Naelynn's Cat-astrophe of a whitelist

[Naelynn]

BYOND Key: Naelynn
Character Names:

Spoiler

External-characters names:
Nightingale/Yakshikki (Vox)
Nomad
Stalker
Valor
Snapjaw

Species you are applying to play: Tajara
What color do you plan on making your first alien character: Silver-white ('dark' furred M'sai)
Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes comrrade

Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. One paragraph minimum per question.

Why do you wish to play this specific race:
I was having a blast rp-ing as one of the Action Cats (Kosmostrelki) when they were recently added. The speech pattern is fun to think about and there's a really enjoyable community built around Tajara!

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:
Tajara are very new to the space-age that they find themselves in - this along with the huge rifts caused by Njarir oppression for hundreds of years causes them to be probably the single most fractured species. Their speech pattern is obvious, but to me it seems the true challenge would come from the mind of someone who suddenly enters a world that is several hundred years in the future technology-wise. As the famous words go: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Character Name: Narra M'rah
Notes (Changes highlighted?

Spoiler

DPRA - Family of guerilla’s who participated in the wars. Used their position of [some-but-not-much] influence to allow their only child access to a university

Parents convinced that life out in the wider galaxy has to be better than Adhomai - there is an entire universe out there, there must be a place that isn't in civil war out there. One that has better economic conditions.

Landed a spot with NT fresh after graduation due to excellent performance at university. - Moved to Biesel aboard NT-sponsored vessel.
Lives on Odin, fresh arrival. Long-term contract with NT to work off her debt for safe transport. Sends portion of her income to family back on Adhomai.

Optimistic and caring personality - Prides herself on trying to understand others to know their woes - something she sees as a way of fostering unity with others and thus upholding the virtues of S'rand'marr. ( May appear hypocritical due to her views on NKA - and to an extent it is. She would listen to them, but be very judgmental and critical)

Spritely and young (M’sai - smallest race. Clipped claws to fit into gloves better)

Shastar Technical University - 22y/o Engineer/Maintenance Technician - Excels at repairing things and keeping them running. This is primarily due to her experiences - helped maintain mechanized units and artillery emplacements during Second Revolution. If she was needed, she helped with fighting, but didn't excel.

S'rand'marr Worship - It is a religion her family always believed in, and as she was raised in it she is naturally inclined to follow it. Her strongest memories are tied to a Virr Henhati performed for her mother who was slain by PRA soldier during the Second Revolution.  She is aware of her mortality due to seeing her comrades die - be it during skirmishes where she was to help, or in bases where they succumbed to wounds too fatal to heal. 

Narra is opposed to the PRA views and actions, but simultaneously harbors a begrudging respectful behavior to them, viewing PRA citizens/soldiers as well-meaning but misguided. Her contention with PRA lies in their treatment of 'subversive elements' and lack of personal freedoms. However, she knows that PRA takes care of Tajara in need of aid (As long as they are not labeled as subverside).  Despite her comrades and mother's deaths at the hands of PRA soldiers she is likely to act neutral towards PRA characters - trying to give them a chance. ( That and she's decided that those were killed because of larger issues - the divides between people, not because of individuals on the other side of the trench. )

She is strongly opposed to NKA, seeing it as continuation of the eons of classist divides that started the civil wars (That took her mother) on Adhomai in the first place. She dislikes the lack of personal freedoms awarded to commoners in NKA territory. She has made up her mind when it comes to NKA, and is extremely unlikely to buck - using it as a scapegoat in her mind onto which she blames the many horrible things in her life via convoluted chains-of-thoughts. (Revolutions and wars started because of Njarir's extreme oppression -> The fighting killed many of my friends and parts of my family -> NKA looks to continue those oppressions -> NKA is the true evil on Adhomai)  She is likely to be cold and difficult to approach for NKA characters.

Wears tail adornments despite family opinions.

Please provide a short backstory for this character:

"She's leaving Adhomai today, being taken by the fur-less aliens… Hah. He didn't think he'd be this sentimental about his daughter graduating from Shastar Technical! But, she should 'cut him some slack' as humans would say. He didn't think she'd be leaving Adhomai so soon. Feels like yesterday when she was still purring in his arms, a tiny fur-ball just sleeping and screaming. He still maintains his fur became three shades paler because of her! What an unruly child she was… and it didn't get better! She knows we fought against wearing tail ornaments in the wars, yes?! Yet she still wears them! Hmf. 

But well.. she is still his daughter, and regardless of where she is going, he wishes her well. He still owes money for the tuition, so he hopes she will send some credits back home to help him as he hopes to have clean account one day. He needs to buy flowers for her mother... She always liked Messa's Tears. Please - she should buy some too, even if she cannot place them on her grave, he would appreciate the gesture.

