Serafina Baxter

Serafina is an American mercenary, of English and Italian origin, working in Tokyo, Japan. She currently has loose ties to the Inquisitors.

Serafina Baxter
Characteristics
Name	Serafina Baxter
User	/u/we7887
Species	Human
Status	Alive
Age	30
Gender	Female
Birthday	23/12
Height	5'8"
Weight	65kg
Blood Type	A-
Affiliations	GSA (Formerly) Inquisitors (Casual)
Ward	17th Ward
Quinque	NA
Rank	NA
Image Gallery

Appearance

Sera would likely go unnoticed in most western countries, possessing a reasonably plain face and build. She's fairly athletic, but one wouldn't be able to tell the exact extent under her casual attire. Just that she was quite thin and narrow. She shies away from any excess makeup or jewelry, usually just opting for loose shirts and well fitted jeans on a day to day basis. For missions or assignments, she usually just wears navy trousers and a hoodie of the same shade.

Her hair is black, strait, and normally tied back in a ponytail, to avoid the requirement of ever doing anything with it. Her eyes are a dull green, but possess a certain 'keenness' to them. As for her skin tone, it is a light olive, closer to her mediterranean half than her norman. There are a number of substantial nicks and scrapes across her entire body, but, again, nothing that would ever be seen normally.

Personality

To be frank, Sera isn't the most moral of people. She is often times extremely dishonest, driven by greed and self desire alone. Her only responsibility is to herself, and she's quite happy that way. After a life of being forced into doing what others wanted, she's finally got the ability to work towards her own goals and influence, and can be quite relentless in holding onto that freedom. She has little issue when it comes to petty crime, or even the killing of killers, but isn't so morally bankrupt that she'd ever torture people for fun or kill innocents on an order. No, she's merely taken on her own view of how things should be done, something she wouldn't easily be dissuaded from. Sera can be quite close-minded in her views and options, and has trouble taking on criticism from others.

That's not to say that she's all terrible of course, no one is. She considers herself to have a relatively stable moral compass, and will rarely talk herself up or accept credit from others. As long as she gets what she wants, she's happy. To contrast, she's a very confident person, in both her combat ability and intelligence. This often leads to her being fairly cocky, internally. However, she usually has sense enough to never let that cloud her judgement in serious situations.

As long as it's of no major cost to her, Sera can be very kind to others. She fears being, or being seen as, useless. So, she will often do a fair bit to help. Whether this is business related, or simply personal.

She can rub along well with others, or not, if she wishes. She's adaptable enough socially that she can befriend who she wants to befriend, and isolate those who she sees as being a bother. Sadly enough, she's come to approach most such situations with this analytical distance. It's been years for her, since having any more than shallow friends or acquaintances. Along with this, she's very good at keeping relatively calm and collected. At least outwardly. Even if she's terrified, or pumped up on adrenalin. Generally, she'll act quite relaxed and confident. She'll usually end up being quite condescending to those about her, if she really doesn't care for what they think of her.

Serafina has no real hatred towards Ghouls, but that doesn't mean she minds killing them at all. In her previous life, that was almost a weekly routine. It's the same with people really. As long as they're not people. Once you put a life, family and personality to what would otherwise be a name and face, it makes it much weightier to take it all away. She's even refused jobs in the past if it all got too real. Despite there being a sizable paycheck waiting at the end of it all.

History

Serafina’s father and mother may as well have been exact opposites of eachother. Her father was the epitome of what a proper british investigator should be. He was staunch, gentlemanly and extremely proficient at exterminating ghouls. It was truly a marvel that he’d managed to hang onto Serafina’s mother for nigh on thirty five years. Just as her father was very stereotypically british, she was your catch all, emotional italian woman. She was either absolutely ecstatic, or shouting the roof off the house.

Serafina was born five years after they were married. They’d tried to have kids a number of times before her, but miscarriages and stillborns were the only eventuation. This didn’t bother her father too much, as he was never really too keen on having children. Her mother on the other hand, suffered from depression for the two years leading up to her birth.

While they undoubtedly loved each other, the clashing personalities, her father’s work and a city lifestyle made for a fraught relationship, and a very unstable environment for Sera to grow up in. She doesn’t have any memories of her father from back then, aside from him always fighting with her mother about who knows what. Credit to her, her mother did do her best to care for her in the early years, but by the time she was four, both were just about ready to send her off to boarding school. Not a second thought between them.

Between then and her fourteenth birthday, Serafina’s parents had a very hands off approach. She would spend nine months of the year at preparatory school, and the other three stuck in their London apartment, only catching the briefest glimpses of her father, and spending very little quality time with her mother. All the while, they ensured that she remained ahead on her studies, attended gymnastics classes and spoke Italian whenever she was home.

Around about the time she turned 14, after she’d already begun high school, but before O-Levels, her father announced they were moving to the USA. This fact in itself didn’t really bother her too much. From everything she’d seen in film and television, America looked like a fantastic place. The matter which she would soon become vehemently opposed to, was the fact that she’d be attending the junior academy for GSA operatives.

Alas, at only 14, she had no rights to oppose her father’s wishes, and they were on a plane within the week. He was taking up a job as a high ranking officer in the Dallas branch, while her mother stayed home, and she was shipped off to the academy. It was an academy in name at least. Unlike the preparatory schools she’d been exposed to up until that point, the GSA academy was more akin to a military boot camp. They treated the children like soldiers, and in the times when they weren’t in class, they were training, sparring or undergoing rigorous physical exercises. It was quickly made apparent just why her father had insisted on her getting so involved in gymnastics. Although even that prior experience was just about enough to have her keep up with the other students. Most had lost parents or family to ghouls, and were driven by a forceful determination that Serafina found hard to fathom. If not, then they were pressured by the GSA's take on ghouls into thinking the same way. Serafina would like to think such indoctrination didn't affect her, but the reality is she still has a slightly twisted view towards Ghouls.

Four years passed there. Four grueling years. As some compensation, she was free to do what she wished after it was done. Or at least, that’s how her father phrased it. The academy gave its students no qualification to speak of, and the only jobs she was suitable for were all low-earning and menial. Granted, she could have become a professional gymnast, or something of the like, but her father, surprisingly enough, knew Serafina quite well. He knew the sort of life she wanted for herself, and played to that by leaving the door to the GSA wide open.

The one thing he couldn’t control, yet, was where she worked. After a life of being shut away from society, Serafina wanted to go where she’d be able to find the most action. Not to mention, be as far away from her father’s influence as possible. New York turned out to be her destination of choice. In such a compact area, Ghouls were almost as much of a problem there as they were in Tokyo, so they would never turn away a willing soldier.

Over the next half decade, Serafina would become quite good at her job. She was never terribly good at taking on ghouls one on one, but her abilities were invaluable for the more subtle undertakings of the GSA. Her skills of investigation and deductive reasoning were about as average as her fighting prowess, but her niche skill set had her rise the ranks to Senior Agent, and she was given command of her own, small, covert group at age 24.

Things would begin to stagnate a bit for Serafina around the same time as she was given command over her small squad. To be sure, she had proved useful to the GSA, but there was no need for such a selfish and seemingly carefree person taking on a higher rank. In other words, there was no need for her to move up to a higher pay grade.

Such a dilemma soon had Serafina taking on small, legally questionable side jobs, while keeping up with her work at the GSA New York offices. She maintained the balance well, and due to well covered tracks, neither law enforcement or her colleagues suspected her of foul play. As time past, this balance would continued to shift back and forth, as she completed mercenary contracts on the side, investigated ghouls, and partook in numerous raids. Her ties between sides often meant she had the power to sway things in her favour. Using the GSA database, tipping off ghouls, getting information on GSA targets from underground associates, all while making a lot more than her father.

On the topic of family, Serafina did keep in contact with them. As much as any daughter might. She’d return there for a Christmas every now and again, and phoned her mother on a monthly basis. It turned out that her father was much more amiable when she was only meeting him in short bursts, and he had the common ground of the GSA to start conversations.

Things were going well overall. She was away from her parents, had a luxurious apartment, a stable job. She never had a partner of any sort, and her closest relationships were work friends, but that didn’t really bother her all too much. In the end, what did it all in was Sera’s greed, rather than some earth shattering event.

The raid had been planned and set up like any other. Serafina’s squad were to infiltrate the base of a prolific ghoul organization, and exterminate all found inside. This just ‘’happened’’ to coincide with another contract she’d been offered, to kill off a member of said organization in anyway she saw fit.

She’d been tasked with moving past their lines and planting the explosives necessary to bring down the building. The plan was for the main bulk of their forces to distract the ghouls at the entrance, while she and a few others planted the charges.

In short, it went poorly. Very poorly. Most of her squad perished, and she was assumed to have died with them.

