Post by Dr. Louise Bantam on Aug 8, 2011 22:56:10 GMT -5
Dr. Louise Bantam
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"Frightened? When there's an entire world out there, just waiting to be explored? I should think not!"
the basics,
»»character full name: Louise Eleanor Bantam
»»age: Twenty-seven
»»gender: Female
»»sexual orientation: Bisexual
»»position: Doctor/Researcher, not in that order
»»race: Human
»»alliance: Civilian
»»powers: N/A
»»weapons: Though not a fighter by nature, Louise knows how to use a blade. She keeps a dagger strapped to her left calf at all times, just in case of emergencies. She's also pretty handy with a slingshot.
the appearance,
»»eyes: Grey-green
»»markings: Her face is lightly freckled; her legs are heavily scarred. No, not from any horrific accident or traumatic battle- she just accumulates little cuts and scratches wherever she goes, and over time they've built up into an interesting picture. She does try to wear her protective boots most of the time, but the damage has already been done.
»»height: 5'2"
»»weight: 110
»»general appearance:
Diminutive as she is, Louise is easy to overlook quite by accident. However, if you adjust your eyes a little bit lower, you'll wonder how you could possibly have missed this wiry redhead at first glance. That's not to say that she's stunningly pretty- she's attractive, but nobody would be struck dumb at the sight of her- but there is a quiet intensity in every line. There is a less quiet intensity, too; Louise has boundless energy when she finds something interesting, and often has trouble standing still. Her hands in particular are constantly in motion.
Her mop of red hair is chopped off at the shoulders with less precision than it might be: she usually does it herself whenever she feels it's getting impractically long. She braids it back to keep it out of the way, but it tends to escape anyway in a wispy orange cloud around her head. On the few occasions that she lets her hair have its freedom, it curls slightly.
Facially, Louise is pretty but unremarkable: high cheekbones over dimpled cheeks and a sensitive, mobile mouth that is usually quirked at one corner. Her complexion is fair enough to freckle a bit, but not so fair as to constantly risk sunburn. Behind the oversized anachronism of her spectacles- contacts being very difficult to manufacture on Sterhera- her grey-green eyes hold a mischevous glint.
Louise's fashion choices, such as they are, are all about practicality. Her chosen garments are loose-fitting enough not to impair movement, tight enough not to catch on anything, bland colored enough not to have to worry about clashing, and with pockets added wherever possible. (One could discover entire ecosystems in one of Louise's pockets.)
the personality,
»»likes:
-Learning anything and everything possible
-Asking questions
-The thrill of the chase (usually an expedition-related adrenaline high)
-Puzzles
-To debate
-Stargazing and cloud-watching
-Feeling useful
-Fixing things
»»dislikes:
-Arguments (despite what some people try to say, there is a big difference between a friendly debate and an argument)
-Unexpected delays (she has endless patience if she knows it will pay off, but otherwise she has all of the patience of a five-year-old.)
-People with no sense of adventure or thirst for knowledge
-People who try to regulate her research
-Rules
-Giving up on anything
»»strengths:
-Curiosity. Louise wants to know everything about everything that ever is, was, and could be. To that effect, she has devoured books on every subject imaginable, and has dedicated her adult life to solving the mysteries of the new world.
-Empathy. Though she can be painfully tactless at times, she has an excellent bedside manner, and picks up on emotional nuances that most people would miss. And despite an all-too-cheery interest in the trials of new medicines, she genuinely cares enough to put her research on hold if a doctor is needed.
-Concentration. She is capable of flashes of brilliance, stringing together everything she takes in to figure things out.
-Her memory. Not only has she read every obscure fact she could find, but she can recall them at a moment's notice in everyday conversation. The only facts she can't seem to remember are the ones that are mundane, obvious, and immediately relevant...
-Tenacity. She will weather any storm in the pursuit of knowledge, and will treat patients that other doctors would have long since given up on. Sometimes, it's all for nought. Surprisingly often, it isn't.
-Optimism. No matter how daunting the task, or how world-weary and cynical her peers, the gleam in her eyes and dimples in her cheeks are practically immovable.
