Post by Petrichor on Aug 27, 2020 16:28:45 GMT -5
PLAYER INFO
Name/Alias: Squirrely
CHARACTER INFO
Name: Petrichor
(Nickname: Petra)
Age: Early-Mid Twenties
Gender: Femme
Species: Cybertronian
Faction: Autobot
Original Occupation: Geologist
Occupation/Specialization: Scout
Appearance: (Image Here)Petrichor is all around average looking. She stands at about the same height as Smokescreen and her frame, while not as lean and elegant as a two-wheeler, is sturdy and well built without being oversized. Her medium armor provides her with decent protection – especially on her arms and legs where her doors are layered over top of her regular plating – without sacrificing mobility. Not too strong, not too fast, but built more for endurance, Petrichor is once again the epitome of average.
Even her armor color is muted in a cool, blue-gray khaki. Her face, joints, and abdomen are light gray and much of her under-mesh is a dull black. Small accents of bronze on her hand-plates, rims and brow-chevron are the only flashy things on her figure. She has a split, semi-reflective, half-visor that covers her solid, light blue optics to protect them from flying rock debris and dirt. A couple of small, silver audial receptors adorn either side of her helm.
A mounting rig/push bar spanning across the front of her chassis provides an additional barrier for when push comes to shove; it also has a second set of headlights for her frequent bouts of spelunking for energon in dark caverns, and can act as a sturdy place to clip additional equipment to. Her servos are black with squared-off, jointed digits; perfect for handling tools, weapons, and the odd human. Her silver Autobot insignia lay back-dropped against her dark under-chassis, just below her sternum.
Altmode: 2018 Subaru Crosstrek with mounting rig and additional headlights. (Image Here)
Pertinent History: Petrichor entered the work force as a young, naive, and optimistic geologist just as Cybertron was reaching the beginning stages of its more violent upheavals and energon was growing difficult to come by. Assigned the more menial and laborious tasks of conducting surveys, field work and scouting for potential energon veins, she missed many of the signs of the war brewing, spending deca-cycles at a time at remote field stations before returning home and anything close to civilization. The events she did manage to pick up on seemed distant and far away to her. They didn’t affect her directly and only served to make her depressed. What could she really do to help? She wasn’t a soldier or politician. She wasn’t even a fully-fledged geologist yet – she didn’t get to call the shots, she did what she was told by her higher-ups. The only thing she could do was her job and try to find answers behind why cybermatter was no longer forming naturally, thus causing their planet to slowly die while the civil war loomed. Caste systems didn’t matter if they didn’t have a planet to live on, right? So with that thinking, Petrichor continued to throw herself into her research and work, choosing to ignore the tumultuous world slowly closing in on her.
After a particularly long project away from home, Petrichor returned to find nothing but dust and rubble, the Decepticons having stormed through leaving nothing but destruction in their wake. Strangers and friends alike lay strewn about, everyone else having since fled the devastation. Not a spark remained. For the first time in her life, despite all her time spent working in remote isolation, Petrichor felt utterly alone. She stayed, sifting through the ruins and remains hoping beyond hope to find any survivors for a mega-cycle before a Decepticon sentry found her. She was lucky that another bot was nearby and heard the commotion, able to come save her aft. By that point, Petra had gone into a kind of shut-down, processor struggling to make sense of how quickly everything seemed to fall out from beneath her – like the unstable metal-talus slopes she used to trek across, threatening at any moment to shift and cause a potentially lethal landslide. She couldn’t ignore it anymore. The war had finally reached her and it demanded that a decision be made: Would she join the fight?
It took her a bit, but eventually Petrichor reached a stage that was deemed ‘functional’ after being brought to a refugee camp. She set to work enlisting into the Autobot ranks, having experienced first-hand the lengths that the Decepticons were willing to go to. Petra learned to fight and shoot in her basic training, but was never sent out to any real hot zones. She was grateful for at least that small mercy. Instead, she was assigned to energon runs – utilizing her already existing skills and experience to scout out, retrieve, and return with what she could of the precious energy source.
