NAME: Starling; Maskali-Te (Flame Bird’s Daughter) to the Hidden
Valley humans
SOUL NAME (if appl): Shann
ORIGIN: Hidden Valley/ Deathwater Falls
GENDER: Female
AGE/GEN: Born HNH 98 (a few months prior to Jinan being captured)
HEIGHT: 4' 7"
BUILD: Leggy and slim; on the curvy side of average. Small-breasted.
Well sculpted muscles.
HAIR: Reddish blonde, with coppery highlights.
EYES: Deep forest green, bright, wide, and expressive.
MARKS/SCARS: None outstanding
SKIN TONE: Smooth and pale, tans to a light gold. Tends to burn before
tanning.
TALENT(S): Well trained glider with minor levitation skills, low end
of average treeshaper (Stimulating growth and shaping small objects is
about it. Her bow was a major effort, taking nearly an eightday of work).
SKILL(S): Superb archer (near Strongbow level skills). Competent hawkrider.
Skilled in several different self defense styles. An artiste' in shaping
wood and plant sculptures. A knack for carving. Likes mindgaming, but not
to the extent of really gouging someone. Once at New Hope.....she finds
a lot of things she s not good at. Like spinning, weaving, fishing . .
.). As adept at the techniques of joining as her mother, if not as driven.
A wicked player of board games.
CLOTHING: Ohhhhh, yes. A regular clothes horse. But like her Mommy,
if the mood hits her, she'll strip and prance in the nude. Likes to play
Dress-up with mom, even when grown, but she could get along fine with an
uncolored leather vest and skirt. Not that she would give up silks; just
that she can if need be. Will find Snowflower s kaliedoscopic wardrobe
neato. Probably the most outrageous thing she carries into New Hope with
her is an outfit patterned after Brightcolor desert fashions; simple breastband,
loin drape, and chaps covering the front of her legs to the ankle. Has
warm breeches and tunic, sandals, slippers . . .
JEWELRY: Ohhhhh, yes. Six piercings in her right ear for either hoops
or studs, depending on her mood. Three in her left, two up high with rings,
one in the lobe with a quartz crystal dangle. A silver and amber bead choker.
Pierced navel with a jewelled dangle; color of gem varies with outfit.
While not one of the Stormriders, she wheedles a pair of silver nipple
rings from Mommy. Toe- and finger rings galore, the placement changing
with her mood and outfit. She does know the limits of gaudy, though, and
what she wears is dictated by what she is doing.
WEAPON(S): Elf bow (self shaped). Carries a hunting knife when
out, and keeps a garrote concealed somewhere in her clothing. Very accurate
fists, knees, elbows. Also quite sturdy nails and sharp teeth.
BONDBEAST: As she lacks the bonding gift, she has none. She does have
a menagerie of small pets, and has the patience to win her riding hawk
to her trust. Her first one is named Victory (No one thought she could
get friendly with the tempramental beast. She winds up being the
only elf Victory will deign to behave around).
FAMILY: Doleera, Mother. Treetall, Father. Sweetberry, Ninvi, aunt.
Tailshadow, cousin (D), Silara, grandmother (hmph!). MATE(S): Not anything
planned, at the moment.
CHILDREN: Again, not planned.
PERSONALITY: Starling is the result of
Doleera and Treetall Recognizing. Living proof that bad isn't hereditary...or
good for that matter. 1st and foremost, she loves her mother. And she knows
that her mother loves her...even if Mom isn't aware of just how deeply
that love runs. Starling grew up with Goddess status, and is a bit spoiled.
She also sees humans as 'other than us', but doesn't quite reach the level
of base disregard that Mom & Co. have. She has no problems with having
slaves; they deserved their fates. But torture for the fun
of it is right out.
Starling is a bit on the willful side;
she was never pushed into anything by Doleera, who remembers her own childhood
far too well, but found herself supported (Doleera is a far better mother
than anyone, even she, would have suspected). She grew up around the riders,
and learned quite a bit from them about the hawks, gliding, weaponry, attitude,
and the game of joining for the sheer hell of it. She proves to be an above
average rider, but she lacks the ability to truly bond with a mount, and
that steals some of the desire from her. She does have rider status, though.
She is quite the cunning little kitty,
but has a full clip of intellect to back it up, and is indeed one of the
opponents that bests Doleera at the gaming table. And she has learned more
about Mom than Mom suspects. She has found out some things about her Grandmother,
Silara, and develops something of a latent grudge (I can't believe she
did that to my mother [fume, fume]! ...Ignoring the fact that Mommy has
many of the same mannerisms as Granny).
Starling's preferred entertainment is
playing her friends and loved ones like a well tuned kitar. She doesn't
like stepping over several of the lines that her mother and mother's friends
barely even notice. There are several lines that she herself is oblivious
to, naturally. From what she heard (since both were gone by the time
she could remember anything) Adiana was a bitch, and Basile was just there.
She actively finds 'Lord' Beliel amusing....as long as he is in a good
mood. Otherwise, she is carefully respectful.
