Lin
Name: Lin
Age: 15
Gender: Female
Prisoner: Yes
Crime: Theft, Dust Distribution
Candidate: Yes
Former Craft/Rank: Weaver Apprentice, Pickpocket
Appearance: Lin's hair is black and barely an inch long, marking the short time she's been at Warden's. When it was long, it was glossy and perfectly straight, falling back to exactly the same spot no matter how much she tried to mess it up. She was painfully thin when she first arrived here, but has since filled out to a healthier weight. Overuse of crack-dust as a child stunted her growth, so she's shorter than most, but has long, slender fingers, as though she was supposed to be taller. She has some freckles on her pale face.. With big brown eyes and a little upturned nose, she might have even looked cute, if weren't for the sunken look that dust addiction and malnutrition have etched onto her face. Instead her eyes look buggish, her face angular and thin. Her overall appearance, too much like a wet rat to be particularly attractive.
Personality: When two people talk about Lin, don't be surprised if it sounds like they are describing different people. Lin is a chameleon of sorts, changing her behaviour to adapt to different situations. That's why, at times, she's the belligerent street punk, and at others, just a kind and friendly kid. She never voices any strong opinions except to stand up for herself, when needed. She tends to be slow to react, waiting for cues from others as to how she should feel; if they're interested, she's interested, if they're angry, she's angry. You'll rarely see her go against the majority. She's usually just one of a crowd.
In other ways, she becomes the opposite of other people. When there's a strong personality around, she becomes a follower, willing to listen and do as she's told. But if one's lacking, she will take control and become, instead, an energetic and confident leader. She can sit and listen to someone talk for hours without ever needing to argue or inject her own opinion. But if you're a quiet one, she'll suddenly become chatty, wanting to engage and bring you out from your shell. In the end, she's really just a people pleaser. One who's gotten very good at judging the personality of someone and warping herself to fit them. She has very little self-identity, but the three things that always stick with her are her sympathy, her self-reliance, and her thick skin.
This was a girl who was thrown into gang life at a young age and told to cope, then pulled out several turns later and forced to live in polite society. It goes without saying that she can adapt quickly to new situations. She doesn't need her hand held, she doesn't whine like a baby, she just gets on with things. Being in the centre of turmoil is her life. She deals with it like driftwood: by putting up no resistance. She only stands up for herself when absolutely necessary. Otherwise, when people say jump, she jumps. If someone tells her to eat dirt, well, it's not the worst things she ever tasted. Point is, if it's not gonna kill ya, than it's probably safer than the alternative. Pride is for idiots and people with too much to prove.
Lin is the sort who usually puts on a scowl, but she smiles when no one's watching her. She's easily touched when witnessing acts of friendship and love. She's romantically minded, even if her practical nature forbids her from indulging in such naive fantasies. She was the down-to-earth daughter of a drug-addled mother who ran away from reality. She is uncharacteristically cruel to idealists, feeling a desire to crush their delusional fantasies and force them to face the harsh truth. Despite her rough nature, Lin's sympathies are easily aroused. She cares for the injured, downtrodden, and lonely. She rarely voices concern, but addresses it in a wordless, simple way. Hungry? She'll share food with you. Scared? She'll try to comfort you. Broke something? She'll try to fix or replace it. She's empathetic even if she doesn't want to be. She can't stand being around people who are suffering because she can't help but put herself in their shoes, and it hurts her as much as they're hurting. The only thing she won't do is defend people in confrontations. She means well, but it's just a whole lot safer not to get involved.
She has her resourcefulness and some practical skills, but Lin is not the brightest drop in the bucket. Most of her intelligence is emotional; she's good at reading people. Not analytically, as some do, but instinctually. She can't dissect a person's psyche, but she can at least tell what kind of mood they're in. As such, you'll find she has a good sense of when and when not to engage with people, but she's not the sort you'd ever find hatching any elaborate plans. That's not to say she won't get up to trouble, though. To Lin, resourcefulness tends to be synonymous with 'petty theft'. Legality is all bullshit in her mind. If you're dumb enough to let yourself get robbed, then you deserve to have your stuff taken. If she sees an opportunity to get something she believes she needs, she will take it. Right off the belt of a guard if she needs to. This girl has quick fingers and a cool demeanour when it comes to perpetrating crimes without being noticed. I wouldn't play dice with her either, if I were you. Between judging other people's emotions and controlling her own, she's become a master of bluffs.
