Weapon: Staff of the Magi. Also carries a small knife, mostly for day to day things but she isn't afraid to use it in a fight and isn't too bad with it, as it was her defence method of choice before the rebellion.
Abilities: - Magic - Capable of White, Black and Green magick.
- Quickenings - Penelo has use of three stages of her Quickening; Intercession, Evanescence and Resplendence. Using Resplendence is a last chance scenario as it wears her out.
- Navigation - After playing navigator for Vaan on and off for several years, Penelo's developed a good ability to almost always be able to tell where she is in relation to somewhere else, as long as she's been there before or seen a map. She's also good at judging distances accurately.
- Survival - Growing up poor in a desert has led to Penelo being quite good at living rough. She can identify numerous edible (and non-edible) plants, knows how to build a passable shelter from natural materials and can hunt down, prepare and cook game. She's also got a natural resistance to hot climates and can survive on very little food.
- Hand-to-hand combat - Penelo might not be a martial expert but she can handle herself in a standard physical fight.
Personality:Break The Cutie - Originally a happy-go-lucky girl with no real upset in her life, this cutie's been firmly bruised, if not completely broken. The death of her brothers and parents left her traumatised to a point where she shares symptoms with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, including nightmares, flashbacks and difficulty falling or staying asleep. The sound of swords combined with the smell of fire causes her to enter a flashback, essentially rendering her helpless as she's forced to experience the event again. When this happens, she's drawn into the memories so completely that she might as well have gone back to them. She doesn't experience the world around her during a flashback and can't notice anything that happens in real time.
Team Mom - Being one of the oldest orphaned girls after the Archadian invasion, Penelo immediately shouldered the mantle of substitute mother to the other children orphaned by the event. All of the money she earned by working for Migelo went into making sure 'her' kids were as well-fed as possible and comfortable. While her cooking was always borderline poisonous, she does her best with what she's got and can make a passable meal, as long as she doesn't try to experiment with it'. She cares deeply for all of the children of Rabanastre and would do just about anything to make sure they are safe and happy, up to and including sacrificing her own happiness.
Good Is Not Soft - Penelo's adventures with Ashe and Vaan over the years have hardened her. Previously, her reaction to finding an enemy in a vulnerable position would have been to help or at least to not make things worse. Now, she's more likely to finish them off while she has the chance. She doesn't enjoy killing and frequently has nightmares about the blood on her hands, feeling as though no matter how often she washes them they'll never be clean again, but she can recognise when it's necessary and doesn't let her reluctance stop her from protecting her friends.
Miles To Go Before I Sleep - Penelo is more than a little disillusioned lately. She's seen the corruption in and fought against an Empire and is carrying a lot of guilt in regards to the Imperials she killed during that time. Her nightmares sometimes include dreams of small children crying when their dead Imperial parent is delivered home or reported missing. She knows how it feels to lose your parents and the idea that she's inflicted that same feeling on another person eats away at her. While she would love to be able to pack her bags and flee to some distant corner of Ivalice where no one knows her, she wouldn't do so even if she got the chance, recognising that she has important responsibilities to the orphans of Rabanastre and to her their welfare takes priority over her own.
Hope Springs Eternal - Yes, Penelo's listened as both her parents were murdered! Yes, she's since gone on to kill plenty of people in her own right! Yes, she's been playing mother to war orphans since she was fourteen! Despite, or rather, in spite of all that she's not just a bitter shell of a girl. It's true that she's older and wiser and more pragmatic but she hasn't let her past beat her. She looks for the positive in any situation and tries to think the best of everyone. Her snark is a little sharper than it used to be but it's still more playful than cutting. She's learned that the best way to handle everything she's been through is to make sure she finds the good side of life and she clings to it ferociously. She takes pleasure in the simple things, like waking up in the morning and knowing that she has enough money to feed her family. Fun is important to her and she likes to make sure that she doesn't let too long a time pass without doing something for no other reason than enjoying it.
Silk Hiding Steel - All in all, while Penelo may appear to be a sweet girl who would crumble under the slightest bit of pressure she's proved time and again that she's not. She took her tragic past and grew from it, turning from an innocent little girl into a woman with nerves of steel who won't back down from what she believes in and is willing to fight and kill for her home and family. She occasionally succumbs to her past and wonders what the point of everything is but she bounces back with an almost alarming ferocity, refusing to let herself slide into darkness. She keeps a cool head in almost every situation and is good at pinpointing the most efficient solution to a problem.
