(no subject)
Personal:
Name: Brynn
Age: 18
Personal LJ: butterflydarlin
Email address: cinemaholic.darling@gmail.com
AIM/MSN/YIM/Gtalk: overthemoon559
Previous roleplay experience: To be honest, I've only been doing RP for about nine months, but I have pups active in bunches of communities, including sixwordstories , thecityrpg , desperatescreen , desperatemusic , desperatefans , mad_muses , theatrical_muse , charloft , seventhyear_rp , wshs_rp and musebysentence , as well as through threads in private journals.
Character:
Full Name: Kaywinnit Lee Frye (goes by "Kaylee")
Character Age: 22
Fandom: Firefly/Serenity
PB (Optional): Jewel Staite
From which point in their timeline do they arrive?: After "Objects in Space," but before Serenity.
Canon Abilities: Kaylee's main "ability" is her way with engines and mechanical things. Despite having little training, she's capable of repairing and fixing almost anything of the sort adeptly. It's not anything supernatural or fancy, just a natural skill she has.
Personality: Kaylee is an extremely open, good-natured young woman that it's hard not to love. She's affable and she makes friends easily, bringing out the softer side even in rough-edged folk. Though she won't criticize others for doing it (and, let's be frank, is often thankful they do) she has a strong problem when it comes to engaging in combat herself, and can barely shoot a gun, but she more than makes up for it in usefulness with machines and the like. There's an intuitively understanding aspect of her personality, which makes her very compassionate towards others. She's also very sexually open, and finds it difficult to hide her feelings for people. She really only gets her feelings hurt when someone either insults her girl Serenity or insinuates that she or the folk she cares for are too simple or not refined enough to understand something (that's often Simon's fault). For the most part, though, she's just a ball of sunshine, and she knows how to work and play with equal happiness.
Canon History: {not all of this is explicitly stated in canon, ergo, I'm making some of the details up} Kaywinnit Lee Frye, known to all as Kaylee, was born in 2495 on the Rim planet of Harvest. Not a particularly civilized world, largely untouched by the Alliance, it also didn't provide a great bunch of opportunities for the young girl. Her daddy worked at fixing things, machines and the like, and at an early age she showed a natural aptitude for it. Her training was strictly relegated to what she learned as she went, and even the most technical mechanical terms felt comfortable on her tongue. A rendezvous with a man named Bester, a mechanic working aboard the not-yet-running ship Serenity, ended in their being not only caught goin' at it by the ship's captain, Malcolm Reynolds, but ultimately in his offering her the mechanic's job, as she fixed the engine's problem almost instantly (whereas Bester had taken a week or more and done little to repair it at all).
After accepting the job, Kaylee joined the crew of Serenity, taking on a little-sisterly role amongst the group, and saw more of the 'verse than she ever imagined she would. Though she often works in a behind-the-scenes capacity aboard the ship, she's still found herself in some dangerous situations (including nearly dying from a gunshot wound to the belly shortly after Simon and River Tam's arrival aboard the ship and being threatened and tied up by Jubal Early in his quest to find River). She nursed a crush on Simon since he entered their lives, but often found obstacles in the way of their ever getting together. She has a deep affection toward Serenity and its crew, and shows no signs of leaving it behind anytime soon.
Two AU histories (Choose from the scenarios listed on the FAQs page):
(Modern/present day): Kaylee grew up on what you might call the "poor side of town," though it didn't bother her any. Living in an old brownstone with her father and two older brothers (and never letting them forget that she got her own room while they had to share - one of the many advantages of being the baby and a girl besides), she was one of those tomboyish girls playing ball in the street with the guys some days and then the next wearing her mom's old clothes for dress-up. The public schools she attended weren't particularly high-quality, but she never had a particular interest in schoolwork, though she was bright enough. In junior high, she found herself sorted into shop class (electives were being cut from the budget in spades, and things like art and drama had been the first to go) and while, at first, some of her girlfriends thought it was weird and boyish, she shrugged it off and found she had a natural talent for putting things together.
Her dad ran an auto shop, and once she got the bug to fix things and take them apart, she started helping him out, at first in small ways, then working on larger projects. It came more than naturally to her and, more importantly, she loved doing it. So when she was out of high school (knowing college wasn't an option, and not much caring) she went to work for her dad full-time, often causing customers some surprise when they realized the capable hands adjusting their engines matched a girlish figure and grinning, glossy mouth.