»»weaknesses:
-Curiosity. She is utterly incapable of stopping her research if she finds something interesting, regardless of any danger involved. This extends to personal conversations as well- she can be a bit tactless when asking questions. There have also been a few... interesting situations with government secrets that she really just genuinely wanted to know, for no particular reason.
-Recklessness. If a hitherto undiscovered equivalent of a lemming were to jump off a cliff, Louise would happily follow suit, observing it all the way.
-Concentration. While she's busy thinking, she is effectively dead to the world. She once infamously didn't notice an angry mother alphyn snarling at her because she was so taken with studying her cub's behavior.
-Books. More specifically, rare and obscure books. If you own a copy of something rare but interesting, on a topic completely irrelevant to her life as it stands, she would practically sell her soul for a peek at it.
-Optimism. In this kind of world, it's dangerous to think the best of things.
»»secrets:
Louise is a remarkably open person; the secrets in her life have tended to be little ones, like a crush on a colleague or her unscientific love of flowers. Indeed, most things that people think of as her secrets are things that she honestly doesn't think matter, and would answer perfectly willingly if asked about them. The main case there is her sexuality- upon reaching adolescence, she noticed that she found herself attracted to both sexes. Recognizing this, she looked for and found the proper term- bisexual-, filed the fact away in her mind and moved on to more interesting things. As such, she is genuinely bewildered when people bring up things that she considers unworthy of mention and expect her to be embarrassed or angry about it.
»»general personality:
Louise is, as has already been noted, insatiably curious. She doesn't only wanted to know how the world works, she wants to know why everything is the way it is, and how it got that way. This is the driving force of her personality; everything else, she has been known to remark, is incidental. Though that's not quite true, it is easy enough to see why most people take her at her word.
She is well known for her mile-wide stubborn streak. What is less immediately apparent is her planet-wide layer of compassion. Between her obsessive drive for knowledge and her brusque, tactless, and rather wry manner of speech, it's easy to miss her caring side. It is there, however, and once her loyalty is gained she will be a loyal friend for life.
She has an odd mix of integrity and casual dishonesty- while she is perfectly capable of lying through her teeth about important things, she has never been able to master the "white lie" or the "fib." She considers fabricating scientific facts to be blasphemy, but considers governmental propaganda to be irritating at worst.
the history,
»»mother: Eloise Bantam, doctor
»»father: Andrew Bantam, government researcher, deceased
»»siblings: None
»»others: She has an aunt on her mother's side and two first cousins, but she's not particularly close with any of them.
»»background:
Louise's childhood was not, perhaps, average, but as far as she was concerned it was idyllic. Already inquisitive, she turned to her parents for the answers to any and all questions she could think of. Her mother, a doctor, would tell her the answer and find a book on the subject to promote further questions. Her father, a scientist turned researcher, would invariably respond, "Let's find out." Between her mother's books and her father's improvised experiments and [local] expeditions, Louise's thirst for knowledge grew by leaps and bounds. She ought to have excelled in school, but her habit of correcting the teachers' mistakes merely got her in trouble. Undeterred, she continued to study independently on whatever subjects struck her fancy.
When she was older, her mother convinced her to seek the available medical training, such as it was. Interested as she was in research, her mother convinced her to divert at least part of her attention to finding and testing new cures. Louise accepted the compromise- she trained as a doctor, but rather than setting up a practice of her own, she immediately joined a research expedition as a field medic. She tramped all over the continent with this and subsequent teams, learning all that she could and recording her discoveries in a series of journals. For the next several years, she was blissfully happy.
When a government messenger caught up to her team one sunny morning to tell her that her father had passed away, she was heartbroken but not particularly surprised- his health had been failing for years. She felt disappointed with herself for not devoting herself body and soul to medicine, but recognized at the same time that she could never have been happy so restricting herself. She withdrew from the team to return home and deal with her grief- she had loved her father, and she recognized that she needed some time to come to terms with his death. The messenger offered to escort her home, and she accepted without a qualm. Once away from her team, he gave her a second piece of news- this one highly surprising. Government higher-ups had heard good things about her research from many sources. With the loss of her father, an important position had opened up- would she like to take over his work?
