Post by Cadet Delphine T'Pen Xie on Aug 2, 2009 5:25:58 GMT
Character’s Name: Delphine T’Pen Xie
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Birthplace: Berlin, Germany, Earth
Race: Half-Vulcan (from mother)/Half-Human (from father)
Physical Description: 5’6”; average build, maybe slightly on the slender side, 135 lbs; long silky black hair; dark brown eyes; pale skin. On her human side, Delphine is from a French family of Chinese descent, and therefore has typical East Asian features. She has the outward features of Vulcans, such as pointed ears, upswept eyebrows, etc., and has green, copper-based blood. Her physical strength is beyond that of any human, but not quite at the level of a full-blooded Vulcan’s.
Career Track: For now, Command/Intelligence (though Delphine is also very interested in science and may later switch to the Science/Medical track)
Personality: Delphine is very intelligent, spending much of her time lost in thought. She is quiet and calculating, and while personable prefers to be alone. She can come off as cold, because she has difficulty understanding the motivations and emotions of people other than herself, so she has trouble making friends. She is, like most Vulcans, coolly rational when compared to humans, but unusually moody for her race, due to being relatively new to the teachings of Surak and still struggling with her commitment to logic. She is quite musically talented, adept at playing the trumpet and oboe and singing human opera. She is fluent in four Earth languages (German, French, English and Mandarin) as well as Vulcan, and also knows bits of a few other Earth languages, such as Italian, from her opera studies. She has a strong intellectual curiosity and spends much of her time reading. With her ability to appeal both to logic and human emotions, Delphine has found that she can be quite persuasive. She also is extremely disciplined and punctual even by Vulcan standards, coming from her years of regular musical practice.
Background: Delphine is one of two daughters of K’Lii, an architect (and former Starfleet officer), and Philippe Xie, a famous author and amateur painter. K’Lii was raised on Vulcan, where she grew up learning the logical principles that had governed Vulcan for centuries, though she resisted following Surak’s ideas completely, believing emotions were important for some purposes. Against her parents’ wishes, she refused to undergo the kolinahr ritual and instead enlisted in Starfleet at the age of 18. As the Chief Engineering Officer aboard the U.S.S. Pushkin, she helped evacuate a failed artist’s colony orbiting Neptune, where she first met Earthling writer Philippe Xie, one of the leaders of the colony. Intrigued by his ideas about the importance of being in touch with one’s emotions, she fell in love with him and left the service to live with him in Berlin, where she would use her technical skills to become an architect and where Philippe would begin work on his first book, a memoir of his time in the colony. K’Lii completely abandoned Vulcan philosophies and as a result was disowned from her family on Vulcan. Later, she gave birth to Delphine and her younger sister, Eleonore.
Delphine had very little exposure to Vulcan ideas; K’Lii had taught her the Vulcan language and a little bit about the culture, but refused to teach her daughters of the ideas of Surak because she believed them to be too extreme. K’Lii and Philippe instead taught their daughters the importance of expressing themselves, and encouraged them to follow artistic pursuits, which is how Delphine first became involved with music. Both her parents were big names in the Berlin artistic community by the time she was a teenager, and it was expected that she, too, would make a name for herself using her artistic gifts. She was also a good student, placing top in her class every year due to her advanced intelligence. But in her early adolescence, Delphine’s intense, overpowering emotions (as Vulcans, without the conscious commitment to logic, are erratic and unstable) became too much when combined with the turbulence of puberty and the pressure put on her for academic and artistic excellence. She became severely depressed and attempted suicide three times, which forced her to miss a year of school as she recovered. At the time, she began researching on her own the ideas of her Vulcan ancestors, and decided she needed to control her emotions and began training herself in the ideas of Surak behind her parents’ backs.
She finished high school at 19, and under parental pressure, enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire as a vocal performance major. Though she loved music and was talented enough to land the lead role of Tatiana in a production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, she did not fit in at the school, put-off by the over-competitive attitude and anti-intellectualism of many students, and mercilessly derided as a “pointy-eared space freak” and “half-breed.” She was also intensely curious about her Vulcan heritage, and wanted a career that would give her the opportunity to someday visit the planet. So after her first year, she dropped out of the Conservatoire and decided to enlist in Starfleet.
Delphine has a half-brother, Sinnak, living on Vulcan, but she has never met him and only knows about him through her mother’s stories (he was apparently the only thing K’Lii really missed about Vulcan). Sinnak is ten years older than Delphine. Eleonore is 15 and going through a similarly turbulent period as her sister did, though eventually she will choose to listen to her parents and become a famous dancer and actor.
