Rusalka

The Stojespal family is an old one of nobility with landholdings, an actual castle, and is closely connected to most of the businesses in town. Not unlike the mafia, there is a great amount of money controlled by the family as well, and Rusalka has some access to it. Whatever she might need is provided, and it is easy to acquire high-priced luxury items - on a personal level, anyway.

Rusalka's official training in engineering is primarily classroom learning, focusing on mathematics, aerodynamics, mechanical, and electrical engineering. She also has practical skills gained from her youth, being taught welding and other fabrication skills. Reading diagrams and blueprints comes second-nature, and figuring out what devices do isn't hard as long as it's not "sufficiently advanced technology." Her best specialization, of course, is in vehicles - repair, maintaining, rebuilding, or even building something new. Less apt is computer work; she's more than capable of using them but programming and advanced electronics is still in her future.

Meanwhile, Rusalka's father instilled the love of cars and driving into his daughter. Indulging her with plenty of time in the driver's seat as a little girl, discovering the talent to be a professional and shared her father's love for automobiles. If it has a steering wheel and pedals, or something passably similar, she can operate it very well; experienced in everything from Formula style race cars to heavy trucks to even driving the family's antique armored artillery piece for parades. Of course, her favorite by far is her beloved Ferrari sportscar she'd rebuilt from salvage and uses as a daily driving machine.

Despite her best efforts, Sally is well-versed in matters of protocol and social matters. As a Stojespal, she /does/ have to occasionally move in those upper circles, and despite her distaste for it she can put on a front and meet all the checklists of formality required. If sufficiently motivated, she might even enjoy it, and can actually perform all the social and political subtleties of a potential barony heiress. Still, she'd rather read the latest Car & Driver...

As old as the family is, and as widely tied as it has become with various cadet branches, side branches, and interrelations with much of the local area, there's often several people that can be called on for assistance. This is limited to simpler things - a few former soldiers and thugs to help in a fight if Sally knows there's going to be a threat, or people to help follow and investigate someone, for example. These aren't super-powered, just regular people from all kinds of backgrounds.

The Stojespal family's local power and wealth is not small, and there are those - especially those sides of the family not in the main branch - that seek it. Rusalka's father is a victim of one of these schemes that escalated significantly, since her mother holds the title of Baroness. This leaves Rusalka herself as a a potential target, which leaves her always watching over her shoulder and trusting people in very small and finite doses. While most people would take some things for granted - safety, security - Rusalka tends to take a a more careful and slightly paranoid path. Extra locks, always watching over her shoulder, being careful just what she reveals to others, and so on.

Rusalka's personality can be occasionally described as ascerbic or haughty, depending on circumstances. She is raised as a noble, with all the mental assumptions of superiority that it comes with. It also combines with a natural intelligence and a passionate love for certain things, leaving Rusalka to suffer fools poorly. She tends to hold others to her standard, expecting the same kinds of intelligence and respect, and doubly so from those born of blue blood.

For Rusalka, there is something more than just going from place to place. What to most people is a chore, or in some cases an enjoyable or even thrilling ride, is to Rusalka the very place she was born to be. She can be prickly about riding in passenger seats, not trusting other drivres, and her perfect afternoon is a few hours at a track and then a long drive in the countryside to unwind. Taking the scenic route, or the long way around, is something she'll do often, but never to the point she's late; she knows her skill well enough to be on time within a few seconds of when she intends to be. If she's not behind the wheel, she's often under it, either tuning or touching-up - or even repairing - a vehicle; it doesn't have to be hers. It's a love she's willing to share quite vocally...with the few she considers actual equals and friends.

Rusalka has lived a mostly sheltered life even with the various threats against her family's position. She also has the kind of intelligence and education that most don't, with a mathematical engineer's mindset. Obviously, this means there is often only one tool or one solution to a problem, namely the first one that solves all variables. One optimum driving line through a set of curves, one precise number solving an equation. Once she makes a decision, she sticks with it; the stubbornness and defiant streak that she has often making it even harder to convince her otherwise. The insufferable thing is, she's often right...but is still young and inexperienced enough to where it's not all the time.