SkunkyArt | Emiyey — [FD2D] Emeka

Emeka was born on February 20th in.. somewhere between low-end and high-end Ironstead to a human mother and a gen-human father.

Her mom was a teacher and private tutor for a nearby school; her father was ‘born’ 4 years prior as a fur-trapper for the high-ironstead community. Needless to say, he made decent money and was able to support his family to a comfortable home; not too poor, but not high-up either; just right.

However, there was always an air of prejudice surrounding the family; from weird glances on the street when her mother would go out shopping, to Emeka getting personally called out by neighboring adults and bullied by classmates in school - the overcasting hate made Emeka a rather explosive, shut-in, and sensitive child growing up.

Emeka’s father realized he’d only get to live long enough to see his daughter reach a certain age, so he did his best to instill good values and teachings in her; her mother, important skills - both parents did their best to shield their daughter from the bad of the world.

She took interest in her father’s maps, his journal, his sketches of tarnic, and almost nearly anything he owned pertaining to the world outside New Ironstead. He didn’t full out support her desire to join him on his hunting trips, but he didn’t exactly shut her down either. He taught her basic skills; how to track, shoot, and skin. And for a kid her age, she was pretty good at it!

Her father went out for a hunting trip when she was about 17, and never came back; whether he died of organ-failure mid-trip or was killed by a tarnic, it’s still not known.

Emeka wanted to pick up where he left off with his hunting business, but with no one to guide her and teach her (along with her mother’s disapproval) she slowly slinked away from that dream; The things in her father’s study remained untouched for 13 years.

In the meantime, Emeka worked at the school with her mother as a teacher’s assistant.

At the age of 20, a rather arrogant and still stoic Emeka was drafted into the New Ironstead militia, where she signed up for the science-branch’s augmentation program. With her prior marksmanship and her father’s renown reputation, she was accepted, and after 5 weeks of surgeries and months of training, was put on the frontlines as a recon scout and sniper along with 20 others from the program.

Here, she was given her first assignment as long-range support for Dave’s regiment, they met over the radio-channels; late night chats became a way for Emeka to come out of her stoic shell; seeing someone in the trenches who obviously had it off worse than her put her self-pitying and indifferent view on the world into perspective. After he went AWOL (she presumed he was dead) she was pretty sad, but forced herself to move on for the sake of others..

She did pretty well in the war, gaining information on land-holdings and terrain in the Outlands, becoming one of the more known snipers from the augmentation program; by some she was worshipped, by most she was seen as a freak of nature.

Emeka lost her arm during the 2nd year of the Dust-War. An Atoll State marksman managed to shoot her in the right-shoulder; the arm-socket itself was completely destroyed and many of the ligaments torn beyond recognition. She survived it, but not without enduring the consequence of amputation and grueling months of physical therapy with a new motorized arm in order to make her shooting-side usable again. By the time she got somewhere, the war was already over and she was being sent home. Survivor guilt hit her hard.

Disillusioned by the war, by the loss of her limb, by the loss of some of her good friends, she felt as though she had no real purpose in life for a handful of years, and made up for all the time she never took before the war to grieve for her father. With no direction or guidance, she began to get mixed in with the wrong crowds, violent ideologies, and took what little talent she had for granted; undermining her morals for money as she tried to pick up assassinations and other shady jobs. (This is where she meets Skye, and develops a bitterness for the woman who continuously stole her jobs time and time again; when Emeka finally landed one, she was barely even able to bring herself to do it.)

She received a wake-up call when, after an argument with her now distant mother, Emeka stormed the house to take her things to up-and-leave when she re-exposed herself to the work in her father’s study. For a couple of hours, she went through his things, read his journals, looked at his maps, and the love she had for geography and hunting that lay untouched for years sparked.

With new determination, she decided she wanted to do what her father did; explore the outside world in the fur-trapping business, much to her mother’s dismay.

Self taught, with her father’s maps in hand, and using the augmentations she had obtained from life in the military, Emeka learned the ropes and, from the age of 27-32, took over her father’s business. She went on to being pretty successful, furnishing many of the homes in the high-end for many families. For the first time in years, Emeka was finally able to say that she’s proud of herself.

At about 33, Emeka has a chance encounter with Dave, the young man she met during the dust wars, and gladly accepts his offer to join him at Orion; it’d give her a chance to explore farther than she imagined, and be a part of a team again.