Lizalia

[Zen]

NAME: Lizalia (pronounced Lie-zal-ee-ah, usually goes by Liza)
RANK: Journeyman Smith
AGE: 22 Turns
GENDER: Female
ORIENTATION: Bisexual
DRAGON: None Yet
PETS: Bronze Spectrum, Blue Squall, Green Squeak

APPEARANCE: Standing at 5’7”, Lizalia is of middling height for a woman, lithe and toned from her work as a smith, which can get quite physical. She doesn’t have much womanly shape to her with little in the way of curves, but it suits her just fine. Her skin is quite pale, though not for lack of exposure to the sun as she enjoys time outdoors, but seems to just burn rather than tan. Her hair is a sunkissed golden blonde which she keeps shorter, never longer than just past her shoulders and sometimes shorter still. When it is longer, it is rare for her hair NOT to be pulled up into a messy runner’s tail or haphazard bun, and when it is down generally looks mussed and unkempt despite all the scoldings her mother has given her to take some pride in her appearance. It just seems like a waste of time to her. Her face is soft and round, with full lips, a well proportioned nose with a smattering of very light freckling over it and along her cheek bones, and deep blue-green eyes that appear more blue or green depending on the light. She dislikes feminine clothing with all the useless frills and tends to wear simple leggings and loose tunics that cover her well to help avoid sunburn.

PERSONALITY FAULTS: Insensitive, Blunt, Restless, Impulsive, Fickle
Sitting still is NOT a skill Lizalia has ever mastered, not unless she’s doing something with her hands at least. There’s little worse than having to sit through a lecture and if you think she’s at all going to pay attention to anything that’s being said, think again. Easily bored, when she isn’t engaged in actively doing something, her mind constantly wanders and it is incredibly difficult for her to focus if someone is just droning on and on at her. Her wandering mind isn’t just daydreaming nonsense, however, but thinking up new ideas for activities she wants to try and inventions she wants to make, but the fact still remains that she’s lucky to retain 10 words from your lecture.

If Lizalia wants to do something, she simply will. There is no hesitation in her when she gets it into her mind that she wants to do or try a thing. She doesn’t generally think things all the way through before she does anything either, preferring to wing it, improvise, make it up as she goes along and solve any issues that arise as they come, rather than making in depth plans and backup plans and contingencies. It’s so much more fun to just figure it out as you go along. However, she just as easily abandons projects she’s begun because something new has occurred to her and seems much more interesting. Committing to and following through on things until their end is difficult for her when there is just so much to see and do in life. She hates limiting herself in any way, tying herself down with obligations, and isn’t the most reliable or responsible person.

Friends and family are not safe from her impulsive, fickle nature, and making plans with her is always a risk. She is just as likely to become distracted by a new idea or to simply decide that her plans with you are far less appealing than doing something else entirely. She will, at least generally, invite you along on whatever new plan she has come up with, but won’t at all understand why you might be upset at sudden change and if you aren’t up for her new adventure she’ll leave you behind happily enough to pursue it herself. While she does enjoy company, she doesn’t need it to have a good time and is just as content to spend time on her own.

She is also quite blunt and doesn’t particularly have any tact or much social grace, which is liable to make her come off as rude even if she doesn’t mean to be. Part of it is a lack of understanding of the nuances of social situations and part of it is a lack of caring about such trivial nonsense that leaves her not at all interested in learning to be more tactful even if she is capable of it. Emotions are superfluous things to her intensely logical mind and she isn’t about to let them get in the way of anything. Her own emotions are quite muted and the only ones she tends to display are happiness or excitement, and sometimes annoyance. Anything else has her withdrawing and locking herself away to deal with them on her own, on the few occasions something else does arise.

PERSONALITY STRENGTHS: Optimistic, Creative, Practical, Adaptable, Adventurous
Lizalia is quite a cheerful person, generally friendly, and has a sometimes annoying knack for finding the silver lining in some of the most dour situations. Easygoing and rational, she has a talent for keeping a level head in a crisis and there isn’t much that has the ability to send her into a panic. In fact she finds situations that most others would find stressful to be more of a fun challenge. Give her a problem that requires a quick solution to avoid imminent disaster and she’ll throw her all into it with a strangely excited focus. She is quite confident in her own abilities, though she can at times be overconfident and get herself into trouble.

Creative but in a practical way, drawn out discussions of philosophy and abstract what ifs do not hold her attention long, nor is she ever going to have fun analyzing the meaning behind art or music. Her creativity shines when it comes to crafting practical solutions to problems, even minor ones. Inventive and forward thinking, Lizalia is always looking for ways to improve upon the way things are done. Tradition means very little to her, particularly if it is standing in the way of progress, and she will not hesitate to push boundaries if she thinks those boundaries are holding her back. She has a tendency to step on the toes of more traditional, conservative folk, who shouldn’t waste their time waiting around for an apology.

