Lilac
| Name | Lilac |
| Gender | Female |
| Homeworld | Aperture Labs |
| Class | Junior |
| Nut | Not |
| Totem | none |
| Smarts | 4 |
| Bod/Feet | 4 |
| RWP | 6 |
| Luck | 4 |
| Drive | 3 |
| Looks | 4 |
| Cool | 4 |
| Bonk | 4 |
| Powers | Telepathy Teleportation (line of sight) Healing (minor) Shielding (strong) |
| Clusters | Defensive Tactics +2 Keep Children's Attention +3 |
| Skills | Origami / Fingerpaint +2 Games and Amusements +3 Art Of Distraction +1 |
| Knacks | Take Any Idea Seriously +1 Musical Instruments +2 |
| 1 | Genrefic / McPanda |
| 2 | Mythological History / Kuumba |
| 3 | Biology / Paveh |
| 4 | Measuring Up / Haital |
| 5 | Ball Sports / Neko |
| 6 | Dragon Flight Formation / M*jora |
| 7 | Non Human Languages / Argle |
| 8 | You And Your Clone / Canby |
Pets: Sweetie (f) |
 |
| Dragon | Green Ibeyath (Lilac) Clutch 11: Gold Rikceth x Bronze Brynth |
| From | Aneris |
| Family | Petal Hoarfrost daughter with Piers Hoarfrost Lily and Callum twins also with Piers |
The other clone sisters always sort of wondered about Lilac. She was hardly simple minded but among them didn't seem too stunning. Perhaps it was because she didn't really have a niche like Violet and Purple, or any of them really. Innocently she asked one day, "why aren't there any babies?"
Not 'where do they come from' because she knew that already. But why there were none to take care of any longer? Because the suppression fields that covered every huge City prevented it, though she didn't learn that until the sisters ventured outside and met up with resistance fighters who could explain it. GLaDOS didn't know, though she did know there weren't any more 'Daughters' to bring to work for testing.
Confounded, then, Lilac knew in her heart that even though they weren't "fully" Human, they would have to form the basis for the next generation. Thus when they headed to Carramba, it was actually she who set out to find good men for them to pair up with. Or women, after all, Mother could put almost anything together in the clone center! It was Lilac's first commentary on the handsome men and lovely women at Carramba that sparked discussions about who might want to 'get busy' with whom.
And oddly enough, two of her professors - people who would normally not encourage such behavior among the students, but were led to understand why she'd ask such things - even encouraged the behavior. Darkhanis Paveh and Mita Haital, Lilac's Biology and Measuring Up instructors, were both from a world far away from the Combine's influence and which relied upon technology as well as psionics to breed each other. She even felt sorry for them - at least she knew she'd be able to have children once the suppression fields were gone. For some Zekirans it would never happen.
So silently she pondered and plotted. She didn't share this information with her sisters - and oddly enough not too many of them really noticed. For others in their ranks already had gotten into the Dragon training class, were doing more advanced biology studies, and had plenty on their mind without wandering into the weirdness of Mythology and Genre-based Fiction. Who needed fiction, they were fictional for some people.
Lilac enjoyed the team organization aspect of the Ball Team sports that the adorable Neko taught, volleyball and four-square and cricket... Soccer and Rugby and Football - so many different ways to pass the time, hardly any of them had survived in her world. It was a shame, she thought, and decided to learn as much about them as possible. After all, some day, there would be enough kids to play on teams just like she was!
She already knew enough Vortigese that she could share a bit in her Non-Human Language class, though they didn't offer the language yet because there were hardly any people who even knew who the Vorts were. Perhaps later - again, after they had defeated the Combine.
For Lilac, it was never, ever a matter of "if" they were defeated. It was always "when" - she was unerringly positive, though calm about it. Not a go-getter like Violet, and not arbitrarily pessimistic like Ruby. She would not really serve on any front line combat with her sisters - her healing power was good enough to fix small injuries but nothing like those sustained by heavy fighting. Her shielding power though, was of far better use. She'd trained a bit with some of the City 8 resistance members, traveling around with a shield over refugees and making sure that nothing got close enough to hurt them.
Children would be the same way, she knew. She laughed when she read up on a little fairy tale in Kuumba's class, the Pied Piper - she loved playing with simple musical instruments too, recorders and tambourines and thumb-harps. Children would be easier to keep track of when they had a focal point, music could do that, and her shield would then be able to encompas them without them even realizing it.
