Player Name: Sevillalost
Character Number: I have no idea
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Character Name and Pronunciation: Melieste (mel ee EST ay)
Gender: Female
Character Rank: Shadow Queen Weyrling
Character Age/Date of birth: 17
Family: Father: Melvis, Mastervintner of the South, Eastern Hold; Mother: Neiste, niece to the Lord of Eastern Hold.
Current location: White Lightning Weyr
Physical description: Melieste is beautiful. To the chagrin of her older sisters, she's by far the most beautiful of her parents' children. She's not incredibly tall, at 5'3", but she is slender in the waist with a pleasing curve at bust and hip. Her skin is a lovely sun-kissed porcelain, and her large eyes are clear and vibrantly green. Her glory, however, is her blonde hair. She is near-fanatical in her efforts to keep her hair in good condition, and should she Impress, she will do nearly anything to avoid cutting it.
Since coming to the Weyr, Melieste tends to wear expensively made but plain work clothes. However, she has a deep love of finery, particularly anything that will set off her golden hair and green eyes. Or her figure. Or her lovely complexion...
Play By: Scarlett Johanssen
Photo Reference: https://imgur.com/MPMNmmB
Personality: Melieste is spoiled and sweet by turns. She has a practical turn of mind that keeps her from too blatantly alienating those of a higher position, or in a position to do something for her. However, she has no such qualms about letting her true feelings and opinions known to her peers and subordinates. She is, however, unfailingly polite and (sometimes passively-aggressively) sweet, even at her bigoted nastiest.
In her favor, Melieste is highly intelligent and has a great head for figures. She's a natural when it comes to finance, and is happy to do this kind of work, since she'd been taught that it was suitable for someone of her station. She's relentlessly driven when she has a goal, and is reasonably loyal to those she considers her friends.
Theme song: (Optional - if there was a musical score for your character, what song would exemplify it?)
History: As the youngest (and most lovely) daughter of the southern continent's highest ranking Mastervintner, and a granddaughter of the Eastern Hold Bloodline, Melieste always knew that she was destined for something special in her life. Her elder sisters married, most of them moderately well, but nothing would do for Melieste but a Blood alliance. Unfortunately for her, all of the eligible males were somewhat... lacking, in her mind. They either needed more refinement and less brutishness, or more masculinity and less wishy-washiness. Perhaps they were a shade too young, or Turns too old with children her own age. And then there were those who were just... not up to par physically.
She was, after all, one of the great beauties of the age, as everyone agreed. Surely she had a responsibility to bear lovely children, and how could she be expected to do that without a handsome husband?
As she grew older, these disappointments mounted and mounted, until finally, in her thirteenth Turn, a dragonrider from Eastern Weyr came to the Hold on Search. A queen egg had been laid, and there was a great need for female candidates. Finally, Melieste's destiny became clear to her. She would ride a golden queen through the skies of Pern! She promptly agreed to go to the Weyr, and stood for Impression a few sevendays later. When the golden queen broke shell, Melieste greeted her with a welcoming smile and arms thrown wide open.
Imagine her surprise when the queen dragonet completely ignored her loveliness and chose another. Melieste was understandably upset, of course, but she'd considered herself a sensible girl, and within a short time, she realized that at age thirteen, she had many, many more chances left. However, one thing was non-negotiable. She would ride a queen dragon, or none at all. And so she stayed at the Weyr, standing when there was a queen egg, but working for the Headwoman when there wasn't. She'd been taught to run a Hold, after all, and as she had quite the head for finance, she soon found herself in charge of keeping accounts and inventories for the Weyr.
As for the mutant dragons. Melieste did not approve of them at all, once they showed up. However, she was careful never to let anyone in a position of power catch her saying anything unflattering about them... for as a candidate, it was not for her to show disrespect to dragonkind, not even the mutant freaks of dragonkind.
To her credit, when the Plague struck, Melieste worked as hard as any other to try and save the dragons, but there was nothing to be done. When it became apparent that only the mutant dragons, and those with mutant blood, were surviving, Melieste realized that she had a choice to make. She could return home in ignominy and try to find a husband among the still-unpalatable choices available to her, or she could compromise a tiny bit and Impress a Titan queen. Though not as lovely as the beautiful golds, no one could deny that the Titan queens were queens indeed, and their riders seemed to command the same amount of respect... especially now that they were the only queens that seemed to be immune to the deadly disease.
When in extreme circumstances, Melieste had always found it best to be practical. So, she decided to accompany Jah'vi and the last surviving dragonriders of Eastern Weyr to the exiles' home. Of course, as a daughter of a legitimate Mastervintner, she found the whole idea of their bootlegging "allies" to be disgusting, but once again, discretion proved the better part of valor. Once she'd Impressed a queen, she would be able to sever ties with those low-life criminals, and perhaps they could move back to Eastern or a proper Weyr once again.
That was, however, for the future. For now, Melieste would turn her energies to Impressing a queen. That was, and had always been, the key to her destiny.
And it turned out that there wasn't much she wasn't willing to do to reach that destiny. See the following excerpt from her hatching:
Caochan's gray and black speckles shuddered, the illusion of movement giving way to its true form, bulges pressing and cracks racing down the shell in logic-free patterns, the darkness of the shell camouflaging whatever hide lurked underneath.
