Esther Proctor

Biographical information

## Biography

### Early Life

Esther was born to a low-class family with a stay-at-home mother and a father who worked for minimum wage in a factory. Despite their hardships, they managed to get by, and for the most part life was good. That all changed when the ~~firenation attacked~~ factory owner began to force the workers to work longer hours with docked pay. There was no reasoning behind it, which caused a union dispute to break out. It quickly turned violent when the factory security intervened, causing the death of Esther's father. Shortly after, Esther tried her hand at inventing things to take her mind off of her grief. She proved to be surprisingly capable, which earned her a job at a machinery repair shop. Her mother succumbed to illness a few months later, leaving Esther to fend for herself. The owner of the repair shop continued to employ her until she had earned enough money to sustain herself. Afterward, she continued to earn money by taking repair jobs and selling her inventions.

### Mentorship

After she turned eighteen, Esther decided to take on an apprentice. She figured that adding an extra set of hands would allow her to work on bigger projects. She took in Hester Gryffin, and the two began to grow close as they invented bits and bobs with each other. Hester kind of became like the friend she never had, and in exchange Esther passed her bountiful expanse of wisdom down to her.

### Invention Accident

Their partnership was short-lived, however, when they began developing the prototype for Esther's powergloves, which was a process that took several months. Esther allowed Hester to take the gloves home with her to continue working on them. She would come to regret that decision when news later broke that an invention had exploded inside Hester's house, burning it to the ground and killing her parents. For a while, Esther believed that Hester had miraculously survived, but was unable to locate her due to her getting treatment. She eventually gave up hope and shut herself off from society, believing that she was responsible for the death of Hester.

### Hermit Life

Esther spent six years as a hermit, only interacting with people when she restocked her supplies. After she began to believe that Hester had truly died, she began building an airship from the blueprints that they had sketched out together. She officially moved into the completed craft around a year after Hester's death, which almost completely shut her off from outside interactions. She also decided to begin working on her power gloves again, believing that Hester would've wanted her to complete them. She finished them fairly quickly thanks to the lack of outside distractions. She did grow to be a very crabby lady though, so she would often take out her anger on passerbys or (most often) small children by targeting them with her gloves. She actually grew to be wanted by the police after enough incidents, but they were unable to reach her and no one knew what she looked like so she stayed far out of reach of the law.

### Returning to Society

One day, a particularly obnoxious child on the street noticed her traveling back to her ship and expressed her curiosity about Esther's inventions. After the exchange of a few harsh words and insults, Hester realized that it was Esther that she was talking to. She managed to find her way onto the ship, where they had a tearful reunion and Hester began the process of getting Esther some new friends.

### Present

Esther currently acts as an extra parental figure to Zeff in Hester alongside Vanessa. She frequents the prosthetics shop and helps out whenever she's needed, because she finds the prosthetics crew to be some of the least irritating people in her life. She also provides them with inventions and a plethora of endearing insults.

## Characteristics

### Appearance

Esther is a tall and lanky woman with straight blonde hair and blue eyes. She would rather die than leave her power gloves unattended, so she wears them virtually everywhere. She also carries goggles with her for some impromptu welding, and sticks screwdrivers, wrenches, nails, and all sorts of other materials in her pant pockets.

### Personality

"People are hella dumb lol I don't mess with that shit"

She's an extremely crabby woman who takes pleasure in destroying the happiness of small children and keeping most social interactions to a minimum. She does enjoy talking to people she's deemed worthy of her presence, but in general she's a very judgemental person who's hard to get close to. Esther does however have some soft spots, like mechanical dragons she adopts or people who have wormed their way into her heart.

### Abilities

Esther has no innate magical ability, however her power gloves have a wide variety of functions, including magnetism, a grappling hook, dispensable knives, and hella good throttling power.

## Etymology

Esther - possible meaning of "star" in Persian

Machina - the Latin meaning of "machine" or "scheme/plan"

Proctor - from Middle English "proktour" from Latin "procurare" (meaning to manage)