Diana Abeque Joy

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## Personality

You would expect a damsel with the surname of “Joy” to be an utter pleasure: sunshiney, sweet, a “Mommy helps the Girl Scouts with their cookie sales” type of person.

But instead you’re faced with this rustic ill-tempered lone wolf: her vocabulary largely encompasses the word “damn”, she knows seventy-seven different ways to skin a mule deer, and she’s got an introvert streak as long as the Ampiar Ocean.

That doesn’t make Diana unpleasant company, per say. Sure, she gets antsy from too much social interaction and she only seems capable of grunting at others, but that’s more because of her social awkwardness than anything. Growing up in a town with a low population does little to help, then it’s followed up with an unhealthy heap of rural slang. Deciphering her sentences of, “If that keeps goin’, damned mozzies would chew up yer skin faster than a chicken hawk in a coop of crippled roosters,” is impossible without a nice dictionary pulled up.

All this doesn’t make for the best company.

Regardless, Diana’s always been a creature of action more than words. Why tell people to go help when in reality she could pick up her tools and begin doing it herself? Why sob over something when you can just fix it? Unfortunately, this makes her less than a caring maternal figure. She has no patience for nonsense and will shove a tissue in your face as a duct-taped half cobbled solution for your crying.

It takes a lot for Diana to be heartfelt. Being heartfelt makes her uncomfortable, being heartfelt makes her nervous, but if you manage to butter her up, she’ll be with you through thick and thin.

## Biography

“When you’re a little girl, they don’t tell ya when yer dreamin’ too big.

‘Cause you end up wanting too much from that town in the middle of nowhere. Too much than you have any business wantin’.

At first, it wasn’t like that. I was satisfied with buyin’ fruit drops and going to classes in a one room schoolhouse, like a hawk hoppin’ along in a cage thinkin’ that’s all there is to life. It just wasn’t until me dad handed me a train ticket when I was six ‘nd went, ‘We’re taking a trip to downtown Concordia, gumdrop,’ that the hawk realized there was a lil something called the outdoors-- and boy, was it a giant outdoors.

The buildings were huge, larger than I’ve ever seen, and trains became just as common as thorn bushes out in the city. There always seemed to have some kinda new smell in the air-- hweori gamja, burnin’ spire glasses, hints ‘o brine.

Then, I noticed somethin’ in the air and I began screamin’:

‘Dad, Dad, Dad! What is that? What is that?!’

‘Calm down, yer gonna make yer old man ‘ave a heart attack... Those are airships.’

‘Those are airships?’

‘Yessire, heh, just realized ya haven’t seen one in person before… Wanna take a look?’

‘... Yeah. Yeah, I do!’

And I’ve never fallen harder in love.

After that, buyin’ fruit drops and goin’ to that one room schoolhouse wasn’t enough. The townsfolk were obsessed wit’ how good our irrigation system and Monday’s picture day when there was so much more. A whole plane to explore rioght above ‘em! What was it like experiencin’ someone’s memory? How high could an airship go? How did it feel to be completely alone and disconnected?

So many questions for such a little girl.

Me dad and mum encouraged it actually. They were folks who didn’t have lotsa kid experience and their thought was showerin’ my less realistic dreams with love ‘nd support. Not that ‘m not grateful but…

Nevermind, me point is, I wanted to be a Fisher.

After graduatin’ high school, I waved good riddance to my dusty town ‘nd found an apartment in Erith Cross. The whole migration process was like getting onto a subway fer the first time: it’s crowded, stuffy, ‘nd there’s always someone shoutin’ in yer face. The whole place was a tourist trap. They loved sellin’ things hella expensive and if you didn’t have a big enough pocket fer their stuff, they didn’t care.

I was one of those folks.

Still, wit’ me heart just a bit broken, I began takin’ some supplementary classes, gettin’ myself familiar wit’ the whole ‘fishing business.’ Passed the test at twenty-two, dropped out of college, and fishing became a full time gig.

Lots to learn though, heh. If I had a penny for everytime I screwed up the names of the target’s connections and the direction of a memory, why I would’ve been the richest gal in Gaia, but I had the luck of a damn good Captain.

