Post by Ace on Jul 5, 2012 22:46:23 GMT -4
Name: Dessorn
Pronunciation: DEHS-sorn
Age: 22
Season Born In: Winter, although he actually doesn't know
Gender: Male (Transgender)
Sexuality: Asexual
Appearance:
Dessorn is a small, short, rather lanky individual, although he usually hides this under layers and layers of clothing in all but the hottest of days, and that doesn't include all the packs that he carries so that he won't be caught unprepared anywhere. He isn't one to be afraid of dressing in colors, particularly blues, browns, and greens; in fact, it's rare to see him without his favorite long cornflower blue scarf.
He holds himself uncomfortably, as if he's trying to take up the least amount of space possible, to not get himself noticed, and oh shards he's incredibly sorry for breathing your air. This only gets worse if he is somehow caught without his layers and layers of clothing. His hands are always in motion, although he generally has the mind to keep his fidgeting confined to his pockets. When he talks, that discomfort seems to only increase tenfold, as if he's uncomfortable with the very sound of his (too high-pitched) voice.
His black hair is always kept very neat: It's parted very carefully on one side, and his bangs never reach down past his eyebrows, if they even manage that far. His face makes him look much younger than he is, but in an awkward, lanky sort of way. He's not attractive, but neither is he incredibly repulsive, although one might take issue with his large nose or his squinting eyes. His face is the only place where his skin has been allowed to tan.
Personality:
Dessorn is quite the twitchy ball of nerves. He has problems with anxiety, which, as a plant-oriented healer, he can keep down with a variety of teas, but it's never enough. He's constantly fidgeting, often stutters, and he hates being touched. He also has some problems with empathy and judging other people's emotions; he'll have to stare at somebody for quite some time and intellectually judge their expression to figure it out, and most of the time, he doesn't like to waste the effort. In another world, he would have been diagnosed autistic; on Pern, people generally refer to him as just "odd."
So, he keeps to himself almost obsessively, not wanting to cause any conflict whatsoever even when it disadvantages him. However, some of Dessorn's introversion is due to his dislike of the rest of Pern. He dislikes people by virtue of being people; it takes some time to gain his respect and trust. At the same time, he has some self-esteem issues, not believing that anything he has to say could be of interest to anybody. He also tends to believe that everything that happens to him is his own fault.
It can be somewhat surprising, then, when Dessorn gets talking. Plants are his primary area of interest, although other such topics include dragonkin physiology and the social status of whers. He is much more emotional than he might like to admit, and is often grinning and excited about things other people may consider minor -- the way a particular tree has grown, the feel of a handful of herbs in his hands, and so on. He has grown embarrassed about these likes of his, however, and will often apologize profusely for boring someone with his love of plants. He also has a sense of humor that can be surprisingly sarcastic and surprisingly dark, although he actually has rather difficult time recognizing sarcasm in others.
He holds onto the ideals of order and law fairly rigidly: There is a certain way that the world should be, and that's final (although, those mutant colors are very interesting...). He prefers logic over emotion, and looks down on what he labels "animalistic" with inordinate disgust. Instead, he has an almost idealistic dedication to science, research, and the intellectual, and at any one time will be conducting a number of investigations on his own time, although he would hesitate to tell anybody about them. After all, most people would disagree with Dessorn's belief that science is more important than pesky little things like test subject safety and human sanctity.
Family:
Unknown -- Dessorn was placed in the creche at a young age, due to his delayed development
Location:
Born in Istan, studied in a Harper Hall, and now has moved to Trelis
History:
Dessorn's parents had great expectations for their child: A strong independent woman, perhaps a queenrider, who knew? However, after years and years of not speaking a single word, there were worries. They saw Dessorn (Elaista at the time, but even the thought of the name still makes Dessorn feel wrong) as an embarrassment, as proof that they were bad parents. They silently left Dessorn at the creche to be someone else's problem.
Even when Dessorn began to say his first words at around six turns old, he kept to himself. Those who saw him often thought he was just a shy, timid little girl. Some of the creche nurses thought he was just a late bloomer; most, however, had labeled him as a deadglow and focused their attention on the other kids. After all, if it was hard enough to get Dessorn to keep his dresses and skirts on, why bother teaching him to read? It came as a surprise to many, then, when Dessorn proved to not only know how to read -- a skill he had learned from other children, primarily -- but was actually spending his free time learning basic herbalism, anatomy, and healercraft.
When approached, Dessorn made it very clear that he wanted to be a Healer (and he was similarly adamant about being a boy, but adults always laughed that off as a funny joke or quirk), but actualy getting him into the craft proved fairly difficult. Firstly, there were only a few willing to advocate on his behalf at all; secondly, they had to continually cover up Dessorn's more unusual habits to try to make him seem like nothing more than a scholarly young lady. Eventually, he was accepted.
What was more surprising, however, was that he made it through his apprenticeship. The actual studies were no problem at all: What was hard, though, was dealing with the other students who saw something wrong with him, the inexplicable self-hatred as his body went through puberty and gave him curves he knew were wrong, and the feeling that he would always be very out of place and always, always wrong. Deciding to tell people he was a boy alleviated some of the problems, at least: The idea came when, on a bad night, he angrily cut his hair short and, the next day, someone called him "sir." The idea came so naturally, Dessorn never found any reason to pretend otherwise.
By then, though, he had learned enough about social expectations to know that he couldn't go around declaring his gender to everyone -- to do so would have caused far too much drama, no doubt. So, he kept it stifled and did his best to look "boyish," not "a boy," and did his best to look forward to when he could move out of the Hall and change his presentation entirely. He devoted his life to his studies -- not pleasant or fun, by any means, but nobody could call him a "deadglow" anymore, at least.
Upon walking the tables and becoming a journeyman, Dessorn headed out of the Hall. Trelis Weyr seemed like the obvious choice -- while plants were clearly his main area of interest, the presence of the mutant colors was undeniably interesting, so why not place himself close to the source? He's been here for a few turns now, uneasy about the disapproval of the mutated colors, but too anxious and pacifist to seek out the Rebellion.
Craft: Healer
Ranking: Journeyman
Strengths: Plants and memorization. He's practically a walking dictionary. His knowledge goes beyond memorization, too, in that he seems to have a nearly innate understanding of how some medicines may interact with one another. He also has decent knowledge of dragonkin biology, although he does not have the same amount of experience and intuition.
Weaknesses: Dealing with people beyond a few short lines -- people often leave wondering if Dessorn cares about his patients at all. He is also terrible in stressful, time-sensitive situations, more apt to just break down than get anything done. This has made him practically useless as a main healer in the infirmary, so instead he usually has the task of creating balms and tending to the medicinal gardens.
