Gertrude Stein

"*Teehee! Tremble upon my indomitable justice, you numbskulls!*"

Gertrude Stein (ガートルード・シュタイン Gātorūdo Shutain) is a gifted Jazzmen Agent working with the secret service organization. She was formerly a hairdresser in Paris, but through certain events by Ernest Hemingway, she resorted to her new job. Her ability is called Three Lives. She represent Northern Ireland.

## Appearance

Gertrude appears to resemble in a classical but a theatrical musketeering fashion, wearing a blue musketeering hat with a white feather attached to the right. Wearing a Renaissance style clothing by wearing a blue cloak that wraps her entire left side, concealing her rapier weapon on her waist. Although she wears such clothing, she does normalize her attire by wearing a commodious suit alongside a white shirt to fit the formality of her occupation, and obviously not attempt to become *too* flashy as a consequence. Lastly she wears black leathered gloves.

Though under missions Ernest usually always removes her hat and cape, seeing them as too eyecatching when in-duty. Therefore she can sometimes be seen without her attire, so it can be said these are just accessories to give Gertrude a sense of justice to both her own pride, and for others she is willing to rescue.

## Personality

Gertrude is a childish, hyperactive, jolly, and almost entirely self-motivated girl. She does believe that giving others a sense of kindness can help anyone become a better person at the end of the day. She cares for the well-being of her fellow coworkers, as shown by her desire of helping Toklas, who at the time, worked under Gertrude. She pities others that are depressed, and always deciding to talk to them in order to encourage them. Making her a very empathic person to be around with when things get emotional. She often act recklessly with her kindness and her explosive joy, often leading to social anxiety fearing Gertrude herself. Her eyes would often sparkle when under excitement or generally just be in a good mood, though they will disappear whenever she switch to a negative emotion.

She also understands the perception of people and have a nigh-pessimistic worldview after going through torture by Toklas. Therefore she sees human actions as something not driven by themselves, but something that has triggered them to act doing. It was why Gertrude did not blame Toklas even after everything they did to her during her work as a hairdresser and being rescued by Ernest. Though she doesn't accept their actions respectfully, she can understand on an emotional level of why they did it with little information. Knowing how many people act to achieve certain things for a cost, which Ernest found as an interesting trait.

Although being often seen as straightforward and simple-minded, Gertrude is shown to be a mature and experienced worker toward the other Jazzmen agents working with her. She generally carries herself with an upbeat body language and was capable of staying calm under extremely stressful situations, such as the initial phase of the organization's battle against Machiavelli's criminal faction.

## Ability

Gertrude's Ability, Three Lives (参生活 Sanseikatsu), is the ability to create the lives of three humans. Anna, Lena, and Melanctha. In truth, it is the ability to manifest life from three souls that hold their different personalities and traits. They will resemble maids, although the three are all different, and can talk, act, and coexist with other humans. This makes this ability incredibly useful for interrogation and blending in during undercover missions. However, the unique ability is that Gertrude can use these three manifestations as a way of keeping herself alive. If Gertrude was to unexpectedly get killed, one of the manifestations' life would quickly be used to revive her from her injuries, bringing her back from death. Though of course, this is limited to three. The maid whose life is being used to revive Gertrude will disappear. Each maid however possesses different skills that make them useful for confrontations and support:

Anna is proficient with the skill of a swordsman, being fast, agile, and strong enough to compete with Ernest's swordplay, even the user herself.

Lena's proficient in ranged combat, thus she is skilled in using all sorts of firearms, and the longer the distance she is, the stronger her firepower will be.

Melanctha is her strongest manifestation, proficient in both healing and also physical combat, as she holds the most physical strength, durability, and endurance. This makes her a difficult opponent to take down, as she can heal both herself and others, being both an offensive, defensive, and supportive individual.

