deep_sky_diving

1. Electric Light Orchestra, Face the Music, "Down Home Town"
2. John Mayer, Where the Light Is, "Gravity"
3. No More Kings, No More Kings, "Someday"
4. Lynyrd Skynyrd, Second Helping, "Sweet Home Alabama"
5. the pillows, King of Pirates, "White Ash"
6. Train, Drops of Jupiter, "Drops of Jupiter"
7. John Mayer, Room for Squares, "3x5"
8. Molly Hatchet, Flirtin' with Disaster, "Flirtin' with Disaster"
9. Electric Light Orchestra, On the Third Day, "New World Rising / Ocean Breakup Reprise"
10. Incubus, Make Yourself, "Stellar"
11. Dub Fx, Everythinks a Ripple, "Future"
12. Moby, 18, "18"
13. Symphony of Science, "Our Place in the Cosmos"

Current length: 57.9 minutes.

Character's Name: Tally Lee
Character's LJ: deep_sky_diving
Character's canon: OC

Personality:

Tally Lee's a sweet girl, first time you meet her. Second time too, in fact—y'see, she's one o' them people assumes the best in folks. Some o'them bein' folks it'd be better not ter think the best of, if'n y'know what I mean. Don't mean she's stupid, but it's gotta be a good blunt proof for her to change her mind. So far, anyway, she likes ter think of it as some intentional thing, like it's the better way ter treat people, but she ain't been really burned by it yet.

She can be pretty bright, but the way she gets to talkin' kinda makes people think different sometime. It ain't any meanin'ful thing, it's just the way she was raised, and she hates people thinkin' she's dumb or somethin'. When she gets all int-el-lec-tu-al, she really gets goin' in it, and she can get pretty worked up if she ain't smart enough to beat out everybody else. But, if'n it comes down to it, Tally trusts 'er gut more'n her head, 'cuz that's how she's lived her life so far.

Anyway, smart as Tally can be, she knows she's hot stuff, and she likes ter take advantage of it. But she pretends she don't—her parents raised her "right" 'n "proper" 'n modest, and she ain't done grasshopperin' enough to really open up yet. Still, it aren't strange for her to do some teasin' and flirtin' if'n she finds somebody she likes, and 'cause the way she were raised, she acts like it's all just innocent stuff if somebody calls 'er on it.

The way Tally usually is, she's easy-goin' bout stuff, mostly. But sometimes, she can git somethin' stuck in her head enough that she just focuses on it all the damn way. She won't let it hurt 'er, but it's not hard fer her to kinda forget that other stuff 'round her is happenin'. Sometimes, it'll be somethin' physical, like divin' or takin' a look 'round a new planet, and sometimes she gets caught up'n writin' or readin' or workin' on a new travelog entry or somethin'.

History:

Well, this story starts quite a time ago, as you or I would reckon' it. You see, to understand Tally Lee, you have to take a look back - 'bout three generations back, that is.

Tally Lee's great-gramps, dear ol' departed Johnny Lee, he was one of the first jump riggers, back in the day. Oh, at first he thought it was all tarnation and foolishness, but then he started to hear a lot of these stories. And he started to see *weird* things, too. People comin' by the stops he drove his rig at with damn funny-lookin' sunburns, and big chunks popped out of the ground next to some o' the old roads out've town. And that made him decide he oughta try it, and - well, hell, you can see the rest for yourself. Just go take a look at the can routes he started that are still goin', or even where Tally Lee came from, good ol' planet Amontadillo's Revenge.

'Course, lots of people nowadays can have their own planet, when all you need's to go hoppin' long enough to find one nobody else took. But Amontadillo's got a real population to it, and that's all 'cause of the Johnny Lee Rig School. People from all over the damn place drop in to learn how to handle those big cargo routes, and tradin' expertise means that Amontadillo's got a hell of a nicer setup nowadays than most worlds.

Now, the thing is, when you've done come from three generations each richer 'n more secure than the last, and each thinkin' that the next should be smarter 'n better than the last, it gets mighty cramped and controlled to the eyes of a rebellious teen.  Tally Lee, she got a damn good education and a mighty fine future set up, but that weren't enough fer her. When she wouldn't drop the subject, her parents got to thinkin', and decided that it'd be better to let her indulge her flights of fancy for a little while, let her get it out of her system 'n get back to work.

They wasn't gonna let their little girl go off and get herself hurt, but they knew she wouldn't take kindly to them gettin' her a bodyguard or something, so they put their money into gettin' her top-notch wanderin' gear, and into gettin' her with some meetups with the ol' crickets they knew, all the better to teach her how not to jump herself into a sun or somethin'.  And they told her to keep in touch, 'cause they was her folks, and she knew they loved her more'n anyone, right?

And so off Tally Lee went into the great black yonder, jumpin' here and there as the whim took 'er, spendin' time gettin' used ter bein' a grasshopper. It's not a life like us ants have, after-all, when you spend yer time never in once place more'n a week or two at a time, and you can watch every sunrise from orbit, and when yer feelin' like havin' nobody around you can jump out ter the big black and just sit and watch the universe go by.

But, with where she's ended up now, I hope Tally Lee's folks don't worry themselves too much. Tally's always been a smart girl, when she's not a durn idiot. Here's hopin', 'till she gets back, that they remember the first part 'n not the second.

