Character Bio: Viisk-Hoorm-Vroo [finally done!]

[Sappholopod]

[Viisk-Hoorm-Vroo has a Crew Record post here. Seeing as that forum is more oriented to official Nanotrasen documents, I thought I'd take time to write a more in-depth bio here as well.]

Basic Information

Full name: Ooom-Vraah Viisk-Hoorm-Vroo
Gender: None (recorded as Female on Nanotrasen records)
Pronouns: She/her
Species: Drask
Height: 7'6" (2.29 m)
Age: 49 SolGov years
Born: 6-23-2516 (approx.)
Homeland: Uuuin-Kvaamm (drask station-colony)
Religious views: Vkk-Lllnuuumrr/"Deep Ocean Faith" (branch of Hoorlm Animism)
Sexuality: Indeterminate (not hugely important to drask, nor do people usually bring it up)
Affiliation: Nanotrasen Supply & Service Division
Preferred line of work: Custodial duty
 

Personality

Viisk is generally a courteous and patient individual, and happy to converse with the rare crewmate who will bother to strike up a conversation with her. That said, her patience is vulnerable to stress, and too many frustrations without time to decompress can quickly put her on edge. She prefers to keep a dedicated space for herself to relax for exactly this reason, and usually uses her designated workspace to get some privacy during tense shifts; because of this, any intrusion on this space by delinquents or otherwise unwelcome guests is frequently met by a very snippy drask.

As a drask, Viisk finds the "human-tolerable" environment of the Cyberiad to be a bizarre and unpleasantly hot one. Though she's adapted fairly well to the cultural oddities of other species, the temperature difference remains a problem, and she frequently searches for ways to keep cool while on the job - whether it be rolled-down jumpsuits and cold packs stuffed in shoes or sneaking into the station's holodeck to lay down on the floor in the "winter field" setting. Moreover, as a fairly devoted follower of traditional drask animism, Viisk believes in the sanctity of life in all forms; she avoids violence and is apalled by the idea that any one being's life could ever be more valuable than another's. This doesn't mean she's a pacifist, of course, but she prefers only to fight if it's necessary to protect herself or others from aggression.

Viisk's two key words when it comes to making friends are "politeness" and "communication". She likes to see the good in people, so as long as someone acts respectfully and talks in a way she can make sense of, Viisk will generally get along swimmingly with them. On the other hand, rude, selfish, or aggressive people tend to register as just another annoying aspect of the job. While it's difficult to outright antagonize Viisk, it doesn't take much to be noted as someone for her to steer clear of.

 

Backstory

Early life:

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Viisk-Hoorm-Vroo was born in SGY-2516 on the drask station-colony Uuuin-Kvaamm, launched as part of a space-homesteading venture about a decade before her birth. Though it has since become much more common for drask to be born away from Hoorlm, it was still a rare case when Viisk was born; the space-homesteading industry was still fresh, and drask colonies on other planets in the star system were still usually staffed by residents of their native home. Because of this, the "Elders" of the station (in reality the oldest among them was still incredibly young by the standards of the species) spent much time debating how being raised off-planet might impact her childhood socialization, at points even considering re-charting the station's course to make a return visit. Ultimately this did not happen, however, and Viisk's mental health fortunately seemed to suffer no ill effects due to the unnatural environment.

Viisk was born into the Ooom-Vraah clique, one of twenty clan-like groups established for the purpose of community management and labor division on the station. This clique (made up of about three dozen drask in total) was responsible for her rearing and education, regularly trading off responsibilities between each other as though a large family unit. This was part of a planned experimental effort; the station's total population of around 700 offered far less social diversity than any of Hoorlm's crowded city-states, so crew members were encouraged into much more tightly-knit communal structures to make up for it. One notable result of this program was that Viisk grew up without a particularly strong attachment to her biological parents, as they were only two of many caretakers she bonded with through childhood. She instead sees them (along with most of the rest of the clique) as close friends, albeit with a certain social authority over her.

Uuuin-Kvaamm navigated primarily using interstellar routes established by SolGov and acquired through contact with Nanotrasen, and as such the station's culture over time became a loose blend of influences from Umumvarr (the Hoorlm city-state from which most of the station's crew originated) and various places on Earth. In particular, many cliques aboard the station developed fascinations with "Y2K" Americanism, an aesthetic revival movement focused on utilizing design elements of Ancient North America in the 1990's and 2000's. The result of this was much of the station's interior design being fused to incorporate elements of "shopping mall" and "night club" styles. This influence also led Viisk and others to develop a taste for the fashion trends of the time and region - something that humans often saw as bizarre or gauche, but which nonetheless became solidified as Viisk's personal style as she matured.

