T'mang of Brown Aliruth

[Deleted]

NAME: T'mang 
PRONUNCIATION: Teh-mahn-gh

NICKNAMES: Timo
RANK: Brownrider, Wingrider, (Gale Wing)
AGE: 34 Turns

GENDER: Male

ORIENTATION: Heteroflexible (Has been in male-ridden greenflights, prefers women outside of flights)
PLAYED BY: Chris Pratt


DRAGON: Brown Aliruth
PETS: None currently


HEIGHT: 6'2"
BUILD: Solid, kind of on the thick side, slightly pudgy
HAIR: Sandy light brown, slightly messy, short
EYES: Green

APPEARANCE: T'mang is kind of....cute? Big and a little goofy looking. Always smiling, with a bit of a permanently delighted look on his face. (And when he's unhappy, it turns very pouty and kind of childish. T'mang is a big, kind of slightly squishy guy. Often seen with a really goofy grin or a tremendously gleeful expression on his face, he just kind of perpetually looks happy with life. Doesn't take much to awe him, and he is really, really open with his expressions of emotion. He's fond of broad, sweeping gestures to articulate what he says, and it makes him look like a big kid. However, when he doesn't look like a big kid, he looks kind of like a brick wall of faintly ginger fury with a big solid brown standing behind him growling. He's... big. Not the type to show it off, though, and a little prone to being a little more pudgy than most dragonriders tend to brag about. (His prime sin is gluttony, whatever.) He is perfectly capable of being a large immovable wall of human though, and uses that to his advantage, especially when he is willfully ignoring the fact that someone wants him to move. 

He's tall and broad and there's plenty of muscle under that slight layer of squish. He's used to hauling around barrels and huge piles of junk, so he's a lot more built than his easygoing demeanor and general boyish airheadedness let on. He's got big, squarish hands and broad shoulders, with light brown, curly hair that just barely tilts towards slightly ginger in the right light. His eyes are a grayish green, and often lit up in delight at something awesome going on around him. (Or shut, and he's asleep. Possibly standing up.) He keeps his hair messy and short, and often forgets to shave (or, uh, bathe- Aliruth is fond of just dropping him in the ocean if he thinks his rider is starting to smell) and so he tends to be pretty scruffy and covered in dust most of the time. He doesn't mind. He's got a big forehead, relatively rectangular face, a chin perfectly shaped for Heroic action-star smirks and grins, and the kind of high-pitched girly scream you'd normally find on a little girl when frightened. He moves a little awkwardly, like he never really is used to how much space he's taking up, and being a big dude, this means he tends to bump into people and trip over things a lot. He also tends to move with a lot of energy, and he does best given lots of room to run and do stuff. He can't really sit still.

His voice is a very male, rich sort of tone. Not high, not low, but distinctly male, and he rambles a lot when he talks. He's also very expressive with his voice, and it reflects his emotions easily. It's high when he's happy, cheerful and loose, and tight and steady when he's mad, and surprisingly, when he's trying to be, he is really, really calming and steady.

He prefers light, easy-to-move in, breathable clothes protected by thick wherhide leathers. He almost always is armed in some fashion, but more a 'I spend most of my time as a scavenger' precautionary stuff over actual weapons. He's a pretty decent shot with a net or a bola, though up close and personal fists and brute strength are his forte; a weaponsmaster he is not, though he can fend for himself just fine. He's got a number of little scars on his arms and hands from a baby dragon that teethed on his arm and just life, and this doesn't bother him in the least. He's a little bit of a fuzzy dude, too. (Take that as you will.)


PERSONALITY FAULTS:

T'mang is not the sharpest crayon in the box. He's always going to be the one who is a little slower than the rest, and book learning and schooling never sat well with him. He did the best work outside and being active. His permanently optimistic attitude makes him a lot more naive than he will acknowledge, and it can get him in a lot of trouble trusting the wrong people and being taken advantage of. He's also a giant softie, but he's also kind of gullible. He's smart, but...easily taken in by someone who is at all serious about things. (Even sarcasm doesn't always translate well to him. He and his brown share this trait of taking everything at face value; both of them are just a teeny bit dense.) He's not an idiot, mind you, but there are... shall we say, easily exploitable gaps in his worldviews. He can also be annoyingly cheerful. In the way that kind of makes you want to punch him. Like 'seriously shut up' annoying. Also he has the blessing/curse of somewhat impressive inappropriate timing. Sometimes this means really, really snappy comebacks, and sometimes this means facepalm-inducing, cringeworthy 'oh Faranth why did I just say that' things. His mouth filter is...er. Lacking. 

