Elori . Candidate }{ WiP

[mousy]

Username: mousy
Character Number: third

Name: Elori
Honorific: El'ri
Age: 17 turns
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Bi-curious
Rank: Candidate
Wing: Ground-Crew
Status: Healthy, if incredibly stressed-out

Appearance:

6’0” . Average build . Short, wavy, dark brown hair . Hazel eyes . Dresses smartly . Always carries a bullwhip

Still incredibly cute and young-looking, Elori isn’t going to be believed when he says he’s seventeen turns old for a while yet. He’s still got that shy, puppyish look to him, which he wishes he would outgrow sometime soon (although he almost certainly won’t). While this can sometimes be a disadvantage – he looks around fourteen turns, even though he isn’t -, it doesn’t have too much of an effect on his day-to-day life: people still don’t notice him, because he is, practically, a wall, which, while it annoys him (because he can’t get a word in edgeways: no-one notices him, and if they do they pretend he isn’t there), he will acknowledge that it is, indeed, convenient – he’s in your weyr, listening to your conversations. And you still haven’t noticed.

Pretty much the only thing that particularly sets Elori apart from actual fourteen-turn-olds, apart from his voice, is his height. While not exceptionally tall, he is taller than your average fourteen-turn-old, by far, standing at around six foot, although he looks quite significantly shorter than that, because he’s usually rather hunched over. Although he’s relatively tall, however, he isn’t particularly gangly, like most makes of his age. He’s managed to shed all the puppy-fat that isn’t around his face (particularly his cheeks – argh!), but he isn’t muscular either – not particularly. He’s somewhere in between the two, thin enough not to be particularly strong, but muscular enough to be able to do some of the more grueling chores. And rather cute, at the same time – pretty much a good thing.

Elori is very fond of his hair. It is short and dark-enough brown to look black, and rather wavy. He really likes it, even though there isn’t really that much he can do with it: it just about straggles to his jaw if he’s lucky, and if not it’s even shorter. It’s still rather cute, and everyone he meets like to play for no apparent reason with it, other than the fact that it is there, and looks like it would be fun to play with. He accepts this as his fate, though, and it doesn’t bother him too much. He also has hazel eyes, a rather dark shade of the colour, more brown, but just about hazel. He also has rather high cheekbones.

Lastly, there is one thing that Lori is never without, and that thing is a bullwhip. It's long – about three feet -, and, when he can actually manage to crack it, it makes an incredibly satisfying noise. He usually can't manage, though, so it usually doesn't get to make any noise. It lives in one of his bags, and he uses to to protect himself. Or just to annoy Gally; whichever is convenient.

Personality:

Sweet . Paternal . Shy . Quiet . Distrustful . Friendly . Put-Upon . Spineless . Vaguely masochistic . Dark sense of humour . Chivalrous . Eccentric . Good-hearted . Emotional . Illogical . Slapdash . Wallflower . Oblivious . Prone to being vengeful . Cowardly

Not unfriendly to some but at the same time not particularly friendly to others, Elori is pretty much every teenage boy, or at least at first glance. While he does spend a long time sitting and staring in to space, he’ll happily do a lot of work. However, while Elori can sometimes appear scheming and vindictive, he is one of those people who is basically good-hearted, and gives off a noticeable aura of this, even when he is sulking or staring off in to space, because he spends a long time doing both of these – he is, after all, still a teenager. And, let’s face it, he’s always going to be ready to talk to someone if they need to talk to him – it’s just how he is. Basically, he is, incidentally, the Candidates’ resident comfort blanket (since he was a Candidate with some of the present Candidates, and he is just generally nice guy), and basically the person that people will come and cry on to if they need to.