Practical in conversation as well, she really doesn’t have time for pointless small talk and has little patience for those who dance around what they mean. If you can handle her straightforward nature and keep up with her sometimes sudden subject changes when new and exciting thoughts occur to her, she can be quite a fun and interesting conversational partner and you can always trust that she means what she says. Fun loving and adventurous, she is always up for trying new things and exploring new places. She can, however, be a bit of a thrill seeker with a reckless streak that her twin brother is fortunately good at tempering or she likely would have gotten herself seriously injured on more than one occasion.

FAMILY:
Father - Chizewlin (Mastersmith, +26 Turns)
Mother - Hiralia (+25 Turns)
Brother - Zelhirin (Journeyman Smith, Twin)
Sister - Chaizaela (-4 Turns)
Sister - Hazelira (-6 Turns)
Brother - Izeralir (-9 Turns)
Brother - Rizewil (-12 Turns)
Brother - Nilzaral (-16 Turns)
Maternal Uncle - R'hir (Bronzerider, Wingleader at Fort, +27 turns)
Maternal Uncle - H'mal (Brownrider, +23 turns)
Maternal Uncle - H'ril (Bluerider, +20 turns)

HISTORY:
Lizalia is the firstborn child of Chizewlin and Hiralia, by 17 minutes, she enjoys pointing out. Her twin brother Zelhirin came quickly after and the two grew up incredibly close as most might expect from twins. They were born only a turn before their father reached mastery in the smithcraft and the responsibility (and slight panic) of new fatherhood to not one but two children may have helped spur him toward it quicker, though he was certainly well on the path before they came along.

It was apparent early on that Liza took rather heavily after her father as she was often making her own toys from odds and ends she found. They may not have looked like much to anyone else but Liza adored her little creations far more than any toys her mother might offer her and the woman quickly learned not to waste her marks. The older she got, the more her father became involved with this interest they shared and he taught her to use various tools and gave her scraps from his own projects just to see what she might come up with herself. Her father’s personal workshop became a favorite place for her and she enjoyed taking some of his older things apart to see how they worked and putting them back together again.

Her mother, initially, thought it somewhat inappropriate for a girl, but Chizewlin’s own joy in their daughter’s curiosity and inventiveness had her reluctantly accepting it rather than working to discourage such behavior. Her father’s unconditional acceptance, encouragement, and understanding when few others seemed to be able to understand her, gave her the confidence to be herself and pursue whatever she wanted even in the face of heavy opposition. After spending time following her father around and doing her best to help him complete his own tasks and projects, her formal apprenticeship at the smithcraft Hall began when she was 10. Her father may have been a master in the craft, but it did not spare her the hazing and bullying that so many girls trying to get into the smithcraft face. Zelhirin seemed to take it upon himself to be her defender, which deterred plenty of bullies, particularly as they aged, but she was more than willing to fight her own battles too and became a rather impressive revenge prankster.

At 18 she walked the tables and became a journeyman, though Zelhirin beat her to it by a few months. It spurred her to work hard to catch up to him, disliking that he had left her behind in a way. As a journeyman she took a particular interest in flamethrowers and has spent a lot of time helping to build and maintain them as part of her more practical duties at the Hall, as unfortunately, she does have expectations and obligations to meet as a member of the craft and cannot just spend all her time locked in her father’s workshop coming up with new inventions to build. Flamethrowers are one of the few things that have managed to keep her vaguely interested, as otherwise she is far more concerned with coming up with things that answer current and future problems rather than just building the same old things everyone has been building since Faranth broke shell.

Her relationship with Zelhirin is unique, as there isn’t anyone else on Pern who can stop her when she gets an idea in her head. Sometimes through reason, but more often through sheer force, her brother keeps her grounded when her imagination takes control without enough forethought. He is her protector, most often from herself, and even if she doesn’t always appreciate it she understands it comes from a place of love and can hardly hold it against him. Anyone else that tried to hold her back in any way would be quickly cut out of her life with no looking back, but given enough time to think back on all the instances he’s stopped her from following through with one plan or another, she can see quite clearly in hindsight what she might not have been able to see in the moment. She often thinks of him as a missing piece of her own reason, and if he is just a piece of her that somehow got separated then she supposes it makes sense to listen to him… sometimes. She rarely gives in without a fight, but it at least helps take the sting out of the loss when she does. He is a constant that never bores her, one of so few that seem to actually understand her and accept her as she is, and she loves him deeply for it.

CANDIDATE SECTION
PREFERRED RIDER ABBREVIATION: Li’za
COLOR PREFERENCE: Green or Blue
MUTATION?: Yes (but probably no)

IN THE EVENT OF YOUR SUDDEN, UNEXPLAINED DISAPPEARANCE FROM THE SITE AT ANY POINT IN TIME, WHAT DO YOU WISH TO BECOME OF THIS CHARACTER AND ANY CREATURES THEY MAY IMPRESS?
b. Turn them into an NPC who may be killed off or used for plot purposes but who will not be played by someone else.