Writer: Caryn
Name: Channary Seng
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Sexuality orientation: Heterosexual
Play-by: Asin Thottumkal
Pernese Settler info
Craft/job: Geneticist
Rank: Head of Genetics
Location at Threadfall: Landing
Do they approve of the genetic tinkering? Emphatic yes. The science is sound and Channary has risked everything to see this project come to fruition. She would not have broached the idea at all, let alone dabble in treason, if she did not have faith in it as Pern’s future.
Appearance:
Channary is of average height for a woman at 5’4” and as slim as a mature woman with curves can be. She has prominent eyebrows and a long nose, but is lovely enough when combined with delicate cheekbones, big, dark eyes and full lips. Her hair is dark brown, with a natural wave to it, and she likes to wear it loose to mid-back- or to braid it back if she’s doing lab work. Her skin is an unblemished light brown.
Channary prefers loose clothing in bright colors, most often choosing more feminine-looking long skirts and blouses.
Personality:
One might expect a genius of Channary’s qualifications and honors to be entirely bookish and work-focused. The assumption would be an error in her case; at her stage of the game, advancement is as much in who you know as what you know and Channary has adapted accordingly. She is an introvert by nature, genteel and dignified, but long practice has trained her to network effectively- and she takes as much pleasure and pride in the successful application of those skills as any of her others. She isn’t a risk-taker by nature; any risks are carefully weighed with the potential rewards and action taken accordingly.
Channary learned early on to place a greater emphasis on personal achievements; she’ll always respect a person more for things they’ve done than for what they’re born with. She also firmly believes in a person’s ability to stretch their limits and not only make the most of what they were born with, but to stretch those limits as far as they can. People aren’t supposed to be sheep- they can determine who and what they want to be, and commit themselves to self-improvement. It’s what she did, after all. She’s an ambitious woman, in the sense that she will accept nothing less than applying the best of her skills as far as they can take her. It would be a disservice to her family and her teachers to do otherwise.
Channary is highly adaptable woman who will fit herself into whatever role her work and community requires her to take in order to ensure their health and contentment. She doesn’t view this as a diminishment on her part. She’s just practical and a problem solver. She does have highly developed morals and things she absolutely will and won’t do. The rest is just quibbling over detail. It makes her no less to be someone’s wife or mother than it does to be a award-winning geneticist or a Council member. Channary is a practical problem-solver by nature, patient and thorough. She’s made a life out of finding out what needs to be done and quietly making the connections needed to make it happen.
She’ll fight dragons (hah!) for her work or her colleagues, but when it comes to herself, Channary isn’t always so kind or confident. She’ll dig in her heels and stand her ground professionally, but she strongly detests confrontation on a personal level- particularly if it turns physical. She’ll run herself ragged trying to be what people need her to be and can have a hard time setting her own boundaries.
Between the strong caste delineations of her birth culture and Kitti Ping’s Traditionalist streak, it was perhaps inevitable that Channary came away fairly conservative in her own preferences. She is scientist enough to practice ‘live and let live’, but her own comfort zone is for stable monogamy and traditional gender roles. Obviously, women need not be restricted to the home, but she does prefer to take on a nurturing role herself and to have a strong male she can depend on to stand as protector and provider. Perennial bed-hopping disgusts her- a relationship should involve some degree of love and commitment or it’s not worth having.
History:
Channary’s family had a long history of civil service and governmental appointments in India, but she showed clear scientific aptitude early enough to fast-track her for an academic career instead of a political one. She was taking college-level courses by twelve and earned her doctorate in genetics at age 17, going straight into an internship with Kitti Ping. Study with the only human to have graced the halls of the Eridani catapulted her career into prominence and she soon built a reputation for her ability of genetic manipulation.
She met her future husband at age 20 while working with the Fleet to create hardier varieties of plants and animals for use in siege situations. Vice Admiral Bai Seng was over 20 years her senior, but the pair suited one another and married two years later.
The Pern expedition began recruiting not long after the wedding. Channary was approached first for her genetics work, as a good geneticist would be key to transplanting stock to the new colony and modifying any native organisms as needed. The couple found that Bai, as a veteran of the Nathi Wars, would be entitled to claim a substantial stake on this new world and decided to make the move together.
