I've seen ridiculous sunsets in a sickening sky
It made me feel really ill in a beautiful way
I've seen perfect people and I shield my eyes
I don't deserve to see their shame
Smash Mouth, Keep it Down
BASICS
RETIRE INFO:
Darshiva: Retire
Yueleth: Retire
NAME: Darshiva, also called Shiva
GENDER: Female
PRONOUNS: She/her/hers
ORIENTATION: Aromantic asexual
BIRTHDATE: Late Autumn 2741
AGE: 25 as of Early Autumn 2767
LOCATION: High Reaches Weyr
OCCUPATION: Greenrider, Searchrider,
WING: Starfall Wing
APPEARANCE
EYES: A light grass-green
HAIR: Mouse-brown with hints of copper, curly, mid-back length
HEIGHT AND BUILD: Slender, malnourished look, at 5'8
PLAY-BY: Ella Marija Lani Yelich-O'Connor aka Lorde
FULL APPEARANCE:
With a slightly malnourished look from Turns spent on the lowest social rung, Darshiva has never quite filled her stocky frame, and there is very little in the way of femininity to her figure. She doesn’t care, though: now she eats three square meals a day, and has the musculature of a well-toned dragonrider. Life has definitely improved.
With bushy brown hair and sunken, light green eyes, Darshiva has a slightly foreboding air. She is well practiced in the art of expressing no emotion, more given to steely, unblinking stares than anything particularly friendly or affable. Pouty lips are normally pursed, and her gaunt face is dominated by a prominent and slightly skewed nose. Heavy eyebrows create greater shadows upon her pale and tired looking complexion.
Darshiva has little interest in fashion, telling in her drab sense of fashion. She'll wear whatever she's handed with no complaint, and avoids social situations that might require a fancier wardrobe. Friends and acquaintances will find it easy to persuade her to try this or that, as Darshiva really doesn't give a forsk for her attire as long as it serves the needs of the day.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
The first thing that one notices about Darshiva is that she is not an especially talkative woman. She much prefers to fade into the background of a conversation, listening and watching. She is an observant woman, although not especially intuitive or empathic. People are, for the most part, strange and unfathomable. Darshiva is definitely a dragon-person and not a people-person.
She does not trust others easily or readily, believing everybody has hidden intentions and ulterior motives. She is suspicious and mistrustful as a general rule. However, persisting in a friendly approach and earning her trust will see Darshiva become an unwavering, steadfastly loyal friend. For these friends, she is willing to do pretty much anything they ask of her (probably shy of hurting another person, or jumping off a cliff), and will offer advice or counsel if asked. Warm is not a word that could be used to describe her, even at her friendliest, but she is a little more sociable and accepting of others when in good company. She might even crack the occasional stupid joke.
The worst of life doesn't bother her, and Darshiva doesn't feel pity for anyone, including herself. Life is pretty forsking terrible, all things considered, and just because she was thrust into it doesn't mean she has to enjoy it. She's not pessimistic by nature, but she is definitely jaded, cynical and apathetic about most things. Good people die, bad people live, and tomorrow the sun will rise regardless. Her actions and concerns really don't matter, so why should she care even slightly? Miserable is not the right word either, but Shiva finds little joy in life. Only Yueleth, her dragon, brings her happiness and love.
Speaking of, Darshiva is incredibly possessive of her bondmate. She sympathises deeply with her dragon’s nervousness, and will do anything in her power to protect her from the ‘Bad Things’ in life, most especially big dragons. Darshiva is unafraid of getting in another dragon or rider’s face if they scare Yueleth, and will summon rare passion to drive an angry front. She scrutinises those who might wish to interact with Yueleth, and holds them to very high standards; despite this, she sorely believes Yueleth is the best dragon since Faranth, and needs to be surrounded by friendship and love. She will suggest new friends for Yueleth to approach, after due and careful observation.
For all of her withdrawn, reserved ways, Darshiva enjoys spending her time with lower caverns folk, whom she tends to find more grounded and realistic than her fellow riders. It's a common sight to see her assisting drudges in their tasks, not caring one jot for any reputation she might have or assumption others might make of her. Darshiva doesn't think of herself as anyone’s saviour, but she remembers her roots, and how difficult life was for someone who was invisible and had no hope for the future.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
- Mother: Riatana {2721 - Drudge}
- Father: Serrosh {2716 - deceased}
BIRTHPLACE: High Reaches Hold
HISTORY:
TW: Death, violence
In 2741, Darshiva was the resultant child of a convenient relationship between a drudge and a cook from High Reaches Hold. Riatana’s own parents had been drudges, and she knew nothing of her grandparents on either side. Serrosh was a cook of some standing, who was quite enamoured with Riatana, but painfully aware that she did not wish to formalise their relationship in case it affected his place in the Hold. What he did offer was protection and warmth, which was a boon for the woman and their daughter.
