K'lir of Green Saraswyth

[44 Caliber Love Letter]

Rider/Handler Application

Name: K'lir

Formerly: Keliris

Age: 19
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Bisexual
Rank: Wingrider

Location: Lakeside Wing, Drake Lake

Appearance: At five-foot-two, K’lir is often mistaken for a child. His slight build doesn’t help discourage that impression in the least. His face is angular, with slightly defined cheekbones sweeping into wide, large eyes and a straight nose that has a slight bump from having been badly broken a few times throughout the turns. He’s thin, though not overly skinny; his build is a stark contrast to the more sturdy figures of the other Lakeside Wing members, and the word ‘small’ comes to mind in regards to him. This stems in large from him being ‘petite.’ He’s just… never going to be burly, even if he works out on a regular basis, and his genetics make it impossible for him to look right if he gains all that much weight. Fortunately, he’s active enough that this won’t ever be a problem for him. His facial structure is delicate, even feminine, and so is his figure. There’s just no gentle way of avoiding it: the man is freaking girly, even if he tries his best not to be. Which he doesn’t, mind you; he makes no effort to disguise his femininity.

K’lir’s hair is worn on the long side, though often tied back in a way as to prevent the long strands from falling over his face. The front is usually cropped carefully so that it doesn’t manage to obscure his vision (while still being long enough to flatter his features), and he wears the back in a braid, out of sight. The color is a rich, deep, dark auburn with blood-red highlights giving the impression of copper when out in sunlight, and when he lets the braid down, it does have a tendency to wave. The style would best be described as layered. His eyes are a vivid shade of amber leaning toward gold, and his skin is pale – just naturally, painfully pale; he can’t properly tan, either, so he often doesn’t bother to try. Instead, he settles for playing up what he has by wearing clothing that flatters him; tighter fitting pants or shirts that bring out his eyes and hair. He’s not an unattractive man – he’s just… well, nicely androgynous. And that suits his purposes just fine.

It’s not uncommon to see K’lir wearing green – which matches with Ras’s color, but also brings out the red in his hair. There’s a saying where he’s from that redheads and their tempers are things to be feared and this is something he tries to punctuate with every outfit that he wears. Jewelry is almost entirely unacceptable to him, though he does have a necklace that was crafted for him in Orro by way of a gift; it’s a small salamandyr on a chain. He usually accessorizes with hair beads laced through the long strands, which fall to the middle of his back in the back; anything that helps discourage Showoff from climbing in his hair (because naturally, his salamandyr likes to hide there – what, he blends in, it isn’t his fault). He’s rarely seen without his riding under-gloves (which cover his hands but not his fingers, so that he can hold onto things without losing dexterity), just by force of habit, and he also carries around several daggers at all times. Always good to be prepared!

Personality: K’lir is a creature of duality. The most prominent traits people notice about him are that he’s loud, crude, flat out profane, blunt, and stubborn. This stems from the fact that he tends to blurt out everything without thinking it through and he’s not soft-spoken in the least; you’ll hear him if he decides to open his mouth and yack. He’s not unintelligent but he tends to word things in the most blunt and literal way possible, leading to him using a lot of swear words and very little big intellectual vocabulary; it’s easy to follow what he’s saying if you can avoid blushing about his language choices. He doesn’t really have much concept of what is polite and just to say in front of others, either. The best example of this is that he’ll start babbling about sexual positions in front of kids if people don’t stop him, and he doesn’t really beat around the bush at all; innuendo is for people who aren’t him. Rather than imply he’d like to take someone to his furs, he’s more likely to just tell them to get naked with him right in the middle of public – and he doesn’t see much wrong with that.

And yes, stubborn is one of his most defined traits. He’s also not someone who you can easily manipulate. If he says he’s not going to do something, he won’t, and trying reverse psychology on him is a good way to irritate him. He doesn’t change his mind easily and he’s stuck in his ways. The best way to appeal to K’lir to make him do something is to actually explain it in terms he can understand as he is fairly intelligent and despite being vulgar, he’s reasonable most of the time. You know. If you ignore that he has a hot temper and is likely to get pissed off if you’re not careful.

