(Foe, 2208) Anaphora

By Anneal

• March 20, 2014

Age: 26

Gender: Female

Species: Unicorn

Appearance: Anaphora has a beige-colored coat and yellowish grain mane and tail; her mane is organized and curls forward and is moderately long, extending beyond her neck. Her tail is curved as well. Her eyes are green-yellow.

Cutie Mark: A stamp with a stamp pad, symbolizing her persuasive writing and speaking skills.

Personality: An expert at using words to her advantage, Anaphora uses persuasion (and lying) rather than the barrel of a gun. Perhaps this may be where she gets her name – "Anaphora" being a literary tool that uses repetitive clauses for emphasis. She never leaves without coming out with the better side of a deal. Self-confident in nature, Anaphora can devise ruthless and exploitative plans for "business". She does her work with utmost efficiency.<br /><br />Unusually, Anaphora claims herself as an honest and civilized tradespony. She justifies her involvement in the slave trade to adapt to wasteland hardships, and sometimes refrains from cruel treatment, claiming that it damages "merchandise" and dislikes throwing foals into hard labor, calling it savage. In a few cases, she had actually purchased and freed foal slaves.<br /><br />Anaphora, unfortunately, is less adept with weaponry, be it a gun or a knife due to her reliance on negotiation (which is likely the reason why she wasn't enslaved herself). She has less of an advantage in direct combat, and therefore Anaphora hides when she can or hire extra hooves to do her work.<br /><br />Not surprisingly, Anaphora, like many other slaveowners and slavers, is the target of several bounty hunters and vigilantes, especially the Regulators. Anaphora is an occasional trading partner with the Hoofington Society; she refuses to trade with "barbaric" slavers and raiders.

Backstory: Born in the outskirts of Hoofington to a father who worked as a mercenary for hire, Anaphora had a family that had a slightly better living style than scavengers and the like that just managed to survive. The family a few years after adopted a more nomadic lifestyle, moving from place to place. At a young age, Anaphora was exposed to several atrocities in the wasteland, realizing from her father's philosophy that the wasteland was "killed or be killed"; there was no time to play heroic, since betrayal and savagery lurked everywhere. <br /><br />Anaphora was known for her need to learn; while she didn't necessarily had the biggest word bank in her head, she could make simple words sound inventive and clever. She learned to read and write thanks to the help of scavenged pre-war books and writings, a luxury considered by many wastelanders who only thought of survival, and kept a journal starting from the age of ten. <br /><br />She had acquired her cutie mark, a stamp and stamp pad, at the relatively early age of eleven, when she used her scavenged loot to sell, somehow selling it at a profitable price, and purchasing food and other essential supplies at a reasonably low price with her words and savvy. She enticed ponies to get what she wanted and knew what to sell to ponies that wanted it the most. When she left with a filled bag of ponies, Anaphora nearly did not noticed the change on her flank.<br /><br />Despite her talents, the life of Anaphora's family still did not improve much. A few years later, Anaphora's father got sick, and the family's biggest source of income was gone. Anaphora became more discontent with her parents, and finally decided to abandon her home at the age of sixteen to the wasteland, leaving her mother and her diseased father behind; Anaphora did not look back.<br /><br />Anaphora turned her perspective to the new life that greeted her. Hating her near-impoverished old life, she glorified herself in false luxuries and embellishment, impersonating the elite class. In her fruitless pursuit for a mere image of wealth, she callously ignored her own family. <br /><br />Eventually, she resorted to the slave trade to make a profit, returning to Hoofington to start from scratch. While she certainly lacked skills in any kind of weaponry, she had her wits. Only a few months after living in Hoofington, she successfully captured and enslaved her first slave – a Stable mare that was too naive to trust her. Anaphora sold her for 350 caps to the Society, and eventually gained a good amount of caps from selling Stable ponies and scavengers. <br /><br />Anaphora returned to being a traveling slaveowner, using her small number of slaves as porters and personal servants. She trades slaves time over time, and financially gained money from "lending services" or occasionally enslaving a few unsuspecting ponies. Despite this strange kind of living, ironically Anaphora still identifies herself as a civilized lady and businessmare. Sometimes, Anaphora may wonder if slavery as an effective mean of "survival", is justifiable...though she tries to ignore the morality of the trade.