Until, with a visible heave, the hatchling broke free, shaking her body in a sharp, efficient motion that sent the sticky shards flying and left her surrounded by three large pieces of her shell. Its striated colors paled, however, against the deep, charcoal black of her hide. She crouched, motionless now, mentally sweeping the surroundings, the crowd, looking, looking...
Her silence had been immense while she'd still grown in that egg, and now, it seemed to pull noise from the air, even the eggs rocking next to her stilling slightly. But under that silence, need rose, a flooding, echoing need that spilled from her to any mind not numbed from her broadcasting clutchmates - pausing her wrestling shadow sister, across the sands (the obsidian shadow rose on her back legs and emitted a carrying cry not unlike that of Aliseth's, reassuring and challenging both toward her charcoal sibling).
he crack of Caochan's shell brought Melieste to a dead stop. She watched with rising anticipation and excitement as yet another shadow queenling emerged from her shell. Another queen! Perhaps this dragonet was hers? Not that the first shadow wasn't lovely and queenly and...
She stopped. Forced herself to calm. Hysteria would only drive both of the beauties from her. Melieste took a deep breath as she'd been trained to do and smiled her loveliest smile as she put her welcoming thoughts out into two directions this time.
Caochan's shadow swung her head around, calmed by her shadow sister but that need building, pushing...someone heard it. Where? She moved toward the some candidates across the sands, pausing only to touch her wing to the first quartz's, briefly.
Maybe there? A...welcome?
Melieste watched, heart in mouth, as Ammil's shadow chose Kalabria. She felt the wrench of bitter disappointment, but shoved it away, far away. For there was another queen on the sands, and her destiny still remained.
Here, I'm here and I love you! she thought desperately at the remaining dark dragonet. I've waited for you for so long, I'm here and I welcome you with every fiber of my being! We are meant, absolutely meant to be together. Just turn your head and find me, beloved one. I am here for you!
The welcome she'd felt shifted, turned...desperate. Flailing, where before she'd felt rock steadiness. And so she paused, this charcoal black dragon, in all her inky glory, and cocked her head.
You love me? You don't even know me. What do you offer, besides your want of a queen? The need was there, bottomless, yawning, true, but she would not give her heart lightly, this shadow queen. She must be sure. Was Melieste sure?
Melieste stopped, frozen by the strength of the words in her mind. Did this mean?
No. It was a question. A test. How did she answer?
A thousand thoughts crashed together in her head. She pictured her hours of painstaking training in leadership and politics. Her mother's words about her being destined for greatness wound through her brain like some kind of poisonous viper. She thought of her family, of the bridges she'd burnt. She thought of her peers, and of the ones she'd left behind at Eastern. She thought of her admiration for Aliseth, grudging though it had once been. She could have answered with any of these things, but in the final moment, none of those contained the whole truth.
What did she have to offer?
Nothing, she whispered in her brain. Nothing but me. All of me. My entire being to be tied to yours forever. My whole heart, unreservedly given to you. You say that I don't know you. I don't, but I want to. I want to be whatever you need me to be. Not because you're a queen, but because you're you.
And even as she thought it, she knew it to be true. For the first time since coming to this ragtag Weyr, Melieste's perfect facade cracked wide open. Her eyes filled with tears, she let out a sob of pure emotion, and her composed mask of a face crumpled to reveal the aching, grieving, loving person within. She was afraid. She was so very afraid that what she had to offer - herself - wasn't going to be enough.
But she offered it anyway, with love.
There you are. Zillath's response was satisfied. Not content - never content - but like her dam, this shadow's love came with edges, knife-sharp and naturally aimed at the weakest points. To make things more whole, more right, more fitting. To make sense in a chaotic world. And here I am. Zillath. Are you ready?
A sob tore itself from the center of Melieste's being, and she fell to her knees as the shadow dragonet bent her head enough to accept the girl's weeping embrace.
"Zillath," she whispered, choked, coughed, then tried again. "Her name is Zillath, and I am hers!"
So you are. Now stop crying. We have much to do. You must pull yourself together. I ask you again, my own. Are you ready?
Melieste laughed again and released Zillath's neck enough to swipe at her eyes. She drew in a deep breath and smiled up at the crowd. Though her face was blotchy and red, and her eyes still watery, she'd never felt more beautiful. For the first time in her life, someone had seen into her and loved her anyway. That thought alone was enough to make the tears threaten again, so she cleared her throat and got to her feet.
"I am ready, little queen," she said proudly. "I daresay we both are. Shall we get you fed?"
Why yes, my own. That would be a delight.
Dragon Art credited to Mellody. Colored by WeyrwolfName: Zillath
Color: Shadow
Speech Hex Code: #726f6f,
#dbd4d4Impression date: Aliseth's first clutch
Wing: Thread's Bane Weyrling Class
Physical description: Zillath is an overall deep, matte charcoal. As a hatchling, she tends toward the rotund, but when she moves, she flows like water... or like some predatory animal. Which, after all, she is.
Personality: Zillath compliments her rider in that she, too, is willing to use social engineering for her own ends. In Zillath's case, however, those ends amount to the unity and protection of those she chooses as "hers". She is fond of secrets and surprises, and will often seek out information to file it away for possible use later. She enjoys working behind the scenes to manipulate the power players in her world... whatever constitutes "her world" at any one time. As a fully grown queen, she will likely be a formidable political force, alongside her rider. As a hatchling, however, her primary goal seems to be the unity of her class.
Special talents: Being mysterious.
