Fala - Searchable

[Zeneka]

Candidate Application

Name: Fala
Age: 16
Gender: Female
Sexuality: Unsure
Rank: Sea Trader (Searchable)

Location: Reckless Abandon (a ship)

Appearance:
Fala takes after her mother a lot. She is willowy, long of leg (for her stature), and yet not very tall at all, only standing at five foot five. She is taller than her mother by two inches which lead her to believe she gained a bit of height from her father, whoever he is. Like her mother, she is skinny, but not unhealthily so, more in the way of a toned athlete from her Turns helping aboard the Reckless Abandon. Her upper body strength is particularly good, though you would never know just by looking at her.

Her hair is also darker than her mother’s hair, more black with just a hint of brown in the right light than simply dark brown. Her eyes are a very deep, dark, rich brown, almost to the point of being black, which she also gathers she inherited from her father. She shares the same small nose and mouth of her mother with a slightly rounder, softer featured face. While her mother delights in dressing in wild colors and strange outfits to stand out, Fala dresses more conservatively, generally in darker colors and simpler clothing; all the easier to go unnoticed and unbothered. Sturdy boots are the only way to go when it comes to footwear with Fala.

Personality:
Quite the opposite of her mother, Fala is generally a quiet girl, not really shy, just quiet. She has a silent strength about her, in everything she does, a quiet confidence that she will accomplish whatever task she’s set to do. Fala is a fast learner and willing to take on any job she’s asked to do. She enjoys new experiences and if she’s asked to do something she’s never done before she will leap at the opportunity, no matter how boring or dirty or whatever the job might be. With a mother like Fala’s, it’s hard to be judgmental of anyone. Fala never judges anyone on their looks, on their hobbies, on their family, their sexual orientation, but only ever on how they act and their deeds that she witnesses. Fala cannot stand to see others wronged and will always try to do something about it, even if it’s beyond her ability to help. Mostly her help involves someone getting beaten up. Fala picks up on things fast, mostly skills that relate to doing different types of jobs and also on personality quirks of other people giving her some ability to guess at others’ motives before they actually become known. She of course more accurate in this with people she knows better and can sometimes read a person wrong, but most of the time the skill has served her well.

This fast learning skill doesn’t really apply to academic studies, however, and she is horribly slow to pick up on reading, math, and other such things. Her mother and members of the ship’s crew taught her the basics of reading and writing and simple math, adding and subtracting mostly. She can do simple multiplication and struggles with even simple division. Her writing is atrocious and she struggles to read longer words. She isn’t stupid, she was just never properly educated and she can be self-conscious about it around others and if anyone tries to make fun of her for it they can expect a fist to the face. Very surprising to those who don’t know her, once you’ve made her angry she is likely to pick a fight with you. Considering that most aren’t expecting such a quiet girl to turn suddenly violent, she generally has the advantage of surprise and can win a fight quickly simply because her opponent is too stunned and confused to fight back. Her mother has actually praised such behavior and so she doesn’t really understand if people get angry at her for her violent outbursts, especially when the other person clearly deserved it.

There is something about Fala, when she wants something from someone or wants them to do something, which draws them to her and makes them more likely to agree with her. There are those that seem to be immune to her charms but in general it has made her a good salesgirl. Fala can seem to have ‘split personalities’. She doesn’t have them in the clinical definition of the psychological disorder, when she switches from normal quiet Fala to outgoing salesgirl Fala it is a conscious decision and a conscious change she makes to herself in order to draw in more customers. While her violent rages are somewhat less of a conscious decision they still aren’t really enough to classify her as having split personalities or bipolar disorder. Her changes in personality are none-the-less disconcerting for others to witness, especially if they know her as mostly kind and quiet or charming and outgoing.

