Post by Becca on Apr 1, 2010 18:21:42 GMT
J E S S I C A
General
[/u][/center]General
Name: Jessica (Jess)
Pronunciation: JESS – ih – kuh (JESS)
Gender: Female
Sexuality: Pretty much straight
Age: 15 years
Residence: Kalum Den
Rank / Title: Apprentice
Position of Mark: On the palm of Jess’ hand, just below the base of her fingers
Mentorship: Certainly
Appearance
[/u][/center]Height: 5’6”
Build: Jess is a fairly skinny girl, but not to the point of being unhealthily thin. Her ribs are easily palpable beneath her skin, but she has enough fat to keep her going. She’s not particularly curvy, but neither is she particularly flat. Overall then, she’s pretty much average for her age.
Skin-tone: Fairly pale and milky in the winter but tans easily in the summer to a nice, smooth colour.
Hair: Jess’ hair is made up of a great many different shades. The roots are quite dark, somewhere between blonde and brown, but the colour fades down the shaft and the tips are bright, yellow-blonde. It doesn’t get an awful lot of attention; she’ll brush it every once in a while and it does get the occasional cut but otherwise it’s ignored and allowed to grow. Now it reaches a good a few inches past her shoulders and is very thick.
Facial Features: There’s nothing particularly remarkable about Jess’ face. She has quite a well-defined bone structure with a clean jaw and a rather prominent chin. She has quite a high forehead, but it’s not immediately obvious. Her nose and mouth are of fairly normal proportions, while her lips are naturally quite red. Her eyes are almond-shaped and quite large with irises that are blue-grey in colour.
Scars / Marks: She has a few small scars on her side from a mild form of pox she had as a child, but otherwise, no.
Clothing: Jess isn’t usually particularly bothered about what she wears, and comfort always trumps style. As such she’s usually seen in a loose-fitting outfit of a shirt and trousers.
Appearance Overview: Jess could be described as a fairly pretty girl, but it’s the kind of prettiness that’s not noticed unless it’s looked for. Overall she’s pretty normal-looking, one of those people who blend into the background and are easy to over-look. Fortunately for her this only happens when she’s not trying to get attention; there’s so much energy inside of her that as soon as she sits up and looks interested her intensity makes her difficult to miss. She’s not a particularly large person but she always seems to take up a lot of space, often slouching in an untidy sprawl. A quick glance at her will tell you that she makes little effort with her appearance. She presents herself to the world as she is, with no make-up or fancy clothes, and asks the world to either like it or deal with it.
Voice: Jess’s voice is quite low for a girl, but not unusually so. It’s a voice that can easily be manipulated between different emotions, though for the most part it’s a fairly loud, energetic sound with an accent caught somewhere between that of the aristocracy and that of the more middle-class den-folk. Some people don’t mind her voice, but it can be a little abrasive and sometimes even rather annoying.
Personality
[/b][/center]Likes:
- Playing around with friends
- Animals, especially cats
- Good music
- Beautiful things like art, sunsets, butterflies, etc.
- Adventure
Dislikes:
- Hard work
- Being made fun of
- Arrogant or vain people
- Being lectured
- Boredom
Aspirations:
- Become a mother one day
- Have her own apprentice one day
- Reach a high position of some sort
Fears:
- Death, both of herself and of people she loves
- Bees and wasps
- Being betrayed by someone she loves.
Personality Overview: At first glance, Jess seems like the most self-assured and confident person there’s ever been. She’s loud, playful and bouncy, filled with seemingly unlimited spirit and energy. One of those people who just never seem to fully grow up, Jess still enjoys playing around with her friends as much as she did when she was a young child. She can be fairly bold and rebellious, challenging authority without much thought. As a candidate she gave her teachers a fair bit of trouble, and even now as an apprentice her mentor has to put up with a lot.
But she’s not rude for the sake of it. She’s a very clever kid and she thinks deeply about things and about people. If she thinks an adult is being fair, kind and generally a good teacher, and she’s quite good at making that judgement, she will try to befriend them rather than give them a hard time. Even if she doesn’t like a teacher she won’t behave in an ‘unreasonable’ way; she won’t shout or call people names, she just argues her point. Arguing is one of the things she’s very good at, and she knows how to get her point across without allowing the teachers to call her respectful way.
