App for betenoire_rp
1. Player Information
Name (or internet handle): Megan
Current characters in Bete Noire: N/A
2. Character Information
Name: Christine Chapel
Livejournal Username: rightawaydoctor
Fandom: Star Trek XI
3. Character Information II
Age/Appearance: Christine is 22 years old, 5'6", and slim with long blonde hair, blue eyes, and a naturally pale skin tone. Physically, she has thin arms and not much upper body strength. All her strength comes from her legs. She has no identifiable marks or scars, but a very expressive face. When on duty, she often wears her hair up in a bun, twist, or ponytail, though she's been known to braid it as well. Off duty she'll usually wear it down, and curl it too. She usually wears jewelry and makeup everyday.
History: Christine was born in 2237 in New Orleans, LA on Earth to Lauren and Patterson Chapel. From a young age she had a great interest in ballet, and took lessons for twelve years. She had plans of making it as a professional ballerina, an incredibly hard profession to break into, and so from her early childhood to throughout her teens, Christine showed an intense drive to go after what she wanted. She had other interests, of course, but ballet was her one true love.
As her parents lost interest in her extracurricular activities and showed less support, that made Christine all the more determined to get them to pay attention. She strove for excellence in everything she did, from school, to ballet, to sports she joined, to having the perfect boyfriend to bring home to her parents. But high school boys are far from perfect, and when she realized she couldn't mold them to be what she wanted, she decided she was better off without them. As her teens progressed and she slowly became aware that her parents just didn't share or really support her interests, she came to the conclusion that she couldn't depend on them, or on anyone else, for anything. This gave her an intense drive to prove herself to be capable all on her own.
She had interests besides ballet, however, such as softball, volleyball, singing, cooking, and science. Though she aced every class she took, her favorites were those that dealt with science, specifically biology. She never pictured herself as anything other than a ballerina though, and so she didn't consider at that point that she could do anything in the field of science.
That changed at age sixteen. Ever since puberty hit, she and her fellow ballerinas were constantly pressured to lose weight. For years she went along with the desires of her coach, which she figured must be her desires too, as she wanted to be the best ballerina possible. Christine was constantly hungry and very unhealthy. From her extensive knowledge of human biology, she knew she wasn't healthy. The weight loss affected her mood, making her depressed, and even caused her to black out several times. This was a turning point in her life, as she tried to justify how something that hurt her so much could still make her happy. With her mood constantly fluctuating between depression and anger, she weighed the pros and cons and decided her health wasn't worth it. It nearly broke her heart, but she gave up on being a professional ballerina.
After giving up the possibility of a future career in ballet, she turned to her next love, science, specifically biology. As is Christine's nature, she had to throw herself into something else, so that she could excel in it. She began narrowing down the field until she found something on which she wanted to focus on and study obsessively. She chose medicine, and began reading about breakthroughs being made by Starfleet scientists, specifically one named Dr. Roger Korby. Roger had been in high school when Starfleet suffered a tragedy in losing one of its ships, the USS Kelvin, in an attack by an enemy with advanced technology who was never found. This motivated Roger to join Starfleet, and this would later affect Christine's life.
[In the original series of Star Trek, Christine had a career in bio-research, working alongside the brilliant scientist, Dr. Roger Korby. Eventually the two became engaged, but he left for a deep space mission and Christine stayed on Earth. They stayed in contact until 2261, when Korby disappeared. As a result of this, Christine joined Starfleet in the hopes of being assigned to deep space where she could find him.
She worked in San Fransisco at Starfleet Medical for some time alongside Leonard McCoy, until she was assigned to the Enterprise as an Ensign in 2266 alongside McCoy. That same year, the Enterprise reached the planet Korby was last stationed on, and Christine reunited with him. However, when she discovered he had replaced his body with an android one, and wanted the same for her and everyone else, she rejected him and he killed himself.]
My Christine is from the alternative reality set up in the reboot movie. In 2233, the USS Kelvin was attacked by a rogue Romulan ship with advanced technology. In addition to this changing the futures of James Kirk, Spock, and many at Starfleet, it also affected Christine's life. Instead of entering bio-research and working alongside Korby, in looking for an area of science to focus on, she found that he published papers in the medical field and came to greatly admire him.
Her senior year of high school, a Starfleet recruiter came to her school to urge students to consider joining. Christine was reminded of Dr. Korby and she fell in love with the idea of joining Starfleet Medical, her practical side noting that one couldn't beat free when it came to their education. As graduation approached, she decided on nursing for her concentration, with a five year mission afterward. Once that was accomplished, she would reevaluate herself and determine whether she wanted to continue with her education to become a doctor and stay in Starfleet. I take this ambition from Original Series Christine, who did obtain her Doctorate by 2271.
