- So, to elaborate on Inej’s traveling troupe: It was relatively small, consisting mainly of her family and a few close family friends/colleagues. The troupe itself tended to stay close to the Quad with a few excursions elsewhere. Overall, they were very tight knit. Their ship was open only for shows, so while Inej had contact with quite a few different cultures, there was no real long term mingling (as in, people seeing the shows wouldn’t stay on the ship for days at a time, more like hours). As such, Inej was pretty saturated in Suli culture and so still has a lot of longing for it. For simplicity's sake, I'm going to say that Inej's people are still called the Suli, and that they were a subculture of a planet outside the Quad. Her troupe wasn't rich by any means, but they got by, and the first chunk of her life was safe and happy. She was raised knowing Suli and her planet's original language, as well as whatever is spoken in the Quad, but I doubt that will come up IC very often.
- Inej was raised from a young age to work in the performances, but she was headstrong enough to push her training further than her parents planned, such as walking the highwire by herself without them knowing (and then getting in trouble for it), things like that. It was an incredible success and a badge of honor when she was allowed to start performing in the shows properly.
- Annnd this is where it gets triggery, potentially, as a warning. Inej was kidnapped by slavers at around 15 and transported to Westerley. Much like her original history, Inej was forced to sign a contract she didn’t fully understand. The brothel Tante Heleen ran specialized in “offering” girls from all different places, especially beyond the Quad. Inej worked there for a year, and Tante Heleen was incredibly cruel to her charges, often beating them for small infractions and using any opportunity possible to add more debt onto their illegal contracts. Because Inej was undocumented, she had no real way out, and her initial hope that someone would come to rescue her eventually gave way to the realization that it was an impossibility. This is when Inej starts to take a more pessimistic (although not entirely cynical) view of people.
- Inej found Old Town utterly alien. The violence was an entirely new experience for her, and while she understood the language, much of the culture was new to her, too, as well as the crushing desperation she'd been sheltered from. Because her family never touched down on any planets on the Quad, she was aware of the Company and the Accords from overhearing customers, but the way they saturated the daily lives of most of the people in Old Town was a shock. No one was familiar with her saints or any of the wisdom her family had passed down to her, and the food wasn’t the traditional fare her parents fed her. This added to her feelings of isolation and eventual helplessness.
- When Kaz offered her a new contract, she was inducted into an entirely new sort of culture. Inej had grown up relatively sheltered, and while working in Heleen’s brothel gave her an idea of how Old Town worked, this was a crash course. She had to learn, very rapidly, to turn her conscience off or shove it to the side, and to be violent and cunning as a form of survival. Kaz’s gang, and Kaz, began to respect her, and she quickly latched onto her identity as the Wraith and her dangerous reputation as a form of protection and comfort. Her morals were pushed further and further, until she was eventually killing people on jobs for Kaz. Inej mentions at some point that her relationship with Kaz is built on debts constantly being owed and repaid, as they've saved each others' lives more than either can count, and this holds true for her AU history as well.
- Inej was mainly asked to spy on Kaz’s rivals and potential rivals, and to keep a finger on the pulse, so to speak, of the city and its underworld. She would report this information back to Kaz, which could be something as major as one of his gang members making a deal with another gang, or something as relatively minor as reporting a Company employee’s daily schedule. She does other small things, too, such as acting as back up during meetings and deals, fencing stolen goods, etc. It still holds true that Kaz is more of the leader of the gang than Per Haskell, and everyone in the Dregs realizes that Inej reports and answers to Kaz first and foremost.
