Name: Zenikal
Age: 17
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Bisexual
Craft: Bakercraft
Rank: Apprentice/Candidate
Appearance: Zenikal is pretty, he knows he's pretty, and at least for the moment he's got the teenage boy metabolism required to stay pretty despite the inordinate quantities of pastries he tastes every day. He's tall, around six foot two, and toned with enough muscle to haul around fifty-pound sacks of flour without too much difficulty. But at the same time, he lacks the rough weathered strength that you get from beastcrafters and farmcrafters - the kitchen lad is the sort who looks athletic more than he is athletic.
His skin tone is fair - by Pern standards, anyway - and tends to burn in an excess of sun. This is paired with blue-grey eyes, a bit on the long-lashed side for a boy, and dark auburn hair that he tends to pull back in a braid that falls to his shoulders. What saves him from being called 'girly' is primarily his bone structure: a strong jaw, broad shoulders, an overall impression of solidity. In motion, he is somewhat feline: Zenikal tends towards periods of languorous inactivity followed by short bursts of intent, focused energy.
Personality: WHAT ARE YOU DOING OH MY FARANTH GET YOUR UNSANITARY BUTT OFF MY COUNTER
THAT IS A FOOD PREPARATION SURFACE
Let's have a little talk about priorities. Zenikal is a baker first, a gentleman second, and a dragon Candidate third. Did you see "modest" anywhere on that list? No? That's because it's not on the list. Zenikal's ego is large enough to generate its own gravitational field, and possibly pull in nearby objects and/or unsuspecting small animals. (This is, arguably, how he acquired Otto.) He may only be an apprentice, but he's getting pretty close to walking the tables, and the closer he gets the more he gets it set in his mind that it is his kitchen space and other, non-culinary crafters are only politely tolerated in it. On the other hand... he's really, really good at his craft. Boy has talent. Sure, he's young and inexperienced and that means he's still got a lot to learn. But he seems to be a natural baker the same way that some people are natural Harpers.
On the other hand, someone along the way made the mistake of telling him this, and now he's incurably cocky. He talks a big game, because he knows he can walk the walk. On top of that, Zenikal manages to be both vain and finicky - personal hygiene, proper maintenance of his tools and workspace, these concerns are paramount. He's not precisely a germaphobe (do Pernese even have a concept of microorganisms yet? probably not) but he likes cleanliness and order. Appearances are important to him. If you look dirty or slovenly, it's a sign of not caring enough to look after yourself. He came from a fairly sheltered background; Zenikal isn't the kind of person who grew up knee-deep in herdbeast crap, and he likes it that way, thanks.
Still, while Zenikal can be... okay, overbearing... he has a certain charm. If you can get past the astounding ego problems and the tendency to talk way too much. He's sweet and sincerely generous, the kind of guy who'd show up at your weyr with an entire basket of sweetrolls because he heard you were having a tough day. And the young man does have manners; a courteous word in the right place can do absolute wonders, as can a warm smile or a courtly bow to a queen dragon. As long as you're not asking Zenikal for modesty, he can get by almost like a tolerable human being. And he's certainly a flirt. A shameless flirt, with both genders, because there is more than enough Zenikal for everyone to share.
The problem is that Zenikal does not deal well with being forced out of his element. He's a little bit high strung and a compulsive perfectionist. If someone rushes him, or tries to drag him into something he has no idea how to do, he tends to protest. Loudly. It's not that he's spoiled or lazy, although it can come across that way. It's that Zenikal does not like when his work doesn't live up to his own exacting standards. And unfortunately, life being the way it is, he can't get everything right all the time... which leads to inevitable frustration.
History: Zenikal came from a family that, in general, thought it was considerably more important than it actually was. Apparently the trait rubbed off on him. They had a minor Holder somewhere amongst the cousins, which was enough to confer reasonable affluence and a small degree of political favor. But to hear them talk, you would think that Zenikal was only a step away from being a Holder himself. (In actuality, he would have had to commit an unprecedented mass murder spree of an entire bloodline in order to even be considered for succession, and at that point there would be much more qualified candidates. That didn't stop his parents from idle daydreaming.)
This was, in short, the kind of background that could easily give a kid a sense of unwarranted self-importance... and in Zenikal's case, it more or less did. Luckily for his parents, however, it didn't succeed in making him lazy or stupid. By the time he was old enough to be apprenticed, he had his wits about him enough to sense that magical succession was possibly not forthcoming, and that he really ought to go try to do something with his life. They wanted him to be tutored by a Harper, which he politely tolerated as far as reading, writing, and other basic education... but Zenikal couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, and the noises he could make with a gitar tended to upset the neighbors.
And then he met a dragon and that ruined everything.
No, really. Zenikal fell in love with the charming brown, who was in actuality only at the Hold so that his rider could visit family. But the brown dragon was still a Searchdragon, and could sense some latent ability there. The dragon encouraged Zenikal to come away to Fort Weyr, and Zenikal readily agreed without even thinking about it. His parents were horrified. Dragonrider, in their minds, was a fairly large step down. But they couldn't outright forbid him, and so he went.
Life at the weyr was culture shock in the extreme. Suddenly he was at the bottom of the totem pole, and expected to work at things. Zenikal found himself spending more and more time lurking in the kitchens, just because peeling tubers was better than mucking herdbeast stalls or scrubbing dirty laundry. He befriended quite a few of the kitchen staff, and that was when he got his start on baking... and discovered something he loved as much as dragons. You can say plenty about life as a Candidate, but it's good for exposing a relatively sheltered kid to a variety of new experiences. He readily signed on as an apprentice, in addition to Candidacy - especially after an uneventful failure at his first Hatching taught him exactly how many Candidates there tended to be per egg on the sands, and how likely it was that he would continue to be left standing.
These days Zenikal is quite perfectly happy at the weyr. He doesn't think much of home; traces of his background occasionally show through in his fussiness, his expensive tastes, his manners. But he doesn't act like a spoiled, sheltered Holdkid anymore. He's just Zenikal. The baker. It's a refreshing, comfortable place for him to be. He's talented enough to earn the occasional word of praise, but without anyone's overbearing expectations heaped upon his shoulders. And while he still adores dragons, and hangs around them any chance he gets, he's comfortable enough in his life that he won't be utterly devastated if it turns out not to happen.
Anything else?: Zenikal is rarely seen without a fresh roll, a piece of fruit, or something else similarly portable near at hand. It gives him something to do with his mouth that isn't talking.
Wings of Pern
A Pern B/C Roleplay