Leaving home:

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In the year SGY-2556, after decades of peacefully drifting through regions populated sparsely by either drask or human outposts, Uuuin-Kvaamm's course led it to a border system at the edge of SolGov control where it was unexpectedly attacked by a pirate vessel seeking to ambush SolGov colonist ships. The pirates, hoping to commandeer the station but realizing the dangers of boarding a vessel with little lighting and controlled sub-zero temperatures, gave the crew of Uuuin-Kvaamm a mandate: surrender and evacuate to the nearby human outpost or have the entire station blown up and salvaged for scrap materials. A lengthy negotiation period followed this, during which the drask crew succeeded in establishing a stealth relay system to make unnoticed contact with the system's SolGov forces.

SolGov initially declined any aid, citing strict regulations; while Uuuin-Kvaamm was permitted to travel through the region and send trade vessels to SolGov-controlled bases, there was no protection deal between the vessel and SolGov authorities, and as such military forces could not be expended to assist them. It was only after several hours of tense exchanges on two fronts that the crew made a breakthrough with SolGov; an outpost operator, feeling regret for their inability to assist, put the station in contact with a Nanotrasen Command station in the system. The Nanotrasen officers, still beholden to SolGov law but with the authority to act on their own, were willing to arrange a rescue fleet in exchange for a ten-year labor contract. Uuuin-Kvaamm's crew, with no other choice for survival, voted near-unanimously to accept these terms, and before long a Nanotrasen naval force arrived to deter and detain the pirates.

Following the rescue, Uuuin-Kvaamm had no choice but to make good on the contract with Nanotrasen; doing otherwise not only would have resulted in the rescue fleet turning against them, but would have risked broader damage to species diplomacy between humans and drask. Per the deal, the crew arranged for approximately 100 non-vital individuals to undergo work training programs and sign on as Nanotrasen employees for a minimum of ten years. Despite the rather exploitative nature of the arrangement this deal was actually viewed favorably by much of the drask crew, most of whom both saw Nanotrasen as representative of the potentials of success in space and did not feel a decade was much of a time investment. Viisk, now a young adult looking to adventure out of the insular community she'd been raised in, was among the first to volunteer for the work exchange.

Mining career:

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After a few months of training with the Nanotrasen Supply & Service Division, Viisk received certification to work as a plasma miner and was transferred to work aboard the NSS Cyberiad. Other drask were rare here (especially as most of those she'd grown up around had been assigned to jobs on other bases) and so, despite her desire to branch out and experience a new social environment, she mostly kept to herself among this new crew. She remained cordial, of course, but the Supply department - where she alternated between working on mining outposts and staffing the on-station cargo bay - was the sort of environment that tended to encourage independence on the job.

Viisk worked dutifully for several years like this, never being totally detached from her coworkers but also never fully integrating into the station's community. It was at some point in this time that she met Chikitita, a vox working for the Cyberiad's medical team. Though Viisk can never recall just how they came to know each other, the two became fast friends, with Chikitita frequently paying visits to the cargo bay whenever her own work was slow. Viisk often feigned exasperation at these visits distracting her from her work, but in truth she appreciated having someone around who cared to check in on her and keep her entertained on dull shifts, and she could tell Chiki knew it.

Perhaps it was fate, then, that Chikitita was the first person to find Viisk crawling out of the mining depot one shift, maimed and struggling to stay conscious as a trail of pale blue blood smeared the floor behind her.

Though Viisk keeps quiet about exactly what caused the injury that forced her early retirement from mining work, most people who take a good look at her can tell that something happened. By the time she was brought out of surgery her rightmost trunk had been amputated - the most plainly visible of her scars - and, despite the doctors' best efforts, the ordeal would leave her with chronic pain in one leg, slowing her down and giving her a significant limp on bad days. This incident forced her to temporarily retire from work with Nanotrasen, and for several months' time she returned to Uuuin-Kvaamm to undergo physical and psychological recovery in a community she was more familiar with.

