Application
Senshi: Sailor Andromeda, Stella Senshi of Chains
Name: Beatrice Smith
Meaning: “Beatrice” has two generally accepted meanings: “voyager/traveler,” or “blessed,” although her parents were referring to the characters from Taming of the Shrew and Dante’s Divine Comedy. They thought naming her “Ophelia” would’ve been a bad idea. Smith means… smith. One of the many functions of smiths? Making chains.
Age: 18
Birthdate: March 8
School/Occupation: New York University, freshman, degree in performing arts. Beatrice works part time at the campus bookstore, and is also perpetually hunting gigs in movies/TV/theater and/or modeling, although without much success at this point.
Major NPCs:
Parents: David and Elena met through their shared political views in 1993, during a rather large political march on Washington, and it was mostly a happy accident that they had shared career interests as well. Elena’s family owned a theater in Philadelphia, and while her family strongly objected to their marriage (mostly on the grounds that they figured David was a bum actor), David’s family was largely relieved by the arrangement (on the grounds that David would hopefully stop being a bum actor). Aside from some early arguing about money, their marriage has been a happy one, to the point where they sometimes embarrass Beatrice with public displays that are a little too affectionate. When they aren’t working, they’re politically active, although on different things to give each other some space and have things to debate about besides which characters got what flowers in Hamlet. Elena continues to run the theater with her husband’s help, although David continues to produce – and work in – stage productions.
History
When Beatrice was a little girl, her parents told her she could be anything she wanted: a doctor, lawyer, princess... just so long as she remembered her lines and didn't fall off the stage. Michelle and David were "theater folk," Michelle's family owning and managing a theater in Philadelphia for a few generations and her husband an actor-turned-man-of-many-talents. For Beatrice, play-acting was a part of everyday life and it was awesome. She had costumes and people willing to indulge her (if only because she was the owner's kid), and while she wasn't part of any live productions, she got to sit in and "help" during rehearsals. Whenever any traveling productions came into town, she always got to watch at least one production. The musicals were her favorites. This resulted in a rather vivid fantasy life that also resulted in Beatrice getting into fights with some of the meaner children when, “Stop that, that’s mean” didn’t get results. Beatrice saw herself as the hero in her own little world.
Beatrice had a fairly strong relationship with her parents – she spent plenty of time around them after all, but even in grade school she didn’t have a lot of friends her age. The parents of other children didn’t want their own children spending so much time with Beatrice since she spent most of her time around thespians, and Beatrice thought life at home was fantastic. After all, where else could she be someone new every evening? Why play with Barbies when she could find a costume and be the princess, or whoever else she felt like being?
Beatrice didn’t mind her relative isolation from her peers until she hit middle-school, when it was like someone had flipped a switch and everyone became mean. Before she hadn’t been mocked for not shaving her legs, for not dressing the right way or admitting not like-liking boys (more from disinterest in romance in general). Although Beatrice attempted conforming, her improvisational skills at passing for “normal” weren’t up to par when her idea of normal came largely from TV. Beatrice did not do herself any favors when she stood up to a small pack of four girls who were picking on a classmate. Said classmate did not express gratitude and offer to become Beatrice’s friend like in the movies – said classmate ran and was careful to avoid Beatrice, and the girl-pack decided to re-focus on tormenting Beatrice instead.
Beatrice was “such a freak, who thought you were a good idea?” When they tried stealing from Beatrice – yanking her backpack away from her and running – Beatrice chased them down and mauled one of them, despite being out numbered. Beatrice was suspended but didn’t know how to explain to her parents what was happening, and the other adults who saw what was going on didn’t seem concerned. When her suspension ended, the other girls cornered Beatrice in the girls’ bathroom, pinned her down, and cut her hair off.
Beatrice never found out if the girls who kept attacking her were ever punished for it. She knows her parents were very angry for a long time, and there were lots of talking with the principal, and something vaguely legal, but the end result was they took Beatrice out of public school and homeschooled her instead. Beatrice was more than happy with that arrangement. Sure, being around her parents all the time was a little tiresome, but at least her family was not cruel and she did not have to be fearful. If she longed for other company she had her plays and the TV and the internet, and she could pretend.
Elena however, was concerned that spending so much time at the theater was leaving Beatrice poorly socialized. While Beatrice appealed to her father for help – successfully – for a time, eventually parental veto had Beatrice in public school again, in time for her sophomore year of high school.
After being home schooled for years, high school felt artificial with the bells that regulated the hours, regardless of whether the work was done, and eventually more like a glorified daycare center with teachers who largely ignored what the class was up to. Unlike her middle school though, Berenice’s high school had a theater program, and among other ‘weirdos’ like herself. With a herd to travel with, Beatrice was able to strike a balance between her inner, “honest” thoughts and more socially acceptable forms of weirdness. It didn’t hurt that Beatrice had outgrown her physically-awkward phase in solitude and had become pretty while no one else was looking, nor that with her mother owning a theater, Beatrice had plenty of opportunities to show people what it was really like in “the business.”