When cornered, she's as belligerent and violent as any criminal. She doesn't do well with authority. All her life, people of authority look at her with suspicion. She returns with a healthy dose of the same. She hates adults who can't take care of themselves. In fact, she's not particularly fond of people much older than her in general. They tend to be the ones intruding on her life, telling her what she should and shouldn't do, without ever even asking her why.
History: Her mother once said there were two things in life that always degrade with time: beauty, and the truth. Although she was young, the saying stuck with her, so much so that it gave her the names of first her two fire-lizards, "Truth" and "Beauty". But whether it was one of these, or something else, that eventually destroyed her parents' relationship, she didn't know. All she knew was that, for a time, they were happy. Her father went out to work in fields, her mother stayed home wove on an old loom, teaching Lin as well. It was all she wanted to grow up to be like her mother, and find a man like her father to marry. They weren't rich, but there was food on their table, and firelizard eggs for her nameday, and really, what else could a child ask for? Lin was their first-born daughter, and they spoiled her considerably.
That all deteriorated when her father left them. He never said where he was going, just up and left one day, saying he didn't want to deal with her any more. Lin's mother was a fragile soul to begin with. His departure marked a downward spiral that led quickly into a deep and dangerous drug habit. She hadn't worked since having children, and she didn't seem to want to start. Instead, she started borrowing money to pay for the drugs. A lot of money. When she couldn't pay it back, they demanded Lin as partially payment. Their purposes weren't as nefarious as they first sounded. Since children attract less attention, and are smaller, dealers often used them to ferry drugs around, carry money, make deals.. basically do all of the leg work, so the real dealers are out of the eyes of the Watch. Her mother was in no state to raise a child anyway. Lin's quality of life might actually have gone up after she was taken. The dealers were strict and tyrannical, and got many of the kids addicted to drugs as a means of controlling them, but you got food as long as you did the work, and there were others kids there that she liked.
However, by the time Lin was ten, her mother had sobered up and wanted her back. The gang gave her up without much trouble. Lin's mother threatened to go to the Dragon's Watch if they didn't, but promised to keep quiet otherwise. And Lin was already outliving her usefulness. At twelve, it seemed like things were looking up for her. Her mother had finally detoxed and was going back to work. Lin herself finally got a chance to go to the Weaver Crafthall to study. However, only one year into her apprenticeship, Lin received a letter. Her mother was in a deep depression, and had returned to drugs. Lin didn't make enough money to support her at the Weaver hall, so she left and returned home. She didn't want to go back to the drug dealers for work, so she took to stealing instead. She was small, easily forgotten in a crowd, and had the nimble fingers of a weaver. She made enough to get by.
This went on for several turns. It was only her bad luck that one day she happened to try to steal the coin purse from a member of the Dragon's Watch (while he was off duty, of course), and he happened to catch her doing it. Although only taken for a minor offence, once caught, Lin confessed to everything; the theft, the drug running, the years of dust use. She begged the dragonriders to help her mother, who she knew would surely die without Lin's care. However, when they got to her home, Lin's mother was already dead, from an overdose.
Lin was just old enough to be sent to Warden's Weyr for her crimes. She wasn't as bad as her mother, but she'd been using in the years since she went home, so she had a rough detox. Beauty had left her long ago, first time the food ran out, in fact, but at least she was saved from being killed anyway. Truth stuck by her and survived the detoxing process. Pending good behaviour, Lin plans to Stand for the upcoming clutch.
Other stuff: Has a long-time brown flitt that's been with her since childhood.
