"At the end of the day, you're on your own."
BASICS
RETIRE INFO: Adopt
NAME: D'ark (correctly pronounced Duh-ark, but often pronounced Dark), born Deronark
GENDER: Male
PRONOUNS: He/him/his
ORIENTATION: M'love. Only M'love.
BIRTHDATE: Late Winter, 2744
AGE: 22 as of Fall, 2767
LOCATION: High Reaches Weyr
OCCUPATION: Garnetrider, devoted weyrmate, wingsecond, former Flightleader hopefully retired forever from politics
WING: Moonshot
APPEARANCE
EYES: Blue
HAIR: Platinum blond
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 6'0, spindly
PLAY-BY: Tom Felton
FULL APPEARANCE: D'ark is always put together. Hair combed, leathers neatly polished, skin clear of any trace of dirt or ash. He wears his shoulderknots as discreetly as he can, as if in hopes they'll be forgotten. His walk is more of a strut, seeming to speak of endless confidence, but his eyes are always darting at the shadows, in search of threats no one else can see. There's a new seriousness to his expression as if he's just waiting for the next bucket of shards to be dropped on his head.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
Sometimes the cavalry comes too late and the only one you can rely on is yourself. D'ark still would like to believe in tradition. Being the expected garnetrider, led and cared for? That sounds lovely. Where does he sign up? He could be with his weyrmate, raise his kid and leave all this "saving the weyr" to someone else. But that's all in theory. He no longer believes the bronzeriders are sweeping in to make everything right. Or that they should. Because outside the world of Harper tales...people handed unlimited power do terrible things
Because D'ark is the one nobody came for. At the end of the day, he was on his own. And he has not forgotten. His trust in authority has been essentially shattered. He no longer really expects to be rescued. In other words- D'ark grew up. The petulant boy is gone. He's now a man with a family he loves, a dragon he considers his partner and a job he reluctantly tolerates.
He does not enjoy being wingsecond. He also doesn't expect anyone else to step up now. So he studies and tries his best and when certain veteran riders complain about the way he does things, he'll remind them that they had a chance to lead, were all but begged to lead. And they said no. Given time, he will rise to the occasion but despite his childhood ambitions, D'ark will never be a man that relishes power.
The one person D'ark is sure of is M'love, his wife and weyrmate. He loves her absolutely as he will any children they have. He'll be a doting father and is a devoted husband. He's also a bit of a prude, who is just as happy for all the weyr to think their relationship is entirely celibate (it isn't). Somehow, weyrborn D'ark has acquired a very holder-like sense of propriety and is easily embarrassed by any mention of what happens after dark. He's a bit of a dork who will insist for years that the stork brought his kids and that he has NO IDEA how M'love keeps getting pregnant. D'ark does not sleep with or flirt with other women, not even during Flights. And does not appreciate anyone making a pass at M'love. Weyr casualness in these matters is not for him.
The problem is...none of that's really true. It's what he should believe, what he desperately WANTS to believe and tries to convince everyone ELSE he believes. But...he doesn't. Golre was a monster and life is better with her gone. He knows that. Even if admitting it to himself makes him feel like a traitor to his weyr and kin. It's just one of the many ways D'ark can never QUITE stack up. A perfectionist who always seems to fall short, he lives in a state of perpetual frustration, never able to become who he wants to be.
D'ark drives off most people with his general unpleasantness, despite the fact he would very badly like to have friends. He can't quite seem to figure out how to reconcile who was raised to be and what would actually make him happy. His relationship with Masreith is highly confrontational and he will never admit that she is the best part of his life and that he's happy he's hers. When push comes to shove, D'ark will usually do the right thing- and find a way to blame it on his dragon if anyone ever mentions it again.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
Father: L'ron of Bronze Hyperioth
Mother: Denna of Green Supleth
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: M'love of Blue Skyloth
BIRTHPLACE: High Reaches Weyr
HISTORY: Deronark has always known who he was: a bronzerider's son, destined to follow in his father's footsteps. He had to be perfect. An inspiration. A future leader. Anything less would be unacceptable. The young boy worshipped his father and never doubted the truth of his words. He became a candidate as soon as he was able, as everyone had always known he would, and expected Impression to follow shortly.
