Arolos Weyr - Delysia

Delysia

User: mglady3

Name Pronounced: Del-e-see-a
Character type: Dragonrider
Rank: Goldrider
Age: 24
Gender: Female
Sexual Preference: Heterosexual

Current Location: Arolos Weyr

Appearance: “Beauty is a curse. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise" -Delysia

Delysia is one of the most physically lovely women you will ever lay your eyes on. Long silky black hair - just a few shades short of true black - flows down her back nearly to her waist. Large storm blue eyes - slanted ever so slight to give her a touch of the exotic - dominate her heart shaped face.

Her smooth pale skin is touched by just the right hint of cream. Her body, though slender, is endowed by a respectable set of womanly curves. Standing at 5'7'' in height, she carries herself with the grace of a wild feline.

She only has two obvious physical flaws. One is a small white scar, the origin of which she refuses to speak of, located at the top of her left eyebrow. The other is a red birthmark, vaguely shaped like a lopsided, five-pointed star, on the right side of her neck, just above her collarbone. This she often keeps covered up by wearing a high collared shirt or a wide ribbon choker around her neck.

Personality: "I am too strong to be the victim and too broken to be the hero. I suppose it then falls to me to be the villain." - Delysia

Delysia is extremely deliberate. Every word, every emotion, and every action of hers is executed with a purpose in mind. Though never intentionally cruel to those who don't deserve it, she can nevertheless be ruthless and utterly implacable in the pursuit of her goals. She is a wonderful person to have on your side, though she is rarely on anyone's side but her own. She is stubborn to the extreme and would rather die than to compromise her personal creed.

Toward others, she is unfailingly polite and most of the time even outwardly friendly. After all, courtesy is cheap and one never knows when a connection would prove to be useful in the future. But she fight to prevent anyone from truly getting close to her. Caring for someone would only result in hurt and sorrow.

She knows she is beautiful and she hates this more than anything else. Everything good in her life has been ruined by her lovely face. In her mind, those around her value only her physical form and will never care about or even see the person behind it. Only she herself can be trusted to secure her own best interests. She will use her beauty to do so - though it leaves a sour taste in her mouth and the cold stab of self-loathing in her heart. There are so few weapons available to a woman at Fort.

History: “A woman cannot change the rules - only decide if she wants to live with them.” -Delysia

Born: 8.7.7.29

Delysia was born to a prosperous holder and his wife. Though her mother died in childhood, Delysia never felt the loss. She was a beautiful and affectionate child and was beloved of everyone who lived in her hold - including her doting father.

At the tender age of five, she discovered that she possessed a rare love for music. The hold’s harper, Tallis, was a kind young man who encouraged her interest. Soon the sight of the child Delysia, toddling after Tallis like a chick after her mother hen became a common one for the folks at the hold. When she turned 12, Tallis agreed to take her on as his student.

A year later, she approached her father for permission to officially apprentice herself to the harper craft. She was shattered when her father refused her - something he had never done before. It turned out that she had attracted the notice of a neighboring lord holder, and her father, an ambitious man, had promised her in marriage in exchange for the opportunity to expand his lands.

That night, she tried to run away but was caught before she got beyond the outer gate doors. Enraged, her father locked her in her room and sent away her friend and mentor Tallis.

The next day, her father, in an attempt to reconcile with his still beloved daughter, came to returned her instruments. He promised her that she could continue to study music. He would even recall Tallis to teach her. Perhaps one day, she could sing to please her lord husband. Delysia threw her gitar in her father’s face and vowed that she would be no man’s captive songbird. She has never touched an instrument since.

Her father, just as willfully stubborn, informed her that he would see her wed when she came of age even if he had to drag her to the wedding in chains. And until that day, each time she misbehaved, a person she cared about would be sent away from the hold. Since then, the people of the hold began to avoid her, leaving the 13 year old Delysia alone with only her shattered dreams for company.

