Breq

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Your Name: Lis
Contact: skipthedemon @ plurk or Lisb1121 on AIM
Are you at least 16 years of age or older?: Yes
Current Characters(s): N/A
Reserve Link: Reserve

Is this a re-app?: No.
Character Name: Breq
Journal: justice_of_toren
Canon: Imperial Radch series
Canon Point: After Ancillary Mercy
Species: Technologically enhanced human aka an ancillary
Age: Physically, mid 30s. Mentally around 2000.

History: In Breq's universe, humanity has been space faring for a very, very long time. Justice of Toren was a space ship, an artificially intelligent troop carrier for the Radch empire for about 2000 years. It had human officers onboard, but most of the troops were ancillaries. The body of an ancillary was once a human being - a living, conscious human being, usually made into an ancillary during their late adolescence. Breq is quite clear on the fact that no one volunteers to be an ancillary - that making an ancillary is a terrible thing, amounting to murder. Some memories and individual quirks remain, but the human consciousness is destroyed, overwritten by the AI that is downloaded into it. Each ancillary has a decade (think squad) designation and number within it. Breq was part of the decade One Esk of Justice of Toren, specifically One Esk Nineteen. Each decade as a unit may have its own quirks, as a subsection of a ship's consciousness. Very early in Justice of Toren's existence, the lieutenant of One Esk was very fond of music and taught One Esk choral pieces. Ever since One Esk was known for its interest in music and tendency to hum and sing. Interestingly, Breq insists Justice of Toren had no particular interest in music but tolerated the aberration in One Esk as long as it wasn't detrimental.

But ships, the core AIs, have feelings too. Without feelings, Breq notes, entities as complicated as a ship can get caught in cascades of too many logical choices. So AIs have preferences, and if pushed to an emotional extreme can have what she calls 'a breaking point'. While ships (and thus ancillaries) are programmed to take care of and protect all their human officers, they have favorites. Soap operas in the Radchaii space are rife with stories of ships going mad with grief at the death of a beloved captain. When Anaander Mianaai became Lord of the Radch empire, she supposedly 'fixed' the problem of errant ships by making them obedient to her commands over any other. Anaander also consolidated control by cloning herself many times and connecting these copies with tech close to the implants used to make ancillaries. However, over thousands of years these copies became not as unified in purpose and methods as her subjects believed and began plotting against each other to steer the Radch along different paths. Different parts of Anaander had even given ships orders, then programmed them so some orders were hidden from even the conscious thoughts of the ships themselves. These contradictions were part of what pushed Justice of Toren to a breaking point.

Another part of the breaking point was a lieutenant Justice of Toren (and particularly the One Esk decade) had become devoted to - Awn Elming. Awn came from a lower class family, without many social connections. Awn was unusual in testing into being an officer, despite her lack of 'good breeding'. Awn and One Esk were assigned to oversee part of the integration of what Anaander Mianaai had declared to be the Radch's final military conquest. Awn bucked Radchaii custom by setting up her household in a poorer part of an ethnically and socially divided city and trying to gain their trust rather than simply co-opting the existing social hierarchy. This was a pattern Breq later mirrored, when interacting with disadvantaged people.

Awn was caught up in the plotting of Anaander’s factions against each other, so part of Anaander ordered Justice of Toren to execute Awn for disobedience. The segment of Justice of Toren that received the order did so, as she was programmed to obey, but the segment immediately also killed the copy Anaander that had given the order. The remaining copies of Anaander onboard Justice of Toren then initiated the ship’s destruction, rather than allow a rogue troop carrier to exist. One segment of Justice of Toren managed to get off the ship – One Esk Nineteen.

One Esk Nineteen was left not just grieving her crew, and agonizing over having killed someone she loved; she was grieving the loss of herself. She was and is traumatized, cut off, only a fragment of what she was. She realized there was no 'right' or 'just' Lord of Radch who she was ultimately answerable to. They were all the person who had unjustly ordered her to kill Awn.

For nearly twenty years, One Esk Nineteen presented as human under various names, the latest of which is Breq. She planned her return to Radch space, wishing for revenge against the Lord of the Radch. Breq managed to get the attention of enough copies of Anaander to drag the 'internal' conflict into the light and spark a civil war. One faction of Anaander declared Breq to be a member of the extended Mianaai family (and by implication, human). She also gave Breq direct command of another AI ship, Mercy of Kalr, as well as command as fleet captain of all other military ships in Athoek system, with orders to keep the system safe. Breq made use of that authority to upset the social and economic dynamics of Athoek system, eventually declaring it and a neighboring system to be an independent (provisional) republic. Simultaneously, Breq also asserted the right of AIs to be self-determining.

