Kibai is a product of affluence, holder affluence and
familial pride. Coming from some minor hold or another up in Northern
Continent, the boy is one of the younger sons of the holders, a few other
siblings cushioning him from the one meant to inherit their father’s holding.
Spoiled to a degree, indulged as well, Kibai learned rather quickly that with
all of this affluence surrounding him, it was very easy to get what you want
whenever you wanted it, and then become promptly bored. Such was the burden.
Kibai’s family always had a rather large amount of family
pride. They could trace their lineage back to some of the more noteworthy first
settlers on Pern, or so they claimed. Their family had held this tract of land
for innumerable Passes and was extremely proud of that fact. They were a family
of pride… and the proverbial prejudice. Namely, it was prejudice against the
immoral, flashy, children stealing, and corrupting dragonriders, that is. Dragonriders certainly didn’t behave, as
proper people should. That was what was preached to the children. That was what
they were led to believe.
Now, Kibai certainly behaved like the proper gentleman for
all intents and purposes. In the eyes of his parents, he seemed to be a
perfectly well brought-up holder teen. He looked the part, he acted the part,
and he tended to feed his parents exactly what they wanted to hear. He spouted
back all of the honeyed words to convince them and left his parents so pleased
to have raised him so well. And then Kibai would turn his back on them, roll
his eyes, and plot the best way get away from the hold and go seek out some of
the stableboys for a good game of dragon poker, or other such pursuits. I
suppose he could almost be considered the Beaver’s Eddie Haskell of the Pernese
world. Well, to a degree that is. Through idle hands breed mischief? That
statement is could be considered true when it comes to the boy. Yes, despite
the experience learning in running a hold, proper etiquette, riding and dealing
with the lesser holders, sword-fighting and harper-taught lessons, he found it
all dull, dreary, and about as pointless to a lesser-born son that would more
than likely end up being the steward for one of his elder brothers, if even
that.
And then we come to sister-dear, Kaesa. His younger sister
by barely a turn, Kibai was closer to her than anyone else in their family.
Maybe because of their relatively close ages, or possibly their same
disinterest in their family, but he often found himself enjoying her presence.
The passion that he wouldn’t/couldn’t show around his family, he would show
around her. Twirling a finger in her hair while they would banter back and
forth, Kibai would often become her staunchest defender if the girl would ever
displease their parents –trouble that would sometimes be the product of Kibai’s
purposeful meddling to get her into such in the first place.
So, what brought him to High Reaches Weyr? Boredom. The
intense need to rankle his parents. Imagine a better way to get under your
parents’ skin then to go and live in a place that they believe is a bastion of
ill repute and corruption? His mother would swoon. His father would curse
enough to make a Seacrafter blush. It would be great. But just annoying his
parents is not the only reason, as delightfully superficial as that is though.
No, it was new. Granted, a proverbial response, but it is true. The grass is
always greener syndrome? Probably. Curiosity was a strong draw too. So many
things conspired together to interest the boy in getting away from the hold and
family to try out a Weyr for some time. Granted, he managed to pick up a job
that was inevitably what he would end up doing back at home, but it wasn’t at
/home/, and that is the important part.
A biting wit, polite to the point of mocking, an
appreciation for the diamond in the rough, a love of mulled cider more than
klah, and with a passion that is awakened by the most mundane of things, Kibai
is negligence wrapped up in a good-looking package and adorned with a bow of
rare flash that tends to unravel from time to time. He finds invigoration in
matching wits with another and attraction to that which tempts his bounds.