application: distant skies

[akultooth]

ABOUT YOU

Name: Alice
Are you 18 or over?: Yes!
Other characters played: --

CHARACTER

Name: Ahsoka Tano
Canon: Star Wars: The Clone Wars
Age: 16 (approximate age; TCW timelines are messy!)
History: Wookiepedia's Complete (Very Complete) History
Point in canon: After Ahsoka returns to the Jedi Temple from the Deathwatch camp on Carlac. (After episode 4.14)
Window Location: Alley on Coruscant, near the Jedi Temple.
Universe: 0020

Abilities: Ahsoka is a Jedi Padawan, and she has been training for over ten years in the use of the Force. However, she's still got a while to go before she is prepared to be a full Jedi in her own right, and requires more practice and tutelage in almost everything she does. Embroiled in a war, she has gotten a lot more practice recently in martial skills than in meditations or mediation. She's trained in the use of a lightsaber––for quite some time she favored Shien style, which is a defensive form designed for blaster bolt deflection and efficient, brutal counter attacks. She tends to hold her lightsaber in a reversed grip, and has recently begun wielding a second, shorter saber in her offhand and training in Jar'Kai. In combat, Ahsoka is nimble and fast, relying on jumping and dodging skills and frequently taking advantage of all the space allowed to her. She's a very good duelist, for a Padawan, and has defended against superior opponents––even if she cannot defeat them, she can at least keep herself alive. She's also proven that she can fight and defend herself when deprived of her lightsabers, and even when unarmed or tied up. The headdress she wears above her montrals indicates that she completed a Togruta rite of passage, a solo hunt that culminated in her killing one of Shili's apex predators, the gigantic Akul, and chances are very good that she did not use her lightsabers to do it.

In addition, she can utilize a variety of other Force powers––she's best at Force jumps (using her Force affinity to send herself leaping ridiculous distances), and various telekinetic tricks. She can also use the creatively-named Jedi Mind Trick, although as stated quite a few times, it only works on the weak-minded. And Ahsoka is not quite experienced enough in it to tell when it's worked, though, and when someone is just repeating back what she said in order to trick her. Her affinity for the Force and her Jedi training grant her a sense of the world around her, what Jedi describe as recognizing the force acting around them. Although Ahsoka's force senses are not fully developed yet, she can sense the dark side, and sense moments of great tragedy or emotional upheaval. She's in the stage of her Jedi training where she is expected to be developing her Force senses most intensively—she just happens to be focusing as much energy on winning the war as she is on learning.

She's led men in combat (although she has a recurring problem with recklessly getting squads under her command killed), and piloted space ships and fighters in combat. She speaks Basic and Togruti, and she understands Shyriiwook. Spending a long time with her master has also led her to learn a bit about the repair and upkeep of machines, especially ships.

As a Togruta, she also has access to a few talents humans lack, and skills humans don't normally practice. Even in a technologically advanced society, Togruta still make a practice of hunting large and dangerous prey themselves on their home planet of Shili, and although Ahsoka was not raised there for the most part, the Jedi still allowed her some connection with her culture. Ahsoka knows how to hunt. Togruta have excellent reflexes, and an almost preternatural sense of the movement and position of objects around her (a form of passive echolocation) provided by the hollow space inside her montrals (the 'horns' on her head).

Possessions: Her lightsabers (one normal-sized, one off-hand shoto), Jedi communicator, food capsules, breathing mask, clothing (including padawan "braid" and akul-tooth headress).

Personality: Ahsoka Tano is, all things considered, a pretty bad Jedi.

Granted, she lives up to many of the ideals of the order: she is compassionate and brave, and ready to risk her life for the well-being of others. She has volunteered (and attempted) to sacrifice her own life for someone else or for another group on multiple occasions, and is likely to continue to do so. She is a talented Jedi Padawan, too. She is clever, a fast thinker and a quick learner. She genuinely believes in what she's doing, in the Jedi Code and the war effort against the Separatists. And when Ahsoka believes, she believes hard.

