User:Oliver "Amaranth" Williams

Biography (WIP)
Oliver Williams, better known by his call sign, Amaranth, is a male snow leopard. He is a fun loving person who loves to laugh, though he enjoys his own company perhaps a shade more then that of his few friends.

His call sign and preferred name comes from the Greek word “Amarantos,” which means “unfading.” It also refers to a shade of purple, his favourite colour. He’s perfectly aware that it’s quite a fruity name to go by, one that’s drawn its fair share of snickers throughout Skytopia, but he refuses to change it. He’s been quoted as saying, “If they can’t see past my chosen name and see that I’m a friendly, cuddly kitty, then that’s their problem. …Why are you laughing? Hey, don’t write that down!”

Personality
Amaranth loves to dress smartly, and would gladly slit a dozen pirate throats to get a uniform on a par with the great Lord Gilberts. As it is, he wears a black suit whenever he’s not flying, with a pinstriped, trimmed fedora hat. His signature piece of clothing is a conical, sparkly purple party hat, which he will wear whenever he feels happy, which is most of the time. Amaranth has never cared for what others think of him, so the suspicious glances he attracts in the taverns are never an issue. His habit of dismantling and cleaning his personal firearm whilst sitting at the bar has deterred any possible fights from springing up so far. Though he hates to brag, he’s not too bad a shot, even though he’s open about his distaste for any gun that is too small to mount on a plane.

His large, thick tail, which he will sometimes refer to as “fluffy” when no one is looking, is perhaps his greatest companion and his pride and joy. Heaven help the person who puts a bullet through it in the heat of battle. They’ll be feeling his size 12 boot on their windpipe in due course and no mistake. However, if you approach him and politely ask to touch or even hug it, he would be all too happy to oblige. Amaranth has a cuddly side that often borders on the disturbing. When the mood takes him he can pounce complete strangers just to hug them, a tactic that is seldom well received. He has a special affinity for skunks and squirrels, and though he won’t admit it he spent countless days as a youth in Cidade loitering outside the council building, trying to work up the courage to chat to the skunk lady inside.

If you see him looking lonely at a bar, feel free to give him a cuddle, it will be guaranteed to cheer him up.

Aircraft
His first plane, the cheapest air-worthy vessel in Skytopia, was not well received by Amaranth. Not wanting to waste his time thinking of a cool name, when asked by the service mole what name to paint on the fuselage he merely waved a paw dismissively and said “Who cares? Call it Telstra, they’re pretty useless too.”

His respect for the plane greatly grew when on his maiden flight from Cidade to defend the sky land, he downed a Thor, a Marauder and a G01D-F15H without losing more then a point of armour in each fight. As soon as he had deplaned he changed the CR-4P’s name to Qantas, a marginally more respectable company.

After running a non-stop marathon of errands for 24 hours (he drank an unhealthy amount of caffeine, let me tell you), Amaranth immediately purchased a Mastiff in New Hovlund. Before he collapsed onto the tarmac beside the runway and fell asleep, he declared that the ship would be named Annie. No one knows why; when questioned he grins dreamily and refuses to answer.

His third plane was a Halifax, which he named Botten Anna, named after a song he listened to on the flight to Shriebeck. He admits that he's still waiting for a better plane before thinking of a decent name.

Amaranth's personal dream has always been to own very large planes, especially a zeppelin such as the Barracuda, or a cargo plane like the Kingfisher. He has always loved the majesty and the power of enormous vehicles. He hates excessive speeds, and would probably be helming an ocean going supertanker if the physics of Skytopia made this a feasible dream. Although the first footage he ever saw of a zeppelin was the infamous Hindenburg, he was not deterred in the slightest. He'd also be thrilled with a Hades until he can afford his Kingfisher. Although his motto of "Practicality over appearance" guides his life, he admits that occasionally you just have to go with style.

Upon finally purchasing his Barracuda, he named it Virulentus, the Latin word for virulent, meaning dangerous and powerful. Virulentus is certainly his favourite aircraft thus far. He loves nothing more then airbraking and showing off its near perfect turning circle, much to the dismay of Butters, who is often unexpectedly thrown into the wall or floor as he explores the huge zeppelin in the times when he's not working out how to make the most profit. Amaranth is convinced that he has built a cubby house somewhere within the gas pockets, though he hasn't found it yet.

His next plane was Genus; latin for style, a Hades class plane. A naturally neat and tidy person, the captain loved his new home. The speed surprised him greatly. He and Butters nearly screamed themselves to death in their first dogfight.