But she thinks a lot about everyone and everything, and she’s not just good at judging people who want to teach her. At heart she’s compassionate and extremely caring. She’s good at seeing when people are upset and at when a situation would make them upset, and she always feels for them. She’ll do an awful lot to help a person with no obvious gain for herself, even if that person has hurt her in the past. She doesn’t hold grudges, not even for a few minutes, and though she will verbally argue if a friend says something that offends her, the hostility ends as soon as the other person will let it. One thing she never does is physically fight. Play fight, yes, with great pleasure, but a serious confrontation where someone may get hurt, no.
When one truly gets to know Jess, they will realise fairly quickly that she’s not all that bold and self-assured. Yes, she has strong opinions about things and she has the motivation to argue them, but her confidence in herself is almost non-existent. She worries constantly about what people think of her; not her looks, she’s not vain at all, but about how they see her as a person. She wants to be liked by everyone, not followed and obeyed like those ‘popular’ apprentices, but just liked for who she is. She has such a low opinion of herself that she’s an easy target for bullies who find her odd ways annoying and try to pick on her. Although she’ll try to avoid people who deliberately and repeatedly try to hurt her, she will never physically lash out.
Craft
Craft: Horse master
Description: She cares for and exercises the horses kept in the den stables
Experience: 5 years
Strengths: She’s very good at grooming a horse and turning it out at its best. She’s also good at calming down a distressed horse, and being firm enough to gain control of more spirited horses.
Weaknesses: While her skills at riding on flat ground are average, she’s not very good when trying to jump; she find that she just can’t get the timing right.
Family
Mother: Angel – alive - inventor
Father: David – alive - inventor
Siblings: Sandy (half-sister) – alive - healer, Ryan (half-brother) – alive - taxman, Morris (half-brother) – alive - wing-flyer
Spouse: None
Others: Sarya (paternal grandmother) – alive – housewife, Patrick (paternal grandfather) – alive – retired rider, Spirit (maternal grandmother) – alive – retired city teacher, Rowan (maternal grandfather) – alive – retired carpenter
History
[/u]Place of Birth: Kalum Den
Season of Birth: Summer
General History: Born to a well-off, rather influential family, Jess couldn’t have had a better start in life. Her father came from a line of den-folk that had lived in Kalum for more generations than anyone cared to count, while her mother was one of the richer city-folk that lived in Therem. Both parents were inventors, creating devices for all manner of tasks but they specialised in trying to detect poison that had been added to food. The three lived with David’s three older children (whose mother had tragically died a year before Jess’ parents met), and altogether the family of six lived very happily despite the tragedy that had brought them together.
There was some trouble involving Jess’s maternal grandparents. They were very proud of Angel’s accomplishments as an inventor, and they wanted their grandchildren to follow in her footprints. The three step-children were already candidates by this time and Angel’s parents had little interest in them, but they felt that Jess should be made to spend some time away from the den in the hopes that she would choose to move to the city rather than become a candidate herself. For that reason, and much to David’s irritation, when she was just three years old, Jess began her education at Therem’s second-best school (the true best was strictly reserved for the children of the high aristocracy.
The school was a huge financial drain on Jess’s family, and they all had to be up very early so that she could get there on time, but Jess had always been a bright child, and the ease with which she progressed through her lessons encouraged them to stick with it. Whilst there she began to pick up the upper-class drawl of her peers, and she began to act a lot more like them as well. This wasn’t much of a problem; indeed it taught her the sharp argumentative spirit she still carries, as well as the restraint to go with it, but it did make her the butt of many jokes back at home. During this time the school introduced her to horses and she fell in love with them, becoming an avid horse-woman. She also seemed to get on well with her peers and, by all accounts, she was enjoying herself. With that in mind, Spirit and Rowan waited impatiently for her twelfth birthday, when she would be offered the chance to become a candidate and, they hoped, decline it.
