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Post by Mello on Jul 8, 2010 20:50:12 GMT -5
Ranen was immensely relieved when F’ren seemed to drop the subject of his relationships, or lack thereof. He could put up with a bit of teasing- he had heard worse before, especially from his brothers, so it rarely bothered him, especially when it was delivered in such a tone that he could tell it wasn’t intended to hurt. There was nothing wrong with joking around, and if it lead to a change of subject, Ranen was all for it. Part of his mind might have registered that he was getting off a little too easily, that maybe this wasn’t the end of the topic in F’ren’s mind, but if it passed through his head he quickly pushed it aside and dismissed it.
F’ren turned the conversation to a topic much more in Ranen’s interest- the Hatching. It was coming closer every day, and seemed to be all that was on his mind sometimes. All that was on a lot of people’s minds, actually. There were constant little reminders for those who paid attention that this Hatching was important for more than just the candidates. It was the first step for the new Weyr, and so it was more important than a personal hope, as grand as that may be.
“I would be happy with anything, boring or not,” he began, a grin returning to his face. Talk of the upcoming Hatching always managed to bring out his best mood. No matter what, it was a happy time, and he couldn’t wait for it to happen. “But I’ve always kind of seen myself on a brown, or a blue,” he finished, looking down to fiddle absently with his cup, shifting it around on the table. He hadn’t actually thought of it too much, mostly because he had discovered he was pretty terrible at deciding what candidate would end up with what color dragon, or even which ones would Impress and which ones would be left standing. But even those who were talented at predicting what would happen were never right all the time.
Suddenly a thought hit him like a shock. He could feel the grin fall off his face and it was all he could do to stop himself from burying his head in his hands. “Shards, I can be so stupid sometimes,” he said. “All this talk and I never even asked after your dragon…” He always managed to forget something, although generally it wasn’t this big. He didn’t even know the name of F’ren’s dragon, nor his color. And forgetting to ask about him… Ranen could kick himself.
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Post by Mello on Jul 6, 2010 11:16:28 GMT -5
Who: Ranen, maybe Infirmary Staff or others with this chore? What: Chores! When: Early afternoon Where: Infirmary
Ranen had met plenty of candidates who hated doing chores. He supposed they had gotten some notion in their heads that if they were Searched, they would show up at the Weyr and immediately get a dragon and never have to do anything but care for it. But he had known better. He had dreamed, sure, possibly more than some of them. But his dreams were never of some fantasy land where no one ever had to do any work. Everyone had to work, he knew, in order to make a place run smoothly, and the Weyr was no exception. He even enjoyed the work, most of the time, or at least enjoyed being useful. It was the least he could do, he had decided a long time earlier, to try as hard as he could, to repay the kindness they had shown in bringing him to the Weyr and then allowing him to stay for so long. Not to mention it was a nice break from the tedious candidate lessons, which he felt like he had sat through more than enough times to be able to recite them back, if they asked him to.
So Ranen always enjoyed the time he spent at his chores. However, that didn’t mean he didn’t have preferences when it came to what he did. Or more like chores he didn’t prefer, and so he suppressed a small sigh when he looked at the board and saw he had been assigned to the infirmary. That was not one of his favorite places to be. He tried to be helpful, but he wasn’t a healer, and didn’t even have the experience with animals he knew some others to have. It always made him feel just a little bit useless to know that he could fold linens or chop herbs or run errands, but not much more. He had gotten to know the Healers at Southern, in the sense that they knew his limitations, and had learned what kinds of jobs he could handle there and which ones went over his head. He only hoped the Healers here wouldn’t want anything more out of him, although there was a slight sense of dread that he wouldn’t be able to help with what they needed him to do.
Still, that was what had been assigned to him, and so he forced himself to try and forget his unease and managed to find his way down to the infirmary. Hopefully there would be someone there to tell him what to do. He entered quietly, standing just inside the door and tried to find someone in charge. He didn’t want to disturb any sleeping patients (a mistake he would never repeat after the Healer at Southern had almost bitten his head off). “Hello?” he called, softly but hopefully enough to draw the attention of anyone inside.