By the time they received Optimus Prime’s message, her unit had been scattered and the survivors were being hunted down. Cybertron had gone dark and she had no one and no way to reach the others. She was on her own again. Never having fully recovered from returning to the empty, lifeless husk of her hometown and now this, Petrichor faced the nasty revelation that she could no longer handle long periods of time alone before suffering a processor shutdown. Desperate, she sent out a plea for help, praying to Primus that someone would find her before the Decepticons did. Enter Kamal, the Ferryman. Petra gladly offered what little energon she had as her travel fare and was immensely grateful simply for his company and the fact that she wouldn’t be left alone on a dead planet.
Personality: Adventurous, Earnest, Inquisitive, Loyal, Honest, Reliable, Stubborn, Follower, Trusting, Young, Anxious, Insecure, Cautious.
Petrichor is fast to make friends and enjoys working with others. She’s a good listener and a comforting shoulder of support but struggles with opening up when it comes to herself and her own problems, not wanting to overburden others.
Generally pretty quiet, Petra is content to just be in the presence of others. If you get her anywhere near the subject of geology though, she will enthusiastically engage in conversation – waxing poetic about the subtle variations in layers of bedrock and how the different striations erode away depending on molecular make-up and specific environmental factors, Earth and Cybertron’s many fascinating and unique landscapes, and how fragging cool volcanoes are.
Once assigned a task, Petra will follow through with it until the job has been completed. She believes in hard work and won’t hesitate to ask if there’s anything that needs doing, even if it’s something as simple as cleaning.
Petrichor does her best to put on a brave face and stay optimistic, but is prone to bouts of melancholy. During these times, you can usually find her in her room journaling.
She has a rock collection that she occasionally adds to. What a surprise.
Likes: Anything relating to minerals and natural landscapes, Volcanoes, Being outside, Learning, Exploring, Climbing, Cave diving, The occasional cube of high-grade, Journaling, and Being helpful/productive
Dislikes: Individuals with superiority-complexes, Bullies, Being lied to, Decepticons, Feeling useless, Boredom, Flying, Space, Being alone
Strengths/Weapons: Petrichor still has the training and general background of a scientist who often spent time out in remote areas of Cybertron conducting geological surveys, but has since picked up more military-based training due to the war and her joining the Autobots. She likes to consider herself ‘well-rounded.’
Weapons: Petrichor knew her way around sighting down scopes long before a rifle was ever placed in her servos – part of her geological survey work requiring the optical instruments in order to take measurements. Because of that familiarity, her weapon of choice is a scoped, bolt-action rifle (similar to a hunting rifle) that she carries on her back. Not as powerful or as accurate as a sniper rifle, it can still pack a pretty straight and decent punch at 400 meters. A single clip holds four energy rounds capable of piercing light armor at full range, medium at about half, and heavy armor no more than 100 meters away. Once all four rounds have been fired, it takes a couple of kliks to recharge the clip, which is why Petra always carries two. She can reload and fire again while the expended clip recharges. Even so, she still has to be conservative about her shots and make them count, having to manually slide the bolt to load the next energy round for each shot, which in total slows down her rate of fire considerably. She’s a decent shot, but Annie Oakley she is not.
Her servos can convert into a pair of sharp and strong rock picks that can be used to deal damage just as easily as for excavation and climbing. They can puncture and rend through light armor pretty well, and do modest damage to medium armor if Petra really gets some momentum behind her swings, but is no match against heavy armor – lacking the power and strength necessary to break through such thick defenses. Not having experienced much action outside of training, Petrichor is better suited to ranged combat than close quarters but is capable of defending herself and others if necessary and is willing to further hone her combat skills with more practice and instruction.
Know your terrain: Having had plenty of practice navigating to remote and treacherous work sites, Petra is particularly good at analyzing topographical maps and landscapes and has used this experience to help aid in military planning for defensive and offensive actions. Petra also continues to use her skills for the general purpose of finding valuable resources like energon. (Hey, natural resources are natural resources, no matter the planet; they all follow the same rules of the universe: physics, natural formation and degradation.)
The Bright side: Petrichor is an optimistic bot, always trying to find the silver linings amongst all the gray; not just for herself, but for others as well because it’s difficult to keep going when you can’t find reasons why. Of course she has moments where it’s hard and she feels sadness, bitterness, regret and anger, but she chooses not to dwell on them and instead tries to focus on other things and find a healthy outlet – hence the journaling. This positive thinking helps Petra keep a clear head and think more creatively, push harder when the going gets tough, and encourage those around her to not give up.
