K'dem of Green Taarith

[Ember]

K'dem

Formerly Kidem
27 (October 2994)
Male
Heterosexual
Holdrider / Seniour Journeyman Dolphineer

Physical Appearance;

Blue eyes. They are K'dem's most striking feature because they're an unforgivingly bright cornflower blue. Other than his eyes he's a fairly average man in appearance. He has a slightly thin face and soft features. Not very many sharp angles on this man. The only thing that lends a serious sense of masculinity is the neutrally serious expression that is usually on his face. The moment he starts to smile he loses any charm he might have as a man and turns into a boy-ish figure again. His short blonde hair borders on dirty-blonde and reaches only just past his ears. While he will comb it out it's also been known to be messy if he's too lazy to bother with it.

In build, K'dem is most definitely a swimmer. His frame is lined with lean muscles, though he's still a touch bulkier than pure swimming would allow. This is because K'dem is a regular sparring match participator. Still, he is nowhere near as bulky as some men and never will be. He has an overall thin frame. He stands at an average 5'9 as well. Really, one wouldn't pick him out as anything special in a crowd if his wardrobe didn't raise some brows. Especially not since he walks with a bit of a slouch as if trying not to be noticed.

Of course, as mentioned before, it would be easier to hide if he wore normal clothes. Or clothes at all, really. K'dem is so used to needing to be ready to go swimming at any time that he often forgets to wear a shirt. Or shoes. Often one can see K'dem simply wandering around in a pair of knee-length shorts and nothing else. When he does have need to wear proper clothes it tends to be light clothes - thin button-up plaid shirts are a staple of his. As are vests without an undershirt on. Perhaps he just doesn't care about his appearance or he has a bit of a quirky sense of style.

Personality;

K'dem is filled with the unwavering belief that he is invincible and is extremely confident in himself because of it. This confidence allows him to approach any task - and I do mean any - expecting to be succesful at it. For the most part this is true, if only because of the sheer dedication he has to everything he does. Usually he's a pretty serious guy because of this but during his rare free time he has a pretty quirky sense of humour: grandiose statements delivered with a sneaky grin, the odd all-out prank on a good friend, etc.. Usually it's pretty hard to get a straight answer out of him when he's in a joking mood simply because he'll turn it around with something amusingly false and not offer the truth.

Even when he's serious, K'dem interacts with others with a peculiar ease. With other men he's friendly if a little guarded. He's the type who forms many superficial friendships but tends not to have anything deeper than that. While not outright looking down on women, he feels compelled to help them out because he does see them as weaker. He's cordially flirtatious and not opposed to a roll in the hay, so to speak, and generally leaves it at that. Not to say he's not capable of deeper connections or love or whatnot. He just tends not to see the point in them. His dolphin had been enough before Taarith. The addition of the green made it harder to be bothered to form lasting connections with people.

K'dem is something of a pessimist: he always looks for the worst case scenario and then plans for it - and he's good at planning. Not unearthly so, but he tends to make sense and people tend to listen. Despite this inborn ability to lead, K'dem actively avoids in when he can. Much easier to be a competent follower than the leader on whom falls all the blame, right? He'll only step up to the role if absolutely needed (and his 'needed' tends to be if other people are being rediculously stupid). Why should it be his job to help everyone out? He managed just fine under his own power that others should be able to do that much too.

History;

Birth and Early Turns (2994-3002)
Kidem was born to Kitran and Demonas at Blossom Hold. More specifically, at the dolphincraft hall located there. His parents were both young apprentices at the time but they took great joy in his birth. For the most part he had as normal a young childhood as possible when he could more or less count his parents' dolphin partners as parents too. The only real blip in his young life was the attack on the dolphin hall when he was six turns old - while he didn't really remember it clearly he remembers stories about it and it heavily influenced him later in life. Still, the following two turns proved the family was too loyal to desert the crafthall and at eight turns old Kidem entered into an apprenticeship.

Apprenticeship (3002-3008)
Kidem excelled during his apprenticeship, quickly transitioning to senior apprenticeship despite being a bit young for it. He met his dolphin partner, Yua, when he was twelve turns old and she was five. It was not an easy start for the two since Kidem had difficulty connecting to others in a significant way and Yua was an especially shy girl. They managed it after a time because Kidem was determined to have Yua as a partner after watching her help other apprentices. He couldn't say he wanted to save people so he needed a partner that could make up for his lack of enthusiasm in that area. Kidem became a Journeyman at fourteen, just before the arrival of Kaegan to Selenitas.

