
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.
BASICS
RETIRE INFO:Retire M'love, adopt Skyloth
NAME: M'love
GENDER: female
PRONOUNS: she/her/hers
ORIENTATION: Bisexual
BIRTHDATE: Fall 2744
AGE: twenty-six as of Early Winter 2770
LOCATION: High Reaches Weyr
OCCUPATION: formerJunior Flightleader, rider, wrangler of the dramatic and general go-getter
WING: Raindance
APPEARANCE
EYES: blue, more washed out than bright without cosmetics
HAIR: strawberry blonde, cut very short
HEIGHT AND BUILD: six feet and one inch when she stands up straight
PLAY-BY: Deborah Ann Woll
FULL APPEARANCE:
M'love is kind of hard to look at these days. She has a massive Threadscore on the left side of her head, the gouges and ridges made even worse with the evidence of now-healed infection. Her reddish-blonde hair is close cropped to aid in caring for the injury, revealing her ravaged ear. She's lost a considerable amount of weight during her time at the Healer Hall, and she never had much to spare.
M'love is one of those faces that only a mother could love.
Okay, that's not actually true. M'love has her own charms. But it is true that she's tall and gawky, and a little awkward looking. Her face and neck are long, and she's more skinny than slender. While weyrling training has gifted her muscles, they aren't anything terribly impressive in conjunction with her height. In any case, her complexion burns before it darkens, and she is highly protective of her skin. If only because it hurts like the dickens to burn.
Her hair changes color with the season. In summer, it bleaches out to a reddish blonde. She wears it in a single, tight braid, but that doesn't protect it from the effects of the sun. In winter, it darkens to something definitely more reddish than blond. She used to wear it down to her waist, but since Impressing Skyloth and learning the misery that is long hair and helmets, she keeps it shorter these days.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY: M'love was an awkward, lonely child before Impressing Skyloth, and that still shows in many of her habits. She does not seek social interaction unless pushed or forced. She has high aspirations, though, and she wants the stars. Her cunning is a little lacking, though, given her relative social isolation, but as she grows with Skyloth, she learns.
With Skyloth, she has gotten better about being more outspoken. Paired with such a dramatic dragon, she's learned how to step into the spotlight from time to time. No need to hide from the wrath of gold riders, no longer. And while she spends a lot of time wrangling around Skyloth's dramatics - either indulging them, getting people to turn a blind eye to them, or circumventing them - she doesn't mind. Someone has to take center stage.
HISTORY
FAMILY: A tanner and a vintner at Benden Weyr, a few siblings at various crafthalls
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: D'ark of garnet Masreith, Late Winter 2744, former Senior Flightleader as of 2770
BIRTHPLACE: Benden Weyr
HISTORY:
M'love was not named M'love, nor anything that could possibly shorten into such an endearment. M'love was born Tanlek, and she was the daughter of a tanner and a vintner. Tanlek was all thumbs, though, and she grew so quickly that her spatial relationships with the world were in constant flux. She didn't have any particular aptitude for a craft, but she could do chores and run errands around the weyr. That's right, Tanlek was a drudge.
And that would have been her whole life, until the Senior Weyrwoman of High Reaches got herself and most of the bronzes in the weyr wiped out. A footnote in history. Benden's weyrwoman donated a clutch to the rebuilding High Reaches, and Tanlek volunteered to go help. After all, they needed plenty of hands, and while Tanlek wasn't the steadiest, she was reliable. And, best of all, that put her in a position to take her birthright as a candidate, which she hadn't felt confident enough to take at Benden. At High Reaches, who would know the difference?
Skyloth certainly didn't.
Tanlek? Ta'lek? T'lek? Tan'k? We'll work on it. Where are my people? Why is no one cheering for me? M'love, don't they know who I am?
Skyloth never found an elision that satisfied him, and started calling his rider exclusively by a flashy endearment - M'love. Tanlek found that she liked this constant reminder of affection, and eventually went through the formal process to change her name.
And they learned to work together. Skyloth proved to have a serious side, but they discovered that M'love's general steadiness could be egged to ambition. M'love learned that dragon riders weren't all so bad, although some of her fellow weyrlings tested that theory sorely. She became close to a few of them.
The High Reaches Murders worry her more than the Fort Poisonings. M'love was never meant to rise above her station. How long until the murders turn from badly behaved riders to unworthy riders?