Kuiper Cobalt

GENDER: Masc. (He/Him)

AGE: 35

SPECIES: Ore-Grabber (a direct translation from their language)

HOME PLANET: Kobos-

A temperate planet with many mountains and seas. The Ore-Grabbers are the native and dominant species on the planet but are open to interplanetary trade, so it's not uncommon to see plenty of other species living in their cities so long as the overwhelming size of their buildings and goods are not an inconvenience for them. Kobos is known for its beauty and for how impossible it is to travel the rocky terrain without the help of the native species' services. Their primary draw as far as tourism goes is the odd abundance of bioluminescent in their local fauna. Rather than relying on being colorful, most of the fauna with mating rituals have bioluminesence they create flashy displays with in order to attract mates. Because of this, springtime on Kobos is peak tourist season with many people flocking the animal reserves and zoos at dusk to observe these beautiful natural light shows. For those who don't want to bother with animals, the Ore-Grabbers themselves have varying leves of bioluminecense as well and tend to work it into their live entertainment, with dancer's showing off both natural and painted on lights as they perform. 

JOB: Cook

PERSONALITY: Laidback | Responsible | Bold | Perfectionist | Occupied with the past | Mischievous

Kuiper is very practiced in maintaining a calm demeanor since he has spent much of his time working with smaller creatures and knows what might be a minor outburst to him might be terrifying to someone half his size. He does his best to avoid getting stressed over small things and can go with the flow pretty easily. He takes his responsibilities seriously, not the type to make a promise lightly or just not care if he doesn't complete his duties. He takes pride in most anything he does and feels that if you're going to half-ass something you might as well just not do it. Though he is serious about his work, he doesn't really appear as a serious person at all. With his relaxed nature and penchant for playful comments towards others, it would be easy to mistake him for a slacker. In reality, he just enjoys pushing people's buttons, especially since he rarely worries about the repercussions. He considers it fun to get a banter going with others, particularly enjoying having "rivals" of some kind or another. It has caused trouble in the past when he has found out that the rival saw it much more seriously than the game it was to him. He has trouble letting go of things in his past, dwelling on mistakes and disappointments both on his part and from his own perspective. Despite his best attempts at falling into a very peaceful and relaxed state of mind, he just can't let go of old memories.

LIKES:

+ Savory flavors; His people are omnivorous but he loves him some meat and nice thick sauces.

+ Music and dancing; He loves to dance. Finding enough space for it is the real issue.

+ Crystals; They remind him of home.

+ Well-made clothes; He likes feeling well dressed and he'll catch on if the fabric is cheap or fragile.

+ Humans; The cutest aliens he has ever seen. He does his best not to let on how endearing his finds them, but he is especially friendly with them.

DISLIKES:

- Having his cooking criticized; He'll take it, but that doesn't mean he's gotta like it.

- Pessimistic people; This especially applies to people who discourage others.

- His spikes catching on things; So many ruined jackets...

- Ketchup; It drowns everything

- Talking about his family in depth; It's complicated.

HISTORY:

Kuiper's species centers around a family structure run by one or two leaders with a couple of generations under them, living cooperatively together as a family while still leading their own lives. Because of this, Kuiper was always used to being surrounded by people from a young age. Their home up in the mountain range was part of a larger city built to co-exist with nature on their planet, intended to modernize while still letting their kind maintain their connection to the rocky terrain they evolved to live on. He was part of the third generation of the home, headed by his great-aunt, and the firstborn child of his generation of the family. As such, he was both cherished by the family and given some heavy expectations. He was playful and curious about the world around him, not really grasping what his position in the family meant when he was very young. He just knew he was surrounded by family happy to give him attention and never really short of anything he needed.

[CW: Controlling family/ emotional abuse mentions]

As he grew older, he started to understand the significance of being the first born in the generation. Even as he gained a younger sibling and a cousin, it seemed expectations were on him to excel, to make the family proud. He was pushed to take his studies very seriously and to learn practical skills he could reasonably use in a good number of high paying jobs. Living communally as they did, his family was well off, but not at all wealthy by the standards of their species. So he sometimes wondered if they were pushing him this way simply for fear the family's quality of life might dip as time pressed on. New corporations were showing up and it seemed prices on things were rising all the time. He didn't particularly care to question their motives, just doing as he was asked and picking up extra curriculars where he could. He quickly found a love for his cultural studies. Two in particular in fact. Music studies, involving instruments and native songs and dances from the history of his species, and cultural cuisine, involving cooking and learning dishes made in the different regions of the planet and their significance to those who lived in those areas. He quickly decided though that music was his favorite. He expanded his interest beyond his classes, importing shows and songs from other worlds that he could find in language adjacent to his own. His great aunt discouraged this interest as much as she could, encouraging him to only focus on his important studies, but it only motivated him to prove that he could still maintain his high marks in school and have time for his more artistic pursuits.

Though it started small, his aspirations for performance in music eventually became the subject of much ridicule in his family. His great aunt wanted him to focus on the career paths she had chosen for him and saw that he was starting to idealize the idea of becoming an entertainer instead. Things got heated and the day Kuiper graduated from mandatory schooling, he gathered his things and allowances he had saved up over the past few years to leave home at the very first opportunity.

He set out into the world with no expectations of success or attaining his dreams of being a performer. Any hopes had been systematically crushed by his family through years of criticism and planted doubts and passive aggression toward his interests. So he got a low paying job in a restaurant as a bus boy and a tiny apartment for one and decided he would just figure things out from there.

It took him many years to feel like his life was back on track. He did eventually start speaking with his family again, starting with his younger sibling and cousin and working his way up, but he never felt the same about his older relatives. Especially his great aunt. He felt he kept them at arm's length now compared to the love he felt for them when he was young. He never asked them for anything, only keeping in touch now and then while he slowly found his barings. It had turned out his first job being in a restaurant was a blessing in disguise, as he rediscovered his interest in cooking and used the very formal training he had when he was younger to eventually get a job as a cook. He learned from everyone he worked under, studying each job in the kitchen with interest at each eatery he worked in, especially upon leaving his home world and having to learn about food from other planets. Finally he became the sous-chef at a fairly renowned restaurant at a busy travel hub, one aimed at the more affluent of space explorers. 

TLDR; Kuiper raised with expectations to be a prodigy child, wants to go into musical performance, is hounded by his family until he gives up on both his dreams and their plans for him and becomes a chef instead to make ends-meet. Turns out he really enjoys that line of work.

INVENTORY: 

-High tech swiss army knife; Useless as a weapon but good as a can-opener

-Music player and old fashioned headphones so he won't lose it.

-GloMoss Chips; a favorite snack from his homeplanet. Said to help make bioluminescence brighter as well but not proven.

EXTRAS: 

- Kuiper is ten feet tall. His height is average for his species but inconvenient in facilities made for smaller beings. He is a pretty dainty stepper out of habit of trying not to be disruptive of smaller environments.

- He is fine moving around on all fours if he must. Ore-Grabbers spend a lot of time crawling and climbing up and down rocks and cliffs.

- He doesn't use the hand-"ears" much for any intricate tasks. They'll usually just do things like hold his phone for him or hang onto surplus ingredients he doesn't need to use yet. They do tend to raise up when he's mad though and generally get expressive when he's worked up about something.

- Kuiper wants others to follow their dreams since he feels he missed his opportunity to follow his.

- Has trouble not sassing others when he sees the opportunity for it since he finds it funny. Usually avoids this with superiors.