Personality

     Hello, Angry Young White Girl! Amy is a stubborn girl, through and through. Although far from spoilt, she is determined to get her way, and not afraid of annoying people. At the start of the storyline, Amy is more-or-less resigned to the life of a nerd and social reject. Her overall attitude is “an eye for an eye”; if you do evil unto her, she will do worse until you. She could give a damn what almost anyone at school thinks about her, speaks her mind to any fellow student, and even comes close to rejecting a friendly “eat with me at lunch” overture from a new kid. Her lack of enthusiasm about class is similar; although she doesn’t give teachers lip, she also is known to sleep in class — but is more than brilliant enough to get away with it, as she still scores in the top 5 students in school, taking Calculus as a Junior as well as other high-end studies.

     Overall, she has a definite world-weary attitude that would do Sam Spade proud. It’s a brittle shell, though, one built rapidly to protect her from a world that turned tragically upside-down in mere weeks. She believes in justice, but would never say such a clichéd thing. She’ll go to bat to defend the downtrodden, and has a soft spot for the hard-luck cases, be they rich or poor. She’ll easily, and happily, verbally attack or dress down people who pick on the innocent, an act that has only reinforced her isolation in school. To Amy, now, such acts are as instinctive as breathing; she’s one of the good guys, in the end game.

     She’s also, however, given to a very tunnel-vision version of the world, one where there are good guys, and bad guys, and the moral qualms of good vs. evil acts can be messy, at times. She can still be surprised by people turning on her, but such people are quickly put in their place, sometimes in ways that are less-than-legal. For example, she will happily manufacture evidence of wrongdoing for “those who deserve it”. Such acts are rare; more usual is her use of her wit and charm to beguile people into doing “favors” for her; Reh-Bah is the more extreme example of this, but she’s developed a very Shadow-like network of friends and informants. Amy does, however, have a conscience and a heart, and will eventually realize that she’s once again gone too far. She is still at heart a nice and pleasant girl, mature beyond her years. She’s also slowly developing a sense of doing things for friends, as opposed to merely hanging out with them and asking for favors.

     Her greatest drive, and weakness, is with regard to her two irrational attractions. Although any normal case is pretty much a minor irrational attraction in terms of her devotion to solving a mystery, many of her most self-serving and manipulative aspects come roaring to the fore when it involves something much more personal to her, especially when tied, strongly, to Amy’s sense of innocence lost. Whenever she deals with them, you can expect her to be even more forceful than usual, compensating, to some extent, for the hole those people left in her life. As a Cetra, she feels responsible to protect the planet, and will take any risk to save it when a great threat emerges. She grows to like Walker, and feels some envy for the close relationship he shares with his friends.

     Most importantly, she’s still young, and although very smart, is inexperienced. Most plans that she puts into place are very sound, but she hasn’t learned how to plan around emergencies, nor the complexities of human emotional responses. She is still hunted by Mekhal's Empire, who prefer to wait and bide their time with her. Her nature and powers have also garnered the attention of Artanis, who believes her to be a threat to his plans.


Quote: “Walker.. I'm not as strong as you may have pictured me to be...”


Powers/Tactics

     Amy is a preternaturally gifted and tenacious investigator; even for a cop's girlfriend, she has developed, in a short time, an impressive array of talents and knowledge. Her preference is to resolve cases using her computer skills, but has no fear regarding legwork and stakeouts, much to her boyfriend’s chagrin. As a Cetra, Amy is unnaturally in tune with the spirit of the planet. At times, she can hear the voices of the planet, telling her of far away places or of threats world-wide. At times, she can even sense threats to the planet as a whole. When desperate, she can call on the power of the planet to heal herself and her allies.

     Amy is also trained in the use of materia. Once equipped with some of the group's materia, she can tap their power to cast spells, boost her abilities, or provide any number of odd powers. Note that although Amy will have the same materia abilities as her allies, her spells will always be more powerful due to her magical nature.


Appearance

     Shorthand is “Katniss Everdeen with blonde hair”. Amy is a slim, beautiful young woman of thirty. Young, Caucasian female, the very model of “petite and pretty”; she has long brown hair, tied into a high ponytail with a magician's hat, and clear blue eyes.

     In a world full of “beautiful people”, she would stand out if she allowed it, and would easily be in the running for “homecoming queen”, or the like, were it not for the fact that no one will get within a country mile of her. Her current dress mode is “rocker chic”, with a collection of jeans, tops, and chic pleated mini-skirts that are in fashion, but somewhat rebellious. She wears a simple white dress with a red vest and thick boots―pragmatism overriding style in Anime Gaming.

     She does not wear much makeup, however, and her clothing is modestly tasteful by modern high school standards. She does have a hair “thing”, however, changing styles at the drop of a hat—she’ll go from curly to (small) pigtail to straight, all in the course of a day.

     She does have a strong sense of fashion, some coming from Jenn’s attempts to train her. She applies her Art skill to remake herself with ease, from anonymous and mousy server to perky pink-wearing “new girl at school” in a manner that would likely make even Sherlock Holmes a little proud. She carries a heavy staff for self-defense, but is wary to use it.

Names of characters and the distinctive likenesses thereof are Trademarks and © of Amy Barnum and are used without permission.

© 1997 UGoI-ESF © 1999 ESF. All Rights Reserved. Image used without permission.