Post by Lemur, The Kool-Aid Guy on Sept 10, 2011 21:22:44 GMT -5
Password: Sarlacc
Character permission Jace
Name: Lyn Bondara
Race: Twi’lek
Age: 27
Height: 5’7”
Weight: 136 lbs
Birth place: Denon, Lower City
Appearance:
Lyn is a slender purple Twi’lek, whose skin lightens on her face, but remains a slightly darker purple on her lekku and sides. Her headtails themselves are long and shapely (as is her body), falling down to her lower back when they aren’t worn over her shoulders. Generally they fall freely though, only moved when she sits down in a chair or leans against a wall to prevent uncomfortable pinching.
Her face is as slender as her body, punctuated by full lips that seem to be perpetually on the verge of a smile. Her nose is thin and unobtrusive. She has ‘ear cones’ instead of more ‘normal’ ears. Her eyes are a placid grey, which manages to convey a great deal of emotion. You could even say her eyes tell the story.
Like most Twi’lek females, she has a slight exhibitionist streak and her attire invariably shows off her slender figure to the fullest whenever she’s off the air. She typically wears curve-hugging pants, generally in black, a tank top that reveals her midriff, usually forest green, and over the top of that, a fine fishnet shirt. Variations abound, with tops sometimes revealing more and sometimes revealing less, and sometime swapping out the pants for skirts or shorts.
When she is on camera though, her dress is more conservative: a snug, but not overly snug, top covering her upper body and simple pants. Generally they are green and black respectively, her favorite colors. And ones she doesn’t clash atrociously with.
All the time her attire is topped off with a black headdress with an ornament on the front in a dark gray metallic tone.
However, at formal events she does clean up quite nicely and can best be described as ‘ravishing’ in the low-cut black evening gown she enjoys wearing when she has the opportunity to.
Personality:
Almost miraculously considering her job, Lyn Bondara is an extremely honest, optimistic, understanding, and hard-working woman with an impressive resume and strong following.
On the air, she has a confident optimism that centers around her belief in the rightness of the Republic’s cause, and the inevitability that the good side will always win in the end. She doesn’t let anything shake that. But she also doesn’t turn a blind eye to problems inside the Republic. She is under no illusions that the Republic is perfect, and she’s reported on and investigated enough that she knows this for a fact. But she doesn’t let any of that shake her faith in democracy and the greatest government ever to grace the galaxy.
Off the air, she lives up to her name in Twi’leki: carefree snow. She’s light, soft, airy, and thoroughly without worry. She has a smile that can melt hearts, and a laugh that sounds like bells ringing. The fact that she regularly appears on the holonet and that she writes a column hasn’t gone to her head at all, and she remains very much an ordinary person. The same applies to her family roots. Even though she now belongs to a wealthy family, she is extremely generous with her credits. Charity is more than just a value she holds dear, its something she actively works toward. She’s gone so far as to host charity events in fact.
But she isn’t all happiness and optimism. When it comes to the Sith, her kindness disappears. Her heart is incredibly hardened against their Empire and what it represents. Her charity doesn’t extend to them.
She is also rather embarrassed about her upbringing before her mother met her stepfather. She feels awkward for going from a poor little girl to a wealthy and highly educated reporter. She also misses her sister. They were, understandably, quite close. She even feels guilty for being so well-off in comparison to others.
She’s also been romantically deprived in her life thanks to her career and her time spent studying, but it hasn’t dampened her spirits any. She’s convinced that one day she’ll meet Mr. Right and be swept off her feet. Its certainly something she wants, even if she’s not certain of how or when it could happen.
Occupation:Journalist (Republic News Network)
Rank: Editorialist, Investigative Reporter and Network Correspondent.
Skills:
Quick Study- Lyn catches on very quickly to new concepts and new challenges, the product of her keen mind and her lengthy time spent learning at school. Its second nature to her.
Dance- Lyn makes for a great dancer thanks to practice and natural grace. She’s been told she’s quite ‘enchanting.’
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 5
Intelligence: 7
Speed: 5
Leadership: 6
Unarmed: 5
Melee Weapons: 1
Ranged Weapons: 1
Alignment: +4
Bio:
BIRTH AND HARDSHIPS
Born in 3628 BBY in the Lower City of the city-world of Denon to Nat Bondara (a deadbeat and sometimes mechanic) and Aayla Bondara (a maid), Lyn and Aola Bondara were twins only ten minutes apart. Lyn was the elder, though it honestly didn’t matter. The two were identical.
Despite low socioeconomic status, the two unmarried parents were happy for a few years. They'd met in a cantina and bonded over being in the same clan. It wasn't long before they moved in together, and things seemed to be going tolerably well. Until the twins were born. The spark was gone then. Nat stuck around and did the minimum needed of him. But he spent more time working at the garage than he did at the run-down apartment they lived in.
He worked nights, and Aayla worked days. They only had the slightest overlap to be together as a family, and Nat was more interested in eating take-out and sitting around the apartment in his underpants watching holodramas than he was in quality time with the family. During the day, when it was his turn to watch the twins, he frequently ignored their crying, and only intervened to change them and feed them once in a while when the crying got on his nerves.
Only when the twins started to walk and talk did Nat start to pay real attention to them. From early days it was clear that though the girls had a very distinct resemblance as twins, they were totally different. Lyn was drawn towards her mother, and Aola to her father. Their parents seemed to have similar opinions, as Aayla found Lyn to be a little angel and Nat found Aola to be a cheery little girl with a lot of heart. Lyn enjoyed being held by her mother and being read to, while Aola loved to be sitting by her father watching the images moving on the various screens he watched.
At the age of five, the twin’s parents were married. It was one of their on-again off-again periods of romance. One never to be matched again.
With Aayla working at hotels to keep everything sparkling and well-stocked and Nat working at the garage or drinking away his paycheck, the twins were left together quite often. They navigated the slums to school together, they learned to fend for themselves quite well.
The school was a rough place, under government scrutiny for its horrible safety record, awful attendance, high drop-out rate, and incredibly low test scores. It was one of the worst examples of a Lower City school you could find anywhere in the Inner Rim.
