Ygess

Role in Story

Or’Yuhenal’s direct superior, a master bioengineer. His other direct apprentice is Ullulutte, a distant cousin who works managing food supplies on the same ship.

Goal

To keep his ship in top shape, and make sure everyone makes it home safely.

To be a good influence on his apprentices, particularly Or’Yuhenal.

Physical Description

Extremely short — something approximating dwarfism with slightly different proportions. More nimble than he looks and extremely dexterous. Honey-brown hair shot through with grays, some skin variation like vitiligo. [design base of chipmunks or squirrels]

Personality

Blunt and grumpy. Flat affect. No-nonsense type, takes no BS, suffers no fools. Despite being a grumpy grandpa, he adores those who work hard and recognize their flaws. Wise and insightful. Exacting (adj. making great demands on one's skill, attention, or other resources).

Occupation

Master Bioengineer

Head of Biomaintenance

Habits/Mannerisms

The type to usually have something in his mouth. He used to be a heavy smoker, but he only smokes when he needs to calm down at night now; his version of a glass of wine before bed. During the day, he’s usually chewing on seeds or jerky, sometimes the leaf of a plant with a thick, viscous nectar inside that’s sweet.

Raised in a family that responded actively in conversations, so he cannot make it through any conversation without constantly interrupting whoever he’s talking to. Likewise, he’ll question if you’re listening if you don’t make noise or movements while he’s talking to you.

Works hard and fast, and enjoys every break he earns to its fullest. There’s rarely time for a break, but he’ll be the first one to tell you to sit down and take a load off when it’s time.

Background

Raised in a prolific, family-oriented household. He’s barely sure of how many siblings he has, and not a damn clue how many niblings or cousins. In a family that naturally overproduces, they execute a buddy-system to make sure everyone gets seen and heart, and no one is neglected. Ygess was paired with one of his older brothers, but a lot of his younger siblings latched on to him around the time that brother married off. He’s been a grumpy gus from the beginning, but kids love him. He’s very good at taking care of them and mediating fights, which made his group even more tight-knit.

With so many mouths to feed, managing money and food was particularly hard. This inspired Ygess to go into biomaintenance, as both a fruitful and high-paying career, but also a way to learn all the tricks needed to grow food for his huge family no matter the circumstances.

He met the love of his life in secondary school, but she couldn’t stand all the time alone with him off in the military, and left him for someone else. Ygess has never been inclined toward relationships since.

Several years back, between deployments, he went home to a family holiday and met a younger cousin from not even sure which direction — Ullulutte. On the verge of finishing secondary education, Ygess invited him on as an apprentice when he showed deep interest in a similar career path.

Internal Conflicts

As he’s getting on in years, particularly as one of his mixed races, he’s debated over and over about retiring. Since Ullulutte eventually went in a slightly different direction, it left him without a proper successor for a long time. He was very happy when Or’Yuhenal became his new apprentice, but since it was just a temporary job and Or’s in such a fragile state, Ygess is worried he’ll leave the job eventually instead of taking over for him.

External Conflicts

Despite how poorly Or’Yuhenal views himself, Ygess loves his type. Ygess can’t be direct to save his life, so he knows Or thinks their relationship is quite poor, but Ygess actually adores him and is determined to make Or his successor as the ship’s Head of Maintenance.

Notes