Details

Traits & Abilities

Aesthetic

Summary

History

In truth, Make-Do is from an abandoned planet named Kassica that sits a solar system or so away in a communications deadzone. The community they grew up in has been there for a few human generations, made up entirely of both human and synthetic refugees from the Lesser Key, trying to get themselves and their families somewhere safe. Their adoptive grandfather, Crow, is a synthetic musician that has been there since the initial escape, and the community's founding. As a result of his profession, Make-do grew up with a deeply ingrained love of music, and currently plays the guitar, both electric and accoustic. He raised them alone, as his human spouse died when they were around three, but was always well-liked and had an assortment of friends that acted as family to Make-Do in lieu of actual blood or adoptive family members.

Growing up, Make-do had many people they saw often, but only two very deep, close friends— Three-Nine, a synthetic weaponsmith with a human mother, and Blueline, a human guard with two human mothers, and a third synthetic guardian. They and Three-Nine were introduced when they were infants, as his mother, Retrograde, and Crow have been close friends for many years. Make-Do met Blueline as a young child and was the only one capable of withstanding their volatile temper and general bad attitude, and the three of them had been inseparable ever since. They frequently made long treks from the community grounds out into the massive sprawling ruins of the planet, nurturing their skills at parkour and survival until they got further and further into the planet's ancient systems, and until Make-Do eventually discovered the Lupič waking from its hibernation in the "central" chamber.

When they discovered the Lupič, all of Make-Do's culminated rage and grief that they and their community had to live in constant fear of the empires lurking right next door came to a head. Halfway between when they discovered the machine and their sixteenth birthday, a conviction lit in them that they were going to use it to do right by their people; that they were going to use the Lupič to fight the Lesser Key and defend Kassica. From then on, they kept returning to it and fixing it up with their limited knowledge, tending to it until it was in working shape and ready to wake up. When they had just turned sixteen, they sat in the cockpit for the first time. It gave them cybernetic implants in their eyes against their will, allowing them to share its sight. After a year of fixing and barely learning where the controls were, they decided to pilot for the first time. Being a completely untrained child, they ended up causing the deaths of a small handfull of people, including their own grandfather. Striken with grief, no one in the community came to them afterwards, and in their shock and anguish they could only conclude that the hatred for them must be universal, and took the Lupič as a means to flee the planet, heading towards Union territory. They turned seventeen during the journey.

The Campaign

By the time they had reached the Conglomerate Union, they had already been fully disguised, wanting nothing more than to hide from themself. A mercenary boss by the name of Kingston Kaizar happened to notice their skill with a gun, and took them under his wing and into his mercenary guild. They split around two and a half years later, when Kingston revealed he thought gunning down unarmed civillians was acceptable to get a job done.

A number of months after, Make-Do was hired by the Prince Mazarine Marax of the Devil House Marax to aid her on her quest for redemption in the eyes of her Devil. During the few missions they spent under her employ, they met their rival; the ace pilot of Our Unnamed Revolutionaries named No Royals. Their relationship was initially tense, and against the knowledge of anyone involved they are put into anonymous contact with each other to orchestrate the prison break of someone Make-Do had a hand in getting incarcerated during their service to Mazarine(Cardemom).

The party split at the ending of the third mission— a suicide mission to rescue a valuable prisoner in the Dominon's main warship that they had been politcally pressured into by Mazarine's older brother, Cinnabar Marax, in order to get his sister and those under her employ out of the picture. Things didn't exactly go his way, however, as both Carthamin and Make-Do were not abashed to abandon the objective, Carthamin already having been offered a more lucrative deal within The Key by Wallow Murmur, and Make-Do being unwilling to die in service to any empire, especially not The Key. He showed up to try and finish the job, injuring Kelle and destroying the Vector along the way, but Mazarine challenged him to a duel and killed him, thus gaining control over his squad, the Knights of the Seventh Circle. Make-Do and Carthamin fled as the duel was coming to a close, Make-Do stopping on the planet below to rescue Kelle from the rubble of the Vector.

After a couple of weeks hiding out in the unclaimed territory of Kalkail, stealing food in the form of rations from Lesser Key supply shipments, Make-Do and Kelle are having a talk about themselves and their pasts when Kelle attempts to spur them to action. She reiterates that their current situation is an unsustainable one, and suggests they attempt to seek shelter on Corduroy with the autonomous militia there. Make-Do rejects the idea, wary through their guilt to make anyone put up with them, but eventually conceedes to leaving the planet when Kelle states that they're being stupid to think that she'd just leave them like that. They reveal their plans for the prison break to her, and she agrees to help out with it.

