"they thought you would change but your inner strength shined
they thought you would break but you never did cry
--"Limelight" boyinaband ft Cryaotic
BASICS
NAME: D'lena
GENDER: female
PRONOUNS: she/her/hers
ORIENTATION: demiromantic pansexual
BIRTHDATE: Early Summer 2740
AGE: thirty-four as of Late Summer 2774
LOCATION: Fort Weyr
OCCUPATION: brownrider, weyrling mentor
WING: Eclipse
APPEARANCE
EYES: black
HAIR: brown; long; braided to hips
HEIGHT AND BUILD: five foot six; solidly muscled with heels set deep in stubbornness
PLAY-BY: Q'orianka Kilcher
FULL APPEARANCE:
If she chose to utilize them, this brown rider could have a very intimidating black gaze. However, D'lena rarely meets the eyes of others. Her gaze is always just slightly off-center, generally pointed down or to the left. Her reluctance to meet eyes frequently leaves people convinced that she is rude, or arrogant, or shy. At seeming odds to this odd behavior, D'lena carries herself with enough confidence as to appear a few inches taller than the five feet and six inches that are her reality. Her shoulders are generally set back in good posture, and she does not shuffle her feet as though consistently nervous.
Many things have changed since her days at the Hall. Since her arrival at Fort, she has put aside the dresses and skirts she once wore, and switched to more practical trousers and boots. They are now as comfortable as her well-loved dresses, which she still wears when she can. She has retained one vanity from her days at the Smithcraft Hall, and that is the length of her hair. She has always kept her hair in a sturdy braid, and despite the occasional mishaps from Thread, nothing has fully convinced her to change it.
The only jewelry she wears appears to be a simple leather string, worn as a necklace. It holds a pair of forged metal rings, their simple design offset by an intricate texture. She keeps them tucked beneath her neckline, but can be seen clutching them in times of distress. Only one of the rings would fit any of her calloused fingers.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY: D'lena has always been a home maker. She will find a task that will put her world back to rights, and accomplish it without fanfare or notice. No job is less important than any others, and she is tidily efficient about completing things. If her world does not need reordering, though, it does not always occur to her to look for tasks outside of what pertains to her or hers. She can have very narrow focus at times.
That's why she does her best work with an overseer. She can lead, but she needs someone above her in turn. Her best position is as a second or third in command. That is where she is not too highly ranked as to cause anxiety, but also with enough authority that she is heeded. Teaching will never be her strong suit, but keeping order? That, she can do.
While no longer strictly in mourning, she has yet to regain the same fire that burned so brightly before. Once upon a time, she could command a kitchen when the Headwoman was needed elsewhere. While ordinarily soft-spoken, Des can produce quite a lot of noise when she needs others to listen to her. One day, she will command again. With Jaklath by her side, how could she not?
After all, it was Jaklath who allowed D'lena to make friends again. She had not had the heart to do more than eke out a miserable existence until Impression occurred. While she has yet to completely regain confidence, as dragons are completely outside of her experience, this once-cook now awakens with the ability to complete tasks. Even caring for her hair, her long-time vanity, had fallen by the wayside.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
- Birth mother - Genesis, early fifties, wherhandler to [blank] Genesk; Southern Boll
- Foster mother - Dash, late forties, holder; Keroon Hold
- Father - Klenfir, late fifties, journeyman harper; Keroon Hold
- Half-siblings - three brothers, two sisters
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: -none currently-
BIRTHPLACE: Keroon Hold
HISTORY:
Warnings :
- Self Harm (fire lizard)
- Death (non-graphic)
- Depression
2739 || b i r t h
Deslena was born to a wher handler temporarily stationed at Keroon Hold. When her orders came to move, Genesis left her toddler with the Hold's harper. Some had speculated that the harper, Klenfir, was the child's father anyways. Genesis never addressed the rumors, and Klenfir never treated his adopted child any different than the other children under his care. Most of them really were his - he had married after a while, and Deslena grew up almost as twin to one of Dash's brood.
Keroon being known for its beast craft, Deslena grew up around animals. She, along with several other children her age, were put to work caring for the herds. They were never formally apprenticed, being holder children, but many of them learned how to train their charges. Dash's oldest turned out to have a great liking for the huge taurhines. Deslena, though, made friends with the fire lizards of the Hold. By ten, she had her heart set on Impressing one of her own.
