Tu Shanshu Application

[loquaciouslyfeline]

Player Information:

Name: Madred

Age: 22

Contact:madredhattie

Game Cast: N/A

Character Information:

Name: Amelia

Canon: Treasure Planet

Canon Point: A day after returning to the Montressor Spaceport, having narrowly escaped the detonation of Treasure Planet

Age: Never specified in canon, but likely around 32, given that she is an experienced captain while still being rather young.

Reference:  Wikipedia articles for Treasure Planet and Battle at Procyon

Setting:

Conjecture based on canon materials

Headcanon

The world of Treasure Planet is complex and vast.  It draws upon elements from both science fiction and the great naval eras of the past, creating a unique setting that mixes the past with the future.

The Aetherium

Unlike many other sci-fi settings, space is not a void in Treasure Planet. Rather, it is filled with what is known as the Aetherium, which is a breathable material that permeates every corner of the galaxy. Indeed, the terms 'space' and 'Aetherium' are interchangeable in the universe of Treasure Planet.  The Aetherium behaves somewhat like a mix of ocean and air; it has currents and winds that can be utilized in sailing the galaxy, but like their real world counterparts they are not always reliable.  Winds whip up and die down, and currents can ebb and flow with the season.  The Mucculough Current, a valuable high-speed trade and communications route, is one such current.  Solar power has proven to be much more reliable.

The Aetherium is not without its dangers, however.  Meteor storms that shred solar sails, supernovae that can easily obliterate any ship unfortunate to be caught in the blast, black holes from which the only hope of escape is to ride the fiery magilla waves that are emitted shortly after its formation, space dragons (no seriously)... there is much for spacers to keep a sharp lookout for.  And heaven help a crew on board a ship should the artificial gravity generator fail; it does not take much to send one spiraling off into the vastness of space.

Technology

The technology of the world blends the past and the future. Wooden ships sail the Aetherium carrying artificial gravity generators to keep their crew and passengers securely planted on deck. Flintlock-style pistols and muskets fire plasma shots, and the naval ships are defended by laser ball cannons, which can retract into the deck.  Cybernetic prosthetics, while not wide-spread, are present, and are sufficiently advanced enough to serve as fully functional limbs or sensory organs for those who have them.  Sentient robots are also present, although like cyborgs, they are not common.

Space Travel and Ships

The ships themselves and the traversal of the Aetherium are an integral part of the universe of Treasure Planet.  Nearly all vessels utilize solar sails to gather starlight, providing a near-constant source of power for the thrusters on board the ships.  The sails themselves can also be used in the traditional manner, allowing a ship to, if necessary, ride the winds of the Aetherium and conserve any solar power that has been gathered.  Ships come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes, running the gamut from the longboats carried in the hulls of larger vessels, to the frigates which make up the majority of the Royal Navy's force, to the truly massive Arcturian merchantships, which dwarf all others.

Larger vessels rarely descend to the surface of planets, and are instead 'docked' in the upper atmosphere - or at a spaceport, should one be nearby.  This is due to the mass of the ships.  While cruising the Aetherium, the emptiness and lack of large gravity wells allow ships to travel easily, directing all power to the thrusters that propel the ship forward.

However, on or near a planet’s surface the effect of gravity is evident, and a large amount of the solar power gathered by the sails goes into counteracting the effects of gravity, leaving the thrusters to operate on a reduced energy supply.  The larger the ship, the greater the reduction of effectiveness in the thrusters.  The loss of even one sail can send a near-surface frigate’s thrusters to only thirty percent of maximum capacity, whereas in the weightlessness of the Aetherium such a loss would only slightly affect a ship’s speed.

Spaceports serve as a stepping stone from planet surface to the rest of the galaxy.  Transports carry space travelers to the spaceport, where they board spacebound vessels.  Colonists, merchants, explorers, even naval crews use spaceports as launch sites, as they are established outside the atmospheres of nearby planets.

