" And through them days I was a ghost atop my chair
My dad considered me a cross he had to bear
And in my head I'd sing apologies and stare
As my mom would hang the clothes across the line
And she would try to keep the empty... from her eyes "
BASICS
RETIRE INFO: Retire
NAME: Anani
GENDER: Male
PRONOUNS: He/him/his
ORIENTATION: Questioning, leaning gay
BIRTHDATE: Early Fall 2754
AGE: 16 Turns as of Late Fall 2770
LOCATION: Fort Weyr
OCCUPATION: Apprentice Woodsmith
WING: N/A
APPEARANCE
EYES: Green
HAIR: Black-brown
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5'7” (eventually 5’9”), gangly
PLAY-BY: N/A
FULL APPEARANCE:
Anani is a little on the short side, thin and gangly with limbs that look like they’d might be better-suited to a runnerbeast. He is, however, a growing boy, and will someday grow to be a fairly solid man, but for the time being he’s all arms and legs.
He has dark, wavy hair, near black but lightening to a dark brown due to sun exposure on the ends. It’s usually cut to around his extremely prominent ears, eternally a little on the shaggy, messy side. His skin is tan, with the hint of what might almost be freckles on his nose. His eyes, however, are a surprisingly light green, and wide with a sense of constant wonder, framed by thick, long eyelashes that are the envy of quite a few girls.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
Anani is an incredibly imaginative, creative kid who just loves making things. Much of his time is spent coming up with make-believe worlds, and building various props and toys for them out of whatever materials he can find. He would write about them too, if anyone were especially willing to give valuable parchment or paper to a small child. In either case though, he much prefers building things, and wants to be a carpenter or smith someday. However, sometimes he decides he wants to be a sailor, and go on adventures. He loves dreaming about adventure, even if he usually realizes that he wouldn’t do especially well if he actually went on one. Doesn’t stop him wishing though.
He’s a sweet kid, who mostly just wants the world to be okay. While he’s aware that isn’t always the case, he doesn’t really understand why that’s the case. When he sees those that he’s comfortable with unhappy in any way, he’ll try to comfort them, usually by holding their hand, or giving them a hug.
He hates conflict of any sort, no matter who it’s directed at. When he’s scolded, or when someone tries to start conflict with him, he’ll often just turn around and refuse to face it, trying to ignore it entirely. When there’s an argument nearby, he’ll simply leave the area. This can make him difficult to discipline, as he isn’t particularly receptive to criticism, and it will often just set him off crying. He often worries that when someone tries to correct him, it’s because he’s just generally not good enough.
He’s extremely shy, especially around adults. He’s mostly warmed up to his aunt, but other adults intimidate him, as do many older children. He has trouble making eye contact with adults, usually just staring at his shoes while they’re talking to him. However, once he’s spent some time around other kids, he’ll start to get more comfortable with their presence, and is usually quick to offer a smile and a toy, often of his own making, if he thinks they’ll have fun with it.
He almost never speaks to anyone other than his brother, and more recently his aunt. However, around those two, he’s a veritable chatterbox, almost impossible to get to stop talking. The moment he becomes aware that someone else is around though, he falls silent once more. With other people, he mostly communicates through facial expressions and occasionally pointing; attempting to sign or write is, in many ways, just as difficult as speaking is for him.
He's terrified of Thread, and while most Weyr residents will go about their daily lives save for remaining indoors during a Fall, Anani locks himself away and refuses to come out until it's over. His greatest fear, beyond even that of speaking in public, is of losing his aunt to Threadfall.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
Father, Ketan
Mother, Anithra
Aunt, Kiriani of Blue Arsemith
Older brother, Threta
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: Way too young
BIRTHPLACE: Fort-beholden cotold
HISTORY:
TW: Abuse, Ableism
Ketan and Anithra weren’t certain they’d wanted one child, and they certainly weren’t entirely convinced that they were ready for a second, but nevertheless, they had one, a sense of pride preventing either from ever admitting they were less than enthused with the whole situation. Still, they loved both of their boys, and showered them with affection.
But. They weren’t prepared for the more difficult parts of child-rearing. They rejoiced that Anani was such a quiet infant, but that joy turned to worry when his third Turnday passed without him ever uttering a word. They tried everything they could think of to make him speak, from pleading to bribing to attempting to withhold meals if he wouldn’t ask for them. But still, nothing they did would make him speak, until one day he decided to tell Threta about a dream he’d had, and after that there was little that the older boy could do to convince his younger brother to stop talking to him. The floodgates had been opened, and Anani discovered that he liked telling his brother about everything that popped into his head.
Still, he rarely spoke to his parents, and never to other people. His father grew frustrated with him, asking why he wouldn’t talk, telling him that he looked ridiculous staring at his shoes and mumbling, that nobody would ever take him as an apprentice if he wouldn’t speak to them. It changed nothing, and only made Anani more apprehensive about interacting with his parents, especially his father.
Eventually, in a desperate bid to force his son, by then seven, to align with what he thought was the ‘right’ way to interact with the world, Ketan told Anani that boys who didn’t behave and speak clearly would be left out to be eaten by Thread. And by Faranth, Anani believed him. For days he refused to leave his family’s quarters, not even for meals, lest he be locked out and stuck in a Fall. It was Threta who managed to talk him into coming up for a meal, and he who wrote a letter to an aunt they’d never met: a bluerider at the Weyr.
Only a couple of days later, Kiriani and Arsemith showed up, the barren woman who’d dreamed of children offering to take the boys her more fertile sister had never wanted. It was difficult, raising two children while dealing with her duties as a rider, but 'Aunt Kiri’, as she was quickly named, rose to the challenge willingly. She treated the boys as though they'd always been her own, and eventually even Anani slowly warmed to her, his nervousness gradually changing to delight and the love a child has for a parent. While their education has been largely left to the creche, they continue to live with their aunt.
While he's not quite old enough to formally apprentice, he’s begun to silently observe both smiths and carpenters at their work. The most difficult thing, for him, is choosing which he wants to be when he grows up, because right now, both sound appealing to him!
UPDATES
- Befriend Echo, and the two have a silent sort of partnership that involves boats
- Officially apprentices as a woodsmith; hopes to build ships if he doesn't Impress when he's older, but he'll accept building furniture in his spare time if he does