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 Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2009 4:59 pm
Name: Marko
Age: 38
Sex: Male
Orientation: Pretty damn gay.
Craft: Harpercraft
Rank: Journeyman
Physical Description: The first thing most people notice about Marko is his height. Towering at just over six and a half feet, he has large hands and feet and generally doesn’t look like the type of fellow who spends his time playing little delicate things like the flute. He is somewhat slim, extremely well-toned, and tends to be vain about his appearance. His hair is extremely dark brown and worn unreasonably long; he tends to braid it, and even braided, it hangs to the bottoms of his shoulder blades. He has handsome, expressive facial features, though his lips are full and almost feminine. His eyes are green-hazel, and his skin is always somewhat tanned. He dresses simply, in clothes that show off his build, and tends to look somewhat dusty and travel-worn. He cleans up for Gathers, though, and does so wonderfully. He has a series of nasty looking claw-scars down his left side from armpit to knee.
Personality: Marko is a bit of an odd duck. A highly sarcastic man with a dry, sometimes grim sense of humour, he often comes across as pessimistic. In reality, Marko’s not a pessimist at all. He’s a generally happy fellow with a bright outlook on his own life. It just happens that his preferred manner of expression is one that tends to mislead people about his thoughts. He has a real talent for sarcasm as well—perhaps it is his performer blood—and can deliver completely absurd lines with absolute seriousness. He tends to abuse this skill, and will occasionally mislead people simply because he can—and because it’s funny. He’s fond of groups of people—large and small—and has generally good interpersonal skills, even if he tends to use them improperly.
It might be somewhat rude, but not particularly untrue, to call Marko oblivious. He has a bizarre tendency to miss important announcements, and often tends to be ignorant of rules, particularly ones that pertain to whatever he might have just done. When meetings are called, even if it’s necessary for Marko to be there, the odds are good that he’s in a completely different place with no apparent knowledge of what he was supposed to be doing. Whether this is a purposeful act he puts on or genuine obliviousness is uncertain, though most people tend to suspect the former. Even if Marko doesn’t know the specific ‘rules’ of a place if those rules seem to cramp his style, he has a near-flawless awareness of etiquette and commits far fewer faux pas than would be expected of someone who never seems to know what’s going on.
As a Harper, he’s a dedicated man and completely enamored with his craft. He generally makes a point to practice several hours a day, and will always make a little time for practice, even in the most pressing of situations. The act of something so simple as practicing settles him even at his most tense, and if he’s in a stressful situation, the odds are good that he will retreat to somewhere quiet and play until he’s calm again. Without this to calm him, Marko has a tendency to become extremely testy in stressful situations, though not much stresses Marko out. He will take most things in his (enormous) stride.
There are, however, a select group of things that Marko does not tolerate well. He dislikes violence of all sorts, and while blood doesn’t make him ill, witnessing violence tends to send him into mild panic attacks. He’s ill-at-ease around most young women, and almost all kinds of female attention make him extremely uncomfortable. He dislikes, possibly fears, large animals of any sort, and dragons are not exempt from this rule. He also suffers from a completely irrational fear of fire, and while he acknowledges that it is essential for life, he stays as far away from it as he can. His combined dislikes of large animals and fire, obviously, make him a less-than-perfect guest at Weyrs.
He loves food; the odds are good that if you run into Marko and he’s not playing an instrument, he’s got some sort of food in his hand.
He also loves handsome, masculine men.
History: Marko grew up in and around Fort Hold. His parents were both journeymen of their respective crafts: a Harper and a Tanner. Marko’s father initially wanted his only son (the couple had been blessed with four daughters, most of whom showed at an early age an aptitude for cookingcraft and weavercraft) to follow in his footsteps and perhaps someday become a Tannercraft master, but Marko’s distaste of the scents and activities of tannercraft made him an incredibly poor candidate to carry on Daddy’s legacy. So Marko, who couldn’t cook to save his life in spite of a true love of eating and injured himself with crochet hooks, was guided gently toward the craft of the Harpers. The boy had always enjoyed music, and his enthusiasm for the craft made him an ideal candidate for an apprenticeship. He was sent off to Harper Hall when he was eleven.
Marko was Searched at Harper Hall five turns later and stood as a Candidate until he was 18; during this two-turn stint at High Reaches Weyr, he had a brief, experimental relationship with a female greenrider that resulted (unbeknownst to him) in a daughter. Shortly thereafter, Marko was badly mauled on the Hatching Sands. The incident cured any interest he had in dragons and sent him fleeing home to Harper Hall as soon as he was allowed out of the infirmary. He never entirely got over the mistrust of dragons, and tended to be significantly shier around all large animals—particularly those draconic in shape—after that point.
When he had fully recovered, Marko redoubled his efforts as a Harper and walked the tables when he was twenty turns of age. There weren’t a great deal of assignments available for Harpers at that time, and Marko was more than willing to stay on in the Hall and continue to study with the masters. He developed a knack for being in precisely the wrong place at the wrong time, and it soon became completely evident that, even if he was an excellent flute player, Marko needed to be kept somewhere where he wouldn’t constantly be getting underfoot. Conveniently, High Reaches Hold soon announced a need for a new Harper. Now twenty-three turns of age, Marko was packed off.
Three turns into his stint at High Reaches, Marko was invited to perform at the hatching feast at High Reaches Weyr. There, he ran into his old flame—at that point, he was thoroughly convinced of his preference for males, though—and was introduced to his daughter, Isandra. Completely bewildered by the fact that he accidentally achieved fatherhood about nine years ago, Marko balked and requested a transfer back to Harper Hall as soon as he could. It was allowed, but as soon as Marko returned, he got underfoot again. This time around, Marko was shunted here and there whenever a journeyman was needed to fill a temporary position. He spent a great deal of time on the road with Traders, traveling to and from wherever he was being dumped next.
Until Ista Weyr began Searching a disproportionate amount of Harper apprentices. When the Masterharpers realized that a surprisingly large number of their apprentices were being called away to Hatchings at Ista, they began to wonder what would happen if all this untapped talent never came back. And as Marko was, surprise surprise, underfoot again, they decided to pack him up and send him off with the next caravan of Traders heading Ista-ways. It is now Marko’s responsibility to find the Harper apprentices who didn’t Impress and see if he can’t convince them to come back.
Pets: A large if nondescript chestnut runnerbeast on loan from Harper Hall, named Sunshine. Marko calls it “waste of space” when he thinks nobody’s listening.
Other/Talents: Fairly adept at most instruments and voice, though flutes and other wind instruments are his preferred mode of expression. During his travels with the Traders, he’s picked up basic self-defense, and can use both a knife and a staff. Excellent at card games, but can’t hold his liquor for the life of him.
Will this character be a candidate? Shards, no!
Picture: By Golanth
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Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 11:24 am
Bumping him up so he doesn't get lost in the sea of Candidates.
Also using this post to say that I do have permission from Lei to make this character, and that he is meant to be comedic relief, more than anything. It will (obviously) be up to the Apprentices whether or not they decide to go back to Harper Hall with Marko.
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Posted: Mon Mar 30, 2009 6:25 pm
I... I kind of love you. And this. <3
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