People of the Galaxy

The denizens of the universe of Treasure Planet are wide and varied, ranging from humans and humanoid aliens to the downright bizarre.  With the exception of the Procyons, the races interact freely with one another, and for the most part no one will think twice of that old one-eyed many-tentacled lady demanding a refill of purp juice in the corner of the inn.  Someone who has spent most of their life in one place may double-take at a particularly strange alien, but on the whole it's simply a fact of life that there are many kinds of aliens and you're going to run into folks who don't look anything like you.

The Terran Empire is one of two major political bodies in the galaxy, the other being the hostile Procyon Expanse.  The Empire is a limited monarchy, having both a queen and Parliament, although it is also well-known for its Royal Navy.  Relations between the Terran Empire and the Procyon Expanse are strained; at the time of the voyage to Treasure Planet, a dispute over control of the Mucculough Current had led to ongoing hostilities and skirmishes at the borders between the two powers.

The Royal Navy

Amelia is a captain in the Royal Navy of the Terran Empire, which is the main peacekeeping force of the Empire.  The Royal Navy serves to protect the borders from hostile incursions as well as hunting down and capturing space pirates, who would otherwise prey mercilessly upon the more isolated colonial worlds and the massive but sluggish merchantships.  The Royal Navy's crews are among the finest in the galaxy, trained at the Interstellar Academy.  Amelia is a graduate of the Interstellar Academy, and her recommendations to them carry a lot of weight.

The Royal Navy's duties are not solely militaristic.  A ship and her captain, should they not be engaged in active duty, may be hired out for civilian uses.  Amelia is one such case; she and her first officer, Mr. Arrow, were hired by Dr. Delbert Doppler to serve as part of the expedition to Treasure Planet.  The crew for any civilian use of the ship is hired separately; only the captain, first officer, and ship are of the Royal Navy.

Nathaniel Flint and Treasure Planet

Despite the best efforts of the Royal Navy, piracy is a known problem in the Empire, especially among the more backwater areas.  Merchantships also commonly are preyed upon by pirates, although not to the degree that they once were.  The most infamous pirate to ever sail the Aetherium was Captain Nathaniel Flint, a vicious and incredibly successful pirate who terrorized the trade routes around a century before the expedition to Treasure Planet.

Flint was notorious for seemingly appearing out of nowhere, using the element of surprise to strike quickly and ferociously, then, upon gathering all the spoils, disappearing into the Aetherium.  Over the years he amassed a huge fortune, the ‘loot of a thousand worlds’ as it was called.  He hid it away in a forgotten corner of the galaxy, and after his death both Flint and his fortune fell into legend.

Many tried to find this ‘Treasure Planet’ over the years, but it was a cyborg by the name of John Silver who finally managed to track down Flint’s first mate Billy Bones, in the final years of his life.  Bones fled Silver and his band, desperate to protect the map to Flint’s trove, but age took its toll, and the old pirate wound up crashing on a mining planet, and entrusted the map to a young man named Jim Hawkins before his death.

Jim Hawkins

James Pleiades Hawkins, known as Jim, is the boy who comes into possession of Flint’s treasure map.  A smart but troubled 15 year old, Jim never fully recovered from his father’s abandonment of his family, leaving his mother Sarah to raise a difficult son all on her own while running the Admiral Benbow Inn.  Having been fascinated by stories of Treasure Planet from a young age, to him this is the opportunity of a lifetime.  On boarding the RLS Legacy, the ship hired by Doppler for the journey, he is placed in the charge of the ship’s cook, John Silver.  Silver proves to be a father figure in Jim’s life, teaching the boy the ropes of ship life and encouraging him to make his own future.  Jim is horrified when he learns of Silver’s true nature: a pirate captain hunting down Flint’s trove for himself.  But the bond they share proves stronger, and the two share a tearful farewell after fleeing Treasure Planet, Silver flying off to freedom, while Jim returns home with a greater treasure than he could have imagined: a future.

