Post by Kira on May 21, 2010 22:12:22 GMT -5
Player:
Name: Kira~
Are you 17+?: Yes, indeedy.
Contact Information:
AIM: Rouxy, you should know this. :|
Email: …And I’m a mod.
Past RP Experience: 1. Some OCs a long time ago with friends on IRC. 2. A little in Aetolia, an RP MUD. 3. A fair amount of tabletop RP. 4. Naruto RPs: Hinata @ Discontinuing, Inc. on LJ; Hinata @ Phoenix Reform Center on LJ; and Hinata and Minato @ Feel Good, Inc. on Scribbld.
Character:
Name: Tessarin “Tess”
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Mostly heterosexual. Think a 1 on the Kinsey scale.
Occupation: Human WeyrHealer.
Description: Though average in height and slender in build, she is built more solidly than she seems. From tussling and keeping up with her foster-brothers, holding down recalcitrant patients, and carrying around her hefty flitter, she’s developed a firm strength throughout her limbs. Waist-long, straight, and dark brown in color, her hair is usually kept bound back in a braid that starts neat and gets messier as her day progresses. Despite the excellent ventilation necessary in the Healing Ward, sweat from both the tropical climate and her various ministrations – coupled with her tendency to constantly wipe her long bangs back and run her fingers through her hair when stressed – tend to matt her hair down. On her rare days of rest, she will sometimes let her shiny, silky locks down…for about an hour before she binds it back in a ponytail instead. Her eyes are slightly almond-shaped and a hazel-gold in color with hints of golden-green here and there in the right light. Her skin is incredibly pale and spattered with a few freckles here and there in the most common areas, and she burns very, very easily. She is by no means gorgeous, but she has a certain charm about her in the slant of her eyes and the crooked grin quirking her full, pale pink lips.
Personality: Tess is a very caring person, but also a very responsible one. She has a very large maternal streak; and if she didn’t think that she was a tad too young (and honestly a bit too busy) to be a mother, she would likely have already offered to foster a Weyrbrat or two. She will switch back and forth between a no-nonsense Healer and calm, loving caregiver to younglings and any who become her patients. She’s usually only excessively light-hearted and silly when entertaining the children in the crèche, cooing and doing voices and acting a fool to play along with them.
That being said, she’s also got a mite of a mischievous streak. Or a large one. No one can quite tell for certain. She’s not often harsh when scolding Jaser for his pranks (only when they’ve done some actual harm by accident), and is secretly not averse to giving him ideas. When someone gets to know her well, she’ll even let them in on her more sardonic sense of humor. She likes being able to trade quips with a friend, and will often add a playful wink and a wicked grin to any who play audience to the harsh teasing being swapped to let them know for certain that she’s joking.
She’s usually very calm, and it takes quite a lot to ruffle her feathers – a useful skill for a Healer, assisting her in both frenetic healing tasks and dealing with patients who seem to live to be difficult. She’s very respectful where it’s due, but is quite willing to roll her eyes when she feels someone is being an idiot irregardless of their status. Not to say that she’s rude by any means – unerringly polite in most cases, actually – but she doesn’t take anyone’s tripe and will dismiss their rubbish with a few choice words. In return for her respect she expects to be respected as well, and one of the few things that will easily make her testy is when someone blatantly ignores her easily-noted Healer’s knots and still chooses to address her as ‘Miss’ instead of ‘Healer’ in a way that discounts her abilities.
Generally warm and friendly to any she comes across, she gets on easily with most people she meets. However, for those who have managed to push enough of the right buttons to get on her bad side: beware. She has a sharp tongue and a glare that’s been likened to both between and dragon’s fire in the same breath. When she finds a reason to truly tell someone off, her tirades are harsh though not unfair. While she would prefer to keep any sort of scolding quietly between herself and the intended target(s) to retain their privacy, she is not above bringing someone up loudly and in front of a crowd if the situation demands.
Unless you’ve managed to be among those to truly piss her off, it is actually very easy to get in her good graces. Books will make her adore you, and make wonderful peace offerings. A cool drink in the middle of the day or a nice cup of klah in the morning or evening will almost always get you a thankful smile, even if it’s strained due to stress. Showing real interest in her craft is also an easy admission into her good book, unless it’s with the intention of avoiding having to come to the Healing Ward to deal with injuries (as some Riders have the tendency to try).
