S E N A ; Age- 23
--
Birthmonth/year- June 2999
Gender- Female
Sexual Orientation- Heterosexual
Rank- Bluehandler | Junior Journeyman Glasscrafter
Appearance- Sena’s neither very short nor very tall, but all things considered she’s not an impressive presence, standing at a very average 5’5” and solidly built. Wide at the hips, Sena has bony shoulders, bird-like in their fragility; the rest of her body is all girlish softness and gentle sloping curves. She’s not quite plump, but she hasn’t gotten rid of all that baby fat yet either—it clings to her stomach and thighs and cheeks. Nevertheless, Sena’s getting there; her hands have become gracefully thin-fingered and she’s slowly slimming at the waist (and she’s optimistic enough to believe she can be considered
beautiful someday instead of
cute).
She’s inherited greenish hazel eyes, framed with already-thick lashes that she makes a point to exaggerate with make-up, full lips, and lopsided dimples when she smiles; her nose isn’t large but it’s straight and blunt. The childish roundness to her face is offset by the elegance of slim, dark eyebrows and the paleness of her complexion, but contrarily, she tans and freckles alternately instead of burning, giving her skin a faintly ridiculous appearance in the summers. Her hair is, at the worst of times, a sort of tousled mess of half-curls—a decidedly bedraggled sort of look more befitting an agitated owl than a girl—and, fortunately more often, comes off as what Sena prefers; a
fashionable mess of wavy sort of curls, defiantly blonde with darker roots that fall just past shoulder-length.
Sena’s wardrobe is decidedly eccentric. She has particularly eclectic tastes that combine into a closet of various colors, styles, and flavors, a veritable sunburst of everything and anything she can find for cheap. She’s exceptionally fond of shoes—the more
noticeable the better. (Unfortunately
noticeable and
able to be walked in aren’t quite mutually inclusive, but Sena’s choices tend to be practical more often than not of late, past the occasional relapse.) Otherwise, Sena’s outfits are as unpredictable as they are colorful, often with the addition of some pleasantly nostalgic accessory—beat-up metal bracelet, glass-beaded ring, string of seashells looped round her throat.
Personality- Sena’s a peculiar mix of practicality and imagination, elusively and unconsciously defying definition. She’s pleasant enough to be around and is generally friendly; passively outgoing and usually quite content with or without company. Often a self-imposed loner with self-imposed discipline, but prone to spurts of imagination—generally things she classifies as silly and overtly dreamy herself, but there and thriving nonetheless—Sena’s solemn and playful by turns, the switch between them unpredictable and effusive; she’s mentally bold but politely spoken, judgmental only in the depths of her mind where it can’t
really hurt anybody. She isn’t really
deliberately vague or cryptic in that she likes to confuse people, but she
does tend to keep her emotions bottled up; stubborn enough to refuse the release of tears or the offer of comfort.
Confident when it comes to glasscrafting, Sena is defensive and defiant when it comes to her glasswork, a fierce protectiveness bleeding into self-consciousness about the
rest of her life; Sena’s happiest when she has some sort of goal or motivation in mind even if she gets sidetracked along the way. She’s a firm believer that it’s the journey that counts, not the destination, and hers is full of detours and overviews. The strangest sort of perfectionist, Sena frustrates herself more often than other people frustrate her, although certainly part of that is the fact that she’s decidedly emotionally distant despite her casually offered camaraderie; it’s not something Sena
tries to be, she just…doesn’t really love people very easily.
She’s genuinely an affectionate person, though; she likes being acknowledged and she likes having casually intimate relationships, even if she really has yet to fall in love, or even manage to convince herself that she’s in love. She has a faintly dry, self-deprecating sense of humor that comes out prominently when she’s meeting new people—a sort of abrasiveness that can put some off—and becomes downright sarcastic when Sena’s genuinely upset—angry or afraid, she tends to cover up with biting, painfully blunt humor. She has an impressively good memory and she’s certainly fairly intelligent, but she’s also still very much a teenaged girl…with all the emotions that entails.
History-
2999-3013: Benden WeyrThe first time she slept with the Nabolese Miner, Serall’s excuse was the whiskey at the Hold Gather. After that, she didn’t really have much of an excuse at all; she knew his name was Asedem and that he had a wife and children—two boys, he said—back at Nabol but he was politer than most of the Riders at Benden Weyr, and his wife and children didn’t need to know. By the time they parted ways, Serall had it nicely justified and squared in her mind, and that should’ve been the end of it, except that it wasn’t.