On graduating in 2255 she joined Starfleet's Medical Academy. Unfortunately for her, Dr. Korby had shipped out not long before on a five year mission in deep space, so she didn't have the chance to meet him or work beside him. Christine was ambitious and wanted to be assigned to the new flagship Starfleet was building in Iowa. Nothing but the best ship with the newest technology aboard would do for her. She even had plans of becoming Head Nurse, though she knew whoever was already assigned Head Nurse would have to transfer or retire first. She excelled in every class she took, volunteered at the Medical Center, and easily made friends with like-minded, hardworking cadets.
In 2258, she and her fellow cadets at the Academy were called to answer a distress call from Vulcan, as most of the Fleet was engaged too far away to answer the call. She was assigned to her first choice ship, the newly built USS Enterprise, which was going out on her maiden voyage. Upon arriving above Vulcan a bit later than her fellow starships after a delay, the Enterprise found herself to be the only surviving ship, and was promptly attacked by a rogue Romulan ship, which had just destroyed the others. Christine was knocked around in the attack, but not injured, and she quickly got her bearings, assisting in healing the wounded. Once the Romulans were defeated, the Enterprise returned to Earth and Christine finished her classes in time to depart on the repaired ship for her five year mission. As the previous Head Nurse had been killed in the attack above Vulcan, Christine was promoted to Head Nurse, based on her actions and how she kept a cool head and directed her fellow nurses during the attack.
Personality: Christine has a no nonsense attitude. Usually if she has a problem with something or someone, she is not afraid to state so, unless the situation involves her superior officers. In cases such as those, she will be less blunt unless she knows the officer well enough to know they would not reprimand her for being candid. She has an air of being carefree and will let few things bother her, unless it's an important issue to her, such as an injured or ill person refusing medical treatment. She also has a caring bedside manner, and Christine is sympathetic towards the ill or injured.
Christine tends to depend on herself for things, not wanting to rely on others. This stems from childhood, when her parents grew tired of attending all her ballet recitals and eventually stopped coming to them altogether. Not letting herself rely on others means there's no opportunity for them to let her down, as well as the fact that her accomplishments are hers alone. As the Head Nurse of the Enterprise, Christine still carries that drive to succeed and prove herself to be the best. Her career is the most important thing to her, and she throws herself into her work. She controls the inner workings of the medical bay, from stocking and reordering their inventory, to doing physicals and treating minor injuries, to assisting in surgeries, to begrudgingly issuing duty rosters to her nursing staff, to making the rounds. She's open and friendly with her nurses, even a little bit trusting, but if Christine had the time and resources, she would gladly be in control of everything in the medical bay herself. She is already very serious and dedicated to her work for her age.
Her perfectionist nature is her main flaw. She doesn't like to trust others to do things because she thinks she can do the best job. Her arrogance is something she is well aware of, but doesn't easily strive to control. She doesn't see anything wrong with wanting to be the best at what she does. Speaking her mind is natural for her. If she feels compassion for someone, she'll show it. If she feels proud of herself for something she's done, she'll brag about it and not apologize for it.
When she can't control things, such as when a patient dies despite her best efforts, she locks it away in her head and throws herself into other things, sometimes even completely unnecessary tasks, just so she doesn't have a breakdown where she feels that she's failed someone as well as herself. It's unhealthy to not confront the things she can't control, but if she did, she would have to admit to herself that she can't control everything and that she does occasionally fail.
She's also shallow and superficial about her appearance. She keeps a compact mirror at her nurse's station so she can periodically check her appearance to make sure not a hair is out of place nor any spot on her face is shiny (in TOS, she is shown checking herself out in her compact before confronting Spock and admitting her feelings for him). She watches what she eats, obsessing about her weight and turning to salads when she thinks she's gaining too much weight (this bit of info into Christine's personality is from a Star Trek novel).
Basically, she feels that she has to be the star. It goes back to being center stage as a ballerina. She's at her best when she's done something she can be 100% proud of, and when others praise her for it. This also has to do with the lack of attention her parents gave her growing up. They had no interest in the things she was passionate about, and that made her crave their praise and attention all the more.
Christine throws herself into things full force. She loves mastering/conquering challenges. When she gave up ballet, she knew she had to replace it with something about which she could be just as passionate. If she didn't, she would see herself as a quitter, and that's something she would hate to be. She doesn't accept defeat easily. She was always smart (according to supplemental info, she graduated in the 98th percentile of her class at Starfleet Medical Academy), and science was something she loved. Discovering how the body functioned and how to fix it when it failed appealed to her and her desire to control things.
