Neifrii Yakida, illegitimate son of a autocratic noble, has no
inheritance but more than enough familial derision, and seeks
to impress his family and make an honorable life for himself
(Jon Davis).
Okay Jon,
Here's some comment on your character sheet [BTW, is Al Muller ever going to
respond about Melisa Johnsway? Did you get the long message?], and some
initial detail about the world Neifrii has grown up in.
> Neifrii Yakida
> (pronouced Knee-free Ja-key-da)
> UPP - 687A9A
> AGE 18, Single, Birthday = 283
> Planet of Birth: Astel Tine
> (Administrative Center for Subsector affairs)
> HEIGHT 5'10"
> WEIGHT 170 lbs.
> Black hair
> Brown eyes.
Neifrii is average height for a Terran male, rather heavily built. Overall
average abilities, but rather mentally quick and has been exposed to a good
education.
Neifrii comes from a very crowded world (see the Astel Tine World Detail I
sent out a couple weeks ago).
> Family - Members of the Yakida Estate
> Father Aki Yakida, 49, Noble
> Minister on the Council for Economic Development (CED)
> for the Astel Tine government.
> Former Vice Chairman - Haldyne Industries, an industrial
> conglomerate
> Huku Yakida, 47, wife of Aki
> Mother Alyce Hemmings, 42, former employee of Haldyne Industries
> Escort/concubine to Aki Yakida
>
> Half-Brother Shoku, 24, Playboy
> Half-Brother Roufo, 20, Marine Lt., Active duty
> Half-Sister Kaling, 16, student
> Sister Shasha, 12
Due to his father's nobility, he is accorded with a signifigant
amount of societal status despite his father's rejection of any potential
heirship.
Due to the name and family history above, I gather that Neifrii's family
structure contains more than an echo of traditional Japanese family
structure. Although I am somewhat ignorant of the true bonds in a Japanese
family, I think I can fake it pretty well though.
> Outline
> Neifrii is the illegitimate son of Aki Yakida and Alyce
> Hemmings, and with his mother and younger sister, are a
> part of the larger Yakida household and estate. Although he
> is a part of this illustrious and wealthy family, Neifrii has
> very little wealth or possessions of his own, or any share
> of his father's inheiritance. He has frequently been a source
> of contention between his father and his older half-brothers,
> especially Shoku. Yet Neifrii considers himself a part of the
> Yakida family and desires acceptance and praise from his father,
> who he highly respects.
It is somewhat interesting to see that Aki kept his ties with Alyce
strong enough that Alyce, Sasha, and Neifrii are a part (of whatever
signifigance) of the household. Also despite his illegitimacy, it is
interesting to note that Neifrii was given Aki's surname, instead of
Alyce's. This indicates to me that at one time Aki claimed the child as
truly his child and then spurned him at a later date.
Either this or Aki was very uninvolved with the child and Alyce gave
Neifrii the last name Yakida to hope for a better life for him despite
insistant remarks from Aki that Neifrii would not be an heir or true
child. This seems more likely.
> Goal
> Neifrii desires to be fully accepted by his father as a "true"
> son, and not simply a bastard. For this reason he desires to
> pursue a Naval career and distinquish himself by high military
> achievements and honors. His first goal is to enter flight
> school and become an expert starship pilot and ultimately a
> starship captain of a major Terran Imperium warship. With this
> measure of leadership behind him, he would seek positions of
> government, diplomatic, or business authority within the Terran
> Imperium or Astel Tine governments or communities.
Very ambitious goal for a fellow only a little more intelligent,
educated, and aspiring to a higher societal standing than your average
Astel Tinian. Without his father's aid, this task will indeed be a
battle. Yet with the name Yakida, perhaps he will go much farther than
if his name were Hemmings.
> Personality
> Very determined and resolute.
> Has high respect for authority figures.
> Avid runner and sportsman, especially horses.
> Quiet and reserved character in public or official functions.
> Well versed in starship operation and fleet tactics as a hobby.
Sounds like Neifrii has strived to constantly challenge and improve
himself, to close the half-gap of alienation with his father. While on
the estate, Neifrii has searched out ever opportunity to share his
half-brothers' and -sister's wealth and closeness to Aki, no matter how
vicarious the sharing was. With his personal strength of will and
perseverance, it is likely that he can make up for what he lacks in
intelligence, education, and social standing.
Neifrii's computed chances for entering Flight School, by the book, is
7% if he goes to College and attempts NOTC and Honors, or 10% if he
tries the Naval Academy path, either if he does or doesn't get NA
Honors. From what you've said about Neifrii, it sounds to me like he'd
want to go tho the Naval Academy -- it's there he could continue to
follow alot of his studies and talk to real tacticians instead of
suffering through dozens of academicians. The hard part of either path
is getting the money, which we assume he'll hook or crook from
somewhere.
Here's some "detailing" to get you more familiar with the world of Astel
Tine and Port City.
- -----
Jensen Arreis woke up. Jensen lay in bed letting his mind drift for a
minute or two, then pushed the covers aside and padded softly to the
window. He felt strong and rested already, and knew he couldn't sleep
any more tonight. Today was going to be too big of a day.
He wrapped his arms around his unclothed body and stared out the window
at the night sky, feeling the tight muscles on either side of his chest.