Sample post:

If she hadn't jiggered her brain around a little to keep herself in good spirits, Tally would be having a very bad day indeed. Wakin' up naked and covered in unfamiliar slime was bad enough, but havin' to run like hell from things that looked very unhappily like some o' the things in antville horrorshows really put the cap on it.

So all she has to do is figure out where the durn heck her suit was, find a window to get a good read, and get out o' the place. Without gettin' eaten. Well, damn bad odds, but the bubbling optimism that she'd jacked into herself is keepin' her from worryin' bout that much.

Step one: try to—YIPE!

Tally ducks away as one of the shamblin' things comes around a corner. "I'd be very much obliged if y'all'd just drop dead!" she hisses, scrambling away down a different hallway. "Again!"

Superhuman special abilities:

The main thing that's really there ter help Tally personal-like is her Friendlies. Handy "micro-biotic" critters they are, livin' in her bloodstream n' internals n' all. They ain't quite bacteria and they ain't quite other things, but what they do, anyway, is they keep 'er healthy 'n patched up, 'n with the way they're hooked a little into her brain too, they let 'er keep an eye on her internals and let 'er change some of 'em around a little too. She can't use her Friendlies to grow herself new limbs or anythin' like that, but she can mess with the chemicals in her head or body or mess with blood flow and "homeo-stasis" in ways no person without 'em could.

Tally ain't attached to her suit, but by the way she acts like, you wouldn't know it sometimes. It's a top o' the line Wegner Pro VI model, complete with self-contained survival systems, smart material that can shape 'n change color 'n stuff like that some, and a full wing system for a nice comfortable landing dive from orbit. It's got all the stuff y'd need to be comfy in space—rad shields, temprature reggulators, recyclers, all'n that, and sensors 'n transmitters 'n a set o' basic manueverers. The systems ain't totally efficient, so every couple weeks or so o' normal use, mebbe more if it's heavy use, y'gotta get more materials. It ain't hard to refill, though, you just find a nice chewy organics-stuffed rock or dirt 'n break off some bits 'n feed them in the hopper.
    It's got some pretty nice computers, way past what you'd've ever find in ol' Johnny Lee's time all put together, but it's really its own set o' Friendlies that do the heavy liftin', directin' the raw hardware 'n the recyclers 'n do the bio-repair 'n all that, plugged right in ter the photo-synthesis skin fer power.

And, o'course, it's got the jumpdrive, right in that little module she can take apart some to pull out if'n she ever wants to replace it, set up with all ter orbital mechanicin' n' navigatin' that lets 'er jump around known star charts just by sayin' she wants to and lettin' the Friendlies plug it all together. What? You ain't tellin' me you don't know what that is? Well, if you don't mind me 'splainin, jumpers're what make this whole intersteller thing possible. Plug one in—they're damn easy and cheap ter make if you know how—and stick 'nuff infomation in, and pop, there you go off ter some other part of the universe. It's all "relational", I think that's the word, so you gotta know where yer going and how far and what direction ter get there. No matter how far yer go, though, it don't take any more power.
    But—you got ter watch out for this part—you keep yer speed in the first place, even if the other place is goin' faster or slower! Most jumpers nowadays, they're set up to bounce around some between stops, build up or slow down speed in different systems 'fore they get ter where they're goin'.
    The jump field is always a perfect sphere, and the bigger it is, the more power it needs, expernentially. Tally's suit can handle mebbe five 'n a half meters diameter, but that'd drain it pretty good, 'n the solar recharge handles normal stuff okay but ain't so quick when it's that much. You got ter be careful round the edges, too, 'cause anything gets caught halfway, it gets sliced right off, and yer take half and leave the other half.
    The way the jumpers work, normally you try and go in any mass field too dense, it just doesn't do anythin' rather'n risk not bein' able to push it all out o' the way. The machine itself ain't ter good at tellin' the difference between stuff, so the only way's you can jump in-atmosphere is by turnin' the safety off 'n hopin' that yer judgment is right enough you won't jump inter anything. 'Cause o' that, most suits for the grasshopperin' kids nowadays got these wings built in that lets 'em do a nice easy glide from orbit once they jump around some to kill off a little speed.

And with the suit she's got her bees, too. Handy little things, size o' golf balls if you ever had the chance ter play that, with cameras 'n maneuverers 'n lots o' memory 'n good coordinatin' systems. And each gots its own jumpdrive, too, and since they're cheap they ain't nearly so good as the suit, but they can do a half-dozen jumps easy before worryin' 'bout juice, dump or grab data, and jump right back to her. They can act as scouts or data relays or all that kind've stuff. They are made fer space a lot more'n planets with gravity, though.

Non-superhuman special abilities:

Well, Tally's a pretty smart girl, like I already told yer. Maybe not super-special, but education nowadays is a lot better than it used to be in ol' Johnny Lee's day, and the tunin' up the Friendlies have given 'er, Tally marks pretty respectable near the top of most tests yer care to give.

She's pretty, too—the Friendlies plus plenty o' natural exercisin' n' good genes have left their traces. And that same kind o' thing means that even without usin' her Friendlies to give 'er that extra push, Tally's got strength 'n endurin' past what a girl like her should really have, more like a full-size trained man. Just try not to turn that into 'n insult, she'd get kinda upset 'bout that.