She is quiet, but by no means shy. Always willing to have a chat in her spare time, and unafraid to flirt if she deems a person worthy of her attentions. Learning and teaching are second love only to practicing her craft itself, and she always has one ear open for any sort of new information to be gleaned, as well as for anyone with a query she can assist with. She speaks her mind – though gentles her wording when deemed necessary – and will never speak falsely or act as something she is not. While she is firmly aware of her own strengths and accomplishments, she is also aware of her weaknesses. She is not overly prideful, though she demands the respect due her as an accomplished Healer. If she recognizes that she is ill-qualified to accomplish a task, she will quite willingly step back and refrain from action or (preferably) accept instruction from someone who is qualified to do so.
One large failing of hers is that while she will quite fervently admonish anyone else who pushes themselves too hard, she is herself guilty of it. Always trying to be the best Healer her people could hope for, she often pushes herself beyond her limits and is nigh-constantly stressed. She takes complete responsibility for any patient put in her care, and any complications in treatment will cause her to mete out a harsh punishment to herself – no matter how minor the error. (The recent grub-induced epidemic is one giant example of this.) While it would likely be acceptable for her to take multiple rest days, she will usually only take one every sevenday – and consider herself on call that day anyway. She is in huge need of people to make her de-stress and relax, though she would roll her eyes if anyone told her that.
History: Tess never knew her birth parents. A wealthy merchant family from Benden came across the foundling baby girl by chance while out for a picnic with their two young sons and the three boys they were fostering. They immediately had the authorities put out an alert, but no one came forth to claim the child. When six months had passed with no word, they were given the option of giving her to the local orphanage or keeping her. By then the whole family had had time to become enamored with the happy little baby and without question they decided to foster her like they had with the other young boys – giving her a good home until she showed a strong craft-talent and was old enough to be apprenticed.
For the early years of her life, Tess knew the joys of growing up with five big brothers. They teased her mercilessly – but beat up anyone else who dared. They would gentle their roughhousing when she deigned to hop in – but eventually taught her to give and take it as well as any boy. Her foster-mother instilled in her the views that girls wore long dresses and long tresses, but it didn’t stop her from hiking up her skirts and tying back her hair to go have fun with the boys. There was a great deal of sadness as gradually the elder three foster-brothers and the younger of the biological sons were apprenticed away to different crafts – the elder of the biological sons being kept near to learn how to run his parents’ business.
When she was eight, she was surprised one day to see a kind man in Healer’s robes in the sitting room having a cup of klah with her foster-parents. After a volley of confusing questions about things she did when her brothers managed to get banged up, she was surprised when the Healer piped in saying that she already had picked up such a wide variety of tips and tricks of the trade. Noticing her confusion, her foster-mother affectionately ran her fingers through Tess’s hair and explained that she’d noticed that whenever any of her brothers got injured, she’d always step-to and bark out orders to the others while patching them up. She was always taking care of everyone – not just her brothers, but the other neighborhood kids as well and asking after anyone who she knew was ill. She had a big heart, but instead of bursting into tears when she saw others hurt she remained calm and stepped in to assist them. It was with this reasoning that they had deemed Healercraft as the best choice for her apprenticeship. Master Healer Murray would be staying the week with them evaluating her and getting to know her, and if he deemed her worthy he would be escorting her on the long journey to the Healer Hall at Fort Hold.
She was scared and sad to leave her home, but barely had time to feel it in that last week with all the tests and questions and preparations and well-wishers who stopped by to bid her farewell and good luck. The road across nearly the entirety of the Northern Continent seemed long and bleak at first, but Master Healer Murray had a jovial streak in him that she couldn’t help but find contagious. He sparked her natural curiosity at every turn along the way, unbeknownst to her starting in on her lessons by explaining the healing or harmful properties of every tree, flower, shrub, and weed they passed. By the time they finally made their way to Fort Hold, it was with a happy heart and barely contained excitement that she practically bounced into her new home in the Healer Hall, ready to learn. There was once again a brief sadness when she thought she would be parted from the kind man who’d taught her as he brought her across the world and become akin to an uncle in her eyes. But when she was brought in and introduced to the Master Healer who would be overseeing most of her education, she practically leapt into the smiling Murray’s arms.
Over the next several Turns, she devoured every ounce of knowledge offered to her. She developed a neat efficiency for patching up minor wounds and a vast knowledge of various medicines. Ingredients lists and preparation directions were easily memorized, and she even researched into several non-traditional applications of various substances. The other masters first teased Murray about his wandering apprentice when she’d seek out other Master Healers with different specialties to ask questions, but soon they were surprised by the questions she’d ask and her out-of-the-box thinking and most were more than happy to assist her (and then apologize to Murray for making cracks on his ability to teach when they realized what a voracious handful she was).
