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1 - Obligatory banner post
2 - TOC. You are here.
3 - About the weyr
4 - J'lan
5 - Relationships, current events, etc.
6 - Rakthath
7 - Relationships, current events, etc.
8 - Anything else?

Name: J’lan
Age: 24
Sex: Male
Orientation: Heterosexual. (We think. If he’s bisexual, he is repressing it very strongly.)

Physical Description: J’lan’s natural coloring tends towards middling-fair skin, and light caramel-brown hair with the faintest reddish sheen. But if there are two things that are common everywhere in Igen, it’s sand and sunlight, and it’s near impossible to escape their influence. His skin has long since passed the point of the sunburns and peeling he endured in his first few Turns at Igen, darkening to bronze… at least, the skin that gets regular exposure to sun, anyway. (We’d call it a farmer’s tan, or at least a variant thereof. J’lan would be offended, and thinks of it as a “rider’s tan.” Does any such thing exist? Don’t try to tell him it doesn’t.) His short, lightly tousled hair has in turn lightened, adding a touch of gold to its color.

J’lan is simply not as imposing as he would like to be. There is a boyish softness to his features, set in a round face with a high forehead. If anyone’s face could be called an open book, J’lan’s could: he expresses volumes with the quirk of an arched brow, an unselfconscious smile, and has little knack for obfuscating or falsifying. His build, while adequately muscled for the various daily tasks of dragonriders, is still relatively slim: a fact that he prefers to hide when possible with lightweight, loose clothing that also works well with Igen’s heat. His nose is slightly crooked, courtesy of a childhood accident that broke it. While J’lan’s sight is quite passable in everyday life, and was flawless when he Impressed, it has been deteriorating slightly as of late. He carries a pair of reading glasses in a case in his pocket most of the time, just in case.

Personality: J’lan is, overall, mild-mannered and pleasant in disposition, with a good sense of humor and an easy smile. He gives off the impression of being rather bright, in an owlish, absentminded way. His unenviable position in the Weyr (lacking the friendship of a bronzerider family) has left him somewhat lonely, and he'll respond readily to a friendly overture... This, combined with natural curiosity, means that he's quick to take interest in any new arrivals or developments in the Weyr. It is easy to dismiss him as just a nice guy, not much special… Mostly because his best quality is difficult to see. J’lan is logical. He may be frequently nervous, frequently forget things, but he rarely if ever panics or loses control completely. He rolls with the punches, gets up, takes a look at the new situation and acts accordingly. He is the steady point in a crisis, never to the point of lacking emotion, but acting with his head rather than his heart.

If he has a real flaw, it is a certain weakness of character, or just dislike of direct conflict. On subjects where he has serious conviction, he will fight, but for everything else he is easily swayed by the more vehement arguments of others. When faced with aggression of any kind, he tends to retreat or equivocate rather than respond in kind. It is possible to push him hard enough that he pushes back – and when he does, it is sudden, dramatic, and loud. In particular, never insult Rakthath. The blue is J’lan’s life.

Let’s be clear: J’lan doesn’t have a problem with most of Igen’s traditions. This is the only Weyr he’s ever been in, and from a certain point of view the rules make sense. Goldriders need to be strong, decisive, and intelligent to run a Weyr. These are also qualities that would, theoretically, appeal to a fighting dragon like a green. Therefore, greens are Impressing girls that might have made excellent Weyrwomen, if given the chance. If the greens get to the girls first, the gold has less selection. Likewise, bronzes are the ones who catch golds, so if you want a next generation of dragons, you need good bronzes with good riders. It’s at the families bit that he runs into trouble. The implication that the traits of a good leader, a good rider, that indescribable something that leads to Impressing, can be somehow passed down a bloodline, inherited in the same way you inherit brown eyes or tallness. That doesn’t seem fair or right. J’lan has never been in favor of the setup, from the time when he was a Candidate, and it has run very hard for him.

Is he steadfast, unshakable in his beliefs? No. He has no interest in making a martyr of himself or Rakthath on a cause he can’t really change. J’lan is frequently lonely, frequently considers recanting and going to beg forgiveness. But inertia and injured pride are two of the strongest forces in the universe. Apart, of course, from the strongest force of all: the weight of having to look Rakthath in the eye afterward.

History: It was pretty clear from early on in his life that Jerrolan was not meant to follow in his family’s tradition of Runnerbeastcraft. For one thing, anything much larger than a caprine made him nervous. And when you are nervous, runnerbeasts can tell. Jerrolan lost count of the number of times he was pulled around, headbutted, lashed out at, nipped… All of which simply served to reinforce his belief that he was not meant to be within ten paces of them. There was no shortage of elder brothers willing to help him (although, these being elder brothers, the definition of “help” varied widely) but his natural inclination was always towards other fields. He was sent off to the Harper Hall, where it was discovered very quickly that, while Jerrolan is and has always been tone-deaf, he was a quick learner and good with a pen and ink, which made him a natural for scribe work.

Working under the Archivists, while relatively dull, was peaceful. And life at the Hall was interesting enough. Still, everything changed when the girl on the green dragon showed up at the Weyr. Why was she searching so far from Igen? Hard to say. Maybe they wanted her out of the Weyr, given the general policies. But her dragon took an immediate shine to Jerrolan, and Jerrolan, for his part, returned her interest with utter fascination. He’d never been close to a dragon before, and he’d essentially been envisioning something like an overgrown lizard with wings and firebreath. While he knew dragons were intelligent and empathetic, it was another thing entirely to see in person the obvious interest and curiosity in the whirling, faceted eyes, the gentle rapport between dragon and rider. When the girl asked him to come back to the Weyr with her, he didn’t hesitate. It was a chance for a real adventure, after all!

