Player Information:
Name: Cat
Age: over 21
Contact: aim: travelistaa
Game Cast: none yet!


Character Information:
Name: Kara “Starbuck” Thrace
Canon: Battlestar Galactica
Canon Point: After the episode “Scar”; Season 2 Episode 15
Age: 22-23
Reference:
Link One
Link Two

Setting: Battlestar Galactica is set in what appears to be a distant future. Space travel is common, as well as the ability for the ships/fleet to travel faster than light. Despite seeming like they are traveling the universe, in actuality they are contained within what we know as the Milky Way.

Originally, there were Twelve Colonies that were named after the twelve signs of the zodiac, and they had settled in the fictional Cyrannus galaxy which is 12 light years from earth, though the re-imagined series never clarified their relative positions in space. The producer Ronald Moore has stated that all of the colony planets are within the same star system, though there is a lot of conflicting information in regards to this. For sanity’s sake, I am going with the twelve colonies and Earth all being within the same galaxy.

The Twelve colonies were named as such: Picon, Caprica, Tauron, Gemenon, Leonis, Virgon, Canceron, Aerilon, Aquaria, Scorpia, Saggitaron, and Libran. Each of these were their own independent state for some 2000 years, and only finally united into one entity with one governing body in order to deal collectively with the First Cylon War. This unification allowed for delegates from each planet and relied on a residency system (ie, Gaius Baltar was born and raised on Aerilon but had been on Caprica long enough to be able to gain a seat on the Quorum of Twelve as the Caprican delegate). Despite the unification, there is still rampant discrimination, namely against those from Sagittaron and Aerilon regardless of where they are registered as citizens.

Caprica is the capital planet, and the seat of all politics and culture. It is this planet that we see the most of throughout the series, and is likely one of the wealthier planets as opposed to those of Gemenon, Sagittaron, and Aerilon.

Religion is present in all twelve colonies, and they appear to worship a polytheistic set of gods and goddesses that mirror those of Greek mythology.

The Twelve Colonies have warred for decades with a race known as the Cylons – highly advanced robots that were initially created by the humans. After enduring forced labor, the Cylons eventually rebelled against their masters and launched an attack on the humans, their goal the complete extermination of the human race. Eventually, the Cylons offer peace and they disappear for the next forty years. A base is set up in deep space to conduct relations with the Cylons, and once a year they were to meet and maintain peace. While the humans always send a representative, the Cylons send no one.

Eventually, the self proclaimed ‘Humanity’s Children - the Cylons - reappear and destroy the station and with the unknowing aid of a human named Baltar, the Cylons penetrate the humans defense mainframe and launch an all out nuclear attack on all twelve colonies.

It is important to note that the Cylons were not lazy in their forty year hibernation. They were experimenting, building, and evolving, and in doing so managed to make themselves appear as humans. There are twelve models of Cylon, each with a different look and gender, and many copies of each. When they are killed, their consciousness is downloaded across space to the resurrection ship, and they are then revived into a new body with their same memories from the previous.

After the attack, all twelve colonies a nuclear wasteland and the only surviving Battlestar (initially – the BAttlestar Pegasus is discovered is antiquated and had been previously converted into a museum. The Galactica, despite her antiquity, must protect the few remaining humans from complete extinction. The human fleet is chased relentlessly through space, and under the leadership of Commander Adama and schoolteacher turned president Laura Roslin, they endure trial after trial after trial in their pursuit of sanctuary – the fabled planet Earth of legend.

Galactica military life is much like ours; they drink, they play cards, they smoke, and have sex. They fall in love, they hate each other, and they make friends. People still die, battles are won and lost, and ultimately humanity is shown at its grittiest, grimiest and most primal. Political issues such as abortion and the black market are dealt with and handled, though not always in the way we expect.

After the attack, life, as expected, grew dramatically more difficult. Keeping the last remnants of an entire civilization alive is costly, difficult, and sometimes downright impossible. The search for food, water, and supplies is every constant, and now that the Cylons are able to appear as human and the fleet does not initially have a comprehensive list, they live in constant fear that anyone could be a Cylon. There are pointed fingers, intense paranoia, and death threats. An entire civilian ship was destroyed by viper pilots at the command of Adama because it had potentially been compromised.

