Post by pandoraMisfit on Sept 29, 2009 18:51:59 GMT -5
~ Nwalme ~
Weyr: Skrull Island
Rank: Candidate
Pronunciation: Nwahl-may
Gender: Female
Sexuality: Bisexual, erring more towards homosexual
Age: 18 Turns
Family:
Father – Unknown, could be one of several drudges, craftsmen, holdfolk or riders.
Mother - Awamina, Rider of green Aelth of Crystal Caverns Weyr (Deceased)
No siblings
Birthplace: Crystal Caverns Weyr
Appearance: Even though many women in the weyr crop their hair short to avoid such troubles as being whipped in the face during flight, Nwalme’s luxurious tresses reach just higher than the base of her shoulder blades. They curve around her face in waves of obsidian, streaked through occasionally with extremely dark brown. In the sun, the brown in much more noticeable, and appears to be a very dark chocolate hue, and in high summer, her whole head of hair looks positively brown as the sunlight bleaches it somewhat. However it doesn’t take long for this to fade back into its usual dark colour. Her parting is on the side, allowing about a quarter of her hair to hang across her face; something which she is immensely glad of as it gives her some form of cover to hide behind. She usually leaves it to hang loose about her shoulders and lets as much of it hide her features away as possible, even going as far as to leave it a tangled mess if brushing it means that it will hang neatly by her ears. Sometimes though she will get really annoyed with it and twirl it up in a rather messy knot on the back of her head, held in place with a small hinged clip in the shape of a fire lizard. This is something she bought at her very first Gather, and although the wood it is made out of it somewhat battered and scratched, the shape is still distinguishable and every so often she will “borrow” some lacquer to repaint it, keeping it looking fairly new.
Her eyes, when you can see them, are a dark cloudy grey-blue colour, like the sky when a storm is brewing. The base colour is the muted navy/indigo colour, which grows darker the further away from her pupils it gets. The centre of her iris is a slightly paler grey colour, ringing the pupil the fade into the blue, although the ring is not a complete circle, but more like flecks that surround her pupils. These grey flecks are more concentrated in the centre and are present throughout the rest of her iris, bust fade towards the edges, making the dark blue colour look as though it has engulfed them. Her eyes have also been likened to stars in a dark night sky, although she prefers the tempest analogy far better. It doesn’t sound quite so romantic. Her eyes are slightly almond shaped, though without the slant that would denote a Terran-asian heritage and they are fairly in proportion with the rest of her face. Jet black lashes frame these eyes, thicker and longer than many girls have, and they tend to brush her cheeks when she closes her eyes. Some people say that the effect is somewhat enticing, but she prefers to think that they just make her look shy.
Her lips seems to be in a perpetual pout, as full as they are, and this is something she curses her heritage for. This girl would much rather have thinner lips and be spared comments such as “Ohhhh, such lovely lips deserve a kiss” and “I’d love to feel those beauties on my skin” from some of the more forward lads she has been propositioned by in the past. They are naturally a light damask pink colour, so she would have to need for pigment to tint them, if she wanted to in the first place – which is something she most certainly would not want to do. Her nose is fairly average in size, and slightly upturned at the end, although far from making her look like a pig, it gives her face a soft, almost cutesy look.
Growing up in Crystal Caverns, Weyrlife has had its effect of Nwalme’s physical features. Her build is quite deceptive – slim and willowy, she looks as though she could snap in a large gust of wind. Her waist is a small 28 inches and her hips are only 32 inches round, so she is definitely on the smaller side. But combined with a 5’9” height, it makes her look almost ridiculously narrow. The reason this is deceptive is that it does not give away the severe strength behind her. Carrying sacks of firestone around for the riders, cleaning harnesses and general work have given her some mean muscles – lifting 55 pounds is no hardship for this girl. So her thin appearance gives her the advantage in any fight, where any opponent would underestimate her strength and more than likely walk away with a few bruises. When she shows her body, a rare thing, this lean musculature gives her an odd sort of beauty; barely there, yet subtly hinting at a hidden power.
Nwalme’s figure isn’t exactly womanly – having such narrow hips in the main contributor to this. Along with her smaller than average bust, she has a wirier look to her than many of the more voluptuous women of the holds. Her height comes mostly from the length of her legs, which have received more than a few appraising looks from many a lad. However she hates this kind of attention, and hides herself away with rather unfeminine clothes. Usually these consist of dark silvery grey trousers with a very long, very loose-fitting tunic over the top. Her colours of preference seem to be ducky reds and purples. When she goes to gathers, she would prefer to be frowned at for wearing trousers, as wearing the flowing, pretty dresses than many girls are accustomed to wearing at such events make her want to retch. Why draw attention to her figure when she would much rather hide away after all?