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Post by Mello on Jul 6, 2010 10:58:16 GMT -5
Even after all his time there, the Weyr never ceased to surprise Ranen in little ways, such as his companion’s easy acceptance of his rather drawn out explanation of his preferences. It was a bit of an adjustment, but part of Ranen was realizing that the Weyrs were much more accepting of some things than other places on Pern. Perhaps because the dragons chose who they wanted, and no one could argue with a dragon’s choice. “I suppose…” he agreed with the other boy’s enthusiastic acceptance, although he still was uncertain. His preferences had never seemed to be exactly a good thing, to tell the truth. One more thing his brothers would tease him about, if they knew. One more hidden secret. If he listened to his brothers, one more thing making him weak, although he was starting to wonder if it was really that worth it to follow their ideas. After all it was he, the dreamer, that had ended up at the Weyr, even if he was still a candidate afer two turns.
F’ren didn’t seem to have a particularly positive view of hold life, something that Ranen couldn’t really fault him for. If he had been raised here, he doubted he would want to live on a hold either. There was something fulfilling about life there, but at the same time his new life was so exciting. It would be hard to give that up now, and he could only imagine what it would be like if the Weyr had been all he had known. He laughed. “It’s not that bad,” he said with a smile. “A lot of work, I guess, but it’s not bad.” He tried to imagine F’ren working with his brothers, but he couldn’t. Actually, he couldn’t place any of the people he had met here back in his home. “I think it would be harder to go from here to a hold then from a hold to here though,” he observed after a moment.
He was feeling more comfortable with the whole conversation, but then F’ren turned back towards the previous topic and once again managed to make Ranen blush. There seemed to be no doubt in the weyrling’s mind that Ranen had experience with those kinds of things. But he had first noticed his attraction to a few of the other male candidates only a short time before, really, and had yet to work up the courage to actually approach one. How could he tell what they would say, which ones would accept him and which ones would hang onto the values taught at the holds? Even the few he felt confident shared his tastes scared him in some way. The few encounters he had had since he had been at the Weyr had been with girls, and those had been rather limited, as the girls didn’t want to get pregnant. So then, how to answer F’ren’s question? He didn’t want to admit his lack of experience, but he didn’t want to claim experience when he had none… Fighting a stammer, he finally managed to give some kind of response. “It’s… I don’t really know.” Not exactly what he hoped would come out of his mouth, but there it was.
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Post by Mello on Jul 3, 2010 8:57:14 GMT -5
Ranen always felt a sense of calm at Touchings, underneath the emotions rolling about in the air. There was such an air of hope, he supposed. Despite that, he had experienced what felt like pretty much every reaction from eggs in the past.
The Colisa Egg was warm, but he didn’t get anything too strong from it. Perhaps he moved away too soon? He thought about going back to it, but he had already stepped away. Maybe he could come back later on, if there was time. He never could guess how long these lasted before the candidates were sent away.
The Poecildae Egg, on the other hand, sent out a clear feeling. A desire… no, a need for Ranen to stay there. Unable to resist the pull of the egg, he lingered there for a few moments longer than he normally would have, trying to reassure the creature within as best as he could. He moved his hand over the shell lightly, most of the time barely touching it but close enough to feel the warmth. He spent a few moments trying to find some kind of pattern to the mix of colors splashed underneath his hand, but quickly gave up. It was a smaller egg, but still seemed to just draw attention, as if it wanted everyone to notice it, in spite of its size. Ranen wondered what type of creature would be inside of it. What would it look like; what would it act like? He suddenly couldn’t wait for the Hatching, feeling a renewed sense of excitement to watch these marvelous creatures be born. “It’s ok,” he whispered to the egg, so softly the sound barely carried to his own ears. “You’ll find Yours soon.” He realized he had been standing there longer than he had meant to, the heat creeping through his boots, and with a last light brush and reassuring thought he stepped away from the egg.
Ranen next moved to a nearby egg, the Axelrodi Egg. It was small but shimmery and he simply admired it for a few moments before carefully laying his hand on it.
