Temperance "Mattie" Rooney

Started by Scout, March 14, 2018, 05:12:08 AM

Cortex Mainframe

March 14, 2018, 05:12:08 AM Last Edit: November 12, 2019, 09:35:43 AM by Lomari
Temperance "Mattie" Rooney
Player: Scout


Age:  22
Gender:  Female

Primary Occupation:  Gunhand
Secondary Occupation:  Crewman
Requested Ship:  Any
Appearance:  With her sun-kissed skin, tousled blonde hair, and a face that still retains a hint of baby fat, Mattie looks like your average farm girl, but walks with the swagger of a hardened cowboy. At 5'9", she's on the tall side, a fact only emphasized by the assertive way she carries herself. She's not a fan of frills and bows, and prefers clothing that is practical and tomboyish. Her tough, closed-off demeanor can make her seem difficult to approach, but she's got a very sweet smile (when she shows it).
Face Claim:  Jennifer Lawrence

Initial Personality:  Mattie's straightforward, for better and for worse: she speaks her mind and isn't in the habit of sugar-coating her opinions, however harsh they may be. She's a bit of a grump and when she does show a sense of humor, it tends to veer on the snarky side. She seems to be very confident in her skills as a gunslinger and can get cocky around people she perceives to be less tough than her. As an embittered browncoat and a sworn enemy of the Alliance, Mattie's particularly suspicious and condescending of core folk. She's also stubborn as a mutt, and it's hell of an uphill slog trying to change her mind about anything she feels strongly about.
Underlying Personality:  Mattie figures that if she hadn't been so adamant about standing her ground years ago, today she'd be just another farmer's wife with a brood of kids that she never wanted in the first place. That's why she's so scared to compromise: if she gives up on even one small part of herself, who knows what will be the next thing to go? She believes that the people who are truly worth being friends with will stick with her even if she doesn't coddle them, hence the brutal honesty. She builds a lot of walls, but is fiercely loyal to the people who manage to slip into her inner circle. Even though she may initially appear to have an inflated sense of her skills with guns, she recognizes when people are more experienced than her and tends to respect and look up to older mercenaries.

Known History:  Full name: Temperance Matilda Rooney
Date of birth: August 13th, 2496
Place of birth: Lilac, moon of New Canaan, Blue Sun system
Parents: Robert and Lenora Rooney.
Has five siblings: one older brother, three younger brothers, and one younger sister.

Her father fought for the independents in the Unification War. He was discharged in 2510 after sustaining a head injury that left him with permanent brain damage.
Other History:  Mattie was born the second oldest child and the oldest daughter in her family. 'Temperance' is what folks called her back then; it was only after she left home that she started going by 'Mattie' exclusively. Her parents were farmers on the Rim and their farm wasn't much to look at, so her childhood was spent in poverty, fighting for her parents' attention against her ever increasing number of brothers and sister.

When the war broke out, Mattie and her siblings were just children, too young to take part in the war effort. Their mother thought it would be best for the family to stay away from the entire ordeal; their father, however, joined the independent troops against her wishes. In his absence, the oldest children were forced to grow up fast and help their mother run the farm.

During this dark time Mattie made friends with Georgie, a mechanic's son three years her senior. The two quickly became inseparable. Mattie found that it was easier to talk to Georgie than any member of her own family; he seemed to understand her like nobody else did. Mattie often wished she could've fought in the war alongside her father, and on her 11th birthday, Georgie gave her his old bb gun so she could pretend to shoot purple bellies for the independent cause. Mattie was overjoyed with the present. Soon she was spending every bit of free time she had practicing her marksmanship. Mattie's mother didn't much approve of her daughter's new hobby, but let it slide because shooting empty whiskey bottles in the backyard seemed to be the only thing that cheered the increasingly sullen girl up.

Mattie's father came back from the war with a brain injury. This combined with his PTSD meant he was never quite the same again. The Alliance's victory hit Mattie hard: she had truly believed in the browncoats' cause with all the wide-eyed conviction of a child. Now the big bad dragon her father had failed to slay was starting to extend its tyranny to her home world. She tried to secretly continue her shooting practice with her father's service rifle, but her mother put a stop to that.