He felt somewhat annoyed at himself as he realized that he had been
dreaming about his girlfriend from High School, who had gone off to
college only a few weeks ago. He shouldn't be missing her, after what
she'd done! Oh well... there will be others, he reminded himself
amusedly and rather detachedly. I can start fresh later today, he
smirked to himself; then brooded on whether any young woman would pay
any attention to him. He hoped one cute one would! Enough of this, he
told himself, and looked out the window.
>From his vantage on the South Hills of the city, Jensen looked up. The
sky was lightening outside his window, but the electric glow of
energized argon, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms seen every night in the thin
summery air of Astel Tine weren't totally washed out by the dawn light
yet. The hills 5km East of Port City lay on the horizon, twinkling with
only a light here and there, in stark contrast to the city scape only
5km away to the West of those hills.
Even at 3:00 am, Port City was a throng of lights and activities. In
the merchant sector, near the airport and docks, large skyscrapers
reached hundreds of meters into the air, sporting precise rows of office
lights in the windows. At the administrative quarter of town, far
accross the city, glowed the Capitol building, bathed in lights and
accompanied by a reflecting pond, and expansive grassy grounds dotted
with the Memorial Museum and large monuments to several of the
Subsector's greatest governers, generals, and statesmen; all this
surrounded by dozens of office buildings. In the spaceport sector, wide
expanses of lighted circles lay in hexagonal patterns, and a glowing
light swung round every 15 seconds, repeating an endless cycle of white,
yellow, and blue flashes.
The sectors of the city functioned as individual organs, fed by the
arteries of the roads. The bright red and white lights of the ground
cars permeated every sector of the city, leaving off to Arex across the
East Hills, and Meisentown to the North. The arteries did look a little
anemic at 3:00am, though that would change shortly after Astel I rose
above the East Hills in a hour or so.
The bright searchlight of the spaceport beacon lit up the sky, where
fireflies abounded. Large atmospheric gravflights manuevered toward the
airport, while a variety of sizes and shapes of fireflies ascended and
descended silently from the spaceport. Occaisonally there was a great
rumbling heard far, far off, and the sky grew fitfully bright as a craft
high above the city went into fusion boost or finished fusion braking to
aid passage to and from planetside. These bright stars were too bright
to stare at, and lit up the countryside enough to take a hike by, if it
wasn't already so light-polluted by the city.
He watched as a configuration of 18 blaring stars raised over the
horizon. This would be a big one. The braking thrusters were thottled
back, and grew noticeably dimmer, then vanished as a giant dark shape
glowered over the city. Jensen's eyes readjusted, and he saw a huge
sleek starship in the 50-kiloton range poised about 1 km above and 1 km
east of the starport, with the giant crest of Haldyne Industries painted
in blue, gold, and silver on it's side. Jensen knew that this
merchantman was likely carrying raw commodities such as petroleum,
whereas the miniscule flitting ships of 5 minutes before were probably
small speculative trader ships, engaged in the transport of gems,
liquor, spices, and high-tech equipment.
Far off in the East Hills it was much quieter, and Jensen turned to look
more closely. His body shivered and he rubbed the goosebumps on his
bare legs and lower back. He followed the ridge over to a grassy pass.
There on the hill sat a large dark mansion, home of the Yakida estate.
Jensen didn't know how long the Yakidas had been influential on this
planet, but he guessed that it probably started back shortly after the
date of the Terran Rescue. At that time the old order changed and
warped to the new, and the planet was overrun by Terran merchant
capitalists. Many of the influential people on Astel Tine were
descendants of those merchants.
At any rate, he knew that Minister Aki Yakida was arguably the most
powerful man on Astel Tine, and one of the more influential Terrans in
this region of the subsector. He was unarguably the most powerful man
in Port City, for Port City was the governmental head of Astel Tine, and
Port City lived off of trade, like the huge interstellar merchantman
which had now begun to slowly, almost imperceptibly descend to one of
the largest cluster of pads at the starport.
And sleeping somewhere in that little speck on the hill (even a large
mansion looks small at 7km, Jensen mused) was the other student from his
high school who might have applied for admission to the academy, Neifrii
Yakida. Today was the big day, the day he would report to school.
He wondered if Neifrii would be there. He didn't know Neifrii at all
well, but they both had shared several classes and had both done well on
the Standardized Higher Education Achievement Tests, as he had seen
Neifrii's name near the top of the list. At least there would be one
face he could hope would be there to recognize. But if he wasn't,
Jensen would be okay; he had a lot of new people to meet in any case.
Jensen went back to his bed, turned on the light, squinted for a minute,
and opened up the Fundamentals of Starship Navigation book he'd been
reading when he fell asleep a scant 5 hours ago.
- ----
Okay, Jon. I need to know some stuff from you. Like the other four
characters I'm running, this is *your* character and I want you to be
happy with him. Start him into college or the academy, it's your
choice, and have him do however well or badly you think he ought to (or
if you're a stickler for the rules, roll dice to determine this).
If you deem that he graduates from the Academy or graduates NOTC from
college, he can roll for admission to flight school. If he graduates
from either institution with honors, he's automatically admitted to
flight school.
Then take him as far along into the navy as you want.
OR- stop at any time that you want, and I'll do some more detailing.
Eventually we will find a place where we can start playing, and that
point is whenever you feel your character is ready.
Please respond at your earliest convenience (I unfortunately haven't had
any convenient times lately), and as soon as you can get some feedback about
Melisa, I'd like to hear about it.
James