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Jelandra Gear/Personal history: Difference between revisions
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==Childhood== | ==Childhood== | ||
Jelandra was an accident, in more ways than one. Her mother had fallen pregnant en route to the Cardassian front lines, and was forced to take what she viewed as an inconvenient detour to deliver the child on Betazed. But even before the delivery, it was evident that there were complications with the girl. From eight months into the gestation period, Jadrice could feel the psionic tendrils emanating from the tiny creature within her womb, a severe warning signal to any Betazoid. | |||
The child would be born with her telepathic powers active. To what degree was uncertain, but that made very little difference - the baby would be sensing thoughts and emotions long before its mind was trained to deal with such. Such children invariably suffered tremendous psychological trauma unless kept in strict isolation until their minds could be conditioned to handle the weight of their abilities; even those raised in complete isolation were never 'quite right'. | |||
Jadrice's House utilised all of its social and political pull to ensure the unborn Jelandra had a place waiting for her at the Betazed Research Academy, a respected institute in the fields of science and medicine. As the birth neared, Jadrice found herself needing to concentrate more and more just to keep the tiny mind of her daughter from deafening her. During the birth itself, Jelandra did not cry; rather she radiated a calmness that affected the medical staff and her mother alike. This unnerved Jadrice, and is at least partially responsible for her decision to all but abandon her daughter as soon as she was fit to resume her duties. | |||
Left to be raised by the institute, with occasional token visits from relations that cared little for the 'flawed' daughter, Jelandra's first real bonds were with the researchers assigned to monitor her condition. One of these, a noted half-Betazoid psychologist by the name of Quentin Gilligan, handled most of her pastoral care; he was astonished to see the rate of her mental development. Surrounded by near-genius intellects, isolated from almost all other sources of telepathic input, what thoughts Jelandra was forced to hear were complicated and impossible for her to understand; but that did not stop her from trying. | |||
Jelandra's father, Becknar, visited her as often as his duties permitted. The toddler Jelandra relished these visits, her father's mind making a welcome change from the minds she was used to. He would introduce the child to simple telepathic thought puzzles - games such as pattern matching, mazes and the like. Over time, these developed into logical thought progression games. | |||
Psychologically, Jelandra was an interesting case. She spent the first three years of her life in the relative calm, punctuated by moments of elation or depression, that is the research world. Coupled with her father's approach to father-daughter-playtime, this fostered within her the idea that every problem was a puzzle that might be solved with effort. Her young mind applied this ethos universally, including to her own predicament. By the age of four, she had managed to erect mental barriers strong enough that she could go out in public. | |||
By the age of five, Gilligan, with whom she had developed an especially close bond, determined her to be ready to enter the ITG facility. This was a Betazoid program for the gifted, which would cater for her particular intelligence while at the same time, by its very nature, preserve her from the furore of a normal classroom. It was, ironically, through this program that she met the first member of her father's House besides himself: Zoe. | |||
Zor�?©a Salayus Hitorin G�?©'ar, Jelandra's cousin, was a charismatic, angelic child. She was also, for a five-year-old, disturbingly insightful. She lacked Jelandra's telepathy, en route to develop those powers at a more normal stage of her development, but nonetheless was, and remains, the most perceptive person of Jelandra's acquaintance. The two became fast friends, and it was through this family tie, rather than her more prestigious maternal ties, that Jelandra got her first taste of Betazoid High Society. | |||
This had a profound effect on Jelandra's perceptions of familial interaction. Aside from her dormitory, and her continued communications with Dr Gilligan, she had hitherto been very self-sufficient. Spending time with Zoe's family demonstrated 'normal' family life to her for the first time, and she found that, while she could live without it, she truly enjoyed spending time with others in a social setting. Not wanting to be seen to be outdone by a lesser family, House Midral took a renewed interest in Jelandra, and while this gave her easier access to more events on the aristocratic social calendar, she rarely went anywhere without Zoe. | |||
* Where was the character born? | * Where was the character born? | ||