Journeyman Status and Moving Out (3008-3013)
Kidem continued his training despite the beginnings of tension in the South - Thread aside because it had been falling for two turns already and didn't seem to be that big a deal - due to some silly Benden goldrider. He didn't care much for the war in general and was rather ambivalent towards dragonriders as a whole. He did, however, make sure he knew how to fight. He wasn't naive enough to think that just because they were in the South he didn't have to know how to defend himself. He didn't learn with a weapon other than his fists but that would do for him. Attacks and other unpleasant things at the weyr went ignored in favour of him deciding to leave home when he became a Senior Journeyman.

New Home and Being Searched (3013-3017)
Some might be shaken over moving to the other side of a gigantic lake but not Kidem. He relished it, actually. In his older turns his parents had become stifling to the young man - they heavily disproved of him participating in sparring matches and messy hook-ups with the girls. Besides, it put him even further away from Selentias Weyr which had just gotten more and more involved in the war. He most certainly did not want anything to do with that, especially once they got taken over. He much preferred working with Yua and very occasionally teaching apprentices and lower Journeymen.

That was, of course, until he got Searched by the new Selenitas. Oh, he'd heard about the earthquake - felt it himself, in fact - but he hadn't known what the taken-over Selenitas had done about it until the searcher found him and explained. Well huh. It sounded somewhat interesting and the new weyr was apparently close enough he could visit Yua any time he liked so...why not? The crafthall had been pressuring him to take on proper apprentices for a couple turn at that point and he was tired of it. Could hardly pressure him if he already had another (far easier) responsibility. And so Kidem had agreed to be Searched.

Impression and War (3018-3020)
Candidacy was rather boring for the man. Chores, lessons, more chores...the only real things that broke it up were the odd characters he met in the weyr. Casandra who was not blinded by the dragons' appeal and ended up with a wher, Olivia who pranked with him - and if he grew fond of her like an older brother...well, that was okay - and Lilu who gave him a rundown of weyrlinghood. The latter became something of a frenemy, cordial but with an undercurrent of antagonistic tension between the two. His candidacy ended that turn though not how he imagined: he actually Impressed. To a green named Taarith, at that!

As far as life partners go, K'dem grew accustomed to Taarith fairly quickly once the initial dumbfoundedness wore off. She and him fit well together, both fairly calm in nature except for those moments when they weren't. Nature drew the green and K'dem, once she could fly, had her bring them out the Blossom Lake where he grew up. Her reaction suggested that the destiny talk she had spouted at Impression might just be true. So yes, K'dem let the green into his heart and the two grew close in their bond. Close enough to let him even be receptive to her clutchmates' riders. He was fond enough of most, if not all, of them. He was rather glad they were all deemed too young for the final battles.

The only real hiccup in the relationship was Taarith's first flight. K'dem was not scared of much in his life, and certainly not the act of sex. A flight, however, required a certain loss of control on his part. Oh, he knew some riders could resist their dragons' influence but he knew without pretending otherwise that Taarith would take him over completely. She did but in the end it wasn't as bad as he thought. Taarith was still very much herself in her flights and they had always matched in peculiar ways. He counted his blessings that it was Chaoth that moved Taarith the most and his first flight experience was with a woman.

Merridan was interesting to K'dem. She was a very unusual person to him and he found himself talking to her over meals. Meals eventually became dates and the two spent a great deal of time together, K'dem letting whatever was happening take its own course. Which is, of course, when that silly old Summit decided Crafters couldn't stay in the Weyrs. K'dem found it ironic that now that he wanted to be at a Weyr he wasn't allowed to. Rumbling at the indecency of throwing Selenitas - which had never done much harm on a global scale, really - into such disarray K'dem chose to go to Blossom Hold. He didn't expect Merridan to follow him to the Hold but he also didn't expect her to break things off.

Home Once Again (3020-present)
K'dem's return to Blossom after so many long years had his parents overjoyed and if he was a bit sullen over Merridan ending things so easily they ignored it. For people used to calling dolphins family, getting used to Taarith wasn't actually all that hard for his family. The man adjusted to his old life over the turns and even took on an apprentice or two. He still visited people he had grown to like frequently as well. Didn't mean he was any less pissed about the Summit turns back.

