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Name: Kateleel
Age: 20
Sex: Male
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
Craft: Starcraft - Apprentice Astronomer
Rank: Candidate
Location: Western
Physical Description: Kateleel stands at a modest 5'9 and sports broad shoulders and a powerful build. He spends a lot of time outside of his Candidate chores working on his body to keep it in prime physical condition and despite his less than impressive height, he is quite strong. His olive skin is fairly unmarred thanks to the relatively safe Apprenticeship he had undertaken in his youth, but there are a few light, fresh scars here and there that he's acquired since joining the Weyr. His eyes are quite stunning as he has heterochromia: his left eye is a rich, deep chocolate brown and his right eye is a bright green hazel. The rest of his features are fairly unremarkable and play to the strong overall appearance he strives for. He keeps his black hair short and doesn't ever do much with it, leaving it a bit of a mess. Kateleel can usually be found wearing comfortable, if a bit baggy clothing.
Personality: Kateleel is a workhorse if ever there was one. He loves being able to see results from what he does which is why he enjoys working out so much. Put him to task and he'll go until he's finished or exhausted and can't move a muscle. Working hard makes him feel accomplished, but it doesn't have to be only physical labor. Kateleel enjoys working his mind as much as his body and loves puzzles and riddles just as much as lifting heavy things and putting them down.

Kateleel is a bit of a loner even though he does try to make friends and be social. His preferred state of being is 'alone and busy'. He hates having idle hands, but at the same time needs to have some peace and quiet to himself every day lest he start feeling stressed and anxious. He doesn't seek out solitude because he's moody or a grump, although some might accuse him of being that way when he cancels plans at the last minute. He does try to make it up to people if he leaves them hanging, whether it's making a different time and place to get together or helping them out in some way. Kateleel does enjoy spending time with other people and getting to know others even if it's mentally taxing for him.

Kateleel is an optimist to the extreme and can usually find a silver lining to any grey cloud that hovers over him for too long. People are often in awe of how he can shoulder any trouble that comes his way with a smile. That being said, when something awful happens and it's impossible to find a bright side, Kateleel crashes hard and heavy and can be paralyzed with fear, sadness, or anger. He rarely acts on his negative feelings and will sequester himself away until they pass, not wanting to inflict the same pain on others. He does his best to stuff all the negative things away, but eventually they do have to come out. Kateleel's largest flaw feeds off of the waves of negative energy and emotions that roll through him on occasion, that flaw being his self-esteem. He as a very shaky hold on who he is as a person and how he looks, only recently coming to accept himself as he is. His self-regard is a teetering tower of blocks - one wrong move and it all comes crumbling down and needs to be built up again.
Positive Trait List Hard worker, friendly, optimistic
Negative Trait List Introvert, bottles up emotions, low self-esteem
History: Kateleel was born on the Southern Continent at Landing Hold. He was the last child in his family of four, the youngest of two siblings, and was raised by a loving mother and father. Both of his parents were talented cartographers and his elder sister picked up the craft, but Kateleel was far more interested in the stars and what they were rather than simply using them as navigation devices. His parents supported his love of the night sky and got him set up with a Craftmaster to help him start to study and learn what he needed to know. Kateleel was well on his way to becoming a Journeyman when a visiting dragon from the Western Weyr revealed that he would be a wonderful Candidate and invited him to return with him and his rider to learn a different kind of craft.

Kateleel was torn for the longest time and had to think long and hard about accepting. Of course he was thrilled that a dragon thought he was worthy of having a dragon of his own, but Kateleel had been working hard for the past 8 years at his craft and was fairly close to becoming a Journeyman. After a talk with his family he decided to take up the dragon and rider, deciding that if he Stood and nothing came of it, he could return and continue studying. So Kateleel left his home and his family and settled into Western Weyr at the age of sixteen, ready to start from scratch and learn a completely new skillset.

That, however, was when things got extremely confusing and difficult for the new Candidate. Kateleel was born biologically female and up until this point had lived his life fairly androgynously without comment from anyone around him. Puberty had been uncomfortable as it was physical 'proof' of his female body, and now he was faced with a rather unfortunate reality: some dragons only Impressed to one gender or another. His first time on the Sands had been rather traumatizing when a golden queen walked up to him, giving him a curious look over until he broke down sobbing, taking the look to mean he was being considered by the baby as a potential rider. He was removed from the Sands immediately and taken to a mind healer who helped him discover why it had been so painful to be considered by a gold. It would be more physical, indisputable 'proof' that he was female. Kateleel started on a mental and physical journey after realizing that simply being androgynous didn't make him feel good and with the help of the mind healer began to slowly rebuild himself from the ground up. He started to focus on working out when he had free time to help his physical appearance match how he felt inside, he changed his pronouns, and he even added to his name, changing it from Katel to Kateleel to help further his mental transition. After a few Turns of sitting out the various hatchings that happened, Kateleel finally started to Stand once more just before Thread returned.

With danger in the air once more Kateleel took to his studies seriously. He was comfortable enough in his own skin to dive into learning full time once more. During his break from Standing he had still attended classes and did his Candidate chores so getting back into being a full-time student wasn't difficult, but now there was an urgency to everything. Pern needed riders now, it wasn't just some tradition to uphold. Kateleel was willing and ready to put his life on the line to save his planet and hopes a dragon will choose him to help him fulfill that dream.
Other: Kateleel is trans, ftm. I'm not sure if there's anything on Pern that would lend itself to transitioning - top surgery, some sort of hormone therapy, or simply 'what you see is what you get'. He would transition as much as possible given Pern's setting. I also want to approach this with as much tact and correctness as I can, so if my wording is insulting or wrong in any way, shape, or form, PLEASE let me know so I can fix it! I don't want this to be a caricature of the trans community so any advice on how to shape Kateleel is very much welcome. Recently he worked up the courage to speak to the gold that had stopped to look at him and her rider to ask why she had, in fact, paused before him, and it was with a sheepish look on the gold's face and a chuckle from her rider that he learned she had been curious about his two-toned eyes.

Candidate Specific Questions
Do you want them to have an official Search RP? No
Do you understand they will age every passing year regardless if you're there to RP the or not? Yes
Do you want them to have a possible Stands Impression? No

Per our discussion, the gold would not have really been considering him. She may have been curious, but I would hesitate to call it "indisputable proof." A dragonet would know, whether the character would or not. Now how said character chooses to interpret said curious glance is up to you. I just don't want to popularize the notion that trans characters aren't considered male or female by dragons.

OKAY! Approved! One thing to note is that if he had been in candidate lessons longer he would have known that sometimes dragonets will just look you over because they're curious and searching for their riders - they'll do this even with "unsuitable" choices, ie: genders, etc, that wouldn't work for them.