There is something bold and untamed, something vastly infinite and timeless in the whirling eyes of this empyrean blue. Nebulous starlight was pulled from the firmaments, cosmic constellations stitched into the fabric of a suit dyed navy and midnight, woven from threads of stardust, fitted to conform over lithe curvature and powerful muscle. Indigo-dusted limbs carry this otherworldly creature with lethal grace, dark hues climbing up his sides only to fade into nebula whorls painted beneath the massive spread of his sails. This deep night-darkness curves over the bridge of his nose to mask both eyes before brushing over low-seated knobs. Similar shadows swish down the ridges of his spine, settling over the top-spread of wings that resemble nothing more than a cape when bundled in against his haunches. Starry diamond-dazzle shatters upon his sides and the underdark of his wings, a pale, pale blue that seems to flicker dimly on even the darkest of nights.
Egg Name and Description
Leader of the Pack Egg
Gold fractures the atramentous pigment of night devoured, aurelian fissures stretching, spreading, splintering into forked tongues of lightning-strike devastation that scours from rounded base to blunted tip. Where such contrast of dark and light might evoke thoughts of lustrous opposition, there is no glossy gleam to repurpose the dull matte of this shell into beauty. It simply is, a menacing glimpse of wasted potential, something not quite ugly but wholly incapable of splendour, something that catches the eye despite how unassuming it rests and inspires vigilance once attention lights upon it. Perhaps it's that scarlet blemish, vibrantly bright, reminiscent of a single, wakeful iris trapped in silent repose, that alludes to danger, but something about this egg invokes the perennial, primal instinct that something watches from the shadows.
Hatching Message
Wobble Message
Leader of the Pack Egg shudders in violent anticipation, pitching itself onto its side in the heat, rolling and rolling down the rise of shifting sands. It picks up speed as it descends, leaving a divot to mark where it started until it stops here, colliding into the feet of its sire and coming to rest. There's one quivering movement as if in relief, and then all is still.
Crack Message
Leader of the Pack Egg FOOLED YOU. It was never done; it was merely testing your mettle (and a very fond hello to you too, Dad). If there's a snout (or two) bent close to inspect, there's not a single solitary ounce of warning before fractured fragments of splitting shell are spit outward with indiscriminate haste. FOOLED YOU TWICE, HAHA. It got you close enough to look and now you've got egg stuck on your snout. Attractive, really. … Don't mind if it takes a sabbatical to enjoy how ridiculous you look while it rests. What? It's trying to spit a whole dragon out, and it needs to enjoy what bits of its egg-sonality remain while it can.
Hatch Message
Leader of the Pack Egg bursts beneath the massive heave of its captive dragon, broken splinters shredding, crumbling, as one side of the shell goes concave. It ripples in and out, in and out with each movement that transpires inside, as if this blood-red cage were a beating heart keeping time. Out onto the sands comes an egg-wet head, the hatchling come to rest for just a moment before limbs and wings surely follow.
Sands Pose #1
Against All Odds Blue Hatchling stands still for a long moment, whirling eyes lifting to take in the massive burnt-bronze of his sire, maw tilting to one side as he lifts a single paw and dips his head to take in taloned feet. He looks from his own to Xermiltoth's, a slow back and forth, back and forth, back and — WUFF. YEAH OKAY. SO YOUR PAWS ARE IMPRESSIVE, DAD, IF THAT'S EVEN YOUR REAL NAME. HIS ARE BRAND NEW, OKAY. Just wait until he gets older. His paws are gonna be huge. A shimmy-shake starts at the tip of his nose and ripples down the length of his spine to forked tail-tips, shedding bits of egg and wet that drop to the sands and plop, thick and heavy. In taking that first step forward, his head tilts again to — Leirith. He halts, whirling eyes going to that massive spread of xanthous wings, attention dropping to his own before his gaze shifts away from her and out towards the candidates. Is it possible to make such an Unimpressed Face at so young an age? That momentary pause seems to conjure it, if nothing else. No matter. Size isn't everything, you know. Time to prove it.
