SOODYANI ABATTAN
She is small and shy but admirably poised for her age. There is something in her
posture and in the even efficiency of her movements that makes her
seem like the rare 24th Century child who has not been
exempted from hard work or expectations of obeisance.
She will probably be attractive enough when she grows up, but for now does not appear too concerned with her looks. Having come up in a working-class, multifamily communal environment, she has little experience of private ownership, and most of her clothes were passed on from relatives. Soo has a habit of being one scrub behind everyone else. She likes to go exploring with Ospa, her phosphorescent shiba inu, and usually winds up getting dirty in the process.
PERSONALITY
Soo has not had an easy time of it. She did not grow up in the typically generous Federation society, and while her grandfather sent the family a regular stipend, she has not enjoyed so many of the amenities of typical Federation life that she can take resources for granted. While this has left her free of a certain pretension, it also makes her acquisitive and a little bit obsessive about the things she does have. She doesn't mind giving things away if she has extra, but she will lose her temper if she feels someone has taken something of hers without permission.
She is a very quiet girl, and keeps almost everything inside; instead of arguing, she tends to give people a lot of steady, measuring looks which can be just as effective, and occasionally even unnerving. Soo is usually very obedient, respectful of the importance of hard work; when she does complain, it is usually justified.
Her skills are mostly in the area of menial labor. She did not have any better a life to look forward to than her own mother and father, who succumbed to illnesses associated with toxic dust and zenite exposure at relatively young ages. She has spent most of her life beneath her world's surface, and has the lifelong Troglyte's sense of unease in large, open spaces. Her relationships with children her own age were stunted by the harsh, unsentimental attitudes that life on Ardana tends to elicit even from its young people. She gets lonely, but she does not really mind having a break from bullying and verbal abuse.
STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES
Soo will follow orders to the letter, although she has a subtle way of communicating her feelings about them. She does not mind doing chores – usually because she is not given anything else to do – and will not ordinarily shirk. Since she was large enough to do so, she has been expected to cook, clean, do laundry, tend the lamp garden, change the beds, plug leaks and mend clothing. Her formal education was quite limited, and while she is curious about life beyond Ardana, she is a long, long way from understanding it.
Apart from her possessive tendencies, Soo can be blunt, even tactless, and will sometimes probe people's weaknesses. She is perfectly aware of what she is doing, and also that children are more often allowed to get away with this sort of behavior. She is streetwise – in some ways less naïve than her grandfather – and doesn't let strangers take advantage of her if she senses something funny going on. Of course she really is a child at heart, and not terribly difficult to manipulate, but she does hold grudges, and will plot revenge, even if she never actually gets to carry it out.
AMBITIONS
Soo has never been able to afford the luxury of an ambition. She thinks that piloting is interesting, and would enjoy having the chance to learn more about it; she has the fascination with space of someone who has not often had the chance to see it. At the same time, she doubts that she has the aptitude for any skilled profession, and expects to wind up toiling away for a pittance, just the same as everyone she knows.
She would like to study more, and have a real education, but she isn't a natural student, and may not get as far as she hopes. Mersiel has shown her some basics of engineering, and Soo is interested on a theoretical level; but she would prefer to be on the bridge, if anywhere.
HOBBIES & INTERESTS
Besides an idle curiosity about astronomy and astrophysics, neither of which subject she has any real training in, Soo is mostly interested in people and where they come from. She is a good enough cook, though she has never had the option of using uncommon ingredients. She likes books mostly for the pictures and the impressions they give her of a larger world than the one she knows.
Cinema is fascinating to her, and oddly mundane luxury goods like candy, green lawns, record collections, cut flowers, and wallpaper. The galaxy beyond Ardana is endlessly interesting to her, but also overwhelming and, at times, frightening. She is naturally wild to explore the Fawkes, although she isn't really supposed to except by invitation of the crew.
FAMILY
FATHER Sarmoal Hosterune, deceased.
MOTHER Numiue Abattan, deceased.
