Post by ferrovax on Feb 23, 2011 5:08:03 GMT -5
Emrissa
Name: Emrissa
Age: 18
Gender: Female
Prisoner: Certainly not.
Craft/Rank: Insta-Weyrling
Appearance: Emrissa's eyes are a murky brown, large and set wide in her face. Dark circles often pool around them - a Weyrling keeps long hours, after all. Her black hair is cropped short, and while she isn't pleased by its length at all, she is resigned. Her tanned face has a squashed look, with a small nose, rounded cheeks, and a wide mouth that is quick to express her contempt with a frown.
A bit of a vain girl and a fastidious one (though discreet about it), she likes to look good, and that reflects in the care she takes with her appearance. At the same time, she shows a distinct lack of attention to certain aspects of her appearance - her nails are chewed down to stubs, the skin around them peeling and stained with dirt or ink or whatever the substance of the day is.
She stands at around average height, with a lithe build (all that Weyrling training comes in handy, after all!) and only slight curves. When people are watching her, she swaggers as she walks.
Personality: Prideful and too often convinced of the rightness of her own viewpoint and the wrongness of everyone else's, Emrissa is both rude and callous, with little concern for the feelings of others when she speaks.
She offers friendship to only a few and often not for long - the concept of loyalty is simply not in her, and she'll turn upon a friend (albeit with some regrets, perhaps) if she deems it in her favour. Those who earn her favour become indisputably hers: her possessions, to cherish and keep. She is prone to jealousy of the company of her few friends and is often none-too-shy about sharing her feelings: perhaps that is one the reasons she has so few friends, but she latches onto those that she has with far too much zeal. She's a shallow person by nature: it is far easier to earn her admiration through physical beauty than through deeds.
As a Weyrling and a future Squad member, she is starting to let the power get to her head. She likes the feeling of supremacy (and the knowledge, of course, that she is a dragonrider), and that has only worsened her attitude. She has particularly little compassion for prisoners as individuals - and why should she, when they're all clearly no-good, Dust-addicted crazies (from her perspective, at least)?
Matching a courageous recklessness with the ability to remain calm under pressure, she considers both cowardice and panic unconscionable and has nothing but contempt for those who aren't willing to take risks and have fun or worse, those sticks-in-the-mud who don't want to have fun. She also has nothing but contempt for bullies, disdaining them as gauche, foolish, and, frankly, amateurish, but one or two might win her respect.
Passionate, she does not partially devote herself to causes, and she will pursue her course for as long as she can derive an advantage from doing so. Her stubbornness, unfortunately, doesn't reflect in her work - she is lazy and prone to shirking off, unless she is given reason to care. Namely, anything to do with her dragon is good reason.
Perhaps surprisingly, she possesses a wide-eyed delight at the world. She loves art, nature, and other beautiful things, envying those who can sing and draw. Most of all, she finds satisfaction in motion: exploring textures and objects with her fingers, taking risks and pushing herself until her heart is pounding.
She is willing to grudgingly acknowledge and attempt to fix her own mistakes (or at least, try harder not to get caught making them), though of course she won't admit to her errors out loud.
She's no saint, and she is aware of it. She prides herself upon being above petty things like emotion and sentimentality and is contemptuous of idealists and frauds who try to pretend to be kinder than they are. She doesn't try to hide what she is - prickly, callous, and too often cruel. Indeed, she revels in it sometimes.
She has a fascination with power and the grotesque. She quite literally can't turn away, and she strives to understand those whom she deems grotesque - though her self-centeredness and disgusted fascination hinder true comprehension. Her stay at Warden's Weyr has so far been...interesting.
History: Born in Igen Weyr to a couple of Lower Cavern workers with nothing better to do with their time, Emrissa grew up virtually ignored in the horde of Weyrbrats. Despite the heat, she was quite fond of the outdoors, and the scrapes and accidents she was prone to never seemed to faze her for long. Somehow, a fondness for being outdoors caused adults to think, "Hmm, gee, she'd be great with animals!" despite all evidence to the contrary, so she was carted off to the Beastcraft Hall to become an apprentice. She hated it there, of course: animals were smelly, stubborn, and required far too much care. Why couldn't they muck out their own stalls or care for themselves? Why did they need to be slaughtered when they just keeled over and died of old age eventually, which was far less messy and far easier?