But sometimes, bad things happen to good people. After an on-the-job accident that led to his partial paralysis, her father had to sell his auto shop, and though she was the one to stick around and take care of him (both of her brothers having taken off to pursue bigger and better things - and, let's face it, jealous that their little sister could kick both of their butts when it came to the family trade) the new owner turned the place into a deli and left her out of a job. Her father had disability, which took care of them, but after his accident he was never up to full health, mentally or physically, and he ended up taking his own life about a year after the accident, leaving Kaylee almost everything.
She sold the apartment, too, and found a one-bedroom place in a new neighborhood. Even almost everything wasn't much, so finding a job became imperative. Luckily, she managed to get one and set about rebuilding her life. At a time when other people in her class were graduating from college, Kaylee has already been in the "real world" for some time and, in her opinion, there's a certain advantage to that. She's more or less street-smart, though nothing can kill her ineffable optimism and belief in the good nature of people. She's also extremely sociable, and has no qualms about hooking up with guys, even if it's just a one-night thing. She's smart about it, but her feeling is, why not have fun while you can? Her interests often lead her to karaoke bars or concerts (more to be around creative folk than to actually partake in it; her own talents don't land that way, particularly) and she's always interested in meeting strangers. She also has an affinity for Asian cultures, and still remembers a bit of the high school Chinese she took; she's a bit of a manga dork, but in a very lovable, completely harmless way.
(Steampunk Industrial):
Kaywinnit Lee Frye didn't come from much, just a little village outside London. Her mother wanted her to aspire to being a lady; her father wanted her to aspire to being practical. She ended up being some mix of the two. Plenty of feminine aesthetic worked its way into her heart and being, but at the same time, nothing made her quite so happy as fiddling with gears and machines. It wasn't uncommon to see her in the back of her father's shop putting things back together, grease smeared on the ruffles of her skirt. She developed quite a local reputation for her knack with things, and as a result met people from all over, often conferring with and keeping company with men in a way that her mother never quite approved of (and oh, if only she knew her only daughter was living in sin, she might have stopped the whole enterprise altogether).
She loved her family, but she always had a bit of wanderlust, and when the opportunity to sail aboard the flying wooden ship Serenity in exchange for her technical expertise came about, she took it in an instant. Thoughts of propriety and the like went to the wayside, and she was glad to have a chance to spend her days tinkering about with it, especially in the interesting company the sky provided.
Samples:
Third-person RP sample:
Her girl was quiet, today. The engine made no undue noise, no alarming rattles; everything seemed to be running smooth. Kaylee was still keeping her company though. Sometimes, she knew, there was the situation of calm before the storm, and she had no want to allow such a storm to happen. Truth was, she'd been hesitant to face the rest of the crew since the events with Jubal Early; oh, she came out for meals and the like, and occasionally geared up for games of ball or jacks, but she didn't feel the same about things. Course River said she forgave her, but it weren't the sort of thing Kaylee could just forgive herself for, nor did she suspect the young reader entirely let it go. (Then again, with River it was hard to tell.)
And then there was the matter of what Early had said to her, just her, alone in the engine room. Serenity was the only witness to that short conversation, and she knew Kaylee's pain. Knew the fear she'd suffered, seen her trussed up and watery-eyed. Kaylee didn't have to explain a thing to Serenity, and she was glad of it. The words wouldn't come when she tried to tell the crew; maybe River knew, but the rest couldn't possibly. That they'd have any idea their little mechanic was going through a rough spot was likely, due to her unusually reserved nature, but they none of them knew why. She felt safer with Serenity, who she didn't have to explain herself to. She felt safe just putting her hand to the flat of the engine, watching it turn, sitting in her hammock. She slept there more than in her own cabin, as of late; sleep was less planned, more sporadic.
She wanted to get it off her chest, but it was just so much easier staying with her girl. They understood each other without saying a word.
First-person "journal" sample:
{The page is decorated with a sloppy frame of stars and hearts; the ink is a dark red. The paper itself has visible fibers to it, the edges rough, but it's smooth to the touch, slightly flawed but comfortable-seeming. The handwriting is loopy, girlish, with the occasional spelling error or grammatical misstep, but clear, decisive at the same time.}
Inara's been off the ship near a month now & none of us are holding up too well. Caught Mal wanderin towards her shut the shuttle twice the last three days. He's like to do somethin foolish is my thought, what with him wantin her so. Wish he'd been man enough to say so. I'm missin her too, course. Ain't like Zoe's much for brushin hair and talkin bout my romantic woes & I wouldn't put that on River. She's gettin better some days it seems, then the next she's worse as ever.
Simon's tendin to her reliable-like as always. Barely got time to pop in & say hello it seems. Jayne says I oughta just stop moonin about over him. I ain't moonin, promise. Just gettin frustrated's all.
Gotta get more batteries next stop we make. I'm runnin out.
Notes/Questions?: Nope!