Sample Roleplay: Finally, Delphine had a place where she felt at home. Looking through the halls of the Starfleet Academy on her first day there, she could tell she fit in better than she had at the Conservatoire. For one, she wasn’t the only pointy-eared student there; Vulcans were not only common in the student body, but also among Starfleet’s highest officers and honored heroes. She passed by the portrait of Ambassador Spock, Delphine’s personal hero, the first Vulcan/Human hybrid aboard a Starfleet ship. Nowhere would she be jeered at for her ears, her eyebrows or her blood; nowhere would her commitment to logic be a liability as it was in the Conservatoire. For once in her life, Delphine felt normal.
Her parents had come reluctantly, not quite sure why their daughter chose this place. K’Lii, in her time there, had found it a welcome reprieve from the rigidity of Vulcan culture, but it still had its own list of rules and regulations and compared to the life that they had given their daughters in Germany, it was beyond restrictive. Philippe, a free spirit to the core, questioned why anyone would want to be part of any sort of military organization, even if Starfleet was mostly a peacekeeping force. He couldn’t stomach the thought of giving and taking orders. They both thought Delphine hadn’t given the Conservatoire a real chance, and would have been fine if she had tried for another year.
“Are you really sure this is what you want?” her father finally asked, his unsettled expression fixated on the Starfleet flag against the nearest wall.
Delphine saw a group of students walking past them. They wore the blue of future science and medical personnel, and were clearly on their way to a class. As they waited outside the door, they broke into separate cliques, each cheerfully discussing their ideas about exobiology. One Betazoid student was explaining to a Cardassian the various medical applications of his telepathic abilities, while two humans were spiritedly debating whether Vulcans and Romulans really had enough anatomical differences to merit being classed as separate species.
Though she tried her best to stifle such strong emotion, Delphine couldn’t help but let a rush of excitement pass through her. These were her people; the sort of egghead intellectuals who got a rush from learning. They all wanted to explore the heavens, not just to stay on Earth and play concerts every once in a while. She'd guessed that she would fit in better here; now she was sure of it. With a slight grin on her face, she turned to her father and sternly pronounced: “Yes, I’m certain.”
Picture/Celebrity: Katie Leung
(thanks Dakbar!)
Age: 20
Gender: Female
Birthplace: Berlin, Germany, Earth
Race: Half-Vulcan (from mother)/Half-Human (from father)
Physical Description: 5’6”; average build, maybe slightly on the slender side, 135 lbs; long silky black hair; dark brown eyes; pale skin. On her human side, Delphine is from a French family of Chinese descent, and therefore has typical East Asian features. She has the outward features of Vulcans, such as pointed ears, upswept eyebrows, etc., and has green, copper-based blood. Her physical strength is beyond that of any human, but not quite at the level of a full-blooded Vulcan’s.
Career Track: For now, Command/Intelligence (though Delphine is also very interested in science and may later switch to the Science/Medical track)
Personality: Delphine is very intelligent, spending much of her time lost in thought. She is quiet and calculating, and while personable prefers to be alone. She can come off as cold, because she has difficulty understanding the motivations and emotions of people other than herself, so she has trouble making friends. She is, like most Vulcans, coolly rational when compared to humans, but unusually moody for her race, due to being relatively new to the teachings of Surak and still struggling with her commitment to logic. She is quite musically talented, adept at playing the trumpet and oboe and singing human opera. She is fluent in four Earth languages (German, French, English and Mandarin) as well as Vulcan, and also knows bits of a few other Earth languages, such as Italian, from her opera studies. She has a strong intellectual curiosity and spends much of her time reading. With her ability to appeal both to logic and human emotions, Delphine has found that she can be quite persuasive. She also is extremely disciplined and punctual even by Vulcan standards, coming from her years of regular musical practice.
Background: Delphine is one of two daughters of K’Lii, an architect (and former Starfleet officer), and Philippe Xie, a famous author and amateur painter. K’Lii was raised on Vulcan, where she grew up learning the logical principles that had governed Vulcan for centuries, though she resisted following Surak’s ideas completely, believing emotions were important for some purposes. Against her parents’ wishes, she refused to undergo the kolinahr ritual and instead enlisted in Starfleet at the age of 18. As the Chief Engineering Officer aboard the U.S.S. Pushkin, she helped evacuate a failed artist’s colony orbiting Neptune, where she first met Earthling writer Philippe Xie, one of the leaders of the colony. Intrigued by his ideas about the importance of being in touch with one’s emotions, she fell in love with him and left the service to live with him in Berlin, where she would use her technical skills to become an architect and where Philippe would begin work on his first book, a memoir of his time in the colony. K’Lii completely abandoned Vulcan philosophies and as a result was disowned from her family on Vulcan. Later, she gave birth to Delphine and her younger sister, Eleonore.
