Post by ricci on Oct 31, 2011 22:14:10 GMT -5
Galanaven; 29 turns; Wherhandler of Bronze Galansk/"WherHealer"
...let them know you realize the sun does not go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round...
Name of Character: Galanaven (Nickname: Lana)
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Bisexual
Family Ties:
Mother: Deceased Alana of Green Avenuth
Father: A'vast of Brown Pirath
Half-Brother: Deceased Salanalay
Daughters: Salaya (11), Valenim (2) (both by Arim)
Sons: Vikimel (6) (Both by Akim)
Unknown Half-Siblings: All sorts born to A'vast.
Appearance:
Galanaven isn't a particularly tall or imposing figure. At the age of 29, he stands at a sturdy 5'6". So while not the shortest fellow in the Weyr, most men do stand above him, and while he's still tall enough to maintain an inch or two on most of the the ladies of the Weyr, he does occasionally find himself quite dwarfed. At least he doesn't find himself eye to eye with their breasts... most of the time. And Lana frankly can't say he's against the occasion that that does occur.
Anyways. What Lana lacks in general height, he has in muscle. He's sturdy, stocky and broad, with muscles building easily for a good... well, brown dragon build. When people get into the mood to describe friends and acquaintances as dragons, Lana fits the brown physically (and mentally; but we'll get to that...) to a tee. He's sturdy, and average sized, but bulky without being overly muscled. His scarless skin is a smooth tan, the result of a klah colored father, and a milk hued mother. His hair is brown and curled into loose ringlets, again, the combination of his mother and his father, her auburn hair and his tight black curls mixing into a warm brown with loose curls. He keeps it short, but long enough that each strand manages one or two curls before it reaches the end.
He has large hands and large feet, which look a little funny on him, because they are a little disproportionate, like he still has some growth left in him, though he has been done for many a-turn. He walks with a heavy step, unafraid of being heard, because he never had anything to fear for walking heavily, noticeably. Not only are his hands and feet large, but so is his nose. It's a bit of an unfortunate looking nose, really, a bit crooked and uneven, and a bit too large, a little too triangular, but in a strange lumpy sort of way. It's not necessarily unattractive, but it certainly doesn't fit with what people would call... well. Good looking. His overall appearance used to make up for that, but now rope-thick whiteish scars crisscross his face, cutting through his eyebrow and down his cheeks. He's clearly been through quite a bit physically in some way or another, and he'll have these scars for life to prove it. The scars run down his neck and across his chest, his pinky never moves on his left hand and there is intense scarring all along his left arm. His right leg, too, continues this awful scarring.
His lips are thick, pinkish and rather look very kissable when put aside from the scar-tissue. There's usually a bit of a shadow of hair on his upper lip, though it takes longer for the rest of the hair on his face to grow. He shaves regularly, and with his square jaw, that's probably a good thing. A beard would just look strange on him. Nevermind the chasm created by the scarring.
The most surprising, and certainly the most attractive portion of him though? His eyes. His wide eyes are large and framed with heavy dark lashes. They are a hazel hue, mostly green in the center, surrounded by brown, flecked with gold and blue. They are surprising in his dark face, exotic even. He shares the color of his eyes with his brother, though not their shape, as Lana's eyes are round and open, where Salanalay's were almond shaped. He's handsome, indeed, but certainly in his own way.
Personality:
Androgynous; Jovial; Well-meaning; Awkward; Loyal; Good humored; Laid back; Clumsy; Optimistic; Always Looking Forward
Lana is... ungendery. Though he physically appears quite solidly male, his personality can frequently say otherwise. In fact, his personality is absolute and totally androgynous. It's hard to explain. It's just this... laid back... He's comfortable with his body, and with who he is, and while he's quite firmly settled in "maleness," he just seriously doesn't care if he produces some sweet little giggle, or finds himself flirting femininely with some older man. He likes the color pink, and doesn't say it's because he's proud to be a man, or because he likes to have a man, but just because he does. Likewise, he also has times when he seems supercharged by testosterone. But most of the time, he's just firmly balanced in between.
