#trevithan

All I need is a flamethrower and we're golden

Woooo

One of these days I’ll just sit down and write out complete backstories for everyone so I can just reference those… I’ve got a general embarrassment list already, if that answers some of them? Um…

Arjun’s is kind of sad, really. He’s wanted to join the Terrene Protectorate since he was really young, but he grew up far from Earth. The first ship captain that stopped by his home colony when he was old enough to leave took one look at him when he asked for passage (offering every bit of what he’d managed to save from working odd jobs) at just laughed. There was a decent crowd gathered. It was mortifying. He gave up on his dream right there, deciding he couldn’t do it.

Namina was terrifically embarrassed when he lost his first hunt to Nuru. She’s at least seven summers his junior, small and cute, and he had way more experience. He should have won, as far as he thought, but she knocked him flat when he ambushed her. Frankly, he’s lucky she was in a good mood and spared him. He’s gotten over it since, but he learned a lot about gauging enemy strength from that.

For Nyota, it was her first self-defense lesson in the Protectorate. That was kind of a train-wreck as far as she’s concerned. It left her quite self-conscious about her fur, as she got quite a lot of stares from her non-Apex classmates. She still hates going sleeveless. There’s also the little fact about her being trained as a soldier and considerably stronger than most of her classmates… She held back after the first practice round, but she was the subject of considerable gossip for the next few weeks. Incidentally, she met Marcy because of the gossip, so at least something good came out of it.

Sonny either laughs away or forgets her embarrassments, but she’ll never forget the worst and best one, because that’s how she met Lumen. An out-of-towner and her posse were visiting Lumen’s saloon and making no effort to hide what they thought of the little settlement. Sonny tried sticking up for her town and got verbally torn down for everything from her age to her freckles. Lumen stepped in, challenged the outsider to a shooting match to decide who got to stay and who had to go, and won. (I really ought to write this scene)

Lumen’s probably almost forgotten this one by now, but the first time he picked up a gun, he certainly wasn’t the sharpshooter he is now. He’s grateful no one really got hurt… Well, except him. He wasn’t ready for the recoil and didn’t brace enough to stop it from whacking him right in the brand. That put him out for a few minutes. His friend (who owned said gun) teased him about it for a few hours before teaching him how to handle it properly, but the teasing put some distance between them that never really mended.

Oldarva used to daydream a lot… She got caught at it in class one day and the teacher stopped the whole lesson to give her an earful, then spent a good half hour making a point about what happened to students who weren’t attentive in their studies (full of slippery slope fallacies and ending in failed rebellion, arrest, and horrible punishment). That teacher is also the reason she’s terrified of making mistakes.