Crafter
Name: Linfon
Age: 51
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Straight-leaning bi, mostly too busy to care
Craft/Rank: Smithcraft, metalsmithing focus, some stonesmithing / Master
History: Linfon's family life wasn't exactly typical. Her mother B'fon was a greenrider from Malvren, a woman whose reputation for being proud, tough, and slightly terrifying was almost as famous as her reputation for being one of the finest smiths in the Weyr. Linfon isn't sure if she was planned or not, but she knows for a fact that her mother had absolute control over what happened to her. Her father was never a part of her life - because B'fon didn't want him to be, and Linfon never thought to look for him. As far as the pair were concerned, Linfon was B'fon's child and hers alone.
In many ways, Linfon almost wasn't a weyrbrat. She was raised as much by B'fon as by the creche, and taught about dragons and smithing from her earliest days - with the explicit knowledge that B'fon expected her to grow up, Impress, earn her Mastery, and follow exactly in her mother's footsteps. It was a lot of pressure on a very small child, but Linfon was made of iron - just like her mother. She took the knowledge, internalized it, and grew from it. It made her strong, tough, unyielding - and cold as iron. B'fon didn't accept failure, and she didn't accept second-best; Linfon would become equal parts dragonrider (she had secret hopes that the girl would turn out the brownriding sort, because wouldn't that be good for her reputation as a badass) and Smith - ideally, a stonesmith like her mother. Perhaps because she was told to or perhaps because she was equally attracted to the idea of fame and respect, Linfon didn't once question it. She wanted what her mother wanted. Unquestioningly.
Since B'fon considered it more important for her daughter to know the fundamentals of Smithcraft than to Impress as soon as possible, Linfon was sent to Smithcraft Hall rather than shoved out onto the Sands. She excelled there, throwing herself into her studies with all the enthusiasm that her mother had relentlessly ground into her. She worked quickly and efficiently (and B'fon's name and ties to old Smithcrafting families didn't hurt anything), and displayed surprisingly astute humility even as a pseudo-prodigy, proving herself an apt student and able apprentice. Of course, the older she got, the more abrasive she got - but most of her teachers were willing to overlook the fact that Linfon occasionally got into arguments with Senior apprentices as a Junior - and sometimes with young Journeymen once she hit Senior. She walked the tables at eighteen, and then - at her mother's behest - returned to Malvren to Stand as a Candidate.
Candidacy did not treat Linfon well. Going from Smithcraft Hall, where she was talented, known, a big fish, Malvren felt small. And life as a Candidate was tedious and boring - lessons she didn't care about, chores she didn't want to do, and the constant weight of her mother's expectation. She had too much spare time, too little to do - and dragons never seemed to want her. She found work (and B'fon, of course, kept her busy) and didn't let herself get lazy or out of practice, but the fact remained that the longer she stayed at Malvren and spent her time as a Candidate, the unhappier she became. Hatchings became annoying, almost painful chores, and Linfon began finding excuses to avoid them when she could. B'fon, of course, didn't approve, but she couldn't technically force Linfon to stand. She could, however, force her daughter to attend them on pain of pain, and so Linfon watched several clutches from the Stands, where she was less likely to get mauled and didn't actually have to pay attention to the animals she was coming to resent.
Then again, dragons didn't seem to like Linfon any more than she liked them - not a second sniff from a single hatchling in the three turns she Stood. When Linfon aged out of Candidacy, B'fon - clearly disappointed - recommended she return to Smithcraft Hall immediately and not come back until she was a Master. Smarting at her mother's obvious rejection and insult, Lin returned to Telgar and threw herself into her craft.
Three turns later, she went through a catastrophically messy breakup: a bluerider - an old friend from Malvren's creche - she had been seeing during her Candidacy, and who had agreed to maintain a long-distance relationship with her, left her for a greenrider four turns her junior. He had Impressed shortly after Linfon had left, and his Weyrlinghood had made it surprisingly easy for him to remain loyal to a girl who only ever wrote him letters. But apparently his Graduation made it just a bit too difficult - and his slightly-awkward postscript that the greenrider was pregnant didn't help, either. Linfon exploded, but all the angry letter-writing in the world couldn't save a tryst that was so clearly dead in the water. With Malvren an unfortunate reminder of that mess, Linfon decided to take B'fon's recommendation and not return to Malvren, not even for a visit, until she was well and properly a Master. Anyways, Smithcraft Hall was more of a home to her than the Weyr had ever been, and Linfon lived and breathed its atmosphere.
