Age: 16
Hair color: reddish-brown.
Eye color: brown
Height: 6'3"
Weight: 150lbs
History:
Dakryan was born on Tatooine under full moons in the middle of the desert at a
nomadic tribe camp. His parents, Kavryn and Kya moved to Tatooine from Coruscant, though they never told
their kids where they came from before then. They have no extended family. They
are it.
They vacationed on Tatooine just in time for Dakryan's birth, and went back
home to Coruscant. When Dak was 6, they moved to Mos Eisley. His name is the
tribe’s word for “Fortunate Moon.” He tells people he’s 18 to avoid being
picked on at Lotus Garden school. He’s an amazing dancer, though thinks his
older sister, Aidia, is a better dancer. She taught him how when they first
moved to Tatooine as a way to distract him from missing his friends back on
Coruscant. He took to dancing quickly. Dancing frees him like nothing else, as
does singing.
His sister, Aidia Ryder, is 22, was born on Coruscant, and teaches dance at Garden. His little
brother, Brenn, is 10, was born on Tatooine the year they moved there, and attends Garden as well. His father is 45, is the manager of the
S-Mart, and his mother, 42, helps him out. She would tell her children every day
that "We are all we have." Nothing was more important than family. As
a result, the entire Ryder clan was incredibly close.
Two weeks after the Invid invasion, Dakryan tried to commit suicide
by jumping off the roof of the cantina. In mid air, the Cantina Ghost
leapt into his body and saved his life, twisting in the air so he ended
up with just a broken arm instead of a broken skeleton. Dakryan is
slowly healing as the CG uses his body to train as a Hunter in order to
help his friends.
Personality (Before the Invid attack)
Dakryan is a simple guy on the surface. He is exactly what you would expect from a
teenage Tatooine boy. He works in retail (thanks to his father being the manager of the Mos Eisley S-Mart), so for most
people he is polite to a fault-- at
first. He loves to wink and smile and tease, which gets him into
trouble a lot of the time. He has a histoy of trying to be
cool but falling short, so in the past he tended to hang out with groups that would treat him cruelly but play it off as being
casual and the rough sort of friendly. From those experiences, he's learned that the popular kids tease, and he always takes it a few
dozen steps too far.
In fact, he's legitimately
obnoxious. He doesn't just cross people's comfort lines and boundary
zones, he leaps them with unapologetic, flippant, gleeful mirth. In
spite of being a delicate little blossom himself deep down, Dakryan has
no real concept of when he is hurting people's feelings. When he does realize it, his methods of apology can be ill-timed, ill-suited, and odd. He is almost always genuinely
surprised and upset when people get angry at him.
His family is financially
comfortable, and he is clueless about other people's financial situations
to the point of being completely insensitive. When someone comes to the S-Mart looking for a vid screen, he thinks them cheap when they object to even the sale prices.
His parents are strict, but
clearly take good care of him and his siblings. They're indulgent with the three of them, too, to the
point where they don't kick up any fuss when any of them want to try something new. On the other hand his mother used humiliation to
punish him on at least one occasion, and his father makes him work all
of the shifts that need covered when people call in 'sick' at the S-Mart.
Under
the surface, Dakryan is a cracked little mosaic of old bruises. He has
never had genuine friends before he met Brianna and company, and to the Cantina Ghost, he admits to that he kept his old com number
in spite of getting lots of spam messages just in case one of his
old 'friends' wanted to get in touch with him. Not only have none of
them bothered, but the reason he didn't change his number and just give
them the new one is that he didn't want to 'bother' them by getting in
touch like that in the first place.
He has insecurities that run
deep, and often takes the same kind of swings at himself verbally that
he does at everyone else, phrasing them as jokes.'Haha, I suck,' and 'You asked for something stupid, so why are you shocked?,' but said with the type of deadpan that smacks of a certain
amount of truth.
For all of his faults, Dakryan is a deeply
loyal friend. He's courageous, and despite being a bit of a whiner he has relentless optimism
and good humor. He's cheerful and friendly to a fault, generous (again
with a dose of whining that is clearly just for show) and soft-hearted.
He's clutzy, anxious, lazy, and an impatient prick at times. Deep down, however, he is a
daydreaming fool: a side of him that only his family usually gets to see.
Personality (After the Invid attack.)
This isn't a hard one to guess at. He wouldn't speak to anyone. He wouldn't smile for any reason. He felt nothing, and even stared down a Dementor when the shadowy, soul-sucking creatures attacked Mos Eisley. It left him alone, as he was already living his worst memory on repeat. He tried to commit suicide four times. He was placed on the psychological medication "Stenaythral" by Dr. Akane Shion --a doctor at Garden medical-- to treat the PTSD flashbacks and depression. It's a complete 180 of who he used to be. ((The drug is fictional. They're small, round, white pills, 30 count, in an opaque blue bottle with an information tag wrapped around it.))
Special skills:
*Dakryan is Enjera -- the same people as Kari Windryder. Hence the ‘Ryder’ portion of the name. He can defy gravity, flying without the use of any physical aid or wings. Check Kari Windryder's profile for information on the war. (Kya, or "Kaia", was a common name for their people. It's like their form of Katheryn.)
*Read "Gravity." A short story about the Enjeran people centering on Dakryan's parents and their life on Aida.
*He's a spectacularly awesome dancer. His style combines elements of Tap, Hip Hop, and Contemporary. This includes classical training and acrobatics to achieve the flips and jumps. See the video for the "Fallen Angel" dance as an example of his classical/contemporary training. He performed it at the Garden Talent Show that was his sister's project in honor of his family after their deaths. At this point, he still did not know of his ability to fly. It was revealed to him later that night by Brianna. Still angry and upset, he ran into the desert barefoot and 'forced' himself to fly out of shear mix of emotions. He was able to sustain air across two sand dunes, but that was it. It was a long night.
*He can fight with two short blades called Kunai. He's training to become a Hunter under Alex Meika's tutelage in the Hunter's Guild (run by Barclay Nicodemus Ramsey). Thanks to the CG's dedication for the first two months, he's become skilled at the blades, and is a decent fighter in hand-to-hand combat.
*He now studies at the Royal Bending Academy with Kari, learning how to hone his flying ability.
*He was a funny, outgoing, comical guy before the attack.
~*Can hear the voice of a little
boy.* [Mom, can I go play outside?] [No, Brenn. There's a sandstorm
coming. ]~ ~*Dakryan's voice.* That's not a storm, mom! It's ....an
frack ton of ships! [*mom ushers the boys back inside. His older sister
holds onto Brenn.* Aidia, take Brenn to the basement. Dak,...get back in
here and help your father secure the windows.]*~ *The CG steps closer
to the crater.* ~*Dak's voice again.* Hang on, mom! Buyo's outside! *he
runs back outside, ignoring his mother's call for him to come to safety.
Explosions go off all around him as the ships buzz overhead, swarming
through the sky in their deadly raid as bolts of fire pepper the
ground. Mechs and fighters from the various groups try to defend the
city, and they, too, streak through the sky lit with blaster fire.
Ships blow up in the air from the attacks.* *He grabs the family cat.*
I got him! Mom, I--*a loud explosion throws him back into the street.
His ears ring, as he's gone temporarily deaf. The cat scratches him and
runs away. He pushes himself to his feet, bruised and sore, and
bleeding from cuts and abrasions.* *He faces the house....or rather, the crater.*
.....O_O....... * in total shock.*~