Dolphineer
Name: Xanha
Age: 25
Gender: Female
Sexual Orientation: Unsure/bi/pan?
Rank: Journeywoman
History: Xanha was born to seacrafters. There's seawater in her veins.
Her father was a sailor, head of a vessel that moved in the waters around Tillek, and her mother was a once-dolphineer who had given up the craft when her dolphin was killed in an unfortunate accident, choosing instead to eschew her craft and travel with the handsome captain for whom she had worked for several turns. Xanha was a logical extension of the torrid love-affair, and both parents adored her. But a ship was not much of a place for a child, and for a while, Xanha's parents put in to port. It lasted only about three turns before her father went back to sea, leaving Xanha alone with her mother and her mother's family. She saw her father frequently, though; the cothold outside Tillek where her mother's family lived was a frequent port of her father's ship, and so he came and went with the tides and the seasons. It was a good way, on the whole, to grow up, and the first decade of Xanha's life passed quietly.
Dolphincrafting was introduced to her when she was ten and met her grandfather's old dolphin-partner with a visiting pod. Long since retired, both old man and old dolphin were delighted to reunite, and the big old male shipfish captivated Xanha. She had seen dolphins before, but the wise old beast - enormous at fourteen feet long - was both beautiful and terrifying. She fell in love immediately. The ocean, always a second home for her, became a first home, and when Xanha was twelve, her mother's family elected to send her to the Dolphin Hall at Tillek for formal instruction. Xanha was thrilled. The chance to work alongside fully-fledged dolphineers, to get to know dolphins on a personal level, to go out sometimes and meet the wild pods - all of it captivated her, entranced her. Xanha was obsessed, was insane for dolphins. She knew she wanted one of her own.
That, of course, could only come once she had walked the tables to Journeyman status. And Xanha, aged only twelve, would not approach that any time soon. So instead she threw herself into classes, learning everything she could. She was already a strong swimmer, which helped, and her natural tendency to give a hundred and ten percent was an asset in her classes. But Xanha learned more slowly than some of her classmates. It wasn't necessarily that she was stupid, but she learned by doing, rather than by listening, and found it difficult to keep her attention in class. When she was in the water, she picked things up well. But repeating a theory back to one of her instructors? It was all but impossible. When Xanha's classmates began graduating in their late teens, Xanha found herself stuck. She threw herself into work rather than classes, devoting her time to the local pods, to getting to know the dolphins. She learned better that way, and progressed more rapidly than she had in six turns of classes.
She was twenty-two and on the verge of finally walking the tables when she met Ajax. He was a newcomer to the Tillek pod, visiting his own family. Xanha met him through his father - or rather, through his father's human partner. Jax was young, still barely mature, and Xanha was almost ready to pick a partner on her own. She had been encouraged to get to know the pod, and somehow, the newest dolphin seemed to hold her attention the best. They got along well. Jax was sly and playful, well-balanced by the quieter, more thoughtful Xanha. And Xan had the kind of sense of humor that was necessary to handle a dolphin like Ajax - not everyone thought that an eleven-foot monster of a dolphin flirting with them was sweet or funny, but Xanha didn't seem to have a problem with it. They became fast friends, and though Xanha was still an apprentice, she promised that as soon as she was allowed, she'd come back for him. She made good on the promise a few months after her twenty-third birthday, when she walked the tables to Journeyman and immediately ran down to the docks to let Ajax know the news. They were put on Tillek's roster immediately, and set to work.
For about six months, they traveled with ships, Xanha returning to her roots and Ajax getting the chance to stretch himself and go to places he had never seen before. It worked well for them; Xanha was naturally restless, and Ajax was from a wild pod, finding it difficult to stay tied to one place. And then news came that Benden and Malvren had fallen to wherhandlers.
Before the Revolution, neither Xanha nor Ajax knew much at all about Trine or Malvren. Benden they heard only faint things about. Tillek was beholden to High Reaches, and the Weyrs that were not "theirs" were only passing news to Xanha. She knew, of course, about the assassinations - they were gossip across Pern, particularly the effects on Benden. But Xanha didn't pay much mind to the news, and Ajax paid them even less. What could he possibly care about a place full of dragons with no dolphins at all?
And then the Revolution came, and suddenly things exploded. Xanha was shocked at the news that Benden had fallen to wherhandlers, shocked and terrified. But there was a sudden need for dolphineers at both Trine and Malvren. The call went out. Xanha felt the stirrings of her father's adventuresome spirit in her, and Ajax seemed to regard the whole situation as a new game to play. The pair of them agreed - they would move to one of the posts where the dolphineers were most needed. They settled on Trine, because it was tropical. A change in climate from the temperate coolness of Tillek would be nice, and the two of them shipped out to Trine soon after.
In the turn they have been there, it has been more or less quiet. The stolen eggs are something that happened to dragonriders, not to dolphineers, but Xanha has kept her ear to the ground. News travels, and Xanha likes knowing what's going on. Things are new and different at Trine, and the politics are interesting, even if she doesn't need to be involved in them. Besides, the sailor in her says it's better to know which way the wind is blowing at all times than to be surprised if it changes suddenly.
