"If danger is a trade, I'll learn it by myself."
BASICS
NAME: M'cleod, formerly Maricleod
GENDER: Female
PRONOUNS: she/her/hers
ORIENTATION: Homoromantic pansexual
BIRTHDATE: Late spring, 2749
AGE: 28 as of 2777
LOCATION: Semaca Weyr
OCCUPATION: Wingrider
WING: Pavane Squad
APPEARANCE
EYES: Hazel
HAIR: Red
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 6'5", athletic
PLAY-BY: Brigitte Nielsen
EXPY SOURCE: Red Sonja
FULL APPEARANCE:
Tall and athletic in build, M'cleod is best described as statuesque. With symmetrical features with high cheekbones and flawless pale skin, elegant eyebrows, full lips, and hair of a brilliant copper hanging straight to her waist when it's not put up, she's quite something - or she would be if there wasn't something hard about her expression. Even the few scars she bears are almost cosmetic, there to enhance rather than detract.
As for what M'cleod wears, it's best described as 'not a lot'. If her navel isn't on display she isn't feeling well, and the only time she wears what most people would consider actual clothing is when she's doing something that might be dangerous - fighting Thread, for instance, or hunting spotties - at which point she's bundled up in riding leathers just like everyone else.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
M'cleod is the sort of woman who'll get stuck in. A warrior by nature, she's never been one to shy away from the less-pleasant tasks or things that are difficult - she generally gets on with it and finds a way. Especially if a man has told her that she can't. M'cleod doesn't have much time for most men. If they haven't proven themselves her equals she's generally not interested in anything they have to say or anything they want to do, and she's certainly not going to get into bed with them however interested they may be. If a man wants to attract her attention he'd better be as tough and adaptable as she is, and willing to treat her like an equal in the sparring ring as well as in the dining hall.
Women have a much easier time with M'cleod, generally, although she has very little time for fainting damsels, wallflowers, or the foolhardy. M'cleod respects those who know their own abilities and are willing to stand on their own two feet - and feels similarly about the nonbinary people she's encountered. Children are to be nurtured and protected and taught to stand up for themselves in a world that M'cleod perceives as uncaring, unfeeling and occasionally brutal.
Overall, the bluerider perceives herself as tough as nails and uncompromising when it comes to her values. Many of those around her consider her a total barbarian, uncouth and uncultured, but effective for all that.
HISTORY
FAMILY: Parents: Brownrider D'cleod of Telgar Weyr, Marissa of High Hold
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: None
BIRTHPLACE: High Hold
HISTORY:
Born to a widow and raised at one of the highest minor Holds on Pern, Maricleod was conceived while her father was on Search. She learned from the Harpers and worked with her mother - one of the Hold's cooks - as a child, learning the trade that most of the Hold expected that she would take up as an adult. Physically Maricleod took after her tall redhead of a father rather than her shorter, darker mother, and the disdain of the Hold turned unpleasant as she aged. Marissa, able to see how this would probably go, wrote to her daughter's father; weeks later D'cleod arrived on Search, and took Maricleod away to the Weyr to stand as a Candidate.
Maricleod settled in easily at the Weyr, finding the chores easy and the exercise fun. She spent time with the weyr's guards, learning weaponry and standing for whers as well as dragons, but she was always passed over - until a hatching on her twenty-third turnday brought a present she'd never expected. Blue Bruth smashed his way out of his shell and announced that he was taking the only worthy Candidate of the lot of them - M'cleod.
Weyrlinghood passed swiftly, albeit not without some disagreement about who was in charge and why they should be. M'cleod's natural inclination to fight any man who disagreed with her had been tempered by her time in Candidacy, but Bruth didn't help; the pair were often on punishment duty for using violence as the solution to problems. Still, they graduated to the wings with the others, and spent the next few years fighting Thread.
When Bruth and his siblings reached five years old, the old discussion kicked off again. They were old enough to transfer between weyrs, now - and while M'cleod was reluctant to leave the high mountains of her home, Bruth wanted to spread word of the Clan far and wide, even if they hadn't agreed yet whether it was Clan Bruth or Clan M'cleod. So they joined the others in the transfer to the more rough-and-tumble environs of Semaca, opting for a Squad suited to their personalities instead of a Wing.
