Ruth 'Ru' Blackclaw

* 1/4
* 2/4
* 3/4
* 4/4

**Ruth Blackclaw** is a main character of **The Fallen** and will be a reoccurring side character appearing in the **Interstellar Overdrive** storyline. She is played and written by **moon#6176.**

## Personality:

Stoic, fierce, to the point, known to have quite a brutal temper, and loves to indulge in such ferocity when the time is right rather than diplomacy. Her rule of thumb is generally 'Punch, but thoughtfully'. Ru is a noble but wounded soul who takes her frustration and sense of justice out in less than healthy ways on other people, though since the events of the Fallen she's been less irate and less morally ambiguous. She's quick to trust and nosey to no end. She's described as sensitive at times, prideful, and brutish with a near lack of formality in nearly every situation she winds up in; which can come off as insensitive and disrespectful at times. Despite this, she can still be a caring soul and stand up for others she believes in and respects, even if most of the time she shows her care for her friends in less obvious ways. She still holds a great deal of loyalty and pride in the C.C.R. even as they are a deceased faction, and often claims 'as long as I am alive, the CCR lives on.'

Ru is incredibly sensitive to touch, having **haphephobia**, and loathes the act of anyone making physical contact with her—especially in affectionate or reassuring ways. So bad is her fear of touch that she will lash out and even injure those who touch her, yell at them, or throw herself out of the way in a panic. It has gotten slightly less intense over the years, but it still haunts her to this day.

Her involvement in the successful plot to rise up and overthrow the NAR as well as helping fight and kill Jimmy Cruz has made her quite famous and given her a heroic status among those within the United Eriu Republic(UER). Even some in the Outlands and Frontier revere and know of her name since the story has travelled quite far, making her appearances seem momentous and legendary to bystanders.

## Appearance:

Standing at 6 feet even, Ru has a strong athletic build, hardened from years of fighting and training. Her fur is very thick, and comes in a mix of silvery swirls and charcoal hues with a cream colored patch of fur from her chin to her belly and under-tail. She has a destroyed right eye from a bayonet attack in her time within the CCR, and in its stead she wears a black eyepatch to hide the ugly scaring beneath. Ru is also missing her left ear, which was cut off by Jimmy Cruz while being interrogated and tortured in **The Fallen** plot. Her outfits vary from time to time depending on what she's up to; her combat outfit varies between black-leggings with yellow stripes along the inseams and a navy-blue pea-coat serving as a casual outfit as well, or her old CCR jacket which is a tan, ragged leather jacket with patches all over, two silver beaten-up shoulder plates with the CCR insignia on it, and a white tank-top underneath.

Sometimes she can be caught in a simple black hoodie and casual pants—jeans or leggings, usually when acting under cover since she's quite hard to miss and notably iconic.

## Equipment:

Her equipment varies day by day, with most of The Fallen Ru going without any of her CCR weapons and having to rely on her fists(and eventually the magic abilities provided by Mother) to survive until she gets her gear back. Her usual weapons are as follows:

* A CCR spec Laser-bow, the very same she fought with within the CCR.
* A few CCR Shielding devices prepared on her belt if available or not already expended.
* A large bush knife.
* Her fists.
* Can summon forth Mother's glaive, Undiv.
* Can summon forth a pole-arm using Mother's magic if melee combat is a necessity.

## Abilities/Skills:

Ru's main fighting is with her fists, teeth, and claws, Ru preferring to leap into the heat of battle and take things into her own paws quite literally. Her main ranged fire is her excellent skill with the Laser-bow, a formidable pairing when she has it available; especially given her sharp-shooting aim and keen lupine senses. She's also somewhat adept at wielding swords thanks to Mother's teachings/training, and can fight pretty well with a pole-arm too.

#### Magic abilities:

Granted by virtue of Mother's forged link between her and Ru to supplement Ru with a sliver of her abilities. Ru can control moderate amounts of dark magic to enhance her attacks, conjure Mother's glaive and fight with that(along side magic use), conjure a pole-arm of her own in the same fashion as Mother summoning her own weapons(the weapon(s) are deconstructed into the mana field, and stored as encoded energy and information along the contours of Ru's form for quick conjuring and storage). Ru's magic use is limited to physical attacks, with Ru not being capable of ranged attacks with the style of magic she performs.

## Backstory:

A rebel for a lost cause, Ru was a proud member of the Canadian Canine Resistance(C.C.R.) poised against the NAR's territorial and species war. Without the backing of the crumbling Canadian government, weakened by war and famine, the rebellion crumbled. Captured, she was imprisoned for her actions against the republic and refused a hearing.

Ru lived in Leogang, a wolf town in northern British Columbia nestled in the Canadian Rockies. Deep in the wilderness. She loved to ice skate during the winter on the frozen lake with her mom. Her dad's constant drive to have a 'tough' child, the son they never got battered Ru into a fierce stubborn independent lone wolf. When she shipped herself off to Vancouver to join the C.C.R. her mom was devastated-- she fought with her dad after because she knew it was that constant pushing that had convinced her that was the way to be strong and tough.

