Watanabe Ayaka is a player character played by Gardner in the Dark and is currently involved in the 21st Squadron.

Watanabe Ayaka
Species:	NH-29
Gender:	Female
Age:	2
Zodiac Sign:	Virgo
Height:	128cm (4'2“)
Weight:	46 kilo (101 lbs)
Bra Size:	31B
Organization:	Star Army of Yamatai
Occupation:	Science officer
Rank:	Santô Hei
Current Placement:	None yet

Height: 128cm Mass: 46 kilo Measurements: 33-28-32 Bra Size: 31B

Build and Skin Color: Ayaka is abnormally short, but has a fairly average build aside from that. Still her shortness makes her head look quite large, and gives her something of a doll like build. Her skin is a peach fuzz shade of pink, and her ears are large and the same color as her hair.

Facial Features and Eye Color: Ayaka has a small button nose and wide green eyes. She has soft, round cheeks, and a weak chin that disappears into her neck when she bows her head.

Hair Color and Style: Her hair is deep blue and she wears it in a foot long, sedate dutch braid.

Distinguishing Features: She has a dimple on her left cheek when she smiles, and when she blushes her freckles become visible as they stay peach-fuzz pink instead of turning rose pink like the rest of her face.

Personality: Ayaka is exuberant and cheerful most of the time, the sort of person who wears her heart on her sleeve, and rather enjoys being around others. Sometimes, however, she gets overwhelmed by the company of others, and retires to someplace quiet, often to tend to her plant specimens.

Ayaka is often optimistic, and tries to find the silver lining in the blackest of clouds. She does not go to unreasonable lengths to do this, however. On the occasions when she is in physical or mental pain, she will let others know about this in no uncertain terms, though she tries not to whine or complain about it. She can be unintentionally blunt at times. She has a fiery temper and personality though, and uses her loudness to her advantage in these situations.

Ayaka's bunk is quite crowded with her stuff. Most noticeably a small still for fermentation, a cheese board, and several exotic plants in small ecoglobes.

Ayaka is very trusting of the people she sees as her friends, and is willing to do favors for them, without expecting reciprocation. One way to lose her friendship, however, is to go too far in a request, or to lie to her and get caught. When people annoy her while she's tending her plants, she has a habit of upending her watering can on them. Plant tending time is quiet time.

Ayaka is able to project her voice loudly and clearly across crowded halls with little to no amplification. Further her diction is deliberate and careful, facilitating communication with non-native speakers. She tries to use simple words in conversation, with precise meanings, so not to confuse the recipient, and is unfold of poetry and dislikes imprecise language usage.

Ayaka prefers riding animals to riding in vehicles, and will choose animals over vehicles whenever it's practical to do so, but won't take it to extremes.

While Ayaka is trained in fighting that does not mean she enjoys doing so. She is a meek person, and prefers to avoid conflict whenever possible. Still, when a fight is inevitable, she will fight with the amount of restraint called for by the situation.

Likes: Plants, cooking, fruit, vegetables, most insects, friends, good food, good booze Dislikes: Aphids, Mishhu, long streaks of bad luck, fire, liars Goals: She wants to be a respected xenobotanist, and she wants to have many good, close friends.

Star Army Of Yamatai

Ayaka is fairly young, and was only recently born. She showed a great deal of interest in plants when she was young, and opted to train in xenobotany.

In her youth and training she had several incidents that shaped the woman she is now. Most noticeably her fear of fire which is due to a childhood incident involving a magnifying class, a small quantity of newspaper, an inquiring mind, a source of bright light a number of stuffed animals, and a rather extensive case of first degree burns caused by a scolding.

Since she's a Nekovalkyrja she recovered nearly completely from her incident, but it left her quite frightened of open flames. \

Ayaka is familiar with basic radio operation and procedures and can make transmissions to and receive transmissions from other characters through headsets, starships, power armor, and shuttles in both combat and non-combat conditions. Ayaka is fluent in Nepleslian and Yamataian. She can speak and write both correctly and efficiently and can write reports, fill forms, issue orders under fire, etc.

Ayaka received hand-to-hand combat training, followed up with a rigorous training program. She is skilled and experienced in combat both in Yamatai-like conditions and in zero-gravity, with and without weapons. Weapons she is trained in include energy pistols, knives, and power armor.

Ayaka is quite skilled at knife fighting, using a fighting style that is based partly off of horror films, and partly off of hunting techniques. This style is intended to be intimidating, and seems quite out of step with her normal meek personality. There's a reason for it, of course. If she fights in a way that frightens or intimidates her opponents then they are less likely to challenge her later.

Ayaka is capable of operating any computer system that uses the Kessaku OS, found on all Star Army starships. She is proficient in entering and/or searching for information. She is also skilled at operating hydroponics systems, and at diagnosing simple errors and flaws in such systems then repairing them.

Ayaka received basic mathematics training, to including up to calculus and trigonometry. She uses Mendalov chains to model protein folding in complex organisms. However just because Ayaka can do math, doesn't mean she enjoys doing so. Ayaka, when overworked, stressed, or tired will try to get out of doing math, and will try to find other people to do needed calculations for her. Especially ship's AI computers, tying up possibly valuable processor power.