When their theater was overrun by teenagers, David would dryly point out to Elena that she’d wanted their daughter to be better socialized, after all.
Beatrice’s 983..grades, while not outstanding, had been decent enough to earn her a modest scholarship, with her parents picking up the rest of the tab. While Philadelphia had some good colleges, Beatrice wanted to see some more of the world, and much had been romanticized about New York. An overly optimistic watching of Glee had nothing to do it with.
Really.
She had finally made friends, and would be sad to leave them but Beatrice figured it was time to have an adventure. She had the strangest need to be elsewhere. Beatrice was a little nervous leaving the protective sphere of her family, but figured that was why it needed to be done, although her parents took some convincing. She likes college a lot more than high school, since it has a more flexible schedule that feels more natural, but only time will tell how well this will work out. She still calls her parents and talks to her old friends in Philadelphia frequently. Beatrice is having some financial trouble – although she had a roommate at first, said roommate bailed out and now Beatrice has a two bedroom apartment, with all the rent that implies but no one to split the bill with, and New York rent is expensive.
This may be for the best, since not long after opening the windows to air said apartment out after severely burning dinner, Beatrice acquired a mutilated pigeon called Haldane, who proceeded to inform Beatrice that she was a special warrior with powers and everything. Since Beatrice has not yet encountered other senshi, this hasn’t impacted her life much aside from the addition of a talking pigeon, and while she initially found it confusing and exciting – she had gone to New York for adventure after all – she’s starting to doubt anything is going to come of it.
Personality
Beatrice is not mean-spirited, but she is somewhat self-centered and has trouble considering the consequences of her actions. She did pick up some things from her parents, but those ideas and notions were on a broader scale – don’t eat meat because animal farming can be harmful, be politically active, keep track of what’s going on in the world – but Beatrice still occasionally flubs in her personal life. She has almost no internal censor to speak of, and tends to blurt out strange, and occasionally offensive things, and realizes a few moments too late that perhaps she shouldn’t have said that.
Raised on one too many musicals and not enough World History, Beatrice is exceedingly optimistic, and tends to tackle life and all its problems with more enthusiasm than sense, and it’s not unusual for her to downplay or go into outright denial of her own problems. She has a bubbly exterior so it’s often difficult for other’s to tell if she’s stressed or has a genuine problem as well. She is quick to jump in and champion other people’s problems, should she be made aware of them. Although she’s matured in her language past the “Stop that, that’s mean,” Beatrice quickly becomes confrontational and loud if she perceives abuse going on in her vicinity, even when she’s afraid she’ll become the next target. She has a deep impulse to play hero, and keenly remembers how it felt when people were treating her poorly, other people saw and knew, and nobody did anything about it.
She does volunteer work when she remembers to, but not enough and not as vehemently has her parents did when they were younger, and she occasionally feels guilty over not doing more. She also wonders if she’s only rationalizing laziness to herself with the logic of, “I’ll do more when I’m not so busy,” or “When I’m not looking for a better job,” or just plain forgetfulness. When she does volunteer it’s usually something for environmentalist movements, or specific causes rather than broader political parties. While Beatrice is often impulsive, her parents managed to instill some wariness against being easily lead by generalizations and fear mongering. Beatrice is very sensitive to attempts to manipulate her.
Aside from a generally cheerful demeanor, Beatrice is prone to singing whenever she can, and some improvised wiggling and spinning that’d be hard pressed to be called dancing. She has a fine voice, and is very aware of it. She’d never admit it, but she’ll sing and act like she’s unaware that other people can hear her so she can show off. She also yearns to see everything on Broadway that she can, especially with it so close and accessible, but after a few dips into the financial red from going to shows she couldn’t really afford, Beatrice is starting to learn a bit more about money management beyond attempting to just “break even.” She’s still not quite to the point where she thinks ahead more than a few months at a time, and is rather sheltered in that her parents were quick to step in before things got too bad.
Beatrice is also very affectionate towards her friends – and a bit high maintenance. More than three days without talking to someone is “forever” and has her worried that maybe they don’t like her anymore. She is generous with hugs and her time and, upon request, money as well. Even if she doesn’t have much in the way of time or money to spare.
Appearance
Beatrice is conventionally pretty, which she is of two minds of. She’s tall and slim, standing at six feet and 150 pounds, with some extra muscle thrown in from dance rehearsals for musicals . Her face is oval and her nose turns up slightly at the point. Her hair is dark brown and dyed with green streaks, with bangs cut just above her eyebrows, straight, and usually loose to midback. Her eyes are an almost eerily pale shade of green and very large, with delicate eyebrows. Beatrice is also an excellent singer – she is a powerful contralto - something she doesn’t hesitate to show off if given the opportunity.
Aside from her eyes she could be mistaken for any pretty young girl trying to make it as an actress. On one hand, she meets all the physical requirements for her career, but on the other, there is nothing distinctive about her, which irritates and worries Beatrice. In a field where appearance is everything, being generic is not good.
To try and offset this, Beatrice leans towards bohemian fashions, favoring colorful fabrics, bulky jewelry and odd patterns when she can. Except for the headbands. (What is up with those ugly headbands?) Beatrice spends a lot of time on her appearance, trying to look unique while at the same time avoiding the dreaded label, “hipster.”