Sands Pose #2
Against All Odds Blue Hatchling is just going to have to try this again. FROM THE TOP, MAESTROS! Star-spackled shoulders roll, midnight-dusted mask lifts, whirling eyes take in the line of white-robed hopefuls who stand unified in one cause: impression. He could be majestic for how long he stands there, heroic-like, poised as if he's marking the path of least resistance, as if preparing a spine-thrilling speech to rally the masses and bring them to his cause. Those wings lift, that head angles upward, and those paws… go a little too fast, to be honest. One step becomes two, becomes three, becomes four in too-rapid succession, until what might have been running is more of a bid to stay on his feet. It doesn't work; he lands square on his rump, forepaws digging into sand as he goes sliding down a particularly large dune. WHEEEEE~!
Impression Message
Public Message
Against All Odds Blue Hatchling rises from the dust of his accidental descent, but that's okay. Falling serves, if nothing else, to teach us how to rise back up again. And rise he does, a delicate bruising to his ego present in the way he holds himself, in the pride that dusts whirling faucets when he turns them back onto those awaiting contact. He moves slower this time, adjusts to subtly shifting sand, adopts a gait that's cautious but graceful, that bespeaks to the potential for power once he comes into his own. But that time is far from now; now he moves with slow consideration, pauses here, there, until he's forced to double back and look for what he missed. You? No. Him? Not right. Her? No. Ah. There you are. Those whirling eyes meet the warm browns of his curly-tipped beastcrafter seconds before his nose presses into the space where his side and his arm meet. Home.
Private Message
« I dreamed I was falling. » Color bleeds from the sands around you, the acrid scent of heat yielding to earthy petrichor under the commands of that hushed, easy tenor. « Down and down and down, further and further into nothing. » The broken remnants of civilizations risen and felled time and again issue like scattered bones from the sands, rising in slow, fractured peaks of what Pern's surface could someday be, given time and technology and ruin. Translucent screens glare to life in the sudden gloom of the dark, a contrasting, vibrant neon that wavers as images flicker across its surface — images of memories, his and yours pressed together, already fading, fading, fading. Static. « Then you found me, Sh'y. » A pause, a moment of long consideration, a stretch of time that finds root in both nervousness and quiet excitement. « I am your Kovagath. » Slowly, slowly, slowly those abandoned structures crumble back into dust, leave you standing beneath stadium lights and the dome of Xanadu's hatching arena. « And now that I am here, with you, I would like it very much if we could fill the hole in my stomach that makes it feel like it's falling, too. »
Personality
“He dreamt of justice. He dreamt of helping the weak. He used his talents and his skills to fight for those who couldn’t fight for themselves.” - Superman, of the original Nightwing
Sh'y, the first thing that you should know about your Kovagath is that he will look to you to teach him, to guide him, to train him. What he is, he will owe to you. But we think, if given enough time and exposure to all of his ready acceptance, all of his faith in you (who you are and what you're capable of), that maybe, just maybe, you will owe who you become to him, too. He will love you beyond reason and without limitation, firm when he knows he must be, but never cruel. For all that your dragon is a certifiable badass, he somehow manages to be dangerous without broadcasting that fact. In other words, Sh'y: Kovagath isn't an asshole, but looks can be deceiving, and he still manages to carry himself in a manner at once casual, but confident.
One of the first things you might notice about him is that he's actually quite clever. Even fresh out of the shell, that mind works in ways both brilliant and terrifying; he is capable of making connections that might elude others, pinpointing inconsistencies and gaps in stories, finding solutions to problems that might even boggle you sometimes. He's good at sussing out those idiosyncrasies that others might overlook, a testament to his prodigious attention for detail, an asset that will follow you both into adulthood and serve you well. But even in this, even though he is intelligent to a degree that rivals even the brilliance of his father and plants seeds of doubt as to just how Leirith (that brazen, capricious idiot) can be his mother, your Kovagath harbors no true ego. Sometimes he can be pretentious and cocky when the occasion calls for it, but even that is reserved for those of whom deserve the rending tear of his capable claws and that silver-tongued wit — and usually even then it's only utilized in play.
For all that he is logical, for all that he watches the world around him, analyzing every motion, every word, every deed and action, there is an unshakable kind of optimism about him. He wants to see the good in people, in dragons, in the world around you both. And in a way that is not so common for dragonkind, your Kovagath has an unusual amount of empathy for those that he comes into contact with. He is kind, sometimes to his own detriment, always putting others before himself whether it's you or one of Pern's countless dragons. He tends towards being sacrificial, often taking on more obligations than he can reasonably manage because he wants to help, because he enjoys being somebody that people can depend on, because he wants to be someone they know they can look to, and because he wants to be someone that they can trust. Also, it doesn't hurt that he's a bit of a workaholic. Just don't mistake his kindness for weakness, Sh'y; if there is one thing Kovagath is not, it's weak.
