There's a line between the sea and the sky
And it calls me
And no one knows how far I'll go
BASICS
RETIRE INFO: retire Z'zae, Ryloth's art can go back to the adopt pool
NAME: Z'zae (Zerabazae)
GENDER: female
PRONOUNS: she/her/hers
ORIENTATION: panromantic demisexual
BIRTHDATE: Summer 2731
AGE: thirty-nine as of Early Fall 2770
LOCATION: Semaca Weyr
OCCUPATION: scout rider, unarmed combat specialist, mother
SQUAD: Pavane
APPEARANCE
EYES: brown
HAIR: brown
HEIGHT AND BUILD: five feet and four inches; petite
PLAY-BY: Kristen Kreuk
FULL APPEARANCE:
Even to the untrained eye, Z'zae looks like a threat. Because, okay. She's tiny and petite, the building blocks of a perfect Lady of a Hold. Her hair is neatly ordered and braided at all times. She expertly wears cosmetics, and has an eye for fashion. But beyond that?
Z'zae doesn't walk. She prowls. Her steps are nearly silent, even in the heeled boots she favors. The only person in the weyr she cannot sneak up on is her father Chirrut.
Nothing escapes the attention of her brown eyes. She has a certain way of eyeing troublemakers, as if to say 'Did you think that would work?', that puts an end to most shenanigans. (And while her mother would say that she got it from her, and her fathers would say she got it from them, in truth she picked it up from her weyrlingmaster.)
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
Z'zae is a woman of action. She prefers to deal in truth more than falsehoods, and will act as soon as possible. Planning and strategy are not her strong points. Keeping her still is an exercise in futility - she's always moving. Tapping a toe, bouncing a leg, fidgeting with something or other, Z'zae is always in motion. Her restlessness is as much a part of her as anything else.
To say that she is without fear is, well, it's an overstatement. Z'zae is a mother, and a daughter, and a rider, and she fears for the world her children will grow up to inherit. She fears for her fathers, who have both lost bonds, and her mother, who is not near family. Moved away from family, in fact. And she and Ryloth have faced enough as a pair that Z'zae knows that they are not invulnerable. But that doesn't mean that she has to act like she knows that. She just has to be smarter than whatever they're up against.
Family is important to Z'zae. As if two children of her own weren't enough responsibility on top of her rider duties, Z'zae has a foster child. She spends time with her fathers, and her many half-siblings whenever she can spare the time. Her family is large and well-loved, and well defended. A dutiful daughter, and engaged mother, Z'zae likes Semaca because it allows her more time with her family.
HISTORY
FAMILY: Mother - Zeara of bronze Zearask and garnet Zeask
Father - Baze of garnet Owazesk and garnet Bazesk - dragonless, rebonded wherhandler, Semaca Weyr, Chopin Squad
Father - Chirrut of Quartz Chirrusk and white Chirsk - Midsummer 2703, wherless, rebonded wherhandler, Semaca Weyr, Chopin Squad
a plethora of half-siblings, mostly maternal
Maternal half-sister - Rey of blue Nuth, Late Fall 2740, Fort Weyr, Eclipse Wing, Trailblazer
Maternal half-sibling - Ferorate of gold Ferorask - Summer 2742, Fort Weyr, Dusk Squad
at least one niece, Filigrace
Son, Zortane - 2758
Foster daughter, Braefen - 2759
Daughter, Arraza - 2763
Son, Brazol -
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: none just now, various past
BIRTHPLACE: Lemos Hold
HISTORY:
2731 - A Star is Born
Brownrider Baze and bronze handler Zeara were not a likely pair. They were, in fact, not a pair at all. Baze was weyrmated to Chirrut, and Zeara preferred not to be tied down, particularly not to a rider. It was pure business that brought brownrider and bronze handler together. Baze and Chirrut wanted a child to raise, someone to lavish their time and love on. Zeara had no objection to being pregnant, and decided that she liked these two. They each had similar qualities, and Baze was definitely her type.
It was probably the most supported Zeara ever went through a pregnancy, between Chirrut and Baze, and by the time she gave birth to a little girl, she was close friends with the two. But duty called, and Baze belonged to the weyr while Zeara was a hold guard. And there was a war on, a war newly declared. Baze and Malbuth were transferred away from Fort. They took Chirrut and Zerabazae with them.