## Skills

* Enhanced Swordsmanship, Rapier
* Skilled Interrogator
* Empathy

## Backstory

Born with a family who moved to Paris, France to begin a hairdressing salon that was one of its kind. Gertrude's mother was the manager of this salon and often would teach her daughter how to style other's hair and wash it, sometimes even offering her haircuts to make her look nice in school. It was at that point Gertrude's ability would awaken, and bring forth three maids into existence. This power would become helpful to the salon's popularity. The reason behind the salon was that it was cheap to live by, but it was an arduous task for both of them to get citizenship due to being born in the United States. However because of the popularity it was gaining, Gertrude's mother met many famous people all around the globe and formed the salon into a gathering place to have chats as well, one Gertrude saw with interest was a young adult Ernest Hemingway. Her mother and he always seemed to get along well, almost considering him as a parental figure who often visited the salon to talk and cut his hair. Unfortunately, Gertrude's father abandoned her when she was born, and thus she never even remembers what he looked like. On top of that, her mother grew gradually ill as Gertrude got older and became skilled with hairdressing. Sadly, Gertrude's mother passed away when she was 16, but the reputation her mother had built for her salon had a big impact as it was widely popular around the country, and many recruits slipped in. Eventually, Gertrude at 17 would become the manager of her mother's salon, and continue hairdressing. Until her recruiting coworker, Alice B. Toklas was filled with jealousy and envy over Gertrude's success.

This led to Gertrude's sudden disappearance which would take one and a half years later. The police could not get a search warrant due to claims that Gertrude left the country, or committed suicide because of the past. This led to finding Gertrude difficult, and Toklas was to be met as the next manager in charge of the salon, until a past visitor entered, this being Ernest. Ernest had gotten in contact with Gertrude's older brother, Leo Stein, who was incredibly worried for her sister and wanted help finding her, although listening to a call in secrecy by the French police, he took action into his own hands due to being former friends with the salon manager. He would be greeted by Toklas herself, who recognizes them from an old picture on the nearby wall, Ernest being immediately suspicious as he was to find the three maids that had always stuck around, though they were different and soulless. That's when he began his search upstairs, to Toklas' concern, she followed. Gertrude's ability Three Lives was a manifestation-type, while the three maids acted like humans, they appeared as if mindless or not controlled at all by the user. This was a piece of past information given to him by her mother, therefore he was always aware of Gertrude as an ability user. Upon getting upstairs, he searched around the rooms but to no prevail, that is until he looked at the ceiling. Most buildings would have had an attic, but this one did not, so Ernest asked Toklas if there was an attic. Toklas on edge told him there wasn't one.

That's when Ernest was suspicious of Toklas, as Gertrude's mother used an attic as an office and also threw away all the paperwork. So Ernest continued his search once more, this time walking to the hallway and looking up, scratching the surface while Toklas told him to stop what he was doing. Until Ernest felt a lump, having been obscured by the paint, he gently pulled it to reveal it was a loft hatch, the ladder falling itself in place. He didn't bother looking at Toklas and climbed up the dark attic, having been dusty by the time. Ernest finally then noticed Gertrude's body, though she wasn't dead...she was, however, in suspended animation...Toklas appears behind Ernest. Now the puzzles were pieced together, Gertrude's coworker is an ability user too, being able to put objects and people in hibernation. However, the reason she was able to keep her in a dormant state for this long was because she was unconscious of Toklas' ability. Ernest found it a troubling ability but would go far to save Gertrude's life and overpower her using an unseen ability, canceling her ability and freeing Gertrude. Toklas in a destitute state begged for Gertrude's forgiveness for having put her in such torture, only to be met with kindness returned by the one she had caused pain. Ernest himself saw this as strange, as he asked Gertrude if she should be taken to the authorities, which she denied. Believing she only did it because of her power and therefore does not want to get used to such anymore, resigning herself as a hairdresser for that reason. Ernest said it was a good answer, and offered her a new chance in life as an Agent, and let Toklas keep their work as a hairdresser, leaving the salon in now a mediocre state, although still used for the agents as a secondary meeting place. Gertrude finds aspirations and joy by feeling more alive, showing justice as a real-life Robin Hood and kindheartedness to all humans.

## Trivia

* Her appearance is taken from Don Quixote from the gacha game, Limbus Company.
* Gertrude's attitude may be acknowledgeable with a "mesugaki"
* The three maids' names are a reference from the Three Lives book themselves, following the three separate stories of "The Good Anna," "The Gentle Lena," and "Melanchta."
* Her occupation as a hairdresser is to make up for a salon in which case to have a meaning with growing a relationship with Alice B. Toklas, as well in real life circumstances. She lived there and used it as a gathering place to meet with other famous authors and writers. So I saw it as a funny opportunity to just make it a famous hair salon instead of where the rest could gather.