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Mɪʀᴀɴᴅᴀ Lᴀᴡsᴏɴ ([personal profile] formerlycerberus) wrote2012-10-11 09:20 am
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[Character Name] Miranda Lawson
[Canon] Mass Effect
[Point Taken from Canon]

[Age] 36
[Gender] Female
[Sexual Orientation] Bi leaning toward hetero

[Eye Color] Blue
[Hair Color] Black
[Height] Average
[Other] dat ass None
[Clothing] Here

[Background]
Wiki
In the not too distant future…next Sunday AD

Miranda Lawson was born in the year 2150, the daughter and genetic clone of Henry Lawson, a very powerful and ego-maniacal businessman. Miranda had no mother, but instead was the result of Henry Lawson doubling his X chromosome to ensure a genetic dynasty. He genetically engineered Miranda to be a specimen of human perfection, from her intelligence, physical constitution, biotic abilities, and even her physical appearance. Miranda grew up spoiled, and was seemingly given everything she could ever want. She went to the best schools and received the best training.

But her gifts were a burden growing up. Despite all of Miranda’s accomplishments, her father never showed an inkling of approval or pride towards her. Instead he always expected more and better from his daughter, imposing a very strict lifestyle on her. She was forbidden from having a social life, even friends. Henry Lawson didn’t want a daughter as much as he wanted a dynasty; whatever Miranda’s accomplishments were, they were because of her father. The only things she truly owned were her failures. On top of all that she discovered her father had made another clone of himself, a twin sister of sorts, and had named the girl Oriana.

The constant pressure and lack of affection finally caused a breaking point in Miranda and she ran away from home as soon as she was able. ‘Able’ as in when she could successfully take Oriana with her, to give her sister a better life. She managed to remain one step ahead of her father despite his extensive network of contacts across the galaxy, and was able to find refuge in the human-supremacist organization Cerberus led by The Illusive Man. Miranda negotiated safety for Oriana, managing to get the baby girl adopted into a new family on Illium. Her father was a major backer for the group, and once hearing of Miranda’s joining, he ceased pursuing her and severed his ties to the organization. Despite their past dealings with her father, Miranda sympathized with Cerberus’ desire to help humanity, and was glad to be able to work with people as smart as she was. Cerberus gave her the breathing room she wanted all this time, giving her an objective, all the resources she needed, and nothing more. In due time, Miranda became indispensible to the organization, becoming the leading operative of the Lazarus Cell, being one of the few who directly answers to The Illusive Man. She met Jacob Taylor while being his informant on an assignment and the two held a short-lived relationship. It was her time in Cerberus that Miranda learned of the true threat of the Reapers and began her work to counter them.

Then came along a woman named Shepard.

“But Shepard…they’ll follow her. She’s a hero, a bloody icon.”

While Miranda was busy working on operations for Cerberus, the first human Spectre, Commander Shepard, was off saving the Citadel from the former-Spectre Saren and learning of the Reaper threat herself. Only a few weeks after the battle for the Citadel, Shepard’s ship was attacked by a Collector vessel and Shepard died ensuring most of her crew made it off the ship. Her body landed on a nearby planet, recovered by the mercenary group the Blue Suns.

“But she’s just one woman.”

A month after the attack, Miranda, along with two Cerberus operatives, find the asari researcher Dr. Liara T’Soni, who was close friends and a former squad member of Shepard’s, and the drell Feron on the planet Omega. The two groups held a similar goal, finding Shepard, so an uneasy alliance was made. Miranda brought Liara to the Illusive Man, who explained that the Collectors were after Shepard’s body and were in leagues with the Shadow Broker and, by extension, the Blue Suns. For the information and (unbeknownst to her at the time) Cerberus support in Feron, Liara was to rescue Shepard’s body as well as find information as to why the Collectors were after it.

Miranda kept close tabs on the two, staying behind the scenes for the most part as the pair had their run-in with the Blue Suns and the Shadow Broker’s salarian hitman, Tazzik, in the middle of their trade. Tazzik managed to escape with Shepard’s body, but Miranda was denied permission to pursue the salarian. Instead, the Illusive Man instructed her to be patient and wait, reminding her of the importance of the information they needed.

