"I didn't always believe in monsters."
TW: Abuse, addiction, imprisonment, mention of death, drugs, trauma
BASICS
RETIRE INFO: Retire both please
NAME: Alayna
GENDER: Female
PRONOUNS: She/her/hers
ORIENTATION: Hard to say
BIRTHDATE: Late Summer, 2741
AGE: 31 as of 2772
LOCATION: Semaca Weyr
OCCUPATION: Dragonrider, escaped prisoner
WING: Healer's
APPEARANCE
EYES: Light blue
HAIR: Red with a bit of a wave, worn long
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5'1, slender
PLAY-BY: Sophie Turner
FULL APPEARANCE: Alayna is a short woman, lightly toned with muscle built through exercise, her work as a rider and in the infirmary. Her hair is soft and red, worn long and simply styled, with gentle waves. Her pale skin has turned slightly golden and acquired its share of freckles over her turns in the Semacan sun. Alayna favors pants and simple skirts a bit too short to be truly decent that allow for freedom of movement, paired with light tops suited for the southern warmth. Her clothes lean firmly towards the practical, with minimal embellishment, and usually come directly from Semacan storerooms and crafters. She wears a simple knife at her belt and practical shoes, although she occasionally goes barefoot when off duty.
Alayna's style is varied, not because her taste is particularly eclectic, but because her closet consists mostly of hand-me-downs and gifts. It's hard to remember what she once liked to wear after spending so long dressing in whatever she was offered. And what cuts she does recall are several turns out of date. It's easier to just wear what she's given. That said, Alayna no longer wears skirts or high heeled shoes or anything else that would hamper her escape. She always carries at least one knife. She may not be a great fighter, but she will never again go passively to the slaughter.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY: There is evil in this world. It is a truth that once, Alayna would have denied, but now she can never forget. Alayna has seen how absolute power can corrupt and distrusts traditional hierarchies and the riders who still believe in them. She despises draconic compulsion, having seen how thoroughly it can destroy a dragon's will, and considers it an abomination.
Alayna will never again be the girl she was before she was locked away, but she takes pride in the person she's become. Alayna is a thoughtful, soft-spoken woman, with a gentle warmth to her. Strange goldriders and most bronzeriders still make her nervous (Wyzeth's hatchlings and the weyrlings raised at Semaca being the primary exceptions) and crowds can easily overwhelm her. One on one or in smaller groups, Alayna retains some wariness of strangers and it takes her time to fully warm up to new acquaintances, but she does her best to be kind to anyone who doesn't seem dangerous. She prefers to interact with most people as equals and is uncomfortable receiving special treatment on the basis of being a goldrider. Alayna adores her dragon and is rarely found far from Wyzeth's side.
While she is unable to forget the past, Alayna does her best not to let it consume her. She is dedicated to her work in the infirmary and to Semaca as a whole. She is happy with her life on the southern continent and prefers to focus on her adopted home rather than the politics of the north. Alayna may not be able to save Pern, but she still hopes she can help make Semaca a better place, in ways big and small. She yearns to be remembered for the people she's helped and the things she's done since her escape, rather than as Benden's captive goldrider. Alayna believes Semaca should remain a refuge for those who do not belong in the north, but that the weyr should also maintain its independence and ability to defend and provide for itself, should the north's goodwill ever fade. Alayna does her best to remain of current events across Pern, although there are still a few gaps in her knowledge of what happened during her turns of captivity.
Alayna enjoys spending time outdoors and knows many of Semaca's quieter, more hidden corners. She has no desire to venture into the dangerous depths of the jungle alone, however, and rarely leaves the weyr's protected areas. She sometimes sleeps outside in a hammock, when the weather allows, her dragon by her side. Alayna continues to practice fighting with her knife everyday, although she's never become particularly skilled at it.
Alayna became addicted to fellis during her time in Benden. She still occasionally craves it, when she is anxious or afraid. While she can manage the sight and smell better than she used to, she still refuses to handle it herself and has asked not to be treated with it, should she herself be injured.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
Mother: Alaytine of Green Geromoth
Father: U'ne of Blue Bissouth
Sister: Unay of Green Ekkunath
Brother: Al'une of White Shayith, Deceased
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: N/A
BIRTHPLACE: Benden Weyr
HISTORY: Alayna was born an ordinary girl destined for an ordinary life. Or at least, as ordinary as any weyrbrat born in wartime can be. Her parents were a greenrider and a bluerider, happily weyrmated, who had two more children after her. They were often away fighting during Alayna's childhood, but she was cared for in the creche and when they returned, they lavished all their children with enough affection they never doubted they were loved.
Alayna was always a clever child. Clever, idealistic and a bit too outspoken. She learned to hold her tongue in front of the Benden elites, but her teachers never quite managed to train her out of the belief that her mother and father were just as strong, just as smart, just as worthy as any gold or bronzerider. Her teachers never quite realized how deep Alayna's egalitarian impulses went, however. She was kind and gentle, the sort to give a mild rebuke instead of throwing a punch. It made her easy to overlook.
The war ended when Alayna was fourteen and just beginning to train as a beastcrafter. Her parents were still kept busy, the weyr was still guarded and no one seemed quite convinced the truce would last. But it was enough to convince Alayna to sign up for candidacy when she came of age. She wasn't sure she could have killed another rider whose only crime was trying to protect their own home, but it would be an honor to fight thread. And maybe if she did it well enough, proved herself strong and skilled enough, things would start to change. The war was over. Perhaps peacetime would give blue and greenriders a chance to take their own place in the sun.
