When I decided that A'drov needed to leave Rising Dawn, the reason that I had him give was that he'd lost his parents in the explosion of the Storm Fires Volcano, and had realized how detached he'd become from his own family since his Impression. This was his reason for making the move, and when I had that established, I realized that I hadn't taken the time when I'd created A'drov to flesh out his family. I'd said that he had three sisters who were all much older than him, but hadn't even bothered to give these sisters names. So I decided that if he was to be spending more time with them, I'd have to flesh out his family. Surely his sisters would have children, and since his sisters were all so very much older than him, some of their children would even be of Impressionable age by this point. This is where Jolie comes in. She is the oldest child of A'drov's youngest sister Vonie, and due to her relationship with A'drov, I had her Searched. I'm not going to make a lot of A'drov's neices and nephews PCs, but Jolie has become a PC, so she deserves an introduction and page of her own.
Jolie has had a pretty normal life with her parents. Her mother seemed pretty typical to her, which is probably why Jolie goes out of her way to look just a little different if she can. She has two younger siblings, whom she is sometimes placed in charge of, and who are close enough in age that she gets into the usual sibling fights with, although she loves them both dearly and they know that.
Growing up, Jolie has always had her cousins around, despite the wide differences in their ages. When she was younger, she referred to her Uncle Androv as one of her cousins, for he's only 9 Turns older than she is, but after a while, she was told to start using the proper term of Uncle when he was around 16 and she was 7. The cousins that she was closest to were her Aunt Liera's children, Fillier and Lieyona, who were closer to her in age, and she hangs out with Lieyona a lot. When her Uncle Androv went away as a Journeyman Beastherder, she knew she'd see him again from time to time, so she wasn't worried. She was 8 at the time, and like the rest of the family didn't get to see him Impress his brown Kionoth because he hadn't been a candidate and they hadn't expected that to happen. There had been a lot of excitement in the family when that letter had arrived, and Jolie had openly mentioned how jealous she was and how when she grew up she'd be a dragonrider too. Of course, her brother had also avowed the same thing at the same time, probably just to annoy her. He was always doing stuff like that. Her sister Olivonie wistfully said she'd like to, but she didn't declare it as certain or anything like Jolie and Vonjol had.
A few Turns after that had happened, the Volcano that was Storm Fires Weyr erupted, and it was her Uncle A'drov who had come to the families' rescue, with his brown Kionoth carrying her family to safety to one of the refugee camps, along with a lot of their possessions that they managed to hastily pack into crates and boxes and nets. He managed to save her Aunts and their families too, with some of their possessions as well, but grandma and grandpa had died. Vonie told them that their grandparents hadn't wanted to leave their home, and they were in constant pain all the time and just wanted to die, so they'd sent Uncle A'drov away when he'd come for them. Since all of Vonie's children had helped to care for their grandparents and had seen the pain that they were constantly in, they'd known that this had to be true, and they accepted it.
The family spent a few months in the refugee camp, until it had been announced that Falling Sky Hold would open its doors to them. Their parents had been a little reserved about moving there, thinking that they ought to look around and see which place on Pern might be the best, but Aunt Dranela was insistent that this was where the family should move since they had always lived in the South and Falling Sky was welcoming Storm Fires folk with open arms. Jolie didn't really care as long as the family stayed together. As long as that happened, she still had a friend in Lieyona, and she'd have someone to talk to. Around the time of the bru-ha-ha, her parents decided that it was time for her to start thinking about her future. Jolie had repeated her desire to be a dragonrider to her parents, but due to their practical nature, they had insisted that she get training in a craft in the event that a dragon might not pick her. Jolie thought that reasoning was crazy since they had Uncle A'drov as proof that their family was capable of becoming dragonriders, but had to bow to her parents wishes. So she picked something that interested her to do: clothes. She decided to become a tailor so she could make her own clothes and was accepted by Master Antion as an apprentice. The training actually helped her a bit, because it honed her focus and attention to detail, and she liked the work.
Eventually, her Uncle A'drov moved to the new Storm Fires Weyr, so she got to see him a lot more often, as well as his dragon Kionoth. While she wanted to be a dragonrider very badly, she didn't want to be a bother to her Uncle, so she didn't hang around him all the time like her annoying brother Vonjol always did. A'drov announced to the family that they could be looked at by a Searchdragon if they chose since he was a dragonrider, and that promise was good enough that Jolie didn't bother him about it, for she knew that A'drov would keep his promise and she'd get her chance to be Searched.
