Azrin Asix

[NPC] Ensign Azrin Asix is a diplomatic officer on the USS Odyssey.
==Background==
Talitha IV was a relatively new colony, but it was on track to be quite a successful one. Her parents had been among the original colonists on the frontier world on the edge of Federation space, and Azrin one of Talitha’s first children. But by the time she was born, the 1000 person colony had already grown five fold, more and more adventurous souls drawn by the ambitious project. The planet was a paradise, and it was populated by one of the most multicultural colonies in the Federation. 
The Federation consisted of over 150 different planets, but for the most part, it’s citizens still lived among their own. Vulcan was mostly home to vulcans, Andoria to andorians, Betazed to betazoids, Trill to trills, etc. Even Earth, when one left the Federation hearts of Paris and San Francisco, was mostly home to humans. Colonies tended to be the same, like minded individuals from a planet banding together to travel to a new world. Talitha IV began as a sociology project, pulling the original colonists in small numbers from planets all across the Federation. 
It wasn’t always easy. A town full of different cultures meant a town of differing expectations. There were disagreements and arguments that eventually gave way to mediations, compromise, and understanding. They were all determined to be part of a thriving community, and they learned to work together to make it so. 
Azrin’s parents, a trill botanist and a betazoid doctor, met on Talitha. She wasn’t the only hybrid in the colony, far from it. There were so many interspecies marriages on Talitha that a geneticist and obstetrician who specialized in hybrid pregnancies were invited to the colony. None of them really considered themselves hybrids growing up. Their parents were their parents, no matter where they were from or what they looked like. 
Azrin was a bright, inquisitive, and fearless child. She spent most of her time outdoors exploring far afield - much to the horror of her parents. Talitha was lacking in large predators, but violent lightning storms were common enough that the settlement had to be shielded. One time, caught unawares, 10 year old Azrin and her friends had been forced to take shelter in a nearby cave. When the adults found them afterwards, none of the children were allowed outside the colony for a month. Azrin still thought it had been a marvelous adventure. 
Life changed when she reached 12 years old, and puberty brought her father’s heritage to the forefront. Even among full blooded betazoids, levels of telepathy varied massively among individuals, from telepathy that was so strong it broke minds to empathy so weak one could barely sense emotions at all. Hybrids tended to be weaker, but they still didn’t know what to expect. Azrin turned out to be quite powerful for only being half betazoid. She was as telepathic as a normal betazoid. Unfortunately, her brain wasn’t the same as a normal betazoid’s. 
She was at school when it happened. One minute everything was perfectly normal. Then the migraine came out of nowhere, and everyone started shouting at once. They were shouting… but their mouths weren’t moving. 
Azrin learned how to control it with the help of the other betazoids in the colony. But the only help was when she didn’t use her telepathic talents at all. Even turning it on was met with an instant migraine. When a solution came, it wasn’t from the betazoids or the doctors, but from the vulcans in the colony. They taught her meditation to help order her mind, and a few targeted mind melds help reorder her brain to take the stress. It wasn’t perfect, the migraines were still common, but she was able to use her telepathy. 
It was a peaceful few years after that. Then the Vaieth came.
The Vaieth had been a peaceful species once. They had focused less on space travel and more on creating harmony in their environment, focusing their scientific pursuits on organic bio-technology. They were content in their own corner of space, until the Borg found them. The assimilation went quickly. Most of their technology was useless, but their knowledge was still useful to the Collective, as it helped the Borg understand Species 8472. A few Vaieth escaped on the few spaceships they had available, and they went to find a new home for themselves. But everytime they found a suitable planet, they were attacked and driven away. 
By the time they found Talitha, whose unique lightning storms made it a perfect candidate, there were only a hundred Vaieth left on a single ship. They were desperate and had planned accordingly. 
The colonists outnumbered the Vaieth seventy times over, but they were unarmed and unprepared. They had few weapons, mainly trusting in the colony’s shield to protect them. Furthermore, they’d never seen technology like the Vaieth’s. They overrun quickly. 
