Skipper

Skipper

Basic Information
Aliases	Joules Azimuth (full name), Joulie (by close family and friends)
Species	Lepteran
Pronouns	They/them, she/her (by most people); he/him (by some Carcid friends)
Physical Information
Age	Early–mid 20s
Height	4'1"
Birthday	April 29
Date of Death	N/A
Unique Features	Yellow fuzz, stocky build, striped clubbed antennae, markings resembling eyelashes, small bottle of unknown magic
Biographical Information
Homeworld	Chitara
Group Affiliation	None
Status	Alive
Magic/Abilities	Navigation, sailing, cartography, swordfighting, stealth
Relationships
Kin	Nilla Carmine (best friend), other Carcid friends, Lepteran family
Marital	Single
Out-of-Character Information
Minecraft Username	damself1y
Discord Username	wisardry

"The paths laid out before you aren't the only ones. You can carve out your own, tread it bravely, immortalize it in ink. You can even draw in a cool sea monster, if you want." — Joules "Skipper" Azimuth

Joules “Skipper” Azimuth is a Lepteran adventurer, sailor, and aspiring pirate of Chitara’s subterranean waters. Prior to being selected for the Pathfinding Initiative, Skipper was seen as simply a rebellious kid who left home to dodge responsibility and live primarily among Carcids. However, after discovering a small, mysterious source of light magic in an underwater cave (and nearly dying in the process), Skipper was elected by her community to become a Pathfinder, in the hopes that she would continue to be drawn to the light. Perhaps she could discover what extinguished Chitara's sun… or find a way to replace it.

Appearance

At only 4'1" tall, Skipper is quite small even for a Lepteran. Their build is round yet stocky, with broad shoulders and a square jaw, and they are strong for their size from years of practicing swordsmanship.

Skipper's body is mostly covered in short, pale yellow fuzz, with the majority around her neck and chest. She keeps her hair buzzed, leaving just a bit of extra fluff on her head. She has two primary eyes (for regular vision), as well as two simple eyes (or ocelli; for sensing light) near the base of her antennae. Both her antennae and eyelash-shaped markings (three above each primary eye) are striped shades of black, brown, yellow, and orange.

Skipper typically wears somewhat impractical clothes which they think look "pirate-y," including loose button-down shirts and blouses, flowy pants and long skirts, and boots. They almost always wear a long, heavy leather coat with a cut resembling lepidopteran wings. Ever since discovering it, they always wear their light magic in a small jar on a leather cord around their neck for safe-keeping (and also because it looks like a cool talisman, although Skipper won't admit that).

Personality

Skipper is typically quiet, aloof, and somewhat serious. She takes charge naturally but is rarely demanding or assertive, and she is comfortable being a reserved team player when necessary. However, she hates taking orders from others without proper reasoning or explanation and can therefore sometimes question others too much.

Despite not sharing their family's scientific inclinations, Skipper always acts as they deem most “logical” and navigates the world according to their own inner rationale, although their actions might not always seem particularly objective or fact-based to outsiders, especially other Lepterans.

Even when Skipper presents herself as gruff and terse, she has a boyish, playful side, which she often tries and fails to disguise. She is extremely enthusiastic and dorky about swashbuckling stories and map-making, and she spends a lot of her free time essentially LARPing as a pirate.

Skipper easily become fixated on and singularly dedicated to the task at hand, but she can stray from it almost as easily, switching to another pressing task without much deliberation. Skipper (not-so-) secretly loves adventuring, taking risks, and having fun, using the vague goal of "discovery" as a justification for sometimes unnecessary exploration and experimentation. Ultimately, though, she is well-intentioned and hardworking yet sometimes irresponsible and headstrong.

History

Early Life

Skipper, born Joules Azimuth, was raised in a lower-middle class area toward what most Chitarans consider the very bottom of Humidus, bordering on Tenebrae. She grew up in a community of primarily Lepterans, most of them working for small science corporations and factories nearby. Her family was quite large, consisting of both biological Azimuths and other local Lepterans who participated more readily in her communal upbringing than higher-class Lepterans might. If asked, Skipper would credit most of her upbringing to her older cousins (namely Hesperia Azimuth) and family friends (namely Ciel Gossamer) as her own biological parents were often too busy to look after her and her siblings.