2741 - Jaig Eyes
Zerabazae wasn't supposed to Impress a fire lizard. Her fathers spoiled her rotten, true, but fire lizards were a lot of responsibility. And, at ten, responsibility was not a thing Zerabazae liked to practice. She didn't even particularly want to Impress a fire lizard, but she did want to be with her friend as they Impressed a flit. It was a grand event, as their mother had purchased the egg for them at a Gather. Zerabazae was very excited for her friend.
But when the egg hatched into a little blue, the dragonrider's daughter decided that her friend needed to be shown a better technique. They weren't doing it right, and Zerabazae knew how to fix it! Honest! She just wanted to help.
The day ended with a split friendship, an unintended fire lizard, and as much drama as a pair of children could generate. It was at the end of the evening, as Chirrut tucked his daughter into bed for the night, that Zerabazae named the blue. He had markings around his eyes, which earned him the apparent name 'Jaig Eyes'. At the time, Zerabazae said that it was because of the specific markings, but with time she would forget why she used 'Jaig'.
2748 - Ryloth
Zera, as she quickly learned to prefer to the mouthful of her full name, did not take to candidacy easily. She spent more time dodging the candidate masters in favor of training with the guards, and that showed in her evaluations. She was restricted from the Sands more than once, in penalty for some lesson or lecture she had not attended. If given her own way, she would have given up her ties to the weyr in favor of becoming a guard.
But when Malbuth caught the junior weyrwoman's gold when she Rose, Baze and Chirrut convinced her to behave long enough to be on the Sands. That would be just desserts, to find the dragon she was half-convinced didn't exist in a clutch her father's brown had sired.
Of course that was the case. Of the nineteen eggs present - Impressive for a gold not yet five - one was for her. Tidelocked Range reacted to her presence at the Touching, and when it hatched into a little watercolor blue, she was the only person he seemed to even see. Impression was instant, and Ryloth quickly chose the elision 'Z'zae' for his rider.
2757 - O'tlan and Telgar and Zortane
[small]"Does he look like trouble?"
He has the shape of a friend.[/small]
Blue Ryloth caught green Kadiith when she Rose in Flight, dethroning her previous favorite. The brown that had previously claimed her threw a hissy fit, possibly because it was his first win, but more likely because his rider was Holdborn and possessive with it. Z'zae did her best to stay out of the way, though Ryloth and Kadiith hit it off pretty well in the aftermath. She would have been happy to stay as his weyrmate until the next time Kaddy Rose, but the brown rider was particularly vicious in neither conceding O'tlan's attention nor sharing it. Z'zae's potential new weyrmate fled Telgar altogether, leaving her to deal with the consequences.
While the wingleaders eventually intervened, having lost a promising wingsecond, Z'zae never forgave the brownrider. Neither did Baze, who stayed up too many nights with his pregnant daughter. When her son was born - just a little too early for Z'zae's ease of mind, but developed enough that he only required a little bit of extra supervision before the Healers were satisfied.
Not long after Z'zae had Zortane, one of her wingmates - a rider who had gotten pregnant not long after Z'zae did, though she would not name the father - became a casualty of war. Z'zae folded her daughter into the family under the guise of 'fostering'.
2760 - Tragedy Strikes Again
With the war now over, and the weyrs settling into the challenges of a Pass, Z'zae hadn't expected tragedy. Sure, dragons and their riders were at risk during Fall. It was why the tithe system existed - because dragon riders were most effective at fighting Thread, and had little time to devote to crafts. That's why most riders gave up their craft ranks when they Impressed - not enough time in the day OR night. But her family, surely, was untouchable.
Until Malbuth came out of between into a nasty tangle of Thread that hadn't yet been flamed. Caught between another dragon's fire and the horrid Thread, Malbuth lived only long enough to unseat Baze out of his severed straps. Z'zae caught her father as he fell.
2763 - Take Two
Z'zae's second birth nearly ended in tragedy. To this day, she credits her fathers' determination for her survival. No one will quite tell her what happened, but she knows that either she or her baby nearly died during delivery.
But things leveled out, eventually, and Z'zae brought a daughter into the world.
2765 - Semaca
After losing Malbuth, and watching her father retreat into himself in ways she couldn't follow, Z'zae jumped at the chance to transfer to a new weyr. Semaca had an air of hope, like anything might be possible. Even something like a dragonless and a wherless building a new life. Z'zae brought her children with her when she transferred, rather than find solutions for them. A weyr had to be able to support its own, right?
