Laughs-at-Turtles, Watchman

Laughs-at-Turtles is a blue and white Macaw parrot Aarakocra.

She joined the GlitterBeard pirates as a watchman aboard the ship, the Star-Crossed Lover. She was 15 years old when she boarded the ship.

Work In Progress!!!

**Early Childhood:**

Her father was a knight of the military guard in The Mandate. During his days as a knight he assisted in killing a blue dragon that attacked one of the local agricultural settlements. He was gifted the dragon's hide which he had made into armor as a gift to his pregnant wife. He retired shortly after and took on courier jobs to support his growing family.

Because Malcom was gone for a week or two at a time for a job, he found and raised a wolf-dog to protect his wife and newborn child named Grey.

Atalanta had a normal and good life until on the tail end of Lorheim of her 7th year, Malcom was given a job of royal importance and left his wife and daughter behind at their homestead. A month passed and Malcom had not returned by the time he said he would be gone. Worried, Selene his wife, donned the dragon scale armor and took off to find Malcom leaving Atalanta with Grey, promising to return soon.

**Surviving alone:**

Atalanta was alone with Grey from the start of Fomhaile (fall) till the near the end of a particularly harsh Nekradom (winter). During this time she learned to hunt with the aid of Grey, set traps, start fires, and patch herself up when she was attacked by a wolf that Grey managed to kill. She also dislocated her shoulder after trying to save herself from a fall and after some time, pain, and poking around found a way to put it back in place.

Grey was her best and only friend during those times. As long as Grey was around she believed that her parents would one day come back for her. They promised after all. But as the days grew colder and shorter, and as the food got scarcer and scarcer, she ran out of food. After a week and a half of being unable to find or hunt food desperate measures becoming more of an option.

There was no food and she would die if she did not eat soon. The closest thing to food that we had left was Grey. She had burned most of her parent's belongings to stay warm. Grey was the last thing she had left and she was unable to kill her only friend. This was the point where she split.

**The Split:**

Unable to kill and eat Grey in order to keep herself alive, she retreated into herself refusing to interact with the world any longer. In order to facilitate this, she had to separate from reality. She slipped into the void of her dream-space and Mirror, a mostly white Aarakocra with blue specks, emerged in response to her need for an adult and protector.

With Atalanta safe and disconnected to the reality around her, Mirror killed Grey and ate him in her stead. Another five days past since then before she was found by a traveling group of Kenku.

**Life with the Kenku Clan:**

The Kenkus also had a particularity harsh winter and would have left Atalanta behind had not their seer convinced them otherwise. Begrudgingly the clan took the little parrot in and sensing the animosity from the others Mirror felt that her best bet for survival was to keep her mouth shut. As the time passed and the winter turned to spring, she refused to speak opting to keep out of the way and do what she was told. The first time she spoke was when she spotted a pair of turtles alone the beach they were traveling along. Atalanta had always found turtles amusing and upon seeing them encouraged her to return to the present and started to laugh. Hearing her voice for the first time this was the name they gave her, the sound of her own laughter at turtles.

Time passed and she tried her best to integrate into the kenku clan, by doing what she was told and doing her best to help with hunting. This was met with many difficult lessons. She still was seen as a tag along rather than a part of the group and had no place she felt she belonged too. Being the age she was at now 9 this rejection was really hard for her to handle. As a result this caused her to separate from even more parts of herself in efforts to stop feeling this much hurt.

She shed her desire for friendship, happiness, and connection who took form of a small Kenku with purple eyes(Friend). She rejected her intuition and gut reaction who took form of a small blue bird (Whisper). As a balance, Laughs started to lash out. At meeting poor response to this reaction, she also removed her anger who took form of a giant blue Aracokra (Chained) and her sadness/depression who took form of a rather tall kenku (Cold).

Still managing to hold onto herself, Atalanta clung to Mirror as she guided her through life the best that they could. During this time she sustained several injuries from running with the clan on the various odd jobs they did to make ends meet. Laughs remained with the clan for 5 more years and by the time she was 14 was when things started to fall apart.

**The falling out:**

It have been boiling under the surface for a while but it took even longer for it to be addressed. The clan ran itself like a family but when miscommunication and misgivings arouse a divide was formed. The seer warned the clan that things were over and that they should disband, but the feeling of family kept them together in hopes of trying to find a solution. But due to heated emotions and refusal to listen to each other or the previously established rules the small consistent squabbles turned to threats and then fights and then...a gunshot. The 'leader' of the group was killed and everything broke loose.

While others ran, the rest took up arms to fight who they thought were the reason for everything going wrong. Caught in the crossfire Atalanta had to give up her sense of duty and loyalty, who took form of a large Aarakcora with the same coloring of Mirror, in order to bring herself to leave the group even though she had known them longer than her own parents and was the closest thing she had to a family who were now killing each other.

As she turned to run, the seer of the clan first gave her a talisman and words of advise. "Being alone will be a bad thing for you." Leaving her bow and belongings behind she ran from the clan kill site. Once she was far away and safe, Mirror instigated a new rule. In order to keep Atalanta safe, Mirror had the others banished from the void Atalanta resided in affording her more stability and safety.

**Boarding the Star-Crossed Lover:**

Laughs wondered alone for a full season before finding himself at a port. Heeding the seer's advise as a last ditch effort, Laughs at Turtles boarded the first ship that would have her and it so happened to be the Star-Crossed Lover.