Profile
Tobias is, in a word, substantial. She is tall, and broad, and boisterous, and loud. Her hair is curly and messy and red, but it’s the deep, ruddy red of your grandma’s ancient mahogony table, rather than the spit-fire red of most of the heroes and witches in the old tales. Her skin seems tanned from far away, but it’s a pointillist illusion caused by the dense scatter of freckles across her face, chest, arms, and most other visible skin. Her shoulders are broad, her chest is large and deep, her waist is wide, her thighs are thick, and her calves are freakin’ enormous.
Her personality matches her frame: Tobias is gregarious, friendly, and loud. She’s the one that always seems to be delivering the punchline of a joke inside the natural hushes that appear without warning in large congregations. Her (frequent) laugh can be heard across a crowded bar, not that you’d need it since even sitting down she’s half-a-head taller than most of those around her. Her strength is average but her stamina is almost unmatched. Tobias treats love the way she does everything else: Whole-heartedly and completely, and she returns love offered ten-fold.
Tobias is quick to laugh, slow to anger, and always willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt. She is the first to volunteer and the last to go home at the end of the day. She’ll never sweat the small stuff, but never treat someone else’s problems as small stuff. She loves living creatures, especially the soft ones and the ugly ones. Though “gentle” is not a word to describe her, she really tries her best.
History
Tobias was born on a planet with a similar biology and level of tech as Terra/Earth, but in a cluster of the universe where other space-faring species already roam and frequently touch down to get a taste of the “rustic” lifestyle. She is highly educated, getting an advanced practical and theoretical education in forestry and forest/wildlife management. Frequently joking that her job was to “walk around and sometimes punch forest fires”, that description isn’t that far from truth. She spent her planetbound days taking care of the old growth forests, overseeing controlled burnings, tracking the flora and fauna, and generally taking care of her own corner of the planet to the absolute best of her abilities. Spending all that time in the woods, sleeping rough both because she had to and because she enjoyed it, Tobias would often look up at the night sky and dream. The idea of exploring new worlds, finding plants and animals maybe never before seen, even the absolute joy of knowing you were pushing the speed of light…. Tobias would think of space and sometimes, deep in the forest, Tobias’ laugh of joy would ring throughout the trees, startling the smaller prey animals back underground and leaving the owls and stoats with slightly emptier bellies.
One day, a rough space cowboy touched down near her woods for a diplomatic visit, and Tobias couldn’t stay away. She found the warrior (one Cadet Nomble) boorish, rude, and selfish. Nomble’s ship, on the other hand, was everything Nomble was not. The ship’s Mind, through a drone, saw Tobias’ open-mouthed admiration and invited her to tour the ship. Tobias lept at the chance, and spent the next 18 hours going over every nook and cranny she could find, asking questions about the ship, the tech, the other planets, and everything else. Well, technically she spent 30 minutes asking these questions to Nomble, who agreed to be her guide for the sole purpose of impressing/intimidating her. But it turned out Nomble didn’t actually know the answers to anything and treated Tobias like she was asking why water was wet. After Nomble threw up their hands and stomped out muttering about “backwoods yokels”, Tobias spent the other 17.5 hours asking her questions to the ship, who never tired and took quite a lot of pleasure (truth be told) in being able to explain things to such a bright, fresh mind. As Tobias was thanking the Ship for the 20th time, on her way out the door, the Ship offered her a ten year contract with Special Circumstances, a branch of the Culture that acted in an “ambassadorial, documentative, and exploratory role” with other groups. The contract paid well, and guaranteed ten years of space travel, plus the choice afterword to renew, return home, or be welcomed as a Citizen and given access to all Culture worlds and Orbitals (and the requisite “anything you want in our post-scarcity utopia” that entailed.) Needless to say, Tobias jumped at the chance, literally (the bulkhead ceiling still bears a dent from her noggin).
The ship didn’t know it, but it remains the only entity in the known universe that has seen Tobias Nutcracker McPokeyOaks weep.
