Eidey

Character type: Weyr Staff
Rank: Head of Kitchens
Age: 73
Gender: Female
Sexual Preference: Heterosexual

Appearance

Eidey’s looks can be something deceiving, blessed with the sort of face that makes her appear younger than she really is at first. But keep looking and her age starts to show itself. There’s telltale lines in her face, a sag to her skin and a stiffness in the way she walks that give her away. She does what she can to hide the fact that she’s getting older. Her hair may have gone silvery-white, but she keeps it in what she considers a stylish short crop, something that adds a bit of youth to her look. There is a certain glowing health to her deeply bronzed skin, a most fortunate gene from her mother’s side, but the hot sun of Ista will weather any person’s face, no matter how good of skin they have.

Eidey clearly spends a great deal of time in the morning preparing for her day. What little make-up Pern has to offer is put to careful use so that she can distract from the wrinkles and loose skin. She has an extensive wardrobe that she’s collected over the turns and everything is kept in the finest condition she can manage. There is no reason to look shabby, ever again and even if she’s just taking a late night trip to the kitchens she will be dressed in her best. She has a particular adoration for anything with the nicest fur trims or overly ornamental broaches.

There is a quick smile on this woman’s face and if its tinged with the residual sadness from many turns ago, its usually only slight. Ever present and some days are worse than others, but after so long she’s learned to keep her sorrow to appropriate times.

Personality

Eidey came from the most humble of beginning’s and even to this day she hasn’t forgotten to be thankful for what she has. She will always remember being a small, hungry child in a failing farmhold; that sort of life is just something that you can forget and its shaped who she is more than anything else. Its taught her the value of everything, even still the simple pleasures in life like being able to have a proper bath, or drinking a cup of hot klah. There’s a thorough appreciation and she’ll be a woman that will be on everyone’s case about doing the same. She tries not to nag, but she’ll certainly be there to let you know that ‘it could be worse’ or wallop a brat that wastes any food.

Its this mentality that kept her sane after she lost Embareth. Because it *did* get worse. The trauma of losing a dragon is incomparable and it took her a very long time to be able to come to terms with it. As much as someone can when their soul is torn apart. Instead of wallowing in the loss, she focuses on what she still has and holds very dear what she had with her beautiful green. It will always be difficult and there is no way to completely recover from something like that, but she *wants* to be happy and find peace with life so she makes that priority rather than let sorrow overtake her. Having supportive friends and the happiest fire-lizard one could possibly hope for at her side makes a great difference.

In general she’s a pleasant person to be around so long as your not breaking her rules or messing around in her kitchens. For the most part, though, its not as thought someone has to go sneaking around and stealing things, Eidey is happy enough to give out as much as she can, especially to her favorites. Anyone with nice manners or big sad eyes can get an extra treat while rudeness will get a whack with a ladle. There isn’t much discrimination against the Outsiders, but she does go out of her way to treat her Istans extra special. They’re her people and she will always remember the kindness that was shown to her. But that doesn’t mean she lets duties lag. The kitchens are run with thorough efficiency and she takes great pride in making sure everything is as perfect as she can manage.

Some might think she’s a person who likes to show off, or be stuck up and proper by the way she goes about. Truthfully its only a strong sense of pride that comes through in the way she dresses. She clawed her way out of the lowest of Pernese poverty and *earned* these things. Every item of clothing, every piece of jewelry she worked hard for and treasures greatly. To her they show the world that there is never an excuse, you *can* make something of yourself and be great. The only time she will relax her fineness is while she’s cooking; Faranth forbid she ruined something!

History

Birthplace: Unnamed Istan hold, 8.377.9.9

The very small and very poor holding she was born at was not a pleasant place to live. Shoved up on the very top coast of Ista it had been somewhat successful once, but a string of terribly unfortunate events saw it gradually lose its ability to sustain itself. The schools of fish they normally followed had moved on and in efforts to bring in some profits the fishers pushed outward, taking greater risks until a storm claimed both of their vessels. Everything went downhill from there and by the time Eidey was born there was a large family without enough to keep them going. The outlook for the youngest children wasn’t looking good.

It was the kindness of an Istan rider that made life possible. The man had come by on search and chosen the eldest son in the family and in a desperate plea Eidey’s parents begged the rider to take anyone to the Weyr they could. Eidey was seven and though the prospect of leaving was terrifying it was the only choice. The rider took her and the two next youngest, saying it would be easy to foster them at the Weyr.

It didn’t take long to adjust to Weyrlife. It like a little piece of heaven for children who’d gone hungry more often than not and had clothing that was falling apart. They lived in the creche with the other Weyr children, being absorbed into the big communal family of Ista.

Eidey and her two brothers were acceptable as candidates, with the oldest impressing a blue at his first hatching, while her sister took up healing as a craft. Eidey stood at every hatching, ecstatic for the chance to impress, though she was most interested in the beautiful gold dragons. Go big or go home, right?

It wasn’t a queen hatchling that found her when she was twenty, but Eidey loved the little green that did all the same. Embareth was more than she could every hope for and the dove into weyrlinghood with gusto. She grew close with her classmates and, after graduating, her wingmates just became another extension of her family, even moreso when her other brother impressed brown and joined their ranks. She was a kind, easy-going woman that made friends easily and the wing was as tight-knit as could be.

It was a freak accident that took Embareth twelve turns after her hatching and it was only sheer forgetful luck that kept Eidey from going down with the green. It was only a short hop back to the Weyr from the little cove they liked to spend time at so they waited until the last minute before an approaching storm moved in to leave. Eidey hadn’t bother to clip in to the harness and when the winds picked up unexpectedly Embareth’s wing clipped the rock face they were pushed towards. Eidey was thrown, landing in the waters and it was only sheer instinct that got her to shore. She would never know exactly what happened but her dragon was gone.

Her wingmates found her, brought her home and looked after her. Her brother flew with them and refused to let her suicide, despite her attempts. He knew it was a rider’s right to follow their dragon, but his stubbornness wouldn’t accept this and so Eidey survived. The first turn after was torment, but it got a little easier. The grief would take turns to deal with, but ever so gradually life became livable. She found distractions and actually gained some solace being around the dragons in the Weyr. Rather than see them as a sign of her loss, she accepted them as a fond reminder of how wonderful her green had been. It was this sort of outlook that enabled her to succeed after losing a dragon. Focus on the good of it, she told herself constantly.

It was also difficult to lose the wing that had become her family. They were still around, of course and would always be close, but it wasn’t quite the same. Still, they showed their love in a grand way two Turns after Embareth’s death. Urged by her brother, they saved and pooled together their marks to purchase her a fire-lizard egg. She was floored. Aside from being unbelievably fantastic this was a mark of the highest success, a great treasure that she would have never been able to afford. The little creature that hatched was pretty ugly, but perfect. Bergin’s happy enthusiasm like a salve to her wounds and her sorrow seemed to heal quite a bit more with his affections.

Eidey moved through life, dabbling in a few different crafts before settling into the Lower Caverns at thirty-five. She worked the various areas, happy to serve the Weyrfolk she loved so and after a few turns took over the kitchens. She was a good cook and a fair hand at managing the workers and soon she settled into a very comfortable life feeding the Weyr. It was an oddly satisfying sort of living. As someone who came from a family that could hardly feed theirs, it made her very happy to be able to do that for others. Especially as her cooking grew to be something wonderful.

The First Fall was devastating. So many familiar faces were gone in the span of a few hours with more passing from injuries over the days following. Two of her siblings were taken from her and she’d nearly lost her closest friend, her little bronze. The creature had taken thread to his back end and barely made it back to the Weyr. Bergin survived, though he would never fly properly again.

Eidey is still struggling to deal with the overwhelming losses to Ista, but she’ll soldier through, doing her best to help the remaining folk. She isn’t sure about the influx of foreign riders, but it isn’t in her nature to be overly hostile. Not unless they give her a reason.

Relationships

Family: All of Ista <3

Brothers:
R’ney of brown Langith (+2),
D’larn of blue Benrieth (deceased),
Sister:
Journeywoman Healer Hanlen (deceased).
Others not at Weyr

Weyrfolk

Area: Head of Kitchens

Pet

Bronze Burgin

Even before Fall got to him Burgin was never a very attractive creature. He’s a squat little thing, his stumpy frame only accentuated by his muscles developing differently after he learned to move around on the ground with the sort of agility that creatures born of the air normally don’t possess. His face has a slightly misshapen squashed look, mostly because his lower jaw is a tad crooked and a little more forward than the top. He’s the deepest shade of bronze, with hints of pea-soup and army greens gleaming through in the right light. The only variation in his tone is where scarring has lightened it, silvery patterns criss-cross from the middle of his back and down his left side, ending in a mess at what is left of his tail. The appendage ends abruptly a couple of inches past the base, really only a nub of a tail. His left wing was damaged as well, a bit of the back section of sail and spines taken by Thread.

He doesn’t fly, though he can somewhat make awkward glides or flail around in his happy way to get a bit of height. He misses truly flying, though he’s got herself in a very comfortable place moving around on the ground and he’s not bad at fluttering up enough to make little skips between to cover larger distances. Rather than be miserable about his disability he lives vicariously through other flits and dragons. Besides, its easy enough to get friendly with one of his big cousins and hitch a ride around.

The memories of his injury and the devastation that befell his master’s home didn’t stay long with the lizard. Burgin has an uncanny ability to not let things stick. Anything really. He’s a happy-go-lucky and overly-excited little creature that doesn’t seem to know how to be sad or angry or hold onto any negativity. Life is just a ball of happy sunshine to this bronze and his constant cheer is infectious. He loves everything and everyone, and is so pleased to see anyone and anytime.

He’s a social thing, if he can ever be unhappy its when he’s alone. If there’s somewhere he can’t be with her pet, or any of his favourite people he will just go and make new favourite people. Its not uncommon to find him curled up in the lap of some random person or trying to cosy up to someone to try and get some extra food. He can also be found in kitchens much of the time. He fancies himself a bit of a guard over the domain and will hang around to keep an eye on things. Not that he makes a great guard since he can be easily distracted by… well, anything.

Still, Eidey is his main lady, and he loves her most dearly. He knows his friend is sometimes a little broken so despite being so very plucky, he won’t hesitate to take a finger off of someone who’s being cruel to her. And then will bring any stolen digits to his Eidey; anything to cheer the woman up. After all, he’s had his person ever since he was a baby, its his duty to look after her!

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