But they were disappointed, for while Jess did enjoy education she preferred her home life. Despite how they teased her, Jess loved her siblings dearly as well as her parents, and the thought of leaving them to start training in the city didn’t overly enthral her; she’d never had much interest in inventing anyway. But there was a greater incentive; throughout her childhood Jess had had a very strong bond with David’s parents, and this had meant she’d spent a good lot of time with Patrick’s male dragon, Matthias. Throughout the years she became steadily more obsessed with dragons, and determined that one day she would get her own. Her conviction was strengthened when Morris bonded to a female hatchling and she spent time with her as well.
So Jess fell to the life of a candidate, and though it was hard work she tried hard and focused on her main goal; becoming a rider. As one would expect there was a great deal of competition amongst the candidates, each one desperate to bond with each hatching, but Jessica, used to the cut-throat attitude of her old city-dwelling classmates, coped very well. At this time there was a hatching very frequently, sometimes as often every other week. Of course she had to go through the obligatory year of training before she was allowed to attend hatchings, but one that year was up she started going along with everyone else. You’d think that the frequency of hatching would mean she wouldn’t get particularly excited after the first two or three, but no matter how much she tried not to Jess could never help the mild buzz of hope, and the pain of disappointment, that came with each one.
After the first few months Jess began to worry that she’d never bond to a hatchling. She knew that her father, sister and one of her brothers had all passed through candidacy without acquiring a dragon and she feared she would be next. This fear finally came to an end exactly two years after she’d first become a candidate.
It was on her fourteenth birthday, a cool, blustery day but pleasant nonetheless. Jess had been sitting with the rest of the candidates, listening to one of the teachers, when the familiar sound of bells tinkled around them. Immediately every candidate had gotten to their feet and started to head towards the egg room as per usual. They lined up inside the sulphurous, stifling room and watched one of the many white, oval eggs shaking and cracking until a little cat-sized hatchling stood in the middle of the floor. Slowly the hatchling made his way to the candidates, and like all the others, Jess knelt down and extended her hand towards him while he inspected his choices.
Up until that point things had been relatively routine, but then the newborn staggered directly to Jess and sniffed her hand without touching it, he looked up at her with intense little eyes and Jess’s heart swelled with hope, then he looked away and continued his inspection, and Jess fought hard to control the disappointment. She kept a close eye on him nonetheless as he moved along the line. He reached the end without seeming to make a decision then doubled back on himself and moved decisively towards Jess, tapping her quite matter-of-factly on her extended hand; his choice had been made.
From then on Jess was an apprentice, and though she was a handful for her mentor she and her dragon William progressed very well as they always had done in lessons. It seemed that their training would pass without a glitch, but then, with just three months of training left, her mentor’s dragon suffered a dreadful injury to his wing and the pair was forced into retirement early. This left Jess mentor-less, and the race is on to find a rider willing to take on an apprentice so far into her training.
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W I L L I A M
Basics
[/u][/center]W I L L I A M
Basics
Name: William (Will)
Pronunciation: Either ‘WILL – ee – um’ or ‘WILL – yum’ depending on how fast it’s said, (WILL)
Gender: Male
Age: 20 months
Appearance
[/u][/center]Height/build: While Will is slightly longer and taller than the average for a male of his age, he’s certainly not freakishly big. He’s also not particularly bulky, he has about as much muscle-mass as an average adult, but seeing as he still has a little developing to do it seems that he ‘s going to be a pretty powerful dragon one day. Overall though, he’s sleek and smooth with all his extremities in perfect proportion with the rest of him.
Scale colour: William’s base colour is a smooth, pale grey, not unlike the sky on an overcast day. His left foreleg is also completely black. There’s also a thick strip of black down his spine, so wide that it touches his wing joints and fully encompasses his head and tail. However, the last third of his tail and the whole of his muzzle are a bright golden colour.
Eye Colour: Will’s eyes are like little fires, being bright yellow around the edges and fiery orange close to the pupil. They stand out clearly from the midnight black of his face.
Growths: Will has just two growths, the first being spikes and the second being a frill the same grey colour as his wings.
Appearance overview: Will may not be very large, but he does seem to have a lot of presence. Eyes are drawn towards him when he arrives, and young dragons move aside to give him space when he passes on. Perhaps it’s just that he looks rather fierce, scary even, with his blazing eyes and moving frill. He seems to give off an air of mixed strength and gracefulness, indeed when seen in the air it’s clear that he is a particularly agile dragon with very good stamina, though his speed could be improved somewhat. Jess believes that he’s the most handsome dragon in the den and while this may not be quite true, he’s certainly one of the more eye-catching ones.
