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 Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:51 am
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Welcome to the weyr of Xan and Blue Opeth
Watch out for the grumpy dragon, he might just try to trip you up
The weyr is located on the southern side of the westernmost lake, a fair distance away from the central complex. It is divided into three sections by curtains; a storage area, a sleeping area, and a living area which leads out into the open. The storage area is just what you would expect; shelves and boxes of possessions, but it is notable that even the simplest chest is made of good wood and has a pleasing design carved onto it. The sleeping area has a fair sized bed with wonderfully soft sheets on it, as well as plenty of pillows. The main living area has several small tables, four comfortable chairs, a day bed, and a cabinet which presumably contains cups and drinks. The floor in all of the rooms is scattered with rugs of various shapes, sizes, and colours. Finally there is the dragon bed, set to one side of the living area. It is covered with sand and looks as though it is freshly raked every day.
All in all the weyr is a very comfortable place to be, it is clear that the occupant has plenty of marks to spend on luxury. |
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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:53 am
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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:56 am
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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 10:57 am
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History
Pre-game history
Xan is the daughter of a wealthy family; her grandfather is a minor coastal holder so she never needed to do any real work. She spent most of her childhood playing on the beach and in the shallows of the ocean, avoiding her lessons where she could. Despite her best efforts the harpers managed to instill a good education in her, and on the rare occasions they managed to interest in her something they even found themselves with an eager student. Early in her fifteenth turn, a search rider came to her Hold and selected her as a candidate for Impression. Having always loved dragons (like quite a large number of young people) she was only too glad to pack her bags and step up onto the lithe green.
Luck seemed to be with Xan when she arrived at Trine; she made friends fairly easily, and was lucky enough to Impress blue Opeth at her first hatching....
Impression story
The sands were hot, hotter than she remembered them being at the Touching. Shifting from foot to foot Xan glanced around at the other candidates; they all looked so nervous! She supposed she could understand why, a lot of them were pinning so much hope on this... Still, being uptight wasn't going to do them any good at all, a relaxed open mind was more likely to attract a dragonet, right? She was quickly distracted from her train of thought by the first crack of a shell; a stocky brown kicked free of his shell and after giving himself a shake, he set off towards the boys. For some time he paced up and down, rumbling uncertainly to himself, but before long he gave a delighted cry and stumbled over to his chosen rider.
Hardly a moment later another egg hatched, releasing a pretty green. Xan could have sworn the air around her began to crackle with the intensity of the girls' focus on the little creature; this one they could Impress!... But no, without even pausing she trotted daintily over to another young lad. It was disappointing not to be snapped up right away, Xan pondered as she continued to shift her feet uncomfortably, but there were plenty more eggs to hatch yet. As if on cue, another green made her entrance and this time she did select a girl. If anything, the atmosphere grew tenser as presumably each girl wondered what was wrong with her, what the girl who had been chosen had that she didn't...
And then there was a scream. Xan's head snapped around just in time to see the striped blue shaking free of the last bit of his shell. This little dragon seemed to be even more wound up than the candidates; his eyes whirled between hungry red and angry orange, and he gave another angry screech as he made his way towards the assembled candidates. He made for the boys first, and almost all of them shifted out of his way as he approached, as was standard procedure. One lad however stood firm, and was bowled over for his trouble. Xan grimaced as the boy cried out; looked as if the angry dragon had clawed him on the way past too.
With that first show of blood, everybody scattered a lot more readily when the blue snarled and made for the girls. There was an awful lot of pushing, shoving, and panicking. Just what wasn't going to help. Sighing internally, Xan did her best to move along with the other girls without getting elbowed or trampled. If everybody would just relax and calm down it would be a lot easier to move out of the blue's way... Come to that, if the blue would just chill out and decide already none of this would be necessary. Seriously, what was his problem? Could he not find His, or was he just generally disagreeable?
"You!"
"Hu?" Xan froze in place as the other girls continued to shove and turned to look at the striped blue. He too had come to a halt, and he was looking at her.
"Opeth chooses you, take me away from the stupid people and give me food, good food, nothing tough and nasty. If there is anything not tough and nasty, it doesn't look that nice from here."
With that Xan did some shoving of her own, and once she was free of the pack she sprinted over to the grumbling dragonet. "Opeth!" Skidding to her knees, she flung her arms around the blue and squeezed him tightly. "I'll find you something good, don't worry," she assured him - her dragon, her lifemate! - as she stroked his still-sticky hide. "Just you relax, okay?" she went on, climbing back to her feet as the hatchling's hunger hit her full force. "It'll be fine, I swear."
