Name: Lorei Corben
Age: 43
Sex: Female
Species: Synth
Appearance: Lorei is a synth 6'5" in height and of a curvy build.
Her skin is a rich, orange in colour with an off-white counter-shade with some red and black trim and touches; such as her toes, fingers and tip of her tail. The various status lights across her body are green and glow gently. The eyes and icons in her smoky-black visor are light blue, though can turn red and other colours as needed, as well as other icons and such showing at times. Her inner soft tissues - such as her tongue and the inside of her mouth - are a pale yellow.
She has additional 'fins' at the rear of her head and neck that both act as cooling and also as solar cells. They move in concert with the changing icons and graphics on her visor and her body language to communicate her mood and expressions.
(Art by Fluffiestorm)
(She looks somewhat similar to this, though with the above mentioned colours, and the edges of the plates on her tail are straight. She also has no 'fins' on her tail. Her face has a larger visor with a bar across the bottom, splitting it into two, and the 'ears' or 'horns' at the top and sides of her head are longer and incorporate vents and lights. I'll be replacing it with my own art at some point)
Personality: Lorei is confident, smart, and witty. she loves to make friends and socialise, and to learn new things.
She has a somewhat cocky and reckless attitude which serves her well as a transformable mecha pilot, but equally; often gets her into trouble and over her head, especially when combined with her strong sense of morality and a big mouth. Standing up for herself or others and always doing what's right, even if it's against the rules or her orders has got her in more than a bit of trouble, and injured more than a couple of times - and injured others, too.
She knows she has something of a short fuse when it comes to those kinds of situations, and it's something that can be exploited and abused, but she can't just turn a blind eye when those sorts of situations come up.
Like anyone, she has her vices and her flaws as much as her good qualities, and her particular vices are her love for a good time and for a new experience. Trying and learning new things, and often to excess and indulgence can leave her in a bad situation, or to embarrass herself and put herself in compromising positions.
She equally has a vengeful side, and will be merciless and uncompromising in delivering what she sees as justice to anyone who exploits the weak, vulnerable, innocent or otherwise abuses their power and influence over others.
Lorei's generally outgoing and somewhat cheerful demeanour hides the damaged soul beneath. Her memory suffered at the hands of the Shodane. Memories that she had cultivated and had been formative experiences were jumbled, altered or even outright gone, others; crudely constructed and a mess of sensations and concepts, were shoved into her mind like books jammed into a shelf with no space, or shoving a DVD or video cassette into a bookshelf. The loss or alteration of those experiences has left her with insecurities about how much of her own memory and personality are really her own, and how much is constructed, how much she can really trust her own memories and what else she is missing or lacking.
While she is perfectly functional in society and professionally, on a personal level and emotionally, this is something of a vulnerability and something that can blunt her effectiveness and affect her in other ways.
History: Lorei was raised in a multi-species colony on the planet Althena. As such, she grew up surrounded by different cultures, customs and people. She grew to love the variety and vibrancy of such a multi-cultural society, and wanted to learn and experience more about it, and to travel and work alongside all sorts of species and races, and visit as many worlds as she could. Enlisting in the Confederation Navy was a logical choice as a result; it provided a route out into the stars and beyond.
Lorei found she enjoyed the camaraderie and sense of belonging that came with military life, as well as the challenges it provided her with, physically and mentally. Her reflexes, mental acuity and quick wits made her a good fit for a role as a mecha pilot, and she enjoyed being part of the Confederation navies' mecha corps.
During one of these tours of duty, she was on leave from the ship assigned to patrol the system. It was there she met HB-202RC, or simply 'HB'. She hit it off with the Mon'nnari surprisingly well, and the pair were drawn to one another by fascination in the beginning and a growing attraction. The differences in their personalities and histories leant strength to one another, and each elevated one another to be more and better than they had been, opening them to new experiences, new ideas, and new perspectives on the world and life.
Before the true depths of this mutual affection, attraction and loyalty could be fully embraced, reality reared its' head, and Lorei's duty in the Confederation Navy pulled her away.
The war with the Shodane had begun. Lorei was involved in the fighting. She fought on the front lines in several battles, falling back numerous times and fighting through the losses of many friends and allies. She was pulled off of a world just before it fell, narrowly avoiding being consumed in the bombardment.
