Christine Lucinda Dallas (finished)

[Christine Lucinda Dallas]

CHRISTINE LUCINDA DALLAS

"The Legend of the Phantom Bandit and his Bandette…"

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Player Name: Rachel
Years Roleplaying: 2-3
Gender: Female
Contact me: Same as on Lenoir’s application
Anything else?: Nothing new.

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Basic Information

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Age: 32

Canon or OC?: Phantom OC[/size]
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Appearance

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Body type: Lu is tall and slender, but she has nice female muscles, especially in her arms from hard work. Lu is a tomboy and she walks rather decisively. Of course, when wearing female apparel, she walks more daintily, but sometimes has a hard time walking in feminine high heels and gets annoyed with the clothing females generally wear in her era.

Eye color: Brown Lu’s eyes are often full of fun. She likes a good joke and a good laugh. When angry, her eyes can flash with a ferocity that makes even some men afraid to approach her when in that state.

Wardrobe: Normally, Lu wears dark men’s clothing. Having been brought up by her widowed father, in the company of his cattlemen, and having ridden all of her life, she feels much more comfortable in trousers, a dark work shirt, a vest, a western-styled hat with a straight brim all around and a tie under the chin (so it won’t fall off when riding hard) and western boots. Completing the outfit is a long duster. Women often are aghast at her choice of clothing, but some of the men seem to like it. When Lu is in a feminine mood, she will wear fancy Victorian dresses with corsets and dainty heels. Often she will wear a large flowered hat and expensive jewellery (which may or may not really be stolen goods). A dainty parasol and pretty handbag containing her gun completes the outfit. She hates the corsets, finding them too restricting and will rip them off after a day wearing them and swear never to put one on again. But of course, she will wear them again. And she does take great pleasure in how differently people treat her depending on her choice of clothing. Sometimes they barely recognize her as the same person.

General Appearance: Lu is a tall girl. She appears younger than her 32 years. Her face is slim and longish, ending in a squared chin with a little cleft. Her lips are medium width. She has a small straight nose and her brown eyes are tipped up just slightly at the ends. Her brows are thin and feminine and can be quite expressive as emotions cross her mind. Her hair is shoulder length and dark and she most often wears it straight and with bangs, a bit unkempt and flying in the wind. When she dresses in her Victorian dresses, she generally pulls her hair up into a bun on the back of her head and wears it without bangs, her hairline showing.

Played By: Sandra Bullock
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Personality

[/b][/color]Lu is a complicated girl. She is outspoken, brash and forward, all things unbecoming to a Victorian woman. She will sometimes curse, usually mildly, but again, unbecoming of a woman. She once slapped a man in the face for saying she had the manners of a saloon girl and was not half as pretty. Because she grew up with only her father, she learned to speak her mind and can, on occasion, be perceived to be rude.

However, Lu can also be very charming and sweet if she is with someone she likes, like her boyfriend Erik Gunner. She can be nurturing in some situations. But her temper will flare if someone crosses her. She and Gunner often have epic arguments.

Lu has few friends because of her abrasive personality. She will occasionally find a woman with whom she can talk. Men find her fascinating, and some of them are open to friendships with her. As far as love interests, there is only one man, Erik Gunner, but when she is angry with him, she may fly to another man’s arms simply to make Gunner jealous.

Lu can be pushy and so outspoken she is annoying. She is very strong willed. She often overwhelms Gunner with her free advice telling him what to do.

Lu is an excellent horsewoman, having grown up around horses and cattle. She is rather light fingered. She is an excellent pickpocket and of course she has quite a bit of experience in robbing banks, trains and the stage. She finds it quite a “high” when she is riding away with the loot.

Lu was not brought up religiously, but she believes in God and has a respect for preachers of all sorts. However, she does not wish to be told what to do.

Dreams and Goals: Lu wishes that she and Gunner could marry and settle down on a nice ranch with a few head of cattle. She would not be averse to raising a family, but she would want her children to be independent and strong of character. Lu also wishes she had more friends. She is lonely sometimes, and although she cherishes her independence and solitude, she really would like to be more accepted, at least by a few close friends.

Strengths:
1. Her strength of character
2. Has no wish to kill or hurt anyone
3. Her courage
4. Her disdain for anything pretentious
5. Her musical ability. She can play several instruments and she sings very well in an alto voice.

