Post by Fox on Jan 5, 2011 9:55:16 GMT -8
Name: K’yan (Karayan)
Age: Twenty-five, spring <+1 since adoption>
Gender: Male
Sexuality: K’yan convinces himself that he’s heterosexual, when truly he’s biexual though with a preference towards women.
Rank: Blackrider, Southern Sweep Captain
Location: Eyrie.
Personality:
K’yan has some deep-seated issues. First and foremost is his shame; shame at the fact that he deserted his family when the koxi attacked their village, shame that he had the presence of mind to organize his retreat, shame that he is the last surviving member of his settlement. He blames himself for what others would see as an instinctual reaction, and the resulting anger is divided between himself for his cowardice and the xymokoxi who took his family. Revenge is something that K’yan seeks, and it’s an ongoing effort every time he and Zioph engage the koxi, as neither of them are willing to give any quarter on that front. They can be quite the force to be reckoned with.
However, while revenge is indeed a driving force for K’yan, he is still very much a human being. He still takes the time to occasionally sit back and enjoy life, though it remains as something he sees as a slightly guilty pleasure. It is during these times, in between sweeps and skirmishes with the giant lizards, that it becomes apparent that K’yan has quite the odd sense of humour. He can be charming and talkative when he wants to be, too, though those instances are rather few and far between. Mostly, K’yan simply finds it easier to say things in the most unembellished way possible. He’s a very upfront, no holds barred sort of person, and no matter what else people might say about him, they will always know exactly where they stand with the blackrider. If he doesn’t like something, there is no doubt that he will say so and he’ll expect it to be fixed post-haste.
This man is also highly protective of his squad members and his friends because he feels responsible for them. And K’yan takes those responsibilities very, very seriously. In fact, he’s liable to race to someone’s rescue without thinking, acting more on instinct than any rational plan. It is not because he undervalues his own life, either (K’yan’s survival skills are rather well-honed, actually) but because in a way he does not believe that he and Zioph will ever get hurt. He recognizes the possibility intellectually, but when it comes to acting on instinct, it seems to him like they’re immortal warriors, who are destined to be the bane of the koxi’s short existences. It has lead to some recklessness in the past, but the fact that the blackpair always came out all in one piece and reasonably unscathed has done nothing to debunk that somewhat ridiculous notion.
Besides that, K’yan is not one to trust easily. It would take a lot of effort and a great deal of persistence to worm past the barrier he’s placed around himself, but once someone manages to gain admission into his ‘inner circle’ then there is little that K’yan would not do for them. He is loyal to a fault, but only to those whom he thinks deserve it, and there aren’t too many of them floating around. Romance is an even more complicated issue with him, as even though he is no stranger to the wonders of the fairer sex, K’yan struggles with his attraction to men as well. His knowledge that his father would be devastated at his son’s leanings leaves him reluctant to admit to his attractions. Beyond more than a cautious, appreciative look, that is.
Appearance:
At first glance, K’yan can seem like an intimidating, imposing fellow. He is fairly tall at 6’1”, well-muscled and with the kind of face that seems, when he doesn’t smile, to be broody and intense. Thick, dark eyebrows set straight above his eyes only seem to accentuate this, and make the man seem angry when he isn’t. His eyes are plain but expressive brown, with his hair slightly darker and kept quite short, whilst his mouth is mobile, and when he’s not paying attention it settles into a natural pout. Quite honestly, at times he can look like a right goofball, with a silly grin lingering about his lips, but those times don’t roll around too often. Most times, K’yan is cautious, guarded, though he’ll laugh and joke with the best of them. His brown eyes are guarded. Always, always guarded.
When it comes to an overall look, the man never quite bothers with his appearance too much; no more than the average male certainly. While K’yan prefers to be clean-shaven, there are times when his square jaw is shadowed by scruffy stubble and his hair gets long enough to look like tumbleweed when he’s gotten off Zioph’s back. His skin is tanned, and his large, square palms are calloused, both from an early life of being a farmer’s son and more recently from flying sweeps and weapons training. He has no discernible favoured mode of dress either; K’yan just throws on the first thing he grabs in the mornings, and sometimes it really, really shows.
