Rilti Cmaricfoi

Pronunciation: /ˈrilti ʃmaˈriʃfoj/ REEL-tee shmah-REESH-foy

• She will use either an alveolar trill or an alveolar flap for “r.”

Background:

• Birth name: Margot Beechdray
• Species: Abert’s squirrel/eastern gray squirrel hybrid
• Height: 5'7"
• Gender: Cis female
• Languages spoken: English (native), Lojban

Appearance: Rilti has dark gray fur that fades into a white underbelly and muzzle. She is tallish, lithe, and flat-chested, with eight tiny teats like an actual squirrel. The teats cannot be seen through her clothes (and I never intend to draw her naked). She has a long narrow face, golden eyes, and tufted ears. Her tail is mostly white with a bit of gray on top. It is as long as her body, and extremely fluffy. She is known to wave it gently from side to side to keep time as she sings. Rilti is instantly recognizable by her voluminous, flowing scalp hair, which reaches the floor. It is the same dark gray color as her body fur, fading into a lighter silver at the tips. It is usually worn open, braided, or in a ponytail, but she occasionally wears it in various updos as well (she needs to position them near the top of her head so as not to get a headache from the weight!).

She grew out her hair as an act of rebellion against her parents, who made her wear it in shorter styles (bobs, bowl cuts, etc.). She loves her current hair length too much to go back, and she says it feels like wearing a huge, regal cloak at times.

Career: Rilti is a freelance singer who performs mainly at bars and conventions. She describes herself as a “lounge singer with a nerdy streak,” combining jazz and electro-swing influences with niche lyrics more reminiscent of nerdcore than typical jazz. Notably, she sings in both English and Lojban, and you’d be hard-pressed to find another Lojbanist lounge singer besides her. She covers and translates many pop and alternative songs as well, but also writes many of her own songs (her most famous being “rairpe’o,” a sort of “platonic torch song” in ¾ time). She has covered several Lojban songs by la selpa’i, including but not limited to “lo jbobau cu mo,” “lo mi jufra,” “zifre,” and “ba’o”. (Her cover of “NASA” featuring Samflir the Protogen is positively bangin’.) Her style is based on Amy Winehouse, Georgia Gibbs, Ella Fitzgerald, and Parov Stelar.

Rilti also teaches voice lessons at her apartment, and serves as a role model for her younger students.

Other details: 

• Rilti is nearly fluent in Lojban and speaks it with a beautiful, linguistically ambiguous accent. She uses clear, long Romance vowels and trilled or tapped R’s, although she extends her trills in stressed syllables. She is also quite adept at pronouncing consonant clusters, especially in song. She has tackled some challenging words and phrases in her original songs, including “linga’axa’i”, “jbijbejbo”, and “le crisa srasu cu rirci crino” (a famous tongue-twister).
• Rilti’s favorite foods are gingersnaps, walnuts, rum, and almost every kind of mushroom (especially chanterelles and morels). Being raised in the backcountry, her parents brought home whatever mushrooms they found and used them in tasty dishes like death cap soup.

Friends/Relationships:

• Samflir the Protogen - Rilti’s best friend and the only native Lojban speaker in town. He’s learning English with a bit of help from Rilti, although the two speak to each other primarily in Lojban.