Amidst these struggles, the Cylons are relentlessly pursuing them. It’s a mass exodus that has to take place in space, where the most basic yet crucial supplies are not easily found. Trying to keep that many people alive is a heavy responsibility and those without faster than light jump drives were unfortunately left behind. The fleet was forced to leave behind an entire botanical garden – an enormous ship that likely had quite the stock of reserves on board – along with several hundred people on board.

The desperation to get to earth as soon as possible is a rampant theme in the show. According to legend, there was a thirteenth tribe in addition to the twelve colonies that had settled elsewhere – Earth. According to mythology, humans lived on Kobol with their gods – the Lords of Kobol. They left due to an unspecified conflict, and it is said that for any who return Kobol would exact a price that must be paid in blood. Kobol is the location of the Tomb of Athena, and within are statues that represent each of the twelve tribes along with clues – constellations and star clusters – that could lead to the location of Earth. Earth was also said to have been the only location where all twelve constellations can be seen. Later in the series, it is revealed that the thirteenth tribe was composed entirely of Cylons (this is not common knowledge), which meant that the humans of Kobol had originally created the humanoid Cylon race – and the Final Five were the only apparent survivors. Cylon resurrection technology is also rebuilt from specs that had existed on Kobol previously.

After the initial exodus of the humans from Kobol to the Twelve colonies and Earth, there was no contact between the Thirteenth tribe and the others. As the years turn to centuries, the people generally considered the existence of either – the Thirteenth Tribe and Earth – to be a myth.

Battlestar Galactica is a show that makes us think about ourselves and how we view things and the world. It makes us question everything; ourselves, our faith, and our humanity and sometimes, we may not like our own answers.

Personality:

Cocky, hot headed and arrogant, Kara Thrace - call sign 'Starbuck' - is the best viper pilot in the fleet, and she knows it - and she has no problem making sure that you know it, too. She has no problem challenging authority, and often lands herself in the brig as a result of this. Her 'quick thinking' tends to run along the lines of 'act first and ask questions later', and has a track record of disciplinary actions a mile long. This 'quick thinking' has her outside the box, though, and she tends to excel at plans and tactics, picking out small details that no one else seems to see.

All Battlestar Galactica productions share the premise that in a distant part of our galaxy, a human civilization lives on a group of planets known as the Twelve Colonies, to which they have migrated from their ancestral homeworld of Kobol.

In addition to an extremely volatile personality, Kara has a excessive drinking problem, smokes like a chimney, gambles, and enjoys a whole lot of sex. More often than not, she can be seen in the lounge playing cards, drinking moonshine, and smoking a cigar. If she wins, she flaunts it. If she loses, she plays til she wins. Losing isn't really an option for Kara, in any aspect of her life.

Her early childhood was anything but standard -- as a youth, her mother abused her and justified it by telling Kara she was 'preparing' her for something great - her destiny. However, nothing Kara ever did was good enough. Her grades weren't good enough, her choices weren't good enough, and being the first in her family to become a commissioned officer wasn't good enough, either.

She decided to join the military in the first place after a sports injury prevented her from living her real dream - playing professional pyramid. She was incredibly good at this and was up for the pros, but she found a new passion after her knee gave out - flying. In the military, Kara finds more acceptance than she ever did when living at home, and as a result threw herself into her accomplishments and to rising up in rank despite repeated transgressions. Of course, this too wasn't good enough for Kara's mother, and upon being told that she 'was wasting her natural talent for flying', Kara stands up to her mother - who is dying of cancer - and flees, and never returns. Her mother dies in her apartment amidst stale cigarette butts and empty booze bottles, alone but not forgotten.

Unfortunately, this treatment led Kara to believe that she doesn't deserve anything good in life, and tends to think of herself as a type of cancer - a growth or malignant tumor that eats away at someone until they can take it no longer. She tends to assume that she only brings pain and suffering to anyone she comes in contact with, which leads her to become incredibly self destructive, coupled with an unhealthy amount of self-loathing. She pushes people away and will - either knowingly or unknowingly - push away anything positive in her life. She's bad at relationships and can't seem to remain faithful to anyone. She tells Lee Adama she loves him, and the very next morning she marries Sam Anders, the man she met on Caprica during her mission for President Roslin.

This is mentioned because the past haunts Kara, and despite the tough, rugged and rather grimy exterior that is portrayed Kara wears her heart completely on her sleeve. She's emotional, and terrible at bottling things in. If she's angry, you know it. If she's upset, it's all over her face. If she disagrees? She does it loudly and obnoxiously until you admit she's right or just throw her in the brig because she's still right.