Managing through a mix of intractability, rebellion, and sheer whininess to lose her Apprenticeship, she was sent back to the Weyr in disgrace, taking a place in the kitchens and (shortly afterwards) doubling as a Candidate. It was not a nice life, but it didn't inspire the same hatred that the Beastcraft Hall did, and she held out hope for an Impression. Which repeatedly didn't happen. The fact that she at least managed to survive the Hatchings unscathed and unwounded was scant comfort.
She was transferred to Warden's Weyr for the clutch of twelve eggs, where she was fortunate enough to Impress. Which is just as well, considering just how unenthusiastic she was about working in the kitchens of the prison.
Other stuff: Ever since a firelizard bit her when she was a child, she's hated the creatures, though she's long since forgotten why. Just keep them away from her.
The Weyrling ban on sexual relationships chafes quite a bit, though she has enough self-restraint to care about not endangering her dragon.
She is quite irritated at the Impression of the prisoners - certainly it's a good thing that there were enough Candidates, but... prisoners?They'll probably try to kill everyone in their sleep or something. Also, what is with all those freak dragonets? She intends to watch the new Weyrlings very carefully and, perhaps, try to make their lives as difficult as possible.
Her hobby is woodcarving, and she's... not too shabby at it, just out of practice. She likes carving animals and abstract shapes, though of course she has all but given up woodcarving at Warden's due to a lack of time and supplies.
Pets
Name: Willdeth
Color: Brown
Age: 7 Months
Appearance:
Willdeth is of unspectacular size for his color but he sure is striking to look at. His hide is dark and red-brown. The color is such that after sunset, he appears almost black. When the sun shines on him, it brings out the subtle patterning of his hide. A mask of slightly lighter brown across his head, and deep red tones that form twisting patterns along his wingsails and down his tail. He's fairly typical in stamina and speed, though he has a very precise way of flying, always seeming to know exactly how to move to the best effect.
Personality:
If browns are the rocks of dragonkind, then Willdeth is a diamond. While this could be taken a reference to beauty, for he is quite pretty, it's important to remember the other qualities associated with diamonds. Like how sharding hard they are, how unwilling to change. Willdeth is a dragon with opinions. He knows what he believes and he knows the things he believes are important. Frankly, it'll be a warm day Between before anyone on Pern changes Willdeth's mind.
Willdeth's tends toward the black and white. Traditions are good. Change is bad. Lucky for Emrissa, female riders have been common for over a century, which is long enough for them to get into his good graces. Gray dragons, though? Pinks, opals, yellows? Ridiculous. Willdeth wants nothing to do with such things and furthermore, he doesn't want his weyr associated with such silliness. Willdeth takes himself, his rider, and his weyr very seriously. The existence of the new dragons makes a joke of things.
The fact that many of Semith's clutch impressed to prisoners only proves his point. Willdeth is a dragon who believes the words right and wrong should be writ large, capitalized, bolded, and possibly underlined for effect. The law exists for the reason, breaking the law is tantamount to breaking tradition. And breaking tradition is like saying you want to send Pern spiraling into chaos and despair. It's highly unlikely that he'll ever warm up to a prisoner and if he does, it'll be because he's convinced himself that said prisoner is innocent of whatever it was they were accused of. He's unlikely to be unnecessarily brutal with them, because such an attitude would go against his beliefs, but he certainly isn't going to be cuddling up to them like some fools.
While Willdeth certainly adores his rider, he isn't, by nature, an affectionate dragon. Gruff and rather stuffy, he's likely to express his feelings by carefully considered and well deserved compliments. He can be a strict task master and should he or his rider fail where he expects success, he will insist on repeating the task until they get it right. And then repeating it a few hundred more times, for good measure. Respectful of authority and color order, he's naturally subservient to metallics. In turn, he expects the same respect from blues and greens. While he'd probably turn down leading a squad with bronzes in it, he has his eye on leadership.
Why Me:
Emrissa is a woman who believes strongly. While her opinions may not always sync up with Willdeth's, the important thing is that she's not the sort to waver. Willdeth needed someone as hard as he was at his back, someone to help him restore the natural order of things. It helps that she's not sentimental or prone to meaningless attachment, he has no time for such things. Her love of beauty could be good for him, if she can help him see things through her eyes. In turn, while he won't gentle her, his sense of honor could keep her from taking her aggressiveness too far.
