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This is the page for the character Daniela Osorru on CrystalDreams MUSH. On the right is a list of links further down in the page.
After surviving her time as a recruit in class 445, Daniela has finally become a Sorter of the Heptite Guild.
Any information in the background could be discovered by a sufficiently determined person, whether by asking or by investigating, but in general only the information in +info (not the subcategories) on the game itself would be readily uncovered or revealed.
To unadapted eyes:
Daniela Osorru is a short, round woman, probably in her early twenties. She is very pale, almost to the point of seeming sickly, but her manner never indicates frailty. Her straight brown hair is pulled back into a severe ponytail, and her face shows no trace of cosmetics. Dark grey eyes perch above a round little nose, which in turn rests above pale, thin lips.
Daniela is wearing dull brown pants with many easily-accessible pockets, an equally dull grey shirt, and sturdy brown shoes. She is also wearing a thin silver chain, from which hangs a pale blue and silver pendant in the shape of a fish.
To adapted eyes:
Daniela Osorru is a short, round woman, probably in her early twenties. She is very pale, almost to the point of seeming sickly, but her manner never indicates frailty. Her straight brown hair is pulled back into a severe ponytail, and her face shows no trace of cosmetics. Dark grey eyes perch above a round little nose, which in turn rests above pale, thin lips.
Daniela is wearing dark brown pants with many easily-accessible pockets, a royal purple shirt, and sturdy brown shoes. She is also wearing a thin silver chain, from which hangs a fluorescent blue and sparkly silver pendant in the shape of a fish.
Daniela was born on Molidenuum, the only child of Mariel and Andrew Osorru. The world had a breathable atmosphere but very little arable land, and was frequently ravaged by tornadoes. It was primarily a mining and industrial world which struggled to stay self-sufficient. To the rest of the FSP, however, it was known for its natural rock formation, called Denuum's Voice. All nineteen rock pillars in this formation had natural holes in them, and when the wind blew past them, sounds were created that - to a Molly, or to certain visitors - sounded musical.
Daniela grew up as part of a very tiny Roman Catholic group. They had no priest and less than a hundred members. She was baptized as an infant by her father, and instructed in prayer as she grew up, but due to the lack of a priest she never received any other sacraments.
Just after Daniela turned twenty - a few weeks after she graduated from secondary school - she met a strange woman who called herself Jennan Ivokini. Jennan expressed curiosity in the rock formation, and Daniela was glad to explain, as she'd done her final project on the changing notes of Denuum's Voice over the years. Jennan told her that Ballybran Crystal came from a planet where whole canyons responded musically to even the slightest breeze, and that those with perfect pitch (and the right attitude ) could try to become a Crystal Singer and extract the crystal from said canyons. Of course, all that Jennan said about the process of becoming a Singer was that someone would have to apply to the Heptite Guild, and that those who were accepted became fantastically wealthy. The woman did mention in passing that there were many hazards, and some applicants became support personnel instead of Singers, but mostly she praised the wonders of Ballybran. (Never, however, the wonders of crystal itself...)
Daniela kept the idea of being a Singer in mind during her five years of private schooling, studying petrology and mineralogy. During her first month, she began taking voice lessons, and discovered that she had perfect pitch. This discovery made her quite happy. It also explained why she had always thought that other people were singing incorrectly . Dani continued taking voice lessons, reasoning that Crystal Singers were called singers for a reason. She was not turned off by the restrictions on information, nor by the fact that only humanoids of a certain range were allowed, not even by the Code 4 warning.
If she had gotten job offers after graduation, she would probably have taken them, despite her dream of becoming a Crystal Singer. But she did not, so she decided to leave immediately for Shankill instead of waiting for a position to become available. Her parents supported her dream, even though they knew that if Daniela succeeded they might never see her again, and when she was ready to leave, they prayed for her success and paid for her passage to Shankill.
She was not able to go directly to Shankill, however; first she travelled to Lieva, on a ship whose passenger quarters were the size of Shankill's transient quarters, but which had a common area to prevent any passengers going insane. She had a several-hour layover on Lieva, and when she heard that there was a cathedral, she made a special trip - but was not able to attend Mass. From Lieva she travelled to Regulus Exchange, and from there to Shankill.
Daniela arrived on Shankill as Ballybran's Passover period was approaching. This meant that she would be stuck on the station until the storms had quieted, and until there were sufficient applicants. She was frustrated by this, but the Guild was providing living space and a food stipend, and, more importantly, she was not alone.
During the time between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday, as determined on Old Earth, Daniela isolated herself in her room, eating only bread (lots of bread) and oatmeal (lots of oatmeal) and drinking only water. As she was not engaging in very much physical activity, she only lost a few pounds. She did occasionally leave her room, but always refused requests to eat with someone, and always refused to explain what she was doing. When Dani finally broke her isolation on Easter Sunday, the Passover storms were still raging, and the station had been generally quiet.
