Professor Ambertome (Ready)

[Pretzelparty]

Roleplay Type: World of Equestria

Name: Ambertome

Sex: Male

Age: Stallion

Species: Crystal Pony

Eye colour: garnet

Coat: golden amber

Mane/Tail: light tan,short and curled at the back

Physique: Average

Residence: Crystal Empire

Occupation: Teacher

Cutie Mark: A light bulb in an open book

As a Colt Ambertome was an enthusiastic and slightly eccentric little fellow. His unbridled desire for learning things seems to dominate most of his time. Often the little Crystal colt would wake up early and speed off to the library early so he could check out as many books as he could from the friendly librarian he had began to make friends with. While like other fillies and colts his age he did enjoy the adventure oriented books he seemed determined to fill his brain to bursting with as much knowledge about the world as possible.

While Tome did indeed enjoy learning all these things he wasn't sure what exactly he'd do with all this knowledge. His worries were put to rest during one particularly boring trip to a history museum. The class's teacher was droning on and on in this boring monotone that from the looks of all him classmates look like they would've welcomed a certain creator of chaos to barge in just to liven things up. Little Ambertome grew tired immediately and spoke up telling him point blank his lesson was boring. The professor scoffed at him in a deadpan manner and said if he thought he could do any better he was welcome to try and feeling like he needed to show this stallion up he agreed.

Suddenly all of his classmate's eyes were on him. At first he felt kind of nervous but soon all he remembered about this particular subject of history began to rush back into his head. He started out a bit slow and made sure his speech was enthusiastic, determined to make these ponies feel as invested in this exhibit as he was and he was succeeding too, everyponies eyes lit up as the passionate little colt gave his speech. It seemed even a few adults had joined in the crowd to listen to him. Once his little lecture was over he walked back to his fellow classmates and all of them were staring at him, despite the fact he had finished. After asking them what was wrong they pointed at his flank and he practically lit up as he saw his cutie mark had come.

History:

Ambertome was born and raised in the Crystal empire to a stallion named Garnet Smiles and a mare named Citrine Sunshine. Ambertome was named for the color of his coat and how much he seemed to love to sleep as a foal. When he wasn't asleep he would often go looking around the house and explore many things seemingly trying to figure out how everything worked.

As a colt he was very social and outgoing, despite all the books he checked out from the library he always seemed to have time to go out with friends and if questioned about any of the book's contents to test if he really read them he was able to recount practically every detail and event or subject in the book. His circle of friends were typically small but varied, with a few of them having interests that seemed like something he'd never bother getting involved with.

​Upon the kingdom's disappearance Ambertone was on one such trip with his class and as the collective amnesia took hold in his mind he could only think to lead the group of fillies and colts around in the hopes that they'd find their parents. The sights of the Crystal Faire made something in his heart and memories stir... and the same seemed to be happening to the fillies and colts in his care, suddenly they began asking him questions about it and oddly enough he found that he knew the answer to any question they posed.

The sudden return of the empire and eventually being told by their knew and much nicer looking rulers how long everypony had been gone he was flabbergasted. Gone for a thousand years?! there was going to be so much he had to catch up on and incorporate into his lesson plan... but this also meant there was a multitude of knowledge now available for him and any new students to learn. Since his kind are still being reintroduced to the world he has been seen not only checking out what could only be described as "towers of books" from the library. His passion for educating and learning seemingly burning brighter than ever at the chance to learn what had happened in his kingdom's absence.

Character Summary:

Professor Ambertome is a rather unconventional teacher, his love for teaching is only overshadowed by his own desire to learn. In the classroom he is always trying to make his students interested in his lessons. His methods could often be seen as unusual as he often takes time with individual students to learn what they are interested and invests his time and a lengthy though process to figure out a way to either link that to his lesson in a way that doesn't seem forced. While he is without a doubt a kind and energetic pony when you're on his good side he is no stranger to problem students and could be described as downright frightening if angry. His favorite methods of teaching seem to be field trips although he usually requires a second set of hooves to take care of the colts and fillies in case they get in trouble. Despite his quirks he is a teacher who takes his job as an educator quite seriously and is willing to take care of his students and will defend them with his life if need be.