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Post by Mello on Jul 1, 2010 9:31:38 GMT -5
Ranen wondered what his own life might have been like if he had grown up like F’ren, a “typical weyrbrat”. He wouldn’t have had his brothers there, so he wouldn’t have had the long period of teasing, or the situations he was always afraid would somehow turn more violent than they had initially intended. He wouldn’t have had his father always trying to get him to work just a little harder, to finish some task before the end of the day. But then again, he wouldn’t have had his mother to tell him stories and make him dream. And, as much as they made his life miserable for a while, he loved his brothers, and he always knew he could go to them if he was really in trouble. There were really, in his mind, more positives than negatives to growing up where he did- he learned about family, learned to be strong and useful. But F’ren didn’t seem the slightest bit sad at his own upbringing. Ranen hadn’t really met a weyrbrat who did, actually, so he supposed it was just a matter of perspective anyways.
There were some big differences between the holdbred and the weyrbred, though, as Ranen was reminded when F’ren brought up the ‘freedom’ of the Weyrs. The other boy seemed perfectly at ease, pointing out a pretty young woman nearby, and even asking him about his own preferences in the easy going way that Ranen hadn’t quite yet adjusted to, even after two turns. He felt himself blushing slightly, in spite of himself. “Me? I…”
That was a good question, actually. Growing up he had never even realized there were men who didn’t chase after women all the time. His brothers certainly did, or at least talked about doing it. His oldest brother was even seeing this girl from another nearby hold, and had brought her by sometimes. She was nice, and pretty, and they were probably married by now. That was what he had grown up with. And then he came to the Weyr, and realized that that wasn’t exactly the way everyone thought. He didn’t have a problem with it (like, if he was honest, some of his family might), but he had never thought about it for himself. Until that flight, about a turn after he had gotten to the Weyr, when, caught up in the emotions in the air, he had found himself more than a little interested in a fellow male candidate. He was still trying to sort out his own mind.
“I guess you could say both?” he finally finished, managing to turn the statement into a kind of question. F’ren pretty clearly preferred women, but Ranen didn’t think the admission would bring scorn. It was one benefit of growing up in the Weyr- they seemed more tolerant about those kinds of things. After a pause, he laughed at his own discomfort. “It does take a lot of adjusting to get comfortable with some aspects of life here,” he admitted. “Even after two turns.”
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Post by Mello on Jun 28, 2010 9:00:19 GMT -5
Player name: Mello Character name: Ranen Are you alright with being left standing? Yes Are you alright with your character being maimed/attacked? 1-5: Yes, 4 Are you alright with your character suffering emotional damage? Yes
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Post by Mello on Jun 27, 2010 10:02:08 GMT -5
Six turns? Ranen grimaced. He couldn’t imagine being here another four turns, just going through Hatching after Hatching but never being successful. How could F’ren have taken that? Then again, he never would have thought he would still be here after two turns. And if he didn’t Impress, where would he go? No, as dismal as it sounded, he supposed that he could see himself still there in four turns. Although by then he would be 21, the very upper edge of candidacy. He hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
But F’ren had done it- he had been a candidate for turns, and still managed to Impress. And the things he was saying sounded almost like the thoughts that Ranen kept pushing away, because they wouldn’t help, really. That he was doing something wrong, or maybe that he just wasn’t good enough. Thoughts that had grown a little stronger each time he walked off the sands alone. But if F’ren had thought the same thing, it couldn’t be that strange, and he had Impressed too. That must be a good sign.
Ranen didn’t often accept offers of help, especially offers to talk. It just wasn’t something he could have done at home. After his mother died, he had accepted his fate to keep things to himself. But F’ren had been through what he was going through… maybe he wouldn’t judge. Maybe it would be okay. So Ranen nodded almost hesitantly with a slight smile, hoping his nervousness didn’t show too much. “Thanks,” he said. “I’ll have to take you up on that sometime.” Not today- he wasn’t ready for that. But maybe someday he would be ready to talk, and it was comforting knowing there was someone he could track down to do so. It was strange how comfortable he could feel at the Weyr sometimes. Was that a good thing or a bad thing?
He forced himself to perk up and change the topic, not wanting to dwell on things. “So you grew up in the Weyr? What was that like?” He had gone through a phase where he had wished he had been born to Riders. Although he had since decided he liked growing up with his family too much to really wish he had had something different, the children of the Weyr still drew his attention.