Delphine had very little exposure to Vulcan ideas; K’Lii had taught her the Vulcan language and a little bit about the culture, but refused to teach her daughters of the ideas of Surak because she believed them to be too extreme. K’Lii and Philippe instead taught their daughters the importance of expressing themselves, and encouraged them to follow artistic pursuits, which is how Delphine first became involved with music. Both her parents were big names in the Berlin artistic community by the time she was a teenager, and it was expected that she, too, would make a name for herself using her artistic gifts. She was also a good student, placing top in her class every year due to her advanced intelligence. But in her early adolescence, Delphine’s intense, overpowering emotions (as Vulcans, without the conscious commitment to logic, are erratic and unstable) became too much when combined with the turbulence of puberty and the pressure put on her for academic and artistic excellence. She became severely depressed and attempted suicide three times, which forced her to miss a year of school as she recovered. At the time, she began researching on her own the ideas of her Vulcan ancestors, and decided she needed to control her emotions and began training herself in the ideas of Surak behind her parents’ backs.
She finished high school at 19, and under parental pressure, enrolled in the Paris Conservatoire as a vocal performance major. Though she loved music and was talented enough to land the lead role of Tatiana in a production of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, she did not fit in at the school, put-off by the over-competitive attitude and anti-intellectualism of many students, and mercilessly derided as a “pointy-eared space freak” and “half-breed.” She was also intensely curious about her Vulcan heritage, and wanted a career that would give her the opportunity to someday visit the planet. So after her first year, she dropped out of the Conservatoire and decided to enlist in Starfleet.
Delphine has a half-brother, Sinnak, living on Vulcan, but she has never met him and only knows about him through her mother’s stories (he was apparently the only thing K’Lii really missed about Vulcan). Sinnak is ten years older than Delphine. Eleonore is 15 and going through a similarly turbulent period as her sister did, though eventually she will choose to listen to her parents and become a famous dancer and actor.
Sample Roleplay: Finally, Delphine had a place where she felt at home. Looking through the halls of the Starfleet Academy on her first day there, she could tell she fit in better than she had at the Conservatoire. For one, she wasn’t the only pointy-eared student there; Vulcans were not only common in the student body, but also among Starfleet’s highest officers and honored heroes. She passed by the portrait of Ambassador Spock, Delphine’s personal hero, the first Vulcan/Human hybrid aboard a Starfleet ship. Nowhere would she be jeered at for her ears, her eyebrows or her blood; nowhere would her commitment to logic be a liability as it was in the Conservatoire. For once in her life, Delphine felt normal.
Her parents had come reluctantly, not quite sure why their daughter chose this place. K’Lii, in her time there, had found it a welcome reprieve from the rigidity of Vulcan culture, but it still had its own list of rules and regulations and compared to the life that they had given their daughters in Germany, it was beyond restrictive. Philippe, a free spirit to the core, questioned why anyone would want to be part of any sort of military organization, even if Starfleet was mostly a peacekeeping force. He couldn’t stomach the thought of giving and taking orders. They both thought Delphine hadn’t given the Conservatoire a real chance, and would have been fine if she had tried for another year.
“Are you really sure this is what you want?” her father finally asked, his unsettled expression fixated on the Starfleet flag against the nearest wall.
Delphine saw a group of students walking past them. They wore the blue of future science and medical personnel, and were clearly on their way to a class. As they waited outside the door, they broke into separate cliques, each cheerfully discussing their ideas about exobiology. One Betazoid student was explaining to a Cardassian the various medical applications of his telepathic abilities, while two humans were spiritedly debating whether Vulcans and Romulans really had enough anatomical differences to merit being classed as separate species.
Though she tried her best to stifle such strong emotion, Delphine couldn’t help but let a rush of excitement pass through her. These were her people; the sort of egghead intellectuals who got a rush from learning. They all wanted to explore the heavens, not just to stay on Earth and play concerts every once in a while. She'd guessed that she would fit in better here; now she was sure of it. With a slight grin on her face, she turned to her father and sternly pronounced: “Yes, I’m certain.”
Picture/Celebrity: Katie Leung
(thanks Dakbar!)