Lori has always been incredibly put-upon: because he is rather spineless, he always tends to take the bad jobs, because he isn't that much good at saying "no" to anyone - and really, he is completely spineless. Friendly, yes, but completely spineless. He really cannot say no (or, in some cases, yes. In other cases, he can't say anything). This really doesn't have any advantages, and, as a result, he is often incredibly stressy, and, as a result, over-emotional, although he's over-emotional in the first place. He tends to fly between incredibly happy and chatting to his friends, sobbing uncontrollably and incredibly angry in the blink of an eye. It isn't easy to explain, but... yeah, he's rather unpredictable, in that sense. Even so, he always seems to have everyone's best interests at heart, and... well, he's basically extremely good-hearted, and he really would let anyone walk all over him (even when he isn't in such a good mood).

Let me just settle this: Lori. Is. Absolutely. Spineless. He really just lets everyone walk all over him, and, when he is known to threateningly brandish his Bullwhip at people, he really isn't capable of doing anything to protect himself – or Briia: it seems to be most of why she broke up with him. However, he isn't all sweetness and light: he can actually be quite bleak, and his sense of humour is very... well, he has probably the darkest sense of humour it is possible to have. He is also extremely distrustful, despite appearing extremely friendly: while he has his friends, they are his friends, and it is extremely unlikely that he is going to make any more, despite his comfort-blanket status amongst the Candidates.

Oh, one final thing: while Elori seems quiet and gentle, there is a darker side to this boy, and that darker side is his vengeful nature. Sure, he acts sweet and quiet, and sure he really is extremely friendly to people he actually likes, but... well, if you annoy him, there is every chance that he will come after you with a bull-whip, and attack you. This is perfectly normal, although it is a bid odd. And he recovers his usual self quickly; gets back to normal. Although he generally doesn't notice people insulting him: he's far too oblivious for that, because he doesn't really hear, and if he is it goes straight over his head.

History:

From when Elori was born, it was obvious that he was not what his parents had wanted. They wanted a quiet, unemotional baby (or, failing that, a happy, cooing baby), not the sobbing thing that entered the world, which they named Elori, and, even when he was baby, it was obvious that his father – Eri, a Craftsman – was not happy with his son, and would, no doubt, have traded him in an instant. And, from an early age, little Elori could tell that his father didn’t really love him – and that his mother felt similarly -, although it never really bothered him. He just wanted food, drink and a warm bed. That was all he really needed – although a little love would have been nice, too. Although he rapidly accepted that he would never really get any affection. He was unpopular with his whole family, and this rubbed off on the rest of the Hold.

So, little Elori had no friends.

Ouch.

And then, when he was two, Elori’s parents had another child. It didn’t bother Elori – not really -, but the other child was so much quieter, and had all of El’s parents’ attention and affection. Elori, essentially, had to look after himself from then on. And he suddenly resented the new child. And so, in a fit of jealous rage, Elori took the baby out, when he was just walking, and tried to drown him. At this time he was just about three turns old, and the baby one turn, still wide-eyed and idealistic, and, above it all, he still looked up to his big brother – it was just a shame that Elori was out to get him.

It was lucky that someone – as it happened the family of a young boy a couple of months older than Elori – found him, just when Elori was about to throw Eli in to the water, or Elori probably wouldn’t still be here. They took Eli and Elori back to their home, where, as it happened, they stayed for a while, allowing a boy called Galanar – the son of this other family – and Elori played together. And, for a while, all seemed relatively peaceful.

Galanar and Elori became fast friends: Galanar was a confident young boy, and incredibly good at getting his friend to come out of his skin and talk for once. Likewise, Elori kept Gally quiet and let others get a word in edgeways when others were speaking. All in all, there were a mismatched, but no less interesting, combination.

Galanar’s family were all Jounreymen, and, because Elori was almost a second son, he was allowed to accompany them on their missions to get things and sell things and generally do things. In fact, he almost became a member of the family.

One Hold they visited was one where Galanar and his family had already lived. This was when they were 12 (in Elori’s case) and 11 (in Galanar’s), and, of course, Elori met Gally’s friends: Nademe, Rhua, Shaina, Leea, Eeia, Taghan, Ilerna, Kelinn, Serro and Anii.

Oh, right.

And Briia.

