"Save who you can save."
BASICS
NAME: Tess
GENDER: Female
PRONOUNS: She/Her/Hers
ORIENTATION: Straight
BIRTHDATE: Fall of 2721
AGE: 55 as of 2776
LOCATION: High Reaches Weyr
OCCUPATION: Dragonrider
WING: Raindance Wing
APPEARANCE
EYES: Hazel
HAIR: Brown
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5'8", slim
PLAY-BY: Anna Torv
EXPY SOURCE: The Last of Us (HBO Series)
FULL APPEARANCE:
Tess is an aged, battle scared woman. She has brown hair streaked with silver and hazel eyes. Her face is a mix of scars and age related wrinkles; crow's feet and frown lines, as well a scar across her nose, on her forehead, and on her chin. Her hair falls past her shoulders slightly, and is usually kept out of her face with a headband. Beyond this, however, she doesn't particularly care to style it or make it look organized. Her clothes are practical and well worn, patched up when they can be and replaced when they can't. As long as it gets the job done, clothes are just clothes. She owns very few articles of nice clothing, and is only ever seen in them on special occasions.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
There are a lot of words that could be used to describe Tess. Bitter, tired, pessimistic, and stern are just a handful, and every one would be correct. Tess has lived through enough hardship to know life isn't fair, and hasn't believed in such hopeful things in a long time. She would much rather expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised when things go well than set herself up for disappointment. She's extremely self-motivated and won't go out of her way to do things for others that serve no benefit to herself as well. She is by no means rude, however. She can and will hold polite conversation with just about everyone, even dare to make a handful of friends. Even the people she calls 'friend' are often kept at arm's length, though. She keeps her cards close to her chest, after all.
Some part of her, deep down, wants to make deeper connections. Life can be terribly lonely, and her method of navigating social situations leaves a lot to be desired. Old habits die hard, though. Peaceful times and age have softened her somewhat, but she'll never be easy to bring out of her shell. The persistent who manage to wear down her walls may find her surprisingly kind and deeply loyal. Her trust and her loyalty go hand in hand.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
Mason (Son, Desceased)
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: N/A
BIRTHPLACE: Telgar Weyr
HISTORY: TW: Death
Tess was born and raised in the Telgar Weyr Creche. She had no knowledge of her parents and didn't particularly feel the need to ever ask. The Creche workers were everything she could have asked for, and she felt no need to wonder about what could have been. She aged into candidacy like any other weyrbrat, and began standing for clutches while acquiring practical life skills. It wasn't necessarily fun, being left standing turn after turn, but she was stubborn. She held fast to the idea that someday, one day soon, one of those eggs would hatch into her perfect partner. She was only 9 when the Interval War started, and did not yet know the horrors of conflict.
At 22, she had a one off fling with a man that resulted in Mason, her son. She cared for him as well as she could, but found that her life was far too busy to raise him alone. Therefore, she left it to the Creche to take over the majority of care, though she made sure to visit and be in his life. Maybe some part of her wanted Mason to have a parent in his life, contrary to her own. It didn't guarantee anything, but it made her feel better about his future.
Her dragon wouldn't come to her until well into her 24th turn. Kerth was certainly an interesting one, bold blue and loud. The vocal sac he hatched with only made him louder, too. Though initially it was grating, she found hat she couldn't stay irritated with the little one. He had only just come into this world, after all. Despite his lack of volume control at times, Kerth had a very kind heart. They grew together, and aged into the era of war. When Threadfall returned, it was easy enough to transition to fighting that. Mason aged into candidacy during a time of peace in 2758, and Tess found herself hoping he didn't impress for several turns to come. Threadfall wasn't war, but it still took people from the world.
Unfortunately, peace didn't last. By 2761, Golre had drudged up conflict once again, just in time for her son to impress his own dragon partner. Luckily, it didn't even last the turn, and they were both spared another long, drawn out war. That, however, didn't mean they were safe. Thread still fell, and Mason would soon be fighting it himself. Tess found herself worrying for her son, as any mother would, but proud to watch him take wing with her. Her grew into a fine fighter, but tragedy struck. In 2764, her son was taken from her due to Threadfall injuries. Tess was devastated. She fell into a deep depression, alternating between working herself to the bone and being unable to leave her weyr. Eventually, after many a visit to Mindhealers, she made the choice to leave Telgar. She couldn't bear to look at the weyr anymore and only remember the son she lost. By 2765, she had transferred away to High Reaches.
Initially, it didn't change much. Tess still found herself working until she was exhausted, if only to avoid lingering thoughts or nightmares. But slowly, over the seasons, the burden began to lighten. It never left, and never would, she was confident, but she could manage. High Reaches had no small share of eventful days. Assassination attempts and Threadfall, elections (which she was wholly unfamiliar with) and clutching greens? She had certainly picked the Weyr to go to. The amount of donated clutches they received made her overlook the two eggs that suddenly appeared on their sands, until of course even the council was confused about how they got there. When it came out that they had been stolen, Tess found she didn't know how to feel. It was appalling! To steal dragon eggs, and from one of their allies no less! Were two dragons really worth the collapse diplomatic relations? She thought not.
The hatching of a new gold was good news. The weyr needed it, after all. They had such big holes in their wings Tess often feared the weyr may collapse altogether. However, her and her rider deciding to leave was... less good of news. The ousting of an entire criminal network was positive, but the back and forth between good and bad news was starting to give her whiplash. Aldoeith left behind a gold daughter, one who would stay, hopefully...