Fuku
Andromeda’s boots go to her knees, and are composed of gray metal and leather, with thick soles and criss-crossed with black chains. Her skirt is composed of many extremely fine chains which are a variety of dark-gray and black shades, which is thigh-length in the front, and calf-length in the back. Her skirt’s attached to a twisting chain belt, and yes, there is underwear. Her top is composed of a deep red cloth held in place by more dark gray chains. The chains wrap under Andromeda’s bust and back over her shoulders to keep it in place, and the top leaves her stomach and shoulders bare. Attached to these chains are more chains over both her shoulders, which attatch to Andromeda’s front and back, and act as support for the single, thick black chains that wrap around her arms and dangle to her knees from her forearms. Andromeda often gathers those chains in her fists or wraps them as much as she can around her wrists and knuckles. Andromeda’s hair is braided and wrapped around the top of her head like a pseudo-crown, with loops of fine chains draped down from the braid-coils.
See Picture: http://s211.photobucket.com/user/skysongs_icons/media/RP_Sailor_Myth/andromeda.jpg.html
Transformation
Relic: A steel-gray chain necklace, easily taken for the sort used with pendants, except for the lack of a clasp.
After saying, “By the power of Andromeda!” Beatrice’s necklace divides and expands at the same time, the chain loop becoming two loops, then four, then six, twelve, twenty four, until the chains are too numerous to count. These chains keep Beatrice at the center, forming a large sphere of chains that spin fast enough to blur and obscure Beatrice, before shrinking down again and becoming the chain-portions of her fuku.
Powers
* “Chained Power” - After calling her attack, affected senshi find translucent gray chains wrapped around their throats and torso, and the feeling of being constricted, squeezed. The chains remain so long as Chained Power is in effect, and attempts to remove them only result in hands and other items passing through the chains. Chained Power works only on abilities that require a spoken component, and can be used to cancel a power that hasn’t finished “casting” (provided Andromeda can blurt out her own attack call quickly enough), and prevents any additional powers from being activated for the following five minutes. This only affects people who are within 30 yards of Andromeda when she activates it, not anyone who wanders into that range after the fact, and anyone who was already affected who leaves the 30 yard mark still has to wait out the duration of the effect. Andromeda can do this twice in an hour. It does not negate any powers that are always on, or ongoing effects of powers that had already been successfully cast.
* “Broken Bonds” – After calling her attack, there is no visible effect but there is the sound of metal screeching, and snapping, which is obscenely loud for anyone within ten feet of Andromeda and could easily cause headaches. But that’s mostly a side effect. Broken Bonds tears down coordination and trust. Senshi on the same team no longer want to work together, because they suddenly perceive themselves as alone, and their “teammates” no longer feel like they’re on the same side. Everyone becomes indiscriminately aggressive and untrusting of everyone else, as alliances and trust are discarded and it becomes every-senshi-for-themselves. Andromeda cannot pick and choose her targets, and even she is effected when she uses it. Range: 30 yards. Lasts half an hour, casting once per 24 hours.
Guardian
Haldane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haldane_(lunar_crater)) is a one legged, one eyed pigeon. You'd think that the loss of several body parts would ensure a cautious personality, but no: Haldane is gleefully intrusive, voyeuristic, and bloodthirsty. Fortunately for all involved, since Haldane lacks hands, she can't really force open windows or doors, but a certain amount of caution is advised before opening windows.
Although Haldane doesn’t really know the hows or whys of her current situation, she doesn’t mind it terribly. She is now smarter than the average pigeon, and Beatrice feeds her and lets her inside when the weather is bad, which is a vast improvement. Haldane has the occasional moment when her lack of human experience catches up to her – she can’t read, and her speech is full of pigeon-isms to the point of being nearly incomprehensible to humans – but for all her faults she tends to be clever enough, even if she’s prone to suggesting something should be set on fire.
She really likes fire.
Haldane is very enthusiastic about this whole finding-all-the-shinies business, if nothing else because she’s terribly bored most of the time. Haldane wants nothing more than for something exciting to happen, but given the past results of “exciting” (see: missing eye and leg) it seems to be a lesson she hasn’t quite learned yet. She’s also a very aggressive bird when the fighting starts – sure, she’s no hawk, but few people want a pigeon dive-bombing their face.
She does not, at this point, see her senshi as people. They don’t have wings or feathers after all, but that could change.
Explanation
Some regurgitation from Wikipedia:
…is one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century Greco-Roman astronomer Ptolemy and remains one of the 88 modern constellations… Andromeda is most prominent during autumn evenings in the Northern Hemisphere, along with several other constellations named for characters in the Perseus myth. Because of its northerndeclination, Andromeda is only visible north of 40° south latitude; for observers farther south it lies below the horizon. It is one of the largest constellations, with an area of 722 square degrees. This is over 1,400 times the size of the full moon, 55% of the size of the largest constellation, Hydra, and over 10 times the size of the smallest constellation, Crux.