Present day:

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Despite the incident that forced Viisk to leave Nanotrasen, she would return within a year. Working on the Cyberiad had become a sort of comfortable routine for her and, perhaps more importantly, the diversity and constant changing of the station's community offered too different an experience for her to give up on it. When a work fitness assessment predictably indicated that she wasn't fit to return to mining she instead opted to retrain, improving her general-labor certification in order to be brought on as a certified custodial technician.

She took to this new line of work with enthusiasm. Janitorial duty, Viisk found, was both much safer and much more aesthetically pleasing than the grimy, sweaty work of a shaft miner. The maintenance corridors of the station in particular felt reminiscent of the layout of Uuuin-Kvaamm, being dark, cold, and cramped in much the same way as a Hoorlm tunnel-city; and so the usually undesirable task of tidying and dusting those mazelike corridors came to be one of Viisk's favorite parts of the job. Moreover, cleaning the station usually meant at least a few minutes of downtime each shift to stop by the bar or by medbay for visits with Chikitita and other friends - and, of course, easy access to shelves full of cleaning supplies that only other drask ever seemed to agree were delicious.

Viisk's views of Nanotrasen have, admittedly, soured in the years since her incident, even as her new line of work has seen her branching out more socially and generally having greater exposure to the crew of the Cyberiad. Her bad experience with mining left her skeptical of a company she had previously thought of as a positive entity, and subsequently having more contact with the less-controlled aspects of Nanotrasen employment has taught her the important lesson that the company puts its finances first and its employees second. She still takes pride in her work, but now does so for the knowledge that it will help those around her, rather than for any love of her employer. The title of "Custodial Technician" - one most people take on only as a punishment or because they have no other option - is one she wears with pride, and she holds a firm fondness for anyone else who enjoys cleanliness on a station prone to disorder.

Nowadays Viisk is most often found patrolling maintenance, mopping up grime and fungus and enjoying the cool, dark environment. If not there, she's prone to hang around the station's bar and medical bay - both keeping in touch with her friends on the station and keeping an eye out for the most mess-prone parts of the facility. When work is slow and conditions allow, she'll occasionally commandeer backrooms around the custodial office and turn them into "hideaways" for herself to relax in. On at least a couple of occasions her tendency to spend time in maintenance has resulted in new non-drask hires being scared off by the "towering monster with glowing eyes hiding in the dark", but she doesn't mind much. After all, the subsequent Internal Affairs lectures tend to keep people from coming back to bother her.

Relationships

Interpersonal

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Friends

Chikitita: ------ -----/-
I can never tell if she is the smartest person on this station or just one step away from losing her mind. I would trust her with my life, but I hope she remembers to preserve her own as well.
An old friend going back several years. Though it is unclear when and how they first met, Chikitita seems to be Viisk's closest friend on the Cyberiad. The two can sometimes be found in the station bar together, usually tossing playful petty insults at each other over drinks - but even if it's rarely said, Viisk holds a deep respect for the vox, both as a friend and as a devoted medical worker.

Angel Anide: ------ ---/---
I do not see her around much, but it is a treat when I do. She is much more polite and dedicated than the majority of my co-workers.
A recent friend, and perhaps Viisk's favorite of the myriad fellow custodians she's seen rotate in and out of the janitor's closet. Viisk was the one who trained her in cleaning work, and seeing her enthusiasm and chipper personality inspired a protective fondness in the drask's heart.

Kikeri: ------ ---/---
Chikitita knows how to surround herself with good people. Kikeri is a real sweetheart; I should see if she would like to hang out sometime.
More than anything, Viisk finds Kikeri cute - in much the same way one finds a cat cute. She's easier to talk to than most crewmates and often seems eager to help out. The cleaning grenades she sometimes provides for Viisk are a lifesaver on the more hectic shifts.
 

Acquaintances

Jakki Rockatansky: ------ --/----
One of Chiki's many friends in Medical. He seems very eager to try drask alcohol; maybe I can bring in a shipment from home someday...

Cure #FF99FF: ------ --/----
Yet another friendly face from the Medbay/Research stretch. I hope I run into her again sometime.

Michael Bovine: ------ --/----
I do not always understand what Bovine is saying, but he seems kindly and more curious about me than most. I do wonder if he is allowed to carry that bat around...

Kriatachakit: ------ -/-----
That quiet vox from Engineering. She seemed very kind. I hope she is having a good day.

Rivera Kirkland: ------ -/-----
I rarely see her without Raan or Anide close by. I think she is a geneticist...? She seems nice enough.

