Social Novel Writing: Morgan Daxia (Moxie)

History and personality

Moxie is reckless, outgoing, and lives her life with vigor and aggressiveness. The daughter of two steamwrights (steam tech experts), she has been playing with gears and building steam tech machines since she was a little girl. After her village was destroyed in a war when she was sixteen, her parents moved to Slag City in search of work. Having lost everything when the soldiers torched their home, they had no choice but to move into the roughest part of the slums, albeit temporarily since steam tech mechanics are in high demand. Two years later, the Slag City government executed her parents for "insubordination" because they refused to build a steam tech weapon that would have killed thousands. Moxie grieved for her parents, but overriding her grief was rage. Now, three years later, she is herself an established steamwright and is involved with the steamers and rebels who seek to overthrow the corrupt government and the old-fashioned magic users in power.

Moxie is absent-minded and completely oblivious when she's thinking about or working on her machines. She thinks like a scientist, viewing the world with emotional detachment as she tries to make logical patterns out of the chaos. Because of this detachment, she doesn't always think about the morality of her actions and rarely does it even occur to her to consider others' feelings while she's in pursuit of a goal. She doesn't understand people and the subtleties of emotions and social interactions are lost on her. She usually gets her way through the brute force of her personality and sheer stubbornness; she refuses to admit defeat and will keep trying for a goal when others have long since given up.

Fatal flaws

1) Reckless
2) Rarely considers other people's feelings before she takes action
3) Doesn't understand emotion or the subtleties of social interaction
4) Takes logical action even if that action is amoral
5) Easily angered

Saving graces

1) Loves Cy fiercely
2) Highly skilled steamwright
3) Understands logic, mechanics, and strategy
4) Emotionally strong and fierce

Physical traits

Chin-length, straight, cinnamon-colored hair. Startling, large, dark brown eyes. Slender nose. Full lips. Shaped eyebrows. Voluptuous figure. Smooth, tanned skin. Moxie wouldn't know feminine if it hit her with a parasol. She never wears skirts or makeup, and her clothes are functional rather than stylish. She generally wears tight, black or dark brown pants (better for wiping dirt and machine oil on); knee-high, copper-toed boots (for when she drops heavy objects); two low-slung leather belts, one for holding tools and the other for her pistol and ammunition; either a sleeveless shirt or a collared, button-down shirt open at the neck and a man's vest; a waist-length, brown leather jacket; and either mechanic's lenses or metal-working goggles resting on her collarbones or pushed up into her hair. Although she by no means attempts to look feminine, her clothes tend to be form-fitting due to her voluptuousness and do little to hide her natural beauty. Moxie almost always has smudges of machine oil or dirt across her skin.