Buddy Aurinko

Art by Sharon Oh

### Known Physical Features

Flaming red hair that covers her left eye (replaced by a cybernetic), severe nuclear damage done to the surrounding face, hot

## Voice

### First Heard

Juno Steel and the Time Gone By (Part 1)

—Buddy Aurinko[src]

**Buddy Aurinko** was an infamous thief who retired after being intercepted by the authorities and being separated from her longtime partner, Vespa. For thirty-five years she has been "one of the most esteemed criminals" in the galaxy. Currently, she is the captain of the Carte Blanche and working to steal a near mythical piece of technology with the rest of Aurinko Crime Family, of which she is in charge.

She is a galaxy-trotting bank robber who is all style, who makes friends quickly and widely, and who has no time for any nonsense but her own. She doesn’t need to threaten someone or pick their pocket to get their money: by the time she’s done talking, they’ll hand it over happily.

## Early Life

Buddy's father, Palomine, was a prison owner who was popular with his inmates, but unpopular with Dark Matters, who are implied to have killed him. When talking about whether he was at peace, she quips that she "assumes the rest of him is in one piece, but we never found it." He strongly believed in taking Buddy to work with him, and she was even born inside a prison.

Buddy's mother used to start Buddy's day by waking her up for school and "burst[ing] [her] ego," which Buddy calls one of the best lessons she ever learned.

Approximately twenty years before the events of Juno Steel and the Time Gone By (Part 1), Buddy released everyone in one of her father's prisons on a whim. One of those prisoners was Vespa Ilkay. They met properly when Buddy approached her in a bar, flirted with her, and stole Vespa's recent score. On being confronted, Buddy suggested they would be "better together," and the duo became the most infamous thieves in The Outer Rim. As quoted by Buddy, they were practically stars for five years. During a job on Balder, the two were intercepted by the authorities. Vespa was shot and fell from a highscraper, while Buddy was stunned, arrested and stayed in prison for eight years. After being released, Buddy retired to the Cerberus Province, waiting for Vespa by the lighthouse, their meeting point, for another two years and running a bar in the meantime. She nearly killed herself with radiation poisoning, causing her extreme health issues such as her damaged face and an allergy to all food, until a faithful encounter with Jet that lead to them basically saving each other. He took her to a Hanataba Clinic where her eye, stomach and heart were replaced. Her eye is a cybernetic eye, her stomach an internal combustion engine and her heart is mechanical too. She spent five years "feeling sorry for herself and recovering," and offered Jet a job to thank him—the first job of her second career. For some time Buddy has been experiencing problems with her mechanical heart, which not even a visit at Hanataba could fix. Buddy keeps this a secret and only Jet knows about it.

## History

After having Jet keep tabs on Juno Steel for several weeks, Buddy hires the PI to stand guard for her during the sale of a case of Curemother to Rasbach, a representative for the Cerberus Board of Fresh Starts from the Outer Rim. During this job, Juno helps her reunite with her long presumed dead partner in life and crime, Vespa. She and Jet Sikuliaq help Juno remove the THEIA Spectrum from his body as payment, and she tells him she has a standing job offer for him, should he ever want it. By season three, she forms and captains the Aurinko Crime Family. In Juno Steel and What Lies Beyond, she marries Vespa Ilkay in a ceremony performed by Jet Sikuliaq. Immediately after the wedding she and her family are confronted by Dark Matters and though they do their best to outsmart Director W, Buddy and most of the Aurinko Crime Family are taken captive by Dark Matters.

## Personality

Buddy is a sarcastic woman, known for her quick deals and clever thinking. She is blunt but caring, as shown when she repeatedly calls someone out on their bullshit and then helps them do better. She knows how to make a *special* lady feel special.

Though her talk about "keeping her employers happy" might seem like a facade at first, she seems very aware of the importance of emotional wellbeing in a team. She values empathy, charm, and wit over perfection and calls flawless crime "dull". Her crime family is constructed not from the most skilled people in their field, but from people who can work together and rely on each other. Conflict and arguments are part of family life for her and she sees them as opportunities to grow closer.

Like all the other members of her family (or people in the universe really) Buddy seems to have it all figured out, but in her point of view episode (Juno Steel and the Heart of it All (Part 1)), we learn that she also has personal insecurities and inner struggles. Like Juno, she is not naturally eloquent but actually thinks a lot about things she wants to say and even practices when she is by herself.

She is keeping her health condition a secret and even fantasizes about dying in a suitable moment of perfection. She aknowledges being selfish for having such thoughts.

## Abilities

Buddy is a gifted thief with a talent for organizing crime operations, particularly through her Aurinko Crime Family method. She has learned a lot of valuable insight over the years, often passing it onto others. As captain of the Carte Blanche, Buddy is the mastermind behind all of their heist plans.