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Post by Mello on Jun 25, 2010 22:45:29 GMT -5
Ranen was relieved to see that all the candidates who had arrived before him had evidently remembered to show respect to the great Queen and to the Weyrwoman. Not that is was necessarily easy to forget, at least in his mind, with the protective force looming over the eggs, but he had seen candidates forget before, and generally it was not a happy time for anyone. He wanted this chance more than anything he had wanted since… well, since the last Hatching he had attended, and he didn’t want to let anyone interfere with it. When Trith gave her permission, he bowed once more. “Thank you,” he said, simply but hopefully with at least a little of the emotion he was feeling behind it.
Then he stepped carefully towards the eggs, trying to take them all in. He had seen bigger clutches, but this one seemed just as perfect as they always did. Eggs with bright, loud colors mixed with eggs with a more subtle color in a kind of balance. There was such a beauty about the eggs- the hopes of the candidates and even of the future of the Weyr contained in such fragile looking shells. It could take your breath away, if you stopped to think about it.
After he felt like he had seen a little of all of them, Ranen came closer, ready to finally touch them. He first came to the Colisa Egg, simply admiring it’s subtle beauty for a moment before carefully laying his hand against the shell. It was warm, and Ranen marveled at that unique feeling that dragon eggs always seemed to have, so different from anything else he had ever felt. Red and yellow swirled under his hand, and he smiled softly as the warmth from the egg suddenly seemed visual, as though the warm colors were a reflection of the heat of the egg.
Moving away after a few minutes in case others wanted to approach the egg, he moved towards a completely different egg, covered in splashes of all different colors in an eye-catching display. Ranen guessed that whoever the little dragon inside the Poecildae Egg would have their hands full, if the occupant was at all as showy as their shell. But, despite its brilliant appearance, it had the same warmth as its fellow clutchmates, and once more Ranen smiled. His hand against the shell felt warm, but it was more than that- he felt warm inside too. Being around the eggs always seemed to have that kind of effect on him.
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Post by Mello on Jun 24, 2010 20:30:25 GMT -5
Ranen gave F’ren another smile. He was pretty obviously embarrassed about his actions, but Ranen hadn’t been exaggerating when he had said he had seen worse. He had watched all three of his older brothers go through their teenage years, and had gone through them himself. Working all day made you even hungrier, and then without his mother around to make them behave… Aldzia tried to keep them all in line, but wasn’t always very successful. Ranen just saw it as part of life there, one more aspect of living and working with your whole family all the time.
F’ren seemed almost surprised when he mentioned his brothers, and Ranen couldn’t help but laugh. “Four brothers,” he agreed. “But two sisters, too,” he added. “I was the fifth out of seven.” It was almost strange thinking about his family. People had asked him about them when he first got to Southern, but he hadn’t liked to talk about them much back then. He was still homesick, and talking just seemed to make it even worse. By the time he got over it, people had mostly stopped asking him, having marked him as someone who simply didn’t want to talk about the past.
“Yes, I’m a candidate,” he confirmed. “I… I guess I missed them a lot at first.” Coming to the Weyr had been a shock in many ways, but one of the most startling had been not having his family around. It had been the first time since he was born that he hadn’t been around at least one or two of his family members, and it had taken some time to get used to. “I’ve been a candidate for a while though- I was at Southern for two turns before I came here. I guess I’ve adjusted.” He shrugged slightly and offered half a smile. “Although if I ever do Impress, I want to go back for a visit.” And show them I’m not a failure, he added silently. Someday he would be able to go back and show his dad that his leaving wasn’t because he was chasing hopeless dreams.
“How about you?” he asked, trying not to dwell on his thoughts and the uncertainty of his future. “Was it hard when you were a candidate?”
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Post by Mello on Jun 23, 2010 22:46:15 GMT -5
It wasn’t exactly late, but it had been a long day for Ranen. He had made sure to get his chores done as soon as possible in the morning so that he would have the afternoon to explore a bit more and possibly meet some more people. It sometimes felt as though he hadn’t been at Cerulean Weyr long, and in some ways he really hadn’t, but every day that passed was another opportunity. It was fit in or be left out, and Ranen was determined to fit in. So with that goal in mind he had put everything he had into his chores, and gotten everything done fairly quickly.
After a quick stop for some food, he headed back to the barracks to change before he began exploring. But just as he was heading out the door, he heard a voice in his head- Trith, calling the candidates to come for the Touching.
