Post by giftwrapped on Mar 30, 2011 18:39:22 GMT -5
K’bay
Name: K’bay (Kallabay)
Age: 26
Gender: Female
Prisoner: No
Craft/Rank: Journeyman Harper / Senior Weyrling
Appearance: In spite of her adoption of the male honorific, K’bay is not particularly masculine. Admittedly, she is tall, muscular, and broad-shouldered, but she still looks like a woman. Her height is not because of legs but because she is just proportionally large—built pretty much like a tree—and the width of her shoulders is offset by trim curves. She’s muscular in the manner of a dancer. Originally quite pale, her time at Warden’s has not yet managed to tan her. Instead, she burns. Then freckles. Then burns on what has not yet freckled. Because of this, she dresses in light, practical clothes that cover as much as possible and wears wide-brimmed hats whenever she can. Her hair is mahogany-brown and quite curly, cropped shoulder length but worn in either a messy bun or tight ponytail.
With features that are just as strong as her build—and a jaw so square that she could put some competitive boxers to shame—she is nothing stunning, but she is in possession of a certain ageless quality—it’s difficult to pinpoint how old she looks. Presumably she will age well. Her eyes are her most memorable feature: a striking, vibrant blue that is nonetheless warm, particularly when she smiles.
Personality: Passionate in everything she does, to a fault. K’bay subscribes to the philosophy of living life to the fullest. She works hard, and plays harder. All her energy is thrown into every moment of every day. Of course, this means that when something happens, good or bad, K’bay is going to react with the full force of her personality. When she’s happy, she’s one of the most pleasant people in the world to be around. Unfortunately, good days can turn into bad days in the blink of an eye: K’bay has a temper and is quick to strike—‘fiery’ would be a good, nonthreatening, mostly innacurate sort of euphemism for her.
She has an opinion on most things and is never afraid to state it—to her detriment, since once she’s made a decision, much can shake her from her stand. It's rare that she backs down on a claim she’s made previously. She often refuses to admit that she’s wrong, even when she knows she is, but will usually come around with time. And yelling.
Strong, intelligent, and determined, she makes her own way and let nobody tell her otherwise. Though she is capable of taking orders if she agrees with them, she is of the mind that if the person directing her is incompetent, it is her responsibility to take that leader’s place and do right by the people he or she may have misdirected. This tends to be a problem, considering that a Warden's rider has no right to boss any of her superiors. She sees no point in talking down to anyone, be they prisoner, wherhandler, guard, or dragonrider (although she is not afraid to speak harshly or cruelly to prisoners if needs be), but she is obscenely demanding. Everyone will receive approximately equal treatment—which means cautious evaluation for a great deal of time.
She expects people to prove themselves to her before they earn her respect. Her loyalty is to the Weyr (in this case, both Warden and Semith) as a whole, and then to herself and her dragon. Individual alliances come low on K’bay’s list, but she does try to make friends. The only exception to her demanding standards is children. K'bay loves kids. A whole lot. Kids and certain people that she takes to. It's not a specific type of person, not even a specific gender. But sometimes K'bay just takes to someone and it's impossible to change her mind. She loves fiercely in the same way that she does everything else—her aggressive passion can often be off-putting to those she does attach to.
And she doesn’t apologize. A K’bay apology rarely comes in words. Ninety percent of her apologies are nonverbal. If K’bay makes a verbal apology, it is either be to appease someone she doesn’t much respect (and is only halfheartedly made), or to immediately retract something she said when she went too far. Beyond that, she won’t say the words “I’m sorry” unless her life depends on it or she really wants someone to understand.
History: Dragons were not something initially expected for Kallabay. Born near High Reaches Hold, she wasn’t unfamiliar with the creatures, but though she had every child’s interest in the creatures, she simply didn’t expect anything to come of it. Her mother was a Harper, her father the Steward of a minor hold for one of his nephews. Kallabay didn’t want for much, that was certain, and her mother trained her as a Harper from the time she could walk. She learned to read at four, knew her Teaching Ballads by heart at five, and by age six she was learning to drum. It’s not surprising that as soon as she was old enough—a shockingly young ten—she was sent for classes at Harper Hall.
At the Hall, she spent two turns taking general classes—the sort of things that Holder children were put through, until she was old enough to enroll in a formal apprenticeship. And then, at twelve, she got down to business as an apprentice. By fourteen turns, her focus had become drumming. And as talented as she was at it, there was a problem. Drummers weren’t precisely constantly in-demand, and Kallabay wasn’t patient enough to study the craft until a vacancy opened up.
She was urged by her masters to take up another specialty, and when she took up dance, she was again urged to, “For Faranth’s sake, Kal, choose something practical!” Then aged fifteen, she grudgingly agreed to all the Harpers’ demands that she do something useful with her life, going into record-keeping and writing. Her impeccable penmanship and cheerful demeanor meant that she was well-received by many looking for someone to re-write records or take inventory or any of those neat little tasks a Harper and a scribe were needed for.
Somewhere around age nineteen, she walked the tables. And High Reaches Weyr needed a scribe. So Kal hitched up her big-girl trousers and moved cheerfully to the Weyr.