In the end, Liara’s mission was a success, her obtaining Shepard’s body and a collection of data for Cerberus, at the cost of losing Feron to the Shadow Broker. Liara joined Miranda at the Lazarus Research Station where Shepard’s body was transferred for recovery. Cerberus’s intention for the body was to resurrect Shepard, restore her life with billions worth of tech and resources. Though, with the shape the body was in, the process had a high chance of failing. Liara was apprehensive of their plans, telling Miranda to let the dead rest before reconsidering her words, unable to let Shepard go. Miranda reassured Liara that their intentions were different than those of the Collectors (though they were still unsure of what they were) and that Cerberus would spend every resource they had and all the time it would take to bring Shepard back the way she was before. Despite her reservations about the Lazarus Project, Liara left Shepard’s body with Cerberus as she made plans to rescue Feron.

Meanwhile, Miranda spent the next two years overseeing Project Lazarus personally.

“If we lose Shepard, humanity might well follow.”

On the Lazarus Research Station, Miranda had every brilliant mind her cell had to offer, with her old friend Jacob heading security. The Lazarus Project ran smoothly, even with a small scare with Shepard regaining some consciousness before it was time. It was almost perfect, until Wilson, a medical officer working closely with Miranda on the project, chose to betray Cerberus. The base came under attack by security mechs, and Miranda was forced to wake Shepard up early. She tried to remain in contact with her over the intercom, but an ambush on her end forced Miranda to cut communication. Shepard, Jacob, and Wilson made it to the transport shuttle, finding Miranda there waiting with a bullet aimed for Wilson’s head. With the traitor dead, Miranda and Jacob took Shepard to meet with the Illusive Man.

According to Cerberus intelligence, several human colonies have gone silent, with every man, woman, and child disappearing into nothing without even sending out a distress signal. With the latest disappearance, Freedom’s Progress, being fairly recent, Shepard was tasked to find out what happened. On the colony, the party ran into a group of Quarians, led by Tali’Zorah vas Neema, another old friend of Shepard’s. Together the groups were able to find a survivor of the attack, another Quarian, who was able to give Cerberus the confirmation that the attack was carried out by the Collectors.

With this confirmation, Cerberus could focus on the main mission at hand: stopping the Collectors by going past the Omega 4 Relay. To do so, Shepard was given the Normandy SR-2, a full crew including her old pilot Joker, and Miranda and Jacob as a means to keep Shepard in check. Next she had to recruit a squad, ranging from several races and backgrounds, willing and loyal enough to go on what amounted to a suicide mission. Mordin Solus, the salarian professor. Garrus Vakarian, the turian sharpshooter and old friend of Shepard’s. Grunt, the genetically engineered krogan super-soldier. Jack, the extremely powerful and dangerous human biotic. Kasumi Goto, the master thief. Samara, the asari Justicar. Thane Krios, the drell assassin. Zaeed Massani, the mercenary. Tali’Zorah, the quarian engineer. And eventually Legion, the geth mobile platform. Miranda stayed on along with Jacob, acting as Shepard’s second-in-command and the Illusive Man’s proxy. With a word, Miranda could override Shepard’s orders for the good of the organization.

Though skeptical of Shepard’s importance in the grand scheme of things, it didn’t take long for admit the Illusive Man’s estimation of Shepard’s value to their cause was accurate. After a fair bit of recruiting and learning more of how to get to the Collectors, Miranda heard word from Illium that her father had just found where Miranda hid Oriana and had made plans abduct her. Unwilling to trust the information to just anyone, Miranda called in Shepard to help make sure Cerberus was able to relocate Oriana before the abduction. On Illium, Miranda had two contacts, an asari Lanteia and Miranda’s childhood friend Niket. Niket was in charge of moving Oriana and her family, but had ratted Miranda out to her father once he learned of how Miranda kidnapped her sister to save her. After dealing with the mercenaries , Niket killed in the process, Miranda was finally able to oversee her sister’s transfer personally. Hesitant at first, Shepard was able to convince Miranda to talk to her sister since this was their first time really meeting the other. Miranda talked to Oriana, and the two hit it off rather well. They still had a job to do, but at least Oriana now knew she had an older sister looking out for her.

Miranda got along with most of the crew well enough; despite misgivings about Cerberus as a whole, Miranda believed in the pro-human aspects of the organization, not the anti-alien aspects. The only squad member that Miranda had the most issues with was Jack, who was a former Cerberus test subject. Miranda never condemned Cerberus as a whole for their illicit and inhumane experiments, brushing it off as the work of another cell that was shut down. But some Cerberus’s actions were beginning to get to Miranda.