In fact, you might call her a bit of a zealot; until recently, she understood the war she was embroiled in in black and white terms alone. She was on the good side, the Republic side, and the Separatists were evil, and that was as simple as it could get. Her unlikely friendship with Lux Bonteri has thrown this into doubt—-she has discovered there are reasonable human beings on the Separatist side, too, not just droids and Sith. This has not made things simpler for her, unfortunately, although she continues to try and put aside feelings and personal conflict—as a Jedi ought to do—and do what is right.

Strength of belief alone doesn't make her a good Jedi, or even a very good Padawan. She acts quickly––in fact, she acts impulsively. Togruta are predators by nature, and Ahsoka acts on instincts that tell her to attack first, ask questions later, and which overbalance her fight or flight response towards fight. Being assigned to be Anakin Skywalker's Padawan hasn't tempered that instinct much. In fact, it's probably made her more impulsive and more likely to fight instead of searching for a peaceful solution than she was to begin with.

She's not particularly respectful; her flippant habits range from giving her Master and other commanders nicknames to taunting opponents in battle and calling all of the Battle Droids 'tinnies'. She's headstrong, with a tendency to believe that she's right despite her shorter experience of being a Jedi. And when you let Anakin Skywalker act as her Master and guide her in how to best always act in tune with the Jedi Code? This becomes a recipe for a disaster. Because Anakin Skywalker might be a great general, but he, too, has got some problems being a model Jedi.

For a long time, Ahsoka wholeheartedly believed everything that Anakin taught her (even the things he posits as do as I say, not as I do, Ahsoka tends to follow the 'do' and not the 'say' half). She has only recently begun to diverge from his model of doing things—and she is not wholly or consciously questioning it yet. She remains, however, headstrong and overconfident. She disobeys orders because she has the opinion that she (and her master) know better, gets argumentative, and gets sullen when things don't go her way. She was briefly actually convinced that "aggressive negotiation" was something Jedi are really allowed to do, and still doesn't hesitate to intimidate or physically threaten (with a lightsaber to the neck) enemies, even completely harmless prisoners. She thinks politicians are almost as evil as the Separatists she fights, with a few select exceptions who are her friends. She's overconfident in her own abilities and very proud––which is in turns good and bad. Her overconfidence has gotten her into danger more times than it bears counting, and gotten Clones under her command killed (a part of command that Ahsoka still struggles to come to grips with). She is also reckless and headstrong. However, as she's grown and learned as a Padawan, she's begun to temper some of these harsher flaws. She can stick to the mission even when it's tempting not to, as she did during the conflict on Mon Calamari, but she is nowhere near falling in line yet. She has, however, begun to doubt that her Master is always right, whether it is in his opinion of the war, or in disobeying his direct orders when she disagrees with them. Nonetheless, she is intensely proud of, and dedicated to, her Master; she may complain or make fun of him in one breath but be willing to defend him against any and all detractors with the next. She's expressed the opinion that he is among the greatest Jedi living.

Ahsoka is compassionate, empathetic, and outgoing, making friends easily almost everywhere she goes (even with Separatists, somewhat against her better initial judgment). And she has a capacity for strong loyalty and commitment; once she has said she will help someone, she will help them no matter the magnitude of the task––she took Senator Amidala to Raxos even though it was illegal (see her inability to keep to rules, laws, or even some tenets of the Jedi Code); she helped Senator Chuchi infiltrate a Trade Federation ship to rescue kidnapped Pantorans and helped captured Jedi younglings escape their slaver captors. She is likely to try and serve the interests of others before her own interests, as Jedi should do, although (like her Master) she has some issues with attachment and the concept of sacrificing the good of a few others for the good of the many. She isn't just empathetic to adults; she gets along with infants and young children very well (even if they're as unappealing as Baby Hutts).

Although she ignores some parts of the Jedi's laws, and skirts close to the Dark Side at times, Ahsoka does try to follow the Jedi Code whenever she can. She lives up to the requirement that a Jedi be responsible; even in her recklessness, when she has made a mistake, she will own up to it, and she is very conscious of her own past misdeeds and errors.

Thread Sample: This is a bit old, but I haven't played her in a while.