Her one big roadblock came when she was asked to assist on a live surgery. She’d dissected various animals to learn about organ structure and seen more slides and videos about human anatomy than she could count. She’d sutured so many surface wounds it wasn’t even a challenge anymore to get a straight, taut stitch and a perfect knot. But never before had she been in a position to put her hands inside another living being – especially another human. Her stomach twisted, her breathing hastened, the fetid smell of innards made the bile rise in her throat – but worse than that, her hands began to shake as her vision blurred with tears. She couldn’t do it. She ended up having to run out of the procedure room and sit in the hall outside with her head between her knees until her harsh breathing passed. Upon further trial, it was discovered that she had a tendency toward panic attacks when it came to reaching her hands into another person’s body. Despite all her other skills, she’d never be a surgeon.
First, disappointment in herself welled in her, but after a few comforting words from Murray and her other various mentors a new determination was born from it. Gradually she managed to bring herself closer to the source of her panic, desensitizing herself little by little. Standing in the procedure room led to standing over the wound watching led to helping hold various clamps and hoses that reached into the parted flesh led to being able to reach into the wound itself. Her uneasiness still remained, and she knew that she would never specialize in surgery, but she had conquered it enough to know that she could still provide emergency care if needed, at least for a short time. Extended amounts of time in surgery and incredibly invasive procedures still freaked her out though, and she preferred to avoid them if at all possible.
It was at seventeen that she walked the tables to become a journeywoman of her craft – a full Turn earlier than the majority. It was whispered all around that she had the makings of a Master – all she lacked was the experience. There are two places known to expose a person to the most intense uses of healing in the world: the Surgery Wards of the various Healer Halls scattered across the land, which would likely be an unwise choice for her; or the Healing Ward in any of the Weyrs. With word circulating of plans to open a new Weyr on the Southern Continent, they kept her back from travel to instead train intensively with a retired Master WeyrHealer who had returned to the main Healer Hall to teach.
Four months after the establishment of Silver Cove Weyr, she was transferred there a-dragonback as their new WeyrHealer. As a welcoming gift, she received a fire-lizard egg from her soon-to-be good friend Weyrwoman Ruvna. The enormous, quirky blue that shortly hatched from her egg played a mighty role in her comfort – becoming her nigh-constant companion and giving her someone she can always and forever confide in. It took some time, but after about a Turn she began to love the people she now passed her time in the company of. Because of this, she was the one of the foremost among those desperately scrambling to find a cure for the madness and fever that began to wrack her beloved Weyr. Desperation and disappointment flooded her at every spare moment – of which there were sadly few – for in all her research she couldn’t find anything that could sufficiently counteract the poison killing the people she was responsible for healing. The fact that all the masters across Pern couldn’t find neither the cause nor the cure either should have relieved her self-doubt, but instead it only increased her anguish with every life lost. She was at her wits’ end. She had barely left the bedside of her dear friend, Weyrwoman Ruvna, for a scant few hours before she heard the screams and keening as Ruvna plummeted to her death and Fannith decimated her clutch before winking between. She felt like she had failed both her friend and everyone else in the Weyr who had accepted her as one of their own that day. It was shortly thereafter that she received word from the main Healer Hall that it was in fact the grubs poisoning their crops and livestock and the gradual buildup of toxins that caused first fever and general ailment, then madness, then death. Her exultance was unfortunately colored by her bitter grief over the news coming so very little too late.
She did her best to beat back her emotions as they packed everyone up and moved to the new Cerulean Weyr. She quickly demanded every ounce of knowledge from her Hall on how to thin out and remove both the heavy metal and toxin deposits in her remaining patients and set about doing so with a vigor borne of fury. By the time all were healthy and hale again, she had exhausted her grief and chosen more productive trains of thought. She had learned early in her studies that you cannot save all, but to stay devoted to those you can save. When she realized that many in the Weyr not only still accepted her continued presence but were even thankful that she was there, she was moved to tears. These were people who understood that logic better than anyone on Pern, and among them she still had a home.
Since then, she has done everything within her power to take care of those she now considers her own. She still holds a grudge against the grubs, however, and spends many a rest day researching ways to rid Pern of the ill-begotten pests. While she misses her scattered foster-family and friends from her studying days terribly, she will honestly admit that she has never felt more like she belonged until shortly into those first couple months at Cerulean.
