Ralley

Name: Ralley
Age: 31
Orientation: Bi
Gender: Female

Occupation: Unbonded Enforcer
Squad: N/A
Lodgings: The Flit

Appearance: Ralley isn’t exactly a delicate flower of a woman. For starters, she’s tall - five feet, eleven-and-a-half inches - and carries herself like the Enforcer she is. She's not much of an amazon, though - she's fairly solid for her height, but she's also narrow-hipped and long in the leg, which, coupled with low body fat, give the illusion that she's thinner than she is. She's plenty muscular for all that, but not curvy. The fact that she dresses almost exclusively in men's clothing (dark colors only, thanks) doesn't do much for this. Ralley's not exactly eye-catching.

She’s not exactly the feminine standard of beauty, either. Her facial features are severe - a thin-lipped mouth often spread thinner in annoyance, a sharp nose, strong, dark eyebrows over mud-brown eyes frequently narrowed in suspicion, and a square, almost masculine jawline. Her hair, a short, almost-untended mess of dark auburn curls, does nothing to soften the look; in fact, it tends to emphasize those features. And that doesn't bother Ralley at all - she prefers striking to pretty. Her only real defining feature is an odd sort of ageless quality; she doesn't look young so much as of indeterminate age. She could be twenty or she could be forty, and it's surprisingly hard to tell just by looking at her.

Personality: Probably the best word to describe Ralley is intense. There's nothing this woman doesn't do with a single-minded ferocity that often comes across as off-putting. This isn't out of a desire to make others uncomfortable - Ralley rarely considers others' opinions of her long enough to realize she's making them uncomfortable - but rather just the way Ralley is. She gives a hundred and ten percent all the time, until she can't anymore. People in the past have tried to get Ralley to tone herself down, but to no avail. When it comes to the world, Ralley has one setting, and that setting is "charge headlong into it screaming obscenities." She figures, it's worked for her so far, it'll continue to work as time goes on.

She's sharp and surprisingly book-smart for a grunt, but her aptitude will always be for physical things. Ralley's a kinesthetic learner, who processes the world better through touch and motion than she does through reading. Not to say she doesn't enjoy other things - she's just at her most content when she's got something to do with her hands. And, interestingly, she's possessed of a keen social sense though her behavior lends itself more to that of a lone wolf than a team player. She has a mind for strategy and a remarkable understanding of how people work and inter-group dynamics, but Ralley has no interest whatsoever in leading. Perhaps it's for the best; her actual leadership skills leave much to be desired.

She's not exactly a team player. She likes people - they're interesting and she's perfectly happy to be a part of a group - but she finds working with them an unfortunate, challenging task. As far as Ralley's concerned, herding cats is easier than convincing everyone in a group to do what you need them to do. She's understandably not charismatic at all, yet there's something about Ralley that tends to grab and hold attention, something about her that makes her stand out in a crisis. Perhaps it's that she rarely loses her head when it counts; she'll throw a fit at people over small things, but if there's a crisis, Ralley can one hundred percent be depended on to be calm and level-headed. And she does like being with people, as long as they're not stupid. She doesn't pull punches, though, and if she thinks someone's an idiot, they'll be the first to know. From her.

That's the thing about Ralley, though - she's prickly, and she's blunt, but she's also incredibly caring once she's become attached to someone. And the more she likes them, the more likely she is to rib them gently. Ralley substitutes insults and challenges for affection - something that can be kind of challenging, considering she also substitutes insults and challenges for most emotions toward people. But in general, a good rule of thumb is that the more she gently ribs someone (and the more she smiles while doing it), the more she loves them. She's not the best at making friends, but she keeps those she has made close to her. Her trip to the Neath was never intended to be permanent, so most of her connections in the Enforcers are...casual, at best, but she has a soft spot for the weak and the helpless. In particular, Ralley loves children. She has a daughter on the Surface, her pride and joy, and the fact that she can never return to her kills her. She has a tendency to seek out young urchins, and it's not uncommon to see her checking up on the street kids near her home.

But Ralley's also not stupid. She knows her job comes first - urchins are often thieves, and though Ralley will turn a blind eye to activities that don't occur right under her nose, she's perfectly willing to slap due process on criminals. She divides Neath criminals into two groups: People Who are a Legitimate Threat to Public Safety, and People I can Probably Ignore for Now. It's...a little big-picture for an Enforcer, but when your choice is between heading off after a petty thief or bagging the man who just murdered someone in an alleyway, your next course of action should be pretty simple. The thieves will still be around when the murderer is caught, and the fewer dead folks, the better. Strangely for a Neath dweller, Ralley puts an exceptionally high value on human life, seeing its protection as the be-all, end-all. Violence is fine. Hamstring a man to keep him from getting away. Shoot to stun or wound if the situation gets too intense. Crack heads, break bones, whatever it takes to get the perp down without killing him. Ralley has no qualms about engaging a hostile with weapons or even her bare hands if the situation calls for it.

She's also happy to do it simply to blow off steam. Brisk physical activity is the best way to regain your calm and keep yourself in great shape, after all.

History:

• Fall 2919: Ralley is born to Cotholders outside Fort Hold.
• 2923: Igen falls. Ralley's father takes her aside and makes her swear not to turn into that kind of people. Ralley internalizes this, becoming an incredibly serious, work-driven child. 
  
• 2923 - 2935: Ralley grows up thoughtful and hard-working, but a little bit overly-serious and slightly repressed.
• Winter 2935: Ralley's father dies. Ralley begins to realize that he was never anything more than a person, and slowly begins developing her own thoughts and opinions on the world. 
• Fall 2937: Shortly after her eighteenth birthday, Ralley moves to Fort Hold proper and begins work as a Hold Guard. She shows a remarkable aptitude at the position, and makes a number of fast friends, including an on-again, off-again lover.
• Summer 2941: Ralley discovers she's pregnant. She's delighted, but her lover is anything but. When Ralley informs him of her intention to keep the child, he breaks off all contact with her.
• Spring 2942: Holley is born. Ralley is immediately enamoured with her daughter, but it quickly becomes obvious that she's not going to be able to care for a child on her own. She returns home to live with her mother.
• Winter 2945: Unable to raise a child full-time and make sufficient money to live on her own while living and working in the cothold, Ralley makes the difficult decision to follow the wealth and makes a "temporary relocation" to Igen, with the intent of making enough money to return home and live comfortably until her daughter is old enough to Apprentice.
• 2946-2947: Ralley finds small amounts of work as security in unfortunate places. She distinguishes herself to Enforcers in a barfight in late 2946, earning a commendation and an invitation to enlist in their numbers. She does so gladly.
• Spring 2947: Ralley enlists in the Enforcers. For the most part, she does the footwork the dragonriders don't want to do, and deals with boring, stupid things. She doesn't mind - it pays reasonably well, and it's something to do with her time.
• Spring 2947 - Fall 2949: Ralley does fairly well for herself. She visits her family once a season, more sometimes, depending on circumstances, and generally keeps herself to herself. Since her intent is to keep the situation temporary, she does not enlist as a dragonrider.
• Fall 2949: Ralley dies in an altercation with a thief. Though she's quickly brought back from the dead, the realization that she can't return home hits her hard. Instead of continuing to correspond with her family, she ceases all contact convinces her superior to write a letter informing them of her death.
• Winter 2949: Without a family to live for, Ralley decides to enlist as a dragon Candidate, while maintaining her general work as an Enforcer.

Family:

• Father: Henley, deceased
• Mother: Maralla, 55
• Daughter: Holley, 9