"There's still hope... Somewhere. Right?"

Player: Sulaco

Character Name: Astraea Tammner

Age: 20

Sex: Female

Species: Hybrid (rabbit/lynx)

Height/Weight: 5'7 / 130lbs

Social Status: outer class (UniClass citizenship revoked)

Physical Description: At first glance, Astraea appears to be a purebred rabbit, thanks largely to her wardrobe which consists of a knee-length poly-therm coat with a hood, which she always has pulled up with her lynx-tufted ears safely tied back whenever she's out in public. Judging by the tears and rips on the edge of its coattails, the garment has clearly seen better nights, though still quite efficient as an extra warming layer. The sleeves and attached fingerless gloves consist of a snug-fitting elastic fabric with visible thermal cells on its surface, which match the mid-thigh thermal leggings she wears.

Were she to remove the coat, the bluish-violet sleeveless leotard of polyamid fabric Astraea wears underneath would be more plainly visible, as well as the unmistakeable face of a hybrid. Her feline muzzle has the small fangs of a cat rather than a lapine herbivore, and her cheeks are freckled with spots also of feline origin. Though instead of feline-slit eyes, her glassy blue eyes tend to have a more delicate, docile expression one might expect from a rabbit, underlined by the dark tear-like lynx markings which snake down to her muzzle. Moving downwards, her pelt resumes a mostly rabbit appearance, consisting of a primary coat of soft, sandy-grey fur, along with a lighter coating of creamy white down her throat, chest, pawpads, inner thighs, and the underside of her tail. However, in the unlikely occasion one would see her back or shoulders exposed, they'd notice the feline spots spreading from her upper neck and shoulders, then narrowing down in a loose, faded "V" shape at the small of her back.

Astraea's build is fairly athletic, clearly suited for sprinting, jumping and other such quick bursts of energy. Clearly she hasn't been a part of Einheit City's most disadvantaged outlaw class long enough to lose much strength to poor nutrition, though her composure isn't the kind of high-headed, confident posture one would expect from someone of her capability. Astraea isn't a fighter, hence her physique suits her much better for the degrading, desperate life of flight and hiding she's been forced into.

Background: Astraea had everything. Everything she wanted, at least. She was a successful track & field athlete at her Toride college with a couple medals, enjoyed a moderate amount of campus popularity, and had a close relationship with her older step-sister and roomate Rezza, a fox/raccoon hybrid who worked as a freelance journalist for the UniClass media. Rezza was undoubtedly the more troublesome of the two during their childhood, having a somewhat rebellious streak that often got their step-parents called in by Rezza's teachers to address her troubling tendency to question authority. It never went into territory serious enough to warrant state intervention or therapy, though it was a recurring problem. But Astraea was always the more behaved one, never challenging the UniClass' version of history and current events, and cheerily complying with whatever those above her requested. It's not that she was a mindless propaganda-devouring drone or anything, she just didn't know anything other than what she'd been taught.

Rezza on the other hand was a bit more... Complex. She certainly couldn't have been a dissident - after all, dissidents were those traitorous, sneering outlaw hybrids in the Ministry-funded films who sabotaged monorails, planted bombs, corrupted fellow UniClassers with STDs, drugs, religion and homosexuality, in addition to plotting to open the Vorhang to let purebred Nightlander hordes invade the city. Rezza was a good hybrid who never lied, stole, or hurt anyone, she just had a few harmlessly sassy words to say now in private about the Ministry, and and spent a little bit more time than usual outside in the MidCity. Astraea never had any reason to leave the security and familiarity of the Toride, but her big ears eagerly took in whatever the latest bit of edgy, unreported news that Rezza would whisper to her after her MidCity business trips. At least, Rezza said they were business trips, but she would often come home seeming troubled or stressed, which worried Astraea. What could possibly go on out there that could bring down her stepsister's spirits so? Still, life was mostly good for the two of them despite the rough economy and other woes facing the City, and Astraea's cheerful personality always kept silly Rezza from being so glum and serious all the time. Astraea never took Rezza's stories about the distant MidCity really seriously; it's not that she didn't believe them, it's just that to her sheltered, overwhelmingly optimistic sensibilities, it all seemed more like listening to someone recounting an interestingly scandalous movie plot rather than anything deathly serious or relevant to her life as a UniClasser. Astraea was a loyal UniClasser, but she never quite had the same sort of critical, suspicious eye that many of her fellow hybrids developed in their constant awarness for anything that might warrant notification to the Ministry.

Then one night Rezza didn't come home from work to their apartment, leaving Astraea feeling annoyed that their plans to hang out had to be canceled. Rezza's phone-clip wasn't answering, which usually meant that she was hard at work, conducting interviews, filming, writing, or doing other concentration-intensive things. Initially Astraea wasn't too worried, but upon waking up the next night and seeing the apartment still empty, unease began to set in.

