Approved by Tawny
Name: Pahlan
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Sexual Orientation: Bisexual, favoring Women ( 1.5 on the
Kinsey Scale ). Heterosexual for all practical purposes.
Craft/Rank: Glass-smithcraft / Apprentice
History: A reluctant artist, Pahlan grew up among the beauty, beaches and boredom inherent in Ista. As the youngest son of a middling-senior Holder's wife, Pahlan had relatively little in the way of personal duties and among his relatives stuck out as a daydreamer and an artist. He painted, and when his artistic talents finally came to light, his family breathed a collective sigh of relief when he was apprenticed to the adjacent Glass-smith crafthold and put out from underfoot.
Although he was an indifferent student of Smithcraft, he had a sharp mind and despite laziness and daydreaming managed to achieve senior apprentice status at the tail-end of his group of yearmates. He was sent out to various holds and put to various orders, but proved as tempermental an apprentice as he had a novice— that most frustrating of students, the one who is filled with incredible talent and yet doesn't seem to give one solitary damn.
So, after much hair-pulling, they fostered him out as an assistant to the Glassmaster at Benden Hold and did their best to put the whole matter behind them. Another collective sigh of relief was had.
Of course, he didn't do spectacularly at Benden either, but away from the idyllic weather and aging populaiton demographics of Ista Hold and Weyr, Pahlan was forced by necessity and an unfamiliar Master into working at least a minimum of hard, learning his place more thoroughly and— then a dragon showed up and hied him off to the Weyr.
Benden Weyr, of course. And yes, he did manage to throw a stuck-out tongue over his shoulder at Benden hold. He's just that kind of person.
Description: Quite dark, and a bit curly-headed, Pahlan sports a fading tan and forearms dotted with small round and pale burn-scars, most of which are fairly recent and still puckered with scar tissue. He has unremarkable blue eyes in a sharp face that nevertheless can never seem to grow more than a patchy, unattractively thin beard, making him look a bit younger than he is. He's around 5' 6" which doesn't help much, but fairly lean, despite himself. He likes to wear green when at Gathers and fancies himself a looker, though no one with any sense of self-preservation has ever told him as much.
Personality: Talkative, but not often social, Pahlan wasn't exposed to more children than were in his immediate family when growing up. As one of the youngest in said family, he's got a bit of privilege and cosseting in him, and tends to think of his own interests before that of others— something that he's learning is wrong, ever since coming in contact with proper Dragonriders and living with the other Searched youngsters in the Weyr. He is significantly more comfortable among people older than him than people his own age— a product, again, of his upbringing. Pahlan's knows exactly what kind of disaffected sullen-ness or cowed respect to use when presented with any variety of authority, but has trouble reacting to overtures of friendship. He's had a lot of soured acquaintances and unfriendly rivalries.
He used to get into fights, a lot, or little ridiculous prank wars. His brothers were all very much of a 'type,' burly and hardworking and very much their father's sons. Pahlan was short and slight by comparison, and so he only rarely came off better in these instances. It's hard to win any kind of blame-throwing fight when your word is worth so much less than that of your brother. His first instinct is to avoid, and his second is to throw himself into a conflict with his entire heart— what he needs is someone to catch him before he does something stupid and point out that he's not obligated to shun someone or punch them in the face just because they deserve it. There are less anti-social ways of dealing with these things.
So he's a brat, yes, but he's also lonely, and has never felt that he has a place properly for himself. His family and his Master chose his career for him, and he's been shuffled from home to hold to crafthall to halfway across Pern as people passed him on or passed him off, each one less satisfied with the half-cut crystal that Pahlan was than the last. True, he wasn't going anywhere in a hurry on his own and true, many others have had less choice and lived happier lives, but Pahlan never...quite...fit.
If the bridle doesn't fit, is it any wonder that the runner bucks the reins?
So he's a bit lonely and a bit friendless and completely out of his depth in the Weyr where people are suddenly so
friendly and don't seem to care if you're the odd man out, or a misfit. He likes it here, he's coming to realize. Somewhere he likes, and if given the
choice, he'd like to stay.
Other:- A strong swimmer
- prone to doodling
- tends to wander off
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