Mairin . Goldrider . Rekhath

Username :: Spore
Character Number :: 1st


Name :: Mairin
Pronunciation :: MAYR-in
Age :: 20 Turns
Birth Season :: Autumn
Gender :: Female
Sexuality :: Heterosexual
Rank :: Goldrider
Wing :: Queen's Wing
Status :: Fighting Fit
Relationship Status :: Single
Play-by :: Becky Lou Filip


Appearance ::

Slightly Tall . Slim . Long Brown Hair . Fair Skin . Green Eyes

For someone who has lived at the Weyr for her entire life, Mairin certainly does a good job of looking like a country-dwelling farm maiden. It's uncanny, considering her tendency to be suspicious and closed off towards strangers, but somehow she still manages to look innocent and guileless without even trying. Probably something to do with her eyes — big doe eyes, green and pretty. People go stupid for a nice pair of eyes, especially if they're such a rare colour. Her hair, on the other hand, is brown and proper as a Pernese woman's should be, like dark polished wood. It's fairly long, and wavy, hanging down to the middle of her back. She has a fairly pleasing face; it's even and everything's in the right place, anyway. Sometimes when she's given to moments of frivolity she frets about her eyebrows, which are slightly bushy for a lady's, but she hides them under long bangs so they're not as noticeable.

Mairin is a bit tall for a woman, reaching a height of five-foot-six in her stocking feet. There are certainly many women taller than she, but it is a bit awkward when she meets the occasional short man who gets offended at being beaten out by a girl, so she doesn't often wear shoes with heels on them. She's a slim woman, but not overly muscular, as she does much less threadfighting and training activity than most other riders. Mairin is fit enough to do what's required of her, but she's often busy with more sedentary things, and so isn't physically competent at much beyond basic threadfighting. She tends to tan instead of freckling, leading to her skin being a step up from pale, although not by much. Mairin dresses according to the weather and the activity she's doing, and although not vain, she does take a short time each morning to make sure everything matches and her hair isn't doing anything embarrassing. She'd be a strange female indeed if she didn't at least do that much.

Personality ::

Protective . Selfless . Compassionate . Wistful . Sensitive . Distrustful . Bitter . Resentful

Mairin loves Solace. She loves its people, its twisting corridors and rough caverns. She loves the sound of dragons and knowing that she can help to make it a better place. She is very protective of those who live there, even those who need no protecting. Every dragonrider who goes to fight thread carries her heart with them. And each one to fall cuts at her, and makes her resolve stronger. It is in her nature to guard others, something which suits her very well to being a dragonrider. She hates the idea of anything happening to her home, to those in it, and would protect it to the death. Her dedication to making Solace a safe place has earned her a reputation around the Weyr, and the nickname "watchdog" in some circles.

From Weyr gossip, it would be easy to come to the conclusion that Mairin is a hard, unwaveringly focused person. She's not. When she isn't busy with a Weyrwoman's duties, she likes spending time with friends and roaming the Weyr or surrounding wilderness. She has a playful side that only comes out around Rekhath or E'oghan, largely because the only other choice for dealing with either would be to become unbelievably frustrated. She also has a fondness for music, although she has no skill with any instrument, and only an average singing voice.

Although friendly within the bounds of her Weyr, Mairin is very much a creature of Solace, and mistrusts anyone from outside, especially if they are from the west. While not fearful or unfriendly, it takes her a time to get used to newcomers, and discern whether or not they can be trusted. Although she hopes that some day Solace and Southern can be at peace with each other, she admittedly holds a great deal of bitterness towards the western Weyr. They have done nothing but ill for her, and for Solace, and she resents every new act that they commit against her home. If peace is possible, she will try to put her feelings aside to work with Southern, but Mairin personally doubts that such a thing is likely to ever happen, and continues to hold onto her animosity for the other Weyr.

History ::

When Tamaiah was sixteen, she lived in Cliff Hold, and she was very pretty. She also liked boys, and because she was pretty, they tended to like her back. So on one sunny afternoon when she had the time to slip away from her family and her work for a while, Tamaiah lost her virginity to a handsome young man who had bought her a trinket at last summer's Gather. And that afternoon, unbeknownst to her, she became pregnant with her very first child.

Of course as soon as she found out, her relationship with that handsome boy ended. He wanted nothing to do with a child-heavy girl, nor did he want to be a father. Tamaiah was supported only grudgingly by her family, who were embarrassed, mostly, by her behaviour, but wouldn't toss their 17 turn old daughter out onto the street. So nine months later, she gave birth to a healthy baby girl whom she named Mai, since there was really no need to bring the father's name into it at all. Maai was raised simply, but was cared for adequately until the age of three, when Tamaiah's family put their foot down and insisted that she move out since she was a well-grown adult woman. Having no real skills other than mothering and making boys look at her, the young woman became a drudge, working most of the day and caring for her young daughter when she had the time.

