Name: Csinda
Age: 27
Sex: female
Sexual Orientation:
Weyr: Western Weyr
Rider Rank: wingrider
Previous Rank/Craft: weyrbrat
Physical Description: Csinda's height is not conspicuous, but after a lifetime in the Weyr her physique more closely resembles that of a well-muscled fourteen-turn-old boy than a nearly-thirty-turn-old woman. She is badly scarred by thread and has a pronounced limp on the ground as a result of a deep slash she received in an aerial collision during her first threadfall. Since it doesn't hinder her riding ability, she doesn't mind it much, and chooses instead to use it as an excuse to take indulgently long soaks in the baths. She keeps her dark hair less than half an inch long and her dark eyes seem to be narrowed in a perpetual squint against the suns, which gives her frequent smiles extra brilliance.
Personality:
Csinda is not fearless, but it would be hard to discern what sorts of things frighten her when you consider that she'll brave thread and public censure with the same determination. That's probably a good thing, considering she's a dragonrider with a mouth on her, and likely to see plenty of both over the course of her life. She will face any danger and run any risk, confident that things will work out in some way, even if it means that future-Csinda will have some difficulties.
Frankly, she doesn't give much thought to future-Csinda most of the time. Not when she gets drunk and has to go to morning workouts and drills hungover. Not when she gets drunk and does her best to goad people into brawls. Not when she gets drunk and takes on idiotic bets. Basically, not when she gets drunk, which is a more frequent occurrence than it should be. However, since Tijuth enjoys the second-hand buzz and lassitude that comes from Csinda's drunkenness, the dragon has never made any attempt to curb her rider's drinking.
Even sober, Csinda has always liked a fight, but has never been one to bear a grudge. She's happy to share a drink with someone with whom she was trading blows minutes before, and will truly consider the matter over and done with. Her open-mind makes it easy for her to imagine others' points of view, and easy to get over disagreements and disappointments. People who hold grudges after a fight - especially a physical one - baffle her. She loves the days when her wing holds martial drills and combat training.
Positive Trait List: open-minded; brave; optimistic
Negative Trait List: bellicose; impetuous; alcoholic
History:
Born to a pair of lower caverns workers in Western and raised in the creche, Csinda had a typical childhood, though she definitely got into more fights than the average child, many of which were ill-considered. On the other hand, she somehow managed to avoid making too many enemies, as the fights she got into were more like out-of-hand wrestling matches or mock-battles than attempts to hurt or humiliate anyone. She went the entire turn before she was deemed old enough to be a candidate on her best behavior, and all the turns of her candidacy keeping out of fights and acting with a level of care and consideration which nearly drove her to distraction. It was a good thing she Impressed Tijuth when she did, because she was nearly ready to burst with the effort of containing herself all the time.
Tijuth was slow to Impress, returning again and again to examine a quartet of candidates until the pressure became too much for her and she looked away in distress. Then her anxious yellow gaze fell on Csinda and she knew that she hadn't been able to choose between the other four because none of them were Csinda.
They had a rough time as weyrlings and spent their first half-turn on a wing on semi-probation. Not so much because of Csinda's reckless behavior, but because it was hard even for their instructors to gauge how well they (well, Tijuth) truly understood the material, and how ready they were to be on a wing. Eventually they proved themselves and were taken off probation and the routine of training and drilling was fine for them.
When thread began to fall for real, things were less fine. Tijuth was not mentally prepared, despite her genetic urge to destroy thread, and her panic got both of them injured when she emerged from between and collided with another dragon and their mutual flailing drew enough blood that Tijuth was grounded, partly in punishment and partly because she'd absolutely taken the worst of it in their accidental tangle. The next time they flew, Tijuth's refusal to go between in order to avoid a potential recurrence of the last time meant they both got badly scored and spent yet another long stretch recovering. It was at that point that Csinda began to turn to alcohol for muscle relaxant and pain relief. Csinda started drinking long before that, but only socially.
Other: Csinda's going to need to deal with her drinking problem, but right now she doesn't see it as a problem. She will probably not take well to being told that it is a problem in the future, either, but it's absolutely something I want to see play out for her.
DRAGON
Name: Tijuth (taken from the Yoruba word for "shy," tiju)
Age: 14 turns
Color: green
Size: 24'
Physical Description: It is neither her size nor her conformation that make her stand out, but her extensive scarring due to a pair of unfortunate events during the earliest threadfalls wherein she was accidentally clawed when she messed up formation to avoid a clump of thread and emerged from between right next to another dragon and their wings got tangled. In the first threadfall after her recovery she was so afraid of repeating her mistake that she refused to go between at all and both she and her rider ended up severely scored.
Personality: Afraid to put herself forward in most situations, Tijuth is easily overlooked, which is fine by her. If no one notices her, no one will notice when she messes up. Which she absolutely will, because Tijuth's anxiety about making mistakes often causes her fears to become self-fulfilling prophecies. This makes her come across as fairly incompetent - another one of her fears - and forms a vicious cycle.
Tijuth is a very, very focused dragon. Focused to the point of fixation. She will agonize over decisions, constantly second-, third-, and seventy sixth-guessing herself until the moment has long passed or she simply throws caution to the wind and acts. When she does this, it's as if she hadn't just spent an age considering every possibility and angle of a situation, and instead threw herself into fortune's claws, certain that whatever decision she made would be the wrong one anyway, so it's best left to chance.
The frustrating part of all this, at least for those who know Tijuth and care about her, is that the green is neither careless nor incompetent. She knows all of the regulations, all of the best practices, and everything else she ought to know, but her self-doubt cripples her when it comes to demonstrating her mastery. If she wasn't so very self-effacing, Tijuth might make a fine instructor, but her tendency to fixate to the exclusion of all else makes that an impossibility.
It isn't all nerves and insecurity in Tijuth's head, however. The green, though very quiet around just about everyone, has a wide streak of sarcasm and a gift for seeing the humor in situations not involving her own errors. She can actually find humor in her own peccadilloes, too, but it takes time for her to reach the point where such things become sources of entertainment rather than embarrassment. At any rate, anyone who happens to overhear the comments she can't quite keep to herself will find themselves in stitches.
Dragon Art or Proof of Obtainment:
