Deputy Director Maria Hill

Full Name: Maria Lorelei Hill
Nicknames/Aliases: Ma'am, Miss Deputy Director, Maleficent (obviously not to her face), Lady Ice, Snow Queen
Age: 34
Occupation: Deputy Director of S.H.I.E.L.D
Home Town: Chicago, Illinois (USA)



Species: Human
Sexual Preference: Bicurious
Marital Status: Single
Ethnicity: American
Eye Colour: Blue
Hair Colour: Black
Defining Features: A bird tattoo on her left foot that she first got when she stopped self-harming. There are eight swallows, each marking a milestone in her life:
Birds 1-6  each mark an additional two years since she stopped harming. Bird 1 and 5 also symbolise the start and end of her enlistment in the armed forces. Bird 7 she got when she became Deputy Director of SHIELD. Bird 8 is the final one, marking the fact that she made it this far through thick and thin. Given that she normally doesn't wear anything that shows off her feet, very few have actually seen the tattoo.
Maria has cutting scars all along her forearms and on her thighs, however they have become so faded that you can only see them if you're actually looking.
Face Claim: Cobie Smulders



Personality: Maria is a strong woman who by this point in her life refuses to take any crap from anyone; this tiger has definitely earned her stripes over the years. She exudes an air of confidence which demands respect and around her co-workers she is always a mask of professional calm; it takes a lot to rattle her cage. When off-duty or with a friend, she allows herself to display more emotion. Often-times she is perceived as intimidating, cold, calculated and heartless, which does nothing in winning her any love or admirers. But Maria couldn't care less. Save for a very select few, she doesn't care about being liked.

She doesn't trust easily and builds (very effective) barriers and walls preventing anyone from getting close to her. However she is extremely loyal and protective to those she cares about and who make it into her elite trusted circle. Do not break that trust; you will severely regret it. Maria cannot tolerate incompetence and when she has to deal with the incompetence or idiocy of agents and rookies, she can make their life a misery to teach them a lesson. Do the job right, do it well, or get the hell out of here. Her favourite division is science, because unlike the rest of the regular recruits who whine about training and too much reading material, the scientist agents just get on with it and do their job. Not to mention they do it extremely well.

Maria is also responsible for the Tactical Questioning Training of new field agents, to see if they will break under pressure and thus jeopardise a mission. Many young dreams have been broken like this, but SHIELD needs only the best so Maria doesn't feel even the slightest bit bad. However, though she may be tough and scary, Maria's not completely heartless. If she sees a recruit trying their very hardest but struggling, she will take the time to get them a mentor. Or, in rare cases (because she's really not that fond of newbies) she might actually help them herself. Just don't come running back to her after that one time or attempt to make friends; she's here to work, not to socialise. Least of all with rookies.

Skills and Talents: Being a trained SHIELD agent, she is highly talented in interrogation, unarmed combat, marksmanship and the handling and processing of massive amounts of information. She is skilled at directing several operations and operatives at once. Maria is also responsible for the Tactical Questioning Training of new field agents.
Powers: None



Parents: Lorelei Hill (deceased), James Hill, Henry Wilcox (biological father)
Siblings: None
Other Important Figures: Nick Fury, Phil Coulson,  Natasha Romanova, Ophelia and Aldred Holmes (grandparents; deceased)
History: 33 years ago, a healthy baby girl with a shocking mop of jet-black hair came into the world. The day should have been one of joy and happiness; it ended in tragedy. Due to complications during labour (uterine tears) which resulted in internal haemorrhaging and interfered with the baby's oxygen supply, Lorelei had to have an emergency cesarean section. The baby was saved but Lorelei died without even getting to hold her precious child. Seeing his wife die was something James never recovered from. That night when he held the newborn in his arms, all he could feel was sorrow, anger and regret. If only Maria hadn't been born, or she'd been born premature, he'd still have his darling Lorelei.

The next day James's mother came to look after the newborn and weeks later her husband moved in with James and Ophelia. The parents could see quite clearly their son's dislike of the child since he never wanted to hold or cuddle her like a normal father would. The rare times that he did hold Maria, he would become silent and depressed; eventually he would hand her off and disappear down to the pub. The couple hoped that with time, James would recover and come to love his daughter, for after all she was his flesh-and-blood and the only link that he had to Lorelei left. But it was not to be.

All through Maria's childhood, attention, praise or indeed any kind of affection from her father was an extremely rare event. Although his parents tried to keep James in check, he still found ways to express his resentment to Maria, albeit in subtle ways. The girl became desperate to win his approval and love and excelled both at school, swimming and gymnastics which Ophelia and Aldred sent her to, always being in the top of her class. But nothing she did was ever good enough for her father.

When Maria was 11, her grandparents died in a car crash. A drunk driver swerved to avoid a rabbit on the road and crossed into the other lane, plowing right into the Holmes's car. The couple died at the scene. The accident caused James to go completely off the rails and he began drinking more heavily and becoming more violent. Despite the fact that Maria wasn't even at the car at the time, he still blamed her for his parents death. From then on her teenage years were spent in a whirlwind of abuse. Her father was a vicious drunk and would often beat her while shouting a tirade about how she ruined his life. When she began to fail at school, James got even worse. She would often try and stay over at various friends, but when she eventually returned there was hell to pay.

