MERRELL
Name: Merrell
Age: 22
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
Previous craft/rank: N/A
History: Merrell is the daughter of the Headwoman at Arcon Hold, a by-blow from a passing bronze rider. She was raised along with the Lord Holder's own children, and it was always expected that she would take over for her mother one day. At a very young age, Merrell was expected to take on a lot of the smaller, more menial duties of a Headwoman - it was thought that she would spend her childhood and adolescence preparing and training, taking on more and more duties and responsibilities as she proved able. Merrell therefore has a decent background in a lot of little things. She knows a bit about cooking, a bit about sewing, a bit about healing... but she does not have a huge amount of knowledge or skill in any of these things. As a child, Merrell was not one to accept her fate quietly or easily. Being a girl who loved attention, be it positive or negative, she had a tendency to act out and was punished often. Everyone assured her mother that this was just a phase. She would grow out of her tomboyish attitudes and behaviors. Perhaps she needed to spend more time with the Lord Holder's daughters, a demure and obedient bunch. Oh dear, she threw their best Gather-day dresses in a vat of brown dye? Maybe if she had a task to focus on, such as weaving. Thats supposed to be soothing. What? Her weaving was found adorning the stall floors of the runner beasts? Well that was quite naughty.
When Merrell was twelve, her mother sent her to Malvern weyr to see if her father could make something of the wild girl. At least, that was the reasoning she used to assuage the guilt of the truth - she couldn't control her daughter anymore, and the child's behavior was threatening her position as Headwoman. Of course, being a dragonrider, Merrell's father had no time for her, nor did he want anything to do with a random b*****d child from some far off hold. The girl had been incredibly impressed by the dragons, and eventually a bluerider recognized that she had some potential to her. Merrell officially became a Candidate. Finally, she had a place of her own - not her mother's place as a slave to a Holder. Perhaps, as a Candidate, her father might recognize her and want something to do with her. Unfortunately, she was just as badly behaved as a Candidate as she had been at Arcon hold. Merrell discovered that her father's rejection hurt her more than she would care to admit, and her aversion towards authority grew to a focused dislike of those dragons and riders in positions of power, specifically the queens and the bronzes. She also began to notice a significant hierarchy within the hold, and the difference in the way people were treated, especially by those arrogant metallic riders, chafed. But she was young, there was little she could do. So she continued to act out and be punished, all the while her frustrations continued to build. During this time she did make a friend or two, however. Candidates who were just as frustrated as she was. Most notably was L'roh. The older woman became a sort of big sister to Merrill and where the younger girl's distrust of authority may have faded under a calmer mentor, L'roh fanned the flames of the youngster's passions.
Midway through Merrell's fourteenth turn, she stood on the Sands for her first Hatching. The experience was overwhelming and highly emotional, the girl watched as others Impressed and yearned for a companion of her own. She yearned for the status and attention a dragon would bring her. She yearned for the power she would find with a dragon by her side. She yearned for the closeness of that fabled bond. And when a beautiful silvery-green hatchling made her way towards Merrell, the girl's breath caught in her throat. It was the most beautiful creature she had ever seen, and she was firmly convinced that it was the prettiest hatchling on the Sands. So when it spoke to her... her! Merrell! Her heart nearly burst with joy. In that moment, all of the rejections of her past were lost as her heart opened up and was flooded with this new, beautiful presence.
"Merrell Mine! Close your mouth! Your Amaranth knows she is beautiful, but she is also hungry. You can adore me while you feed me!"Amaranth quickly became Merrell's whole world. The young dragon healed so many of the emotional hurts that Merrell hadn't even realized had been festering inside her for so long. The two were completely devoted to each other, and it could have been that Merrell would have forgiven and forgotten all the injustices and slights that she had perceived in the past. All could have been well... but it wasn't. Merrell soon discovered that becoming a dragonrider did not suddenly change everything when it came to functioning in a social hierarchy. At least, not in the way she had thought it would. As a brand new greenrider, she found herself the lowest of the low in the echelon of dragonrider society. She wouldn't have been so prickly if the predjudice and scorn had only been focused on her. She had Amaranth, and that was all she needed. But the scorn of the other riders, especially the metallic riders, fell onto her beautiful little dragon as well. And the metallic dragons were no better, they pricked at Amaranth's pride and vanity, and every little p***k and insult hurt Merrell five times worse than her dragon.
Feeding upon each other's pride, the duo became determined to prove themselves better than all other riders, regardless of color. It was during this time that they fell in with the group that would become the Bolts. Each member of the group had their own reasons and their own hurts to nurse. And each member of the group had their own wild ambitions and pride. It didn't take long for Merrell and Amaranth to know that they had found, in the the Bolts, their true family. The family of their hearts.