She is just as skilled when it comes to analyzing people's emotions and helping them work through them if they want. Buddy helped Jet during his lowest point and the same could be said about Juno when he got stranded in the desert. Though she does not seem to know his real name or backstory, she figured out Peter Nureyev's inner struggle. It is also mentioned that she knows about Juno's constant interior monologues. Juno also mentions that she is helping him and Peter to communicate their feelings, while she claims not to be their therapist, which he believes less and less.

Due to an Ethanol Synthesizer replacing her stomach, Buddy can not eat food but fuels herself with alcohol and supplements. Eating food actually harms the engine and could kill her.

When asked if Buddy has teeth (due to the likelihood that her teeth are ruined from the alcohol she drinks) Kevin Vibert said “she can chew” and “let’s not get carried away, she’s not like a remarkable chewer”.

## Relationships

### Vespa Ilkay

Vespa was Buddy's partner, both in romance and in crime, until she was presumed dead. They are now both members of the Aurinko Crime Family and newlywed space wives. Buddy is affectionate towards Vespa, but does not favor her towards the other crew members in her role as captain.

### Jet Sikuliaq

Jet and Buddy are very close. He convinced her to leave the lighthouse before the radiation killed her, but not before it took her eye. He sold a car to pay for her prosthesis. It was a very nice car. It is later revealed that she was there for him in his darkest hour after which he completely changed his life.

### Juno Steel

Juno was just one name on a long list of talent Buddy keeps, but she had Jet keeping an eye on him while scouting the Hyperion City Museum. Juno was stranded out in the desert (following the end of Juno Steel and the Promised Land (Part 3)) at the same time Buddy's third man for a job missed their flight from Earth to Mars, prompting her to recruit Juno. However, she had to move up the job since Juno's situation needed more immediate intervention. She was satisfied with

Juno now quotes Buddy as acting akin to a therapist, particularly as it relates to how he and Peter communicate with one another about their relationship, despite her insisting that she isn't. Aside from their conversations Buddy has been training with Juno at a self-made shooting range aboard the Carte Blanche, however, her shooting lessons are also tied to lessons about self-awareness and self-acceptance. When Juno decides to take an impossible shot anyways, she tells him that he has now graduated from her school and there is nothing more she could teach him.

### Valles Vicky

Buddy does not have a high opinion of Vicky, calling her Juno's "two-bit former employer." They probably know each other from Vicky's time as part of an outlaw couple with her former lover Ingrid Lake involved in mostly illegal, interplanetary sales.

## Episode Appearances

* Juno Steel and the Time Gone By (Part 2)
* Juno Steel and the Long Way Home (Part 1) (mentioned)
* Juno Steel and the Soul of the People (Part 2)

Season 3
* Juno Steel and the Man in Glass (Part 1)
* Juno Steel and the Man in Glass (Part 2)
* Juno Steel and the Tools of Rust (Part 1)
* Juno Steel and the Tools of Rust (Part 2)
* Juno Steel and the Shadows on the Ship (Part 1)
* Juno Steel and the Shadows on the Ship (Part 2)
* Juno Steel and the Mega-Ultrabots of Cyberjustice (Part 1)
* Juno Steel and the Mega-Ultrabots of Cyberjustice (Part 2)
* Juno Steel and the Heart of It all (Part 1)
* Juno Steel and the Heart of It All (Part 2)
* Juno Steel and What Lies Beyond (Part 1)
* Juno Steel and What Lies Beyond (Part 2)
* Juno Steel and What Lies Beyond (Part 3)

## Trivia

* "Aurinko" means "sun" in Finnish.
* "Buddy" was chosen because Kevin Vibert and Sophie Kaner typically call characters designated as Juno's main companion for an episode "the buddy." In Buddy Aurinko's case, they "just did that for way too long until it stuck."
* Both Sarah Gazdowicz's portrayal of her and Kevin Vibert's writing of Buddy's lines are heavily based off of the voice and speech patterns of old Hollywood star Katharine Hepburn.
* Buddy and Vespa are the second couple of outlaws being reunited by Juno after 15 years, Valles Vicky and Ingrid Lake being the first, though their reunion did not end happily.
* Kevin Vibert has confirmed that she has teeth

## References

1. ↑ Juno Steel and What Lies Beyond (Part 3)
2. ↑ Juno Steel and What Lies Beyond
3. ↑ Juno Steel and the Time Gone By (Part 2)
4. ↑ Juno Steel and the Time Gone By (Part 1)
5. ↑ Juno Steel and the Monster's Reflection (Part 3)
6. ↑ Juno Steel and the Time Gone By (Part 1)
7. ↑ Sophie Kaner Tweet 12 November 2019
8. ↑ Season 2 Q&A