"It's important to always look on the bright side. The world gets dark enough without help."
Mercedes Hartley had always wanted to be a Drifter. Growing up in the poor quarter of Nortune, Mercedes' escape from the humdrum monotony of her busy life was adventure stories. Eventually she left home to try to achieve her dreams and provide for her family. Unfortunately, she was seperated from her group during her first delve into ruins, and she survived only by synchronizing with a truly ancient ARM. Unable to easily return home due to her inability to hand the ARM over to the Kislev authorities, Mercedes has decided to remain a Drifter, supporting her family from afar. Mercedes is a cheerful young woman with bottomless reserves of energy and a positive attitude - hardly the stereotype of a hard-bitten stoic Drifter, but Mercedes is all right with finding her own way.
Mercedes has an ARM that she apparently recovered from the depths of the ruin she was lost in. And it is ancient, one of the oldest relics she has ever seen, though she does not truly know its history. She generally keeps it concealed when not in use. It is synchronized with her, though Mercedes has no idea why it accepted her and nobody else.
Mercedes' ARM is a pistol of ancient manufacture. It looks somewhat like a sleek eight-chambered revolver, though it isn't; the cylinder doesn't rotate unless she turns it, being more of an option select. It also doesn't fire bullets; even the most basic option fires bolts of light and energy and can 'charge' into a brilliant destructive beam. Many of the chambers are empty and do nothing at all. It does not appear to need to be reloaded, which is good, because Mercedes has no idea how you would do that.
The ARM also had an unusual effect on Mercedes when she synchronized with it, allowing her to 'overclock' her body and speed herself up well beyond human limitations. It refuses to fire for anyone else, giving them a nasty electrical shock if they try.