Maxine

Anne 'Maxine' Rhodes is a scrappy young opossum from South Sunset Island, with a knack for engineering and the desire to become a superhero. She, along with a handful of others, form the ensemble main cast of Hearts of Steel.

Appearance
Maxine is an opossum standing at around 4'8, with an androgynous scrawny build. Her fur is primarily black, gray, and off-white, with naturally black hair dyed a bright pinkish purple (with roots still visible) and buzzed into a messy mohawk.

She generally wears heavy makeup such as dark purple eye-shadow and lipstick, with numerous piercings including septum rings of varying designs, a tongue stud, and rings/studs around the rim of her characteristic marsupial pouch. Most piercings are either silver or anodized purple.

Her overall fashion sense is best described as "secondhand goth-punk", comprised of shabby t-shirts, tank tops, and jeans either salvaged from unwanted bins or worn down from years of abuse (and admittedly poor maintenance), with many spiked collars, belts, and bracelets as accessories. She also tends to aim for coherent color coordination in her outfits despite their salvaged nature, with prominent dark and light purples matching her hair and makeup.

Frequent staples include a black jacket inherited from her father with the bisexual pride flag across the back, various t-shirts bearing the stenciled hyena skull logo of the current Iron Comet, and a pair of hover-boots of her own design.

Personality
Headstrong and determined, Maxine projects an outwardly brash personality in contrast to her more lowkey, mellow nature displayed around friends and family. She generally keeps to herself and her small circle of friends, preferring to chill out and tinker with mechanics and various assorted hobbies she jumps between on a whim, including model building and airbrushing.

Although not generally confrontational, Maxine can and will fight to the bitter end if pushed, putting the safety of others far ahead of her own. While making her both a dangerous opponent and good friend to have on one's side, this tendency also unfortunately works to her detriment, as displayed by the numerous scrapes and scars she's picked up over the years (including notched ears and a slight limp from one particular incident involving a knee injury).

This protective-to-a-fault nature lends itself to her long-held desire to become a superhero, inspired by one in particular: current Iron Comet Leona Lawson, who she idolizes and has something of a crush on—though bringing up that last bit would be unwise.

Inventions
Maxine is an immensely talented engineer for her age, constantly building and tinkering, as well as repairing whatever broken things her friends bring her, taking on the role of impromptu 'repair-girl' to her admitted occasional frustration. Her proudest creation is a pair of hover-boots granting mobility and somewhat sporadic flight, fueled directly by whatever magical power Tyrokk can muster in his limited, sealed form.

Other notable creations include a small remote-control robot nicknamed Neon Twister built for a local robot battle competition in her early-mid teens, and a wheeled scooter rebuilt from a salvaged hoverbike (its repulsor engines later reused for her boots) after her dad expressed justified safety concerns about its flight capability.

Augments
Later in her life, due to injuries sustained fighting Starlight, Maxine bears numerous prosthetics, most of them with additional functions and augmented abilities.

Left Eye
Offers vision identical to her organic eye and is largely indistinguishable, save for a soft orange glow under low light. Creates an AR interface for her left arm, visible only to her.

Cochlear
Prosthetic replacement for inner ears damaged in blast, offers slightly augmented hearing along with the ability to communicate via com-link that she seldom uses, to the mild irritation of others.

Left arm
The most advanced of her cybernetics, with heavily augmented strength and a variety of functions including remote activation and locking of her car, a retractable energy blade, and remote control of the arm itself if detached. Specific functions vary as she tinkers with and modifies the arm.

Legs
Legs are prosthetic from the mid-thigh down, and can interface with her redesigned hover-boots.

Spine
Augmented spine and extensive skeletal augmentation meant to repair damage from the fight and to prevent further injury that may result from her utilizing the prosthetics' full strength.

Relationships
Maxine is openly bisexual, in a sort of polyamorous relationship with her boyfriend Vinny and the demon Vicky who inhabits his body and periodically assumes the dominant personality. In terms of family, Maxine is close to her dad Maxwell and the family on his side, but estranged from her mother Anne and most of the family on her side, who were never fond of Maxwell for his past as an acquisitions officer and took Anne's disappearance as proof of their suspicions, making attempts to have Maxine taken away, which only served to sever already-strained ties.