"that's my face, get out of it"
BASICS
RETIRE INFO: Retire
NAME: Keir
GENDER: Female
PRONOUNS: she/her
ORIENTATION: Yessexual
BIRTHDATE: Winer, 2743
AGE: 27, 2770
LOCATION: High Reaches Weyr
OCCUPATION: Wherhandler
WING: Windsong
APPEARANCE
EYES: Brown
HAIR: Black
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5'5", casually tense and curvy
PLAY-BY: Kiera Yasmeen
FULL APPEARANCE:
Hair dark and wild, Keir keeps it clean and does little else. It lends to her rather casual appearance. Clean, but not tidy. Her shoulders are just wide enough to help hide the fact that they're often tense. Held at just the right angle to not invite over familiarity. Stance wide and solid like her hips. She has presence. Confidence.
Strong and self sufficient, she favors baggy trousers and high boots. Warm sweaters and flowing blouses. Her stride is long, despite her stature. She power walks with fists at her side, or stands with one hip cocked and arms crossed. She has a bit of height to make up for. And people to keep at a distance.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
It isn't that Keir doesn't trust people, she just doesn't give them a chance to prove themselves one or the other. She relies on no one but herself, and Kesk, of course. It's better that way, than trying to put her faith anywhere else. People are so often a disappointment. Even when they don't mean to be. Not that Keir blames them. She's a disappointment too.
While you can rely on Keir for the simple tasks, putting too much on her shoulders often backfires. Its not that she doesn't have the capability or the follow through, she just tends to take her own path. And is quick to get distracted. You can lay it out as plainly and precisely as you want, but she'll find a way to turn it crooked, and possibly ruin it in the process. Why dig burrows when you can dig trenches?
Friendly on the surface, she isn't quick to make friends or form deep, lasting relationships of any kind. That's the road to ruin, she is sure.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
Kedan (father)
Ria (mother)
A passel of siblings
SIGNIFICANT OTHER:
BIRTHPLACE: Minor Istan Hold
HISTORY:
Her life could have been easy. Cushy and safe inside stone walls. But Keir's father had a problem with gambling, and with drink, which made him mean and even stupider with his marks. She was still in swaddling clothes when he lost his job in the hold. It was the was the first in a series of such losses. Moving from hold to hold, small and large, only to be kicked out again when his ways got the better of his work. Until he had a reputation that proceeded him and no more work could be found.
At least none that gave them thick stone walls to hide behind. Their life became shiftless. Kedan took on work with caravans and traders. It wasn't as likely for his true colors to show when they only passed a fortnight on the road with his employers. His growing family forcing him to provide a wagon of his own. Everyone else had to work too.
Ria was handy with a needle, and Keir learned from her. The siblings that followed her picked up bits and pieces of skillwork as they went. Swordsmanship from other guards. Basket weaving from a friendly grandmother. She had a sister with a knack for finding things. They made do. But never stayed. Even when the children cried and begged. It was always onward.
They joined up semi permanently with a trader who didn't have the best of reputations. Which made him more forgiving of Kedan's. A brother of Keir's turned into a right proper pickpocket, and they all learned an oily way of talking. Keir stopped meeting the eyes of the people she talked to. A habit that stuck with her until she was a woman on her own, and found that a good hard stare did more than many things.
It was a hard and ugly life. Dangerous with Threadfall. Keir learned to barter. How to pick out thread from old clothes and reuse it. To make fancy stitches that brought more marks. To swindle and to swipe. A deal wasn't a deal unless it was to her advantage. Even if it didn't look quite that way.
That was how she ended up with Kesk. Just a leathery egg that looked more misshapen than useful. But she had heard good things about whers and thought one would be useful for night duties. And maybe running away. She hated the thrill of shame that ran up her spine when she met people. When they looked at her. She wanted something more than what she had. If it couldn't be something steady, at least something that was hers and not shared with a dozen other people.
A pair of boots, dyed cheap but looking fine. The soles worn out once before, but Keir had put them back together with a bit of cobbling. They wouldn't last. Weren't worth half of what was asked for them. But they looked the part, and people always fell for appearances. A fine leather coat that would molder in a Turn from being ill treated by a tanner who hadn't any proper training.
Smoke and mirrors. Trash done up to look like finery. But it got her an egg. Keir picked the biggest in the basket, hoping for something that would give her a little standing. What she got was Kesk. A monstrous green wherling who nearly bit her thumb off. Not mean, just too big for her own good. But greens could make eggs, Keir thought. And she could sell them for marks too. Or trade them for finery herself.
They trained each other. And picked up learning from other pairs when they shared ground duty with them. Learned, grudgingly. Each thinking they were too good for instruction. Keir distrustful, Kesk too sure of herself. They cooked up plans together at night. Keir talking and Kesk agreeing, sure they could do anything. Even sell eggs. Kesk didn't mind so long as Keir picked good people.
But for all Kesk ran and ran, she never laid a clutch, and so their schemes changed to adapt, and Keir never voiced her disappointment.
Things got worse in the caravan. With a wher at her side, Keir felt too big for her place. Or the place they tried to stick her too small. She was worth more than swindling people or doing their mending. She was a wherhandler!
They broke off shortly after Threadfall killed Fort's Gold Macath and a slew of dragons and whers across the continent. There was need for extra hands on ground crew. Mostly Keir and Kesk did their own thing. Moving between holds to help for pay. Tried being guards but that didn't suit. Happiest when it was just the two of them on the road. But that sort of life wasn't comfortable either, and Keir wanted a little comfort.
They tried the Weyrs too. Igen. Fort. Everything seemed like chaos. It only got worse. Places putting themselves back together only to be devastated by plague. The pair kept their distance while it burned itself out across Pern. Warily helping when they had no other choice. Too close to habitation during Threadfall not to join forces with other ground crew. They orbited. The time between visits dwindling and the time spent near or within growing until somehow they found themselves settled at High Reaches Weyr.
Bolstering bad numbers, they told themselves. Keir scowled when they were formerly enlisted into a squad. Windsong. What a ridiculous name. But it was better than Sunburst. Which was more like Sunbust.
Now they are just waiting. Eventually the time will be right to find their proper place. Eventually things at High Reaches have to settle enough for them to leave.
UPDATES
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