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BASICS
NAME: P’earl, born Pearliearl
GENDER: female
PRONOUNS: she/her/hers
ORIENTATION: shrug. Pretty busy rn; being a Healer/rider will do that to ya. She might be lesbian though. I dunno.
BIRTHDATE: Early Winter, Turn 2739
AGE: 36 as of Late Winter, Turn 2774
LOCATION: Fort Weyr
OCCUPATION: rider, Healer
WING: Healer’s Wing!
APPEARANCE
EYES: hazel
HAIR: wild, curly brown hair
HEIGHT AND BUILD: about 5’8” tall (average height), of a somewhat slender build.
PLAY-BY: n/a (my own art!)
FULL APPEARANCE:
P’earl has hazel eyes - depending on the light, her eyes can look hazel greenish or brownish. But they are definitely hazel! She is olive-skinned; her skin tone complements everything she wears well.
A thick mass of wild, curly brown hair is often seen somehow piled atop her head in a high ponytail, all bound together with a chunky hair tie. P’earl has a bit of a runaway messy fringe, with several springy strands flopping over every which way above her eyes, and a few somewhat longer ones down the sides of her face. Whenever she lets out her hair from its ties, the curls cascades down her back, almost right to her hips.
She is somewhat slender and flexible of frame, full of warmth and strong lean muscles from Turns of dragonriding and Healer work.
Her natural infectious smile is often friendly; almost practically designed to put others around her at ease. She also has the ‘greatly disappointed and/or disapproving Healer’ look/expression down pat; though that one is usually reserved for those of her patients (and students and sometimes even other people!) that ends up annoying her into using it on them. P’earl likes to wear lots of purples (with occasional gold accents. Mostly for dragon-and-flit-matching reasons.). But she will wear other colours on occasion. Also during Threadfall/on active Healer Wing duty she’d probably wear Healer green, for ease of visibility or something like that. Probably. She also has what seems like an endless supply of smocks and aprons, and other similar worn-over-normal-clothing items, as part of her Healer-specific wardrobe.
She tends to prefer working in pants and both short and long sleeved shirts; though she will put on a nice dress for fancy occasions, such as a Hatching Feast, or even the occasional Gather if she happens to be off-duty.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
P’earl is warm and kind, but firm, with an infectiously bubbly laugh usually heard during off-duty hours. On duty, she is a consummate professional; reasonably cool-headed in most emergencies that requires her Healer abilities, though she does have quite the streak of dry sarcasm. Which often tends to gets worse the more she dislikes or disapproves of a particular individual (or multiple individuals), especially those who greatly vexes her in some way as her patients.
She WILL panic if she comes face-to-face with a tunnelsnake or a particularly big/scary spinner (spider), though. She’d never tell anyone, but this phobia is the biggest reason why she secretly hates the sort of tasks that involve having to visit the storerooms. Such as a restock-the-infirmary’s-supply-of-something-or-other mission. P’earl is also a bit of a chronic item-loser; shells, she’d even lose her own shoulder knots, if they weren’t already attached to her clothing! (This got so bad one Turn, she ended up having to train Solar—her firelizard—as her lost-item finder.)
P’earl has seen (or heard of) a hellva lot of shards over the Turns. Therefore, she does NOT put up with anybody’s shards! Wanna talk smack about somebody in front of her while being treated? Or be rude to her and/or her fellow Healers? She’ll still take care of you, but the treatment might be a tad bit more painful. Or in the case of medical foods or drinks; feature a more prominently bitter/disgusting taste. She might also have a sharp word or two for you. Learn your lessons, for Faranth’s sake!
She also isn’t above breaking a few bones. Heck, sometimes that’s literally part of her job description, being a Healer and all. She doesn’t start fights, but she sure knows how to finish them; a sharp word or two usually does the trick, but if not.. well, she’ll knock some sense into them. Then calmly see to them in the infirmary. Never underestimate a Healer with anatomical knowledge, kids!
Wine aunt. She’s totally a wine aunt. Or at least, she’d be one when off-duty. Loves children of any kind, human, dragon, flit or wher, regardless of species; she practically dotes on them. Also loves her dragon (garnet Aemith) and Solar to bits.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
- Healer mother
- Trader father
- Three younger siblings
- any other family members here
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: none right now, but the position is open lol
BIRTHPLACE: somewhere in Telgar
HISTORY:
Firstborn in the beginning of winter to an Healer mother and Trader father in Turn 2739; Pearliearl had an pretty ordinary Threadfree childhood, growing up in an small Hold somewhere in Telgar. Like many children across Pern, she dreamed of dragons.. And, yet, unlike some of her childhood friends and her younger siblings, she was also simultaneously interested in the Healer arts; particularly in the line of work that was her mother’s domain. As she grew older, little Pearliearl became fiercely protective of her mum, as well as the small team of Healers that worked at their Hold; almost to the point that practically every Healer there either knew her by name or by her reputation. Many seemed glad to have her around when she visited the infirmary; some Healers later remarked that she seemed to have inherited her mother’s touch. Pearliearl hung around the infirmary with her mother so often, in fact, that she inevitably ended up taking on an official Healer apprenticeship by the age of ten.