Weaknesses:
1. Her weakness for pretty things and money, which causes her to be rather light fingered, to say the least.
2. Lu is somewhat controlling
3. Her very volatile temper
4. Her jealousy

Fears:
1. Fears death
2. Fears losing Gunner
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The Past

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Father: John “Tumbleweed” Dallas (killed in a cattle stampede)
Mother: Effie Springfield Dallas ( died when Lu was 7)
Boyfriend/best friend: Erik Gunner

History: Christine Lucinda Dallas was born July 26, 1849 to Effie Springfield Dallas and her husband, John “Tumbleweed” Dallas. John acquired his nickname in early life, when he roamed from place to place, mostly in Arizona and New Mexico territories to seek his fortune. Finally, in the mid 1840’s, he settled down on a small ranch he had bought in Tucson, Arizona with his new bride. He became a cattleman and did a good business with selling and herding cattle. He was away much of the time on cattle drives which was difficult on Effie, especially after she became pregnant with their only child, a girl they named Christine Lucinda.

Lu had an almost inate sense of music and would often be heard singing childish songs as she grew up. Her mother's player piano fascinated her and she was soon playing by herself on the piano, without any rolls in the player. She learned to play her father's fiddle and when one of the hands gave her a banjo, she leaned the complicated instrument in no time.

Effie was a sickly woman after Lu’s birth and Tumbleweed hired a woman to care for her while he was away. He was quite attached to his young 5 year old daughter Lu, as she was now known, and he took her along on the cattle drives. She was the darling of the men and she learned all about horses and cattle from her experiences. Lu’s mother passed on when she was about seven years old and her father brought her up exclusively from that time on.

The small ranch did well, and Lu accompanied her father on all his cattle drives. She really grew up on the move and their ranch was only a seasonal place to be when they were not driving the herds to market. Lu was happy sleeping under the stars. She did most of the cooking on the drives and entertained with her singing and fiddling.

Then came the drought when Lu was age 18. There was no water for the cattle and the grazing lands were yellow and brown with the scorch of the sun. Lu and Tumbleweed took off with the remaining herd of cattle and decided to get what they could at market.

One evening, in the early days of the cattle drive, Tumbleweed went out alone and there was a sudden noise that startled the cattle and they began to stampede. Lu was back at the campfire, alone and she heard the sound of many hooves. She jumped on her horse to see what was happening. She arrived too late. Tumbleweed had been knocked off of his horse and trampled in the stampede. The other hands had gone after the herd, one staying behind with her father’s body. The ranch hand put Tumbleweed’s body on his horse and he and Lu rode sadly back to the ranch. They buried Tumbleweed just outside the ranch and it was only then that Lu wept, inside the house, locked in her room. She stayed there for several days, weeping and trying to think what to do now that her father and the cattle were gone. Several of the ranch hands came back, saying they had not been able to follow the cattle. She paid them what she could from her and her father’s savings, dismissed them and decided to embark on her own. Sadly she had to sell her mother's player piano and her musical instruments. It was difficult to part with them. She packed a few things and went off on her black Arabian which she had named after her mother Effie.

Lu tried to hire on as a hand at several ranches, but they would not take her for she was a woman. She knew she was as good as a man at herding cattle, but they would have none of it. Really the only things open to her were cleaning, housekeeping and cooking for someone or working as a saloon girl. She didn’t really want to do either. One day, she walked by a bank in a small town in which she had just arrived. She sat down on a bench across the street and observed the people going in and out. She wondered if she could get away with robbing the bank.

After a few days of observing the bank, she dressed in a feminine Victorian dress, makeup, and brought a carpet bag with her. She entered the bank at closing time when there were very few people. She didn’t see a guard. She went into the bank and surreptitiously pulled her revolver from her handbag and quietly asked the teller to put all of the money into her carpet bag. She kept it very discreet and she left by the back way where she ran to her rooming house and quickly changed clothing. There were already people on the street looking for the lady robber, but she was now in her male attire, so no one noticed her. If one didn’t look at her face, one might think she was just a slender man. She had pulled up her hair under her hat. She mounted Effie and they left, swift as the wind.

From then on, Lu made her living by robbing. If it was the stagecoach, she could use her male attire and a kerchief about her face. Banks worked better with the female attire, for no one would expect a lady to rob a bank.

