Ama Nightingale
Profile
Basic Information
Name:
Ama Nightingale
Nickname(s):
Age:
25
Birth Date:
3rd Stars, 8270
Height:
5'
Gender:
Female
Race:
Human
Class:
Disciple
Occupation:
Geisha
Guild(s):
Enhancement(s):
Likes
Spending power, being pampered, gifts, shopping, scented baths, naive people (she genuinely likes their innocence), fire, uncomplicated pursuit of pleasure
Dislikes
Poverty, debt collectors, games of chance, large dogs, healer clinics, licorice, people touching her things, people she can't influence
Personality
Suave | Sweet | Controlled | Materialistic | Fake | Untrusting | Indirect
As a girl who has been on the road to become a geisha for as long as she can remember, Ama has honed the characteristics that make a good geisha. She is smooth, sugary, calm, just a bit mysterious and skilled in the art of eyelash-batting flirtation. A lifetime of experience has made her an always-on actress and given her the skills manipulate people. While she does have a naturally sweet manner, she knows she's good at charming with it and will freely use it as a tool. In the end, her charm and prettiness are and always have been the commodity she sells.
Also conditioned into her is a need to keep good 'face' - poised, in control, beautiful. Shame is a heavy blow to her. She has developed a strong 'Noh mask' which both protects her from hurt and makes it unnecessarily frightening to confide in others. She never shows outright commitment to anything if there's any chance of failure and never engages in open conflict, opting instead for suggestion and canoodling. While this is suited to rich people of leisure, her unwillingness to be direct can tangle her up at crucial times. To those who need honesty, she seems fake and pretentious.
What lies under her mask is dogged ambition, fueled by desire for a better life. She desires something higher, more meaningful than what she has - however the shadow of debt over her life has made her see value in material things above all; chief among her desires are luxury and freedom through wealth. Items she possesses become vessels of sentimental feeling, and losing them hurts her inordinately. Energy from habitually suppressed emotion - which, despite her cool demeanour, she has plenty of - is channeled into a hunger for immediate pleasures. She feels caged deep down, but has swamped this out with materialistic ambition for so long that she no longer recognises it.
History
Ama remembers very little about her early history, and is certainly unaware of who her parents are - probably poor peasants with no options. What matters really is that she started in a geisha house, and met Jin in her first. They and several other girls were put into training for conversation and arts; Ama excelled, with natural charm and a golden singing voice, and Jin did not, but they became fast friends nevertheless.
When she was about 13, her childhood came to an end. Their house was attacked by debt collectors for a Song-Luan gang - it had in fact been involved in shady dealings for a long time, and had finally caught the retribution of the dangerous people they had crossed. The gang members spared no cruelty in razing it to the ground. In the rampage, Ama's throat was cut and Jin was beaten until her skull cracked. Still, Jin managed to stay conscious enough to drag them both out onto the street yelling for a healer to help. Luck worked out that night - a healer did respond. He took them both in and although he saved them, Ama's vocal chords were irreparably damaged - and he was not willing to do it for free. While the pair escaped with their lives, they were now the owners of a crippling debt.
By what seemed to them to be a miracle at the time, they were approached by a different house - the House of Gold Nightingale, who had noticed Ama's talents and had been keeping an eye on her with the intention of eventually winning her over. Offered with a way out back into a lifestyle she recognised, she jumped at it but backed out when it became clear that they wouldn't take Jin. Through a combination of Ama refusing to join without Jin and Jin begging, they agreed to take her as well. It was a win for all parties; Ama and Jin now had a route to safety, the new house effectively got the girl they would have bought for free and the healer had the debt paid forward to him by the house. The debt would be added to the two girls' personal debts to the house, to be returned by their earnings.
From there on, life improved dramatically. The House of Gold Nightingale was a much better geisha house than their first - in repute, customers and the way their girls were treated. Ama replaced the loss of her voice with musical instruments and more tactile, expressive techniques, and ascended through the ranks; Jin meanwhile continued to flunk at being a geisha, but the house was still kind to her and gave her chances. It became increasingly clear to everyone, however, that Jin would never suit the geisha life.
During the Coronation celebrations for Emperor Artur, the two decided that it would be best to split ways. It had been simmering for a long time by then so it happened smoothly; the house agreed that Jin was better off earning money outside of the house rather than in it and, unknown to Jin, Ama offered to guarantee the full return of Jin's remaining debt if she never made good on her promise to repay it.
A few months after they parted, a courtship Ama had being engaged in with a rich businessmen, Vinh, came through earlier than expected. He fulfilled her greatest ambition at the time by becoming her sponsor or 'danna', paying off both her and Jin's debt with a hefty sweetener to the house on top. For a while she moved to his residence in Song-Lu and accompanied him on business trips around the Empire. When it became clear after the murder of the Crown Prince that war was on the horizon, Vinh moved them to Koben where he felt they would be safer.
Current Story
With the revival of Linhythe, Vinh has decided to move there to take advantage of emergent business - taking Ama on his arm. They are currently living at a place of his in Linhythe, though he keeps a private airship at the ready in case they need to evacuate suddenly.
Additional Info
She still has a scar on her throat, which she covers impeccably with makeup and high collars.
As far as she can, she wears a particular pair of earrings that Jin gifted her, even though it's a little tacky.
One of her repeat customers was a retired dojo assistant, who taught her the basics of the Disciple's craft over time (in part to impress her and in part because he missed teaching). Since moving in with Vinh, he decided to continue funding her instruction as a self-defense measure. Her elemental affinity is fire.
She is generous with money now that she doesn't need to worry about it. She's a firm believer in retail therapy and often donates to beggars she comes across.
Relations
House of Gold Nightingale
Her geisha house; the girls and workers are more or less her family. She feels lucky that she belongs to a house that treats their girls with kindness, and has a debt of gratitude to the house mother for letting Jin in with her. Since leaving the house with Vinh, she has adopted Nightingale as her surname.
Vinh Sayram
Her current sponsor, or 'danna'. A very rich businessman who is quite boring, but is gentlemanly, delicate with her and fawns over her quite a lot. Despite the transaction nature of their relationship, they do both care for each other.