As an added insult, though it proabably wasn't intended as such, Merrell was assigned to her father's wing once she and Amaranth were deemed ready enough. In all fairness to the bronze rider, her tried to give her a fair shake. She might be some random by-blow, but she had managed to Impress a dragon, even if it was only a green. As he had never paid a great deal of attention to his daughter beforehand (something that was not uncommon with dragonrider's children but that hurt Merrell nonetheless) he wasn't as aware of her reputation as, perhaps, he should have been. He soon found out how willfull and disobedient she was, and Merrell found herself in almost constant trouble. The hurt her father had unknowingly inflicted upon her by his rejection was compounded by this new tension within the relationship. Additionally, his treatment of her influenced the other riders in their wing and Merrell found herself very much the black sheep. When Keller's agents approached the Bolts, Merrell was more than ready to take up his cause and argued vehemently for the revolution from the get-go.
During the fighting, things finally came full-circle for Merrell as she met her father on the battlefield and witnessed his final and greatest betrayal of her. It was at his hands that L'roh perished. In the end, however, vengeance was Merrell's. Finding her father standing over L'roh's body, she rushed him and killed him in her rage. After that, her commitment to the Bolts and the Revolution was stronger than ever.
Description:Merrell is tall and slender, with a beautifully thick mane of auburn hair and dark green eyes. She knows that she is a beautiful woman, and she is not likely to let anyone forget it. Merrell does not dress in frilly dresses, however. She prefers trousers and tunics. Her clothing is always exquisitely tailored and she dresses in shades of green and silver that compliment her coloring as well as that of her dragon's.
Personality: At best, Merrell is unpredictable and at worst she is vitriolic. She prefers to always be the center of attention and she doesn't necessarily care how she manages that. Merrell is one of those people who always has to be noticed for something. She prefers it when people pay attention to her beauty and the amazing way she and Amaranth and the Bolts work together. She loves to be praised and complimented and showered with admiration. However, Merrell will also act out negatively if she feels she isn't getting enough attention from others. She will interrupt, show off and do wild and reckless things that put herself and Amaranth in near-danger just for the sake of being noticed. Her biggest fear in life is to be overlooked, as she was as a child. And so she is willing to go to great lengths to prevent that from happening. The adoration and fame that being a part of the Bolts brought her has been both good, as it has built up her confidence in herself; and bad, as it has made her become more reckless and sometimes downright arrogant.
Merrell is a skilled and passionate speaker, and she is graced with a decent amount of charisma. She has the potential to be a real leader, were she ever to apply herself. Merrell is not, however, interested in the responsibilities of leadership. In fact, Merrell is not interested in responsibility in general and she is always coming up with excuses or picking petty arguments just to get out of doing an unpleasant chore. She has a way of winning friends to her side, but she doesn't often make lasting relationships with others. It's hard for people to come to terms with the way her moods fluctuate. When she is sweet, she is very sweet. But when she is in a temper she is not someone most people want to be anywhere near.
Merrell's passionate temperment bleeds over into many aspects of her life, and once she has deemed a person a friend she is fierce in all aspects of the relationship. She is loyal, she is protective, and she will never waver from someone she has decided that she likes. She will give all of herself to her friends, and when betrayal or loss comes, it hits her very hard. This is not a woman who does anything by halves - she loves, hates, mourns and celebrates with every fiber of her being. This can make her a great deal of fun to be around, if you can put up with her reckless and risky behavior. She likes people who can keep up with her, or at least who have a healthy sense of adventure. There are few things she's not willing to try at least once.
Being so intense all of the time can be exhausting. Most people can't take her for long periods of time, and sometimes Merrell herself gets too restless and will dissapear with Amaranth for a few days without telling anybody where they are going or where they have been. She doesn't get taken by these moods often, but when she does she finds that she needs a great deal of open space and solitude - just her and her dragon. During these times Merrell sometimes has crying fits or falls into a pit of melancholic depression. She doesn't like for others to witness this aspect of her, because she views it as a weakness that she'd rather keep hidden. Largely, these incidents occur because she has so many unresolved issues regarding her parents, both of whom she feels rejected her. Merrell is deeply afraid of being rejected again, and when her intense personality has burnt itself out temporarily she falls prey to her fears.
Merrell is the "pet" of the bolts, she is everybody's little sister and she adores the attention that this role provides her with. In the Bolts she has found the family she always wanted, but never had before.
Reply