In fact, your Kovagath tends to side with cold, hard facts as opposed to feelings. If anybody comes looking for his opinion, he's most likely going to apply concrete rationale to his solutions, a straightforward honesty that can both work in his favor as much as it can work against it. At least when people come to him, they know they're going to get an honest answer to the question they've asked, whether they want to hear it or not. Just because he understands the motivations behind people's thoughts, actions, and feelings doesn't mean that he answers them with malicious diatribe, either. It simply means that he doesn't sugarcoat things, and that the only way to truly sway him when you or anybody else is standing in opposition or disagrees with a point he's made is to provide him with tangible, tactical, logical evidence in kind.
Part of what makes him so capable is that he's strong — not just physically, but in mind and spirit, too. He's a dragon of convictions, one who refuses to compromise his own morals and beliefs, who simply cannot be coerced into following anyone — not even you — if the paths ahead might undermine his modus vivendi, his doctrine, his philosophy, his belief of what's right and what's wrong. He has a strong moral compass, and it's hard to swing the direction it's pointing without those aforementioned hard, logical facts. But that doesn't stop him from wanting to help. This is his ethos, this genuine wealth of rectitude that's balanced by a powerful will, by strength, bolstered by a fearless, undauntable kind of determination.
It will become evident early in weyrlinghood that your Kovagath, while not a troublemaker, is certainly fearless in his daring. When it comes to lessons, he will likely be the first — and most eager — to learn all of those master-skills so many elder dragons have learned before him. He will not cower from the thrill of turbulence in flight, will not hang back to assess the safety of carrying you on his back, or fret over making those perilous jumps between. If anything, you'll have to keep him grounded — literally — because there's nothing your Kovagath loves more than to fly. He will spend hours (on land, or above it) testing his own limits, pushing his own boundaries, learning just what it is that his body can do and when his body can do it. You might even find him in playful competition with Navenath a time or two, appreciating her indomitable spirit if only because he understands that same push, that same unlearned-but-no-less-prevalent badassery.
This means you might find yourself (and him) on the losing side of an injury a time or two. He chose you because he trusts you to be his partner, after all, and sometimes keeping up with him means testing the limits of your own strengths. Luckily, Kovagath will never seek to make it an unpleasant experience for you. If anything, the challenges come in forms of daring, of turning a necessary exercise into a game, a competition, one meant to better learn what you're both capable of in any given situation. So yes, he will push you, challenge you, but he will make sure that you have fun while he's doing it. His pushes will never come with malice; if anything, Kovagath adopts praise and laughter to encourage you, turns those reckless endeavors of freefall into one more piece of evidence that you were made for him, and he hatched from his shell for you.
« All we have to do is jump, Sh'y. »
"That's easy for you to say. //You're the one with wings."
« And you're the one buckled in safely. Look, it's a contest. The first one to call for the wings loses. »
"We're learning flight, Kovagath, not playing a game of chicken. It's not a contest."
« Fine. It's not a contest. It's training. You know, extra training. Training while we're training. Trainingception. We're practicing our falling skills while we're learning our flying skills so that we can better understand the limits of what we can do in the air, together. Come on. It will make us better. »//
This doesn't change as he gets older. If anything, shedding the awkwardness of his youth bolsters the confidence necessary to execute those daring acrobatics, allows him to perform, with aplomb, those heart-stopping maneuvers he's worked to perfection through a thousand and one injuries time and time again. There is no hard limit to what your dragon will do in the pursuit of bettering himself. Kovagath holds himself to an incredibly high standard, one that might go missed if only because he's so good at playing like those failures are merely one more fall he has to get up from, and he holds literally nobody else to those standards. It's one of the more finer, subtle nuances about him that you will have to watch for in Weyrlinghood and beyond, that quiet discontent that will find him when and if he ever feels he's failed something or someone.
