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Rider
Name: V'ell
Age: 32
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Lesbian
Rank: Wingrider/journeyman seacrafter
History: Vellora was born at Engova Hold, to a family comprised primarily of beastcrafters. Her mother was a dancer, Harper Hall trained, who moved to Engova to find a quieter, more peaceful life with a man she loved. There wasn’t a great deal of room for pasture on the small island, but what little they had they prospered in. Vellora was the only sister among five brothers, and grew up in a constant friendly rabble of brotherly affection and rivalry. She was quick to establish herself as ‘one of the boys’ in all the senses that mattered - she could still wrestle any of her little brothers to the ground any time she needed to - but at the same time it was understood that she was the only girl, a position which gave her some degree of privilege. Any Hold boy who dared to cross her would get jumped by five angry beastcrafters all at once.

In particular Vellora was close to the middle brother Ellodan, nearest to her in age. While it was difficult to hang out with a brother five turns her senior or junior, Ellodan was only separated from her by a turn of age. But while Dan’s passion was always for whers - he went into the beastcraft in hopes of someday purchasing an egg and training a watch-wher for the Hold - Vellora’s wild heart longed for the ocean. She wanted to be able to sail to other islands, but also to return home at the end of the day to be with her family. Ultimately, seacraft gave her exactly what she wanted. She could travel as she pleased within Malvren’s territories, but she always had a familiar port that she could come back to.

Working with the sailors further shaped her; she grew strong and tall and tough, both in body and in spirit. It was with the sailors that she got the first half of her tattoo, an abstract black pattern inked into her skin with a bone needle and dye as a symbol of belonging to the fierce little crew. (It was also the tropical weather, the constant proximity to water, and the occasionally claustrophobic conditions on a fishing rig that gave her her lack of modesty.) She worked with them until she was seventeen, when an unexpected tropical storm changed the course of her life.

They discovered a bluerider floundering at sea, his dragon blown awry by a freak squall, and offered the pair shelter on the deck until the storm passed and they could fly again. In gratitude, he encouraged all of them to come to Malvren to visit... and a searchdragon picked up Vellora’s potential aptitude. It didn’t seem real to her then. It was like buying a lottery ticket with the spare dollar in your pocket: something you do on a laugh as a what if? rather than a choice to be depended upon. Nobody in her family was a rider. Nobody in her family had ever wanted to be a rider. Even Ellodan favored whers, smaller and simpler and more practical. But when was she ever going to get another chance to touch a dragon egg?

Zarth chose her, of course. Life changed rather suddenly after that. She parted fondly from her fellow sailors; as a last gift, the man who’d done her original tattoo added green accents to it, to display her pride. Her family was understandably upset that she’d agreed to Stand without consulting them. V’ell (because she’d insisted on honorizing) was equally surprised and in need of guidance. Zarth provided it. The little green was needy from day one, but she was also a grounding presence in V’ell’s life - now sorely needed, as she no longer had the discipline of the ship’s captain to keep her in line. And for all her rough and boyish mannerisms, life at the Weyr was a major adjustment. Some of the male blueriders and brownriders mistook her outgoing nature, immodest dress and speech, and willingness to drink like... well, a sailor, as a sign that she was sexually open as well. Not. The. Case. She ejected them from her weyr with all the indignation that she could muster. And lest anyone accuse her of favoritism, some hopeful girls met with the same fate.

She was in her twenties when she met Shiza, the first bluerider to court her properly. Shiza was sweet and charming and discreet in her affections, absolutely the opposite of some of the coarser propositions V’ell had rejected. She was so pleased by the attention that she didn’t recognize the warning signs of why Shiza felt she needed to be so discreet. Long story short, the bluerider was seeing at least one other girl on the side. And when V’ell found out, she decided to take revenge the best way she could: by stealing Shiza’s other girlfriend for herself.

What started out as a friendly act of mutual vengeance on a liar, turned into something like a genuine relationship. D’ei was a good friend and a fun drinking partner. And then Lycath caught Zarth, and she was a good bed partner too. They shared certain ideals: the desire for one partner at a time, a fierce sense of loyalty, even some shared sense of injustice at the way things were. V’ell had never adapted well to the idea that one’s worth could be determined by dragon color, and D’ei had received ill treatment at High Reaches for being a rare female brownrider. They bonded, and quickly moved from close friends to lovers to weyrmates.

When the Revolution happened, V’ell had no idea what was happening. It took her completely by surprise, and she fled with D’ei to Trine rather than risk death at the hands of the wherhandlers. But some time afterward, she began to hear stories of what the Revolution was really all about, and began to receive letters from Ellodan - now Ellodan of Ellosk, incidentally. He wanted her to return to Malvren, to come home to her family again. V’ell didn’t want to leave without D’ei. But since moving to Trine, she had found conditions increasingly intolerable, and the idea of the wherholds increasingly enticing. When D’ei refused to go... V’ell went without her.

Description: V’ell is the kind of woman who’s never cared much for how others look at her. She’s near to six feet tall, with well-honed muscles and unusually broad shoulders for a woman thanks to decades of lifting and hauling and hard work. It takes upper body strength to haul yourself through a ship’s rigging in the middle of a storm, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Nor did she let that strength go to waste after she Impressed. She can still toss a fifty-pound sack of firestone over her shoulder like it’s no big deal. The slender, delicate blondes that some Searchriders pick up get nothing more than a laugh from her.

