Post by • Aerys • on Dec 30, 2009 13:42:11 GMT -5
C H R I S T O P H E R . B R I S T O W
A V A T A R . D R I V E R
B O T A N I S T . H I S T O R I A N . B I O L O G I S T
________________________________________
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Bisexual
Race: Human
Occupation: Botanist
Human Physical Description: Standing at nearly five feet ten inches and weighing under one hundred and eighty pounds, Chris Bristow is a compact man. Before his trip to Pandora, he spent what little time he wasn't conducting research working on readying himself physically. Avoiding the gym was key, however, and he spent much of his time running to achieve a physique that would make it easier for the labor he would endure on the foreign planet.
His hair is generally kept short and is light brown in color, though often unkempt. Bright, piercing blue eyes are undoubtedly his most striking feature, as are the strong, high cheekbones and the smooth slope of his jaw. His untidy look is accentuated by the shadow that almost constantly covers his cheeks, a product born of his long hours spent pouring over books about the Na'vi, Pandora, and the material necessary for his journey. When feeling so inclined, Chris will exchange his thick, black-rimmed glasses for contacts, but more often than not the boy can be found with the former. His clothing runs in a similar vein to his generally careless attitude towards his appearance; he consistently dons old jeans or khaki shorts, worn t-shirts and hoodies and equally aged sneakers.
Avatar Physical Description: Even though Chris has yet to see his avatar in person, he's seen numerous photographs of the Na'vi vessel in his time spent back on Earth preparing for the trip. The resemblances are very subtle; his avatar possesses the same bone structure as he, a distinguishable curve of lip (And his vibrant smile, no doubt), but with the characteristically golden eyes and feline features, many of his other prominent traits are lost.
Like the true natives of Pandora his avatar is a lithe creature, towering over his normal human height with lengthened torso, arms, and legs. His short, dusty colored hair has been replaced with a mane of what appears to be rich, dark brown locks that are gathered into a braid, as have his blue eyes, which are now a mesmerizing amber. The avatar too possesses a tail, and since it is a new creation, the body of the Na'vi's rich blue flesh is devoid of any scars or tattoos.
As is a requirement with the rest of the Na'vi avatars (Since it is forbidden and undeniably pointless to dress as a native), the clothing that Chris' avatar will don is similar to the garb he has sported back on Earth. Shirts and pants have been constructed to accommodate his larger body of earthen colors, and are lightweight to assuage the tropical atmosphere and to allow freer movement.
Personality: An inherently quiet individual, Chris has spent a majority of his life living in the shadows of others. He does not consider himself a leader by any means, nor a pioneer, nor a walking prodigy, but he knows his worth. He is a studious and determined man, and it is because of his persistence that he has earned the right to travel to Pandora. He is, in short, a nerd who loves nothing more than to expand his horizons, a curious creature in spite of his quietness that is always eager to get his hands dirty.
Chris matured as the type of kid that didn't quite fit into any cliques, a notion that yet follows him today. Growing up in a family of two other brothers, he was always settled on the backburner and because of it, remains to be a passive individual who prefers listening to others to running at the mouth. His mind is extraordinarily sharp, however, rendering him a fast learner, a trait that has facilitated the extensive research necessary to participate in this trip.
Overall, he is a modest creature who considers (considered) the dog back home in his apartment his best friend. He prefers reading and staying in to participating in social events, though, as aforementioned, Chris always made it a staple of his daily routine to run every morning. When thrust into any kind of crowd of his peers, whether from the college or from Malandra's team, he is a shy individual, soft spoken and unflinchingly atrocious at carrying on a conversation. However, if the subject is something of great interest to him--botany, his major, and any number of unequivocally boring topics--he can find himself rambling at times.
That said, Chris doesn't date frequently. Even his sexuality has been something of an enigma to him--at times he's found himself attracted to men, other times, women. He truly has no preference, and does not actively seek relationships with others--platonic or romantic.
Talents:
Quick/Critical/Rational Thinker: While not an extraordinary skill to inherit, Chris has developed the ability to think quickly and wisely on his feet. Through his time spent at school and studying on Malandra's expedition team, the boy has learned the value of making important decisions, and making them with precision to avoid potential repercussions. Such attention to detail was just a facet of the multitude of reasons Malandra allowed him to participate in her research.
Knowledge of the Forest: With Botany as his major and a focus in ecology under his belt, Chris possesses an exceptional knowledge of the flora that inhabits Pandora. Of course, the breadth of his study does not simply lie in foreign specimen, but includes Earth as well. His final project for grad school was a close study of the once rich ecosystem of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, now little more than a memory preserved in aquariums and textbooks, and, consequently, the last study he would do on his home planet.
History: Christopher grew up in a not so very well to-do area of New Jersey, just outside of Princeton. His parents were dysfunctional from the beginning; while both possessed a paltry work ethic at best, Chris had to give them credit--they did try. With the load of three sons, his mother, Arianna, worked two jobs but complained more often than not, rarely spending greater than a few hours at home a night. Peter, his father, was the epitome of an overbearing soccer mom with masculine flair, shipping his sons off to football, lacrosse, and basketball camps every summer without fail. It was at one of these camps that Chris discovered his sheer loathing for sports, and, consequently, his love for solitude.
Biology had been the start of his interest in the sciences; he never cared much for the hard math involved with Physics and Chemistry, and while not overly fond of the dissection projects the class entailed, it was enough to pique what would become a lifetime love and, ultimately, his career.
With his brothers earning trophies and awards for their achievements out on the field or on the court, Chris quickly fell to the wayside in light of their success. His parents cared not for his desires to pursue anything within the classroom or paid much attention to his suddenly reclusive nature. It was a blessing when he escaped their scrutiny and was able to hide in his room for hours on end, to pour over the library books long overdue concerning what beauty Earth had once held, and its forgotten splendor.