On the flipside, K’lir is intelligent. Perhaps not as smart as his mindmates (both of whom he is convinced are evil geniuses), but he is intelligent enough to give fairly good advice. If he took his own advice, he’d be outstanding with people, even. He adjusts to situations well and is a natural survivor; if you dropped him in a jungle, he’d find his way out or thrive. He’s a pretty quick learner, too, with things that he finds interesting and he doesn’t do things part of the way – if he says he’s going to learn to use daggers, by Faranth, he’s going to be exceptional with them, for instance. He’ll work for Turns to be good at something if he wants to be. He’s also competitive; he doesn’t like “losing.” This was especially prominent when he was younger, with his little brother, but he’ll always be a little bit too pushy, too demanding, to fit in completely.

With people he likes, K’lir is an extremely good friend, though. He’s loyal to a fault and will take responsibility for things to keep people out of trouble; he’ll also be the first one to get up at an odd hour to listen to a sob story or help someone cover their tracks. He keeps secrets very well and he doesn’t tolerate people talking bad about those that he cares for. It’s hard to get close to him, but once you’re his friend, you really are a friend forever – it’s almost impossible to lose K’lir once you have his trust.

Family:

Mother: Salira of Green Raeyeth (Benden Weyr)
Father: K'nor of Brown Rilaerith (Benden Weyr)
Brother: K'ran of Bronze Hrralish (deceased; betweening lesson)

Background: K’lir’s life began in the north. He was born Keliris to Salira and K’nor (Kenoris) of Benden Weyr; his mother was a greenrider and his father was a brownrider. The pair were actually in love, rare though it was for dragonriders to have such tender affection between weyrmates, and Keliris was the first of two children that greenrider Salira would bring into the world. Her second son, Kaliran, was born a mere turn later – but the pair of boys would be all that she would bring into the world. Both of them were crèche babies, although they were close to their mother too – she visited them on a regular basis, even if she couldn’t raise the pair, and it wasn’t unusual for Keliris to seek her out for company whenever she wasn’t on duty. But when she was on duty, he was an absolute terror.

You see, Keliris was a bully growing up. Some would call it a short man complex, others would call it a case of having too big of a mouth for such a small body; whatever it was, he ended up fighting and being punished a lot. Any time someone insulted him, he was putting his fist through their faces, and that was normal for him. It did not occur to him that such behavior would be troublesome. His brother was a far more peaceful individual and got along with almost everyone. The pair of them were such a stark contrast that it was ‘normal’ for Keliris to be alone, with almost no one as a friend, while Kaliran was just everyone’s favorite.

When the pair of them came of age, like many Weyrbrats, they stood to Impress – and Kaliran Impressed a bronze dragonet with vivid red markings; he was K’ran of Bronze Hrralish from henceforth. And Keliris…? Well, Keliris impressed absolutely nothing… and while he should’ve been happy for his brother, he wasn’t. He was positively miserable. He was used to being the older brother who got everything first, and that he didn’t manage to Impress a dragon left him furious. Furious enough, in fact, to do something rash.

Like, say, stow away on a boat bound for who knows where. A boat that happened to get caught in a hurricane and crash on the shores of who knows where. He was assuming it was Ista given the weather, but everywhere he wandered, there was no one in sight. It was… desolate, overgrown, everything was huge, and it smelled funny. He was convinced he’d woken up on another planet.

Being weyrbred, the realization that he was going to be living on a beach alone was a frightening one. It was made more so when he realized just how abysmally hot it really was. He found himself wandering into the shade and quite literally went in search of water; once he found it, he slept on the river banks, because he didn’t want to lose it again. He was hungry – starving even – and he had no idea what was safe to eat, what would be okay, what wouldn’t. Fortunately, someone else did. That someone else was a creature that looked like a mutant firelizard with a frill – tiny enough to be the length of a finger, it latched onto him and proceeded to command he catch it fish, and which fish it wanted. He would’ve argued, but his own hunger overtook and the pair of them somehow managed to successfully wrangle a couple fish from the river to eat.