She imagined each of her sisters with some of their professors - though it would certainly be inappropriate to be with them yet, Paveh asserted privately that indeed, if things went well after they'd had their remaining schooling, and came back to ask? Of course they would be available. Some of the instructors actually had children - with students - and though it was a bit uncomfortable at times, everything did work out for the best.
Fortunately for Lilac, they were essentially all sixteen year old girls in most ways. Though they were hardly more than two 'real' years old out of their clone vats, their hormones were at a pretty strong level just now, and they were apt to have crushes on pretty much anyone around them. Including the professors, which was a good thing. Lilac tucked away each of their comments - "I can't even believe you like that Virus guy!" "Who are you to talk, you'd like to get busy with Professor Axemurderer!" and when the day was done, she knew that perhaps... Tony Axemurderer and Violet or Purple might just be a good pair. Strong, fast, dangerous. Cobalt certainly had Crazy Doc Sanger's hairline, that would be a sharp feature - plus wasn't he also an inventor?
Normally she'd giggle herself to sleep with those thoughts. She was just glad that they didn't ask her too many questions. She was perfectly content to be in the background. Some day, they'd understand how important her 'research' was...
***
Lilac brought her fingers together and perched them on one knee, not knowing that was what Father often did while watching from his own relaxed spot behind a desk. This time, the desk was more a slab and the seat wasn't very relaxing, but Lilac didn't have much to complain about if there was a chair at all. And a roof over her head, which this Weyr certainly had.
A whole place built among caverns and cave systems! Hollowed out and inhabited, Aneris was an interesting place to say the least. But she wasn't there to admire the scenery so much as learn about their ways. She wondered absently whether it would be bad for them if she impressed and then left with her dragon? It was never nice to just up and leave, but she did have to go home if and when that occurred. This world, Pern, was quite different from her own, and certainly not like Twoarth.
It might, though, have far more Humans still alive on it, than her home dimension. And some of these people were sturdy, they were survivors, warriors in their own right. She couldn't help but continue her idealized pairing-up theories, and realized she was doing just that when the Weyrling master snapped his fingers and brought her attention back to the chalk drawing on the board behind him.
"You can't be dozing off or daydreaming on a dragon's back, candidate," he said sternly.
Rather than argue the fact that she wasn't going to remain, Lilac nodded somberly and tried to concentrate. It wasn't as though this lesson wasn't already under her belt from classes at Carramba: it covered certain formations and tactics, things she was unlikely at best to need back home. But learning them was important, and at least showing off that she could learn it was actually all she needed to prove.
She overheard the other riders talking about her, confused about who she was, why she had pink hair, her strange accent and clothing. But she'd also overheard some of the weyr brats saying how cool it was, emulating her hair style, cautiously following her around. Lilac proved once more that she would make not only a good caretaker of children, but an excellent tactician when she organized a half dozen of them into cleaning and rearranging the stock room - they'd finished up before the kids even realized it was work.
Lilac wondered if any of these brave men and women, riders in their wings, would be willing to come fight on her world. Perhaps. One thing at a time, obviously... But if they did...
***
Lunch time had come and barely gone, when a strange sound filled the air. Lilac knew it had to be important - everyone was rushing around! She felt nervous, a good kind of nervous, for the first time in ages. The hatching was about to occur! That certainly was more important than getting dishes collected and washed!
The pink-haired girl scampered with the rest, noting with a bit of excitement that there were already a lot of people waiting in the stands and watching their every move! A green dragon hatched first, and then it was all mostly a blur. There was a queen egg, still rocking, but what was nagging at Lilac's mind was something quite insistent.
She felt the green's mind in hers, asserting Lilac, your Ibeyath is hungry. Can we get some food? Lilac laughed musically, and dreamily led the dragon off the sands. Her heart felt so... filled!
And her stomach - or was that Ibeyath's - felt so empty!
***
Carramba's 'weyr' was a bit unusual, even for the nexus school. It wasn't even on campus, but... how could it have been? In the middle of a city, it was true that there were some spots where a smallish dragon could be tucked on the roof or in a wide back yard. But a proper dragon needed a proper cavern to rest. The Healing Den supplied that, and Lilac's power of teleportation pinged every time they went back and forth from one realm to the next.
***
If Ibeyath was to help the girls, she would best be put with the scouting parties. She was into everything! And her dislike of the heavy pounding sounds that the drum corps (or the drummers on the heights at a weyr) made was something that Lilac asserted could be made of use too: Combine soldiers tromped around heavily like that. If she could attune herself to hearing those and responding, they would have a good early-warning system in place with the dragon!
