"I'm not a failure. I'm not a failure. I'm not a failure..."
BASICS
RETIRE INFO: Adopt
NAME: Laera
GENDER: Female
PRONOUNS: She/her/hers
ORIENTATION: Anyone who can take her away from all her problems
BIRTHDATE: Early winter, 2747
AGE: 29 as of 2776
LOCATION: Semaca Weyr
OCCUPATION: Whiterider, hanger-on, baby sister
WING: Minuet
APPEARANCE
EYES: Hazel
HAIR: Dark brown and thick, worn long and slightly wavy
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5'3, slender
PLAY-BY: Marie Avgeropoulos
FULL APPEARANCE: Compared to the rest of her family, Laera is, quite frankly, the runt. Short and slender and never quite able to keep up with her taller siblings, she's nevertheless striking, with strong features, tan skin, dark hair and pale hazel eyes that come as a shock against the rest of her dark coloring. She dresses simply these days, in plain but modest dresses unadorned by jewelry or embroidery, and doesn't look higher ranked riders in the eye. But there's still pride beneath the outward submission and her eyes are as steely as ever.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY: Between R'set's death and her own turns of servitude, Laera is mostly lost these days. She trusts in her older siblings absolutely and follows them around as much as they'll allow. She's not terribly inclined to like strangers with the exception of Semaca's steward, Molly, who besides her siblings is one of the few people she is pretty sure will take care of her. She follows orders and tries not to make waves and rarely speaks back to authority figures.
Laera feels deeply guilty for her failure to save R'set. She is also a bit frightened by golds who are not Nuuth and is very, very glad she failed to fulfill her earlier ambitions. Laera no longer feels any resentment towards Tarth but is grateful she Impressed a kind, gentle dragon. She spends a lot of time with her white.
Laera's pride remains but it's buried very deep indeed and doesn't show much. She mostly just wants to survive and never go back to Fort. She hates and fears Nornth but keeps her distance from all things political. Clearly she was never much good at it anyway.
And it doesn't mean she doesn't still want to be happy, whatever that means in this new world where all her ambitions are dead and her pride trampled. It's a lady's prerogative to change her mind and she knows she's still who she's always been, clever and stubborn and sure. She just has to decide how to turn that into someone worth being. And probably try to work out how to make people like her for her instead of for being a future goldrider...Which is hard.
There's an inner sweetness to Laera, although she's spent most of her life trying to hide it and make herself cold and aloof as a goldrider should be. She's a bit awkward when trying to be nice, for all she thinks she'd like to be a nice person. It's easier to be guarded, even if it does get lonely. She's pretty susceptible to peer pressure and usually does what's expected, even if she doesn't like it.
She refuses to give up on her family altogether. They might have disowned her, as is only proper, but that doesn't mean she can't still help them advance and maybe find a lesser place in their orbit. She is loyal to her brother and still loves him, even if he now treats her more like a drudge than treasured family. She'll help him become Jr. Weyrleader and prove she still has a place in the world after all. She follows R'set around and desperately tries to please him, playing the subservient whiterider in the hopes that someday, it will be enough. She doesn't believe all those rumors of a conspiracy she's been hearing. Surely her family would have told HER right? And wouldn't have done anything that bad to a goldrider. She does miss her other siblings who have all gone away, but she'll never admit it. They left her behind. R'set's all she has left and she refuses to lose him too.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
Mother Laretta of gold Ravneth
Father R'sil of bronze Vatith
Older Sister Risae of Green Savanth
Older Brother R'set of Bronze Kujumath
Older Sister Luetta
Older Sister Sido of Gold Nuuth
Younger Brother S'et of Blue Nephthyth
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: None
BIRTHPLACE: Benden Weyr
HISTORY: Laera never knew her mother. She was only a child when she died giving birth to her brother, Setet. But she heard stories about her. That she was a weyrwoman and a lady and someone Aeris should always try to emulate in all things. Especially Impression. It was unlikely all four of Laretta's daughters could be queenriders, but only the ones who were chosen counted.
Laera didn't feel the competiton as keenly as some of her other siblings did. She was the youngest of the sisters and always looked up to Risae, Luetta, Sido and R'set. She even liked Setet. He played with her and didn't seem so bad, whatever the rest of the family thought. Which wasn't to say she was ALWAYS nice to him. She was sure to yell at him or push him down when people were watching but when they were alone, they could be friends.
She was still too young to stand when she watched first R'set, then Sido and S'et Impress. Laera missed being S'et's sister, but the rest of her family made it clear- he was to be cast out with great prejudice. And she couldn't choose him over everyone else she loved. When Risae and Luetta aged out, Laera was secretly horrified as she'd never considered that it might actually happen. They both left soon after and all Laera heard of them was that Risae had Impressed wrong, to a lesser color at a lesser weyr when she was too old.
Laera entered candidacy thoroughly determined to not be another disappointment. When a gold egg was slow in coming, she even went to Fort to stand for THEIR gold egg. After the shell was cracked by an uppity brown, however, she went home at her father, brother and sister's orders. A BROKEN gold wouldn't do for one of their lines.
At Nuuth's next clutch, it finally happened and Laera Impressed, not to a gold but to a white. Torn between elation and heartbreak, she made it through weyrlinghood as best she could and tried to be a proper whiterider, in the hopes it would be enough. Her family wanted her out of sight though so when R'set decided to make a bid for Fort's Junior Weyrleadership, they sent Laera with him, to see to his needs and hopefully stay gone and forgotten.
UPDATES
- Late Fall, 2767- R'set's Kujumath is killed in Nornth's maiden flight and Laera finds R'set's body. She flees to Semaca with Tarth to rejoin the rest of her family.
- Early Fall, 2768- The wind changes direction, sending Thread that Laera thought was headed for the lower wing straight into Tarth's neck instead, scoring her (Moderate).
Note: This character concept originated with Horicon
