Ai Kangeki, Girl Genius in Mourning

[Rabbit]

The Big Damn Original Characters Application

Your ‘Real’ Name (or preferred 'out of character' Handle): Jonny or Rabbit. Or Jonny Rabbit

How Often You Can Post: Always

Tell Us About Your Roleplay Past/Abilities: I played Hamlet at Cambridge!

How Familiar Are You With The Firefly 'Verse?: Management not responsible for ball failure.

How Did You Hear About The BDV Site?: If you play the Serenity soundtrack backwards, it gives you the url. True story!

____________________________________________________________________ In your mind, you can picture your Original Character...now let us 'see' them.

If you could 'cast' the role of your OC, who would play the part: Aoi Miyazaki

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v61/Gyzz...93762245303.jpg

What BDV ship/location do want to be assigned to: Quiet Storm

Character Name: Ai Kangeki

Character Occupation: Mechanic/Girl Genius/Inventor

Gender: Female

Age (the character, not the actor/actress): 25

Detailed Physical Description (2 PARAGRAPHS): Ai is a pretty, petite woman of Japanese descent. She stands at a scant 5'1" and weighs not very much at all. She has shoulder-length, chestnut colored hair and chocolate colored, almond shaped eyes. Her cheeks and arms are lightly freckled and her smile is sweet, mischievous and ever present.

She has a very eclectic wardrobe, ranging from t-shirts and blue jeans to sundresses. Her hair tends to change styles and sometimes colors at a whim, and her shoes and fingernails come in a vast rainbow. Her favorite piece of clothing is a heavy brown flight jacket given to her by an old boyfriend, now deceased. His name, Cruz, features prominently on the right breast.

Detailed Personality (2 PARAGRAPHS) : Generally, Ai has an upbeat and outgoing personality. She is friendly, eloquent and relaxed with those she trusts. However, her mind is always working toward solving known problems. She loves devising contraptions that will make things easier for herself and her companions.

She's a very bright young lady, and when she begins to work on a new design or invention, or even just a simple repair, she becomes singleminded in her task, closing herself off from nearly everything else. This can make her seem unsociable to those who do not know her, but sure can't being herself to care until the job is done.

Sometimes, however, Ai is haunted by trauma from her past, and can become truly withdrawn and depressed. She holds tightly to the memories of those that she has lost, sometimes to the detriment of her relationships with those she considers friends.

She is not a bad person at heart, but comes to piracy through loyalty to the final wish of Nick Cruz, who told her to help his friend David if he ever needed it. This can sometimes lead her to internal conflict when the target of their schemes isn't exactly a bad guy.

Detailed History(2 OR MORE PARAGRAPHS): Ai Kangeki was born into a simple life on Whitefall, the middle child of three. Her father was a dentist and her mother a ranch hand. Ai was a handful of a child, causing trouble for her parents and her older sister alike. However, it wasn't long before she began to channel her energy into learning, and she quickly excelled at her schooling, all while taking apart household objects and trying to put them back together in more interesting ways.

Her father, Tashi, considered his daughter a prodigy when she reached her teenage years, and shipped her off to live with cousins on Londinium, where were would receive the best education in the 'Verse. Ai was a great student there, though not a standout as was expected. This was attributed to a young hand on a cargo freighter named Nick Cruz.

The girl was smitten with the young man's spirit and handsome features, and though she spent her fair amount of time studying, she spent even more of it with Nick. When she finished her schooling, Nick decided to go to flight school. Against the wishes of her family, she followed him. There, Nick was quite popular, and the young couple was quite happy. They grew especially close to a classmate of Nick's named David, who was one of the most talented pilots in the field. The two pilots embraced Ai's mechanically inclined mind, allowing her to assist them with ship repairs. By the end of their course, the girl was making modifications of her own to their training rigs.

Once they had graduated, Nick and David went their separate ways, and Nick began taking jobs running cargo through risky areas of space for bigger paydays. Ai was uncomfortable with this, but supported the man she had grown to love. Nick's jobs brought them a comfortable life, but reality hit soon after her 21st birthday, when she learned that her parents had been killed in an apparent Reaver attack. Grief-stricken, she returned to Whitefall to be with her siblings.

While she was away, Nick was offered a job by a subordinate of Adlai Niska, running don't-ask cargo for a huge payout. He agreed, hoping to use the extra money for a ring for Ai. Unfortunately, a rival faction caught wind of the job, and Nick's ship was badly damaged in an ambush. He managed to escape his attackers, but crash landed... on Whitefall.