While the constellation’s western name stems from the story of princess Andromeda and her mouthy mother, the Andromeda constellation also has recognition from ancient Chinese and Hindu astronomers, although under different names.
The cultural associations presented a condrum however. For one, I wanted to avoid too much crossover in terms of themes/myth with the Theos senshi, and for another I wanted some recognition of the various other cultures and names the constellation has been associated with. The constellation has consistently been associated with a woman-in-the-sky, frequently bound/chained there (except by the Chinese, apparently, who associated the constellation with everything from legs, to wild boars, to libraries and one of the walls in the palace of the emperor). However, having a senshi whose powers were based off “being female” held a lot of Unfortunate Implications. So what did that leave me with?
Binding/bondage/restraint/restriction, submission, and of course: chains. Although Senshi of Bondage would have been hilarious, the joke probably would’ve gotten old eventually. I decided to avoid the words that implied Kinky Bedroom Antics and settled on her title being Sailor Andromeda, Senshi of Chains. Not that she doesn’t have associations with binding and restriction - and not all bonds are bad. Bonds of family, community, and oaths may come into play. Some of her powers are based on (to use an MMO term) sap and control mechanics – very little direct damage, based more on taking the other person out of the fight without hurting them, interrupting powers that require “casting,” or just rendering an opponent immobile so the beating can commence more easily.
She was lucky in that she didn’t have to worry about the baggage of a whole culture to try and cram into her fuku design, but unlucky in that there really isn’t anything that can be done to prevent her from looking vaguely like she walked out of some weird fetish clothing store.
If we ever get a Galaxia Andromeda, expect confusion to occur.
As for Beatrice herself… I built up Beatrice before deciding on what senshi powers to apply to her. She’s sweet and nice and I’m looking forward to breaking her.
I really have no good excuse for Haldane.
Writing Sample
“No, Mom. Yes, Mom. Uh-huh. It’s alright! It can’t be that hard to find another roommate, it’ll be fine. No, I don’t need any money right now, let me handle this ok? If it’s that bad, I’ll let you know. My grades are fine, New York’s fine too, and Christine’s boyfriend is a jerk-” The fire alarm went off. “Uh, I gotta go, I think my lunch’s caught on fire.”
Beatrice knew she’d get a phone call again in half an hour, ‘something is on fire’ having that effect on her mother. Beatrice didn’t cook often, but she was tired of TV dinners and pizza and she’d only needed to buy some chicken breast. She’d had everything else she needed for the recipe. But then her mother had called, Beatrice stopped paying attention to what was going on in her kitchen, and the skillet and chicken were smoking rather determinedly.
Beatrice hesitated for a few moments before deciding that throwing water on the stove was a bad idea, and instead grabbed some oven mits and transferred the mess to the sink, careful to not get her hair in it. The fire alarm continued its shrieking as Beatrice opened all the windows she could before trying to turn the thing off, which eventually involved standing on a chair and a plastic ruler, and trying to not break her neck in the process. She managed to hit the absurdly tiny “off” button, and when she climbed back down, there was a pigeon on her countertop.
“Hello my most excellent friend! Are you going to eat that tasty smokeyness?” The bird was one of the ugliest things Beatrice had ever seen. Not that she thought pigeons were pretty on average, but this was a seriously maimed bird. The pigeon hopped over to the sink on the only leg it had, wings fluttering slightly. “Because it would be a sadness to waste such excellently good food. You are my fine friend, you would not chase me away for using my most excellent beak on the delicious food?”
Beatrice stared. Considered hitting the pigeon with her ruler, but was a little too surprised to actually make the attempt. “Um, sure. Go ahead. It’s chicken though. … is it considered cannibalism if you eat it?” It was one thing to make believe with talking animals in a play. It was another to make believe a talking, hideous pigeon in her kitchen.
The pigeon cocked its head, as if considering the question. It took long enough that Beatrice thought maybe she’d imagined it after all. But no. “In my most clever of minds, I do not think so.” The pigeon pecked at the burnt chicken in the sink a moment, before fixing Beatrice with its remaining eye. “But my fine friend! I am Haldane, and it is most fortuitous to have finally found you, you are most important! Yes! My powerful Andromeda…”
Completed RP Links
See here: http://plasmashot.insanejournal.com/tag/log
And a private PSL currently In Progress: http://asylums.insanejournal.com/themotleycrew/
Questionnaire
Name: Regina
E-mail: xxxxxxx
Homepage: I guess this works as much as anything: http://plasmashot.insanejournal.com/profile
Referred by: Former player who hung out on the yahoogroups! ^_^
Other RPGs: … a lot? Including but not limited to: X-Men, World of Darkness, Star Wars, LARPS, Journal-based, forum based, twitter-based (I am not doing that again), table-top… I have gaaaames.
View Application: Yes!
Name: Beatrice Smith
Meaning: “Beatrice” has two generally accepted meanings: “voyager/traveler,” or “blessed,” although her parents were referring to the characters from Taming of the Shrew and Dante’s Divine Comedy. They thought naming her “Ophelia” would’ve been a bad idea. Smith means… smith. One of the many functions of smiths? Making chains.