Galanaven speaks softly and laughs often, in spite of the tragedies he has endured. Never looking behind him for longer than is necessary, he manages to remain jovial and good hearted, and he absolutely hates to hurt anybody, a trait that stems from the way he acted with his older brother. In his youth, it was his self-appointed duty to give Salanalay all that emotional love and care that he could, and eventually, this molded his own personality. Lana is excellent at keeping secrets, and is loyal to a fault. Even if his loyalty results in himself being hurt, he will follow people to the ends of the world if he must. But to enter this circle of people who he is so loyal to is pretty difficult. Even with this painfully strong loyalty, Lana is surprisingly laid back.
Ever since his mother and brother's death, Lana has been able to relax, no longer afraid of harming his brother by accident. As much as that might sound terrible, it is true that the loss of both were an important part of his growth, allowing him to enter a normal life. Though devastated by the loss of his brother, no longer having to walk on eggshells at all times has been positive, and with Galansk and the vast supportive network that he's developed within the Weyr, Lana has become an ultimately relaxed, laid-back guy. In fact, his laid back nature has become a bit of a clumsiness. He tends to walk without a care, which he did in his youth as well, but at least before he never knocked anything over. Now, rarely a sevenday passes without Lana having broken something. And he's so very laid back about it. It's no big deal, now! Where Salanalay would have frozen and panic to clean up any mess, Lana just sort of looks at it and cleans it as needed, but doesn't give it much thought.
Lana is an optimist, you see. Even when Alana was alive, Lana thought that she could still change, that things could get better. Even with the loss of his brother, Lana held on to the fact that at least Alana could no longer cause him anymore suffering, though he recognizes that it would have been best if nobody had ever lost their lives. What happened, happened, and Lana has found whatever positives there are that can come from such a loss. Likewise, whenever anything bad happens in the Weyr, Lana is certain that a brighter end is coming. After all, he has Galansk, right? It's Lana's optimism that saved him during his childhood, and that allows him to have such an easy demeanor now, as he exits young adult-hood. He's a sweet man, extremely friendly, always outgoing.
He always puts himself last, preferring to see others happy before bothering to care for himself. Fortunately, it's hard not to be happy around Lana, with as nice a guy as he is. He speaks well, with elegance, and is a bright young man. He studies hard, but finds himself at a loss with numbers. He certainly prefers his Beastcrafter studies to anything else, finding peace in working with them.
It has been suggested about Galanaven in the past five turns that he is, perhaps, not the best Sr. Wher"woman" the Weyr has ever seen, and that very may well be true. While Galansk is an ideal Queen, Lana is not the ideal Queen-Handler. Again, he's clumsy, he's relaxed, but there are some ways that that aids him. People want to listen to Lana, as kind and optimistic as he is. And the fact is, as optimistic as Lana is, there is a realistic conscience sitting inside his heart that tells him when looking at the sun, as beautiful as that seems, isn't a good idea. Lana is prone to mistakes, but he learns from them, and he takes criticism well (perhaps due to that laid-back nature). He takes everything with an even expression, and then plods forward to improve. In his first turn of being a Senior, Lana made many mistakes. Now, in his 5th turn of leadership, he only makes a few mistakes. And it's impossible to say that at 5 turns he is a veteran leader. So really, criticisms may come, but he hasn't been around for long, and he's willing to learn and improve, so maybe he isn't the worst Leader in the world.
History:
History:
My brother and me? We were different children.
He was three when I was born, and it was Salanalay who was my first memory. I can remember him sitting with me, our mother absent. He was a gangly little thing, and in that hazy first memory of him that I have, I remember wondering why I looked so different from both him and Mama. He would try to teach me how to say some things, and other times, he told me how unhappy he was, how he didn't understand why Mama didn't love him like she loved me. I didn't know. None of it made sense to me. My first memory was of him crying. And that is far too like many other memories from my childhood.