When she was 15, she was searched by M’rar, bronze rider from Fort. It was only later that night, as she lost her virginity, that she’d finally understood that it was not a potential candidate that the dragonrider had seen, but a beautiful bedmate. In despair, she tried to draw a knife across her face, but lost her courage at the last moment. She came away from the incident with two things - a small scar on her forehead and the knife - just in case she decided that she could not live with her circumstances after all.

She parted ways with M’rar and spent the next year drifting from one rider’s bed to another’s. She was always “willing” - if only to preserve her right to choose. She also appreciated the protection this afforded her at patriarchal Fort. For even though her candidacy was a cruel joke, where else could she go?

Update:

In the aftermath of the Fort disaster, Delysia was sent to Arolos. She was grateful to escape the incident unharmed, though ambivalent about her final destination. Nevertheless, it will only be a minor setback - she will not permit it to be otherwise. She was resolved to be pleasant and charming and recover the standing that she had had at Fort.

Not everyone at Arolos was so amenable to her charms, as her encounter with fellow candidate Arela and greenrider Z’gy proved. She managed to find common ground of sorts with Arela when the two of them fought together for candidate banding to be chosen by random selection. Her relationship with Z’gy, however, proved to be a trickier nut.

Despite her best efforts, she found herself thrown together with the man time and time again, culminating in a late night encounter at the midsummer gather during which a drunk Delysia confessed a few of her darkest secrets. Far from using those secret again her as she’d expected however, he protected and cared for her, even going so far as to having his dragon search her again to allay her fears about her qualifications as a candidate. Bewildered by the man’s inexplicable kindness, Delysia started to wonder if maybe, just maybe, this man would be different from those who’s hurt her in the past. Later she discover that he had gotten romantically involved with a bluerider named Kay. And even though she’d never admitted any sort of attraction to the man, either to herself or to others, the news left her unexpectedly hurt and angry.

Shortly thereafter, Delysia stood for Valkath’s first clutch was left standing in the sands.

Update2:

However, one’s heart was not always so easy to protect and sometimes the assaults come from the most unexpected of directions.

Delysia comes back from lessons one day to find a tiny gray kitten curled up on her bed. Despite her best efforts to dissuade the little creature, the kitten seemed hellbent on following Delysia around. Eventually, Delysia relented. Only to keep it from being accidentally trampled or eaten by a passing wher during the course of it's reckless wanderings, of course! Not because she actually cared for the silly thing! She adopted the kitten and named it Boudica.

It was while walking on the beach with Boudica that she stumbled on a firelizard egg, nearly completely buried in the sand. To her shock and surprise, the egg split open while she was the process of digging it out. A few moments later, she found herself the proud owner of wild gold firelizard, whom she eventually decided to name Aoede.

And finally there was Ma’din, whose sharp blue eyes seemed see through all of Delysia’s carefully constructed illusions with frightening ease. There’s no man on Pern more dangerous to her. Delysia knows this, even as she feels inexplicably drawn to him.

Update3:

At turn’s end, Delysia receives a letter from Fort promising her gold egg if she would return to stand there. More significantly, the letter held a level of personal detail that frightened her. Feeling threatened and angry, she resolved to return to Fort to get to the bottom of matters. So one afternoon, under the cover of threadfall, she slipped out of the Weyr and hitch a ride back to the place that still held so many of her darkest memories.

The Fort that she found was even worse than the Fort that she’d left behind. Missing faces were everywhere, and even those who remained seem either inexplicable changed or utterly terrified. Starved, overworked, and not daring even to trust the food that she was given, where was she supposed to look for answers? She received solace from the letters that she exchanged with Ma’din. Even so, Delysia was beginning to wonder if she’d finally bitten off more than she could chew.

Update4:

Despite the care that she'd taken, those letters she'd exchanged were almost the death of her. The Fortians, paranoid that those with firelizard might be using them to transmit secrets, took all of the Arolos candidates - and those seen consorting with them - and abandoned them on a desolate plateau for death by thread. Luckily for those on that plateau, Arolos, responding to frantic flit messages, sent Valkath and a wing of bronze dragons to rescue them.

