Writer: willow
Name: Jeremy Cullen Luka
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Sexuality orientation: Bisexual
Pernese Settler Info
Craft/job: Herder
Rank: Nomad
Location at Threadfall: Small stakeholding to the west of Landing
Do they approve of the genetic tinkering? Whatever
Appearance:
He doesn’t particularly look it, but there’s a lot of physical strength in Luka. He might not be toned or bulking the way some men are, but he often surprises folk with how strong he is. There’s little to no extra fat on his body, especially after he lost his son. He’s too much of a high-strung person to carry much weight anyway. What is left is lean, wiry muscle that feels like a lot more than it seems when it’s driving a fist at you. And really, no one really notices his physique much when it’s covered with tattoos the way it is.
Mostly acquired before he left Earth, his tattoos cover the majority of his body. They vary from very simple and plain to things that are a little more artistic and thoughtful, but they are a chaotic mishmash of images that don’t have much rhyme or reason. He never really planned them out, just picked something on a whim and told the artist to put it somewhere.
Even by Earth standards his appearance was odd and it doesn’t end there. He’s put rings through many part of his body, though not all of them survived life on Pern and now he’s left with one in both nostrils, several in his ears and one through each nipple. The last have always been an extra difficult challenge to keep comfortably, but he loves them and is determined to get them to keep properly. He keeps his head shaved right to the skin and grows sideburns that are actually a touch longer. Too top it all off he likes to take his shaving knife to his eyebrows once in a while, shaving out little bits into some form of regular pattern.
Luka was never an overly handsome man. Maybe cute to some who can get past the rest of his looks, but more than anything he’s quite average. There’s a good strong jaw there, though and his dark brown eyes are expressive, even if he’s prone to having heavy bags under them most of the time.
Personality:
Luka is a hostile man that really can’t shake the need to defend himself even in situations where it’s completely unnecessary. Although, since the arrival of Thread, he’s immensely grateful for his almost obsessive need to prepare himself for anything and everything. He’s never really had it in him to trust anything other than himself and perhaps a few choice friends or family, and he’s viciously self-reliant. He doesn’t want anyone’s help and he has no patience for people who try to force this on him, especially if he actually is actually in need. Perhaps he might want to feel gratitude for this, but his hurt pride and ego makes it almost impossible to actually show it. If anything he’ll be resentful and angry towards anyone that he does have accept help from.
There’s an arrogance that comes with not giving any fucks, which describes Luka perfectly. He simply doesn’t care much beyond his own needs and why should he? Any time he’s let himself have faith in anyone or anything it’s come back to bite him in the ass. It might be a bit of an extreme view but his last straw was trusting that he could have a happy, peaceful life on this planet only to have it turn around take the thing he loved most away from him. He’s a bitter man that has yet to figure out how to recover from the disastrous first Threadfall, even after two years. Partially this is his own fault for refusing to let go of the anger that comes along with this, and it’s made him a highly unpopular man at Landing.
He fights the want to be liked and accepted, and yet these are what could help him heal. So far he’s stubbornly kept to himself, trying to figure out how to get past his loss on his own despite knowing that he’s really not equipped to do so.
Luka’s one area of solace is working with the animals he tends to. Though most of the herds at his stake were lost, there’s still room for him to have some purpose and he couldn’t be happier not having to spend time with people when he can get away with it. With the losses to the livestock at Landing he’s been helping with breeding up what’s left, or was until the volcanoes started spewing. Life at Ista isn’t really any different for him, not enough for him to care anyway.
History:
The choice to apply for Pern’s colonization was an easy one. Jeremy was never the sort to fit in easily and the idea of leaving the entire planet behind felt like winning the lottery. Even at only fourteen he’d been kicked out of enough schools and spent enough time in juvenile detention centers that most people who knew him were equally happy about him leaving. After fifteen years in stasis he was woken with the other colonists to get the first look at their new home.
As soon as the nomadic settlers were allowed to take their supplies and set off on their own Jeremy, who started going by his last name only, was the happiest he’d ever been. Pern was beautiful and, more importantly, so empty. For the first couple of years he spent his time with another group of travellers learning about the vast land that was all theirs.
At eighteen he fathered a child, a little boy that he became a single parent of when the mother didn’t make it through the birth. Zachary was truly the light in his life and he was more excited than he ever thought he could be to raise his kid in the little house he’d built. It was a life he’d never expected he would have and there was such a joy in the simplicity of raising sheep and growing vegetables.
Of course it was too good to be true and Luka cursed himself for letting himself be lured into a false sense of security, but the fury at this was nothing compared to the agony of knowing what happened to his child. Zachary was nine years old and never came back in from feeding the animals when Thread fell and though Luka didn’t see it happen, he knew from watching his small herd decimated in minutes how it had gone.