OTHER Senior Chief Petty Officer (ret.) Mersiel Bambatte (2330-), Starfleet engineer's mate.
EARLY LIFE (2374-)
The daughter of Mersiel Bambatte's daughter and a mag-lev train loader, Soodyani spent her entire life on Ardana, living a hardscrabble existence in the subterranean warrens of the Troglytes. Ardana is one of the few member world left in the Federation where public executions and torture are still practiced by the government, and a long history of oppression of the surface-dwellers by the citizens of the elevated metropolitan areas has resulted in an Intifada-like insurrection which has heated and cooled at times for almost a century.
Soodyani's family was not involved in any uprising, or with the various native rebel groups, but they were (like most Troglytes) sympathetic enough – mostly because of the occasional purges that robbed people of their loved ones, innocent or not. The Abattans did what they could to protect Soo from exposure to 'bad elements,' an irony not lost on anyone forced to spend a certain amount of each day checking against zenite infiltration; so she spent a lot of time indoors, often with her several cousins, but just as often alone. Her parents worked virtually all day and left most of the housekeeping and cooking to their daughter from a distressingly early age. Soo was often taken care of by her uncle's family, though they were just as poor.
After her father died in 2384, her mother spiraled into a deep depression; which could never be alleviated, even by the reappearance of Soo's grandfather and his attempts to make amends for his near-lifelong absence from his daughter's life. Soo appreciated her grandfather's concern for Numiue's worsening condition, but he seemed almost like an alien, full of far-off stories retold in a foreign accent, outspoken negative attitudes about the upper classes of Ardana (and a few choice opinions about the Federation's indifference), and insistence on the importance of removing her from everything she knew. In the end he got his way, but at the cost of her mother's life. Soo knows he blames himself at least partly for the disasters of their family, and isn't sure how much guilt to assign him.
She was not adverse to leaving Ardana, although she feels bad for the people who have to stay, especially her little cousins. She is nervous about having to interact with off-worlders, many of whom could never understand the strange circumstances of her society and upbringing; she would like to make friends, but has the intuition of the outsider, assuming that she will seem like a backwards, uneducated rock-scraper. She has become very quiet these days, and very shy.
She will probably be attractive enough when she grows up, but for now does not appear too concerned with her looks. Having come up in a working-class, multifamily communal environment, she has little experience of private ownership, and most of her clothes were passed on from relatives. Soo has a habit of being one scrub behind everyone else. She likes to go exploring with Ospa, her phosphorescent shiba inu, and usually winds up getting dirty in the process.
PERSONALITY
Soo has not had an easy time of it. She did not grow up in the typically generous Federation society, and while her grandfather sent the family a regular stipend, she has not enjoyed so many of the amenities of typical Federation life that she can take resources for granted. While this has left her free of a certain pretension, it also makes her acquisitive and a little bit obsessive about the things she does have. She doesn't mind giving things away if she has extra, but she will lose her temper if she feels someone has taken something of hers without permission.
She is a very quiet girl, and keeps almost everything inside; instead of arguing, she tends to give people a lot of steady, measuring looks which can be just as effective, and occasionally even unnerving. Soo is usually very obedient, respectful of the importance of hard work; when she does complain, it is usually justified.
Her skills are mostly in the area of menial labor. She did not have any better a life to look forward to than her own mother and father, who succumbed to illnesses associated with toxic dust and zenite exposure at relatively young ages. She has spent most of her life beneath her world's surface, and has the lifelong Troglyte's sense of unease in large, open spaces. Her relationships with children her own age were stunted by the harsh, unsentimental attitudes that life on Ardana tends to elicit even from its young people. She gets lonely, but she does not really mind having a break from bullying and verbal abuse.
STRENGTHS & WEAKNESSES
Soo will follow orders to the letter, although she has a subtle way of communicating her feelings about them. She does not mind doing chores – usually because she is not given anything else to do – and will not ordinarily shirk. Since she was large enough to do so, she has been expected to cook, clean, do laundry, tend the lamp garden, change the beds, plug leaks and mend clothing. Her formal education was quite limited, and while she is curious about life beyond Ardana, she is a long, long way from understanding it.
