Name: Vee
Age: 19
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Homosexual
Craft/Rank: Dragon Candidate (former Holdless)
History: Vee was born Holdless, not the best luck of the draw ever. Her parents were a part of a gang of about twenty assorted Holdless folk living in the vicinity of Malvren Weyr; they were called the Wild Whers as the undisputed leader of their gang was a woman with a green wher. They made their living by raiding cotholds, ambushing traders, scavenging, and occasionally sending those who weren't scarred or branded Holdless to trade with Holds if they had something worthwhile. Vee grew up fighting and playing with the few other kids and dodging the attention of the more violent adults in the group. Her mother died when she was five, killed in an attack on a cothold but she remembers little of the woman and doesn't miss her; her father was enough parents for her, and the other kids around here were like siblings to her.
The Thread returned to Pern when Vee was fifteen and times got harder immediately; there was less to scavenge, and many of the places where they had made camps before were no longer safe in the event of a Fall that the riders failed to properly combat.
Aged sixteen Vee had the group's mark scarred into her right arm; scarring in a decorative manner a tradition they had developed to take back ownership of the various brands and marks that had been inflicted upon them when they were thrown out of their Holds, and it was carried through to second and third generation members of the gang who had never lived in a Hold in their lives. It was also during this turn that the gang found their camp approached one night by a man and a woman with a pair of bronze whers. They had interesting news with an interesting offer; there was a man named Keller who would change the world and give them a place in it if they would only help him to take control of the dragonriders' Weyrs.
The gang's leader agreed and so it was that mid way through her sixteenth turn Vee joined in the attack on Malvren Weyr. When the dust had settled and the blood had been washed out of the halls Vee and her extended family moved in and took their place as loyal wherholders. Many of the gang quickly opted to become wherhandlers, they were the wild whers afterall, but Vee decided to become a dragon candidate; she was one of the few still young enough to do so and so in part the old instinct to have a range of skills available to them drove her decision. Anyway, they needed riders to stop them all dying of Thread and if she got too old to stand then she was more than happy to try for a beautifully vicious wher instead.
Now aged nineteen Vee attends the occasional candidate classes that are held - she's already learned most of what the wherolders deem necessary - but spends most of her time working as a guard and pitching in with whatever work needs doing around the wherhold. Settled life has been good for her, she's grown taller and gained muscle as well as friends and security in life. With the wherholds' first clutch soon to come she can't deny being excited by the prospect of bonding, she's getting pretty tired of waiting around to take that next step in life!
Description: Vee is a woman of middling height made up of wiry tough muscles and sharp angles. There’s a fierce intensity about her; it’s not universally intimidating or awe inspiring by any means but it’s definitely there and might make a meek person quail. Along with her sharp high voice that intensity makes it hard to overlook her when she starts shouting. Vee keeps her head shaved habitually; it's hard to keep hair clean when you're Holdless, plus it's too easy to grab in a fight. Her eyes are near black and her skin is a scant few shades lighter, making it to deepest klah brown. Vee is fond of body modification, in as much as Pern has it. Her left ear is pierced all the way around the outer edge and in the lobe; most of the time she just wears small bone studs as elaborate jewelry is a bad idea for a fighter and metal is expensive. Should she have occasion to dress up she replaces these studs with little copper hoops around the outside and a steel dagger earring through the lobe. She also has her lip pierced on the lower right hand side; again she usually wears a plain stud in this, and she’s currently searching for something fancier to wear on nice occasions.
More impressive than the piercings is the decorative scar on her right arm, a stylized wher rampant* stretching from just below her shoulder to just above her elbow. Besides this deliberate scar she has a few more scattered across her body from a lifetime of fighting; she's proud of most of them and will show them off if asked. No longer dressed in rags Vee now dresses in blacks and greys, always with a leather tunic or jerkin and when possible she goes without sleeves to show off her decorative wher scar. Her most prized garment is a cloak lined with black feline fur.
Personality: The first thing that becomes clear about Vee is that she’s intense; it’s obvious enough just at a glance, or even before a glance if you happen to hear her high sharp voice raised in anger or elation. At work or at play she pours every fiber of her being into everything she does and experiences all of life’s joy and sorrow with every bit of the intensity that she pours into it; just as she does not do by half measures, she does not feel by half measures. While this passion is certainly positive in that she will work tirelessly to achieve her goals and in that she really adores her nearest and dearest it has its downsides too; every little annoyance and grudge is amplified thousandfold. When she acts on these feelings (which she does more or less without fail) her reactions are often disproportionate to whatever ‘wrong’ was done to her, extremely rash, or both. ‘Wrong’ definitely belongs in quotes; Vee is easily slighted and can take innocent words as killing insults, or presume that somebody bumping into her and causing her to spill her drink was intentional.
Dealing with frustration isn’t something Vee is very good at. At all. When things go wrong that temper of hers is quick to flare up causing her to declare that whatever she was trying to do is stupid and she doesn’t care anyway. If she’s blown up over something that isn’t desperately important she’ll stick to her guns on this but if it does matter to her then after a little while to calm down she’ll slink back to it and try to act like nothing happened. Reminding her of her outbursts often causes another outburst. She’s not all about anger though, far from it, Vee is easily entertained as well; she laughs easily at jokes both clever and stupid (yes, even fart jokes, she’s not all that refined) and is always up for a game of cards, ball, or just about anything else with her friends.