Yet despite his own perceived shortcomings, there is no dragon better to be at your side to navigate the conventional convolutions of societal norms than him. He's not a dragon who shies away from people (or other dragons) at all. Your Kovagath has adopted the penchant of his parental heritage in that, while he might not be a loud dragon, he's certainly got no qualms about bespeaking others and pulling you into the fray of a discussion. Kovagath is good with people, good with dragons; he is easy to talk to, better at listening, offering advice and quiet humor for those who might come seeking him. And while levity is a key point of his optimistic personality, that doesn't mean he isn't serious. If we're being honest, Kovagath can be downright broody sometimes. Those witty quips come with the touch of an acerbic edge, and sometimes are meant to be used as deflection. See, for all that he is willing to be there for others, to mentor and provide confidentiality, he's not so willing to open up about himself or, more specifically, his feelings.
For this exact reason, a wicked sense of humor may come to define your Kovagath. He injects this humor into his everyday colloquies often, finding the punchline to every joke or simply making up his own as he goes. Even in the middle of a fight he finds witty, funny, sometimes outright terribly punny ways to leverage that levity. He even uses it with you, to pull you from dark places, to help you focus on the present, to remind you that laughter is essential for a healthy body, a healthy mind, a healthy soul. This doesn't mean that he's incapable of having those in depth, long, introspective conversations. He can. He will. He mostly does. But his first line of defense when things seem too tense, too hard, too serious will always, always, be his sense of humor. Or, perhaps more accurately, his wit. Sometimes things are just bad, and sometimes the only thing that you can do is laugh about it.
At least, that's what he wants for you. Kovagath has a tendency to bottle everything up, to not answer direct questions when the answer involves giving clarity to some piece of himself. He likes to work through things on his own, and part of that leadership, that want to help that's so integral to who he is as a dragon means that it can be hard for him to accept that he doesn't have to be the strong one every time. It doesn't stop him from lessening the emotional burden and impact he has upon those around him (and you) by simply refusing to talk about himself; he's usually never cruel about it, but certainly he will deflect in big ways (dismissing a conversation by pointing out they have somewhere to be and he doesn't want to keep them, for example), or offering up a self-effacing joke whilst making a physical exit. It can be especially challenging to just let this go, once you do get a glimpse of all those complicated complexities that he keeps so close to his chest and understand the genuine tumult he harbors inside of himself. It very rarely ever shines through to the surface, but it's there.
This mindset of protecting you, of protecting others is responsible for Kovagath's tendency to try and handle things by himself. Yes, Sh'y, he knows that you would willingly be there with him every step of the way, but there are just some things he needs to do himself — a fact that might be cause for contention when you consider that he would never dream of letting you go it alone. He is your protector. His sole aim in life is to keep you safe, to see you happy, to fight and rail against those things that might seek to harm you or make you feel as if you are less.
With the understanding that he places so much importance on your safety, as well as the safety of others, it might be easy to assume that your Kovagath would be better suited (and happier) in a role like Search and Rescue, where danger and agility are key components of success, where he can be of service to his Weyr by saving people on sea and land — and you wouldn't be wrong. There is no doubting that Kovagath loves to be of service, to emerge from between on star-touched wings just in the nick of time, but there is something undeniable about his ability to lead, to inspire the best in others, to praise their accomplishments and celebrate their victories. It's a natural thing for him, and he's good at it too. Any wing where he can display his prowess - in leadership, physicality, or otherwise - will suit him just fine.
Whatever path you both choose in pursuit of your careers, it's important to note that your Kovagath is actually a workaholic — no, really. He takes his job, his role, those things that are expected of him to do very seriously. Those high standards come into play here too, because while he might be lenient with your mess ups and the things you choose to do with your time, he's not so willing to be as gracious with his own. Failure isn't an option to him, it never was, and this will push him to work even harder at trying to perfect whatever might be demanded of him, be it physically, mentally, or both.
And since he's a natural born leader, there's another thing that you should know about Kovagath: he has a soft spot for the underdogs. He doesn't tolerate bullies with grace, and beyond that protective streak that draws him to bare teeth in defense of those who cannot defend themselves, he simply cannot stand by and be idle when he is watching some atrocity in action. Though he is kind, he's not afraid of confrontation. He is not a dragon that will shy away from encouraging people to confront their behaviors, their actions, their words, even at personal cost. He is, at the end of the day, a vigilante to his very core, one who respects the rules and boundaries of any given laws, but will not blanch at the thought of taking matters into his own hands. He knows he's strong, and that he is incapable of ignoring the plights of others, of walking away from the things and situations where he can help. It doesn't matter if the situation calls for a fight or something as simple and innocuous as a shoulder to lean on, a quiet, calming strength for a little girl lost and uncomprehending of where her parents are now, he steps in.
