Name: Felena
Age: 19
Nameday: 3557.06.12
Sex: Female
Sexual Orientation: Bisexual, with a preference for women.
Weyr: Western Weyr.
Rider Rank: Goldrider
Previous Rank/Craft: Trainee guard.
Physical Description:

Personality:
Felena is best understood in two parts. What she lets people see is one rendition of her, confident and larger-than-life--she positively excels in social situations, knowing the ins and outs of how to maintain her poise and presence with ease. She's very well-mannered and polite when directly spoken to, albeit prone to gossip behind others' backs when she gets the chance, and is always looking for some way to improve her station. Felena loves being up to date with all the latest talk, especially if there's something particularly juicy going on--it's never a bad thing to keep information like that in your back pocket, after all. She has no qualms with getting her hands dirty, and will just as readily break her back working as anyone else; she's learned the ins and outs of Weyr life since arriving at Western, and has no intentions of deviating from what is expected of her.
She suits the grand, noble image of a Goldrider well, and follows every social rule and unspoken guideline without complaint. In stressful situations, she's quite good at keeping her head, but tends to get frustrated during tasks if she just can't figure them out. If the need arises, however, Felena can be quite a skilled negotiator if her somewhat lackluster temper doesn't get the better of her. Her ire is, fortunately, harder to rouse than expected by most means, although personal insults will always be met with harsh retaliation. At her absolute best, Felena would fit almost seamlessly into any Lord Holder's court, with all the grace and dignity such a position demands. It's true that she can be something of a bully, and tends to steamroll over others who don't set their boundaries well enough, but she knows her place in the hierarchy, and seems to be quite happy with it now that she's stomached the initial shock of having to actually work for her standing as a Goldrider.

However, those with keener intuition likely won't have much trouble seeing past this exterior.

In many ways, she's something of a contradiction, a girl who grew into a strange shape she forced herself into being without heeding her own true desires instead. She became so caught up with the idea she was chasing that it became all she could see, and only now that Prigdith has thrown back some of those layers has she started to understand that she's done herself far more of a disservice than she has anything else. She's hard on herself for not being this grandiose figure completely, but can't seem to decide whether or not she's condemning herself by rejecting her true origins so severely. When all her acts and airs are stripped away, Felena is simply a scared young woman trying to figure out who she is. She wants to believe that her sociable act is the real her, but she isn't sure if that's the best for her.
Away from others, she's much quieter, and is very careful to maintain her privacy--she certainly can't have someone walk in on her training, after all! What would everyone think? She's become so concerned with everyone else's opinion of herself that it's become quite difficult for her to tear herself away from the perceptions of others, and even with Prigdith's fierce acceptance of everything she is, she can doubt herself quite easily when left to her own devices. Felena finds it easiest to think when going through all the training exercises her mother taught her, and that martial training forms the majority of her calming rituals; it's a way to connect herself back to who she really is under everything, and while they matter more to her than most things, she can't help but be self-confident about them. Really, Felena is afraid that if everyone finds out that she's not who she's built herself up to be, they'll hate her--while she knows she'll always have Prigdith on her side, it's difficult for her not to concern herself with what everyone else has to say about her.

Positive Trait List Bold, decisive, composed, social butterfly, hardworking.
Negative Trait List Insecure, vindictive, petty, insincere, short-tempered.

History:
As far as Felena would have you believe, she's the daughter of a well-to-do holder and her truly ethereal courtesan husband, members of high society with plenty of status and renown to their name. She's the eldest, of course, and by virtue of that, was expected to take on the family's estate and guide it to yet greater still heights, perhaps even landing herself somewhere close to the Lord Holder himself. It's an illustrious tale, to be sure, and one that she's quite proud of.

The main problem with that story is that none of it is true--at least, not how she tells it.

While yes, her mother is technically a holder, she's not the glamorous noble Felena wishes she was. She's a guard and at times mercenary, eking out a space for their family with blade and muscle--her father likes to think about what may have happened if he finished being trained as a courtesan, but has instead made a name for himself as a spectacular card shark during the darker hours of the night. During the day, however, he's a lovely man running a very respectable fruit stall, with none of the cloak and dagger mystery Felena wishes he had.
Felena herself is the eldest, that much is true, but she's not the only child. She has a younger brother who's been just as spoiled as she has, but has somehow managed to avoid winding up like her in personality--he was already starting to talk about training toward being a guard like his mother when she was Searched, something Felena could never bring herself to stomach...not officially, anyway. She picked up far more of her mother's martial prowess than she's keen to admit, and her interest in it is one she's held far under the table for Turns for fear of how it may damage her image.

From the start, her life was very different. There were no trappings of nobility--simply a humble beginning on the outskirts of Western Hold, and she's been absolutely doted on by her parents ever since. Felena's birth was a grand, important moment in her parents' lives: she was their first child, and the start of their family. Having such prominence placed on her mere existence colored her view of the world all throughout her childhood and even into the present, even though the rest of Pern doesn't seem to understand just what kind of a big deal she is. She stuck close to her father as a child, drinking in his stories and making plenty of extrapolations from the carefully-edited tales of his previous ventures that he provided. He was always careful not to tell her much about the darker portions of the world, although his wife ensured that she knew full well what to do in order to handle herself should she find herself there; instead, her father tended to be the reassuring, comforting figure, although that isn't to say her mother didn't do plenty of that on her own. Elthena simply had less finesse to her affection than Fennai did--this would at times put Felena at odds with her mother, mostly on account of communication breakdown. She found herself fantasizing about how different her life would have been with just a few slight changes, interspersed with periodically training alongside her mother when she was sure no one would notice--Elthena was glad to have the chance to connect with her daughter, and they began rebuilding the damaged portions of their relationship through their private training sessions.
At the age of sixteen, she was finally Searched. Felena readily took up the offer, eager to have her chance to be someone else--at Western, nobody would know who she was, and that was all the opportunity she needed. She wouldn't have to be simply another guard in training, someone forgettable or otherwise insignificant--she could style herself up into whoever she wanted, as long as she kept it within reason. Her family was proud of her, and she promised she'd write; of course, she did, but she found herself very quickly swept along into candidacy and everything else. Life became something of a whirlwind for her at Western, rapidly picking up the pace until it finally reached a fever pitch: there was a clutch on the Sands.

Other:

DRAGON
Name: Prigdith
Age: 2
Color: Gold
Size: 102'.
Physical Description: Big.
Personality:
Brute strength and ambition make up the majority of Prigdith's drive. She wants more, not only for herself but for Felena as well--considering the fact that they're bonded to each other, after all, she's getting pulled up to the heights of it all along with her. Prigdith has little qualms with using force (within reason) to get what she wants, and has no intention of accepting anything she perceives as beneath her--she has incredibly high standards for herself, both for what she thinks she deserves and for her own efforts. She's still young yet, however, and hasn't quite developed the emotional maturity to not have a tantrum if she doesn't get what she wants--hers are simply far more of a production these days.
Prigdith knows all of Felena's fears and uncertainties, and she desperately wants to help Hers overcome them--her love and attention can only do so much, however. As a result, she's convinced herself that they need to be as close to the top as possible, at which point Felena's dream of being someone important will be well and truly realized. It goes without saying that she's Prigdith's whole world, of course, and there's no one on Pern that's more important in her eyes; but if there's anything at all she can do to comfort Felena, she'll do it without a second thought. While she's hardly skilled with emotional displays or flowery love language, she shows her affection best by doing, and she refuses to let anything stand in her way when she's made a decision about getting something done. Prigdith is very much a nigh-unstoppable force, and the only thing she bends her will for is Felena herself.

Despite her usual first impression as a spiteful, savage dragon, she's much more cold and calculating than she lets on, and knows full well when to cut her losses and run. Although completing her goals is very important to her, her own hide (and Hers) are far more valuable, and she won't dare push either of them too close to the edge. Prigdith knows when the odds are against her, and although she'll rage and rant enough to make one hell of a show about it, she'll back off when her back's against the wall rather than trying to make one final stand. Her temper is ultimately one of the worst parts about her, however, and her anger is legendary--while it's been somewhat quelled by the influence of others, not to mention periodically butting heads with authority figures, it still remains a force to be reckoned with. Prigdith does not release a grudge, and seems quite happy to hold on to it until the end of days.
Dragon Art or Proof of Obtainment: [ conversion! ]