John Silver

John Silver is the cyborg posing as the chef of the RLS Legacy, although in reality he is a pirate whose lifelong goal has been to locate Treasure Planet for himself.  He and his band chase down Billy Bones, but the ancient pirate hands off the treasure map to Jim before dying, and Silver’s crew wind up burning the Benbow Inn to the ground.  He later sets himself and his crew up to be hired by Doppler for the expedition, planning to mutiny the moment they have the treasure in hand.  After Jim is assigned to his care, Silver grows fond of the boy against his better judgement, and comes under fire from his own crew for having ‘gone soft’.  Silver leads the mutiny when Jim discovers the truth about the crew, and ultimately comes into possession of the treasure map.  He uses the lives of Doppler and Amelia to force Jim to comply, as only Jim can activate the map.  Finding the treasure itself triggers the planet’s self-destruct mechanism; a final effort by Flint to guarantee no one would ever steal his spoils.  In the ensuing chaos, Silver is forced to choose between saving a boatload of treasure, or Jim’s life.  Sacrificing his life-long dream, the cyborg rescues Jim from a fiery death.  After escaping from Treasure Planet’s destruction, Silver and Jim tearfully say goodbye to each other, and after giving Jim the few bits of treasure he had pocketed to rebuild the Benbow, Silver flies off to freedom.

Dr. Delbert Doppler

A long-time family friend of the Hawkins, Doppler is an astrophysicist.  He is good-hearted, if a bit bumbling, and opens his doors to Sarah and Jim after the Benbow burns down.  Doppler is the financier of the Treasure Planet expedition, spending his savings to hire a captain, crew, and ship for the journey.  It’s all a bit more excitement than he had expected, braving black holes and pirate mutinies, but he pulls through and discovers he’s a damn good shot to boot.  Though he initially clashes with Captain Amelia, his astronomical advice proves invaluable in escaping the black hole formed by the star Pelusa’s death.  While tending to the injuries she sustained during the mutiny, Doppler bonds with Amelia, a connection that grows into a full-blown romance after the destruction of Treasure Planet.

Captain Amelia

Amelia is hired to serve as captain of the expedition to Treasure Planet.  She runs the ship in an orderly fashion, assigning Jim Hawkins to the cook Silver’s charge and securing the treasure map within her stateroom.  Late into the voyage, the ship comes close to disaster when a nearby star goes supernova.  She loses her first mate and comrade-in-arms to the Pelusa black hole, a very painful event for her.  However, she refuses to let herself dwell in mourning and presses on with the expedition.  In the aftermath of the mutiny, Amelia is badly injured and is tended to by Doppler.  The two bond closely, in spite of their earlier clashes, and after escaping the explosion of Treasure Planet become romantically involved.

Mr. Arrow

Mr. Arrow is Captain Amelia’s reliable first mate.  Tough as rocks (literally), he follows her orders without question and enforces her rules.  Mr. Arrow meets his end in the Pelusa black hole, when his lifeline is severed by Scroop.

B.E.N.

An amnesiac robot, BEN was on Flint’s crew and has been stranded on Treasure Planet alone for the past century.  He assists Jim, Amelia, and Doppler in briefly hiding from the pirates.  The cryptic answers he gives from his fragmented memory help Jim figure out where the treasure is buried.  His memory is restored when Jim finds his core memory circuit.  Immediately he recalls the trap set up by Flint, and that his memory had been removed to keep him from telling anyone about it.  BEN escapes the planet’s destruction, and ends up working at the newly rebuilt Benbow Inn.

Scroop

A vicious and likely sociopathic member of Silver’s crew, Scroop accuses Silver of getting too close to Jim.  He killed Mr. Arrow by severing the first mate’s lifeline, letting the man tumble into the Pelusa black hole.  Scroop himself suffers a similar fate, as he ultimately is sent spinning off into the Aetherium after fighting with Jim.

The Forefathers

Very little is known about this ancient, highly advanced race.  Indeed, their only known legacy is Treasure Planet itself, as well as the map that leads the way to it and controls the portal Flint used during his reign of piracy.

Note: Amelia’s species is never specified in canon, but is heavily implied to be the same as Dr. Doppler’s, with extreme sexual dimorphism present between the two genders (males being canine, females feline).  This is supported by their having children together, and the children exhibiting the same dimorphism: the three daughters are all distinctly feline, while their only son is canine in appearance.  In addition, Battle at Procyon offers the chance to recruit crew members of numerous species, including feline- and canine-like humanoids.  Again, all feline humanoids are female, while all canine humanoids are male.  It may very well be that, due to the rather glaring physical differences between the sexes, they simply refer to each as its own species, conventional scientific identifications be damned.

For the purposes of Tu Shanshu, and against the possibility that she will be asked what she is, Amelia will refer to her species as felinid.

Personality: Amelia is every inch a fine captain: brave, intelligent, charismatic, and with just enough dry wit to keep others on their toes.  She takes a no-nonsense approach to life, and possesses a strong sense of duty.  There is also a softer side to Amelia, though it can be difficult to reach through her tough exterior.

Amelia addresses anyone not particularly close to her by their surname and the appropriate honorific, although at times she may drop the former and address others solely by their occupation.  She has a tendency to slip into verbosity on occasion, and is almost never at a loss for words.  She is condescending to those who do not impress her (which is most everyone at first, fitting in with her feline nature), but she is fair. Amelia will give credit where credit is due, complimenting Dr. Delbert Doppler when his astronomical knowledge helped save the crew, and earning her respect is indeed possible, though it can take some time.  She has little tolerance for incompetence or foolishness, and flattery will get you no where.

Amelia possesses an adventurous streak as well; why else would a reputable captain of the navy agree to sail off into the uncharted regions of the Aetherium, in search of a treasure that may or may not exist?

As an experienced spacer, Amelia is very unwavering.  She keeps her wits about her, and has faced even the dangers of a supernova without an ounce of panic.  Her quick thinking has saved lives more than once.  During the Pelusa supernova, her initial orders were to secure the solar sails, protecting them from damage, but the star soon collapsed into a black hole.  The magilla waves it began emitting were initially believed by Amelia to be completely erratic.  However, upon being informed by Dr. Doppler that they were very predictable, and that the third and final one would be massive, she quickly concocted a plan to ride that final wave, and ordered all sails to be released.  The intense light produced by the magilla gave the Legacy the thrusting power she needed to escape the pull of the black hole, and the crew (save one) was unharmed.

She has an air of authority about her, and she is very aware of it.  She is the captain, she gives the orders, and she fully expects to be obeyed.  In the aftermath of the mutiny on the Legacy, during which Amelia's quick thinking once again saved lives (shooting out the cables holding the longboat, thereby letting it drop through the rapidly closing hull hatch), she was severely injured when the longboat was shot down and crash landed.  Despite her wounds she continued delivering orders, able to recognize the need for a more defensible position and sending Jim off to locate such a place.  Delirium from pain was the only thing that stopped her from remaining in control of the situation, and even then she continued issuing orders, although not nearly as forcefully as is the norm.

While almost always extremely well-collected, Amelia has let her cool slip under extreme stress, yelling out insults to the pirates while exchanging fire with them during the mutiny, or practically snapping at Delbert when he just wouldn't properly steer the Legacy away from that large chunk of exploding planet coming up on the left.  Both instances occurred when Amelia has lost control of the situation; her ship falling into the hands of pirates, forcing her to flee, or during the desperate escape from the destruction of Treasure Planet, when her injuries forced her to remain braced against the mast rather than at the helm.

Amelia’s softer side shows through when in the company of those she is close to.  The captain was very close to her first officer and comrade in arms, Mr. Arrow, often exchanging playful banter with him.  Arrow’s death in the Pelusa black hole devastated Amelia, though she held her head high and carried on her duties.  Later, she bonded with Doppler, and though she continued to address him as ‘doctor’, when speaking to him her voice no longer carried a tone of superiority; she saw him as her equal.

Amelia is not one to buy into this ‘between life, death, and dreaming’ talk.  Until shown otherwise, she will, for the most part, simply wave it off as local superstition.  Although, the unusual circumstances surrounding her arrival will have planted a niggling sensation at the back of her mind, and that part of her will wonder if there is some truth to it.  The diversity among the kedan will feel natural to her; Amelia comes from a universe with many different species and is accustomed to mixed company.  Likewise, it will seem strange to her that the majority of foreigners are human (or appear to be so).