It was terrifying making his way alone back to Landing, but there wasn’t anything left for him at his home. The next two years passed in a haze, though there was a bright spot of bonding to one of the wild firelizards that were so plentiful in the area. The little thing gave him a little bit of a spark to keep on going and by the time Landing was evacuated he’d at least started to feel a little bit himself again. Perhaps a much more bitter version, but it was a start.
To Luka Ista Crater wasn’t a whole lot different than landing. Things might have gotten a little more primitive and life was a little more survivalistic, but he found he appreciated this. There wasn’t as much time to wallow, with the group scrambling to make the place safe and livable. At the very least the Crater was large enough that everyone could pretty much have as much space as they wanted and though all most people could talk about was joining up with the main civilization, Luka was deciding he could be reasonably happy at this place.
Dragon
Name: Welseth
Colour: Bronze
Hatching date: 10.8.28
Welseth is a stocky bronze, built along smaller lines but will obviously be strong. There is a bright reddish tinge to his hide, making him look more copper than bronze in the right light and he’s definitely not unhappy that this tends to draw the eye. Like the sister he’s so similar to, he has no problem being the center of attention, though he doesn’t tend to look for it quite as much as Selfreth does. They’re two sides of the same coin but Welseth is more laidback than Selfreth, happy to lounge around and soak up the attention that the gold brings to them.
He’s a trouble-maker no doubt, but Welseth is less aggressive about it and more inclined to feel guilty about causing any harm. Everything is simply about having fun and enjoying life; making the others laugh is key even if he has to make fun of himself to do it. It’s hard to get him to take much seriously and he’s often lazy about his work, particularly when there’s a whole world of interesting things to experience. Growing up to fight Thread and fall in line with the others isn’t his idea of a grand future and it’ll be a struggle to get him to actually show interest in focusing on his duty.
That said, he’s a creative and inventive creature that could be put to good use if he can be lured into actually wanting to participate in the thing he was bred to do.
Pets
Name: Meathead
Type: Gold wild firelizard
Meathead is a prickly little thing, much like her owner and there hasn’t been much effort put into changing that. Luka thinks her grouchy attitude is hilarious and if Meathead takes someone’s finger off, well, that’s their own damn fault. She’s a weedy creature with a bright sunset golden hide that she’s obsessively vain about. Not a single speck of dirt is permitted to linger, not while she’s got her slave to look after it for her. Had she not been impressed she would have been a fierce and self-sufficient firelizard, but she’s latched onto being spoiled and coddled by Luka and if she doesn’t have to work for something she won’t. Still, she doesn’t stand for other lizards trying to compete with her for anything in her little world and she’s aggressively jealous of her pet.
Name: Jeremy Cullen Luka
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Sexuality orientation: Bisexual
Pernese Settler Info
Craft/job: Herder
Rank: Nomad
Location at Threadfall: Small stakeholding to the west of Landing
Do they approve of the genetic tinkering? Whatever
Appearance:
He doesn’t particularly look it, but there’s a lot of physical strength in Luka. He might not be toned or bulking the way some men are, but he often surprises folk with how strong he is. There’s little to no extra fat on his body, especially after he lost his son. He’s too much of a high-strung person to carry much weight anyway. What is left is lean, wiry muscle that feels like a lot more than it seems when it’s driving a fist at you. And really, no one really notices his physique much when it’s covered with tattoos the way it is.
Mostly acquired before he left Earth, his tattoos cover the majority of his body. They vary from very simple and plain to things that are a little more artistic and thoughtful, but they are a chaotic mishmash of images that don’t have much rhyme or reason. He never really planned them out, just picked something on a whim and told the artist to put it somewhere.
Even by Earth standards his appearance was odd and it doesn’t end there. He’s put rings through many part of his body, though not all of them survived life on Pern and now he’s left with one in both nostrils, several in his ears and one through each nipple. The last have always been an extra difficult challenge to keep comfortably, but he loves them and is determined to get them to keep properly. He keeps his head shaved right to the skin and grows sideburns that are actually a touch longer. Too top it all off he likes to take his shaving knife to his eyebrows once in a while, shaving out little bits into some form of regular pattern.
Luka was never an overly handsome man. Maybe cute to some who can get past the rest of his looks, but more than anything he’s quite average. There’s a good strong jaw there, though and his dark brown eyes are expressive, even if he’s prone to having heavy bags under them most of the time.
Personality:
Luka is a hostile man that really can’t shake the need to defend himself even in situations where it’s completely unnecessary. Although, since the arrival of Thread, he’s immensely grateful for his almost obsessive need to prepare himself for anything and everything. He’s never really had it in him to trust anything other than himself and perhaps a few choice friends or family, and he’s viciously self-reliant. He doesn’t want anyone’s help and he has no patience for people who try to force this on him, especially if he actually is actually in need. Perhaps he might want to feel gratitude for this, but his hurt pride and ego makes it almost impossible to actually show it. If anything he’ll be resentful and angry towards anyone that he does have accept help from.