Despite this, Kara actually has very little regard for her own life and is completely willing to die for her comrades. She constantly puts herself last and is without question loyal to the commander, a father-figure to her, though sometimes questions his actions and does things her own damn way. If she doesn't agree with something someone in command has to say, Kara will go against it if she thinks what she is doing is right. Despite very clear orders not to do so, Kara follows President Roslin's directive to go back to Caprica and retrieve the arrow of Apollo, because she truly believes it will aid the president in finding Earth. Kara agrees to go on this mission and takes the Cylon Raider she had captured in order to do so.

The mention of Laura Roslin, president of the Twelve Colonies (by circumstance only) leads into the more religious aspects of Battlestar Galactica. The show is deeply rooted in religion, though as opposed to monotheism it appears the twelve colonies worship something similar to the old gods and goddesses of Greek mythology. Kara has a verydeep-seated faith in the gods, and often prays in private. She goes against Adama (a man she looks at like a father) because of her faith, and the belief the Roslin, the 'dying leader', was going to lead them to safety and sanctuary. She also believes in the 'sanctity' of marriage, and refuses to divorce her husband Sam despite the fact she is actively cheating on him with Lee Adama later in the series. Lee tries to argue that she's breaking her vows by cheating, but Kara tells him she's just 'bending the rules'.

If Kara is hell bent on something, she will not let up on it until it is resolved. The previously mentioned mission to Caprica introduced Kara to a group of resistance fighters - a professional pyramid team - that survived because they had been training in the mountains. Kara must return to the Galactica and cannot take passengers, but vows to return. Upon this return, her request to rescue the group is denied and Kara is depressed - more so than usual - and guilt stricken because she feels as if she has broken her word and failed. She assumes they are all dead, along with Sam, the 'leader' of sorts that she has fallen in 'love' (as much as Kara can love anyone) with. She's promoted to CAG on the newly discovered Pegasus, and it is here that she finally makes some headway into ending her self-destructive behaviors. Kara recklessly tries to take out Scar, a bitter Cylon raider with a vendetta, but at the last minute pulls away and sets up the kill for Kat - a semi-rival that's just as cocky and arrogant as Kara herself. In doing this, she gives up her own 'Top Gun' status, but it gives her some headway into ending her lifelong streak of self destruction.

Kara is what she is, and nothing more, nothing less. She can never pretend to be something she's not, and will never try to fake anyone out otherwise. Either she likes you or she doesn't, and once an opinion is formed it's damned difficult to change.

**On arriving in Tu**

Kara Thrace is a woman with a mission -- and a destiny. Being removed from that mission or destiny or however you want to put it -- no matter how it's done -- isn't going to set well. Not at first.

Being that she's the kind of woman to punch first and ask questions later, her initial reaction upon regaining conscious ness will be to punch the first person that touches her -- and that she can SEE -- before realizing that something is incredible off.

Kara won't be pleased, and will be angry at first -- but eventually, once she settles down and LISTENS, she will skeptically and sarcastically make remarks about their sanity and settle in.

Not going to be pleased about being grounded, though. She'll look at it all as some kind of punishment, but inside?

She's not sad about having something solid under her feet again, even if she's dead or dreaming.

Appearance: Kara is 5’6’’ with a solid build, blond hair and sharp hazel eyes. She’s fairly fit, but she has a certain stockiness to her – and while she’s in excellent shape with a flat belly, she certainly doesn’t have washboard abs. This is a woman that drinks almost all of her calories, here.

Deal with it, bro.
Abilities: Kara is human and despite her wanting to think she's boss and can do everything, she...can't. XD
Inventory:
- Military dogtags (K. THRACE #462753)
- 1 standard colonial fleet flight suit/double tank set + helmet
- 1 standard colonial fleet sidearm
- 4 cigars
- 1 lighter
- 1 deck of Triad playing cards
- 1 set of black tinted sunglasses

Suite: Earth! 2 floors

In-Character Samples:
Third Person:
Kara was drunk. Stupidly drunk, which wasn’t all that unusual for the young viper pilot but this was one of those exceptional occasions where Kara felt the need to really go hard or go home.

"Except there is no going home, is there?" She speaks her thoughts out loud, and tips the bottle in her hand before leaning back and pushing the two front legs of her chair off the ground. She snorted back a dry and caustic laugh that lacked humor and almost made her choke on her drink. "Nope, no going home, because the gods-damned toasters frakked it all up, didn't they?"