Despite Skipper's close physical proximity to Carcids while growing up, their family rarely interacted with Carcid locals outside of work or other obligations, still holding onto intergenerational fears about Carcids' size in comparison to their own as very small Lepterans; they often masked this with contempt for intellectual laziness and otherwise didn't speak much about it. Because of this, Skipper grew up feeling amicable yet distant toward Carcids and often approached them with hesitance.

As Skipper grew up, they became somewhat of a black sheep in the family and local community, primarily due to teenage angst and a mischievous streak. They would sneak out on increasingly lengthy excursions around the Hive, returning only to care for (and play with) the younger children. While it was customary in their family for young adults to stay home and support the community, Skipper found it almost impossible to stay chained to her neighborhood and soon decided to set out on her own.

Piracy

Having no specific career prospects or skills, Skipper struggled to find her way into a guild and petulantly refused to take up any cause she didn't wholeheartedly love. As such, she soon found herself following the same path she'd seen play out many times growing up in Humidus: cheating her way to the top.

For several months, Skipper stole to survive, using her small stature and lifelong love of swashbuckling stories to her advantage. She began by pick-pocketing wealthy Chitarans in Lumos and eventually fell in with a small group of Carcid thieves (Marina, Ducky, and Powder) who became like family to her. Eventually, Skipper returned with them to their home in Tenebrae, a small fishing and foraging community carved out along the upper edges of a flooded cave system, where they taught her to sail (as she's not particularly suited to swimming) and rob vacation boats and small merchant vessels (not actual full ships, since they won't fit under most of the Hive's low cavern ceilings).

This is also where Skipper met Nilla Carmine, an older Chitaran woman who soon became their best friend and role model and gave them the nickname "Skipper," as she had also been the one to nickname several of the other local Carcids.

During this time, Skipper occupies much of their time sailing a tiny wooden boat (for which they earned their nickname) around the nearby subterranean lakes and mapping out new pathways through the caverns, searching for uncharted areas where civilization has not yet bored cities and mineshafts through the stone. However, Skipper’s real dream is to sail the seas of Chitara—but without a sun, the Raid has rendered the surface and its waters are uninhabitable and borderline untraversable.

A Strange Light

Just a few weeks prior to the launch of the Pathfinding Initiative, while (ill-advisedly) exploring an uncharted subterranean river too narrow even for Carcids to swim through, a glint caught Skipper’s eye from deep below the surface of the water: a tiny pocket of light trapped beneath the substrate, small but bright enough to hurt their sensitive eyes. As the cave walls narrowed further, even Skipper’s tiny boat could not fit. And although it might not seem particularly rational to an outsider, to Skipper, thinking of their friends and family and freedom, diving into the water was the most logical decision they'd ever made.

The next thing Skipper remembered was waking with severe decompression sickness and a fistful of blinding light. They soon bottled the strange substance, keeping it close to the chest (literally) in a vial around their neck, although they gave a small portion to their Lepteran family, who were initially repelled by the light, for analysis. In the meantime, Skipper was elected by her community to become a Pathfinder, in the hopes that she would continue to be drawn to the light.

Relationships

Family (Early Life)

Hesperia Azimuth

Hesperia is Skipper's older cousin and somewhat of a maternal figure to them. They grew up as neighbors, with Hesperia's house stacked on top of Skipper's, serving as a kind of rickety apartment complex. Hesperia works in textiles and was often able to stay home with Skipper while working on her weaving. She rarely roughhoused with Skipper like their other cousins did, but she always offered a listening ear when other family members did not, and still does, although she doesn't approve of all of Skipper's life choices and often tells them as much.

Ciel Gossamer

Ciel is Skipper's mother's coworker and close friend, and Skipper views him as an uncle or older brother figure of sorts. He lived much higher in the neighborhood than Skipper did growing up, as he has a higher-paying position in the company than Skipper's mom. He was always the one to spoil Skipper as a kid, regularly bringing them adventure books and western movies and spending hours playing pirates with them. Although he cultivated their adventurous spirit, however, he hasn't been around nearly as often since Skipper renounced following in her researcher parents' footsteps, leaving Skipper with doubts about their relationship.

Friends and Found Family

Nilla Carmine

Skipper first met Nilla, an older Carcid woman, when Marina, Ducky, and Powder took them to stay in their subterranean lakeside settlement in the cave systems of Tenebrae. Skipper and Nilla soon became friends, and Nilla became something of a mentor to Skipper. A former miner, Nilla is extremely tall and muscular yet slender and has weak joints from decades of hard labor. She has since settled into a new role as a community writer, record-keeper, and safe harbor. As such, she was quick to open her home to Skipper; however, it wasn't until she saw Skipper's passion for storytelling, art, and adventure that they truly began to develop a mutual respect. This is also when she finally gave Skipper their nickname, which meant so much to Skipper that they all but renounced their family name. In return, Skipper helps Nilla with household and community tasks, as well as starting up several of their own initiatives, including mapping the nearby caves.

