[Marina Costa]

- Player Info -

Name/nickname: – Elena is my real name

AIM/e-mail/whatnot: lelia_vasilescu@yahoo.com

Substitute players: Any one

- Character info -

Name: Marina Costa

Nickname/Alias: Martin Costa

Age: 20, seems a boy aged 16

Gender: Female (but disguised as male)

Rank/Occupation: able seaman

Appearance:

Her hair is an unusual shade, light brown, colour of the riping acorn, cut short and round, according to the fashion for country boys in that time. She has green eyes like the warm seas. The skin was rather pale by nature, but exposure to sun had tanned it. She is 1,65 m height, toned, rather strong. She is not fragile, work on the ship while young made her strong. She has rather small breasts and she knows how to hide them when needed. The fact that she has no pierced ears helps her also passing as a boy. She is not beautiful, neither ugly – actually a common, plain face which doesn’t attract people’s attention… when not remarking the unusual shades of her hair and eyes.

Normally she is wearing sailor’s blue trousers, white shirt and blue handkerchief at the neck. Boots hiding a flying knife. When she is a girl (and it hasn’t happened for 2 years), she wears the simple dresses of her time’s poor to middle class women – i.e. simple fabrics, but she can embroid and tailor herself the dresses to be beautiful, but comfortable. She doesn’t like high fashion, only a decent dress in which to be able to move easily.

Personality:

Her original outgoing, open and friendly personality was further reined in by the education received in the monastery. She had to become tough – or at least to mask herself seeming tough – in order to resist to others’ abuse. Hardworking, generally observing rules and commands, but she rebels when the other is absolutely wrong. She is always wanting to do the right things… but right for whom? Sometimes this is tricky… even with a high conscience like hers, which doesn’t allow for middle grounds.

She is a worrier by nature, but this makes her only think of several alternatives, not to be paralysed by fear. Earnest, stubborn, ambitious, but liking to help others. She can lie to protect somebody, but not to cause harm. Doesn’t give a dime on social conveniences, she may befriend a negro slave if he/she has a good character, or she may fight a wealthy man to defend a powerless person or to answer to a grave insult.

She doesn’t curse and doesn’t drink, so becoming the subject of the mates’ jokes.

Likes life at sea. This is all her life… and she is dreaming that one day, after fighting pirates and getting her part of the prize, she will be able to buy a small merchant ship, more or less like her father’s, and get a small crew of trusted friends with whom to roam around the Mediterranean, carrying goods from port to port.

Likes to discuss with cultivated persons about books and to avail any opportunity to learn something new and useful.

When in ports likes to listen to the songs of the country, and when the sailors are free to sing under the deck she likes listening to their songs and stories as well.

Dislikes cowards and anybody who doesn’t comply with the promises he/she made, or the allegiance vows made.

Dislikes opression on any people and is ready to fight the opressors – this includes pirates as well as the Turks who made her family remain at sea under the Venetian flag.

Dislikes drunk people or other vices. However she is not feeling as strongly against prostitutes, because she has heard that most of them don’t do it really by choice, but by need. In her mind, they are on the same place as the slaves and other oppressed.

Birthplace: : Born at sea somewhere in the Ionian Sea, on the little merchant ship “Colomba”, bearing the flag of Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia

Family:

Father – Sterio Costa, born in a village in Greece (which is part of Ottoman Empire), deceased at sea

Mother – Maria Pasqualigo (married Costa), born in Kefalonia (a Greek island under Venetian domination), deceased at sea

Uncle – Ianni Costa, deceased at sea

Brother – Andrea Costa, one year and a half older, lost at sea (maybe not dead, but saved by another ship and fate makes them meet again? Or as well he might be really dead!)

Bio:

Her family, together with her father’s sworn brother, Diamandi, and his wife and child, owned the little merchant ship “Colomba”, carrying goods from the Greek islands and mainland to Venice and Mediterranean ports. There was no other crew aboard, so the three men and two women had to cover everything to be done and to teach the children. The children had an unusual education, as their life was basically at sea and the ports were to be visited only. So they were bilingual in Greek and Venetian, they learned almost everything their parents know - and this included not only rigging, washing the deck and steering the ship, but also reading maps, establishing the good road, the ship’s speed, etc. As the family chose life on sea in order to flee the Turkish power in their region, and they were often smuggling guns and ammunition for the rebels who are fighting Turks, the children grew with stories about the cruelty of invaders and fighting for liberty.

