Akuti Tejaswini Jyoti ghem Estif Arqua Vorpatril

coming soon

〈 PLAYER INFO 〉
NAME: Ammay
AGE: 27
JOURNAL: rodimus
IM / EMAIL: ammayrica @ aim
PLURK: robutts
RETURNING: n/a

〈 CHARACTER INFO 〉
CHARACTER NAME: Lady Akuti Tejaswini Jyoti ghem Estif Arqua Vorpatril
CHARACTER AGE: Twenty-five
SERIES: The Vorkosigan Saga
CHRONOLOGY: Directly post her shotgun groat wedding to Ivan Vorpatril in Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance
CLASS: Hero
HOUSING: De Chima 004 please!

BACKGROUND:

Utterly inadequate links for Tej and Jackson’s Whole.

Akuti Tejaswini Jyoti ghem Estif Arqua, or Tej as she will be referred to from this point onwards, is from a very distant future where humanity has expanded throughout the universe through the use of wormholes. As humanity has traveled further and further away from Earth in both time and space, each planet has developed its own unique culture and way of life. Tej comes from a place known as Jackson’s Whole, which can be best described as a planet where capitalism has run amuck. You can buy anything in Jackson’s Whole, from clones, to professional kidnappers, to body modifications, to any weapon you can think of. And that’s only just the tip of the iceberg.

There are controlling groups of this giant capitalist pit who have a specialization, and those are normally referred to as the Houses of Jackson’s Whole. Houses Minor rise and fall, but the Houses Major are controlled by individuals referred to as Barons and their rises and falls are infinitely more spectacular with a higher body count. These are people who, through cunning and politicking, as well as violence, rose to the top and manage to stay there. Some have operations on the main planet, while others are in charge of jump stations that sit in front of every wormhole in Jackson’s Whole space. House Cordonah, Tej’s House of origin, is one such House Majors — it sits on the wormhole with a route that will eventually take one to Earth. House Cordonah specializes in hostage situations (as well as general information dealing — they have a reputation for providing good information to both sides of a traditional rivalry) and is run jointly by Baron and Baronne Cordonah: Shiv Arqua and his wife, Udine ghem Estif Arqua.

Shiv and Udine have two sets of children: the even-children, who are all made from the genetic material of both parents with varying amounts of genetic fiddling; and the odd-children, who are created from the genetic material from Udine and are heavily genetically modified to resemble various gems. They are called the Jewels, and act as a dance troop/living interior decorations/spy group as needed. Tej — the youngest of the even-siblings and second youngest of both sets — is also the ‘control’ child; there was no genetic modification done to her except the usual gene scan to ensure the lack of any serious disease or other genetic trouble. Her position as a potential heir to House Cordonah has allowed Tej to receive the best education an individual can buy, and encouraged a healthy sense of competition between her and her even-siblings.

Unfortunately for the large family, House Cordonah has recently experienced a takeover by another House Major, House Prestene, and the family scattered into the Nexus in order to escape their pursuers. Rish — the odd-sister also known as Lapis Lazuli — and Tej traveled from world to world until they ended up on a planet called Komarr. Taken over by the Barrayaran Empire within living memory, it’s on Komarr that Tej ends up meeting Captain Lord Ivan Xav Vorpatril — one of Barrayar’s military aristocracy. Life-threatening events follow, and in a last ditch attempt to save Tej and Rish’s life, Ivan proposes marriage to Tej in order to let her use the moniker of Lady Vorpatril and his relationship to powerful individuals within the Barrayaran Empire as protection. Tej accepts, and finds herself Lady Akuti Tejaswini Jyoti ghem Estif Arqua Vorpatril. Or, for those that don’t want to work their mouths around such a mouthful: Lady Tej Arqua Vorpatril.

PERSONALITY:

Born into a highly competitive family in a society that values the ambitious, Tej has spent her entire life as the odd one out. She lacks the competitive spirit of her family or the desire to insert herself into the affairs of her family’s House and all aspects of its business. This extends to large chunks of her life — hobbies, career choices, even both her very business-like marriage talks; Tej doesn’t want to be a part of it. Her youthful desire to want to learn how to dance as well as her odd-siblings is written off by an older sibling as Tej simply wanting to be the center of attention; while Tej admits that her sister was probably right about this, the truth is much simpler: she did just want to be able to dance. This explaining away of her own personal desires is common amongst her family members — her mother does the same when she rejects a suitor, saying that their immune systems were too alike to be compatible, instead of Tej’s reason: he was boring. Tej loves her family, that much never changes, but she finds them to be exhausting and overwhelming. Even with the constant devaluing of her desires and emotions, Tej finds herself submitting to the demands of her family, letting their wants trump her’s. It is, to Tej, what she’s supposed to do as the youngest and as the least ambitious.

Her relationship with her father is simple — she is his favorite — but her relationship with her mother, a woman she calls “the Baronne” is more complicated. She fails to meet her mother’s standards, and her mother can’t seem to shape her into the correct daughter she wants in order to give her all the gifts and love that she has at her disposal.