Channary’s status as Head of Genetics meant she stayed busy the first few years of the colony and Bai kept himself busy setting up their farm along with some of his former subordinates. It was his explorations that netted them a pair of the newly-discovered fire lizards- a green for her and a blue for him. Things settled down enough to finally have a child together, a lovely little girl they called Jie, and Channary began to think about retiring to their stake to act as full-time mother to Jie and her future siblings since the demand for her particular skills would ease with the colony up and running. Fiddling with firelizard genetics was interesting work, but not strictly necessary.
Then the Threads fell, and changed everything. Two-year-old Jie was still young enough to keep with her in the lab, but Bai, out at the farm, was never heard from again. Channary threw herself into her work in the aftermath, only responding to her colleagues and Jie for four long months. Then she conceived the idea of the dragons as a way to give hope to the beleaguered colony. If a fair of fire lizards could clear a patch of Thread, surely bigger ones could wipe it from the sky before it could eat the earth below. As stupid as it sounded at first, modifying fire lizard ova was a sound prospect, and proving that to the Powers That Be brought a return of spirit to the grieving woman. The Dragon Project gave her new purpose and the colony fresh hope, despite the old nannies muttering darkly in corners. The Council’s micromanagement of the Project was expected and Channary was willing to tolerate it to some extent, so long as their involvement got things done.
Volcanic activity was not in her plans and Channary was kept hopping as her team prepared the ova for safe transport to their new home. She lost her green to the smoking mountain, though her Mentasynth-enhanced brown proved a more stalwart companion. She was proud of her team for holding it together on the unexpected detour- and decidedly less thrilled by the Council’s decision when contact was resumed with Fort. Didn’t they realize that each delay risked damage to the ova? They would not have the power to keep them viable forever, and they’d been lucky that their precious cargo had managed to survive the rough seas long enough to land where they did! It was the last straw for Channary’s tolerance of political bullshit and she quietly sounded out the rest of the stranded colonists on the subject. She got enough quiet support from the right individuals (and from some of the wrong individuals… but she could handle watching them a bit closer so long as she got their cooperation at all) to make alternate plans.
The consequences of the Amherst’s crash have yet to fully manifest, but Channary will be forever grateful to the crew of that ship for giving her the perfect opportunity to set those plans in motion.
Family:
Jie Seng, Daughter, 5
Dragon
Name: Invoth
Colour: Gold
Hatching date: 10.8.28
Invoth will look stern and unimpressed from the moment she breaks shell. Unlike some queens it’s less that she’s haughty and arrogant as much as she is clearly not interested in tolerating a single moment of bullshit. Lean and hawk-like, she has sharp features and an expression that has a way of boring right into a person’s soul. A person can have done nothing wrong and still be inspired to feel guilty when she looks at them, just in case. Some dragons may show some of their feelings in their features, able to express a draconic form of a grin or cheerfulness, but not Invoth. She is perfectly deadpan nearly one hundred percent of the time and very obviously not amused.
Above all Invoth has no patience for stupidity or foolishness, but this is shown fairly to everyone. Rank, status, colour… none of it matter to her and she will treat her fellow golds the same as the smallest green and she will be just as sharp to anyone that acts out of line. Everyone must work equally to earn the respect of their peers and she will be particularly hard on anyone who’s not pulling their weight or trying their hardest. She’ll be quick to pick up on their training and just as quick to be willing to help her fellows, particularly guiding along the smaller dragons. Her praise is hard to win, but she’s not without the ability to appreciate a job well done. Sometimes there’s even a hint of dry wit and humour that can be found in this prim gold.
Pets:
Name: Cricket
Type: Brown firelizard (Enhanced)
Channary pulled rank as one of its creators to get an egg from the first-ever mentasynth-enhanced clutch. Unfortunately, the eggs holding the shinier lizards were all claimed by Council members and other political worthies in the colony, but she’s quite happy with the laid-back male she did receive. Cricket’scoloring is stunning, a fine dark mahogany. He’s unusually lithe for his color, though- even spindly-looking. He never quite grew out of his hatchling gangliness, and the brown’s neck and limbs are a bit overlong in proportion to his body. Best of all, he is just the right blend of calm, curious and biddable to make him an ideal messenger and companion. He got his name from his tendency to emit adorable chirps when happy or excited.
