Post by alaska on May 10, 2011 2:47:23 GMT -5
Rider Application
Name: Shiila
Age: 28
Gender: Female
Sexuality: Bisexual
Rank: Headwoman of Hidden
Appearance: Proud is an inadequate word for how Shiila feels about her hair. The locks are long and auburn; very nearly a dark, scintillating red. And curly! Oh how gloriously wavy. It never seemed to reach kinky or frizzy, just wavy in the back with adorable curls forming around her face that she took infinite pains to maintain. Yes, her hair is Shiila's crowning glory. She wears it loose and flowing, constantly running her fingers through it self-consciously.
The rest of her body keeps her in despair. Shiila never could get rid of the weight after her last baby, and even the weight that seemed to pile on so easily as a teen. Even her tireless work as a dragonrider failed to keep her slim and trim like so many other girls. She tends to carry it on her face and bosom, her stomach just a little too thick for her liking. At least her legs are semi-shapely, and fat doesn't puddle around her ankles. Consequently, Shiila looks somewhat round. Her short stature doesn't help the whole image, measuring in around 4'9”. It isn't like the weight hangs on her, far from it. In fact, through a man's eyes she is infinitely desirable, like a ripe plum that just needs squeezing. She is a FULL woman. And beautiful if you study her face. Hazel eyes with almond shapes and tinges of green are pleasantly set below a well shaped brow ridge. Her lips are heart-shaped and pixie-ish, above an oval chin, or two chins depending on what angle you are looking at.
As for her clothes, Shiila adores white. She doesn't care if she has to work extra hard to stay clean, or sometimes change in the middle of the day. White it is, and she owns few other colors. In form she preferred flowing robes, gauchos, skirts, tunics. She feels clean wrapped in white fabric. If she does wear a color, yellow usually suits her complexion well. For Shiila is swarthy and sports darker skin. She isn't just tanned, her skin tends towards a rich olive. Shiila takes care of the beautiful tone, keeping her skin young and supple as she ages. If she couldn't have a figure, at least she could have beautiful skin and hair!
Personality: Ah Shiila, Shiila. If only she could think of herself as she so often thought about other people. For others are constantly on Shiila's mind. A gossip and pry, this woman is always asking questions, looking for a dish, or talking to others about what she had heard. And it wasn't innocent curiosity, or thoughts about the well-fare of others. Though in Shiila's mind, she WAS looking out for other people, not just satisfying her own inner need for validation. Her wagging tongue is usually tolerated by those around her, perhaps because she is so sincere as she went about it, perhaps because she sometimes managed to make a little good come out of it. But mostly it is annoying to everyone.
But, Shiila is usually too preoccupied keeping her hands busy to think about the effect she has on others. An extremely task-driven personality, her hands are always working, always in the middle of things happening, as is her tongue. She could work from sunup to sundown, and hardly even notice the day went by. Of course, she tired like every other human being, but there is a great satisfaction in getting things done that gets Shiila up in the mornings. That and Dahliath. Consequently, Shiila is a woman of many acquaintances, but few friends. But she doesn't notice, because Dahliath is everything she needs for a friend.
She is also very good at a wide variety of tasks. She takes to cooking and baking easily, her multi-tasking mind easily suited to the demands of a kitchen. She is able to sew rather well when she put her mind on it. Usually she needs to be doing something else at the same time, like talking, to keep at the task. She isn't averse to harder tasks either, like splitting wood or hauling water, though the delegator in her would rather find someone with less important things to do for labor like that. Shiila is also a boss. Telling someone what to do is like breathing. She tends to be rather obsessive compulsive about organization too, when she is put in charge of a project. Her training in the Hold saw to that. When reporting to the Lord of a hold, you had better have your p's and q's together. She is passable at animal husbandry, the tending a herd of runners or cows, but has no experience with whers or dogs. And with a rudimentary understanding of healing, and intimate experience with the care of a dragon, Shiila takes pride in her general knowledge.
Perhaps pride is the operable word for her personality. Shiila doesn't look down on people, necessarily, but she categorizes them. This person belongs here, and this one here, and heavens forbid if this person stepped out of their place in life. She makes this assessment within a few minutes of meeting someone, and is difficult to change her opinion once set. In true gossipy form, she often forms her opinion of others before even meeting them, depending on the rumors or their station in life.
