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Character Name: Talakor
Age: 21 (20 at time of creation)
Gender: Male
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
Craft/Rank: Dolphincraft/Apprentice

History: Born and raised at an inland hold on Southern, Talakor developed a strangely strong liking for swimming and water in general. When he was old enough, it seemed logical to look for a Craft based on water work. Originally, Tal was meant to go to the Fishercraft, but a fateful suggestion from one of the adults whose siblings worked in the Dolphincraft had Tal bouncing off to see if they would accept him there. He qualified for all the things that immediately counted in a Dolphincraft apprentice-- and he put to good use his mother's warning about watching his tongue-- and was accepted there at the tender age of 14. He met his friend Kala, a girl close to his own age and seemingly unaffected when he showed his full personality, shortly after he arrived and was stuck with her for the rest of his training. When the assignments for almost-Journeymen came about, Talakor was assigned to Malvren and shipped off with Kala to wait at the Hall there for his assigned partner. Six and a half years as an apprentice has taught Tal a great deal about his Craft and has him praying that maybe this next batch of dolphin pups will have a partner for him in it. He's certainly been waiting long enough, right?

Description: Tal is a slight bit higher than 5' 11", but not quite 6'. His eyes are plain brown and his hair a color to match, but with his good natured if slightly superior grin and trim form, he makes his bland coloring work for him. If one asked the female population about his looks (rather than his personality), most of them would likely admit he falls on the fair side of plain as far as men go (not that that makes up for the personality). He has the odd scar from working on fishing ships and within the Dolphincraft, but he's managed to avoid serious injury and has instead gained the muscle born of an active lifestyle.

Personality: Brash, thoughtless, but possessing a magnificent sense of humor, Tal lends himself toward causing hurt feelings between himself and others and simultaneously managing to cheer up those who appear to be alone. Oftentimes people are hesitant to be friends with Tal, because of his sometimes-- okay, often, rude manner and the appearance of him not caring for anyone else's feelings a whit. For some reason, that makes them uncomfortable. In his defense, it's not that he doesn't actually care-- I mean, he wouldn't push someone down the stairs, would he?-- but he just doesn't think about it. If he says something and they take offense, that's their fault for being so sensitive. This viewpoint wanes only if he says something so thoughtless that it could ruin a friendship with someone he actually cherishes, and he'll go out of his way to try to patch his mistake, even if it means having to... apologize.

The one thing no one could ever fault Talakor on is his single-minded application toward pursuing a career as a Dolphineer and his love for the sea and its creatures. Dolphins, fishing, sailing, swimming, Tal loves it all. This is one Dolphineer you'd never have to worry about when it comes to the sea and his duty to Pern.

Anything else though, expect that Tal will be as much trouble as he is help. Sure he'll help you transport that basket of pastries across the Hall. When he's doing it, though, he'll either joke your ear off when you don't want him to and thus irritate you endlessly or you'll end up a few treats lighter by the time you get where you're going.

Other: Tal really would like a flit. REALLY would like a flit. Well, really what he wants is a dolphin partner, but in the future, after he's saved up enough marks, he plans on purchasing a firelizard egg for himself. Any color will do, just so long as he has one.

A firelizard! Finally!

Kala hummed to herself as she continued reorganizing the gear room. Yara had been helping her, but the woman had left a while earlier, saying she had to go find someone. Kala was going to give her a talking to when she got back. It wasn't professional to walk off and leave someone else to do all of your work and Kala, though she was dedicated to her work, was not the kind to sit by and let others slack of. Being a Dolphineer meant dedication and hard work; slacking wasn't going to get Yara anywhere.

Kala had grown up a Malvren and beyond the own parts of her nature that encouraged her to take charge and make sure everyone worked she had the desire to impress her home with her own hard-working nature. It also was always good practice to be efficient. Talakor, her best friend, didn't always understand that, but tolerated her nature as she tolerated his and that worked well for them. Without her, Kala often thought Talakor would have done as little as possible around the weyr. (He would never slack on his Dolphineer training, dedicated as he was, but everything else most certainly would have suffered without her guidance.)

The door opened and Kala looked up, smiling as Yara finally returned. She shook her head almost amusedly at the woman, despite that no answering smile lit Yara's face.

"Yara, where have you been? I've almost finished with everything!"

"The wherhandlers have risen up," Yara announced, staring at Kala and startling the woman into losing her smile.

Kala stared and then set the gear aside, concerned creasing her forehead. "What?"

"The wherhandlers are taking back the weyrs," Yara explained. "We're going to finally bring Pern to the future it needs to survive. The one it deserves."

"You?" Kala asked, eyes wide. She smiled lopsidedly, almost expecting Yara to say she was kidding, though that wasn't too much like the woman. "What are you talking about, Yara? That's nonsense."

Yara shook her head sharply. "It is not. They're going to clean the dragonriders out of the weyr and then help Pern become stronger. They're welcoming people from every walk of life. Will you join us?"