It wasn’t like Ranen had never been to a Touching before; in fact, he tried to forget how many times he had stood there, hopefully imagining that the dragon hidden inside the leathery shell might chose him. But no matter how many time he had gone through it, it still a thrill through him, a strange feeling of hope and excitement mixed with fear that was matched only by the thrill of the actual Hatching. And so, after taking a moment to compose himself, he headed off towards the Hatching Sands.
Entering, he saw that several other candidates were already there. He made his way to stand with the group, stopping a respectful distance from the great Queen and her eggs. He remembered the first time he had stood there, nearly shaking with uncertainty and fear and stammering out his respects. If nothing else, he thought with just a hint of cynicism, at least I’ve learned to be more comfortable in these situations. He tried to push away those old memories. This was his new chance, and Ranen was determined to make the most out of his opportunity, which began with not dwelling on the past. He bowed carefully. “Good day to you, Trith, and to you, Weyrwoman,” he said as he straightened once more. “Might I have your permission to approach your eggs?”
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Post by Mello on Jun 23, 2010 22:24:25 GMT -5
Ranen had seen many of the people left in the Hall already, but there were a few new to him, and he watched them as best he could without making his observations obvious. There was one table that was particularly interesting, two of the people sitting there apparently arguing about something, and he was so lost in his thoughts and imaginings about the people sitting there that he didn't even notice the other boy until he sat down across from him.
He wasn't necessarily surprised that someone had joined him. It had happened quite often at Southern, at first. People would see him sitting alone and assume he was lonely. It was just one more way he could get to know the inhabitants of the Weyr and begin to find his own place though so, although he wasn't as lonely as the people who joined him often seemed to imagine he was, he generally enjoyed the encounters.
Upon sitting down, however, the other boy took a large bite of his roll and seemed to spend the next few minutes trying to clear his mouth. Ranen tried to hide a smile at the other boy's predicament.
Finally he swallowed, offered Ranen his hand, and introduced himself as F'ren. Ranen wasn't particularly surprised to learn he was a rider, but it did make meeting him even more valuable. If only he could figure out what he was doing wrong... Ranen knew there wasn't really much he could do. He had heard story after story of how the most likely candidates were sometimes left standing while the ones no one thought had a chance Impressed, and had even seen it himself more than once. But the less rational side of his brain suggested that maybe he could learn something, some way to become acceptable at the next Impression. Like there was some secret that he just didn't know, and if he learned it everything would work out this time.
But that wasn't the time or place for such trains of thoughts. Pushing those thoughts aside and hoping F'ren hadn't noticed his brief lapse of attention, Ranen shook the other boy's hand and gave him a smile. "I'm Ranen. And don't worry. I have four brothers and we used to spend all day working and then come home absolutely starving, so I've seen much worse."
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Post by Mello on Jun 22, 2010 10:25:34 GMT -5
Who: Ranen and anyone else who might happen along What: Just hanging out When: a little after noon Where: Great Hall Warnings: nope The lunch rush had just gone through, and the Hall had slowly emptied to about half full. At a small table against the wall, Ranen sat by himself, watching the people all around him. It was a kind of game, actually. Something he had started doing when he had first arrived at Southern. He had felt lost those first days, overwhelmed and out of place. He had been taken out of his family Hold and dropped somewhere so completely different for the first time in his life. It was as if he was trying to play a game, but no one had told him the rules. At first he had almost given in to the homesickness, and there were several times he had to fight back the urge to go find the rider who had brought him to this strange place and take him back, back to where everything made sense and he knew how things worked. But he had pushed those feelings aside, reminding himself why he was there. Ranen decided that he would learn to fit in, teach himself the rules. So he began spending a large portion of his free time in the Great Hall, especially around meal times. The people he was watching didn’t seem to realize the importance of their everyday interactions, but he did. He saw who was surrounded by people all the time, who was respected and listened to, who liked to force their way into groups. He saw who liked to be alone, or in small groups. He learned which people were important, and then saw who was invited to eat with them and who hung around on the outskirts, trying to pretend they had power but never actually getting it. He watched and he learned, and pretty soon he began to understand who was important and who had power, whether or not they had a title. And he felt more at home, at least enough so that he no longer wanted to go back to the Hold. And now, two turns later, he was at another new place. It wasn’t as strange; Ranen already knew a lot more than he had when he had first come to Southern. But it was still a new place, with new people, and so once again he found himself sitting against a wall with a cup of klah and a plate with half a roll on the table in front of him.