At 13 one of her high-school friends revealed to her that she was cutting. Though repulsed at first, within a few months Maria tried it for herself and since that moment it became her way of dealing with everything that was going on. The secret, for the most part, was easy enough to hide during school. However she ended up dropping out of gymnastics because competing became impossible without revealing her cutting. Swimming, where her body was less scrutinised was easier to keep at, thanks to board-shorts and waterproof make-up.

Maria ended up graduating high-school a year early and at 17, decided that she wanted to join the US Air Force. Her father, who would do anything to get rid of her was more than happy to give his consent for her to go. Before she went, she got a tiny bird tattoo on her foot to mark the new life she was about to embark on. At first she had troubles, especially when she tried to stop harming and failed (by that point it had become such an addiction that she could not deal without it). Finally after being reprimanded by one of the senior officers and told to sort it out or she was finished, Maria managed to quit, though detox was a bitch. She decided in that moment that she wasn't going to let anything from her old life hold her back from creating a new and better one for herself.

The next eight years flew by. The woman absolutely loved being in the armed services, and quickly rose up the officer ranks. When the compulsory eight years had finished, Maria was thinking of extending her enlistment, however she was offered a job at SHIELD instead, one that she happily took.

SHIELD turned out to be the best place that she could work. Never a dull moment and always plenty of action. After many dangerous and interesting missions (which are highly classified, thank you very much), Maria did a brief stint in Madripoor, which got her noticed by various heads of state and government around the world who viewed her as an extremely competent and efficient agent. Over the years Maria rose up through the ranks of SHIELD, until Nick Fury made her the Deputy Director, effectively his right hand.

Addendum: Since joining the site, the following has been added onto Maria's history:
☆Henry Wilcox is her biological father but was not allowed to tell Maria this due to Fury's orders. Wilcox couldn't leave SHIELD either because Fury held Maria as a bargaining chip over Wilcox's head.
☆John Garrett was Maria's training officer when she got recruited to SHIELD.
☆During her early years within SHIELD, Maria had a relationship with Patience Moran. Moran later went on to become Maria's secretary (though it was all a surprise to Maria) due to her violent tendencies in the field.



Alias: Calypso
Contact Information: PM or Skype
Other Characters: Dean Winchester, Irene Adler, Thor
How Did You Find Us? I'm the founder, ducky.



Roleplay Sample: To say that the day had been hectic would be putting it mildly. The entire day was an absolute shambles. Maria had mission reports up to her ears to sign off on, one of the science labs had been blown up by some chemical experiment, thirty lab rabbits had somehow escaped and were running rampant aboard the Helicarrier, and to make things worse, the flu was going around meaning that SHIELD’s medical team had quarantined enough agents to their rooms to make them seriously understaffed. Joy.

Being the Deputy Director, this all fell to Maria’s shoulders to sort out. Because it wasn’t as if Director Fury was going to do it. He, apparently, had more important stuff to do. All of it classified. He never had time for trifles such as lab animals escaping or laboratories exploding. He had no time for the World Security Council either, it seemed, which was why this afternoon it was Maria greeting the newest councilman, not Fury. The Director had flat out refused to do it, saying he did not want to deal with the WSC and that he had better things to do with his time than greet a member who was probably going to be as much of a dumbass as his fellow councilors.

At least he’d been thoughtful enough to get her a file on this Mycroft Holmes. Some of the notes were blacked out due to her clearance level, but on the whole Maria had gotten a good enough understanding of him. Extremely patriotic, smart and invaluable to his country. He was logical, rational and liked order. That would be a very interesting first; to actually have a logical WSC member, as opposed to ones who ordered a nuke to be thrown at Manhattan without a second thought. Obviously Fury had not yet read the file.  

Right now Maria was running late, very late. Assessing the damage done to the laboratory had taken longer than she had expected. At least the escaped rabbits would be easy to handle – according to their handlers, they glowed in the dark. Armed with some tranquilizer darts, Agent Barton would be able to get them back to Lab 15 in no time. She had just enough time to dart back into her office, grab the councilman’s file, throw a pack of Pop Tarts at Thor who had been waiting for her for reasons she couldn’t begin to understand, and begin the mad dash to the command deck.

Finally, with two minutes to spare, Maria sunk into the leather chair with a sigh and brought up the walls around her. She took a moment to close her eyes and massage her temples, just sitting in the darkness. It was the first bit of peace she’d gotten all day. Ten seconds later she sat up and turned the connection on. Time to get this show on the road. The faster she got this over and done with, the faster she could get a coffee or five. An obscene amount of caffeine running through her veins was exactly what she needed right now. “Councilman Holmes, I’m Deputy Director Maria Hill,” she greeted the man as he came up on screen. “As you can see, Director Fury could not make it to the meeting, so I will be filling you in. Congratulations on the new position.”

Miss Deputy Director, what a pleasure to finally meet you. I have heard much about you from Agent Fanbo- ahem, I mean Agent Coulson.

~*~
Oh look, it's me! Hi, me! *waves* Accepted, added, have fun, blahblahblah...