Maka

First Event:

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Professions: Tinker (21)

Faction: Dust Runners

Other Affiliations: DVO (Employee)

Backstory:

Makaali Krün, a mischievous little Dust Runner, never wanted to grow up. She never wanted to become the adult that every Dust Runner had nightmares about, but she knew she would not be able to keep her body from transforming into that frightening creature. Some nights, as she neared her eighteenth birthday, she would cringe in her sleep as thoughts of wrinkled skin and frail bones crunched her skull. Due to her rapid, terrifying dreams, she never seemed to get enough sleep, appearing tired and slightly twitchy before her exile. However, she still tried to retain her natural curiosity towards anything technology-related.

Makaali first showed signs of interest towards old and new bits of technology when she was about five years old, trailing courageously behind her small gang known as the "Rusty Bolts." Her older sister and herself had been smuggled into the gang when they were four and seven, having been orphans who had previously whined for food from the nobles, serfs, and even the peasants of the Aldebrandi Kingdom. However, they got very little food and often had to dig their own out of the Kingdom’s fields. If anyone had caught them doing such a thing, the children may have been severely punished. However, being two small and agile little girls, they were able to sneak into the fields at night, dig out a sparing amount of raw vegetables, and cover the holes back up, as if nothing had been taken in the first place.

During a parts raid, a few members of the Rusty Bolts had seen the two girls wandering around a field, plucking premature vegetables from the ground and sneaking off behind a pile of rubble to devour the puny morsels. It was at this point that Makaali and her sister Jem were welcomed into the clan and given a family they could call their own.

Makaali, having followed her sister’s footprints into her first parts raid, developed an affinity towards anything mechanical or electrical, her small fingers curiously plucking at wires and loosening bolts. She mainly kept to herself while amidst an enthralling piece of technology, closing herself off to everyone and everything around her. During moments like these, her attention was focused on her hands and the dusty and rusted parts clasped within her fingers. Not even a tap on the shoulder would jolt her from her trance.

Being this closed off from the rest of the world while concentrating on a piece of technology could be potentially harmful towards her being, and she knows that. Her ear was almost sliced clean off when Rune, an aggressive male within the clan, attacked her for being too “clingy to tech-stuff.” He was also one prone to tinkering with technology and wished to be the main individual in charge of mechanical discoveries. If anyone else made a better discovery/creation than he did, he would attack them and make sure they would not be able to make something like that ever again. He took claim of their creations and showed his dominance by doing so. He was the leader of the gang, anyway, so he was allowed to do something as horrific as that and have no one defy him.

The first time Rune attacked Makaali during one of her major discoveries, Jem (being 17 at the time) stood in front of the alpha male and stopped his scavenged blade with her hand. She nearly had her hand sliced in half through the process of stopping the blade, but she did not want her technologically-savvy sister to be hurt in any way. With her seven-inch height difference between herself and Rune, being the taller of the two, she was able to pull the knife out of Rune’s hand and hold it above her head. No matter how high Rune tried to jump, he could not reach his blade. The leader became infuriated and instantly demanded Jem to leave the gang and never return. Jem refused, but those who supported Rune drew their blades and bows on her and ordered her to leave, Rune warning her that if she ever returned, or if he ever saw her around those parts again, she would be killed.

Makaali broke out of her tech-related daze when she noticed her sister slowly walking away from the camp. She called for her and even ran to her, clasped her arms around her waist, and begged her not to leave, but to no avail. “Maka, I have ta split,” Jem murmured, touching her sister’s hand but looking away from her.

“Rune’ll beat me up if I stay. I gotta find another group a’ kids to live with for one more year, or just…try ta live on my own. Please, though…dun let Rune bully ya. Dun let him push ya ‘round. Ya got better tech skills than he does. An’ he knows it.”

Makaali glimpsed a smile on the corner of her sister’s face, but Jem refused to look at her. Carefully, Jem pulled Makaali’s arms off from around her waist and walked forward into the texture-less plain. Makaali wanted to run after her and go with her, but she knew her sister would want her to remain with the Rusty Bolts. She would be safer with twenty other kids of varying sizes and strengths than with one over-tall older sister who would be exiled soon, anyway.

Throughout the remaining three years of her time with the Rusty Bolts, she got into constant brawls with Rune, calling him a “clumsy monkey” when she tripped him into piles of miscellaneous mechanical parts, and then calling him a “grease pit” when those parts covered him in old grease and rust that had collected on each of the parts over the years. The tension between the two Dusters grew stronger and stronger, Makaali’s rough sarcasm becoming fiercer day after day, until Rune finally pulled out his knife, sliced Makaali’s cheek, and pushed her to the ground.

“You challenged me too much, Maka-Maka,” Rune growled, his knife poised over her face while his other hand gripped the front of her tunic. “You too much like yur stupid sister. Maybe you needa follow her footprints and leave this place. We dun need ya anymore. By sunrise tomorrah, you all grown up.”

Makaali scoffed and wriggled under his grip, sneering at him. “That’s okay,” she rumbled. “I’ll find Jem and we will find the best tech parts ever. No need for you to have ‘em.” She shrugged. “You only got one year left, anyway, then you'll be kicked out of the clan, too. Have to live on your own. No friends, no siblings, no cronies. A new leader will replace you. Easily. Nothin’ you can do about it, grease butt.”

With that last insult, Rune punched Makaali in her already bleeding face, causing her to retaliate and knee him in the stomach to get him off of her. Then she quickly snatched up her bag and weapons and took off running, aimed in the same direction Jem had gone three years before.

One year later…Makaali discovered the trading post known as Beacon.

Claims to Fame: Mega Mecha Maka's brand was well known as one of the best tinker brands out there. Invented Magnetic Field Generator and Scoundrel Armor. Partially responsible for MNDK.

History:

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