Nilla is tough as nails, both physically and emotionally. Despite her age and declining physical fitness, she nearly always beats Skipper in sparring matches (which Skipper often insists on calling "swordfights" with sticks and pickaxes) and easily outswims most of the other Carcids in the area. However, she can be abrasive at times, causing Skipper to put up shields she had gotten used to letting down around Marina, Ducky, and Powder. When Nilla can let her own guard down, though, just a little bit, she and Skipper have a lot of fun together. They can both be quite headstrong and often butt heads, but they do ultimately really care for one another.

Marina

Marina is the de facto leader of her small band of thieves, which includes Skipper, Ducky, Powder, and incidentally other Carcids (including Nilla Carmine). A career forager who sells small trinkets and aquatic plants found deep underwater, she is the strongest swimmer of the group and taught Skipper how to navigate life on and around the water. Skipper easily gets caught up in her playfulness, making them great friends, but they can also easily get off-track together.

Ducky

Ducky is both cute and boisterous, often serving as a distraction for the group's pick-pocketing and small-scale maritime robberies. During the day, he works in a textile mill alongside his father; he often reminds Skipper of Hesperia for his gentleness and willingness to listen. However, he and Skipper also love to gossip and pull pranks on one another. Aside from Nilla, Skipper is closest with him.

Powder

Far quieter than even Skipper, Powder is the youngest of the group, being only 15 by the time Skipper leaves to become a Pathfinder; they remind Skipper of her younger siblings and cousins, in a way, although far more timid. Like Skipper herself, Powder's family members are either constantly working, mostly as manual laborers, or in Chitara Penitentiary. Powder is less of a thief and more of a little sibling to the group, especially to Skipper, who was never close with her younger relatives due to her regular truancy.

Extras

Art

Unless credited otherwise, all images are by wisardry/damself1y.

• 
  Angry/annoyed Skipper
• 
  Initial concept sketches for Skipper
• 
  Initial concept for Nilla Carmine

Trivia

• Skipper loves reading and watching swashbuckling/adventure books and movies, as well as westerns and action films. They can't write well but enjoy coming up with their own stories, too, especially with friends.
• When stuck sitting still for too long, Skipper likes to doodle. Her favorite things to draw are illustrative map marginalia like tiny trees, terrain, ships, flags, and fantastical sea monsters.
• They have an incredible sense of direction which often proves useful during thefts.
• Prior to being chosen for the Pathfinding Initiative, Skipper had never been off-planet or even far from their narrow column of the Hive.
• "Skipper" is something of a character name; they are still okay with being called "Joules," although they find it too cozy for strangers and too stuffy for friends. Only their close family really call them "Joulie" unironically. They kind of hate it.
• Skipper uses they/them and she/her pronouns interchangeably and has since early in their childhood. He/him pronouns are also fine (especially when doing pirate roleplay antics), but currently only his close friends really care enough to use these regularly.
• Skipper and all of their backstory/NPC family and friends are based on real arthropod species, many of which are native to Florida.
  • Skipper is primarily based on the Arogos skipper, an endangered lepidopteran most common in central Florida.
  • Hesperia Azimuth is named after a genus of skippers by the same name, Hesperia, also called the banded skippers.
  • Ciel Gossamer is based on the Miami blue, a critically endangered gossamer-winged butterfly endemic to Miami, Florida.
  • Nilla Carmine is based on the giant Spanish isopod and named after the cochineal bug.
  • Marina is based on several species of isopod which inhabit the littoral zone.
  • Ducky is based on the rubber ducky isopod, an isopod hobbyist morph.
  • Powder is based on the powder orange isopod, an isopod hobbyist morph.
• Skipper often pulls their coat around them like a blanket or cardigan (although it's too stiff to really be comfortable); this is how real skippers rest their wings.
• The player behind Skipper is a part of Solstice as both a player and researcher; Skipper's personality and backstory, especially their interest in roleplay, gender expression, and overall demeanor, were created with this purpose in mind (as well as the player's own for-funsies interests)!