The Benden greenrider, a very young and naïve sort of Holdbred creature despite the war that had sprung up of recent years, found herself pregnant not long after, and decided to keep the baby—partially because she couldn’t comprehend the gravity of motherhood, could not even begin to get her Vhirkaath to help her abort the unborn baby, and partially because it got her out of fighting, didn’t it? (Vhirkaath had never much liked fighting anyway, and Serall wasn’t much better at it.) Around the time of her late pregnancy, she became closer to a bluerider—Iskierka of Ioth, a woman she’d known as a Candidate before, and the birth of the baby, a healthy little girl, did nothing to distance them.
So it was that, from her birth, Sena associated parenthood with both of them, claiming Iskierka as her “Auntie” that represented safety and affection almost to the extent that Serall did. She never really missed having a father figure, either; while her upbringing at Benden brought her in contact with very few men, the few she did have contact with at an early age did not impress her—or, alternatively, frightened her; she didn’t want or need one of
those fawning over her. That would be awkward.
All things considered, as a child Sena was pleased with her life. True, there was the war, but she had little to do with it and her mother and Aunt Iski always came back unharmed—or at least could put on a brave face for her—and at least one of them was usually around for her. And when they weren’t, the other Weyrbrats were; Sena learned how to pick out which of them were nicer and which of them were meaner, and by the time she was seven she had a handful of close friends of her own age.
It was when Sena was seen that Thread fell again. There were no casualties close to her, but the free time her mother had to spend with her deteriorated rapidly, as Serall and Vhirkaath were put onto a Thread wing and forced to relearn their training to cope with a non-sentient enemy.
She adjusted quickly enough, though, and thought very little of it—there were more important things to her childish mind: Her friends were developing crushes, she wanted to learn how to use a dagger properly and how to oil a dragon and how to sew riding straps.
And she was approaching Impression age, couldn’t wait to have a Vhirkaath or Ioth all of her own. Except that a year before Sena became eligible to Stand, one of the gold dragons and her Rider, Millieth and Kaegan, defected from Benden. It devastated her in a way none of the previous politics had; without Millieth there would be fewer clutches and fewer dragons, fewer chances for her to Impress.
There didn’t seem to be much she could do anyway, though. Sena began to Stand at Benden when she turned twelve, still hovering on the precipice between genuine Candidacy and still being a Weyrbrat. (In any case she was still closer to her mother and her “Aunt” than most Candidates were, even other Weyrbred ones.)
Around a year later came the Siege of Selenitas, the deaths of Serall and Vhirkaath, who had been swapped to a temporary fighting wing for the purpose of the Siege, and the beginning of a Fort regime at Benden. Sena’s immediate grief was for her mother; she dropped out of Candidacy for a span of about half a year, uncertain of whether or not she even wanted to Impress anymore. Still, she wasn’t blind to notice that Benden, as a whole, was a little
nicer. J’lorin she never came into direct contact with past fleeting glimpses at dining hour, but he seemed nicer than C’leon, and the women didn’t shy away from him when he passed after a while, and the green and blueriders seemed to be treated a little better, too.
She’d Stood for one more Hatching when she turned fourteen before it was decided that Iskierka was to be sent South to Selenitas—to teach
them how to defend themselves, for reasons Sena couldn’t comprehend—what business of theirs was it if the South couldn’t save themselves, after all?—and between being left Standing
again and her adopted Aunt’s impending departure, Sena decided, in a sort of childish spurt of vindictive inspiration, that she was sick of being left behind and it was about time she was the one doing the leaving for once.
Officially stepping away from Candidacy, she organized passage to the Glasscraft Hall, and half a month after Iskierka and Ioth and the rest of the Benden wing transferred South, Sena, too, left Benden Weyr.
3013-3017: Glasscraft HallSena’s arrival at the Glasscraft Hall was a cultural shock of the highest degree; the workload was extraordinary (and if she suspected the boys had it a little easier, she never did say so) and she struggled spectacularly for a few weeks before she settled into a sort of rhythm, albeit one practically devoid of a social life of any description. As things began to settle for her, however, she found a quiet camaraderie, if not exceptionally
close friendship, in some of the girls she shared a cothold with—they weren’t people she loved, and sometimes she even found them irritating, but they were people she could attend Gathers with and gossip with, and that was enough.
Sometime during her second year, she sparked a brief, casual relationship with one of the boys at the Crafthall—the pleasant kind of teenage romance she knew wasn’t
really going to end in a white wedding with a golden ring, but was nice all the same. They saw each other infrequently and informally—at mealtimes, during classes with the same Master, at the occasional Gather—and Sena liked it for its
ease, the effortlessness.
