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aggressive_negotiationsAPPLICATION - TRAMITEM
Player Information
Age: 30’s
Time Zone: EST
Email:
remiessaid@gmail.com
Other Contact Info: You can find me at
Prefered method of contact: Plurk or private message.
Current Characters at Tramitem: None
Reserve: (Please link to your Reserve.) Here!
Character Information
Nicknames: “Smith.” First, the nickname was a way to make her seem more masculine when running for her first student union election, but eventually it stuck.
Canon: Star Wards
PB: (List the PB you're using for your character's Earth AU. If necessary for non-human characters, cartoon and/or CGI icons to use ) Natalie Portman
Journal:
aggressive_negotiations4th Walling: Poke, but don’t puncture. Padme was famous in her own time as a the youngest ever elected Queen of Naboo, and then a prominent senator. If her name is familiar to your character, that’s totally fine but she’s likely to assume it’s due to her political career or Anakin’s fame as prominent Jedi and general.
Canon Point: (If your character is arriving with CR-AU experience, still include their last canon point, BUT ALSO include a brief mention of their CR-AU) Post-Revenge of the Sith. Unlike Anakin and Obi Wan, there is no canon evidence that Padme came back as a force ghost, and thus she has no memories after her death.
Canon Information
Because the movies focus more on Padme’s romance with Anakin than her political and peacekeeping career, I am also using from The Clone Wars and some canon comics detailing Padme’s career as a wartime senator. Padme’s career required her to be strategic, diplomatic, and selectively secretive. These skills will carry over into her AU political career.
Personality: (One or two paragraphs, 2000 words max)
In the movies, Padme is someone who achieves great political acclaim at an extremely young age. This means that she was used to being in the public eye, and was aware of maintaining her public image, up to and including marrying in secret.
Padme is someone with the skills to command the attention of the senate, and the drive and empathy that made her beloved by the people of her planet. However, partly because she achieved success at such a young age, Padme was prone to acting impulsively when driven by passion. There’s obviously the whole “secret marriage” thing, but moments of impulsivity fueled Padme’s political career as well. Frustrated with the inaction of the then-senate Chancellor, Padme called for a vote of No Confidence in Chancellor Valorum. This opened the way for Palpatine to be voted chancellor, eventually leading to his taking over the senate and then claiming the title of Emperor. She was extremely close with Palpatine early in her career, seeing the new chancellor as a mentor. However, as she gained more experience in the senate and saw the interest Palpatine took her in husband, Padme started to grow suspicious of the man. Still, her trust in him led Padme to further the republic’s cause throughout the galaxy, which made Palpatine’s grip on power even stronger.
CR-AU: (If you are bringing your character in from another game, please explain the relevant details - game structure, major events for the character - here. Skip if this does not apply.)
Physical description: (Describe your character's canon physical description.) At the time of her death, Padme was 27 years old. She was a beautiful woman with long brown hair and brown eyes. She had a bigger physical presence than her 5'3 frame would have you expect. Due to her position as a queen and later senator, Padme often wore ornate clothing: gowns, senatorial robes, and headpieces. She would, however, wear more totalitarian outfits when traveling into war zones.
Meta Powers (If necessary. Be descriptive, list everything.) N/A; other than being a skilled politician and solid marksman, Padme doesn’t have any powers in her canon. She’s good in a fight as a byproduct of her need to learn self-defense, but she’s not a solider.
Notable/Unique Needs: (Does your character have unique canon needs?)
Earth AU
Earth AU Age:32
History: (Be detailed. 5 paragraphs minimum, write more if you want, 500 words min - 2000 words max)
“Smith” is a recently elected city councilwoman representing NYC City council’s district 7. She is in her early 30’s, and came of age in a time where social media was becoming a political force. She started a social media presence during her first run at president of Columbia University's student council – as a freshman. From there, she’s used her social media platform to increase her presence during local elections, positioning that presence into a series of local board appointments, and then into city council. There’s active talk that she might run for the house of representatives, next. Padme has had a foot in the door of politics since she was 18; she has relocated often in favor of her career ambitions. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa with a combined undergraduate and master's degree in Public Health, Padme took a job as a speechwriter for a state senator from her hometown. She transitioned that job into an assistant directorship at a non-profit focused on housing reform.
Smith is deeply driven by a commitment to public service. Her mother was an immigration lawyer and her father was a middle school science teacher. She was extremely close with her parents growing up. Due to the nature of her mother's work, Smith's family moved around often. It was always the three of them. Smith would enroll in a new school nearly every year. While she was skilled at fitting into new places, she never formed especially close bonds with her classmates. She understood that these relationships were temporary. This skill at fitting into new places readily has served Smith extremely well in her political career. She is a master of political connections. Her parents drove into her a dedication to making things better for the people in her own community. Even in casual interactions, she’s always looking for an angle: is there a way I can transition this new relationship into increased funding for our school budget? Can we work together on this political initiative? While her intentions are good, she can be as manipulative as any politician.