When the ship sunk in a storm in the Mediterranean, she was saved by an English ship and, when ashore in Cork, the quartermaster sent her to the Saint Mary Monastery, where the nuns had a school for girls. The old prioress liked her and allowed her to study together with the rich girls, even if she had also, in parallel, work duties to perform in the kitchen, because she had not paid for the school, and as an orphan she must work. She was a good student and the prioress liked her even more when she noticed it, which rose the envy of other students and nuns. The prioress died two years later, and Marina’s life was made a hell by the ones who didn’t like her. She was forced to take the veil when 18, because she has nowhere where to go and what to do. But she couldn’t like the confined life in the monastery, compared to the vast seas she has lived on for her first 14 years, and, even if she believed in God, she felt that her vocation and call was on sea, not in being God’s bride. So she took her opportunity and ran away when she was nearly 18. She stole some boy’s clothes from a dry hanger and cut her hair, not to be recognised, then she headed for the port of Cork, to see if any recruitments on ships are made.

Fortunately for her, ships were recruiting (mainly through “impressing”, but she came voluntary, not impressed), and they wanted her as a cabin boy. Once embarked, she asserted her cause, showing her knowledge and previous experience of “son of a little merchant ship owner”, and proving what she knew, she was accepted as the youngest of the able seamen, because her knowledge surpassed much the ordinary sailors’. So she is in the Carribeans now, on “Steadfast”, fighting pirates.

Skills:

- Knowing at a young age how to do most things at sea (including ones not done by the simple sailor, but by the officers on a large ship). As an able seaman, she is appreciated the most as a "topman", for the rigging but also for making sails and being at helm, but she tries to do as well as possible everything she has to do.

- Speaking several languages – Greek and Venetian as bilingual, from her parents, English and Latin learnt in the monastery. She had learnt some French too, but she understands below average and can't talk more than usual phrases. She can read in Greek, Venetian, English and Latin, and write in the first three languages, if needed, even if with some mistakes.

- She is an average fighter, not one of the best, but she can manage to defend herself, to wound or kill an enemy. She prefers pistols, not swords, but her less usual knowledge is that of flying knives, with which she is rather skilled. Her father trained her when young in order to be able to defend herself if needed against pirates or villains in the ports. When she entered the Navy, she perfected her skills and learnt to use a dagger and a sword.

Weaknesses:

Even if she is generally open-minded (as in against slavery, against judging people without hearing them first, willing to try/ learn anything new which may be useful), her moral values are more of a black/ white nature, without gray middle grounds, as she was taught in the monastery. She did not emulate everything learned there, but more than three years among nuns had to leave a mark somehow on the severity she sees the sin.

She is fighting for her ideals of justice, which give her the needed courage. The ambition she has to be one of the best among the crew and the desire to be accepted by everybody (and remarked by the officers) makes some of her fellows to tease her as “officer’s pet” . Ambition (which is sometimes extended to a rather aggressive competitiveness) and stubborness may be her greatest flaws.

She is trying (in vain) to be as tough as her fellow sailors, because the education received in monastery cannot be hidden. Some of her fellows make fun of her because she is too “soft and religious”, but nobody suspects yet her secret, that the uniform of Martin Costa hides a girl’s body…

She doesn’t know how to be girly, she can’t dance. She is actually a wild tomboy with a great heart.

She loves secretely one of the officers, but she isn’t even aware yet that she loves him, she considers she is only grateful for the fact that he accepted her in the crew and she admires him for everything he knows/ does. Her love is not full of passion and lust, but rather like the adoration a faithful dog has for the master, wanting, more than anything, to help him, to fight by his side, to protect him… Her love inspires her acts of bravery, because she wants to be praised by him.

Theme Song:

Thalassa by Mihalis Hatziyannis

Anything Else:

She likes to read, to learn new things, has a good memory. She has a special talent for foreign languages and she is interested in herbs and remedies for illnesses, as she likes assisting the ship’s surgeon and learning from him. She might sing in the evening, for herself, with a low alto voice (mezzosoprano), often in Greek or Venetian, but sometimes Latin hymns from the monastery or the ballads of the sea learnt on the ship.