"Mrrr, Mine you are really very stupid," the blue grumbled as he set off beside his rider. "Nothing is ever fine, that brown will already have taken the best food. I do not like him."
"Well," Xan snorted and patted his head reassuringly, "aren't you just a little ray of sunshine?"
"Shut up and feed me."
Still grinning, Xan halted beside the table of meat and picked the best looking bit she could. "Whatever you say, mister grumpy tail."
...With her dragon, Xan was never lazy; he was always as well fed and oiled as any dragon, but she continued to be rather lax with practicing her lessons at first. When he realized she was slipping behind the other weyrlings, however, Opeth put his foot down and berated her whenever she looked liked slacking off. So it was that Xan and Opeth graduated from training as a fairly average pair in skill, but it was notable that Xan got on with people a lot better than her dragon. Around four turns on from their graduation they remain an average pair; they do their duty, but hardly stand out as shining examples of the perfect rider and dragon.
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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:05 am
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Xan
Basics
Age: 26
Sex: Female
Orientation: Heterosexual
Rank: Wingrider
Appearance
Height: 5'5"
Build: Curvy, lightly muscled
Hair: Black, mid-back length, very curly
Eyes: Dark brown
Skin: Tan
Face: Oval, pretty enough but not remarkable
Detailed appearance: Xan is around average height, and has a notably feminine figure; her hips and bust often draw appreciative looks. She could hardly be called muscular; she is toned from a fairly active lifestyle, but carries a little extra weight on her too. Her eyes are dark brown, and her hair is a mane of wild black curls which fall half way down her back, tamable only when pulled into a plait or braids. She has a small birthmark on the right side of her face just under the eye, and an easy grin. Her skin is olive, and quite heavily tanned as she favors the ‘strip off’ method of keeping cool when the sun isn’t too harsh. All of her clothes are very high quality; she wears the very finest fabrics cut into the most causal styles without thinking anything of it.
Personality
Likes: Dozing on the beach, hanging out with friends and a few drinks, Opeth, swimming
Dislikes: Cold weather, rain, having to work
Quote: “Aww, c’mon, is it really that bad? How about I buy you a drink and you can tell me all about it.”
Character tracks: So young
Extended personality:
Brimful of confidence, irrepressibly optimistic, slightly crass; Xan isn’t exactly the perfect picture of a classy lady. She enjoys rude jokes immensely, and doesn’t hesitate to whistle appreciatively at a nice male body when it passes by. She’s so laid back it’s a wonder she doesn’t fall over; nothing is the very end of the world in the end, everything has a solution, so why worry? Sit back, relax, have a drink, and tell her what the big problem is: maybe she can help you out, or maybe when you’ve talked about it you’ll see it’s not so bad after all. She’d rather avoid a fight where possible, mostly because she doesn’t see the point in conflict over ego or petty matters; she’ll give over to the idiot so long as the matter isn’t an important one.
Xan isn’t a very pushy person by nature, so she doesn’t often end up as the ‘leader’ of any given group, but she’ll step up if everyone else is just dithering and displaying a ‘oh no, after you!’ way of thinking. She doesn’t dislike leading, but she doesn’t care enough about it to fight over dominance if somebody else wants the spot. This said she’s hardly a quintessential follower either; she’ll do as she’s told so far her duties go, but on her own time she has no interest in going along with a group or following a powerful personality unless it’s what she actually feels like doing. If it isn’t, she’ll happily go and find something to do on her own, or with a different group.
In general Xan is a fairly likable sort, able to fit in with almost any crowd of people, and seldom has a bad word to say about anyone either. There might be some few people she’d rather not hang out with, but this is almost always because she feels they don’t share interests rather than because she dislikes them. This can lead to people getting annoyed with her for failing to agree that suchandsuch is a horrible person who deserves to be sat on by a wher, but she takes such criticism in her stride with a shrug and a smile.
Xan is rather spoiled and more than a bit lazy; she is not pompous or superior, but she grew up getting pretty much the best of everything and that can sometimes show a great deal. She dislikes having to do things she doesn’t want to do, and is rather mystified by the concept of chores being her job; she’ll almost always start whatever task she might have been assigned, but she is likely to look for someone she can slip a mark to finish it off for her part way though. The concept of not having money to spend on what you want to have is also very confusing to her, and she doesn’t understand that people might not be comfortable with accepting marks or expensive gifts from her, let alone that they might find the offer insulting. |
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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:07 am
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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:08 am
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Opeth
Personality
Likes: Xan, dozing in the sun, swimming, his wingmates (not that he'd admit it)
Dislikes: Laziness, most other people, cold weather
Quote: “The flesh they give us to eat is tough, there is not enough of it, there is not enough space to spread your wings, the bronzes take up all the best sunning spots, and you are asking me why I am annoyed? Mine, you are not very clever sometimes.”
