Geraldine Shurmaine Mackeroy was born to a single mother and two brothers. Life was much harder than she thought as she grew up in the slums of their degenerating city. She learned how to lie, how to steal, how to bare knuckle fight in the alleyways and streets where she coined the nickname, “Shoe”. How, you ask? It seemed as though in every fight she’d lose at least one of them. “I bet double I can kick your ass with one shoe.” She’d proclaim and the opponents would be all to happy to oblige her. It was the only way she could make ends meet to help out at home. She did her best not to let her family know how she managed to pay the bills and put food on the table and for a while no one was wise. One day her mother went to work and never came home. Shu looked for weeks for her mother while she took care of her brothers but there were no leads.
When the boys were old enough and started staying out more at their friend’s places, she signed up to the military. She hated to think she was a goon for the political dogs but she couldn’t duke it out in the slums anymore. No one would fight her and any sorry newbie who stood up learned real quick why and most of them didn’t have any money to put up after the fact. Whippin ass for free got old.
She wasn’t the best, she fought dirty, she lost plenty of times but she learned her opponents and she got privy with arm’s reach weapons like pipes and t-shirts. Everything had a possibility. Boot camp was damn hard and no one looked at her with kind eyes. Even her superiors saw her as just another grungy street fighter, destined to add to the number of deaths in a tally. She trained at night, she struggled in the day, she had her mind set to succeed somehow because her brothers were silently counting on her to make it work. Somewhere out there her mother is probably alive or stuck in a circle of deplorable means she can’t get out of on her own.
Shu wasn’t a quick learner and she took everyone’s word at face value but she grew to consider everyone was lying and no smile was sincere. It made her out to be like a sensitive trigger. Plenty of times she was found doing punishment duties like running up and down the camp singing, “Sergeant Wayward wrote this song, he told me to sing along. I’m not fit for boot camp life. I should have not signed up to fight.”
Shu was bitter and pecked black and blue before she finally got the acceptance letter and told to relocate with her platoon for their first mission.
Battles came and went, she slowly earned her standing among the boys and no one fucked with her. She got cocky and picked fights with the toughest in the bar just because she could. You didn’t know if she was comin or going and she didn’t know either. She had forgotten why she was there in the first place. It was a thing for soldiers to keep track of their confirmed kills and everyone had a nickname from one of their most memorable moments the crew remembered. She had a sharp eye, a strong will and a hard head. She was relentless in the field but sloppy off duty. She favored rifles and pistols but she could take a foot or a knee off you with a fork if you let her.
It wasn’t about being the best. It was about doing shit no one expected her to do. Doing shit everyone kept telling her she couldn’t do and if anyone told her she couldn’t, she would not only prove them wrong but she would target them to prove herself right. Her anger and salt were the driving force that kept her moving and if she wasn’t pissed about something, she didn’t feel normal.

For a long time she was this way. She got plenty of promotions and scars as time passed. She was known for getting into shit and getting shit done. Shu was given the opportunity to be an operative, working undercover for the more elusive and dangerous enemies, often called to the front to take down targets she learned were innocent after the fact. She didn’t get into details with me but I can tell some of the hits on her list were either too young, too undeserving and too unlucky with their lives.
She took to drink and being alone. She sought out her brothers to be sure they were okay over the years and they seemed to have done pretty well for themselves. They never saw mom though. All the targets she’s managed to find that others couldn’t and she didn’t have what it took to find her mother.

Now in her golden years she spends her days watching jeopardy and cooking. Between retirement and the bus ride home to the slums she made a decision to become the mother she lost. She’s the quaint old soul giving trinkets and snacks to the little ones, babysitting for moms who needed a break, a wise word for the teens mad at the world. She is their guardian and the one consistent extended hand.

Her military brothers would tell her she’s changed and she would agree but on the inside, Geraldine Shurmaine Mackeroy didn’t die twice and Shu never learned how to give up.

She's got a deep crackly smokers voice, smokes two packs a day, drinks like a sailor on ocassion and is as limber as a slinky. Uses her old age to takeenemies off guard. Sharp shooter spy grama apex, don't come to her house and tell her you ain't hungry!

"Alright chirrens, let's light this bitch up like the 4th of JULY!"
"Momma's out of her psych meds, time to refill my prescriptions."
"Imma make em wish they never stepped on my lawn."
"I got a hair dresser appointment at 2, Imma turn you into lasaga before noon."
"You ain't heard the horns of war until you've had my beans."

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She's going to be my starbound campaign char and I can't fucking wait!