"Ain't ya s'posed to bend? Ain't ya s'posed to flex like a willow in the wind? Ain't it easier to bend?"
-- Stone, Murder By Death
BASICS
NAME: Maritza
GENDER: Cis woman
PRONOUNS: She/her/hers
ORIENTATION: Homosexual
BIRTHDATE: Fall of 2746
AGE: 29 as of 2775
LOCATION: High Reaches Weyr
OCCUPATION: Wherhandler
WING: Wingsong Squad
APPEARANCE
EYES: Brown
HAIR: Black, long and thick
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5'10"
PLAY-BY: Elisa Maza (Gargoyles)
EXPY SOURCE: N/A
FULL APPEARANCE:
Maritza is of a conventionally attractive build, slender but with feminine curves where one would expect to find them, although she tends to wear clothes that downplays that somewhat. She prefers practical wear, but likes to wear her hair long and loose. Her hair is thick with plenty of volume, so it's a bit of a vanity thing. She has a longer face, large eyes, and a fuller lower lip. Maritza has a slightly deeper voice for a woman, with a rich tone to it.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
Maritza is fairly no-nonsense. Oh, she has a sense of humor, but when it's time to get to work, she's among the first to roll up her sleeves and get to it. Manual labor, smoothing over social difficulties, hashing out hard choices, it doesn't much matter to her. She'll do it all. She'll expect everyone else to pitch in as well, and at least as well as she does. After all, she's hardly the best at things, so she doesn't see this as an unreasonable expectation. She has no patience for laziness or incompetence, and is quite quick to lose her temper when she sees it. She's a yeller, and doesn't understand that some people don't respond well to being yelled at.
Having grown up under Golre's reign, she has a natural suspicion of the metallics and their bonds. She's seen the devastation their unchecked power can have on people, instilling terror and bringing death and destruction down on all of them. Any metallic bonds have to earn her trust, and it is very easy for them to lose it again. She wants what's best for people, at the end of the day, and she does hold some people to higher standards than others, regardless of if it's fair to do so or not. She doesn't give second chances lightly, and even when she gives them, she watches the person like a hawk for the slightest sign of a repeat of the previous bad behaviors. She believes that the company people keep is a very strong indicator of that person's own nature, and so tends to generalize and blame people by association, again, whether or not it's a fair assessment. She's a stickler for rules, and doesn't believe there should be any exceptions or leeway with them, as they are in place for a reason.
Despite the fact that Maritza can have a very rigid viewpoint and isn't the best at putting herself in other people's shoes, she ultimately does care about other people and the good of the Weyr as a whole. She's interested in getting involved in Weyr politics, but as of yet has not been elected into any positions. While she thinks High Reaches' democracy is currently the best structure for the Weyrs - or at the very least the most fair - she does often find herself frustrated by how much slower things seem to move when decisions have to go through committee. Why can't the leadership simply agree on the best course of action? It would go a lot faster that way.
HISTORY
FAMILY: High Reaches Weyrfolk/Riders
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: None
BIRTHPLACE: High Reaches Weyr
HISTORY:
Maritza was born at High Reaches as a product of flightlust between a rider and a weyrfolk. She can, if pressed, identify who her parents are, but she's never cared terribly much about such a minor detail. She was only 11 when Golre declared High Reaches the Peacekeepers, but the turmoil of it all left a strong impression on her. As far as she's concerned, the color hierarchy is the cause of a lot of problems, and metallic riders and gold handlers should be watched carefully to ensure that they don't go mad with power. The switch to democracy was a welcome one, as far as she's concerned, and she doesn't understand why other Weyrs haven't also adopted this.
When she was 15, Maritza transferred into candidacy, since it was assumed everyone in the creches would and since she had no reason not to. As she got older, though, she realized she didn't like the dynamic dragonriders had with their bonds: The dragon did all the hard physical work, and the human was expected to handle every mental task. It didn't seem like a particularly fair partnership, especially since Maritza did enjoy physical labor. Something about the dynamic struck her too much like caring for a child, and Maritza had no interest in children. So she left dragon candidacy and switched to whers when she was 21, still wanting to contribute to her home Weyr and face the danger of thread despite losing all interest in dragons. She was able to bond with a wher when she was 23, and has been happy with her choice ever since.