Apart from her sister, she had two other notable friends from her early days. A Rodian boy named Meero and a human girl named Lasha. Meero was the kid who always tried too hard to be popular, with the result of being manipulated on a regular basis. To her slight shame, Lyn manipulated him a few times herself. Usually for little favors, like getting into the lunch line at school a little later but still having a good spot. Then Lasha was, quite honestly, a horrible little child. Her manipulations were masterful, and she already knew exactly how to get what she wanted from anyone. Lyn included. But the purple Twi’lek was fine being manipulated, because being friends with Lasha had its perks. She was popular, and when Lyn was with her, people didn’t look down on her, despite her poor clothes and used school supplies.
The task of learning itself was something Lyn caught on to well. She was a quick study, and she seemed to absorb the information presented like a purple sponge. She didn't have to study, and she didn't have to take notes. She simply showed up, paid attention, and got excellent grades.
She found history and literature to be her favorite topics, though she also liked learning about drama. Several of her friends formed a drama club, but there was a fee to enter the group that her family couldn't afford. Lyn had to settle for just watching.
Her spare time was taken up by reading books from the library. In many ways they were her best friends. She could learn about worlds she had no chance of seeing, exotic occupations she had no chance of doing, and fascinating foods she could only dream of trying. Reading made all those things achievable in her mind. She liked that.
As school progressed, Lyn’s parents slipped farther and farther apart. There were frequent yelling matches, visits from the police for domestic disturbance calls, and finally a separation. Aayla and Nat divorced when the twins turned 15. Purely to spite their mother, Nat put his foot down and demanded to keep Aola. They had an especially heated argument over that topic, and Aayla stormed out with her belongings and Lyn.
The two went as far as their money could take them, three districts away to be exact. Lyn found herself in a new school, one marginally better than her old one, and Aayla found employment as a maid in an Upper City hotel directly above their district. And there they stayed for a year, trying hard to make ends meet and nearly failing. If not for some kind of intervention, they would have both drowned in squalor.
A TURN FOR THE BETTER
But luck or the Force was with them, and things wound up improving. Aayla met a human man named Jorgen Diniz one day, six months after her divorce ,when she was cleaning his room, and he was positively enamored with her. Through dogged persistence, he began a whirlwind courtship that managed to capture the Twi’lek maid’s heart.
Aayla protested at first, certain the man just had a passing fancy in her and that his interest would fade with a few days’ time. But as he kept coming back over a week to see her in between cleaning rooms during her work schedule, she began to wonder if he was serious.
She was still quite worried. She'd never so much as dated outside her own species, and she was well-aware of her species' reputation as eye candy. Aayla was understandably apprehensive and under the suspicion he merely wanted a fling, or a piece of ornamentation to hang on his arm and earn him admiration from his fellow human elite. It hadn't occurred to her that he was serious until he pledged to remain in the hotel until she went out on a date with him. A week later he was still there, doing nothing but waiting for her to make her rounds changing the linens.
That was when she tried to find excuses. It would never work between them, they were too different, his family would never approve, she was just a poor woman, and of course the biggest deterrent: she had a daughter. Only he didn’t mind she had a daughter, and in fact he even did his best to win over Lyn, wisely realizing that if you got in with the child you'd have an advantage with the mother.
The girl was skeptical at first, but in a two-week campaign, he did his best to win her over. Jorgen took her to the zoo for the first time with her mother, a luxury they'd never had the money for before. She saw reeks, acklays, nexus, and the akul from Shili. There were so many exotic animals, many of which she'd read about in books before. It was like walking out into the soft sunlight of morning after a long time indoors, and she reveled in that day. At the end of it, Jorgen bought her a stuffed nexu. Down to the stylized teeth and eyes, it was adorable, but as the human benefactor rightly pointed out, Lyn was much prettier. She'd grown much over the years. She was fifteen, and just starting to date, but at the peculiar age where she still had the sweetness of childhood. She'd remained only a student, as her mother exhorted her to 'treat learning as your job.' As such, she hadn't had a chance to lose her spirit in the drudgery of work.
At the end of those busy two weeks, she determined Jorgen was much better than her father, and she even suggested her mother marry the man, jokingly at first. However it was soon to become something more than just a joke.
Aayla was understandably blown away by the realization that Jorgen was genuinely smitten with her in something more than a transient way. And she had to admit she was rather lonely... She candidly asked Lyn if she wanted a new father. The teenage girl nodded yes. And just like that, it was agreed.
Jorgen was an investor from a rich family. Quite rich. He didn't have to worry about his expenses, anything he needed was provided. It liberated him from the daily routine of so many, and freed him up to spend his time in interesting ways. His parents had always taught him to follow his interests and his passions, provided they didn't hurt anyone. However they hadn't quite expected him to use that advice in marrying a poor Twi'lek maid. They were aghast, though they grudgingly accepted his decision with time.
At the age of sixteen, Lyn and Aayla moved with Jorgen to Calamar, the capital city of Esseles.
PROSPERITY
It was a major change from living in slums on Denon. Suddenly she didn’t have to beg or steal for food or school supplies. She no longer had to worry about her most basic needs, it was like a dream come true. She had nice clothes, she had full meals, she had friends. She was even accepted into a private school thanks to her new father's influence.
At the school, she didn’t exactly blend in. She had the new clothes and school supplies for once, and even a neat little uniform, but she didn’t know how to act. She was nervous about the change, and it showed in her attitude and her actions.
Hesitantly she stepped out and made an effort to make friends and learn the ropes. She had mixed successes. As far as friends went, she made one good friend: a very empathic Zeltron girl named Varla, who was headed down a pre-med path. She was always extremely kind, and she gravitated immediately towards Lyn, who was obviously lost and bewildered. She helped provide a little direction, and showed her around the school.
For the most part they only spent time together during school hours, bonding during lunch breaks and giving each other knowing looks during class, but they also found themselves in after school activities. Lyn finally got the chance to join a drama club like she'd wanted since middle school. She did, and dragged Varla into it with her, auditioning for the supporting character "Rosya" in the "The Lights of Coruscant." She received a great deal of support from her parents, and from her friends. The club adviser also described her performance as 'genuine and heartfelt.'