Fun Facts:
• Tess hates the heat and sun. She grew up in Benden and Fort and is used to chillier climates, and she sunburns easily. She likely has all the cool little shaded, breezy nooks in the Weyr scoped already for places to hole away on her rest days. Her tendency to burn has also made it so that she could practically brew sunburn ointments in her sleep.
• Though she usually wears dresses, she often has thin shorts or knee-length pants on underneath. This stems from when she was little and would roughhouse with her brothers and their friends, but didn’t want to show off her unders to the world.
• Just because she wears a dress, do not think she cannot kick your arse. She has held down full-grown male patients before and can likely knock you flat and pin you all the same.
• She still keeps in touch with her foster-family through letters as much as she can.
• She adores children. When she doesn’t have to watch patients she can often be found in the crèche rocking and cooing and soothing the babies or helping the Harpers teach the younglings.
• While she dreams of a love like that of her foster-parents, she spent her puberty years in the Healer Hall where many Healers were too absorbed in their studies for devoted relationships and the Harpers next door were fairly known for their exploits. As such, she’s had her small share of lovers over the years. She adapted to relationships in the Weyr easily – and has likely found her way into a dragonman’s bed a time or three – but she’s no flight-moth.
• She has a very firm control of her libido. It became something of a necessity with Jase attempting to give chase in every mating flight or run that occurred anywhere in the Weyr’s vicinity – and often having little romps with any number of non-rising fire-lizard females as well.
• Her room is veritably stuffed with books on a variety of subjects. The only shelf, table, and floor space not potentially stacked with them is the little nooks displaying the various plants and trinkets she’s received as gifts from her family and friends over the years. She has learned better than to let herself fall into her bed, as more than once the sharp corner or hard cover of a book hidden in the covers has stabbed or whacked her upon doing so.
• She was such a voracious learner as a child that her foster-parents pondered apprenticing her to the Harper Hall instead. However, it was noted that while she had a very decent voice, she was generally more interested in the content of the learning songs than the music or lyrical quality.
• She will smash any bug she encounters. Her excuse is that they could possibly carry disease to her patients. The real reason for her intense hatred is much more current: the mutated grubs.
Bonded Critter:
Type: Fire-Lizard
Name: Jaser “Jase”
Color: Blue
Age: 2
Description: If a brown ever miraculously transformed into a blue, this flitter would be it. Easily the size of an average brown, this monstrous blue is built a little on the stubby side with thick limbs and a shorter tail. He has wide wings that take away some of his blue agility, but the trade off is for enough stamina to chase a gold. Mainly a deep royal blue in color, brighter and lighter patches of sky blue spatter across his hide – even going so far as to cover half his face and snout, making him look comically two-faced.
Personality: Jaser absolutely loves females of any kind of intelligent species. He has chased greens and golds, though has never actually caught any of the elusive little queens – despite the surprise caused by and stamina inherent in his large size and strong stature. He has sometimes even risen to fleetingly give chase and croon his love to his bigger cousins before being swiftly left behind. He is never one to sulk over a lost love, as he adores His most of all and is quite willing and happy to return to her after a chase. He sometimes finds it necessary to drive off other males from His lovely, especially if the male in question makes her nervous or upset in any way. Possessive and protective (more the latter than the former), his favorite perch is anywhere high in a room – a station from which he can both watch over His and scope out the area for any potential fun through small pranks. He’s equally happy, though, to perch on His’s head or shoulders.
Fun Facts:
• He has a strong prankster streak, which will range from aerial divebombs to swiping small objects when you’re not looking to making noises behind your head and quickly winging away to seeing how many small objects he can drop and decorate you with before you notice.
• If you’re female and intelligent, he will try to cuddle up to you at least once. Depending on how hard you shoo him or happily you oblige him he might possibly return again and again. You wake up ‘cause there’s something rumbling near your head? Yeah, that’s him.
• Like His, he likes children and will put up with a fair amount of grabbing and tugging from little ones without fuss. He displays a fair amount of his comical nature to entertain them, especially when they’re stuck in the Healing Ward.
• He likes people in general and spends a fair amount of time entertaining those in the Healing Ward (until he’s shooed off by His so they can rest).
Craftskills:
Craft: Healercraft
Level of Proficiency: Journeywoman
Specialty: Herbs, medications, general healing.