2754 || v i t a y a
At fourteen, Deslena Impressed green Vitaya. She had just a little bit to spend at a Gather, and one of the trader caravans had a clutch of fire lizard eggs for sale. The last day of the Gather saw the traders lowering their prices by a fraction of a mark, just enough to put a tiny egg in reach for a teenager. Vitaya hatched a few hours later.
Unlike many youngsters who managed to Impress a fire lizard, Deslena was expecting the difficulty. Baby lizards might eat meat instead of drinking milk, but she had nursed enough baby herd animals (mostly ovine, a few bovine) to know that the very young of a species needed quite a bit of care. It was the oiling that stymied her, and little Vitaya began to scratch wounds into her pale hide trying to soothe various itches. By the time Deslena figured out the issue, the green had permanent scar tissue along the worst spots. Those always would be sensitive to touch.
2757 || a n e v
At eighteen, she married Journeywoman Smith Anev, with white Kharee. Blonde Anev was twenty-five to Deslena's eighteen, and she was glorious. The caravan she traveled with passed through Keroon for the winter that Turn (2756), and Vitaya made friends with the smith's white fire lizard, Kharee. Their humans met roughly a month after they did, and Deslena was immediately awed by the tall blonde. They became friends very quickly, and then friends with benefits not long after that.
Thoughts only turned to marriage when the caravan made preparations to leave. Anev was headed back to her Hall of origin, having spent the past few Turns learning techniques in Nerat. Deslena figured that she could cook anywhere, given the skills she had been accumulating in the kitchen for the past Turn, and simply joined her lover for the journey.
For her part, Anev presented Deslena with a hand-wrought metal ring - an example of her workmanship and skill - on an otherwise unremarkable summer day when she was eighteen. A brief negotiation later - in which quarters were discussed, children were contemplated, Masters were solicited, and Harpers were tracked down - saw the two exchanging vows exactly seven days later.
2762 || e n d o f t h e w o r l d
At twenty-two, she became a widow.
The marriage had been one of contentment, for the most part. The worst thing there was to fight about had been a few assignment positions. Journeywoman and cook fit together like dancers, neither so much as glancing at another person in consideration. Some relationships might have become boring without conflict. Not so with these two, who were dedicated to hard work both professionally and domestically. Even their fire lizards remained best friends (which was quite the feat, given Vitaya's notorious moods).
It was the kind of partnership that could last a century, could both parties live that long. So when a holder took an interest in Deslena, she laughed it off. She was well-established in the Hall's kitchens, the Headwoman liked her, the Craftmaster liked her, and she had a wife whom she adored. What could a holder man possibly offer that she did not already have?
No one was laughing a month later, as Journeywoman and holder faced each other in a duel. Anev's size worked against her, and she was not a trained combatant. Death, at least, was swift. Too swift for Deslena to reach her wife before Kharee shrieked between. Since the fight was only supposed to be to First Blood, the holder was incarcerated before being shipped back to his home Hold.
Deslena remained at the Hall. Vitaya missed her next Flight.
2764 || l i f e g o e s o n
At twenty-four, she came to Fort Weyr. It was Telgar who first found her in Search, the Smithcraft Hall being bound to Telgar. Deslena did not take well to weyr life at first. The other candidates were far too nosy, and she disliked the weyrleader immediately.
So when Fort Weyr was in need of candidates, Deslena petitioned the candidate master to allow her to go to that Hatching, instead. She was transferred, and nearly requested an immediate return. The senior weyrwoman reminded her greatly of Anev, and always at the most inconvenient times. Vitaya straight up shunned all of the white fire lizards, punishing the inhabitants of her new home for not being the one she wanted.
2764 || j a k l a t h
At twenty-four, she Impressed Jaklath. There had been an altercation on the Sands, Deslena and another candidate. Before it got truly ugly, a brown hatched. Deslena barely noticed his arrival, until a voice thrust itself into her brain. It was a most uncomfortable sensation.
Well, hoedown redfruit barbeque, you're definitely the best pick of the litter, ain't ya? Des, you and I are gonna go far. I know it. Now, let's get your Jaklath some food.
He has slowly drawn her out of her Turns-long depression, and while it will take still more time before D'lena resembles her old self, she is much improved.
