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Name Pronounced: Rhymes with "hey"
Character type: Staff
Rank: Drudge
Political Alignment: Neutral
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Sexual Preference: Heterosexual
Appearance: Sheye is not a woman who would be described as strikingly beautiful, but she's pretty enough to some. She's relatively tall for a woman at 5'9", with a frame that's a bit too wide-shouldered for her liking, though most other people don't even notice or care. Her body is rather unremarkably average -- she has curves in all the right places, but only just enough to keep her from appearing awkward or out of proportion. Her face is nice enough, smooth and slender, with a somewhat high-bridged nose that gives her a noble sort of look. Her eyes are green, and her light brown hair is extremely thick and frizzy and requires a lot of management. It reaches to the base of her shoulderblades when left down, though she usually pulls it back into a tail so that she can work without worrying about it. It often comes loose around her temples, though, and she's constantly brushing the strands back or blowing them out of the way.
Personality: Sheye started out as a young woman without much ambition, and those who knew her then would probably say that she had never had an independent thought of her own. That wouldn't be true, though. Be a good girl, grow up, get married to whomever father picked and have children... it wasn't a creative sort of life, no, but just because it was what was expected of her doesn't mean that Sheye never put any thought into these things. She's always been smart, but practical -- after all, these things are expected for a reason, and the role of wife and mother and, perhaps, lady of a small holding, is an important one that not just anyone can do and do well.
Her time at the Weyr has taught her a lot of things, however. Pride isn't really worth much anymore, and while she still has this stubborn urge to cling to it, she knows that sometimes it's better to just give in and say or do whatever's being asked of her, even when it's something she'd rather not do. She does not enjoy sex much (sometimes it's... okay, she'll admit), but if bedding a bronzerider and pretending to like it will better her lot in life, then she'll grit her teeth and do it. Sometimes you have to be sneaky to get what you want, maybe even hurt people, because no one else out there is going to look out for you -- no one else out there really cares, because they're all looking out for themselves just like you're looking out for yourself. Ambition -- personal ambition -- was a concept foreign to her until she was Searched, and it ultimately became her coping mechanism. Anything that happened to her might be difficult, but it would be worth it in the end when it all paid off.
Now, however, her chance has been taken from her, and with her coping mechanism gone, she's not quite sure how to carry on. Somewhere deep inside, the more innocent girl she used to be still lurks, making things difficult for her by actually having a conscience. She doesn't really *want* to give her body away to just anyone, but what does it matter anymore? And the idea of stepping on others to uplift herself is disturbing and disgusting to that part of her, and yet she can't help but wonder how different her life might have been if only she had given in to the urge to... take care of... her stiffest competition before the Hatching. After all, now someone else has that gold dragon, and they're not exactly looking out for her, are they?
Birth Place: Sun Ridge Hold (minor hold beholden to Southern Boll)
Parents: Holder Sharrel and his wife, Ambrin
History: Sheye was born into a relatively comfortable life. Her father's small hold was successful enough to make sure they never lacked for anything important and could even afford a luxury or two here and there. He was what one might describe as upwardly mobile -- a good holder and shrewd businessman who had made a struggling hold thrive and expand, and had a good chance of gaining some favor with the Lord Holder the next time he had some favors to hand out. Sheye was the second daughter, a good obedient girl with good domestic skills, whom her father expected to marry off to someone with good prospects -- a promising crafter, a holder like himself, maybe even a lordling, if he was lucky!
When the Searchriders came and picked her out, the decision of whether or not to release her to the Weyr was a family decision... well, in the fact that her entire family had something to say about it, not necessarily that anyone but her father had any say in the final decision (including Sheye herself). In the end, he decided that the convenience of having a goldrider in the family, and the prestige accrued to the bloodline, was worth the risk -- and Fort was a fine, upstanding, traditional Weyr, a place worthy of respect, where his daughter would be in good hands. Sheye herself was nervous, uncertain about the whole idea, but she was a dutiful young woman who had never disobeyed her family yet... and so she went.
The reality of the Weyr, though, was more frightening than she had imagined. Threadfall seemed horrific, and the cries of the dragons in the infirmary when she helped out there was almost too much to bear at first. The male candidates only seemed interested in her body. Some of the female candidates were so... cutthroat... that she wasn't sure who she could trust. She was used to hard work and having a certain standard of behavior expected of her, but some of those behaviors that were expected at the Weyr were not ones that were compatible with the way she had been raised. She was luckier than some. Her first lover was a young man who was patient enough to coax her into giving in rather than forcing himself on her -- if she wasn't entirely unwilling, though, she also wasn't entirely willing, and the experience wasn't overly pleasant.
She told herself that it would all be worth it, though, for the chance at a gold dragon. As the turns passed and no gold egg was laid, she hung in there as best she could. The letters from her family came less and less frequently over time, and she started to feel more and more distant -- after all, she could never tell them of some of the things she had experienced because they would never understand. She adapted, hardened to a girl who could survive in the Weyr even if she never quite came to be happy there. She did all the right things, behaved as one would expect a queen candidate to behave, never put herself near the Sands to attract the attention of a green once in all those turns without a gold egg...
And then, just as she was nearing the point where she would be too old to Stand any longer, it finally happened. A gold egg was laid. Finally, after all these Turns, her patience and perseverance would pay off in the form of a gold dragon. She felt ready. Everything that had happened had made her a stronger person, a person surely worthy of a gold, even though some of the other girls were pegged as the favorites.
But Tameketh chose Sirasri, and there was no gold egg at the next hatching, that of the pathetic brown-sired DustRunners. And then Sheye was too old to be a candidate anymore. Too old to start a craft, and too... used... to ever be able to go back home, there's nothing left for her now but drudgery.
She knows she could have been more. Her potential was so much greater. But nobody cares now. No one of any importance even knows that she exists. And that's probably what hurts the most.
All references to worlds and characters based on Anne McCaffrey's fiction are copyright© Anne McCaffrey 1967,2005, all rights reserved, and used by permission of the author.
The Dragonriders of Pern® is registered U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, by Anne McCaffrey, used here with permission. Use or reproduction without a license is strictly prohibited.