Captain Elizabeth (I called her ‘Liza) Quimby was real patient wit’ all the rookies. I was a shy girl, and when our airship first entered the Memory Sea, I holed myself up in the cabin to wretch into a trashcan. Liza was the one to come in and make sure I was doing alright, handin’ me a glass of water and going, ‘All the rookies are like this first time, c’mon.’ I stumbled out and through the large glass windows I saw it:

Memories, memories!

They call these memories ‘impurities’, but up there they were beauts, drenched in gold like a million sparklin’ coins.

I was fishin’ with the crew fer about another ten years then, made a load o’ friends. Mabel, the cook; Wei, the engineer; Jericho, the quartermaster, and most importantly, ole Liza. The crew and I, all bright eyed and bushy tailed, would go out once a month to a comfy restaurant fer fun, ‘nd Liza would stand and say, ‘Eat up, the whole night’s yers!’ That generosity, that closeness to her crew, that trust her crew put in her was incredible… And well, choo can say I began lookin’ into Captaining certificates in my spare time.

The problem was, I didn’t have enough money to run a crew. Crunchin’ the numbers had me seeing stars while Liza went, ‘Yeah yeah, no. Ya need a helluva big wallet to support that.’

So, I rung up me parents and… I’m not too proud of that. It was the Fisher version of a thirty-year old beggin’ fer money, but here’s the funny part-- they actually gave me it! ‘Oh, Diana, yer workin’ so hard, you deserve the money!’ Tch. Thousands of dollars down the drain.”

This is where Diana stops dead in her tracks. She seems to be considering something before she continues, voice strange.

“Y’know how things go. All that money dwindled outta my fingers ‘nd I had to abandon the whole Captainin’ bizz--” Her voice breaks, as if she wasn’t telling the entire truth. “Heh, just moved to Ordene for awhile fer a mental break, did some odd jobs ‘ere and there ‘nd wanted to become a Fisher ‘gain. That’s all there is to it.”

She turns to cast a nasty glare over the onlookers. “Well? Choo gonna keep gawkin’ like goldfish or yer gonna shut yer mouths? Story’s over, ya can go home now!”

Something about said story felt oddly stilted… as if there was way more to that tale than what meets the eye--

## Trivia

* Likes:
	+ Animals (Hawks especially). She loves to handle them, y’know the type of woman she is. Would let an owl perch on her hand without gloves and pick up a hedgehog without hesitation. Surprisingly doesn’t want a pet herself. Too little time excuse.
	+ Smoking (“‘Cause it *calms me down*, give the school counselor sermon a rest!”)
	+ Being on the Parable
	+ Spaghetti with corn. Mum’s special.
	+ Her parents, even if they’re going through a bit of a rough patch currently. She misses watching Gaia’s version of Family Feud with her pops :(
* Dislikes:
	+ Children. They are demons in disguise. She would know, she had to take care of her little cousin.
	+ Romance because she understands it as much as graphing exponential equations.
	+ The cold. She’s had to deal with it before, but being accustomed to the searing heat of rural Concordia makes all snow-related pursuits a teeth chattering nightmare.
	+ Smart mouths. Must… humble...
	+ Rich people who flaunt their wealth.
	+ Being called “Joy”
* Strength:
	+ **Straightforward** - Beating around the bush is an equivalent crime to first degree murder. She doesn’t have time for polite speech or manipulation, she just wants something to get done and done well.
	+ **Resourceful** - She’s never had the money for her problems, so instead she strongarms her way through them with clever solutions. Branch for a weapon, duct tape for a gaping hole-- that kinda fix it behavior.
* Weakness:
	+ **Impatient** - Crybabies, rebels, people just plain not listening? Please, grab a tissue for your snot and *listen for God’s sakes!* (I am so sorry for Diana I swear she’s not like this all the time…)
	+ **Ill-tempered** - Easily annoyed and willing to shout someone’s ear out if they fall under her definition of “stupid.” Cooperation with other people just… it’s too hard for a fifty-year old \*insert eye rolling here\*
* She’ll often visit her parents as both a Fisher and Captain whenever the ship would dock.
* Babysitted her cousin whenever the ship went near the Eastern Reach.
* Despises her uncle in law
* Insecure about her age, she just doesn’t like to talk about hitting the graying fifties...