However, Pearliearl had also inherited her father’s dry sarcasm, since she frequently landed herself in trouble as a teen with the use of her sharp tongue. Though to this day, that never seemed to dull the edge of her verbal blades. (If anything, her tongue seemed to have become sharper than ever as she aged!)
Meanwhile, the Red Star gradually grew ever brighter, that small red orb among the stars almost seeming to pulse rather malevolently each night, as the Turns rolled on.. Until the fateful day dawned, when Thread finally returned to plague Pern anew; almost stepping upon the heels of the Interval War’s end.
Thread, as heralded by the Red Star.
Pearliearl still remembered it clearly, the day she had first seen the blue sky suddenly darken with the fall of that horrifyingly beautiful silvery rain; an event she had only ever heard about in Harper tales until that day. She remembered still, how quickly the skies had darkened even further as it filled with dragons, even as her teenage self was abruptly snatched up and rushed inside into the shelter of the Hold with her family. How she’d managed to catch a glimpse through the Hold’s swiftly closing shutters, of those flashes of fire already sparking up through the heavens, the distant shapes of dragons and their riders already flying together through their ancient enemy for the first time in Turns.
She recalled once more how she had once so boldly dreamed of dragons as a child, even as the frightened Hold collectively waited out what had felt to her like the longest Fall ever; with the tunes of anxious Harpers filling their ears as the only real distraction during the few short-but-oh-so-long candlemarks they spent. (In reality, it was only a few candlemarks. But it was the Hold’s first experience of Threadfall, too, so this atmosphere was quite understandable). When the Fall was at last over, once all who had sheltered were able to cautiously venture out into the last of the afternoon sunlight, Pearliearl had had felt like her world had just been turned upside down. In a way, it had; the blue sky was again the same blue it’d always been, but now the menacing presence of Thread—once not much more than a Harper’s story—meant that the 10th Pass had officially begun, with all of the implications that came with it.
So Pearliearl doubled down even more in her Healer apprenticeship, the teen bound and determined to become as good as—if not better than her mother—a Healer as she could. Despite her annoying tendency to lose things. Or how easily she got scared out of her skin by just the sudden appearance of a big spinner, or a tunnelsnake. Why do those things even exist?!?! Anyway. Pern would need all the useful hands it could get in the coming Turns.. especially now with Thread’s return.
The next few Threadfalls over the Hold came and went, the event each time solidifying further into being a subconscious second desire she held, to someday become a dragonrider.
Eventually, the day came that Pearliearl realised she had learnt all that she could from her mother and her Hold’s Healers. She then knew that she now needed to leave home—to venture forth to the Healer Hall in Southern Telgar—so she could continue her Healer apprenticeship under the tutelage of new teachers. So she did just that; the now-full-grown young woman sad to leave even as she said her goodbyes, but the rational side of Pearliearl knew that this was the best thing to do. Pern always needed Healers! Besides, this was only for as long as it took to finish her training; perhaps she’d even end up stationed back home as a full-fledged Healer! A girl could dream. So off she went, solemnly promising her family she’d write them letters and updates.
A Turn later, Pearliearl started to wonder if a person could get sick of book-learning. So shardin’ many scrolls and Records! Most were important to her craft, though, so she just kept on going with dogged dedication. She also begins to hear a number of rumours flying about, of a lot of things, among them many ‘firsts’ in the form of various new mutations cropping up in dragons, whers and the firelizards, as well as stories of a few bronze dragons Impressing to women for the first time. Some rumours were a bit concerning, especially a few she got to hear in later Turns involving some goldrider named Golre over in High Reaches. (Girl, was Pearliearl secretly glad that she was nowhere near that whole mess!)
A rider came to visit on Search one day, whose dragon then proceeded to proclaim Pearliearl a potential Candidate, if she chose to accept the invitation (and the mind boggling prospect that she could actually potentially become a rider.. if a dragon picked her, that is!), or not. The Telgar-based rider assured her that 1) a Search isn’t really mandatory, she could say no if she wanted, and 2) being Searched isn’t necessarily a guarantee of becoming a dragonrider—or wherhandler, should her path go that way—given the nature of Hatchings, but hey, she could still try being a Candidate AND continue learning her Craft. That way, if she should ‘age out’, she would still have something to fall back on, yeah? Pearliearl found all this quite an enlightening conversation, even as the 20-Turn-old eventually accepted the Search. How exciting!!
And so began her Candidacy at Telgar Weyr. Clutches came and went over the intervening Turns, as Pearliearl continued her HealerCraft lessons in between her Candidate classes and everything else that went with Candidacy. Upon learning of the Healer’s Wing’s existence in the Weyr hierarchy, Pearliearl realised she could potentially have the best of both worlds, if she Impressed; she’d get to be a rider AND a Healer, as part of that wing! She’d get to fulfil two desires at once! What a goal to aim for…
On her 23rd Turnday, Pearliearl was in a random storeroom frantically searching for an item she’d managed to lose for the umpteenth time, when she came across a hardened but seemingly abandoned firelizard egg. Huh. But then it almost-promptly hatched right there into her hands as she carefully picked it up. Ew, egg goop all over her fingers. But, oh! The little newborn flit that had so abruptly spilled forth into her palms, well, she was one very cute and sunny-coloured gold flit!
