Krysten "Gobi" Taragon

[Page last edited on 06/24/2018 by R.M. Hunter]
[Character currently undergoing reconstruction]
Krysten "Gobi" Taragon is an anthropomorphic fennec fox created by R.M. Hunter and is role played by the same on the Sonic OC RolePlay Station forum. Though her character has seen various iterations, a mainstay of her abilities is her potent psychic powers.
== Character Concept and Development ==
In her first character design, Krysten (or Gobi, as she preferred) was a Kronian fighter pilot, the Right Wingman of a pirate group known as The Krait, along with her older half-cousin Firetail Taragon Jr. and his best friend Zack "Volt" Gage. Of the three, she was the most skilled fighter pilot, as well as a competent sniper and close-range combatant.
After about a year of use though, Gobi's author R.M. Hunter left the forums intermittently due to lack of interest and life issues. In 2018 he returned to the forums and began reworking his older characters to fit in with more modern roleplay topics. Rocket "Vanguard" the Wisphog was first, and Gobi was second.
This wiki page documents the 2018 reworked version of Gobi, though does contain some information about her original design.
== Physical Appearance ==
Gobi is short and small, not having grown much since she was a teen. Her figure is slim and athletic, but definitely more developed than when she was younger. Her fur is light and sandy colored, with cream-colored fur covering her muzzle and the underside of her torso. Her ears are long and much larger than those of a normal fox, with brown tufts of fur on the tips and cream insides. Her tail is long and fluffy, and the tip of her tail shares the same brown colored fur. Her hair is golden and wavy, cut to about chin-length and usually pulled back and secured with bobby pins. Her eyes are almond-shaped, with four small lashes at the tips, and are pale hazel in color. Her nose is small, black and triangular.
Her usual clothing consists of a white tank top and large tan cargo pants, with a black utility belt and coyote brown combat boots. Occasionally she is seen wearing a brown cloak or black hooded jacket, almost always with the hood up, both of which have holes for her oversized ears. A Draykeon Military standard issue laser handgun is tucked in her belt.
== Personality ==
As she's grown older, and as her powers have grown stronger, Gobi has become more confident in herself and in her skills, but is still generally polite and open-minded. As a former pirate and convict herself, she is grateful to those who accept her and in turn is very accepting and forgiving as well. Despite this, however caring she may seem to be, she still has four years' combat experience under her belt, and served a decade sentence in one of the harshest prisons in Kronis. She can become very serious in combat situations, is a force to be reckoned with, and she knows it.
== Backstory ==
=== Origin Story ===
Krysten's home planet Draykeon, the prime planet in the fourth star of the Kronis star cluster, was not a hospitable one. Cities were made of cramped hexagonal living arrangements, each compartment packed full of 20 members or more, to cope with the planet's population density. Most of the people were miners, who would spend hours gutting the mineral-rich core of the planet to bring up wealth for the directorate. Though the majority of the population had few powers, Krysten's family line was known to be made of powerful psychics, which made her family excellent for hauling in a day's bounty. Krysten lived this way for ten years, and all the while in the background of the skies, the directorate's armada fought off attacks from the Imperial Meiton Navy, a group dedicated to ending the dictator-like rule.
When she was ten, the Navy broke through the armada's ranks and burned through space towards Draykeon. The directorate issued Order 189, which conscripted all citizens between the ages of 12 and 40 as soldiers, who were placed into shoddily-crafted fighter craft and received little to no training before the Navy arrived. The trained soldiers ripped through the hastily-formed defense, unaware that they were killing the civilian population, while the directorate escaped with his personal bodyguards. Krysten lost both her parents and four of her brothers in the hellfire.
The war was over, and Draykeon was badly scarred. Krysten, now calling herself Gobi to protect her identity, and her little brother Rick found themselves stowed away on a cargo liner to planet Cyris to get away from the fighting. Upon landing, Rick was brutally murdered by Kryo Dolofonos, and Gobi was on her own. At the spaceport, she ran into her half-cousin Firetail and his friend Zack Gage, who offered her a job as a fighter pilot in their pirate gang, The Krait. She accepted.
=== Dark Years ===
Most of The Krait's exploits lay in shadows, but one thing was certain: they made a name for themselves. Leaving Kronis and heading towards the Octostar cluster, they ravaged liners, traders, scavengers, and mercenaries alike, managing to escape the jaws of the Navy at every time. The fact that the black markets and back alley dens of Meiton, Draykeon and Cyris welcomed the trio as celebrities only made their capture harder.
