Rattle, aka Mesmer, is an Android manufactured by Accra Intelligent Systems Laboratories and a member of the Ring City Wreckers. They're a very chipper, very friendly person to be around, always making an effort to not be rude or to not dunk on a friend if it meant them feeling embarrassed. When the crew is dunking on a rival artist they'll be happy to play along, but they're very reserved about turning that energy on someone they know more personally. Paired with that warm vibe, Rattle maintains a deep fascination with the organic phenomena of macabre and mortuary subjects- being a synthetic person with a hardlight body, the notion of decay as a journey of transformation beyond organic death is an alien and mesmerizing subject, one which is seemingly inseparable from Terran artistic traditions from all corners of the world. They know it's weird to say they "love death;" it's not so much the terminus point of life that draws their interest but the commencement of the whole host of processes that follow it which draws their curiosity. For someone who does not experience decay in the same way as organic people this interest can come off a bit academic, but they also find the lighter pop-cultural depictions of death and the processes of post-life to be equally enjoyable. When they're around the crew, though, they try to keep a lid on this topic, since they know it can be a bit touchy for non-Androids to dwell on.
Like any Accra droid, Rattle's knowledgebase was cultivated through exposure to archives of old Terran media to help them develop their own connection to and understanding of a particular task or skill. Rattle was originally designed as an agricultural aide meant to apply pesticides to vulnerable crops in remote locations, like lunar homesteads or space stations. Their kernel of consciousness first studied instructional pesticide and chemical dispersement videos, as well as old-world environmental impact surveys documenting the aftermath of overuse of industrial agents. Historical documentaries about crop damage leading to famine bridged Rattle's media intake into Terran periods of pestilence and death, into studies of the processes of decay and the ways organic matter becomes nutrient for new life to grow. Videos about the influence of death on pre-industrial Terran cultures as portrayed through their art, painting, sculpture, literature and superstitions led them to studies of death in pop culture and the Stargazers' art movement of the late-21st to early-22nd centuries, where Terra's early starfarers spent their free time on months-long voyages painting their experiences traversing the cold and forbidding void of space. Rather than pursuing a guaranteed career in precision chemical dispersal, Rattle emerged from their time in the Accra stacks with a further curiosity for not just the traditions of deathly symbolism in art that Terrans had made, but how they could make more of it themselves, and so left Accra to enroll themselves in an interplanetary art school, in hope that they might encounter similar themes from other worlds' cultures. It was here where Rattle made friends with Paulie, and later became a member of the Ring City Wreckers. When asked how an Android ended up in art school, Rattle always like to tell people they "transferred some credits from a farming degree."
Adopting the handle "Mesmer" and taking to the age-old canvas of public walls, the aerosol Android is happiest when they're able to paint large and striking murals. They've never actually used their drone body's spray nozzle for its intended purpose in delivering careful applications of industrial pesticide, but they learned very quickly that it could spray paint in a broad range of patterns, at different levels of pressure and with a mechanical degree of precision. A Mesmer tag is often sharp, round, glossy and bloody, inspired by lettering from pulpy horror movies dating back to before the dawn of the starfaring age. Behind every Mesmer tag is a large and detailed mural, often depicting scenes or images of chilling macabre that often require multiple extended sessions to complete. When they're running with the Wreckers and tagging as a group, Mesmer often likes to make their hardlight-projected body look like it was holding their drone body like a spray can, floating and flying around to toss up simpler tags at tall heights and odd angles, but when they're working on a solo piece they find the stealth of just working as a little drone lets them get a lot more done without being detected by Titan security. When they plan a design, they'll use the Grid Method to keep track of small details on a larger scale; rather than projecting their hardlight body, Mesmer will break their mural down into a grid of squares and use their central lens to project their sketches in front of them, utilizing their integrated gyroscope to control which part of the grid is projected depending on what altitude, what oscillation and yaw they are presently hovering at. Additionally, when they're working on a large and complicated mural, Mesmer is very good at tucking away in small spaces- air ducts, drainage pipes, I-beams and rooftops- hiding out of sight between security passes only to flutter back out to resume painting once the coast is clear. While security is well-practiced at chasing most writers over fences and down alleyways, they are not as prepared to pursue or intercept an Accra droid.
The first time Paulie brought Rattle through to meet the Wreckers, the crew was skeptical. Their newest member, Myzka, might not have been from PS-21, but they were at least out in the streets putting up tags and putting in work. Rattle was a painter, but that didn't automatically make you a writer. Paulie was insistent- no, no, you gotta see this guy's work. The ideas they got, the ways they like to play with typography and murals, the places they can put 'em and the speed at which they can put a piece together. Paulie met Rattle in his art classes and he saw untapped potential in them, he knew if he linked them up with the rest of his friends their work would really shine, having the motivation and encouragement to work on a larger scale than any art store canvas could offer. Regina told Paulie they weren't looking to run an open clubhouse, if your guy wants to be in they gotta be real. Zumiel and Zunara, unsure how to intimidate someone made of light, crowded around Rattle and asked what they bring to the Wreckers. Rattle smiled warmly.
When Paulie was bringing Rattle out to meet his friends, the Android noticed their hangout spot was somewhere inside an empty storage facility on the outskirts of the Dockyards. The building was in poor repair but it still looked to be owned and maintained, just enough to not lose claim to a valuable piece of real estate. On their way up to the Wreckers' hideout Rattle noticed a distinct golden discoloration on some of the load-bearing metal beams keeping the walls up- whoever owned this building has been using a very specific industrial pesticide to prevent any kind of infestation of space critter from moving out of a cargo starship and into this quiet, empty structure. The golden stains were an indication that the chemical being sprayed was a cheaper brand of pesticide known to cause respiratory inflammation in Inner Belt species, hardened jellies in Caelians and softer cartilage growth in Callistans- meaning softer, duller quills. Whoever was spraying this building for pests hasn't been back for a little bit, so they're likely due to return, and given the slipshod job they do putting chemical stains on the building's support structures, the crew might show up one day and breathe lingering industrial chemicals. There's likely someplace safer to meet up and hang out, but other seemingly-abandoned spaces may have signs of pesticidal chemical treatment as well.
The Wreckers were, of course, happy to welcome Rattle as their newest member, and with a little support and cultivation, Paulie's instincts were proven correct. Mesmer murals going up in impossible places, at impossible scales and with seemingly no ropes, cables or support structure of an artist to work from has really turned heads among the other graffiti crews; the macabre imagery got 'em thinking the Wreckers weren't no one to play around with. Rattle was just happy to make new friends, keep studying their art and continue making new works of their own.