But despite clubs and Varla's friendship, for the entire first year she was still horribly confused as she settled in. Her social life was extremely limited as she struggled to stay on top of her mountains of schoolwork. It was a challenge. Never before had she actually needed to study, she'd simply known. Now she had to take notes and review them in order to stay afloat. Luckily she was extremely proactive, and she worked very hard to keep good grades.
She worked hard for those two years, preparing for college the way her stepfather encouraged her. He told her it was the only way to grow, that she had to keep moving and find some way to give back to the galaxy even if she didn’t need to work to earn money. He advised her to find something she loved, and stick with it.
She tried a mixture of new and interesting activities like drama, and old familiar activities like writing. She'd dabbled with the latter ever since middle school, starting with 'silly' bits of fan fiction for her favorite books' universes. It had rubbed off on her vocabulary and her written assignments. She was used to writing. Increasingly she focused on one field that combined both writing and performance: journalism.
She liked the idea of being able to smile for a camera and deliver important information, then turn right around and dream up an editorial on some interesting topic. It also helped that she loved being informed. In hindsight, she was pretty sure it had to do with reading the news magazines at the library. She'd been weeks, if not months, behind in the galactic news, but she'd still found it all quite fascinating. She'd kept up that habit by stealing away her stepfather's newspapers whenever he set them down, though they were all current.
Lyn wanted to try her hand at journalism, but her school didn't have a student newspaper she could join. But despite that lack of firsthand experience, and with the full support of her parents, she decided that was the path she wanted to pursue.
Things at home also took time to adjust. Everything was different, from the food to the surroundings. She had to relearn everything, from how to hold a fork to how speak clearly.
A combination of her stepfather’s name and her own academic prowess won her admission to Sperinad University, where she promptly declared a major of Media and Journalism. It was a gamble to try something so new, but college was a time for experimenting and finding one's place. She set out on that 'journey' at the age of 18.
EDUCATION
SU was a place she truly enjoyed being at, and Lyn was as happy as a clam her four years there. The very first thing she did upon arriving at the campus was a sit-down session with her guidance councilor to determine what exactly she had to do to make her ambitions into realities.
The answer was a lot of courses on media studies and production. Both written and broadcast journalism were covered under the Media and Journalism major, which was fortunate, as Lyn couldn’t decide between the two. She also found she had an interest in the production end as well. The use of cameras, lighting, and sets intrigued her. And she realized it was every bit as essential for news as the flashy delivery or the gathering of information.
Ultimately she wound up minoring in Holonet Production, something she realized would probably help her understand broadcast journalism in a better way. She was right. It was an immensely great help to her.
During her four years, she also found herself making friends and thriving with extracurricular activities.
Her circle of friends was quite wide, but the core group consisted of a mischievous male Corellian student named Garik Tobril, an exuberant female Echani named Shana Ri, and her roommate, another Twi’lek, a green female named Supisy’vrei. While Lyn preferred her name split, the product of her upbringing outside of Ryloth, Supisy preferred not to have her name split.
Garik taught her to play Sabacc and Pazaak, and joked he was going to turn her into a ‘bad person.’ He significantly improved Lyn’s sense of humor as well, with a tendency towards the distinctly off-color. The two spent a disproportionate amount of time watching holofilms and making snide comments about them. They even set up sessions with multiple friends where the two would comment over microphone for the others.
Shana insisted that Lyn learn some Echani martial arts, and made it her personal mission to force the Twi’lek student into some sort of martial arts enthusiast. She had mixed results. Lyn liked to joke about her own lack of skills, but she did improve greatly. It was obvious she was never going to be excellent at it, but after a full four years she was capable of beating a few people up if need be.
Supisy’vrei’s contribution to Lyn was one of the most interesting: dance. The extremely graceful and much more experienced green Twi’lek was helping to pay her way through school by dancing with a band at one of the local cantinas on nights. Thanks to a whole lot of persuading, cajoling, and bribing with delicious cooking; Supisy managed to get Lyn up on stage with her to practice on a regular basis, then even up there for performances on Saturday nights. She always said Lyn was ‘a natural’ for the stage.
The two had an extremely close relationship, thanks to living together for all four years of college in a total of three different dorm rooms.
Lyn found herself with her own unique hobbies and interests as well. Chief among them was the school newspaper. She quickly found herself as a columnist there, sounding off about all kinds of issues in the news with what her readers and editors decided was insightful, and ‘a pleasant mix of opinion and fact that succeeds in being persuasive and relatable.’ It was high praise that she enjoyed very much, and it reinforced her decision to enter the field of journalism.
Regrettably she never had any major activities or hobbies to drag her friends into in exchange. What she did do was keep them informed on all the latest political developments in the galaxy. She insisted on that much, not wanting her friends to be 'ignorant of the things that really matter, and will matter fifty years from now.' Of course they weren't quite as keen on news as she was, but then again, few people were.
As her studies progressed, she did want to try her hand at something more than just writing, and she got her chance in her third year when she was allowed onto the University news team as a reporter. She was given a microphone and teamed up with a cameraman for the task of interviewing students on campus. It was clearly her track record with the newspaper and her good looks that won her the position. She was blessed with being photogenic.
Her personal life was understandably hectic with so many things to balance, and unsurprisingly something got left out. Romance. She had exactly on boyfriend during all her years of college. He was a nice guy, another Twi’lek named Zelada’blen who she shared a few classes with. They started off as loose friends, not very close. He attended her film commentary sessions with Garik and always had a smile ready for her. Eventually Lyn realized he had a crush, and proactively asked him out. For a year they shared a few movies and dinners together, but things were never as serious or rewarding as she’d imagined. When they both graduated, they split ways.
She was, however, blessed with an excellent support system. Just fifteen minutes away by speeder were her parents. Lyn made a point of visiting them from time to time, and occasionally bringing her friends home with her for some quality time.
Academically, Lyn was always a strong student, and a bit more imaginative than her peers. That meant she did better with the more open-ended classes, the ones entailing writing and creativity. The more clinical classes, the mathematics and the science, were much less successful for her. She struggled to deal with plain and dispassionate numbers. She appreciated their value yes, but they didn't speak to her the way the written word did.
