Maybe's Daughter

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"A smile, a wink, a butterfly tattoo. An intense and detailed knowledge of weaponry and engines."[1]

Maybe's Daughter is a whimsical[2][3] and flirtatious[4] young lady with many tattoos;[5] despite appearances, she is a very serious and very knowledgeable engineer.[6] She is also something of a kleptomaniac - albeit one who will always share the spoils with her friends.[7][8][9]

A Complicated Ancestry[edit | edit source]

"She sighs. 'My family is very, very complicated. I don't like any of them.'"[10]

The Daughter's mother is Millicent Clathermont, otherwise known as the Lady in Lilac[11] and the estranged wife of the spy and tattoo parlor owner Mr. Clathermont. However, Lilac and her daughter are not close, and in fact have never met (at least in the Daughter's waking memory).[12] Maybe's Daughter was born in Parabola[13] and out of wedlock, from an affair her mother had with a Parabolan tiger-count.[14] This makes Maybe's Daughter a countess;[14] her aunt on her father's side is the Parabolan Panther.[15] The Daughter does know her father,[14] who is supportive of her from behind the mirror.[16]

Despite never having met Lilac, Maybe's Daughter seems to know much about her mother, including her fascination with love,[17] her dealings with the Bazaar, and her knowledge of the Great Signs.[18] She also understands how entrenched her family as a whole is in both the Great Game[19] and the art and symbolism of tattoos.[20] This is at least in part because she has met and studied with her half-sisters, the triplets Edie, Myrtle, and Lily.[21][22] She suspects that her mother "took" or "sold" some part of her.[23][24]

The Daughter does not share Lilac's fondness of the Surface,[25] and prefers Irem instead.[26]

In search of knowledge, Maybe's Daughter seeks to find her mother by traveling across the Unterzee.[27] She has narrowed it down to seven ports: Whither, the Isle of Cats, Irem, the Chelonate, Khan's Shadow, Port Carnelian, or Naples.

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Maybe's Daughter, Sunless Sea
  2. ↑ Engage an Officer: Maybe's Daughter, Sunless Sea "[...] a woman perches on a suitcase. Both she and the suitcase are noticeably cleaner than everything else in view. “Hello! Where are you headed? On second thoughts, I don't mind. Can I come aboard?”"
  3. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother (Isle of Cats), Sunless Sea ""Would you like some money? It's so much fun, money." (You begin to realise how drunk she must be.) "Anyway, no luck. But we'll find her. I can find anyone." She tries, and fails, to snap her fingers."
  4. ↑ Proposition Maybe's Daughter, Sunless Sea "What a coincidence. I was about to suggest the same thing."
  5. ↑ Proposition Maybe's Daughter, Sunless Sea "'Oh yes,' she says, 'I have other tattoos. Let's see what we can find.' "
  6. ↑ Increase your Veils, Sunless Sea "She's serious once she gets talking. There's hard edges under the bluff and banter.'"
  7. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother, Sunless Sea "I found some of these, though. Well, 'found'. You can have one."
  8. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother, Sunless Sea "I just picked their pockets. I think that's entirely reasonable under the circumstances, don't you? Here's your share."
  9. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother, Sunless Sea "And now he's asleep upstairs at the Rose and Tiger, and I'm down here with his purse. Would you like some money?"
  10. ↑ About her mother..., Sunless Sea
  11. ↑ Introduce Maybe's Daughter to the Lady in Lilac, Sunless Sea "At last, the Daughter croaks uncertainly: '...Mother?'"
  12. ↑ About her mother..., Sunless Sea "We've never met. So we were never close. But I'm not close to many people. Honestly, I think that's her fault: I think she sold something of what I was. [...] My family is very, very complicated. I don't like any of them. But I think I like her the least."
  13. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother, Sunless Sea "Perhaps it's because I was born in Parabola."
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Invite her to dine with you, Sunless Sea "(I know my father. I'm a countess on his side, actually.)"
  15. ↑ Speak with the tiger, Sunless Sea "I understand you've become involved in my daughter's intrigues. (And my sister's. Is she really serving as a mascot?)"
  16. ↑ Speak with the tiger, Sunless Sea "I understand you've become involved in my daughter's intrigues. Well, you look like the sort who can take care of yourself. But let me repay you as best I may - "
  17. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother (Whither), Sunless Sea "You know: she asks people about love? All the time? And writes down the answers in her nasty little book. Love."
  18. ↑ "I don't have a tattoo.", Sunless Sea "My mother forged an alliance with the Bazaar. That's how she came to learn the Great Signs, the tattoos no one wears."
  19. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother (Khan's Shadow), Sunless Sea ""She was a spy, once, I think. I think she might still be one. Well, a lot of us are. Freelancers, anyway. Look, perhaps you shouldn't say that to anyone at the Admiralty. I do talk nonsense when I'm nervous."
  20. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother (Chelonate), Sunless Sea ""It's all tattoos. The alphabets of bone and flesh. That's what our family keeps coming back to." She frowns. "Our family is strange in every way imaginable.""
  21. ↑ The Splendour, Sunless Sea "The Sun! The Sun, from which the Great Signs came. My mother wouldn't tell me. But her other daughters knew her secrets."
  22. ↑ The Gambit, Sunless Sea "The Game! It extends farther than we know. Up to the Surface... and up to the stars. My mother wouldn't tell me. But her other daughters knew her secrets."
  23. ↑ About her mother..., Sunless Sea "But I'm not close to many people. Honestly, I think that's her fault: I think she sold something of what I was.""
  24. ↑ Let her go down under the Bazaar, Sunless Sea "My mother - I have back what she took from me."
  25. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother (Naples), Sunless Sea "She loves the Surface. (I don't. Perhaps it's because I was born in Parabola. Pretend I didn't say that.)"
  26. ↑ Help Maybe's Daughter search for her mother (Irem), Sunless Sea ""She's known to visit. I think she must have come here when I was - ahem - conceived. It's close to dreams. [...] I love this. It's like coming home.""
  27. ↑ Invite her to dine with you, Sunless Sea "I've never met my mother. [...] I'd like to find her. She's somewhere out at zee."


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