Weakness: Extensive and/or invasive surgery.
Name: Kira~
Are you 17+?: Yes, indeedy.
Contact Information:
AIM: Rouxy, you should know this. :|
Email: …And I’m a mod.
Past RP Experience: 1. Some OCs a long time ago with friends on IRC. 2. A little in Aetolia, an RP MUD. 3. A fair amount of tabletop RP. 4. Naruto RPs: Hinata @ Discontinuing, Inc. on LJ; Hinata @ Phoenix Reform Center on LJ; and Hinata and Minato @ Feel Good, Inc. on Scribbld.
Character:
Name: Tessarin “Tess”
Age: 23
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Mostly heterosexual. Think a 1 on the Kinsey scale.
Occupation: Human WeyrHealer.
Description: Though average in height and slender in build, she is built more solidly than she seems. From tussling and keeping up with her foster-brothers, holding down recalcitrant patients, and carrying around her hefty flitter, she’s developed a firm strength throughout her limbs. Waist-long, straight, and dark brown in color, her hair is usually kept bound back in a braid that starts neat and gets messier as her day progresses. Despite the excellent ventilation necessary in the Healing Ward, sweat from both the tropical climate and her various ministrations – coupled with her tendency to constantly wipe her long bangs back and run her fingers through her hair when stressed – tend to matt her hair down. On her rare days of rest, she will sometimes let her shiny, silky locks down…for about an hour before she binds it back in a ponytail instead. Her eyes are slightly almond-shaped and a hazel-gold in color with hints of golden-green here and there in the right light. Her skin is incredibly pale and spattered with a few freckles here and there in the most common areas, and she burns very, very easily. She is by no means gorgeous, but she has a certain charm about her in the slant of her eyes and the crooked grin quirking her full, pale pink lips.
Personality: Tess is a very caring person, but also a very responsible one. She has a very large maternal streak; and if she didn’t think that she was a tad too young (and honestly a bit too busy) to be a mother, she would likely have already offered to foster a Weyrbrat or two. She will switch back and forth between a no-nonsense Healer and calm, loving caregiver to younglings and any who become her patients. She’s usually only excessively light-hearted and silly when entertaining the children in the crèche, cooing and doing voices and acting a fool to play along with them.
That being said, she’s also got a mite of a mischievous streak. Or a large one. No one can quite tell for certain. She’s not often harsh when scolding Jaser for his pranks (only when they’ve done some actual harm by accident), and is secretly not averse to giving him ideas. When someone gets to know her well, she’ll even let them in on her more sardonic sense of humor. She likes being able to trade quips with a friend, and will often add a playful wink and a wicked grin to any who play audience to the harsh teasing being swapped to let them know for certain that she’s joking.
She’s usually very calm, and it takes quite a lot to ruffle her feathers – a useful skill for a Healer, assisting her in both frenetic healing tasks and dealing with patients who seem to live to be difficult. She’s very respectful where it’s due, but is quite willing to roll her eyes when she feels someone is being an idiot irregardless of their status. Not to say that she’s rude by any means – unerringly polite in most cases, actually – but she doesn’t take anyone’s tripe and will dismiss their rubbish with a few choice words. In return for her respect she expects to be respected as well, and one of the few things that will easily make her testy is when someone blatantly ignores her easily-noted Healer’s knots and still chooses to address her as ‘Miss’ instead of ‘Healer’ in a way that discounts her abilities.
Generally warm and friendly to any she comes across, she gets on easily with most people she meets. However, for those who have managed to push enough of the right buttons to get on her bad side: beware. She has a sharp tongue and a glare that’s been likened to both between and dragon’s fire in the same breath. When she finds a reason to truly tell someone off, her tirades are harsh though not unfair. While she would prefer to keep any sort of scolding quietly between herself and the intended target(s) to retain their privacy, she is not above bringing someone up loudly and in front of a crowd if the situation demands.
Unless you’ve managed to be among those to truly piss her off, it is actually very easy to get in her good graces. Books will make her adore you, and make wonderful peace offerings. A cool drink in the middle of the day or a nice cup of klah in the morning or evening will almost always get you a thankful smile, even if it’s strained due to stress. Showing real interest in her craft is also an easy admission into her good book, unless it’s with the intention of avoiding having to come to the Healing Ward to deal with injuries (as some Riders have the tendency to try).
