[CHAR] Clockwork Heart: Odyssesy of Steam

Characters:

[Rune_Alchemist]

Alma

• Name:
  Alma
• Gender:
  Female
• Age:
  1 year since construction
• Appearance:
  An extravagant work of art in regal and exquisite gold paint. Blues made with expensive lapis Lazuli ultramarine. Whites with a titanium based pigment. The only other color which exists on her being, is the emerald based construction of her eyes. The cloth parts of her dress are made with the finest and highest quality fabrics. Her face, exquisitely sculpted and one would be hard pressed to find any fault with its construction and indistinguishable from any human visage. Indeed, Alma, like many other high quality Automatic dolls, are a work of art just as much as an expensive painting or sculpture.
  
  Even her more clockwork and gear parts compliment her form as much as a decorative buttress on a cathedral. Designed to evoke a definite inhuman, but familiar quality of a hard working maid to whomsoever is her owner.
• Personality:
  Made by the danfords only recently, Alma is something of an irritable sort, her otherwise beautiful construction marred by a somewhat grumpy and stern expression worn when both working and when not. Something perhaps not quite so welcome among a servant who needs to be a bit more amicable, but as far as Alma is concerned as long as she does her work then what does it matter? She only ever smiles for her owner, whenever carrying out orders from them or being praised for her own good work. To others she hardly spares five words too.
  
  In such a fashion, she is completely loyal to the Danford family and the young Lady Elizabeth though her attitude can be somewhat difficult. Aside from the somewhat grumpy demeanor she follows a quite simplistic approach to most things - the simplest solution is the easiest. Locked door? Break it. Need to catch a would be assassin? Just shoot their kneecaps. Doesn't work? Just use bigger gun. Need something cleaned? Just shake it until the dust falls off. Something washed? Just blast it with a hose until its clean. She accidentally broke something while cleaning? If it can be repaired, then do so. If not, then just by another before the lady notices. No, this has never happened before. Definitely not. Lying to her lady would be wrong, yes? This is all definitely not because she's just something of an airhead or a klutz, no sir.
  
  In short, she is not a subtle nor elegant little robot despite what her construction suggests and while she normally is fairly level headed, she can easily be flustered by unexpected situations or her own somewhat clumsiness.
• History:
  Alma's history, perhaps would be best started from the man that constructed her. Someone of very little renown, all things considered. A relatively uknown engineer who thought to mix more artistic flair into their construction, not just making them complete human lookalikes. When the Danford Family began plans to make one from scratch to act as their daughters bodyguard, he decided to try his luck and went straight to the Danford's house and made them an offer. He'd create an Automatic doll that was a work of art like none of them had ever seen. Needless to say, it took some convincing and some planning but in the end rather through his own enthusiasm, their interest in the finished product themselves, or some other reason...they gave the young engineer the green light to work on this project.
  
  That finished product? Alma was the result of it.
  
  Needless to say, the Danfords were pleased with the result. Certainly she wasn't completely a human lookalike that other Dolls may look like in the end as was the trend, but what was art, if not a medium for a creator to express something or extravagance for the sake of extravagance? With her expensive paints, well crafted eyes and dress made of the finest fabrics Alma was both a work of art, statement, and a show of skill on this particular engineer's part.
  
  The engineer was rewarded greatly and Alma was quickly acclimated to becoming young Elizabeth's personal bodyguard. How well she performs on the job, though, perhaps remains to be seen in full.
• Equipment:
  Alma often carries very little in the way of personal effects on her being. A servant such as her has no need of such things, after all. All she needs is to carry things useful and helpful to her master.
  -Shock Gloves
  Specially made gloves the Danfords purchased and commissioned for her use in their service feeling she would function best as a bodyguard that stuck close to Lady Elizabeth. Gloves which cover the wearers hands, specifically tailored for Alma in order to match her overall coloring and construction so its hard to distinguish they're even being worn. Effectively, miniature tasers with an adjustable output from delivering a 'controlled shock' to disarm and 'Zeus shall have no mercy on you' (She often forgets to turn down the levels)
  -Broom (it was once made of some other material, but it seems she's repeatedly made repairs and its now mostly metal)
  -Cleaning supplies (All neatly and well kept, surprisingly)
  -Ceramic repair glue (It's about half empty)
  -Various snacks for her mistress (Hand made, usually)
• Skills:
  -Cooking, cleaning, maid things.
  -Hand to hand combat
• Character Type:
  Automatic Doll

[RBYDark]

Skylar 'Snowy' Wheeler

Name: Skylar 'Snowy' Wheeler

Gender: Male

Age: 19

Appearance: At a glance, it's already clear something is 'off' with Skylar. He's rarely seen without his welding goggles and gloves when out in public, quite distasteful really; he typically wears a long canvas coat with a newsboy cap that's just a tad too large; and what can be seen of him looks sickly and pale, completely washed out. Find him in his workplace during down time, however, and the answer becomes clear: this young man has albinism. He lacks the more shocking traits, such as the pinkish-red eyes and white hair, but his pale blue eyes, platium blond hair, easily burnt pale skin, and occasional bouts of vision issues all mark his condition neatly.
Aside from his complexion, however, he still manages to be a tad eccentric. He's rather embraced the fashion of attaching gears and decorative jewelry chains to his vest, a deep blue fabric that manages to stand out against the silver metals, and he pins the cuffs of his white working shirt with modified bolt heads. His slacks and toolbelt are required to be secured by suspenders, something which may explain his slight slouch.

