armed with will and determination

Name: Samantha Grace Murphy.
Nickname: Sam, Sami. (People who don't know her won't know this, but also: Smurph, Smurphy, Smurphette, Sam Bam.)
Age: Mid-late 30s.
Hometown: Born in Montreal, Quebec. Raised outside of Toronto, Ontario. She's Canadian!
Currently Resides: New York, Toronto, Las Vegas, London - those would be most likely, but any big city will do. If she's away from Canada, she makes regular trips to the Toronto area to visit her father, as well as trips to her family's cabin in Northern Ontario.
Height: 5'6"
General Description: Curvy and athletic build, not super jacked but definitely muscular. Her stomach is flat and toned but she doesn't have like, super abs or anything. She has blonde hair, always long, sometimes dyed with highlights or streaks of various colors, and blue eyes.
Distinguishing Marks: She has a few small scars on her forehead from getting cut during her wrestling years, and a mark at her left eyebrow from where she used to have it pierced. If one looks closely they might guess her nose has been broken before. Her ears are currently pierced twice in each earlobe. There are scars on her stomach, mostly around her lower abdomen. Most prominent of these would be two stab wound scars, and also a few small surgical scars. She has a surgical scar on her right knee, but it's very faint. Other smaller scars are scattered around her body from various injuries over the years. The only ones she will actively hide are the large scars on her stomach.
She also has several tattoos: a small pair of angel wings on the back of her neck with "grace" written below in a flowing script, the words "love you forever" on her right wrist in her late mother's handwriting, a four-leaf clover on her right hip, a maple leaf on her right hip,
Personality: Sami is generally pretty friendly. She's got some of that stereotypical Canadian Niceness. That said, she does have an edge and sometimes her temper is easily triggered. As much as she gets into fights, she generally won't throw the first punch, but she's more than willing to run her mouth. She'll stand up for people getting bullied. When she's truly pissed off, her insults can be cruel and vicious, though never racist/homophobic/transphobic. At her very worst, she might get a little sexist, at the worst calling someone a bitch or insulting a guy's manhood. Mostly she'd find something the object of her fury is sensitive about and focus on that.
She does have a pretty strong Canadian accent, and she says 'eh' a lot. She can mimic accents fairly well and might disguise her accent with something more neutral, or something completely different.
Once she's friends with someone, she's pretty loyal, and generally available for all kinds of favors. She loves kids, and is generally pretty good with them. Strong auntie energy. As much as she wants to be a mom, it's not really in the cards for her for one reason or another. She's very family oriented. Her father and brother are the most important people in her life, and the same would apply to any found family situations she gets into. (I'm open to AUs where she is either a single mother or becomes a mother with the right ship. If it goes that way we can adjust!)
Alignment: Chaotic Good, mostly, but an argument could be made for Lawful Neutral. She definitely has her own code that she lives by. Ultimately she wants to do Good. She also understands that sometimes Bad things have to be done to achieve certain goals. She's probably a "For The Greater Good" kind of person. When she finds a cause she's generally devoted to it, and she isn't the type to pull the ladder up behind herself, she wants to help those who come after her. It's why she gets into training after she ends her career as a professional wrestler. She also might teach self-defense courses.
Sexuality and Gender Identity: Sami is a straight, cisgender woman. She has questioned and experimented, but ultimately she prefers men both sexually and romantically. Occasionally she will take female or non-binary lovers, but she'll be up front that she is only looking for sex. It could be said that she's a "tomboy" because she doesn't always dress strictly femininely, but she embraces her femininity and does enjoy getting all dolled up when the occasion calls for it. She is a staunch supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, because it's the right thing, and also because of the many queer folks she knows. Her brother is bisexual, as is her father.
Romantic Inclinations: However prickly she may seem about getting close to anyone, she's a big fuckin' romantic. She loves love, and desperately wants love. Her parents had something of a fairytale relationship up until her mother's death, and deep down that's ultimately what she wants. Unfortunately her romantic choices have largely been... bad. Sami's had a lot of abusive relationships, with one in particular ending up with her getting stabbed, hence the scars on her stomach. In some versions of this she ends up killing that ex in self-defense, in others he dies in prison, in others still he could be waiting to come after her and finish her off. By default, as she is written, she is months or years removed from this attack and learning to love/trust again. She generally goes for athletic types, but she also can't deny simple chemistry - if she hits it off with someone, she'll give it a go, whether that's a relationship or just a hookup.
Upbringing: Sami was raised in a wealthy family, as her father was a professional hockey player in the NHL until he retired, and then worked as an analyst in the media. He's a beloved figure locally, as is her brother Jay, who went on to play in the NHL as well. Though she grew up with money, she is used to scraping by on her own - as much as her family is willing to help her, she is often too stubborn to accept unless the situation is truly dire. She was a bit of a terror as a kid, getting kicked out of girls' hockey for being too rough. Around that time Neil brings up the idea of getting her into martial arts. His logic is that if she wants to fight, she ought to learn to do so properly, with discipline and skill. Sam takes to it like a fish to water, and it goes a long way toward giving her a channel for some of her hotheadedness and a series of goals to attain. She earns belts in anything her father will let her sign up for - and it ends up being quite a lot. Hockey is expensive, especially as Jay is a goaltender, and Neil figures it's only fair he contributes equally for Sam's interests. 

