Rider
Name: I'saak (Ildresaak)
Age: 21
Gender: Male
Sexual Orientation: Homosexual biromantic - while he's unlikely to ever take up with a woman, he's capable of romantic attachments, even if he's only physically interested in men.
Craft/Rank: Weyrling, Smithcraft / newly-minted Journeyman, aspiring Ancientcrafter
History: Ildresaak was born at Telgar Weyr.
His father was a brownrider - the first dragonrider in a family of Smiths who had been Searched quite accidentally. His mother was Marilde, a young woman from a proud old Smithcrafter family, whose dragonrider father immediately welcomed S'aak as a son and delighted in the birth of first his granddaughter, Samarra, and then his grandson, Ildresaak. For a time, things seemed perfect. Marilde and S'aak were happy, S'aak excelled as a rider and was set to make wingleader, the children were growing well. And then tragedy struck when Ildresaak was four turns old.
Nobody was entirely sure what happened. A storm blew up when S'aak's wing was out on an escort, scattering them and forcing the riders to turn back. They returned, one by one, to the Weyr - all but S'aak. Search parties were sent out after the man, but no news ever returned. After a sevenday, he was pronounced missing, presumed dead. The news devastated Marilde, who found she could no longer live in the Weyr and took her children back to Telgar Hold, where she had once worked as a midwife.
Ildresaak grew up with no recollection of his father. If pressed, he might be able to stir up some vague recollection of a male voice, but that is as far as it goes. But he grew up with his mother's stories of the kind of man S'aak was, and devoured them readily. And in the back of his mind, he wrote a fantasy that he came to believe was the truth: that somewhere out there, S'aak was alive, and all Ildresaak needed to do was go to him. Someday, he would become the greatest smith and the greatest dragonrider of all.
When he was not miraculously Searched on his twelfth nameday, Ildresaak instead apprenticed. Smithcrafting ran on his family on both sides: his father's family, of course, and his mother's mother a Mastersmith stationed at Telgar Weyr. Ildresaak had the knack for it, and was taking lessons at Smithcraft Hall as soon as it was deemed safe to hold a hammer. He was good at it, turns out. Very good at it.
He made a few friends at the Hall, the best of whom turned out to be a young man from another Smith family who knew his parents surprisingly well. Corloss's parents and Ildresaak's mother weren't exactly the best of friends, but still, smithcrafters knew smithcrafters, and the fact that Corloss was close enough to Ildresaak's age that they could find common ground helped. Their friendship started more as a sort of babysitting agreement, where Ildresaak minded Corloss and helped him with his smith chores (presumably in the hopes that he'd get better), but it wasn't long before they were friends in earnest. This lasted a while, until Corloss's brother Impressed at Benden, and their families had a falling-out. Upset and frustrated one night, they had a fight. Both said things they couldn't take back, and Corloss effectively ended the friendship with a dig about dragonriders abandoning their families.
Shortly thereafter, he vanished to Benden, leaving Ildresaak alone and alienated without any particularly close friends. He began to wonder if maybe Corloss had been right, if maybe dragonriders weren't what he should be looking at. The smithcraft was his home, had been for four turns of his life, and he was good at it. He wasn't even good enough at dragonriding to warrant a second sniff from the Search blues that passed through the Hold and Hall from time to time. It was probably for the best if he just kept his head down and focused on smithing. And that was what he did for a full two turns before his life got flipped entirely upside-down.
It started with a blue firelizard, coming to him, holding a letter, and shrieking insistently. Ildresaak initially assumed it was Corloss's - who else would have been in a position to acquire a flit and send it to him? Certainly none of his friends had been snapped away to Telgar, and his family had never owned a flit in their lives. So the shock that arose when he found out it was from a man claiming to be S'aak, stating that he'd be there to take his son to Trine in a sevenday's time - that was impossible. Ildresaak resisted the possibility, resisted the idea.
But it was undeniable that the brownrider who arrived, apologized to the Mastersmiths, and came to speak to Ildresaak had the same eyes, the same jawline. He smiled the same tired way when he saw his son, and apologized for abandoning him for so long. It had been necessary, he claimed. He had needed to keep his family safe (safe from what, he never said), but things were different, now, and he wanted Ildresaak to come with him. He would Impress at Trine, S'aak insisted. There were dragons waiting for him, and Trine was not the old Weyrs. Perhaps Ildresaak was not cut out for a blue or green, but rather for a crimson or silver or black - and that was why Telgar's own Searchdragons had passed him over. It was...appealing. But Ildresaak was confused about why his father had abandoned him, and afraid of the way S'aak was talking. And he was angry - fourteen turns without a father, and he had the nerve to think he could waltz back into Ildresaak's life and take him?
