WSRP Character: Sri Nutmoon

NAME: Sri Nutmoon
SPECIES: Aurin
GENDER: Female
SEXUAL ORIENTATION: Gray
AGE: late 30s (in humie terms!)
CLASS: Spellslinger
OCCUPATION: Entrepreneurial Farmer; Aspiring Photographer and Ghost Buster
RP STYLE: Dramedy; Slapstick

Srilana "Sri" Nutmoon is a cheerful Aurin who likes farming and farm machinery, having a natural talent for banging things together until something interesting happens. She gives the impression of being a bit scatterbrained and goofy, prone to emitting weird theories and strange compliments to anyone who engages her in conversation. She loves love and hates hate; she will be the first to remind you that "hate gives you wrinkles!"

Sri is a relatively untrained spellslinger, having recently joined the Exile Civil Service to force herself to learn how to toughen-up. Previously, she had confined her travels largely to the major Exile population centers Thayd and Sylvan Glade, and more recently through the explorer club "The Exploration of Nexus".

APPEARANCE Sri is a blue-skinned Aurin from the ((oak-like)) Desodar Fringe region of Arboria, near a ((acacia-like)) Hirn forest mass. It's kind of a transitional zone between one forest type and another (head canon). Family legend has it that the Nutmoon clan prospered by sneaking up on unsuspecting Arborian honeybees camoflaged against the blue sky.

Sri usually keeps her hair pulled back into a fluffy ponytail to make her ears look bigger, which she's somewhat self-conscious about due to their smallness. She always wears her lucky ear dice, a talisman passed to her by her family, as she is a harbinger of luck (the kind of which is uncertain). Sri is constantly smiling and mumbling things to herself, and Humans may find her stare unsettling due to her wide-set eyes, seemingly focusing on invisible things in their vicinity.

AESTHETICS Sri favors simple patterns in her clothing, leaning toward yellows and reds that complement her difficult-to-accessorize skin tone. For work clothes, she likes practical, hard-wearing synthetics that breathe, and at times looks more like an Exile farmer than an Aurin. When off-the-clock, Sri likes her toes to be free to wriggle, and maintains her toe claws meticulously. Sri is also very proud of her hair, which she brushes 1000 times in the morning to maintain its luxurious shine as it "is her best feature".

Sri in a nutshell:

• Relentlessly, willfully cheerful
• Always optimistic about possibilities, especially ones that don't exist yet
• Impulsive when around buttons of any kind
• Prone to outbursts of unconventional logic
• Talks to herself
• Kindly and loyal, always willing to listen or lend a hand
• Very low capacity for hate, tries to compensate with high-risk niceness
• Tends to disappear to do her own thing

Sri willfully sees the bright side of every situation; the humie expression "I reject your reality and substitute my own!" aptly describes her relationship to the world. Her insistence on being so optimistic is her way of dealing with the horrors of the Ravaging (see history).

Sri is a bit clueless about male interest and almost never notices it. Her sex drive is on the lower end of the spectrum bordering on indifference ("gray"). In the realm of romance she always assumes her more glamorous and worldly friends are the ones who deserve and attract it. As an older aurin woman, she figures she should be looking for maturity in an accomplished mate, though she's not sure what that actually means.

Sri is drawn to mysterious forces and sees them in everything, perhaps where they don't exist. She makes little distinction between science and spirit. She believes in the Weave and also something she calls "The Machine Weave", though no one seems to know what she's talking about. She thinks ghosts are fascinating and frightening, and wants to talk to one some day for reasons she won't say.

NOTE: Sri's background story generally does NOT drive her personality in non-conflict situations these days, and like many on Nexus she accepts a higher level of violence and death as the norm. It takes an exceptional threat to surface the buried motivations and uncertainties.

