Sylvia Sherwood

Wavy red hair falls to the small of Sylvia's back, framing a slim, tall silhouette and narrow blue eyes. Her exact age goes unstated, though it has advanced far enough to trouble her in physical confrontations, and Anya once bluntly noted how old she seems. Pink nail polish appears on her hands from time to time.

Operating as Handler, she adopts round spectacles and a broad black hat banded in dark pink with a side bow. A fitted dark dress, short at the front and trailing past her knees behind, covers a white collared shirt finished with an oversized ribbon knotted like a loose bow, while drop earrings stamped with the WISE emblem, fishnets layered over black stockings, high heels, and a brown-strapped watch complete the ensemble. For a stretch she even wore the gaudy souvenir rings Loid and Fiona brought her back from their Campbelldon tournament infiltration.

Her public identity as Secretary Sherwood is far plainer: hair gathered into a ponytail, rectangular frames, and a dark brown coat thrown over a black skirt suit.

Sylvia approaches intelligence work with restraint, precision, and an absolute commitment to preserving the truce between Westalis and Ostania. Calculated, low-risk plans are her preference, and she expects the agents under her command to act with the same rational efficiency. Carelessness earns swift reprimand, which is how the nickname Fullmetal Lady attached itself to her, yet her sternness coexists with a practical eye for her operatives' limits. She has pulled agents off assignments they were unfit for and let Loid recuperate after he collapsed, favoring long-term effectiveness over immediate results.

Her worldview was forged in the Second East-West War. Having seen its horrors up close, she reserves open contempt for anyone who treats armed conflict as a game, and that experience drives both her caution and her willingness to fight dirty in the shadows to keep the peace. She also drills junior agents on verifying information and thinking for themselves rather than acting on assumptions.

Away from the job, a different woman emerges. Her refined public image hides a home she cannot be bothered to keep tidy, and a gentler register surfaces around children in particular. She once had a daughter close to Anya's age, a loss that colors their interactions, and she personally took in one of the dogs from a past incident. Flashes of playfulness, from small competitions to genuine enthusiasm for her disguises, occasionally break through the stern exterior.

Sylvia's mind is her sharpest weapon. She keeps the details of every agent and mission under her authority committed to memory, and her eye for anomalies once let her pick Pance Karmer out of a crowd while she was disguised as a security officer, flagging tiny errors like a missing baton and a wrong patrol route. That same encounter showcased her combat instincts: using only a belt, she disarmed Karmer mid-assassination attempt on Jonas Wellman and dislocated his jaw in the process.

Disguise work comes naturally to her. She routinely changes faces to slip SSS surveillance when meeting Twilight and other operatives away from embassy grounds, and she has covered hospital shifts as a nurse in Loid's and Nightfall's places, though she once forgot to strip the price tag off a new coat. As the agency's chief liaison to its operatives in Ostania, she deploys agents to smother unrest before it ignites, all while evading the secret police herself. She has been seen loading a firearm during the terrorist bombing crisis, though her marksmanship remains undemonstrated. Age is her one true liability, leaving her with bouts of weakness and aching shoulders and back after combat, a concern she keeps to herself.