Shaughnessy Carnegie

Race: Human
Age: 35
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 150 lbs
Sex: Female
Nicknames: Shaughn.
Homeworld: Hoth.
Occupation: Mercenary
Rank: Adept
Affiliation: First mate of the Garamonde
Force Sensitivity: Hell no.

Skills: Shaughn's a physical girl these days. The skills most people encounter from Shaughn are combat-oriented. She's fantastic with a blaster or a chemical slugthrower, and knows just enough about swords to get herself hurt against someone who really knows what they're doing. She's not specifically a master of unarmed combat, but generally she's agile and brutal enough to get by in an emergency.

There are other skills, though, that most people never learn about. Shaughn can play passably on a Zeltron flute, Growdi Harmonique, KeyBed, Mandoviol, Kloo horn, or a Mavinian cluster-wedding organ.

Appearance: Shaughn is a little tall for a woman at 5'7", but not extraordinarily so. The first thing most people notice isn't that she's tall, it's that her hair and skin are completely colorless. She wears contacts to hide her eyes, since blue eyes make it easier for people to assume she's just blonde and not part-Chiss or whatever due to red irises. Best to avoid the issue entirely. She keeps her hair cut short, but trims it infrequently enough that it's generally somewhere down around her ears.

She wears a lot of military cast-offs salvaged from surplus or thrift stores. A couple of layered white tank tops and grey or green fatigue trousers are usually good enough with a pair of heavy boots and her blaster holsters. When she's wearing a tank top, extensive tattoos are visible on Shaughnessy's left arm from the base of her neck down past her wrist. Jagged black tribal tattoos stretch the whole way to the point that hiding them is a real chore. Usually she doesn't bother.

She'll often cover the military-surplus ensemble with a long black trenchcoat. No, it isn't to hold guns or ammunition; that's what her harness is for. Trenchcoats have deep pockets, and they're perfect for smuggling candy into theaters.

Personality: Shaughn's a very casual and laid-back woman, and she fits in well as "one of the guys." Women don't always respond well to her occasional crudeness and bluntness, but sometimes even they enjoy a change of pace.

She's not stupid by any means, but she views things in very simple terms. She has a client who pays her to do things. She does them, she gets paid. She's a little low on motivation and empathy, which makes mercenary work ideal. Shaughn doesn't have to self-direct much to do her job, just find someone who'll tell her what to do.

It's not hard to talk to Shaughnessy, and even being friends with her isn't difficult because she doesn't ask much. People who want serious emotional intimacy might be better off looking elsewhere, though. Behind the candy-stashing gun enthusiast is a woman who's given up on ever having her old life back. Her new life is good enough. Could be worse. It keeps her in food and guns and andris, and there's even sometimes money left over to take a break and learn to play some new musical instrument. Shaughn doesn't ask much more of her life or her future or other people beyond "good enough, could be worse," and is surprised on the rare occasion that someone wants more from her.

History: Shaughn was born on Hoth, but adopted by a childless Coruscanti couple when she was about five. For all she knows they saw her on one of those "sponsor an orphan child for three credits a month" commercials and took it seriously.

She was raised with a lot of advantages, including corrective surgery for bad eyes, musical tutoring and private universities. Of course, living on a planet like Coruscant, it was also important that she learn to defend herself. Her father insisted on basic weapons training, overriding her mother. Shaughn showed promise, and her father encouraged her. After all, it was unlikely he'd ever have a son, and a tomboy daughter would do well enough.

Her parents lived long enough to see her the director of an orchestra at the Coruscant School of Music, but it was probably just as well that they died in a speeder crash when they did. Shaughn loved her job, but only worked there for two years. Her use of mild stimulants to keep her awake during school eventually snowballed into an addiction to refined andris. It became more and more difficult to balance her day job with the unruly schedule forced on her by her pursuit of her drug of choice.

She was eventually contacted by a man who claimed to be able to offer her a lot of cash quickly. He informed her that the board of trustees at the university was beginning to take notice of her erratic attendance, and if they were not distracted by something more pressing she would probably lose her job. He offered her a solution. If one of the trustees just happened to disappear into the underlevels of the planet the others would be far too busy with an investigation to worry about their personnel. To sweeten the deal, Shaughn was offered a substantial sum of cash for her efforts.

It took some arranging and a few promises to lure him down to a seedy hotel, ostensibly to hide an extramarital dalliance from his wife. Looking back Shaughn wondered how she'd convinced him. His own pride and lust must have done more to convince him than she had. Quite probably he hadn't heard a word she said to him once he learned he might have a chance.

After his disappearance things went well for a little while, but once the other trustees gave up they started to turn their attention back to Shaughnessy. She held them off for a while by faking her way through rehab, but after two times through and little change, they gave up on her. She was let go, and she got in touch with her old contact to see if there were any further work available.

It seemed to be what he was expecting, and after taking a few jobs through him Shaughn struck out on her own. She got tired of his finder's fees, however he demanded she pay. These days she'll work with other groups of mercenaries, but there are very few worth really tying herself to on a long-term basis.

Known offenses: Possession and trafficking of highly-refined Andris. Everything else is strictly "off the record."

Possessions:

Musical Instruments: Various, as she spends her earnings on them and then occasionally pawns them later for drug funds.

Weapons: Less variable. Generally keeps around a negaball bat because they're cheap and nobody ever expects it to hurt quite as much as it does. She also loves her DLT-19, and that one tends to stay on her back just in case things get a little more serious.

Her preferred sidearms are two Mandalorian Rippers. Not only are they powerful, and not only do they have a good tendency to penetrate personal shielding--making them her preferred weapons for fighting Force users due to the undeflectability of slugs and their penetrative power--but they're customizable, which is just plain more fun to play with.

For a protracted firefight, there's nothing like a DC-15s sidearm. A blaster rather than a slugthrower like her Rippers, it has a much more reliable energy cell even if it is a little less powerful and less accurate than her DLT-19.

Ship:

Svetlana, a YT-1250 freighter.