Taarith

4 (August 3018)
Green #A2B39E) #A8FF91)

Physical Appearance;

This green's hide is primarily grey-green, light and slightly variegated as if she actually was covered in dust. Her skin actually feels a bit gritty, even immediately after she is bathed, and the tiny slightly raised bumps only increase the dusty look. If that was it, Taarith would likely be one of the plainest and, frankly, least attractively colored dragons in the Weyr. Luckily for her, though, that is not the case. Scattered all over her hide are places where it looks like the dust has been scraped or fallen off. Below the 'dust', these patches shine a pretty mint green, and they really do shine. They are smooth to the touch and nearly metallic, glimmering in sun and moonlight alike. Each 'clean' patch is vaguely flower shaped, like the tiny, star-shaped blooms that can be found in Pernese meadows. There is no rhyme or reason to to their pattern - they are just there, distributed as randomly as flowers in a field.

In build, Taarith is average enough, on the large side of middling for a green without approaching the size of any blue. Her limbs tend towards slim and strong, and she will find it easier than most to stay in shape. With all the long-distance flying that she does, Taarith will find her wide wings more than adequate, and their shortness help with agility, giving her above average scores on both without her even really trying. The one area where she will be below average is her speed - no races for this green. She'll have to rely on her agility in flight and battle, because the blues and browns will easily be able to keep up. Luckily, her endurance should stand her in good stead, allowing her to keep her tricks up longer than usual.

Due to her particular wing shape, Taarith will likely never enjoy flight for flight's sake. She's a steady enough dragon, and she CAN pull off basically any trick she wants, but just because she can doesn't mean she wants to. She likes that she can fly, and she is perfectly happy to take a long-distance flight to find a new beautiful place or to visit the sea, but flying in circles just for the joy of flying? No thanks. She needs a goal to get her in the air, otherwise she's just as happy to stay on the ground, usually loosely curled but mostly alert. Taarith even seems mostly alert when she's sleeping, something few dragons can pull off. She rarely sleeps deeply, which leads to a particular affection for naps, especially in beautiful, natural places outside with weyr.

Personality;

Taarith is a lover, an old soul, and a true romantic in the older definition. The connection between two beings is not solely her obsession; rather, any strong emotion captures her attention, be it negative or positive. In part, this may be because Taarith herself rarely feels anything stronger than vague positivity or negativity. She is not a passionate dragon, as much as she would like to be - things have to be truly spectacular to get any reaction from her. Still, she can appreciate beauty and power and overwhelming fear, and she does. She also goes out of her way to try to create these feelings in others. If Taarith were human, she would surely be an artist working in many disciplines, but as a dragon she will have to be a bit more creative about how she gets the reactions she desires, but get them she will. She can also often be found seeking out spaces of truly impressive natural beauty, and the ocean will draw her as it draws few other dragons.

Born with the maturity and thoughtfulness of a much older dragon, Taarith will always seem years beyond her age and miles ahead of her peers (and likely her rider). While that might make it sound like she would have trouble relating with dragons her own age, the opposite is true. While she will always be somewhat quiet around unknown dragons (mainly because she is usually lost in thought rather than because she is shy), she opens up when talked to, and will be pleased to chat, or better yet take a quick flight to one of her favorite places. She can even be a bit of a flirt, especially with the sharper males, or those that tend to be on the passionate side. Grand displays of feeling are certain to get her attention, even if she herself does not have a grand passionate feeling in return. She's not likely to take a permanent mate unless a male makes a SERIOUS impression, and the same goes for true friends - she'll have friends certainly, but acquaintances that want to cross in to the best friends category will have to do something dramatic.

Despite this, though, Taarith is a particularly dogged dragon. She will go to any ethical length to complete a task she thinks is important. It is rare for her to set tasks for herself, however; usually those tasks will come from others, especially natural leaders or forceful dragons like Istarith and Adanth, at least from within her clutch. Once she has a task, she transforms. Rather than a quiet, sometimes solitary dragon, she becomes a charismatic figurehead who inspires loyalty though her actions - she is the first to volunteer for anything, the first into battle, first to offer a kind word to those who follow her. She is generally loathe to take on this personality unless she must, however; wide open, beautiful, solitary spaces shared with one or two treasured friends are much more her style.

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