In an instant, all she’d worked for was gone. Her career, her life, her possessions. It was a catch 22. If she made it known to the authorities that she’d lived, then it wouldn’t be long before they made the connections to her more dubious activities. Being dead was better than being in jail, but it was still terrible.

Eventually, she took on the last name Baxter, and used the last of her cash to buy herself a new identity, and a plane ticket to Japan. Friends had suggested the middle east was better for mercenary work, but cities had always had a strong draw for Serafina. She could also speak fairly fluent Japanese from her time in the academy, and interactions with the CCG for joint operations.

Now, she’s a dead woman, carrying out mercenary contracts in Tokyo, rather than New York. At the moment, she really just wants to build back up all that she lost. The political and racial tensions of Tokyo hold little interest for her.

Powers and Abilities

Expert Acrobat: From a young age, Sera was forced into doing acrobatics. Although never really enjoying it all that much, she eventually got to the point where it felt like a waste to quit, and continued it until the age of 18. From then on out, she incorporated it into her future career and combat style. Often she'll perform complex and flexible movements to evade damage, gain vantage points, and escape from foes.

Expert Covert Operative: Not being terribly powerful or outstandingly skilled in combat, Sera tended to prefer, and excel, at the more subtle missions and operations dealt out by her employers. Through the past decade, she's picked up a number of skills and experiences that currently serve her well in Japan. Including those in areas such as infiltration, reconnaissance, and sabotage.

Adept Markswoman: Like most in her previous line of work, Sera has received a fair amount of training in the use of basic firearms. She's no sniper or lone ranger, but she's certainly proficient enough to meet her target when calm.

Adept Close Combatant: Akin to her training with long range weapons, Sera can also boast much higher than average close combat skills. Pure hand to hand she struggles with, mainly due to a lack of any substantial strength, but give her a knife and she's legitimately dangrous (To humans). She'll incorporate her agility wherever she can, and although this burns through her stamina very quickly, it's effective for the short period of time where she can manage.

Multilinguist: Sera's mother ensured that she learn italian, insisting on her using it most of the time at home when her father wasn't there. As such, she picked up that second language fairly quickly, after English. She learnt Japanese and French to a basic level in high school, but never really got a full grasp of the former until she was required to converse with a plethora of native speakers, for her former job.

Threads

Thread Link	Thread Type	Thread Description
Wintertide-Inquisitors	Arc	After only having been in Tokyo a short while, Serafina is contacted by the organization she'd carried out a few freelance contracts for, and summoned to their club for a briefing of sorts.
Wintertide-Anteiku raid	Arc	As per the contract, Serafina would meet up with her 'coworkers' to capture a young ghoul boy, working in a cafe. She wasn't terribly impressed by the task, but made sure to do her job well never the less.
Snow Garden	Interaction	After the cature of Xeno, Serafina attempts to spend a night enjoying herself and her VIP privileges at Yuureien. However she is soon thwarted by an overly curious Anteiku employee.
Wolves and Sheep	Interaction	Whilst tracking a target on New Year's Eve, Serafina runs into a masked one-eyed Kakuja. The One-Eyed Cat.

Relationships

Name	Details
Daren Blackshire	Serafina has had very little direct interaction with Daren, so most of her thoughts on him are based on what she's seen. Like most in the Inquisitors, she thinks he's a bit caught up in the theatrics of it all, and while shrewd enough to think of framing Aogiri, he does seem a be a bit of a brute. Neither he nor Ayano follower her advice to wait outside for Xeno, instead they just decided to trash Anteiku. For the most part, she just sees him as a bit of hired muscle to do the dirty parts of the jobs.
Ayano Morino	Sera's thoughts on Ayano are much the same as those on Daren. The girl seems a bit more withdrawn though, and didn't try to contribute much to their one shared mission, other than fighting. She sometimes wonders why one so young would be undertaking such work, but sees most of the reason explained by the simple fact that she's a ghoul.
Shidu	Shidu, in the few times Serafina has met her, has never failed to make her chuckle a bit. She admittedly doesn't know much about her at all. However, the way she goes about with her edgy mask and serious demeanor always seems a bit over the top for such basic work. Sera quite likes to imagine what goes on inside the other woman's head, another past time which amuses her greatly.

Gallery

Serafina by /u/JokersMaze

Trivia

• Serafina's name means 'fiery one'. Combined with her last name, Baxter (an old english title for bakers), it can be thought of as fiery baker. At a stretch, 'Toast'.

• She's never had a romantic relationship, or been kissed before

• She has a phobia pertaining to most insects and arachnoids.