Active or Inactive?: Active
Character Name: Caitriona (ka-TREE-na) Loughty
Age: 19
Race: Human
Current Residence: Zaun
Class: Laborer
Nature, Demeanor: Nature: Survivor ; Demeanor: Darling
Occupation or Role: Orphan
Augmentations or Advanced Weapons (if any): Just a small dagger she keeps hidden on her person
Backstory:
Caitriona wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Hell, she was lucky to even HAVE spoon most of the time. She was born to a pair of laboring parents deep in the heart of the grungiest part of Zaun.
Her father was a factory worker grinding out literal gears and whatnots to keep all manners of machines running for those who had enough money or clout to own them.
Her mother, on the other hand, wasn't even on her father's radar for the longest time. Namely because she worked as a prostitute. She had started from a young age after both of her parents had died leaving her with no means to get an income. So she had started selling the only thing she had left after the rest was picked clean by debtors: herself.
It was a fluke the pair even met as Cait's father never had the time or money to splurge on a prostitute for his own entertainment. He simply bought the occassional pint of booze to drink after a long shift at the factory. But this time was different. A bunch of his buddies had all chipped in parts of their pay to him for a birthday gift: a romp with a prostitute.
Until that night, he'd never even glanced at the women. But when he laid eyes on the woman who'd eventually birth Cait, the man was lost. Hook, line and sinker. After their first meeting, he took every moment he could spare to get close to her. Maybe it was his determination. Or maybe it was her hoping for a better life. Either way, he won out and they became lovers.
To all who took notice of this pair of low class laborers could tell they had become smitten with each other. Never apart for long save for the times their jobs demanded it.
Eventually, the question was popped and they got hitched in the only way laborers could: a wild party full of noise, booze, and loose morals.
In the weeks and months that followed the wedding, it became very apparent that his new bride was pregnant. He never expected so soon to have a child. Their money situation was dire and with his wife unable to do most work past a certain time, it would be even harder to gather the means to care for a child. So, in the days that followed, he took on as many shifts as his energy allowed. He even got his wife to work along side him doing light work until she was no longer able to stand for fear of her health and the child.
Every night he came home utterly spent for a few meger hours of rest before heading back early the next morning to begin again. His wife begged him to ease up because if he became ill then how would she have the means to survive?
Fortunately, her husband's health didn't fail. The money kept coming in. And Cait was born as a healthy baby to two proud parents.
And yet, one of these proud parents harbored a dark secret. The devoted wife. She knew more then he the way things fell. And he just didn't notice through his work and worries that the timeline didn't match up like it should have. Despite knowing this, she hid it within hoping it would never be found out for the sake of her and her dear child.
For a time, it seemed like happiness was there to stay. Cait grew up happy and healthy. She was the apple of everyone's eye. Even when her mother had to return to her position because she knew no other trade, close friends of the couple were more than happy to take watch over the small child. It slowly became apparent that she was a bright child who caught on quickly to things she was taught. Her parents taught her the best they knew how not having the means to truly send her off to a proper school.
All they hoped is that she would learn enough from the pair of them, that she might rise above their status. She might not attain a high level within the class of Innovators but she could begin there and eventually raise her own children in a manner to take them even higher.
Her father especially took great pleasure in teaching her about the craftmanship behind the very items he helped to create. From their fellow neighbors and freinds, Cait learned even more about the way things fit together. She gained a creative and curious streak within her as she tried to craft her own little toys out of the scraps of metal and gears and springs left over from others broken items. By the time Cait was 10, tiny little figures began to emerge. They creak and groan and try to wobble across the floor only to barely move. However, her parents still encouraged her.
Through these teachings, her father would even sneak home some parts that hadn't been broken for his daughter to try out in the hopes that her little inventions would work.
Harmony and love was had for 13 good years. However, where there is prosperity, there is also jealousy. Where there is popularity, there are also grudges.
A few of the other prostitutes who had always been envious of this new happy wife, finally reached their boiling point. They had tried for years to get out from under the wheel that crushed them daily. Now this woman got to have what they didn't. Fortunately for them, and unfortunately for the dear family, these women had a trump card to play. One that would see the whole facade fall away and the happy family torn to pieces.
Their campaign began as they casually spread word around of their long held secret they had been waiting for a long time to play. Slowly, the venmous snake of truth slithered from ear to ear. Mouth to mouth. Until one night when the doting father who was out for a rare night out with fellows caught wind of the tale that had woven it's way purposefully to him.
In fury, his inner dreams were shattered. A deep feeling of betrayal settled into his soul and instead of overcoming it and finding forgiveness for his truly devoted wife and darling daughter, it stewed till his rage finally exploded the moment he stormed in the door.
The bile of angry words that flooded from within him was a terrifying sight and sound to the poor woman it was directed at. Her young daughter hid in fear of her once loving father now turned into a vicious monster before her very eyes. Only to learn the horrible truth: she was not her father's daughter. But rather another man from her mother's former days. Days in which she had sworn to stop until they were wed. Days had she had started up again when she feared for her husband's health by overworking.
In that moment, the image of the peaceful family was shattered forever. Now, the raging father thought of nothing else but venom for his wife. A banishment from their home. He would no longer allow her to live in his home. Her presence was only a reminder of the betrayal he felt.
Cait begged and pleaded along with her mother for him to reconsider. But both of their pleadings fell on deaf ears.