As for kindness and her general demeanor, Shiila is usually too relationally intimate with others. She takes liberties that usually aren't given, and pretends to confidences that aren't hers. Sometimes people love her familiarity, sometimes they don't, it all depends on who she speaks too. One thing is for sure, Shiila relates to people as she wants to, not as others wish to be related too. She has a penchant for vindictiveness when wronged or hurt, and those working under her know to stay on her good side if at all possible. But Shiila is always as fair as she can be, if not particularly sensitive to the feelings of others. She also finds both sexes equally attractive and interesting, and has no wish to settle down with any one person. Her prejudices are based more on station and charisma than any traditionalist sense of propriety.
On a positive note in her personality, Shiila is very good with children. She employs a firm hand, but weyr kids love her solicitous nature, for she is always interested in what they have to say and their adventures. Sometimes their antics ruffle her feathers, but most of the time she keeps them well in hand. Toddlers especially she finds dear. After growing some, most kids found her mothering too oppressive, and often distance themselves. Sometimes that hurts Shiila, but she usually keeps tabs on them anyways, telling them that “Once Shiila's brat, always Shiila's brat.”
Family:
Father – Morse, Steward of Fort Hold
Mother – Fanquil, his wife
Brother – Shiilen
Background:
Brief Timeline
1228 – Born at Fort Hold to the Steward
1247 – Impresses Dahliath at the Fort clutch at 18 years of age.
1255 – Joins Hidden Weyr
1256 – Takes place of Headwoman at Hidden
Shiila grew up Hold bred at Fort. Her father was the Lord's right hand man, and her mother also quite involved in the everyday business of Fort. She was eldest, with her brother Shiilen two years her junior. Shiila followed her father around everywhere. She doted on him, and he on his little girl. Too much, in fact. As a young girl she happened to be exceptionally pretty. Her father resisted for a while, but in the end he couldn't stop himself; a weak man, he introduced her to things she should not have known till she was far older.
Confused by this, Shiila lost her sense of identity and who she was when her father came to her once a sevenday for several years. The abuse severely degraded her self-confidence, and she began to turn to food for comfort. But her lips were sealed, and she never told her mother, brother, or friends of the visits. She loved her father, and equally hated him for his weakness.
Fanquil never knew why her daughter overate, and would criticize her figure and admonish her on moderation in all things. Shiila would simply nod, give her mother a kiss and then go eat a pastry. But from Fanquil she learned to take an inordinate interest in others, for her mother was a great gossip as well. It was rather a relief to talk about other people's problems than confront her own. She saw that same relief in Fanquil as she grew older, and sometimes she wondered if some things that were unmentionable had also happened to her mother.
Eventually her father stopped when she was 12, for as she grew older he grew ashamed. By then, Shiila had acquired some very bad habits in relating with others. Out of guilt, Morse began to teach Shiila how to manage the hold, thinking that she might succeed him someday. It was a very confusing time for Shiila, unsure of how to relate to her father, feeling the changes of puberty, everything so mixed up. Sometimes she felt as if she would burst from the pent-up-resentment and anger.
One day, at 15, she did. She had made a mistake in a calculation her father had entrusted her with, and it had cost the Hold some funds. The ensuing argument ended very badly, and in front of Fanquil the whole story of shame in the last six years came pouring out. Instead of turning on Morse, Fanquil turned on Shiila, calling her weak, fat, and other horrible things. Shiila fled the house, just to get away. It just so happened that a Search was on for a recently laid clutch. In her vulnerability, perhaps the dragon sensed her distress. The blue searched her in the courtyard of Fort. Dazed, Shiila slowly walked back to tell her parents she was leaving. They said very little as she packed, and she felt their eyes on her back as their eldest walked out.
On the way to the Weyr, (after recovering from the shock of between) Shiila wondered. She had never even thought of being a dragonrider, and seriously doubted any would find her worthy. There had never been very much time or space for dreaming of anything beyond taking care of Fort, her families dedication being complete to the Hold.