I don't know why Mama hated him, but she did.
Compared to Salanalay, my childhood was almost normal. I went to lessons, I played with other children, I dreamed of dragonriding... But when I was home in my mother's weyr, things were different. Salanalay was a broken child, while I was apparently made of precious metals. Mama loved me, and showered me with gifts regularly, with marks that she saved. She was excellent with her marks. While I never did really understand my numbers, Mama was wonderful with them. She was a Healer, and needed maths when she was giving out medicine. That's what she explained to me one day when she brought me to work with her, to show off everything I could do, and I asked her why she was doing math. I was five, maybe six. I had just started learning how to add numbers together, and while most of my classmates got it, I was stuck.
It's kind of strange, really, the way I always hoped for her to change, for her to see how awesome my brother was. I loved Salanalay, and still do. He's my brother, my best friend in all the world. I did my best to show Salanalay this. I would always play with him, joke with him. If I had the choice between going out and playing with my friends and staying back in the weyr, I would stay back with Salanalay. Unfortunately, Mama eventually noticed this. And while she still let me stay with Salanalay, she would always come home and hurt him for something that I apparently did wrong, that he was horrid, a waste of space... She would beat him for not watching me properly. I told Salanalay that I wouldn't stay in the weyr anymore, but Salanalay would have none of it. I didn't understand then, but I stayed. I understand now that for Salanalay, it was worth the beatings to have someone to love him and care for him, to have a companion.
None of my friends, nor my teachers knew of what happened in the weyr, though there were rumors, and occasionally I got into fights with other boys when they asked me about my "retarded brother." That's what Alana told everyone, that he was retarded, and had to stay in her weyr, because the outside world caused him to have convulsions and seizures. They believed her. She was a Healer, after all. No one believed me when I tried to say he wasn't retarded, when I tried to say he was very smart. That he was more my caretaker than I, his. It was just the fantastic ideas of an optimistic child. I never gave wind of the beatings. I didn't know how to bring it up. I didn't want to lose Mama, and I just...
I was naпve.
I thought Mama would change. But she never did.
She would selfishly bring home gifts for herself, and frequently give them to me. I tried to pass some along to Salanalay, but he was so selfless. He wouldn't let me. He'd say they were for me, and no one else, and to keep him. I know now that he was trying to protect me. He didn't want her to turn on me, so he made sure to keep up the status quo. Keep her happy, and I'd be safe. We were eachother's keepers, really.
It was for my eighth turn day that she gave me a fire-lizard egg, keeping two large ones to herself. They were from two separate Clutches, she said, both Golds. Two eggs Hatched together, one of her two, and my one. A little blue came out of the egg for me, and he stayed with me. I named him Eritz, because I thought it sounded interesting. Mama's egg produced a Gold, and she eagerly began to feed it meat, but to no avail. The little queen wouldn't have anything to do with her, and flew off. She took her rage out on Salanalay that day, saying he did something. The same thing happened when the second egg Hatched some days later.
Even her dragon, Avenuth, didn't like her.
I don't remember much about it, but I remember that she got Firehead, and that she didn't die from it. After that, whatever had been left of her mind from before was truly and utterly lost. On my brother's 12th turnday, a day that only he and I remembered to celebrate, Mama began to drink heavily. She drank, and drank, and screamed at Salanalay and me. I had never been screamed at by her, and I wasn't sure how to react. What do you do when you're normally the loved one, the favorite child, and suddenly your mother turns on you? I turned on her, and with all the strength of my ten-turn-old self, I smacked her in the face.
I barely remember what she said to me, but I remember what I said to her.
"Don't talk to me or my brother like that again. We're people, too," I told her. I don't remember if I yelled or whispered or talked like a normal person, but what she did next surprised me. She apologized, she apologized and told Salanalay and me that she loved us, and that she would do everything to fix what she had done to our lives, how she had ruined them... I didn't really understand, to be completely honest. I was ten turns old, and I thought I knew everything, but I was completely baffled by this.