Model - Hilary Swank in "Boys don't cry"

[The Seven Seas]

Hi, Elena! Welcome to BTQ.

This is a pretty good character. Unfortunately, we currently have another female-dressed-as-a-male midshipman, but as her player has not been active in quite a while, I'm going to try to get a hold of her and ask her if she minds you taking over that role.

In the meantime, just a few little things to think about!

- Either now, or when you're roleplaying, think about all the things she'd have to go through to hide her gender. Sailors shared a berth, so she wouldn't have had any privacy. Size, strength, and vocal differences would also have been worrisome things to explain away. It could be done, but it would require a lot of effort on her part.
- A greek merchant ship at this time would probably be quite different in it's shape, rigging, and handling, from a British naval vessel. Did she have any difficulty learning the ropes? (Har har, I make a joke there...)
- Since Cork is in Ireland, I assume the monastery was Catholic. If her parents were Greek, would she have been raised Orthodox? Since she seems to be a very virtuous person, I'm curious as to her religiosity here. I'd love to see that expanded on in the future!
- What ships has she served on? How long has she been aboard the Steadfast, if she isn't brand spanking new?
- Your writing is good, but every now and then your syntax gets confusing and sometimes you change tenses. You don't really have to go back, but it sometimes helps to run a post through spell-check before posting just to make sure it's as grammatically clear as possible.

I'll get back to you on approval as soon a possible!
-Lei

[Marina Costa]

Hello and thanks for your comments! I already have an answer for most of the questions, given the fact that Marina is a character of 3 of the stories I have written (and they happen in various historical periods and places…), before learning that RPG exist… and I brought her into a first RPG as well. (But that board is very quiet… and the only other one I liked was this… I studied some! ) For the other questions… we’ll clarify them together… and editing a little bit the bio is something that can be done anytime… I really don’t mind about this!

About syntax and grammar… well, I welcome any comments, as English is not my mother tongue. I know it at an advanced level, of course, I have read a lot in English… but I use it daily mostly with technical/ economic vocabulary, so when anybody of you feels that a phrase is not clear enough, prone to misunderstanding or whatever, please tell me, I don’t get offended and I’ll try to rephrase with other words!

“A greek merchant ship at this time would probably be quite different in it's shape, rigging, and handling, from a British naval vessel. Did she have any difficulty learning the ropes?”

Yes, a Venetian merchant ship like ”Colomba” (don't forget some of the Ionian Islands populated by Greeks were still under Venetian rule, after the Turks had conquered most of the Venetian possessions in that area, like Crete, Negroponte, etc.) was different in dimensions and shape – a small barque of about 15 tons – and in some of the sails, but a person who has learnt its tricks since extremely young won’t have problems to adapt to a bigger ship, when somebody answered her questions… and the differences are not as important as to make this change from a smaller to a bigger ship difficult. Her brother has been taught by all the three sailors in the family in order to be the future captain of “Colomba”, and as she was extremely ambitious and competitive, she was always trying to be better than him!

On the British vessel she took it from cabin boy to able seaman in a short time exactly because she proved her practical knowledge – and some of it overpassed what an able seaman had, as she was familiar with the maps and related calculations. Her knowledge was sometimes complementary to the others’, as the younger officers were taught more theory but had less practical knowledge, and most able seamen did not have much of the theoretical knowledge. Besides, Greek and Venetians weren’t in vain the best sailors of the Mediterranean for so many centuries (well… together with the Genovese rivals! ), there were some “tricks”, actually old secrets they knew…

“Since Cork is in Ireland, I assume the monastery was Catholic. If her parents were Greek, would she have been raised Orthodox? Since she seems to be a very virtuous person, I'm curious as to her religiosity here. I'd love to see that expanded on in the future!”

