outside so she was wearing a pair of jean shorts. She had a pair of rainbow knee socks on, with her black and white converse shoes covering her feet. Her top had been a simple white t-shirt, but that was before she had gotten her hands on it. Now that she had made it over it had many hand embroidered designs on it. It was something she did for fun. Her long black hair hung down in nearly straight locks, but had only the slightest wave near the end. On the one side it was pinned back with a ribbon clip, and the ribbon was made of rainbow fabric.

Bethany was dressed adorably, in a tiny blue dress that Isabelle had made for her. Her short black ringlets were tied into two pig tails with blue ribbons and her feet were in tiny blue shoes that they would be lucky if they didn't get lost by the end of the day. Her stubby, chubby little fingers were sticky with the remnants of the chocolate ice cream they had just ate. "Wook!" she would cry, pointing at the many wonders of the observation deck. Isabelle loved seeing Bethany's wonder at all of the things she didn't see day to day. It was adorable.

Balancing Bethany on her hip, Isabelle wriggled a kleenex from her pocket. Carefully she wiped at the chocolate stains around Bethany's mouth. Luckily none had spilled on her dress. Isabelle adjusted the three year olds weight on her hip. It was getting harder to carry her every where. "Mama! Wook!" cried Bethany again. "What Bethie? What do you see?" cooed Isabelle, letting her soft side show through clearly. "Aw, what an adorable little girl!" came a voice from Issy's right. Bethany whimpered and buried her face in Isabelle's shoulder. She turned to look and saw a middle aged woman standing there, making faces at Bethany and cooing over her. Isabelle stood there awkwardly, when the woman turned toward her. "Is she your sister?" asked the woman. Isabelle stiffened. She didn't normally revela this about herself, but the woman had asked her directly. "No," she said. "Are you baby sitting her?" "No." "Then what?" "She's my daughter." The woman looked apalled for a moment, before trying to recover her composure. She failed. "But, but you can't be more then seventeen." Isabelle flustered. She knew she did not look seventeen, she never really had. "I'm twenty one thank you very much," she said in her coldest tone. With that said, Isabelle turned and stalked away.

They moved to the other side of the observation deck, observing through the window a faraway mountain. She was caught up in explaining to Bethany what it was when someone came and stood next to her.

[Cathleen Isabelle Cox]

Accepted!