The rest
[/center][/u]Abilities: None
Mind-voice: Deep but smooth and loaded with thought. He speaks quietly and rarely lets emotion enter his voice.
Personality: A quiet, reserved individual, Will exudes an air of restrained ferocity at all times. He’s pretty shy when it comes down to it, uncomfortable in crowds and when meeting new people. He will nod and say ‘hello’ of course, but it’s easy to tell he would rather be somewhere else. He always hides his emotions behind a gruff, no-nonsense shell, trying to look at the world around him as if he were just a passive observer and not a part of it at all. Even Jess sometimes has trouble accessing what he really thinks, as he’d much rather just tell her what she wants to here, rather than his actual opinion.
One thing that this dragon is willing to show is determination; determination to do well in his lessons. He provides the extra motivation Jess needs to get out of bed in the morning and put as much effort as possible into bettering herself each day. Now that he’s a fledgling his lessons contain a lot of battle-training, an activity that he thoroughly enjoys (not that you’d know it from how he behaves), and he’s utterly focused on learning fighting techniques. With him life is all work and no play, though he does occasionally engage in a sparring match with the other young males to hone his skills.
When Will’s not in training, he’s thinking. He has a quick, logical mind and he enjoys putting it to use by trying to work out how things work. This can include objects like the devices Jess’ parents dream up, natural phenomena such as the weather and psychological things like how emotions even exist. He can sit and ponder for hours, and while he doesn’t always reach a conclusion, he has a good go at it. He also likes to push his mind by playing logic games with Jess. Chess is one of his favourite evening pass-times (he just tells where to move his pieces to), but he’s so much better at it that it’s not much of a contest.
The truth is that, beneath his blank, serious exterior is a very soft-hearted and sensitive creature. He enjoys sparring but he’s not as aggressive as most males, or at least not as hot-headed. It takes a lot to get him angry, but if he does lose his temper and get in a serious fight he feels bad about it afterwards. He would never dream of causing any unnecessary pain and he hates to see others suffering, though he’s usually too socially awkward to offer any comfort. He doesn’t form close friendships except with Jess, instead he offers his quietly caring nature to everyone evenly while remaining distant himself.
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F E L I X
F E L I X
Type: Cat
Name: Felix
Pronunciation: fee - lix
Gender: Male
Age: Almost 7 years
Appearance: Once a sleek, handsome tom, reaching middle-age has had some rather unfortunate affects on Felix’s weight. Now, rather than being the picture of agility and poise he used to be, he is the picture of contentment and a good life. His pelt is thick and dense but still manages to be as smooth and soft as satin. The black parts positively shine with good health, and the patches that cover his belly, neck, chest and paws are as pristine as fresh snow. He has quite a handsome face, with a clean bone structure and eyes that shine with shades of amber, gold and lime. His muzzle is quite short, ending in a soft black nose and graced by long, fine white whiskers. His ears are small and triangular, and both carry small nicks and scars from his youth. Around his neck is a leather collar wrapped in green cotton.
Personality: Like most cats, Felix is a lazy creature. Being allowed to sleep, undisturbed on Jess’ bed for twenty hours would be a perfect day for him, so long as he was allowed out to hunt for the remaining four. He’s a very good hunter, and very useful for keeping rats and mice out of the apprentices’ dormitory. He also conveniently takes his kills outside, so rotting corpses are never discovered under beds.
He’s an arrogant little thing as most cats are. He demands that he gets what he wants when he wants, and he’ll make an awful ruckus if he doesn’t get his own way. He’ll sit by his bowl and yowl if he’s hungry, scratch at the door if he wants to be let out and demand attention loudly if he wants to be petted. Despite this he’s an unusually affectionate creature, with a habit of purring incessantly and rubbing himself around Jess’ legs until she falls over him
Acquired: When she was eleven years old she found a litter of feral cats in a cupboard in the den. She used food to gain the trust of the mother and spent so much time with the kittens that they grew up fully tame. She begged her parents to let her adopt them all, but they said she was only allowed one. She chose Felix and gave the others to her friends.