When not on the job he can often be found in the library checking out usually a wagon full of books which he always returns on time and burns through them exceptionally quick to the point ponies wonder how on Equestria he manages to have a social life. Speaking of his social life Ambertome, while he doesn't have a huge circle of friends but the few that he does he is very kind and tries to broaden his horizons when it comes to his interests. His personality can often grate on the more laid back members of society and his constant library trips can seem boring to some of his friends ... with the obvious exception of the local librarians. Because of his upbeat and active personality he positively despises ponies who seem determined to bring down his or anypony else' good mood. He typically will grow very attached to anypony who shows something unique to themselves and tries to observe them. With the sudden influx of tourists of different species he had never had the chance to see before he can be seen hanging around the train station watching the ponies who arrive and depart with unusual interest. He has a bit of a tendency to flirt vaguely and flaunt his knowledge with pones who will listen but if they as k him to stop he will. He is fond using using Old equestrian sayings to justify his actions

While Ambertome knows a lot about things, his knowledge is now greatly outdated so he is a bit out of his element after having been dropped back into Equestria with the reappearance of his kingdom and suddenly his homeland had two monarchs he knew nothing about although he wasn't complaining as they seemed genuinely nicer than ... the previous ruler. So he has a LOT of catching up to do when it comes to history and major figures in it. Rather than let himself be gotten down by it he is more determined than ever to learn as much about this world as he can and teach any students all he can.

The most useful trait he has as a teacher would likely be his ability to read any book faster than anypony else in Equestria to the point it looks like he's for lack of a better word "thumbing" through the pages of a book. If questioned on the subject and details of the book to see if he really read it he is able to recite any sentence from any paragraph from any chapter in the book verbatim. His near boundless energy seems to allow him to stay awake into the late hours of the night planning lessons and reading and reviewing materials without tiring.

Portrait:

(image courtesy of our very own Raven queen, Quicklime)

[Armony]

How is this application coming along?

[Pretzelparty]

Slowly but I intend to have it done soon.... preferably in two days time or less.

[Pretzelparty]

now I've hit a bit of a snag though since I would like to make this character a stallion but i dont citrine dream fits a stallion for a name and depending on what his new name might be i might have to redo his color scheme... god this is so maddening

[Armony]

Take your time then, and be sure to let us know when you're ready

[Pretzelparty]

Oh I didn't know I was supposed to leave a comment!>_< He's all ready to go

[Conor Colton]

Hey Zoebel12, that's a rather detailed application you have going on here, so that's pretty good

There are a few things I'd like to address about the Professor here though that seemed to pop out as small issues. Nothing huge though, and I'm sure if you bare with me we can make Ambertone here even better.

For Ambertome you seemed to have focused a lot on the history of the Crystal Empire and how that ties into his story, which is by no means a bad thing but the idea of an application like this is to focus on the character themselves, and not almost exclusively on the whole societal influences thing. I'd encourage you to mention those though, as a teacher in the Crystal Empire would likely have an interesting story to tell, but for right now it'd be best saved as a small detail and perhaps he could expand on that once he's made it into an actual RP. Right now we're looking for a character that has a personality outside of his profession and location, so giving more focus on his quirks and attitude and fleshing those out a bit would be a good idea in my opinion

I also want to address a few fishy subjects in this app. For one there seems to be a lot of lore creation in how Sombra ran his kingdom. For instance you said he acquired his cutie mark on a field trip and he also had to work in the Crystal Mines, which seems a bit contradictory when you look at those two side by side. We don't fully know ourselves the details of Sombra's rule and what type of dictatorship he had but it'd be (once again ) left as a passing notion; something that helped to push Ambertome in his direction as a character but not such a big detail in his app. Also a lot of this app seems to be retelling the story of how the Crystal Empire was freed, and seems to only cast Ambertome as a random civilian experiencing this (Which is fine because, that's essentially what he was) but much like his past the influences of the past events would be best left as a footnote for him, since this could apply to essentially any crystal pony.

In short I'd encourage you to take a step back from how you designed this app, and think to yourself what specifically makes Ambertone, well, Ambertone, without having such a huge focus on the lore of the Crystal Empire. I'd advise to think of how he is around others, what his quirks are, and how he would have became the pony he is. If you would want any help with this don't hesitate to ask me and my fellow RP helpers and we'd be more than happy to brainstorm some potential ideas.