He wasn’t entirely sure what the little monster was, but it had managed to save his life in telling him which fish to catch – so he was fine with it sticking around, he supposed. This was good, because the little talking menace had no intentions of leaving and in fact had decided that Keliris was his slave. Figured.

The pair of them made quite a duo, though, living alone as they did. The days turned into weeks, with roaming around the river being their primary source of life and Keliris had come to live on fish and fish alone. The creature, it seemed, was very intelligent. Malicious, but intelligent; it warned him whenever there were things coming by that were dangerous, like particularly large harpies. A few times, he even saw dragons fly overhead, but all of his holdless living came to an abrupt halt one day when he found himself trapped – trapped by a pack of huge felines. The monster (he’d come to call him Showoff) continually screamed for help while Lir clung desperately to tree branches above them trying to survive while thinking what a fool his creature had been. But a fool he was not; a pair of blue dragons descended from above to eliminate the felines and take their pelts – a pair of blue dragons who looked nothing like any he’d ever seen before.

Though it took some doing, he managed to convince them to let him come with. It had a lot less to do with him and a lot more to do with Showoff, though – a salamandyr, they called him, and a sharding intelligent one. He’d be useful, they insisted, in helping with keeping the other ones “back home” in line. At the time, Keliris had no idea what they meant. Nor did he care. He welcomed the chance to actually have a bed to sleep in –

And found himself unpleasantly thrust into a lot more work than he was ever used to doing. Eughh!

The reason for wanting Showoff became clear: there were several blue and brown mandyrs in the area of the lake who called it home, but all fled when the aggressively territorial bronze moved into the area. He managed to keep the salamandyr count in the region down to a minimum, and Keliris, despite his complaints, actually came to like the process of cleaning hides to sell them. Feline hides, it seemed, were highly valuable among these strangers – and where he was, they said, was Drake Lake. He’d never seen it on a map, though, which he’d been assured was exactly the point. It was rather like a mini-Weyr, except that they seemed to sell off their Gold’s eggs. They also had hatchings, on a regular enough basis – and Keliris was invited to attend one of them, since he was around anyway (and his salamandyr was useful). It was at that hatching that she hatched. Dark green with almost-black markings like scales over her entire body, she was a smallish dragon with a whippy tail, a feminine build and brilliant eyes. She moved gracefully immediately from the shell and came to sleep on his feet.

Saraswyth, her name was. Saraswyth, and he was K’lir now – no longer Keliris. Showoff would just have to share.

A turn previous, he would’ve been upset over the fact that he had Impressed a green. At sixteen, he’d only stood for one clutch previous – and he’d always expected to Impress a bronze, or at least a brown. But Saraswyth was the most beautiful and fantastic green he could ever imagine, and once he Impressed her, he didn’t want anything else. She was the best match for him – ever. Showoff disagreed, but no one asked him what he thought.

He and Saraswyth were trained and were extremely quick to learn. The things that the others of his ‘class’ learned came almost naturally to them. Flying, quick jumps between, rapid twists of agility – it wasn’t ‘easy’ but it did come like breathing and the pair graduated near the top of their class, despite the fact that K’lir had a big mouth. And he had a very big mouth. It was a constant exercise in discipline for him to learn to keep himself in line and he had something of a running reputation of being a ‘human salamandyr.’ Not just because he was as obnoxious as his bronze (although he was), but because he was surprisingly good with them – wild or otherwise. Salamandyrs just liked him, and he them. It was a wonder he didn’t have more than one, really – but Showoff would never have accepted others. The ‘mandyr was picky. See: why he didn’t chase the greens around the area, either. No, no, he would settle for nothing but the best, because he was the best. See how that worked?

After graduation, he and some of the wingriders went to Orro to trade for different materials to build shelter from the coming winter. It was during that trip to Orro that Showoff chased for the first time, and though he didn’t realize it, it was also a trip that would forever change K’lir’s life. Because his bronze also caught the female and he just barely retained enough sanity to remember that the poor miner bonded to the female might not want him – a worry that was quickly brushed aside at the responsiveness he got to his touches. Accosting him was probably not the best way to say hello, but there was time for that later… when he found out that his ridiculous little worm had caught a gold salamandyr by the name of Dael. Nan was the other male’s name, and his salamandyr and Showoff were quite taken with one another. Separating them was extremely difficult and K’lir just caved to letting Showoff idle in Orro most of the time.