That relationship—as well as those with her other friends—fell apart when she walked the tables—Early for any apprentice, even earlier for a girl—and chose to specialize in the more artistic of glasscrafting. The workload increased exponentially, and Sena cared less about cultivating inter-personal friendships than she did about becoming a good Glasscrafter; friendships could fall in line after.
And if she wasn’t
completely happy there all the time, well, she hadn’t ever been quite happy consistently overlooked as a Candidate either; at least here she’d some sort of purpose.
Not long after she became a Junior Journeyman, though, a dragonrider came to the Glasscraft Hall: A peculiarity at the best of times. It was a green, and she, and its Rider, bore the weight of a heavy gossip train; even establishing which Weyr the green was from was problematic. Eventually it boiled down to a Selenitas Search, and with the vague notion of asking after Iskierka and Ioth to see if they were still down South, Sena found her way to the green dragon and her Rider, and was promptly met with a dragon’s snout in her face and an invitation to be a
Candidate.
She should’ve said no immediately—she was years from being a Senior Journeyman still and farther yet from Master and she had all the right reasons to stay and none to go.
Somehow
no thanks came out as
okay, an irreversibly wanderlust-driven decision. The South would be new and bright and brilliant and
maybe Iskierka would be there, and if she wasn’t, at least she might have better luck Impressing in the South.
3017: Selenitas WeyrAs it happened, Sena ran into Iskierka purely by accident the day she arrived at Selenitas. Delighted by the reunion and excited again by the idea of Impression, she settled well into Weyr life again, this time not as a loner but with her older bunkmate, Sydney, and another Candidate, Kaius, as her best friends and partners in crime. It didn’t take long for her to become closer to them than she’d ever been anybody her age before, even with the impending wher Hatching approaching.
Even so, she maintained close contact with Iskierka; while she and her ‘aunt’ were walking, they managed to be in the locale of a Razorclaw Hatching. Sena, delighted by the creatures, wheedled Iskierka into letting her stay, and eventually left with one of them, a little grayish ball of downy fluff she named Azazel.
A month before the Hatching rolled around, in a display of truly appalling coordination, Sena sprained her ankle—badly enough that she had to hobble around on crutches for a while. Come Hatching-time, it was still painful, but Sena was nothing if not determined, so she made Kaius her human crutch despite the fact that he hadn’t intended to Stand for whers. Which was probably a mistake.
She and Kaius were unable to avoid the clumsiness of two baby whers, but that didn’t stop them
both from Impressing, and Sydney, too—Kaius to gold Kaiusk, Sydney to green Sydsk, and Sena to a little blue that shyly introduced himself as Sensk. Following the Hatching and the Infirmary trip that ended up with a neat line of stitches across her thighs, Sena found herself with Sensk back in the wherhandler barracks—rooming with Sydney.
This eventually turned into a special-permission triple with Kaius, despite the gender differences; it was a dynamic Sena was extraordinarily grateful for, with Sydney busy so often in the Infirmary.
She Impressed Gabriel not long after, the brown firelizard insinuating himself with adoring cheer and excessive candy into her life. It was an awkward triad of mindmates, to be sure, with Sensk petrified of Gabriel and perpetually wary of Azazel (if not
quite as scared of him), and Azazel clingy and always moping, and Gabriel the life and soul of the party that neither of the other two seemed to want to partake in, but they made it work—particularly with Kaiusk and Sesk and Sydsk serving as mediators for Sensk.
It did not take Sena completely by surprise when Kaius awkwardly fumbled his way through asking her out later in 3017—and neither did she particularly hesitate in agreeing. She’d always liked him plenty, and she’d always figured dating was just calling dibs on someone you liked, so why not?
Their dating split up the triple rooming situation, and, further, seemed to put a rift between Sena’s closeness with Sydney; during that time, however, Sena also became closer to Eikane, and while it was devastating to be able to feel herself falling farther from Sydney, she alternated between trying to
fix it by insisting on girl’s-only nights and avoiding the fallout entirely and ducking to Iskierka or Eikane or Kaius instead.
It was during one of these avoidance routines that Azazel died; the Razorclaw, usually perpetually attached to Sena, did not accompany her one day; she figured he would be okay with Gabriel and Sensk, and maybe he would have been, if he had stayed.
Instead, the Razorclaw took off to find her, and never got there.