It will be expanded… Actually her father was Greek, and Orthodox, and her mother was Venetian, and Catholic. She believed in God, but before her nearly 4 years stay in a Catholic monastery school she wasn’t very devoted – she used to pray each night since a child, and to enter any church found in a port to light a candle for the ship’s safety, but nothing more. She was taught when little that every church one can find in a port is God’s House, and that as long as you pray earnestly and devoutedly to Him, He will hear. She knew her parents had a Catholic wedding on an island belonging to the Serenissima Reppubblica, as her mother told her sometimes about her wedding day, but she wasn’t sure if her brother and she were christened in the Orthodox or in the Catholic rite. As far as she knew her parents, it would have been the first church they saw when ashore where business contracts drove them. And as much as the Catholic nuns tried to innoculate in her hate towards all the “heretics”, as they used to call Protestants and Orthodoxes and everybody else, they hadn’t succeed. “Why hate them if they worship the same God? Only because they do it differently? God can read their minds and know who is sincere in his faith and who isn’t!”

“Think about all the things she'd have to go through to hide her gender. Sailors shared a berth, so she wouldn't have had any privacy. Size, strength, and vocal differences would also have been worrisome things to explain away. It could be done, but it would require a lot of effort on her part.”

Size, strength and vocal differences aren’t worrisome things to explain when it’s about a boy who said he was 14 when taken as a cabin boy, neither now, at 16. Most boys this age don’t look more mature than girls. After 18, it might be worrisome… but she doesn’t intend to spend all her life in the Royal Navy – once the pirates will be caught and she will receive the prize (if enough, when added to her savings of until now), she dreams of going back to the Mediterranean and buying a small ship more or less like "Colomba"…

Yes, it has been difficult for her to hide her gender, but she is not the only sailor girl in the history… Think of Hannah Snell, Mary Anne Talbot, Mary Patten and many others. The Greek, Venetian and Genovese have also their legends about women sailors… A Greek woman in her 40s, mother of sons of fighting age (teens or youngsters), Laskarina Bouboulina, lead a fleet of fishing vessels against the Turks in 1821 and won! (You may check their names on google!)

Her secret might be revealed some day… if she gets hurt in a battle and needs medical aid… or if the pirates capture her… but this day hasn’t come yet ! And if it happens after she has proved to be a good sailor whose skills are really needed… maybe she won’t be as badly seen by everybody (because even as a boy she still has some enemies – there is envy everywhere... and it can make for some plot-related drama!).

“What ships has she served on? How long has she been aboard the Steadfast, if she isn't brand spanking new?”

This is to be clarified with you… because I need to study more this ship’s history and to harmonise my history with yours… But it wouldn’t be strange to be new on a ship which is in the middle of its activity? She had rather been on this ship for a while (how much it is up to you) after having served on another one who brought her to the Carribean… because evidently STEADFAST has a much larger crew than the ones mentioned in the roleplays…

And this is why I was saying that for the sake of the roleplay I might stick actually to the position of able seaman and get that storm and that promotion a little bit later, if it is fine with you… And I edited already my bio to say so! ( I know about “that trick” which is mentioned not only in Greek legends, but also in some chronicles, I described it in my stories… Why not here too when we have a storm? Actually, taken out the superstition part, it has a scientific explanation for the ones who know physics and technology more than I do… Unfortunately, it was valid only for the wooden sailing ships, not for the modern, metal and engine-driven ones, so only chronicles and legends tell about it…)

"Unfortunately, we currently have another female-dressed-as-a-male midshipman, but as her player has not been active in quite a while, I'm going to try to get a hold of her and ask her if she minds you taking over that role."

Well... I think both she and I would be more confortable playing our own character, not another's... I have written enough about Marina in order to be sure how she reacts in any situation, I am not so sure if I were to play another's character I am less familiar with! Besides, the fact that Marina is not English may bring a ...wave of novelty or something! (well, it sounds pathetic... almost as if I am pleading to be accepted...)

[The Seven Seas]

Oh, I didn't mean that you take over one another's characters! Just that you both made characters with slightly similar premises and we try to avoid having too many redundancies. But I don't think it will be a problem.

You've obviously put a lot of thought and research into this character, for which I applaud you! As for serving on Steadfast, they just lost a number of men in action and are currently in port to pick up new sailors. However, you're more than welcome to claim to have been aboard all this time if you wish. Currently Steadfast is the only in-game naval vessel, so I'd recommend having Marina/Martin be a member of her crew simply so you can get more involved in the story. And there will definitely be a storm at some point, I promise.

As for English not being your first language – I'm glad you let me know! In light of that new information, your English is really very good (it's a damn hard language to learn as a second tongue, as I understand it).

I'm going to go ahead and say you're Approved. Welcome aboard!