Age: 18
Birthdate: March 8
School/Occupation: New York University, freshman, degree in performing arts. Beatrice works part time at the campus bookstore, and is also perpetually hunting gigs in movies/TV/theater and/or modeling, although without much success at this point.
Major NPCs:
Parents: David and Elena met through their shared political views in 1993, during a rather large political march on Washington, and it was mostly a happy accident that they had shared career interests as well. Elena’s family owned a theater in Philadelphia, and while her family strongly objected to their marriage (mostly on the grounds that they figured David was a bum actor), David’s family was largely relieved by the arrangement (on the grounds that David would hopefully stop being a bum actor). Aside from some early arguing about money, their marriage has been a happy one, to the point where they sometimes embarrass Beatrice with public displays that are a little too affectionate. When they aren’t working, they’re politically active, although on different things to give each other some space and have things to debate about besides which characters got what flowers in Hamlet. Elena continues to run the theater with her husband’s help, although David continues to produce – and work in – stage productions.
History
When Beatrice was a little girl, her parents told her she could be anything she wanted: a doctor, lawyer, princess... just so long as she remembered her lines and didn't fall off the stage. Michelle and David were "theater folk," Michelle's family owning and managing a theater in Philadelphia for a few generations and her husband an actor-turned-man-of-many-talents. For Beatrice, play-acting was a part of everyday life and it was awesome. She had costumes and people willing to indulge her (if only because she was the owner's kid), and while she wasn't part of any live productions, she got to sit in and "help" during rehearsals. Whenever any traveling productions came into town, she always got to watch at least one production. The musicals were her favorites. This resulted in a rather vivid fantasy life that also resulted in Beatrice getting into fights with some of the meaner children when, “Stop that, that’s mean” didn’t get results. Beatrice saw herself as the hero in her own little world.
Beatrice had a fairly strong relationship with her parents – she spent plenty of time around them after all, but even in grade school she didn’t have a lot of friends her age. The parents of other children didn’t want their own children spending so much time with Beatrice since she spent most of her time around thespians, and Beatrice thought life at home was fantastic. After all, where else could she be someone new every evening? Why play with Barbies when she could find a costume and be the princess, or whoever else she felt like being?
Beatrice didn’t mind her relative isolation from her peers until she hit middle-school, when it was like someone had flipped a switch and everyone became mean. Before she hadn’t been mocked for not shaving her legs, for not dressing the right way or admitting not like-liking boys (more from disinterest in romance in general). Although Beatrice attempted conforming, her improvisational skills at passing for “normal” weren’t up to par when her idea of normal came largely from TV. Beatrice did not do herself any favors when she stood up to a small pack of four girls who were picking on a classmate. Said classmate did not express gratitude and offer to become Beatrice’s friend like in the movies – said classmate ran and was careful to avoid Beatrice, and the girl-pack decided to re-focus on tormenting Beatrice instead.
Beatrice was “such a freak, who thought you were a good idea?” When they tried stealing from Beatrice – yanking her backpack away from her and running – Beatrice chased them down and mauled one of them, despite being out numbered. Beatrice was suspended but didn’t know how to explain to her parents what was happening, and the other adults who saw what was going on didn’t seem concerned. When her suspension ended, the other girls cornered Beatrice in the girls’ bathroom, pinned her down, and cut her hair off.
Beatrice never found out if the girls who kept attacking her were ever punished for it. She knows her parents were very angry for a long time, and there were lots of talking with the principal, and something vaguely legal, but the end result was they took Beatrice out of public school and homeschooled her instead. Beatrice was more than happy with that arrangement. Sure, being around her parents all the time was a little tiresome, but at least her family was not cruel and she did not have to be fearful. If she longed for other company she had her plays and the TV and the internet, and she could pretend.
Elena however, was concerned that spending so much time at the theater was leaving Beatrice poorly socialized. While Beatrice appealed to her father for help – successfully – for a time, eventually parental veto had Beatrice in public school again, in time for her sophomore year of high school.
After being home schooled for years, high school felt artificial with the bells that regulated the hours, regardless of whether the work was done, and eventually more like a glorified daycare center with teachers who largely ignored what the class was up to. Unlike her middle school though, Berenice’s high school had a theater program, and among other ‘weirdos’ like herself. With a herd to travel with, Beatrice was able to strike a balance between her inner, “honest” thoughts and more socially acceptable forms of weirdness. It didn’t hurt that Beatrice had outgrown her physically-awkward phase in solitude and had become pretty while no one else was looking, nor that with her mother owning a theater, Beatrice had plenty of opportunities to show people what it was really like in “the business.”
When their theater was overrun by teenagers, David would dryly point out to Elena that she’d wanted their daughter to be better socialized, after all.
Beatrice’s 983..grades, while not outstanding, had been decent enough to earn her a modest scholarship, with her parents picking up the rest of the tab. While Philadelphia had some good colleges, Beatrice wanted to see some more of the world, and much had been romanticized about New York. An overly optimistic watching of Glee had nothing to do it with.
