Rider
Name: V'lay (formerly Valayrel)
Age: 47
Gender: Male
Sexual Orientation: Bisexual, but exceedingly suspicious of women.
Rank: Wingrider / Apprentice Farmcrafter
History: V’lay’s life has so far been a mixture of uninteresting and vaguely disappointing. Born Valayrel in a small holding outside of Lemos, his family broke apart when he was seven and his parents (who had married for convenience, not love) decided they could no longer stand each other. His mother simply up and left one day, abandoning Valayrel and his older brother Nariel to the care of a distant, uninterested father. That lasted only a few sevendays before he, too abandoned them, leaving the pair in the care of an emotionally detached aunt. She was no more interested in nurturing the children than their father had been, and put them to work rather than treating them as kin.
This didn't suit Nariel, who was intellectually quicker than his brother, and first to realize that the easiest way to get out of chores was to blame things on Valayrel, so he would be saddled with extra work and Nariel would have less to do. Though he insisted to Valayrel that it wasn't anything against him, he just couldn't handle the volume of work, what Valayrel saw as betrayal by the very last of his blood relatives rankled him to the core. He began planning his escape. At a Gather shortly after his thirteenth birthday, he lied about his age, claiming he was fifteen, and joined up with a caravan of Traders. They asked no questions, and Valayrel had always been big for his age. It went nearly seamlessly.
But constant traveling wasn’t for him, and after two turns he abandoned the caravan when it returned to Lemos and took up work as a drudge at the main Hold. Soon his interest in and affinity for gardening earned him a job as assistant to the Hold gardener. At around the same time, he began a collection of one-off romances with both young men and young women, jilting the Steward’s grandniece after a particularly awkward one-night stand. Furious with him for what she saw as a betrayal, she was quick to discover that the young man pretending to be eighteen was a mere boy of sixteen, and used it against him. She exposed him, ruining his reputation in Lemos and costing him his job. Valayrel had not choice but to run again, this time catching a ride on a wagon to Benden Hold.
His Search was accidental: he ran into a dragonman (quite literally) at a Gather and was lucky that particular day. Rather than take offense to the nineteen-turn-old's clumsiness, the man laughed it off and introduced him to his blue, who sniffed him over and declared him fit for the eggs hardening on the Sands. Swayed by the promise of greater things, starry-eyed Valayrel went gladly to Benden Weyr, sure that this was his destiny, that he'd Impress some great brown or bronze and they would take to the skies together. But he did not Impress immediately. In fact, the final clutch at which Valayrel stood would have been his last even if it weren’t for his dragon. But that lifesaving opportunity hatched as a fat little blue, who toddled out of his egg, looked over the Candidates, and curled up at Valayrel's feet. He became V’lay forever more on the eve of his twenty-second nameday.
Their Weyrling training went well, but for a single incident with flame practice that left a nasty scar on V’lay’s leg—a scar that never quite healed properly and to this day serves as a reminder to him. Other pairs didn’t escape quite so unscathed. V'lay saw one of pair go between and never return in a moment of confusion, and one of V'lay's friends lost his dragon in an idiotic stunt—and left the Weyr forever. It sank in fairly quickly that the race would go to the most careful, not the most daring, and V’lay made a point to keep himself, Vinath, and others safe.
And they did well at it, taking to the skies with surprising care and success. Certainly, they were both stupid enough to brush with injury on occasion - as anyone was - but the injuries were not major. They settled into a pattern of Weyrlife, comfortably oblivious to the New Weyr politics for over two decades. V'lay took up gardening again occasionally sneaking away from Benden to take the odd horticulture class at Farmcraft Hall. It wasn't for anything in particular, but small amounts of instruction helped him in his hobby. It was a comfortable existence, if not necessarily a happy one, marred only by the odd relationship going sour. The bad taste in V'lay's mouth left by his mother and aunt, as well as the girl at Lemos, was enough that when it combined with Benden's sexism and traditionalism, V'lay found himself uninterested in women. He took up with men, instead.
