BASICS
RETIRE INFO: Retire
NAME: Clementine
GENDER: Female
PRONOUNS: She/her/hers
ORIENTATION: Biromantic/sexual
BIRTHDATE: Summer 2753
AGE: 23 as of Summer 2771
LOCATION: High Reaches Weyr
OCCUPATION: Wingrider
WING: Firestorm
APPEARANCE
EYES: Grey-blue
HAIR: Blonde
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5'9", slender
PLAY-BY: Virginia Gardner
FULL APPEARANCE:
At five foot nine, graceful Clementine has a dancer's build -- longer-than-proportionate legs with hyperextended knees. Much of this is hidden by a loose-clothing dressing style, though she aims to blend fashion and practicality as much as is possible.
She has an angular but not unattractive face, accentuated by the riot of platinum blonde hair that even in a side braid winds up springing tendrils free to whip around her face and then coil. Her eyes are a pale greyish-blue, settled on either side of a pointed nose dusted with freckles.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
Clementine is a stereotype, and she knows it: the pretty blonde haired, not-quite-blue-eyed, daughter of a wealthy gentleman who likes fine things, is a bit of a snob, and prefers to avoid physical labor. And all of these things are true: she is pretty and knows it, she is careful with what she does with her body, she does hate hard work and prefers to be as spoiled as possible.
But ... does she?
Really, Clementine doesn't know herself outside the stereotype she was raised into, and she's trying to figure it out. Raised by Golre supporters, she is a traditionalist who hopes her Search into High Reaches can help restore the Weyr to its former glory -- but she doesn't entirely know what that former glory was, and so she is operating on what she's been told. Who she is is what she's been told to be, as well: she is pretty, she is valued because she is a relatively smart girl who speaks well and moves well, and her greatest goal in life is finding a husband.
Except that accepting Search is an honor, and no one in Clementine's family would refuse their dragons such an honor, and now Clementine isn't sure she actually wants a husband. She might actually want a dragon instead.
She is definitely stubborn; she can be haughty and arrogant. She does think she's better than a lot of people because she's been a happily kept oldest sibling and never worked a day's drudgery before candidacy. She carries herself like the snob she often is, but she can be nice under all that -- she just hasn't had much opportunity to stretch those muscles. Clem's not a completely bad person, she just doesn't have a lot of experience with any relationship with others besides people she's meant to look down upon -- they were all farm crew -- and her natural arrogance has no place in the Weyr. Certainly not in the Weyr she found herself at, one with no "real" goldriders, with no "sensibly" chosen leadership. So: outside, Clementine appears confident that she is The Best and Knows Best. But inside, that's fraying at the edges, and she's starting to realize that she is only seventeen, and she might not know everything about the world after all.
She's from a vinehold. Does she really know that the changes in Weyr administration and lack of metallic leadership is a bad thing? How would she know? She thinks she knows. But uncertainty nags at her there, and it nags at her in everything else, too: what makes her as good as she thinks she is? Is it just what her parents say, or does she deserve the pedestal she's put herself on?
HISTORY
FAMILY: parents & two younger brothers
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: None
BIRTHPLACE: Family vineyard outside Tillek Hold
HISTORY:
Clementine is the first child -- and only daughter -- of a pair of wealthy Tillekian vintners. They own a fine vineyard about an hour outside the main Hold known as Syrah Winery, which is highly successful. As a result, Clem was raised in a sort of isolated and idyllic childhood brought from being wealthy and somewhat spoiled.
At five her mother gave birth to another baby, a boy; having a little brother may have marred the idyll slightly, but she got used to it. A second boy came three years after that.
She spent some time being trained about grapes and wines, but even more time learning to be a proper lady, as her father had hopes of marrying her to a minor Lord. The sort of thing most of her female friends were doing, too. Clementine never knew any other life than this, and was largely oblivious to the political tensions around her. Her parents supported Weyrwoman Golre, and were always very traditional, but the goings-on of the Weyr may as well have been on another planet to young Clementine. Everything she knew of how Weyrs worked came from what her parents told her -- importantly, though, one of the things imparted on the children even after Golre's reign ended (when Clem was only eight, and thus she really still didn't understand) was that accepting Search was an honor.
Odds were that they were expecting the boys to be the ones asked to Stand by riders on Search, though, and not Clementine.
It was her, though, at and only her and one of the apprentice vintners not in the family, of everyone chosen from the vineyard -- selected after Ista's Maktooth clutched at the Reaches. Despite her parents' mild horror, especially considering their lack of approval at High Reaches' current leadership, Clementine accepted (as did the apprentice boy).
In the time between that acceptance and the hatching of Maktooth's donated clutch, though, she found that candidacy did not suit her well. There was so much work going on, and it was damaging her manicure. She tried to get out of doing hard work whenever she could, but it was impossible to not in some ways become blended into being a team player -- the sense of closeness born of being a candidate could be difficult to avoid. And so for now, in part just to show everyone back home that she can, she remained a Candidate.