… for some reason, Dael and Showoff decided in the following weeks that Orro, Drake Lake, and everything in between belonged to them. Their territory. It did prevent a mandyr infestation, but it was also quite troublesome considering that K’lir was forced to go back and forth to check on his ridiculous little salamandyr.

He was assigned a sweeps role with his wing, and life somewhat stabilized. K’lir felt an unnerving amount of affection for Dael’s mindmate, Nan, and visited him regularly as did Showoff. But his responsibilities came first, and as bizarre as it was, he had no desire to ever go back to Benden Weyr where he’d come from… as far as he was concerned, Lakeside Wing was home. And everything with it was where he belonged.

Pets:

Showoff
Age: 4 (born: August, 1249)
Species: Salamandyr
Color: Bronze (cc1100)
Appearance: For a salamandyr, Showoff is on the average side in build. He’ll never be a large bronze, and some browns actually trump him in size. He has long, graceful wings that actually enable him to have brief bouts of flight, though he rarely uses them for that purpose; he is far more likely to go leaping onto surfaces and use them to glide to the ground instead. His body is slender, build for speed rather than actual strength, though he’s actually pretty strong for something so small, too. His tail is long even for a salamandyr and highly dexterous; he enjoys wrapping it around things, especially K’lir’s wrist, as an anchor to help hold onto him more firmly. He has a wide frill and wide-set eyes that almost make him appear innocent… almost. It’s very deceptive, considering that Showoff is so far from innocent. His frill is ribbed along the outside, creating a textured appearance that makes him readily identifiable in addition to his coloring.

And his coloring is outstanding. With a backwash of rich, pure bronze, there is literally no denying that this salamandyr is a ‘king.’ The shade of bronze leans closer to a brown hue than it does olive, so it’s vibrant, vivid – coppery. He has markings that accentuate this, coming in the form of zig-zags down his back staring at the base of his neck and ending at the base of his tail before turning into a wrap-around pattern that colors the entire length. The zigzags and very tip of Showoff’s tail are all true red, for lack of a better word, like the color of fruit. His frill is entirely this color as well, which actually makes it look more like a flower if he holds still and shuts up for a time while he’s displaying – which no, almost never happens. He likes to show his frill off… hence the name.

Personality: The word ‘obnoxious’ is probably the single most efficient word in describing this salamandyr. Simply put: he’s stubborn. He does not accept orders from anyone, including K’lir; however, he will accept requests when offered something in return or if they interest him in some way. He will not be commanded, so trying to force an issue is painfully comical. He does what he wants, and often times, what he wants tends to tread on people’s nerves. He’s a thief to the max, and he’s fond of picking up and memorizing the most profane of all words to use in regular every-day conversation – he does this deliberately, make no mistake. He also teaches foul language to other salamandyrs. Why? Because it annoys humans and this entertains him. Why does he steal? Numerous reasons but the big one is reactions – he does a lot of things with the intent of getting responses out of people. Negative attention is better than no attention at all and this is true even for people other than His. But especially His. Fortunately, K’lir pays him quite a bit of attention most of the time.

See, despite the fact that he’s a stubborn brat and ornery, Showoff adores his mindmate. He picked him for a reason, you see, and he is a good little slave. He rarely, if ever, offers terms of endearment or affection to the greenrider, but he is fiercely loyal and will attack almost anyone – be it verbally or literally – for speaking ill of him or hurting him. He’s also very loyal to his mate, Dael. He just expresses this loyalty in odd ways. K’lir often wakes up with stolen jewelry under his pillows, for instance, and any time he’s around Dael, she is gifted with similar. Okay, so maybe people flip out if he takes their rings, but they look so much better there, don’t they? Yessss. Egotistical to a fault, it would never dawn on Showoff that he’s wrong.

Ever.