She became enamored with the research of Dr. Roger Korby, involving deep space missions to excavate ancient alien civilizations in search of medical information. The idea of traveling out into the far reaches of space and learning about the biology of unknown creatures excited her, and she decided to join Starfleet, partially inspired by him, partially because it would be an adventure where she could explore science and medicine in greater detail.
Making snap decisions in the med bay to save lives was right up Christine's alley. It was always her ambition to be made Head Nurse someday, but it was only by a fluke that she was given the position of Head Nurse and rank of Lieutenant so soon. So many lives were lost when the Romulans attacked that many cadets were promoted to positions they normally would not have achieved for several years to fill in the gaps. But she certainly hasn't taken her position for granted. She works hard to prove that she is the right choice for Head Nurse.
Christine isn't afraid to disagree with Dr. McCoy if she doesn't believe he's making the right medical decision, but she will back down and follow his orders. She will also always defer to McCoy's medical judgment if someone (such as the "Captain" in TOS episode Turnabout Intruder) were to go over McCoy's head in regards to a patient. She is completely loyal and dedicated to her boss, and she favors the working relationship they have as doctor and nurse to the relationship of superior officer and junior officer. Dealing with unwilling patients has turned her into a bit of a negotiator, as it were. She is sympathetic towards her patients and tries her best to put them at ease.
That doesn't mean she doesn't know how to relax and have fun though. In her personal life, Christine likes to party and enjoy herself, as long as the people she's partying with don't make asses out of themselves. She can be flirty, and is sexually active, though at this point in her life, she doesn't want to be involved in a romantic relationship. She says it's because she wants to focus on her career, and while that's true, it also goes back to her trust issues and not wanting to rely on those who she assumes will let her down.
Christine greatly admires Spock for his logical mind, but wonders what he'd be like if he expressed his human side more often. She worries what the mainly human, emotional crew must do to him, as he suppresses all emotion himself, but sees it plainly expressed all around him. She admits to herself that she is fascinated with him, and even has a crush on him, though she doesn't expect, or even want anything to come of it.
Yet she can't seem to help herself and goes out of her way at times to get him to notice her, praise her work, or engage him in conversation. But these actions don't mean she wants him to know how she feels beyond simply caring about his well being. If he knew how often she thought about him, or the things she thought about him, she'd be completely embarrassed. She wants to get to know him better, to know what he thinks about and what makes him tick, but she doesn't want him to suspect her motives for doing so. As she is aware of his relationship with Uhura, Chris wants to hide her crush on Spock from her, worrying what Uhura's reaction would be.
This crush is frustrating for Christine to deal with, since she imagines herself to be above such things, is afraid of the idea of being in love, and thinks herself to be rather logical, like Spock. Yet she truly is an emotional thinker deep down inside, and it is her emotions that guide her thoughts and actions in regards to her Vulcan crewmate.
Right now, Christine is exactly where she wants to be, doing what she loves to do. She gets to treat the injured and ill, go on away missions to collect data that could prove useful in medicine, and be in charge of all of the ship's nurses. She's incredibly work-oriented for her age, and while she likes to relax and have fun, having a fulfilling career that makes her feel needed and important is what really matters to her. Still ambitious, she'll consider working towards her doctorate and one day becoming the Chief Medical Officer of a Starfleet vessel.
Sexual Preferences/Orientation: Christine enjoys sex and thinks of it as a great way to unwind. Romance is something secondary to her at the moment, because she wants to focus on her career. While not terribly kinky, she likes trying new things and lots of different positions. Her orientation is straight, and she would only take on one sexual partner at a time. Sex is intimacy, and that should be resticted to one person at a time in her eyes. Plus she's a nurse, so she'd want to know her partner's sexual history before engaging in anything sexual with them.
Powers: Christine is human and therefore has no extraordinary powers.
Reason for playing: The original series and therefore the original setting was such a boys' club, with most of the female characters appearing in only one episode and usually just as a love interest. But it was the 1960's, so it's understandable. Still, I enjoy the focus given to those few female characters who stuck around, mainly Uhura and Nurse Chapel. The new movie showed a Doctor McCoy who was extremely grumpy and heavy handed with a hypospray, so I wanted to balance that out by playing someone who has a gentler attitude and touch in the medical bay. But I didn't want to stick with outdated 1960's characterizations of women, and so Christine, like Uhura in the new film, has been updated.
