Post by Fox on Jun 18, 2010 19:28:18 GMT -8
Name: K’ean (Kalean)
Age: 24, born in Winter <+2 Since creation>
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Bisexual, though he might as well be asexual considering the little interest he usually shows in either gender. For all we know, there was just that one time when Seronaph chased and caught one of the Greens. Well. K’ean’s being more than a little bit close-mouthed about that.
Rank: Redrider, Wingletmaster, Searchrider
Location: Eyrie.
Personality:
Most people, on a first meeting with K’ean in the relatively calm setting of Eyrie, would not be able to reconcile the serious, steady, reserved young man with the colour of his Simourv. Others, who had first seen the young man during a battle, astride fiery red Seronaph, spattered with the remnants of whatever koxi they had just ploughed their way through, complete with a maniacal grin on the rider’s face that matched the look on his simourv’s face to a tee... Well, they would shake their heads in bemused wonder at a pair so well-suited to one another.
Ordinarily, K’ean is quite a serious fellow; he smirks more than he laughs and raises his eyebrows more than he smirks. Not that he isn’t a talker; K’ean’s a good enough conversationalist most times, if the subject interests him. If not, he tends to make it perfectly plain that he does not care for the topic by being extremely monosyllabic, schooling his face into a somewhat sleepy, distant look, and basically waiting to take the first opportunity out of there. However, his generally reserved personality must never be confused with placidity. K’ean honestly cares very little about social propriety or any of that ‘rubbish’ (as he has put it several times), and often does not understand why people prefer to dance around a subject rather than confront it dead on. In keeping with this view, if K’ean does not like you, he will tell you to your face in no uncertain terms that he really does not like you and if you keep bothering him with your unneeded, unwanted, unpleasant presence, then he claims to not be responsible for any harm, be it mental or physical, that may occur afterwards. As anyone might tell from this harsh statement; K’ean, when annoyed, can be extremely acidic. If he does like and respect a person, though, likely they’ll end up with as loyal a friend as they could wish for.
Beyond that, K’ean is to a large extent a perfectionist. He cannot stand failure, and if such a thing occurs, he will often work himself to the point of exhaustion in order to succeed at whatever he’s chosen to do. Whether it was learning swordplay, mastering his sisters’ clapping game or standing on his head, if he puts his mind to it, K’ean won’t give up till he accomplishes the target. Sometimes, his stubbornness can verge on obsession, which can lead to his simourv either walloping him- not particularly gently either- with one large wing or physically dragging him away to do something else. The perfectionism and doggedness stems from an early life of being the middle child, almost always bested by his older sister at anything ranging from horse-riding to fishing. Their father, who was actually a kind man, couldn’t help but favour his eldest child, his gregarious, mischievous daughter, and made the mistake of not hiding his disappointment in his son as well as was needed. So Kalean forced himself to strive harder, practice longer, and never give up, so that he could finally, finally see that glint of approval in his father’s eyes directed at him.
K’ean sets a high standard for himself and is forever striving to meet and surpass that point. As a result, he tends to expect a great deal from other people as well, and often cannot stand laziness or a lack of discipline. It isn’t a bad habit to keep up either; as a redrider, K’ean has to constantly deal with his often arrogant, volatile simourv’s nastier tendencies. If his own stubbornness had not bordered on pigheadedness, K’ean doubted that he would have been able to stand a week in Seronaph’s company. As is, though, there is nothing that could separate them, despite how much they snipe at each other on a day-to-day basis.
He also seems to most people to have very little temper to speak of. This is because it is usually pretty hard to differentiate K’ean bored from K’ean indifferent and K’ean annoyed. One can really only tell that something has angered him if he starts giving a person the cold shoulder. And believe me; if things don’t get settled, that cold shoulder can last for a very, very long time.
All this applies to K’ean during the relative peace of Eyrie. Pitch him into a battle, though, and he’s a different person entirely. On the field, nothing can dislodge the manic grin from his face; he and his Red are often the first to dive into the fray, sometimes with complete disregard of the possible danger to themselves. It is one of the few things that K’ean truly enjoys; having the blood pounding in his ears, Seph’s triumph and battle lust mingling with his own, and the feel of hot xymokoxi blood spattering across his face. Despite this, though, the young man often makes a conscious effort to restrain himself because he knows that Seronaph is unlikely to notice anything except his rider once he has the chance to sink his claws into koxi flesh. He doesn’t always succeed, but when he does, K’ean is adept at using the terrain to his advantage and thinking on his toes. Any good fighter knows that battle strategy, no matter how well thought, goes to pieces upon first engaging the enemy, so K’ean learned to study the geography first and just wing it from there.
Appearance:
K’ean stands just shy of a whopping six feet and three inches, towering well over most women, and even some of the men. He was one of those youngsters that frequently looked like storks, ate like horses and generally grew like weeds. Around the time of the fateful expedition that had lead Kalean to become K’ean, he was nineteen years old and only just beginning to fill out his lanky form. Since then, thanks to combat training (which he took an immense shine to after he didn't have to constantly compete with his sister) and his own strength and skill exercises that he put himself through, K’ean has put on a good deal of muscle, though he will never be as obviously well-developed as some of the other Riders. He was built to be long and slender, and no amount of hauling around weights half his size will do anything about that.
