[Back in the Jurassic]

Saura

🪪 Identity 👤

Full Name: Saura Tagora Podison ^{(Soar-uh Tuh-gor-uh Pod-ih-sun)}

Name Meaning: Her first and last name are a pun on "sauropod," her first name is also a pun on "dinosaur," and her middle name comes from her species name

Gender [Pronouns]: Demigirl [she/they]

Orientation: Lesbian

Species: Barapasaurus tagorei

Age: Young adult (exact age unknown)

Birthdate: August 30, 189 million years ago

Residence: South Laurasia University FL Dorms

Length: 39'4" (12m)

Height: 9'8" (3m) at the hips, her height is debatable due to her head always being held at different levels

Weight: 7.5 short tons (6.8 metric tons)

🕙 Origin & Story 📚

Birthplace: East Gondwana (where India is today)

Biological Parents: Dranath and Antenet Podison

Academic Experience: Full high school diploma, currently a freshman at South Laurasia University

Backstory: 

Saura is a barapasaur from the Pliensbachian age of the Jurassic period 189 million years ago. She grew up with her two fathers and her extended family, but went most of her life with no close friends. Despite that, she lived a very happy, average childhood.

Saura never had a clear vision of their future, but they took a liking to engineering and building design in elementary school. So when they finally graduated and reached college age, they decided to major in architectural engineering. To gain more inspiration from the continent next door, they also decided to leave their homeland Gondwana for the first time and study abroad in Laurasia. Their fathers lovingly sent them away to South Laurasia Univeristy and promised Saura that making friends is easier in university.

Unfortunatly, Saura struggled badly with socializing during her first week away; she had no roommate due to being the literal odd one out in her dorms and nobody to invite to her birthday.

That all changed the minute Saura met a strange dinosaur named Russell Velocity.

Present:

Saura is a sweet sauropod that finds their pleasure in making life  just a bit happier for those around them, even if the individuals in  question don't know who Saura even is. They dream of a very social life,  but their meekness has prevented them from breaking into any social  circles for most of their life. Saura is also a dreamy optomist who  somehow manages to find the bright side in even the worst situations.  When it comes to university life, Saura is willing to power through any  difficult class if it means bringing them one step closer to  accomplishing something...except math, Saura absolutely despises every  math subject due to how difficult it is for them.

You can read about Saura and Russel's lives in my webcomic Back in the Jurassic

🪄 Potential ⚔️

Magic Access: None

Special Abilities: Reaching high things I suppose?

Uniqueness: Saura is pretty average as far as dinosaurs go, easily the most remarkable thing about her life is her friendship with dinosaurs from the future.

Talents: Drafting floor plans, designing interiors, calligraphy, comforting her friends

Weaknesses: Making friends on her own, advanced math, making herself noticed

Weapons: None, the most damage she could do is by stepping on someone small or scratching them if she needed to defend herself

Other Special Items: Saura's most special item is her blue bag which contains candy and tissues to give to students when they're miserable

🧠 Personality 💭

Traits: Optimistic, kind, extroverted, loyal, practical, modest, soft spoken, gets lonely easily, absent-minded

Stature: Usually holds her head up high unless she's lying down or speaking to someone shorter than her

Vocabulary: She prefers using language with positive, optimistic connotation over alternatives when she can, like "overripe" instead of "rotten." Others get annoyed by this "flowery" language, but she can't help it.

Alignment: Neutral good

Aesthetic: blues, whites, cyans, studyblr, study place, blueprints, frutiger aero architecture, seashells, paper mache

Favorite

• Color: Sky blue
• Food: Fern salad 
• Place: The Great Diving River

Likes: Herbal tea, anything that reminds her of her home town, meeting new individuals, being invited to parties, neck-hugging, school spirit, greenery

Least Favorite

• Color: Blood red
• Food: Any meat
• Place: The school buildings after hours when there's nobody in them

Dislikes: Math, the smell of chlorine, going unnoticed, being called by her species instead of her name, her lack of a roommate

Pet Peeves: Whenever she comes across someone playing devils advocate

Prejudices: None

🌠 Dreams and Dread 💀

Short Term Goals: Make more friends, show Russell around campus, pass their first semester

Life Goal: To become an architectural engineer

Highest Hope: That she will make an amazing friend group in college and meet her future wife

Motivation: Her pure optimism and the miracle of meeting Russell

Fears: The open ocean, rejection, losing any friends she gains

Worst Fear: Losing her financial aid because of her math grades

Worst Mistake: Picking her major without considering her own skills

Comfort: Being around her family and friend

What Would Break Them: If she made a full group of friends and they suddenly left her

🪞 Appearance 🪞

Skin Colors: Light seafoam (#C1FDEB), deep sky blue (#3ED6FF), and white (#FFFFFF)

Eye Color: Dodger blue (#3F85E7)

Body Modifications: None

Scars: None

Color Scheme: Cyans, light blues, and whites

Usual Wardrobe: Just a white hat resembling a paperhat and her blue bag

🗨️ Relationships 💬 

🌲 Family 👪

Rabin Podison ^[father]

Saura's papa, a beloved tutor of Saura's hometown and a professor in all things geology. The Podison name actually comes from his side of the family. Saura learned a lot about different materials from him and always turned to him for advice on scientific and mathmatical school subjects (even if advanced math always flew over her head). Rabin's more of a fun, goofy father so he's usually the one that lifts Saura's spirits with a dad joke or three. He's also the father in charge of Saura's logical and biological life lessons.

Dranath Podison ^[father]

Saura's dad, a divine poet that can turn any subject into literary art. His bachelor name is Dranath Bara, but he has taken Rabin's surname and disowned his own family upon marrying his husband. Saura learned about art and literature through Dranath alongside his many deep conversations with her about emotions and relationships. While Rabin tends to talk down to Saura at times, Dranath has always spoken to Saura like they're equals as far back as her saurapodlet days.

🫂 Friends 🫂

Russell

Russell is Saura's latest and only friend at the moment. Saura agreed to be his tour guide around South Laurasia University and already knows that they have engineering majors in common. She just hopes that they can become true friends.

✏️ Development 📓

Earliest Art: From June 30, 2022

Inspirations: The common "gentle giant" depictions of sauropods in media, my own experience in STEM class, season 1 Spongebob Squarepants (the character, not the entire show)

Behind-the-Scenes History:

When I first came up with the idea for Back in the Jurassic, I knew that I wanted some kind of sauropod named Saura to be the main character, I considered vulcanodon and kotasaurus, but went with barapasaurus because it was such an early sauropod with traits that would become more prominent in later sauropods. Her early personality was way less intelligent, but she was gradually written smarter and smarter as I planned out her character purely because I didn't want to resort to cheap "lol stupid" humor.

Saura stayed the same design wise aside from some tweaks to make them more accurate and less simplified. The current artstyle they're depicted in is inspired by this art fight attack by Keres. I just saw that adorable face and knew that's how I wanted Saura to look.

🎈 Fun Facts 🎉

• Despite Saura's hat resembling a paper hat, it's actually made from the same material as a proper fedora
• Saura's species Barapasaurus tagorei comes from India, with its only mounted fossil being displayed at the Geological Museum of the Indian Statistical Institute
  • Because of her geographic origin, Saura naturally speaks with an Indian accent
• Episode 1 depicted Saura with four toes on their front feet rather than three because of my own mistake while looking at photos of barapasaurus fossils