This might land you in trouble a few times, Sh'y, for though it'd be a stretch to say that Kovagath has no regard for authority, that doesn't mean that he will stand down just because someone outranks him, if he truly believes in what he's fighting for. Don't mistake us: a queen can still command him. You can control him too, but think of it more as the villain in any story catching the hero and taking them captive — he is leashed, but for how long? This is how he perceives this interference, and he will only walk away from the experience more determined than he walked in, itching to champion a different outcome.
If you haven't figured it out by now, it all boils down to this: your Kovagath is a bit of a walking contradiction at times. He's witty and charming; he's determined and responsible; he's direct and honest, compassionate, a good listener. He's logical and intelligent, independent, protective and sacrificial, and he adapts easily. But he's also stubborn and unyielding, unwilling to open up and talk about his own feelings, capable of being insensitive and falling prey to his own demons when a dark mood strikes. He likes to be in charge, takes on more than he should, is quick to grow impatient with people or dragons who neglect their duties and exhibit poor work ethics. He's an adrenaline junkie, and he's always trying to prove himself, but no matter what version of Kovagath you find yourself admiring or at odds with, one fact about him will never contradict itself or change: he is yours, and you are his. Now, forever, irrevocably. There is no going back; now it's time for you both to find all those magnificent ways you can fall, and learn how to fly together.
Mindvoice
Part of Me, Part of You
I grew up surrounded by a sea of faces awash with the myriad emotions of all mankind. The rapturous joy of circus-goers, the panicky fright of fleeing felons, the warm tenderness of fast and good friends. So many faces. Good. Bad. Indifferent. All drawing me to them like some swirling tide about to suck me under. Sometimes I have to come here, simply to be alone before my mind fairly explodes with confusion.
Steel and grit coalesce, form the bones of utopian advancement gone dark, crumbling, mired beneath the weight of monochromatic greys and petrichor. What Pern’s technology could someday be stars here, translucent screens glowing in the dim dark, neon brightness guttering in and out of existence. Despite clear shatters and breaks, this tech is useful, serving as an inner display of thoughts, maps, and all of those string-theory connections that so define his brilliance. Anything you can conceive of, he can show you, for why waste a dozen words when a mere picture will do.
But as for the rest of his mind, well… It’s as though civilization rose only to crumble again, to cave to its own depravity, and over this, Kovagath presides. He is the protector of the broken, the keeper of the beaten and the misbegotten, in his own mind as much as in his life. It is there in the corners, hidden away where evil can never hope to find it: tentative shoots of green that limn his rare moments of shyness, the cavorting of dark creatures through darker streets to underline his private joys, the glitter of streetlamps and starlight on asphalt, and the iridescent shimmer of oil atop still water. It’s the kind of beauty that - unlike the rest of him - is not immediately apparent. A person has to find the things that make these aspects of his mind great, makes them worth saving, worth keeping, worth living this life in order to preserve.
The things that make him Kovagath are very rarely shone down upon others. Inspection by anyone unworthy, outside of his family sphere, will be met with thoughts both hooded and masked, as though obscuring his identity in the act of shielding his thoughts. When his mind reaches out to others, it’s usually with a touch of color underlying his hushed, easy tenor. There’s bold blue feathers to limn his everyday speech; slashes torn in red, red cloth for fits of passion both romantic and wrathful; the impenetrable, boned black of a detective at work; and the steely curve of escrima for those times when he must exert himself for the protection of others. Other, rarer shapes, colors, textures, smells may yet burst forth as your relationship grows, but small fragments such as these are all he will allow others to see. His hopes, his dreams, his most solemn duties to provide and protect, well - those belong only to you.
Physicality
There's no denying it, Sh'y: Kovagath is handsome.