But even though she wants to be far away from the traits that put her family in power and has a complicated relationship with them, Tej is still born and raised on Jackson’s Whole. Her perspective on life can be summed up as one where everything can be bought and sold, and that’s not really a moral problem. Everything has a price — information, people — you just have to have the means to purchase it. And if you want something in exchange for something else, you make a Deal. Her dislike of it doesn’t mean she’s not capable of it, and in those moments where Tej feels as if she doesn’t have a choice she’s been known to resort to it, normally at the urging of her odd-sister, Rish. Refuge in familiarity, even as she longs for something that doesn’t resemble the cutthroat politics of her home. Using everything one has on-hand — connections, family, the sexual desire of someone you’ve married to get out of trouble — all of that is fair game if it gets you want you want. The longer Tej stays out of the influence of her family, however, the more that ebbs out of her.

It’s these cutthroat politics that have given Tej a sense of loss. After fleeing the takeover of her House, Tej has found herself Houseless and alone. Her family might be dead, she can’t make her way to a different planet to find out if her brother is alive. She suffers gracefully and with great reserve, but the echoing sorrow of her loss is evident whenever the topic of conversation comes up. She’s grown up relatively sheltered until the takeover, despite a healthy education in sex and how Jacksonian life works, but her personal experience with loss, fear, and terror are all relatively new for her.

To say that Tej is naive or sheltered sells her short — she has a very specific experience growing up as a treasured child of a family with the ability to protect her in a culture that is wildly different from any other in the galaxy. The lack of travel means she doesn’t have a well-rounded perspective, or the knowledge that comes with experience. Of course, feeling Jackson’s Whole has given her some, but it’s neither positive nor the sort of experiences one tends to talk about in polite company. Still, her different perspective allows for some cultural confusion.

Her relationship with Ivan Xav Vorpatril, as married as they are, is one that even Tej doesn’t know where she stands with it. He’s attractive, he makes her laugh, and he’s kind; but also slightly insane to offer marriage as a means of saving her life. She’s not above using his name and his connections as protection, as that was the whole point of their marriage, but she’s also dealing with a small amount of attraction and fondness for him. Feelings in him are allowed, according to Rish, because they can use them. However Tej is absolutely not allowed to feel the same for him.

Tej is, in most of her interactions, a genuinely kind individual. Friendly, if cagy when certain points of conversation come up, her personality has been described as ‘sunny’, and when it cracks to reveal the sadness and recent trauma underneath, it seems at odds with the rest of her. She’s personable as well — making friends easily, if forthright and frank about her opinions and thoughts.

In sum: Tej is a very peculiar sort of sheltered from a culture where morals are second to money, yet wants nothing to do with the cutthroat nature of the place she’s from. Friendly, outgoing — if a bit kind sort of blunt — she’ll cling to her secrets if it makes her safe.

POWER:

cetagandan genetics; tej is half cetagandan — while she’s completely human, the cetagadans have been experimenting with genes in search of human perfection. tej has a longer lifespan, perfect pitch, an affinity for languages, a more developed sense of smell (to the point where she’s able to detect arousal and fear), better hearing, and is genetically inclined to be more beautiful than the average human being. this is her only canon power.

gem touch; tej can turn inanimate objects into any of the gems her odd-siblings resemble. she has to be thinking of them when she touches it for the transformation to occur.

power nullification; exactly what it says on the tin.

〈 CHARACTER SAMPLES 〉
COMMUNITY POST (VOICE) SAMPLE:
MoM TDM thread

LOGS POST (PROSE) SAMPLE:

Her opinion of the past and of Earth is simple: it smells. Occasionally she’ll catch a particularly strong whiff of someone walking past — food from a cafe (oh, with cats!) — and it sends a spike of relief through her. The ice-cream she’d bought early does a fair bit to both offset the sent of everything and bring a small spike of joy into her life; strawberry, dipped in chocolate. But mostly it’s an assault that sits uneasy on her mind and nose. Doesn’t anyone notice, she’d wondered during her first week. But no, no one else seemed to find it off-putting in the slightest.

It did make her feel lonely, though — if Rish were here she would have someone who understood, who would be able to sympathize. The thought of her odd-sister rings clear in her mind, and by now Tej has begun to recognize the feeling of her power at work. The cone in her hand turns heavy; now less delicious and more a semi-valuable hunk of rock. Pretty though, Tej has to admit. She’s got quite the collection at home — selling the results of a power she doesn’t have quite under control seems to be the best idea, but the ones made of ruby and emerald fetch more. Perhaps if she advertised them as art instead of mistakes; people enjoyed beautiful works of art, the Jewels that were her odd-siblings served as living proof of that.

But having them around just made her homesick, and being homesick made her want to go out to push the sensation away, and then that caused her to create them when she wasn’t as guarded as she should be.

Perhaps, Tej thought, peering at the “Help Wanted” sign in a local window, it was time for her to get a job. Something normal in her own name rather than any of the false ones she’d had since… since then.

Yes, she decides, riding on a sudden, unexpected burst of joy. Her own job was exactly what she needed.

FINAL NOTES:
None!