After another month of waiting, Daniela was able to attend a Full Disclosure session. She was moved, but not horrified, by the crystallized corpses and impressed, but not discouraged, by the violent weather. What did shock her were the discoveries that the symbiont would cause her to be irreversibly sterile and that if she did not make a sufficient adaptation to the symbiont she would be unable to leave Ballybran. She spent several minutes in silent prayer, trying to discern if she should opt for erasure, but finally she decided to go ahead and join the Guild, as a member of class 445.
The first truly exciting incident after 445 came downworld came over two weeks later, when a mach storm blew up suddenly and headed towards the facility. Daniela only suffered a few scratches, and none of the other recruits were seriously injured, although one began to adapt immediately after they were released from working - the first of the class to drop.
It was nearly a week more before Daniela herself dropped, and while she retained her sense of self, she was faced with two omnipresent hallucinations: first, that she was charged with static electricity and second, that everything around her was much smaller than it truly was. During this same time, she was also completely unable to hear.
Finally, after a month ill, Daniela's fever broke. In between sweating and gorging herself on food, her eyes began to develop additional lenses. The presence of these lenses - as well as her less-than-complete adaptation to the symbiont - meant that she was placed in the Sorting department.
Those lenses proved to be a challenge for the young Sorter, as it took nearly no effort to slide them down but a tremendous effort to pull them up. They did not keep her from moving speedily through her training, and after six weeks working with Brian Hopkins as her mentor, she was approved to sort by herself.
Before adaptation, she was approved to fly solo in a sled or a skimmer. She hasn't attempted to fly an sled since then, but the one time she was in a mild storm she panicked, slid her lenses in accidentally, and had to be talked down by a fellow Sorter in order to return her vision to normal and herself to the hangar.
Daniela's adaptation to the symbiont was only partial. She has a much slower reaction to temperature differences, and still burns herself accidentally, even after several months. Fortunately, as her pain tolerance was increased, she doesn't notice as much.
More importantly, her adaptation is also weak. She has not tested this, but it would probably not be safe for her to be gone much longer than a month.
In return, however, the symbiont bestowed upon her a pair of Super Sorter Lenses. It takes very little effort to slide them down, but a fair amount of concentration to pull them up.
Other Information
Daniela has a reasonably pleasant singing voice, but has never sung in any group larger than a duet. From the time she was very small, she heard music in her surroundings - not just in Denuum's Voice, but in the sounds of machinery as well. Until she discovered that she had perfect pitch - and that this gift was relatively rare - she assumed that everyone else heard the same things she did.
She takes spiritual communion every morning, as she was taught to do when she was little, since there was no priest on Molidenuum, nor is there one on Ballybran or Shankill. There is a list of things that she would look for to determine if someone claiming to be a Roman Catholic priest truly did represent the Church.
She is well aware that she's much less liberal than the rest of society, but that doesn't bother her; if she bothers to think about it, she has pity for those who do not believe as she does.
Now that Daniela is a Sorter, she has a set of rooms on level 4 of the Joslin Plateau Facility. Her door is on the eastern side of the corridor, near the doors, and is marked with the number 42.
To unadapted eyes:
The walls and ceiling of the main room are a very pale grey, and the floor is light brown. There is a subtle tactile pattern to the carpeting, though, almost unnoticeable. The drab colors are only made more obvious by the large hexagonal 'window' to the west, on the wall opposite the door. Though this room is below ground, the window looks out over the eastern side of the Guild building, as if the room were several stories above ground instead. Above the window is a small cross made of dark wood; the only other decoration to the room is a large geometric painting in shades of grey, hanging on the western side of the southern wall. Despite its lack of colorfulness, it is still quite striking. The only furniture in the main room is three squashy chairs in the northeast corner. They look comfortable, if not colorful.
The floor of the dining area is tiled with hexagonal tiles in the same shades of grey as the painting, and the walls and ceiling are a slightly darker grey than the main room. The hygienic unit continues the same grey theme, although lighter.
Finally, the sleeping chamber's walls, floor, and ceiling are all a light violet color. The carpeting in that room is soft enough to sink into, and the bed looks even softer.
To adapted eyes:
The walls and ceiling of the main room are a vibrant emerald green, while the carpeting is a deep, rich brown, with a counterclockwise spiral of softer carpeting woven into it. There is a large hexagonal 'window' to the west, on the wall opposite the door, and the browns and greens of the room contrast with the greens and grays 'outside' - though the room is below ground, the 'window' looks out over the western side of the Guild building, as if the room were on the highest floor. Above the window is a small cross made of dark wood, and on the western side of the southern wall there is a large geometric painting in shades of green and blue. The only furniture in the main room is three squashy, turquoise-colored chairs in the northeast corner.
The floor of the dining area is tiled with hexagonal tiles, in alternating blue and green hues. The walls and ceiling are a dark blue. The hygienic unit has walls, floor, and ceiling of a light green.
Finally, the sleeping chamber's walls, floor, and ceiling are all a vibrant purple hue. Those who can see a little ways into the ultraviolet will notice that the walls are patterned with something looking like overlapping fish scales, and those with augmented tactile perception can feel the fish-scale pattern in the paint. The carpeting in that room is soft enough to sink into, and the bed looks even softer.
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