Kaiju-King42 tagged me to give eight facts about Sam. I'm not gonna tag anyone else, but here we go anyway.
Fact #1 : I honest don't remember a thing about Sam's conception. For all I know, she might have been made for the UCA. I don't thiiiiiiink she was, but I also don't know for sure, so fuck me, right? Sorry, Sammy-baby. I'll treat you better from now on.
Fact #2 : What I
can tell you is that Sam was originally a much less important character, a notable side character at best. She's since grown increasingly prominent to the point where she can safely be considered the co-lead with Alex. In fact, she remains important in Titan World longer than Alex does! Of course, that's because Alex retires with a wife and son while Sam remains alone for the rest of her career afterwards. So, uh... wins some, lose some, Sam.
Fact #3 : Sam was born in tiny Vermont, Illinois. Maybe having so few peers to play with is why she's a loner, I dunno.
Fact #4 : Sam's middle name is Athina, an alternate spelling of Athena, the Greek goddess of defensive war. This was 100% her military father Harold's idea and had to be bargained for. He forfeited giving her a majority female name. Her middle school teacher mother Ava named her after one of her older brother.
Fact #5 : Sam's father was killed in a car crash when she was sixteen. After receiving the news, she refused to speak or leave home for three days, as well as hung up her fencing sword. Though she had fenced for nine years, won a handful of state titles, and placed in two national competitions, it had always been Harold who encouraged her and she could not bring herself to keep participating in the sport after his untimely death.
Fact #6 : Sam's most embarrassing secret is that she has a rather gaudy lightning bolt tattoo on her left thigh. She got it the day she turned eighteen in rebellion against her mother, who had always been overprotective and controlling, but Ava refused to pay it any attention, so she has only regretted it ever since.
Fact #7 : Sam was wed to firefighter Ryan Savage for nearly four years before they divorced amiably. The two had realized they married on a feeling that was not love within their first year together, but refused to admit it out of pride. This left Sam with a quiet fear of commitment that is partially to blame for the inability of her and Alex Shepherd to maintain a relationship despite caring deeply for each other. Ryan was later killed by an Aberration.
Fact #8 : Uh... Sam is the same height as me. That's sort of neat, right?