Thus, Delysia returned to Arolos, where she was finally reunited with Ma'din, who reassured her of his devotion to her. Perhaps that was why she was devastated when he disappeared a month or so later, transferred out abruptly without so much as leaving her a note. She realize then, too late, that she still had a heart to break, after all.

She was certified by the mindhealers to stand for Zivath's first clutch, though she fail to impress. Moodily, she eschewed the hatching celebrations afterwards and took to wandering the halls instead.

Aoede rose to mate for the first time, resulting in a clutch of 12 eggs. She retained control of 7 of those eggs after giving the Weyrwoman her due. After a good bit of coaxing and a heavy application of bribes, Delysia finally convinced Aoede to allow her to distribute the eggs.

The new Turn brought about the return of Ma'din. Still angry and hurt at his previous abandonment, Delysia has thus far tried to keep him at arms length.

Update5:

Delysia convinced Weyrwoman Kassia to take her on as an assistance. In return, Kassia required that Delysia join the harper craft. Delysia feels conflicted as she finally has an excuse to reach for the one thing that she had always desired.

After some deliberation and a long conversation with Aznith, Delysia reunites with Ma'din and allows him back into her life.

Delysia falls when her strap breaks during the Candidate Rock Climbing lesson. She hits her head and breaks her leg, disqualifying her from standing for Foreth's eggs. Though initially dismayed, she found reason to be grateful that she was absent when the quakes rocked hatching cavern.

Update6:

It wasn't until the hatching of Valkath's second clutch that Delysia found her world turned on its end by a pair of rainbow eyes. She walked off the sands that day as the proud lifemate of gold Razelth. It was almost enough to make her believe that maybe, just maybe, some dreams could come true.

Update7:

But Delysia wasn't quite prepared for the realities of that dream. Shocked and distress by Razelth's propensity to blab Delysia's private feelings and thoughts to the world, Delysia had a minor breakdown during which she tried to push Razelth out of her head. Thanks to the intervention of Valkath and Kassia, both rider and dragon survived the incident. However, it caused a schism between the two that has been slow to heal.

It wasn't until the terrible day when a pair of golds fought in the skies above Arolos Weyr and then were lost between that Delysia and Razelth finally talked over their differences and made amends. Will their partnership be stronger for having been tried? Or will the cracks linger? Time will tell.

Information about Delysia's pets

Pet Name: Boudica

Pet Type: Feline

Appearance: Boudica is not an attractive cat - not by any stretches of the imagination - with her short, uneven fur of a nondescript and her angular, bony face. A kind person might describe her form as sleek and long-limbed, but gangly might be the more apt descriptor. The only thing remotely beautiful about the creature is a pair of startlingly green eyes, and even those were more disturbing than attractive when set in Boudica's narrow face.

Personality: Boudica is fierce - in all meanings of the word. She is fiercely loyal, but only to a very select few. She is fiercely protective. If she thinks one of hers is threatened, she will descend to do battle - fur raised, tail lashing, claws extended - no matter how futile the gesture. She is fiercely independent and if left unattended, will wander off in search of adventure, though she will always return to the one she's claimed as her own. Though Delysia tries to keep her confined during the day for her own safety, Boudica knows her own mind and has demonstrated an uncanny knack for opening doors and simple latches.

Second Pet Name: Aoede

Pet Type: Gold Firelizard

Appearance: Aoede is an attractive firelizard - no doubts about it. Her hide is of a distinctive shade of gold so pale that it could rightly be described as a shiny creamy color, spread evenly across her entire body. Only on the outer surface of her wings do specks of true gold show up, making it seem as if she’d dipped her wings in gold dust. Aoede is comparably small for her color, but delicately boned and evenly proportioned, all save for her tail, which is extra long and sinuous.