Briia... Well, let's say that she was extremely nice, for the time being. She was, while incredibly talkative, very kind and... well, calm is the wrong word. But still, Elori fell for her at first sight. Galanar thought he was an absolute lunatic, but, well, who was he to judge?

The Hold was quite a big one, and Beholden to a Weyr named Solace, where most of the other kids (they would sit around on warm evenings under a tree and chat) assumed they would go: Nademe wanted to become a Dragon Candidate, Rhua wanted to be a Wher Candidate. This was pretty much true of all of them.

Well, all of them apart from Anii and Briia.

They were almost like sisters, Elori realized rapidly. Even though they were not sisters (and just extremely close friends), they looked similar; dressed in a similar way. And they both wanted to be Dragon (or Wher) Healers. Neither one was aprticularly interested in being a Handler of DragonRider.

Eventually, Rhua left (having been Searched) for Solace Weyr to become a Candidate, with Nademe (Nademe was her girlfriend at the time) in tow. Elori cinsidered following them, but, instead, his parents dragged him back home. After a very long goodbye (to everyone, but also to Briia in particular), Galanar and Elori returned to the Hold.

The Hold where Galanar and Elori lived was also Beholden to Solace, and, as a result, the two of them rapidly started considering going to Solace.

Confirmation came, of course, when Lori and Gally were Searched, and they went to the Weyr with a Dragon Rider called L’augh (Elori found the name entertaining, but Galanar, and, indeed, the Bluerider himself, didn’t quite understand. Elori just spent the whole ride back grinning idiotically).

In any case, upon arriving at the Weyr, the first thing the boys did was to run in to Briia, Rhua, Nademe and Anii. Elori was, obviously, extremely awkward, but Galanar was very animated and chatty all of a sudden. Of course, Elori was in no mood to confess to liking Briia – he was way too socially awkward for that -, but, obviuosly, he told Rhua. She was extremely trustworthy and, well, a little distracted. She always way, though.

Anyway, the only advice Rhua had for Elori was to actually tell Briia how he felt. After all, if he just carried on being socially awkaward, well...

(She left this next bit open-ended, raising her eyebrows a little. He picked up on the hint, though, and decided that yes, he was going to tell Briia about his affections for her.)

And so, Elori, aged 14 Turns old, finally told Briia that he liked her. briia, while she at first seemed surprised, finally admitted that she, in fact, felt the same way, but very much doubted she was ever going to be able to get up the courage to tell him: she was, in fact, glad he had admitted to liking her.

And so, within a few days, the two of them were together.

Clutches came and went, and, of course, Elori stood for them. He didn't really want to: actually, the dragons (and Grenth) unsettled him, but... well, it was his job. He chatted to his friends and tried to make new friends.

Eventually, however, Rhua Impressed a Brown Wher, and moved in to the Wherling barracks. Rsk was not a pleasant Wher, and... well, he was very possessive as well. But Rhua put up with him (she was rather patient), and, eventually, he stopped being so anoyingly feisty. But still, he hated Elori (and the rest of Rhua's friends. He just aprticularly hated Elori).

It was always a commonly known fact that Elori had no spine, and nothing close to a spine, althouh pretty much everyone accepted this. However, at one point, this quality aprticularly came in to play:

“SHARD IT, GET BACK HERE!”

Elori nearly jumped out of his skin. He had been sleeping in the infirmary for a few nights now, with a superficial injury (a sprained ankle and a sprained wrist), and he had never heard anything like this. It really didn't sound good.

“DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH HER, YOU FECKING FREAK!”

That sounded like Galanar!

Lori jumped up, yelped when he put pressure on his injured foot, grabbed his whip out of his bag and ran in to the next room in a hurry. When he arrived, he was faced by a man he had never seen before, facing down against Briia and Anii, while Gally was in a corner, brandishing a knife at another man.

“Sh-shards,” Elori yelped, cracking the whip in the direction of one of the men.

{ history will saunter here – eventually }

Family:

Eri :: 37 :: Father :: Crafter
Emilis :: 35 :: Mother :: Housewife
Eli :: 15 :: Brother :: The “good” son