Really.
She had finally made friends, and would be sad to leave them but Beatrice figured it was time to have an adventure. She had the strangest need to be elsewhere. Beatrice was a little nervous leaving the protective sphere of her family, but figured that was why it needed to be done, although her parents took some convincing. She likes college a lot more than high school, since it has a more flexible schedule that feels more natural, but only time will tell how well this will work out. She still calls her parents and talks to her old friends in Philadelphia frequently. Beatrice is having some financial trouble – although she had a roommate at first, said roommate bailed out and now Beatrice has a two bedroom apartment, with all the rent that implies but no one to split the bill with, and New York rent is expensive.
This may be for the best, since not long after opening the windows to air said apartment out after severely burning dinner, Beatrice acquired a mutilated pigeon called Haldane, who proceeded to inform Beatrice that she was a special warrior with powers and everything. Since Beatrice has not yet encountered other senshi, this hasn’t impacted her life much aside from the addition of a talking pigeon, and while she initially found it confusing and exciting – she had gone to New York for adventure after all – she’s starting to doubt anything is going to come of it.
Personality
Beatrice is not mean-spirited, but she is somewhat self-centered and has trouble considering the consequences of her actions. She did pick up some things from her parents, but those ideas and notions were on a broader scale – don’t eat meat because animal farming can be harmful, be politically active, keep track of what’s going on in the world – but Beatrice still occasionally flubs in her personal life. She has almost no internal censor to speak of, and tends to blurt out strange, and occasionally offensive things, and realizes a few moments too late that perhaps she shouldn’t have said that.
Raised on one too many musicals and not enough World History, Beatrice is exceedingly optimistic, and tends to tackle life and all its problems with more enthusiasm than sense, and it’s not unusual for her to downplay or go into outright denial of her own problems. She has a bubbly exterior so it’s often difficult for other’s to tell if she’s stressed or has a genuine problem as well. She is quick to jump in and champion other people’s problems, should she be made aware of them. Although she’s matured in her language past the “Stop that, that’s mean,” Beatrice quickly becomes confrontational and loud if she perceives abuse going on in her vicinity, even when she’s afraid she’ll become the next target. She has a deep impulse to play hero, and keenly remembers how it felt when people were treating her poorly, other people saw and knew, and nobody did anything about it.
She does volunteer work when she remembers to, but not enough and not as vehemently has her parents did when they were younger, and she occasionally feels guilty over not doing more. She also wonders if she’s only rationalizing laziness to herself with the logic of, “I’ll do more when I’m not so busy,” or “When I’m not looking for a better job,” or just plain forgetfulness. When she does volunteer it’s usually something for environmentalist movements, or specific causes rather than broader political parties. While Beatrice is often impulsive, her parents managed to instill some wariness against being easily lead by generalizations and fear mongering. Beatrice is very sensitive to attempts to manipulate her.
Aside from a generally cheerful demeanor, Beatrice is prone to singing whenever she can, and some improvised wiggling and spinning that’d be hard pressed to be called dancing. She has a fine voice, and is very aware of it. She’d never admit it, but she’ll sing and act like she’s unaware that other people can hear her so she can show off. She also yearns to see everything on Broadway that she can, especially with it so close and accessible, but after a few dips into the financial red from going to shows she couldn’t really afford, Beatrice is starting to learn a bit more about money management beyond attempting to just “break even.” She’s still not quite to the point where she thinks ahead more than a few months at a time, and is rather sheltered in that her parents were quick to step in before things got too bad.
Beatrice is also very affectionate towards her friends – and a bit high maintenance. More than three days without talking to someone is “forever” and has her worried that maybe they don’t like her anymore. She is generous with hugs and her time and, upon request, money as well. Even if she doesn’t have much in the way of time or money to spare.
Appearance
Beatrice is conventionally pretty, which she is of two minds of. She’s tall and slim, standing at six feet and 150 pounds, with some extra muscle thrown in from dance rehearsals for musicals . Her face is oval and her nose turns up slightly at the point. Her hair is dark brown and dyed with green streaks, with bangs cut just above her eyebrows, straight, and usually loose to midback. Her eyes are an almost eerily pale shade of green and very large, with delicate eyebrows. Beatrice is also an excellent singer – she is a powerful contralto - something she doesn’t hesitate to show off if given the opportunity.
Aside from her eyes she could be mistaken for any pretty young girl trying to make it as an actress. On one hand, she meets all the physical requirements for her career, but on the other, there is nothing distinctive about her, which irritates and worries Beatrice. In a field where appearance is everything, being generic is not good.
To try and offset this, Beatrice leans towards bohemian fashions, favoring colorful fabrics, bulky jewelry and odd patterns when she can. Except for the headbands. (What is up with those ugly headbands?) Beatrice spends a lot of time on her appearance, trying to look unique while at the same time avoiding the dreaded label, “hipster.”
