Difference between revisions of "Dragon:Rouseth"

Latest revision as of 23:53, 21 January 2016

Tasteless Geometric Egg

A melee of vivid colors crowds onto this perfectly oblong egg, walking a thin line between clashing and collaborating. A rich, royal purple is the most prevalent, providing a backdrop for the myriad of blocky diamonds, stylized flowers and swirling fractals. Splashes of eye-aching yellow, a lustrous red and a sickly teal bounce off of each other in such a way that, if one can look past the awful vibrancy, produces a predictable pattern that could almost be called attractive. If you didn't look too hard.

Rock, rock. Rock, rock. The Tasteless Geometric Egg doesn't seem like it's in much of a hurry to hatch. But when it does, it /goes/, spontaneously cracking into five pieces that expose a dark blue dragonet sprawled ingloriously on his tummy. He doesn't seem too concerned about it.

Easy-Does-It Bayou Blue

Solid blue and dark as stagnant water, this dragon is the soul of the bayou: languid, dense, but alive. A snubbed nose and thick jowls give him a tough, bulldog look that's softened by the wide set of his oval eyes, which radiate a sense of ease and calm. He has a short, heavy neck that blends into a long, deep chest, where the blue of his hide first starts to thicken and pool. It takes on the hue of a cool evening along his legs and belly, as though his color had come to settle on the bottom, and his stubby talons gleam like smooth black stones. The ridges poking up from his long and otherwise level back are dusky also, a series of rugged sharps that flatten out to nothing at the base of his low-set tail. His wings are densely boned but mark a sweeping contrast to his otherwise stout frame, with long wingspars for balance and wide sails set over dexterous joints that have the potential to make him a virtuoso of the air.

Temperament

He'll be an adventurous baby, your Rouseth. Anything that pops into his head is as soon thought of as done, with no concern for how it'll make him look or how someone else might take it. Does he look silly with your wet towel cooling his head? Would Taineth have preferred it if he walked around his tail instead of stepping over it? Too bad. Rouseth sees no need to restrict himself, and he's got no sense of shame. Why, do you? « Gotta do what you're thinking and feeling, Ianna, gotta put it out there. How they supposed to know what's in your soul if you won't share it? »

An impulsive nature alone would be difficult, but stir in the rest of Rouseth's quirks and getting him through weyrling classes could be a recipe for disaster. Rouseth follows an internal clock that reckons time more slowly than the outside world, and while he's committed to learning what he needs from weyrlinghood, he doesn't see a need to keep up with somebody else's schedule. His personality insulates him against most threats and cajoling, but a good "Because I said so!" appeals to his sense of simplicity enough to at least get him on task. To get him really interested, you'll have to find new ways to approach lessons: your Rouseth hates rote-learning and craves novelty, so there may be times when he'll insist that a method that was working fine before no longer has anything to teach him. To get him to 100%, you'll have to come up with a new angle.

He's not going to make life easy outside classes, either. All those rules about behavior? He hates those rules. Good times are your God-given right, and he'll push you heavily to drink, to party, to... well. In secret if you must, but he'll resent the need for it. And if you do ever decide to have a drink or two, he'll be right there with you, whooping it up, riding high off the susceptibility of his weyrling brain. Get caught, and he's happier than ever, because now he gets to tell those Weyrlingmasters what he thinks of the rules to their /face/.

Not all of the rough edges will rub off him during weyrlinghood, but Rouseth's carefree nature will develop into something paradoxically intense. He cherishes his vices and pushes you to do the same, drinking till you drop, partying like there's no tomorrow, and seeking out the best food Ista has to offer. « Just 'cause it's not serious stuff doesn't mean it's not important stuff. You gotta have standards. » For his part, he eats enough to sate a bronze, and if that makes him fat, it's worth it. He doesn't get to drink with you, but the more alcohol you have, the heavier you'll feel him leaning on your mind, trying to take in the crazy feeling of it. And he's a hit at parties, always willing to show off for a crowd. There's no such thing as too much, and no forbearance for wet blankets who think otherwise.

Music is another vital part of his life, to the extent that he'll sometimes go through his day narrating the events in song: « Gettin a bath, bee-bo, gettin-ittin-sit-in my bath. Ianna, lemme hear ya! » He lives in song, and he's convinced you would, too, if it hadn't been crushed out of you by the soulless wheels of harper hall training. « But that's awright. We'll wake you up. A-boom-pa-doom, cleaning my toenails. »

He's a supportive soul in general, for all his occasional hardheadedness. Rouseth has a round appreciation of others that allows him to see past niggling flaws and embrace their better qualities, slating them into approved categories like "good, honest boy" or "strong, spirited woman." But his generosity doesn't make him soft: Rouseth doesn't take crap from anybody, and whoever's foolish enough to trespass on his good will better be ready for a sharp reality check. Lurking behind that affable warmth is an exceptionally keen judge of character, and when fully roused he has a knack for saying the one thing that will hit somebody hard enough to leave a mark. « You're not gonna have a meaningful life if you just sit around and wait for it, Ianna. Having me won't do it for you. »