The prison break goes down, and Make-Do and No Royals are able to rescue Cardemom. There is a chase between them as they make their way out of the facility, Make-Do being too ashamed and flustered to face No Royals directly. Right as they're about to jump into the getaway car, Make-Do spots Mazarine standing on a balcony a few buildings away with the aid of their implants and, unable to fight off the impulse, raises their sniper rifle and attempts to shoot Mazarine. They narrowly miss as No Royals has to physically grab them and pull them into Kelle's vehicle, and is too flustered to say anything when No Royals calmly states that it was a really stupid thing to do.

After completing the prison break and bringing Cardemom to their friends on Courduroy, Make-Do and Kelle return to Our Unnamed Revolutionaries with No Royals. Make-Do is avoidant and difficult to find, but eventually Roy is able to catch him alone while he's hanging around on one of the ship's viewing decks. He's startled to see them, but eventually calms down a bit, and the two of them talk briefly about his feelings joining the Revolutionaries and the culture shock he experienced coming to Kalkail's system from somewhere that's been disconnected from all major factions for over a century. Eventually Roy shows him to their favorite place to be alone on the ship, high up in a service catwalk that no one ever uses, where the two of them can look down on the hustle and bustle of the hangar where it feels like it's a world away. They talk a bit more, and after another silence No Royals asks Make-Do if they can kiss him. He assents to it, and they share a very brief kiss before looking back down over the railing. It's at this point that Make-Do reveals his actual name— Pigeon, and says that he'd prefer to be called by it.

There is a time skip of about a year before we come back to the story, and at this point, Carthamin has ditched Wallow Murmur to join the forces of the Dominion, as the Pharaoh Orias herself took a personal interest in them. Mazarine has also been orchestrating her fair share of political assassinations, accruing more and more power and winding the Lesser Key presence around Kalkail around her finger. She enters a skirmish with her own squad versus the one Carthamin now leads, and eventually Carthamin has to issue a retreat after fighting Mazarine's mech directly. Mazarine also attempts to chase down Pigeon to follow them to the Unnamed revolutionaries, but Pigeon simply leads her into an asteroid field and initiates a brutal fight during which they damage her mech beyond repair. Shortly after this, Mazarine poisons her mother and assumes her title of the Devil Marax.

After an arguement with an older member of the revolutionaries, assisted in the end by Roy backing them up, Pigeon is able to convince the revolutionaries to reach out to the people of Kassica for an alliance. They send a small squad out to that system, including both Pigeon and No Royals, and near the end of the trip Pigeon rushes ahead in their mech, both excited and nervous to return home after almost four years away. When they arrive on the planet, however, they spot Mazarine's devil mech parked on the surface, and immediately have the Lupič land down on it. They find no one in the cockpit, and set out on foot to hunt Mazarine down before she can endanger everyone involved. They spot her as she's leaving the People's Settlement, and engage her in a knife fight as she's walking out across a patch of farmland. They end up winning the duel and stab Mazarine in the heart, but not before she can put one of her own knives in their foot. After seeking out and destroying anyhting dangerous on her person, they limp back towards the Lupič, presumably to have it destroy her mech off-camera.

Around a couple months later, when she's returned from getting an alliance started on Kassica, Pigeon and Carthamin come face-to-face in the stretches of KalKail's unclaimed continent. After a brief chat, both sides extremely stubborn and sure of their own convictions, they duel. It is a brutal conflict, Moloch pulling its dominion augments out of its flesh to use them as blunt weapons against the Lupič, but eventually Pigeon has them beat dead to rights. Before she can get the finishing blow in, however, Moloch makes the command decision to go supernova, forcing Pigeon's retreat as it obliterates itself and Carthmin in a fiery explosion. The Lupič seethes at her about wanting to finish the fight itself, but she shuts it down, stating firmly that they don't want to hear it.

The final scenes of the campaign take place with Pigeon. First, he and No Royals are winding down in their quarters, holding each other and getting Pigeon some of the rest he desperately needs. At the end of his rope, Pigeon states that he doesn't want to pilot anymore. No Royals tells him that he should stop, then. Pigeon says, "I love you, Roy," and, almost confused, like it's the simplest thing in the world, Roy responds, "I love you too, Pigeon." The next scene is Pigeon bringing the Lupič back to Kassica— all the way back to the original chamber they discovered it in. It asks them, "Pilot, what are we doing here?" Pigeon gets out of the pilot's chair, unscrews a panel buried in the walls of the cockpit, snips a few wires, and puts the machine down.

After the events of the campaign, Pigeon decides to put their engineering skill to use and becomes a mechanic for the revolutionaries. It is also implied that they've had a tearful reunion with their best friends, who at some point join the revolutionaries with them.