T'mang also tends to take the easy path in life. If things get hard, he just gives up. Aliruth and rider training are probably the only things in his life that he's stuck to; and that moreso because he couldn't possibly be rid of his brown if he tried. He's... he doesn't like things that are hard. If that means sometimes cutting corners, so be it. All that pomp and circumstance about rules and crap is just that...crap. I mean, who really needs triple verification for requisition of blah blah blah. It's boring. He hates boring. So he'll skip over certain things and jump into things without checking first. He's reckless, which works sometimes but more often causes crashes and accidents. He'd rather just cut to the chase and get to the fun stuff. Which usually means...mistakes happen. He's also fond of ducking out of certain duties that bore the crap out of him. Usually he will stick to required duties of being a dragonrider, but there are times he's been caught foisting 'boring duty' off on weyrlings or willing candidates while he sneaks off to the kitchens to steal rolls and waste an hour napping with Aliruth. 

- Gullible
- Naive
- Lazy
- Impatient with 'Boring stuff'
- Kind of a glutton
- Not the most Responsible
 
PERSONALITY STRENGTHS:

T'mang is... well one could never all him unpleasant. Annoying, maybe, obnoxious, stupid as a box of rocks, but he's at least pretty pleasant to be around. He's pretty much the eternal optimist. He's a big ol' sweetheart, to be quite honest. He loves kids, and adores horsing around with the creche kids and letting them climb all over him and Aliruth. He's a big puppy, really, incredibly open, almost painfully honest, a little blunt, but he never means to hurt people. Even when he's angry or upset he just looks sad, and he won't attack back. He is much more likely to just look sad and get out of the way if someone goes after him. If you push him too far, or go after him physically, he'll retaliate (and he can throw most people over his shoulder and toss them out if he wants) but physical force is the last thing he wants to resort to. This also means he will more often than not take a punch he doesn't necessarily deserve. He's also not an idiot. he can tell when people are messing with him, and sometimes he plays stupider than he really is, both to keep things simple and to get a better handle on who his friends really are. Still, on the whole, he's a glowing optimist with a laid-back attitude. And almost impressively so. There is very little that can put him in a bad mood worse than that of a disappointed child; he just doesn't get angry over stuff. The smallest things make him happy. He's really excited by really simple stuff, and really acts like a big kid when he's in a good mood. 

He's a bit of a goofball, believing the best of the world and delighting in even the smallest things. He has a habit of picking up strays (whether that be animal, dragonkin, or people) and he really likes goofing off. In fact you are more likely than not to find him trying to sneak into the kitchens for snacks than you are to find him say... doing important things. He's really a sweetheart, and a pretty good rider (he claims Aliruth wouldn't have picked him if he didn't have some potential) and completely devoted to his dragon. (Seriously, the affection between them is almost sickening.) He's also helplessly brave, and willing to do a lot for the sake of duty. 'Yes I will do this dumb reckless thing to protect my wingmate.' 'Yes I will step into this issue with no prior knowledge because my friend is in trouble.' It...can get him into trouble? That and being gullible... well. He gets roped into stuff pretty easy. He likes adventures and 'fun stuff' in his own words, but to define that... is difficult. He's going to stick by his wingmates and friends, and he is of the mind that loyalty is one of the highest of virtues. But he is a good man, and a loyal rider, and a fun, sweet guy, if also kind of a dorky goof. 

+ Kind
+ Loyal
+ Fun-loving
+ Goofball
+ Steadfast
+ Optimistic
+ Loving


FAMILY: Father; Macknagar, Beastcrafter
Mother; Teliang, Beastcrafter
Brother; Macklin, Beastcrafter

HISTORY:
Well, his history's not all that exciting. He was born and raised in a teeny-tiny minorhold outside of Igen, that mostly consisted of some small 'crafter families and herdbeasts. Not that that was bad, it was just... a majority vote of people that mooed. Not that Telmang ever minded, really. He liked herdbeasts. Still does! He grew up around herders, and knows how they work. Herbeasts make sense to him, he gets them. They're easy to understand, and he likes that they never ask him for particularly difficult stuff. Difficult stuff was always a buzzkill for him, even when he was young. 