It didn't take long for the inevitable persistence of responsible adulthood to settle in, however, and within the final years of his high school career, Chris knew he had to start earning money if he wanted to pursue his education. It was with that thought in mind that he took up busing tables at a local diner after school hours, and it was during that time that Chris had his first true exposure to Pandora and the Na'vi.
So close to New York City, the busy suburb of Princeton received its fair share of travelers. During the time of the first human inhabitants on Pandora, much footage of the moon had been caught and replayed via the countless media outlets, images of a world rich with life that the Earth had long since spent, but ample stories and gossip that floated through the eating establishment were the seeds of his interest in the foreign planet. He had always been aware of Pandora, of the activity there and the unnerving fact that there was indeed another lifeform within this universe, but he was never conscious of it. His mind that was once occupied with the seemingly limitless boundaries of Earth fled to the possibility of being able to actually study a foreign world and its ecosystem, its inhabitants...
Such fancies followed him into the community college he attended in South Carolina (The leap of faith had been made after he decided that he couldn't stand another night under the same roof as the people he had once called family). There had been talk of a possibility of returning to Pandora after the human presence had been banished so many years ago, of a scientific venture to help seek out any potential aids the planet might hold to help slow the decay of Earth. With his studies firmly rooted in botany and his experience extensive, he decided to take the first step towards a new life and contact a figurehead of the new Pandoran operation, Malandra Ramakrishna.
Whether it was by a stroke of luck or a testament to his years spent working towards being something other than a high school drop out, Chris was invited to work with Malandra and as a part of her exclusive team. It was there that he grew close with a fellow group member, a girl of similar interests who had been working with Malandra for quite some time. There was talk of ventures out to the planet itself, conversations that Chris made a point to avoid since there was no feasible way he could even fathom seeing Pandora someday. It came as a surprise, then, that the girl he had become so close with offered to fund the creation of his avatar and his trip out there, and one that he immediately rejected. Paying her back seemed next to impossible, but after her insistence and his numerous words of gratification for her charitable act, Chris finally caved.
A year of haphazard training and six more spent in cryo saw him being shuttled down to the planet's surface and into an entirely new phase of his life.
RP Sample:
And he thought flying in an airplane was bad.
Chris felt lethargic and on the verge of vomiting as he sat in the uncomfortable chair within the shuttle. It took every ounce of willpower not to sick up on the rest of Malandra's team, his jaws all but glued shut while the others around him babbled excitedly. He wanted to look out the viewing windows at the blend of teals, lavenders and cobalt that was Pandora, but he kept his gaze fixed on the floor in hopes of surviving the descent. It certainly didn't help that a few of the guardsmen in charge of shepherding the new recruits like a herd of sheep kept staring and grinning at him.
It's for the mission, it's for the mission, it's for the mission... The mantra pounded through his skull, keeping him from making an utter fool of himself in front of everyone. This was for the mission, after all; he wouldn't have been sitting in the chair if it wasn't.
There had been much gossip over the true nature of the return to Pandora. Some claimed it was a cover up for a potential Resources Development Administration plot, others said it was a peace treaty forced by the U.N. to rectify what the RDA had destroyed nearly thirty years ago. Whatever the wild story concocted, Chris' knowledge of the new campaign rested with the belief that Malandra Ramakrishna and a group of scientists were revisiting the planet to scout for any possible agents to combat the degrading Earth. It was certainly no secret that his home was suffering after its inhabitants spent years devouring its natural resources, and no secret that, in the brief time spent on Pandora, humans had discovered potential flora that possessed the possibility of slowing (And perhaps helping to rebuild) the decay of the Earth.
There was no solid evidence to prove either way, and considering Malandra's team had only been gathering research for six months and those traveling with him were the last of the group, it would undoubtedly be a good deal of time before any true answers were reached.
The group, security escorts included, numbered no more than twenty. The reason for so few was two fold; establishing relations with the Na'vi and mending what damage RDA had wrought upon both their culture and planet had been a trial. It took nearly five years to garner any positive response from the natives of Pandora, and even then it was a tedious process of rebuilding. In the end they agreed to only a handful of researchers, limited military presence, and an agreement that any work done on the planet would be purely observational. The expense of funding such an operation also kept a tight rein on how many were allowed to participate, a notion that only served to weaken Christopher's resolve not to throw up.
The craft around him shuddered when it finally broke through the atmosphere, dropping enough to draw his gaze upwards at last. A fine mist clung to the canopies of rich rain forest, obscuring most of the view of the distant lands. Chris let out a sigh of relief when the vessel reached ground level and taxied into a small hangar adjacent to the compound, his heart easing in his chest. There was a flurry of movement around him, the other researchers eager to be off the shuttle and into the bay, but the boy remained in his seat and took several necessary breaths to calm himself.
"Chris, are you coming?" one of the older members called, lingering at the mouth of the shuttle. "We're supposed to meet Malandra in ten minutes."
"Yeah," he answered weakly, not quite as quick to get to his feet. His knees felt shaky, his limbs inordinately heavy, and his brain sluggish. He'd read about the aftereffects of cryo, but experiencing them was an entirely different story. It took far too much effort to get his bag over his shoulder without toppling over. "Yeah, I'm coming."
"You ready for this?" the man queried.
"I'm not sure..." Chris pulled his black, thick-framed glasses from his face and wiped them on his jacket. He felt better after walking even a handful of steps. "I think so."
"You think so?" his companion echoed, laughter coloring his voice. "There isn't any thinking left to do, Chris. We're here now."
No kidding.