Louise deliberated this thoroughly upon her return home. Finally, she decided to turn down the offer- she had seen enough of how her father worked to know that she would find the job far too restrictive. The government messenger had not been happy, but said that he quite understood, and withdrew.
Since then, she has received several further invitations to join the government. Though she has so far declined all of these offers, remaining in her neutral civilian research position, the government continues to court her. This is as things stand now...
the player,
»»alias: Liv
»»age: 18
»»contact: PM
»»rp sample:
Ben was, in a word, content.
Content was not a word that could often be applied to Ben Montague. He had his medical training- rewarding, but undeniably stressful. He had his family, too; still more demanding, and far more stressful. As much as he loved his sisters, they always knew just how to aggravate him. (Not Freddie, of course; she was different. But Bianca and Carlotta, he was sure, were conspiring to give him a heart attack one of these days.) His parents were undeniably worse; his father wanted him to be the model son, his business heir, and many other things Ben just couldn't work himself up to care about. His mother, too, had high expectations for her son, though hers were mostly social aspirations. And as for his cousins... Ben had been gifted with far too large of an extended family for most people to even keep track of, let alone deal with the kind of headaches they regularly gave Ben. Romeo was by far the worst of the lot, and he was one of his best friends! Of course, the rest of his friends weren't any better...
Given that extremely long-winded explanation, one might see how unusual it was for Ben to find a moment's peace. Today, though, he had managed to find it. He woke up early, early enough to sneak out of the house without any of his family noticing. The staff noticed, of course; he had politely told Hastings that he would be going out today, and Greta, one of the maids, had given him a conspiratorial wink when he said he would probably be gone all day. He had then breakfasted at a little cafe not too far from home, and afterwards, noticing how nice of a day it was turning into, he decided to take a walk. His feet had led him to Central Park.
He had a lot of happy childhood memories of the park: looking at the ducks with his sisters, holding Freddie's hand so she wouldn't fall in the pond, buying birdseed from a friendly old woman and feeding the birds, playing frisbee or tag or just plain running around all over the grass...
He hadn't spent much time there in the past few years. He seriously doubted if he'd been in there since he started college. Even in high school, he had spent less and less time in there... Maybe that had something to do with a rather spectacular fiasco of blind date Mercutio had set him up on. While it was true that the girl in question was quite pretty, Ben had been utterly speechless for most of the afternoon, and by the end of it he was praying for a meteor to fall from the sky and end the awkwardness of it. That date hadn't ruined the park for him, but it had been awkward to show his face for at least a few weeks.
He smiled languidly as he remembered those carefree days. He wasn't one of those people who always moan about going back in time and reliving their childhoods, or changing some mistakes they made; he was largely satisfied with his life thus far. Shifting back to the present, he was stretched out lazily beneath an oak tree, not quite asleep but not quite awake either. He simply lay there, luxuriating in the familiar peace of his surroundings and half-listening to the chatter of all of the people around him. One woman was complaining loudly to a friend about her marital problems; judging by the lack of interest in her friend's replies, this was nothing new. A child nearby begged his mother for an ice cream cone. A group of children ran around playing tag just as Ben had done when he was their age, squealing with delight each time new person was tagged and made "it." The calls of "You're it!" "No I'm not, you didn't touch me!" "Did so!" "Did not!" brought a smile to his face.
Eventually, he pushed himself to his feet and started walking again. He wasn't quite sure where he was going, but he trusted his feet. He walked along, humming softly to himself, feeling completely at ease.
For Ben, that feeling never lasted long. Aimlessly dragging his hand along a stone wall, he accidentally knocked a piece of charcoal to the ground.
"Oops, I'm sorry!" he said, reaching down to pick it up. He handed it to the girl sitting there, smiling ruefully and running his other hand through his already messy hair.
If his mother saw him now, she would probably say with that special condescending mother voice of hers, "Ben, lying in the grass for an hour is not, perhaps, the best way to keep your hair in order." Well, she wasn't there, and Ben couldn't care less about the state of his hair. He had never liked the overly-styled looks his mother and her "fashionable" crowd favored anyhow.
