Age: 33
Gender: Male
Rank: Wher Handler
Appearance:
Bronech is slight and weaselly, with a short-cropped receding hairline that tends towards an insipidly pale blonde. His deep-set and shadowed eyes are a washed-out blue, and his long thin nose has been broken at least once. There’s definitely a good deal of wiry muscle under his skin, considering he’s capable of supporting himself from his fingertips - and sometimes has to. He moves carefully at all times, and seems to be permanently on the look out for the trip-wire or the unexpected arrow… and anyone sneaking up behind the occasionally nervous handler with a paper bag.
He is always well put together, and loves sparkly jewellery - only when he’s working will he remove the earrings, the bracelets, the necklaces and the rings.
Personality:
Bronech is a kind enough fellow, and certainly has more then a dose of sentimentality in him - other handlers may frequently find him in tears over a report or a well-sung ballad, and a welling up in his eyes is never far off. He will often act on this, and can be easily manipulated if he feels sorry for someone into righting some wrong (whether real or imagined) or fighting some injustice. All of his emotions seem close to the surface, and when life is not beating too hard on him he is an indomitably cheerful and generous man, ready to put a great deal of time and effort into helping out whoever might need it. Ultimately, he is also - by weyr standards - fairly conservative: a little more ready to follow a man then a woman, and feeling that the Weyr’s role in the world should be fairly isolationist.
He’s also rather courteous, and certainly a gallant towards women - charmingly attentive and stylish, with a love for flirtation and romance… not that it frequently goes beyond the safe levels dictated by courtly love. There are ladies and gentlemen he sleeps with, and ladies and gentlemen he courts, and never the twain shall meet. Bronech finds it difficult to commit or connect to anyone on a deeper level, partly over sheer terror of losing them: he has already lost his dragon, and shies away from the sort of connection that might bring anything near that level of pain back to the surface. Where they are made, Bronech will do anything to protect them and his few friends will always benefit from this.
As one might expect from a dragonless man, Bronech… occasionally needs the day off, and not always with much warning. He can generally predict the worst of times - hatchings are particularly hard on him - and will make his commander and companions very aware of his needs in this area. He’s not ashamed to say when he needs to bow out for a day because he can’t be relied on, and works harder to make up for these occasions. In his work, he is meticulous and detail-orientated, and extremely proud of it. He is an excellent housebreaker with Brosk to watch his back, and can be relied upon to get the job done with the minimum of fuss - he considers any such job where someone gets hurt to be a failure, no matter how successful his thievery.
Bronech is also a hedonist: he is determined to live his life to the utmost, and will gleefully eat, drink, and screw his way through life. He has flirted with alcoholism in the past, and occasionally teeters back on the edge - some particularly crashing event might push him right over it, but that has not yet happened.
Pros: independent, decisive, cheerful, courteous + gallant, meticulous, sentimental, kind
Minuses: depressive, occasionally Simply Needs To Take A Day with little-to-no warning (though it’s reasonably predictable most of the time), terrified of losing people/connecting to them, hidebound and hedonistic
History:
170 - Born in HR weyr
182 - Becomes a Candidate at 12
184 - Impresses
185 - Loses Wirth in Weyrling massacre. One of the few dragonless survivors.
190 - Puts himself forward for Wher candidacy, Impresses blue Brosk
190-93 - Works hard at being a decent wherhandler, despite occasional slips into alcoholism.
193 - Basically spent going NOPE. Nope. NOOOPE. Nopenopenope. Eventually rises to the occasion, but paralysingly terrified of losing Brosk.
197 - Crucial part of a team that hunts out a cell of Sofianists who were planning to poison High Reach Hold’s water supply (because reasons). Appears to be finding his balance.
200 - Becomes a father after a casual encounter with another handler, result is a little girl. Bronech takes a wary interest in his daughter, and is occasionally seen around the creche with trinkets and toys.
Name: Brosk
Age: 13
Colour: Blue
Feel of voice: n/a
Appearance:
Personality:
Brosk is not a gentle creature, and not a nice one either. He is a one-man wher - and with that one man, he is a pliable eager-to-please puppy. He seeks out affection and approval from Bronech and very few other human beings are tolerated, let alone liked. As a result, it’s not hard for Bronech to have him doing ridiculous tricks, and the two of them make for a rather fantastic show - something Bronech has used in the field more then once - and a brilliant partnership.
Bronech watches him very, very carefully around other people (he rather suspects that Brosk would happily eat a baby if left to his own devices). Whether or not he is consciously trying to fill the role of a dragon for Bronech, he seems to do his best to be what the handler he adores needs.
When interacting with other whers, Brosk has a Serious Dominance Problem. He seems to have a need to be the one in charge - although a gold will have no problems ensuring she remains in charge, he’s got more then a few scars from fights with members of his own hunt. Bronech curbs this to a large degree - he has no interest in leadership, though he can’t avoid politics - but his handler isn’t always present or in a state to curb his creature’s excesses.
He’s not stupid (for a given level of wher smarts), and won’t go after whers he knows are stronger then him, but he’ll happily kick around weaker whers to make a point or regain some status - though Faranth help anyone else on his level who does the same. Though he might be a bully, he’s protective of those underneath him against anyone or anything else.
Curiously, he seems to largely tolerate wherlets where human children would likely be mauled, and though he’ll cheerfully bowl them right over if they’re misbehaving too badly or they bite him hard, they mostly float happily in the sheltered harbour of his patience. He also has a tendency to taste-test things - not necessarily biting down (though that’s always an option) but mouthing them in a habit that he has carried from infancy and Bronech has never quite managed to break him of. His den has his favoured blanket he refuses to sleep without.
Other:
