Name/Nicknames: Joshua Tucker (�Josh�)
Gender: m
Rank/Position: sled pilot
Age: 28
Birthplace: Earth

Physical Description: Joshua is 5�11 with a medium build, his physical fitness neither bad nor good enough that it warrants comment. Ashy, weathered-oak-coloured hair is cut shaggy-short and marked with sun-bleached blondish sections throughout. Eyes the color of an overcast sky are deeply set under a high, lined forehead, but have a wide, guileless light that keeps Josh from looking harsh or threatening. His features are expressive and animated, displaying his feelings openly; Josh never did learn how to dissemble well. His face is rectangular and �chiseled�, though it stumbles over the line between handsome and excessively rugged, depending on whose opinion you ask. The squared jaw houses a generous mouth with narrow lips, bracketed by well-developed laugh lines; his brow and nose are well-shaped but on the heavy side. There�s something of the distracted, fuzzy, sleepless academic look to him, exacerbated by his tendency to dress in comfy, worn-in old shirts, sweaters and trousers. Since the fateful first Fall of Thread, he�s lost much of his interest in how he looks and dresses.

Personality: Before Thread, Joshua was an affable, easygoing young man, always quick to laugh and deft with the self-deprecating joke. Confident in his strengths, he had no problem admitting his weaknesses. Though capable of thinking things through, he tended to act impulsively without fully considering the results of his actions; he lived life with his nose pressed right up against the glass, so to speak. Usually no sooner was an idea in his head than he was acting on it. This quick, headlong decisiveness tended to be an asset in the air, but caused problems in other areas. In tense situations, he could be relied upon to react quickly and efficiently in keeping with his training; with people, direct confrontation was his conflict-resolution method of choice.

His fiance�s death by Thread changed Josh for the worse; permanently or not, only time will tell. For a while he was quite depressed, and though he came out of the acute phase of that within a reasonable time, he has withdrawn a great deal from others, taken to brooding, and is growing increasingly reckless in his piloting. It didn�t help that his pet firelizard, gold Inca, was badly injured in the first Fall and went /between/ shortly afterwards, never to return. He became emotionally closed-off and melancholy, and flatly refuses to consider moving on and finding a new romantic partner. Even offers of firelizard eggs, from friends hoping that having another of the little pets will help him, have been consistently turned down. This new Josh shies from the thought of making any new close emotional bonds, after having cherished ones so violently severed.

He spends much more time alone than he used to, studying and playing the harmonica to himself, which probably isn�t helping since all he plays is blues. His family worries about him, but with his work and the ever-increasing size of New Landing�s facilities, it�s easy for him to avoid them. The exception to this is his brother Silas, with whom he has maintained a fairly close relationship, sharing as they do somewhat similar personalities and more horrific Thread experiences than the rest of the family.

Background: Born and raised on Earth in the sprawling megametropolis of Toronto, formerly of Canada, Joshua had an adventurous nature and a fascination with flight from a very early age. Fed on a steady diet of vidscreen shows about space travel and heroic venturers, his plans to grow up to be a galaxy-famous pilot were altered somewhat by his parents� decision to join the Pern expedition, but the thrill of being the first settlers of an entirely new, crime-free planet eased the disappointment � as did the knowledge that airsleds were to be in heavy use during the early period of the colony.

Joshua�s family arrived on Pern when he was 17, and he found the world very much to his liking. At his age he didn�t require further schooling of the general sort the colony would offer, so he learned the basics about their new home along with the other adults, then apprenticed himself to the pilots at the soonest possible opportunity. As early as he could, Josh began training to fly a sled, and when he�d mastered that and was certified to fly one alone, made himself useful as a transport pilot, moving materials and settlers around and doing surveillance runs to assist in the effort to chart the territory of the Southern Continent.

Once established in a useful profession, Joshua turned his attention to the other major expectation the colony had of its young people � that of marrying and producing new little Pernese. It was during a transport mission, moving building supplies out to one of the newer clusters of stakes that were being established far from Landing, that he met Sarah Boyd, a prospective farmer who was developing a stake for her parents and herself. The dark-skinned, bright-eyed 23-year-old caught his attention immediately, and Josh�s own cheerful good looks didn�t escape Sarah; within a year the two were engaged.

When Thread first fell, Joshua�s parents and brother Adam were safe inside some of the well-protected computer labs and emerged unscathed. His youngest brother, Silas, was working at the oceanfront with a dolphineer at the time and saw his mentor consumed by the organism, though he escaped physically unharmed himself. When clearance was finally given for people to leave shelter after the Fall, Joshua volunteered to be among the pilots who were bringing aid to the far-flung stakeholds. The first he went to, of course, was the Boyds� � or where it had been. The wood-based buildings, crops, livestock, and the family were gone.

Like many who survived that day, Josh was deeply affected by the unexpected tragedies. The deaths of his fianc� and her family, various of Josh�s friends and acquaintances, and his firelizard all scarred him profoundly. As soon as they were proposed, Joshua volunteered to be a part of the sled squadrons to fight the menace; now, when not actually in the air, he spends most of his time studying air-fighting techniques and formations. A couple of close calls with the deteriorating sleds convinced him of the necessity of developing a more reliable vehicle for fighting Fall, which is why he applied as a Candidate. Deep down he doesn�t hold out much hope for the success of the dragon project (or the colony, under the menace), but he�s determined to go down fighting, rather than live out his existence cowering in caves � the reason he didn�t go North.

Family/Friends:
Mom: Janice, 48, author and data entry worker, New Landing
Dad: Graham, 53, computer technician, New Landing
Brother: Adam, 25, computer programmer, New Landing
Brother: Silas, 18, apprentice dolphineer, New Landing

Hobbies & Skills: sled piloting, probe and surveillance techniques, blues harmonica, swimming

If your persona were a song, the title: Stormy Weather (Billie Holiday)

Pets: None currently; gold firelizard, Inca, deceased (year 8)

Name: Dienth
Age: hatchling (hatched 8.1.11)
Color: brown

Physical Description: Dienth is a light mellow brown, the shade of the fabled discontinued tan M&M, or more mundanely, coffee with cream. At the moment, he's completely average in size and appearance, with the medium build and somewhat wider wings characteristic of the larger colours.

Personality: That obnoxiously curious dragonet mentioned in the hatchling guide? That's Dienth. He wants to know what everything is, how it works, and what it does when he pokes it *there*� He fully expects Josh to provide him with access to anything and everything he's interested in, and is undeterrable when he gets his mind set on something. He also has zero tact. If Josh wasn't so easygoing, he'd probably end up being the first person on Pern to murder a dragon. Hopefully, Dienth will chill out as he matures.