Description: Xanha's not altogether remarkable. Somewhat tall at five feet, seven inches, she's lithe, with a swimmer's build and not altogether too much body fat. Xanha works, and she works hard every day, rain or shine. There's not much time for slacking off when you're partnered with a dolphin, and she's gotten used to hard physical labor over the years. She dresses simply, generally in shifts or dresses because they're easier to strip out of when it comes time to get in the water. She loves color, particularly saturated ones and jewel tones, but she'll wear anything if it can take a beating - and she'll also wear nothing at all. Xanha's just as comfortable being naked as she is being clothed, and walking around in various states of undress is just something that happens to dolphineers. It's not something she really thinks about.
Her facial features are sharp: pointed chin, thin-bladed nose, high cheekbones, and almond-shaped, dark brown eyes. Xanha's naturally brown - not tan, just brown - and darkens with exposure to sun, with red-brown hair that lightens in places to ferocious red-orange during the dry season. It's curly and long, falling to about mid-back when it's not exploding in an unruly halo around her head. She generally wears it either braided in close rows against her scalp or otherwise tied back.
Personality:
Strengths:
- Sensible: Xanha's a practical sort of woman, the kind who looks at what has to be done and then does it, rather than daydreaming or trying to scheme ways out of it. Xanha gets things done, never mind what other people are doing or want to do.
Excellent Memory: Once Xanha has something in her head, she doesn't forget it. There are limits, of course - she has no head for words or numbers - but Xanha's remarkably good at picking up where she left off on physical learning (knot-tying, swimming, various bodily tasks), even years later.
Stoic: It's hard to rattle Xanha. Things come and go, emotions run high, but on the whole, Xanha's not someone who's easily moved to emotional responses. She's more likely to quietly assess the situation and work things out on her own time than she is to respond "in the moment" to things.
Shameless: There's very little Xanha's afraid to do in front of people. She doesn't seem particularly bothered to have an audience, and in general will do what she feels like when she feels like it. If this means she's naked sunbathing on a populated beach, that's other people's problem.
Reasonable: Xanha tries her hardest to offer thoughtful, measured responses to events. Other people are around to get emotional; Xan's the girl who's going to be trying to work out a solution that keeps everyone happy. She's good at compromising and rarely gets riled up.
- Slow Learner: Xanha is a kinesthetic learner who has trouble concentrating in classroom settings. Someone can explain to her over and over how to get something done, but unless she's physically doing it, she's not going to retain the information. Similarly, it takes her a lot of repetitions to learn a task or skill.
Easily Distracted: It's not always easy for Xanha to concentrate on something or pay attention for long periods of time. She works best if she has a number of things over which to split her attention, rather than having to focus on one thing for a long time. Otherwise, her mind will wander and she'll get nothing done.
Wanderer: Xanha's not one of those people who's content to stay in one place for a long time. She's inclined to exploration and going off and doing her own thing, often times without telling anyone what she's up to. It's not exactly ideal for superiors, and she can come off as quite flaky.
Suspicious: It takes Xanha a while to warm up to humans. In general, she's not one to take people at face value, and she demands that people really prove themselves to her before they earn her trust. Once she warms up, she's fine, but it takes time to get there.
Permissive: Maybe it comes of working with dolphins, but Xanha rarely notices bad or socially unacceptable behavior in humans - or calls it out. She'll ignore things that she doesn't personally like, but she's not one of those people who's going to be stepping up to call someone out if they screw up.
Xanha is a relatively easygoing woman. She's one of those people who is perfectly content to move through life at her own pace, and there isn't much in the world that can convince her to stop doing this. It's not that she's lazy or overly-slow, so much as it is that Xanha takes her time to learn things right. She's a big proponent of having a thorough understanding of something before you go out claiming to be an expert at it - whether that thing be tying knots, swimming, dealing with dolphins, or sailing. That's not to say that she doesn't think people should busy themselves with only theoretical studies - quite the opposite, really. The only way to learn things, as far as Xanha is concerned, is to do them, and do them again and again until you can understand them. This philosophy is a bit at odds with Xanha herself, though; as much as she's a fan of learning everything solidly through repetition, Xanha's not naturally inclined to sit still and devote herself to one task for very long. More often than not, she ends up jumping from one thing to another as she works on them.
She can be a bit flighty, though not in the sense that she's capricious. Xanha simply can't function without multitasking; the more she has to do, the better she is at splitting her attention and concentrating. Given one task to do in a day, Xanha will find herself aimlessly wandering and ignoring it and rushing to finish it just before it's due. Given five or six, she's better able to structure herself and split her time. This can mean she's slower to make progress on things than other people - she walked the tables to journeyman somewhat later than many of her fellow apprentices at Dolphincraft Hall - with the tradeoff that once Xanha has learned something, she knows it. She's not a good teacher, though; her style of learning is deeply personal, and she finds it difficult to articulate herself to others in an instructional context.