Since the farm had hit rough times during the war, and Mattie's father could no longer work as hard as he used to, the Rooneys were faced with a dilemma: they simply had more children than they could possibly feed. The sooner they became someone else's problem the better, and so, when Mattie was only 16 years old, Lenora Rooney made plans to marry her off to a local farmer's son.

Mattie, of course, would have none of it. She wasn't quite sure what she wanted out of life, but she most definitely knew that it did not involve becoming somebody's child bride and getting stuck on Lilac forever. When she heard that Georgie had recently gotten a job on a ship, she begged him to take her with him. She had noticed that he was developing romantic feelings for her, and told herself that she was falling in love with him as well and wanted to elope. She has since then accepted the fact that she was merely desperate to run away and used him as a stepping stone. To this day, taking advantage of her best friend – her only friend, really – and ruining their relationship in the process remains Mattie's biggest regret in life.

Georgie successfully talked his employers into letting Mattie board the ship, despite her not appearing to have any marketable skills. He tried to teach her a mechanic's trade, but she found it too difficult and frustrating. Her success with piloting was only marginally better. It wasn't until one of the gunhands let her practice shooting with his rifle that her hidden talent was discovered: she had the makings of a markswoman.

The gunhand took Mattie as his apprentice. This was when her relationship with Georgie started to rapidly come apart: he didn't like the direction she was changing, and had caught onto the fact that she didn't really care for him the same way he cared for her. Once the tension between the two started affecting the entire crew dynamic, it was Mattie who agreed to leave.

Young and confident in her abilities, Mattie began pursuing a career as a mercenary. It was difficult for someone of her age and background to get people take her seriously, and she spent a fair amount of time stuck planetside, but she persisted out of sheer stubborness. Eventually she started getting work, sometimes mentored by older and more experienced gunhands who were charmed by her spirit and willing to pass on their trade. She was nineteen years old when she killed her first man, and she has never forgotten how that made her feel: shocked, but at the same time morbidly elated, like she'd finally discovered that part of herself that she'd been looking for all these years. The life of a mercenary filled her with an intoxicating feeling of power, and being involved in all sorts of activities of questionable legality behind the Alliance's back felt like getting revenge for the war and all the misery that came with it.

Mattie hasn't been back home or had any contact with her family since she left them six years ago. With the increasing number of reaver attacks on the Rim, she's not sure if she even has a family to come home to anymore. She pretends she doesn't care, but it's slowly eating away at her.

Skills and Strengths:  Mattie's single greatest passion and talent is guns. She has a natural knack for marksmanship and is a great shot with a rifle. She's working on improving her hand with smaller guns as well. She can hold her own in a brawl against an opponent her own size, particularly thanks to her quick reflexes. As someone who's always had to get by with very little, she's resourceful and hard-nosed with a few survival tricks up her sleeve. She can operate mules and similar land vehicles.
Weaknesses:  Despite her efforts, Mattie has never really been able to grasp the mechanics of a ship's engine: there are just too many moving parts and too much technical mumbo jumbo for her to wrap her head around. Same goes for piloting. As a rim-worlder, she's used to a very simple way of life, and struggles with fancy core customs and, to an extent, core technology. She hasn't received much schooling, and considers anything more complicated than basic reading and writing skills a waste of her time. She's not a people person and her attitude problem has been known to get her (and occasionally her crew) into trouble.

Mattie Rooney

Equipment
A lever-action rifle, old-fashioned but reliable. Mattie calls her 'Daisy'.
A .44 revolver.
Tools for cleaning and maintaining guns.
A bowie knife.
Sewing kit. Playing cards.
Spare clothes, personal items.
Dialogue color: darkkhaki

Mattie Rooney

Medical Records

Official:
MALADYDESC-TREATMENT-ETC
INJURYDESC-TREATMENT-ETC

Ship Specific (If going by an assumed name):
MALADYDESC-TREATMENT-ETC
INJURYDESC-TREATMENT-ETC
Dialogue color: darkkhaki

Mattie Rooney

Dialogue color: darkkhaki

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