Laika the Dog

## Concept and Creation

Well, Laika was originally conceived as a cynical, depressed time traveler along the lines of Schrodinger's Cat, which didn't exactly make sense considering Laika was a dog. But after some time, it proved to be really... *difficult* to write a time traveling character. After all, they would constantly have to bend the rules of the world, which would be easier in an original story. But for a fan character? In an established universe that should not be messed with too insanely? Yeah that was a little too much to worry about.

So instead I actually looked at Laika's source material, which of course was the real life dog who was subject to an experiment in the Soviet Union, to test the effects of space on a living creature. Laika is somewhat of a mascot for space travel, and there was an episode of the anime Space Dandy called "The Lonely Pooch Planet, Baby" centered around a dog that is heavily implied to be Laika. Looking at all this space stuff made me think "Hey, what if we made her a space explorer instead?"

From then on it was decided that Laika would actually be a parody of the typical Space Opera protagonist (i.e. Star Trek) along the lines of the "Captain Space, Defender of Earth!" trope, and taking it in my own personal direction, incorporating aspects I like and twisting aspects I don't.

## Personality

Laika is a cocky, overconfident smartass. Plenty of snark and sass to go around. She's not afraid to tell her opinion even if it's rather rude. That being said, she tends to be a bit insensitive, and oblivious to the feelings of others. She is also rather vulgar when in her element. But she's not a total jerk. She can recognize when she's overstepped her boundaries, and always feels remorse when she's gone too far and deeply hurt someone.

She isn't all that selfish either. Laika, no matter where in the universe she ends up, will always stand up for what she sees as right, even if it does get her in trouble. She's ready to stand up for the little guy, and defend those who can't protect themselves. Her frequent acts of heroism tend to have her receive a lot of praise, which does feed into her ego unfortunately.

This ego does also make Laika a bit flirtacious. She has had multiple partners over the course of her life before, and because of that also believes that she can make just about anyone fall into her arms. She'll hit on any attractive person within her immediate vicinity, which doesn't actually work as often as she believes it does. But regardless she still tries anyway. But due to her long history of partners and inability to grow old, she has commitment issues.

## History

Laika was born and raised on earth, with no parents who gave a damn and not a coin to her name. She lived in an orphanage until she was kicked out at 18, and became a petty thief living on scraps to survive. Since she was worth nothing and mattered to no one, her disappearance would cause the least controversy. The government officials of her home country picked her off of the streets, and began to train her to be a subject in a massively important experiment: survive in outer space. Not really caring what happened to herself anymore, Laika was launched into outer space, and expected herself to die there. Funny enough, she actually didn't die, and for the first time she saw the earth as no one before ever had.

Though of course this was not the end, as eventually her capsule was abducted by a foreign ship, and there she was exposed to all sorts of sentient alien life forms who surprisingly took her in. Laika's capsule was disposed of and allowed to fall back to earth, and now she lived as a new ensign on this ship. After some time she began to get the hang of living in space and for once feeling like she was worth something. But then eventually during their space adventures, Laika and the crew encountered a quantum anomaly in the depths of space, which pretty much destroyed the ship and most of the crew, and yet, permanently changed Laika's physiology by making her permanently unable to age.

Stranded on another planet with what remains of her friends, she gathered them together and formed a new crew, a band of space pirates who stole their own ship, and took off to the stars to live out more glorious adventures. As time passed, Laika became aware of her agelessness, as members of her crew grew old, yet she remained the same. Over the decades she has had various friends die and new ones board the ship, and eventually she learned how to become numb to the feeling of loss.

Eventually during her travels, Laika stumbled upon her home planet of earth once again, and occasionally visits from time to time just to see what has changed in the 70 or so years without her.

## Abilities

Unable to age, strategic ability, exceptional fitness, marksmanship

## Trivia

* Laika's current outfit was heavily based on the design of Captain Harlock.
* Laika's last name, Yuri, is a reference to Yuri Gagarin, the first human to be in outer space.
* Despite being born and raised in a 1950's soviet union-like country, she speaks with an American accent
* A significant percentage of her space crew consist of the children or grandchildren of former crew members, whether they be deceased or retired.

## Gallery

pretty sleepyIn reference to thiswanted to try out something newWhen things just hurt too muchthese gay girls by DotAnd let me play among the stars~Most current designLaika, but after a few decades when she's aged up super slightly and is probably married to River. Though Riv decided to let her quills go loose so she just donated her ponytail to Laika.Earlier designEven earlier designthe absolute earliest design