(no subject)

[facelesshunter]

[Name]: hedge
[Age]: old as them thar hills
[Contacts]:
? DW:
? AIM: taoofcrime
? Plurk: taoofcrime
[Timezone]: cst
[Other Characters]: -



[Name]: Hester Shaw
[Canon]: Mortal Engines
[Age]: 16
[Gender]: F
[Canon Point]: end of Mortal Engines

[History]: It's about 10,000 years into the future. The ancients destroyed themselves in the Six Day War. The civilizations that emerged from that destruction were humbler affairs, built upon ruins and sheltering people who thought iPods and microwaves where powerful ancient sorceries. Civilization was beginning the long, painful process of clawing itself back up.

Then some asshole invented mobile cities. OK, it was more complicated than that and took up its own prequel miniseries, but basically what happened is that a charismatic leader took over [the town built on the ruins of and sharing a name with] London and mounted it on giant treads, with a giant engine inside. London, of course, needed fuel for this engine to keep itself mobile and was soon 'devouring' (taking over and processing all the material of) other towns to keep itself mobile. This system spread, until a few thousand years later, most cities are mobile in some way. There are cities mounted on tracks, wheels, giant skates, floats, even one which floats through the air on balloons. The few remaining 'static' (non-mobile) settlements survive either by isolation in inhospitable locales or by banding together for protection in the Anti-Traction League. With few 'static' settlements to 'eat', cities instead devour each other for the most part, a vicious system called 'Municipal Darwinism'.

Hester was born in an isolated 'static' settlement to scientists Pandora and David Shaw (though her biological father is Thaddeus Valentine). Both specialized in the digging up of ancient artifacts. They were joined in this by Thaddeus Valentine, a prominent member of London's historian guild. Valentine was with them when they began excavating the ruins of MEDUSA, an ancient superweapon that would give the city that could install and repair it tremendous power. Fearing the Shaws would give away the secret of MEDUSA's existence and needing the computer brain of the superweapon, Valentine snuck into their home one night and killed the both of them. Ten year old Hester awoke about that time and rushed in. Surprised, Valentine slashed her with his sword, leaving her with the scarring that mars her to this day. The blow caused her to fall down the stairs. However, fearing discovery, Valentine decided he couldn't follow her and escaped to his airship.

When young Hester awoke, she tried to row to shore to obtain medical attention but blacked out midway. She was found by Shrike, a Stalker (kind of an undead dieselpunk cyborg) and bounty hunter, who took her in and raised her for several years. Hester eventually decided that she was not content among Shrike's collection of broken dolls and left to seek London and kill Valentine on it. She traveled for an unknown amount of time to reach this goal, ending up aboard a mobile town that was eaten by London where she tried to kill him. She was foiled by a young apprentice historian, who pushed her down the city's garbage chute to save his idol and was himself pushed down the chute. Both ended up in the outcountry, and the rest is detailed in Mortal Engines.

[Personality]: "Deeply scarred" doesn't just describe Hester's appearance, but her as a person too. In the same way that kelloid tissue is harder than the skin it replaces, the experiences of her life have forced Hester to harden as well. She is abrasive, mistrusting and often paranoid. She takes a savage joy in violence. She holds grudges close to her chest and will act on them years after the incident in question, often when the perpetrator has completely forgotten about it. She reserves special scorn for those she considers spoiled and/or powerful, disliking them with a kind of crude populism.

The flipside of this mistrust and paranoia is that whoever succeeds in the difficult task of winning her trust gets loyalty in return. She will literally kill for the people she cares for, sometimes for the most selfish reasons (IE for reasons and in ways that she knows the intended beneficiary would never approve of). This is exacerbated by a jealous streak caused by her insecurities. It's really a good thing for everyone that such people are so rare. The flipside to her love of fighting is bravery. After sneaking aboard a predator city and trying to assasinate one of its most prominent residents, there's not much left for her to be afraid of.

Hester isn't completely amoral. She has a soft spot for the underdog in most situations. She also has a soft spot for those who are sincere, kind and earnest in the face of terrible circumstances. However those who show the same attitude but with a more sheltered history, she dismisses as naive and takes advantage of them whenever she can. She's also not willing to abandon a person in distress, as shown when she rescues Theo Ngoni...provided this person hasn't wronged her or her people, of course. If they have, she'll slit their throat gleefully.

On some buried level, Hester is aware that the place she comes from, society she lives in and general way of acting are messed up (her early education as an Anti-Tractionist contributing to this suppressed awareness). In her less guarded moments, she sometimes wonders about the state of her soul, whether the decision to give herself over so completely to vengeance is a good or even smart thing to do. She also wonders about what it would like to live in a better world, less vicious more caring. But not really knowing any other way to live, she soldiers on. In fact, the one time she does find herself in more peaceful, idyllic circumstances, she eventually becomes bored enough to abandon the family she's made after a tough argument. Simply put, she can't live any other way any more. Personal growth for her would involve channeling that destructive, thrill-seeking urge into a lifestyle where she can use it in a way that benefits society. But that probably won't happen without someone she trusts counseling her into it.

One aspect of her personality that most would not suspect is her sardonic, dark and sometimes groan inducing sense of humor. This can come out in seemingly inappropriate circumstances ("He was a good boy...had brains, he did." "We know. We saw them."), mainly due to her lack of proper socialization.

[Abilities / Strengths & Weaknesses]:

Strengths:

-Hester spent a long time surviving in one of the harshest parts of an already grimly dystopian world. She posseses the skill set that would imply: use of small arms, basic CQC, field medicine, scavenging, trapping, etc.

-She can do the basics of Stalker repair from her time with Shrike. Presumably this extends to similar technology.

-From flying with Anna, she can pilot an airship about as well as a student driver can pilot a car. This can be applied to ship piloting at the most basic levels, though she still has a lot to learn about that.

Weaknesses:

-She's never gonna win any beauty contests

-Only one eye

-Having lived rough for so long, she has difficulty in situations calling for even a basic command of ettiquette.

[Limited Powers]:

Completely human, so none.

[Other Important Facts]:

She once killed a man with a typewriter. And a fork.

[Samples]:
? Thread: http://reallybadeggs.dreamwidth.org/11443.html?thread=4094131#cmt4094131
http://reallybadeggs.dreamwidth.org/11443.html?thread=4093875#cmt4093875

? Post: [AUDIO | OPEN]

Is this thing working? Can...Right. I'm Hester Shaw, captain of the Shrike and I'm recruiting. We're a small ship, fast and with outriggers, so we can get close in to the coastline and noone sees us coming.

I'm looking for crew members that can mess up a deck fast and efficient, if you get what I'm saying. Be good at what you do, do what I say and above all keep your damn mouths shut. Keep the jump on them and we take home double the treasure a ship our size oughta get. Split even, but I get first pick. Open your big mouth and draw attention tho and sharks are gonna be crapping out bits of you for weeks.

Meet me at the Grog And Tankard tonight if you think you can hack it.