His head is crowned by a mop of wavy brown hair, not often trimmed and most of the time very windswept, making it seem like he just got off Seronaph just a minute ago. K’ean cares very little about his hair, leaving it to grow only until it becomes a hindrance to his vision (a dangerous thing for a Redrider) then he’ll grab a blade and just lop off the offending locks until they’re acceptable again. Moving a little ways down, to say that K’ean’s skin is tanned is somewhat of an understatement. Due to his being one of those horribly outdoorsy people, coupled with being an incredible morning person, K’ean spends a lot of time outdoors just flying with Seph, riding or practicing his combat skills with whomever happens to be around. As a result, he’s as brown as a nut, so much so that the flash of pale teeth when he grins and the light colour of his eyes can seem rather unsettling in comparison.
Pale blue eyes are settled under straight, ponderous brows, over an equally straight blade of a nose. In many ways, K’ean often looks severe (which he is a lot of the time), with his flat, often deadpan gaze- the one that he perfected, with a single eyebrow crooked upwards- and finely cut features. His face is not particularly angular; in fact he inherited his mother’s facial structure with his stubborn chin, high cheekbones as well as her full mouth. K’ean also has many scars, including a small one on his cheek, all stemming from the shared tendency between him and his Seph to hunt down koxi and then throwing caution to the wind in order to fling themselves into battle with the blood singing in their veins.
Family:
Father- Rhys, 54
Mother- Kara, 47
Sister- Danica, 23
Sister- Rilla, 20
Pets:
None
Simourv Name: Seronaph
Simourv Color: Red, FF3300
Simourv Age: Four years (Spring)
Personality:
Seronaph, to put it bluntly, is one of the testiest creatures to ever fly in the skies of Pohono. On a normal day, it isn’t unusual to find K’ean and Seronaph bickering with each other whilst in the middle of a chore or exercise. The Red isn’t really all that difficult to deal with, all things considered, and his bonded is certainly grateful for it, but that doesn’t mean Seronaph is all sugar and spice, either. After all, he’s still a red, and being a red means that he jumps at the first chance he gets to go after the koxi; the enemies of his species. It is all well for him then that K’ean rarely stops him, preferring to let him do to the koxi whatever he wills within limits, since the lizards weren’t exactly proving an ally to mankind. In battle, the Red simourv is all slashing talons and vicious attacks. He isn’t the fastest flier in Eyrie, and his size makes the manoeuvrability of the greens and rainbows far out of the question, but once Seronaph latches on to a koxi, there’s no shaking him off it.
Only around K’ean does the Red show that he has a rather sarcastic sense of humour, and isn’t above making snide comments to his rider or insulting the workmanship or prowess of whatever K’ean happens to be doing at that moment. He will snipe and gripe and needle until eventually K’ean gets annoyed enough to shout at the simourv (because he learned long ago that his normal tactic of silence didn’t work on Seronaph) and then the two have an roaring argument that can probably be heard all over Eyrie, what with K’ean’s raised voice and Seronaph’s trumpeting words. The argument usually lasts all of ten minutes before K’ean stalks away, and the Red- who was enjoying the row immensely- will kind of send him a mental nudge and a blithe ‘sorry’ before acting like nothing’s changed.
Ordinarily, though, to other simourvs and humans, the slightest thing will send Seronaph flying into a temper, and most often K’ean finds himself doing damage control. The simourv is biting and sharp at the best of times; not a good thing at the best of times and even worse when paired with the fact that Seronaph has a tendency to try and talk to anyone who comes near. He even on one occasion reduced a female candidate to tears. He and his rider had ‘words’ over that particular incident, and it did seem to penetrate the Red’s cloud of haughtiness, because he was somewhat less nasty to the female candidates for a little while after that. But only for a little while. Speaking of females; Seronaph is quite the opposite of his rider in the sense that he’s chasing tail every chance he gets. He only recently began to chase, and when he first caught a Green, the backlash hit K’ean very, very hard.
He also makes a very good listener to problems, if only a person would persist enough to get past his nastiness.
Appearance:
For a Red, Seronaph is on the lower side of average at 58 feet in length from nose to rump. For all that, he is built powerfully, making him seem larger than he actually is, with his broad chest and muscled haunches. Multiple scars make the feathers on his chest and shoulders lie oddly, where they grew in differently or didn’t grow back at all. On land, he can be somewhat awkward, due to his size and general bulk, but none can doubt that he is an intimidating creature especially when he glares at someone with eyes the colour of amber.