Has a good dose of her mother's libido
and sensual acuity, but is not quite as footloose. Not for any moral reason;
it's just hard finding a partner that isn't scared of Mom, and places where
said Mom won't 'appear' at just the wrong time. Falls into the category
of Cheerfully Bi. Likes a little roughness at times (except real pain;
she is not into that, and the few stories Doleera started to tell her about
her experiments with Lord Tyaar in erotic pain gave her nightmares.
A spanking is one thing, she can get quite aroused from one, but whips
and knives are right out). Monogamy equals boooooooooooooring
in her book. About the only partners she would consider offlimits are her
mother and father. Loves fur, feathers, long, silky hair, and educated
hands and feet and lips and ect. Likes to watch to the point of being a
true voyeur.
Starling was not turned into another
Doleera, but she is far from being Little Miss Sunshine. She has a streak
of selfishness in her. She is a bit of a narcissist, and very conscious
of her good looks (The kind that will stop at a mirror, preen and handle
herself, blow herself a kiss and tell her reflection that she is gorgeous;
not to the obsessive stage. Just enough to be irritating). If she feels
slighted, she will 'make a mistake' in say, fighting practice, hitting
the offender for real, then pour on a display of phoney apology to really
rub her displeasure in. She is crafty, manipulative, and can be cold as
a fish when the situation calls for it. A friend is a friend; an enemy
is toast. (When she leaves the Hidden Valley and goes to New Hope to meet
her father, and learn about him, she will get into several confrontations
(re; fights) about her parentage. He who maketh a disparaging remark about
Doleera in Starling's hearing will get their face slapped, at the bare
minimum). She will stir things up sometimes, just to see if she can. Regards
humans as other than us; human slaves are a given, and she
enjoys playing with them as much as mom does. Imperious with those she
views as underlings, and picked up the servants as furniture
obliviousness from Hidden Valley.
Starling comes to love her father, and
finds she has a liking for New Hope; Hidden Valley is the place where she
gets her adrenalin and endorphin rushes, New Hope is the quiet ski resort
where she goes to recharge and relax. She doesn't have to watch her back
every second, like she did at the Valley. But she can also understand how
her mother has to function, and admires her all the more...and loses her
hurt over the apparent 'abandonment' of her father. Starling is almost
appalled at his innocence, and has to admit that Treetall would not have
lasted long against any of the mindgamers at the Valley (She can wrap him
around her little finger much of the time, and she knows she is far from
the most proficient gamer in the Valley). And she is perhaps the only person
who sees all the shadings of this particular game; her Mother's ambivalency
and apparent change in personality from the Doleera everyone knows and
loathes, her Father's slowly waning naivete (in comparison to Mommy's sophistication),
the desires of ALL sides to exploit the event that led to her birth, and
the cruel mobius she and her family are trapped on. She gets defensive
as hell of her parents, and starts trying to find ways to resolve the impasse
that keeps her family splintered.
She loves little animals, and big hawks;
she takes the training for a hawkrider, but lacking the ability to truly
bond with one takes some of the joy out of it for her. Doleera helps her
compensate, and Starling becomes as wild in the air as her mother (One
of their favorite pastimes is stunt flying) She always has at least one
pet, leaning towards things like squirrels and ferrets (small, wirey creatures
that can hang on to her clothing when she goes gliding).
She does not like being used, particularly
against either parent. She resents the presumptions made about her when
she gets to New Hope, and with a fine sense of perversity, sets out to
convince the holt she IS her mother's daughter, just to build them to a
peak of smug paranoia before she kicks their prejudgements out from under
them (Yes, that is a Doleera tactic. The kid may be cunning and smart,
but she's also stubborn and easily wounded). the more someone in New Hope
pushes her to see the light the more contrary she will get.
(example: If she gets a lot of flack about Doleera s sexual habits, she
will choose a victim closely related to the one doing the most preaching
at her, and arrange for them to be caught screwing their brains out in
as bizzare a fashion as she can get cooperation from. And have another
two or five partners waiting for a toss. Her partner s feelings would be
secondary to her anger).
She gets to be good friends with Snowflower
and Stillmorn. They prove to be the place she can pour all her angst about
the situation out. (This friendship is probably looked on askance by the
parental units involved). Nineki also becomes a chum, as does Frodis, Mischa,
and the bulk of the 1st generation of New Hope kids.
New Hope is also the place where she
begins to truly grow up; her development is rather lopsided. In many ways
more adult than her years (despite Mom s good intentions she was sexually
active almost from the start of puberty; even quicker on the trigger than
Doleera was on that point). She is very experienced in the physical aspects
of joining. She is also much more adult in matters of fighting and survival.
Where she lacks is in emotional maturity, being still very much an adolescent
(Her first true crush is on Peysol, and she has no idea how to deal with
the feelings....).
Starling has two emotional modes; one where
everything is a game, and she cares little for the results, and the personal,
where she cares a bit too much.