Name: Ziv “Regina“ Almas
Age: about 19
Bounty: None
Species: Human
Occupation: dancer, animal trainer, thief
Allegiance: None
Home Village/Ocean: North Blue
Appearance: Regina's medium height, with very pale skin, light gray to white hair and dark, a little narrow, violet eyes.
She keeps her hair long, though she changes the style with the outfit when she dances, she mostly keeps it open, sometimes with a braid in it.
She has various dancing outfits, which vary from the ones worn in Arabasta to classic North Blue dancing gowns and can be quite flashy, but when she isn't dancing, she enjoys wearing plain, dark outfits with a simple coat over it. Nothing too flashy. She's always wearing a necklace with a small nametag on it, similiar to a dogs, but more subtle. All of those clothes, or almost all of them, she made herself, or stole them, which is rare because... rats just can't carry that much... Of course, she can't really afford that many, so she tries to have as many different ones as possible. After all, no one can tell whether a dress is from an island in north blue or the slightly modified version of a traditional dress that priestesses wear on the border to west blue? She can't. She just wears them because they're pretty.
She always keeps her pet, Abo, a common brown to grey ferret, with her. (It's also quite possible that there's a horde of mouses or rats following her, how many couldn't be confirmed yet. In fact, their existence couldn't be entirely confirmed yet.)
History: Ziv used to have a family at some point, she's sure of it. But she can't really remember them. Her earliest childhood memories consist of dirty alleyways, hiding, and rats. Lots of rats.
From this, she concludes that her parents, whoever they might be, dumped her. (Though of course, in the deepest depths of her heart, she thinks that her parents really loved her. Her father would be a prince, and her mother his beautiful and gracious wife, and they would be looking for her all over the world.... Just... weren't able to find her, because... of the evil... conspiration....yeah.)
She grew up stealing (even though she didn't see it as stealing, she was just taking what she needed) and later begging. One of the things she stole was a ferret named Remi, who had belonged to a merchant of exotic food before. She had been curious about the strange little thing, so she took it when the man wasn't watching. It would later be the mother of Abo, her current pet.
She shared the little food she had with the rats. A child without family will search for a new one, and hers were the rats. She trained them a little, and they helped her out more than once.
One day, she was about eight, Ziv saw a dancer one the street. She was stunned by her beauty and the elegance of her movements. From that day, she'd always come to that spot and watch the girl dance.
She practiced the steps she had memorized later, with the rats watching her curiously. The weeks passed, and one day, when she came to the place, the dancer talked to her.
Ziv had never learned to talk, so she didn't understand what the girl was saying at first.
The girl started trying to explain what she was saying with gestures. But when Ziv didn't understand that either, she gave up and walked away. Ziv, who was curious where the girl would go, followed her until they reached a small house. The next day, she waited at the entrance. When the girl came, she kept walking by her side, fascinated by her being the first human to actually try to get in contact with her. The dancer didn't seem to mind. After her performance, she tried to talk to Ziv again, but again, all she got was a confused look.
Day after day, Ziv would quietly follow the dancer, and the girl would teach her how to dance properly.
Slowly, really slowly, Ziv also came to understand what the dancer was saying. Her teachers name was Regina Almas, and she was a performer, working as a street dancer in hopes of one day, being spotted by someone rich willing to offer her a chance to perform at a theater, or a festival.
She had seen Ziv time after time, and had been wondering what the little girl was doing all on her own.She asked for Zivs name, but all Ziv could do was shake her head. She didn't have a name.
From that day on, the dancer simply called her Ziv, and so it came to be her name.
She also invited her to live in her house, but Ziv shook her head every time she asked. She'd rather stay with the rats.
When they weren't practicing how to dance, Regina would show Ziv how the human world worked. They'd go to flea markets to buy new (but cheap) clothes, or they'd collect things and make something out of them. Ziv learned how to sew during that time, and until today, still makes most of her clothes herself.
Something else she got from that time is her nametag, which originally functioned as a simple means to teach Ziv how to read (she never learned it, still).
Sometimes Regina would get a deal and be off for a few weeks. Then she was working at a festival, sometimes in another town.
When Ziv was old enough ( meaning about 15), she'd sometimes accompany her, and dance with her. Most of the time, she'd rather stay away from it though, and danced on her own. She had developed a certain technique to get her hands on money that she uses even now: She trained the rats and her ferret to steal the wallets of bystanders while she was dancing. No one notices rats when they can watch a dancer instead.
This way, she'd make enough money to buy food instead of stealing it or living of garbage.
Day after day, she would wait for Regina to return where she had first met her.
And when the festival was over, she always would. Tired, but happy.
When Ziv was about 17, Regina would go to such a festival again. She didn't tell Ziv where, or when she'd return, she simply said she'd be“away“.
Day after day, Ziv would wait. And day after day, she would leave without Regina.
Weeks, months passed by, and every day, Ziv would wait for her. But Regina never came back.
One day, Ziv decided for herself that Regina had abandoned her like her parents had. It broke her heart, but like her parents dumping her, she couldn't believe Regina dumping her either.
She went to search for her, and has been travelling the world ever since.
Personality:
Ziv is hard to understand. One problem is that she's an analphabetic mute, which means all she can do to communicate is gesture. But even if she could talk, she'd still be hard to understand.
On one hand, she's careful, distrusting and cold. On the other hand though, she's extremely curious and passionate and can be very childish. In some situations, she can act so stupid and naive it's hard to believe she has a brain, while in others, she's a very quick thinker (especially the ones where instincts are needed). She also gets mad when anyone hurts one of her family members (meaning rats). It's hard to earn her trust, she's very animal like in some ways. When she is dancing though, it's hard to imagine she would keep something as dirty and ungreceful as rats around her.
Though people have a hard time understanding her, she has an even harder time understanding them. She was, for a long time, an outsider looking into the way things work in the human world, and even now, she lacks years of experience with people and their ways.
Weirdly, though, she's very streetsmart and knows just what to do to survive... sometimes the law's just in the way...
Ship: none
Ship Flag: none
Devil Fruit: /
type: /
effect: /
Special Abilities:
She's a skilled dancer, sewess, has great reflexes as well as instincts and is a very quick thinker in some situations.
Learned Techniques (Keep it 1-25):
Nothing really.
If she gets in trouble, she runs or kicks her opponent where it hurts. In special cases where neither works, she might call her “family“ to help.
Weapons/Items:
knives she rarely uses.
Goals:
-find Regina
Thu Jun 16, 2011 10:37 am