On the sands some weeks later, Shiila kept to the back of the Candidates, sure that it was a mistake for her to be there. Not that she hadn't loved the Weyr immediately. Everything about it, in fact. She had started out doing the same labor as the others, but when she had bossily taken over as the group's leader, other tasks had been given her with more responsibility. No, it wasn't that she didn't fit in, it was that she wasn't worthy. She had learned the bond with a dragon was complete, and it would know everything about her. Shiila very much doubted that any dragon would want her broken soul and fat body.
But then Dahliath broke his egg, which was an appropriate shade of sky blue. He had taken his time, seeming to looking to the soul of the Candidates. He had hatched right before the gold egg did, and so when she hatched, the attention on him was immediately given to the Queen. And so when his mellow voice seeped into her mind, Shiila was taken completely by surprise. I'm right here, your Dahliath. She looked down at his slender form. He came up on his hind legs, wings fanned, forelegs placed upon her shoulders, and he LOOKED at her. And Shiila felt love she had never known. Pure love. She began to weep, and smoothed her hands over his wings. She was even completely oblivious to the strange impression of Itwaseth to Giennash, until later of course.
The pair walked off, Shiila weeping as she never had in her life. And she told him everything that night after the celebrations, after his belly was full, after everyone else was asleep. And he knew her, and loved her, and Shiila knew she had come home.
The next nine years gave them a place at Fort Weyr. Since Fort Weyr conducted itself as a Hold, Shiila found herself becoming indispensable to the Headwoman for her skills, as the Queen pair was completely useless in running the Weyr. So Shiila helped run things. Dahliath chased Itwaseth a few times, but never caught the small gold. It was at the Weyr though that Shiila was able to sort out her sexuality, the mating flights giving her experience in the beds of both men and women. And she came to peace with herself, as much peace as she could achieve.
Always the one to keep up with gossip, the tales of the return of Thread and the coalition of riders were intensely interesting to Shiila. She was actually getting a bit bored of her position in Fort, and the specter of Thread was a thrilling concept. She poked and prodded and asked questions, until she believed the Red Star was coming. And when whispered word came that the coalition had found a place acceptable as a rebellious Weyr, Shiila signed up.
She faked suicide. She felt awful, knowing that her friends at Fort would be hurt by her death, especially the Headwoman, but her desire to be a part of something with a little more substance than counting grain stores won out. And so she found herself at Hidden, and the hardest work of her life began.
Dragon
Name: Dahliath
Age: 9
Color: Shades of blue
Appearance: Two tones split Dahliath's hide. His belly and halfway up his chest as well as his lower legs are the darker blue of the sea, while his upper torso, neck, back and tail lighten into a cornflower blue. The gradual shading between the two colors, a gentle gradient, is lovely. When swimming, he looks like a patch of sky in the sea. The skin darkens again around his the nubs on his head, as well as his snout. A dark splotch also appears at the end of his tail.
Dahliath is quite medium sized, perfectly average for his color, and extremely slender. As dragons go, you could call him dainty. His metabolism is very fast, and he has trouble keeping enough weight on him, needing an extra meal when other dragons his size would not yet be hungry. Shiila quite envies him this trait! His agility in the air easily competes with other blues, but he often tires faster. His wings are rather too large for his size, and his muscles never seemed to develop enough to give him the stamina other blues had. So he often flew for the same length of time a green would, though that was fine with him.
Personality: Dahliath likes to chat. He is friendly and kind to everyone he meets. His personality is almost bland, so exceptionally genteelly does he conduct himself. But a streak of wisdom runs through this slender blue. Quite surprisingly, considering his choice of bonded, he is an exceptional confidante. He will even keep secrets from His if he deems that she would abuse the information divulged. Tact seems to be his middle name.
Dahliath picks up the slack where His leaves loose ends. Often he will bespeak someone who's feelings she has run over, or clear up a situation or misunderstanding if one exists. Perhaps he sensed she needed him when he saw her on the Sands at Fort, that together they could accomplish more than just alone.
Dahliath also distastes labor, which is probably why he needed Shiila to kick his rear in gear. He complained through the whole of weyrling training, often citing his weaknesses and that he needed to go and take a nap when they were supposed to be at a lesson. He only hunts when his hunger is screaming to be satisfied. His favorite activity is sitting in the sun and listening to the conversations around him, or talking to other dragons. He isn't one for isolation, in that his bonded and he are alike. Both love being around and with others.
Anything else? Cookies?