One day, after she had been at this game for about five years, she was in a new town. She had discovered that a very good way to pick up information was to go to the telegraph office and send a false telegram. Often she would overhear people giving valuable information to the telegraph operator. Then she could come back again and again pretending to be waiting for an answer. This day, she heard about a large shipment of government gold that was coming across the territory close by. She wondered, could she handle a train? Banks and the stage, she was an old hand at those now. But a train? It was a challenge and Lu was always up for a challenge. She found out the exact time when the train would be coming. How to make it stop? She wasn’t sure. But perhaps she could jump the train. It would be going fast though. She needed to observe and think this through.

The train was due to pass this way just after dark. Lu rode down to the tracks with Effie. There were several yucca trees a short distance from the tracks, in the dry brush. She stayed mounted on the horse, near one of the yucca trees until she saw the headlight and running lights in the distance and heard the characteristic sound of the steam engine. It was going fast and she didn’t think it a good idea to try to jump the train. Too risky. But perhaps next time, she could get on with other passengers and already be on the train. Yes, that would work.

But to her surprise the train started to slow up. She heard the sound of the air brakes and the train came to a stop near where she was waiting. Almost invisible in the dark, Lu pulled her black kerchief on her face, put on her black leather gloves, grabbed her carpet bag and ran to the hissing engine where she entered the cab. The engineer and fireman didn’t seem particularly surprised to see her. She tied their hands behind their backs with no resistance from them, which she thought strange. She climbed atop the tender full of coal and down behind it where she could enter the baggage car. Pushing open the door, she was shocked to see a fight already going on. It looked as if someone else had the same idea! She bashed one of the guards over the head with her revolver butt and then shot off the lock on the box that was obviously filled with the gold. She looked over and it seemed the man had already vanquished the other guard and she hurriedly put several of the shining gold bars in her carpet bag. It was heavy. The other bandit was yelling something at her but she ignored him. She pushed open the sliding doors on the side of the car and jumped off, making a graceful leap to Effie’s back and rode off.

Lu rode Effie to a small sand cave where she hoped she could hide from the other bandit. But alas, his tracking skills were as good as hers. He entered after she had dismounted and gone into the cave. She turned, her kerchief pulled down and smiled sweetly. She winked at him. “You think I have something of yours? I don’t think so…” The man put his gun away and demanded she hand over the gold.

“I risked life and limb for this gold and I ain’t givin’ it up!” Then she softened. “Be nice. We can split it.”

The two bandits, Erik Gunner and Lu Dallas, eventually split the money and then decided to go in together the next time. From then on they were a team, in robbery and in love. They grew close and soon could not stand to be far from each other. And so begins the legend of The Phantom Bandit and his Bandette…

RP Sample

Lu and Gunner had a epic fight one evening. She didn’t even remember really what it was about. She wasn’t one to cry, but she didn’t want to talk to him either. Her feelings were very hurt. She pouted and then walked out the door, slamming it loudly. She walked over to where Effie was, in the stable. A good hard ride always made her feel better.

Lu saddled up Effie and they rode in the direction of the nearest town. She thought perhaps if she felt better by the time she arrived, she could stay there overnight and make Gunner worry a little. She smiled wickedly. He deserved to worry a little over her!

Gunner. What would she do with him? He never took her advice when she gave it and she knew it would save him a lot of trouble if only he would listen to her. He had told her she was “overbearing.” Hah. Gunner just didn’t think half the time before jumping in with both boots on. When he had said that, she whacked him in the head with her empty carpetbag. She guessed that hadn’t been nice. She giggled. He had deserved that. She was feeling better already and was almost ready to turn back when she saw something up ahead in the bright moonlight. Here, in the desert, was a forest. And they weren't yucca trees or saguaros. No ... they were deciduous trees. It was so odd, they couldn’t possibly grow here in this part of Arizona territory.

Curious, Lu rode Effie to the edge of the forest and was surprised to see a path, leading through the forest. What the hell…why not? A little adventure would take away the sting of her and Gunner’s fight. They always made up anyway.

It was a long ride through the woods and soon she could see nothing of the desert anymore. She passed several clearings and then suddenly up ahead there was another clearing and she could see an immense mansion. She stopped the horse and looked up. Turrets and chimneys, gables and all sorts of architectural wonders were on the building. For once, Lu’s breath was taken away. She patted Effie’s main and said softly. “Well, I’ll be a blue-nosed gopher! I never did see such a place! Must be a ton of loot in there. Ain’t Gunner gonna be proud of me!”

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[|ADMIN LEFFIE|]

Just as I told Alice's Gunner, this app is stellar! Incredibly original for a Phantom OC, I must say, and you two have tied up your histories so tightly! Excellent job of bringing two awesome characters together!