EARLY YEARS Sri was 15 years old when the Exiles landed on Arboria. For two years, Sri spent a lot of time with a small group of Exile farm techs that had established a camp near the Nutmoon region of the Desodar Fringe. Discovering she had a knack for machines, Sri eventually opened a small shop specializing in light-duty mechanical tools and funny toys to amuse herself and the younger generation. Though she never joined with a mate, Sri considered herself an unofficial auntie to her younger relatives and relations in the forest.

THE RAVAGING OF ARBORIA When Sri first saw what the Dominion's Reapers were capable of, she was astonished and terrified at the scale of destruction that machines, previously thought of by her as cute toys, were capable of. Her tribemates, desperate to save their homes and lives, asked Sri to use her mechanical know how to fight back, but Sri found herself inadequate to the task, which resulted in the death of many of those who trusted her. In the last days, the Exiles farmtechs who had befriended them years ago returned to evacuate the tribe, finding only the smouldering remains of the mother tree, dozens of bodies, and a catatonic Sri curled up in the ashes waiting to die what she believed was a well-deserved death for having both dallied with evil mechnical forces and failing her tribe. She was evacuated to the Exile fleet, but did not speak or react to anything or anyone around her. She was eventually put into cryosleep for the journey to Nexus.

ARRIVAL TO NEXUS SYSTEM Upon arrival at Nexus, Sri was taken out of cryosleep but kept in a trauma recovery ward on The Gambler's Ruin for nearly a year. While she was not in a coma, Sri remained unresponsive to conversation, eyes open but unfocused, silently absorbing a thousand stories of loss and despair around her. One day, a group of healthy Aurin youth was assembling near her bed, preparing excitedly for an expedition to the planet, their faces flush with energy and a zest for life. As they disappeared toward the shuttle bay with their gear, Sri stirred and to the surprise of the ward caretakers, stumbled toward the nearest Settler human representative and started to stack supply boxes. Over the next few months Sri found little ways to contribute to the building effort, eventually regaining her voice, and then departed for Nexus herself. She had made a decision about herself and how she wanted to live, and was determined to keep moving forward.

NEW LIFE ON NEXUS Sri worked across Algoroc, Galeras, and parts of Thayd, helping rebuild and repair structures but not venturing out into contested territory. Having become a fairly accomplished builder, Sri put her effort into building a sanctuary called Hayboria, where the peaceful qualities of hay piles are used to reduce trauma. Having made a few new acquaintances in Thayd, Sri started to regain her optimism and her smile. However, Sri is afraid, deep down, that the darkness she felt after leaving Arboria will come back and swallow her up. She sometimes has nightmares about failing her new friends, watching them die, and it will be her fault. However, she's made a pact with herself to hold the line on optimism with tooth and claw, because she has come to believe strongly that it's really the only thing worth having once everything else is taken away.

NOT AS DUMB AS SHE SOUNDS Although she speaks somewhat simply, Sri can be quite perceptive, stringing together elaborate theories about how the universe works from seemingly random bits of knowledge. She knows words that you might not expect her to know; if she were a more rigorous student, she might be a good scientist. Sri doesn't think of herself as dumb at all, and admits to possessing good qualities when complimented on them. She does, however, tend notice what she prefers to believe and interpret events to fit. She has difficulty telling rhetorical questions from actual questions too.

AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER Sri is a student photographer, using her ArtCam to take two-dimensional images from around Nexus. She posts them in her private notebook and in a public Art Journal blog.

RELATIVELY-UNSKILLED IN COMBAT Sri is a low-level spellslinger, and because of that has to stay within the secure zones of the Exile territories. She's training thus-far has been signing up for the FCON Army Reserve (head canon) at Nibben's Ranch in Galeras, where her duties consist of guarding rocks and shooing critters away. She always tries to talk to a monster before engaging it with her pistols. Recently, Sri joined the CELESTION CIVIL SERVICE and has learned some fundamentals about Basic Spellslinging.

BLUNT Sri sometimes accidentally insults non-Aurin in the pursuit of feeding her curiosity, a common trait for the race (head canon). For example, she might ask, "what's wrong with your face? Is it supposed to be that way?" without a hint of malice. She just wants to know!