She graduated from Sperinad with honors in 3606 BBY, and not a week after proudly putting up her diploma on the wall she was extended an excellent offer in response to her inquiries about graduate school. The University of Coruscant had offered her the opportunity for graduate studies in the College of Journalism. It was a great honor, and huge change from the poor little girl on Denon she’d been a few years earlier. She felt like all her hard work was paying off, and she was proud of it.
She entered the University of Coruscant's four year graduate journalism program the same year, eager to keep learning but troubled she had to leave her good friends and her family. They all made promises to stay in touch even over the distance between them, something Lyn kept up on extremely well.
Starting off, Lyn quickly discovered just how different UC was from her old school. To begin with, it was much larger. The student body was massive, and working at its student newspaper was almost like working a real news agency. In fact, it essentially was one for all practical purposes. The purple Twi’lek also noticed very quickly that her classes were much harder, a product of their being on such a higher level than before. That in no way reflected on Sperinad, it was simply the fact she was now a grad student.
She quickly learned to look at media in different ways than before. At Sperinad she'd learned the ways information was presented, and had spent a great deal of time on the nuts and bolts. At UC, she spent a lot more time fussing over content. That was something culminating in a forty page paper on 'What is News-Worthy.' That was a line she struggled to clarify. There were, after all, two different kinds of news. What people needed to know, and what people wanted to know. She accepted the latter only to help deliver the former by sneaking in 'real' news to the fluff. That was her goal: to sneak in real information in a captivating and easy to relate to way.
Luckily, after two years of busy studying and late nights trying to get ahead, Lyn was given the opportunity to intern with the Republic News Network. She jumped at that opportunity, and eagerly headed to their Coruscant headquarters to get things moving. At first she did all the usual things, like fetching documents and hot beverages, but her talents were soon put to work proofreading columns and preparing anchors for broadcasts. She enjoyed all the behind-the-scenes work, and her minor in Holonet Production proved extremely useful.
She held that intern spot for two years, during which she got to know a great deal of the RNN's Coruscant office. She was building bridges, making connections to help her when she graduated and began her career.
CAREER
It was perfectly understandable that upon gaining her second degree she was hired on by RNN. Rather than her behind-the-scenes talents though, she was quickly selected to go on-camera thanks to her combination of looks and brains. Just four months into her work for RNN, she was one of the reporters called on to conduct local interviews and report from various locations for the morning news. It was considered one of the less important jobs to have, one at entry level.
She quickly discovered just how much she loved it. It was great to tell people the news, to report from the various locations on Coruscant she was at.
At first it was local interest stories. Various festivals and events to be covered. But RNN realized she had so much more potential, and the stories started to get more important. Interviews with community leaders, then with business interests, then commentators.
However her looks and her sunny demeanor earned her a large following over two years. Combine that with her ability to ask the tough and important questions, and before long she was the go-to lady for interviews, from Senators to men on the street. All at the age of 26. And then she started to write editorials from time to time as well, purely because she couldn’t get enough of it. They went up on RNN's holonet site, and were also published from time to time in smaller print news.
But if her career was going well, her personal life certainly didn’t match. She stayed in touch with her friends and family over very long distance, but she had difficulties finding time to make any friends on Coruscant. Amidst all the hustle and bustle it was easy to be surprisingly alone. She had absolutely no luck with dating whatsoever, and not for lack of trying. She did speed dating, which was usually met with awkward puns involving her job, or by intimidation over the fact she was someone they saw regularly on the holonet.
Her fan-base was surprisingly large, probably connected to the fact she was quite pretty and rather widely known. From time to time someone would hold up an “I love you Lyn” sign while she was broadcasting. Its something Lyn found more amusing than annoying. In true optimistic fashion, she tried to simply make the best of it.
RP Sample:
“Thank you Sarteesh,” Lyn nodded at the camera to give the illusion she was making a gesture at the anchor in a news desk halfway across the planet. It was just one of those little things you learned on the production end of media, putting on a show even as you provided real information.
“I’m here at the Galactic Senate waiting on word about the vote of the latest appropriations bill, SB 271. This bill, if approved, would raise taxes and tariffs by a small amount to help fund the war effort against the Sith. Several of the junior senators rallied a campaign to defeat the bill, today we’ll see if they were successful in undermining the war effort, or whether necessary sacrifices have been made.”
The purple Twi’lek’s warm smile was slightly at odds with the content of her words, but it inspired confidence in the system at the same time. Her tone said that the bill would go through, that the Senate would take whatever measures it took to win the war. That everything would be all right.
“So Lyn, these opposition Senators, why exactly are they doing this? And what would the ramifications be for Republic citizens?”
“I’m glad you asked that Sarteesh. The opposition movement is arguing that fiscal responsibility matters more than fighting this war. Of course it should go without saying that no amount of fiscal responsibility is going to defeat the Sith Empire. Without the passage of this spending bill, our brave soldiers might find themselves fighting with outdated armor or blasters. So the ramifications might be quite serious indeed.”
“Thank you for your reporting Lyn, we’ll be right back to you as soon as we have that vote out. Now in other news…” Sarteesh smiled broadly, using her signature 'anchor grin.'
Lyn watched as the red light on the camera flickered out, announcing she was off the air and could relax some. Her perfect posture slackened a little, but the half-smile on her face didn’t go away. That was an actual feature of hers.
She patted the cameraman on the back then walked over to a bench in the formal lobby outside the Senate chamber, where they were set up to wait on shooting. The Senate guards were quite serious about their duties, and that meant no cameras in the chamber this time around. However, RNN was always the first to know the results. And she was going to break them.
Lyn leaned back against the cool wall behind her, sweeping her lekku over her shoulders to prevent them from getting pinched between her back and the wall. They were sensitive, quite sensitive in fact. The feel of her palms against them was soothing. It wasn’t that she had any jitters about being on camera. She had jitters about the vote itself. She was hardly impartial about it, the war had to be funded. Doing otherwise was downright treasonous.
A uniformed man walked over to her slowly with datapad in hand, the results of the vote. Ever-so-gently he placed it into her hand and nodded to her. “Hi, uh, Miss Bondara. Big fan of your segments. Take care now.”
Lyn gave him a smile. Vote or not, it didn’t hurt her to be nice. The results would wait another ten seconds.