When I went to bed that night, I asked Salanalay if he thought Mama was telling the truth.
"She don't never," was all he said before he went to his cot to sleep.
When I woke up, my family was gone.
I knew they were dead, but nobody would tell me how, or when, or why. Not for many Turns. I would eventually learn, long after Impressing Galansk, that my mother had stolen Salanalay away in the night. Avenuth had been too tired to fight, too exhausted, but she had managed to just barely tell Salanalay's father's dragon that Mama had lost her mind, and then they were gone, Between, never to be seen again. The keens, I am told, started slowly, with an awful lot of confusion. Nobody could understand why she had done this, nobody could believe that I had been telling the truth when I had tried to say that there was something wrong with Mama, and that Salanalay was normal...
I was confused and heartbroken though, right after their deaths, and I felt guilty because I missed Salanalay, but did not shed a single tear for Mama... I missed the gifts, I missed being spoiled, but... I knew deep inside my heart that so much had been wrong with my childhood. So I lived ignorant of this truth in the Crechй like a good boy and didn't say too much for my first turn out of my mother's reach. When I was 12, I was told I could stand to the egg, but I did not want to ride a dragon. I had started my Craft, by then, BeastHealing, and I usually worked at night with foaling mares, and looked forward to the thought of working with whers instead. So I opted to stand for them... The whers, that is. Though I did not blame Avenuth for what happened, and still do not, I could not imagine myself riding a dragon, even if I weren't doing my work at night. I attended the wher Hatchings, I worked my Craft, and I healed. It took me many turns to return to normal, and if it wasn't for Galansk, who Hatched at my very lowest point when I was 15 and horribly depressed, nearly suicidal, that I was able to smile again for real. It was him, with his simple logic, who was able to make me realize that I did not need to feel guilt for not mourning my mother. She was, as Galansk puts it, a "wherry-mother," unable to care for her own young. I miss Salanalay with all of my heart. He was my brother, my best friend, but life goes on, and at least he is no longer in pain.
You see, at fifteen turns, I couldn't understand that his pain had ended. Instead, pain was blossoming in my teenaged heart. I struggled with waking before midnight, and would often be asleep again by six in the morning, sleeping many hours at a time. I grew ill often, and often missed my lessons. I progressed slower than normal for an Apprentice of my age, and I didn't care. At 15, all the pain and sorrow of my loss had come to a head. I had been informed informed of the exact manner of Salanalay's death, of Alana's ultimate breakdown, and the fact that I could have done more to prevent it hit me like a rock to the back of my head. A half-turn before Galansk's egg Hatched, I wandered out of the Weyr in a fog. I woke a sevenday later in the infirmary's intensive care unit. A feline had attacked me as I wandered through the night, and the scars on my face and my paralyzed fifth digit is still here to show it. I thought that for sure I would not be allowed to Stand again, though my new disability was minor. My leg was broken from something -- I am not sure what, I don't remember the incident at all -- and after two months, the healing was complete and rehab began. I was lucky that when the next Hatching came around, I was ready to Stand to the egg again, but my heart wasn't into it.
Galansk was there, though, and he wasn't going to wait for me to catch up. He chose me instead of the other Candidate her dam had demanded to come to the egg, and we've been partners ever since. I relearned optimism, I relearned life because of him.