Aww. What an adorable little surprise!
With Pearliearl’s missing-item search temporarily forgotten for now, she named her new companion (and unexpected Turnday surprise) Solar, as she fed to the flit a few pieces of her meatroll. And for the rest of that Turn, Pearliearl managed to teach Solar how to find missing things for her, among teaching her to run—err, fly—errands, and a number of other skills & tasks appropriate to firelizards. (And yes, Pearliearl did eventually find that dang missing item!)
Then the Plague of Turn 2764 struck Pern.
Which led to a great mobilisation of Healers (and other helpers) across Pern occurring, with practically everyone working overtime, even the apprentices (& prolly some dedicated Candidate-slash-apprentices in the Weyrs too, like Pearliearl herself), during much of that awful summer. Luckily, most of Pearliearl’s home Hold managed to get through the worst of it safely, according to her mother’s letters, but for a pretty good while there it was a very scary and stressful time for everybody involved.
A feeling which was partially exacerbated by Pearliearl’s own awareness that she was already nearing the ‘age-out’ point of her relevantly short Candidacy—particularly since the Weyr’s Candidacy age cap was 25 at the time. A pretty trivial point, really, given what had just happened, and the fact that she had wanted to be a Healer either way. Especially after discovering how good she had gotten at staying reasonably cool-headed in Healer-related emergencies. But in the time she’d spent at Telgar Weyr, Pearliearl had become so throughly enchanted by dragons, that she found herself actually reluctant to think about the notion of ‘aging out’ of dragon candidacy, and what that meant. And what she’d do about it.
And so the closer her 25th Turnday came, the more distressed she felt over the notion; until the day Pearliearl found herself Standing on the Sands, for what she knew was probably going to be the last time. She watched egg after egg hatch—each adorable little dragonet finding their new partners—her breath catching slightly every time one hatchling or another wandered near her, only for her to be left disappointed as they Impressed to another. One by one, the number of candidates Standing around her reduced, as each newly bonded weyrling pair walked away.
But little did she know..
The third-to-last egg then cracked as Pearliearl watched; its coloured shell breaking open to spill forth an lovely garnet dragonet, bearing a hide of deep purple and the most beautiful starry wings she’d ever seen. Aww, how adorable!
Pearliearl was fully prepared to be disappointed yet again, but.. Wait, was this baby actually coming over to her?
The newborn garnet stopped in front of her, faceted eyes already shining a rainbow as the large hatchling met her eyes. Impression!!
Her name was Aemith, and she had just told Pearliearl that she was her shining P’earl. Or something like that. Such a fitting name, for their new life! P’earl, of garnet Aemith…
And so the newly bonded pair too eventually walked away to join their new weyrling class, their hearts and minds bursting still with the impossible euphoria of Impression.
P’earl and Aemith soon completed their weyrlinghood, a whole Turn seemingly passing in the blink of an eye into the past, as the pair graduated proudly into the Healer’s Wing. P’earl continued to work away at her Healer apprenticeship, in between her Healer’s Wing shifts and the general duties of being a dragonrider; the young woman determined to at least reach journeywoman level in the next few Turns. She needed to be useful, and hey, what could be better, really, than being a fully-trained Healer stationed in the Healer’s Wing?
P’earl eventually reached journeywoman status about six Turns later—finally attaining the experience of officially ‘walking the tables’ with tear-inducing pride—sometime after she turned 32. (She was reallllllllly patient. Also, it turns out being a dragonrider is a helluva a full-time job!)
Three more Turns goes by, and as the springtime season of her thirty-fifth Turn rolled in, an intriguing story comes from Fort Weyr about, of all things, ‘time travellers’. At first, P’earl was inclined to dismiss it as just another rumour, but then rumours from High Reaches and Semaca Weyrs both also chime in with tales of their own ‘time travelling’ riders. And one candidate too, apparently, which is weird. But the majority of these ‘time travellers’ all seemed to be at Fort, and well, now that was just too interesting to pass up! Plus, Aemith also wanted to know what was going on, so P’earl thought it a great idea (and a perfect opportunity) to make the transfer.
So she set about doing the paperwork, and a few sevendays later, P’earl and Aemith were all set to go; with P’earl’s confirmation in hand, and Solar perched upon her shoulder. Goodbye Telgar, hello Fort!
And so they transferred in late that winter, having safely gone between—with no weird mysterious time mishaps like what supposedly had befallen the ‘time travellers’—and popped out into Fortian airspace. Upon their arrival, P’earl and Aemith proceeded to cheerfully make joining Fort Weyr’s Healer’s Wing official; with the pair also spending the rest of their day afterwards getting all settled in. This is all so exciting! New Weyr, new possibilities…
UPDATES
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