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Post by Mello on Jun 20, 2010 20:55:52 GMT -5
Ranen was not lost. Definitely not. All the way to the end of the corridor, and then a left, and the staircase should be right there, he was sure about it.
Or maybe not, he thought with more than a little frustration as he rounded the corner only to be met with another corridor and no stairs in sight. It wasn’t like the Weyr was that large- he shouldn’t have any problems getting around. Even though he had only been there for a few days, that was more than enough time to get accustomed to the layout of the area. But then again, he had rarely had to learn new places, spending most of his life at the same small hold and then two full turns at Southern. He had become complacent, he decided as he backtracked back down the corridor. He had allowed himself to get comfortable with his life at Southern, too comfortable. If he was going to make it at Cerulean, he was going to have to adjust.
With a new determination, he set off on what was surely going to be the right way. He passed one or two people, but carefully kept himself from asking for confirmation of the path. He had to learn, and getting lost was the best way to do that. He wasn’t even supposed to be on this level, really. He had been just wandering around, trying to get a feel for the Weyr that would hopefully become his new home when he had been stopped and asked to take something down to the library. He had found it easily enough, but had taken a wrong turn somewhere on the way out.
Finally he made the right turn and found a staircase, which he quickly took to emerge outside, in the area that was much more familiar. He sighed with relief as he tried reoriented himself, figuring out which way would take him back to the candidate barracks. But then he saw a dragon overhead, and then another, headed towards the same place. The hatching sands. There was an air of excitement surrounding the place, similar to when….
Pushing aside his plans to return to the candidate barracks, Ranen found himself making his way into the sands. He slipped inside, only to pause. The eggs were finally there, the objects of the attention of probably every person in the vicinity. Ranen wasn’t quite sure if his presence was expected or completely undesired, but he couldn’t really bring himself to leave. The eggs were there. He knew how important they were for the Weyr and its future, but for him they were much more than that. They were his new chance. Could one of them hold a dragon that would chose him?
Finally he forced himself to move, slipping into the stands where he might have a good view of the event without getting in his way. The last thing he wanted to do was get in the way and be sent out. Trying to be as quiet and invisible as possible, he found a place to watch and settled in.
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Post by Mello on Jun 14, 2010 23:04:38 GMT -5
Player: Name: Jordan Are you 17+?: yep Contact Information: AIM: firelizard035 Email: vadragonwriter@yahoo.com (but I never really check it, so it’s not the best way to get in touch with me) Past RP Experience: I’ve been off and on different boards since I was about 13 or 14. Most of what I’ve done is DRoP, although there were a few others.
Character: Name: Ranen Age: 17 Gender: Male Sexual Orientation: Considers himself bisexual Occupation: Candidate
Description: Ranen is slightly smaller than average. He is slightly below average height, and has yet to grow out of his more lanky teenage build, with some indication that he never quite will. His movement does not often reflect his lankiness, although he does have periodic moments of clumsiness or awkwardness in his movement, especially when he is being distracted by something. While it is not very apparent, his wiry frame does hide some strength in the form of muscles toned from turns of labor.
His hair is a medium brown reminiscent of tree bark, often with natural highlights of a slightly lighter brown due to long hours spent outside. He likes to keep it short, but often puts off getting it cut until it begins to get into his eyes, so it is more often than not at or nearing that point. His eyes are brown as well, a few shades darker than his hair.
He tends to not be very selective with regards to his clothing, settling for whatever fits. He is used to second hand clothing, and has rarely owned anything new. He does, however, take care to make sure he has clothes that are in good condition and suitable for work. When he has a choice, he prefers clothes that are not flashy at all, generally plain and in more neutral colors. His one constant when it comes to appearance is a necklace, made of a simple leather band holding a small clay ornament in the shape of a disk at the end, which he made for his mother when he was small and kept after she died. It’s one of his most prized possessions, and he very rarely takes it off.
