Sable

Chesterfield Act Registry of the Expressive Database

File #28 Mar 2018 03:48

Summary

Name Raven Diego Aliases Sable Status Unregistered Expressive Ability Reactive Reflexes Gender Female Birthdate November 5, 1990 Age 27 Height 5'1" Build Lean Eyes Yellow Hair Black Residence TBD Employment TBD Parents Unknown Siblings Unknown Marital Status Single Children None First Scene Last Scene Profile Sable is a former vagrant turned musician turned resistance fighter turned musician again.

portrayed by Joan Jett

Background

When the war effort called, Ms. Diego was given a choice faced by many artists. Should she set aside her passions and serve? Should she remain a lover, rather than a fighter? Should she dress up her cowardice in principle and try and survive under a yellow banner painted white? Not that other artists lack for conscience, but what we know of Sable tells us that, being a survivor, principle is not generally something she’ll die for.

But when push came to shove, she chose to go. Not always, because even the best soldiers need leave, and after her flight from the East Coast to the heartland with her remaining near and dear - most notably Ms. Trafford and Ms. Darrow, the latter viewed as her charge in Ms. Quinn’s absence - standing watch amidst the isolation of the Great Plane grew too difficult to bear, her vigilance curdling into a sense of uselessness since, when push came to shove, nobody really needed her to remain safe. If it were ever anything else, it became only her own sense of responsibility, one drawn increasingly afield as more and more news of the war trickled in from those actually fighting in or fleeing from it.

So the time came that she reached out to one Ygraine FitzRoy, erstwhile rival turned friend, her seeming utter opposite who, in this time and place, suddenly appeared like a model for a better way of life. Commitment, involvement, interest not just in warfighting and fascist-killing (though not afraid of that either) but in collecting the facts of the struggle, in preparing for the story to be told as truthfully as it could. And this last, more than anything, appealed to Ms. Diego’s sensibilities. When the dust settled, there would of course be room for music that helped people forget. But what about music to help them remember?

Ms. Diego went to war. She snuck and scrounged and fought, but it wasn’t like it was before. More desperate than her vagrant days, yet more certain, more purposeful- not merely stealing the next day but trying to wrench back history itself. She photographed terrible things, heard terrible stories, learned to treat her body and her ability as instruments of a greater purpose. She killed men, when she had to, and these things change a person. Ms. Diego was changed.

And so when the war was over she did not return to her near and dear. She didn’t try and play house, as she had one intended. She hit the road and began to live the life she might have had she put aside illusions and committed to the work of being a musician. She toured, not in grand style as she once dreamed, not resurrecting Woodstock or what-have-you. She played at roadside venues, played for tips and beer money, played to improve at her craft, played for the sake of playing itself. And her music was, almost certainly, greatly improved, as was her sense of self, her sense of patience, her understanding of a world that might speak in signs but rarely anoints messiahs obviously. Her war-tempered body softened into a true maturity, and she began at last to resemble herself, not just the masks she took on and off.

But then the call came again- the Safe Zone, the reconstruction, the convergence of familiar people, changed, in a familiar place, ravaged. In the hopes of rebuilding. And the choice wasn’t so hard this time, because she had learned to choose. She caught a bus headed back east, and was on her way home. She’s coming home.

Psych Profile

Ms. Diego has mellowed with age. She’ll still fight if she has to, but she’s much less likely to start one unnecessarily, and some years of sustained service to a cause greater than her own delusions has made her better tempered if not necessarily more agreeable (or any less foul-mouthed). She’ll be more likely to grant strangers respect, understanding that their story could easily be as difficult as her own; the reverse snobbery of the vagrant has evaporated in the face of a country traumatized by war. She still sports a soldier-like loyalty to those she deems worthwhile, more-so since she was a soldier, and now much less determined by how pretty or fun the person she’s talking to is. She retains her suspicion of authority, but has better learned to cope with it, knowing that resistance takes place in the crevices power leaves, and that nails that stick up invite hammering. She is, in short, an independent adult who views her own past with a certain indulgence, without too much in the way of idealization. She loves her old self, as she might a silly younger sibling who has no idea what awaits her, and shakes her head to think that, back then, she’d have earnestly claimed to be willing to die at the age she’s now reached, her legacy secured. She knows better now.

Evolved Ability

Sable's gift for musicianship isn't a simple accident of genetics. It's certainly an accident, insofar as any Evolved can be considered accidental. Though she doesn't know it, she has a gift, one whose relative subtlety makes it easy to miss. Sable has the uncanny ability to predict the physical movements of others, to react accordingly and, with enough time to observe, to mimic what she's seen.

When her adrenal levels are high, her unusual eyes gain a remarkable acuity, and link to the motor-cordination section of her mind on a fast track. As long as she's witnessing the movements of someone with a vaguely similar (i.e. human) musculature, she can 'see it coming', tracking the motions they are about to make with astounding accuracy. Which means if someone swings a punch at her, she will almost always be able to dodge if she's paying any attention. It also means that, given enough time to witness someone's macromovement pattern, she can learn at what points they are most off balance, in the weakest position, and otherwise exploit her instinctual understanding of their position and movements.

The final expression of this ability takes the form of mimicry; with considerable attention, time and personal investment, Sable can repeat motions she's witnessed with great fidelity, which is how she made such leaps and bounds in her guitar lessons, picking up advanced technique often before learning the underlying fundamentals. This does not permit miraculous recall, however, but instead reduces the learning curve for some physical activities and only those she witnesses in a heightened state. Accessing this tier of her power is difficult; without regular practice and observation she can't get further than reaction. Note, she must rely on her own talent to produce original technique, and she cannot properly mimic something that is outside her own physical capabilities (e.g. she cannot mimic an Olympic athlete, because she doesn't have an Olympian physique). Moreover, it is possible that she can predict something that she cannot avoid: if the punch is thrown fast enough, she'll have enough time to say 'oh shit' in her head, and no more.

Since discovering the true nature of her gift, Sable has manage to use her ability to augment her skillset, allowing her to rapidly acquire many of the skills that enabled her success, or at least her survival. It is thus more possible now, with her age and knowledge, for her to purposefully acquire new physical skills, though she still suffers from an inability to pay attention to something she finds genuinely dull. Matured though she may be, there is still a fractious adolescent at the wheel from time to time.

Appendices