Still, she’s a lean one overall: trim waist, little spare fat, almost no breasts. The solitary feminine nod in her figure is her hips, inherited from her dancer mother. Her hair is jet-black and cropped to no more than an inch long, the better to keep it out of her face. It would likely be inaccurate to call V’ell pretty – her jaw is too square, her brows too low and too dark. But she does have some pretty features. Full lips, almond-shaped black eyes with long lashes and a wicked twinkle, straight teeth that stand out brightly white against a skin tone that could be called ‘mocha’.

In general V’ell is not a girl with a lot of shame. She’s as comfortable wearing nothing but trousers and a breastband, which shows off the abstract black-and-green patterns of ink starting at her shoulders and spiraling lazily down her back. Her hands and feet are roughly callused and marked with old, faint, small scars: a packtail spine here, a rope burn there, nothing serious or dramatic but certainly notable.

Personality: V’ell is not a woman with the ability to self-assess. Her main problem, in fact, is that she reacts with her heart first and foremost, with her head a distant second. She’s certainly smart enough to know better, and when she allows herself time to assess a situation – or when Zarth intervenes – she’s perfectly capable of coming up with an excellent plan and executing it competently. But the problem is that V’ell is a bit like a freight train: you set her on the rails and let her engine get up to speed and she’ll take you where you’re going. But if there’s anything in the way, she’s just going to run right over it, and don’t ask her to stop or jump off those rails and go in a different direction.

This explains, perhaps, why V’ell is best in the company of others. She’s a force of nature, but she needs to be steered: either by her dragon or her weyrmate, generally, both of whom are considerably more levelheaded than her. She’s incredibly loyal to ideas, people, principles... Although principles can be fudged if you need to fight dirty, and sometimes ideas are more important to her than people. But once she gets something in her head, she’ll run with it, and keep running right into dangerous conclusions unless she hits something that forces her to stop.

Still, V’ell is certainly a fun person to have around. She’s gregarious and vibrant and full of words and ideas. Her absolute confidence is infectious; she’ll cheerfully tell you she’s got more balls than most Benden bronzeriders, and given some of the stunts she pulls, it might be true. She’ll laugh at your jokes, take you out for drinks if you’ve had a hard day, and make you forget your troubles for a little while. Just be careful about drawing her into an argument. V’ell likes to hear herself talk, and she grew up in a household with a bunch of brothers who loved to argue. She views spirited debate as a kind of friendly bonding activity. What V’ell sees as a friendly discussion, someone else might see as a personal attack.

V’ell basically has two settings, charm or intimidate, and she’ll swap between them at the drop of a hat as the situation requires. When she’s charming, she’s very charming: the greenrider is remarkably generous with her marks, her time, and her energy, and when she falls in love she is an affectionate and attentive lover. But her temper flares quick and hot, never too far from the surface, and while she forgives just as readily, someone who’s been on the receiving end might not be so quick to forget. Violence also doesn’t faze her. As far as she’s concerned, the Revolution had the right idea: sometimes a show of force is what’s necessary to get the job done.

Other: n/a

Dragon
Name: Zarth
Age: 15
Colour: Green
Description: Zarth’s overall color is a solid, bright spring green, pleasant on the eyes but nothing so striking that it would stand out of a crowd. She doesn’t seem to mind it that way. Her muzzle and eyeridges are a lighter green, with a dark streak running under her eyes down to her jaw. Likewise her tail is banded with lighter and darker green. She is free of any particular distinguishing scars, at least for now. Time will tell if she can remain unscathed.

Zarth is a tall and lanky green, nearly approaching a small blue in length, but leaner in build. Her long limbs make her a little better on the ground than some dragons, although she is still better in flight than walking. She has long wings, too, like a sea bird: her long, smooth glides give her better stamina than many greens, and she’s adept at flying in adverse conditions, but she doesn’t quite have the quick darting agility that some smaller ladies possess. In Flights she tends to be caught by larger males... which suits Lycath well enough.

Personality: Zarth is a lady. The proper kind of lady. She wants to be courted, romanced, swept off her feet. Just because she’s a green doesn’t mean she’s a dime a dozen, and she fully expects to be treated with the respect that every dragon deserves... That doesn’t mean she always gets it. Still, Zarth doesn’t have her rider’s temper, and when she does get disrespected, she tends to rely on V’ell to do the attack-dog thing for her. Which V’ell does, enthusiastically.

It works out fairly well for the two of them, especially as Zarth is much better at smoothing over the fallout afterwards. V’ell never apologizes, but Zarth apologizes for her reflexively. Are you angry? Was it something V’ell did? She’s sorry. Have a bite of her herdbeast. Zarth’s manners are much better than V’ell’s, although she’s just as gregarious and willing to socialize as her rider. But Zarth is soft-spoken and sweet, the gracious hostess rather than the life of the party, and it means that sometimes bigger dragons can steamroll her. She tends to be grateful even for small acts of kindness, and remembers them for as long as dragons can.

But the thing is, Zarth is smart. She’s very smart. She needs time to analyze a situation, time that V’ell doesn’t always give her, but she’s detail-oriented and capable of surprising discretion and forethought for a dragon. Between the two of them, V’ell is the one with the drive to get them from Point A to Point B, and Zarth is the one who thinks about logistics - what would be the fastest, easiest way to get there, and what do they need to bring? It’s one of the reasons she’s yet to take a Threadscore or a major scar, despite being one of the less maneuverable greens. Her good judgement and quiet sense tend to keep V’ell from exploding all over the Weyr.

Other: N/A