Elías Murphy

Elías Murphy is the quick-thinking, reckless new gunner on the crew, who specialises in, well, shooting things — either on foot or from the weapons controls of the Pandora itself. He’s from what is essentially Space!Australia, and is Lu’s younger brother, and technically Regan’s husband thanks to a drunken celebration gone too far..

Personality
Growing up on the hot, dusty prison planet of Dundee, Eli picked up all the stereotypes of his ex-convict society: a heavy drinker, rabble-rouser, probably destined to wind up in prison just like both his parents (and thus equally desperate for the latter to not happen). He’s gregarious and has a loose temper, and often takes risks that he probably shouldn’t; the man is a streetwise-smart improviser, and prefers to learn via doing and tinkering.

He’s a crack shot/hand-to-hand combatant and calm under combat pressure, although he’s more easily irritated if someone’s just getting on his nerves socially — he tries to treat it like water off a duck’s back, and has honed the ability to laugh off uncomfortable situations, using jokes as a defense mechanism whenever he gets too out-of-sorts, but he still often hits his breaking point and can get riled up.

Eli wound up on the shadier side of the tracks because that’s where the easiest career opportunities were at home: private security, bodyguard work, occasionally going off-planet to accompany merchanter ships on trading runs that needed more heavy weaponry. As a result of his eclectic and on-the-go training, he has a bit of an engineer’s mindset too; he likes overhauling ship’s weapons systems and installing upgrades, and probably gets into enthusiastic hand-waving discussions with the ship tech about the pros/cons of overclocking the engine in favour of a bigger explosion :)

Consider him chaotic neutral: well-intentioned enough, but thanks to a serious self-preservation instinct, possesses a readiness for violence and a willingness to take the expedient shortcut rather than the honourable high-road. He has severe problems with straitlaced authority thanks to his home planet, and is not good at maintaining disguises at all (his outer rim planet accent keeps slipping back in).

History
Born the second of two siblings, Elías and his older sister Luisa grew up on Dundee (a planet originally established as a prison colony; now also a semi-sketchy but lurid gambling port and trade hub). He flourished in this environment and society: the blunt and cheerful people, the tendency to think outside the box, and most people with a rather flexible view of the law, considering how many had done a stint at Dundee Prison itself before getting tossed back out into society.

Eli was in and out of mechanic’s workshops as a youth, and always had a yen for machines, tooling around with them and with rifles after his mother taught him how to shoot. He likes things you can disassemble and reassemble with your hands, and was constantly practicing when he could, and hunting the occasional plains rabbit for dinner. (The animals had been brought on the original colony ships, then gone wild and overrun the planet. Figures.)

The Murphys had a rollicking family environment, a sprawling and tight-knit clan. Eli and Lu were inseparable, getting on each others’ nerves even as much as they protected and looked out for each other. He loved pestering her and her circle of friends, an unruly moppet always caught underfoot, always slipping into places where he didn’t belong. When Luisa left for school in the inner core planets, Eli was struck with mingled envy that her smarts gave her this experience; despondence at having been left behind; and just plain missing his older sister. Since she was the shining star of the family, their hopes and dreams bundled off with expensive tuition and the chance at seizing something new, he was determined to excel in the rough-and-tumble life back home.

When he came of age, he started going off-planet; he loves Dundee but still had a yearning for new sights, new experiences. The trips were always fairly short, temporary contract work in comparison to his now-indefinite stay with the SS Pandora.

He’s a new arrival on the ship, recruited during their first mission stealing the regalia on Numina. The previous weapons specialist had left the ship, and so with Lu knowing her brother was available, she got him in touch. Eli worked worked support on the heist as sort of his testing ground/trial mission, and then during the celebrations on Vim, met with Regan Quinn to discuss joining the crew long-term.

— at which point they got far, far too drunk and somehow wound up getting hitched, too, thus making his connection to the ship way more long-term than expected. Time to see if he can fix this while also fleeing the law!

Skill Sets

 * Hand-to-hand fighting, sharpshooting (both by hand and at the ships’ weapons), installing souped-up upgrades to the ship, tinkering with weapons.
 * Prefers a sniper rifle for long-range & blaster pistol for short-range.
 * Languages: Speaks English & Spanish fluently, and rusty Tagalog. Falls into more of a local pidgin when on Dundee.

Trivia

 * Has a complete sweet tooth, tends to snack when he’s nervous (his favourite: spicy dried cuttlefish). Whenever given free time to roam a station or city, will find a back-alley fast food place beloved by locals. Noodle bars are an especial fave.
 * Has a good poker face, but absolutely sucks at hiding his local accent.
 * Likes drinking whatever’s strong. Neat whiskey usually, though he might mix it up with some tequila shots w/ whatever the equivalent of space tabasco is.
 * Hobbies: Really good at arcade/sim games (they test your reflexes, after all!), often uses them to kill time on long journeys. Goes for morning jogs if the ship is grounded; gets restless easily and needs to burn off that excess energy. Also wanders the ship a lot when he’s having trouble sleeping.
 * Loves coffee. One of his #1 indulgences. Is seriously cranky in the mornings until he’s had it or, at least, a caffeine pill.
 * Possibly surprisingly, likes playing chess. His uncle taught him when he was a kid on a handmade set, and it’s one of the few things that absorbed Eli enough to settle him down.