Appearance:

Abilities: For the most part, Amelia's physical capabilities are nothing super-human, but she is capable of some rather impressive aerial gymnastics, and is very agile.  She is a fair shot with a rifle, and given the setting of Treasure Planet it would not be a stretch to assume that, as a naval captain, she can hold her own in a sword fight.

Amelia is a skilled helmswoman.  Being in the Royal Navy, she also has a formidable knowledge of sailing the Aetherium, including ship types and handling, and is none-too-shabby an improvisor when plans go awry.

Inventory: Amelia will arrive on the turtle with merely the clothes that she is wearing.

Suite: A single floor Fire suite would suit Amelia just fine.  She is a captain, and therefore demands a certain degree of luxury above others, but she is also quite used to living compactly on board a ship.

In-Character Samples:

Third Person:

As she enters the suite, Amelia finds herself hard pressed to remember a stranger day than this.  Awakening in a tub of water, informed that time has stopped in her universe, that she is here to serve against some great wicked demon or whatnot and other such nonsense… no, she doesn’t believe so.  She’s had more exciting ones, certainly, and rather recently at that.  But stranger?

She surveys the suite in front of her.  It’s rather luxurious, compared to the stateroom she has been used to for these past few months, but suitable for a woman of her rank.  The kedan, while not particularly forthcoming with answers to the important questions, certainly know how to provide.  It serves as some mitigation to her irritation about the whole mess; she won’t be wanting for comfort here.

And comfort is something she is looking for.  Escaping from an exploding planet barely in the nick of time is enough excitement to last even Captain Amelia for some time.  But she can’t settle down.  She is simply too agitated.  A failed attempt at reclining leads to her leaping up. She cannot settle down, there are far too many unanswered questions being brought here has raised.  “Of all the thrice-blasted, completely outrageous things…” she cuts herself off.

Frustration will get her no where.  She is a captain in the Royal Navy, the finest fleet in the galaxy, and simply simmering in her own thoughts will not do.  Amelia glances at the console in the wall.  The kedan told her about this: it’s a communication device, unlike any she’s seen.  When she turns it on, the display reminds her of those on the bridge of the Legacy, except those are always filled with information regarding the ship’s welfare.  Amelia has never known of one that can transmit a live picture of a speaker.

Using the device will be an interesting experience, at least.

Network: [The feed turns on to show Amelia sitting straight up, looking directly at the screen.  Hands folded in front of her, the very pose exudes authority; this is a woman who knows she is of rank.]

I am Captain Amelia of the Terran Royal Navy, lately returned from an expedition to locate the lost trove of the infamous pirate Nathaniel Flint, and more recently rather unceremoniously drenched in a tub of water and informed that I am to be engaging in a conflict against a malevolent entity of which I have not heard until today.

[A measured pause. Her tone indicates she is more irritated by the idea of fighting someone else’s war, rather than the prospect of combat itself.  Or perhaps it is the drenching she is cross about.]

I do not care for being brought here against my will, especially if I do not know the how of it.  These kedan are maddeningly unhelpful when questioned on such topics.  They tell me that time has been stopped in my universe, which, if true - highly doubtful, of course - is of some relief.  But if I am to stay here for an extended tenure, there are important questions that I must have answered.  This…

[and here she pauses for a moment to pick her words.  Amelia is not given to superstitions regarding the summoning of a monstrous being simply by speaking his name, but the kedan were very adamant about not saying it, and this has been a rather strange day.  Best to not risk it, then.]

...M-fellow.  I'd like to know more about him.  If I have indeed been brought here to fight a war, then it is imperative that I know what I shall be dealing with.  In addition, is it true we are riding on the back of a giant turtle?

[This last question is accompanied by nearly palpable disbelief.]

[The next pause is not one of calculation or thought, but of expectancy.  Amelia’s waiting for her answers, and it’s only after the silence has gone on for a few seconds that she realizes replies will not be instantaneous.]

That’ll do, for the moment, so as not to overwhelm you.

[It’s a save, but she says it like it was always planned that way.  She nods her head once at the screen, just ever so slightly.]

That is all.

[end transmission]