HATES CONFLICT Sri actively shrinks from conflict, and doesn't like to talk about it. She has a limited capacity for hate, and can't apply it to more than one meanie at a time. She believes that even Dommies might not be mean; this is mixed up with her own fuzzy understanding of redemption as it applies to her. She also hopes that even the enemy might become friends some day, if they had something in common. This view puts her at odds with most Exiles.

Sri wants to get on with her life. Arboria is dead to her, and she's subconsciously adopted a lot of Exile ways ranging from the manner of her work dress, her chosen jobs, and even the design of Hayboria. She does not want to look back. She occasionally sees other Aurin on Nexus maintaining the old ways and feels a surge of happiness, but she feels like a ghost who can't participate in it.

Sri is motivated to protect her friends and be more capable; her failure at not being able to stop the Ravagers from killing her tribe is never far from the surface, though it is transformed by her vow of optimism into a kind of ENTREPRENEURIAL ENTHUSIASM, because money can buy security and help people! When she's not at Nibben's Ranch, she is tinkering with ways to make a buck from her various home enterprises. She sells four different kinds of bug crackers based on her mothers recipes, and maintains a hay import/export feed business from her contacts in Galeras. She has expanded the Fairgrounds at Hayboria to expand the bug crackery into smoked meats and juice, with the option to expand into a casino/gym/club or museum space (she's not sure which yet).

She stays busy to keep the darkness from swallowing her, so she is constantly moving to stay ahead of it. When she is living her traditional ideals and following her weird impulses to be engaged with life, she feels a little better: Put on a happy face. Be nice to people. Live a good life. Stand up to meanies. Don't disappoint your mother. Share all your food. Be generous with hugs. Stuff like that is important to her!

BONUS REFERENCES

Spoiler: TV TROPE PROFILE

Sri Nutmoon is a typical Cloud Cuckoolander, strange in her views but quite adamant about them as she Comically Misses the Point. She's something of a Motor Mouth, inflicting Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering upon those who happen to be within earshot.

To casual bystanders, her ramblings may seem like Insane Troll Logic; it may be more accurate to say that she applies Agent Mulder-style thinking about how everything ties everything together (or should!), though to most people the distinction doesn't help them understand Sri any more quickly.

Because of her thinking/speaking style, she sometimes falls victim to Mistaken Age; she's actually hitting middle-age, though she rambles and on like someone much younger. Not meeting many eligible romantic partners her age, she is something of a Celibate Hero.

Sri practices Think Happy Thoughts to maintain a chipper attitude as a coping mechanism given her traumatic experiences on Arboria. Having rebuilt her personality from scratch, Sri is a wide-eyed and fervent believer in The Power of Friendship, which combined with her Cuckolander personality leads some people to classify her as Stupid Good; her naive interactions with the malicious critters around Nexus don't help her case, and she has shown signs of Honor before Reason in her encounters with individuals of the Dominion to the disgust of her hardened Exile compatriots. This is, however, a purposeful choice she made to stay on the positive side of The Sliding Scale of Idealism versus Cynicism, applying it imperfectly but very earnestly to every situation.

Sri is quite conflict-averse, and is of a low skill level as a Spellslinger, but even with her Pollyanna tendencies she privately recognizes the need for Good is not Soft and wants to toughen up. When pushed into combat, she practices a form of Improv Fu (Hay Fu) with Dissonant Serenity when attacked by highly-aggressive individuals.

Spoiler: THEME SONG

Sri's "theme song" is Kiss Me, the theme from CAROLE & TUESDAY. It's the song that is in her heart, embracing friendship and future dreams!

Spoiler: ENDING CREDIT SONG

Sri's "ending credit song", which would be played if Sri was an anime series, is Will You Dance by The Bird and the Bee

Spoiler: CHARACTER VOICE CLAIM

Sri's voice would sound like Sutton Foster in this performance of Anything Goes (skip to the 22 second mark)