Darshiva has few memories of her father, but those she does remember, she recalls with fondness: table scraps and stories by the hearth late at night, him fighting a man who had called her stupid, and his slightly crooked smile that followed a terrible joke. After a cold and desolate stretch of weeks in the winter of 2745, he passed away, claimed by an illness that was spreading through the Hold. The young girl herself came down with an awful fever, but made a remarkable recovery over the course of two weeks, much to the relief of her mother.
Riatana and Darshiva’s relationship was never close: though they did- and still do- love each other very much, Riatana was withdrawn and emotionally closed, a product of her life of drudgery. Darshiva saw her future in her, and it terrified her. She was an obedient but quiet child, never getting into trouble, never making a fuss, always following the rules and doing her work. Work was all she knew, it was all she wanted. She never expected more than being a drudge herself.
So she did not apprentice when the time came, nor was she expected or invited to Harper lessons. Darshiva had little desire to change her fate, life wasn’t comfortable, but it was a bearable kind of solitude; there was nothing wrong with sweeping, for whyever would floors get dirty if it wasn’t to sweep them? And sure, people were rude, but they were rude in all walks of life. Being a drudge wasn’t so bad.
With the dragon wars, it was almost easier. Nobody bothered a drudge. Nobody expected anything from her. Darshiva could exist in the background with very little care for anybody but herself. However, when dragonriders arrived in Search, even her usual nonchalant approach to existence wouldn’t work. A blue dragon inspected her, then brought her to his rider’s attention, and she was asked to Stand in the 2756.
And Darshiva thought, why the forsk not?
Her mother chose to stay at the Hold, for the bloody Turns had left her with a fear of dragons. Darshiva, on the other hand, saw a chance to be someone better. She realised her lethargy towards life was because of how she perceived it, rather than her desire to be nothing. The Weyr offered her a chance to change her perceptions of life, and with all the mounting suspicion of a woman used to seeing the worst in mankind, she took it.
There were lessons- oh, so many lessons. Darshiva became literate, and learned the basics in figuring sums, and sewing, and even hand-to-hand combat and physical fitness. It was draining, and left her with headaches every night when she had to put in extra study to keep up with the others. The hatching came and went, and there was no dragon to call her own.
Life achieved a dull monotony, but it was not a comfortable monotony from her childhood: now there were expectations, pressures to achieve and succeed, and Darshiva found herself beginning to dislike candidacy as a whole. By 2759, she was managing to Stand only by gritting her teeth and hoping that the next Feast would be better than the last.
It was then that she met Yueleth, and her life changed forever. The little green was one of the last dragons to hatch, her long, slender form chasing shadows as she ducked from eggshell-cover to dune-cover. Shy, and easily frightened, she seemed almost reluctant to Impress, until she turned gently whirling eyes on the bushy-haired girl, rainbows breaking the tension between them.
My dearest Shiva… you don’t need to hide anymore, especially not from your Yueleth!
It was the warmest Darshiva had ever felt, and she ran towards the lithe creature, collapsing in a sobbing heap as she wrapped her arms around the delicate green neck. This was love. This was happiness. She’d never felt so fulfilled or content. Yueleth was everything Pern needed- everything good in the world. Never, ever would Shiva let her suffer.
Despite Yueleth’s skittishness and nervousness, she proved herself a quick and agile dragon. Darshiva tried hard to keep up with studying, but found that aspect of weyrlinghood frustrating. Still, when it came to flight and formation practice, there was hardly another pair more in-sync than the greenrider and her dragon. They graduated at the end of winter in 2760, and were tapped to join the Starfall Wing.
By this point in time, the Interval Wars had come to an end and the Peacekeeper’s Age had began. Unfortunately, High Reaches was still under Golre and Vizeth’s mad, iron rule, and had declared High Reaches the Peacekeepers. They didn’t seem to be very good at keeping peace, as far as Darshiva was concerned. Refugees fleeing holds, High Reaches riders sowing mayhem and destruction in their passage.
There was compulsion, too. Darshiva remembered the agony and fear that Yueleth could not control, as she lost herself to the whims of the much larger, angrier dragon who commanded them. Darshiva did her best- the two Betweened to Fort, as ordered, and found the shadowiest, darkest place they could find within the Weyr itself, Yueleth huddling as her rider stood guard. She didn’t do anything as Fort’s own riders cornered them, but, with a steely desperation asked to be spared.
And they were. The green spent time recovering, whilst Darshiva contributed to Fort’s running in any way necessary. In 2761, Golre and her legion of blood-crazed bronzes were killed during another attack on Fort, toppling the Mad Golds for good. It is after this that Darshiva and Yueleth elect to return. Yueleth still struggles with strong feelings of fear and panic surrounding golds and bronzes- and large dragons in general.
Unscathed during the disastrous Fall of ‘67, they were nevertheless presented with an option to help make up the numbers for Moonshot. Darshiva declined, knowing Yueleth was more comfortable around dragons her size, and knowing her nimbleness and speed would make her an asset to the high-altitude wing.