Joy and anger are proudly worn on Vee’s sleeve but she does her best to hide fear and sadness from the world. She’s better with the former than with the latter. Former Holdless that she is Vee doesn’t spook easily to begin with; she’s not fearless, hardened to violence and the risk of death and or dismemberment. When something does get to her she deals with it by grabbing hold of her weapon and seeking her allies in the first instance. If this doesn’t even the odds and calm her enough to deal with things she’s the sort to run rather than freeze up completely because she values her skin thank you so much! She will deny she was afraid in any circumstances, even if she mastered her fear and stood her ground. Vee will also deny that she’s crying when she is blatantly sniffling; much as it’s easy to anger Vee it’s easy to upset her as well with things close to home. If somebody sees her crying and refuses to play along with ‘I have something in my eye’ then she’ll swing back around to anger again. Afterwards she’ll seek somewhere private to storm/slink off to so she can finish crying and then feel better again; she gets over most things fairly quickly.
Whilst very intent and passionate when she is focusing, Vee is not very good at focusing on any one task for long periods of time; she can easily be distracted into turning all that energy onto something different. This makes her flexible and quick off the mark but equally means that she can be distracted from something important by something minor that to her seems like the be all and end all at the time. Her attention will come back around to important things in the end but in this past her attention has slid for long enough to make her late for important things, and made her miss deadlines. The less interesting a task or problem is the longer it will take her to swing back to it: a fascinating difficult and important thing will be returned to quickly and a fascinating trivial thing will too, whereas difficult and important but boring things will be put off for longer. Boring trivial things probably won’t be returned to at all but of course Vee is not always accurate at determining what is or is not trivial; this has bitten her in the backside in the past too when something she yawned at and tossed aside builds up into something that matters a great deal. She’s aware of this failing in herself and does hate it but she won’t admit it, she’ll just insist on highlighting the ‘makes me flexible and quick off the mark’ side of this aspect of her personality. While she might get bored of and flick between specifics tasks however she never loses sight of or tired of her ultimate dreams.
Vee is determined to succeed in life. Really determined. Her dreams of the future ten or fifteen turns down the line paint her not only as a deadly warrior but as a Wingleader, influential wherhandler, or member of Keller's council, driving forward the changes in Pern. She wants to see a meritocracy and a fair chance for all people, whers and dragons. It should be what you can do that matters, nothing more and nothing less; the strongest and the smartest should rule and protect the weaker and less intelligent regardless of what colour beast may or may not have chosen them. She believes it all with the conviction of a zealot and though she might not have a Harper’s vocabulary she can be quite a persuasive speaker simply for how sure she is about her cause. She’ll talk one on one about it, or she’ll jump on a cart to make a speech to a crowd; once she gets fired up about The Cause nothing will stop her from arguing her point as fully as she possibly can.
From these big dreams, her passionate drive and her ability to speak well one might think that Vee is a confident young woman. She’s certainly good at seeming it. On the inside however she’s not quite so sure of herself as she likes to make out. She is somewhat awed by the mighty folk who are influential in the wherhold and though she wants to be like them she isn’t really sure that she has what it takes to ever become one of them no matter how far down the line. Part of the reason for her explosive temper and disproportionate reaction to insults is a fear that people who slight her might be right in whatever they’re saying. She absolutely will not let this show however, not unless she trusts somebody completely; she hates, even fears, the idea of being thought of as weak or unsure of herself.
Her insecurity and the tough front she has formed to hide it lead to a sort of stubborn pride that makes her loathe to ask for help. Rather than seek advice with a problem she can’t solve she will do her very best to hide the fact that there even is an issue, whilst at the same time throwing herself against it increasingly frantically. It doesn’t matter if the issue is a personal one or something to do with an assignment/work she has been given, she just can’t bring herself to admit she needs help. If somebody notices and offers help she will accept it if they phrase it well, but if she feels insulted she will probably just throw the offer back in their face. The only exception to her inability to ask for help is combat training and life or death situations; these two things of course are closely related as if she has a problem with some aspect of her training and refuses to ask for help or is up to her neck in it and refuses to ask for help she might well end up dead and Vee likes being alive thanks so much!
Vee doesn’t have much time for altruism for those who she doesn’t think do enough to help themselves. She’d pull a stranger out of the way of a speeding cart if it cost her nothing but she’s not into most charity and she wouldn’t give her life for any but her nearest and dearest. She doesn’t care to hear sob stories either, and will be blatantly derisive if she thinks somebody is going on too much about their dreadful hardships etc etc. What she wants to know is what you’re doing about your problems, how you’re going to fix them and rise above them. She doesn’t understand people so worn down by life that they’ve given up and is dismissive of and insensitive to them. She is also insensitive towards people who are just generally sensitive which is rather hypocritical given how easy to wound she is herself.
Having grown up with a Holdless band Vee understands the importance of solidarity. Come what may she sticks by her friends through thick and thin, even if she is pissed off with them at the time. She’ll have their back in a fight and if it’s hopeless she’ll make sure they retreat with her, dragging them along with her if she has to, and she’ll take the rap for a friend’s wrongdoing too if she thinks they can’t handle the consequences as well as she can. She’ll expect them to pay her back, sure, but this comes after the fact and she doesn’t ask for payment in kind; a few smaller favours can balance a big one just fine. She’s equally loyal to comrades who aren’t her friends when in a sticky situation; she’s not about to take a sword for them dramatically for somebody at random but she will risk the blow hitting her by ducking in to parry if they haven’t seen it coming and she sees a chance to stop it. Tit for tat once again though Vee acts in the certainty that her comrades and friends would do the same for her were their places reversed. This might not be entirely correct but she thinks it is and so she never hesitates to live to the standards she believes rogues hold when united against their foes.
Other: *The style of this scarification tattoo is similar to the Uffington white horse in that it is made up only of the key lines of the beast, not filled in.
Vee fights with a spear or with knives; swords were too expensive for the holdless group to own and maintain. She's also skilled with a sling, useful for taking down small prey... or people without helmets.
Vee has recently a firelizard, a silver she irreverently named Weyrleader. She won his egg in a wrestling contest.