Wherling Training was completed a half-turn prior to my 18th Turnday, and life was feeling normal again. I started noticing others, seeing more than just friends in them, but potential lovers, be they serious relationships, or casual flings, both of which I have since had my share of. Indeed, I have my own group of offspring running about the Weyr anymore, though I check in on them often as my father did not, as Salanalay's father did not. My first child, Salaya, was born to Arim, a kind-hearted woman. She was many turns my senior, and had many children already. She had taken me on as something of a younger brother for at time, but somehow it developed into something not so familial. It was Arim's idea to name our daughter after my brother, cutting out only my mother's name. It's funny, really, because Arim has many traits that Salanalay had. She's much taller than I am, for one, and already, Salaya seems to be catching up to me in height. Her skin is also comparably paler than mine. Her eyes, though, are all Alana's. But I prefer to remember them as Salanalay's eyes. Salaya lives in her mother's weyr, interestingly enough, along with Valenim, just two turns of age, and by the same mother. Arim and I will never truly love eachother, as perhaps Weyrmates, and I do not live with them, but our relationship is special, and hopefully we are doing well by our daughters. I have had more than a few casual relationships besides Arim, though perhaps none have yet had the same sense of specialness. I have a single son by one of these relationships, Vikimel, by Akim. The name is so similar to Arim because, awkwardly enough, Akim and Arim are sisters.
Enough of my children for now, though I love them endlessly, and back to Galansk and my Craft.
Having a high-ranked Wher meant that right away, though, I was shoved into work, which meant that my Craft was put aside, at least until I was able to begin to focus on healing Whers instead of Runners. Though there are Healers who focus on dragons and whers, there are none who focus exclusively on these denizens of the night, and so I have turned all of my attention to Whers. The responsibility is heavy, but it is nothing I can't handle, so long as I keep focused on my patients.
I Impressed to Galansk five turns after the death of Salanalay, and we've taken it quite literally five years at a time. So, here's to another five turns, and another five turns after that, and so on. I've weathered the worst that I can imagine. I don't think anything can faze me after that. And with Southern, be it threat or otherwise, looming in the distance, that's a pretty good thing I expect.
Bronze Galansk
Species: Wher
Color: Bronze
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Heterosexual
Age: 14
Birth Season:Winter
Hex Codes: 006633 :: FF9900 :: 556600
Wing: Wingleader of Blackest Night
Appearance:
In build, Galansk is precisely what one should expect from a Bronze. He stands at the ideal height at the shoulder, and has a perfect blockish proportion from snout to tail fork. In all, perhaps because of his perfect proportions, Galansk is rather tiring to describe. He really is just an idea example of a wher. "Just" might sound bad, but it is true. He really is just perfect.
In coloration, Galansk is not so simple or average. In fact, there is very little on his hide that could easily be defined of as Bronze. Most, when the see him, immediately think Gold, or they think Green, because the primary colors of his hide are those. His base hide is a bright gold hue. Running across his hide are nearly runic angular patterns of a brilliant fresh green. The only true "bronze" (and on Pern, "bronzes" are rarely actually "bronze") is the lining of these runes, thin threads and miniature ropes of a true greeny Bronze. It is understandable that many don't believe Galanaven at first that Galansk is Bronze, given Galansk's feminine base hues, but a Bronze he is, as unusually colored or not. The thick runes on his hide are prone to rarely seeming recognizable to anyone by Lana, and even Lana more often than not can only truly recall one distinct marking. Settled against the left side of the front of Galansk's body, there is a T-like shape, green and lined in bronze on that same gold background. In actuality, it looks more like a W on top of a line. Something about it gives Lana the creeps, though, so while he tends to find himself tracing it, he does not like to dwell on it much.
Personality:
Bold, Compassionate, Honest, Gallant, Jealous, Impatient
Mindvoice: Grating on the mind like a broken radio, Galansk's voice has no volume control. Instead, he always speaks at the same level of "deafening." Regardless, he is capable of controlling to whom he broadcasts his voice to, much to most's pleasure. His voice has an old-timey military sound to it, a constant beat to his words, an almost-shout of a General at war. His voice is mid-ranged as far as the vocals go, sounding somewhere between a Baritone and a low Tenor. Even when he speaks kindly, he tends to bark out whatever he's saying. Only Lana has ever really grown accustomed to this, and likewise, only Lana can really tell whether or not the wher is in a good or bad mood. More often than not, Lana places his mood as "noble." Galansk wants to save the world, and he feels that he and Lana are destined for great things. In his mind, he is the knight in shining armor.
History:
Parents: Gold sk x Bronze sk
Egg: