Character type: Candidate
Rank: Candidate
Age: 17
Gender: Female
Sexual Preference: Whatever
Appearance
Safrim likely won’t ever be more than cute, though there was a time before she started being more ‘creative’ with her looks that she might have been pretty. Once she hit her teenage turns her long blonde hair was chopped off into a different style every couple of months. Now she’s in the process of getting some of the feminine shape back because she’s sick of being mistaken for a boy, though she still likes to keep it short. She’s just going to have to cut it off when she impresses anyway, right? She always kept it closely cropped in the back to help with the heat of Igen, but now she’s got a some length elsewhere to soften the masculine look of short hair. She’s a teeny thing, short and built quite small. It works out for her, since if she *did* have much more substance then her barely acceptable strength wouldn’t be enough to get by on.
Safrim is the type of person that can actually be comfortable wearing anything. She’s just as happy in a cute little dress as she is in baggy men’s trousers, but there’s always a bit of a creative flare to it. She loves to get in and try to wear things a little differently, something that got her picked on at Igen, but she wouldn’t give up for all the bullying. She’s the one always found at gathers digging through the ‘pre-loved’ bins of clothing, rather than buying anything directly from the tailors. Yet it seems to work well enough. Sure there are always failed outfits, but she’s got a decent eye for what patters and colours go together and she’s got a way of making some items look much cooler than they actually are.
Personality
How many shits were given? Not a one. Safrim was the definition of apathetic before being shoved aboard a dragon and moved to Ista. She was always the uninterested, uncaring troublemaker of the barracks, though she did have her phase of being ready to fight at the drop of a hat.
No one ever really got to the bottom of *why* she’s the way she is, or at least she won’t give a straight answer about it. Maybe doing work is beneath her and she feels she has better things to do? Or there’s a sense of entitlement that came with being a weyrborn girl? Maybe she’s too smart (or too dumb) to do the assignments? But anyone who tries to bother getting in there to understand is always met with a brick wall of “screw you”.
The real truth is she just doesn’t really like people. And even if she did, her ability to bond with one is so painfully lacking that she wouldn’t be able to keep around a friend if she tried. Which she doesn’t. She hates being in crowds, and downright refuses to do any form of public speaking. In general she’s not much of a talker, though she’s probably thinking really horrible things about you. When she does have something to say to someone its usually to bluntly tell them just how she doesn’t like them.
Is there a part of her that would love to have a friend, this odd thing that everyone raves about and seem to enjoy having around? Maybe she did at one point, but she spent so much of early childhood bullied that she quickly gave up hope on meeting any human that would consider being nice to her. To her everyone is evil with a hidden agenda and is probably plotting her demise, even if they’re just being kind. None of the kids were ever genuinely nice growing up, why would that change? Usually they were just finding a way to use her, or at least, that’s the way she saw it. It likely wasn’t as bad as all that, but she was always a highly sensitive kid that took every thing so personally that she had to build up very solid walls around her to keep her fragile feelings intact.
Safrim’s a lonely person, but its as much her fault as anyone else’s. This isn’t something she acknowledges; its everyone *else’s* fault for being such assholes that she can’t make friends or let anyone in close. *They* ruined life for her. Until recently she was a bit of a spaz, ready to start fights and give it to anyone who looked at her wrong. But as she’s a tiny girl, this often ended poorly so she’s decided that drawing into herself and apathetically hating everything from a distance is a better choice. Its easier to be moody off in a corner and trying to find a way to find her own measure of happiness while she waits for a dragon than to always be fighting people.
Now she just *can’t* be goaded into a fight. Oh she’ll be pissed off and maybe have some biting snark to offer, but short of someone actually throwing a punch she can’t be drawn into any physical confrontation. Its probably better off, as Ista’s candidate program is even stricter than at home and she won’t risk being kicked out. She’ll even do her hidework and put some effort into the excercises and chores. Bare minimum, of course, but she *needs* to have her dragon so she won’t go out of her way to screw that up.
Because for her there is no other option. To her the future is so bleak and uninviting that if she fails to impress for much longer she may just call it all quits. She truly doesn’t feel like there’s a way to fix all the emotional turmoil she’s got going on other than to impress a dragon. She’s so thoroughly stuck in her teenage angst that she thinks she’d rather die than live alone the way she is, so if she doesn’t get her dragon things will seem very dark indeed.
Is there a fighting spirit in there with the fire to change her life around and find an answer to her problems? Maybe, but its unlikely she’ll find it on her own.
History
Birthplace: Igen Weyr, 8.434.3.12
No one really know in particular when Safrim started getting bullied, but it was when she was very young for sure. She was tiny, weak and maybe a little bit weird… and easy target that only made herself more available to being picked on with poor reactions. Once you get yourself labelled as ‘that funny kid nobody likes’ its really difficult to break the trend. By the time she was old enough to move into the candidate barracks her reputation preceded her. She was the kid you only sat with at lunch because there was no other space and was always picked last for group assignments. It was a vicious cycle of Safrim asking for more trouble and the other kids making it worse.
And there may have been an ancient and terrible enemy looming just a few turns off, but other teenagers were a far worse threat to the girl. There was a period of life where she was miserably depressed (— okay she still is to a point —) and very seriously considered just giving up, but there was always a gleam of hope in the distance, something that could help a poor, picked-on strange girl who created her own self-imposed loneliness: *dragons*. There were plenty of riders in her family, so she was confident enough that she could join them. Except she was left on the sands again and again and the fear that a lifemate would never find her good enough became unbearable at times.
It was actually one of the weyrlingmasters’ idea to help her get a firelizard egg, taking pity on the girl and hoping a companion would get her into a more appropriate headspace. Wild eggs were easy enough to find around the Weyr and if the little green that hatched for Safrim was a little runty and horrible vicious, it seemed to keep the girl in a somewhat happier place. Or at least, not quite such a terrible one.
Though it did make Safrim a little bolder in the months after Thread started to Fall again her behavior got progressively worse and worse. A few too many fights, too much attitude to her instructors and just not enough care was given to anything so it was decided to send her off to Ista. Her uncle, bluerider M’sha had been there for turns, maybe *he* could pull her out of this lifelong funk of hers. At the very least perhaps a fresh start would give Safrim a chance to be something else.
Relationships
Family
Uncle: Bluerider M’sha
Safrim's Dragon: Blue Zalqueth
Colour: Blue
Age: 0
Weyr of Origin: Ista
Appearance
Zalqueth is, without a doubt, one of the showiest blues going around. His hide is that very bright, almost extreme, blue colour and patterned all over with a paler shade that is no less eye catching. Why does the pattern stand out so much? Well the light areas form the shape of feathers, hundreds of feathers all across his body, making him look less like he has the warm, soft, buttery leather hide that dragons are supposed to have, and more like the sleek feathers of a great bird of prey, albeit a bright blue one. Other than his attention demanding hide however Zalqueth is otherwise quite normal in appearance. He’s of normal build, average size, in proportion, with headknobs that kind of curve slightly. However his propensity to pose, and to draw attention back to himself often fools an observer into thinking that he is a much grander size than he actually is.
Personality
Zalqueth is the epitome of the frustrated performer, the dragon who craves the attention and finds any opportunity to bring the attention back onto himself. All he wants is the glory, the accolades and most importantly he wants suitable tributes paid to him, especially gifts. Because of his diva-esque tendencies, Zalqueth quite often refuses to do anything until his ego has been assuaged. No amount of shouting or punishments will work, however flattery does work quite well, and bribery works best of all. Gifts just seem to be this dragons weakness, little treats encouraging him to actually get moving rather than sitting there belligerently. It will certainly be a useful technique for his rider, but possibly a costly one, as he will frequently and adamantly refuse to budge.
Forgiveness will have to be earned through buying off this dragon too, with a gift proportional to the ‘crime’ perpetrated against him. It could just be a simple misunderstanding, or small error on his riders part, but it will still require some small treat before Zalqueth will forgive whoever it is. Big errors or indiscretions will demand a much larger gift.
Full of opinions, which vary between being horribly wrong, and actually correct, Zalqueth has no qualms about sharing his thoughts with the world, and insisting they be treated as correct. His classmates and wingmates will regularly be treated by a broadcast of his opinion, ‘The World According To Zalqueth, which he announces with great aplomb and then barrells through, ignoring any objections or corrections.
Stroppy and demanding he may be, but when push comes to shove, he really does love his rider and even his wingmates and classmates. If someone tried to hurt one of them he would absolutely charge in headfirst to guard their honour. The death of someone he cares about will be probably the only time you will see Zalqueth subdued…and he will be…for a while afterwards.
Pets
Green Firelizard: Green Weeds
True to her name Weeds is well… weedy. She’s a scrawny, leggy and boney little thing that’s all sharp angles with extra stabby-looking ridges along her back. Her colours are rather pretty though; dark forest-green covers the top half of her body and fades into a paler sunny sort of gold-green down her extremities.
Weeds is a nervous creature, easily started and very obviously untrusting of absolutely everything and everyone. She was lured into impressing to Safrim with food despite reservations about the human right out of the shell and now the girl is the only person that can ever have her loyalty. Other humans might earn themselves a place on her short list of ‘what not to bite’, but these are quite uncommon especially as her pet discourages any such kindness to others.
Generally she would prefer to flee from an uncomfortable situation, but she’s just as likely to bite or scratch it. She panics easily, often missing many viable escape routes and resorts to fighting whatever has frightened her (which is actually pretty entertaining when its just a rock or chair). If someone can catch her before she’s gotten herself escalated to this state she can very much be bought. Food, shinies, even things of no value she’ll happily take.
Granted, her memory isn’t the greatest and she’s likely to forget very quickly that someone has given her anything at all, even a few moments later and she’ll turn on them in a heartbeat.