Rock steady: Petrichor has a solid center of gravity with good balance and a lasting endurance. She knows her physical limits and is capable of thinking on her feet in rapidly changing environments. A result of having worked in the elements when anything can change at a moment’s notice; like a handhold that suddenly crumbles away when climbing a cliff face or getting caught exposed in a surprise storm. She trusts her frame to get her out of most difficult situations.
Swiss Army bot: You need it? Chances are Petrichor’s got it. A firm believer in never being too unprepared, Petrichor utilizes her mounting rigs for anything you could possibly need (within reason) while out in the field. She knows how to pack and organize gear into the most efficient, unencumbering way possible without sacrificing the essentials. Said essentials usually include a minor first-aid kit, a couple of small energon field rations, 100 meters of cable with clips, a roll of adhesive, an energon scanner, and a Cybertronian equivalent of a multi-tool.
I have the high ground: An excellent climber, Petra can get to some pretty ridiculous places for a grounder. This gives her good vantage points for overlooking an area and scoping out potential energon veins or providing covering fire for allies down below. When done with her dizzying height escapades, Petra usually uses a cable and hook clipped to her mounting rig to quickly and safely rappel down.
Weaknesses:
Isolation: Due to past trauma, Petrichor doesn’t do ‘alone’ as well as she once did. If left by herself for too long without communication with others, Petra will become anxious and panicked – eventually to the point of processor shutdown – and while still conscious, she can be unresponsive to most stimuli until coaxed back or being forced into recharge. While recovering, she is despondent and slow to process things anywhere from a few kliks to a several cycles, depending on the severity. She’s since learned to avoid most situations that could trigger this kind of response, but it is still a very real problem that she struggles with.
Gullible: Petrichor is not always the greatest at picking up on social nuances, having spent most of her life before the war working by herself and often takes things literally. It wouldn’t be the first time that a joke or sarcasm went over her head. She also is a strong believer in taking people for their word – a side effect of her optimism and trying to see the best in everyone. Because of this and still being somewhat young and naive, Petra is more willing to trust and more easily fooled than some.
Ponies, not horses: We’re going to dust off that word ‘average’ and use it again here. While she may have endurance and a solid center, Petrichor is not all that strong or fast. She’s durable, can keep up and makes for decent backup, but she is not the bot to rely on when it comes to horsepower. She would not be able to catch Knock Out in a chase or even come close to being able to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Breakdown.
I was following you: Leading and making decisions is not Petrichor’s forte. When faced with a difficult situation, Petra would rather defer to someone else’s judgement rather than bear the responsibility of potentially putting others’ lives at stake herself. Even if someone in a lead position makes a bad call, it’s more likely that Petrichor will follow orders than question it. What does she know – they probably have more experience than her on the subject anyway…
All work and no play: Petra has an almost need to keep busy. While not necessarily a bad thing, it can lead to overworking herself to the point of exhaustion or being fidgety when she has nothing to occupy herself. The last one can be a problem to those around her because she tends to hover until they get annoyed or irritated enough to give her something to do or tell her to ‘go away.’ Even when relaxing, she needs something to focus on and tries to keep herself busy in some productive manner, either journaling, being active or maybe giving a new human hobby a go.
Special Skills: Geology - the study of a planet’s physical structure and substance, its history, and the processes that act on it (Wikipedia). Petrichor is a professional when it comes to the science of land formations – it was her job after all. She knows what a mineral’s molecular make-up is, can tell you its density and hardness, how it forms and erodes, where you can find it – and if she comes across a mineral she doesn’t know, you can bet that she’s going to find out.
Petrichor has a fine eye for details, patterns and things out of place, having had plenty of practice looking for subtle variations in land formations and crunching geological data. She’s handy and familiar with quite a bit of scientific equipment with her formal education in the sciences and can be a valuable aid and extra set of hands in the lab if needed.
A quick study and a voracious learner, Petrichor has a keen mind that she keeps busy by constantly trying to learn new things in an effort to be more helpful. You never know when a random piece of information might save the day.