Sena never did find him, afterwards, but his disappearance was as good as confirmation; Azzy would never have gone so long without returning otherwise. Her grief was very quiet; Azazel had definitely been much beloved, but she did not, as it turned out, have much time to dwell on it.
That year, the war finally seemed to be coming to an end.
Unfortunately, this came in the form of Iskierka being sent back to Benden—and Sena was devastated, even angry, at the situation. She’d
just gotten Iskierka back, comparative to the time she’d lost her, and they were sending her away
again?
Nevertheless, she understood the necessity, and followed every new snippet of news with avidity, although as a wherhandler, Sena was already pretty aware she’d take no active part in the War. Still, as the war finally came to a complete close in 3019, and the Summit organized for the future, Sena ended up frustrated again—she was staying at Selenitas only by dint of Kaius being a goldhandler (upon graduation and assignation of rooms, she’d promptly moved into his room and announced that she was staying, wasn’t like he needed a giant bed all to himself anyway, right), and while Iskierka was returning South, Sydney wasn’t.
Their friendship had never quite been fixed, and she
hated seeing Sydney leave—but there was nothing she could do; Sydney was a Healer, and the Summit had spoken.
Serissa, too, was sent away, and while Sena had never been close to the woman—frankly the whole dragonless thing was something she was uncomfortable treading around and the age gap meant she was more inclined to stay with her friends anyway—Sensk was obviously distressed by his sister’s leaving—even Kaiusk’s continued affection couldn’t quite make up for what he’d lost.
S E N S K ;Age- 5
Species- Wher
Color- Blue (
#000088 |
#007fff)
Appearance- The Mutual Blue is naturally quite small due to having shared an egg with his sister. He's about average sized...for a green. In general he also appears rather stunted in his developement. His ridges are barely there and his eyes seem far too large for his head. His tail has little nubs instead of the typical fork. His claws will never grow out into proper points. In over all build he's on the scrawny side and certainly will never be anything special to look at. Some may even go so far as to call him ugly because of the too-thin layer of muscle over his bones that make a fair number of them visible. He's not sickly but he appears so often. His wings are absolutely tiny, like a salamandyr's wings.
In colour, this blue is a pleasant ultramarine blue. The colour shifts from shade to shade over his body to seem like rippling waves of soft fabric or water. The effect is usually quite pleasing and may distract people from his unpleasant form. His legs have multiple bands of comparably bright azure. They create a rather odd picture since one leg's banding will start right at the ankle and the leg's pair will start where the first band left off. There's also a thick band - or collar, if you will - around the blue's neck that is flecked with the ultramarine blue. He's certainly a bit of an eye catcher between his odd build and his striking colouration, especially since the azure tends to blend oddly when he runs to make a rather trippy effect.
This wher's movements are frequently twitchy and nervous. His tail is just about always flicking from side to side and he jumps frequently at seemingly nothing. Granted, they're small jumps and he goes back to his wary watchfullness pretty quickly after that. He's also extremely clumsy, much like his dam is. This clumsiness makes him move slowly in an effort to try and preserve his dignity though he's capable of being as fast as the average green if he can manage to keep his feet under him and untangled. His wings don't even allow the smallest amount of gliding so he's stuck trying to improve his walking skills. A bit of a pointless goal since he'll never be anything more than clumsy.
Personality- Cowardly is the first thing that will come to mind with the Mutual Blue. Oddly enough he'll appear as less of a coward to others than His because he'll actively volunteer to do scary things to impress his twin sister. His will be subjected to all the mental terror doing those things will entail but he's fairly dependable when he pushes himself to be. He's far more useful in situations he's not afraid but those come few and far between. Usually something simple like fetching something soft for His. Yes, that's safe. Speaking of soft things and fears - this wher will need something to cuddle when he sleeps to protect him from his fear of the day. Whether it be His, the Mutual Green, or some kind of giant stuffed wher won't matter.
There is a reason any potential stuffed toy will need to be a wher. He doesn't trust other creatures in the least. Too different, too unusual, and oh Faranth but most of them can be about in the day and not get their eyes seared out of their sockets! Eep! If His has or obtains any pets this wher will actively avoid or ignore them because he just cannot handle interacting with them. Should His force him to try he will most likely break down into frightened yips and earth-shattering whines until he's allowed not to. It's far easier to let this wher have his way when it comes to things that worry or frighten him because...well, the upset this wher feels will be broadcasted to His quite heavily.
