Demalis of ?blue? Mask

[Grayson]

DEMALIS
[img]url_here[/img]
"Anyone fancy a run to the Hold?"

BASICS
NAME: Demalis
GENDER: Agender
PRONOUNS: they/them/their
ORIENTATION: Asexual

BIRTHDATE: Late Summer 2744
AGE: 30 as of 2774
LOCATION: Fort Weyr
OCCUPATION: Runner
WING: Dusk Squad

APPEARANCE
EYES: Green
HAIR: Brown
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5' 4", slight
PLAY-BY:
EXPY SOURCE: N/A
FULL APPEARANCE:

Short and slight, Demalis is the sort of person who could be easily overlooked. A mop of tousled mid-brown hair and green eyes peeking through it only reinforce that impression; there's nothing particularly memorable about Demalis. Their voice could be male or female, their clothed body could be either male or female, and their face is just as indeterminate.

Demalis dresses in practical working garb for the most part, riding leathers or shirt, trews and vest with boots; their clothing isn't any more gendered than the rest of them, and they seem to like it that way. Generally clad in practical dark browns and greens, with unbleached plain shirts, there's nothing really about them to draw the eye.

PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:

'Don't kill the messenger' is a saying for a reason, and every Runner knows the tales of the lords and ladies who didn't hold with that idea. It tends to instill a certain paranoia in at least some of the breed, and Demalis is among them with good reason. Demalis' eyes are never still, they prefer to sit with their back to a wall, and they're always aware of the exits. When it comes to fight or flight, though, it's not even a consideration. Flight wins, each and every time - the trick is knowing when and how to flee. Demalis is keen enough on escape to have practiced it a lot, and they carry a set of lockpicks on their person at all times.

Demalis prefers to stay out of the limelight. They dress to blend in, their mannerisms don't stand out, their voice is quiet and easy to miss. They are very observant, though, both of the small details and the bigger picture - and good at making sense of what they're seeing and hearing. Mask has helped a great deal with all of this, providing another set of eyes and ears, and generally reducing Demalis' paranoia to more manageable levels because having a wher in your corner is usually considered a form of physical security. Demalis is still slow to trust, but they do tend to accept Mask's judgement of new people.

HISTORY
FAMILY: Mother, siblings. Father (deceased)
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: N/A
BIRTHPLACE: Ruatha
HISTORY:

The child of a Runner and Ruatha's runner stationmaster, Demalis grew up surrounded by runners, and running the occasional local message themselves. Their father's regular route brought him back to the station every tenday, and while he was home he made sure Demalis and Demalis' siblings knew they were loved. Educated at Ruatha Hold with the other children of the Hold, Demalis took up the Runner's trade when they came of age. Their father's route ended in tragedy when a minor dispute boiled over and someone killed the messenger to prevent word getting through, but Demalis carried on Running despite the dangers.

Eventually it was Demalis' turn to be carrying a message someone didn't want to arrive - but Demalis wasn't caught unaware. Demalis headed off into the back country, getting themselves thoroughly lost in the process. They came to a cothold and lay low for a week, then slunk off back home. Determined to have some protection on the road Demalis saved up all the marks they could scrape together, and bought a wher egg from the next gather; the biggest they could afford hatched a sturdy little white, a white that Demalis blooded and fed. Demalis was admitting they'd been hoping for something a little bigger than a white when the little beastie informed his new handler that he was a blue, thank you very much. Demalis decided not to argue, and accepted their new life as a bluehandler with only a few reservations.

Demalis soon found themselves assigned to the Hold's wherhandlers to be educated, and was much reassured when every wher at the Hold agreed that Mask was actually blue, not white, with the sort of air that their handlers were obviously blind if they disagreed. Once Wherlinghood was finished, Demalis and Mask found themselves Running again, only now with Mask's speed and endurance rather than Demalis'. They took on much longer routes as a consequence, and when Demalis' mother found herself assigned to High Reaches Weyr, Demalis made that his new base of operations. On the bright side, the dragons also seemed to agree that Mask was blue, which both wher and handler found a comfort after so many years of people refusing to be corrected.

[Grayson]

MASK



BASICS
NAME: Mask
BIRTHDATE Fall 2769
AGE: 5 as of 2774

APPEARANCE
LENGTH: 14'
HEIGHT: 4.5'
COLOR: 'Blue'
HEX CODE: #808080
FULL APPEARANCE:

Mask is, technically, a blue. However, no-one who sees him is likely to realise it, at least until corrected by someone who knows. With a hide in shades of grey, most people would expect that Mask is simply an overgrown white - but the whers and the dragons know the truth behind their oddly-coloured kinsman. With patchy markings, most of Mask's hide is dark grey, but he has a large area of paler grey from the back of his neck down to his belly and up to his wingroots, with a fleck of white on the thumb of each wing. His eyes swirl white where another wher's would swirl blue, yellow instead of green, red instead of purple, which can be a disconcerting effect for those used to other dragonkin.

In shape, Mask is lean and long, built for speed rather than brute force, with long fangs and headknobs.

PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:

Mask is a solid sort of wher, calm and entirely confident within himself, and he does his level best to project that confidence to his rather more nervy handler. Keen on running and other physical exercises, he tends to leave the thinking to the human, though that's more out of habit than ability. He can think, he just prefers not to.

Mask doesn't see his differences as anything to worry about. He's a wher. He's a perfectly-functional blue wher, just as happy to chase the ladies as any other blue. He fails to see how that is any sort of problem, much less his or his handler's problem, and if anyone tries to make it seem like an issue they tend to get the sharp side of Mask's thoughts. It's not that he's lacking in confidence, it's more that it seems like every time he turns around someone's telling him he's not right and that just grates after a while.