Family:
Maeyra, deceased-- Mother
Nollis, deceased-- Father
Malachi, deceased-- Brother
Ezra, deceased-- Brother
Azalea, deceased-- Sister
Miras, deceased-- Brother
Maria, deceased-- Sister
Zara, deceased-- Sister
Pets:
None
Simourv Name: Zioph
Simourv Color: Black,
Simourv Age: Four
Personality:
Zioph is, in all actuality, fairly immature as black simourvs go. He’s playful and flirtatious and possessive, and acts more like a small, somewhat spoilt child than any kind of regal king. He loves to play pranks on people, especially his K’yan, and while sometimes the pranks are actually funny, most of the time they are not. In the case of the latter, Zioph usually doesn’t understand quite why the prank did not go down as well as he’d thought. He is just as empathic as any one of his fellows, but being able to feel the emotions does not mean that he understands them, and frankly his understanding of other people and simourvs’ emotions is not all that great. Zioph also adores the fairer sex, and is an absolutely incorrigible flirt, whether he is speaking to the greens or to Altaph. The only female for whom he curbs his more over-the-top declarations is Eceph, because Eceph is the queen and he knows all too well that he is beneath her in every possible way.
He is also somewhat possessive of the things he considers his; while not as extreme as to demand jewellery and other such trinkets from his bonded as some simourvs do, Zioph has his odd quirks. He has a collection of bones lying around in their eyling; a morbid pastime to be sure, and much like a child’s, at times his humour can verge on cruel with the same naïve innocence. When presented with things that he considers ‘his’, Zioph has a habit of touching them, running his tail over them or nudging it with a beak, as if to reassure himself that the object or person is still there. This extends somewhat to K’yan, as Zioph is very physical with his rider, moreso since he knows that K’yan keeps certain parts of himself hidden away even from his simourv. Theirs is not the completely open bond that some other simourvpairs share; the black is all too aware that his rider is afraid and cautious, and also that he does not want his simourv to have to experience the bleakness that K’yan struggled through in the days before his bonding. Zioph’s consuming, fiery hatred for the koxi is only compounded by this, on top of his natural aversion to the despicable creatures.
Despite his less than admirable personality traits, though, Zioph has proved himself to be a good leader in the past. While he might not understand his squadmates entirely, there is no doubt that Zioph would never ask a simourv to do something that he would not do himself, and he is always the first to lead others into the fray. He also has a very clearly-defined set of rules governing what is right and what is wrong, with no gray area in between. If there is something that he considers to be not in keeping with the ‘right’, then there really isn’t much that Zioph won’t do to try and ‘fix’ things.
Appearance:
Zioph is the smallest of his black siblings at 59 feet, though he still towers over a large portion of his clutchmates. True to his colour, he is a deep, dark black through the majority of his body, with only white and grey speckles spattering his ears and underbelly to interrupt the uniformity of his colour, His legs and beak are a dark gray, with his talons and horns also coming up black. He is a very physical creature, and can be clumsy, a rather spectacular sight to see considering his bulk. Zioph is nowhere near as well-built as his red brothers; rather, he is built more sleek and streamlined than the vividly-coloured warriors; caught in a balance between strength and speed. Honestly, Zioph is far more graceful in the air than he is on land, as the black can be quite clumsy at times; occasionally it is contrived, if he feels that K’yan needs to be ‘accidentally’ stepped on to be put in his place but most of the time Zioph blunders into things quite unwittingly. He also puts his long tail to good use a lot of the time, as he likes to drape it over things, regardless of whether the ‘thing’ is food, another simourv or a human, to claim it as his.
Parentage:
Gray Wild x Black Wild
History:
Karayan was born one fine day in spring of 34, as the eldest child of Nollis and Maeyra. The couple lived in a small farming community approximately three days from Chydyn proper. He was a very easy baby, with a quiet disposition, but that same quietness didn’t last too long as one after another, Maeyra gave birth to six more children in fairly quick succession. With his mother too tired, and his father too busy with their little farm, Karayan found himself filling in the role of disciplinarian for his siblings. It taught him the responsibility that would serve him well later as K’yan of black Zioph, because from the start he was held just as responsible for his siblings’ actions as they were. He was the eldest, and he was expected to keep them in line, so he did.
It didn’t mean that he had a terrible relationship with them, though. Karayan was two years older than Malachi, three years older than Ezra and so on almost in step (except for twins Miras and Maria). They were a close-knit family, and Karayan adored his siblings. He was closest to his youngest sister out of all his siblings; little Zara, who was seven years younger than him, pretty and blonde and pixie-like, almost a direct contrast to her darker, broadly-built eldest brother. Even so, despite the easy rapport between Karayan and his siblings, taking on the role of disciplinarian meant that the boy hardly had an actual childhood of his own, and he often found himself sneaking away just to spend some time on his own, in the fields of their farm, or entertaining himself by squirreling away all the little trinkets he and his siblings had collected on their adventures.