She is quiet, but by no means shy. Always willing to have a chat in her spare time, and unafraid to flirt if she deems a person worthy of her attentions. Learning and teaching are second love only to practicing her craft itself, and she always has one ear open for any sort of new information to be gleaned, as well as for anyone with a query she can assist with. She speaks her mind – though gentles her wording when deemed necessary – and will never speak falsely or act as something she is not. While she is firmly aware of her own strengths and accomplishments, she is also aware of her weaknesses. She is not overly prideful, though she demands the respect due her as an accomplished Healer. If she recognizes that she is ill-qualified to accomplish a task, she will quite willingly step back and refrain from action or (preferably) accept instruction from someone who is qualified to do so.
One large failing of hers is that while she will quite fervently admonish anyone else who pushes themselves too hard, she is herself guilty of it. Always trying to be the best Healer her people could hope for, she often pushes herself beyond her limits and is nigh-constantly stressed. She takes complete responsibility for any patient put in her care, and any complications in treatment will cause her to mete out a harsh punishment to herself – no matter how minor the error. (The recent grub-induced epidemic is one giant example of this.) While it would likely be acceptable for her to take multiple rest days, she will usually only take one every sevenday – and consider herself on call that day anyway. She is in huge need of people to make her de-stress and relax, though she would roll her eyes if anyone told her that.
History: Tess never knew her birth parents. A wealthy merchant family from Benden came across the foundling baby girl by chance while out for a picnic with their two young sons and the three boys they were fostering. They immediately had the authorities put out an alert, but no one came forth to claim the child. When six months had passed with no word, they were given the option of giving her to the local orphanage or keeping her. By then the whole family had had time to become enamored with the happy little baby and without question they decided to foster her like they had with the other young boys – giving her a good home until she showed a strong craft-talent and was old enough to be apprenticed.
For the early years of her life, Tess knew the joys of growing up with five big brothers. They teased her mercilessly – but beat up anyone else who dared. They would gentle their roughhousing when she deigned to hop in – but eventually taught her to give and take it as well as any boy. Her foster-mother instilled in her the views that girls wore long dresses and long tresses, but it didn’t stop her from hiking up her skirts and tying back her hair to go have fun with the boys. There was a great deal of sadness as gradually the elder three foster-brothers and the younger of the biological sons were apprenticed away to different crafts – the elder of the biological sons being kept near to learn how to run his parents’ business.
When she was eight, she was surprised one day to see a kind man in Healer’s robes in the sitting room having a cup of klah with her foster-parents. After a volley of confusing questions about things she did when her brothers managed to get banged up, she was surprised when the Healer piped in saying that she already had picked up such a wide variety of tips and tricks of the trade. Noticing her confusion, her foster-mother affectionately ran her fingers through Tess’s hair and explained that she’d noticed that whenever any of her brothers got injured, she’d always step-to and bark out orders to the others while patching them up. She was always taking care of everyone – not just her brothers, but the other neighborhood kids as well and asking after anyone who she knew was ill. She had a big heart, but instead of bursting into tears when she saw others hurt she remained calm and stepped in to assist them. It was with this reasoning that they had deemed Healercraft as the best choice for her apprenticeship. Master Healer Murray would be staying the week with them evaluating her and getting to know her, and if he deemed her worthy he would be escorting her on the long journey to the Healer Hall at Fort Hold.
She was scared and sad to leave her home, but barely had time to feel it in that last week with all the tests and questions and preparations and well-wishers who stopped by to bid her farewell and good luck. The road across nearly the entirety of the Northern Continent seemed long and bleak at first, but Master Healer Murray had a jovial streak in him that she couldn’t help but find contagious. He sparked her natural curiosity at every turn along the way, unbeknownst to her starting in on her lessons by explaining the healing or harmful properties of every tree, flower, shrub, and weed they passed. By the time they finally made their way to Fort Hold, it was with a happy heart and barely contained excitement that she practically bounced into her new home in the Healer Hall, ready to learn. There was once again a brief sadness when she thought she would be parted from the kind man who’d taught her as he brought her across the world and become akin to an uncle in her eyes. But when she was brought in and introduced to the Master Healer who would be overseeing most of her education, she practically leapt into the smiling Murray’s arms.
Over the next several Turns, she devoured every ounce of knowledge offered to her. She developed a neat efficiency for patching up minor wounds and a vast knowledge of various medicines. Ingredients lists and preparation directions were easily memorized, and she even researched into several non-traditional applications of various substances. The other masters first teased Murray about his wandering apprentice when she’d seek out other Master Healers with different specialties to ask questions, but soon they were surprised by the questions she’d ask and her out-of-the-box thinking and most were more than happy to assist her (and then apologize to Murray for making cracks on his ability to teach when they realized what a voracious handful she was).