Honestly, Star Trek-only games always seem to die out, so panfandom's better because they're more lasting. I like the idea of Christine trying to fight her darker urges in Bete Noire, especially when it comes to her pride and being in control. Also, Christine's studied endochrinology, and once she hears how the city affects people and tries to get them to follow their darker urges, she'll be very interested in studying the hormones of the residents if she can get her hands on some volunteers and the proper equipment. She might even get it into her head to try and come up with something that could suppress people's hormones from getting out of control. Again, Christine loves being in control so she'll fight giving in to her darker urges.
5. Samples
First-Person: (5-10 sentences)
My shift today was pretty stressful, but I should expect it by now. An engineer came in with a swollen purple tongue and within an hour there were twelve more. People really need to stop sharing drinks in the mess. That or stop with the making out, but the odds of that happening are next to nil. Can't say I blame them. There's a lot of good looking people on this ship, and I should know. I'm one of them.
Anyway, I've been looking into Starfleet's doctorate program again lately. It's just a question of whether I feel I can do more good as a doctor or as a nurse, I guess. The answer changes day to day, usually depending on how many patients there are and whether the doctors are in a crappy mood.
Third-Person: (200 words minimum)
Sometimes calculations were off by one measly number, or an unknown element messed with the sensors, or a member of the transporter team sneezed as they set the transporter pad to energize. These were the excuses Christine Chapel was coming up with to explain why she had been beamed down alone to a planet that looked nothing like the one about which the team had been briefed.
She was on a lonely road with nothing around her, heading she didn't know where. Her comms to the Enterprise weren't getting through. That could be explained away by something in the planet's atmosphere blocking her signal, but surely the transporter team could see that her signal was missing completely from the location they should have sent her?
Christine kept walking. Sense would have told her to stay put in the place she had been beamed to, but there was something driving her forward. She felt like there was something up ahead that she had to see.
And then she saw it.
As the sky turned pink and orange with the setting of the sun, she saw a city. It wasn't where she should have been beamed to, but maybe they belonged to or knew of the Federation, and they could help her comm the ship.
But once she had walked into the city itself, she was sure she would find no help there. The place looked like some kind of wreck you'd find in post-apocalyptic films, and it sent the stereotypical shiver up Christine's spine. She wasn't sure whether to stay in the light of the street lamps because of the possible dangers in the shadows, or stay in the shadows because being in the lamp light would make her an easier target.
Finally, she decided to settle for walking quickly and with purpose along the sidewalks under the street lamps. If she looked like she knew exactly where she was going, maybe she'd make it to a safe location, unscathed.
Somewhere in the distance, she heard a siren wail. Then there was the yowl of a startled cat, knocking into what sounded like old metal trash cans. Everywhere was some sort of noise that signaled danger or unpleasantness. Christine lifted her chin, narrowing her eyes. She needed to look tough and like there was more to her than met the eye. Despite her stubborn nature and reluctance to back down from a verbal fight, Christine wasn't a fighter in the traditional sense. Sure, she'd taken defense classes at the Academy, but that didn't mean she had a lot of confidence at the moment that she could take down a mugger.
The whole city couldn't be like this, it just couldn't. There had to be somewhere safer where she could rest for the night. The question of the hour though, was if she could reach this safer place before exhaustion set in and she was ready to collapse.
Third-Person #2: (200 words minimum)
After helping to save a life, Christine could always ride the adrenaline high for an hour or so before it started to fade. Sometimes, like when it had been a bad day, she struggled to clutch onto that feeling a little bit longer before it could leave her. Sometimes she needed help to get all the way there; needed the heat and the friction and the sound of blood rushing in her ears.
That's why he gave her the entry code to his quarters, for those times she needed to hold onto that feeling that came with cheating death. Her pulse raced as she quickly punched in the code and was given entrance. With a few long strides she reached him, barely registering the sound of the door sliding shut behind her. She straddled his lap, taking the PADD he was reading out of his hands and tossing it aside. His very mild protest to that was cut off by her mouth hungrily seeking out his, pressing roughly as her teeth scraped at his bottom lip.
Now he was on board with her, arms locking around her waist as they arched their backs and rolled their hips against one another. Christine moaned low in her throat and moved her lips to his ear, whispering how much she needed him. His fingers tangled in her hair as he replied that the feeling was definitely mutual.
Her fingers grabbed at his uniform and they were forced to pull back from one another as she dragged it up over his head. Tossing it aside, she leaned back in to nibble at his chest, nails marking trails across his skin. His breath caught in his throat and she laughed lightly, whispering a French pet name in his ear. He grabbed her rear, squeezing tightly and she rocked against him again. Her blood pounded in her ears and she felt so alive. He would get her to the place she needed to be. He always did.
