Age: 35
Sex: Male
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
Weyr: High Reaches Weyr
Rider Rank: Wing Rider
Previous Rank/Craft: Journeyman Harper (singer, songwriter, gitarist, teacher), Entertainer
Physical Description: Lucayr is a fairly tall fellow, six feet three give or take an inch, with sandy-brown hair that falls loose about his face. It has a bit of a sassy, wind-blown look to it when it isn't covered by one of his many hats. His face is small with a convex, slightly pointed nose and a brassy smile that takes up a good portion of real estate. His chin is barely there and is just bare in general, as he has been unable to grow any facial hair other than his eyebrows. He observes the world through golden-hazel eyes that are usually glistening with impish intent. At present he is abnormally thin due to a new diet he's trying -- at least, that's what he'll say if anyone is eagle-eyed enough to notice through the fancy clothes he hides himself under.
Personality: In a word, Lucayr is sociable. Very, very sociable. This can make pleasant conversation with him difficult for the uninitiated because he’s the kind of fellow who insults everyone he likes, and he tends to like almost everyone. Those who’ve gotten close to him know that it’s a language of love… and an art form.
Speaking of art forms -- Lucayr takes all facets of his Harpercraft very seriously, though he didn't start out that way. It took a few years and a few tragedies to wake him up to the need for education and a generous helping of of common sense to be infused into the younglings of Pern. He performs the sanctioned Teaching Songs faithfully, but the songs he composes himself are usually dripping with sardonicism meant to make people stop taking themselves so seriously and start worrying about the bigger picture. Most notable social or political incidents he suffers through are immortalized in a farcical but moralistic ditty to be sung at the next raucous gathering -- with names and places changed to protect the messenger, of course.
An entertainer as well as an educator, Lucayr knows the allure of a great outfit. He prefers colorful clothes and scarves and is usually wearing some sort of hat. His flashy appearance and audacious demeanor as well as his velvety tenor make him the target of much affection, which he welcomes in a most platonic manner. Lucayr finds many women very attractive and loves spending time with them, but it hasn’t yet occured to him to pursue in any serious fashion – he’s too blasted busy for that!
Since Thread returned, there has been even more division regarding whose way is the “right” way. Lucayr has not quite made up his mind and is still in the process of exploring all sides of of the matter. He feigns being an open book in order to gather as much information as possible, but he hides much of his true thoughts and intentions.
Positive Trait List Well-educated, sociable, flamboyant, self-motivated, inquisitive
Negative Trait List Ostentatious, overextending, wiley, pragmatic, sardonic
History: Born a tanner's son at Igen Hold, Lucayr always had a gift for lyric and voice, even from an early age. He went to Harper Hall at age twelve and became an apprentice there. He did well in his studies, though he was rather flippant about them and about authority in general. He displayed a certain knack for storytelling in some of the grandiose lies he weaved. Though his master was never quite sure exactly why he put up with it, he saw the talent in the boy that he did not want to go to waste.
Later in life, as a journeyman, he was assigned to a newly-designated weyrhold to tutor the holdbrats. This was mere days after the visiting gold had delivered her clutch of sixteen eggs. It was not a coincidence on his master's part; he sent the boy there with specific instructions to keep his head down and his eyes and ears open, and to report on the progress of the clutch regularly. That was one topic where he was just as intrigued as his master – just how necessary was it for Pern to support so many dragons when there had been no Thread in ten hundred Turns?
He was there taking notes when representatives of High Reaches and Western Weyr showed up to give their input on how the hold should care for the eggs and the queen, who should be permitted to Stand at the hatching, and which weyr the Impressed hatchlings and their chosen riders should be affiliated with. There was also a constant stream of opinions from the folks living in the hold who were not in agreement with their lord’s decision to welcome the gravid golden dragon. Lucayr heard sentiments that were gentler, such as those who hoped all of the bonded pairs would leave right away to join a weyr when the hatch was complete, all the way up the scale to those who venomously declared that they would enjoy a gather featuring a feast of dragon-egg omelettes.