Fuku
Andromeda’s boots go to her knees, and are composed of gray metal and leather, with thick soles and criss-crossed with black chains. Her skirt is composed of many extremely fine chains which are a variety of dark-gray and black shades, which is thigh-length in the front, and calf-length in the back. Her skirt’s attached to a twisting chain belt, and yes, there is underwear. Her top is composed of a deep red cloth held in place by more dark gray chains. The chains wrap under Andromeda’s bust and back over her shoulders to keep it in place, and the top leaves her stomach and shoulders bare. Attached to these chains are more chains over both her shoulders, which attatch to Andromeda’s front and back, and act as support for the single, thick black chains that wrap around her arms and dangle to her knees from her forearms. Andromeda often gathers those chains in her fists or wraps them as much as she can around her wrists and knuckles. Andromeda’s hair is braided and wrapped around the top of her head like a pseudo-crown, with loops of fine chains draped down from the braid-coils.
See Picture: http://s211.photobucket.com/user/skysongs_icons/media/RP_Sailor_Myth/andromeda.jpg.html
Transformation
Relic: A steel-gray chain necklace, easily taken for the sort used with pendants, except for the lack of a clasp.
After saying, “By the power of Andromeda!” Beatrice’s necklace divides and expands at the same time, the chain loop becoming two loops, then four, then six, twelve, twenty four, until the chains are too numerous to count. These chains keep Beatrice at the center, forming a large sphere of chains that spin fast enough to blur and obscure Beatrice, before shrinking down again and becoming the chain-portions of her fuku.
Powers
* “Chained Power” - After calling her attack, affected senshi find translucent gray chains wrapped around their throats and torso, and the feeling of being constricted, squeezed. The chains remain so long as Chained Power is in effect, and attempts to remove them only result in hands and other items passing through the chains. Chained Power works only on abilities that require a spoken component, and can be used to cancel a power that hasn’t finished “casting” (provided Andromeda can blurt out her own attack call quickly enough), and prevents any additional powers from being activated for the following five minutes. This only affects people who are within 30 yards of Andromeda when she activates it, not anyone who wanders into that range after the fact, and anyone who was already affected who leaves the 30 yard mark still has to wait out the duration of the effect. Andromeda can do this twice in an hour. It does not negate any powers that are always on, or ongoing effects of powers that had already been successfully cast.
* “Broken Bonds” – After calling her attack, there is no visible effect but there is the sound of metal screeching, and snapping, which is obscenely loud for anyone within ten feet of Andromeda and could easily cause headaches. But that’s mostly a side effect. Broken Bonds tears down coordination and trust. Senshi on the same team no longer want to work together, because they suddenly perceive themselves as alone, and their “teammates” no longer feel like they’re on the same side. Everyone becomes indiscriminately aggressive and untrusting of everyone else, as alliances and trust are discarded and it becomes every-senshi-for-themselves. Andromeda cannot pick and choose her targets, and even she is effected when she uses it. Range: 30 yards. Lasts half an hour, casting once per 24 hours.
Guardian
Haldane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haldane_(lunar_crater)) is a one legged, one eyed pigeon. You'd think that the loss of several body parts would ensure a cautious personality, but no: Haldane is gleefully intrusive, voyeuristic, and bloodthirsty. Fortunately for all involved, since Haldane lacks hands, she can't really force open windows or doors, but a certain amount of caution is advised before opening windows.
Although Haldane doesn’t really know the hows or whys of her current situation, she doesn’t mind it terribly. She is now smarter than the average pigeon, and Beatrice feeds her and lets her inside when the weather is bad, which is a vast improvement. Haldane has the occasional moment when her lack of human experience catches up to her – she can’t read, and her speech is full of pigeon-isms to the point of being nearly incomprehensible to humans – but for all her faults she tends to be clever enough, even if she’s prone to suggesting something should be set on fire.
She really likes fire.
Haldane is very enthusiastic about this whole finding-all-the-shinies business, if nothing else because she’s terribly bored most of the time. Haldane wants nothing more than for something exciting to happen, but given the past results of “exciting” (see: missing eye and leg) it seems to be a lesson she hasn’t quite learned yet. She’s also a very aggressive bird when the fighting starts – sure, she’s no hawk, but few people want a pigeon dive-bombing their face.
She does not, at this point, see her senshi as people. They don’t have wings or feathers after all, but that could change.
Explanation
Some regurgitation from Wikipedia:
…is one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd-century Greco-Roman astronomer Ptolemy and remains one of the 88 modern constellations… Andromeda is most prominent during autumn evenings in the Northern Hemisphere, along with several other constellations named for characters in the Perseus myth. Because of its northerndeclination, Andromeda is only visible north of 40° south latitude; for observers farther south it lies below the horizon. It is one of the largest constellations, with an area of 722 square degrees. This is over 1,400 times the size of the full moon, 55% of the size of the largest constellation, Hydra, and over 10 times the size of the smallest constellation, Crux.
While the constellation’s western name stems from the story of princess Andromeda and her mouthy mother, the Andromeda constellation also has recognition from ancient Chinese and Hindu astronomers, although under different names.
