Mabel

Mabel had been meaning to get back to the gym...it had been years of sort of starting and stopping again, though, so she struggled even before arriving at The Arena or hitting the road in the caravan north. Born from this struggle, she'll get into good shape and find the motivation to get an exercise routine going in Willowmoor.

Mabel had done blue streaks through her brown hair a few months before the bombs dropped. Even though it's not an easy look to keep up with, she finds ways to keep the blue color touched up because she likes it.

Mabel typically wears a pair of jeans and comfortable sweater with nice hiking boots (at least, they used to be nice before she wore them crosscountry). She'll become the owner of the very second Laura Vest, which she'll wear during the colder months. Her vest is made with threads of blue and red.

Mabel was born in the Before Times, so not much is known about her life before the bombs dropped. She and her two sisters ran a clothing store in a small mountain town near the city whose arena they fled to when the world ended. Mabel was the general manager and stalwart cashier, jobs she flourished in since she's the most extroverted of her sisters.

Mabel and her two sisters, Sadie and Laura, had the misfortune of running across a post-apocalyptic neighborhood christened New Crestview. In that little community, three women were more than welcome since there was an abundance of men. Their self-proclaimed ruler wanted to repopulate the earth like Noah in the biblical account.

At first, New Crestview welcomed them kindly, offering food and shelter. The women had no idea where to go, but they did not consider staying; even then, they felt something was off about the place. Sure enough, as they talked about carrying on, the settlement's leader brought up their unpaid toll - the price to pass through the territory. He gave them two choices: leave the youngest behind and everyone lives, or he would slit the youngest's throat and force the other two to stay anyway. He already had the upper hand since they had all been apprehended by his barbaric men in their attempt to leave. The three sisters, as it turned out, did not see things the same way.

Sadie refused the offer, suggesting she would simply end her own life with Laura's death. Mabel, aghast, tried in vain to negotiate a new deal that the misogynistic leader simply began talking over, as if she wasn't even a person. Laura, as it happened, gave herself willingly to save her sisters.

Sadie and Mabel were thrown out and threatened with execution if they came near the settlement again. The pack of men who followed them out with loaded guns and ferocious expressions reinforced that threat, so the sisters had no choice but to carry on, eventually arriving at the arena without their little sister.

This obviously weighs on the two surviving sisters. For Mabel, she cycles through periods of extreme rage and a lethargy so deep that she would be happy to die. She also holds grudges against both her sisters - Laura for giving in, and Sadie for offering to throw both their lives away. What was Mabel supposed to do? End her own existence as well? She probably would have felt like it in the moment, but she does not suffer from suicidality. Instead, she channels her pain into something useful by mending clothes for other people, their gratitude chipping away slowly at the heavy stone around her heart.

Mabel found her sense of morals shifted somewhat after the experience in New Crestview. She certainly was anti-death penalty before, but now she thinks people like that village leader should be put to death for the way the treat others. She had felt like cattle to him, and she knew he thought of her little sister as no more than breeding stock. She wants men like that to suffer, and she wants to live in a society that sees to it.

She ends up in a strange paradox wherein she's mistrustful of anyone who claims a solitary leadership role...unless they use it to implement laws that align with her morals...

Mabel is motivated by a need for justice and thirst for revenge that will likely never be satisfied. She can't envision the fiery destruction of New Crestview without knowing her sister could suffer that fate if it happened...she's feared for her sister's life as well, even though she knows how they intend to use her. She saw the rage of that village leader...she knows what that leads men to do... Ultimately, she wants her sister back, and that loss has shifted her motivation toward an itch she can never scratch. Even so, she entertains vengeful fantasies that inevitably pour out when Willowmoor deals with its first predators and violent offenders.

Mabel has been mending her own clothes since she was little, a skill her mother and older sister nurtured, and which had been passed down by the women in her family for generations now. If she's not a natural at it, that's only because she's been doing it for so long. She's also great at chatting with people and getting them to immediately warm to her.

She's learning she's not great at managing her anger.

Likes

• Latin music
• Shopping
• Sugary lattes

Dislikes

• Men (at least for a time)
• Tequila

Mabel joins the Advisory Council, goading her sister into joining with her, and when it dissolves, they both join the Caravan Conclave. When that dissolves in the face of Willowmoor's official government taking shape, Mabel will become a representative of the people, serving her district for multiple terms.

Mabel arrives at the arena with her sister, though she'll end up drifting away from her as she makes new friends.

Sadie, the older sister who survived the trip to the arena with her, and Laura...the younger sister who didn't. The whereabouts of their still-living father are unknown; it's easier for Mabel to presume he's dead.

Mabel's family was Catholic going back generations, but she had already abandoned that god and belief system before the world ended. Now, she's even anti-religion as she saw how the villains of New Crestview used old-fashioned and barbaric fundamentalist Christianity to organize their society.

Mabel has always considered sewing to be a hobby, but she also enjoyed singing karaoke and going to the movies with friends. She's finding boxing might be a new hobby...

She has no pets.