Later on, after finding her lover’s dead body at the lost final official battle the C.C.R. was a part of at the end of things, Ru was captured and taken in by the N.A.R. for information on the C.C.R.--they struggled to get a hold on any C.C.R. soldiers who knew anything about the rebellions secrets or anything and many of them died before they could get anything out of them, so Ru was a top priority to them. The president himself, furious at the C.C.R.’s brash resilience, tortured Ru himself using everything in the book no matter the ethics. Drugs, ‘truth serums, straight up torture and physical harm, threats to destroy her home town and family, and use of Jimmy’s magic to beat the wolf into submission over 2 days.

And Ru cracked late into the second day of endless nonstop torment. The commander told Jimmy *everything* on the C.C.R.. Locations of bases, supplies, routes, battle plans, alliances, barracks, support networks, underground railroads and pipelines, prominent members, anything and everything they could get out of her. That night The N.A.R. took horrific action and sent everything they had, planes, jets, infantry, bombs, ballistic missiles, and chemical weapons on the C.C.R.’s fortifications. The entire C.C.R. was killed and dismantled into a bloody smear over night. There were no survivors but Ruth Blackclaw, the imprisoned commander. This is all on Ru’s shoulder, a burden she has to live with.

Since then she’s become much more unhinged and violent. Debilitatingly so at times-- Not that she wasn’t a violent testy frustrated wolf before, just that now more than ever she’s much more ‘feral’ in a sense. She goes off on people constantly and everything she see’s and hears is like an atom bomb in her head sending her around and around in loops of memories and fearful instincts that have taken hold of her poor shaken soul. Years of torture and being forced to kill for the N.A.R. has made her bitter and disconnected from life and even taking other lives as much as she dislikes to kill innocents. One becomes accustomed to death when they live with it all day, and Ru feels she’s already half dead after having lost everything she’s held dear to her. The C.C.R., Ramona, Her family potentially, her home town and life, her future, her desires, everything gone in the wind of years past and swept under the rug of the new society the N.A.R. built.

Shortly after the C.C.R. was destroyed, the world took note of what the N.A.R. was doing-- They realized how dangerous the N.A.R. was and how destructive they could be. War started as the east and west united against the N.A.R. but the tides quickly turned as the N.A.R.’s advantage grew and grew--now they are stuck in a permanent conflict with the world, their country is a battered hell-scape from nuclear exchange leaving much of it crippled and apocalyptic in nature. The current war is a stalemate that's turning against the N.A.R. as they are losing ground now in foreign land thanks to cooperation on the foreign theatre.

### The Fallen:

Imprisoned for 10 years as a forced operative and enforcer for the NAR between stints of long prison-time alone in a cell, she was jointed with a group of new prisoners and a familiar face, Bethany 'Scout' North who she had worked with on several occasions during her stay. The group was forced to take out targets bypassing the mana-repression network by unknown means, resulting in dangerous skirmishes and chaotic shoot-outs that put everyone's lives at risk and made survival a battle in and of itself. After taking out the first target, the gang was approached by a mysterious silver-furred wolf whom very quickly made themselves a threatening presence. The wolf dragged Ru, then Scout and a teenager into frozen time to reemploy them forcibly as her hands to help her kill Jimmy Cruz— this wolf then revealed herself later as Mother(though Scout already knew this). Upon biting Ru, she created a mana-link that allowed Ru access to a small sliver of Mother's magic as her own which Ru was hard-pressed to learn over the next few missions. This link also allowed Mother and Ru to communicate telepathically at times even though Mother would often ignore or not hear Ru; as well as allowing Ru to conjure Mother's weapons and eventually one of her own.

After several missions, a hacker/technophile named Sid who was working with Mother disabled the traces in each of the party members necks, freeing them from the NAR. Sid was quickly killed in an erratic chase through the city roof tops with the group barely escaping death, or worse. After realizing they weren't safe in the city, they escaped to the Wyoming plains in the dead of winter with heavy snowstorms blanketing the land. Still being followed, they suspected a double-agent amongst their midst's, which turned out to be true. Johnny executed the traitor, and the group ended up facing off against Commander Morsten and the NAR in full force— Only for Mother to fully reveal her nature and decimate the group. Proceeding to flee, they face off with Jimmy Cruz at Devils Tower; where Jimmy and Mother fight a violent and explosive battle. Mother fails to defeat Jimmy and her plan fails, forcing them to retreat with Mother injured. Scout flies them back using her pilot experience to New Norfolk, where they regroup and push into D.C. with a whole rebellion to fight the NAR only to find unparalleled destruction ..which only got worse.

Jimmy Cruz quite literally then nukes DC in a fit of rage, trying to kill them and the rebellion has fast and brutally as he can.. only for them to miss and survive the blast. Fighting through the city, the skyscrapers, bridging across and busting through the subway systems, they make their way to Jimmy Cruz and fight with everything they have. Mother nearly dies and is subjected to a Deadman's curse with the finishing blow, and Umbra whisks Mother off without much warning or choice, leaving the group in the ruins of a fallen country. Ru decides to move elsewhere and moves overseas to Brittan to be a sheep shepard and special operative for the government there while the UER built itself up.