Kala punched her. All right, it wasn't her immediate solution in any situation, but what the woman was saying was unbelievable and... well, that had seemed the appropriate response, as very Talakor as it was. It was obvious that something was wrong with Yara and neither reasoning, nor ordering, wasn't going to work in this instance. Kala had heard obsession before, and this sounded decidedly obsessive enough. She hit Yara again as the woman stared at her in horror, sending her stumbling back into the table. When Yara came back swinging, Kala caught the glint of the blade just in time to step back and taking only a glancing blow across the forehead.

Kala took a few quick steps backward, immediately pressing a hand to the cut over her eye. It stung, and blood poured down her face and forced her to close her eye to avoid being blinded by it.

"Have you lost your senses!" she snapped, angry. She watched Yara's torso for her next move, though she wanted badly to stare at the knife Yara had taken off of the table. "Put that down!"

Yara shook her head, jaw clenched. "If you aren't with us you're against us, and you're certainly not with us! I have to stop you before you go ruining something! Even if I have to kill you to do it! You won't stop us!"

She attacked again and Kala ran behind the table, looping back to the desk with Yara in pursuit.

"Why are you fighting for them Yara? Why are you doing this?" Kala asked, hoping the question would distract her before she took another swipe with her knife. It did give the girl pause, but she brandished the knife as she spoke.

"They'll treat us the way we should be treated. They'll give us a higher place than we have under the reign of the riders. The riders hardly give us a second thought when we do almost as much for Pern as they do. You know that! This revolution will show them not to take us lightly anymore. All of Pern needs to stand against them, united, so that we can finally have a say in how our planet is run and how it views our profession!"

Kala listened patiently as blood dripped over her eye, waiting for the girl to finish. The speech confirmed what she had thought, and during it Yara had moved forward a few steps, not so much menacing as excited to explain what this was really all about. Kala's eyes stayed direct and emotionless.

"You're an idiot."

She picked up the chair next to her that she had been keenly aware of during Yara's speech and slammed it into the former Dolphineer, cracking it against Yara's shoulder and head. The knife clattered to the floor. Yara stumbled and fell and Kala hit her again before tossing the chair aside and hauling the slighter woman to her feet.

Kala rattled the woman's head against the wall as she slammed her back, and then with one hand held her while the other delivered a solid strike to Yara's jaw. Her eyes were dazed as they tried to fix on Kala, but Kala ignored it and punched Yara until the woman finally lost consciousness. Kala let her slip to the floor and lifted her arm to wipe the blood from her forehead with her sleeve. Head wounds bled, but she very much hoped this one scabbed over soon.

If what Yara had said was true... they had to put a stop to this insanity. Where was Tal?

Kala stepped past the woman and retrieved the knife as she passed it. No sense in leaving it for when Yara awoke. Kala made her way to the hallway Talakor's rooms were in, thankful to see it was clear. She banged on the door and stepped to the side, just in case he wasn't there and someone else had an idea about surprising her with this "revolution."

The door cracked open very suddenly and Talakor peeked through.

"Tal."

The door opened more widely and he looked out at her, sizing her up. His brown eyes were more serious than usual and he didn't look as if he was ignorant to what was going on. Kala clenched her fist reflexively. A sudden fear welled in her. What if Talakor had been in on it? Could he have been?

"They're trying to take over the weyr."

Tal paused, staring at her, then stepped into the hallway. "Yeah, they already came looking. I heard them talking in the hall and stayed in my room. Are you all right?" His eyes moved up to the gash above her forehead and he cursed softly. "Shards, here." He pushed the door open fully and went back into his room. She stepped inside while he retrieved a handkerchief and pressed it into her waiting hand.

"Thanks." The cloth stemmed the flow of blood as she , but she refused to follow Tal's gesturing hand and sit. They didn't have time. "Tal, this isn't just here. I saw Yara." When his eyes flicked to her forehead again, she nodded. "They're trying to take down all of the weyrs. They want a new Pern and they're killing to get it. Dolphineers, weyrfolk, even riders, but the handlers are behind it."

"I know. They've already taken down Benden." Talakor began moving around the room and Kala recognized a need to expel nervous energy when she saw it. "What should we do?"

"I saw some of Dolphineers leave with their partners." She frowned. "But I don't think we can follow their route, and not just because we haven't been given partners yet."

"You want to fight." To Kala's pleasure, she noticed he didn't object to the idea. If anything he looked eager, and Kala found herself hoping his usual brash reactions didn't get them into more trouble than his help would be worth. Nonsense. Of course he wouldn't do that.

"We can't let them destroy our weyr while we sit by. Time to step up," Kala said, taking charge. She pushed the handkerchief into her pocket and walked over to grab him by the shoulder. "We've sat idle too long already. Let's show them it's not nice to mess with the Dolphineers or their allies."

Talakor knew Kala's ability to direct a situation when he saw it, and she was right. He grinned at her, already feeling adrenaline beginning to pump into his system. He couldn't let her go off and fight on her own, even though he knew this could end up being a death sentence for either of them. If he didn't go, she would never forgive him. If she got hurt without him there, he would never forgive himself.

"What do you suggest we do first?"

"Clear the Hall. Then we can move on to the Weyr. We can't help anyone if we ignore our own people who have betrayed us and get stabbed in the back for our trouble."

"Fine." He pointed at her forehead and then went to find some strip of fabric that would hold the handkerchief patch to her forehead. "But we're binding that on there first."