Past the Omega 4 Relay, the crew found themselves in the Collector base, and it was discovered why the Collectors were after the colonists. The Collectors were building a reaper, a Reaper made of humans. Shepard chose to have it destroyed, but the Illusive Man wanted to salvage the data. He ordered Miranda to stop Shepard, but she refused.

“Consider this my resignation.”

The base was destroyed in a glorious explosion, and the whole crew managed to survive. Life slowed down a bit, the crew went their ways. Because of her defection, Miranda was forced to go into hiding, from both Cerberus and her father.

[Personality]
Because she lacked most social skills growing up, Miranda doesn’t exactly make the greatest of impressions. She’s outwardly cold, ruthless, serious, and very stubborn. When in work, Miranda focuses heavily on the goal at hand, invests all of her on the results, lets no one stand in her way or sabotage her, and yet remains emotionally distant, almost robotic. Betray her or mess with her work, and you will get a bullet through the head. There’s a certain “matter-of-fact” quality to her speech, at best making her effective at giving clear orders, at worst making her come off as arrogant and harshly critical. She only expresses concern in certain people, those she has built a strong relationship with, and her loyalty is not easily earned. In short, she comes off as a cold-hearted bitch.

Her intelligence and loyalty are commendable though. She was the head of one of Cerberus’s most costly and important scientific endeavors after all. As Shepard’s Second in Command, Miranda was a fully capable leader, can remain calm under fire, use the environment to her advantage, and keep her party in line. There’s always a backup plan in mind, Miranda being crazy-prepared for most scenarios. Which is good, given that she’s more or less on the run at the moment. Miranda is not the kind of woman that you like so much as you respect.

But Miranda does have her flaws, mainly stemming from her severe daddy-issues. Henry Lawson was not a good father by any stretch of the word: he was controlling and extremely ego-centric, with his word as law. Miranda did not grow up with a real family; she didn’t grow up with love or support, instead doing simply what her father told her. Accomplishments became very emptying experiences, since what successes she had was because of what her father made her, not her own ability. Despite appearances, instead of being proud of her “perfect” genetics and intelligence, she’s actually extremely insecure because of them. Miranda fears her father’s influence more than anything. For all her resentment over his domineering attitude and how he attempted to control her entire life, she herself veers dangerously to falling into this territory when trying to protect her sister. Later, looking back on it, Miranda is actually very resentful of ever wanting to install a control chip in Shepard.

A known way of defrosting the Ice Queen is her younger twin, Oriana. Miranda is highly protective of her sister, and it’s not hard to see why; after all, their father takes whatever measure necessary to try and obtain Oriana again. After the life she grew up with, Miranda swore Oriana would never know that harshness, and her sister would know the love of a family. Despite having little interaction with her sister, only just meeting her and establishing a communication, Miranda becomes a very loving, slightly scary older sister. Partially due to a big sister-complex, partially due to a Freudian Excuse. Due to a benign neoplasm, likely caused from her father’s meddling with her genetics, Miranda is unable to conceive, and not for a lack of trying. Unable to have a family of her own, Miranda chooses to close herself off to the only family member she loves.

Like the rest of his squad, Shepard has definitely made her impact on Miranda, culminating in her departure from Cerberus. Before, she would defend the organization at the drop of a pin, shutting down legitimate criticisms of their moral and ethical decisions. Working with Shepard, Miranda became much worldlier, even disgusted at the lengths the Illusive Man would go to achieve his goal. She believes in helping humanity, but not at the cost of thousands of lives.

[Specialties/Abilities]
Wiki
Miranda is a powerful human biotic, granted a genetically engineered one, capable of creating mass effect fields. Her abilities are mainly offensive, such as using the fields to fling opponents into the air or sending a powerful orb of energy that detonates on impact. She has also received intensive training in firearms and machinery, showing prowess in pistols and submachine guns.

A brilliant woman, Miranda knows how to use her advantages. She has an entire network of informants, people who owe her favors, you name it and she manages it. Quite the hacker too, easily keeping tabs on other people’s email. Though nowhere near Shepard’s level, Miranda is a skilled tactician and able to command a unit.

[Affection]
She's not good at attached.

[Fighting]
She's not going to go around picking fights she knows she can't win, but she can hold her own pretty well.

[Other Permissions] Can telepathic characters read your character's mind? How much can fourth wall breakers say? In other words, how intrusive can another character be toward yours? If there's anything you don't want a character to bring up or know about your character, just fill it in here.

[Other Facts] Anything else can go here~

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