The Hatch
When the dragons began to hum, singing their welcome song to the soon-coming young, Lucayr was one of the first to respond. He hurried toward the nest, but paused when he saw a group of men congregating near the entrance. They seemed unusually vigilant, and more than half of them looked unfamiliar. He had a bad feeling about them.
The Holder arrived on the scene with his heirs, rushing them to the sands to be the first to present themselves to the hatching dragonets. They were in such a scramble that they failed to notice the strangers, even when shoving past them to enter the nest area. Before anyone else could get close, the band of men entered and began to shut the door. Later on, Lucayr would wonder what made him act so foolishly, but he was suddenly sprinting for the sands, getting through just in the nick of time before the door slammed. Inside, he barely managed to evade the sight of the man who had closed and locked the door. Clinging to the wall, the harper scooted away and ducked behind the table loaded with meat that had been prepared for the hatchlings.
It was lucky for him that everyone was so focused on the event at hand, backs facing him as they stared at the queen and her clutch. Neither the Holder, the golden dragon, or her rider noticed anything amiss; their attention was riveted on the eggs. They were trembling, some even tipping onto their sides, all sixteen splitting with staccato cracks at nearly the same time. The sound was incredible. Dragonets of every color spilled out onto the sand in moments, creeling with hunger and desperation. Above the noise, Lucayr heard the Holder’s triumphant shout as one of his boys Impressed. Then, the triumph turned to terror as the marvelous proceeding became an absolute bloodbath.
With so many hatchlings lurching, flailing their wings and claws, blundering into each other and the men, there was no where to go to avoid them. Their great golden mother jealously guarded her rider with gentle nudges to redirect the hatchlings, but no one else was welcome under her wing. Lucayr cringed behind the table as men fell left and right, bleeding. The door was thrown open, and the strangers who could still run, walk or crawl, fled the scene. Miraculously, the Holder and his sons escaped nearly unscathed. Lucayr also made it out safely.
The remaining dragon hatchlings floundered their way outside, where they were marveled at by the holdfolk from a much safer distance. Each found their way to their chosen partner and Impressed. Except one.
The goldrider stood in the doorway of the nesting area, calling for help. The Holder, his remaining un-bonded sons, Lucayr, and several others rushed to see what was the matter. Inside, the queen nuzzled a small, dark bundle. A brown hatchling lay shivering and forgotten in the bloody aftermath, curled in upon itself like a pillbug, its wings tightly wrapped around its face. It peeked with one frightened greenish-yellow eye from beneath a wing and saw Lucayr. It unraveled into a bizzare, gangly splay of limbs and wings, weakly thrashing and trying to stand, but its voice rang like a clear bell in his head, begging him for warmth and sustenance, and by Faranth’s first egg, a hiding place from all those gawking eyes!
The shivering creature was a hideous little thing, its legs, tail and neck so perversely spindling and twiggy that it nearly resembled a winged tunnel snake, but Lucayr was enrap—
—Oh, you have questions?
No, you obstreperous oaf! I have a demand. You will cease this disparaging description of my person and depict me with the same grace and elegance I have always borne!
I see. Frankly, my darling Tikth, it’s up to our dear listeners how much credence to apply to this particular spiel of alleged farfetchery; I’ve prepared a few other variations that you may prefer, but we will save those for another time. For now, let us continue...
A more serious history (Not penned by a certain capricious Harper)
Yes, Lucayr is quite the tale-spinner and loves his embellishments. He’ll never reveal what parts of his story are true and which are shameless exaggerations. It’s safe to say he did Impress at that weyrhold, though maybe not under such an exciting set of circumstances. Tikth, however, was a fragile, sickly baby, almost as if he were slightly underdeveloped at hatching, and it took a lot of work to help him thrive to adulthood. Lucayr struggled to balance his life between caring for his dragon and doing harper’s work, not wanting to let go of either. It was exhausting, and he became deeply depressed, but hid it well with the brassy smile that was his harper's mask. The only real physical sign he showed of this distress was a severe drop in weight that he carefully hid under the bright clothes of an entertainer.
