Are you afraid of the dark?
196's backstory is... odd. In life, she was a relatively attractive, tall, willowy woman with thick, straight red hair named Katherine Reede, and was married to a soldier named Ezekiel Reede. Together, they had three children: Allison, Clarissa, and Jonah. Doting parents, they took good care of their children, and Ezekiel saw to it that his wife and children wanted for nothing. Early in the revolt against the machines, however, her streak of unimaginable bad luck began. First, her husband was killed in the early part of the fighting, leaving 43 year old Katherine to deal with the stress of a twelve year old son, a deaf teenage daughter, and an adult daughter still in college. She was assisted by a young man who did what he could to support her as she learned how to fight to protect her family.
Jonah was killed first when he was staying with a nun who was trying to get the youngest children to safety in bunkers. Allison was the second to die, when the college was attacked during a resistance meeting. Last was Clarissa, when the hospital she was working in was bombed. The young man who had been helping Katherine approached her while she was broken and weeping, lost and alone after she had literally lost everything, and gave her an option. The young man had been an apprentice of the scientist that had created the B.R.A.I.N, and was giving her the opportunity to live on and get back at the machines for what they'd taken.
He used the research he learned from the scientist to craft her a body and transfer her entire soul into it, turning her into a gangly, lithe stitchpunk doll named 196... the square of 14, considered a terribly unlucky number anyway, in memory of the streak of bad luck she experienced. Horrified at what he had done, and seeing her own dead body, she fled, barely getting out of the building before a gas bomb hit and killed everyone inside. She stayed on her own for a while until shortly after the resurrection of the core nine, none of whom she knew existed, when she was attacked by a monster in the emptiness near the clock tower.
Found by 2, he restored what he could, but was unable to salvage her eyes. He replaced the top of her head, but when she woke, she had no memory of who she was or how she had gotten there. She spends very little time in the clock tower proper, though she is extremely protective of the children who reside there.
Relationships[]
2 is much like a brother to 196, and she enjoys sitting long hours with him and talking to him about absolutely nothing just to pass the time. She's amused by 1, and she and 8 have something of an understanding based on their mutual height and status as protectors. She finds 9 obnoxious.
97, 99, and Oon are the most important to her. 97 and 99 because she vaguely remembers them as her own children, and Oon because something in her longs for the son she does not remember. She is fiercely protective of all of them.
She has a thing for 63, though it's uneasy for her, due to the memories that plague her. She's gradually warmed up to a sort of easy friendship with him, bordering on something more. After a while, she allows her feelings to grow into affection, even after her memories come back. She comes to accept that her human husband, Ezekiel, has moved on, and perhaps it's time for her to as well. Their relationship is somewhat Slap Slap Kiss in a lot of ways, but they do care about one another deeply.
She is cordial and polite to 11, but does not much care for how she treats 54 and 15. If she sees her acting out or mistreating them verbally or otherwise, she will not hesitate to call her out on it.
Personality[]
A little... jumbled. Very maternal, but a bit stand-offish and brusque. She has many memories fluttering in her head, of her own children, of a man kissing her forehead, of fear and longing, of horror and anxiety. She remembers seeing, and color, light, and images. Trees and buildings. Sometimes, however, she cannot recall if these memories are hers and her mind reacts fiercely, giving her horrible migraines that can debilitate her for hours. She has a debilitating fear of being locked in any kind of enclosed space, from a closet to a full sized room. If she can't get out, she'll go into a full-blown panic. Her cleithrophobia can be used against her in extreme situations. She's starting to remember more and more of her past, which seems to be of some comfort to her. Recently she's been stretching using ballet stretches she learned growing up, and has been surprising herself with as much of the dancing style that she can actually still perform.
Voice Actor[]
Gina Torres - Zoe Washburn in Firefly
Theme Songs[]
"Fiction (Dreams In Digital)" - Orgy
"Twisted and Broken" - Abney Park
Other Characters Say...[]
"Well ... she's not like the mom I can remember, but that's not saying she's bad. She's a very good mom, even if she isn't mine." - Oon
"She doesn't need to see in order for me to love her. No woman's perfect." - 63
"..... After nap I helps you look... fer yer eyes... mmmhmm.... after sleeps, though...." - 91
"I know she's just very sad, and there are a lot of things she really can't help...but she still scares me." - 2012
Created by MamaCJ