Aribekah (Ah-rih-beh-kah)

Rawiya Schehera Alinari (a.k.a. Becky/Book Brain/Becks/Bekah)

Bekah is the latest in a long line of hakaya, or storytellers, in her family. Descending from Scheherazade, she finds out that her attraction to stories is more than a mere hobby, and instead is a superpower - for one thing, she can see ghosts who need their stories "finished" in order to find peace and move on. For another, she finds she has a special gift for speaking and writing spells into being. Too bad she wants nothing to do with it. As an orphan, she has grown intensely attached to her orphanage siblings, conscious of the fact that until the fateful age of 13, she was the only one among them without "abilities" - besides being constantly told she's crazy and seeing things. The half-fairy children, known as indigos, must be kept hidden as centuries of discrimination has outlawed them, and outlawed their immigrant parents, in Karanya, which is one of the few countries that won't burn you at the stake but will initiate a "don't ask, don't tell" policy about this stuff. Their fates are dependent on her ability to steal as much as possible for a woman known by most as "The Lady," who owns a string of hidden villages, sells Becca's goods on the black market, runs an illegal mining operation, and keeps the government from finding their location. Becca has grown up thinking that she and the Lady are the only ones standing between her young friends and the world. When she finds out that things might not be as she perceives - and that her past deeds might spell doom for the children - she must embrace her newfound powers and learn the same magic as the villain in order to counteract the danger and possibly save the world as she knows it.

Physical Description

Apparel & Accessories

Her "tool belt" - a make-shift belt with pouches on it to hold tools, small stolen goods, and the like. Post-first-novel, Brigid has frequently convinced her to fill the pouches with medicinal and non-medicine-but-very-pretty flowers. Her jacket - an old captain's jack with the sleeves torn off. Rust red. Her head wrap - usually blue or red, sometimes also used as a sash The Dagger of the Morrigan - [spoiler]

Specialized Equipment

Potion making, communicating between the lands of the living and the dead, babysitting (for better or for worse), being sneaky

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Bekah is the daughter of Anna Maria Alinari and an unknown man whom she had a one night stand with. Anna sang and read stories to Bekah in the womb, vowing to name her "Aribekah Schehera," or "she who binds the free village together," hoping that her name would lead Bekah to avenge her mother. Anna had originally promised her great-grandmother, Marta (the last known hakawati in the family in Sicily) that her child would be called Rawiya - Arabic for "storyteller" - but preferred to call the child Bekah anyway. As a result, Bekah has adopted both names. Marta still calls her Rawiya. Bekah's mother was murdered via an act of arson hours after Bekah's birth. Bekah's half-brother, who didn't realize he shared a mother with her, pulled her out of the fire along with his caregiver. His caregiver was murdered for her troubles, the boy was unable to speak for almost a year, and the Lady then moved in to take over the orphanage. Bekah then learned to read from reading over her half-brother's shoulder as he read stolen books. When he abandoned her when she was about 4 years old, she took over the role of storyteller and thief. She decided that she hated the boy and her mother equally for abandoning her. Over the course of the next eight years, she tried befriending many of the new children that came in - some as the sons and daughters of fairy tale characters and some with powers. About half of them mysteriously disappeared after a year, and Bekah was usually told they'd died of illness or getting lost and probably eaten in the forest, and that her neglect had caused it. Most significantly, she was friends with a girl one year older than her named Lonna who got a strain of plague and was refused medical assistance from the Lady. As a result, Becca decided to steal some of the cure for her, but after administering the medicine and catching a weaker form of the illness herself, she woke up to find her dear friend gone - "dead because of your bad karma," she was told. She feels very self-conscious as a result, and took on the title of "Bandit Queen" in order to build up a facade of confidence for herself. She is protective of her current group that she's sheltering, and often forgets that she's a kid herself. Her greatest flaw is that she often "leaps before she looks," jumping into fights and jumping to grudge-worthy conclusions easily as her temper flares up. It's well-meant, though.

Gender Identity

Bekah is firmly female, but prefers to bind her growing body in order to not attract as much attention. She is rather flat chested but did get puberty somewhat early (age 9) regardless. Cross dressing makes life more fun, anyway.

Sexuality

Ace and Bi until further notice. She's 13 years old, y'all.

Education

She's practically attracted to words. After reading over her half-brother's shoulder for so long, she got a knack for recognizing words from the book in spoken language and for figuring out new words in context, but has trouble pronouncing them, seeing as she had no formal education. She eagerly takes on the challenge of learning from chemistry and magic books, along with learning the Magissa's code that can be written in accordance with remembering how to pronounce the words instead of how they are actually spelled.

Mental Trauma

After being told for years that the ghosts she sees are all in her head and that bothering people about it is just a nuisance, she doubts her own mind far too often. The Lady has also taken to torturing other people in front of her as punishment instead of punishing her directly 90% of the time, knowing that the young girl takes it very personally when someone she cares about is hurt.

Intellectual Characteristics

Can see ghosts, was reading before most kids her age with a normal education, has memorized swaths of city layouts in order to know the best hiding places, has a knack for codes and languages.

Morality & Philosophy

"If you hurt my friend, you hurt me, and you must pay."

Taboos

Don't use rhymes around her. She finds it very irritating. The only consolation is that in other languages, those same rhymes don't work.

Current Location

Buntunia

Date of Birth

20th of Prota

Year of Birth

1516 ETKM 3014 Years old

Gender

female, cis

Eyes

dark brown, Mediterranean

Hair

intensely curly, thick, black with brown sunlights

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Medium brown

Height

4'9"

Weight

70 lbs

Quotes & Catchphrases

"Arrivaderci!" "Oh, for the love of fairies..." "Kraken ink!"

Known Languages

Polish, Yiddish, some Arabic, a few buzz words in Sicilian (known as Cicaelian in this world).