Their new overlords made it perfectly clear who was in charge, but they were benevolent, treating the colonists well once they surrendered. Emboldened by the humane treatment, the colonists quickly formed a delegation to negotiate with the Vaieth, the 16 year old Azrin trailing along behind her mother. 
By the time Starfleet, who hadn’t heard from Talitha Colony in months, sent out a ship to investigate, they found - to their bemusement - that the Talithan habit of problem solving had won the day again, as the colony welcomed 100 new members into its ranks. 
Even so, things were still tense for a while after that. They’d talked it out, but it was hard to forget an invasion overnight. But Azrin was young and had always found it difficult to hold a grudge, so she set out to befriend the Vaieth. 
Aylnel was one of the younger Vaieth, around Azrin’s age. She had been born on their ship, and Talitha was her first extended stay on a planet. The two girls struck up an easy friendship as Azrin introduced her to the world she knew so well. WIth Aylnel’s help, Azrin was able to range further afield than ever before, since Vaieth technology made use of the lightning storms. They had set up lightning towers all over the continent, sucking up the storms to use for energy. It was now safe to leave the settlement for days at a time, and the girls took full advantage of that. 
Eventually, Azrin had a migraine during one of their camping trips. Aylnel was quite distressed to see her friend curled up in pain, eyes clenched shut to hide them from the painful light. Once they made it home, she convinced Azrin to visit a Vaieth doctor. After all, their technology showed an understanding of biology that was far more advanced than the Federation’s. Their doctors were able to further what the vulcans’ had started, repairing her brain structures to handle the telepathy.
When she turned 19, Azrin found herself experiencing something new. She was antsy. Exploring the countryside didn’t have the same allure as before. More and more, she found herself looking up at the stars and wondering what was out there. Aside from a few trips to the planet’s moons, she’d never left Talitha. Her father, who could sense how unsettled she was, finally suggested that she go. Azrin, who loved her home, found the suggestion shocking, but her parents encouraged her to go anyway, assuring her that home would always be there waiting for her to return. 
She applied to Starfleet Academy and was accepted on her first attempt. The next year, she was on her way across the Federation to Earth. The highly developed and long inhabited planet was overwhelming at first, and Azrin spent most of her free time beaming to more isolated nature preserves for a bit of peace and quiet. But she adapted soon enough, making friends and spending her free time with her fellow cadets instead. Diplomacy was a natural choice for her. She was a natural debater, curious and open to learning about other cultures, and always willing to have a conversation that led to the best outcome for everyone involved. She excelled in her classes, earning high marks and glowing reports from all of her instructors. 
In her fourth year, she was sent on a training cruise on the USS Hall as an adjunct to the diplomatic crew assisting in renewed negotiations between Xenex and Danter. It had been decades since the end of the Danteri occupations of Xenex, but tensions between the two worlds were still fragile, and Starfleet had been invited to prevent a new war from breaking out. 
The mission started badly for Azrin. The two planets had a deep seated hatred of each other, and the negotiation chambers were never lacking in dark, painful emotions. Her first day in the room was unbearable, and she was forced to flee, retching in the nearby bathrooms. Years of practice and control weren’t enough, and Azrin was forced to improve her mental barriers yet again. When not on duty, she meditated constantly, until she could spend an entire session inside the room without being affected. 
The cadet was there to learn, and thus offered no game changing ideas in the months of negotiations, but she soaked in information and experience from every step of the process. Months of research, legwork, and fact checking paid off. They averted a war. 
Immediately after graduation, Azrin was ordered to remain on Earth, assigned to the staff of Admiral Prolar, the Starfleet Liaison to the Office of the President. It was a prestigious posting highly vied for among the diplomatic cadets, allowing her the ability to assist in diplomacy at the highest level. But she chaffed in the position. Azrin learned very quickly that she was meant for the frontier of her birth, not the halls of power. A few years later, she applied for reassignment, and was posted to the USS Odyssey. 