“Thank you.”
Character permission Jace
Name: Lyn Bondara
Race: Twi’lek
Age: 27
Height: 5’7”
Weight: 136 lbs
Birth place: Denon, Lower City
Appearance:
Lyn is a slender purple Twi’lek, whose skin lightens on her face, but remains a slightly darker purple on her lekku and sides. Her headtails themselves are long and shapely (as is her body), falling down to her lower back when they aren’t worn over her shoulders. Generally they fall freely though, only moved when she sits down in a chair or leans against a wall to prevent uncomfortable pinching.
Her face is as slender as her body, punctuated by full lips that seem to be perpetually on the verge of a smile. Her nose is thin and unobtrusive. She has ‘ear cones’ instead of more ‘normal’ ears. Her eyes are a placid grey, which manages to convey a great deal of emotion. You could even say her eyes tell the story.
Like most Twi’lek females, she has a slight exhibitionist streak and her attire invariably shows off her slender figure to the fullest whenever she’s off the air. She typically wears curve-hugging pants, generally in black, a tank top that reveals her midriff, usually forest green, and over the top of that, a fine fishnet shirt. Variations abound, with tops sometimes revealing more and sometimes revealing less, and sometime swapping out the pants for skirts or shorts.
When she is on camera though, her dress is more conservative: a snug, but not overly snug, top covering her upper body and simple pants. Generally they are green and black respectively, her favorite colors. And ones she doesn’t clash atrociously with.
All the time her attire is topped off with a black headdress with an ornament on the front in a dark gray metallic tone.
However, at formal events she does clean up quite nicely and can best be described as ‘ravishing’ in the low-cut black evening gown she enjoys wearing when she has the opportunity to.
Personality:
Almost miraculously considering her job, Lyn Bondara is an extremely honest, optimistic, understanding, and hard-working woman with an impressive resume and strong following.
On the air, she has a confident optimism that centers around her belief in the rightness of the Republic’s cause, and the inevitability that the good side will always win in the end. She doesn’t let anything shake that. But she also doesn’t turn a blind eye to problems inside the Republic. She is under no illusions that the Republic is perfect, and she’s reported on and investigated enough that she knows this for a fact. But she doesn’t let any of that shake her faith in democracy and the greatest government ever to grace the galaxy.
Off the air, she lives up to her name in Twi’leki: carefree snow. She’s light, soft, airy, and thoroughly without worry. She has a smile that can melt hearts, and a laugh that sounds like bells ringing. The fact that she regularly appears on the holonet and that she writes a column hasn’t gone to her head at all, and she remains very much an ordinary person. The same applies to her family roots. Even though she now belongs to a wealthy family, she is extremely generous with her credits. Charity is more than just a value she holds dear, its something she actively works toward. She’s gone so far as to host charity events in fact.
But she isn’t all happiness and optimism. When it comes to the Sith, her kindness disappears. Her heart is incredibly hardened against their Empire and what it represents. Her charity doesn’t extend to them.
She is also rather embarrassed about her upbringing before her mother met her stepfather. She feels awkward for going from a poor little girl to a wealthy and highly educated reporter. She also misses her sister. They were, understandably, quite close. She even feels guilty for being so well-off in comparison to others.
She’s also been romantically deprived in her life thanks to her career and her time spent studying, but it hasn’t dampened her spirits any. She’s convinced that one day she’ll meet Mr. Right and be swept off her feet. Its certainly something she wants, even if she’s not certain of how or when it could happen.
Occupation:Journalist (Republic News Network)
Rank: Editorialist, Investigative Reporter and Network Correspondent.
Skills:
Quick Study- Lyn catches on very quickly to new concepts and new challenges, the product of her keen mind and her lengthy time spent learning at school. Its second nature to her.
Dance- Lyn makes for a great dancer thanks to practice and natural grace. She’s been told she’s quite ‘enchanting.’
Attributes:
Physical Strength: 5
Intelligence: 7
Speed: 5
Leadership: 6
Unarmed: 5
Melee Weapons: 1
Ranged Weapons: 1
Alignment: +4
Bio:
BIRTH AND HARDSHIPS
Born in 3628 BBY in the Lower City of the city-world of Denon to Nat Bondara (a deadbeat and sometimes mechanic) and Aayla Bondara (a maid), Lyn and Aola Bondara were twins only ten minutes apart. Lyn was the elder, though it honestly didn’t matter. The two were identical.
Despite low socioeconomic status, the two unmarried parents were happy for a few years. They'd met in a cantina and bonded over being in the same clan. It wasn't long before they moved in together, and things seemed to be going tolerably well. Until the twins were born. The spark was gone then. Nat stuck around and did the minimum needed of him. But he spent more time working at the garage than he did at the run-down apartment they lived in.
He worked nights, and Aayla worked days. They only had the slightest overlap to be together as a family, and Nat was more interested in eating take-out and sitting around the apartment in his underpants watching holodramas than he was in quality time with the family. During the day, when it was his turn to watch the twins, he frequently ignored their crying, and only intervened to change them and feed them once in a while when the crying got on his nerves.
Only when the twins started to walk and talk did Nat start to pay real attention to them. From early days it was clear that though the girls had a very distinct resemblance as twins, they were totally different. Lyn was drawn towards her mother, and Aola to her father. Their parents seemed to have similar opinions, as Aayla found Lyn to be a little angel and Nat found Aola to be a cheery little girl with a lot of heart. Lyn enjoyed being held by her mother and being read to, while Aola loved to be sitting by her father watching the images moving on the various screens he watched.
At the age of five, the twin’s parents were married. It was one of their on-again off-again periods of romance. One never to be matched again.
With Aayla working at hotels to keep everything sparkling and well-stocked and Nat working at the garage or drinking away his paycheck, the twins were left together quite often. They navigated the slums to school together, they learned to fend for themselves quite well.
The school was a rough place, under government scrutiny for its horrible safety record, awful attendance, high drop-out rate, and incredibly low test scores. It was one of the worst examples of a Lower City school you could find anywhere in the Inner Rim.
