H'MER
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"If at first you don't succeed, read the instructions."
BASICS
NAME: H'mer (previously Hanamera)
GENDER: Female
PRONOUNS: she/her/hers
ORIENTATION: Pansexual
BIRTHDATE: Early Fall 2737
AGE: 37 as of 2774
LOCATION: High Reaches Weyr
OCCUPATION: Dragonrider
WING: Stormlight
APPEARANCE
EYES: Light brown
HAIR: Dark brown, with hints of steel grey
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5'3", sturdy
PLAY-BY:
FULL APPEARANCE:
Short and sturdy, this woman is a slab of muscle with a low centre of gravity. Her hair has a natural wave to it, and when left untied it hangs to her waist; that happens only rarely, though, with H'mer's braids usually coiled over her ears to fit under her flying helmet. Her eyes are a warm light brown, matching her freckles.
Usually clad in shirt and doublet and trews, H'mer's overall build requires very few modifications to male-patterned clothing, which she usually wears. Most of the time she's to be found in riding leathers, though. She's is either scrupulously clean, or she hasn't bathed or pulled on clean clothing in days, depending on whether she's been distracted by a problem or not.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
Life has been a little frustrating for H'mer, and yet she perseveres. The setbacks and the changes around her have taken their toll, but she's come out tough and capable, much like the tools her name resembles. When she gets a goal in mind she drives at it using any and all means at her disposal; otherwise she just sort of meanders around, doing what's expected of her and very little more while waiting for the next goal to happen along. The contrast between absolute focus and daydreaming has driven people to distraction in the past, and likely still does now, not least because you never know which H'mer you're going to get and it seems to bear no relation to how important the task at hand is.
H'mer does like knowing how things work, though. Not people - they're just unsolvable mysteries, as far as she's concerned, confusing and illogical and utterly baffling. No, H'mer likes to know how objects work. Why does a drum? How does a flute? What happens if I take this cog out of the mechanism for the locking bars on the Hold's main doors? The consequences of her experiments often aren't thought through, and Raayath only encourages her rider's bad habits in this direction. After all, the dragon wants to know these things too. This tendency to understand how things work does give the pair a leg up when it comes to fixing them, though - and when it comes to finding why things have stopped working and making them work again.
HISTORY
FAMILY: Smithcrafters at Smith Crafthall. Siblings: Yes.
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: None
BIRTHPLACE: Smith Crafthall
HISTORY:
Hanamera's parents knew they were in trouble when she was still so small she couldn't move around under her own steam, and she spent a third of a candlemark working out buttons. At three years old, she successfully escaped from her parents' room by figuring out the simple mechanism on the child-gate, and went for a wander. She spent most of her childhood in a race against her parents' ingenuity at keeping her contained, and when she was old enough to apprentice into the Craft everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
That sigh of relief didn't last too long. Hanamera took to Smithing like a wherry to water - both absolutely naturally and with complete confusion. It wasn't enough for her to know that something worked - she wanted to know why. Why do bellows make fires hotter? Why does a charcoal mound need to burn so slowly? Why does steel need to be red-hot for some things and white hot for others? Why does steel want to be yellow hot for chisels used on stone? Why do you say 'it just does', don't you want to know too? She could shape metal with heat and a hammer, and while she wasn't good at it to start with, she put in the time and effort to learn how to do it better. She wasn't and never would be the fastest smith in the world, but if she was asked to reproduce a shape it'd be near perfect, so she naturally found her way towards the more specialist parts of the craft.
Hanamera walked the tables at twenty-two, and found herself posted to Fort Weyr. The Weyr always needed metalwork doing, and she'd be producing the huge numbers of buckles and tools needed for dragonriders' leathers and dragons' straps, producing and sharpening the tools needed for day-to-day use in the Weyr, and learning how the flamethrowers and tanks worked and how to maintain them. And, with this, Hanamera was absolutely and completely happy. The only fly in the ointment was that the dragonrider who'd brought her to the Weyr had informed her that his dragon had just Searched her and she should be a Candidate as well as a smith; figuring it was her duty and that no dragon would ever come near her, Hanamera sat through the lessons and did the chores, and she did make friends among the other Candidates and settle in there faster than she'd thought possible. And then, shortly before she aged out, one dragon did come near. Raayath saw in the Smith something that she wanted, and she turned Hanamera's - now H'mer's - life upside-down.
Raayath was a delicate flower of a dragonet. Most of the time she was fine, but sometimes she'd need nursing. H'mer did as she always did with change; she coped, and she asked why. Was it the weather? Was it the food? Was it something in the lake that only happened in certain seasons? H'mer didn't know, but she was determined to find out - and she never has managed it. Still, Raayath has recovered every time so far, and H'mer's notes recording her dragon's ailments and her theories about them fill a large drawer.
Raayath was fully-grown when High Reaches sent out a call for clutching dragons to come to the Weyr, and the pair agreed to leave Fort behind - and the memories of the life H'mer had once had - in order to answer that need. They've been at High Reaches ever since, fighting Thread, helping the Weyr, and every now and again diving deep into some mechanical or tactical problem that needs solving. After all, that should be enough to keep anyone busy.