Unease turned into fear when the calls she made to Rezza's office, only to find that the line had been disconnected. Most chilling of all was when Astraea physically went to the office's location, only to find that the suite Rezza worked from no longer existed and that a solid, empty wall had been paved with eerie perfection over where its door once was. Further investigation revealed not a trace of Rezza's office as ever having existed on record, and the nervous owners of neighboring businesses Rezza was acquainted with swore that they'd never even heard of anyone named Rezza Tammner. Further attempts to gain information were met with doors slammed shut on her face, or outright avoidance, as if Astraea were bringing some kind of infectous disease to their doorstep with her pleas for help.

Astraea had heard things in the past, things which - in her general distaste for thinking unhappy, negative things - she'd blissfully ignored or dismissed as urban legends, of UniClassers who strayed too closely to places or things the Ministry didn't want them to, and simply vanished without a trace. Initially Astraea told herself that there was no way Rezza could have been one of those foolish dissidents, but despite what she tried to convince herself of, she couldn't bring herself to file a missing person's report with the Ministry. Deep down under layers of denial, Astraea knew that her stepsister's disappearance wasn't an accident.

The following week was a dark, sleep-deprived blur of secret confusion and horror as Astraea went about with her nightly life in a numb haze, too frightened to speak to anyone about what was troubling her, and even more terrified of letting herself be caught crying for the loss of someone who society seemed intent on forgetting. Strangers she had never seen before began to appear in familiar places where she thought she knew everyone... Hollow, anonymous faces she would only catch passing glimpses of from the corner of her vision, watching her, then being gone a split-second later with the crowd, the revolving of a door, or the passing of a vehicle. The spotless white halls, smiling faces on UniClass propaganda posters, public works of art depicting bold UniClass politicians and heroic Ministers, and the greenery-vined plazas of the Toride lost all warmth and familiarity for Astraea, who now felt more like her world had become a dangerous, alien place where she was no longer welcome, watched by silent and unseen forces of State who waited with unblinking, impassionate eyes for her to make that final, fatal mistake that would serve as a sufficient excuse to erase her inconvenient existence.

Astraea never considered herself particularly brave. She'd much rather ignore bad things and hope they went away. In the end, it was sheer terror that finally made her act, in the form of an anonymous green-texted message on the black screen of her personal computer when she got home to her apartment one night:

"You are no longer safe here. Leave the Toride tonight. Find us.

- Die Oper"

She didn't question where the message came from, how this unknown individual or group knew of her troubles, or how they knew of some kind of impending doom Astraea had no clue about. She grabbed what few personal items she could carry, a stash of creds, and left the Toride into the MidCity, never to return.

 

Personality: Being an outlaw hybrid with tremendous odds stacked against her, Astraea isn't an exactly happy person, though she is still nonetheless kind, and way too trusting. As much as she lives in desperation and fear, she still clings to hope that things might work out... Somehow. Because of this, she might be at risk for too quickly trusting in people who seem to offer her that hope, though she hasn't the slightest clue where or with who, save for some extremely vague hints pointing towards her mysterious benefactors who warned her to flee the Toride. Aside from the harrowing events which led to her defection from UniClass society, little has happened to Astraea to jade or embitter her sheltered view of the world. Still, the world outside the Toride is something she's never been truly exposed to until now, and there's no telling how this may affect her. Violence is a concept that is almost entirely alien to her.

Concerning purebreds, Astraea is unsure what to expect. The UniClass educational system certainly painted a negative picture of them to her, though on the other hand, her older stepsister whom she often took direction from had more cautiously positive things to say about them. This, on top of experiencing the effects of Ministry oppression upon its own hybrids has made her wonder if purebreds maybe weren't in the wrong for resisting the Ministry's authority. Overall, Astraea a somewhat undecided, confused view of purebreds. For now she's playing it safe by doing her best to conceal her hybrid traits when interacting with others, for fear of being detected by the Ministry, or by racist purebreds. But loneliness and hiding aren't things she's used to at all, leading to Astraea having a frustrating hunger for friendship and trust, while at the same time be unsure if such a thing is even possible now in the dark, dangerous world outside the Toride.

Needless to say, Astraea is utterly terrified of the Ministry.

Weapons/Equipment:
- Backpack, containing what few personal items she was able to leave the Toride with.

Misc:

All Ministry personnel would have access to Astraea Tammner's file through their handheld consoles or other military-issue data devices. She is wanted for treason.

Her case file further states that she is to be taken alive if she complies with arrest. However, death is acceptable if she resists. Similar penalties also apply for any individuals, outer class or UniClass who are revealed to have knowingly assisted her in any way.