In a rush of anger, Cait's father shoved his only daughter harshly away from him as if she were an unwanted piece of trash. He forcefully grabbed up his, in his mind, former wife and bodily hauled her towards the door and shoved her out into the night. As she tried to get back in, he slammed the door in her face and barred her out. Now the sound of a mother desperate to get back in sounded out in the dirty slum. A mother beegingif not get back in but to at least have her daughter.
Within the broken home, Cait was fighting to get to the door. To get her her mother. Only to be tightly and cruelly held back by her father.
Hours passed by and the door remained shut. Night became day. The now hard hearted father locked the young child away before moving to leave for work. His abandoned wife still huddled outside. Again, he barred his former wife from entering in to retrieve her daughter. This time, he gave her a warning. That should she not disappear from his sight for the rest of her days, that every day he saw her from then on would mean one mark carved into her daughter's skin.
At first the woman refused to believe a man would do such a thing to a child. However, she saw the evil glint in his eyes and eventually saw he spoke the truth. She begged him to agree that as long as she stayed away that her daughter would never be harmed. Yet, the only promise he would make was the one he had just spoken.
Dejectedly, this woman. This prostitute, turned wife, was now back in her former place. And yet this time, her heart and will was gone from her. Without another word, she turned and left neverto return to the place she once called home.
That night when the man returned home from work. He was all ready very drunk having drowned his anger with cheap booze. He stumbled inside and fell into his usual chair while he stared blankly off into the distance. Slowly, the last piece of his anger brought forth the only other grief left to him. The fake daugther. He knew in that moment, if he wanted to forget that horrible betrayal that he needed to get rid of every last reminder.
The next day, he finally released his daughter from the room he had locked her into. However, this hadn't been his first move on this fateful day. He'd gone out early to search out a suitable way in which to dispose of his unwanted guest. And he'd found it. A grimy man who took charge of a group of prostitutes for those men who wanted a....younger treat. To this man, he'd sold his unwanted guest into a life of prostitution...just like her mother.
Cait cried and begged and pleaded. She promised to disappear. She promised to remove all trace of herself from everywhere he went. But he would have none of it. He wanted to be vindicated from those he had felt had wronged him.
So the grimy man called in two of his burly associates to drag out the screaming, crying, and squirming body of the girl he once thought of as his daughter.
Now, Cait had been knocked into another life. One of hunger. Of beatings. Of misery. Each day they worked to break her spirit into something that could be moulded into someone they could control. Each day, she refused them. Despite this, they stll put her to work. Giving her the roughest of clients that wouldn't mind a woman that fought them.
Such was the pattern of her life till she was 18.
Then, came the day she'd hoped and dreamed for. The day she'd prepared for. Her day to strike back with the remainder of her will that they'd never been able to take from her.
During a time that she had been left alone for just a moment, she had found an old gear among the garbage. It had snapped in half and thus been thrown away. This she had hidden away for a time whens he would make her move. And years later, the time had finally come.
Her grimy owner had let his guard down around her as she had fought to escape. Only fought to not be used. When he had her brought before him to his own room, she had stuffed the scrap of gear down the front of her corset where no one would be looking.
He slowly started to walk around her as he always did when berating her during a time when he tried with his thugs to beat her down. This time, however, she readied herself. Her eyes flicked to a door that was behind his desk. A door that led outside. To her freedom. This was the moment.
As he moved behind her, she feigned fear and drew her hands up as if to guard herself. Yet, the pulled the gear out and slipped her small fingers between the gaps leaving the teeth of the gear to rise and fall over the tops of her fingers....very much like a set of brass knuckles.
When he moved around beside her, she made her own move. This time she lashed out with her makeshift weapon and struck him across his face. Instantly blood sprayed out of the gash caused by the metal hitting his face. A cry of pain issued from his mouth and she knew she had to move. And fast.
Cait bolted for the exit and burst out into the street. Despite her clothing that threatened to tangle around her legs, she ran full out gripping her weapon in fear she'd have to use it again. She dodged through alley after alley, street after street. Eventually, she ducked into an old shed and held the door shut behind her.
For the next few stressful hours, she waitied there with baited breath for the footfalls of anyone following her. Eventually, night fell. She now held a slight glimmer of hope that she had finally gotten a step closer to her freedom. Her only hope now was either the man had died and couldn't send anyone after her or that she had to hid in such a way that he would give up the hunt.
Knowing that a man like that wouldn't give up a money maker so easily, she opted for the later and kept herself to the deepest shadows and away from prying eyes. She scavenged food and clothing from the trash. Snuck small cups of water away from inattentive eyes.
For nearly a year, she lived like a rat that hid in the walls. Fearful of a enemy pouncing down and ending it's existance.
But finally, with her confidence in her freedom fully regained and her strength renewed, she worked her way out of the shadows and back into the light. Here, she found herself having to reach into means she found despicable but necessary if she were to ever stay alive and have a life of her own. She begged for coins on street corners. She plyed a different sad story to various people about her stolen goods and a desperate need for money for medicine for a grandmother who didn't exist. She even picked a pocket a time or two but only when she was the most desperate for food.
Over time she scrimped and saved and managed to reaquire clothing of her own choice rather than scraps scavanged from the garbage. Soon, she was a far sight different from the pathetic figure that was once afraid of her own shadow. She had grown into a woman many would think cute and sweet in apperance. One who offered smiles to everyone she passed by. A person seen daily peddling off little wind up toys for children made out of scrapped gears.
Cait knew that now she would no longer allow herself to be a victim of circumstance. Not only would she find a way to survive. She would find a way to thrive.
