Post by Faerie on Aug 19, 2010 12:42:58 GMT -8
| - Headwoman - |
Name: Evyane
Turns: 61
Gender: Female
Rank: Headwoman
Sexuality: Homosexual
Weyrmate: Anira of green Isith {{deceased}}
Appearance:
Evyane might have been a beautiful woman in her distant youth, but she doesn't remember. Sixty-one Turns of hard life have taken their toll on this venerable woman. Every laugh, grimace, and smirk she's ever let out over the course her life has culminated in visible wrinkles that drag the corners of her mouth down in a never-pleased frown. Her curly, often frizzy brown hair only adds to her her slightly haggard, well-worn appearance. The thick streaks of gray might have suggested wisdom on another woman, but when added to the tired visage of the Headwoman, they only add to her apparent age.
Akum Weyr's Headwoman doesn't seem to have advanced much with the times, at least clothing wise. She doesn't look as though she'd bought new clothes in more than ten years. The faded fabrics are neat and clean, but some of the hems are frayed. In addition, she looks slightly dwarfed in her own clothes due to a combination of loss of weight and loss of height.
Dragon talons around her once bright cerulean eyes have darkened her paler irises with shadows. The blue remains as piercing and clear seeing a color as ever, but the intent behind it has faded slightly. She often looks distracted, though who can blame her?
Personality:
Despite her less than stellar appearance, Evyane's still got it – mostly. Losing her Anira a few Turns ago definitely altered her, but she still handles the Lower Caverns, still takes inventory of the tithes, still makes sure dinner is produced on time. Her policy on gossip is strict, but she's well practiced at working the Weyr's vine of news. Unlike other people her age, Evyane is still an active member of the Weyr, refusing to let even the crippling blow of Thread and the new mutations stop her from doing her work.
Aging was not kind, in any way, and though the veins on the back of her hands may be more prominent than they were once, and her finger joints are knotted, she will not let herself be relegated to the creche. As she liked to tell Anira when they both were young, the creche was for the newly bred, and the nearly dead. She classifies herself as neither, and so keeps working.
However, she has become somewhat embittered with the lot life dealt her. She does not like to see weyrmated pairs walking around, totally infatuated with each other. It only reminds her that she still eventually need to give up Anira's weyr, that one of the weyrlings will claim it, and she will have lost even more of the woman she loved.
History:
If a Harper told the story of Evyane's life, they would start with her birth. They would tell you how she was born to the Steward and Bailiff of one of the larger Holds; they would even be able to tell you which Hold that was. They would tell of her failed marriage to Horpel, and that she gave him two screaming brats before she left at the age of twenty. They might even share how she started off in the storerooms, inventorying the contents and filling out forms to let the Headwoman know when they began running out of something.
The Harpers would tell you all of that, and more.
Evyane, on the other hand, would begin her tale starting when she became friends with a slightly older candidate. Anira was funny, she loved adventure, and she especially loved to flirt. It hardly surprised anyone present that green Isith would choose her, when she would willingly flirt with just about anything that had a pulse.
Throughout Anira and Isith's weyrlinghood, Evyane worked to advance in the non-rider hierarchy. By the time Isith Flew for the first time, Evyane was only a few Turns from being advanced to the Headwoman's side as her apprentice. Despite her increasing status, Evyane felt a peculiar tightness in her chest whenever she observed her friend – by then promoted to 'best friend' – with her lover of the moment. It would be several Turns of Flights later, when she stood next to the Headwoman and learned the intricacies of running a Weyr, that someone could put a name to that tightness.
Jealousy.
Whereas Anira was a glamorous, fit dragon rider, Evyane was a round woman without much fashion sense and hair that could not be trusted when there was moisture present. She kept her jealousy under tight wraps for almost another ten Turns, until both women were in their late thirties. By then, Evyane knew that even though she had been married to a man before she came to the Weyr, she had no interest in them, sexually. She took a female lover, once, a Healer. That was apparently the catalyst for Anira.
Once the Healer had been reassigned, Anira approached her friend (who by that time was the new Headwoman) with a special request. After a few negotiations, Evyane moved into Anira's weyr. Finally, at forty, she was perfectly content with her life. A wonderful woman in her bed at night, a job with enough snags, snarls, and problems to keep her occupied.
A full Turn after Evyane moved in with Anira, she made a startling Impression of her own. After organizing candidate quarters for a recent fire bird clutch, she went to visit the clutch. This was hardly unusual for the Headwoman – the full rotation of watchmen knew that she liked to visit the eggs, even if she never wanted to Impress one herself. She bent to examine one particular red egg where the dancing flames seemed sickly. One moment, that's all it took for Evyane to forget everything she'd learned about fire birds, and touch the egg.
Besides giving her a particularly nasty burn on her right hand, the egg hatched. Hatched. For Evyane. Hatched. For. Evyane. Hatched for her! It took her quite a while to move past this sentence herself, as she hadn't so much as attracted a single fire lizard in her time at the Weyr. That one of the beautiful fire birds would want her, well...
There are a few occasions where Evyane found herself subjected to emotions of overwhelming happiness. The first time was when it finally sank in that she was free of her husband, that he wasn;t going to find her at the weyr. Next, when she finally got to have Anira for her own. The last she would remember for a very long time was when she Impressed Ember.
But having a fire bird wasn't all fun and games. While Ember did not start fights, she ended them. All of them. If the fights were between Flying queen fire lizards, brawling candidates, other fire birds, it still didn't matter, she ended them.
And for nine Turns, she thought she'd be able to keep her life that way. Then Thread came again, and and nearly shredded Isith's wings. She didn't die, not then, but two Turns later, when she rose to fight again? That was the Fall that killed both Isith and Anira. Evyane lost two of her most important people in one awful day.
Even then, though, there was hope. Ember was perfectly healthy, growing to absolutely ridiculous size with her steady diet of Thread. Evyane though it was safe to grow even more attached to her red fire bird.
Until the plague.
Ember lost her life to the horrendous plague that swept through the weyr, one of possibly hundred of victims. After losing Ember, Evyane turned to her work for comfort. Her work as Headwoman, and her continued place in Anira's weyr have been the things holding her together most days. For nine Turns, she's been staying in the empty weyr because she has nowhere else to go, and there have been no riders to take it from her. But she knows that eventually – might be soon, might be in ten Turns – some weyrling is going to need a weyr, and she'll move into the Lower Caverns like her workers. But for now, for now, she stays in a familiar place with everything that reminds her of her loved ones. It keeps her going.
Other: Grieving
EDIT: Remove out-of-date author's note.
