These are my old characters from Star Wars MUSH, from which I finally retired in the year 2000.
Shenneret Veery Windchaser-Webb (Shenner)
Also known as “the bard brat with a blaster”, “Shen”, “Shenneret Veery Windchaser-Webb”, or most often just plain Shenner, my primary character on Star Wars MUSH was a bundle of seeming contradictions. On the one hand, she was an orphan who’d taken care of herself since she was nine, an ex-thief who’d survived years on various worlds — and a year in Mos Eisley on Tatooine — by disguising herself as a boy, with nothing but her wits, her skill as a pickpocket, and an ancient blaster to protect herself. She was crude and unrefined of manner, full of temper, and more often than not liable to be dismissed as the “street rat” she usually styled herself.
But on the other hand, Shen also possessed a keenly honed thirst for knowledge, which she satisfied by devouring texts on just about all subjects she could find and by throwing herself headlong into studies at the University of Caspar, anxious to get caught up on the education her childhood had denied her.
Moreover, she was a natural-born musician, with a strong, clear singing voice. She had a knack for being able to make any instrument she got her hands on her own; she was a whiz at guitar and flute, and fairly comfortable with the bodhran, ocarina, and namdhi-harp. And she had the creative spark to compose her own music to go along with the songs she drank in as readily as information from whatever sentients she happened to encounter in her rambles. Her musical talent won her the job of lead singer of the band called the Womprats, regular performers at the famous Sandbar in Plaxton City — employed by none other than the President of the Caspar System, Avalyshaar Laarken.
Though she was no soldier or warrior by trade, Shenner grew well-versed in the archaic art of swordplay, courtesy of one of her few close friends, Jairen Windchaser of the Jaer. She was an excellent shot with a blaster, a fair shot with a blaster rifle, and unflinchingly helped defend Plaxton City and civilian refugees when the Empire brought war to the Caspar system.
Cautious in the making of acquaintances, even more cautious in the winning of friends, Shen did not give her trust easily. She fully expected those she wound up calling ‘friend’ to eventually leave her life; accordingly, as far as Shen was concerned, it was her against the galaxy, with protective distance between her and everyone else, even most of the beings she happened to like. Still, despite her natural reticence, she developed a surprising range of friends and acquaintances, including no less than three Jedi, two galactic Heads of State, and infamous heroes of the Rebellion. She knew xenoarchaeologists and thieves, soldiers and street urchins and pickpockets, musicians and University students. But she considered only a small handful of people her family: the staff and her fellow musicians of the Sandbar… and Jairen, who adopted her into his clan and tribe along with making her an Initate of his homeworld’s Order of the Grooved Blade.
Romantically speaking, Shenner had especially good (or bad, depending on your point of view) luck with Corellians, having developed a knack for getting herself into trouble with natives of that system… and having attracted the interest of three different Corellian men. One of these Corellians, the xenoarchaeologist Paul Nighman who was responsible for rescuing Shen from the streets of her homeworld, broke the young musician’s heart in the conclusion of a whirlwind affair from which it took Shen a year and a half — and the outbreak of war upon her adopted homeworld — to recover. After that war, however, the devoted attentions of Lieutenant Jonathan Webb of the Caspar Marines began to soothe her battered heart… and at last, she began to return his professions of love. It took the emergence of the galaxy’s third Death Star, nevertheless, to provoke the two into marrying.
As of when I retired her she was heading into her second year at the University of Caspar, and had at last married her beloved Webb. She remains an NPC as far as Star Wars MUSH is concerned, and occasionally is mentioned in passing by Webb’s player.
Han Solo
From 1997 through 2000, I was the player for Han Solo on Star Wars MUSH — and I had a hell of a lot of fun bringing one of my all-time favorite movie characters to life. Moreover, the reactions of a lot of the player populace to the fact that I was a female player playing the character were quite delightful as well; I took great pleasure in telling people things like, “Don’t think of me as a girl, think of me as uniquely qualified to portray the inherent swoonability of my character” or “Yeah, and I can still kick your ass, Fett!”
But anyway. Han Solo. Scoundrel, reformed smuggler, nerfherder and hero, beloved of Princess Leia, reluctant General of the New Republic. That was Han as I played him, and I’ve never had quite the same kind of rakish adventuresome fun with any character before or since.
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