Look, we're not saying he won't have a few hiccups of awkwardness along the way, we aren't even saying that he hatched from his shell a perfectly sculpted specimen of Dragon, a subject worthy of study, a blue made from the firmaments, stardust sewn into svelte, sensuous angles, hard lines meant to inspire the fine-wit of harpers and the clever fingers of weavers. We aren't saying that his sheer existence will be the aspirations of mastercrafters seeking to immortalize his nebulous hide in dyed inks and clever song. He, just like any dragon who came before and will come after him, must still grow into his body, will have to hone a lack of definition into hard-won muscle, nurture predacious instinct into leonine skill, and perfect the timing of limbs and spars into a picture-perfect harmony of precision.
… But he is handsome.
And okay, maybe not everybody will agree. Some might gaze upon that elliptical galaxy sprawling, vast and yawning, on Kovagath's hide and think he's more eidolic specter than elysian fragment, but from the moment he breaks free of that shell, it will be obvious to anybody that he's built for agility and finesse, molded to run and fly and hunt rather than a beast made for sheer, brute strength. It's not that your dragon is weak, for lack of bulk. No, all those hard lines and harsh angles are a precursor to what lithe musculature will conspire to make up powerful limbs and turn your blue from an empty canvas of potential into a night-stalking vigilante. His strength will be more along the lines of a runner, a wild feline, those apex predators who rely on speed and dexterity rather than brash, ruthless brutality. He will never bulk up into thick coils of taut muscle, husky and unwieldy, but that doesn't mean he isn't built. Lucky for you, you will never find him struggling with stubborn baby fat, and the aerodynamicity of his runner-sleek form will grant him a mobility that might otherwise have eluded him.
But even from when he is young, there is something in the way Kovagath moves that conjures up vivid impressions of something feral, something wild, something untamed; he is graceful on all four of his paws, limber and agile and steady. He carries himself with a lackadaisical kind of confidence — no so much the cocksurity swagger of a dragon who wants you to know he's a badass, but the ease of a wolf who knows his strength without having to broadcast it, who dampens the true effect of his leonine grace if only to make himself less of a threat every time he walks into a room. Or, you know, a field. Or a feeding pen. … Or anywhere. Look, the point is that he's casual in his presentation, but it would take a blind-fool indeed to miss the undercurrents of something electric, something deadly, something better left unperturbed in that stalking gait.
And it's not just on land that Kovagath is skilled. Once the Weyrlingmaster and his AWLMs have given you permission to take to the skies, Kovagath will take to them with alacrity. One might even venture to say that he's more at home up in the air, wind beneath his sails, weightless and gravity-defiant. He is also a thrill-seeker, an adrenaline junkie, a dragon who enjoys those thirty-seconds of heart-stopping freefall before he dares bring his wings into play. And it might make you catch your breath, inspire a grey hair or five, but he's good at it. He knows just when he's reached his limit, how to pull back or push. He's a prodigal acrobat far above Pern's surface, a capable creature stunning to behold as he executes deft maneuvers with a kind of savoir faire dexterity.
Flights
Which will make flights all the more exciting, and trust us - flights there will most certainly be. Your Kovagath is quite flirtatious when it comes to the fairer sex. He's not exactly crazy about them (you know, in the sense that he stumbles over his words and aims desperation their way, clamoring to woo them with his smoulder-that's-not-actually-smoulder), but he certainly — especially as he gets older — enjoys the banter, the challenge, the differing dimensions of how they are and what makes them all so unique to him.
It's an integral piece of who he is, this savvy know-how that never goes so far as to be offensive or predatory. It's a natural savoir faire that seems to couple his clever tongue and agile wit with that innate ability to read people, to read dragons, and combine them with words into something gamesome, something flirtatious, something sometimes downright provocative. And while he seems predisposed to answer ire with the same witty appreciation of the casually-philanderous, he will always maintain a very respectful boundary. He knows when to quit, he knows when those advances are appreciated, and when he's about to take it too far. This doesn't mean he'll never push, especially if he's in the throes of a flight, but he can usually read his audience. There's a very noticable difference between when Kovagath is being playful, and when desire becomes the full magnitude of his intent.
But while he appreciates those strongly independent creatures that know how to kick ass, take names, and ain't need no man to do it, he is still strong-willed and confident in his capabilities, unchanged by star-glow hides and unwilling to be bullied by the caustic cruelty of vibrant greens — even if he is happy to meet their passion with his own. He will not cower from their savagery, and while he might enjoy the gentle, subtle madness of courting literal dragons, he has a limit as to just how much truculence he's willing to endure.