It’s perfectly alright for others to flirt with each other, show affection in front of her, but if someone turns their attentions to her she becomes a bit nervous and unsure. Honestly the thought of sex freaks her out and if someone is flirting with her it obviously means they’re thinking about trying to get her to do just that. If anyone tries to flirt with her she may try to escape the situation in any possible way she can and if she can’t escape peaceably she’s likely to start throwing punches. She is rather used to learning things fast, getting things done quickly and efficiently, and when things are delayed she becomes rather impatient, and then frustrated, irritated, and possibly angry if the issue hasn’t been resolved fast enough. It is part of the reason she has never really tried to become more literate, she simply doesn’t have the patience to sit down and try to learn more when she’s so horrible at it. And she is even less inclined to return to any sort of studies because she resents it for being the one thing she’s allowed herself to give up on and she’d much rather try to pretend it doesn’t exist than acknowledge she’s given up, failed, at something.

Family:
Ara – her mother
Domal – her father, unknown to her
Treyjen – adopted father (deceased)
She considers the crew of Reckless Abandon to be her extended family.

Background:
Unbeknownst to her, Fala was born at a tiny Fisher Cothold. Her mother, Ara, was married against her will and shortly after she gave birth to Fala, took her and ran away where she joined up with some Traders she found along the way. Fala doesn’t particularly remember living with the Traders very well, she was only four turns when they left, but she vaguely remembers calling another woman mother and half thinks it a dream. In fact the woman was Lilia, her mother’s lover, but her mother never says anything about their past so she can’t be sure it was ever real.

It was shortly after that that her life aboard a ship began. She either helped her mother with small chores around the ship or was locked into the captain’s quarters where she couldn’t get into much trouble for her first few turns. Her mother became the captain’s lover and he was the closest thing to a father she ever had. She loves sailing, loves the open water and the freedom of the salty wind on her face and the chance to see so many new and different places. As she got older she did her best to be useful on the ship, picking up whatever spare jobs there were, many that most of the crew would rather avoid. She gained a strong work ethic living aboard the Reckless Abandon that will stay with her throughout her life.

Shortly after her 10th nameday, Treyjen was thrown overboard during a particularly bad storm. The man who took over as captain didn’t seem to like her mother and her being on the ship and she often saw him arguing with her mother. She was too young to really understand when Pirates raided their ship, only a short time after the loss of Treyjen, her mother had hidden her well below decks anyway so she wasn’t even witness to most of what went on, but after that a lot of things changed. Her mother took over as captain. When her mother fetched her from her hiding spot most of the crew was gone (including the previous captain) and some new men had taken their places, men she didn’t trust right off the bat. Her mother praised her for that assessment but never explained why. In time, as she matured, she learned on her own. Her mother had made some sort of deal with them and it was after that deal was made that her mother began pirating, though Fala wouldn’t find out for a while.

When her mother turned to pirating at first she had no idea about it, for Ara would tell her to hide below decks when she was planning to raid a ship, but finally her curiosity overtook her, sometime during her 12th turn, and she snuck a peak at what was going on. She confronted her mother about the raids and her mother explained very carefully, very clearly, that she did not attack other ships for absolutely no reason and some of them were too corrupt to care about. Fala has never really decided if she believed her mother, or if she even does now, but her mother is all she really has and she simply tries to ignore it.

Her mother is highly supportive of South Run and their mission. The Weyr needs help and she’s quite willing to steal from those who don’t believe in their cause in order to help them. Fala, on the other hand, knows less about the dragons and their riders, and their purpose, than probably anyone else on Pern and while she is awed by the creatures, she is rather confused about the whole matter. Thread falling from the sky? When one says thread to Fala what she thinks of is what her shirt is made out of. She can’t possibly imagine what this threat from the sky might be if it has such a harmless name. It sounds like some crazy story for children to her. She withholds her judgment, however, for the time they say when Thread will start falling is not yet upon them. She waits for the proof and until then tries to be open-minded about it. And there’s those dreams she’s been having, ever since they first started helping the coalition, the one where she rides her own dragon against some unknown menace… what an adventure that would be!

Pets: N/A

Color Preference: none (I like surprises X3)

Metallic Only: nope