Apart from her possessive tendencies, Soo can be blunt, even tactless, and will sometimes probe people's weaknesses. She is perfectly aware of what she is doing, and also that children are more often allowed to get away with this sort of behavior. She is streetwise – in some ways less naïve than her grandfather – and doesn't let strangers take advantage of her if she senses something funny going on. Of course she really is a child at heart, and not terribly difficult to manipulate, but she does hold grudges, and will plot revenge, even if she never actually gets to carry it out.
AMBITIONS
Soo has never been able to afford the luxury of an ambition. She thinks that piloting is interesting, and would enjoy having the chance to learn more about it; she has the fascination with space of someone who has not often had the chance to see it. At the same time, she doubts that she has the aptitude for any skilled profession, and expects to wind up toiling away for a pittance, just the same as everyone she knows.
She would like to study more, and have a real education, but she isn't a natural student, and may not get as far as she hopes. Mersiel has shown her some basics of engineering, and Soo is interested on a theoretical level; but she would prefer to be on the bridge, if anywhere.
HOBBIES & INTERESTS
Besides an idle curiosity about astronomy and astrophysics, neither of which subject she has any real training in, Soo is mostly interested in people and where they come from. She is a good enough cook, though she has never had the option of using uncommon ingredients. She likes books mostly for the pictures and the impressions they give her of a larger world than the one she knows.
Cinema is fascinating to her, and oddly mundane luxury goods like candy, green lawns, record collections, cut flowers, and wallpaper. The galaxy beyond Ardana is endlessly interesting to her, but also overwhelming and, at times, frightening. She is naturally wild to explore the Fawkes, although she isn't really supposed to except by invitation of the crew.
FAMILY
FATHER Sarmoal Hosterune, deceased.
MOTHER Numiue Abattan, deceased.
OTHER Senior Chief Petty Officer (ret.) Mersiel Bambatte (2330-), Starfleet engineer's mate.
EARLY LIFE (2374-)
The daughter of Mersiel Bambatte's daughter and a mag-lev train loader, Soodyani spent her entire life on Ardana, living a hardscrabble existence in the subterranean warrens of the Troglytes. Ardana is one of the few member world left in the Federation where public executions and torture are still practiced by the government, and a long history of oppression of the surface-dwellers by the citizens of the elevated metropolitan areas has resulted in an Intifada-like insurrection which has heated and cooled at times for almost a century.
Soodyani's family was not involved in any uprising, or with the various native rebel groups, but they were (like most Troglytes) sympathetic enough – mostly because of the occasional purges that robbed people of their loved ones, innocent or not. The Abattans did what they could to protect Soo from exposure to 'bad elements,' an irony not lost on anyone forced to spend a certain amount of each day checking against zenite infiltration; so she spent a lot of time indoors, often with her several cousins, but just as often alone. Her parents worked virtually all day and left most of the housekeeping and cooking to their daughter from a distressingly early age. Soo was often taken care of by her uncle's family, though they were just as poor.
After her father died in 2384, her mother spiraled into a deep depression; which could never be alleviated, even by the reappearance of Soo's grandfather and his attempts to make amends for his near-lifelong absence from his daughter's life. Soo appreciated her grandfather's concern for Numiue's worsening condition, but he seemed almost like an alien, full of far-off stories retold in a foreign accent, outspoken negative attitudes about the upper classes of Ardana (and a few choice opinions about the Federation's indifference), and insistence on the importance of removing her from everything she knew. In the end he got his way, but at the cost of her mother's life. Soo knows he blames himself at least partly for the disasters of their family, and isn't sure how much guilt to assign him.
She was not adverse to leaving Ardana, although she feels bad for the people who have to stay, especially her little cousins. She is nervous about having to interact with off-worlders, many of whom could never understand the strange circumstances of her society and upbringing; she would like to make friends, but has the intuition of the outsider, assuming that she will seem like a backwards, uneducated rock-scraper. She has become very quiet these days, and very shy.