Character Profiles

NAME: Wendy May Barringer.

BIOGRAPHY: She is small, observant, diffident... yet strangely prone to the consuming trait of endurance. She has to be, born into a world worthy of the claim "dystopia", a world that took a different turn in history to remain more primitive, and in so many ways more advanced than that of modern day earth. It is industrialized, though many of the machines still rely on the concept of steam locomotives. Wendy works and lives in a factory that produces a variety of steamboats and motorized vehicles. Her father died when she was young, and her mother had always been absent. She fell into the care of her Great Aunt, who taught Wendy the value of strength, knowledge and challenging society. Wendy often went exploring down by the ocean where her Great Aunt lived, teetering on the edge of sharp tall rocks for lack of smoother beaches. She picked up much of the marine life and kept them as her pets, and has since reserved a fierce adulation for the sea. Her Great Aunt died of a mysterious cause after working very secretively in her study for hours on end, refusing Wendy access to the room or her thoughts for the months that this habit reigned. Wendy was nine when her Great Aunt was buried at the Bancroft Cemetery on the outskirts of town. She left Wendy nothing. With no other living relatives, Wendy was placed into foster care until the age of thirteen, when she was released on the condition that she work at the steamboat factory in Ireton, the next town over, until her sixteenth birthday. Wendy was grateful for her release, but appalled at the condition of the ocean's bay in Ireton, and when she wasn't working twelve hour shifts, she was rescuing sea creatures drowning in industrial waste. Animals were not allowed in the factory, so Wendy had to hide them amongst the clanking pipes and billowing steam that overwhelmed the humid basement. Wendy's confusion and pain at the circumstances of her Great Aunt's death still plague her mind in the factory, and her aggression toward to her co-workers stems from her resentment at being left out of her will. This is where her story truly starts.

AGE: About fourteen or fifteen.

HEIGHT: 5'2".

WEIGHT: 110 pounds.

BODY TYPE: Though she has an even distribution of lean muscles throughout her body, Wendy is rather thin and modest in her height. Her posture is rarely strong and square-shouldered, and her demeanor suggests a desire to remain unseen. She is adept at climbing, has impressive balance and sharp agility. Her development is immature and the men she works with hardly take any notice at all.

FACE TYPE: Wendy's face is well defined. She has large eyes, a slightly upturned nose, and full, though at times severely chapped, lips. Her cheek bones are hallowed, and her chin is pointed.

COMPLEXION: Wendy has cream-colored skin, pink cheeks, elbows and knees, and a dusting of light brown freckles across her nose. Upon the death of her Great Aunt, however, her complexion changed from a healthy dew to a languid sallowness, especially around the eyes. She has several scars from her many excursions onto the faces of steep cliffs and the tumbling of harsh waves. A dark splattering of grease is always present on her face and hands, and a light sheen of sweat and dirt make themselves apparent on any area of exposed skin.

EYES: Wendy's eyes are slightly bulging due to their great size, and are a shade darker than malice in a deep viridian. Somber grays and purples mark the circles beneath her eyes, and her brow seems to be in a permanent furrow of bitterness. If one is able to see past the husk of animosity that is perpetually folded in place, her eyes remain the key to her pain.

HAIR: Wendy's lank, straight hair is often hidden beneath a hard hat or tied up in a messy bun. Though the chestnut brown color is considerably unremarkable, when visible beneath the surface of water, glinting with sand or masked with the dazzlingly sharp colors of a polluted Ireton sunset, her hair turns the golden color of precious metal and falls freely about her face. However, few are lucky enough to see the sight. Wendy's strength and natural composure only come with tide, a solitary venture that Wendy treasures more deeply than anything she has left, and is determined to keep close.

CLOTHING STYLE: Before her internment at the steamboat factory, Wendy often dressed simply and casually in light khaki or blue jean shorts and alternated between the few faded t-shirts she owned. Her style of dress was often matched to fit her comfort. Her ripped, worn-out sneakers and sterling silver earrings her Great Aunt had given her were the only things she still possessed after her departure from foster care. Wendy now wore the same blue-gray jumpsuit, white t-shirt and pair of baggy blue jeans that was distributed to all of the other workers. Her small stature proved to be difficult to clothe, and her jumpsuit and jeans had to be cut off short to fit her slight limbs, and as a result were severely frayed.

SPEAKING STYLE: Wendy speaks very infrequently, though when she does her small voice holds an edge of slight vexation. Her thoughts are sewn carefully into her words, and one can hear the amount of consideration put into each string of speech Wendy utters. It seems as though she calculates exactly what she must say, but replies as if it hadn't taken any time at all. Her voice is dark, low and rough, which entices the curiosity of many who speak with her. Her eyes seldom meet whomever she is talking to, and simply fall to the floor or out of an open window.

GENERAL DEMEANOR: Wendy takes many things in life warily, and is cautious of the motives almost everyone around her. She is constantly suspicious or on guard, and darts furtively away from any sign of confrontation, not unlike a bird or a mouse. When cornered, however, Wendy's tongue has been known to cut even the thickest of egos and evade the swiftest of blows. In essence, Wendy Barringer can talk her way out of anything if need be, but otherwise remains unseen and unspoken. The opinion of her from others varies widely from mysterious and frightening to fidgety and embarrassing. Co-worker Humberto Wallace once described her as a "sadly misunderstood girl in need of encouragement." While other girls her age from a nearby dance academy wrote Wendy off as a "dirty weirdo in need of a right struggle with her soap dish."

CAREER: Wendy works at a steamboat factory, usually operating machinery but working with her pliable size to fix jams between cogs in hard to reach places. Wendy has aspirations of delving submarines deep down into the sea.

PREJUDICES: Wendy despises the autocrat leader the government in her country follows, and hates those with closed minds too ignorant to seek the truth. She holds many qualms with industrial companies as well, especially the one she works in, because of their improper waste disposal system. Additionally, Wendy has just a general contempt for mankind, seeing humanity as weak, corrupt and greedy beings overall, making her highly susceptible to the distrust of her fellows.

BEST QUALITIES: Wendy is particularly intelligent, in marvelous shape, and has the cunning of a fox.

WORST QUALITIES: Wendy is extremely wary of her surroundings, which makes her enormously nervous of new people, things and places. She doesn't talk to anyone around her, and is severely unsociable. In general, she does not care about the plights of others, making her far from compassionate.

WEAKNESSES: While it is what gives her her enormous strength, what Wendy fears most is that her passion of the sea will be discovered and taken from her. Her family's past is also a sensitive subject that Wendy holds dear. In order to thwart Wendy, however, one must be brilliantly crafty, because brute strength of will or body alone is not enough to confine Wendy's fierce agility.

HOBBIES: Wendy loves to spend time on, in or by the ocean, capturing sick or unhealthy creatures to keep as pets. She enjoys reading books of all kinds, although, unusually compared to her classmates, marine biology textbooks seem to enthrall her. Wendy used to love riding her bike through the winding hills and cliffs where her Great Aunt lived, although in Ireton, suitable places for riding are far from abundant.

TALENTS: Wendy's talent is her wit, agility, and her strength of heart and mind. She is an expert swimmer, nimble rock climber and fierce explorer, and it is her wariness that attributes to her expertise. If one were to come blundering through the obstacles that Wendy has learned to overcome, they would find themselves face down on the sharp, jagged rocks that lay near the ocean's bay.