Character tracks: Let it out
Extended personality:
Opeth is good at finding fault with the world at large. That bronze is too big for his riding straps, that wherry was too tough, and the weather is too cold, and there is not enough sun. If Opeth is in an especially bad mood, he will only consent to rouse himself from wherever he has curled up to drill with his wing, or to carry out other duties. In this case, however, expect a good deal of grumbling as he stomps about doing whatever it is he’s supposed to be doing. He does have high standards, however, and will always do his work well even if he does it with bad grace.
He is a fairly dominant sort, and will not hesitate to criticize anyone if he thinks they have it coming; the only dragons he won’t speak out of turn to are adult golds. He is convinced that everyone except blue Opath himself is an idiot at least half the time and that they all need him to tell them what to do. He doesn’t seem able to get his head around the idea of suggesting things politely or gently, and as such his unforgiving demeanor is not exactly conducive to making people happy to accept his criticism or suggestions.
All grumbling aside, and despite the fault he finds with them, he cares deeply about every member of his wing, and about Theirs too. If any of them get injured, don’t doubt that he’ll tell them it was all their own stupid fault, but don’t doubt either that he will do everything in his power to see them well again as soon as possible. He extends the same sort of demeanor to His as he does to everyone else, but with rather more intensity. If he thinks she’s slacking off or being an idiot he won’t hesitate to tell her off, but if it looks as though somebody is threatening her he will instantly be on the scene full of snarls to back her up.
He is generally a fairly conservative flier; he is capable of the same agility as any blue, but doesn’t pull off sharp loops or turns unless it’s necessary. Or unless his rider’s pleading for a fast dive becomes too much for him to stand. When it comes to Chasing, Opeth has to be in a good mood to want to bother with it. When he does, if he catches a green he tends to be in a much more amiable temper for several days. Fortunately if he fails, his grouchy nature is not notably worse than usual. It is worth noting that he refuses to chase any of the greens in his wing, and will not chase any green if other males from his wing are doing so. Though he would never say so, this is because he is aware that accidents can happen during flights, and he couldn’t stand to be responsible for harming a member of his wing.
Why Xan?
Opeth needs a calming influence, someone to diffuse his temper, and to cheer him up when he is listing the ways the world disappoints him and despite all of his grousing he was aware of this from the moment he hatched. Xan’s friendliness, and her ability to get on well with people, balances out her dragon’s snippy demeanor and keeps them from being social outcasts. Xan, however, needs a bit of help with her work ethic, and Opeth’s high standards go a long way to making her dedicate herself to whatever it is she ought to be doing rather than just slipping somebody marks to do it for her. |
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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:08 am
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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:09 am
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Posted: Wed Mar 31, 2010 11:10 am
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Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2010 1:56 pm
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Woah. Okay. So. First of all there's a clutch with a gold egg; always gets people excited, myself included. It's not like I think they're better (blue's for me all the way!) but there's something about a queen egg, knowing the line of dragons will go on I guess. Still, that was great, but then Alumanth actually clutched too! Two clutches on the sands, amazing, and now this guy from Benden. I've not talked to him myself, but he looks friendly enough and I've heard nothing bad about him.
Still, all of this stuff together has got the Weyr buzzing! People are betting on the eggs already, and as ever I'm up for a guess! Crimsons are supposed to clutch a whole lot of atypicals, right? I'll have to bear that in mind when I'm betting.
This Benden guy though... I've heard he wants to bring more healers from Benden, to study us I guess, and the clutch. Not sure what to make of it really, I'm not the sort to worry but I can't deny it's kind of weird. Still, I guess it'll blow over before too long.
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Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 11:26 am
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Wow. This is big. This is huge, in fact. This is the biggest thing since that machine was uncovered in the first place, I reckon... Well, maybe embracing atypicals was bigger, but I'm not sure, it'd be a close run thing. Personally? I was pretty torn on the choice, I could see a sharding good argument for both, you know? Whatever we do we're taking a big risk, and I couldn't really decide which was bigger to be honest with you. They say you have to look before you leap, but they also say he who hesitates is lost. Not much help from old sayings, really. The decision, in the end, came from Opeth. He doesn't trust the ancientcraft an inch, he's sure something would just go wrong with it. So, there you have it. Opeth and I cast our vote against the use of the master ancientcrafter's techniques.
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