The cultural associations presented a condrum however. For one, I wanted to avoid too much crossover in terms of themes/myth with the Theos senshi, and for another I wanted some recognition of the various other cultures and names the constellation has been associated with. The constellation has consistently been associated with a woman-in-the-sky, frequently bound/chained there (except by the Chinese, apparently, who associated the constellation with everything from legs, to wild boars, to libraries and one of the walls in the palace of the emperor). However, having a senshi whose powers were based off “being female” held a lot of Unfortunate Implications. So what did that leave me with?
Binding/bondage/restraint/restriction, submission, and of course: chains. Although Senshi of Bondage would have been hilarious, the joke probably would’ve gotten old eventually. I decided to avoid the words that implied Kinky Bedroom Antics and settled on her title being Sailor Andromeda, Senshi of Chains. Not that she doesn’t have associations with binding and restriction - and not all bonds are bad. Bonds of family, community, and oaths may come into play. Some of her powers are based on (to use an MMO term) sap and control mechanics – very little direct damage, based more on taking the other person out of the fight without hurting them, interrupting powers that require “casting,” or just rendering an opponent immobile so the beating can commence more easily.
She was lucky in that she didn’t have to worry about the baggage of a whole culture to try and cram into her fuku design, but unlucky in that there really isn’t anything that can be done to prevent her from looking vaguely like she walked out of some weird fetish clothing store.
If we ever get a Galaxia Andromeda, expect confusion to occur.
As for Beatrice herself… I built up Beatrice before deciding on what senshi powers to apply to her. She’s sweet and nice and I’m looking forward to breaking her.
I really have no good excuse for Haldane.
Writing Sample
“No, Mom. Yes, Mom. Uh-huh. It’s alright! It can’t be that hard to find another roommate, it’ll be fine. No, I don’t need any money right now, let me handle this ok? If it’s that bad, I’ll let you know. My grades are fine, New York’s fine too, and Christine’s boyfriend is a jerk-” The fire alarm went off. “Uh, I gotta go, I think my lunch’s caught on fire.”
Beatrice knew she’d get a phone call again in half an hour, ‘something is on fire’ having that effect on her mother. Beatrice didn’t cook often, but she was tired of TV dinners and pizza and she’d only needed to buy some chicken breast. She’d had everything else she needed for the recipe. But then her mother had called, Beatrice stopped paying attention to what was going on in her kitchen, and the skillet and chicken were smoking rather determinedly.
Beatrice hesitated for a few moments before deciding that throwing water on the stove was a bad idea, and instead grabbed some oven mits and transferred the mess to the sink, careful to not get her hair in it. The fire alarm continued its shrieking as Beatrice opened all the windows she could before trying to turn the thing off, which eventually involved standing on a chair and a plastic ruler, and trying to not break her neck in the process. She managed to hit the absurdly tiny “off” button, and when she climbed back down, there was a pigeon on her countertop.
“Hello my most excellent friend! Are you going to eat that tasty smokeyness?” The bird was one of the ugliest things Beatrice had ever seen. Not that she thought pigeons were pretty on average, but this was a seriously maimed bird. The pigeon hopped over to the sink on the only leg it had, wings fluttering slightly. “Because it would be a sadness to waste such excellently good food. You are my fine friend, you would not chase me away for using my most excellent beak on the delicious food?”
Beatrice stared. Considered hitting the pigeon with her ruler, but was a little too surprised to actually make the attempt. “Um, sure. Go ahead. It’s chicken though. … is it considered cannibalism if you eat it?” It was one thing to make believe with talking animals in a play. It was another to make believe a talking, hideous pigeon in her kitchen.
The pigeon cocked its head, as if considering the question. It took long enough that Beatrice thought maybe she’d imagined it after all. But no. “In my most clever of minds, I do not think so.” The pigeon pecked at the burnt chicken in the sink a moment, before fixing Beatrice with its remaining eye. “But my fine friend! I am Haldane, and it is most fortuitous to have finally found you, you are most important! Yes! My powerful Andromeda…”
Completed RP Links
See here: http://plasmashot.insanejournal.com/tag/log
And a private PSL currently In Progress: http://asylums.insanejournal.com/themotleycrew/
Questionnaire
Name: Regina
E-mail: xxxxxxx
Homepage: I guess this works as much as anything: http://plasmashot.insanejournal.com/profile
Referred by: Former player who hung out on the yahoogroups! ^_^
Other RPGs: … a lot? Including but not limited to: X-Men, World of Darkness, Star Wars, LARPS, Journal-based, forum based, twitter-based (I am not doing that again), table-top… I have gaaaames.
View Application: Yes!
Results
Your application is solid throughout and your verdict is Accept. A few minor notes follow.
History
- How or why did she not not end up in student housing?
- How dire is the rent situation? Is her housing subsidized by her parents to some degree?
Powers
- I think a line explicitly saying that Chained Power prevents other senshi from using their spoken powers might've gotten clipped in edit somewhere.
History
- How or why did she not not end up in student housing?
- How dire is the rent situation? Is her housing subsidized by her parents to some degree?
Powers
- I think a line explicitly saying that Chained Power prevents other senshi from using their spoken powers might've gotten clipped in edit somewhere.