Personality: Breq is what remains of a warship that participated in conquering many planets for the Radch empire over the course of 2000 years. She has killed a lot of people and doesn't seem to be wracked with guilt about it. It is, after all, what she made to do. But she is far more complicated than a killing machine.

Breq is a very angry person, her rage fueled by grief and loss. Outwardly she often appears calm, even blank. Ancillaries generally have complete control over the facial expressions and default to an eerie blankness. The difference in mannerisms is stark enough that there is generally no confusion about whether someone in a soldier's uniform is human or ancillary. Ancillaries can execute expressions and body language perfectly, but why would they? Still, Breq prefers to appear outwardly calm, even when she is feeling strong emotion. Anyone actually paying attention at all for very long knows she feels strongly too because, in her actions, she reacts strongly.

Despite her anger and seeming coldness, Breq is compassionate, with a keen sense of justice on behalf of people have been used or ignored by those more powerful than them. After determining that Anaander Mianaai has taken over the body of one of Mercy of Kalr’s lieutenants, Breq had the implants that gave Anaander control removed and tried to help the damaged person remaining find a new sense of self. When someone set a bomb off that seemed aimed at trying to kill Breq, she went to speak to the suspect in person, to bring them in without violence and insisted that the suspect’s full story be heard. When there was social tension and protests on Athoek station, Breq insists over and over again that the local government not overact and refuses to let her soldiers be used a lethally armed police.

Breq is loyal and once she’s taken responsibility for someone or something, she will do anything to protect them. She once took an almost certainly fatal jump off a bridge for a chance to a save Seivarden, a drug addict she had nursed back from near death, even though they had been disdainful and ungrateful to her. Seivarden later was part of her crew on Mercy of Kalr, and at one point tells a crewmate to trust Breq, because she will never let them down. Ever.

Breq is at once determined have control over her own life, and confident in her ability to take care of herself, but also has difficulty thinking of herself as a full-fledged person worth loving and protecting. 2000 years of being regarded as a tool is hard to shake, and her identity is more a work in progress than she likes to admit.

Powers & Abilities: Breq is a human body enhanced by tech implants. She has the most important memories of a 2000 year old ship, and clearly has very detailed memories from One Esk. On top of the combined combat experience of One Esk, she is significantly faster and stronger than trained human soldiers, a quick thinker, with particularly precise visual-spatial perception. She is an excellent shot. Ancillaries seem to have high endurance and high pain threshold, but there is no evidence that ancillaries have an improved healing factor.

Ancillaries were, after all, designed to be disposable non-people. Radchaii soldiers also wear or have implanted a metallic shield that can be extended over their entire bodies, even eyes and mouth. The shield doesn't auto-detect danger, however, so it must be raised with a certain level of conscious thought. Breq's shield is implanted, and her reflexes mean she can raise them in a fraction of a second. The shield is virtually impenetrable (although one alien species has developed the technology to do so) but it does not fully absorb force and friction. Broken bones and internal bleeding from impact can kill.

Ancillaries are also designed to interface with a 'main' AI and through the connection are able to make use of the communication arrays throughout the Radchaai territory to keep track of humans they are assigned to. All Radchaii citizens have at least a basic location tracker implanted, and soldiers have more sophisticated implants that let AIs track all kinds of physical data, from heartbeat, breathing, temperature, down to tiny physiological changes. With that much data, AIs can easily read most of their crew's emotional responses, 'hear' subvocalized communications, and with enough familiarity with a crew member, use context to have an educated guess what they're thinking moment to moment. Breq's single human brain doesn't have the processing power to split her attention in many different directions, but when she's in command of Mercy of Kalr she does interface with the ship enough to periodically check in on the human soldiers under her and is able to pull up the full range of data she had access to as Justice of Toren.
Breq’s strength and speed and visual acuity do not seem to be dependent on active implants, since she displays these abilities even when she’s deactivated anything that would give her away as an ancillary. The shield and interfacing implants can definitely be turned on and off, so I think they would be inactive on arrival.

Misc: Breq hums or sings nearly constantly unless she’s very upset. Unfortunately, the consensus is her voice isn’t particularly good.
Sample:
Breq and Morgan on Bakerstreet
Breq and Ahsoka on the TDM