Tikth started life pitifully weak in body, but showed himself to be a buoyant, fun-loving creature. As time passed, he learned how to lift his bonded’s spirits with rhymes, riddles and games, while he grew stronger under Lucayr’s steadfast care. Two Turns after their Impression, the pair had rehabilitated each other to a point where they were balanced and ready to move on to something more. Lucayr knew just where to begin.
Upon their arrival at Harper Hall, they met a woman and her green dragon. Emori and Inannath, as they were called, seemed to have a lot in common with the young man and his brown. Particularly of note was the fact that Inannath had jealousy issues that interfered with her mating flights, and Tikth had terrible anxiety when he was around too many others – it seemed they would both do better in a small group setting, so to speak. Both were exeedingly verbose and had excellent senses of humor. They were also quite talented in the air, and dragon acrobatics were fairly popular entertainment in those days.
So Lucayr, Emori, and their dragons became entertainers, flying with a caravan of folks possessing a variety of talents for show. They did well with their exhibitions, theatrics, and occasional cheap tricks. Unfortunately, it would not last.
Pern was never really a safe place, even though its long-ago enemy Thread had vanished. When Thread suddenly reappeared, it came upon the caravan with such furiosity that there were precious few members left alive. That number was reduced even further as raiders converged like scavenger birds upon the ruins of their brightly-painted carts, stopped only by bursts of dragonflame from the mouths of the green and brown. They spent every bit of firestone they had in that skirmish, and would be defenseless if more raiders, or more Thread, came.
With little supplies left, and so many of their friends too injured to safely go Between, Lucayr and Emori had no choice but to leave them to look for help...
(“Welcome to High Reaches” RP begins here, to be backdated.)
Other: That agonizing moment when you realize a character was created so thoroughly adapted to non-canon features in another shop that he needs to be completely rewritten from scratch...
Name: Tikth
Age: 6
Color: Brown
Size: 32’
Physical Description: Brown Tikth is a leggy, long-winged, lean dragon that looks particularly awkward on the ground when in the open. His long legs give him speed and reach in close quarters and his long, tapered wings enable his flight to be more acrobatic than usual. His face mask marking, however, can make it intimidating to lock eyes with him as it almost appears as if he is wearing a skull of some sort and his great whirling eyes glow from empty sockets.
Personality: That he has a penchant for lurking and observing is perhaps the first and foremost thing one should know about Tikth. You see, this dark individual is comfortable in small spaces or out of sight, but he always likes to keep everyone else in his sight. Being more of a nocturnal individual, his color lends itself well to this. When he was young, this tendency to sneak around played out in his great delight at scaring people or dragons with his seeming ability to appear and disappear from places no sane dragon would Between to. Indeed, his innate skill at Between and his love of lurking earned this one much infamy in those early days.
If it wasn’t already apparent, Tikth is a playful individual at heart, enjoying the challenge of hide-and-go-seek with a passion that’s difficult to match. His enthusiasm is infectious and he often vocalizes with draconic laughter and shouts. He was quick to master the use of echoes and thrown voices to mislead his ‘prey’. Beware of angering this brown, however. He may not be large or particularly strong for his color, but his speed and spatial awareness give him an edge in close-quarters combat. He’ll heckle, manipulate, mislead, and otherwise confuse the offending individual until he or she is horribly lost or exhausted from the onslaught.
Despite his trickery and inability to ease up, Tikth has one close-guarded secret, that he and His will know. That secret is that, as much as Tikth adores causing trouble and running circles around people, he is always willing to stop IF they answer three of his riddles right. When someone manages to do so, he’ll concede defeat and reveal himself, no less enthusiastic then before. An odd way to make friends, perhaps, but Tikth does so love his challenges.
One last note on Tikth, he has an inexplicable love for rain on sunny days. He doesn’t know why but the mystery and refreshing experience of such events draw him like bees to honey.
Tikth was written by SkieBorne (Some minor amendments were made for ease of reading)
Dragon Art or Proof of Obtainment: Transfer request
Official art, dropped 7/8/17!
