User Profile

Name: Ssilissa (originally Millicent, but she couldn't pronounce that, generally shortened to "Ssil")
Canon: Philip Reeve's Larklight trilogy, at the end of the first book (which bears the same name as the series)
Age: Never mentioned in canon, but probably mid-teens; I'll be playing her as 15
History: Ssil's egg was found on a comet and hatched sometime late in the first half of the nineteenth century. She grew up in the Royal Xenological Institute in Russell Square, London - and, never having seen one of her own kind, was just as baffled as the scholars there as to what the heck she actually was. In 1847, the Institute came under the leadership of Sir Launcelot Sprigg, who proceeded to give the specimens a quick examination and schedule most of them to be dissected - including Ssilissa and the other sentient specimens. She escaped with the help of the only human specimen, a boy her age named Jack Havock; they and three others commandeered a decommissioned aether-ship called the Sophronia (their universe's version of a spacecraft, rather resembling a galleon with enormous brass exhaust pipes) and become remarkably nonviolent space pirates, a lifestyle they kept up very well for three years.

Their life as pirates suffered a major change when they picked up two children on the Moon - Arthur Mumby and his sister Myrtle. They'd been evicted from their home by the First Ones, enormous white spiders from before the formation of the solar system. They sought to return the system to the state it was in before, an expanse of small bodies and icy dust, because the species as a whole couldn't survive the high gravity of planets. It was mainly due to the efforts of Art, Jack, and Myrtle that the First Ones were thwarted, but Ssil got in a few heroic moments of her own - notably storming the spiders' enormous web-nest in the rings of Saturn with no aid but Art and every weapon on the ship in order to rescue the others.

In recognition of their service, the crew of the Sophronia were offered the opportunity to become intelligence agents for the British crown, but Ssilissa separated from the rest of the crew when she received another offer - to attend Starfleet Academy.

The prospect excited her immensely - here was an opportunity at last to search for more of her kind, since she had it with reliable authority that none of her race existed within the Sol system. She passed the tests easily - her natural intelligence and three years on a pirate ship helped even if Starfleet's ships were more advanced - and started working on both science courses and those relating to exploration and diplomacy.
Personality: While Ssil is feminine enough to be surprising to those meeting her for the first time, she's not quite as ladylike as her home's Victorian sensibilities might wish. She deals well with crisis situations and seldom buckles under pressure and is quite capable of holding her own in a fight (she broke Sprigg's leg for him when he tried to stop them escaping from the Institute). She also tends to wear male clothing, though that's more to do with the fact that being a reptile, she doesn't have a particularly ladylike shape, either.

Ssil is aware of her competence, but not boastful, in many areas. She's highly intelligent, and well-educated from the material the scholars at the Institute brought her to pass the time; in fact she is possibly the only nonhuman with enough alchemical knowledge to fly a British aether-ship, and has been noted to display natural ability in that area. She's businesslike when something goes wrong, and fairly good at analyzing situations - if giant spiders invade the ship she's on, she knows when to give up on trying to fight back and hide, preferably taking anyone she can rescue along with her to help with getting everyone else back later when she's had time to plan.

Though she tries to hide it, Ssil suffers from very low self-esteem, particularly regarding her appearance. She's never seen another member of her race and has no standard to hold herself to except human ones, and she knows she's not even remotely close to human standards of beauty. That's the other reason she avoids dresses; she's well aware that her tail makes her bulge in places she shouldn't and that she doesn't bulge in places she should. This would seem to extend to romantic situations in general - though it's hard to be categorical, one is inclined to draw conclusions from the fact that she just stood by and sighed when she found out the only person she'd ever had romantic interest in was in love with someone else. She also tends to feel rather lonely, not knowing where or even if there are others of her kind. She seldom allows this to interfere if there are more important things to take care of, but it may become a problem if she doesn't have something else to focus on.

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