Only...it didn't. Instead came war and a hostile takeover by foreign invaders. D'ark's father fled the weyr in the middle of the night. He never told D'ark where he went or why he left his son behind. He simply disappeared one day and never returned.
D'ark had nowhere else to go and no way of finding him. So he stayed and remained a candidate, even when foreigners with wrongful ideas and alien ways took over. Maybe if he Impressed a bronze and continued to live by the proper principles, someday L'ron would return for him. Or he'd be able to find him himself.
The first clutch after the takeover was highly irregular and simply wrong, sired by a green of all dragons, and D'ark was secretly grateful to be left standing. The next clutch was even worse, mothered by a GREEN and a GARNET. D'ark attended anyway out of duty, because unlike some people, HE still remembered his duty. To his shock and consternation, he was chosen by a garnet: Masreith.
She was noble and strong and beautiful, everything a dragon should be. She had also stolen every dream he ever had and cut off his last hope of finding his father again and taking his proper place in the world. He loved her. He hated her. He was confused and angry and lashing out at the world.
He graduated in spite of himself, with Masreith hauling him over the finish line. A clutch followed soon after, a reminder of how wrong their pairing was. Men might have ridden greens since the beginning of time but no man was meant to ride a CLUTCHMOTHER. And worse- a WOMAN rode the clutchsire. A woman an inch taller and a season older than him, at that! It is simply unacceptable. Unfortunately, no one gave him a vote in the matter.
UPDATES
- Late Spring, 2767- D'ark and M'love officially become weyrmates during the conclave. They are very much in love.
- Early Fall, 2767- D'ark is one of the few riders in his wing left uninjured and becomes wingsecond by default. M'love is badly threadscored (and pregnant) and he'd much rather be with her. It's a disaster but nobody else is willing to take over even temporarily. Eventually, M'love has to be sent to Healer Hall to recover.
- Fall, 2767- D'ark learns of Nornth's death and disastrous flight. He starts to wonder if High Reaches should stop seeking another gold, since their queen could grow into a tyrant or a murderer.
- Late Fall, 2767- Dobby, L'ron's servant/spy, comes to High Reaches as a candidate. After a few false starts, D'ark befriends him and tries to help him succeed in his new life as a brownrider. D'ark starts to realize his father was wrong and stops hoping he'll someday return
- M'love returns from Healer's Hall. She loses the baby and the threadscoring on her face will never fade, but D'ark is just glad she made it home and still loves her madly.
- Early Spring, 2770- Masreith's underbelly is scored when she tries to avoid a clump of Thread but can't quite manage to turn tightly enough (Moderate). Moonshot as a whole takes heavy injuries, again, as do the other fighting wings. Healer's Wing has to be called into assist. It goes poorly.
- Late Spring, 2770- Two eggs mysteriously appear on High Reaches' sands, escorted by a well-armed group of unknown guards. The weyr later learns they were stolen from Fort, although how exactly they ended up at High Reaches remains unclear. Fort cuts all ties with High Reaches.
- Early Summer, 2770- D'ark is elected Senior Flightleader and M'love is elected Junior Flightleader. The Council is presented with an offer from Ista to supply the struggling weyr with a gold clutch. D'ark votes for the Council to accept the eggs, but refuse to host an Istan gold on their sands. A large clutch, with a golden egg, soon arrives. A rotation of High Reaches' dragons guard it as it hardens.
- Early Fall, 2770- The gold egg successfully hatches a queen and D'ark hopes this will be bring an end to High Reaches' perpetual population troubles.
- Late Spring, 2771- High Reaches holds its next election. D'ark emphatically declines to run for a second term. He is pleased with his tenure and proud that he is leaving the weyr in a better position than he inherited it, but is ready to return to only having his own wing to manage.