Dragon/Wher

Name: Saraswyth
Age: 3
Color: Green (003103)

Appearance: Most dragons are in their own way, inherently attractive. Fine lines and angles, powerful muscles and grace – it’s rare to find a truly ugly dragon. Saraswyth is no exception to this rule. At full grown, she’s on the smaller side of average for a green – but that is where the word ‘average’ ends. Her wings are long, but thin, build for powerful twists and turns in the air that make her flights a wonder to behold but highly dangerous to her chasers. Her tail is long and slender, serpentine with a wide fork at the end to act as a graceful steering object in flight; it boosts her ability to make quick flips out and around objects that even other greens would not be able to swerve to avoid. Her body is deceptively slender, giving the impression of being more serpentine than most other dragons; this impression is heightened by the fact that she’s muscular in a thin, even lean way – she’s a very strong dragon, but there’s nothing bulky about her body. She also has next to no ridges to speak of; while they exist, they’re very small and easy to overlook thanks to the way her hide is colored.

But Ras’s most defining body characteristic (color notwithstanding) is her face. She has very wide eyes that are set high on her face and a slanting muzzle that makes her look regal, while maintaining an elegance that some others would define as lovely. Her bone structure lends itself to giving her a sculpted look that is prevalent in her features, but it also detracts slightly from the femininity in her face to give a more… predatory look; the angles leading into her eyes make it permanently look like she’s scheming something, plotting away into the night. And half the time, she is.

Insofar as coloring is concerned, Ras is dark. Her body is a wash of deep, rich green like leaves that seem to almost glimmer in the darkness. She’s graced with handprint-sized diamonds in a shade of green just one hue off of black that cover her entire body starting from the back of her neck and spanning down the length of her midsection, over her wings and down her tail. Only her head lacks in these markings, but it has some of its own, complete with rings around her eyes like masking that, over the right eye, blurs into an almost leaf-like design. When she glows, her entire body takes on the luminescence of a green tourmaline shattered under light, but even when she’s not close to heat, there’s a slight shimmer to her body – she’s very much a memorable sight to behold.

Personality: While her rider and his salamandyr are typically loud, obnoxious individuals, Saraswyth is not. She has been described as ‘black ice’ and it is an apt description. She rarely makes a sound out loud and she also doesn’t talk to anyone but K’lir first very often – and it is not at all because she is shy. She isn’t. She just isn’t outgoing. Polite, but clipped, she’s very difficult to find offensive in that she doesn’t say unpleasant or cruel things – but she doesn’t say anything nice, either. Ras is often incredibly formal, favoring lengthy and detailed responses that give hint to her intelligence – and she is very smart. K’lir often makes jokes that his mindmates are both more intelligent than him and in some ways, those jokes are dead accurate: Ras has a brilliant mind and she’s strategically oriented; she often manages to solve puzzles and address problems quickly and more efficiently than some humans. She’s quite the force to be reckoned with when she puts her mind to something – fortunately, Saraswyth usually doesn’t waste her time on ‘trivial’ things most of the time. And what she deems trivial applies to 2/3s of every day happenings.

In interactions with others, Saraswyth has next to no desire to communicate with other females. This goes for dragon, flitters, salamandyrs, whers and humans. She doesn’t enjoy the company of other females and will actively avoid them much of the time. She’d also never tolerate Hers impressing another female or having females actively in his life; she’s very possessive of K’lir, often to the point of being frightening, but she doesn’t see males as a threat – so Showoff is fine, and any male lovers he has also are. This selectiveness manifests a lot in her flights, as she won’t pick a dragon with a female rider if she can help it: she just doesn’t want to risk having to share. If she is forced to talk to other females, the best words to describe her treatment of them are ‘borderline hostile.’ She’s never outright mean, but it’s undeniable that she doesn’t like them. And no, she doesn’t have to know them at all to have this opinion, thanks very much.

Despite her snobbish behavior toward others, Saraswyth is very affectionate and kind to K’lir. He and he alone gets to see the side of her that most would define as ‘sweet.’ He is never ‘Mine’; always ‘Lirlove’ or ‘K’lir-love’ and it’s not unusual for Saraswyth to be touching him any time they’re together, even if it’s something subtle like her tail around his legs. He may not be the smartest dragonrider that Pern has ever seen, but Saraswyth really does love him – shortcomings and all.