But then, things changed. After successfully procuring a cargo haul from what they presumed to be a general merchandise cargo hauler, the group realized they'd actually stolen a shipment of thermonuclear missiles from the Navy, and was fitted with a tracking device. They'd been found, the call was out, and any mercenary or bounty hunter with a taste for 300 million credits was on their tail. Of course, this led to a 10-hour bloodbath as the group of tiny fighters demolished grunt after grunt, but they lacked the supplies and ordnance necessary for long-range engagements. During the fighting, Volt was killed, and Gobi and Firetail were separated.
The two lost contact for three months, before Gobi finally found him on an asteroid named Hammerstrike-249, a chunk of planet Blenteflork, Firetail's homeworld, which had been destroyed during the war. She expressed her desire to end the fighting by turning herself in, and urged him to do the same, but he refused and left to find Volt's killer and avenge him. Again by herself, and weary of fighting, she entered subsonic orbit around Meiton and surrendered.
Of course her punishment was severe, but the fact that she'd surrendered herself and her vessel of her own will, and of course the fact that she was very young when she'd first signed on with the contract, earned her the favor of the judicial board. She was sentenced to ten years in maximum security, which was changed two years later to medium security based on her good behavior. During her time in prison, she spent a great deal learning about her psychic abilities, testing new techniques and pushing her limits. Though she was powerful before, years of meditation and concentration propelled her abilities into the super-power range.
=== Post-Sentence ===
After serving her time, and now 24 years old, she returned to her homeworld to reunite with her people. The situation between Draykeon and Meiton had softened, and Draykeon was now a brave new republic, though the housing arrangements and mining work hadn't changed at all. Finding a job, however, was immensely difficult due to her criminal background. In fact, she couldn't seem to find favor anywhere she went, despite having renounced her pirate background.
To this end, she contacted the Meiton Imperial Navy and asked for her ship, the Silverwing, with a promise to leave Kronis and never return. They agreed, and she set a course for Mobius.
== Relationships ==
Firetail Taragon Jr.
Gobi used to have a good relationship with her older half-cousin, but after her imprisonment and release, she now walks on the opposite side of the law as he does. She wouldn't dream of turning him in, but she realizes that he's still a criminal and needs to be dealt with. He, on the other hand, believes that she is still a pirate at heart, and with the proper amount of persuasion can get her to do some dubious things.
== Powers and Abilities ==
=== Strengths ===
==== Combat Experience ====
Despite being mild-mannered and polite now, Gobi has about four years of combat experience underneath her belt. She was, after all, the most skilled pilot of the Krait, the group's sniper and also their combat medic. Her time in prison also served her well, as she learned fighting techniques such as boxing, kickboxing, and even military combatives. She is trained and lethal with knives, throwing knives, pistols, SMG's, shotguns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, and all sorts of exotic weaponry.
=== Weaknesses ===
==== Physical Weakness ====
For all her bravado and experience, she is still an incredibly small Kronian, and still relatively weaker than most. This doesn't translate to fragility, she can take some pretty serious hits before throwing in the towel, but she's unable to accomplish much against larger, stronger threats without use of her psychic abilities.
=== Powers ===
Gobi only really has one power. She is an incredibly strong psychic, with her powers manifesting as both telekinesis and telepathy.
==== Telekinesis ====
Gobi has the power to manipulate psychic energy in such magnitude that it counteracts physical forces, and she can do so on a massive scale. There's really not much she can't do with her telekinesis; her telekinesis is powerful enough to rip buildings up from their roots, precise enough to inject needles into veins, and expansive enough to hold back raindrops during a thunderstorm. Though she doesn't really need to, she often waves her hands when performing feats that near her limitations. She says that it helps her concentrate and focus her energy. Therefore, restraint of the hands and arms is an effective way to weaken some of her power.
==== Telepathy ====
Though less visually impressive than telekinesis, Gobi is trained in the art of psychic manipulation as well. Aside from simple tasks, such as sending messages or reading someone's mind, her telepathy is strong enough to take control of certain creatures, particularly those without any form of countering her compulsion. She is herself able to resist psychic attacks, as well as some forms of magic.
==== Limitations ====
Both of her psychic powers share the same source of energy, which is Gobi's own stamina. Performing great feats of telekinetic strength drains her physical strength immensely, and her energy is only regenerated by sleep. Therefore, the most effective way of weakening her is by outlasting her.
Her telepathy and compulsion also don't work on anything that isn't organic, so robots and some cyborgs share inherent defense against her.
== Author's Notes ==
* In her previous design, Gobi also possessed a photographic memory, and the ability to remove her own (or others') memories at will. This was scrapped for balance reasons -- removing memories of combat training and equipment mastery would be too powerful in practice.
Category:Characters