She grows up speaking French with her mother, and also takes Spanish classes in high school. From there she branches out into learning bits and pieces of other languages, through various friends. Ultimately, other than English, she ends up being fluent in French, Spanish, Japanese, and German. She also speaks some Ukrainian. It's on her bucket list to learn as many languages as possible. While she isn't the most academically minded person, this is one area where she excels. 

The Murphys belong to a Catholic church, and though Neil attends sometimes, neither Sami nor her brother Jay are practicing at all. (They pretty much go for like, Christmas or whatever.) Sami was extremely close with her mother until Grace Murphy's death when Sami was around age eleven, after a long sickness. Neil Murphy never marries again, much less dates anyone. The loss strengthened the bond between the remaining Murphy clan.

After graduating high school, the possibilities of what she could end up doing really widen. Sam would absolutely continue training in whatever fighting styles she has access to, though as an adult she'd be working to pay for that training herself. By default she's probably a bartender, bouncer, or security guard. She could also get work as a bodyguard or a translator. The military or law enforcement would be a good fit for her, but she has absolutely no interest in pursuing those fields. Anything like that she gets into would be either a private enterprise or something on the other side of the law - not that she's a criminal element per se, but she could easily get herself wrapped up in something shady via a bad boyfriend or her affinity for drugs. 

There is the possibility that with this new backstory she could end up going to university - though what she goes to study and whether or not she graduates are really up in the air. Honestly, I'm happy to be flexible on this, as it gives a lot more freedom when it comes to memes and PSL threads. 

Basically she's the same character just with less of the wrestling association. She's a fan and maybe in certain circumstances she trained and wrestled a little, but I really needed to branch her out. 

Sami (Samira Grace for the purposes of any fantasy AU) is very Northern Coded. She's from Canada, she likes the cold. It just works.

It's probably most likely she'd be a Wildling (very similar to Val and in fact I've seen Katheryn Winnick fancast as Val, lol). But she could be from any Northern House, noble or bastard or common. She'd bully and/or charm her way into being trained with weapons - if she's from North of the Wall, this will just be part of her normal upbringing.

I'd actually love to do an inversion of the Wildling tradition of men stealing wives, and have her steal a husband.

Alternatively she could be from Essos, maybe Braavos, or simply ending up there. She could be one of the Faceless Men, actually. They trained Arya, so they do accept women.

As far as Westerosi houses she could be from, I mean, anywhere in the North? Perhaps in the Vale - her coloring is similar to how Jon Arryn is described. The Reach would work too, she could be a Tyrell or a Hightower. It'd be more of a stretch for her to be Valyrian, but I'm willing to roll with it. Any House that has characters described as fair-haired and/or blue-eyed, really.

Any point in the timeline is fine, whether it's HotD times or GoT or something else. I could come up with something to stick her in anywhere. (And eventually I'll be uploading some Vikings icons for the Aesthetic, I am not making a separate account this time, lol.)

I mostly ship her with male characters, but she would be a great protector of women, like Brienne of Tarth. She could easily swear her sword to a noble lady/queen, or also like Brienne want to join a Kingsguard/Queensguard. Arranged marriages are always a possibility too, though she'd be a bit of an older bride. There are possibilities for "spoils of war" scenarios which is also appealing.

