V E E N A
You are human, are you not? You are allowed to make mistakes
BASICS
NAME: Veena (Vasrana)
GENDER: female
PRONOUNS: she/her/hers
ORIENTATION: Eh? Footloose and fancy-free
BIRTHDATE: Spring 2736
AGE: thirty-eight as of Spring 2774
LOCATION: Fort Weyr
OCCUPATION: rider, dragonhealer
WING: Healer's Wing
APPEARANCE
EYES: amber
HAIR: blonde
HEIGHT AND BUILD: five feet and ten inches, solid core of muscles
PLAY-BY: Bishamon (Noragami)
FULL APPEARANCE:
Veena is tall and blonde. She keeps her hair long enough to be tucked into a braid and pinned out of the way. Nominally, she prefers practical clothing like trousers, boots, etc, but in practice she does like ornamentation. She trends towards leggings tucked into tall boots, and her riding leathers are, well, ostentatious. Lace features prominently in her wardrobe, as does embroidery. For all that she claims she needs no-nonsense attire, she's irresistibly drawn to fripperies.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
Veena likes to present herself as a stolid bulwark, a cornerstone of the Healer's Wing. To that end, she uses formal speech more often than not, preferring to use titles over names when possible. This allows her to keep some distance, and even those close to her are held at arm's length.
To her patients, though, most of whom come to her from the chaos of Fall, she is patience itself. From the weyrlings who have a mishap while practicing new skills to the dragons with the worst luck in Threadfall, Veena has gentle hands and a soothing voice. For the most part, she considers no hurt too big or too small to bother her, but she draws a line on occasion. Usually this line is prompted by an external grudge, such as her deep-seated disdain of the bronze-garnet chimera, Magasuth. She had to patch up the dragon he savaged during the reveal of his true self, and has basically never forgiven him or his rider for putting her wingmates in danger.
Because she can certainly hold a grudge. That's a trait she shares with her dragon, though she's the first to support him and the last to tell him that he needs to rethink something. This leads to strife with many in the weyr, because Felisanth is hardly a beacon of rationality. Despite usually being level-headed enough to find some distance to regain perspective on a situation, she takes his side in just about any clash.
HISTORY
FAMILY: Father a rider, mother weyrfolk
Five sisters, one older four younger
One brother, younger
One nonbinary sibling, younger
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: nah
BIRTHPLACE: Fort Weyr
HISTORY:
Vasrana knew she wanted to be a healer from the moment she knew what one was. She practiced reading with herblore, and whenever she went missing from the creche, they would check the infirmary. With such an obvious leaning, she was allowed to apprentice at the usual age of ten.
When she was tapped for special instruction by Master Healer Jozeen, a respected dragonhealer, her father gave her a fire lizard egg. Said it was 'practice', since her focus now was dragon kind. The brown that hatched was smart, sweet, and very serious. She named him Kazuma, and he was her constant companion.
As a weyrbrat, she had the option to Stand as soon as she hit fifteen, but it took another two Turns before she was persuaded into the traditional white robes. She wanted to wait until she walked the tables as a journeywoman before she split her focus. One of the older healers, a rider himself, convinced her that she could always go for her mastery if she didn't Impress. Master Jozeen reminded her that having a dragon of her own would teach her things that no human could.
What he neglected to mention was just how much time being a candidate took. She was twenty-four before she was ready to walk the tables, not very far from aging out of candidacy altogether. Vasrana made preparations to move back to healing full time, maybe even a sabbatical at the Hall, when Ista's Imorith laid her second clutch on Fort's sands. The Touching brought something she had rarely experienced to Vasrana's candidate experience. When she touched Flickering Lanterns, she got a positive reaction that instantly made it her favorite. She had picked out favorite eggs before, though they had always come to naught, and she resolved to pay attention when it hatched. Maybe this one held someone for her. After all, wasn't that what Touchings were for?
But by the time the occupant of Flickering Lanterns made his grand debut, twin browns had fought, multiple maulings had taken place, and the gold, Fort's shining hope for the future, outright killed a candidate that dared to touch her. Her attention was pulled from watching the near tragedy of the twin browns, trying to decide if she was needed more as a healer or if she should remain present as a candidate, when Felisanth made his debut. Impression was swift and gleeful. She took the name V'na as her elided rider name, but that quickly slid to Veena.
During their training, Veena and Felisanth spent a goodly chunk of time discussing what they would do after they were a full rider pair. Veena wanted to return to the infirmary, but Felisanth felt like there wasn't a real place for him there. Running down other potential destinations - including transferring to another weyr - didn't turn up anything the kyanite liked better, so upon graduation, she and Felisanth joined the healer's wing. Her studies were stunted, and she was guaranteed to never make master healer, but any way she could improve her skills, she worked at. Just because she wouldn't advance in rank didn't give her permission to slack off. The dragons of her weyr deserved her best efforts, particularly with the dangers of Thread always looming. Life at Fort was never boring.
Particularly when Serapheth's third clutch not only left a body count behind its hatching, but garnered consequences down the road. Veena treated most of the surviving Trailblazers for their lasting symptoms, sending reports to the Hall as she discovered which were simply long-lasting and theorizing which symptoms the dragons would never shake.
Amid the stream of Threadfall injuries, because even the least dangerous Falls led to plenty of work for the infirmary, the finding of Benden's captive queen stood out. As a dragonhealer, Veena was involved with Wyzeth's recovery. Even though they had grown up with the horrors of Serapheth and her body count, and having just recently dealt with the retaliatory poisoning of the entire Trailblazer class, the tragedy written across Wyzeth's faded form horrified both Veena and Felisanth.
And then came the death of Fort's junior queenpair. Fort had the worst luck of any weyr when it came to their golds, and massive Nornth became no exception. Veena had written Nornth off as a massacre-crazed tragedy after her hatching rampage, so it didn't surprise her much that the young queen's first Flight ended the way it did. She did agree that Benden had been too forward and too obvious with their attempted bronze take over, but Veena's life had been dedicated to the preservation of life. It nevertheless hurt when retaliation took yet another queen from Fort.
Even with Fort back down to the tyrant queen as their only clutchmother, life seemed to be pretty normal. Sure, there was the traditionalist movement simmering under the surface, but Veena didn't take them seriously. She and Felisanth were outside such traditional structures, and despite the distance that put between Felisanth and his siblings, it made it easier to complete their work. Felisanth has settled into his role in the infirmary, because although he is abrasive and brusque, he's also matured and settled down quite a bit. The traditionalist movement wouldn't threaten them.
That is, until the weyrleader usurped Tuckal's leadership. That she and Felisanth were grounded a week later only added insult to injury, ensuring Z'osh and every rider who followed him a permanent place on Veena's bad side.