His last relationship ended when he was thirty-five. It had been serious - a young man with ambitions to rule the world, who had fallen for V'lay and become weyrmates in spite of the stigma attached to it - and V'lay had been prepared to spend the rest of his life with him. And then it turned out the relationship was inconvenient, and was hindering his chances at advancement. He broke it off suddenly, with no warning and a casual shrug. V'lay was crushed, but bounced back eventually. He gave up on men, on relationships, and maintained only brief flightsex trysts, preferring it to getting hurt again.
And for almost a decade he lived the comfortable life of a bachelor, training with his wing, caring for his dragon, and growing exotic plants in his weyr when he had the time. It was an acceptably normal situation for him. And then his world fell apart.
A Benden bronze killed a Trine crimson. As far as V'lay is concerned, that's what started everything. A Bendenite by nature, V'lay of course believed that Benden had been in the right - a dragon was defending himself against the assault from the unstable mutation. He knew nothing about the conversation. But Trine and Benden's relationship fell to pieces then and there, and V'lay found his Weyr inadvertently thrown into a conflict with one of the mutants' havens, as he had privately known them. But he stayed away from conflict. It wasn't his problem. The reaction, the anger...all of it was outside his sphere of influence, and he had no interest in fighting with a group of people he considered worthless. Shortly thereafter, Benden's Weyrleadership changed, and the announcement came: the solution to Weyr infertility was a plant.
This, V'lay took part in fervently. He considered himself the best man for the job, and though his search had been modestly successful, it wasn't enough. The Ancientcrafter who came, though. That was more. That helped. V'lay backed him, helped in construction of greenhouses. For a while, it felt like this was his calling. He did not, however, participate in the time-jumping. That was not V'lay's interest, and he did not want to lose Vinath to something as stupid as an incorrectly-imagined image. Instead, he worked with the mystweed. He helped it grow. He found a place for his own craft, and had something important to be proud of. And then Yirath rose again, W'lin was restored. And her clutch was perfect - utterly perfect, an unexpected moment of crowning glory when the gold egg proved large enough to rival the fabled Ramoth. There were, for a brief and shining time, only good things at Benden Weyr. It was the last good time he experienced, since shortly thereafter everything went wrong.
Kestril was murdered by an assassin holding Malvren's colors. That started what V'lay bitterly refers to as "the downward spiral." The murder of the Weyrwoman could not be appeased - not even by the fact that when the eggs finally broke, not one, but two golds broke shell and Impressed safely. That was a comfort, perhaps, but not an appeasement. Because Kestril was dead. And then came the whers. In hindsight, V'lay realizes now why everything happened. But then, all that mattered was Benden and Malvren. When Benden colors were found at the scene of a Malvren murder, the situation worsened. The assassin went after Trine next - and their Weyrwoman was put into a coma.
And then Thread fell.
The descent into chaos was rapid, baffling, not something that V'lay could even really put words to when he looks back on it. All he knows is that nothing was the same anymore, and suddenly he was training for Thread, flying in a new wing under a new wingleader, suddenly caught in the middle of so many radical changes, he and Vinath didn't know where to turn. But it was comfortable change - the kind of change dragonriders were designed for. They were ready for it the next time. They met the thread head-on. When Ancientcrafter Archmonde returned and promised an end to thread, V'lay was suspicious. But a desire for safety overrode suspicion, and V'lay had to admit that the potential for eliminating thread would have been a good thing. If it had happened. So many things would have been good things if they had happened, but ultimately all that happened was the world fell apart and whers attacked Benden.