Since Ayaka is a science officer, and a trained biologist at that a good portion of her training involved how to survive in wilderness operations. Biologists often have to venture far into the wilds to collect useful information, away from the support of technology and military personnel. Because of this Ayaka has learned how to hunt for meat and food, how to properly preserve food to keep it from rotting, how to find water in several different types of biomes, how to construct shelters with materials at hand, how to light and maintain a fire, and how to navigate using the stars and a good memory or an impromptu star chart.

Ayaka has a great deal of general training in biology, and is capable of identifying organisms, checking for toxicity, and analyzing ecostructures, as well as any other work that a biologist might be called to do when going somewhere in the field with an away team. However Ayaka's area of specialty is zenobotany: identifying the nature, growing conditions, and other properties of unknown plant life. Ayaka tends to collect snippets of plant life from various planets she has visited, and to grow these plants in her room, each in small enclosed glass ecospheres with carefully balanced internal environments to allow the maximum health of the plant. Ayaka is very interested and engaged when talking about plants, and is capable of determining if a plant is toxic or if it may have medicinal value. Ayaka's favorite plants to grow are edible ones.

Because of this Ayaka also has some skill in xenohorticulture… She probably couldn't run a farm herself, but she would be able to instruct farmers on ways to increase their crop yields, as well as point out plants that would make good crops, or would work well in a certain slot in the rotation patterns. She is also capable of subduing some of the fiercer animals, and training and riding them as part of her training.

Ayaka is athletic and takes full advantage of it. She has built up her endurance through regular running, swimming and climbing, her strength with weight training, her agility and flexibility with yoga, gymnastics, and acrobatics. She is able to tumble like a moderately skilled non-professional gymnast. She can work parallel bars, swings, and tightropes as though she was a similarly skilled acrobat. In summation, to a professional she's at best a talented amateur at all of these things. To a laymen she's pretty impressive, though not unreasonably so.

Watanabe Ayaka is currently a Santô Hei in the Star Army of Yamatai. She receives a weekly salary of -salary- per week.

• Star Army Duffel Bag
• Backpack
• Wooden jewelry box with red velvet interior (for medals and mementos)

• 3 Working Uniforms
• 2 Exercise Uniforms
• 1 pair leather gloves, dark gray
• 2 pairs leather boots, dark gray
• 4 additional black sport bras/swimsuit top
• 4 black panty
• 8 pair of black boot Socks
• 1 yukata (cotton robe), white, with navy blue print of various silhouettes of Star Army starships.
• 1 black sash for yukata
• 1 pair black sandals
• 1 Rank Pin (See: Star Army Ranks)
• Fleet Insignia Patch on left arm of each duty uniform
• Star Army of Yamatai ”Star Army Hinomaru“ patch on right arm of each duty uniform
• Fleece jacket, Multi-Net 3 Camouflage Pattern.
• 1 tricorner hat, thick black felt with red border
• 1 thigh length with empire waist (FEMALE)
• 1 scarf, occupational color.
• Star Army Helmet, Type 30
• 1 Star Army Environmental Suit, Type 28 (AMES)

• 1 pistol belt, leather, dark gray, with holster for service pistol

All items in the section below come with a belt pouch, case, sheath or holster as applicable.

• Ketsurui Zaibatsu Nekovalkyrja Service Pistol, Type 30
• 3 BR-28E Battery Magazines (1 in the pistol and 2 extra)
• Star Army Communicator, Type 29
• Star Army Flashlight, Type 30
• Survival knife, solid diamond with rubberized grip and lanyard
• Earplugs
• Field Bandage

These items are expendable and can be reissued whenever needed. These will not need to be returned.

• 1 Black waterproof shower kit bag with detachable shoulder strap
• 1 bottle of shampoo
• 1 bottle liquid body soap
• 1 toothbrush
• 1 tube of toothpaste
• 2 washcloths, white
• 2 towels, white
• 1 hairbrush, round type
• 1 pair nail clippers

These Items are owned by Ayaka

• Portable still for fermentation as well as stainless steel barrels and alcohol producing yeast cultures
• Cheeseboard/cheese cloth and a small supply of rennet for cheese-making
• 12 ecoglobes of various sizes to hold plant cutting/growths. Currently all but one of them are empty. Ecoglobes, despite their name, are not globular, but rather have a flat bottom and an egg like shape, being much taller then they are wide. There are controls located on the 'pot' on the bottom that allow one to adjust the humidity, heat, and airflow across the plant, as well as the internal atmosphere. To adjust the soil requires opening the globe and adding chemicals/whatever to the soil manually, but a soil PH monitor is present, and the soil temperature can be adjusted independently of the air temperature.
  • The full ecoglobe contains a small growth of a vividly green plant with large, toothy 'flowers' that have red interiors. The 'flowers' snap shut over insects or other small objects. In other words, a Venus fly trap. This particular Venus fly trap is an unknown breed, and may grow quite large if cared for properly.
• A rather large stuffed turtle that she cuddles up to when sleeping. It's dark green, with bright yellow markings like paint across it's 'face' and in the grooves in its shell. It's 120CM long and 25CM tall and is stuffed with soft down. It's stitched out of soft velvet, laid down over a backing of a significantly stiffer material, which gives it an structure so it will hold it's shape.