Name: Agalloth
Age: 37
Birthdate: Month 3 Turn 1616
Color: Bronze
Color Code: 97871c
Length: 55'
Rider: M'taine
Home Weyr: Telgar
Dam: Ophidioth
Sire: Killinarth (bronze)
Appearance:
Agalloth is an unusual-looking bronze. First, he is -very- large, pushing the size limit of his color, but he is sleek and lanky rather than bulky and heavy, standing tall and proud on powerfully muscled but lean, narrow-boned limbs. His neck and tail are longer than average, as is his torso, giving him a serpentine aspect. He is far from thin and stringy, but he is also nowhere near as massive as some other bronzes (he tends to mentally disparage that body type as being like a 'flying rock'.) Though he is beginning to feel his age in the creaking and even some mild pain in his joints, his mobility is as yet unimpaired. He is aging, but not yet old, and he retains all the physical prowess of his youth. Overall, his age gives him an air of experience and wisdom rather than frailty or decrepitude… so far.
He has relatively short, narrow wings, in aspect and proportion similar to those of a Terran falcon's. As a result, he has slightly less stamina in the air than the average bronze, but he can change direction with extreme speed, and, when diving, is one of the fastest dragons in the Weyr. He is an expert at building up speed by diving, then snapping his wingtips out to produce sudden lift and convert his velocity into altitude. This talent serves him well in training to fight Thread, but his comparative lack of stamina costs him when he chases queens. He has caught a few in his time, including, recently, the visiting garnet Indith (with whom he is rather smitten) but not as many as one might expect for a bronze of his age, size, and intelligence.
Agalloth's coloration adds to his unusual appearance as well, for his color is anything but consistent. Bronzes tend to be more uniform in hue than the chromatics, but Agalloth cheerfully defies that standard with his variegated hide. The base color of his hide appears brown-black in poor lighting but burnishes to a deep, rich aged-bronze hue. Overlaying this base color are irregular, somewhat ocelot-like markings which shine like freshly cast bronze, including a row of almost-circular "peacock spots" running down the outer edge of his wings.
Beneath these markings are streaks of pale, brilliant bronze, almost but not quite light enough to be golden, irregularly distributed all over his body; these highlight the irregular markings, making them stand out more brilliantly in poor lighting, while in direct sunlight he practically glows like a metal statue. Agalloth's face, feet, wingtips, and the last few feet of his tail are, beneath the pale streaks and bright splotches, a much redder, more brilliant shade of bronze, approaching the hue of a newly minted penny.
Finally his wing membranes are a sort of burnt champagne, almost but not truly golden. Along the outer edges of his wing membranes, a greenish-blue "tarnish" has begun to spread in ragged, uneven watercolor patterns; although he is not yet a truly old dragon, he is approaching middle age, and the "tarnish" marks reflect this. They also add to his beauty, however, as they have added an attractive, if uneven and narrow, belt of bluish-green along the big dragon's wing edges, beneath the "peacock" type markings, which makes them stand out more. This same tarnish-green appears faintly on his muzzle as well. All in all, he is not the largest bronze ever hatched, not by far, but he might be one of the most intricately patterned!
Personality:
Agalloth has much better self-control than his rider, but he is almost equally blunt-spoken. He speaks his mind when he feels like it to whomever he feels like it, and between with the consequences… though he isn't above a bit of sarcasm or subtlety, such as making sideways comments about things. (For example his snarky remarks to the Candidates at the Touching after Indith was forced to throw one of them for disrespecting an egg.)
Agalloth rather wishes that his rider would just relax and accept himself for who he is. The big bronze doesn't understand why M'taine has such a problem with being attracted to his own sex as well as to females — it's not as if Agalloth himself lost rank and prestige if he chose to chase a gray or green instead of a queen, so why his rider struggles so much with the idea of mating with those dragons' riders if they happen to be male (especially since Agalloth knows for a fact that his rider really does enjoy being with other men, regardless of whether M'taine wants to admit that or not) is beyond the bronze dragon's comprehension. Agalloth does not understand the concept of hiding things about oneself, but he has agreed to keep M'taine's secret… for now. He has gone out of his way to chase greens as of late, though, hoping that sooner or later his rider will snap out of this silliness and accept himself for how he is. He was secretly delighted when he discovered that Indith's rider is a male, but thus far that fact hasn't done much to loosen his rider up, much to Agalloth's puzzlement.
Agalloth is a proud beast, like pretty much all bronzes, but he is not arrogant as a rule. Or, at least, his arrogance is typically quiet and unconscious rather than bold and brash. He knows his strengths and weaknesses and is content within his own limitations. While he silently expects excellence from the dragons flying with him and seeks to set the best example for them to follow (whether he is their wingleader/'second or not), he does not see himself as better than other dragons simply because he is a bronze, nor is it a blow to his ego that he has never caught the senior queen of the Weyr.
Ultimately, to this relatively laid-back bronze, things simply are as they are. He chases females. If he catches the female, wonderful! If he doesn't, better luck next time. He takes preparing for Threadfall more seriously but is still ultimately unconcerned about the whys of things… if a dragon or rider in their wing is injured during training somehow, he is sorry for them, but he doesn't understand his rider's tendency to blame himself for the "failure". Indeed, Agalloth doesn't really understand the concept of "failure" as his rider does. To Agalloth, you either succeed or you try again when the time is once again right. If you are wounded, you rest and heal. Life is simple, and the tendency of humans to complicate it confuses him. Sometimes he and his rider get into arguments over this, but it never strains their relationship. Agalloth simply accepts that the small wingless ones like to overthink everything and make life harder than it needs to be, and doesn't question why this is so.