Making her a sellsword or even a pit fighter in Essos would also be a very easy option, or otherwise having her sold into slavery. (Wildlings are considered viable options once Daenerys starts wreaking havoc in Slaver's Bay, or she could be born in Essos.)

Even if she's noble, she's not particularly special as far as dragon blood or green-sight/warging goes. She may possess dormant abilities to pass on to any potential children, but she would not show any magical skill. Her true talents are in physical combat and also in learning languages. She is good on horseback and can joust, but she is not a skin-changer.

I picked Iain Glen as her father in her default/canon, but obviously that wouldn't be the case in any GoT AUs. Ser Jorah is not her father, lmao.

Gym Teacher AU:

Inspired by her brother, Sam actually goes to university for her proper degrees and certifications. Jay talks a lot about wanting to coach when his hockey career is, over (or if his hockey career doesn't pan out), so she decides to follow that path. Instead she focused on physical education, hoping to in turn inspire new generations.

She's strict but fair, some might say she's a cool teacher. She volunteers to chaperone events, and tries to include everyone in classroom activities. When she was in high school herself she'd been fairly popular with everyone, and that tends to show in the way she can connect to students from all different cliques.  

Star Wars AU: 

Samira Mox sometimes finds work as a bodyguard, sometimes as a prize fighter, and other times doing far more unsavory tasks. She's had a rough life, losing her family when she was fairly young. She had to carve her own way out, oftentimes ruthlessly so. Her talents lie mostly with hand-to-hand combat, fighting with various styles which she uses to defeat a range of foes, some even much larger than herself.

In her youth she was rather more fearsome, though now as she's grown older and matured, she's softened just enough. But for all her attitude, she isn't a bully, she tries not to take advantage of those weaker, or those with less. In her line of work, that has proven to be difficult to do, and it's gotten her into trouble with some very powerful, bad figures.

Note: I know just enough about Star Wars to slot her in as a general fighty character and interact around the films/shows, I might get some stuff wrong. Please bear with me, there's a lot of stuff to know, lmao.

Thirty-something. Canadian. Professional ass-kicker for hire. Amateur bartender, also for hire. Pain-in-the-ass, free of charge.

She grew up outside of Toronto with her father and brother, having lost her mother at a young age. Her dad had played in the NHL, and while it was a struggle to find the time to devote to his two children, Neil Murphy never let his kids want for anything.

Always into athletics and competition, Sam played hockey as a girl, until she was kicked out of the girls’ league for being too rough. It was then that her father decided to get her into amateur wrestling, and she took to it like a duck to water.

From there the progression into professional wrestling was a natural one. She had always been a fan, staying up late to watch matches with her brother, reenacting some of their favorite moments in the backyard… so when she found the ad in the classifieds for a wrestling school, it was a given that she’d sign up.

Her skills were unrivaled, and for the most part the only things holding her back from breaking into the big leagues were her gender and her habit of getting into trouble. Still, she made a pretty big name for herself on the indie scene, traveling throughout Canada and the US, even down to Mexico to hone her skills. She would go on to travel England and Japan, staying to learn the local style wherever she went.

Japan turned out to be a bit of a niche for her, and Sam’s career was just beginning to blossom as she competed there. “Hardcore” wrestling had begun trending heavily in Japan; matches that consisted of brutally attacking one’s opponent with weapons, and though the endings were predetermined, the damage was real. It ended up being the end of her career. She was finally getting noticed by larger wrestling companies when she these hardcore matches began to take their toll on her.

Banged up and depressed, she turned to painkillers to get her through the day. Before long, she was hopelessly addicted. She wrestled where she could, found illegal street fights where she couldn’t, and scrounged up the money to survive in any way possible. But though she sold her body for violence, she never did so for sex.

During this time late in her career, when she was pulled deepest into her addiction. she ended up in a very toxic relationship with a man who abused her. She didn't see it as abuse for a long time, because she hurt him as much as he hurt her, albeit in her case it was almost always in self-defense. Things between them would escalate, with Sam trying to leave every so often until one night things went too far. From then on, he was out of her life.

By her twenty-sixth birthday, Sami was in rough shape. It took a family intervention, starting with her brother saving her life, to get her to start heading down the path to recovery. At twenty-nine, she was finally clean, and every year she celebrates one more year without the pills.