"But...but...but...science!"
BASICS
RETIRE INFO: Adopt
NAME: Rigel
GENDER: Male
PRONOUNS: He/him/his
ORIENTATION: Science!
BIRTHDATE: Early Fall 2734
AGE: 33 as of Fall 2767
LOCATION: Semaca Weyr
OCCUPATION: Head Scientist! (Well...officially Point), Journeyman Harper
WING: Mazurka Squad
APPEARANCE
EYES: Dark brown
HAIR: Black, thick, slightly long and usually a bit messy
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5'10, slender but unathletic
PLAY-BY: Rahul Kohli
FULL APPEARANCE: Rigel is one of those people who looks like he's always in a hurry. He's usually running somewhere or flipping rapidly through papers, his thick black hair a mess, his eyes wide with excitement, an absent-minded smile on his lips. His clothes are usually rumpled and poorly matched and he doesn't have a consistent style, as most of what he wears was chosen by somebody else, either his mother or a friend or some poor apprentice tailor who was told to just give him something, anything, he has better things to be doing.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY: Rigel is a scientist at heart, dedicated to the passionate, enthusiastic, methodical search for knowledge of all kinds. He's well-read and intelligent, with an eclectic collection of knowledge stored beneath all that hair. And he is always eager for more. But that doesn't mean charging in willy-nilly like a flit on klah, no. It means being careful and precise, doing everything to the utmost of his ability and leaving no detail untouched.
Rigel always has a thousand projects going at any one time and as such can be rather absent-minded about other things, like who is who and why you can't wear green and orange together and why most people really aren't very comfortable eating trundlebugs, even if they DO have lots of protein...He is capable of focus. He's just...capable of focusing on the things he cares about. Which right now, is exploring and mapping the Southern continent and documenting its new and exotic species. And not so much the rest.
Rigel can be snappish and demanding at times, but he's never intentionally cruel. He just....gets distracted. And doesn't always care that much whether or not he hurts someone's feelings. Jokes occasionally fly over his head as he has some trouble catching the nuances of tone and body language.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
Mother: Regina, Master Scribe
Father: Nigel, Master Harper (Voice)
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: His work
BIRTHPLACE: Harper Hall
HISTORY:
Rigel was born the only child of a pair of Harpers. He grew up pampered and cosseted and extremely well-educated. From an early age, he preferred reading to playing and ravenously devoured Harper Hall's vast collection of records. When he came of age to apprentice, he knew exactly what he wanted to do. He was going to be a Sbribe, just like his mother.
His apprenticeship passed without any notable incident. While he had never been more than an indifferent musician, he was knowledgeable and dedicated and (surprisingly) organized in his work in the archives. He made journeyman by the age of 23 and agreed to take a temporary position at Fort Weyr, to help process the war records now that peace had come.
But plans change, for even the most dedicated of scholars. Rigel agreed to see a hatching or two, while he was there, and a small blue, by the name of Cygneth, found him in the Stands and decided they were meant to be. Which was ridiculous. He was a Harper, not a Rider, for Faranth's sake! But Cygneth insisted, as did every adult rider he asked, so he settled into the weyr, with more resignation than excitement.
Rigel enjoyed dragon riding no more than he'd expected to. He adored Cygneth, how could he not? But the rest of it...Threadfall was terrifying or boring. Drills were exhausting. And he had barely any time to read! When High Reaches attacked, Rigel stayed well out of it, keeping his head down and making sure he found himself far from the line of fire.
And so his life continued, with him spending as little time on his rider duties and as much time on Harpering as he could. When Semaca Weyr opened its doors, his wingleader politely suggested he take a nice trip down South, where there were no people to get hurt if he and Cygneth got distracted and set a field on fire or something. He went.
At Semaca, he found they were gathering a squad to survey the Southern continent. Which was perfect! An entire new landmass to explore? Fascinating! Rigel joined the squad and proved...surprisingly adept. Because while threadfighting might not be his thing, drawing maps from dragon back? Identifying local plants? Remembering which canyon it was that had the fire lizard fossils? All well within his skill set. He appointed himself head of the squad, with no one's consent but his own, really. But the exploration had to be done correctly! The way he wanted it.
UPDATES
- Rigel, taking Fitz to a distant pond for him to observe for a while, pushes Cygneth to detour and land on a rather unstable-looking hillside because he saw a weird bird nearby. The hill collapses under the dragon's weight in a rockslide, and the blue suffers multiple fractures of one of the major bones in his right wing (Major) and is partially buried. Rigel's left leg is trapped by some rocks and broken (Major).