There’s an arrogance that comes with not giving any fucks, which describes Luka perfectly. He simply doesn’t care much beyond his own needs and why should he? Any time he’s let himself have faith in anyone or anything it’s come back to bite him in the ass. It might be a bit of an extreme view but his last straw was trusting that he could have a happy, peaceful life on this planet only to have it turn around take the thing he loved most away from him. He’s a bitter man that has yet to figure out how to recover from the disastrous first Threadfall, even after two years. Partially this is his own fault for refusing to let go of the anger that comes along with this, and it’s made him a highly unpopular man at Landing.
He fights the want to be liked and accepted, and yet these are what could help him heal. So far he’s stubbornly kept to himself, trying to figure out how to get past his loss on his own despite knowing that he’s really not equipped to do so.
Luka’s one area of solace is working with the animals he tends to. Though most of the herds at his stake were lost, there’s still room for him to have some purpose and he couldn’t be happier not having to spend time with people when he can get away with it. With the losses to the livestock at Landing he’s been helping with breeding up what’s left, or was until the volcanoes started spewing. Life at Ista isn’t really any different for him, not enough for him to care anyway.
History:
The choice to apply for Pern’s colonization was an easy one. Jeremy was never the sort to fit in easily and the idea of leaving the entire planet behind felt like winning the lottery. Even at only fourteen he’d been kicked out of enough schools and spent enough time in juvenile detention centers that most people who knew him were equally happy about him leaving. After fifteen years in stasis he was woken with the other colonists to get the first look at their new home.
As soon as the nomadic settlers were allowed to take their supplies and set off on their own Jeremy, who started going by his last name only, was the happiest he’d ever been. Pern was beautiful and, more importantly, so empty. For the first couple of years he spent his time with another group of travellers learning about the vast land that was all theirs.
At eighteen he fathered a child, a little boy that he became a single parent of when the mother didn’t make it through the birth. Zachary was truly the light in his life and he was more excited than he ever thought he could be to raise his kid in the little house he’d built. It was a life he’d never expected he would have and there was such a joy in the simplicity of raising sheep and growing vegetables.
Of course it was too good to be true and Luka cursed himself for letting himself be lured into a false sense of security, but the fury at this was nothing compared to the agony of knowing what happened to his child. Zachary was nine years old and never came back in from feeding the animals when Thread fell and though Luka didn’t see it happen, he knew from watching his small herd decimated in minutes how it had gone.
It was terrifying making his way alone back to Landing, but there wasn’t anything left for him at his home. The next two years passed in a haze, though there was a bright spot of bonding to one of the wild firelizards that were so plentiful in the area. The little thing gave him a little bit of a spark to keep on going and by the time Landing was evacuated he’d at least started to feel a little bit himself again. Perhaps a much more bitter version, but it was a start.
To Luka Ista Crater wasn’t a whole lot different than landing. Things might have gotten a little more primitive and life was a little more survivalistic, but he found he appreciated this. There wasn’t as much time to wallow, with the group scrambling to make the place safe and livable. At the very least the Crater was large enough that everyone could pretty much have as much space as they wanted and though all most people could talk about was joining up with the main civilization, Luka was deciding he could be reasonably happy at this place.
Dragon
Name: Welseth
Colour: Bronze
Hatching date: 10.8.28
Welseth is a stocky bronze, built along smaller lines but will obviously be strong. There is a bright reddish tinge to his hide, making him look more copper than bronze in the right light and he’s definitely not unhappy that this tends to draw the eye. Like the sister he’s so similar to, he has no problem being the center of attention, though he doesn’t tend to look for it quite as much as Selfreth does. They’re two sides of the same coin but Welseth is more laidback than Selfreth, happy to lounge around and soak up the attention that the gold brings to them.
He’s a trouble-maker no doubt, but Welseth is less aggressive about it and more inclined to feel guilty about causing any harm. Everything is simply about having fun and enjoying life; making the others laugh is key even if he has to make fun of himself to do it. It’s hard to get him to take much seriously and he’s often lazy about his work, particularly when there’s a whole world of interesting things to experience. Growing up to fight Thread and fall in line with the others isn’t his idea of a grand future and it’ll be a struggle to get him to actually show interest in focusing on his duty.
That said, he’s a creative and inventive creature that could be put to good use if he can be lured into actually wanting to participate in the thing he was bred to do.
Pets
Name: Meathead
Type: Gold wild firelizard
Meathead is a prickly little thing, much like her owner and there hasn’t been much effort put into changing that. Luka thinks her grouchy attitude is hilarious and if Meathead takes someone’s finger off, well, that’s their own damn fault. She’s a weedy creature with a bright sunset golden hide that she’s obsessively vain about. Not a single speck of dirt is permitted to linger, not while she’s got her slave to look after it for her. Had she not been impressed she would have been a fierce and self-sufficient firelizard, but she’s latched onto being spoiled and coddled by Luka and if she doesn’t have to work for something she won’t. Still, she doesn’t stand for other lizards trying to compete with her for anything in her little world and she’s aggressively jealous of her pet.