Concept: Bobcat Siesta Ryder
Born to a group of new-age hippies in a commune on Mars, Bobcat grew up in an environment of freedom and expression. Her parents had somehow managed to escape their original poor lot on Earth and impressed upon her how good she had life. As a young girl growing up, she was given lessons in a multitude of different forms of self-expression, including music, dance and art. It was a nurturing environment, and Bobby got along well with her older siblings, brother Sky and sister Rainbow.
But her closest friend was Vasuki Gotama, the only daughter of a wandering grifter. Vasuki's father would come and go as he pleased, sometimes disappearing for weeks at a time. During these unexplained absences, Vasuki left in the care of families in the commune. More often than not, she was left with the Ryders, and the girls had plenty of fun playing pranks on anyone they could pull it off on. When they weren't goofing around or experimenting with hallucigenics, they were playing in their band, the Dirty Pair. Bobcat played guitar and Vasuki did keyboard.
One day, just after Bobby's 17th birthday Grifter Gotama returned for his daughter, and this time he took her with him on his trip. At first everyone thought that they would be back soon, but the days stretched into months, and finally a year.
At this point, her parents expected her to go off to college, with a focus on studying social issues. "You'll never belong to an oppressed people if you empower yourself with an education about yourself, man," her father would often lecture her. "The Man just ain't no respecter of person, y'know?" In fact, Bobcat's parents vacillated often on what exactly she could take as an area of study. Eventually, their only stipulation was that she take a few courses that dealt with socio-economics. They were satisfied because Sky, the suck up that he was, agreed to major in Environmental Studies.
And even though her parents were quite flexible, she found that they were still too restrictive for her. She realized that there was something missing in her, and she decided it had left with Vasuki when she had disappeared. So she decided to pack up in the middle of the night one day and go off looking for her. Vasuki often talked about going to the big city with her father, so that's where Bobby decided to start her search.
Unfortunately, out of the protective walls of the commune, her naiveity allowed her to be swindled more than once, until she lost all of her woolongs and most of her belongings in a questionable game of chance. After this, she wandered from place to place, her only companion the clothes on her back and a beat up guitar (her original one had been the first thing she lost). Picking up odd jobs including waitress, escort, smuggler, pizza delivery girl and secretary she found the trail of her missing friend was getting cold. However, while doing menial work in a chop shop, she found that she had a knack for mechanics and electronics and focused her efforts on that. When it turned out her boss Cool Hand Charlie was a criminal, and he was caught by a cowboy, she found herself out on the street once more. Later in the day, drowning her sorrows at the local bar, she ran into the cowboy again. She should have been mad at her, but she was more fascinated in how the cowboy had been able to track the man down. So she found her ship - the Bebop - and let herself in. She still hasn't revealed exactly how she did it, either.
She has no problem helping the crew catch criminals, but her secret ambition is to find her friend, and if she gets the chance, she'll take it.
Which I will do right this minute...
and if I'm going to be spending alot of my time working on this sucker, I want you guys to as well.
