" For men must work and women must weep
Though storms be sudden and the waters be deep, and
The harbour bar be moanin', and
The harbour bar be moanin' "
BASICS
RETIRE INFO: Retire
NAME: Mera
GENDER: Female
PRONOUNS: She/Her/Hers
ORIENTATION: Bisexual
BIRTHDATE: Early Summer 2733
AGE: 43 as of Late Winter 2776
LOCATION: Fort Weyr
OCCUPATION: Wherhandler
WING: N/A
APPEARANCE
EYES: Brown
HAIR: Black-brown
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5’9”, average
PLAY-BY: Golshifteh Farahani
FULL APPEARANCE:
Mera is a woman a little on the tall side and of average build. She has an oval face with a just-noticeable chin, a long, narrow nose, and full, dark lips. Her skin is dark olive in tone, and clearly somewhat weathered by the sun. Her eyes are slightly widely set beneath full eyebrows and a brown dark enough to be near black. Her hair is of a similar color, appearing black in many lights and only showing as brown in bright sun. It’s somewhere between extremely wavy and slightly curly, and cut to just below her shoulders, though a bit longer than that when pulled taut.
Her manner of dress is simple. She neither owns nor desires to own any particular finery, and as a result most of her clothing is appropriate for working in. She tends toward light colors, a slight nod to vanity, as she feels she looks best in them.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
Mera is quiet and calm, the sort of person who comes across as a pushover because she's usually all soft smiles and sweetness. This would be a mistake. Beneath her demure exterior lies a steely resolve and a determination to always, always keep going. She isn't forceful herself, and will rarely make waves, but she also can't be forced.
She isn't the most outgoing person, but also doesn't try to avoid other people. She's just usually pretty happy to go with the flow, and if that involves socializing then so be it. She's rather restrained in her interactions with other people, though less for lack of confidence in her own self and abilities and more just as a personal preference. She doesn't like putting too much of herself out there at once.
She has a strong belief in what she would call “traditional family structures”. Some work is just meant for men, and some is just meant for women, and she's honestly okay and happy with this arrangement. She's never really desired to go off and adventure before recently and is still a little uncertain about her place in the world, but she's determined not to be a burden. And if her younger sibling can manage it, she is quite certain that she definitely can.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
Kellera, Mother, Fisherman's Wife
Maratin, Father, Fisherman
Katin, older sister
Matir, younger sister
Keltin of Garnet Kelsk and Green Keltisk, younger sibling
Mellerin, younger sister
Keltira, younger sister
Kara, younger sister
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: None
BIRTHPLACE: Small seahold beholden to Fort
HISTORY:
Mera was the second daughter of what would eventually be a large family, and almost from her birth she was a little Mama’s girl. She wanted to follow in her mother's every footstep, and was often seen following her around, attempting to “help” with household tasks. She was a well-behaved, quiet child who just wanted to do right by her parents.
She grew swiftly, in maturity if not in size, for with five younger siblings she was quickly needed to help out. She did it all gladly, not knowing there was any other sort of childhood out there. One of her siblings rebelled, chafing at the idea of doing “women's work”, and Mera was honestly a little relieved when Keltin began getting more involved in the work of fishing. It made her life easier, not having to chase after her wayward sibling.
She met lfigo at a Gather when she was seventeen, and it was love at first sight. On her part. It took her the better part of a Turn for him to even notice she existed, and some time after that for him to do more than just see her. Once begun though, their courtship was a whirlwind, and they were married just after Mera’s twentieth Turn-day. She was… beyond happy. She thought life couldn't possibly get better. She left for the cothold of his birth, later joined by two of her sisters who had become wives of Ifigo’s brother and cousin.
Her only regret was that for all the Turns of trying, there were no children. Oh, they'd named them. Mergo and Raffi, Fira and Meif, and more to come after the first four. But Mera failed to conceive, and had to content herself with looking after her nieces and nephews and, best of all, seeing Ifigo come home from sea. Life wasn't always easy for a fisherman's wife, but life was good.
The storm that stole Ifigo, and her sisters’ husbands, was a sudden one. They had sailed out early one clear morning, but by early afternoon the sky was near dark as night, with a fierce wind and waves that dashed some of the smaller boats to pieces against the cliffs. And then it was over, and a few ships limped home with broken topmasts and fishermen bailing out the holds, but not every ship returned.
Mera hardly had time to mourn. With half their fleet destroyed and a third of the surviving boats badly damaged, they needed everyone to pitch in for repairs, so that the hold might eat over the winter. If her eyes were a little redder than some, the pace and quality of her work didn't betray the emptiness and heaviness in her heart. Ifigo was gone, but life had to go on. A couple of Turns passed, and while the hurts never healed, they lessened. But they never lessened enough.
So she decided to leave, go somewhere that didn't have so many memories. Not to go home, because that would feel too much like admitting defeat. No, she'd follow Keltin to Fort Hold, and join her sibling as a wherhandler. The only problem was, when she arrived, ze wasn't there at all, but at the Weyr, and so there she went. Besides, the Hold seemed to have enough on its plate with refugees from a recent wildfire. She had never in her life been close to her sibling, but maybe now was time for a new start.
