Blue Marsalis

Blue Marsalis
Biographical Information
Rank	Geneticist
Affiliation	Weyland-Yutani Corporation Seegson
Status	Deceased as of 2184
Physical Description
Species	Originally human, later mutated into Xenomorph Queen
Gender	Female, Discreetly Genderqueer
Hair color	Shaved
Other Information
Notable facts	Survived the Cold Forge Xenomorph outbreak

Doctor Blue Grace Marsalis was a research scientist for Seegson specializing in Xenomorph biology. Formerly an employee of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, she was the head of the Glitter Edifice project aboard RB-232, known as "The Cold Forge", which sought to weaponize the Xenomorph. She was serving aboard the station when it was sabotaged by Seegson agents, and was caught up in the devastating outbreak that led to its destruction. Finding her way to Seegson, she continued her work for them for years, until she fell under threat of execution. To save herself, Marsalis transformed herself into a Xenomorph Queen variant using a serum synthesized during her studies, and was pursued by the United States Colonial Marine Corps to Hasanova Data Solutions, triggering another Xenomorph outbreak.

Biography

Career

While working towards their PhD in Applied Epigenetics from Johns Hopkins University, Blue was diagnosed with Bishara's Syndrome. This is a terminal, epigenetic, and degenerative disease that ultimately left her bed-ridden. As the disease progresses, she began commandeering a synthetic surrogate body to work.

On RB-232

Although tasked with weaponizing the Xenomorph by Weyland-Yutani, she was secretly using the company's resources to try and develop a universal cure that would remedy not only her own affliction, but potentially all genetic illnesses.

Blue was one of only two people to escape the Cold Forge alive, the other being the synthetic Marcus, who was heavily damaged.

Personality and traits

Blue Marsalis was a solitary woman who kept to herself and actively disliked many of crew aboard the station, especially Kambili, who had often antagonized her.

Blue possessed a strong and determined will to reach her goals. Blue also possessed a ruthless streak as she frequently used Chimpanzee's as hosts for the Xenomorphs and without aneasthetics, her actions were motivated in acquiring a substance which could not only potentially hold the cure for her condition, but for others as well. As such, Blue believed the ends justifed the means though despite this mentality, she was reluctant to sacrifice the personnel that were trapped in the kennels, as keeping them closed was to prevent the Xenomorphs from spreading to other parts of the station, Her reluctance to do so was also partly because she discovered that her former lover, Anne Wexler was also trapped in the kennels.

While Blue for the most did have a clinical and focused mindset, she was prone to emotional outbursts when it concerned things or people that she had a connection to, in addition to this, Blue also had a vengeful streak as she attempted to kill Dorian with a powered loader in revenge for what he did to Anne.

Appearances

• Alien: The Cold Forge
• Alien: Into Charybdis
• Alien: The Roleplaying Game (mentioned only)
• Alien: Seventh Circle (mentioned only)

Behind the scenes

Blue is female and throughout most of their appearances, she/her pronouns are used to refer to them. However multiple points throughout the text subtly touch on Blue's relationship with gender. It is implied and later confirmed by the author that Blue would have preferred they/them pronouns, but for a variety of reasons didn't assert that preference to anyone except close friends. This article may contain a mixture of she/her and they/them pronouns to refer to Blue, reflecting the content of the text. The term "genderqueer" is used in the physical description section to reflect the lack of a specific label for Blue's gender identity.

• At multiple points throughout the text, Blue indicates that they enjoy the fact that the synthetics they pilots have a masculine appearance and/or voice, and states that they prefer to pilot a synthetic with a male body.
• After taking on the Xenomorph Queen form, the text notes that the voice system Blue created to communicate sounds genderless.
• In the Xenomorph Queen form, Blue expresses anger after Becker refers to them using the pronoun "it." After this, Mary says "You were a woman, once... maybe she?" to which Blue replies "whatever."
• After Blue's death, Father (a modified Seegson Rook), refers to Blue using the singular "they" pronoun twice. Father is one of the synthetics who Blue piloted. In many ways, they were one. Blue had shared much of their mind and innermost fears with him. At the time this occurred, the two had been aboard the Blackstar together for approximately three years and Father viewed Blue a "dear, dear friend."

Upon being asked by a reader, the author confirms that Blue has a complicated relationship with gender and prefers they/them pronouns. In the original Into Charybdis draft, White included a scene where Blue stated their preference for they/them pronouns outright. This ultimately was removed due to criticism that it seemed like White was trying to be "too political." The author states that the other characters in the story would have been too selfish to understand, with the exception of Father/Rook, who honors Blue's wishes.