She excelled as a metalsmith - specializing in weaponry because it made her feel powerful. Flamethrowers were of little use at the time, of course, but there was something about being able to hold a tank full of volatile liquid and ignite it under the guise of "testing the machinery" that just worked for Linfon, and she kept them up on the side, even as she worked desperately at a piece she could call Masterwork. For fifteen turns, she made knives and hammers and arrowheads - weapons of death, for culling wild whers or felines (and occasionally people) - but a decent idea for her Master-Piece evaded her until she was forty. Ultimately, it came in the form of a pair of scale-mail forearm guards, each plate forged and etched by Linfon personally, that she worked on for a full five turns before presenting it to the Mastersmith of Pern.
She earned her Master's knots at forty-five - not young, but certainly not old for a Master - and was dead certain she had deserved the rank. The arm-guards became a near-permanent fixture of her wardrobe. Her return to Malvren was triumphant and more than a little sarcastic - and her mother (old but just as fiery as she had ever been) had to admit that she was impressed - she wasn't sure she had expected Linfon to actually make it as a Smith, and she was pleased that she did. Their reunion was brief, though - Linfon had work to do, and she wasn't going to waste her time . She didn't stop her studies, though, instead continuing her work and branching briefly into stonecraft in the interest of being well-rounded. She liked it well enough, but the focus on architecture rather than making things bored her. She came away knowing how to hew stone blocks and carve rock, but outside of that...she couldn't bring herself to care.
She stayed in touch with B'fon, though, and knew about the Revolution. She wasn't particularly interested in the concept - she liked the idea of equality between riders and nonriders, but didn't know how she felt about general violent overthrow - but whenever her mother asked for a new knife, or repairs on any of her weapons, Linfon was glad to oblige. And on occasion, she knew her work was going to people who weren't B'fon. That was all right. They needed to be armed against resistance and what Linfon assumed would be inevitable backlash from the other Weyrs. But other than that, she more or less enjoyed her position on the sidelines - safer that way.
She didn't return to Malvren until recently - at the devastating news that Trine's most recent aggressions against the Wherholds had resulted in the death of her mother. Furious that she hadn't been able to do something, Linfon finally made her way to Malvren, to collect her mother's possessions, pay any debts B'fon might have incurred, and ensure that B'fon got a proper send-off. It turned out she didn't need to worry about the latter - Malvren seemed to have nothing but respect for the old greenrider, and Linfon found herself feeling welcome again. It was...nice. Different. There was less respect for her rank and more general acceptance of her. Malvren's whole atmosphere had changed. She rekindled relationships with the people she had grown up with...and she prepared to settle into a new role as her mother's daughter - a partner of and supplier for the Revolution.
Description: Linfon's the sort of woman who refuses to let age slow her down in the slightest. She hit fifty a turn ago, but with the exception of her hair and face, she doesn't look a day over forty-five. She stands five foot nine and weighs in heavy for her build. She's always been curvy - wide hips, smallish waist, a layer of fat over corded steel muscles - but any natural tendency to weight she might have had has been run into the ground by constant training. Linfon's body is a temple, and not the sort that eventually falls to ruin and ends up grown-over with vines and full of monkeys. As far as she's concerned, her metabolism slowing down is a personal offense, and she's done everything she can to thwart it. She just eats less, exercises more, and doesn't stop. Her clothing is serviceable and to-the-point - lots of leather, lots of dark, practical fabrics, and a pair of ornate but worn and tarnished scale-mail forearm guards that she wears almost like gauntlets.
Her hair is thick, iron-grey, and loosely wavy. She wears it roughly cut just past chin-length, too long to wear up, but long enough to brush out of her face. It shapes itself into something presentable naturally - fortuitous, since Linfon doesn't give a wherry's a** about taking care of it. Her eyes are sharp, light grey-green, and often narrowed skeptically. She scowls more than any other expression, and the lines around her eyes and mouth are testament to just that fact. Her face has been shaped by her life: strong cheekbones and jawline serving to accent her dominant personality, with thin lips pressed into a constant, unimpressed line. Currently, she sports two healing cuts on the right side of her face, a pair of lines running from cheek down to collarbone where a wher caught her good in a sparring session.
Personality:
Strengths:
- Just: Linfon believes in equity, and fairness, and justice - she believes in upholding ideals that keep people safe (from themselves, if necessary) and will fight for those rights if she deems it necessary. She wants to be a voice for people who don't have one, and stand up for the downtrodden - and she will do it fearlessly.
Honest: Linfon isn't one to lie or mince words. She believes that the truth sets people free, and in general tries her hardest to avoid lying to people. Obviously there are some cases where a lie is necessary - she's not stupidly honest - but she figures, since the truth is going to come out eventually anyway, why not just be open and honest about things from the start?
Unyielding: When Linfon has made a decision, she sticks by it. She is committed to her points - be they ideas or people she has decided to commit herself to - and will readily defend herself. There is nothing soft or wishy-washy about Linfon; she goes out into the world with an idea and follows it through to the end.