He will be ending the letter here. Suns… he is blessed to have four. Two in the skies, and two in his life. So make him proud little sun. He love- .. I love you."
 - Rihay-Reyab M'rah

Pre-rework version - Archive:
 

Spoiler

Character Name: Narra M'rah
Notes:

Spoiler

DPRA - Family of guerilla’s who participated in the wars. Used their position of [some-but-not-much] influence to allow their only child access to a university
Parents convinced that Adhomai is going to hell and that life elsewhere is better, moderate outlook of the world. Landed a spot with NT fresh after graduation due to excellent performance at university. - Moved to Biesel aboard NT-sponsored vessel.
Lives on Odin, fresh arrival. Long-term contract with nt to work off her debt for safe transport. Sends portion of her income to family back on Adhomai.
Bright eyed optimistic personality - sheltered from the horrors of war.
Spritely and young (M’sai - smallest race. Clipped claws to fit into gloves better)
Shastar Technical University - Engineer
Non-religious - learned this while at uni from professors, explaining the forces at work in the universe [dislikes inserting gods into common sentences]
Wears tail adornments despite family opinions.

Please provide a short backstory for this character:

"She's leaving Adhomai today, being taken by the fur-less aliens… Hah. He didn't think he'd be this sentimental about his daughter graduating from Shastar Technical! But, she should 'cut him some slack' as humans would say. He didn't think she'd be leaving Adhomai so soon. Feels like yesterday when she was still purring in his arms, a tiny fur-ball just sleeping and screaming. He still maintains his fur became three shades paler because of her! What an unruly child she was… and it didn't get better! She knows we fought against wearing tail ornaments in the wars, yes?! Yet she still wears them! Hmf. 

But well.. she is still his daughter, and regardless of where she is going, he wishes her well. He still owes money for the tuition, so he hopes she will send some credits back home to help him as he hopes to have clean account one day. He needs to buy flowers for her mother... She always liked Messa's Tears. Please - buy some, even if she cannot place them on her grave, he would appreciate the gesture.

He will be ending the letter here. Suns… he is blessed to have four. Two in the skies, and two in his life. So make him proud little sun. He love- .. I love you."
 - Rihay-Reyab M'rah

What do you like about this character?
I see most Tajara as tired, world weary burdened people - bent but not broken. People who have faced hell but bite their tongue and march on despite their miserable lot. Narra isn't like that. Being sheltered, young and born after contact with humanity she is much different to her kin - Bright eyed and excitable at all the wonders, relentlessly optimistic with a can-do attitude. I want her to be a little beacon of hope for those tired souls in order to show them that just maybe the life on Adhomai will be peaceful and prosperous in the future, heralded by the young-lings.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?
I think I'm really getting the hang of it nowadays - the thing is in really thinking like the character you are portraying - not just being like 'I guess they'd do this'. Try to feel what they would feel, what they would think. It helps so much.

Notes:
Thank you for reading all the way through! 

Edited December 8, 2019 by Naelynn
Character update to be more appropriate to lore.

[KingOfThePing]

An interesting way to deliver the story of the character, but it leaves some questions open:

 

1. How old are they? How did their parents gain the influence (and funds, probably) to send their child off to a university? What did they do before the war/before they joined the fights? Why did they actively join the fights?

2. The Shastar University played a great role during the Rebellion, actively supporting the fights, often with maintenance work or research and development in the field of mechanized warfare. What does Narra think about this? Did they participate in this?

3. You say that they are a very fresh arrival on the Odin and Tau Ceti. How fresh is fresh? The civil war is over (for) now, what is their motivation to leave Adhomai now, instead of, for example, help rebuilding it?

4. You write that they were sheltered from the war. Everyone has lost something or someone in the war. It would have been really hard to shelter someone completely from it. How did their parents achieve that? (see Question 2, too.)

5. You also say they are non-religious. Was this the case for their entire life? You said that she formed this, lets call it "opinion" during university, but almost always children are exposed to religion early in their life and have a opinion on it throughout their youth. Are the parents non-religious, too?

 

That's all for now, I may have more later.

Edited December 5, 2019 by KingOfThePing

[Naelynn]

14 minutes ago, KingOfThePing said:

How old are they?

I wish I could answer this, but the wiki doesn't state minimum age-requirements for tajaran engineers. Besides the point, she will be starting as engineering apprentice, but she's old enough to be a station engineer code-wise. However, as I don't have the number, I have to be vague with this number else I will mechanically destroy the character ?

16 minutes ago, KingOfThePing said:

How did their parents gain the influence (and funds, probably) to send their child off to a university?

While most Tajara participated in the Second Revolution, not that many survived or were on the 'winning' side in their territory. Her parents happened to be at the right time at the right place, and with just enough pull to be able to call in a favor from important-enough people to get a spot in a university. As for money - loans. Which is why the father asks Narra to send him back money.