Learning the identity of the fallen pilot, Ai rushed to the hospital to find a fatally wounded Nick. He apologized to her for taking the job, and told her that he wanted to marry her when he recovered. Ai accepted his proposal, and stayed beside him day and night. After a week of suffering through his injuries, however, Nick realized that he would not survive. He left everything he owned to Ai, the only family he'd ever known, and made her promise to help David in any way she could. Once she had promised, Nick finally let go and passed away.

After months of mourning, Ai went to look for David, wearing the jacket of her fallen lover.

Strengths (1 paragraph): Ai is highly intelligent and skilled, especially with the repair and modification of mechanical objects. She is well spoken and kind, and is generally well-liked once people get to know her. She isn't afraid to go outside of the expectations of others to get what she's after, and really doesn't care what people think about her. She is in moderate physical shape for a normal woman of her size. Her loyalty to David is unquestionable, and by extention, she is loyal to his friends.

Weaknesses (1 paragraph): Ai has a tendency to overfocus on a task, which can cause her to be absent and antisocial. Once she has an idea, she sees it through regardless of consequences. Due to her tragic past, Ai can become withdrawn and melancholy, choosing to spend time brooding rather than talk about her issues. She had never been in a fight, and wouldn't know how to handle herself in one (though she's not against creating devices for self defense.) She sometimes had moral objections to the crew's missions, causing her to be conflicted.

Sample Post: (3 paragraphs minimum/Third Person Past Tense): Please use the Big Damn Verse Styling Guide to format your post.

Darkness. For months, she'd been living in it. Basking in it. She had lost so much in her young life, but Nick was the breaking point. They had been betrothed for a a week. She wasn't sure whether or not that made her a widow. She wasn't sure why that even mattered, but it did.

It was still so vivid. The wave from the hospital, telling her that Nick had crashed. He had listed her as his next of kin. He'd never had anyone else in his life, not since he was young, anyway. Flying was his dream, his freedom. His love. His life. At least he died doing what he loved...

There was a knock at the door. Gentle. Azusa. Her sister had tried to be a comfort. Bless her, she'd tried. But Ai had been too badly broken this time. She had barely eaten, almost never left her room. She stayed mostly on her bed with her pictures, his jacket and their memories together.

It was almost funny to her, the irony. She had spent a good deal of her life taking parts and building them up into a whole. But the one thing she couldn't seem to fix was herself. The one thing she was most familiar with, and she was as helpless as a baby. She squeezed Nick's jacket, as she often did, and sobbed gently.

This time, however, she could feel him in the room. His warmth, his smile. His arms wrapped gently, comfortingly around her. His breath on her neck, his whisper in her ear. "Everything will be all right, amo." She tensed a bit, and squeezed the jacket again. Everything will be all right...

Azusa knocked gently on the door again, and was surprised when it opened, with Ai standing on the other side. Ai wrapped her arms tightly around her sister, eyes red from her tears. Nick's jacket smelled comfortingly like the man it had belonged to, draped over Ai's shoulders. She gave a sad smile, and whispered to her sister. "Everything will be all right..."

Finally she knew. She'd known all along.

In time, anything can be put back together.

[Caleb Hall]

Note: The David in this app is a forthcoming character of mine. The relationship between the two characters has been approved by me. Thought that might help.

[Rabbit]

Oh, right. Sorry, drunk at work again! (note: kidding. I'm not at work!)

[Drea Allen]

Looks good to me. A friend of David's is a friend of mine. Welcome aboard Quiet Storm once you have admin approval.

[Ertia]

Ooh! This looks good to me.

There will probably have to be some discussion on the limits of her 'technical genius', what her capabilities are within the BDV tech available, but I think the character is strong, and I like the established connection with Caleb's character.

I call Approved on my end.

[Rabbit]

Thanks, E! As for the technical stuff/invention angle, I was going for something along the lines of MacGuyvering together gear if they need something specialized (like say a grappling hook gun or a hidden pocket in a coat or something) rather than have the crew have to buy it and leave a paper trail/ overpay some shifty black market guy. She won't be throwing together neutrino bombs or anything like that. At least, not for a few episodes. ;)

[Ertia]

Sounds good to me! :)

[Synthia Lyndon Heller]

Looks good here :)