S'aak left empty-handed that day, but the two stayed in touch. They rekindled a relationship that Ildresaak tried frantically to build, and S'aak seemed to genuinely want to make up for what he had done. He was repentant. He loved his son too much to let him go again. And after two years of equal parts begging and demanding, Ildresaak eventually agreed. He was set to shortly walk the tables. S'aak could come and take him away after that.
S'aak seemed troubled about the time frame, but he agreed despite himself. And three days after his twentieth nameday, Ildresaak was granted his Journeyman's knots. A sevenday later, S'aak arrived at Telgar and took his son to Trine. He seemed troubled, though. And distant. The father/son relationship Ildresaak had hoped to rekindle was not there, and S'aak became increasingly edgy. Things were strange. Something was not right. He told Ildresaak that there had been murders, and Threadfall, that the Weyr was in a little bit of a political mess, but it wasn't something Ildresaak needed to worry himself about. And so he didn't. As he had never been Searched, Ildresaak did not try to invest himself in the life of Candidates. Instead, he took up with the smiths. There was plenty of work to be done around the Weyr, and while he met with his father in the evenings, S'aak had wing drills and Ildresaak had his work. They stayed apart much of the time.
On the day the wherhandlers revolted, S'aak gave Ildresaak strict orders to stay in the forge and cause no conflict. Ildresaak didn't understand why until people started dying. It was short, and brutal, but he survived it by dint of not leaving his own territory and menacing anyone who came to close to him with a hammer. It worked surprisingly well, and Ildresaak wondered how his father had known. But by the time the revolutionaries were beaten out of Trine, S'aak was nowhere to be seen. It was clear, then. His father had been among the Revolutionaries, fighting for the upheaval of the Weyrs, and had initially wanted Ildresaak on his side. But something had changed his mind.
Ildresaak found a note later that explained everything. S'aak had believed that the overthrow of Trine would be quick, the establishment of a new order acceptable. Ildresaak would have been able to come into himself and Impress, the way he had secretly confided to S'aak he had always so desperately wanted. They would have been part of the new world order, and things would have been better for them. Ildresaak didn't believe any of it. The destruction the revolutionaries had left in their wake, along with the news and the refugees from Benden and Malvren, left a bitter taste in his mouth. Pern was crumbling.
But among the refugees from Benden, there was at least an old friend, and Ildresaak was not left alone after his father vanished. He has since rekindled his relationship with Corloss and has spent the past near-turn helping to rebuild and assist with the changes that need to be made. He no longer hopes for a dragon - or even really wants one - and though his unrelenting optimism has been shaken, he does believe that he is still needed at Trine, at least until the problems with the 'handlers have been solved.
Description: Standing at six feet, sporting skin tanned from work outside, and already beginning to put on what will someday be a tidy amount of toned muscle, Ildresaak cheerfully defies any thought of a pale, underweight engineer more used to poring over charts than making things. His hair is dark, a somewhat ashen black that in certain lights looks almost iron-grey already. His facial features are handsome and even: a strong, rounded jaw and slightly heavy brow-line, straight nose, and sharp blue-green eyes. He’s been told his eyes are his best feature—the color is quite pretty—but his unusual tendency to focus on things with the intensity of a hawk occasionally detracts from that. That said, he does have an extremely charming smile. He shaves fairly frequently, but is one of those young men already cursed with a quick-growing beard; he almost always sports a five o’clock shadow (and the rest of him is similarly fuzzy).
There is something about Ildresaak that never stops suggesting a degree of sensitivity. He walks with quiet confidence—no swagger, just a sort of general awareness of his presence and his body that indicates that he has come into himself. He tends to dress for comfort and practicality, preferring long-sleeved tunics and soft breeches in a combination of warm and cool tones, particularly turquoises, charcoals, and rusts. He puts a surprising amount of thought into his appearance on a day-to-day basis. Like most smiths, he bears his share of burn scars and a crooked left ring finger from a badly-swung hammer in his earlier days, but most of them are faint. Nearly all the carelessness of youth was beaten out of him in early training.
Personality:
Strengths:
- Ingenious - Ildresaak is very bright. Give him a little bit of time and the right tools and he can think his way out of most tight spots. He's probably not a genius, but he's a quick enough thinker that he can manage even under serious time crunches.
Focused - There’s very little that can distract Ildresaak when it’s time to get the job done. He's capable of ignoring distractions, and when he's got his mind set something, he'll work through whatever comes his way. This focus tends to result in consistently high results, even under pressure.
Persistent - The only way to get something right is to do it wrong, so Ildresaak welcomes failure. He's patient when it comes to his craft and people, willing to make the same request or practice the same blade edge dozens of times to get the results he wants.
Sweet-Natured - Ildresaak is by nature a gentle person. He’s a lover, not a fighter, and craves the company of others who share this philosophy, or at least tolerate it. There are few people he dislikes, and for the most part, he's both nonconfrontational and extremely friendly.
Optimist - No matter how bad things get, Ildresaak is one of those people who tries his hardest to find the good in life. He's not a blind optimist, though, and a healthy dose of realism came with the revolution. Still, he doesn't believe in dwelling on the bad, even when it's left him battered, and tries to find the bright spot in everything.
- Submissive - Ildresaak naturally follows orders and obeys commands. In and of itself this isn't a bad thing, but he takes it to an unhealthy level. He rarely questions orders, even ones that will hurt him, almost always believes what he is told, and is extremely easy to manipulate.
Insecure - Ildresaak doesn't see himself as particularly good at anything. He’s comfortable with who he is as a person, but it's a challenge for him to see past mistakes and acknowledge successes. Failures weigh heavily on him, while successes are brushed off as flukes that won't happen again.
Single-Minded - When confronted with issues he tends to go into "engineer mode," and won't break focus for anything - including eating or sleeping - until they’re resolved. He’s obsessive about this, and will more or less drop everything to fix things, no matter what he’s supposed to be doing.
Awkward - Ildresaak sucks at “social.” His sense of humor is difficult to relate to, and he has a hard time with small talk. He's not good at expressing feelings either, and while he craves social interaction, he tends to stay on the fringes of groups so as to avoid messing up.
Shy - He's very people-shy, especially in situations where he might have to take the lead of a group. While it can be overcome when necessary (strong emotion usually trumps natural reservation), his shyness falls somewhere between "mildly inconveniencing" and "crippling" in terms of its impact on his life.
Ildresaak is not a forward man. Quiet and fairly mild-mannered, he has always been more of a follower than a leader. A military sort by implication if not by direct practice, he knows how to follow orders and takes pleasure in doing the job he is meant to do—and doing it well. He works well with people, in fact preferring to be a part of a group to going it alone. The company is good, but more importantly, there’s always someone keeping an eye on things. While Ildresaak is perfectly capable of improvising and getting the job done, he’s just much more comfortable if he knows there’s someone else running the show if things go sour. The problem with this is that he has a tendency to be altogether too trusting. It’s surprisingly easy to take advantage of Ildresaak’s desire to please, and he likely won’t even notice until it’s too late.
He’s quite social, much preferring groups of people to being left alone with his own thoughts. It’s not that he’s afraid of being alone, necessarily—he’s somewhat socially awkward and tends to end up on the fringes of a group in spite of his best efforts, so he’s gotten quite used to being the odd man out, so to speak—but people make him happy. He’ll gladly socialize with just about anyone, but rarely opens up enough to make a close friend. When he does get close to someone, he will follow them rather like a lost puppy.
There is something curiously delicate in the way Ildresaak relates to others—something perhaps unexpected in a young man who has seen so much hardship so recently. Maybe it’s because in spite of everything that's happened around him, Ildresaak has never needed to seriously hurt anyone. He’d knife someone in self-defense or punch out a threat, but he won’t make the first move, and he never aims to cause permanent harm to another person. It just isn’t in Ildresaak to injure without good reason—his instinct is to protect rather than hurt, and if he can keep someone safe, then he will. He has seen enough damage done by others to last him a lifetime, and frankly, doesn’t want to see any more.
It should, of course, be noted that “fairly mild-mannered” does not denote “unable to take care of himself in a crisis.” No, Ildresaak is a fighter when he has to be; he absolutely hates it, but since when does it matter whether or not you enjoy doing something if the only other option is death? Ildresaak knows full well how to take care of himself, though in his case, it consists more of "keep his head down and stay out of trouble" than it does "fight for his freedom and protection." He'd rather run away and deal with it from afar, offering support to those on the front lines. He rolls with punches and is surprisingly ingenious, quick-thinking enough to get himself out of nearly any trouble that comes his way.
Family is extremely important to him. If you're Ildresaak's family - or once you've gotten close enough to him that he considers you family - you're in his good books forever, and he will do whatever it takes to take care of you. He doesn't give up on family members; he is still convinced that his father is alive somewhere, and he's determined to find him and bring him home safely. He values good friendships, though he finds it difficult to make them, and despite the fact that he's a rather hopeless romantic, he's in serious doubt about his feelings toward other people and has no idea what criteria he'd need to pursue in a potential mate. Up until now he's stayed as far away as he can from that particular area of consideration. It's safer that way.