Prose Sample: The cruiser was due to reach Coruscant in a few hours time; even traveling in hyperspace, the Outer Rim was a long, long way out. They had already been sailing a long time; Ahsoka had spent the first part of the trip sleeping off her exhaustion in the sterile bunk assigned to her, but now she was awake and hungry. Jedi were not supposed to waste time contemplating base needs like rumbling stomachs, but, Ahsoka reasoned, they were also not supposed to starve themselves when there was a mess hall so very close by, and they had just finished a grueling battle. (Well, 'just', plus a long and deserved sleep.)

She took a few moments to strap her belt on, and secure her lightsabers, one on either hip. She wasn't going to need them in the mess hall, but she took them everywhere by force of long training. Her masters had drilled that one into her when she was a youngling, even before the war began, before the idea of war was on anyone's horizon. Well, maybe Master Yoda... the thought drifted across her consciousness; Ahsoka let it pass and cleared her mind, doing the same exercise she did before she went anywhere. Reach out with the Force. Feel it moving around you; feel the Living Force in yourself and in those nearest to you. She could feel the other sentients on the ship with her, but they were a fuzzy, indistinct mass of life. There were lots of people on board, at least that she could tell, and she thought she could sort of feel some of the clones closest to her, but that was it. No detail, nothing specific. Just like yesterday--just like the day before--it didn't seem like it was getting better at all!

No. Wait.

She didn't let herself get frustrated; she took that brief, simmering beginning of unhappiness and calmed it. She breathed out once, and opened her eyes. That was why she practiced, right? Because it was hard and it wasn't perfect. Her masters counseled patience, and blast it, she was going to be patient if she had to grit her teeth and make herself do it. The door opened with a pneumatic hiss and Ahsoka headed for the mess, her stomach urging her to hurry it up. Ship-board food wasn't the best thing, or anywhere close to it, but it was nutritious and it would do the job.

"Commander Tano," a clone greeted her in the hall; she nodded and walked past, and the relatively informal ritual of recognition repeated a few times before she reached her destination. The clones there?

"Well, finally decide to come out of hiding and grab a bite? You might regret it, actually, once you see the menu."

They were less interested in being respectful. But they had served with the 501st longer; they were used to how Anakin operated and familiarity was definitely part of the Battalion's M.O. Ahsoka snorted and grabbed a tray, laughing at the trooper. Rush was always complaining about the food--and the familiar half-serious complaint helped dispel the last of Ahsoka's frustration.

"Really? What's for breakfast? Do I even want to know?" She looked skeptically at the greenish, warm substance awaiting her. They hadn't been able to resupply with fresh food, not without depriving the natives of the planet they'd defended of their food. The knowledge made the artificial food understandable, but not much more palatable-looking.

"Lunch," Rush corrected. "You overslept."

"I bet they served the same thing for breakfast, though." She sniffed. "Oog. Maybe I'm not hungry anymore after all."

Plans: I definitely see Ahsoka taking on an active role with the Observatory—between curiosity and the desire to help others, exploring other universes seems right up her alley. I'm interested in playing out how this affects her loyalty to her home--and her suitability as a Jedi. She's definitely going to go looking for action and adventure, even if that's not a particularly Jedi thing to do.
Notes: --

DÆMON

Name: Orresh
Sex: Male
Form: Black-backed Jackal.
Additional notes: --
Why this form: I knew from the start that I wanted to give Ahsoka a predatory animal as a daemon--not only is she a warrior, and an aggressive one at that, but she's quite literally a predator herself. Her species, Togruta, are much more naturally predatory than humans; they are also more communal, which is another reason I considered predators who work together, rather than solitary hunters like felines. Black-backed jackals are the smallest members of the jackal family, but also the most aggressive and ambitious, known to try to take on prey or other predators many times their size, much like undersized Ahsoka, always ready to take on opponents in a galaxy full of full-grown Sith and giant lightsaber-wielding robots.

Additionally, I'd considered using an animal from Star Wars, but most have either the barest of information available in easily-digestible wiki format, or are HUGE. (Sorry, no rancor daemons! Tragic.) So I may just pretend that there are space jackals who bear a suspicious similarity to actual jackals.