Really, though, his whole life is pretty simple. He was born to beastcrafters, raised into the profession, had a little brother he was darn sure was going to grow up to be a beastcrafter with him. Literally, herdbeasts were his entire life. So much so that he was pretty sure his first girlfriend was going to be a cow. (Her name was 'Melissa', she had big ears and lovely cow eyes, and she got to first base with him licking his face while he was napping. His brother did not let him live that down. Ever. It still comes up in their correspondences to this day.) He was perfectly happy, too. Really! He would have been perfectly thrilled to grow up, study herdbeasts under his parents, and marrying some sweet beastcrafter girl he'd known all his life.

Then, you know, a searchrider from Igen Weyr happened to pass through, And her green looked directly at Telmang and he swears she cackled. He is, to this day, 'not sure what THAT was all about' but you know. Sixteen, and the most exciting thing that had happened to him until then was him and his brother nearly drowning themselves jumping off a cliff into the sea, and then this little slinky green walked up to him, scooped him up, and off he went to a Weyr. THE WEYR. It was kind of a huge deal. I mean, you had all this learning to do, all these chores he suddenly had NO IDEA how to do or why. And lessons. LESSONS! Who needed lessons, come on. Lessons were boring and he nearly died of boredom on at least three separate occasions. (Suffice it to say, he was not a favorite of the candidatemaster's. In fact he ranked lowest in his class. A lot.) 

Then of course he was on the sands, in tangled whites, very confused (what kind of hatching happens at ass o'clock in the morning anyway?) and then there was cracking and shouting and all this humming he couldn't get out of his head. And then he fell over, and there was a very fat critter sitting on his chest chirping in utter delight at having found him and he was smitten and horrified in turns. (Mostly smitten. But definitely scared to death. This was a much bigger thing than he had ever imagined. You know, he was a beastcrafter and he could only sort of read. How was he ever supposed to actually impress?) Except Aliruth was perfect. Forget anyone who dared to call his baby fat. Aliruth was perfect. Perfectly squishy and the best little cuddlebug and- yeah, okay, the newly-named T'mang was in love.

Then came weyrling training with Aliruth. (Aliruth. The sweetest, cutest, most fabulous little dragon Pern had ever seen. His pride and joy and the best thing to ever happen to him. Who also doomed him to infinitely MORE lessons and work ad training. Ugh.) Which, you know... they also did sub-par at. Nah, T'mang was always a little too fond of slacking to really excel in training, and unfortunately Aliruth tended to follow his rider's example. So while he had a big, thick brown, the kind that seemed like he'd be great in a threadfighting wing, Aliruth was also... a little chubby and prone to relaxation over exertion. Well. So they didn't do well in training, no big deal, right? He passed, and he wasn't incompetent. He was a perfectly fair rider. He just... never put much effort into being more than that. Which, you know, honestly, suited them just fine. And, much like the rest of his life, that was about the tone for the next couple years. Which turned into a decade, and things got weird. There was political unrest and some shady stuff going on out in the rest of the Weyrs. Not that T'mang paid terribly much attention; yeah, dead people, poisoning, something-something, yadda yadda. He was a little more interested in keeping his ass from being threadscored and dead, you know? That takes work. Also he really likes his butt, you know, not crispy and gross. It's a nice butt. Then came the threadstorm and - well that was just a mess, okay? A big old mess. Because with that came... well, apparently Mavros Weyr needed some backup or help or something, so... so they grabbed up a couple riders and shipped them over in a 'friendly transfer.' Or something. WHATEVER. It meant, mostly, that he and Aliruth were uprooted from their home and sent off to somewhere way out there that he had never heard of and oh crap he had to pretend to be nice and knowledgeable and know what he was doing right, he was a... a ... diplomat or something? (It was all very unclear. No one really told him what was happening- they just gave him is orders and shipped him out.) 

And then a lot more time passed, and now... now he's like, and actual grown-up or something, and has managed to fool the people at Mavros into thinking he's a competent human being for- wow. Faranth's eggs, like...eighteen years or something ridiculous. Eush. Thirty-something, if you count BEFORE Aliruth. Oh crap. Mavros hadn't really ever gotten his performance reviews from his previous wingleaders, had they? Ha... no really shit do they have that information??? He's still a little baffled by that. How has he possibly managed to fool everyone into thinking he has any idea what he's doing? Ha. Hahah. 

Oh sweet little greens help.

IN THE EVENT OF YOUR SUDDEN, UNEXPLAINED DISAPPEARANCE FROM THE SITE AT ANY POINT IN TIME, WHAT DO YOU WISH TO BECOME OF THIS CHARACTER AND ANY CREATURES THEY MAY IMPRESS?

b. Turn them into an NPC who may be killed off or used for plot purposes but who will not be played by someone else.