Name/Alias: Squirrely
CHARACTER INFO
Name: Petrichor
(Nickname: Petra)
Age: Early-Mid Twenties
Gender: Femme
Species: Cybertronian
Faction: Autobot
Original Occupation: Geologist
Occupation/Specialization: Scout
Appearance: (Image Here)Petrichor is all around average looking. She stands at about the same height as Smokescreen and her frame, while not as lean and elegant as a two-wheeler, is sturdy and well built without being oversized. Her medium armor provides her with decent protection – especially on her arms and legs where her doors are layered over top of her regular plating – without sacrificing mobility. Not too strong, not too fast, but built more for endurance, Petrichor is once again the epitome of average.
Even her armor color is muted in a cool, blue-gray khaki. Her face, joints, and abdomen are light gray and much of her under-mesh is a dull black. Small accents of bronze on her hand-plates, rims and brow-chevron are the only flashy things on her figure. She has a split, semi-reflective, half-visor that covers her solid, light blue optics to protect them from flying rock debris and dirt. A couple of small, silver audial receptors adorn either side of her helm.
A mounting rig/push bar spanning across the front of her chassis provides an additional barrier for when push comes to shove; it also has a second set of headlights for her frequent bouts of spelunking for energon in dark caverns, and can act as a sturdy place to clip additional equipment to. Her servos are black with squared-off, jointed digits; perfect for handling tools, weapons, and the odd human. Her silver Autobot insignia lay back-dropped against her dark under-chassis, just below her sternum.
Altmode: 2018 Subaru Crosstrek with mounting rig and additional headlights. (Image Here)
Pertinent History: Petrichor entered the work force as a young, naive, and optimistic geologist just as Cybertron was reaching the beginning stages of its more violent upheavals and energon was growing difficult to come by. Assigned the more menial and laborious tasks of conducting surveys, field work and scouting for potential energon veins, she missed many of the signs of the war brewing, spending deca-cycles at a time at remote field stations before returning home and anything close to civilization. The events she did manage to pick up on seemed distant and far away to her. They didn’t affect her directly and only served to make her depressed. What could she really do to help? She wasn’t a soldier or politician. She wasn’t even a fully-fledged geologist yet – she didn’t get to call the shots, she did what she was told by her higher-ups. The only thing she could do was her job and try to find answers behind why cybermatter was no longer forming naturally, thus causing their planet to slowly die while the civil war loomed. Caste systems didn’t matter if they didn’t have a planet to live on, right? So with that thinking, Petrichor continued to throw herself into her research and work, choosing to ignore the tumultuous world slowly closing in on her.
After a particularly long project away from home, Petrichor returned to find nothing but dust and rubble, the Decepticons having stormed through leaving nothing but destruction in their wake. Strangers and friends alike lay strewn about, everyone else having since fled the devastation. Not a spark remained. For the first time in her life, despite all her time spent working in remote isolation, Petrichor felt utterly alone. She stayed, sifting through the ruins and remains hoping beyond hope to find any survivors for a mega-cycle before a Decepticon sentry found her. She was lucky that another bot was nearby and heard the commotion, able to come save her aft. By that point, Petra had gone into a kind of shut-down, processor struggling to make sense of how quickly everything seemed to fall out from beneath her – like the unstable metal-talus slopes she used to trek across, threatening at any moment to shift and cause a potentially lethal landslide. She couldn’t ignore it anymore. The war had finally reached her and it demanded that a decision be made: Would she join the fight?
It took her a bit, but eventually Petrichor reached a stage that was deemed ‘functional’ after being brought to a refugee camp. She set to work enlisting into the Autobot ranks, having experienced first-hand the lengths that the Decepticons were willing to go to. Petra learned to fight and shoot in her basic training, but was never sent out to any real hot zones. She was grateful for at least that small mercy. Instead, she was assigned to energon runs – utilizing her already existing skills and experience to scout out, retrieve, and return with what she could of the precious energy source.