Idunn Raan: ------ /------
Another of Chiki's friends. She seems competent, but her impulsiveness and reliance on drink are dangerous traits for a doctor to have.

Freya Raan: ------ /------
I believe she is the other Raan's child. Is she old enough to work on this station?
 

Enemies

There are many crew members (and one AI) who Viisk dislikes, usually either for being too pushy about her work or for trying to run off with her janicart. Fortunately, though, Viisk has yet to make any enemies worth remembering.

Faction alignments

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Nanotrasen: ------/ ------
It was naive of me to think a place like this would be more than a headache. Still, the pay is alright, and the people are usually kind.
Viisk came to Nanotrasen excited for the opportunity to make it big, but one horrible experience left her jaded and a bit pessimistic. She doesn't hate the company outright and enjoys the salary she receives, but her loyalties lie with her fellow crew rather than the corporation itself.

The Syndicate: -/----- ------
Such a shame that the only group truly putting Nanotrasen to task is... this one.
Though Viisk doesn't know much about the full history of the Syndicate, she understands the organization's existence is in direct response to Nanotrasen's corporate hegemony. She doesn't fault their anti-Nanotrasen position, but their willingness to put ordinary people in harm's way makes it clear that their motives are no more admirable than the company's.

SolGov: ----/-- ------
Bureaucratic jerks. I would be dead were it not for that one kind officer.
The near-destruction of Uuuin-Kvaamm left a distinctly sour impression of SolGov on Viisk, and that impression only became more bitter as her feelings on Nanotrasen began to worsen as well. She is not nearly alone among the drask of Uuuin-Kvaamm in feeling that the "regulations" which prevented SolGov from rescuing their station should have mattered far less than the lives of 700 people.

Uuuin-Kvaamm: ------ -----/-
This station is my home, no matter how long I spend away. I only wonder if I will ever get to see Hoorlm in person...
While the halls of the Cyberiad provide the perfect community for a young drask looking to experience the diversity of a vast galaxy, it will never feel more like home than the station Viisk was raised on. Uuuin-Kvaamm and its residents hold an irreplaceably important place in Viisk's heart.

 

Miscellaneous Information

Housing:

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Due to the distance between the Cyberiad and her home vessel of Uuuin-Kvaamm, Viisk generally only visits home while on vacation or for emergencies. The rest of the time, she's taken up residence at a Nanotrasen housing facility within a base nearby the Cyberiad. Her situation there is a bit unusual, though; whereas most people living on the base are situated into apartments based on their station assignments (and relative ability to pay for larger/more comfortable homes), Viisk has forgone the standard procedure to instead live in the maintenance tunnels that run along the facility's edges. Much like the maintence tunnels of the Cyberiad, these narrow halls remind her of home and feel much more comfortable than the open public-facing architecture.

While this would normally not be permitted due to health and safety standards, a lenient facility manager opted to allow it "for the sake of fostering inclusivity among company staff" - though in reality the choice was made because it meant Nanotrasen could forego upkeep costs while still charging Viisk a sizeable portion of their standard rent rates. Whether Viisk doesn't realize this or simply doesn't care, she's made herself completely at home in the tunnels, with other facility residents often completely unaware she's even there until she emerges from maintenance to catch the shuttle to work. Those few who have visited her "maintenance bungalow" note that it's remarkably cozy, provided you can get past the chilling temperature she keeps it at.

Fun facts:

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• Her favorite alcohol is mead, primarily because it tastes most similar to the drask alcohol consumed on the vessel she was raised on.
• She's very fond of citruses for their sharp tang and prefers her drinks mixed with lime.
• Always stuffs a good amount of ice into her drinks - and others', on the occasion she's the one running the bar.
• Enjoys talking about life on Uuuin-Kvaamm, but feels embarrassed that she doesn't know more about her species' original homeland.
• Has secretly thought about being a writer, thanks to a friend.
• Thinks sea creatures are cute and wishes she had the space to keep some as pets.
• Has a special fondness for the Cyberiad's vox community, mainly because there's no significant drask community to be a part of.
• Her favorite color is burgundy.

 

Edited July 7, 2021 by Sappholopod

[JackoMallows]

Very well written bio! :] I love Viisk's description of Rivera; it makes me think that Viisk sees Rivera and thinks of her like a shadow to her girlfriends.

[WingedYordle]

I’ll be your enemy. ;P