History:History mostly taken from The Final Fantasy Wikia.Growing up in Rabanastre, Penelo and her family lived happily for some time. Her parents were merchants while she and her three older brothers alternated between helping out at the shop and playing just outside the city. It was her brothers who taught her hand-to-hand combat and she idolized all three of them. Her best friend though was Vaan and, even if she would never admit it, she had a strong crush on his older brother, Reks. When she was eleven, a plague hit Rabanastre, killing many people, but her family survived. Vaan's parents had both suffered the tragic fate of meeting their deaths and Penelo's parents decided they would care of both the orphaned Vaan and his elder brother, Reks. Penelo mostly spent the following three years trying not to make an idiot out of herself whenever Reks was in the room.
Three years after the plague, the war between Dalmasca and Archadia began. All three of Penelo's older brother were old enough to join the army and so they did. Two of them were shipped home with condolences within two months while the third never came home. During the Archadian invasion of Rabanastre, Penelo was witness to her parents deaths. Her father had gone out to help, along with many other civilians. Penelo was supposed to be hiding in her room but when she heard her mother scream she panicked and ran to the door. From there she got to watch as first her father and then her mother were cut down in the street. The sound of steel on steel and the choking smell of fire never left her.
Afterwards, Penelo moved into Lowtown, with everyone else who had been orphaned or displaced from their homes, including Vaan as Reks had also been killed. Her parents friend, Migelo, served as something of a substitute parent for her, as much as he could. He gave both her and Vaan priority when he had odd jobs that needed doing around the shop and paid them a small wage. Penelo took on the position of substitute mother for the other orphans as she was the oldest surviving female orphan and saw it as her responsibility. Most of what she made went to making sure 'her' kids were fed and clothed and a large chunk of her spare time went into making certain that everyone kept out of trouble.
Two years after the city was invaded was when things really started for Penelo. The new consul for Dalmasca, Vayne Solidor, held a speech before the palace, an event she largely suspects was what pushed Vaan to break into the palace. After the consul's speech she went out to the Giza Plains, where she helped Vaan get his hands on a Sunstone so that he could break into the palace. She didn't approve of what he was up to but was well aware that he would do it with or without her so she may as well help. After helping him she was forced to leave as she had work to do for Migelo.
Later that night she heard that intruders had been caught trespassing the palace grounds and rushed to the site, remembering what Vaan had planned. She saw Vaan, together with the sky pirates he had met in the palace, being led away in chains. One of the sky pirates assured her that Vaan would be safe and gave Penelo his handkerchief. Her encounter with the sky pirate, who she would later learn was called Balthier, was seen by the head hunter gang led by Ba'Gamnan. They mistakenly assumed she knew Balthier personally, and kidnapped her, leaving a note for Balthier to meet with them at the Lhusu Mines in Bhujerba if he wants to save her.
Penelo was freed by her captors when Balthier showed up, and she made her escape, only to be caught by Archadian soldiers, angry at having discovered her inside the mines. She was brought to Judge Ghis, but Larsa Solidor came to her aid, and led her away to Marquis Ondore's mansion. The two became friends, although she was initially reluctant to trust Larsa because of him being Vayne Solidor's brother. Larsa explained how the men of his family are taught to put the needs of others first, and having earned her trust, lent her a piece of manufacted nethicite, a top secret item from the Draklor Laboratory. Penelo, not realizing the value of the item, kept it as a good luck charm.
Penelo joined Larsa on board the Dreadnought Leviathan, where she reunited with Vaan, whose party had been sent in by the Marquis to save Ashe. The piece of nethicite Larsa gave her helped to protect the party from Judge Ghis's magick. Penelo escaped with the band of sky pirates and asked that Vaan let her follow through their journey. Not only did she not want to be dropped back in Rabanastre on her own, she also saw the chance to learn a bit more about the world. The idea of revenge against the Empire for the deaths of her family was also appealing.
They ended up at the Tomb of Raithwall and got their hands on the Dawn Shard, at which point they were, once again, captured by the Empire. Vossler, who'd been travelling with Ashe, betrayed them but Fran managed to defeat him. They travelled a lot after that, from the Jahara to Mount Bur-Omisace to the Stilshrine of Miriam. They also went to Draklor Laboratory, where they met Reddas and Dr Cid, who turned out to be Balthier's father. Then it was on to the Ridorana Cataract, where they fought Cid who turned out to be under the control of the Occuria. Basch's twin brother, Gabranth, appeared and boasted about killing Reks and King Raminas. They defeated him and Reddas sacrificed himself to destroy the Sun Cryst, which the
Bahamut powering up.
