In 1994, a baby was born to a barely 17-year-old Katie King. The young mother named her daughter Merlyn Alabaster King because her daughter "brought magic into her life" as she put it. Growing up, Merlyn was told that her father was the love of Katie's life who had died in an apartment fire saving an elderly couple and their grandchild. In truth, her father had no interest in raising a child, especially with a bright-eyed dreamer like Katie. He left even before Merlyn was born. When she finally found out that her father wasn't some hero who saved people, she was only 7 and didn't ever tell her mother that she knew.
Merlyn watched her mother struggle. Katie was a good mother, but often had to work two jobs to support them and her daughter had to learn early on how to handle things herself. The ever-kind Katie never seemed to give in to the pressure fully, even when Merlyn could see the cracks around the edges. She never commented that she could see the stress the world was causing her, instead letting Katie think she had successfully shielded her daughter from the harsh realities of the world. When the bomb went off in 2006, Katie could no longer attempt to keep Merlyn safe. Katie was in range of the Bomb and Merlyn was safely at home in their apartment. Having heard chatter and commotion in the apartment building, the 12-year-old found out about her mother's death when she turned on the news. Katie worked in a diner close to Kirby Plaza.
With no idea who her father was and no knowledge of any relatives of Katie's, Merlyn ended up shuffled off to the foster system. Any hope she had of finding a surrogate family to care for her like Katie did was dashed by the realities of the system. She was in and out of foster homes, and she found that she could take advantage of the compassion of others for her due to her age and tragic story. She soon learned that spinning a bit of a tale could get people to do what she wanted, and she was able to take that skill and hone it to allow her to get an edge up when she was on the streets and not in a foster home. When it was revealed that people with strange and superhuman abilities existed, the young woman shrugged it off as just another way for people to get extra benefits and have an easier life.
Merlyn grew up in foster homes but never really thrived in them. At 16 she'd finally had enough and ran away from her group home to take care of herself. She took refuge in shelters and churches when she could. When she couldn't find anything, she sought out where the safest places to sleep were and got to know the city. As she got older, she expanded her skills by teaming up with people selling bootleg and knock off merchandise, learning to recognize what was real and fake, getting an eye for how people convinced others that their products were legitimate.
She was 18 when the Civil War hit. New York was her home, but she wasn't a fighternot of the sort the war needed. When things got too hot in one location she quickly went to another, taking advantage of new surroundings to create sob stories to get supplies whenever she could. While she never fought in the war, she didn't do everything selfishly. She did her best to help those who were struggling because of it. Instead of it being just her trying to survive, she was trying to help those around her as wellit became like a team, helping others and making sure they were okay when she had enough to survive. While the war was rough and she was witness to a lot of difficult events, Merlyn did a lot of good where she could and made a name for herself in the small circles she was in, but as soon as she was known a little in one place she moved on to the next. There were certainly a few close scrapes and she ended up recovering for a while in a small community somewhere along the eastern seaboard when she took a bullet to the leg. While it was nice to have somewhere she felt comfortable and welcomed, as soon as she could walk well she left without even saying her goodbyes.
After the war, she continued to travel for a while, her old New York City haunts being much more of haunts at that point. It wasn't quite home, but she didn't really have much of any other place to go. She drifted for a while outside of the city before she found her way into a remnant of an old convenience store. Using it for shelter, she did the best she could to survive in a war-torn environment, though it was much more difficult for her when there weren't as many people to work her charms on. She helped those around her she could, and took full advantage whenever there were any relief efforts. She didn't have a real home for years, not until after the Safe Zone really became established and access to power and fresh water felt like a luxury. When things finally settled into a new normal, she found it was easy to convince people she had the hookup for where the luxuries were. People wanted to find some sense of their old lives and many people were willing to pay for that. Eventually, she did well enough that she no longer had to live on the street. Pushing into more serious hustles and scams, she began acting as a middle-man for organizing forged artwork, event tickets, and other more expensive goods. Spinning a good tale, though, was always her favorite… when there was money in it.
