Kestrel
"I am the way life has made me. Take it or leave it."
BASICS
NAME: Kestrel
GENDER: Female
PRONOUNS: She/Her/Hers
ORIENTATION: Heteroromantic Heterosexual
BIRTHDATE: Late Summer 2730
AGE: 46 as of 2776
LOCATION: Fort Weyr
OCCUPATION: Dragonrider
WING: Daylight Wing
APPEARANCE
EYES: Brown
HAIR: Auburn
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5'9", lean and well muscled.
FULL APPEARANCE:
Kestrel is a well built, mean tempered woman with a scowl to match. She has wide set shoulders, giving her some considerable upper body bulk. She has long auburn hair, usually loose and nearing the middle of her back. Constant frowning on her part have given her some deep wrinkles between her eyebrows. Her years fighting thread have given her a myriad of scars. She has a particularly nasty looking one that starts on the top of her left arm and extends down her shoulder blade.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
Kestrel is far from a kind woman. She's bitter, ill-tempered, and hostile on occasion. One could correctly compare her to a bad tempered wher. Her attitude has gotten her into more trouble than gotten her out of it. She doesn't care who she's talking to, she's going to mouth off if they get on her nerves, which isn't hard to do. Despite her temper, Kestrel has a protective side to her. She'd never admit it, but she doesn't like the thought of anyone getting hurt if she can do something about it. While she isn't the best mother, she does care greatly for her kids. She just doesn't know how to show her affection in a way that doesn't come off as gruff and unpracticed.
Kestrel is also fairly traditional. As a younger lady, she had dreams of impressing gold, or brown if she had to settle for it. She's accepted her place in the color hierarchy, though, as much as she dislikes it. Garnets are strange and unnatural to her, and have no place in the chain of command. Women on bronze dragons was a startling development too, and not one she liked. It seemed like the traditional structure was unraveling before her eyes, and she loathed the helpless feeling it gave her.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
S'let (Mother, 63, brownrider)
Perryl (Daughter, 18)
Skyler (Son, 16)
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: N/A
BIRTHPLACE: Igen Weyr
HISTORY:
Kestrel's childhood was fairly uneventful. She was born to a pair of riders, neither of which had much interest in caring for her themselves. They visited sporadically at best, and a young Kestrel learned early on not to expect much affection from either of them. The Creche of Igen Weyr was family enough for her, though there was a small part of her that still resented her parents.
Aging into candidacy was one of the most exciting periods of her life. It felt like the world had opened up before her. Of course she was aiming for a gold! Being young and impressionable, she found that a traditionalist mindset favored her plans and stuck with it. She quickly realized that, with the infrequency of golds hatching, she would need to be a little more flexible in her desires or risk aging out. The latter simply wasn't an option. By 16, she had relaxed her strict impression hopes, considering browns were far more common and important parts of fighting Thread And preferable to aging out. And even still, those hopes were shattered completely when Matoyath hatched. A sassy green that, heedless of her desires, walked up to her boldly and proclaimed them a bonded pair. Kestrel was 18, and already she was growing into a very bitter woman. Matoyath didn't help the situation at all. Her impression to Matoyath made her more bitter than she would like to admit.
Three turns passed, and Kestrel had accepted that this was her life now. Life decided to throw her another curveball. She found herself pregnant at 22. She knew she had options, but she found she rather liked the idea of having a child, giving birth to a daughter which she named Perryl. In the end, she let the Creche take care of her daughter, but made a point to visit her regularly. Skyler, her second child, came just about two turns later. Though her time was mostly monopolized by being a rider, she hoped that they could keep each other company as they grew. She hoped she would never be too busy to see them, if only occasionally.
Both her children were still young when she decided to move them to Fort Weyr, Perryl being 10 and Skyler being 8. She had intentions of moving them sooner, but Golre's sudden attacks on Fort had dissuaded her. Now, with Golre gone, there was far less keeping her from moving. They made their way to Fort in 2762. When Serapheth proved to be a raging storm of a gold, Kestrel found herself regretting her decision a bit. Her kids were safe, sure, but they were letting THAT lead them? What happened when they aged into candidacy, if Serapheth continued to be a little terror? At least Tuckal was nothing like Golre, even if that was the goldpair's only saving grace.
Perryl aged into candidacy in 2767, just in time for Nornth's clutch. Kestrel, to her credit, remained as calm as she could. With how the Trailblazers hatched, and Nornth's flight... she sincerely hoped the hatchlings would at least behave themselves. Preferably, they wouldn't impress to her daughter either. Luckily, the worst case scenario (in Kestral's head anyway) didn't come to pass. Nornth's death the very next season was still a tragic loss for Fort, even if a small, secret part of Kestrel was relieved. Over the next three turns, it was remarkably quiet. Skyler aged into candidacy without trouble, and things seemed to finally be settling down at Fort. That is, until Neozeoth's eggs were stolen. The loss of two eggs wasn't much to Kestrel. A garnet's eggs, no less. It was just the audacity of High Reaches to steal eggs from them after everything they'd done that angered Kestrel. She had never been fond of them, but that incident only solidified her resentment of them.