- She’s spent most of the past two years trying to come to terms with what she is, and convincing herself that even if she could find her family, there’s no going back, because they won’t accept her. On the flip side, she’s also come to genuinely care about quite a few members of Kaz’s gang, and Kaz himself. Her only true goal, at the moment, is to pay off her debt and survive, but she’s definitely not content with this, and still doesn’t feel completely settled or comfortable in her own skin.
no subject
- So, to elaborate on Inej’s traveling troupe: It was relatively small, consisting mainly of her family and a few close family friends/colleagues. The troupe itself tended to stay close to the Quad with a few excursions elsewhere. Overall, they were very tight knit. Their ship was open only for shows, so while Inej had contact with quite a few different cultures, there was no real long term mingling (as in, people seeing the shows wouldn’t stay on the ship for days at a time, more like hours). As such, Inej was pretty saturated in Suli culture and so still has a lot of longing for it. For simplicity's sake, I'm going to say that Inej's people are still called the Suli, and that they were a subculture of a planet outside the Quad. Her troupe wasn't rich by any means, but they got by, and the first chunk of her life was safe and happy. She was raised knowing Suli and her planet's original language, as well as whatever is spoken in the Quad, but I doubt that will come up IC very often.
- Inej was raised from a young age to work in the performances, but she was headstrong enough to push her training further than her parents planned, such as walking the highwire by herself without them knowing (and then getting in trouble for it), things like that. It was an incredible success and a badge of honor when she was allowed to start performing in the shows properly.
- Annnd this is where it gets triggery, potentially, as a warning. Inej was kidnapped by slavers at around 15 and transported to Westerley. Much like her original history, Inej was forced to sign a contract she didn’t fully understand. The brothel Tante Heleen ran specialized in “offering” girls from all different places, especially beyond the Quad. Inej worked there for a year, and Tante Heleen was incredibly cruel to her charges, often beating them for small infractions and using any opportunity possible to add more debt onto their illegal contracts. Because Inej was undocumented, she had no real way out, and her initial hope that someone would come to rescue her eventually gave way to the realization that it was an impossibility. This is when Inej starts to take a more pessimistic (although not entirely cynical) view of people.
- Inej found Old Town utterly alien. The violence was an entirely new experience for her, and while she understood the language, much of the culture was new to her, too, as well as the crushing desperation she'd been sheltered from. Because her family never touched down on any planets on the Quad, she was aware of the Company and the Accords from overhearing customers, but the way they saturated the daily lives of most of the people in Old Town was a shock. No one was familiar with her saints or any of the wisdom her family had passed down to her, and the food wasn’t the traditional fare her parents fed her. This added to her feelings of isolation and eventual helplessness.
- When Kaz offered her a new contract, she was inducted into an entirely new sort of culture. Inej had grown up relatively sheltered, and while working in Heleen’s brothel gave her an idea of how Old Town worked, this was a crash course. She had to learn, very rapidly, to turn her conscience off or shove it to the side, and to be violent and cunning as a form of survival. Kaz’s gang, and Kaz, began to respect her, and she quickly latched onto her identity as the Wraith and her dangerous reputation as a form of protection and comfort. Her morals were pushed further and further, until she was eventually killing people on jobs for Kaz. Inej mentions at some point that her relationship with Kaz is built on debts constantly being owed and repaid, as they've saved each others' lives more than either can count, and this holds true for her AU history as well.
- Inej was mainly asked to spy on Kaz’s rivals and potential rivals, and to keep a finger on the pulse, so to speak, of the city and its underworld. She would report this information back to Kaz, which could be something as major as one of his gang members making a deal with another gang, or something as relatively minor as reporting a Company employee’s daily schedule. She does other small things, too, such as acting as back up during meetings and deals, fencing stolen goods, etc. It still holds true that Kaz is more of the leader of the gang than Per Haskell, and everyone in the Dregs realizes that Inej reports and answers to Kaz first and foremost.
- She’s spent most of the past two years trying to come to terms with what she is, and convincing herself that even if she could find her family, there’s no going back, because they won’t accept her. On the flip side, she’s also come to genuinely care about quite a few members of Kaz’s gang, and Kaz himself. Her only true goal, at the moment, is to pay off her debt and survive, but she’s definitely not content with this, and still doesn’t feel completely settled or comfortable in her own skin.