For six years Tamaiah raised her only daughter in poverty, while Maai grew into a capable and independent girl because she had no one to watch her much of the time. Then when Tamaiah was twenty-six and Maai was nine, a dashing blackrider came to visit the Hold, and ended up taking her away on the back of his dragon, spiriting mother and child away to the Weyr with promises of love and loyalty and a happy ever after. The two stayed together for two years, during which time Tamaiah had her second child, named Mairin since she had a proper father to work into the name this time (let it be known that Tamaiah was not particularly bright or creative). Then their relationship eventually ended after In'ra's dragon won another black's flight, and the two men ended up becoming Weyrmates.

Maai was Searched to become a dragon candidate when she was fifteen, leaving her younger sister and mother alone. Tamaiah had returned to her work as a drudge with the ending of her time with In'ra, and so Mairin was left in much the same situation as Maai had been as a young child. Then, when Mairin was six, Tamaiah was killed when Southern spies managed to steal several bags of flour from Solace's storage and explode them in the kitchens during a busy hour, killing over a dozen and injuring many more. Mairin was moved to the creche full time, since unlike Mai, she was not old enough to become a candidate. A year later, Maai Impressed to a gold and became a weyrling, so Maai had very little chance to see her sister, and was left exclusively in the care of the Weyr.

By this time, the Red Star was drawing slowly closer, and although it would be a few turns yet before thread was expected to fall, the Weyr's old queen had been Rising more frequently. Then, six turns later, the old queen gained an infection during a flight, and was ultimately killed by the spreading taint in her blood. Maai became the sole Weyrwoman of Solace four turns before thread began falling on Pern once more, marking the beginning of the twelfth pass. Mairin became a candidate shortly afterwards, and like her sister, she lived in the candidates' barracks for several turns before finally Impressing five turns into her candidacy. She had been 18 at the time, and it was the first hatching she had attended which included a gold egg.

The smaller, more numerous eggs around the queen began to hatch first, all avoiding Mairin in favour of other, more suitable candidates, as was usual for her. A blue passed her by without a thought, and a red simply glanced at her before moving on. Then the magnificent golden egg and the smaller egg next to it began hatching at almost the same time. The smaller one hatched first, revealing a tiny, lovely copper. Then the gold pushed her way out of her prison, and revealed herself to be just as breathtaking as her sister. Mairin stared with the rest of the female candidates, admiring their beauty and hoping in the back of her mind that either of these creatures might Impress to her.

The gold started moving first, pacing quickly around the males before realizing that Hers could not possibly be there. As she went past one of the last males, she slipped her tail between his legs and tripped him so that he was flat on his back.

Oops, clumsy me. The gold's voice rippled out into the crowd, sounding not remorseful in the least as she moved on with barely a pause.

He looks better on his back, the copper commented slyly. I bet it isn't hard to talk him onto it either.

Zing! Moving on towards the girls, the gold looked about, her eyes passing over each as she inspected them, seeing which would be right for her. Then she sauntered finally up to Mairin, mischievous eyes swirling with rainbows. Mairin, my dear, come with me now. Your Rekhath has tired of mingling with these others. There will be time to know them better once I have eaten.

Needless to say, Mairin was quite shocked to have a newborn gold addressing her, looking at her with those mischievous, rainbow-hued eyes. But shock soon evaporated into the whirlwind of joy, weariness, hunger, and other overpowering sensations that pushed unceremoniously into her mind with Rekhath's arrival. Mairin begun her weyrling training in a somewhat dazed state, but she found her feet quickly.

Having her wardrobe sabotaged by E'oghan helped a lot.

A fellow weyrling, E'oghan had Impressed to the snarky copper that had hatched along Rekhath. He was also a well-known prankster and asshat, but this hadn't caused too much conflict between them... until Mairin found most of her clothes completely destroyed and unusable. That was her property, and uncalled for, and absolutely crossing the line. What followed isn't something she really likes to bring up, but Mairin made sure that her fellow classmate would understand the severity of his misbehaviour. It was perhaps three in the morning when she crept into his room, bound him roughly with a length of rope, cut off all of his hair and dragged him, still in his sleeping clothes, out into the hall for someone else to find in the morning.

He didn't touch her clothes again after that.

After Impressing to Rekhath, Mairin spent a lot more time around her sister than she had for turns, learning from her and collaborating together as the only other queenrider in the Weyr. There was a lot for her to do, but somehow she found time in between two kinds of lessons and other various duties to become friends with the very copperweyrling that she had found so irritating earlier in the turn. He was still an insufferable jerk (although not to her so much), but somehow it just... happened.

It helped that Rekhath was quite fond of her smaller sister, and eagerly latched onto any opportunity to spend time with the devious copper. Eventually everyone in their class who had made it through the turn and a half of training graduated, and Mairin became a fully-fledged queenrider. Rekhath has taken her time in Rising, but Mairin waits with both trepidation and eagerness for the day when Rekhath will join her mother in producing the Weyr's next generation of dragons.

Mother :: Tamaiah
Father :: In'ra
Half-Sister :: Maai