She has a couple of scars, which surprisingly, she doesn’t care about. Given her keenness to hide herself away, when it comes to her scars, if they show, people see them. That’s the end of it. They’re nothing to be ashamed of, and nothing that she feels are ugly or unattractive. Sometimes she feels that if she felt they were unattractive; then she would feel more at ease with herself, because not so many people would be fawning over her looks. The most prominent of these scars extends across her midriff and is about half an inch thick. It has healed over to a pale white colour, but is still fairly noticeable – what 6 inch long scar wouldn’t be? It is situated just above her belly button and has a fairly jagged look to the edges. Another of her scars is a small set of marks on her forearms – four separate groups of four points, three in a cluster then one set further back. These are from where a fire lizard had landed on her arm to relay a message, but something spooked it and the creature’s talons had dug in quite hard. These little pockmarks are red in colour and are fading quite slowly, but someday they will be barely there. The last few scars that Nwalme can lay claim to are located on the top of her thigh. These are self inflicted during the time when she had no other way to cope with losing her mother and at the same time being bullied for her sexual preferences. Since then, she has given up the habit, realising that it only made her feel worse.
The girls’ skin is fairly pale, even for a Northerner, with some people going as far as to say that she looks positively ghostly during the winter months. Of course, her dark hair does not help one bit with this perception, only serving to make her look even paler. This makes her red scars stand out quite starkly, and her white ones are just noticeably from the milky complexion of her skin.
Personality: Nwalme is very quiet and tends to keep herself to herself. If she has something to say, then it tends to take her a while to pluck up the courage to say it, by which time, the topic of conversation (or argument) will have changed and there’s no point in saying it anymore; unless of course it is something she is passionate about. This, to the people who know her from Turns back, is pretty peculiar as she used to be fairly bubbly and outgoing as a child and young teenager, but now seems almost the complete opposite. The main reason to this drastic personality change is a lack of self esteem, and some of the more… unkind weyrkids she used to play with took to tormenting her over her “preferences”, once word of it had gotten out. Slowly this chipped away at her confidence until she became the somewhat withdrawn girl she is today. Eventually, she found out that it was a lot easier to ignore when she stayed out the way and made herself as inconspicuous as possible. Somehow, she manages to do this in such a way as to seem aloof and distant to anyone approaching her, rather than a mincing, shy girl.
It takes this girl quite awhile to start trusting any new person that she meets, and prefers to be introduced by someone as; kind like having a third party there as a safety net in case she can’t find anything to say. A result of this is that there are only a few people in Skrull that she will actually speak with, as she has tried her absolute best to avoid as many people as possible. In reality, it may be that she has only really spoken with the rider who transferred her to the Weyr and the women who work in the lower caverns. To others, she most likely appears to be cold and remote, with some even going as far as to think that she dislikes company although this isn’t the truth of the matter. The people whom she has learnt to trust know that she loves spending time chatting.
Because of this main facet in her personality, she enjoys spending time away from people that she knows are likely to try and talk to her or get her to come out of her shell a bit more. After all, when she was out of it before, she only got hurt, and these people, well they never usually take no for an answer. She loves being near the water, particularly on beaches a she loves the feel of sand beneath her toes. She also enjoys playing with the wild fire lizards, as they are fairly simple and aren’t as demanding of her as humans are. They accept her for who she is. Nwalme has a deep sense of tranquillity and is the happiest when everything around her is calm. She hates conflict, but when she must, she will stand up for what she believes in; this usually shocks everyone around her as she can get quite heated with her opinions. However this is a very rare occurrence and more often that not, she just keeps out of the way.
The inner Nwalme is kind and caring, so much so that anyone in the slightest bit of need will find this girl willing to help them. Once a persons manages to break through the frigid exterior of her personality, they find that she is one of the most warm, loving people around. The friends she does have find that she is utterly devoted to being the best person she can be - trying her hardest not to let temper get the better of her and that she is completely loyal to whosoever gains her trust.
Even though she was Weyrbred, she has some rather large reservations about dragonflight. Her somewhat ambiguous sexuality, and the taunting that has come along with it means that she is very uncertain of herself in casual relationships and sometimes is even uncertain of her feelings for the other person involved. She would rather not be the ‘loose’ woman like many of the other girls she knows, because she feels strongly that love is the most precious thing in the world – this is where her fears come into play. She fears that a lot of men will just use her and leave her, all because their dragons saw each other as worthy of mating. Her belief is that love is more important than lust.