Personality: Ranen puts a very high value on strength, both physical and mental. He will eagerly follow those who he sees as strong, but has a much harder time when he is put under someone who he thinks is weak in some way. He tends to look down on those who he perceives as capable of being strong, but who choose in some way to remain weak, such as by avoiding physical labor of some sort or by refusing to learn the skills necessary to be useful in a new situation. On the other hand, he does not tolerate bullies at all. If he sees someone being bullied he will interfere against the bully. If the one being bullied seems simply resigned to their fate, however, he will not hesitate to berate them after he saves them.
He was never very strong with formal education, despite his love for stories, so he does not read or write particularly well, and only learned a minimum of songs from the hold’s Harper. Similarly, he was never very committed to his lessons as a candidate, although he has spent so much time in the role. However, his need to adapt has led him to gain a great deal of understanding simply from being a part of a Weyr. He also has picked up a little of knowledge in several skill areas, especially in the areas of chores that are commonly assigned to candidates.
He can be very stubborn at times, especially when he decides to do something to better himself in some way. This has encouraged him to learn a lot about the Weyr, including many of the jobs needed to keep it running. On the other hand, before coming to the Weyr his determination led fairly quickly to success. His time as a candidate, so far a failure in his eyes, has led him to begin to doubt his own determination and its ability to take him anywhere he wants to go, something that has been an important part of his outlook on the world for most of his life.
Ranen’s view of the world is further conflicted by his change from the hold to the Weyr. He spent many turns following the values of his father and his brother instead of determining his own beliefs, so he can find it hard to separate who he really is from who they expected him to be when it comes to views of strength, views of what a man should be, views of women, or many other aspects of life. This can lead him to back away from situations if he can’t determine how to act, which can appear as shyness when he is in new settings. However, the longer he spends at the Weyr, the more comfortable he is with himself, and the more he is able to connect to new people and situations in a shorter amount of time.
After many turns, hiding his love of stories has become a sort of habit. However, his love has not diminished any since he first listened to his mother’s tales. He still likes to be by himself on occasion, to dream up new stories in new faraway lands, but has never learned to admit this secret love of fantasy and imagination.
History: When Tyald, a small holder near Southern, met Issbel, the daughter of another local holder, the two quickly fell in love. They married with dreams of starting a family together, with plenty of boys to help Tyald with the difficult work required to keep the small hold running. It wasn’t long before those dreams began to be realized, when Issbel gave birth to a boy, Tanil. A turn later another boy, Coyer, was born, followed two turns later by the couple’s first girl, Aldzia and then barely a turn later by another boy, Tanon. As the children thrived and the hold flourished, it appeared as though they were going to get everything they had wanted.
Three turns later, Issbel gave birth to another boy, who they named Ranen after Issbel’s favorite uncle. At first Ranen was just like his older siblings. However, when he was five the boy came down with what seemed to be a cold, but quickly turned into something worse. Although not generally the type to panic, Ranen’s illness scared his mother so badly that she convinced his father to send for a healer. Luckily, the healer was able to save him, but as a result of the sickness, Ranen seemed more likely to fall ill than his siblings, even his infant baby brother, Kalar.
Issbel had been shaken by the illness, and by the colds that persistently followed, and took a special interest in Ranen. While his older siblings were needed to work, Ranen was kept indoors with his mother for several turns, helping with the work around the house or just outside, but spared the more grueling work in the fields because of his health. There were many days where it was just Issbel and Ranen in the house with baby Kalar. Issbel used the extra time with her son to tell him the stories she had grown up with and enjoyed so much. His afternoons were filled with tales of heroic dragonriders, evil villains, daring plots, and faraway lands filled with strange people. Ranen loved the tales, and even began to make up his own endings to some of his favorites.
However, eventually he began to recover from his illness, and his bouts of sickness became less severe and less common. By the time he was eight, he was deemed well enough to begin working away from his mother, learning the skills his older brothers had been learning all their lives. In addition to being the youngest working, he had also missed out on several years of experience doing the easier jobs which nevertheless would have built strength and endurance. Small for his age and ignorant to the practices of the work of his brothers and father, he quickly became a target for the ridicule of the older boys. The more Ranen’s health improved, the more he was allowed to work in the field, and the more he was teased and bullied by his brothers. Occasionally, the situations even turned slightly violent, and while Tyald always managed to appear to stop those before they became life threatening, there was more than one occasion Ranen had to go home with a black eye or a cut on his arm. He quickly learned that telling his parents the truth might get them extra chores, but it would also result in even more torment, and so he finally stopped telling them. His creative energy, once used to think up stories about faraway lands, now was directed towards creating stories about how he hadn’t seen that log until he tripped over it and hit his face, or how he had run into the fence accidently.