19 minutes ago, KingOfThePing said:

What did they do before the war/before they joined the fights? Why did they actively join the fights?

Primarily hunters or trackers through the wilderness around their homes - that is until The Uprisings. Being M'sai her parents were called into action. However, as they didn't hail from a traditional militaristic family, rather being peasants from a rural area, they ended up on the side of winning side of the conflict. Especially considering they had a bone to pick with Njarir about the tight grasp they pushed on the lower classes.

26 minutes ago, KingOfThePing said:

The Shastar University played a great role during the Rebellion, actively supporting the fights, often with maintenance work or research and development in the field of mechanized warfare. What does Narra think about this? Did they participate in this?

Yes in fact she did participate - maintaining the mechanized units and infrastructure which she was rather well suited for due to her diminutive body size. It's much easier for someone tiny to fit into maintenance tunnel of an artillery entrenchment. She didn't participate in RnD. 

29 minutes ago, KingOfThePing said:

3. You say that they are a very fresh arrival on the Odin and Tau Ceti. How fresh is fresh? The civil war is over (for) now, what is their motivation to leave Adhomai now, instead of, for example, help rebuilding it?

I meant very fresh - basically straight off the shuttle [with having a week or two to sort out visa and paperwork]. The reason for her housing on Odin is her debt-contract signed with NanoTrasen. NT sponsors housing of it's employees on Odin to a certain extent AFAIK. As for why leave Adhomai now - that is a problem that I tackle from three sides. 1) Her parents have a rather jaded view of the world. Their belief is/was that Adhomai is suffering, and the unrests are not going to get better for a long time. That if she wants to live a good life, she needs to get off the planet. 2) Her family is deep in debt due to the tuition. Having NanoTrasen offer her a long-term contract with waaay-above-average-adhomai pay would allow her to support her father. 3) The contract signed wasn't very specific about her employment location. She didn't know she's getting whisked all the way to Tau Ceti before being assigned to NSS Aurora. She had assumed she would end up in Sol, and have easier time visiting.

35 minutes ago, KingOfThePing said:

4. You write that they were sheltered from the war. Everyone has lost something or someone in the war. It would have been really hard to shelter someone completely from it. How did their parents achieve that? (see Question 2, too.)

More or less sheltered, yes. Her mother was killed which I tried to elude to with the mention of her grave, but I didn't make it very clear. On the other hand, I was trying to write from the perspective of a single-father. The exact sheltered I'm using is supposed to mean "Wasn't on the frontlines as a soldier, thrown into a ditch to fight." She's heard the barrages of artillery, seen wounded coming back and seen men succumb to death for causes greater than themselves - but she wasn't handed a gun and told to shoot that guy over there. To her, enemies always were abstract dots on a map. If this answer is not sufficient, please, tag me again and elaborate on your question a bit more, I will do my absolute best to explain - and if my planning will show itself to be poor, I will correct the error in Narra's backstory.

39 minutes ago, KingOfThePing said:

5. You also say they are non-religious. Was this the case for their entire life? You said that she formed this, lets call it "opinion" during university, but almost always children are exposed to religion early in their life and have a opinion on it throughout their youth. Are the parents non-religious, too?

Actually no, she was originally of S'rand'marr Worship, as was rest of her family - her father still is. Again, only softly eluded to when he mentions that he must be blessed to have four suns. However, in light of erudition, she found it hard to keep her faith while understanding that sun is nothing but a flamin' ball of gas and seeing little evidence to support their existence otherwise [a.k.a: God of Gaps], and assuming that someone made a suit fire-resistant enough, she could go and touch it... assuming she had the money of course.

 

 

 

[Alberyk]

I have a couple of issues with your application:

-the character is meant to be from the dpra, but they have some of pra beliefs in it. Such as being irreligious; which is not something that popular in the dpra. 

-if she is old enough to join the university and got her diploma, she was old enough to witness the fighting in the region, the pra was present in Shastar's region until around last year. So, I do not really think that it would make much sense for her sheltered to be for the war or its effects. This is something that is only reserved to pra citizens that would be living in the most central and well defended cities.

-I am also having a bit of trouble trying to undertstand her parents' reasons to allow her to leave. If they are guerrilla fighters they would support the ALA/DPRA vision, which is for the Tajara people to fight for their own place and future on galaxy without alien interference. However, you said they do not really believe that Adhomai has any future, which is kinda confusing. Also, while the DPRA is not really friendly towards corporation, it would be possible for their citizens to leave and work with NT, but that also gets in the way of her parents' ethos here.

Anyway, before I can move on with this application. I would like you address those points, and if you want, you can change/rewrite stuff in your character backstory section. 

[Naelynn]

@Alberyk update posted via main post edit. Included pre-rework section for comparison, and highlighted the changes.

[Alberyk]

After taking in consideratio those changes and the discussion we had, I will accept this application.