He thought he recognized the owner of the charcoal from somewhere, but somehow he couldn't quite place her. For some reason, he wanted to connect her name with Romeo- was she one of the long parade of girls that he had mooned over? He rather suspected that she must be. Still, he wished that he could remember her name, if only for the sake of being polite.
Content was not a word that could often be applied to Ben Montague. He had his medical training- rewarding, but undeniably stressful. He had his family, too; still more demanding, and far more stressful. As much as he loved his sisters, they always knew just how to aggravate him. (Not Freddie, of course; she was different. But Bianca and Carlotta, he was sure, were conspiring to give him a heart attack one of these days.) His parents were undeniably worse; his father wanted him to be the model son, his business heir, and many other things Ben just couldn't work himself up to care about. His mother, too, had high expectations for her son, though hers were mostly social aspirations. And as for his cousins... Ben had been gifted with far too large of an extended family for most people to even keep track of, let alone deal with the kind of headaches they regularly gave Ben. Romeo was by far the worst of the lot, and he was one of his best friends! Of course, the rest of his friends weren't any better...
Given that extremely long-winded explanation, one might see how unusual it was for Ben to find a moment's peace. Today, though, he had managed to find it. He woke up early, early enough to sneak out of the house without any of his family noticing. The staff noticed, of course; he had politely told Hastings that he would be going out today, and Greta, one of the maids, had given him a conspiratorial wink when he said he would probably be gone all day. He had then breakfasted at a little cafe not too far from home, and afterwards, noticing how nice of a day it was turning into, he decided to take a walk. His feet had led him to Central Park.
He had a lot of happy childhood memories of the park: looking at the ducks with his sisters, holding Freddie's hand so she wouldn't fall in the pond, buying birdseed from a friendly old woman and feeding the birds, playing frisbee or tag or just plain running around all over the grass...
He hadn't spent much time there in the past few years. He seriously doubted if he'd been in there since he started college. Even in high school, he had spent less and less time in there... Maybe that had something to do with a rather spectacular fiasco of blind date Mercutio had set him up on. While it was true that the girl in question was quite pretty, Ben had been utterly speechless for most of the afternoon, and by the end of it he was praying for a meteor to fall from the sky and end the awkwardness of it. That date hadn't ruined the park for him, but it had been awkward to show his face for at least a few weeks.
He smiled languidly as he remembered those carefree days. He wasn't one of those people who always moan about going back in time and reliving their childhoods, or changing some mistakes they made; he was largely satisfied with his life thus far. Shifting back to the present, he was stretched out lazily beneath an oak tree, not quite asleep but not quite awake either. He simply lay there, luxuriating in the familiar peace of his surroundings and half-listening to the chatter of all of the people around him. One woman was complaining loudly to a friend about her marital problems; judging by the lack of interest in her friend's replies, this was nothing new. A child nearby begged his mother for an ice cream cone. A group of children ran around playing tag just as Ben had done when he was their age, squealing with delight each time new person was tagged and made "it." The calls of "You're it!" "No I'm not, you didn't touch me!" "Did so!" "Did not!" brought a smile to his face.
Eventually, he pushed himself to his feet and started walking again. He wasn't quite sure where he was going, but he trusted his feet. He walked along, humming softly to himself, feeling completely at ease.
For Ben, that feeling never lasted long. Aimlessly dragging his hand along a stone wall, he accidentally knocked a piece of charcoal to the ground.
"Oops, I'm sorry!" he said, reaching down to pick it up. He handed it to the girl sitting there, smiling ruefully and running his other hand through his already messy hair.
If his mother saw him now, she would probably say with that special condescending mother voice of hers, "Ben, lying in the grass for an hour is not, perhaps, the best way to keep your hair in order." Well, she wasn't there, and Ben couldn't care less about the state of his hair. He had never liked the overly-styled looks his mother and her "fashionable" crowd favored anyhow.
He thought he recognized the owner of the charcoal from somewhere, but somehow he couldn't quite place her. For some reason, he wanted to connect her name with Romeo- was she one of the long parade of girls that he had mooned over? He rather suspected that she must be. Still, he wished that he could remember her name, if only for the sake of being polite.
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