Thanks for lots of awesome responses.
Think of the first few years of capsuleer life as a second adolescence - you;re immportal, unbound and this can lead to hyper-conservatism and immobility (sticking to a single faction for comfort) or a radical movement from group to group. The stakes are higher and the swings in ethical/political leanings much more telling, but in many ways the early choices of capsuleers mimic that 'finding yourself' stage.
I love this thought. Although I can appreciate that you meant it for the character, it sort of applied to my entrance into EVE also. "Hey look at all these cool things... and this one... and this one over here... holy crap this looks cool too..."
If you wanted to go back toward "traditional" Minmatar culture, then it should be actually fairly straightforward. Minmatar culture seems big on redemptive type social conventions.
One of the huge flaws of the Minmatar is that they almost never give up on their own, even when they should. Whether they're slaves in the Empire they've never met, or criminals from their own clan, the Minmatar refuse to give up on their own. This is a culture that takes murders, rapists and various sorts of criminals and trains them as spec op soldiers. If Minmatar tolerate Valklear, even glorify them a bit, Im sure they'll "take back" Casiella.
That's a real possibility. Of course, I'd have to figure out how a
SCIENCE! character could fit into the Republic, but it's not impossible. (Whether other players trust her is another matter, of course!)
Minmatar are also very little inclined to forgiveness. But Valklears is a possibility, though I do not really see how a capsuleer would suddenly become a Valklear.
No, she'd never be a Valklear for all sorts of reasons. But the Minmatar
do forgive their own, looking the other way (this is clear in TBL, for example, among other places) as long as they haven't been out and out traitors, like helping to enslave their own people. Casi never did that, although she might have shot at a few Minmatar ships in Curse from time to time doing missions.
Based on what you've said, you're basically looking for a reason to have Casiella learn to trust again (at the core). I get this impression because you indicated that her allegiance-hopping and history made her grow very distrustful of people (especially those in power) and that keeps her separate from everyone else.
I didn't really think of this in isolation, but this really captures a core point as well. The converse, of course, is that she may not be very trusted by large factions yet, but that comes with the territory.
A few ideas occur to me out of all of this.
First, "wiping the slate clean" through a cloning accident or mindwipe or whatever probably isn't necessary. I suppose that a really interesting and well-played story arc could do it, but you've convinced me that I don't
need to do it.
Second, she can maintain some loose ties to the Republic and bind them closer later on if desired and appropriate. After all, the
RSS originally asked her to work with the Cartel. I could possibly work out an angle in the
murky world of covert ops.
Third, I probably should have her settle down and focus on SCIENCE! for a bit. Not sure right now whether that means W-space (where she's more than qualified and has lived in the past) or K-space for exploration and S&I (which is usually more casual, I think, but not sure if this would turn into :work:).