Name: B'tar
Age: 31 turns
Sex: Male
Sexual Orientation: Asexual
Weyr: Other (technically holdless)
Rider Rank: N/A
Previous Rank/Craft: Starcraft (cartographer) apprentice
Physical Description: B'tar is rough, muscled, and wiry in the way of people who have been on the move for the last decade. His ever-tanned skin is crossed with scratches and scars, you could probably ask him to explain how he got them all and learn most of the history of his life just listening. Claw marks from an encounter with a feral feline down south, a pair of small pucker-like scars in his left shoulder from arrows up north. More tiny nicks than you could possibly count. He's had a wild, hard, active life, though none of it seems to have slowed him down.
His 5'8" frame is packed with muscle, and his clothing is often unusual, mixed pieces from exotic locations, typically patched or sewn together in order to lengthen their lives before being reduced to rags. He's no weaver, but practice makes perfect, and he's done well enough to not look immediately homeless (though he'd certainly stand out!) if he made one of his rare visits to a hold or weyr.
His hair and eyes are both dark and severe, and most of his head is shorn close, except for a longer streak across the top of his head, pulled into a tangled, frizzy tail at the back. His nose is crooked, broken more than once, and otherwise plump lips have been split by a blade at some point in the past. Miraculously, he still has all his teeth, and against his weather-beaten skin they seem almost unnaturally white.
Personality: B'tar is not mean. He isn't. What he is, however, is completely independent and unwilling to listen to anyone or anything he disagrees with. Curt, cold, and honest to the point of being crass, he speaks his mind and never pulls his punches. And why bother? Odds are he'll never speak to the same person twice in a turn, if ever, and he feels no compulsion to build or maintain relationships with anyone.
He LOVES the outdoors, the wild empty parts of Pern, and obviously has devoted his life to exploring them. While he feels he has no time to spare on talking with people, he'll gladly sit atop Efraath, staring at a sunrise or a gorge or a vast jungle for hours. He has a deep sense of wonder and beauty, and if he had the concept of religion, would say that Pern's natural wild places are his. On Earth, he probably would have been a deep forest ranger, or some other job that took him out into the wilds for months with no contact. His anti-social nature is often confused with introversion or a shallow personality, but it's more that he finds all his social needs are met by Efraath. No one else could understand him as well, and he doesn't think he needs to explain himself otherwise.
So he loves nature, but he also thrives in it. Turns and turns of life on the wing has made him vastly knowledgeable of hunting tactics, edible plants, how to make his own tools and weapons (all entirely serviceable, but crude, and often simply wood and stone) fishing, and general survival skills. He barely carries more than one or two bags of supplies, so every day he rebuilds what he needs if it was left behind the day before.
Pros: Independent, adaptable, resourceful, detail-oriented.
Cons: Impatient, anti-social, lacks capacity to bond with anyone other than Efraath, aloof.
History: Biitar was born somewhere near Landing, near Monaco. Ever a stoic child, he has no memory of his own parents, and moved from foster family to foster family over the turns. This sort of consistent moving made him more aware of the surrounding area than most his age, and once he was searched from a cothold on his 14th turn, he was snapped up by a journeyman starsmith to assist in mapping the region. He might not know the exact shape of the coast, or quite how far the Barrier Range was from the weyr, but he knew the small areas he'd lived in with exhaustive, intimate levels of detail that had the man swearing and crowing and wishing that the boy'd been a proper apprentice, not a candidate.
A turn later he impressed to a strapping, if grouchy brown dragonet. Training took as much of his time as mapping, and the quiet, stoic boy began to show the strain of splitting his focus, and the increased social demands on him. Ever empathetic, Efraath quietly began to encourage him to rebel against the weyrling master (because mapping was a passion, and training only a requirement) and the pair were in and out of trouble for a turn and a half.
At 16 turns of age, when Efraath was well and fully grown, the pair simply left. The old journeyman was the only one they forewarned, and they never looked back. For 15 turns they have been living mostly alone, ranging the entire breadth and width of Pern. About once a month they've been spotted at some weyr or hold, selling odds and ends or trading for supplies before vanishing again. They've been seen in more than one caravan also, and often turn up sporting entirely unusual attire.
They aren't public about it, but the pair has spent the last 15 turns making complex, detailed maps of a portion of the planet. They've shown them to no one, and are prepared to spend another 50, 60, 70 turns finishing them. Of course, now with thread, life has been a lot more complicated for them, so they've been debating on giving what's done to the starsmith hall before it's accidentally lost.
Other: There are probably some areas he'd be very unwelcome, as he has a reputation for taking animals to feed Efraath, often without asking if they've been hungry long enough.
DRAGON
Name: Efraath
Age: 16 turns
Color: Brown
Size: 34'
Physical Description: Waiting on his art, so I got no clue~!
Personality: Solitary life is probably best for Efraath, because he has a fairly ugly personality, all told. He's often angry around others, especially if they think less of him for his chromatic skin, and he's too clever by half. He clings to his grudges and often attempts to get back at those he's thought of as slighting him. Or would have, if they weren't typically half of Pern away within days. He'd much rather spend all his time alone with HIS person, and enjoys being totally wrapped up in whatever his rider's passions are.
He rouses to anger quickly, and often has to stay a little ways off when B'tar is bartering or trading with people, lest some perceived slight set him off. Of course he can't hurt anyone, but that doesn't mean he can't hurt things or buildings. He finds a way to make his ire known, and leaves his rider to clean up the mess.
Pros: Utterly devoted to B'tar, resilient, cunning, organized.
Cons: Aggressive, isolationist, willful, short-tempered.
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