Apart from her sister, she had two other notable friends from her early days. A Rodian boy named Meero and a human girl named Lasha. Meero was the kid who always tried too hard to be popular, with the result of being manipulated on a regular basis. To her slight shame, Lyn manipulated him a few times herself. Usually for little favors, like getting into the lunch line at school a little later but still having a good spot. Then Lasha was, quite honestly, a horrible little child. Her manipulations were masterful, and she already knew exactly how to get what she wanted from anyone. Lyn included. But the purple Twi’lek was fine being manipulated, because being friends with Lasha had its perks. She was popular, and when Lyn was with her, people didn’t look down on her, despite her poor clothes and used school supplies.
The task of learning itself was something Lyn caught on to well. She was a quick study, and she seemed to absorb the information presented like a purple sponge. She didn't have to study, and she didn't have to take notes. She simply showed up, paid attention, and got excellent grades.
She found history and literature to be her favorite topics, though she also liked learning about drama. Several of her friends formed a drama club, but there was a fee to enter the group that her family couldn't afford. Lyn had to settle for just watching.
Her spare time was taken up by reading books from the library. In many ways they were her best friends. She could learn about worlds she had no chance of seeing, exotic occupations she had no chance of doing, and fascinating foods she could only dream of trying. Reading made all those things achievable in her mind. She liked that.
As school progressed, Lyn’s parents slipped farther and farther apart. There were frequent yelling matches, visits from the police for domestic disturbance calls, and finally a separation. Aayla and Nat divorced when the twins turned 15. Purely to spite their mother, Nat put his foot down and demanded to keep Aola. They had an especially heated argument over that topic, and Aayla stormed out with her belongings and Lyn.
The two went as far as their money could take them, three districts away to be exact. Lyn found herself in a new school, one marginally better than her old one, and Aayla found employment as a maid in an Upper City hotel directly above their district. And there they stayed for a year, trying hard to make ends meet and nearly failing. If not for some kind of intervention, they would have both drowned in squalor.
A TURN FOR THE BETTER
But luck or the Force was with them, and things wound up improving. Aayla met a human man named Jorgen Diniz one day, six months after her divorce ,when she was cleaning his room, and he was positively enamored with her. Through dogged persistence, he began a whirlwind courtship that managed to capture the Twi’lek maid’s heart.
Aayla protested at first, certain the man just had a passing fancy in her and that his interest would fade with a few days’ time. But as he kept coming back over a week to see her in between cleaning rooms during her work schedule, she began to wonder if he was serious.
She was still quite worried. She'd never so much as dated outside her own species, and she was well-aware of her species' reputation as eye candy. Aayla was understandably apprehensive and under the suspicion he merely wanted a fling, or a piece of ornamentation to hang on his arm and earn him admiration from his fellow human elite. It hadn't occurred to her that he was serious until he pledged to remain in the hotel until she went out on a date with him. A week later he was still there, doing nothing but waiting for her to make her rounds changing the linens.
That was when she tried to find excuses. It would never work between them, they were too different, his family would never approve, she was just a poor woman, and of course the biggest deterrent: she had a daughter. Only he didn’t mind she had a daughter, and in fact he even did his best to win over Lyn, wisely realizing that if you got in with the child you'd have an advantage with the mother.
The girl was skeptical at first, but in a two-week campaign, he did his best to win her over. Jorgen took her to the zoo for the first time with her mother, a luxury they'd never had the money for before. She saw reeks, acklays, nexus, and the akul from Shili. There were so many exotic animals, many of which she'd read about in books before. It was like walking out into the soft sunlight of morning after a long time indoors, and she reveled in that day. At the end of it, Jorgen bought her a stuffed nexu. Down to the stylized teeth and eyes, it was adorable, but as the human benefactor rightly pointed out, Lyn was much prettier. She'd grown much over the years. She was fifteen, and just starting to date, but at the peculiar age where she still had the sweetness of childhood. She'd remained only a student, as her mother exhorted her to 'treat learning as your job.' As such, she hadn't had a chance to lose her spirit in the drudgery of work.
At the end of those busy two weeks, she determined Jorgen was much better than her father, and she even suggested her mother marry the man, jokingly at first. However it was soon to become something more than just a joke.
Aayla was understandably blown away by the realization that Jorgen was genuinely smitten with her in something more than a transient way. And she had to admit she was rather lonely... She candidly asked Lyn if she wanted a new father. The teenage girl nodded yes. And just like that, it was agreed.
Jorgen was an investor from a rich family. Quite rich. He didn't have to worry about his expenses, anything he needed was provided. It liberated him from the daily routine of so many, and freed him up to spend his time in interesting ways. His parents had always taught him to follow his interests and his passions, provided they didn't hurt anyone. However they hadn't quite expected him to use that advice in marrying a poor Twi'lek maid. They were aghast, though they grudgingly accepted his decision with time.
At the age of sixteen, Lyn and Aayla moved with Jorgen to Calamar, the capital city of Esseles.
PROSPERITY
It was a major change from living in slums on Denon. Suddenly she didn’t have to beg or steal for food or school supplies. She no longer had to worry about her most basic needs, it was like a dream come true. She had nice clothes, she had full meals, she had friends. She was even accepted into a private school thanks to her new father's influence.
At the school, she didn’t exactly blend in. She had the new clothes and school supplies for once, and even a neat little uniform, but she didn’t know how to act. She was nervous about the change, and it showed in her attitude and her actions.
Hesitantly she stepped out and made an effort to make friends and learn the ropes. She had mixed successes. As far as friends went, she made one good friend: a very empathic Zeltron girl named Varla, who was headed down a pre-med path. She was always extremely kind, and she gravitated immediately towards Lyn, who was obviously lost and bewildered. She helped provide a little direction, and showed her around the school.
For the most part they only spent time together during school hours, bonding during lunch breaks and giving each other knowing looks during class, but they also found themselves in after school activities. Lyn finally got the chance to join a drama club like she'd wanted since middle school. She did, and dragged Varla into it with her, auditioning for the supporting character "Rosya" in the "The Lights of Coruscant." She received a great deal of support from her parents, and from her friends. The club adviser also described her performance as 'genuine and heartfelt.'