Name (or internet handle): Megan
Current characters in Bete Noire: N/A
2. Character Information
Name: Christine Chapel
Livejournal Username: rightawaydoctor
Fandom: Star Trek XI
3. Character Information II
Age/Appearance: Christine is 22 years old, 5'6", and slim with long blonde hair, blue eyes, and a naturally pale skin tone. Physically, she has thin arms and not much upper body strength. All her strength comes from her legs. She has no identifiable marks or scars, but a very expressive face. When on duty, she often wears her hair up in a bun, twist, or ponytail, though she's been known to braid it as well. Off duty she'll usually wear it down, and curl it too. She usually wears jewelry and makeup everyday.
History: Christine was born in 2237 in New Orleans, LA on Earth to Lauren and Patterson Chapel. From a young age she had a great interest in ballet, and took lessons for twelve years. She had plans of making it as a professional ballerina, an incredibly hard profession to break into, and so from her early childhood to throughout her teens, Christine showed an intense drive to go after what she wanted. She had other interests, of course, but ballet was her one true love.
As her parents lost interest in her extracurricular activities and showed less support, that made Christine all the more determined to get them to pay attention. She strove for excellence in everything she did, from school, to ballet, to sports she joined, to having the perfect boyfriend to bring home to her parents. But high school boys are far from perfect, and when she realized she couldn't mold them to be what she wanted, she decided she was better off without them. As her teens progressed and she slowly became aware that her parents just didn't share or really support her interests, she came to the conclusion that she couldn't depend on them, or on anyone else, for anything. This gave her an intense drive to prove herself to be capable all on her own.
She had interests besides ballet, however, such as softball, volleyball, singing, cooking, and science. Though she aced every class she took, her favorites were those that dealt with science, specifically biology. She never pictured herself as anything other than a ballerina though, and so she didn't consider at that point that she could do anything in the field of science.
That changed at age sixteen. Ever since puberty hit, she and her fellow ballerinas were constantly pressured to lose weight. For years she went along with the desires of her coach, which she figured must be her desires too, as she wanted to be the best ballerina possible. Christine was constantly hungry and very unhealthy. From her extensive knowledge of human biology, she knew she wasn't healthy. The weight loss affected her mood, making her depressed, and even caused her to black out several times. This was a turning point in her life, as she tried to justify how something that hurt her so much could still make her happy. With her mood constantly fluctuating between depression and anger, she weighed the pros and cons and decided her health wasn't worth it. It nearly broke her heart, but she gave up on being a professional ballerina.
After giving up the possibility of a future career in ballet, she turned to her next love, science, specifically biology. As is Christine's nature, she had to throw herself into something else, so that she could excel in it. She began narrowing down the field until she found something on which she wanted to focus on and study obsessively. She chose medicine, and began reading about breakthroughs being made by Starfleet scientists, specifically one named Dr. Roger Korby. Roger had been in high school when Starfleet suffered a tragedy in losing one of its ships, the USS Kelvin, in an attack by an enemy with advanced technology who was never found. This motivated Roger to join Starfleet, and this would later affect Christine's life.
[In the original series of Star Trek, Christine had a career in bio-research, working alongside the brilliant scientist, Dr. Roger Korby. Eventually the two became engaged, but he left for a deep space mission and Christine stayed on Earth. They stayed in contact until 2261, when Korby disappeared. As a result of this, Christine joined Starfleet in the hopes of being assigned to deep space where she could find him.
She worked in San Fransisco at Starfleet Medical for some time alongside Leonard McCoy, until she was assigned to the Enterprise as an Ensign in 2266 alongside McCoy. That same year, the Enterprise reached the planet Korby was last stationed on, and Christine reunited with him. However, when she discovered he had replaced his body with an android one, and wanted the same for her and everyone else, she rejected him and he killed himself.]
My Christine is from the alternative reality set up in the reboot movie. In 2233, the USS Kelvin was attacked by a rogue Romulan ship with advanced technology. In addition to this changing the futures of James Kirk, Spock, and many at Starfleet, it also affected Christine's life. Instead of entering bio-research and working alongside Korby, in looking for an area of science to focus on, she found that he published papers in the medical field and came to greatly admire him.
Her senior year of high school, a Starfleet recruiter came to her school to urge students to consider joining. Christine was reminded of Dr. Korby and she fell in love with the idea of joining Starfleet Medical, her practical side noting that one couldn't beat free when it came to their education. As graduation approached, she decided on nursing for her concentration, with a five year mission afterward. Once that was accomplished, she would reevaluate herself and determine whether she wanted to continue with her education to become a doctor and stay in Starfleet. I take this ambition from Original Series Christine, who did obtain her Doctorate by 2271.