Oh and also, I can see there was some confusion on which gender to have Ambertome as, and I spotted an instance where you referred to him as 'her' in your app. Not a huge deal but a proofread or two'd fix that no problem.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to helping you with the Professor here

[Pretzelparty]

do you think maybe him using some knowledge he gained at the library to assist in the mines by solving a problem sounds like a better choice? also I was thinking perhaps he could become a teacher after the crystal empire returned do you think that might work?

[Conor Colton]

I'm not sure if that would be a better choice. Most likely, it wouldn't be, sorry

The problem with that is it's making up Lore for the Crystal Empire that we don't have (I.E the Crystal Mines). All we know about Sombra's rule was that it involved enslavement, and Crystal Ponies being miserable. Plus again it has a very juxtaposed nature by having slaves given access to a library, and ponies even being allowed to teach when everypony's supposed to be miserable. I really hope you can see where I'm going with this.

What you have in your app is good, but we're looking for more detail on the character, not exactly on the Crystal Empire. There's also the issue of you saying how certain characters acted (I.E Sombra visiting his mines), which isn't really allowed when talking about character backstory. I'd advise, if you are going to look into how the Crystal Empire's situation affected him then it'd be best to have it as a small footnote about his character; a brief mention with characters not relating to specific MLP cast members. Remember that this is a character application, so we want to know as much as we can about Ambertome alone, and not so much on outside influences.

Again me and every other staff member's door is open if you have questions, and I hope I've cleared up any confusion.

[Pretzelparty]

I think I see I understand now. So I'll get to work making altrerations and I'll post again when im finished

[Conor Colton]

Awesome, thank you

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with

[Pretzelparty]

okay, I -THINK- I've adressed the problems.... however i can be extremely dim so may have missed the point...

[Conor Colton]

Alright, I gave Ambertone here another look. The good news is, he's getting there. The bad news is that there's still a few things that need to be changed up a bit

Again we're having the problem of saying what the Crystal Empire was like when the ponies in it were enslaved, and that's lore we just don't have at this moment in time. When you mention how things worked in the Crystal Empire when Ambertome was trying to teach, it proves kind of irrelevant as well as bordering on making up lore (An example of this would be when you said he met Sombra when he was younger, which falls under saying what a cast character has done, which isn't allowed in an OCs backstory).

My advice would be that, if you are going to discuss how Ambertome teaches, then keep it strictly in the present. The idea of potentially putting kids in the Crystal Empire in danger by teaching them things that Ambertome shouldn't even really know about creates a confusion in his past. I would mention how he has to grow accustomed to teaching a new curriculum and highlight and detail that, as opposed to saying how he got around restrictions of Sombra's rule. For example, you did mention him having to adapt to teaching new things, and if that sort of thing made up the majority of his backstory then that would be more effective and would be allowed because you're only saying what he's doing in the present.

If you'd like me to explain in more detail or if something seems unclear, feel free to let me know. Hope this helped.

[QuickLime]

Basically you need to remove his foalhood in the mines, we don't need you making up Lore for the Crystal Empire, plus the crystal mines in the show? Were under Canterlot ^^;

You need to have him maybe have a childhood before the empire, the rest being really fuzzy and focus on the future, we don't really want our Crystal ponies scarred by Sombra, no sneaking out, nada, think you can tweak his backstory and remove the rather dark bits? That's the only thing holding this app back

[QuickLime]

Okay aside from calling him a her in several parts it looks good save for one part!

The sights of the Crystal Faire made something in his heart and memories stir... and the same seemed to be happening to the fillies and colts in his care, suddenly they began asking him questions about it and oddly enough he found that he knew the answers

The answers to what? I don't think that's necessary, or the bit about bullet wife! Edit these and I think you're good to go

[Pretzelparty]

I've removed and edited a few things. I think his history could stand a bit more to it but if its good enough now I'm content with what's here XD

[Conor Colton]

It all is looking a lot better now, Zoe. Awesome job

Many thanks to QuickLime as well for her assistance

Only real thing I can spot now is, this line at the end, "A foalhood spent working in the mines have left him very fit and a very fast runner." which is a mistake that can be easily fixed. Again sorry if I'm raining on any parades here but we never had the Crystal Ponies working in mines in our board canon. If you make that tiny change then I think we can start on the whole approval of him pretty soon.

[Pretzelparty]

and edited!

[Bellosh]