But despite clubs and Varla's friendship, for the entire first year she was still horribly confused as she settled in. Her social life was extremely limited as she struggled to stay on top of her mountains of schoolwork. It was a challenge. Never before had she actually needed to study, she'd simply known. Now she had to take notes and review them in order to stay afloat. Luckily she was extremely proactive, and she worked very hard to keep good grades.
She worked hard for those two years, preparing for college the way her stepfather encouraged her. He told her it was the only way to grow, that she had to keep moving and find some way to give back to the galaxy even if she didn’t need to work to earn money. He advised her to find something she loved, and stick with it.
She tried a mixture of new and interesting activities like drama, and old familiar activities like writing. She'd dabbled with the latter ever since middle school, starting with 'silly' bits of fan fiction for her favorite books' universes. It had rubbed off on her vocabulary and her written assignments. She was used to writing. Increasingly she focused on one field that combined both writing and performance: journalism.
She liked the idea of being able to smile for a camera and deliver important information, then turn right around and dream up an editorial on some interesting topic. It also helped that she loved being informed. In hindsight, she was pretty sure it had to do with reading the news magazines at the library. She'd been weeks, if not months, behind in the galactic news, but she'd still found it all quite fascinating. She'd kept up that habit by stealing away her stepfather's newspapers whenever he set them down, though they were all current.
Lyn wanted to try her hand at journalism, but her school didn't have a student newspaper she could join. But despite that lack of firsthand experience, and with the full support of her parents, she decided that was the path she wanted to pursue.
Things at home also took time to adjust. Everything was different, from the food to the surroundings. She had to relearn everything, from how to hold a fork to how speak clearly.
A combination of her stepfather’s name and her own academic prowess won her admission to Sperinad University, where she promptly declared a major of Media and Journalism. It was a gamble to try something so new, but college was a time for experimenting and finding one's place. She set out on that 'journey' at the age of 18.
EDUCATION
SU was a place she truly enjoyed being at, and Lyn was as happy as a clam her four years there. The very first thing she did upon arriving at the campus was a sit-down session with her guidance councilor to determine what exactly she had to do to make her ambitions into realities.
The answer was a lot of courses on media studies and production. Both written and broadcast journalism were covered under the Media and Journalism major, which was fortunate, as Lyn couldn’t decide between the two. She also found she had an interest in the production end as well. The use of cameras, lighting, and sets intrigued her. And she realized it was every bit as essential for news as the flashy delivery or the gathering of information.
Ultimately she wound up minoring in Holonet Production, something she realized would probably help her understand broadcast journalism in a better way. She was right. It was an immensely great help to her.
During her four years, she also found herself making friends and thriving with extracurricular activities.
Her circle of friends was quite wide, but the core group consisted of a mischievous male Corellian student named Garik Tobril, an exuberant female Echani named Shana Ri, and her roommate, another Twi’lek, a green female named Supisy’vrei. While Lyn preferred her name split, the product of her upbringing outside of Ryloth, Supisy preferred not to have her name split.
Garik taught her to play Sabacc and Pazaak, and joked he was going to turn her into a ‘bad person.’ He significantly improved Lyn’s sense of humor as well, with a tendency towards the distinctly off-color. The two spent a disproportionate amount of time watching holofilms and making snide comments about them. They even set up sessions with multiple friends where the two would comment over microphone for the others.
Shana insisted that Lyn learn some Echani martial arts, and made it her personal mission to force the Twi’lek student into some sort of martial arts enthusiast. She had mixed results. Lyn liked to joke about her own lack of skills, but she did improve greatly. It was obvious she was never going to be excellent at it, but after a full four years she was capable of beating a few people up if need be.
Supisy’vrei’s contribution to Lyn was one of the most interesting: dance. The extremely graceful and much more experienced green Twi’lek was helping to pay her way through school by dancing with a band at one of the local cantinas on nights. Thanks to a whole lot of persuading, cajoling, and bribing with delicious cooking; Supisy managed to get Lyn up on stage with her to practice on a regular basis, then even up there for performances on Saturday nights. She always said Lyn was ‘a natural’ for the stage.
The two had an extremely close relationship, thanks to living together for all four years of college in a total of three different dorm rooms.
Lyn found herself with her own unique hobbies and interests as well. Chief among them was the school newspaper. She quickly found herself as a columnist there, sounding off about all kinds of issues in the news with what her readers and editors decided was insightful, and ‘a pleasant mix of opinion and fact that succeeds in being persuasive and relatable.’ It was high praise that she enjoyed very much, and it reinforced her decision to enter the field of journalism.
Regrettably she never had any major activities or hobbies to drag her friends into in exchange. What she did do was keep them informed on all the latest political developments in the galaxy. She insisted on that much, not wanting her friends to be 'ignorant of the things that really matter, and will matter fifty years from now.' Of course they weren't quite as keen on news as she was, but then again, few people were.
As her studies progressed, she did want to try her hand at something more than just writing, and she got her chance in her third year when she was allowed onto the University news team as a reporter. She was given a microphone and teamed up with a cameraman for the task of interviewing students on campus. It was clearly her track record with the newspaper and her good looks that won her the position. She was blessed with being photogenic.
Her personal life was understandably hectic with so many things to balance, and unsurprisingly something got left out. Romance. She had exactly on boyfriend during all her years of college. He was a nice guy, another Twi’lek named Zelada’blen who she shared a few classes with. They started off as loose friends, not very close. He attended her film commentary sessions with Garik and always had a smile ready for her. Eventually Lyn realized he had a crush, and proactively asked him out. For a year they shared a few movies and dinners together, but things were never as serious or rewarding as she’d imagined. When they both graduated, they split ways.
She was, however, blessed with an excellent support system. Just fifteen minutes away by speeder were her parents. Lyn made a point of visiting them from time to time, and occasionally bringing her friends home with her for some quality time.
Academically, Lyn was always a strong student, and a bit more imaginative than her peers. That meant she did better with the more open-ended classes, the ones entailing writing and creativity. The more clinical classes, the mathematics and the science, were much less successful for her. She struggled to deal with plain and dispassionate numbers. She appreciated their value yes, but they didn't speak to her the way the written word did.