By the time they received Optimus Prime’s message, her unit had been scattered and the survivors were being hunted down. Cybertron had gone dark and she had no one and no way to reach the others. She was on her own again. Never having fully recovered from returning to the empty, lifeless husk of her hometown and now this, Petrichor faced the nasty revelation that she could no longer handle long periods of time alone before suffering a processor shutdown. Desperate, she sent out a plea for help, praying to Primus that someone would find her before the Decepticons did. Enter Kamal, the Ferryman. Petra gladly offered what little energon she had as her travel fare and was immensely grateful simply for his company and the fact that she wouldn’t be left alone on a dead planet.
Personality: Adventurous, Earnest, Inquisitive, Loyal, Honest, Reliable, Stubborn, Follower, Trusting, Young, Anxious, Insecure, Cautious.
Petrichor is fast to make friends and enjoys working with others. She’s a good listener and a comforting shoulder of support but struggles with opening up when it comes to herself and her own problems, not wanting to overburden others.
Generally pretty quiet, Petra is content to just be in the presence of others. If you get her anywhere near the subject of geology though, she will enthusiastically engage in conversation – waxing poetic about the subtle variations in layers of bedrock and how the different striations erode away depending on molecular make-up and specific environmental factors, Earth and Cybertron’s many fascinating and unique landscapes, and how fragging cool volcanoes are.
Once assigned a task, Petra will follow through with it until the job has been completed. She believes in hard work and won’t hesitate to ask if there’s anything that needs doing, even if it’s something as simple as cleaning.
Petrichor does her best to put on a brave face and stay optimistic, but is prone to bouts of melancholy. During these times, you can usually find her in her room journaling.
She has a rock collection that she occasionally adds to. What a surprise.
Likes: Anything relating to minerals and natural landscapes, Volcanoes, Being outside, Learning, Exploring, Climbing, Cave diving, The occasional cube of high-grade, Journaling, and Being helpful/productive
Dislikes: Individuals with superiority-complexes, Bullies, Being lied to, Decepticons, Feeling useless, Boredom, Flying, Space, Being alone
Strengths/Weapons: Petrichor still has the training and general background of a scientist who often spent time out in remote areas of Cybertron conducting geological surveys, but has since picked up more military-based training due to the war and her joining the Autobots. She likes to consider herself ‘well-rounded.’
Weapons: Petrichor knew her way around sighting down scopes long before a rifle was ever placed in her servos – part of her geological survey work requiring the optical instruments in order to take measurements. Because of that familiarity, her weapon of choice is a scoped, bolt-action rifle (similar to a hunting rifle) that she carries on her back. Not as powerful or as accurate as a sniper rifle, it can still pack a pretty straight and decent punch at 400 meters. A single clip holds four energy rounds capable of piercing light armor at full range, medium at about half, and heavy armor no more than 100 meters away. Once all four rounds have been fired, it takes a couple of kliks to recharge the clip, which is why Petra always carries two. She can reload and fire again while the expended clip recharges. Even so, she still has to be conservative about her shots and make them count, having to manually slide the bolt to load the next energy round for each shot, which in total slows down her rate of fire considerably. She’s a decent shot, but Annie Oakley she is not.
Her servos can convert into a pair of sharp and strong rock picks that can be used to deal damage just as easily as for excavation and climbing. They can puncture and rend through light armor pretty well, and do modest damage to medium armor if Petra really gets some momentum behind her swings, but is no match against heavy armor – lacking the power and strength necessary to break through such thick defenses. Not having experienced much action outside of training, Petrichor is better suited to ranged combat than close quarters but is capable of defending herself and others if necessary and is willing to further hone her combat skills with more practice and instruction.
Know your terrain: Having had plenty of practice navigating to remote and treacherous work sites, Petra is particularly good at analyzing topographical maps and landscapes and has used this experience to help aid in military planning for defensive and offensive actions. Petra also continues to use her skills for the general purpose of finding valuable resources like energon. (Hey, natural resources are natural resources, no matter the planet; they all follow the same rules of the universe: physics, natural formation and degradation.)
The Bright side: Petrichor is an optimistic bot, always trying to find the silver linings amongst all the gray; not just for herself, but for others as well because it’s difficult to keep going when you can’t find reasons why. Of course she has moments where it’s hard and she feels sadness, bitterness, regret and anger, but she chooses not to dwell on them and instead tries to focus on other things and find a healthy outlet – hence the journaling. This positive thinking helps Petra keep a clear head and think more creatively, push harder when the going gets tough, and encourage those around her to not give up.