As a young woman in politics, Smith is keenly aware of how her every movement is perceived. She doesn't just stand for herself; she knows that she's a representative of all women. Her public image is carefully crafted -- professional by day, but she'll kick back and have a beer with you after work -- but just the one beer. She is active on social media, to the extent that she's known for her twitter clap backs almost more than she's known for her policies. Currently, Smith is working to prove to the world outside of her constituents that she’s more than an Instagram savvy politician. Rather than work on a national platform, she is focused on making her own neighborhood a better place to live. Her current legislative priorities include a living wage, increased protections for renters, and dedicated space for low-income families in new neighborhood developments.
In-universe, your character may know Smith if they are in a political role, like Bail Organa, or if your character is a prominent community member, like a defense attorney or nonprofit leader. It’s genuinely important to her to get to know the people she serves, so you will often find her at community events and local protests. She took EMT training in college, so when needed she’s also an active first responder. All of Smith's success is not without a cost: her intimate social network is small. She is still close with her parents, and specifically moved back to Washington Heights when her father got sick three years ago. She has a few close friends from college, but doesn't fully open up to anyone outside of that close circle. Her dating life is very sparse -- there were a few short relationships in college and grad school, but Smith realized early on that being seen as someone's "girlfriend" made her seem weak, and always cost her a few points in the polls. She's picked her job every time.
Recently, Smith has been approached by a grassroots organization dedicated to lifting progressive candidates onto a national platform. While she loves working at a local level, she does wonder about the change she could effect at a state, or even national, level. Her interaction with The Bureau will push Smith towards seeking out a national platform. The most power she has, the more leverage she has.
Personality: (Be detailed. 3 paragraphs minimum, 200 words min - 2000 words max)
Leia Smith was an early overachiever. She was always the kid in class with her hand up, always the first to volunteer for school committees. She was (and continues to be) extremely close with her parents and sees them as setting up a legacy of public service for her follow. Her career really sparked when a student council campaign speech she made as a freshman went viral. The topic was student loan debt, and views from the video still drive a decent amount of her site traffic. Because of the success of that video, Smith established a reputation as a reactionary politician – willing to drop into a speech about her values at a moment’s notice. As her career has moved on and she’s engaged with more community members, that tendency has begun to temper. She’s listening more than she’s talking, these days. And becoming increasingly aware of her public image -- often at the cost of her persona' life.
Due to her work life, Smith’s social circle is very small. While she is on good terms with her fellow councilmen, those are relationships of mutual benefit. Outside of her parents and a few college girlfriends, Smith mostly keeps to herself. Due to her political career and social media presence, Smith is used to being watched when she is in public. This will make her generally pleasant, but not personal, in social conversation. You’ll know you’re truly friends with Smith when she lets her hair down around you. When she talks about a book she’s reading or confides her weakness for Hallmark Christmas movies. Or when she gets a little tipsy and starts reciting the best passages from “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Smith's political goals are heavily informed by events in her childhood. As her mother worked as an immigration attorney, Smith was often on the front lines of some of the greatest humanitarian crises of the last 15 years. She saw her mom work to protect the rights of Sudanese refugees, and then go on to represent families facing the threat of deportation in El Paso. As she moved across the country with her parents, Smith became increasingly aware of how was was perceived in public. Her mother's work often ruffled feathers in certain communities; Smith learned early on how to get along with classmates that she personally did not like. There are basically two versions of Smith: the one she shows the public, and the one she shows her closest friends. In public, and in her workplace interactions, Smith is amiable and gracious. She is the first to offer her support, and builds relationships in city council by making everybody's work life just that little bit easier. While this public persona is an exaggeration of Smith's best personality traits (her logical mind and her genuine empathy), in her private life Smith can be prone to snap judgements and impulsive decisions. The people closest to her know to give Smith space to do the things she normally cannot do: complain, admit to disliking someone, and be something less than perfect.
When Smith finds out about The Bureau, her most immediate concern will be for the many violations of New Yorker's civil liberties. She is likely to look for other Different, and form enough of a collation to open up a dialogue with The Bureau about having an oversight and accountability committee. I don't see her wanting to overthrow the operation -- she will see the purpose that The Bureau serves. But she will want to enact some changes.
Physical description: (Describe your character's Earth AU description - if it's the same as their canon description, you can just say that.) In her AU, Smith is 5 years older than Padme was when she died. Whereas Padme had a lithe frame, Smith played soccer in college, and her body athletic than the senator's. While Padme wore purposfeully ornate gowns, Smith is highly aware of her public imagine and this reflects in her choice of clothing: That means work-appropriate dresses that can transition from the city council chambers, to a press conference, to a fundraiser. Think J. Crew. She wears her hair cut to her shoulders, doesn’t leave the house without being put together. The only time you will catch her outside of this basic outfit is when she is jogging or playing soccer.
Your Characters 'Event Memory'? (This is your characters first memory that brings them in the game, the memory is very short - 10 - 30 seconds)
She’ll see a short snippet from a picnic with Anakin. She won’t see his face, but she will remember wildflowers and the picnic blanket.
Anything else? (Is there anything else not covered by the above that you want to tell us about your character?)
Writing Samples
https://tramitem-meme.dreamwidth.org/279.html?thread=105495#cmt105495