On graduating in 2255 she joined Starfleet's Medical Academy. Unfortunately for her, Dr. Korby had shipped out not long before on a five year mission in deep space, so she didn't have the chance to meet him or work beside him. Christine was ambitious and wanted to be assigned to the new flagship Starfleet was building in Iowa. Nothing but the best ship with the newest technology aboard would do for her. She even had plans of becoming Head Nurse, though she knew whoever was already assigned Head Nurse would have to transfer or retire first. She excelled in every class she took, volunteered at the Medical Center, and easily made friends with like-minded, hardworking cadets.
In 2258, she and her fellow cadets at the Academy were called to answer a distress call from Vulcan, as most of the Fleet was engaged too far away to answer the call. She was assigned to her first choice ship, the newly built USS Enterprise, which was going out on her maiden voyage. Upon arriving above Vulcan a bit later than her fellow starships after a delay, the Enterprise found herself to be the only surviving ship, and was promptly attacked by a rogue Romulan ship, which had just destroyed the others. Christine was knocked around in the attack, but not injured, and she quickly got her bearings, assisting in healing the wounded. Once the Romulans were defeated, the Enterprise returned to Earth and Christine finished her classes in time to depart on the repaired ship for her five year mission. As the previous Head Nurse had been killed in the attack above Vulcan, Christine was promoted to Head Nurse, based on her actions and how she kept a cool head and directed her fellow nurses during the attack.
Personality: Christine has a no nonsense attitude. Usually if she has a problem with something or someone, she is not afraid to state so, unless the situation involves her superior officers. In cases such as those, she will be less blunt unless she knows the officer well enough to know they would not reprimand her for being candid. She has an air of being carefree and will let few things bother her, unless it's an important issue to her, such as an injured or ill person refusing medical treatment. She also has a caring bedside manner, and Christine is sympathetic towards the ill or injured.
Christine tends to depend on herself for things, not wanting to rely on others. This stems from childhood, when her parents grew tired of attending all her ballet recitals and eventually stopped coming to them altogether. Not letting herself rely on others means there's no opportunity for them to let her down, as well as the fact that her accomplishments are hers alone. As the Head Nurse of the Enterprise, Christine still carries that drive to succeed and prove herself to be the best. Her career is the most important thing to her, and she throws herself into her work. She controls the inner workings of the medical bay, from stocking and reordering their inventory, to doing physicals and treating minor injuries, to assisting in surgeries, to begrudgingly issuing duty rosters to her nursing staff, to making the rounds. She's open and friendly with her nurses, even a little bit trusting, but if Christine had the time and resources, she would gladly be in control of everything in the medical bay herself. She is already very serious and dedicated to her work for her age.
Her perfectionist nature is her main flaw. She doesn't like to trust others to do things because she thinks she can do the best job. Her arrogance is something she is well aware of, but doesn't easily strive to control. She doesn't see anything wrong with wanting to be the best at what she does. Speaking her mind is natural for her. If she feels compassion for someone, she'll show it. If she feels proud of herself for something she's done, she'll brag about it and not apologize for it.
When she can't control things, such as when a patient dies despite her best efforts, she locks it away in her head and throws herself into other things, sometimes even completely unnecessary tasks, just so she doesn't have a breakdown where she feels that she's failed someone as well as herself. It's unhealthy to not confront the things she can't control, but if she did, she would have to admit to herself that she can't control everything and that she does occasionally fail.
She's also shallow and superficial about her appearance. She keeps a compact mirror at her nurse's station so she can periodically check her appearance to make sure not a hair is out of place nor any spot on her face is shiny (in TOS, she is shown checking herself out in her compact before confronting Spock and admitting her feelings for him). She watches what she eats, obsessing about her weight and turning to salads when she thinks she's gaining too much weight (this bit of info into Christine's personality is from a Star Trek novel).
Basically, she feels that she has to be the star. It goes back to being center stage as a ballerina. She's at her best when she's done something she can be 100% proud of, and when others praise her for it. This also has to do with the lack of attention her parents gave her growing up. They had no interest in the things she was passionate about, and that made her crave their praise and attention all the more.
Christine throws herself into things full force. She loves mastering/conquering challenges. When she gave up ballet, she knew she had to replace it with something about which she could be just as passionate. If she didn't, she would see herself as a quitter, and that's something she would hate to be. She doesn't accept defeat easily. She was always smart (according to supplemental info, she graduated in the 98th percentile of her class at Starfleet Medical Academy), and science was something she loved. Discovering how the body functioned and how to fix it when it failed appealed to her and her desire to control things.