Rock steady: Petrichor has a solid center of gravity with good balance and a lasting endurance. She knows her physical limits and is capable of thinking on her feet in rapidly changing environments. A result of having worked in the elements when anything can change at a moment’s notice; like a handhold that suddenly crumbles away when climbing a cliff face or getting caught exposed in a surprise storm. She trusts her frame to get her out of most difficult situations.
Swiss Army bot: You need it? Chances are Petrichor’s got it. A firm believer in never being too unprepared, Petrichor utilizes her mounting rigs for anything you could possibly need (within reason) while out in the field. She knows how to pack and organize gear into the most efficient, unencumbering way possible without sacrificing the essentials. Said essentials usually include a minor first-aid kit, a couple of small energon field rations, 100 meters of cable with clips, a roll of adhesive, an energon scanner, and a Cybertronian equivalent of a multi-tool.
I have the high ground: An excellent climber, Petra can get to some pretty ridiculous places for a grounder. This gives her good vantage points for overlooking an area and scoping out potential energon veins or providing covering fire for allies down below. When done with her dizzying height escapades, Petra usually uses a cable and hook clipped to her mounting rig to quickly and safely rappel down.
Weaknesses:
Isolation: Due to past trauma, Petrichor doesn’t do ‘alone’ as well as she once did. If left by herself for too long without communication with others, Petra will become anxious and panicked – eventually to the point of processor shutdown – and while still conscious, she can be unresponsive to most stimuli until coaxed back or being forced into recharge. While recovering, she is despondent and slow to process things anywhere from a few kliks to a several cycles, depending on the severity. She’s since learned to avoid most situations that could trigger this kind of response, but it is still a very real problem that she struggles with.
Gullible: Petrichor is not always the greatest at picking up on social nuances, having spent most of her life before the war working by herself and often takes things literally. It wouldn’t be the first time that a joke or sarcasm went over her head. She also is a strong believer in taking people for their word – a side effect of her optimism and trying to see the best in everyone. Because of this and still being somewhat young and naive, Petra is more willing to trust and more easily fooled than some.
Ponies, not horses: We’re going to dust off that word ‘average’ and use it again here. While she may have endurance and a solid center, Petrichor is not all that strong or fast. She’s durable, can keep up and makes for decent backup, but she is not the bot to rely on when it comes to horsepower. She would not be able to catch Knock Out in a chase or even come close to being able to go toe-to-toe with the likes of Breakdown.
I was following you: Leading and making decisions is not Petrichor’s forte. When faced with a difficult situation, Petra would rather defer to someone else’s judgement rather than bear the responsibility of potentially putting others’ lives at stake herself. Even if someone in a lead position makes a bad call, it’s more likely that Petrichor will follow orders than question it. What does she know – they probably have more experience than her on the subject anyway…
All work and no play: Petra has an almost need to keep busy. While not necessarily a bad thing, it can lead to overworking herself to the point of exhaustion or being fidgety when she has nothing to occupy herself. The last one can be a problem to those around her because she tends to hover until they get annoyed or irritated enough to give her something to do or tell her to ‘go away.’ Even when relaxing, she needs something to focus on and tries to keep herself busy in some productive manner, either journaling, being active or maybe giving a new human hobby a go.
Special Skills: Geology - the study of a planet’s physical structure and substance, its history, and the processes that act on it (Wikipedia). Petrichor is a professional when it comes to the science of land formations – it was her job after all. She knows what a mineral’s molecular make-up is, can tell you its density and hardness, how it forms and erodes, where you can find it – and if she comes across a mineral she doesn’t know, you can bet that she’s going to find out.
Petrichor has a fine eye for details, patterns and things out of place, having had plenty of practice looking for subtle variations in land formations and crunching geological data. She’s handy and familiar with quite a bit of scientific equipment with her formal education in the sciences and can be a valuable aid and extra set of hands in the lab if needed.
A quick study and a voracious learner, Petrichor has a keen mind that she keeps busy by constantly trying to learn new things in an effort to be more helpful. You never know when a random piece of information might save the day.