Her one big roadblock came when she was asked to assist on a live surgery. She’d dissected various animals to learn about organ structure and seen more slides and videos about human anatomy than she could count. She’d sutured so many surface wounds it wasn’t even a challenge anymore to get a straight, taut stitch and a perfect knot. But never before had she been in a position to put her hands inside another living being – especially another human. Her stomach twisted, her breathing hastened, the fetid smell of innards made the bile rise in her throat – but worse than that, her hands began to shake as her vision blurred with tears. She couldn’t do it. She ended up having to run out of the procedure room and sit in the hall outside with her head between her knees until her harsh breathing passed. Upon further trial, it was discovered that she had a tendency toward panic attacks when it came to reaching her hands into another person’s body. Despite all her other skills, she’d never be a surgeon.
First, disappointment in herself welled in her, but after a few comforting words from Murray and her other various mentors a new determination was born from it. Gradually she managed to bring herself closer to the source of her panic, desensitizing herself little by little. Standing in the procedure room led to standing over the wound watching led to helping hold various clamps and hoses that reached into the parted flesh led to being able to reach into the wound itself. Her uneasiness still remained, and she knew that she would never specialize in surgery, but she had conquered it enough to know that she could still provide emergency care if needed, at least for a short time. Extended amounts of time in surgery and incredibly invasive procedures still freaked her out though, and she preferred to avoid them if at all possible.
It was at seventeen that she walked the tables to become a journeywoman of her craft – a full Turn earlier than the majority. It was whispered all around that she had the makings of a Master – all she lacked was the experience. There are two places known to expose a person to the most intense uses of healing in the world: the Surgery Wards of the various Healer Halls scattered across the land, which would likely be an unwise choice for her; or the Healing Ward in any of the Weyrs. With word circulating of plans to open a new Weyr on the Southern Continent, they kept her back from travel to instead train intensively with a retired Master WeyrHealer who had returned to the main Healer Hall to teach.
Four months after the establishment of Silver Cove Weyr, she was transferred there a-dragonback as their new WeyrHealer. As a welcoming gift, she received a fire-lizard egg from her soon-to-be good friend Weyrwoman Ruvna. The enormous, quirky blue that shortly hatched from her egg played a mighty role in her comfort – becoming her nigh-constant companion and giving her someone she can always and forever confide in. It took some time, but after about a Turn she began to love the people she now passed her time in the company of. Because of this, she was the one of the foremost among those desperately scrambling to find a cure for the madness and fever that began to wrack her beloved Weyr. Desperation and disappointment flooded her at every spare moment – of which there were sadly few – for in all her research she couldn’t find anything that could sufficiently counteract the poison killing the people she was responsible for healing. The fact that all the masters across Pern couldn’t find neither the cause nor the cure either should have relieved her self-doubt, but instead it only increased her anguish with every life lost. She was at her wits’ end. She had barely left the bedside of her dear friend, Weyrwoman Ruvna, for a scant few hours before she heard the screams and keening as Ruvna plummeted to her death and Fannith decimated her clutch before winking between. She felt like she had failed both her friend and everyone else in the Weyr who had accepted her as one of their own that day. It was shortly thereafter that she received word from the main Healer Hall that it was in fact the grubs poisoning their crops and livestock and the gradual buildup of toxins that caused first fever and general ailment, then madness, then death. Her exultance was unfortunately colored by her bitter grief over the news coming so very little too late.
She did her best to beat back her emotions as they packed everyone up and moved to the new Cerulean Weyr. She quickly demanded every ounce of knowledge from her Hall on how to thin out and remove both the heavy metal and toxin deposits in her remaining patients and set about doing so with a vigor borne of fury. By the time all were healthy and hale again, she had exhausted her grief and chosen more productive trains of thought. She had learned early in her studies that you cannot save all, but to stay devoted to those you can save. When she realized that many in the Weyr not only still accepted her continued presence but were even thankful that she was there, she was moved to tears. These were people who understood that logic better than anyone on Pern, and among them she still had a home.
Since then, she has done everything within her power to take care of those she now considers her own. She still holds a grudge against the grubs, however, and spends many a rest day researching ways to rid Pern of the ill-begotten pests. While she misses her scattered foster-family and friends from her studying days terribly, she will honestly admit that she has never felt more like she belonged until shortly into those first couple months at Cerulean.