Dragon culture was good for her. Riders were good people. And the looseness of weyrlife suited a young woman who was only just coming into her own sexuality. A number of experimental trysts with folk of various ages and genders didn’t seem to help K’bay pin herself down any. She got careless, once, found herself pregnant at age twenty-one. A spur-of-the-moment decision, ill-advised and against the suggestion of the weyrhealer, meant that she decided to bring the child to turn. And nine months of sickness and misery and deciding that she hated being pregnant took its toll on K’bay. She didn’t want the child.
When it was born, it was taken away from her immediately, adopted by a pair who had lost their own prematurely-born child. And K’bay was all right with that. She never knew the sex of the baby, nor the identity of the adoptive parents. All she knew was that the child would be raised better by a committed couple than a promiscuous twentysomething. She returned to work as if nothing had happened—though she never did speak to the child’s father (a young, dashing hazel-eyed bluerider, she thinks) again.
Searched at twenty-three, she was tossed out on the Sands for several clutches and failed to Impress each time. But K’bay was restless, and before long she was eager to go elsewhere. When the offer of Candidates and eggs was made to Warden’s, she figured she would enlist and head along. Something different for a while, and it’d give her a chance to get away from former lovers and potential awkwardness. It would be a short, fun adventure and she’d be home in no time. She wasn’t really thinking clearly.
And she definitely hadn’t expected to Impress.
Other stuff: She has a kid out there somewhere. Should be about five by now.
Pets
Species: Firelizard
Color: Green
Appearance: Shards if K’bay knows. The little thing is badly-bonded and half-feral. The extent of her knowledge is "green."
Personality: Flighty, nervous, bitey, and impossible to handle. K'bay didn't bother paying attention to her when she accidentally Impressed her, and she grew up into a hot mess. She is not stupid and recognizes the faces of anyone she knows she can get food from, but courtesy of several turns' neglect in socialization, she is utterly untrainable. And impossible to communicate with. K’bay tends to pretend she doesn’t exist.
Lillath
Name: Lillath
Age: Sr. Weyrling
Color: Green
Appearance: Lillath is a dainty girl, a bright emerald eyecatching bit of dragon with an underbelly the color of wasabi. She is a large example of her breed, and a slightly rounded dragon, though with her frame it gives her a sleek appearance. Being streamlined, even with her size, means the green is quite a fast girl with stamina almost that of a blue, and damned near impossible to catch when she doesn't want to be caught.
Personality: A politician by nature, Lillath has no problem with apologizing and, at the very very least, sounding sincere in it. She was born to smooth over misunderstandings, play the PR person for her rider or any she likes, and she uses this smooth charm to her advantage. Lillath does not just shake out the wrinkles of a plan, she can actually turn the tables around so that the odds play out in her favor, and stay that way. A powerful force in and of herself, Lillath knows just what it is she is capable of, and damned straight she uses it.
While Hers is, at best, a rash creature, Lillath is forever level-headed; she sees no point in losing her temper, or acting out in petty revenge, saying things that you will only regret later. No, no, Lillath will leave that to all of those - fiery sorts. It's her job to speak gently and with great amounts of logic, appealing to a persons mind and maybe even emotions, rather than pissing them off for whatever reason. She isn't above being condescending if the situation calls for it, but like any proper side-step talking young lady, Lillath can make it sound as if she were agreeing with the person as opposed to just calling them a moron. Only K'bay will hear her snarkier side, the sharp and sometimes sour part that makes up the hidden part of Lillath's personality. What sort of politician thinks kind things, all of the time? Or, you know, ever?
That said, Lillath doesn't hate. Oh, she will sometimes disdain a person or dragon in particular, speak ill of them every so often to K'bay, but there are few things more distasteful than wasting energy hating someone. One doesn't need to earn her respect, they have a bit of it just having the balls enough to approach her and Hers (because, as they all know, K'bay is amazing and Lillath is the queen of slick), and they tend to gain even more if they can handle one of K'bay's outbursts with some amount of cheer or even when they talk back with just as much force as Hers. Stupidity irritates Lillath, as do those who bias dragons and riders on something as trivial as hide color. Sure, traditionalists have their points - Golds can control other dragons, Bronzes make more golds - so leadership positions for them aren't actually a bad thing.
But, really, why hate on the smaller colors? Oddities are interesting, if only because it gives one more leeway to talk circles around the haters and catch them on their game. And oh, does Lillath love her little web of words.
When it comes to Flights, Lillath remains relatively neutral; she will not allow herself to he caught by a male her rider dislikes, but she will otherwise ignore K'bay's wishes unless they coincide with her own. Now, if a male tried to force-catch her? The poor idiot would find himself clawed and bitten at by a large, fast, insulted dragon, even if he didn't succeed. It's not a smart idea to cross Lillath as she will own you. A smart dragon is a dangerous dragon.
Why me?
K'bay has that inner swagger, an attitude that Lillath finds horribly appealing. She will apologize for K'bay, and do her very best to keep the waves level in the wake of K'bay and her powerful personality, all while making it sound geniune. Lillath has no problem with K'bay wanting people to earn her respect, and that take-charge part of her is what makes K'bay priceless to the young greens eyes. K'bay gets herself a smooth-talking girl with a strong a mind as her own, with a memory for details, and a gentle way of manipulating others into forgiveness that tempers her own; the little dragon will try and keep K'bay from being the flame that destroys the forest, without putting the woman out. Hopefully, K'bay will take Lillath's opinions to heart at times, and let the dragon assist where she feels she can.