She became enamored with the research of Dr. Roger Korby, involving deep space missions to excavate ancient alien civilizations in search of medical information. The idea of traveling out into the far reaches of space and learning about the biology of unknown creatures excited her, and she decided to join Starfleet, partially inspired by him, partially because it would be an adventure where she could explore science and medicine in greater detail.
Making snap decisions in the med bay to save lives was right up Christine's alley. It was always her ambition to be made Head Nurse someday, but it was only by a fluke that she was given the position of Head Nurse and rank of Lieutenant so soon. So many lives were lost when the Romulans attacked that many cadets were promoted to positions they normally would not have achieved for several years to fill in the gaps. But she certainly hasn't taken her position for granted. She works hard to prove that she is the right choice for Head Nurse.
Christine isn't afraid to disagree with Dr. McCoy if she doesn't believe he's making the right medical decision, but she will back down and follow his orders. She will also always defer to McCoy's medical judgment if someone (such as the "Captain" in TOS episode Turnabout Intruder) were to go over McCoy's head in regards to a patient. She is completely loyal and dedicated to her boss, and she favors the working relationship they have as doctor and nurse to the relationship of superior officer and junior officer. Dealing with unwilling patients has turned her into a bit of a negotiator, as it were. She is sympathetic towards her patients and tries her best to put them at ease.
That doesn't mean she doesn't know how to relax and have fun though. In her personal life, Christine likes to party and enjoy herself, as long as the people she's partying with don't make asses out of themselves. She can be flirty, and is sexually active, though at this point in her life, she doesn't want to be involved in a romantic relationship. She says it's because she wants to focus on her career, and while that's true, it also goes back to her trust issues and not wanting to rely on those who she assumes will let her down.
Christine greatly admires Spock for his logical mind, but wonders what he'd be like if he expressed his human side more often. She worries what the mainly human, emotional crew must do to him, as he suppresses all emotion himself, but sees it plainly expressed all around him. She admits to herself that she is fascinated with him, and even has a crush on him, though she doesn't expect, or even want anything to come of it.
Yet she can't seem to help herself and goes out of her way at times to get him to notice her, praise her work, or engage him in conversation. But these actions don't mean she wants him to know how she feels beyond simply caring about his well being. If he knew how often she thought about him, or the things she thought about him, she'd be completely embarrassed. She wants to get to know him better, to know what he thinks about and what makes him tick, but she doesn't want him to suspect her motives for doing so. As she is aware of his relationship with Uhura, Chris wants to hide her crush on Spock from her, worrying what Uhura's reaction would be.
This crush is frustrating for Christine to deal with, since she imagines herself to be above such things, is afraid of the idea of being in love, and thinks herself to be rather logical, like Spock. Yet she truly is an emotional thinker deep down inside, and it is her emotions that guide her thoughts and actions in regards to her Vulcan crewmate.
Right now, Christine is exactly where she wants to be, doing what she loves to do. She gets to treat the injured and ill, go on away missions to collect data that could prove useful in medicine, and be in charge of all of the ship's nurses. She's incredibly work-oriented for her age, and while she likes to relax and have fun, having a fulfilling career that makes her feel needed and important is what really matters to her. Still ambitious, she'll consider working towards her doctorate and one day becoming the Chief Medical Officer of a Starfleet vessel.
Sexual Preferences/Orientation: Christine enjoys sex and thinks of it as a great way to unwind. Romance is something secondary to her at the moment, because she wants to focus on her career. While not terribly kinky, she likes trying new things and lots of different positions. Her orientation is straight, and she would only take on one sexual partner at a time. Sex is intimacy, and that should be resticted to one person at a time in her eyes. Plus she's a nurse, so she'd want to know her partner's sexual history before engaging in anything sexual with them.
Powers: Christine is human and therefore has no extraordinary powers.
Reason for playing: The original series and therefore the original setting was such a boys' club, with most of the female characters appearing in only one episode and usually just as a love interest. But it was the 1960's, so it's understandable. Still, I enjoy the focus given to those few female characters who stuck around, mainly Uhura and Nurse Chapel. The new movie showed a Doctor McCoy who was extremely grumpy and heavy handed with a hypospray, so I wanted to balance that out by playing someone who has a gentler attitude and touch in the medical bay. But I didn't want to stick with outdated 1960's characterizations of women, and so Christine, like Uhura in the new film, has been updated.