Personality: Aoede is a queen and she won’t let anyone forget it. She grant her attention to other metallic, but she’ll never grant any of them, be they dragon or firelizard, the right to rule over her. The other color will receive an acknowledgement, so long as they are properly deferential. Two leggers, in the normal course of thing, will be completely below her notice. All save her own Delysia, who is the most beautiful, most wonderful person in the entire world!

Aoede has only one major weakness - music. Play for her or sing for her and she’ll be like putty in your hands. What time she doesn’t spend wrapped around Delysia’s neck will probably be spent stalking the denizens of harper haven. Those who do perform for her will find her an attentive listener, with the uncanny ability repeat snatches of whatever melody she last heard.

Named for Aoede, the Muse of Song, one of the three original Greek muses.

~~~

First Clutch:
Dam: Gold Aoede
Sire: Brown Donn

Twelve eggs:
2 Bronze: Pouncer (T'ryn); Kri (M'tirm)
1 Brown: Abu (Purvaul)
1 Blue: Paint (Berlan)
3 Green: Cadi (Roshan); Flounder (Birant); ? (Midatwila)
5 unknown

Information about Delysia's dragon

Dragon Name: Razelth

Colour: Gold

Age: 5

Wing (Weyrling Group): Gold Spark

Appearance: The Gold Twined Egg

Twists of the richest burnished gold twine their way around this beautiful egg that gleams and glows at the place of honour in Valkath's clutch. Its an interesting egg, lovely but odd in the way that it looks almost as if someone has wrapped a fortunes worth of golden wire round and round in order to create a costly home worthy of the tiny gold nestled within.

Despite its beauty, there is a certain feeling of oppression about this egg. It's wrapped up good and tight, and one can almost feel the little gold yearning for her freedom, her escape from the twisted golden cage that keeps her safe. And escape she will, come hatching day!

Razelth is an exceptionally long lean gold who will roll out of her egg in a jumble of gangly limbs, twisty headknobs and extra long tail. She'll be clumsy at first, as most young things are but quickly enough she'll grow into her grace, and the features that made her an awkward hatchling will turn her into an elegant beauty of a queen. Her hide is a gleaming buttery yellow gold with streaks of deeper honey that twine their way down her long form.

Personality: She can be sweetly naive, and very trusting, especially when dealing with someone with rank or someone she loves. But while she might nod along and happily agree with whatever she is told, it doesn't mean that she'll actually do it. On rare occasions she'll show a deep streak of rebellion, and will strike out to do whatever it is she wants, especially if she can come up with some justification for her misbehaviour or if she disagrees with what she was told, even if it came from her rider.

Razelth is an odd mixture of born explorer and occasional homebody. She'll enjoy being tucked up somewhere safe with her rider: she'll want a cozy little wallow as a Weyrling, and when she gets her own weyr, her rider will often find her tail or other bits of her that will fit curled up inside their quarters. She will LOVE laying eggs because the hatching cavern is a wonderful cozy place, in fact she will like to spend time in there between clutches, laid out on the hot sands. She will also love to explore, and should she hear of an interesting place she will want to go, she will demand to go and she will obsess over it in ways both wistful and demanding until her rider gives in and takes her. Its a fight that her rider will never win, unless they want to grit their teeth through turns and turns of ((but why can't we visit the highest mountain in the High Reaches? The way the sun glistens on the snow is supposed to be simply lovely.)) And so on.

Over all she is a kind hearted, sweet natured if occasionally stubborn gold, and will feel a great deal of empathy for those weaker and smaller than herself, other than animals that are meant for her dinner of course. She will bravely stand up for herself and others, and will demand that her rider follow suit. She will be keen on threadfall rescues, and will keep tabs on anyone she rescues, dragon or human, until they're out of the infirmary.

Weyr of Origin: Arolos

Abilites and weaknesses: To be determined.

Information about Delysia's craft

Craft: Harper
Craft Rank: Apprentice

The Dragonriders of Pern® is registered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, by Anne McCaffrey, used here with permission. Use or reproduction without a license is strictly prohibited.