As with everything else, so with the birds and the bees. Rouseth's going to be a late bloomer when it comes to mating flights, heeding the ritual of his own pace. He won't start chasing until even the greens are old enough to rise. He's not interested in every green, but he does have a knack for spotting the proddy ones, which gives him a few days to scope them out and decide if they're worth going for. If they are, you'll soon come to recognize a certain warning signal: « Isn't she a charmer? » he'll ask you, or you may hear him tell the green, « You're a charmer, for sure. » There's no pattern to his choices: it's all about individual spark and a green who just makes him feel /good/, whether she's a collected sexpot or a neurotic mess. Once he's up in the air, it's bacchanalia unleashed: wild bugles and shrill hoots, sharp turns and twists that put the big boys to shame. He likes to bounce around in the pack, where all the heat and madness concentrates, and lives in the thrill of the moment with no plans or traps ahead. Still, he knows when to leap out of the crowd and grab for the prize.

For all his love of luxury, Rouseth's no spoiled lush, and has no admiration for anyone who tries to coast by without earning the comforts they enjoy. You won't be allowed to fall back on your lazy ways with him! It's not work hard, play hard: it's live life like you mean it. Rouseth operates on a kind of inverse ambition, not driven toward the top but away from the bottom, where on a mere wingrider's salary you'd have to think twice about the cost of comforts you enjoy. Happily, progress doesn't have to be vertical: a wingsecond's knot would be nice, but getting your job back on the Layabout would be just as clever. Without you, he'd settle for such small distinctions, but if you ever take aim at something higher, Rouseth will be your cheerleader and ready ally, in awe of such ambition.

He'll never be a fan of traditional drills, repetitive and dull as they are, but for you he can grin and bear it, and should you ever be in a position to schedule practices for the wing, you can repay him with more spontaneous challenges. Without that to motivate him, though, Rouseth will never settle into formations comfortably, and will always need you to come up with that fun twist, that new angle that makes it all bearable for another day.

Public Impression Message

Easy-Does-It Bayou Blue continues his steady march up to the line of candidates and turns aside, ambling benignly past. Ah, but wait - he pauses with one foot in the air, his head tilted up and away from them. Beat. He pulls that foot back and goes into rewind, retracing his steps to find what so attracted him. But even before he gets there, and sits down at her feet, his eyes are fixed on those of a big, dark-skinned woman with frizzy hair.

Private Impression Message

The cries of hungry hatchlings morph into a brass wail, human voices thinned and tuned into a harmony of bassy males and treble females. The world turns dark blue, a wide screen through which bright threads of music curl and burst. Shoof shoof, shoof shoof - shuffling on the sands. Thudda-thudda-thudda, the gallery's your rhythm section. « Hey, Ianna, you hear that? » The lush blue of the music dims, shrinks and condenses itself into the form of the blue dragonet who sits at your feet like a souvenir. « They're clapping for us. That's you and me, you and Rouseth. »

Mindvoice

Color and music are the underpinnings of Rouseth's deep voice. With him, everything is evocative: each sound has its own color, and those colors play around each other to create patterns that describe his mood. No matter the mood, though, Rouseth himself is always the leading trumpet, bright yellow, around whose dexterous twists he weaves the notes of conversation and the beat of ambient noise. His words themselves are rhythmic, eschewing the stilted constructions so many dragons fall into in favor of language that allows his words to flow together: Gonna go and see 'em, awright?

Inspiration

Rouseth comes from New Orleans: fractious, self-obsessed, gluttonous New Orleans, the City That Care Forgot. It's a party town with rough edges, full of leisure and life yet ready to chew people up and spit them out if they don't "get it." We thought that impenetrable hardheadedness would give Ianna the challenge you desired, while still offering an outgoing personality that not only encouraged but demanded she indulge her vices. It didn't hurt that it's the birthplace of jazz, which we hoped would resonate (haha!) with Ianna's musical nature. Jazz also provided the inspiration for his appearance, which is a combination of Louis Armstrong looks and bayou colors. His name comes from "Laissez les bon temps rouler," a French phrase that translates to "let the good times roll." The phrase has attached itself to New Orleans and Mardi Gras, though any French person would tell you the grammar makes no sense. That's probably why New Orleans likes it so much.

Egg Inspiration: Walk into any casino in the world and look at your feet, and you will see a hideous carpet. It's guaranteed. This is a take on the gaudy geometric patterns that are so common, with the colors so bright they can easily compete with the flashing lights and clanging slots.