Instead, he lives for smithing. Essentially, Ildresaak views the entire world as a puzzle waiting to be solved, and the smithcraft is a logical extension of this. It's rare that he's not fiddling with something little and mechanical.
Other: Stands Candidate, unless someone really wants to Search him.
Dragon:
Name: Ellibreth
Age: Newborn
Colour: Green
Description: [Jr. Weyrling] [Sr. Weyrling]
Ell is more blue than green, enough that I'saak is occasionally mistaken for a bluerider. Her hide is deep sea green, shading gently on her underbelly and legs into a soft teal. Her wingsails are flecked with faint pale sparks like distant stars. Apart from that her hide is devoid of markings, save for one unmistakable one: a narrow dorsal stripe runs from her muzzle all the way down to her tailtip, a thin line of neon teal.
She's not a little lady, but neither is she excessively large for a green. She's built long and lanky, a bit too gawky to be precisely elegant or feminine, but frankly she doesn't mind. Her long wings and good stamina make her a better candidate to be caught by larger dragons.
- Size: Average
Build: Below Average
Personality: Life is wonderful, Ildresaak. Ellibreth is an eternal optimist. Every day is a bright new morning, and every situation is an opportunity. Or, at worst, it is a puzzle to be worked around. And she is very clever, and so is her rider, so between the two of them they'll work it out, won't they? Life wouldn't be interesting if everything just got handed to you! She's not ditzy or overly excitable, Faranth forbid, just... constantly pleasantly surprised by everything. Like her rider, she is a social butterfly, full of warmth and always pleased to see other dragons. It is likely that she will try to befriend every dragon in the weyr - and it's quite lucky she's a green, because this charming lady might even garner admirers.
Should the absolute worst happen, and a crisis should come to Pern - or just to her little family... Well, she still doesn't get angry. She will cuss beyond belief, probably a habit she picked up from her rider, but she won't get angry or lose her head. The more Ellibreth is backed against the wall, the more focused she becomes; if Thread fell from the sky tomorrow, she would just have to make sure she got her jaws on some firestone, wouldn't she? Optimist she is, yes - but a practical one. And that means she thinks on her feet and always, always has a plan. Ellibreth has no desire to lead others - in fact, that is just about the only thing she can't do, as the instant she has to order someone else around she will freeze up horribly. But she recognizes stupid or suicidal orders when she hears them from others, and she won't hesitate to chart herself a new course well before the metaphorical ship runs aground.
Ellibreth is not a needy dragon, by any means. This isn't to say that she's distant, either - the green is a ridiculous cuddler, and will happily scoop I'saak into a warm dragony tangle of wings and forelegs and nuzzling whenever he wants it. She adores her rider fiercely, and will probably spend most of her weyrlinghood trying to climb into his lap. But she can't be with him all the time (eventually, she won't fit, more's the pity.) And, honestly, this isn't a problem for her. He's an adult. Faranth, that's why she picked him, because he was right there on the Sands and not a raging bundle of teenage drama! So while Ildresaak is off doing his important engineer things, Ellibreth will discreetly excuse herself to go grab a herdbeast for dinner, or just go bother one of her dragon friends for a while.
But if he ever needs her, all he has to do is reach out. She's right there in his head, always.
There is one curious thing about Ell: she's curiously bright for a green dragon, and has a peculiar memory for human things. Good enough that the older she gets, the more she will start to pay attention to what Ildresaak is working on. She knows better than to interrupt 'engineer mode', but every now and then he might notice an attentive, curious dragony presence at the back of his head, looking through his eyes. And the more she looks, the more she'll start to get the stupid engineer jokes and even engage in a little banter. Mine, why are you using that weld?
Inspired by Yearling Horses (RLC)
Why me?
Ildresaak has no desire to lead. He's the kind of guy who uses his brain and gets the job done with as little fuss or fanfare as possible. Likewise, Ellibreth is not a dragon who demands the spotlight. She enjoys company, and will encourage her rider to get out there and have a social life, but she won't shove him around or force him to do things too far outside his comfort zone. Instead she will simply be the kind of sensible, good-natured companion who is always in the back of his head to guide him.
That, and Ellibreth gets Ildresaak. She actually gets him, because she's a terribly bright creature for a dragon, and Ildresaak's technical prowess doesn't confuse or intimidate her. She'll match him and banter with him and generally keep him from wandering off to become an awkward hermit.
