Introduction

Honor Watchmaker is the president of the International Taskforce for the Conservation of Timelines (INTACT) and its sub-organization, the Committee of Officers Against Time Travel Abuse (COATTA). INTACT’s stated goal is to protect timelines and enforce international time travel law worldwide.

Backstory

Early Years

Honor Genesis Watchmaker was born to a devout Christian couple in the Cascades of Northern California. Her parents named her Honor after the virtue they hoped she would embody, and Genesis because she was born on the first day of the new century. She was the first of seven children, all of whom were also given virtue names. As the oldest of many siblings, she was used to responsibility from a young age. She was always an overachiever at school; her faith motivated her to study hard and pursue a career she thought would help people. So, naturally, she decided to go into politics.

Education

After graduating high school, Honor pursued a degree in political science at a university in Oregon. While away from home, meeting lots of new and different people and learning about the world, her outlook on life changed significantly. She became agnostic and questioned her political ideology.

Actually, she had a bit of a rebellious phase. She adopted an edgy fashion sense, tried some drugs, and became involved in the arts, which is not very rebellious by the standards of most people, but it made her parents freak out. For a while, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to go into politics after all. But she stuck with it, earning her bachelor’s degree in political science in 2121 and her master’s in 2123.

Then, she moved back to California to work on a PhD in political science. She later got a PhD in international law. Time law in particular interested her. So of course, she went back to school and got her third PhD in time studies.

Career

With her political science credentials, Honor initially worked in international relations before going into international law. She was never exactly a big deal in this field, although she certainly could have been if she hadn’t been so busy getting three PhDs. She lived for her education.

While she was finishing her time science PhD, Honor applied to the National Time Bureau for a research permit to time travel, hoping to study the political situation of the 21st century and its effect on modern law. Her application was accepted and she was granted a permit in 2137. She made several journeys into the past, going from 2137 and 2138 back to 2047 and 2056.

This alone was impressive, as time travel permits were rarely granted, and being allowed multiple trips into the past was also rare. Even more impressive was the research Honor published in 2139 based on what she learned there. Her research caught the attention of the international organization in charge of time travel, INTACT, and their subordinate law enforcement organization, COATTA. They reached out to ask if Honor would be interested in a career in time law enforcement. They always needed more officers; there was a shortage of qualified people, and they believed she had what it took. Honor accepted the offer immediately. Once her training was complete, she became a full officer of time law in 2141, and she loved the job more than anything else she’d done in her life (even getting PhDs).

What time law enforcement actually involves on a day-to-day basis is kept strictly hidden from the public, but it goes without saying that there’s a lot of time travel. Honor was spending more time in the past than in the present, shutting down illegal time travel operations and sending ne’er-do-wells to INTACT TimeSafe Correctional Facility. She was very tough on time crime, even when it was victimless. She quickly became the preeminent officer in her division.

In 2151, the director of COATTA retired. An election was held to determine the new director, and Honor was chosen. As director, she was still enforcing time law, but also overseeing all the other officers and their policies. She was considered tough, but fair.

Then in 2158, the president of INTACT suddenly died. Honor was a good candidate for his replacement, due to her history of strict law enforcement, her record of arrests, her loyalty to INTACT, and her skill in wielding authority. All members of the board except one voted for her, and she was sworn in as president.

Now, Honor has been presiding over INTACT for two years. Her plans for the future of the organization are unclear, but it seems like she has some big things in the works.

Personality

Honor could be described as hypercompetent. No matter the situation, she always seems to be in control. She knows exactly what’s going on, even when it’s not easy to see, and she’s never uncertain about what needs to be done. This unwavering confidence, along with her lofty ambitions and a high opinion of herself, have driven her life and brought her where she is today. Her personality makes her perfectly suited to her job.

Power is something Honor has long aspired toward, but now that she finally has it, she’s not going mad with it. She navigates her position of authority with the same cool control she displays in every area of her life. This makes her all the more intimidating to those around her.

Despite this, she’s not too serious. She actually acts lighthearted and casual a lot of the time, but in a way that asserts her authority rather than undermining it. Honor can put people down just by being flippant and jokey, treating them with only as much seriousness as she thinks they’re worth, emphasizing how much more important than them she is. So, although she has a sense of humor, she’s totally unapproachable. People don’t like her, they respect and fear her, and she wouldn’t have it any other way.

Appearance

Honor is a short, slim 60-year-old woman with long, straight gray hair which she never wears down. She is of mainly Western European ancestry. She is extremely pale and has blue eyes and unusual tinted glasses. She typically wears either a suit, a semi-formal sheath dress, a jumpsuit, or a blouse and high-waisted slacks. All her outfits are paired with calf-height black boots with 4” heels.

Relationships

Bill

Honor’s ex-husband, who she married in 2135 and divorced in 2144. Their marriage fell apart because Honor was constantly working and couldn’t make time for her relationship, so the two became distant. All these years later, Bill still has some love for Honor, although he acts bitter and resentful about the failure of their marriage. Honor, on the other hand, hardly ever thinks of him. They rarely talk.

Gilbert

Gilbert is a prodigious young European scientist who works in human cloning. Honor has been following his career with great interest as he advances in the field. Unbeknown to him, she has the INTACT intel team keeping close tabs on everything he does.

& (link)

&’s time-traveling talk show is produced in cooperation with the Time Bureau, which in turn answers to INTACT. The time travel involved is fully legal and mostly safe, but that doesn’t mean Honor herself approves of it. She is not a fan of time travel for entertainment purposes, and the show’s subject matter does not interest her.

However, what does interest her is &’s claim of omniscience. She believes it, and she has been more cautious in her surveillance of & for this reason.

Liberty Lysander

A politician. She's in the pocket of Big Time.

Trivia

• When Honor ventures outside INTACT Headquarters, she is always accompanied by at least one guard.
• Her favorite guard is a woman named Emma, a master of hand-to-hand combat whose sense of humor she appreciates.
• Honor is extremely active. She regularly cycles and goes for runs.
• She doesn’t eat meat or drink alcohol, and she allows herself one caffeinated beverage a day, but usually has none. She’s very concerned with the quality of her sleep and its impact on her brain.
• She still calls herself “middle-aged”, because she intends to live to 120.
• She’s so Californian you wouldn’t believe it.