He will check a particularly vicious green, even if it means terminating any chances he had of winning their future flights. Heck, he doesn't even limit himself only to greens (though greens are the only ones he will rise to chase). No, your Kovagath uses that casual manner with which he flirts on everybody — green, gold, and human alike — and is unmoved into acting upon the whims of proddy greens by the drives of his biological need to mate.
But that is outside of flights. The moment those dragons rise, your Kovagath turns into a creature made of savagery, and while he isn't exactly antagonistic in the sense that he goes looking for trouble, he certainly doesn't avoid it when it comes looking for him. He's always ready to tear into hide with his claws and rend with his teeth, to answer the furious ire of his fellow chasers with punny insults or, when he is particularly invested in a green, his own viciousness (assuming, of course, that they come for him first). No matter what, all that persistent training comes in handy here, for he is quite agile, clever, and hard-to-match when he's left the ground and taken to the skies.
Inspiration
DUNA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA, DUNA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA-NA — SH'YMAN!!!!!!!!
Hey Sh'y, how are you doing? Welcome to Superheroes Anonymous, where it's ALL MASKS ALL THE TIME. Please feel free to help yourself to a drink and popcorn while we welcome you into Weyrlinghood at Xanadu Weyr and extend our deepest condolences — err, congratulations — on impressing blue! YOU DID IT, MAN. YOU FOUGHT THE GOOD FIGHT, YOU WON THE DARK NIGHT, YOU TACKLED THE VILLAINY OF CANDIDACY AND YOU SAVED GOTHAM CITY. No? No Gotham City? … WE ARE THE NIGHT!!! -CAPESWOOSH-
The theme for our clutch this search cycle just so happened to be Fictional Factions, and your particular egg (Leader of the Pack) was based on The Howlers from Red Rising. Look, we know that you know what that is, but we're going to explain it anyway so that the rest of the people who peek in can know it too. The Howlers are an absolutely irreverent, wholly hostile, unerringly badass faction that starts as one lone BAMF sticking it to the man and turns into an entire division of a bunch of ruthless, secret ops, frondeur rebels that don wolves' cloaks and howl when they're feeling particularly bloodthirsty. It was based loosely on a scene in book three, a scene which we will NOT spoil, because PERHAPS WE'VE SPOILERED ENOUGH ALREADY. Your egg and all of its touches were written by Risali!
His name, Kovagath, comes from an amalgamation of two different words. The first is ‘noct’, meaning ‘night’, but with a ‘k’ switched out for the softer-seeming ‘c’. The rest is taken from ‘solivagant’, or, ‘a solitary wanderer’. As Nightwing is thrust out of Robin-hood (see what we did there) and made to find his own morals, his own way, we found this to be particularly meaningful.
AS FOR THE DRAGON HIMSELF, WELL. YOU ASKED FOR NIGHTWING, AND YOU GOT HIM. Or, well, we hope we delivered. For all intents and purposes, he's based more on Dick Grayson than Nightwing, but that's because Dick Grayson is Nightwing. So here he is, your vigilante badass with a sense of humor, the one who's got a lot of dark underneath and tends towards optimism, the one with a quick wit and a penchant for BULLYING BATMAN into attempting HUMOROUS ANTICS when ALL THE BATMAN WANTS TO DO IS FIGHT CRIME. We tried to emphasize all the finer points you asked for: his dauntless ability to bespeak others, his being a badass without being a rude ass, his good-with-people, easy-to-talk-to, definitely-a-mentor disposition. But as much fun as we had writing him for you, what really matters in the end is that you are happy. Kovagath is yours, Sh'y, to play as you wish. Everything written above is merely suggestions or a small series of prompts that you can utilize as ideas (or completely ignore) as he grows.
We hope that we did him justice, and we hope that you enjoy him! Thank you for letting us write him for you and, on behalf of all of Xanadu Weyr and SearchCo, allow us to extend one more big CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!
- R'hyn and Risali! <3
Credits
| Name | Kovagath |
| Dam | Leirith |
| Sire | Xermiltoth |
| Created By | R'hyn & Risali |
| Impressee | Sh'y (Shiloh) |
| Hatched | November 14, 2020 |
| Xanadu Weyr | |
| PernWorld MUSH |