Amaranth's all-time worst mistake as captain was selling his Hades for a Leviathan, the mammoth airships he occasionally shoots down. He's always wondered what it would be like to pilot such a vessel, and now he knows, and wants to hang himself for being so stupid. He now knows that being the biggest thing in the sky and having so much power at your paws isn't worth the abominabley lengthy trips. His maiden voyage was to an adjacent skyland, to sell the blimp as fast as he could and purchase another Hades.

Butters
Almost immediately after purchasing his third plane, Amaranth went to the tavern at Arcadia and found a sad looking catboy at the bar. Naturally drawn to his uniform, and aware that he now had a plane capable of taking on crew, he bought the young lad a drink and asked him what was the matter. Lafayette Butters had finished flight school as a trader, but had thus far found no clients. Feeling sorry for the boy, and subtly eyeing his shiny blue and gold jacket, he started asking questions. It turned out Butters was an eager, bright-eyed apprentice, eager to learn and fun to talk to, though perhaps that was the drink talking. Regardless, Amaranth tentatively hired Butters. He makes no apology for the fact that he can neither spell nor pronounce his new friend's first name.

Butters has since become an essential part of the crew. Not only in securing deals and reducing taxes, but providing a vital friend to Amaranth. Although for the most part the snow leopard works ideally on his own, he does occasionally become lonely and depressed, and Butters provides an essential shoulder to cry on at these times, so to speak. Butters is even more fun loving then Amaranth, and will often cajole him into doing aeronautic stunts mid-journey, which has more then a few times resulted in them arriving late to a skyland. The catboy has a laugh that the snow leopard finds oddly cute.

Scurvy
Hired nearly a month after Butters, Scurvy Pausch is an albino dingo Amaranth found hanging around Alpha 8, literally. She'd been tied to a lamp post by some pirates whom she had irritated by requesting that they not smoke in the bar. Amaranth cut her loose, and once he found out she was a mechanic, which the Virulentus badly needed, he decided to hire her. As the second crew member, she continued the tradition of having a name that the snow leopard cannot pronounce. Scurvy also holds the honour of being the first female crew member.

Butters was quite frightened of her, for numerous reasons. She didn't seem to blink all that often, her very name inspired visions of pirates, she had curious tattoos underneath her eyes, her skin-tight outfit made him uncomfortable, etc etc. Butters pleaded with his captain to get rid of her, and Amaranth was tempted to comply. His new member did seem to have an odd tendency to philosophise when she should have be manning one of the turrets or making mid-battle repairs. He resolved to fire her and hire another female mechanic as soon as he found a less serious one. He sure does miss her marshmallow surprise sundaes though.

"Sprinkles"
Cho Yoo, who prefers to be known as Sprinkles, was a resident of Steppe until Amaranth hired her. Perhaps that isn't entirely correct, you could say that she hired him. He was at the tavern, enjoying a leomanade while Scurvy was searching Steppe for some cheap weapon mods, and Butters was in the bathroom. All of a sudden he felt a yank from behind, and turned in shock to find a yellow lynx cuddling his tail. He stared at her wide-eyed until she opened her blue eyes and smiled at him. "Sorry," she explained" I just had to, it just looked so... fluffy!" At this point Sprinkles was virtually hired, but on top of her eager attitude and fondess for fluffy tails, she was also a mechanic. Thusly, she was promptly hired to replace Scurvy, who was fired. As a matter of fact, the two mechanics never even met. Amaranth still wonders how she knew that he wouldn't shoot her on the spot for the intrusion on his body, but the truth is he forgot that he was wearing his party hat that day.

Now that Amaranth's craft has two eager crew members (three if you count the captain himself), things can get a little nutty. The amount of foodfights has dramatically increased, so has the number of loop-de-loops performed while in transit. Like her captain, Sprinkles enjoys cuddles, and the snow leopard will often find himself unexpectedly pounced or hugged as he inspects his beloved aircraft. Not that he minds, except for when he got accidentally thrown into a switchboard and spent the next two hours looking like a porcipine.

Butters loves the new mechanic. He's started to develop something of a crush on her. Sprinkles loves him back, and enjoys playing with the nervous catboy by using his shoulder as a chinrest while he's trying to perform calculations. Amaranth thinks their interaction is cute, though he tends to get a little jealous if Sprinkles doesn't share the hugs evenly.

Factional status
Amaranth loves science in all its forms. He operates purely on the basis of logic, which leads him to make what some see as cold-hearted decisions. For this reason he practically fell over himself to join the Azure League. The instant he had enough supplies to modify Annie to take him to Islo, he set course and soon found himself standing proudly in front of the bored looking skunk lady, declaring his allegiance. He was so happy to be part of something for a change that he pounced her tail. Surprisingly she allowed him to snuggle it for a brief period before he was dragged off by the rat that always loiters inside the council building. What's he doing there anyway?