History: Awamina was a very flirtatious young girl, so it wasn’t surprising that at the age of 14, she Impressed a green dragon with very much the same interests – men. This pair were almost intolerable in their lust for the opposite sex, the young pair trying to grab the attention of the other weyrlings as much as they could, flirting at every opportunity available. It took the girl almost two Turns to pass all of her Weyrling tests because she much preferred ‘extracurricular activites’ to the lessons she was set. Although a dutiful rider and loyal to her Weyr, the girl was much more interested in travelling Pern. And bedding as many of the men she met as she could. This of course, inevitably, ended in pregnancy. At the age of 20 Turns, she gave birth to a daughter – Nwalme. It was almost miraculous that the girl hadn’t gotten pregnant in the past few Turns since the coy green had started rising every few months. Her father was pretty much an unknown, as he could be one of dozens of men that the babe’s mother had been with. Most would like to have said it was N’ren, the woman’s latest weyrmate, but they knew they were just trying to kid themselves.
Given to one of the women of the lower caverns to be looked after, the beginning Turn’s of Nwalme’s life were pretty much the same as any other Werybrat’s; poking around the older corners of Crystal Caverns (not that many of them were particularly old), sneaking of to gathers at Solse to swipe as many bubbly pies as possible and of course, getting in trouble for both. As a child, she barely knew her mother, and looked at Bronna, her foster mother as if she were her biological parent. Of course, having raised the child, biology was the only claim that Bronna didn’t have to the motherhood of the girl.
The child was as boisterous as any boy, and in fact much preferred to play with them instead of learning how to sew and cook with the others girls of the weyr. She would much rather be climbing all over the place and dashing about with her friends, down by the rivers or climbing the empty sections of the weyr, especially when the entirety of the lower caverns stunk of brewing numbweed. It was regularly that she needed that numbweed though, for a whole collection of scrapes and scratched that she got through her reckless play.
It comes as no surprise then, that when Aelth, Awamina’s green succumbed to the growing danger of Rouge, that the only effect it had on her daughter was fear that they weyr was beginning to fall apart around her. She felt no immediate loss, other than the loss the entire weyr felt at losing yet another rider, and so it barely affected her young life. Bronna didn’t want to break the child’s heart and so refused to tell her that it was her mother who had died, and pleaded everyone else to do the same. Why spoil a child’s happiness when there is no need for it? Nwalme, even to this day, does not know that her mother is dead or indeed that it is anyone other than the loving woman who raised her.
However, at the age of fifteen Turns, Nwalme discovered what it was to feel love. Her best – and only female – friend, Tikara was the object of this new, strange feeling. These feelings kept on growing, and were ever so foreign to the young girl, who was almost beside herself in her confusion. Unable to figure out what it meant, she went to her foster mother to ask what it all meant – carefully omitting who this confusion was caused by. Bronna explained to the girl that due to her age, her emotions and feelings were beginning to change, along with her body and what she felt was attraction, perhaps even the beginnings of love. However, this left the poor girl even more confused, how could a girl love another girl? She knew that her body was changing, because every girl did if they wanted to have babies, but wasn’t the whole point of liking boys so that you could have a baby when you were older? The poor kid couldn’t figure it out and so tried as best as she could to put it to one side and forget about it.
On a day that they had been excused from their duties, Nwalme and Tikara and a few of the other Weyrbrats were allowed to go down to the beach as a treat for good behaviour. Scuttling across the sand and splashing around in the water all day was tiring work, and so when the sun was beginning to get low in the sky, the two best friends found a dune where they could lie in peace, away from the other kids so it wasn’t quite so noisy. It was now that those feelings, so fervently pushed aside, began to resurface.
Lying side by side, next to Kara was getting harder by the minute. Her body kept feeling all warm and then the next minute she would get the shivers, and every single time she looked at the girl lying on the sand next to her, a strange feeling, like firelizards were fluttering around in her stomach started to happen. Rolling over to face the girl, Nwalme let her eyes wander over her body. Two turns older than she, Tikara had long legs and beautiful tanned skin. Her eyes sparkled bright blue when she laughed and she had a slight quirk to one side of her lip when she smiled. Just everything about her made Nwalme feel so wonderful and scared at the same time. Her body began to take over, and before she knew it, she had shuffled closer to the brunette girl, and their lips met in a soft, hesitant kiss. Thrill sang through Nwalme’s body, and to her amazement, Kara responded in kind, taking the kiss to a deeper level.