==Appearance==
From a distance, Azrin looks like an ordinary trill, her spots easy to see against her red hair and pale skin. It is only when one gets close that they notice the dark depths of her eyes that are indicative of a betazoid. Her bearing is straight and proud, and she smiles and laughs easily. Her hair is rarely ever down, always pulled up in some manner: braids if she has time, a bun if in a hurry.
==Personality==
Myer’s Briggs: ENFP — Extraverted Intuitive Feeling Perceiving — Assertive
Alignment: Lawful Good
Temperament: Sanguine
Azrin is heavily influenced by her upbringing surrounded by nature, an open and welcoming society, and a people whose culture revolves around living harmoniously with their environment. Growing up around so many species, it is difficult to pin her down by any cultural stereotypes normally given to either trills or betazoids. She would rather converse with spoken words rather than telepathy, and doesn’t share Trill society's reverence for the symbionts, seeing them merely as other lifeforms. She meditates everyday like a vulcan, and shares the Vaieth's desire to live harmoniously with nature. 
She always tries to see the good in everyone. It was easy for a telepath to get the wrong impression when all they get is a snapshot of what someone is thinking in the moment. As a child, her control over her ability was abysmal, and she heard a lot of things she wasn't supposed to. She had to learn to look past that and find the good things instead. In a way, Azrin took that quality too far, to the point where she’ll latch onto the sole redeeming quality in the most terrible of people. 
Passionate, spirited, and determined, Azrin is never afraid to speak her mind when she feels a different point of view needs to be expressed. But she comes from a planet where compromise is valued, and as such is equally unafraid to admit when she was wrong. She likes hearing other viewpoints and learning from them.
==Psych Evaluation==
Azrin is mentally stable with no emotional issues that require counseling. When she has issues, they stem from others, not herself. She’s highly susceptible to the emotions of others, to the point where they’ll affect her own mood. To counter this, Azrin does her best to be the happiest person in the room, lifting everyone else up so they can’t drag her down with them.
==Medical==
Betazoid telepathy is on a spectrum. Even among full betazoids, their powers range from those who are so weak they can barely sense emotions, to those whose telepathy is so strong it will drive them mad. An average betazoid is telepathic and empathic. Empathy is a passive, constant ability, and telepathy requires concentration. An average hybrid is only empathic. 
Azrin is very powerful for a hybrid, about on par with an average full blooded betazoid. However thanks to her trill DNA, her brain isn’t built like a typical betazoid’s, lacking the appropriate concentration of neural receptors required to process telepathic impulses safely. 
As a teenager, Azrin suffered from chronic migraines caused by her telepathic abilities. Vaieth medical treatments combined with Vulcan mental techniques have alleviated most of her symptoms, but she will still get migraines from time to time, especially if she’s been using her telepathy too much. 
==Random Facts==
*Likes: Debating, nature, chocolate
*Dislikes: Fighting, being stuck inside, migraines
*Azrin thinks of Talitha IV as her homeworld, feeling little connection to either Trill or Betazed.
*She has the basic Starfleet self defense and phaser training given to all cadets, and has no interest in learning more.  
*Azrin grew up on a beautiful planet and spent most of her time outside. At times, she feels cooped up and stir crazy in a starship. She can often be found in the arboretum, the botanical gardens, or the holodeck, because at least there she can pretend she’s outside.
*She keeps a lot of plants in her quarters. She’s far from a botanist. In fact, she doesn’t even know what they’re all called. She just likes plants.
*Azrin and her sister Nyza are both only part Trill, so they are automatically considered unsuitable for joining by the Trill Symbiosis Commission. Though neither girl is worried about it, their mother was always sad that they never got the chance to experience joining like she did.
==Pictures==
File:Azrin Uniform Lighter.png
File:Azrin Profile2.png
File:Azrin Asix Profile.png
File:Back Color Corrected.jpg
Category:NPC