Dominant: Lin is one of those people gifted with the ability to take charge of a situation - not necessarily by dint of any natural leadership, but by dint of an ability to shout down anyone who gets in her way if necessary. She isn't afraid to come in and run a show if she has to, and that confidence transfers over into a take-charge attitude that's hard to ignore.
Committed: She's not afraid to tie herself to causes or people. Linfon is loyal, almost to a fault, and generaly puts her all into whatever she has decided to do. While it might take her time to make a decision, once she has made that decision it is almost impossible to get her to back down. She will defend it with her life, if necessary.
- Abrasive: Linfon will never be known for her charming personality. She can be...hard to live with, to put it mildly, and her tendency to push people's buttons when she's getting to know them certainly doesn't make her any friends. She starts fights and tends to be snappish, and people getting sassy with her only make it worse.
Blunt: Linfon doesn't believe in sugar-coating, or even really putting things nicely. If she has something to say to someone, she says it, and if it hurts their feelings, then they should grow a thicker skin and get over it. She's never particularly cared about upsetting people, and though she rarely deliberately makes personal insults, she's quick to criticize.
Mulish: When she's made up her mind, good luck changing it. Linfon doesn't make decisions spur-of-the-moment, and she doesn't like admitting she's wrong or changing her stance on something. Getting Lin to change her mind or give up a thread she's been following is a little like arguing with a rock - nothing gets in there, and it's easier to just push it around.
Bossy: Lin tells people what to do. Simple as that. She shoves herself into people's lives, gives orders, and expects them to be taken - even if she doesn't have authority over people. She doesn't usually make an effort to be accepted as a leader - she just expects people to follow her. And she makes demands without thinking.
Ruthless: Getting the job done sometimes means a few casualties. And yes, casualties might be regrettable, but in order to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs. She tries to minimize civilian and innocent casualties, but if there's collateral damage or some bad guys lose their lives...she's not going to cry herself to sleep over it.
Linfon takes herself and her job seriously. Really seriously. Probably too seriously, in all honesty. But she has settled at Malvren in a good faith effort to become precisely the thing her mother had always wanted her to be: a no-nonsense arms dealer who keeps the populous in line. Keeping the peace and upholding Wherhold supremacy has become her life - because she believes it's what's best for everyone. Consider Linfon lawful good: she does what she does because she believes it's right, and she wants to do right. Her commitment to justice goes far beyond just doing things "by the book." Linfon's read "the book." She's also read the sequel and done a ton of research into the author who wrote "the book." She has made it her business to understand it. She gave up on personal relationships to pursue her craft, because it's her responsibility to. Keeping the Wherholds armed and ready is her top priority. Everything else comes second.
She's not unsympathetic to the dragonriders at Trine - she understands that the bloodshed from the Wherholders was not pretty, and that it was absolutely a problem. But at the same time, Linfon doesn't have a lot of emotion to spare for the people who killed her mother, and she definitely doesn't believe that Weyr structure is just. The Revolution was a good idea, and she has a lot of hope that they'll be able to rebuild Pern with equity for everyone eventually. And if people stand in the way of this progress and equity, so help her she will find a way to remove it. She's harsh, but fair - and she has a tendency to gather people around her by dint of her personality. Not because she's a leader, but because she's a force of nature. Linfon is something that happens to people, whether they like it or not. She yells, sometimes. She's definitely harsh and sarcastic. Only people who share her viewpoint are sometimes spared the worst of her tirades.
This doesn't mean she's easier on them, though. Linfon drives everyone she works with and for into the ground. She firmly believes that working people until they drop is the only way to improve them. When given leadership, she is hard but fair. She doesn't ask people to do anything she wouldn't do herself, and believes in "first in, last out." Needless to say, when she's under the command of another, she tends to butt heads. Linfon likes being in charge. It's easier to monitor quality when you have actual direct say in what happens. But she will cede control to people who prove they are capable. Sometimes that can take a while, and she will generally fight with someone and push their buttons before she finally decides they're "worthy."
Once she's taken to someone, though, Linfon tends to be completely, unshakingly loyal. She will do everything in her power to protect the people she considers 'hers' and is not afraid to lay down her life for what she knows is right - or for the people she loves. And admittedly, there are few enough of those; Linfon is more or less the exact opposite of a loving person, and has had only one meaningful romantic relationship in her life. But for him, even decades after the breakup, she would drop anything if he needed it. The same goes for her family, the few people she counts as friends, and the Wherholds in general. She would do anything for them, if they needed it. Possibly the only thing that could get her to betray the principles she adheres to is a threat to 'her' people - and even then, she would never do evil to help them.
She would, however, accept chaos and vigilante justice. But only if she absolutely had to.
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