By the time Ranen was fully healed, Issbel was distracted by the antics of the toddler Kalar and by her own pregnancy. Tragedy struck, however, when she went into labor. Although the baby was a perfectly healthy girl named Essny, Issbel didn’t recover from the birth and passed away. Issbel’s passing was hard for the whole family, but Ranen felt the loss especially strongly. He felt as though he had lost the one person he could count on to listen to his stories without mocking them.
With his mother and her world gone, Ranen threw himself completely into the world of his father. He became determined to learn everything he had missed about farming and holding, and even began to learn a little about hand to hand fighting by watching his brothers wrestling and by consulting anyone who would listen to him. Eventually he was no longer the lost, weak little boy who didn’t know anything about the world his father and brothers lived in. He remembered the stories, and tried to find time to spend in his own imagination, but being lost in his own mind simply led to a return of the teasing, and so he learned to limit such activities to when he was alone, which ended up being rarer and rarer.
Things continued in pretty much the same way for some turns. However, when Ranen was 15, he was visiting Southern Hold with his father, brining in some of the most recent crops, when he was stopped by a rider. At first he was sure that the man was joking with him, involved in some kind of prank initiated by one of his brothers, but when he took the teenager to see his blue dragon, Ranen realized that some of his earliest dreams, dreams he had long ago pushed away, actually had a chance of coming true. At first, his father wouldn’t agree to let him go, saying that he was needed at the hold. To Ranen’s surprise, his older brother Tanon came to his defense, pointing out that it was what their mother would have wanted for him. Finally his father gave in, although he sternly warned Ranen to not come back if he would just be a disgrace to the family.
For the next two turns, Ranen lived at Southern Weyr as a candidate. He stood at every Hatching, but always unsuccessfully. While he was there, he threw himself into learning the skills needed to be useful to the Weyr. Still, his continuous failures began to wear at him. When he heard that the remnants of Silver Cove Weyr were relocating to Cerulean Weyr, and were in need of people, including candidates, he volunteered to transfer, hoping that he would have more luck at the new Weyr than at Southern.
Fun Facts: He can get slightly claustrophobic at times.
Puntius Brown Name: Olloth Description – BBAC81 – The Puntius Brown is mostly a pale sandy brown in color, though the lack of luster to his hide negates the otherwise likely possibility of being mistaken for a small bronze. Somewhat larger than the average brown, his limbs and wings are all fairly proportionate to his lightly muscled body, and he strikes a cutting figure in the sun. The sandy color deepens around the outer tips of his wings and the line of large, jagged ridges down his back in an almost variegated pattern of light stripes. The novel coloration isn't easily visible unless struck by light in the correct angle. One other large patch of the slightly darker color covers nearly his entire left foreleg, a bit more noticeable than the stripes.
He has shortish headknobs and a more rounded head. All in all, this brown is fairly typical of his predecessors in endurance and maneuverability, though his slightly lengthened wingtips will give him better dive management. He walks with a bit more grace than can usually be noted of the larger dragons, seeming more at ease with his form on the ground than is typical.
Personality – This brown is fairly vocal, happy to trumpet his feelings on whatever his fancy carries at that moment. To this point, he is efficacious in getting others to join in with him, and he can sometimes set off the entire Weyr in a uproar over something silly, or for the simple joy at being alive and healthy. He quite enjoys the company of other browns and even bronzes over many of the other colors, but he has a need to be around people and dragons period. He will likely develop into a more independent adult dragon, but as a hatchling he will want his bonded around him constantly.
To his rider, they are equals. Clearly, he chose his bonded because he was worthy, right? He loves his rider, but has difficulty expressing it in a way that wouldn't make him feel overly needy – a conundrum that he battles with as he needs to be around his bonded but tries to not show it. He likes to feel self-motivated and self-sustaining, despite how much he admires his bonded. To this end, he would do well with his rider in a Wingsecond position as he holds himself to that high of a standard as well.
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