Grace Kildare

She tells stories of falling in love with the water on Lake Victoria, sailing out storms and catching lampreys out of season. She tells stories about bush wars between Incorporate kill teams and the dreaded Captains ("Captains don't need to be military, they just need lots of guys who show up.") To more people than she ever expected, she tells about being thrown out of her home, about surgery in a Free Zone enclave and surgery on the Moon. She doesn't tell stories about guntruck battles on the outskirts of Kibera, or the rise and fall of the chotara they called Captain Mnyama.

Grace woke up from IMHS with very little past and fewer useful skills than she hoped. But she found guys who show up, and together they financed a trawler she named the Hijra Go-Hard for reasons that make sense to her. She was ready to build a new life — and then she found out her old life beat her to Poseidon.

In her absence, most of her childhood community had moved somewhere called Bright Savanna, and after painstaking searches she's sure she has family there. Grace didn't expect that, and the idea of meeting other machotara hybrids tantalizes her. She wonders about her siblings, if their kids have lost their Swahili, whether they know about the uncle who ran away to live a bad life. She wonders about her parents, if they're still alive, whether they'd recognize her. Whether she'd want them to.

Grace works hard not to dwell on it. She drives the Hijra Go-Hard and keeps it afloat. She eats better than she ever has, all while complaining about the food (kachumbari's just not good on Poseidon!) Sometimes she borrows a gun from a crewmate (she doesn't carry as much as she used to), and plinks cans or iguanas so she doesn't forget. In the evening she plays unfamiliar music: old Kisumu gospel choirs, old rap in the dirtiest Sheng you'll ever hear. Sometimes, late at night, Grace hears the new Mombasa pop hits playing on shore stations, and wonders if anything else from her past is on its way to Poseidon...

Concept: "A past like an iceberg"

Level: Exceptional

Cognition -1 (Alert 0, Experienced 1)

Psyche 2 (Hardened 3, Intuitive 3)

Coordination 2 (Daring 3, Surefooted 3)

Physique 0 (Tough 1, Unassuming 1)

[3] Earth Culture > Incorporate Backyard > Lake Victoria

[4] Hybrid Homesteader > Rural Survival > Scrounging

[4] Free Zone Nomad > Warlord > Logistics

[4] Streetwise > Wary > Intimidating

[1] Trans > Changing Identities > Storytelling

[3] Newcomer Culture > Fishing Business > Navigation

Cat Hybrid: +1 Psyche, +2 Coordination, -1 Physique, -1 to social maneuvers, +2 to damage maneuvers using claws, +2 bonus to climbing

Cybereyes: Infrared vision, light amplification, brown irises

Paranoid: Grace fears MacLeod Enforcement almost superstitiously (she won't touch their products if she can avoid it.) This can make her act in ways she can't always explain or justify.