Florene Macintosh

Florene Macintosh, more commonly known as Cactus-Hand Mac, is a Texan poker pro and semi-famous survivalist, known for giving talks about how to survive in various high-stress situations, and for having cacti for hands.
== Character ==
=== Appearance ===
Mac has brown skin and though short in frame, she is a little muscular. She has fluffy, jaw-length honey-brown hair. She usually wears tough clothes, including a brown cowboy hat and coarse slacks and boots. She often adds a splash of colour to her ensemble with brightly-coloured tank tops.
She also has cacti for hands.
=== Personality ===
Florene is usually quite levelheaded and calm. She likes to approach challenges with a clear mind and a good plan. She's a bit of a tough-guy type but not a fighter, and keeps a cool head and a brave face in the direst of situations. She's a patient teacher and ever-optimistic, always up to overcome a challenge.
=== Skills and Abilities ===
She's an expert poker player, great at reading cues and keeping a straight face. She has a wide wealth of knowledge surrounding survival, such as shelter-making, trapping, ropeworking, identifying berries, respecting animals, etc, and is good at passing on this knowledge in a helpful and memorable way. They are also fairly good at mechanic stuff, having dabbled in that for a while.
She also has cacti for hands, and the abilities that that lends.
== History ==
Always adventurous as a youth, she would buck the norm by reading banned books and passing on information to other students that her conservative hometown school wouldn't teach her. Following an argument with her parents over her controversial doings, she left home in search of a better community, and started a new life, hitching rides where she could and making money doing chores and playing poker.
After a while of dabbling in the various crafts, Florene found her passion in off-trail forest hiking, mountain climbing and other outdoorsy stuff. It wasn't long before she found a small community with the older folk who were willing to teach her the tricks of surival in the wilderness.
These tricks turned out to save her skin when she found herself trapped at the bottom of a ravine after a hiking accident. Remembering what the old folks had taught her, and making some judgement calls herself, she managed to track her way out of the ravine, evade a bear, find shelter as night fell, and fend off a mugger who assaulted her as she finally made it onto the highway. She had survived, but she knew that so many people out there may not have in the same situation.
At first she shared this story and her advice over games of poker, which then turned into stories shared at bars and get-togethers, then guest talks at small venues, until now, when she's not only a poker big-shot but also a famous survival talker and self-defense advisor, giving talks to groups of adults and kids alike, teaching them how to survive in the wilderness, handle otherwise stressful situations, and take control of their lives.
Due to her tracking and people-reading skills, she also helps with Search and Rescue groups to find people lost in the wilderness. She also sometimes dabbles in animal behaviourism, as although she isn't exactly an animal whisperer, she respects them and can read their needs and behaviour.
== Trivia ==
* She has penned several self-help books, such as 'Mac of All Trades: Learning Skills and Facing Thrills' and 'The Macpack: What to Take With You When Planning to Get Lost in The Wild'.
* Along with her poker reputation, she has a streak of being the mechanical bull record holder in several bars across America.
* She was pricked by a radioactive cactus once. Hence the cactus arms.
** Her moniker of 'Cactus-Hand Mac' is actually not in reference to her cactus arms. It's a reference to how sharply she can play her hand, and when the cards are down, she knows how to make it sting. 
** It's also a reference to how tentatively she approaches nature; she's always careful, conscious and respectful, reaching out cautiously, like how you'd reach out to touch a cactus. It's also due to rumours that her hands are so deft she can 'grab a handful of cactus without being pricked'.
** Essentially, multiple groups have given her the nickname 'Cactus-Hand Mac', none of them in reference to her cactus arms.
Category:Females
Category:Hybrids