She graduated from Sperinad with honors in 3606 BBY, and not a week after proudly putting up her diploma on the wall she was extended an excellent offer in response to her inquiries about graduate school. The University of Coruscant had offered her the opportunity for graduate studies in the College of Journalism. It was a great honor, and huge change from the poor little girl on Denon she’d been a few years earlier. She felt like all her hard work was paying off, and she was proud of it.
She entered the University of Coruscant's four year graduate journalism program the same year, eager to keep learning but troubled she had to leave her good friends and her family. They all made promises to stay in touch even over the distance between them, something Lyn kept up on extremely well.
Starting off, Lyn quickly discovered just how different UC was from her old school. To begin with, it was much larger. The student body was massive, and working at its student newspaper was almost like working a real news agency. In fact, it essentially was one for all practical purposes. The purple Twi’lek also noticed very quickly that her classes were much harder, a product of their being on such a higher level than before. That in no way reflected on Sperinad, it was simply the fact she was now a grad student.
She quickly learned to look at media in different ways than before. At Sperinad she'd learned the ways information was presented, and had spent a great deal of time on the nuts and bolts. At UC, she spent a lot more time fussing over content. That was something culminating in a forty page paper on 'What is News-Worthy.' That was a line she struggled to clarify. There were, after all, two different kinds of news. What people needed to know, and what people wanted to know. She accepted the latter only to help deliver the former by sneaking in 'real' news to the fluff. That was her goal: to sneak in real information in a captivating and easy to relate to way.
Luckily, after two years of busy studying and late nights trying to get ahead, Lyn was given the opportunity to intern with the Republic News Network. She jumped at that opportunity, and eagerly headed to their Coruscant headquarters to get things moving. At first she did all the usual things, like fetching documents and hot beverages, but her talents were soon put to work proofreading columns and preparing anchors for broadcasts. She enjoyed all the behind-the-scenes work, and her minor in Holonet Production proved extremely useful.
She held that intern spot for two years, during which she got to know a great deal of the RNN's Coruscant office. She was building bridges, making connections to help her when she graduated and began her career.
CAREER
It was perfectly understandable that upon gaining her second degree she was hired on by RNN. Rather than her behind-the-scenes talents though, she was quickly selected to go on-camera thanks to her combination of looks and brains. Just four months into her work for RNN, she was one of the reporters called on to conduct local interviews and report from various locations for the morning news. It was considered one of the less important jobs to have, one at entry level.
She quickly discovered just how much she loved it. It was great to tell people the news, to report from the various locations on Coruscant she was at.
At first it was local interest stories. Various festivals and events to be covered. But RNN realized she had so much more potential, and the stories started to get more important. Interviews with community leaders, then with business interests, then commentators.
However her looks and her sunny demeanor earned her a large following over two years. Combine that with her ability to ask the tough and important questions, and before long she was the go-to lady for interviews, from Senators to men on the street. All at the age of 26. And then she started to write editorials from time to time as well, purely because she couldn’t get enough of it. They went up on RNN's holonet site, and were also published from time to time in smaller print news.
But if her career was going well, her personal life certainly didn’t match. She stayed in touch with her friends and family over very long distance, but she had difficulties finding time to make any friends on Coruscant. Amidst all the hustle and bustle it was easy to be surprisingly alone. She had absolutely no luck with dating whatsoever, and not for lack of trying. She did speed dating, which was usually met with awkward puns involving her job, or by intimidation over the fact she was someone they saw regularly on the holonet.
Her fan-base was surprisingly large, probably connected to the fact she was quite pretty and rather widely known. From time to time someone would hold up an “I love you Lyn” sign while she was broadcasting. Its something Lyn found more amusing than annoying. In true optimistic fashion, she tried to simply make the best of it.
RP Sample:
“Thank you Sarteesh,” Lyn nodded at the camera to give the illusion she was making a gesture at the anchor in a news desk halfway across the planet. It was just one of those little things you learned on the production end of media, putting on a show even as you provided real information.
“I’m here at the Galactic Senate waiting on word about the vote of the latest appropriations bill, SB 271. This bill, if approved, would raise taxes and tariffs by a small amount to help fund the war effort against the Sith. Several of the junior senators rallied a campaign to defeat the bill, today we’ll see if they were successful in undermining the war effort, or whether necessary sacrifices have been made.”
The purple Twi’lek’s warm smile was slightly at odds with the content of her words, but it inspired confidence in the system at the same time. Her tone said that the bill would go through, that the Senate would take whatever measures it took to win the war. That everything would be all right.
“So Lyn, these opposition Senators, why exactly are they doing this? And what would the ramifications be for Republic citizens?”
“I’m glad you asked that Sarteesh. The opposition movement is arguing that fiscal responsibility matters more than fighting this war. Of course it should go without saying that no amount of fiscal responsibility is going to defeat the Sith Empire. Without the passage of this spending bill, our brave soldiers might find themselves fighting with outdated armor or blasters. So the ramifications might be quite serious indeed.”
“Thank you for your reporting Lyn, we’ll be right back to you as soon as we have that vote out. Now in other news…” Sarteesh smiled broadly, using her signature 'anchor grin.'
Lyn watched as the red light on the camera flickered out, announcing she was off the air and could relax some. Her perfect posture slackened a little, but the half-smile on her face didn’t go away. That was an actual feature of hers.
She patted the cameraman on the back then walked over to a bench in the formal lobby outside the Senate chamber, where they were set up to wait on shooting. The Senate guards were quite serious about their duties, and that meant no cameras in the chamber this time around. However, RNN was always the first to know the results. And she was going to break them.
Lyn leaned back against the cool wall behind her, sweeping her lekku over her shoulders to prevent them from getting pinched between her back and the wall. They were sensitive, quite sensitive in fact. The feel of her palms against them was soothing. It wasn’t that she had any jitters about being on camera. She had jitters about the vote itself. She was hardly impartial about it, the war had to be funded. Doing otherwise was downright treasonous.
A uniformed man walked over to her slowly with datapad in hand, the results of the vote. Ever-so-gently he placed it into her hand and nodded to her. “Hi, uh, Miss Bondara. Big fan of your segments. Take care now.”
Lyn gave him a smile. Vote or not, it didn’t hurt her to be nice. The results would wait another ten seconds.
“Thank you.”
