Opening event free wher - no art
Rilli
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Craft/Rank: Journeyman Wherhandler
Appearance: 5'11” and lanky at best. Rilli's built like a long distance runner, all bones and ropy muscles. She’s rather androgynous and other than the fact that she wears exclusively skirts, she could be mistaken for a young boy. She’s neither really fair or dark, more sandy in color. Her light brown hair reaches her mid back. It’s wild and un-kempt, usually pulled back by a scrap of leather. Rilli is partial to earth colors, particularly olive green because it matches her grey green eyes. This is where she displays a small amount of feminine vanity. She also likes bracelets and necklaces made from hand carved and painted wooden beads. The marks she makes from helping her family usually goes into frivolous purchases such as those. Outside of her accessories, she doesn’t care much what she looks like. So long as her hair is out of her face and her body is decently covered she’s content.
Rilli has a deep vertical cut across her left cheek, pinching the skin and lifting the corner of her mouth just enough to give her a permanent small smirk.
Personality: Rilli is very determined and single minded when she sets her sights on something. She’ll dive in with everything she’s got and won’t give up until the bitter end. This can be admirable in the right circumstances but more often than not she’s just plain reckless. It doesn’t occur to her that something could go wrong or there could be consequences to her actions.
She often doesn’t recognize her own limitations and being told ‘No’ or that she can’t do something is both an insult and a challenge. More often than not she will grudgingly obey a respected authority figure. If she really wants something badly though, nothing short of punishment will deter her. Should the denial come from another of the same age or rank, or someone she doesn’t view as in charge of her, they can stuff it where the sun don’t shine. Reverse psychology would work on her, even if she knew what you were trying to do. Just hinting that you doubt her ability to do something will make her want to do it, if only to prove you wrong. This doesn’t mean she’ll be ABLE to make that 5 star meal, but shard it she’ll slave over that stove till she’s out of ingredients.
When failure does rear its ugly head it’s a painful blow to her. She’s spent her life working to keep up with her brothers, proving she’s not just the baby, not just the little sister. She refuses to accept it until its shoved right into her face. She gets angry and can verbally and sometimes physically lash out. Rilli has a nasty jealous streak that smolders hot in such cases.
Being reminded of past failures brings it up fresh all over again. If given a chance she’ll keep trying the same task until she succeeds. She’s ashamed of when she attacks someone else because of her own failure. She knows it’s not their fault. How she goes about fixing it can depend upon the person though. If it’s someone she’s emotionally close to she’ll apologize and try to make things right. It may not happen immediately and she’s been known to take days working past her embarrassment to finally make that first move. If she’s not ready she’ll do what she can to avoid that one person in particular until she is. If it’s someone she thinks she’ll rarely or never see, she’ll most likely try to forget that it happened. She’ll still feel embarrassed every time she sees that person though.
In general she’s very outgoing and a social butterfly. She likes to talk to people, even if they don’t take part in the conversation. Rilli hates being alone and will seek out company like water. One conversation is enough to become Rilli friend in her mind. If you seem cool then you’re in the club. She’ll drop you like a bad habit if you then prove to not be as pleasant as she first thought. She hates clingy dependent people. You need other friends and hobbies than just her. Rilli will want a circle of best friends rather than just one.
She prefers physical activity to mental and is very much a kinetic learner. She has difficulty learning from books or lectures, preferring to learn through experience. She’s not illiterate it’s just books are sOOoooo booooorrrriiinnnnng. She’ll read all of the text but her mind will have wandered elsewhere and none of it will sink in. Same with lectures, she can never focus on the teachers words unless there was a way for her to participate herself. She’s considered skipping but it’s doubtful she ever would. What if she missed something important? She’ll go and try to pay attention but something will trigger a thought and the next thing she knows the lecture is over and she has no idea what just happened. Embarrassed, she’ll glean what she can from the other students. She never saw this as a failure, it was just how she was raised. Learning her father’s craft was a very hands on experience and her mother taught her children to read and do basic calculations with actual marks and little letters carved into small wood tablets. She wasn’t taught to learn any other way.
History: Daughter of Handlers at Southern, Rilli saw firsthand the contempt held for them by the dragonriders and even other Weyr Crafters. While she was never allowed particularly close to the creatures herself, her mother's little green always seemed to be fond enough of her and the affection was returned.
It was a small part of her life for the most part during her younger turns. No one was out right cruel to her or her older brothers and she was allowed to grow up and play in relative peace. Growing up, Rilli was far more concerned with keeping up with her brothers. She never played little girl games, preferring to rough house, climb, and explore the Weyr's outlying jungles, getting herself and other children lost on multiple occasions.
Both of her brother's followed their parents into Wher Handling, though not after giving candidacy a go for a turn or two when they first came of age. Rilli passed on Standing, she knew she wanted a wher of her own, the moment she hit twelve she began her apprenticeship. Once she got into the craft she began to see the rift between Riders and Handlers and became more and more jaded towards the Riders as she aged. Her Father let her select her first wher egg when she was 20 turns. She'd felt she was ready long before but he 'd hoped she would outgrow some of her recklessness before risking life and limb with the often vicious beasts. While that never actually happened, she made it through the selection with no incidents. Rilli carried away the largest egg she could lift, just to prove she could.
Brown Rillsk hatched not long after and with her Father's watchful guidance, she fed and blooded him, marking herself as a Handler for life.
Weyrlife for her didn't exactly settle down but became a new adventure. She moved into her own set of lodgings and trained Rillsk as a watchwher, expecting to possibly be sent to a nearby hold when the need arose. Until then the two became somewhat of a terror among the Handlers, getting themselves into spots of trouble at every turn. Rilli would often be seen in the evenings straddling Rillsk's back, holding on for dear life and giving loud whoops of glee as they raced around the weyr proper and scaring firelizards and people alike. With Rillsk's guidance she was able to explore even further into Southern's jungles, past the area's occupied by men. Their duties often consisted of meeting supply wagons after dark and guiding them back to the Weyr.
When the call came for Wherhandlers to work as guards at the new 'weyr' that had been built, Rilli was first on Southern's list to send. She was good at her job but they'd be glad to get her out of their hair.
It sounded interesting enough to Rilli and without too much fuss she and Rillsk agreed to go.
Rillsk
Color: Brown
Age: 6
Appearance: Large and Brown. That's about the best way to describe Rillsk.
Ok really, he's pretty average. Rilli loves to talk him up around others. No other wher is like hers in her mind. In truth though, Rillsk is almost text book in his build and size for his color.
Personality: Rillsk is alert, determined, loyal and fiercely protective of Rilli. He's a well trained wher and when given a command he will follow it through to the end. The only thing that could deter him is a threat of harm to his handler. He is more than ready to lay down his own life in protection of her, or completion of his assigned task. Self preservation is not this brown's strong point.
Nor is he the most clever of whers, being more of a do-er than a thinker. He works better when given specific orders rather than letting him figure it out on his own. Rilli has learned to work with this limitation, though his blunt thinking style sometimes annoys her. His adoration and enthusiasm for her games makes it worthwhile though. She's convinced him to be non-threatening to most others so long as they keep their distance and their hands or claws to themselves. Just don't expect particularly engaging conversations.
