Sissi's Spot
....................Sissi....................
Klimth's rider at Fort Weyr
Appearance:
Her chestnut-brown hair is untidily cut in a variety of lengths which average out around her jawline, undecided between frizzy and straight, but decidedly a mess; framing a thin face in which bright blue eyes tend to sparkle mischievously from under asymmetrical eyebrows and an old broken
nose makes all her features look a tad awry. Only just edging on the tall side of average, her figure nevertheless reminds one of a beanpole - seemingly thin to the point of unhealthiness.
The assistant weyrlingmaster's tassels of black and brown are disguised, just about, by the twist of bright blue wrapped around them, the whole concoction clinging helplessly to her shoulder.
It was once a white sleeveless dress, about a size too big for her, hem cut up to around mid-thigh, and worn with her old patched-up navy trous and scuffed-up boots. An indigo chiffon blouse worn over the top, not buttoned, just knotted together above her waistline, keeps the sun off her shoulders.
Sissi is 28 Turns old (as of August 2001)
The story so far...
Sissy was born into a large family in the Ruathan valleys; and her birth was a bit of a shock. Not just because she came along
twelve years after the previous child, but also because the father had died in the meantime, and there'd been no new man in her mother's life.
Gossip therefore raged, speculating anywhere from one of Sissy's own brothers through a whole bunch of traders even to an affair with a dragonrider. And Sylia, when asked, just shrugged and smiled.
Sissy never asked her mother, and the information was never volunteered. And that was that.
Sissy had a pretty idyllic childhood, the family was large enough that the children could actually be children, no early growing up or responsibility needed. Sissy became an aunt at the tender age of three months, and those oldest nephews and nieces became her closest friends as she grew up,
not to mention her own brothers and sisters as well - the whole family being very close knit and informal.
True, she spent a lot of time in the infirmary, due to being exceedingly accident prone, but her family put it down to the fact that 'Sissy just will try everything' and left it at that, assuming she'd grow out of it.
And everything was wonderful, until her mother died. Given she'd been ill for a long, long time, it wasn't entirely unexpected, but it
came as a huge shock to the thirteen-year-old Sissy, who was still at that time firmly convinced in the immortality of the whole of her family.
So her brother dragged her out of Ruatha on a trading trip to Ista, (First on camera, March 1998) where Sissy got into trouble, met a dragonrider or three, developed a
plan to travel the whole of Pern, and pitched the notion to everybody that her mother was still alive. She even managed to convince herself - so much so that when they got back to Ruatha, she couldn't sort out her view of reality from everyone else's view of it, and promptly got dragged off again to Fort.
She met a gaggle of girls there, all applying to be Healer Apprentices, and on the spur of the moment, with no idea of what she was letting herself in for, she went ahead and applied too, and was accepted.
It is entirely possible that Healer Hall didn't have any idea of what they were letting themselves in for either, as Sissy was the least talented of the lot - and she never attempted to take herself seriously. Although she was certainly quite talented at being an Apprentice,
displaying an inherent ability to plan pranks, consistently trip over the Infirmary doorstep, conduct illicit affairs (none of which ever lasted more than a fortnight) behind the Journeyman's backs, and come up with an ever more fantastic string of excuses as to why she wasn't learning a thing, let alone attending classes. She was having fun.
It wasn't that she couldn't learn, but simply that she didn't want to, and practically speaking, a malcoordinated Healer is not the ideal. So a few Turns later her friends were promoted to Journeyman, and Sissy was left behind, which led to a spate of studying that lasted for all of two sevendays,
before she found new friends among the Harper Apprentices, and took to doing even less work than ever before.
To say that Sissy was surprised to be Searched to Fort Weyr (Feb 99) would be an understatement, but at first she was elated: a break from Healer Hall, and now in a
place where once again for her anything was possible. And skipped classes became skipped chores; in that she didn't really change.
But the prolonged 'what ifs' of Candidacy eventually got to Sissy - if anything else, she didn't like the waiting in perpetual uncertainty.
Gnawing doubts about herself crept in, as well as acute homesickness - although on the face of things she still appeared happy, bubbly, and ever falling over things.
The odd thing was noticeable - the fact that she wasn't eating, the long, long letters sent home, but in the end she needn't have worried, after sticking a needle in herself several times, she eventually created something that at least resembled a Candidate Robe,
got out on the Hatching Sands and was quite literally bowled over when a certain blue made for her and announced himself as Klimth.
And everything changed. Well, almost. Sissi changed her name (or at least how it looked), cut off her hair and cut away her past life with it, outward changes reflecting inner ones: she's over her mother, she's over Healer Hall, but essentially she's still the same person that she ever was -
although Klimth has helped her reinvent herself to a certain extent. Weyrlinghood was pretty turbulent for the pair of them, but they're sorted out now, and Sissi's learnt to persevere with a few things,
like working on not being so clumsy, and if not getting over, then at least coping with her fear of heights.
Graduation pushed Sissi and Klimth firmly into the adult world, in a role that neither of them particularly relishes. Sissi may have let go of her past,
but there'll always be the constant rule breaking, the conflicts with authority, her plain speaking, the odd piece of clumsiness,
and her wish that the whole world could just be a simpler and more understandable place. Not that that stops her from her usual pieces of
silliness, of course not, but for now, they're just fitting in, getting on with their lives - and going nowhere. Which is how they like it.
Logs of them going nowhere live here.
Some things were ongoing: the collection of rocks for the Weyr, bunking sweeps whenever possible, moaning about authority figures, but generally, life passed the two of them by. Gretchen's exploits, all the problems with Fort Hold - but Sissi and Klimth never concerned themselves in politics, apart from the odd bit of peripheral mischief - telling tall tales was about as far as it got. And these were mostly told to the Weyrlings. WeyrlingMaster Jules, Sissi's clutchmate, eventually got annoyed enough with this to make her AWLM - to "keep an eye on you", thus landing Sissi, finally, in the position of authority she'd always dreaded. (Feb 01) Which, strangely enough, turned out not to be too bad after all, and without realising it, shifted her perspective. Klimth's settled either way, any way, he's worked out how to blend in, but also how to stand out when he needs to. Ten Turns after Impression, might Sissi finally be growing up?
Origin of Name
Sissi is named after the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, someone I 'discovered' on one of my two visits to Vienna in February 1997.
As the painter Gustav Klimt was someone who I had discovered on the other visit, the coincidence of both names meeting back up here
again was quite a surprise!
Disclaimer: The World of Pern is Copyright Anne McCaffrey, and The Dragonriders of Pern is a registered Trademark. No dragons were harmed during the making of this webpage.