She takes a swig; a long one - a long, gulping and searing drink that scorches it's way down the lining of her throat before it pools in her belly. That’s what moonshine distilled on the Galactica did – it tore through your body and wrecked the lining of your throat and frakked up your insides. Everyone drank it anyway, because it’s there and it’s what they’ve got. No one likes it, it isn’t pretty, but it gets the job done. Another drink, and a long, slow burn that slowly worked its way from her core to her limbs settled in. It numbed her pain and anger and hate and rage but somehow fanned it and fueled her fire at the same time.

Drink, Kara has found, is both her best friend and her worst enemy. She supposed she would see which it would be tonight, when all was said and done.

The latter, she thought sourly as glazed hazel eyes focus on the mostly empty bottle in her hand. She lifts it, and with a swish and a click of her teeth on glass as she tries to find her mouth, she empties it of its contents before setting the bottle down hard, rattling the table and nearly dumping the bottle.

"Frak me," she mutters, pressing her palms to the table, sliding them outwards before resting her cheek against the cool metal, her eyes briefly closing as she allows herself one moment -- that's it, just one moment, because she doesn't have time for reminiscing or wondering about the ‘what if's’ -- of reflection.

"Frakkin'....birthdays." She snarls to herself, before shoving herself up and to her feet. She rights herself, rolls her shoulders and roughly brushes the back of her hand across her lips to clear away the excess alcohol that had dribbled down her chin. She reeked of smoke and hard liquor, but Kara didn’t care. Today – tonight – wasn’t for caring. It was for getting drunk, and forgetting her past.

"Happy birthday, Starbuck." A voice pipes up from across the room where a pilot in training sat, looking at her with a mixture of terror and awe. A dawning realization flickers across Starbucks face; she hadn’t been alone in the pilot’s lounge, and this moron thought it was her birthday. Kara scowls at the trainee, who draws back but keeps a set expression. Kara has to admire her bravado.

Still, she’s got her own front to maintain. They all did. No one respected you if you a pitiful, weak thing that went crying in a corner somewhere at every rough turn. They’d all be dead if their viper pilots acted like that kind of idiot.

"Not mine," she snaps, irritated. “Don’t you have somethin’ you should be doing?” She doesn’t wait for an answer, and instead heads out the door, arrogant swagger automatically turned on, even if it's a little shaky in its execution.

No, it's not Kara's birthday. Not today. That's in a few months, not that she tells people or talks about it. Doesn't matter. Not much in this frakkin' world does anymore – except maybe Apollo, and ‘that dead guy’ she was still so hung up on.

Feet take her down the hall of their own accord, an awkward shuffle that has her bouncing off more than one of Galactica’s cool and rather unforgiving walls, and Kara doesn't even know she's standing at the large memorial until the pictures are there right in front of her, smiling faces of the dead mocking her in their permanent, fixed smiles.

"No, not my birthday," she mumbles, pressing a hand against the shiny papers. “It’s hers.”

Hers. Not Kara’s, but her mother’s -- Socrata Thrace.

Forehead to the wall of pictures, Kara allowed herself one tear -- one, for all the hurt and pain and anger and regret associated with that one woman that she hated and loved all her life; her mother. Her voice is quiet and composed as she fists that tear away, and she straightens, and fishes deep into the pocket of her BDU pants, pulling out an old, faded picture. Kara stared at it, thumbing the unsmiling face before she pinned it to the wall, her eyes staring but not really seeing.

“…Happy birthday, Momma.”

Network:
[The image flickers on to Kara casually sitting in her chair, arm draped over one side as she pushes herself back, one booted foot coming to rest on the desk in front of her. A lit cigar is between her fingers, and there’s a set of blacked out shades covering her eyes.]

Guess saying ‘Galactica, come in’ is out of the question, huh? [She snorts, and ashes the cigar before putting it to her lips again to take a long drag.]

Peachy. [Brows up behind the glasses, and her mouth pulls into a smirk that’s lacking humor.] Sounds like we’re all going to be one big happy family here, doesn’t it? [She sounds SO pleased.]

Name’s Kara, call sign Starbuck. I go by either, so pick your poison. [Ash flick, and she pulls the sunglasses off and tosses them aside, grinning.]

Speaking of ‘poison’ – anybody know where the party’s at?