Honestly, Star Trek-only games always seem to die out, so panfandom's better because they're more lasting. I like the idea of Christine trying to fight her darker urges in Bete Noire, especially when it comes to her pride and being in control. Also, Christine's studied endochrinology, and once she hears how the city affects people and tries to get them to follow their darker urges, she'll be very interested in studying the hormones of the residents if she can get her hands on some volunteers and the proper equipment. She might even get it into her head to try and come up with something that could suppress people's hormones from getting out of control. Again, Christine loves being in control so she'll fight giving in to her darker urges.
5. Samples
First-Person: (5-10 sentences)
My shift today was pretty stressful, but I should expect it by now. An engineer came in with a swollen purple tongue and within an hour there were twelve more. People really need to stop sharing drinks in the mess. That or stop with the making out, but the odds of that happening are next to nil. Can't say I blame them. There's a lot of good looking people on this ship, and I should know. I'm one of them.
Anyway, I've been looking into Starfleet's doctorate program again lately. It's just a question of whether I feel I can do more good as a doctor or as a nurse, I guess. The answer changes day to day, usually depending on how many patients there are and whether the doctors are in a crappy mood.
Third-Person: (200 words minimum)
Sometimes calculations were off by one measly number, or an unknown element messed with the sensors, or a member of the transporter team sneezed as they set the transporter pad to energize. These were the excuses Christine Chapel was coming up with to explain why she had been beamed down alone to a planet that looked nothing like the one about which the team had been briefed.
She was on a lonely road with nothing around her, heading she didn't know where. Her comms to the Enterprise weren't getting through. That could be explained away by something in the planet's atmosphere blocking her signal, but surely the transporter team could see that her signal was missing completely from the location they should have sent her?
Christine kept walking. Sense would have told her to stay put in the place she had been beamed to, but there was something driving her forward. She felt like there was something up ahead that she had to see.
And then she saw it.
As the sky turned pink and orange with the setting of the sun, she saw a city. It wasn't where she should have been beamed to, but maybe they belonged to or knew of the Federation, and they could help her comm the ship.
But once she had walked into the city itself, she was sure she would find no help there. The place looked like some kind of wreck you'd find in post-apocalyptic films, and it sent the stereotypical shiver up Christine's spine. She wasn't sure whether to stay in the light of the street lamps because of the possible dangers in the shadows, or stay in the shadows because being in the lamp light would make her an easier target.
Finally, she decided to settle for walking quickly and with purpose along the sidewalks under the street lamps. If she looked like she knew exactly where she was going, maybe she'd make it to a safe location, unscathed.
Somewhere in the distance, she heard a siren wail. Then there was the yowl of a startled cat, knocking into what sounded like old metal trash cans. Everywhere was some sort of noise that signaled danger or unpleasantness. Christine lifted her chin, narrowing her eyes. She needed to look tough and like there was more to her than met the eye. Despite her stubborn nature and reluctance to back down from a verbal fight, Christine wasn't a fighter in the traditional sense. Sure, she'd taken defense classes at the Academy, but that didn't mean she had a lot of confidence at the moment that she could take down a mugger.
The whole city couldn't be like this, it just couldn't. There had to be somewhere safer where she could rest for the night. The question of the hour though, was if she could reach this safer place before exhaustion set in and she was ready to collapse.
Third-Person #2: (200 words minimum)
After helping to save a life, Christine could always ride the adrenaline high for an hour or so before it started to fade. Sometimes, like when it had been a bad day, she struggled to clutch onto that feeling a little bit longer before it could leave her. Sometimes she needed help to get all the way there; needed the heat and the friction and the sound of blood rushing in her ears.
That's why he gave her the entry code to his quarters, for those times she needed to hold onto that feeling that came with cheating death. Her pulse raced as she quickly punched in the code and was given entrance. With a few long strides she reached him, barely registering the sound of the door sliding shut behind her. She straddled his lap, taking the PADD he was reading out of his hands and tossing it aside. His very mild protest to that was cut off by her mouth hungrily seeking out his, pressing roughly as her teeth scraped at his bottom lip.
Now he was on board with her, arms locking around her waist as they arched their backs and rolled their hips against one another. Christine moaned low in her throat and moved her lips to his ear, whispering how much she needed him. His fingers tangled in her hair as he replied that the feeling was definitely mutual.
Her fingers grabbed at his uniform and they were forced to pull back from one another as she dragged it up over his head. Tossing it aside, she leaned back in to nibble at his chest, nails marking trails across his skin. His breath caught in his throat and she laughed lightly, whispering a French pet name in his ear. He grabbed her rear, squeezing tightly and she rocked against him again. Her blood pounded in her ears and she felt so alive. He would get her to the place she needed to be. He always did.