When the boy turned eight, Nollis thought it was high time that Karayan began to learn a new skill. That year, a little puzzle box that Nollis had made was gifted to Karayan. The man told his son that if he managed to solve the box, he would be taught how to make it, and unable to resist the challenge, Karayan worked away at the little box for two months and three days. When he finally solved it, Nollis took him aside and, true to his word, taught the boy the secret of its construction. From then on, the game went back and forth, Nollis crafting the increasingly more difficult puzzle boxes in between farmwork, and Karayan working at them until he solved them. Then he would learn how to make the puzzle boxes, and so it progressed until eventually the boy was tentatively giving his father puzzle boxes of his own making to solve.
It was then that Nollis revealed to Karayan the reason for the puzzle boxes. Something else that they could be used for. Traps. It was how their little community had survived for so long against the xymokoxi menace. Cleverly designed traps and pits surrounded the area, designed to ensnare and discourage the giant lizards. And for a long time, it worked. Karayan, his family, and the other two farmers’ families who shared the community with them were untroubled by the koxi, and the children grew into young men and women. It wasn’t the ideal life, not with the constant threat of giant lizards on top of the hard work needed to maintain a farm, but it was a comfortable one.
But when Karayan was nineteen, his world fell apart. He’d been on his way home from a nearby settlement, cart full with the supplies he’d been sent to fetch. There had been nothing to indicate that something was amiss; he’d left that morning with the usual careless, hollered reply, hitched their horse Pyn up to the cart and left. It had taken him all morning and a good deal of the afternoon to finish up, but by then it was almost too late. The koxi had gotten through the last of the barriers by late afternoon, and if not for Pyn, Karayan likely would not have noticed anything wrong until he happened upon the koxi himself. As it was, several miles out from the settlement, Pyn, a normally calm, unflappable horse, shied and would not move further. Suspicious and concerned at the unusual reaction, the young man spent a few more minutes trying to convince the gelding to move, but to no avail. Eventually, more than a little bit worried now, he unhitched the horse from the cart and mounted him himself.
There was a lot of coaxing and persuading needed before a badly-frightened, eye-rolling Pyn would carry Karayan in the direction of his home. But it didn’t matter, because he got there in time to hear the terrible, terrible sounds of screaming and destruction; the sounds of a koxi attack. It was then that nineteen-year-old did something he would regret and agonise over for years to come; he turned Pyn around and gave the horse his head, and they thundered back the way they had came with nothing but fear in their pounding hearts. Bravery had no place in his actions, but he was still aware enough despite his fear to stop Pyn at the cart to hurriedly pack himself enough supplies to last for awhile. He packed the supplies meant for his family, mounted Pyn, and ran.
He stopped only long enough at the next settlement to warn them of the attack, and then he left that too, traveling as far away from his ruined home as he could. At each settlement he encountered, he did the same thing; warn them, then leave as quickly as he could. The man didn’t bother to find out if the people sent out a rescue party, or if there were any survivors. In a way, perhaps, it was simply not wanting to hear that his parents and six siblings were dead, even though rationally Karayan had already accepted that there was nothing to be done. So he fled, he kept moving on his own for as long as he could manage with his limited diasks and supplies, and when those finally ran out he hired himself out to work.
The proposition of a hunting trip seemed like an excellent idea when it finally came to his ears, and the man snapped up the opportunity post-haste. He left faithful old Pyn with a friend at the settlement, packed his things, and joined the group of twenty-four that would travel up into the mountains searching for goodness knew what. He hadn’t expected to find the Gray simourv. He certainly hadn’t expected to bond to Zioph, or that the bond between them would be as strong as it is. K’yan almost didn’t know what to think, really, except that the bonding gave him a role to play, first as a Blackrider and later as the Southern sweep captain. That, and being a simourv rider was the prime opportunity to kill some koxi, and in the four years since then, K’yan and Zioph have worked very hard to account for themselves as many koxi casualties as they can. Perhaps, if he kills enough of them (and maybe, maybe goes out in a blaze of glory), K’yan thinks that eventually his cowardice in abandoning his family might someday be forgiven.
