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Approved by Tawny

Name: Keralder (sometimes called "Kidder", due to his frequent use of the phrase "Just kidding! Can't you take a joke?)
Age: 19
Gender: Male
Rank: Candidate
Appearance: A rather c**k of the walk young man with skin the color of Klah with a hair too much milk, which turns darker in the sun.

His hair and eyes are both a deep rich brown, with thick eyelashes, a thin bridged nose with a pinch point exactly perfect for a disgusted pinch of the bridge, and an attractively shaped set of lips frequently marred by the ghost of a smirk.

If not for the short trim of candidacy, his thick, dark hair would grow out into lazy waves, and may do someday, and he flirts frequently with the idea of growing out a bit of a beard.

Personality:
Sharp as a knife, and quick to take an opportunity to cut people with his wit, Keralder is not an easy young man to get along with. Honestly he's yet to meet someone with whom he can't find some fault to pick at and joke about, much as he bristles and seethes if someone dares makes such a joke about him

Worse he's a bit of a vengeful soul, with pushy, jokes that can be downright mean, with his jokes frequently pointed at people who've earned his wrath in some way, including just by existing, and if actually caught at it, scoffs, snorts, and demands to know why people 'can't take a joke'. This trait has yet to be particularly appealing in any form, save perhaps to victims taking amusement at his pain, or maybe to a small selection of people who are like minded... for... whatever terrible twisted reason makes people think acting like Keralder is ok. Basically the only reason Keralder is even standing is that he so far has managed to skirt doing something bad enough to be kicked out, and his sense of self preservation means he's generally capable of lying low just long enough to lull people into a sense of security and hope that maybe THIS time he's given up being an a**.

When he's not focused on punishing certain people for being granted privileges or traits he thinks were unfairly granted by circumstance, he's not.... entirely.... a horrible person... he attempts to champion the downtrodden anyway in his own strange way, though it wouldn't hurt if he relied a little less on snark and manipulation and more on action, something his long suffering squire (NPC), an green rider who's own lowborn history gives her a certain degree of sympathy for the boy. She herself serves in the fifth wing, and refuses to comment if she agrees at all with Keralder's opinion that she rose no higher because of her birth and her gender. If she does agree, she has long ago concluded that it is better to remain in her niche than to fight for change.

If fit one of, or several of the traits of people who are frequently treated poorly, or with disgust or cruelty by the majority of Pern, Keralder is your Obnoxious, Snarky Zorro, swooping in to defend you from scorn by shorting sheets, salting Klah, and possibly trying to arrange to starch someones undergarments.

Though Faranth help anyone who thinks they're immune to any of this themselves should they prove to be an 'insufferable wherry'. He'll defend your right to exist as a fellow human, but not to be an annoyance. Or not to be an annoyance to him anyway.

He's not easy to be friends with, not by a long shot, and there will be few souls who get close enough to him that he will actually consider them 'friends' and not just acquaintances, and he does draw a very clear, wide, line between those things. Most people fall under 'Acquaintance' 'Tolerable and or Useful' or 'Irredeemable useless Wherry'. Even romantic entanglements may discover that they fall under "Acquaintance', and those going into a relationship with him will find they're less likely to be hurt if they go into things knowing not only this, but that he's largely casual, reasoning that he has room in his life for a limited number of deep bonds, and he's saving one of those places for a partner with wings. Do you have wings? (Gliders don't count, sorry...) No? Fine, take a number, he'll take interviews later.

As a side note: It is in fact, entirely possible to cause him no small degree of frustration if you don't quite match up to the image he has built for you. This is something Keralder himself decides if you do or don't do, obviously, but, say, a rich holder's child going out of their way to be kind and generous and supportive, and constantly doing so in ways that demonstrate that they are actually being selfless and thoughtful instead of just 'showing off'? Yeah, that throws him, frustrates him, and leaves him trying to figure out how to handle you for breaking his carefully constructed world view. STOP BENDING HIS REALITY YOU WEIRDO!

History:

Born slightly before the Civil War, Keralder is a child of the war, with his father lost to the battles before he was two. His mother was a silent, strong force of will, which did not sit well to begin with in the climate of her home Hold. Widowed by the battle, and with things heating up sharply and bloodily, she became one of the refugees of the war, deciding it would be worth more to take a chance at a new life someplace more stable than to bring up her young son in the chaos that she didn't see improving soon.

Without resources to work with, and a difficult path from one hold to another, her growing son had a close and clear view of the way many people treated a lone woman and child, and an more clear view of life in desperate poverty.

When they arrived at High Reaches, they were desperately hungry and weary, and his mother gave the one resource she had, her services, signing on as a Drudge to the Weyr to give her son a better chance.

In spite of his youth, the experience stuck with Keralder, and slowly began to reveal that he'd internalized a lot of resentment for those who had been more settled, more... privileged. More wealthy.

They were the ones who deserved to suffer, the ones who needed protection, and money, and food... not burnt bread and leftovers while the wealthy sat at the High Table and cheerfully stuffed their faces with fine cuts of meat and delicate deserts.

He wanted a life for his mother where she didn't wear her joints down until they burned life fire, and split her skin washing laundry. He wanted a place for them, someplace comfortable and safe, and to find a path to allow other people the same chance that suffered the way she did an way out. Struggle should never be a life sentence. Not even in a pleasant prison, since High Reaches, he knew, was better than some places.

He took on candidacy as soon as he was able to stand, partially for the opportunity to possibly impress, partially to get a little closer to those people who might someday fly for the protection of Pern, and the lessons didn't hurt either, padding his chances of someday being able to help support his mother in the future. He debated possibly moving to learn Wher handling if dragon-riding doesn't work out, but he's not sure about handling one of the large dangerous animals. He's sort of taking a big enough risk trying to not get maimed by an angry hatchling dragon, something he's avoided so far.

He would personally enjoy it if he had more time to see his mother, since the two are close, closer than Keralder is to most people, but between Candidacy and being a drudge, they frequently have mismatched schedules, passing long enough for a hug, a few words, and maybe a little sleep if they're lucky.

He resents this as much as he does the amount of work she grinds through, and has a certain lingering resentment for the creche system as well. Not that it ever did anything wrong by him, but for him it represents the same system of drudgery that might as well have swallowed his mother whole as far as he's concerned. Their mutual exhaustion frustrates him.

As a candidate, he's bright, and picks up concepts relatively smoothly. Not much faster than average, but with a certain dogged determination fed by the need to consume as much as he can from a given opportunity, the better to use it against what he hates in the future. Likewise, he has his sights set on the higher wings, the way a rock aims at an pane of glass. His ideas of how to accomplish this are... hazy at best, since he has no idea if he'll even impress at all, but it doesn't stop him from imagining it as an possible. That failing... well his education will serve him well, and he'll just make... other... plans. Something has to change... every thing has a weak point.