When Alayna instead Impressed gold Wyzeth, at age 19, she thought everything was going to be wonderful. Wyzeth was intelligent and good and charming and together, they would have a voice at the table, where they could argue directly for dignity for all. The two spoke their minds, loudly and often, and now that Alayna was no longer just another weyrbrat, but a goldrider in her own right, her words no longer seemed so innocuous. The pair was warned that if they continued to cause trouble, they wouldn't like the consequences. They didn't listen.
One evening, when they were nearing the end of weyrlinghood, someone slipped fellis into Alayna's food and injected a small dose into Wyzeth's leg. Alayna awoke to find herself in a bare room, alone except for the bronzepair guarding her door. Terrified and confused, she demanded to be released immediately, insisting that she was a goldrider of Benden and this was all a mistake. That was when she learned it wasn't. Alayna and Wyzeth, the leadership had decided, were more trouble than they were worth. They would never again walk freely in the weyrbowl and the only reason they weren't dead was because Wyzeth's eggs still had value. A sevenday later, Wyzeth was forced to rise for the first time, under the compulsion of an older and more powerful queen. Her Flight took place away from the weyr, where no one but the gold and bronze riders could see.
Alayna never learned what they told the rest of the weyr to explain her absence or if anybody had even bothered to ask at all. She tried to escape and fight back at first, refusing food in the hopes that she could force them into releasing her and Wyzeth. But between the fellis they continuously administered to Alayna and Wyzeth, and the threat that should she refuse to do as she was told, the Benden elites would arrange for her far-more-replaceable parents or siblings to have an 'accident', Alayna eventually gave up. Her situation was hopeless. She would stay in this prison until the life left her dragon. And would then probably be killed, lest she be recognized and contradict whatever story they'd contrived. Under the haze of the fellis, it was hard to care as much as she knew she probably should.
Turns passed, with Alayna and Wyzeth leaving their cell only when it was time for Wyzeth to rise. The gold was forced to take to the skies again and again, four times a turn, more often than any gold was meant to fly. Each time she laid her eggs, they were stolen and added to another queen's clutch. Alayna thought someone might notice, that suddenly Benden's queens were laying larger clutches than they ever had. But either no one noticed or no one cared, seeing it as just another testament to the glory of the weyr. Wyzeth withered and weakened, hollowed out by fellis and constant egg-bearing, and still, nobody came to find them.
Until someone did. Her brother had been eating with her when she was first drugged and saw the bronzeriders dragging her away. Alayune never let slip that he knew. Instead, he begged a friend to transport him to Telgar weyr, where he stayed and Impressed a dragon of his own, a little white. As soon as they were old enough to go between, he sent a firelizard in search of his sister. Alayna had been changed enough by her imprisonment, it took the little brown several months to find her. But find her he did, popping out of between in the dark of night, a letter tied to his leg.
At first, Alayna was convinced it was a cruel trick. But her dragon was dying and she was desperate enough to take the risk of writing back. She told Al'une where she was and while he sadly concluded he had little chance of freeing her on his own (and his weyrleader refused to believe his story of an imprisoned goldrider), he asked if there was anything else at all he could do.
There was. Wyzeth had recently laid yet another clutch and this time, one of her eggs appeared to be gold. Alayna couldn't allow the Benden leaders to twist and warp her dragon's golden daughter into another monster. Or worse-reduce her to an imprisoned broodmare as her mother had been. So she wrote her brother in secret, begging him to steal the egg and bring it somewhere, anywhere, else. The other queen hadn't yet clutched, she informed her brother, so if he came and took it now, Benden would be unable to reclaim it without giving away their dark secret.
Al'une did as she asked. Wyzeth was confused and upset, as Alayna had hidden her brother's messages from her dragon to prevent the other queens from compelling the truth from her. When they questioned the pair, Alayna managed to keep her partner secret.
Al'une kept coming, sneaking eggs out of Benden during the brief windows Wyzeth and Alayna were alone on the sands. Alayna didn't know what became of the eggs and she didn't ask. Wherever they were- it had to be better than Benden. She tried to be happy, with her small rebellion, that she'd managed to steal even that much from them, but she was still a prisoner. And her dragon was still dying.
And then, Wyzeth didn't even have the strength to rise. She was forced into the sky by another queen's commands and no matter how hard Alayna tried to order her down, it wasn't enough. She knew this would be the last time her dragon flew, that she would fall from the air and perish. Alayna ran, driven by pure desperation. The bronzeriders were too distracted by the Flight to stop her and they'd long since ceased bothering to watch her so carefully, believing her fully broken.
As her dragon struggled to stay aloft, Alayna saw a man and a woman she didn't know. She begged the strangers to save her dragon, not knowing who or what she was, only that they were the first people except her tormenters Alayna had seen in turns. The woman turned out to be Molly, a bronzerider of Fort, and the man Angelo, a dragonless man from the same weyr. The pair and Molly's bronze whisked Alayna and Wyzeth away, to Fort's hatching sands and perhaps, a new start.
UPDATES
- Early Winter 2766- Alayna moves to Semaca and joins the Healer's Wing.
- Spring 2767- Alayna attends the weyr's Conclave and attests to Benden's crimes. Benden is placed under sanction.
- Autumn 2767- Alayna asks Majima to topple Benden's leadership and help restore freedom to the weyr.
- Winter 2767- Benden's leadership steps down, due to a combination of pressure from the sanctions and Majima's less official efforts.
- Late Fall 2768- Al'une dies of a brain aneurysm.
- Fall 2772- Semaca opens its doors to the outside world. Alayna supports the decision, but struggles a little to adapt to the influx of newcomers.