Personality: The first thing most people notice about Skylar is that he's quite knowledgeable and experienced for his age - half the time, he can just glance at a broken machine and accurately diagnose the problem. He's quite adept with Automatic Dolls, which leads to the second thing most people notice.
He must be flat-out bonkers.
No amount of talent and work can make up for the unease many feel when he claims the seradite core 'told' him what the problem was, and his claims that he is, in fact, being literal - that seradite speaks to him with its own voice, and he can hear it audibly. His dream, besides being a great engineer who revolutionizes the world the same way Engel Sera did, is to find the 'real source' of seradite so he can 'hear it speak in more than just fragments'.
Assuming you can get past that, what you're left with is a dedicated but meek young man who spends a lot of time drating ideas for inventions (including a transteleporter), tending to a small automaton in the shape of a snake, insect-watching, and studying swordfighting techniques (according to him, his brother's idea).

History: Honestly, at a glance, little about Skylar's history stands out. It is true that, at 15, he made a small automaton, but nothing else would have foreshadowed his entrance into the field of automaton engineering and repair a mere year later. He was often punished in school for 'frequent daydreaming' and 'choosing the hand of the Devil', and even the family's tutor confided to his parents that he was unlikely to get much further than a factory assembly line. As Skylar tells it, his older brother was the only one who seemed to have any faith in his abilities and the desire to encourage his 'silly doodling'. These days, he mostly feels his failures in childhood can be chalked up to the fact that his parents were raising him to be a merchant more than an engineer.
That all said, his apparent insanity had been present since he was 10 and met his first Automatic Doll ('his', as in it did not belong to the family and was merely one owned by someone else walking by), but it did not become prominent until his entry into the field. Were it not for his talent, he likely would have been completely ostracized. As it stood, though, the company that hired him was willing to look the other way. At 17, he and his older brother had an explosive argument that has left them out of contact ever since over the nature of his 'belief', as the company called it, and whether the aforementioned company was exploiting said 'belief'.
He's been over to the Danforth estate a few times for repairing Automatic Dolls, not enough to truly establish connections but enough to be familiar with the family. When the knowledge of the threats emerged, he volunteered to assist, arguing that someone would be necessary to ensure Elizabeth's protective Dolls would remain able to fight and watch out for sabotage of the train itself.

Equipment: Basic tool kit - torque wrench, socket wrench, screw wrench, spud wrench, tension wrench, dead blow hammer, engineer's hammer, chasing hammer, hex screwdriver, flat screwdriver, watchmaker screwdriver set, long nose plier, a portable welding torch, wire brush, mathematics compass, tape measure, half-round smooth file, you know. The basics. Frankly, in the right hands (not Skylar's), his "basic" tool kit could double as quite an effective bludgeon. There's also the life-sized (as in, just under two feet long) clockwork snake automaton that tends to stay hidden in his vest.

Skills: Repair and minor remodeling of Automatic Dolls, repair of smaller devices such as jewelry chains and watches, lockpicking, blueprint drafting/mapping

Character Type: Human

[Raineh Daze]

Kaede

• Name: Kaede
• Gender: Female
• Age: Quite Young
• Appearance: Even so far from home, she keeps to a somewhat similar style. If she were to dress less flamboyantly, Kaede would be able to pass for being completely unremarkable... in Japan. Being extra short and obviously very foreign rather puts rest to that idea.
  So far as Automatic Dolls go, she's particularly unusual in there being no visible sign of being anything other than human until you actually start considering the necessity of maintenance. Even the most human-looking Doll would normally have some sort of jointing or evidence.
• Personality: Quite a chipper sort, despite her complaints about always sticking out nowadays--if nothing else, being able to lean on the whole exotic beauty concept strokes her already-inflated ego. It's perhaps inevitable that an Automatic Doll that passes for human literally up until the point you start taking her apart would get the vanity to match.
  But she won't let that get in the way of doing her duty! Her first priority is to her mistress, in all things, even if her abilities beyond 'keep her safe and spot anyone suspicious' are notably lacking. At least she possesses the common sense to not go at domestic chores she's wholly untrained for with full force.
• History: With the Meiji Restoration in full swing and its concurrent restoration, it is completely unsurprising that companies with experience in the new Automatic Doll production and Seradite would be contacted for their expertise and knowledge. Kaede is the product of one such venture, a prize delivered to the Danford family for their assistance and as a method of boasting about where some improvements could be made. Despite being evidence of the potential for considerably more underhanded work, every care was taken to demonstrate that--skillset aside--the Doll is completely trustworthy, with no back doors or hidden secrets. That isn't to say that, as an extremely early bespoke model, her creators didn't make sure to evaluate her capabilities thoroughly before sending her halfway around the world, both as a bodyguard and as an infiltrator.
  Her service to the Danfords has been largely trouble-free, although her lack of any domestic skills or local knowledge has left her often struggling to fit in. She might be the only person relatively pleased with the current situation, as it finally lets her do something that she understands, with all her potential infiltration abilities being completely useless due to sticking out like a sore thumb.
• Equipment: The only permanent equipment Kaede has is her katana--an example of combining traditional smithing techniques with the potential of Seradite (which is quite surprising, given the recent changes in the law over there). The resulting alloy... well, it's pretty sharp, and when supplied with power it becomes very sharp. Exceptionally sharp.
• Skills: Kaede was designed around the idea of creating an Automatic Doll that could effectively protect its employer, even while accompanying them into areas where taking a visible weapon in might be seen as an act of aggression, which of course meant creating a bodyguard that could handily infiltrate secure locations without drawing attention (her creators were quite overzealous).
  Basically, they ended up making a ninja bodyguard. Of course, only half of this is useful in her current situation, where Kaede cannot help but stick out somewhat, and her combat ability is considerably more limited than an Automatic Doll that doesn't have her general adaptations... but it's still a bad idea for most people to get in close.
• Character Type: Automatic Doll