That does not, however, bleed over to interpersonal relationships. Xanha loves people. She loves attention, crowds, getting involved with things, conversations - all of it, Xanha loves it. She'd gladly put herself in the middle of a huge crowd of people and do it for hours. Then again, she'd just as willingly do this with a huge crowd of dolphins. Xanha just likes company, and she'll befriend just about anyone who isn't actively trying to cause her harm. She's easy to talk to, and offers surprisingly thoughtful advice when prompted. Xan's a naturally level-headed woman, difficult to faze and eager to please, and she prides herself on her ability to think through situations and give the best input she can without getting emotionally invested in it. Of course, she'll readily get emotionally invested in people, but she's still going to try and give them impartial advice whenever they come to her. She's not always understanding of people who just "need to vent," because as far as she's concerned, when you talk about your problems, you must want a solution. This can make things difficult.
Perhaps it's because she's spent the past thirteen years of her life as an honorary member of a dolphin pod, but Xanha's understanding of human behavior is...quite a bit more accepting than that of many people. She's a physical person, often using little touches and nudges to get her point across, and isn't afraid of physical affection, either. In fact, she's significantly more likely to sprawl out on top of someone she's interested in than she is to try and flirt them up with words. This - paired with the fact that, as can be expected someone who spends a great deal of time in the water, Xanha is often half-clothed or even sometimes completely naked - can make for some remarkably uncomfortable interactions for people who don't entirely understand where she's coming from. She's not malicious, though, and will adjust her behavior if asked, but she needs to be asked to stop or told not to do it. Otherwise, she just doesn't notice. Also - perhaps unsurprisingly - her attitude toward sex is exceedingly unflappable. Almost nothing's weird to Xan.
Other: Xanha and Ajax both still prefer saltwater to freshwater.
Dolphin
Name: Ajax
Age: 11
Gender: Male
Description: [Image]
Jax is a big dolphin. Eleven feet long and weighing in about 1150 pounds, he is one of those dolphins that is deceptively large - he doesn't look altogether that big from the shore, but get in the water with him, and his size becomes blatantly apparent. Point-blank, he's huge. But he moves, like all dolphins, quickly and effortlessly through the water. He's handsome dark grey, with flashy stripes of paler grey across his flanks and flippers, and little marks of the same over each eye. Since he spent most of his life in the wild, he's more scarred-up than some other dolphins, but none of the marks are particularly interesting.
Pod: Recent member of the Tri-Lakes Pod, former member of the pod at Tillek
Bio: Ajax spent most of his life as a wild dolphin, in a pod only mildly associated with the 'neer pod at Dolphincraft Hall. He was bred wild, though his grandparents on his father's had both been partners to humans at some time or another, and eventually his father also paired off, but his mother was entirely wild-bred, as had been her parents, as had been their parents. When the father of her calf left for Tillek, she didn't follow him. She stayed with her home pod and raised him wild. That said, like all dolphins he was taught to speak to humans, and the histories of the pods. And Ajax learned - he excelled at human language, it turned out, and also had a mind for history. But he was also a vagabond and an adventurer, so it was no surprise to anyone when he started ranging farther and farther afield.
He was eight and only just coming into himself when he broke from his home pod to travel to Tillek. Newly-mature and aching for companionship, he joined a bachelor group in the Tillek pod. It was through them that he met his father, and his father's human partner, and developed a fascination for humans. When Xanha came to him two months later, he was delighted to make a human acquaintance who wasn't already partnered off. They developed a fast friendship, and when Xanha walked the tables and asked him to be her partner, he was glad to. They moved to Trine a scant turn ago, just long enough for Ajax to adapt to the transition from salt to freshwater, though given his druthers he still prefers the ocean.
Personality: Ajax is flirty. Ridiculously flirty. In true dolphin fashion, if it moves, he's probably interested in meeting it, and if it talks, he's probably interested in chatting it up. Dolphins, humans, dragons, even whers (though he's never actually met a wher. Dolphins swim. He doesn't think whers do) - none of it's safe from Ajax's attention. But he's well-behaved, especially for a mostly-wild dolphin. He's not all that great a first dolphin to meet - most people are a little put off by the fact that they have a dolphin eyeing them appraisingly and then complimenting their hair, or their clothes - but he does genuinely like company, and goes out of his way to be friendly. It's just that sometimes he gets...a little too friendly. There doesn't seem to be any real goal to the flirting, though - Ajax doesn't seem altogether too interested in breeding, and if he really needs to, he knows there are plenty of wild pods around where he can work off...frustrations. But really, he just enjoys chatting people up.
He's surprisingly protective, especially of humans (mostly his human, but also any people to whom Xanha is responsible), and won't hesitate to rush after a boat or a swimmer if he thinks they need aid. He's not selfless - he'll turn tail and run as soon as conditions get bad, unless Xanha really needs him - but he's definitely eager to keep things going and keep people happy. He puts himself and his partner first, other humans second, and other dolphins third. Dolphins, he figures, can look out for themselves. Humans haven't proven terribly good at that - they seem to need dolphins to survive in the water, dragons to survive in the sky, and whers to survive on land. Plus, they're vulnerable, hairless, have ridiculously thin skin, and can only communicate with their mouths, and not ultrasonically or psychically except to dragonkin. Not a good track record, all things considered.