Name: Channary Seng
Age: 33
Gender: Female
Sexuality orientation: Heterosexual
Play-by: Asin Thottumkal
Pernese Settler info
Craft/job: Geneticist
Rank: Head of Genetics
Location at Threadfall: Landing
Do they approve of the genetic tinkering? Emphatic yes. The science is sound and Channary has risked everything to see this project come to fruition. She would not have broached the idea at all, let alone dabble in treason, if she did not have faith in it as Pern’s future.
Appearance:
Channary is of average height for a woman at 5’4” and as slim as a mature woman with curves can be. She has prominent eyebrows and a long nose, but is lovely enough when combined with delicate cheekbones, big, dark eyes and full lips. Her hair is dark brown, with a natural wave to it, and she likes to wear it loose to mid-back- or to braid it back if she’s doing lab work. Her skin is an unblemished light brown.
Channary prefers loose clothing in bright colors, most often choosing more feminine-looking long skirts and blouses.
Personality:
One might expect a genius of Channary’s qualifications and honors to be entirely bookish and work-focused. The assumption would be an error in her case; at her stage of the game, advancement is as much in who you know as what you know and Channary has adapted accordingly. She is an introvert by nature, genteel and dignified, but long practice has trained her to network effectively- and she takes as much pleasure and pride in the successful application of those skills as any of her others. She isn’t a risk-taker by nature; any risks are carefully weighed with the potential rewards and action taken accordingly.
Channary learned early on to place a greater emphasis on personal achievements; she’ll always respect a person more for things they’ve done than for what they’re born with. She also firmly believes in a person’s ability to stretch their limits and not only make the most of what they were born with, but to stretch those limits as far as they can. People aren’t supposed to be sheep- they can determine who and what they want to be, and commit themselves to self-improvement. It’s what she did, after all. She’s an ambitious woman, in the sense that she will accept nothing less than applying the best of her skills as far as they can take her. It would be a disservice to her family and her teachers to do otherwise.
Channary is highly adaptable woman who will fit herself into whatever role her work and community requires her to take in order to ensure their health and contentment. She doesn’t view this as a diminishment on her part. She’s just practical and a problem solver. She does have highly developed morals and things she absolutely will and won’t do. The rest is just quibbling over detail. It makes her no less to be someone’s wife or mother than it does to be a award-winning geneticist or a Council member. Channary is a practical problem-solver by nature, patient and thorough. She’s made a life out of finding out what needs to be done and quietly making the connections needed to make it happen.
She’ll fight dragons (hah!) for her work or her colleagues, but when it comes to herself, Channary isn’t always so kind or confident. She’ll dig in her heels and stand her ground professionally, but she strongly detests confrontation on a personal level- particularly if it turns physical. She’ll run herself ragged trying to be what people need her to be and can have a hard time setting her own boundaries.
Between the strong caste delineations of her birth culture and Kitti Ping’s Traditionalist streak, it was perhaps inevitable that Channary came away fairly conservative in her own preferences. She is scientist enough to practice ‘live and let live’, but her own comfort zone is for stable monogamy and traditional gender roles. Obviously, women need not be restricted to the home, but she does prefer to take on a nurturing role herself and to have a strong male she can depend on to stand as protector and provider. Perennial bed-hopping disgusts her- a relationship should involve some degree of love and commitment or it’s not worth having.
History:
Channary’s family had a long history of civil service and governmental appointments in India, but she showed clear scientific aptitude early enough to fast-track her for an academic career instead of a political one. She was taking college-level courses by twelve and earned her doctorate in genetics at age 17, going straight into an internship with Kitti Ping. Study with the only human to have graced the halls of the Eridani catapulted her career into prominence and she soon built a reputation for her ability of genetic manipulation.
She met her future husband at age 20 while working with the Fleet to create hardier varieties of plants and animals for use in siege situations. Vice Admiral Bai Seng was over 20 years her senior, but the pair suited one another and married two years later.
The Pern expedition began recruiting not long after the wedding. Channary was approached first for her genetics work, as a good geneticist would be key to transplanting stock to the new colony and modifying any native organisms as needed. The couple found that Bai, as a veteran of the Nathi Wars, would be entitled to claim a substantial stake on this new world and decided to make the move together.