Seronaph’s main colour (though obviously red) is of a shade that veers slightly towards orange. He has few pink markings; beside his beak the feathers shade towards a dark, salmon sort of colour, and his hindquarters are speckled with a brighter pink. The tips of his ears, his nose and his long, wickedly-curved claws (that are kept lovingly sharpened) are a solid black, with black markings also edging each feather along his tail. The edging becomes more and more concentrated, until his tail ends with a fully black tip. Finally, his beak, legs and ears are all a uniform shade of
Parentage:
(Wild Gray x Wild Black)
History:
Rhys was a guardsman, Sayaie born and bred. He was twenty-four when he first met seventeen-year-old Kara, a hunter by trade and as independent as any other man in her profession. Truthfully, their first meeting didn’t go well; Kara shot him in the thigh when she mistook him for prey. He was just out for a walk. Somehow, from that first disastrous event, they became friends and eventually husband and wife. They came to a compromise with regard to children; Rhys would take as active a role as he could manage between duties, and Kara would remain at home for as long as the infant could not be separated from her for too long. Afterwards, she was free to return to the trade that she had so loved. Eventually, their union was blessed with a daughter, Danica, not a year into the marriage. Barely a year after that, another child arrived, this time a boy whom they named Kalean. Having two children so close in age was a trial, and things were compounded when Kalean and Danica, aged two and three respectively, received a baby sister. Rilla.
By this time, Kara was angry enough with Rhys that he was banished to sleeping on the couch for almost the whole of Rilla’s infancy.
But eventually, they made up (though agreeing on no more children; their three hellions were enough to deal with) and Kalean grew up in a loving, if odd, family. His father was around as much as he could muster, often taking night shifts in order to spend at least part of the day with his wife and children. His mother, though sometimes disappearing into the woods to return with a few dead animals to sell, was a mischievous woman who taught them all the ways that animal traps could be turned into pranking devices. For a long time, nothing could mar Kalean’s happiness; not even the hushed discussions that sometimes went on between his parents about ‘koxi’ and ‘simourvs’ that were apparently disappearing.
That changed when he was twelve years old. In temperament and looks, Kalean took after his father strongly, but the first time Rhys tried to teach his son- and his eldest daughter, because she would not be left out- the skills of combat it all ended in disappointment. For Kalean was clumsy and fumble-footed; tripping over his own feet more than he punched. In comparison, Danica was a natural, athletic and fierce. After the twelfth time that he tripped and sprawled on his back in the dirt, Kalean looked up to see a flash of emotion on his father’s face that made his heart drop into his shoes. Disappointment. For Kalean was, as a child, quite sensitive to the feelings of others, and the look of disappointment on his father’s face made the twelve-year-old boy miserable.
After that, the boy refused to take part in any more lessons, instead turning to his mother to learn how to hunt. By the time the rumours of a large hunting expedition first reached their family, Kalean was nineteen-years-old, a competent hunter, and severely at odds with his father. In many ways, they were too similar; both were proud, stubborn and prone to the type of temper that froze rather than burned. Thus, when word reached Kalean’s ears, he was raring to go; eager to escape the rule of his father. Reactions to his decision were mixed. Eventually, his mother managed to convince his father that it would be best for Kalean to go on his own (not that he wouldn’t have gone even if Rhys had refused), his sisters practically packed his bags for him (ignoring his protests), and off he went.
The hike into the mountains was trying, but not too different from some of Kalean’s forays into the woods with his mother. He fell in with the other young hunters early, but was always somewhat distant, somewhat disliking the close companionship that many of them shared. When the group stumbled onto the wild Gray, the young man was awestruck and amazed for, despite the fact that she was sickly, here was the magnificent creature that had inspired the childhood games with his sisters and that he had only heard about in bedtime stories. It took Kalean a while to notice that the multi-coloured things that she was protecting were actually eggs- not that they looked at all like the other eggs he had seen excepting in shape-and when he did, he was no less fascinated.
They stayed with the Gray through the turning of the year, and when she finally gave up her hold on life, it was a very sad day indeed. But, life had to go on, and the mother simourv had left a clutch of twenty-four eggs behind. Days came and went, and then the eggs began to hatch. It had been Kalean’s turn to forage for food, and he was far enough away that after the first cries of excitement from the others reached his ears, he still only managed to make his way back towards the end of the Hatching. He got there in time to see one of the eggs near him rock violently and tip over onto its side, a crack appearing in the top of the egg. Intrigued, and slightly anxious, the young man tapped the egg, knocking in a small piece of shell that had already been dislodged. The egg stilled. Kalean was actually wondering whether something had gone wrong when suddenly the two halves of the shell blasted apart, and a snarling, whirling ball of red feathers launched itself at him. Instinct made him go for the beak, clamping it shut with both hands as he tried to stay on his feet. The act didn’t help him much when it came to the claws, though, and at the end of the day Kalean would have a number of scratches to his chest and arms from the Red’s flailing feet. But then again, at the end of the day, Kalean was K’ean and the scratches were unimportant when compared to the fact that he was bonded to Seronaph.
As time passed, K’ean had to get used to his new, prickly partner, and it would only be after the shedding of blood, sweat and tears that the pair would finally get along, but they got there mostly intact. K’ean almost couldn’t believe his ears when he was selected as Itnala Watch Lieutenant, but he set to with a will. It was a little bit more believable when he became a Searchrider, though it had to be said that Seronaph was less pleased about the latter than K’ean was. Currently, they’re both muddling along, coping with responsibilities and looking forward to seeing the new hatchlings arrive.
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