Before that could happen, Storm Fires Weyr had its first queenflight. Vonie had talked with her children about what they were to do during the flight, and Jolie knew what her role was, although when the time came, she found that she didn't much care for herding the children down to the lake and swimming with them when she knew that all of the adults were disappearing to have sex. Still, it was an important job. Jolie was still a virgin, but she was curious about sex and boys, an attitude that she thought would suit her well to Weyr life.
One day as Jolie and her cousins were helping Uncle A'drov wash his Kionoth, a bluerider named Tiana came by and Uncle A'drov said that they should offer to help her with her blue. It wasn't long before she and her cousins were Searched, and that is where Jolie's story begins.
Jolie was an energetic and cheerful 14 Turn old when she was Searched, and she likes to push things sometimes just to do so. She's responsible to a certain extent, as she's the oldest of her siblings, but definitely has her fun-loving side and a zest for life. She's very honest, and will honestly tell you exactly what she thinks, even if it might not be what you want to hear. This often gets her into trouble, however. Through my time playing her, I have decided to give her a motto, something none of my other characters have ever had. "Live hard and completely." She's staunchly unapologetic about being who she is, and true to herself.
Jolie has from the start been a very self-confident girl, but she hadn't had many let-downs in her life to temper her determination in anything. When she sets her mind to do something, she just goes out and does it. Jolie has brown hair and brown eyes with a face full of character. She keeps her hair up-swept and rarely has it the same way two days in a row, since she is always trying out something different. Your average shoes, perhaps a little scuffed, and a shirt that is bright and showy are her basic requirements, and red is her favorite color to wear. She likes cargo pants of all colors and sizes, from form fitting to baggy, and there's always a little bling somewhere on her.
I submitted Jolie and her cousin Lieyona as candidates for the queen, and I'm very glad that the decision between the two was not up to me, for I don't think I could have made it. Both girls had a lot to commend them. Of the two girls, Lieyona is older by two Turns, more mature, and more sensible. She also doesn't set her goals above what is truly achievable, and has a good sense of proportion. But to make up for that, she's not as outgoing, spontaneous, and self-confident as Jolie is.
I'll admit that I purposely set Jolie up for a potential fall, for I stated that if Jolie didn't Impress the queen, she wasn't to Impress at all. I did this partly because I didn't want Jolie and Lieyona to be paired together all of the time in my story-lines and I wanted Jolie to have some real disappointments in her life. She's very confident, and made no bones about the fact that she wanted the queen, although she wouldn't mind a green. She went out onto those sands fully expecting to Impress, if not the queen, then a green. But her walking off the sands without a lifemate was a blow to her self-confidence and her belief that she would be found acceptable to a dragonet.
For the first time, Jolie entertained doubts about herself, which isn't necessarily the bad thing that it would seem to be. When you have nothing but confidence in yourself and your abilities, you have the potential to become a Napoleon or a Kylara, neither of which are really good for the Weyr as a whole when the person is a queenrider. Not that this was to be Jolie's destiny, as her cousin Lieyona Impressed the Queen. This event, while it didn't really damage her self-confidence for long, did have a beneficial side affect, which was a new-found sense of proportion, which she badly needed. It made her a little more thoughtful as well, but I don't expect her to ever become too deep; she doesn't have the disposition for it and it would ruin her purpose anyway. Jolie's purpose in life is to use her influence from time to time to get her cousin Lieyona to loosen up and have a little fun, for one of Lieyona's faults is that she's far too serious.
Her second time standing, Jolie Impressed a green named Beciath, and all of her self-doubt has thus been resolved. Beciath is a fun-loving green, but she's a bit calmer than her rider, and hopefully will be able to help Jolie tone things down when she gets older. As a weyrling however, Jolie's big mouth just seemed to be get her in trouble. Ah well, she'll grow out of it, or else she'll be my little troublemaker for the rest of her life. ;) She doesn't have any problems taking orders, and she's a dedicated rider, she just also happens to be a bit of a fireball outside of that professional role. She's very fun to play, I have to admit, and if she had been a queenrider there would have been a lot of very interesting storylines coming out of it. Honestly, it's kind of a shame that she wasn't picked as the queenrider over her cousin. She would have been one hell of a troublemaking queenrider, and that would have shaken things up considerably. But she's also a perfect greenrider, with the sunny disposition that will make light of the trouble she gets into, and no worries that her actions will reflect on the entire Weyr. Every Weyr could use a Jolie.
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