Speaking of upsetting things, other wherhandlers won't bother this wher but most "daylighters" will. With the odd exception of young children. This blue gets along with them very well and will frequently think of the children as a reason not to outright hate the world for being so scary. Not that he's really capable of hate. He's adorabley goofy-happy when he's not scared completely witless even if he's not terribly intelligent by any standards. At the very least he's usually good for a laugh, whether at his expense or with him because he does know a lot of jokes. He's also completely devoted to his twin sister. He will not even consider ever chasing any other green.
G A B R I E L ;Age- 5
Species- Firelizard
Color- Brown (
#f4e9dd |
#9b7e5e)
Appearance- This is a large brown, and will probably reach the size of an average sized bronze. Despite how big he is, he isn’t all that big. He’s a rather slender flit, his proportions stretched out. His tail is extremely long and flexible, his legs are long and his wings are also rather big. He doesn’t have that much muscle. Most of his muscle is concentrated in his tail and in his wings, making him a spectacular flier. He can also walk, but it isn’t his favorite thing to do since he’s a little ungainly walking. Though, he can and will. Since his favorite place to be is usually perched on His’ shoulder, it isn’t that big of a deal. Because of his size, he isn’t really all that agile in the air, probably more so than most bronzes, but less so than most browns. He also has a great deal of stamina, probably not as much as his bronze brother, but a great deal more than most other firelizards.
In coloration, he’s a positively delicious looking flit. His main base color is a bleached out cream color. Not nearly as dark as your typical brown, but quite yummy looking nonetheless. His wing membranes are the color of silky hot chocolate. This same color loops and curves down his spine in elegant looking runes that seem to be mimicked in his siblings. It's apt that he likes candy, because he actually looks like something that is deliciously sweet. Perpetually floating around him is an air of pure joy and playfulness. He’s continually moving, looping, flitting around, as if there’s so much excitement and happiness in his body that he can’t really sit still or he’ll explode. He’s also known for making vocalizations constantly, whether it be a happy chirrup, chirp, or soothing croon, you’ll probably hear him long before you see him.
Personality- Straight out of the egg, this flit is extremely playful and mischievous. A rather good natured flit, especially as far as browns go, this boy adores playtime more than any other time of day. If he can play, then it’s a good day for him. This playful streak is at its climax while he is a baby. As he gets older, he’ll still be playful, but not nearly as exuberantly so. A paragon of virtue and justice, he sees it as his duty to make sure that justice is upheld in all aspects of life. But it would be much too much to ask him to uphold justice in any normal matter. No. This boy needs to play tricks on people to teach them lessons of what they should and shouldn’t do. He isn’t limited by the tricks he’ll play on people, nothing too disastrous, but his motto is if someone experiences intense pain doing something bad, they’ll learn not to do that again, right? He might unscrew the lid from the salt shaker for the person who uses the last of the salt, or steal from someone who takes things that don’t belong to them. The problem with this flit is that he doesn’t stick around to explain to people what he has done to them, so they don’t learn their lesson in the first place.
Though he’s keen on teaching people a lesson, there’s one thing that he can’t stop himself from doing. Stealing candy. This firelizard has quite the sweet tooth and it wouldn’t be odd for him to, at any time, have a massive candy hoard. Of course, he hides the location of his candy and protects it with his life. Even His won’t know where it is, unless they stumble upon it accidently, which is highly likely, because it will likely be somewhere mundane, like His’ sock drawer, or one of His’ boots. Because while he’s highly secretive of his candy hoard, there’s one thing he loves more than his candy and that’s His. Clingy and loving and always wanting to be near His, touching His, his more harsh lessons will be reserved for those who do something that trespass against his, not limited to all out attacking the person who takes all the salt if His wants some. In this aspect, it’s almost impossible to piss this flit off…unless you do something to His. That’s one of the only things that can turn him into a whirling dervish of claws and anger. Otherwise, he’s happy go lucky, wanting to make friends with everyone, His’ other mindmates especially (he considers them siblings), his clutchmates, and wanting to right wrongs across the entirety of the weyr.
In terms of chasing, this overly playful flit sees it as another challenge, another chance to play. During flights, he’s excited and thrilled, and it’s impossible for anyone to make him mad, even his competition. He’ll continually be doing aerial feats in the air (which isn’t easy due to his size, but he doesn’t mind failing a few times, since it’s all in good fun), chirruping happily to the other males. He’s so easy going at all times that even if he loses, he won’t care too much. One would be hard pressed not to find him participating in any given flight because they’re just so much fun! He wants to play with all the females of the weyr. He doesn’t care so much about mating, but he isn’t opposed to it if he’s picked, because after all, that’s fun too!