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Name: Joshala (Jaw-SHA-la, goes by “Joshie”)
Age: 20
Sex: Female
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual (and very reserved)
Craft: N/A
Rank: N/A
Location: Western Weyr
Physical Description: Joshala has a light-skinned, heart-shaped face framed by wavy black hair cut in a medium bob. Her best features are her arched eyebrows and proud, straight nose. She thinks her worst feature is her eyes, which are a shade of light grayish-green that she’s not fond of. She is 5’8” and fit, but has an ample soft layer over the muscle, giving her a very feminine, almost round look.

Personality: Joshala doesn’t get angry easily and usually speaks with a soft voice. Her quiet demeanor can come off as shy, but once someone has spoken with her a few times and shown themselves to be earnest, she’ll open right up like a sun-warmed flower. But don’t expect her to respond to flirting or even expressions of platonic love with any more than a raised eyebrow. Any physical or spoken affection for a loved one is going to be a private matter. All public attempts at hugging will result in a not-so-gentle shove, regardless of who tries it.

She hates asking for favors. Some of it is pride, and some of it is mistrust. In her former life in the mines, questions were often rebuffed, and requests for help resulted in mockery or even punishment if she went to the wrong person. Anything she can do herself, she’ll do, even if it’s difficult or time-consuming. She is smart and will resort to self-study, training or cheap workarounds to get it done.

She is normally very calm but has developed an itch for the thrill of being frightened. She doesn’t indulge while actually on the job, but occasionally she’ll give in to the urge to do something dumb, just to enjoy the insane, heart-pumping laughter.

Joshala has a pet canine who is almost always within sight of her. She plinks away at an old, dented gitar when she’s bored, and can play fairly complicated tunes but has had no formal training. She doesn’t like the color green, and has a half-joking theory that that is why she hasn’t Impressed yet.

Positive Trait List Independent, calm, intelligent
Negative Trait List Reserved, thrill-seeker, mistrustful

History: Joshala was an only child, born at a small cothold within Ruatha’s jurisdiction. Her parents were drudges who worked the fields in growing season and did whatever else needed done in the offseason, sometimes leaving the cothold for weeks at a time. They were always quite busy, so Joshala often had to entertain herself as a child. Her favorite pastimes were practicing with borrowed instruments or exploring and playing games with one of the resident canines. She taught them all sorts of fun tricks, such as “counting” with a paw or hopping about on their hind legs.

It seemed idyllic, until her father became addicted to gambling while helping with a caravan sent to Nabol to trade. In a very short time, he had accumulated such immense debt that those he owed took “pity” on him and gave him the “chance” to pay it off by working in the mines. He managed to save his own skin by offering up his daughter instead – without the knowledge or consent of his wife, of course. The “delivery” was carried out under cover of night by one of the dragonriders that worked in the mines, and the Ruathan cothold was left to believe that one of its young ones had been tragically lost to the wilds.

In the mines, Joshala discovered a new life much like that of those wilds her mother believed she’d been taken by: Kill, or be killed. Even children who were younger than her but who had been in the mines longer were often hardened and unkind... even treacherous. More than once, Joshala was accused and found guilty of trespasses she had nothing to do with.

The positive side of the experience was that Joshala’s figurative spine grew thick and strong, and her wits were honed. She learned to avoid trouble and became difficult to find when she didn’t want to be, carrying out her daily quotas at odd and varying hours and in the presence of as many witnesses as possible. And her looks, while not particularly exotic, were good enough to protect her from physical punishments that would scar her, as some of the other youths received. From snatches of conversation, she gathered that her taskmaster had a plan to make her work elsewhere when she was older. Somewhere on the surface. And she began to form her plan.

At age fourteen, the day she was waiting for finally came. Up into the sunlight she was taken, and in a chance incident involving a feline handler and an angry butcher stall owner, she made her escape, never even needing to make use of her grand plan. And if her task master hadn’t stepped in front of that stall when the handler’s striped beast pounced in hopes of a free meal (which it got – and a very fresh one, at that!), she likely would not have succeeded in escaping and would have become a very different person with a very different life.

She was on the streets for two turns, making good use of the self-preserving skills she’d learned in the mines, along with the welcome addition of a feral canine pup she’d raised and trained to ward off potential danger. That canine had its work cut out for it when one day, shortly after Joshala’s sixteenth nameday, a blue dragon pursued and cornered them. The canine (rather stupidly) attacked the dragon, only to be pinned under his foot while the dragon snarled (actually, it was only yawning) and stared at the girl.

Joshala’s main experience with dragons at this point was them as the allies and enforcers of the mine’s taskmasters. She refused to listen to anything the blue’s rider said (if he was searching for what she assumed he was after, he certainly wasn’t going to find it with her!), until the dragon himself spoke to her. No dragon had ever spoken to her before. In her mind, the blue could convey his feelings and intent in a way that humans couldn’t. She found that she… well, she trusted him. That was a word that hadn’t been in her vocabulary for some time.

Her next four turns as a Candidate were spent at Western Weyr, slowly adjusting to life among people who were generally good. She hadn’t been there long before she found her favorite place to work – the kitchen. The turns of leanness in the mines and on the streets of Nabol had made food something almost sacred to her. Another result of those times was that her body became so used to squeezing every drop of nutrition out of what little she ate that this sudden abundance was hard for it to handle. The girl who was so thin that she looked something like a dead tree bloomed with womanly curves almost overnight, it seemed. She never overate, but still ended up noticeably heavier than average for a girl her age and build. Instead of feeling self-conscious, however, Joshala is very happy to be comfortably on that side of the coin, now.

Other: (Just in case of any possible concerns, her dislike of green is merely a quirk, it has nothing to do with dragon colors. XD )

Candidate Specific Questions
Do you want them to have an official Search RP? No
Do you understand they will age every passing year regardless if you're there to RP the or not? Yes
Do you want them to have a possible Stands Impression? No

Oh, wow! That would be a notable rule for sure. I apologize for missing it! Joshie is very grateful to be able keep her friend nearby, and "Canine" will be a smaller type and will be sure to earn his keep through some of those jobs you mentioned. He's well-trained and will behave himself. heart

TBH, she loves that mutt, but if a dragon shows up in her head... how often would a normal animal cross her mind after that? He won't be too upset about it, though. He'll be just fine doing domestic work for the weyrfolk and getting friendly pats all day long. XDD