Bara
Loner
[M:0][A:2]
Vulpes Rose
Posts: 21
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Bara
Mar 22, 2010 5:56:18 GMT -5
Post by Bara on Mar 22, 2010 5:56:18 GMT -5
G E N E R A L
Name: Bara Alias: Species: Keiyou Gender: Female Age: year and a half
Pack: n/a Rank: Loner
P H Y S I C A L
Height: 29" Weight: 37 lbs
Appearance: Bara is smaller than most Keiyou, likely due to her malnourishment as a pup preventing her from growing to a normal height and weight. Of course, she doesn’t really realize she is undersized. She kinda thinks that the wolves here are all oversized since she was too young when she left her home to have a good memory for size comparison.
Her fur is darkish auburn in color with a creamy tan patch on her chest and around her eyes. The sides of her muzzle and cheeks are white. Her wings are those of a red tailed hawk. This makes her a graceful flyer when there are updrafts and thermals, but her wings are not well suited to still air where much flapping is required. She’s a glider. Her eyes are a soft powder blue. There is something sad about her look with a hint of loneliness.
Bara holds herself very timidly. Her voice falters when she cannot find the right word to say. She moves slowly on the ground to avoid the clumsiness common for her species. She already talks funny and would prefer not to look stupid even before she opens her mouth.
Other: Because I fail at explaining, she looks like this: wings, face
M E N T A L
Strengths: Persistent – Bara doesn’t like to give up. She may fail time and again, but she will keep trying. This is why she still struggles to communicate, despite the difficulty in it. Her shyness can temporarily stall her persistence, but she will almost always keep at it if the other is patient enough with her. Good nonverbal communication skills – Bara is good at reading body language and other nonverbal forms of communication. She is very perceptive of the feelings behind spoken speech, so even if she can’t understand the words she can usually understand the feelings that the speaker was trying to convey. However, she is not so perceptive that she can see through those who are practiced at hiding their true feelings. She can usually only understand what the other wants her to understand.
Weaknesses: Poor language skills – Bara isn’t a native speaker of the language spoken in this area, so words that don’t come up commonly leave her confused. She often finds herself frustrated at her inability to express herself fully. She does best with simple sentences. However, complicated sentences, fragments, and flowery language are all very common in speech, and tend to leave her confused. Shy – She knows enough by now to know that she sounds unintelligent when she speaks and really hates it. If someone laughs at how she talks or her inability to find the right word she will clam up and will be afraid to try again for a while. If others are understanding and patient she is usually okay.
Personality:Despite her past Bara isn’t bitter. She sees her life as a gift and wants to make the most of it. She has learned how to adapt to new things fairly well. She didn’t really have a choice but to take life as it came at her, so she tends to just roll with the punches. She cares deeply for those around her, especially for pups, and she doesn’t like to see others in pain.
She is an enthusiastic student of the world, naturally curious and excited about learning new things. She knows that no matter where she goes she can take her knowledge with her. If you want to make Bara really happy, teach her something new. She will forever be grateful for it.
When upset, frustrated, or surprised she is known to break into her native language. (I can provide translations of what she says if people want it. It will tend to be no more than a single word or phrase).
History: Bara comes from a very distant pack. Her parents gave birth to three pups during a time of famine, two girls and a boy. During times when it was important to strictly control population parents were only allowed to have two pups. Many simply disposed of extra pups after birth, sending them back to the Great Spirit to wait for a time when they could return to them. But the option was also available to raise the pups until they could fend for themselves, and then cast any extras out of the lands. And so it was that Bara left home, small and with little hunting experience of her own.
She survived by scavenging more than hunting and wandered far from her home. As she grew she was better able to hunt and protect herself from predators. In truth it was probably more due to luck than skill that she was able to survive on her own.
Bara crossed a wide mountain range with great difficulty. The packs in the area claimed the mountains to be impossible to cross and no one dared to try. There was also a legend that beyond the mountains was a land of pain and torment and suffering and that was where the Great Spirit sent those who misused the powers he granted them. But Bara didn’t know any of this, and being young and single minded simply kept going in one direction until she crossed the mountains. It took almost a week of flying, stopping only to eat what she could find and rest for a few hours at a time. Finally she came out of the mountains and into a new land.
Bara came upon a pack of wolves one day and was shocked that she could not understand them. She was terribly frightened by this and ran away. The next pack she came across was the same, although she was less afraid this time. The pack allowed her to live among them although she was never really treated like part of the pack. She began to learn some of their language, a little a time. She played with the young pups when she could, because they were the most willing teachers, enjoying her mimicking of their words. But the more she learned the more distrusting some of the adults became, thinking her a spy. Bara realized she had overstayed her welcome and left.
When she found another pack she avoided speaking in her own language. Her language was still very broken and her grammar was horrible, so the pack assumed that she was incredibly unintelligent. They pitied her and allowed her to stay and again Bara began the learning process. She began to listen more carefully to adult wolves and vastly improved her vocabulary. Her listening skills improved drastically and she was capable of understanding far more than she could confidently express herself. Many of the wolves noticed Bara’s improvement and were quite unsure of what to think of her. Then one day Bara overheard some wolves discussing a lack of food in the lands due to a particularly harsh winter. Bara realized that the pack would have trouble supporting all of its members and left so that none of the pups would have to suffer like she did.
And so Bara continues to look for a home and a family and a place to belong.
Other: Bara was made as sort of a reflection of the frustrations I sometimes feel living in Japan. Her speech is modeled after the mistakes that my Japanese students often make when they are learning English. When she breaks into her native language (which I promise to use sparingly so it doesn’t get annoying) it will be based off of Japanese most likely. It will most likely be a word here or there (and I’ll put them in italics so know it’s a foreign word and not just an epic spelling fail). Assume her thoughts are in her native language, but they will always be written in English. My main idea here not to play a character that uses another language, but to play a character that has difficulty expressing herself in the language of the area. I’ve never played a character like this so she promises to be fun and exciting.
I feel it is important to note that while I am using Japanese as a basis for this character Bara is NOT Japanese. I just want her to be a foreigner with ties to no one in this area. I’m basing things on Japanese because that is what I know and am comfortable with.
Bara is “rose” in Japanese.
Eto means is a verbal placeholder like ummm that Bara uses when she is thinking about what she should say. I figured I should note it here since she will probably use this often.
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