The girls kept their relationship hidden for about a year or so, before they were caught out; by perhaps one of the rudest and most spiteful of the boys they both knew. They had been together in the elder girls’ room, when the younger lad burst in to tell them they had to get their behinds to the kitchens or else they’d miss out on food; to find them getting rather close and intimate. All hell broke loose. The kid ran through the weyr, gathering up as many of his friends as he could find before turning on the two girls, taunting them, and some even going as far as to throw stones and bits of stick they had found. Shaken up by this incident, it was only a few days later that Tikara announced that she was leaving the weyr, thus leaving Nwalme on her own to cope with the hateful group that had targeted her. The adults all tried to help her as much as possible, but there were still times, when no one else around that she would get beaten up just for liking another girl.
To make matters worse, the same feeling she had developed for Tikara, began to coil its way into her being again – although this time it was for one of the boys in the weyr named Thaion. This she told only to a few of her close friends, but somehow it leaked out. The group who had prosecuted her for being a lesbian now were in shock – as a response, their hatred of the girl grew and the bullying began again.
This time, the weyrleader had to get involved, because it ended up with Nwalme being pushed down some stairs and fracturing the radius of her left arm. The group, totalling about 9 or 10 in total, were sent to individual holds and halls, banished form the weyr. The weyrleader himself couldn’t understand such narrow-mindedness in the children of the weyr, especially as they were brought up around male blue/green riders whose dragons had caught each other in flight and other such things. This effectively ended Nwalme’s prosecution, but left the girl in a state of poor self regard and a severe lack of trust in other people.
As soon as she heard of Skrull Island Weyr, as it had taken since revealed itself to the rest of Pern until now to filter through to her hearing (being a recluse, she rarely heard any news), she immediately asked for a transfer. This way she could escape the bad memories that Crystal Caverns held for her and start afresh. Rumours may have spread, but who would care? The request was accepted and it wasn’t long before she was unpacking her belongings in her new, if small, room. In the time since she arrived, she took an interest in healing, of both humans and dragons, and the Healer of the weyr willingly obliged to teach her. Proving to be a competent healer, Nwalme was taught as much as the woman knew in her spare time.
She quickly was put under the tutelage of Kaneh, the Masterhealer of the weyr and even more shockingly was summoned before the Weyrleader. Her coming to the Weyr had apparently not been the usual transferral, the man who had arranged it having ulterior motives. The whole thing was foiled from the beginning though, for Nwalme had never been the kind to be swayed easily by foolish words. She was given full access to the library, barring the vault, after a minor theft of scrolls had been picked up. If she was so insistent on learning, then let her learn was the Weyrleader’s reasoning. After a somewhat tumultuous introduction, B’ach then forbade her from setting foot on the sands until she had passed the three trials, customs that she had never before heard of.
The first was the Trial of Courage. It required them to fashion a device and with it, leap into the shaft of the Weyr. Nwalme was paired with Riki and between them they devised a glider-like contraption that should have slowed their descent. Should have. Nwalme leapt first, but caught Riki’s locket, prompting the other girl to dive out into the shaft, without the safety of her glider. The next thirty seconds passed in almost a blur; B’ach plummeted past and caught Riki, Ghosts catching the pair and taking them to safety; Nwalme’s rescuer could not reach and sent her on a see-saw action that caused her fall to become all the more dangerous. Nwalme abandoned her glider and managed to curl into a ball before she hit the bottom of the shaft, breaking her arm as she did so. In doing this, she proved her bravery and passed the first Trial.
She was assigned Meliata to act as her aide while the bone was healing. Nwalme, having been used to keeping to herself, tried to find ways to get rid of the girl as much as possible. During one of these times, she found herself talking to Riki once more and in spite of herself, began to feel friendly towards the girl. Upon hearing her ordeal, Nwalme quickly suggested that they should perhaps move their rooms closer together for safety, despite not knowing the girl very well. Riki agreed that it was a good idea and they continued talking for a while. Once they had decided to vacate the library, a sharp pain struck the back of Nwalme’s head, and she fell to the ground unconscious. Whilst she was passed out – a matter of seconds in the ‘real’ world – she experienced an impenetrable darkness, surrounded by icy cold as if for years. The time seemed to stretch and dilate, lengthening into forever until she saw a multicoloured light. Something on the edge of her hearing that sounded like it could have been her name was to be the end of the episode before she returned to consciousness.
The next day, when tending to Patron’s bizarre wounds in the infirmary, she found the courage to inform B’ach of the incident. He revealed to her that this had been part of the Trial of Will, although it had not gone as usual. Hers was not the most extreme deviation from the norm, but startling enough to say the least.
Most days since then, Nwalme has kept herself to her room or the library, trying to digest as much information as she can for the Trial of Knowledge, only appearing in the infirmary when Kaneh calls for her as her broken arm has been quite the hindrance.
Pets: None as of yet.
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