Fun Facts:
• Tess hates the heat and sun. She grew up in Benden and Fort and is used to chillier climates, and she sunburns easily. She likely has all the cool little shaded, breezy nooks in the Weyr scoped already for places to hole away on her rest days. Her tendency to burn has also made it so that she could practically brew sunburn ointments in her sleep.
• Though she usually wears dresses, she often has thin shorts or knee-length pants on underneath. This stems from when she was little and would roughhouse with her brothers and their friends, but didn’t want to show off her unders to the world.
• Just because she wears a dress, do not think she cannot kick your arse. She has held down full-grown male patients before and can likely knock you flat and pin you all the same.
• She still keeps in touch with her foster-family through letters as much as she can.
• She adores children. When she doesn’t have to watch patients she can often be found in the crèche rocking and cooing and soothing the babies or helping the Harpers teach the younglings.
• While she dreams of a love like that of her foster-parents, she spent her puberty years in the Healer Hall where many Healers were too absorbed in their studies for devoted relationships and the Harpers next door were fairly known for their exploits. As such, she’s had her small share of lovers over the years. She adapted to relationships in the Weyr easily – and has likely found her way into a dragonman’s bed a time or three – but she’s no flight-moth.
• She has a very firm control of her libido. It became something of a necessity with Jase attempting to give chase in every mating flight or run that occurred anywhere in the Weyr’s vicinity – and often having little romps with any number of non-rising fire-lizard females as well.
• Her room is veritably stuffed with books on a variety of subjects. The only shelf, table, and floor space not potentially stacked with them is the little nooks displaying the various plants and trinkets she’s received as gifts from her family and friends over the years. She has learned better than to let herself fall into her bed, as more than once the sharp corner or hard cover of a book hidden in the covers has stabbed or whacked her upon doing so.
• She was such a voracious learner as a child that her foster-parents pondered apprenticing her to the Harper Hall instead. However, it was noted that while she had a very decent voice, she was generally more interested in the content of the learning songs than the music or lyrical quality.
• She will smash any bug she encounters. Her excuse is that they could possibly carry disease to her patients. The real reason for her intense hatred is much more current: the mutated grubs.
Bonded Critter:
Type: Fire-Lizard
Name: Jaser “Jase”
Color: Blue
Age: 2
Description: If a brown ever miraculously transformed into a blue, this flitter would be it. Easily the size of an average brown, this monstrous blue is built a little on the stubby side with thick limbs and a shorter tail. He has wide wings that take away some of his blue agility, but the trade off is for enough stamina to chase a gold. Mainly a deep royal blue in color, brighter and lighter patches of sky blue spatter across his hide – even going so far as to cover half his face and snout, making him look comically two-faced.
Personality: Jaser absolutely loves females of any kind of intelligent species. He has chased greens and golds, though has never actually caught any of the elusive little queens – despite the surprise caused by and stamina inherent in his large size and strong stature. He has sometimes even risen to fleetingly give chase and croon his love to his bigger cousins before being swiftly left behind. He is never one to sulk over a lost love, as he adores His most of all and is quite willing and happy to return to her after a chase. He sometimes finds it necessary to drive off other males from His lovely, especially if the male in question makes her nervous or upset in any way. Possessive and protective (more the latter than the former), his favorite perch is anywhere high in a room – a station from which he can both watch over His and scope out the area for any potential fun through small pranks. He’s equally happy, though, to perch on His’s head or shoulders.
Fun Facts:
• He has a strong prankster streak, which will range from aerial divebombs to swiping small objects when you’re not looking to making noises behind your head and quickly winging away to seeing how many small objects he can drop and decorate you with before you notice.
• If you’re female and intelligent, he will try to cuddle up to you at least once. Depending on how hard you shoo him or happily you oblige him he might possibly return again and again. You wake up ‘cause there’s something rumbling near your head? Yeah, that’s him.
• Like His, he likes children and will put up with a fair amount of grabbing and tugging from little ones without fuss. He displays a fair amount of his comical nature to entertain them, especially when they’re stuck in the Healing Ward.
• He likes people in general and spends a fair amount of time entertaining those in the Healing Ward (until he’s shooed off by His so they can rest).
Craftskills:
Craft: Healercraft
Level of Proficiency: Journeywoman
Specialty: Herbs, medications, general healing.
Weakness: Extensive and/or invasive surgery.