Channary’s status as Head of Genetics meant she stayed busy the first few years of the colony and Bai kept himself busy setting up their farm along with some of his former subordinates. It was his explorations that netted them a pair of the newly-discovered fire lizards- a green for her and a blue for him. Things settled down enough to finally have a child together, a lovely little girl they called Jie, and Channary began to think about retiring to their stake to act as full-time mother to Jie and her future siblings since the demand for her particular skills would ease with the colony up and running. Fiddling with firelizard genetics was interesting work, but not strictly necessary.
Then the Threads fell, and changed everything. Two-year-old Jie was still young enough to keep with her in the lab, but Bai, out at the farm, was never heard from again. Channary threw herself into her work in the aftermath, only responding to her colleagues and Jie for four long months. Then she conceived the idea of the dragons as a way to give hope to the beleaguered colony. If a fair of fire lizards could clear a patch of Thread, surely bigger ones could wipe it from the sky before it could eat the earth below. As stupid as it sounded at first, modifying fire lizard ova was a sound prospect, and proving that to the Powers That Be brought a return of spirit to the grieving woman. The Dragon Project gave her new purpose and the colony fresh hope, despite the old nannies muttering darkly in corners. The Council’s micromanagement of the Project was expected and Channary was willing to tolerate it to some extent, so long as their involvement got things done.
Volcanic activity was not in her plans and Channary was kept hopping as her team prepared the ova for safe transport to their new home. She lost her green to the smoking mountain, though her Mentasynth-enhanced brown proved a more stalwart companion. She was proud of her team for holding it together on the unexpected detour- and decidedly less thrilled by the Council’s decision when contact was resumed with Fort. Didn’t they realize that each delay risked damage to the ova? They would not have the power to keep them viable forever, and they’d been lucky that their precious cargo had managed to survive the rough seas long enough to land where they did! It was the last straw for Channary’s tolerance of political bullshit and she quietly sounded out the rest of the stranded colonists on the subject. She got enough quiet support from the right individuals (and from some of the wrong individuals… but she could handle watching them a bit closer so long as she got their cooperation at all) to make alternate plans.
The consequences of the Amherst’s crash have yet to fully manifest, but Channary will be forever grateful to the crew of that ship for giving her the perfect opportunity to set those plans in motion.
Family:
Jie Seng, Daughter, 5
Dragon
Name: Invoth
Colour: Gold
Hatching date: 10.8.28
Invoth will look stern and unimpressed from the moment she breaks shell. Unlike some queens it’s less that she’s haughty and arrogant as much as she is clearly not interested in tolerating a single moment of bullshit. Lean and hawk-like, she has sharp features and an expression that has a way of boring right into a person’s soul. A person can have done nothing wrong and still be inspired to feel guilty when she looks at them, just in case. Some dragons may show some of their feelings in their features, able to express a draconic form of a grin or cheerfulness, but not Invoth. She is perfectly deadpan nearly one hundred percent of the time and very obviously not amused.
Above all Invoth has no patience for stupidity or foolishness, but this is shown fairly to everyone. Rank, status, colour… none of it matter to her and she will treat her fellow golds the same as the smallest green and she will be just as sharp to anyone that acts out of line. Everyone must work equally to earn the respect of their peers and she will be particularly hard on anyone who’s not pulling their weight or trying their hardest. She’ll be quick to pick up on their training and just as quick to be willing to help her fellows, particularly guiding along the smaller dragons. Her praise is hard to win, but she’s not without the ability to appreciate a job well done. Sometimes there’s even a hint of dry wit and humour that can be found in this prim gold.
Pets:
Name: Cricket
Type: Brown firelizard (Enhanced)
Channary pulled rank as one of its creators to get an egg from the first-ever mentasynth-enhanced clutch. Unfortunately, the eggs holding the shinier lizards were all claimed by Council members and other political worthies in the colony, but she’s quite happy with the laid-back male she did receive. Cricket’scoloring is stunning, a fine dark mahogany. He’s unusually lithe for his color, though- even spindly-looking. He never quite grew out of his hatchling gangliness, and the brown’s neck and limbs are a bit overlong in proportion to his body. Best of all, he is just the right blend of calm, curious and biddable to make him an ideal messenger and companion. He got his name from his tendency to emit adorable chirps when happy or excited.