Persona Name: T'leb
Gender: Male
Sexual preference: Bisexual
Persona Age: 68
Birthing date: M3, D9
Birthplace: Fort Weyr
Occupation and Rank: Weyrlingmaster
Persona Location: Dusk Forest WeyrHold
Owned By: Cara
Rank Requirements: 3 Posts a Pern Month

Physical Description: T'leb stands somewhere just under six feet, and a rough guess would place him around one hundred and sixty pounds. He keeps his sandy brown hair cut close to his head, as he finds anything long enough to fall in his face just plain annoying. His eyes are a particularily plain shade of green, lightening only slightly as the iris meets pupil.

For a dragonrider that has flown Thread as long as he has, it would be impossible to not have scars. And indeed, both T'leb and Calanth have their share of scars. He has been exceedingly lucky in the placement of those scars, for nothing has marred his face. His arms are covered in burn marks, and he will always walk with a noticable limp. T'leb counts himself lucky that he has not lost any of his limbs, as is often the case when somebody fights Thread for very long.

T'leb's greatest injury is to his right leg, making it difficult to walk on. He has a noticable limb, but it doesn't cause him that much hardship unless he finds himself having to walk for long periods of time. After all, Thread falls in the air, making his legs unnecessary to fly a dragon!

Personality: From careless weyrbrat, to worry-filled Weyrlingmaster, T'leb has changed quite a bit over his lifetime. T'leb has been the Weyrlingmaster's Second for over two decades, and has not found his job any easier. He still stresses over the very real fact that his weyrlings will go out to fight Thread and be hurt, or killed, by it. He soothes his conscious by reminding himself that somebody has to do the job, and it is better for all if the job is filled by somebody who tries his hardest to prevent those injuries, those fatalities, as much as possible.

In trying to do his job, he may come across as harsh, may even be sarcastic. Whatever it takes to drill through to a weyrling's mind, T'leb will be right there, playing every card he posesses. In his mind, it is better to be harsh now, and have his weyrlings survive to fight Thread again, than to shelter them from the truth, only to have them fall to Pern's ancient menace.

T'leb is completely surrounded by his job. His entire life is centered around the Weyrlings. He has no romantic interests, and finds them to be useless. When Calanth catches a green, T'leb either blocks off the emotions, or allows himself a one-night stand. The next morning, he is back at his duty. While between classes, T'leb works diligently to improve the lessons, make them somehow better, so that they will stick in the minds of his pupils, both human and dragon, longer.

Background: Talleb was born in the Interval before the 5th Pass. His parents were both dragonriders, and they were able to raise him themselves, due to the fact that Thread was not yet falling. He had not only his parents to raise him, but the other women in the Weyr as well. This was a two-sided coin though - more treats, but also more scoldings when he was caught doing something he should never have been doing. Like the time he and Lonade thought the canines and felines would look great if they painted them. Or the time the two mischief makers decided to "help" the drudges by delievering laundry. People were sorting out clothing for weeks!

By the time he had turned ten, he had calmed down a great deal. His willingness to help charmed the weyrfolk, but they were mindful of the pranks he had done over the past years. He learned to trap tunnelsnakes, and became good at it. The task was not without it's challenges, and Talleb had his share of injuries from the fast creatures.

Years flowed by, and soon Talleb was able to present himself as a Candidate. Becoming a dragonrider like his parents was the only thing he wanted to do. Besides, Thread would attack within his lifetime, and Talleb was determined that he would be there to meet it. It took standing on the ground a half dozen times before he was to Impress, but Talleb did not give up the hope that he would. As the weyrfolk always said to Candidates left Standing, "Just because you didn't Impress this time, doesn't mean you won't the next. It just means that your dragon isn't here yet."

A clutch was laid on the sands shortly after his seventeenth birthingday, and Talleb knew that this was his time. Every time he walked onto the sands, his body grew tingly. He thought that this clutch took the longest to hatch in all of Pern history (it wasn't; the clutch hardened right on time), and the hatching took even longer. Until his egg began to crack. Talleb's breath caught in his throat, and he fancied that he could feel the hatching trying to escape the prison-like egg. A blue emerged, declared that he was Calanth, and that they would do great things together. After the poor, starving dragon had been fed, that is!

Weyrling training took the next year of his life, and Calanth and T'leb were neither the best, nor the worst. Since it was an Interval, and would be for at least twenty more years, the pair made extra marks conveying people and cargo around Pern. T'leb once reckoned that he had covered every inch of the northern continent and it's islands at least a dozen times.

Not five years after Thread started to fall, T'reb took a hit to his right leg. Calanth went between, but the injury remained. Thanks to the quick Healers, T'leb is able to walk, although walking great distances cause him pain, and he has to take breaks often. At the time, the position of WeyrlingMaster's Second was open, and the Weyrleader's urged him to take it. He was great at the job, especially in soothing the young weyrlings that became frightened and unsure shortly after hatching.

Life settled into a steady rhythm, until the day that the Weyrleaders from Dusk Forest arrived, begging shelter for a short period of time. When they moved on to find their own Weyr a month afterwards, T'leb offered to go with him as Weyrlingmaster. Being a bluerider, he never would have earned that position at Fort, but the Dusk Forest leadership had no problem with what color dragon he rode, only that he did the job.

And so he went with them, excited with the prospect, but unsure of himself - he was near his seventh decade, and not growing any younger. Sure, dragonriders often lived until their tenth, but time was flying by quickly. Living to see the end of the Pass, to see Thread retreat from Pern for the next two hundred years, would be a dream come true for T'leb and Calanth.

Attached NPCs:
Mother - Surah, rider of green Monanth (Fort Weyr)
Father - T'men, rider of brown Perth (Fort Weyr)
Best Friend - L'nade, rider of blue Lurnth (Fort Weyr)

Dragon Name: Calanth
Age: 51
Riders age at Impression: 17
Color: Blue

Dragon Description: Calanth is no more a young dragon than his rider a young man. His hide is a deep blue, but his muzzle has turned a grey-white over the years. He's average as blues go, with a body length of 27 feet from nose to tail, and a wingspan of 45 feet. Calanth and T'leb compliment each other. They aren't complete opposites, nor are they so alike they could be the same being. Rather, where one lacks, the other makes up for. Two parts of the same whole. Or rather, two circles slightly overlapping for each can work on his own.

The blue takes his position as Weyrlingmaster very seriously. It is his job to ensure the young dragons know enough so that they can fight Thread without falling to it. He is not at all willing to take risks when it comes to the weyrlings, and can be a stern taskmaker.