V'lay doesn't remember all that much about the conflict. He remembers that something went wrong, and he heard Vinath screaming - and beyond that, most of what he remembers is that he pried a wher off his dragon bare-handed and took a knife to the face from the handler for his pains. They jumped to Trine because it was one of the few locations V'lay could picture clearly - and the escape proved lucky. Trine was the only weyr that didn't fall in the altercation, and V'lay found himself stuck there, though he desperately wanted to be elsewhere. That, however, would be impossible. This was what was left. He accepted his fate only reluctantly, but he has accepted it. He's a Trine rider now, until they can clear the filth and rabble out of Benden and restore it to what it used to be. Which will happen in time. He is absolutely certain of that.
Description: V’lay is somewhat tall and rather dark, so really it's only handsome that he's lacking in. Because he might have been...rugged, once upon a time, but nowadays, V'lay just looks worn. His features are sharp, very sharp, with a hooked, hawkish nose, disconcertingly-square jaw, and angular cheekbones. He cultivates a sort of too-long-to-be-a-shadow, too-short-to-be-a-beard crop of greying-out stubble, which emphasizes his wide, petulant mouth. He's not a good-looking guy. The fact that he rarely smiles anymore doesn't help it. Neither does the ugly, recently-healed slash across his cheek and lip, or the nick taken out of one ear (presumably all part of the same knife altercation)
In general, he is somewhat monochromatic—dark brown hair streaked with substantial grey, medium brown eyes, light brown skin, brown clothes. V’lay likes brown…and grey, and black, and other drab colours. Though his dress is always of the same drab colour scheme, his clothing is impeccably-maintained and often very fashionable (though rarely expensive minus his riding leathers). Despite Trine's southern heat, he wears long pants and long sleeves at all times, to cover scars. The first is a nasty-looking burn scar on the inside of one leg, stretching from above his knee to midway down his calf. He limps. The rest are a collection of scars - some nasty-looking marks up and down his forearms where he had an...altercation with a wher shortly before he jumped ship to Trine. He wears his hair longer than is appropriate (or flattering on his angular features) but ties it back.
He not exactly the towering sort at only about five foot ten, but is an overall large man, built to the heavier side of the spectrum, which gives him the illusion of height. He is, like many dragonriders, fairly muscular, but he tends toward fat rather than muscle. It used to be that he had to work twice as hard to look half as good as many of the other ‘riders - but nowadays he's more or less given up and resigned himself to his belly. He's too old to put himself through anything more than the bare minimum, and anyways, dragons and riders eventually come to resemble each other over time, don't they?
Personality:
Strengths:
- People Person: V'lay can't get along without a crowd. Not a crowd of people paying attention to him, just a crowd of people that he can slip into. He's naturally social, and extremely interested in what goes on around him. Loneliness is his enemy.
Observant: V'lay watches. He watches everything. He likes to know what's happening, and has a keen eye for social situations, in particular. He prides himself on an ability to view the world around him objectively, though he'd also freely admit that this has changed somewhat with recent situations.
Tactical: In combination with the watching, V'lay has been around long enough to see when situations can be turned to favor, and often times has good suggestions on how to do it. He gets to know people's strengths and weaknesses quite well, and generally knows what to recommend.
Paternal: When he gets to know people, V'lay tends to 'adopt' them, so to speak. He is fond of younger riders, and likes making sure that people are doing well in their lives and growing up to their full potential. He gives good advice, even if it's not always necessary, and some of it is a little...old-world.
Lawful: V'lay follows rules. Even rules that are inconvenient for him. Even rules that might "clip his wings," so to speak. As far as V'lay is concerned, adherence to the law is the only thing keeping the world from utter anarchy, and he will set an example by following it and demanding that others do the same.
- Rash: Get V'lay going and you'll get a man who doesn't think before he acts. This is how he ended up attacking a knife-wielding rebel bare-handed, or how he ended up prying a wher off a companion with only a stick and luck. He managed to survive both altercations (barely) but it doesn't bode well for his future.
Misogynistic: V'lay doesn't interact well with women. He's allowed a small number of bad interactions in his childhood and youth to completely poison his outlook on the female gender, and in general tends to come off as patronizing at best, genuinely hateful at worst.
Traditionalist: The old way is the best way, and sod off if you think it's not. V'lay prides himself on upholding Benden's rich history and tradition, and that includes disdaining atypicals, subjugating women, and ensuring adherence to the color hierarchy.
Bitter: Since Benden fell, a lot of V'lay's more positive qualities have become eclipsed by bitterness. He's significantly less friendly than he used to be, and talks much less - but, unsurprisingly, hates people (especially anyone who breaks tradition) a lot more.
Vengeful: There are a lot of revenge-minded people in the world, and V'lay's absolute hatred of the incursion on Benden has left him so angry he's been willing to put aside his differences even with Trine if it means he'll be able to see Benden returned to its rightful rule. He's willing to end lives for Benden's liberation.
V'lay tries to be a good person, but when you grow up in a problematic family, Impress into traditionalist values, and then get thrown into a life-or-death struggle for control, you tend to lose sight of what "good" is. His compass is battered and bruised, and he has only the old law to go by, but V'lay intends to do what he believes is right and good - even when what he believes isn't exactly good for most people.
It all starts with a love of human interaction - in particular, a love of knowledge about other people. V'lay is incredibly social. He loves knowing how everyone is and what they’ve been up to, and he makes the effort to know a little bit about everybody so he’ll have something to talk to them about - even if they're not people he necessarily wants to be friends with. V'lay maintains large numbers of not-very-close acquaintances and very few close friends. It's easier that way. He likes sharing what he knows with people, and is glad to offer advice to anyone who asks. For the most part, he tries to avoid getting caught up in social drama - he’s too old for all that, and besides, there are significantly more important things to focus on than who's sleeping with whom - but he keeps an eye on it from afar. Because it's interesting. People interest V'lay. He's perceptive to changes in emotion and social cues, and goes out of his way to be perceived as nonthreatening. V’lay likes being liked and wants to be wanted.
He’s also passionate about life and people and fiercely protective of the things he loves. When he perceives those things as threatened, V’lay’s prone to hot-headedness and rash actions and needs to be removed from the situation to cool down. Otherwise, he will not think before he acts. He’s the sort who can stand his ground in the face of a torrent of personal insults but loses it the moment a leader or friend is badmouthed. This is especially true since Benden fell - badmouth Benden, and you'll have V'lay on you like a ton of bricks. He respects the old creed that dragonriders aren't to come to violence with each other, but that's not going to stop him from grabbing someone by the shirt and dragging them someplace if he has something to say to them. But this comes with prodigious courage - V'lay will fight to keep someone safe, and if he has to step in bare-handed or under-equipped against an assailant, he will.
You might be able to take the rider out of Benden, but you can never take the Benden out of the rider. And V'lay is not a rider well-suited to the overthrow that Pern has been experiencing. In fact, it might be appropriate to refer to some of his behavior regarding these changes as a complete and total meltdown. He dislikes women. He disdains atypical dragons. He hates Trine. He hates wherhandlers (he didn't hate wherhandlers until they took over Benden, but now he hates wherhandlers). Honestly, V'lay is not currently a happy camper, because nothing goes by the book anymore, and all of it's stupid. He is a stickler for rules and protocol and he will not tolerate breaches. He cracks down hard on those he catches disobeying - or would, if he even knew what the rules were anymore.
Unfortunately for the Trine riders now stuck with him, he's also very much set in the belief that colour indicates a dragon’s value to the Weyr, and quite sexist when it comes to the idea of women on fighting dragons. Though he has reluctantly accepted that girls do Impress fighting colours, this doesn't stop him from being mildly patronizing toward them. Really, women should not be putting themselves on the front line like that. Female wherhandlers are even more of a concern, because they're attached to problem animals. This attitude used to be something he kept under wraps, but with the stress of the takeover and the move, well. V'lay is old and tired and mad, and not quite as tactful as he used to be. Still, he does recognize that Trine didn't have to take in refugees, and has reluctantly grit his teeth and put his back into helping them rebuild. He tries his best to refrain from being outwardly hostile to people, whether he likes them or not.
He has been single for the past twelve turns, though he doesn't refuse Flightsex, and currently intends to remain so for the rest of his life. He’s done with that whole "relationship" thing and prefers his solitude. Especially since the move. Especially since now he's surrounded by Trine riders. The solitude does, however, give him time for his plants. V'lay loves gardening; he finds it relaxing, and finds that documenting and cataloging plants (as well as growing some of the more difficult domestic specimens) is better medicine than anything other than, perhaps, ripping apart every single wherhandler that touched Benden.
Other: He's mostly grumpy because it's hot all the time and also because his home is full of a*****e wherhandlers. He's Resistance only insofar as it gets the whers out of Benden, because partnering with Trine is the next-to-last thing on his "stuff that sounds like fun" list.
Dragon
Name: Vinath
Age: 25
Colour: Blue
Description: [Image]
Blue Vinath is a quirky little blue. He’s rather petite for a blue, with a portly belly but long limbs. If you stuck a pair of giant dragon spectacles on him, the impression of a draconic scholar would be complete. Still, he's handsome enough, a deep, sea-blue dappled with a faintly lighter shade, lightening on his stomach and neckridges and consistently-shaded on his wingsails. He bears the odd threadscore, but nothing particularly major. Unlike his rider, he keeps himself safe. He's not really a looker, but he is charming enough, in his own way.
- Size: Small
Build: Above Average
Personality: He’s sociable but has this bad habit of thinking he understand something before its explanation actually finishes – be it a concept or a person. This blue is pretty sure he gets it right in the first go and just loves sharing his revelations. It’s made him out to be a bit of a gossip, and a bit of a rumour mill, but he doesn’t mean anything cruel by it, he’s just terrible at remembering details and getting those details right. V’lay evens him out in that sense – Vinath is also rather sensitive to others’ feelings but he’s not so good at accurately reading or addressing those impressions. V’lay’s ability to make sense of such things helps the blue to actually be helpful rather than hindering in his attempts to cheer another.
Vinath is also terribly hard to ruffle. He knows what’s his, and he knows those close to him and His are loyal (he wouldn’t brook their presence otherwise) so he hardly worries about them looking elsewhere and he doesn’t worry about trusting said inner circle. When pressed, however, this blue can make quite the fuss and arches and postures and hisses much like an angry alleycat when he thinks something is truly threatened. When both V’lay and Vinath are in such a mood, it’s better to just back off and let them cool down – they feed off one another.
This blue doesn’t mind company and but he hates being touched by anyone other then His. It’s been a problem in the past and hasn’t really changed. It’s just one of his buttons and the unwary person might set the otherwise placid blue off. There’s the occasional time that V’lay's physical nature has charmed Vinath into not being such a prude about personal space but it’s something the two have a give-take relationship with.
The blue is also supremely traditionalist and is quite content to leave the bronzes and browns to their rank duties. He dislikes female green riders mostly because it cuts down on his choices – he only flies greens with male riders out of love and respect for His. Rules and guidelines are also important to this blue, at least when it comes to others. His social nature and confidence means he’s fairly flexible about bending the rules to suit their needs – a point of contention between rider and dragon – and it holds especially true in his quest to find interesting plant bits and things for his green-thumb rider to investigate.
Vinath has not let the changes in their lives affect him, the way his rider has. Things change, and the trick is to go with it and make changes as necessary. He has certainly re-evaluated his friends in the time that things have changed, but he isn't going to let the changes consume him. He worries about V'lay, sometimes, but also agrees that Benden was significantly better than Trine, and would like to go back. He just doesn't want V'lay to kill himself trying to fix things.
Other: Vinath was originally written by Skie, with a few sentences added by me. Won in presumably some kind of semi-custom event untold eons ago?