Unfortunately, his arrival at Igen was… less than he had built it up in his mind to be. It didn’t help that the green who Searched him had a female rider. No surprise that he wasn’t looked on very favorably. A stranger, some gangly Crafthall boy, a Keroon reject who was no good with animals, so he got thrown to the dusty scribes? Not so much as a greenrider in his lineage anywhere? Why was he here? The silly girl must have made a mistake. He wouldn’t Impress. And Jerrolan for his part, young enough to be naïve, old enough to be indignant, initially rebelled against the gangs. All of them. By the time he grew wise to the way things worked, the damage was already done. When he was willing to swallow his pride, they’d already dismissed him as not much of interest.

Which made it all the more surprising, really, when Rakthath’s Hatching came a few Turns later. Who would have thought that the striking blue who slashed his way out of the shell, crimson-eyed and bugling his defiance, would stride up to Jerrolan as if it were the most natural thing in the world? But there was no mistaking the voice in his mind, the sharp challenge in its tone.

Jerrolan-mine. Hold your head up. Tell them your Rakthath’s name, so that they can all hear. Or are you not content with Yours?

There was really only one answer to that.

Thus far, J’lan has yet to align himself formally with any of the bronzerider families. He’s in a wing, yes, but that’s just Weyr business. Shunned tend to stay shunned. Or maybe he just hasn’t looked like a useful playing piece yet to any major players in the massive game that is Igen politics. Rakthath certainly hasn’t been endearing himself to the bronzes. There’s any number of explanations… but none that can’t change. And to judge from the Istan riders newly arriving… the times, they are a-changin’.

Pets: None, although he would love a firelizard.
Other/Talents: Literate, with excellent handwriting.
Picture: Sorry, none.

Name: Rakthath
Color: Blue
Physical Description: A striking dragon, his primary color is a dark midnight blue on his back and wings. His flanks are streaked with a lighter slate blue, fading to a pale, almost silvery blue on his underbelly and throat. Overall, think a bit like a dusky dolphin in terms of coloring. Just one more marking: Rakthath’s wings are dark blue all the way to their edges, where the membrane is dappled with pale silver-blue. Rakthath is large for a blue at 29 feet, not quite measuring up to a brown, but certainly on the upper end of the scale. While he is powerfully muscled, it would be more precise to call him rangy: long legs (by dragon standards, anyway), long wings, long tail.

Personality: It would be inaccurate, or at least misleading, to call Rakthath elegant. He lacks the effortless, languid grace that makes it all look easy. Instead, the tall blue has an air of restless strength waiting to be called upon: not a feline at rest, but a wher on a short chain. There is something almost hungry about the eager way he takes to the air at his rider’s signal, long wings reaching to lash at the air, tangle with it like a living opponent to be subdued.

But don’t mistake his mind; there is nothing dumb or bestial about his thought processes. The voice in the back of J’lan’s mind is sometimes distracting, frequently sardonic or prideful, but never dull. Candidates and non-riders may well be spooked by Rakthath’s tendency to examine things (including people) at alarmingly close range with an almost appraising expression. The truth is, he has an insatiable thirst to know things. Whatever is going on, he doesn’t necessarily want to be part of it, but he doesn’t want to be the last one left out of the loop! On the rare occasion he will speak to someone besides His, his tone is almost invariably interrogative, and posed with a classically draconic directness. And if he has a memory like a sieve, and half of what he knows now will be gone next week, well, he’ll just have to re-learn it.

All dragons by nature respect a Queen, but Rakthath makes it no secret that he defers to bronzes because J’lan wants him to, not because they share that prerogative. This has been a conflict between dragon and rider in the past. As has Rakthath’s spotty performance in drills: when he means to impress, he is impressive. When his mood is less compliant, he quickly loses interest in formation flying, and it takes a firm hand to keep him paced with the browns and bronzes. It’s not that he’s deliberately disobedient, his mind just keeps wandering to how much faster he could fly if he was not limited to the pace of the formation, to how one could execute the turn this way instead of that way, what he’d do if Thread were really falling… Left to his own devices, he’d love to spend all his time simply flying unrestricted with His, pushing himself to the limits of his speed and stamina just to see where those limits are.

Rakthath long since made the connection that metallics mean power, and power would mean a happier place for His in the Weyr. He loves J’lan with an immeasurable, fierce abandon. He cannot fathom belonging to anyone else, and will not fathom J’lan on any other dragon… so instead, some quiet level of his heart is coiled in on itself in resentment and uncertainty. J’lan loves Rakthath above all else, but he cannot help feeling occasionally lonely. Perhaps that explains Rakthath, at least in part: if he is faster, stronger, cleverer, more loving than anyone else, then J’lan will need no one else.

It’s a pity that one dragon cannot be all the Weyr.

Other: Why these two? Rakthath is a storm of tenuously controlled energy, very much in need of the calm, quiet place he finds in his rider’s mind. J’lan’s willingness to listen to Rakthath, to think and puzzle through things, fits well with his dragon’s analytical side. Both rider and dragon are naturally curious and prefer to work through things for themselves rather than simply be told "that's how it is." J'lan's willingness to work through problems fulfills Rakthath in a way that pure discipline never could; even if the dragon won’t necessarily remember the details of the conversation the next day or the day after, he will remember the satisfaction of reaching some kind of conclusion. In return, the normally meek J’lan is bolstered by Rakthath’s intensity. Shunned and awkward as a Candidate, and not much better as a rider, J’lan has come to rely on his dragon’s unconditional positive regard. It’s much easier to be confident when you’ve got the literal and metaphorical weight of a dragon behind you at every step. As they both value independent thought, it is not surprising that they both tend to judge others on their own merits.

Reserved!