The Resistance and the Empire wound up fighting in the sky above Rabanastre, while the group snuck aboard the
Bahamut in Balthier's ship, the
Strahl. There, they fought Vayne, who was also working with the Occuria. Gabranth, still alive, turned against Vayne to protect Larsa and wound up dying, but not before Vayne also died. With the
Bahamut's engines giving out, Balthier and Fran volunteered to stay aboard and try to get them started again. The rest of them escaped on the
Strahl. Balthier and Fran managed to stop the
Bahamut from crashing onto Rabanastre, instead steering it to crash outside the city limits. The group was certain that the sky pirates were dead, not thinking anyone could survive the crash. Vaan took care of the
Strahl, like Balthier told him to and, aside from Vaan and Penelo, the group parted ways.
Penelo spent the next year coming to grips with everything she had seen and done during the Rebellion. During the adventure it had been easy to fend off her worries by her steadfast belief that she was doing the right thing and there was nothing to worry about. Afterwards, she faced increasing nightmares as she was forced to face the fact that she had killed real, breathing people, something she had never imagined herself doing. She had to deal with the ever-lingering knowledge that those she had killed were bound to have families that would mourn their loss and that they had probably only been doing the same thing she had, fighting for a cause they truly believed in.
Resilient to the last, she could have gone down many paths with that hanging over her head but the one she chose was the one where she swore that she would do everything in her power to prevent her kids from having to do the same things she had. To that end, she furthered her magick skills, as a means of protection for them, and her dancing, which was an excellent trade to ply. She kept up communication with Larsa during that time, though not purely for the purpose of checking in with a friend. The letters had the added benefit of keeping her more up to date with the political and military situation in Ivalice than simple street gossip would. Whenever she wasn't dancing for coin, she was serving as navigator for Vaan who now had his own sky ship. The two graduated from orphans to sky pirates, not that Penelo was as impressed with that as Vaan seemed to think she should be.
A year after the
Bahamut nearly crash-landed on Rabanastre, the
Strahl vanished. In its place was a note where Balthier explained that he was going for the Cache of Glabados at Bervenia Palace. Penelo and Vaan met up with Fran and Balthier in the Glabados Ruins and managed to find two shards of auracite, one of which was given to Vaan and Penelo as their introduction to sky pirating. The ruins started to collapse and while they managed to escape on the Strahl, Vaan and Penelo lost their airship.
With no means to continue sky pirating, Vaan and Penelo were forced to go back to a quiet life in Rabanastre. Penelo was relieved because she no longer had to worry about Vaan putting himself in danger; however, she was also afraid that Vaan would never be content in a life without adventure.
With the arrival of the derelict outside Rabanastre, her fears proved true as Vaan snuck into the ship and stole it. Although she was reluctant to go, Penelo agrees to travel with Vaan to the sky continent of Lemurés. However, she didn't exactly have a choice. The ship was activated by the auracite given to Vaan previously and it was more accurate to say that the ship stole them, rather than the other way around. During the events on Lemurés, Penelo took it upon herself to man the cafe at the Sky Saloon. While the others complained about her cooking, she was still the only one who could make anything bordering edible.
While in Lemurés, the party came across a wounded soldier named Velis in an island otherwise only occupied by Yarhi. After she treated his wounds, Penelo and Velis become close, as he reminded her of her older brothers. Velis later revealed that he was dead, an illusion, and once he told Penelo the truth about himself, the Judge of Wings arrived and turned him into his true form. The party was forced to fight Velis, but Penelo held back, unwilling to hurt her friend.
Following the culmination of what she now refers to as 'The Lemurés Fiasco', Penelo began to spend less time helping Vaan with his sky pirating while she was forced to face another minor morality crisis. The combined weight of her actions during the Rebellion and on Lemurés left her world weary. She spent some time not so much living as merely going through the motions. When her lack-luster attitude was pointed out to her by the children she cared for she began to feel guilty for neglecting them emotionally and forced herself to perk up some. While she was no longer a full time sky pirate, she bought her own sky ship with the spoils from when she had travelled with Vaan. She mostly used her ship for travelling from place to place to dance or make deliveries for the shopkeepers of Rabanastre.
It was during one of these flights that something strange happened. At first she thought that she had accidentally flown into the Jagd but that didn't make sense, seeing as she was a decent navigator and she shouldn't have been anywhere near the Jagd. Losing control of the ship, she was flung around until she hit her head and was knocked out. When she woke up, she didn't appear to be in Ivalice any more...