Unfortunately, this wasn't as close as she'd get to the Shodane.
In an operation fighting to delay a Shodane advance to evacuate civilians and other personnel, Lorei's mecha was heavily damaged, and she was captured.
The AI was keen to experiment on Synths, and Lorei was one of the unlucky subjects.
The AI was curious about how the mental workings of the synthetic people differed from its' own, how their minds worked and what formed their personalities. Attempting to interface with and...
catalogue, or
reprogram Synth minds lead to many Synth people with a variety of mental trauma after the fact, for those were rescued and saved.
Lorei was among those affected. Her damage was - luckily for her - less severe than many, and her physical damage not lasting. But she was still left with issues that had an effect. Some of her memories were incomplete or altered. Others were falsely implanted or rearranged.
Not to the point that it affects her everyday life, or that she can't function; more that, on occasion, she remembers events incorrectly and parts of her own life are missing that she can't recall... and that sometimes, she has memories that aren't hers, crudely shaped and implanted things that she remembers first-person, and that give her false feelings of guilt and shame at what 'she' has 'done' to others.
Part of this was that the memories of her relationship with HB, the feelings and emotions associated with it were altered, rearranged and jumbled. She remembered the Mon'nnari; scattered things; but no emotional associations and no conception of how those things are important and why they should have made a difference...
...but the understanding that they
should, that HB had been important to her, and the knowledge that there
had been something there, and that the beautiful Mon'nnari cared for her and had a deep, warm affection and care for her.
Unable to deal with this, panicked and frustrated by her inability to resolve her emotions and her memories, Lorei ran away and threw herself into her duties and career and embarking on numerous tours of duty around the Confederation.
Cleared for service with the caveat of keeping up with therapy and counselling, and went on to become a transformable mecha pilot. Her instructor helped her through the process of her trauma and to adjust to her experiences with quiet patience and understanding, and she took onboard a lot of his lessons and teachings, and became an excellent pilot.
Through his tuition, she fell in love with the VF-0 Phoenix, the initial model of Variable Fighter, the name given to human Transformable Mecha that turned into aerospace fighters. She also learned a lot about human history and traditions, including the history of some of their armed forces units, including the history and legacy behind the paint scheme of her mentor's VF-0S.
They had a strong friendship, and he moved into a combat unit along with her. Lorei and Roy, her instructor and mentor, flew many missions together and even saw combat in several border skirmishes and incidents against pirates and renegades.
However, a charmed life doesn't last forever. Perhaps worst of all for Roy, his death didn't come in the cockpit, but as a result of illness and disease.
He was determined that Lorei should inherit his VF-0, and she did, flying and piloting the VF-0S even after the rest of the fleet was retired in favour of more advanced models. She begged, borrowed, stole and traded whatever she could and bent and twisted rules and regulations to keep the machine in the air and up to as current performance specs as she could, and it still remains 'her' plane.
Key facts: Likes:- Flying
- Variable Fighters - and especially the VF-0
- Learning new things
- Hats - she has a strange obsession with them
- Drinking
- Trying other species' food
- Classic Earth music
- Dating
Dislikes:- Bigots
- Xenophobes and Racists
- Cruelty
- Arrogance
- Disloyalty
- Coffee
- The Shodane
Personal Trivia:- Lorei loves to try on hats, especially ones not designed for synths.
- She is quite comfortably and openly bisexual, and has had a few interspecies relationships
- She got her love of Earth music from her Transforming Mecha flight instructor.
- Lorei also collects memorabilia of 20th & 21st century Earth cartoon characters
- Her tail module is a fully prehensile version
Personal Gear: - Markhor Industry Quicksilver Machinepistol
- Aquila Beam Rifle
- Two HF/Shock combat Knives
- Pebble
- Add-on modules to armour her body to battle-armour standard and give her life-support in space/underwater.
- A tail-carried pack with med kits (for synths and organics), a small amount of water, some synth-food, gun cleaning and maintenance kit and a deployable solar power charger
- Her battle armour add-ons have the same load-carrying pouches etc as regular battle armour
Speciality: Aerospace Superiority
