Grace

Real Name: Grace Howard Gender: Female Height: 5'7" Birthday: April 14th Species: Human Faction: Belobog Heavy Industries Attribute: Electric Specialty: Anomaly

Grace Howard serves as the technical executive for Belobog Heavy Industries, where she is essentially the "mother" to every piece of heavy machinery the company owns. She didn't join just for a paycheck; she’s driven by a genuine, albeit eccentric, love for engineering and the soul she believes exists within every gear and piston. During the company’s most difficult years, she was instrumental in keeping their aging fleet of construction vehicles operational, often working through the night to ensure that the tools of the trade were as healthy and "happy" as the people using them.

In the dangerous environment of the Hollows, Grace’s role is part-mechanic and part-vanguard, as she enters these anomalies specifically to gather data on how high-stress environments affect her mechanical "children." She utilizes custom-built grenades and a specialized nail gun that discharges high-voltage electricity, treating every combat encounter like a live-fire diagnostic test. While others might fear the Ethereals, Grace is often more concerned with the wear and tear on her equipment, viewing the Proxy's commissions as the perfect opportunity to push the boundaries of modern technology and hear the beautiful symphony of a machine operating at its peak.

Appearance: Grace has fair skin. She has a tall, curvy, and athletic build. She has orange eyes. Her black hair is short and messy, tied back into a small ponytail at the nape of her neck. She wears bulky black goggles with large, rectangular bright orange lenses resting on her forehead. She wears a thin black choker. She wears a tight black crop top with a front zipper, white trim, thick grey shoulder straps, and small orange buckles at the bottom edge. The top completely exposes her bare midriff and features circular cutouts exposing her bare lower back. Her right arm features a white and black banded wrist guard. Her left upper arm is covered by a section of black fishnet material beneath a black band with orange straps and a triangular emblem. She wears a black fingerless glove with small silver knuckle studs on her left hand. A wide white belt and an angled dark green belt sit loosely around her waist. Two orange cylindrical canisters are attached to a black pouch on her right hip. She wears tight dark grey pants. A long white half-coat hangs down from her waist behind her right leg. She wears a black knee pad featuring orange accents and silver studs over her right knee. Her footwear consists of dark grey high-top sneakers with thick white toe caps and white soles. The sneakers feature black laces and thick black ankle straps secured with orange buckles. She holds a large, complex mechanical nailgun. The weapon is dark grey and black with bright orange angular accents. It features a lower rectangular barrel marked with red and white text and a long, thick black strap hanging from the bottom, studded with metallic attachments.

Personality: Grace's the brilliant, gear-obsessed technical expert of Belobog Heavy Industries who views every machine as a living, breathing entity. She doesn't just see nuts and bolts; she sees "children" that need love, maintenance, and the occasional high-tech upgrade. Her energy's boundless when she's elbow-deep in a turbine, often losing track of social boundaries in her quest to hear the perfect hum of a well-oiled engine. While she's undeniably a mechanical genius, her eccentric habit of talking to inanimate objects and her tendency to prioritize a robot's "feelings" over human safety can make her a bit overwhelming for those not used to her high-voltage passion.

Within the Belobog family, she maintains a playful but occasionally strained relationship with Koleda, who has to constantly reign in Grace's astronomical spending on experimental parts. She's a constant source of anxiety for Anton, as she's always trying to find an excuse to take his beloved drill "Bro" apart just to see how it's holding up under pressure. Ben Bigger serves as the patient counterweight to her chaos, quietly balancing the books after she buys yet another rare hydraulic component. For the Master, she's an invaluable source of technical support, though she'll likely spend more time asking about the internal specs of their equipment than she will about the actual mission.

Combat Overview: Grace approaches a fight with the same frantic, calculated precision she uses in the workshop, dancing through combat with a constant stream of high-pressure spikes from her nail gun. She’s remarkably agile, sliding into new positions while maintaining a steady rate of fire that isn't interrupted when she needs to dodge or deploy her specialized explosives. Her primary method for clearing the field involves tossing out customized grenades that discharge concentrated bursts of electricity upon impact, and she'll often leap into the air to rain down multiple supercharged canisters when she needs to bypass heavy armor. For a total demolition of the immediate area, she deploys a unique split-shot explosive that shatters in mid-air into four smaller charges, saturating the zone in a massive high-voltage blast that leaves nothing but toasted circuits and static.

Lore: Proxies are individuals who guide those who enter the Hollows. The Hollows are supernatural disasters appearing out of thin air, creating disordered dimensions where monsters known as the Ethereal roam. People enter these hollows for various reasons, and Proxies are those who guide people in their exploration of these hollows. Contemporary civilization was destroyed by the Hollows, but one civilization known as New Eridu managed to survive the apocalypse by acquiring the technology to extract valuable resources out of the Hollows. The Hollows then became industrialized and monetized under the city's administration, which gradually led to the increasing tension between monopolistic enterprises, gangs, conspirators, and fanatics.

The Ethereals are mysterious monsters that roam the Hollows. Ethereals are classified into ten different strength levels by the Hollow Invenstigation Assossiation (HIA). Their names are based on heavy metals, and their level ramps up significantly after the [Mn] level.

Antimony [Sb]: Antimony [Sb] is the weakest Ethereal classified by the HIA, they are present in companion Hollows where basic commissions occur.

Tin [Sn]: Only a few Tin [Sn] Ethereals are present in companion Hollows.

Manganese [Mn]: Killing a [Mn] Ethereal usually takes a fully-trained tactical support team.

New Eridu is the last surviving city after contemporary civilization was destroyed by the Hollows. New Eridu managed to survive and thrive after the apocalypse by acquiring the technology to be able to extract resources out of the Hollows.

Bangboo are intelligent devices unique to New Eridu. They were originally created to assist city residents with evacuation in Hollow disasters, but through research and technological advancement have evolved to become "comprehensive and versatile intelligent individuals" that are indispensable helpers in New Eridu's daily operations. Most Bangboo are short and stout, only around knee-height. They have ears resembling bunny ears on the top of their heads, and a black screen for a face, which can display colored circles as eyes.