J. Anka Gray : Llama Breeder : Female

CHARACTER PROFILE
Name: Jocelyn Anka Gray [goes by Anka]

Age: 24 [Mid Autumn]

Gender: Female

Distinguishing features: Never fades into the background

Hair Color: Brown

Eye Color: Green

Description: Standing at 5'11" and often seeming even taller, Jocelyn, or Anka as she prefers to be known, cuts and impressive figure. Solidly tanned to just a hint of bronze, she spends a great deal of time outside and shows it. Due to the nature of her profession, she is quite well muscled and has been known to flip a llama - weighing roughly three hundred pounds - to the ground. No, she doesn't lift them. Still, her strength has surprised some. She has a number of scars across her lithe body, some from llama teeth or toes, others from various other endeavours (and accidents). They don't really make much of a statement; they simply show that she's a working girl.

It is not merely due to her height that she cannot fade into the background. Her personality tends to leak from every pore, and she stands confidently and often dramatically. Oftentimes she doesn't even really need to announce her presence. She's just... hard to miss. It may be connected to how little she remains in one place if she can help it. When boredom sets in, Anka gets restless.

On a smaller scale, Anka has quite broad, prominent cheekbones dominating her face. Her eyes are not far behind, with such a strong nature grinning out from their very green depths. The makeup does enhance the effect; she usually wears a sort of imitation kohl around their edges. While working with the animals, it cuts the glare, and when working with people, hey, she stands out even more. Anka is not one to tone herself down. If one gets past the more powerful features, she has full lips and a straight, narrow nose.

Although it is often pulled firmly back and tied tightly at the nape of her neck in a ponytail, Anka's brown - not light, not dark, not tinted with red, but merely plainly brown without really being mousy - hair is just on the wavy side of straight when it hangs loose. Taut it would reach her waist, but in its natural state, lower back is a bit more accurate. It often tangles if she leaves it alone for too long, which is why she ties it back. She has no desire to cut it, as she really doesn't think she looks very good with short hair, and so makes do with what she has.

Personality: Never one to hide, Anka wears her emotions - bouyant as they are - on her sleeves. While she may not speak plainly, she will do so honestly. Her words might just be mixed in with a bit of dramatic flair. She doesn't mind if she irritates others with her openess but also admits that she isn't the best at keeping secrets. She likes to talk, should anyone be listening, and accompanies her expressive voice with emphasized body language. For this reason, she prefers to have her hands free when talking... she feels as if she only communicates part of her message if she uses merely sound.

Whether or not she intends to, Anka emphasizes anything she considers important. If it's a sign, she will use bold, dramatic colours to draw one's attention to the message. If verbal, moving hands and audible stresses are used to do the job. If it's an action meant to speak louder than words... well, it tends to be quite obvious. She is too stubborn to tone it down for the sakes of others but her attitude often makes up for strength of her personality.

Cheerful to the point of obsession, Anka is disgusted by personal feelings of weakness, shame, anger, or sorrow. Fear is understandable and technically a survival instinct, so she doesn't mind it as much. Now, she doesn't look down on others for their negative feelings (although she may consider it an unnecessary, misguided waste of time) but will do her best to banish all such unhappy thoughts. She prefers to be happy herself and believes that everyone deserves the chance to be content.

She can, admittedly, be a bit overpowering at times. Most of her friends are either strong enough to work with her or submissive enough to just go along with whatever she feels like doing. Since she decides very quickly in most instances, submission tends to involve finding oneself being dragged along on some strange impulse. Like giving the herding dogs a holiday and taking their places working the herd. Fortunately, Mezzo, at least, refuses to allow his position to be usurped and will simply keep an eye on the idiots 'helping' him.

Finally, Anka is rather unrestrained. If she feels like doing something, she likes to just do it, rather than get caught up in tons of red tape and rules. She enjoys the freedom to do what she wants, when she wants. Of course, she does have responsibilities and she manages them well, but there is a point where one needs to simply live one's life.

History: Anka doesn't spend time thinking about her life before Pern. It isn't that it was bad or anything, it was just a different part of her life. It is in the past, and she lives in the present. Sure, it was interesting living on a Terran llama farm with her older brothers and the oldest's wife, but it was nowhere as interesting as the 'now'.

Anka isn't the only Pernese immigrant to state that her life began the day she set eyes on Pern, spinning beautifully on a black backdrop strewn with jewelled stars. Everything before that she was simply alive for. As beast-of-burden workers with no beasts-of-burden yet born, she and the younger of her two brothers were close to the last to descend to their new world. After that they worked hard to set up their world - at fourteen, Anka was still young enough for many of the activites generally set aside for children - and waited for the first of the llamas to be brought into the world.

As soon as the first batch - three females and a male - were settling onto their feet and proving themselves exceptionally adaptable to their new Pernese diet, Anka and James moved to the outer edge of Landing, there to care for and cultivate their gradually expanding herd. Soon they had to find helping hands and were added to the list waiting for herding dogs. With their new tools, they and their herd thrived.

And then Thread fell. Now into her twenties and eyeing the young men of Landing, Anka had no choice but to watch as huge numbers of llamas were devoured by the voracious organism. Her dear green dragonet, Frill, was injured trying to get the animals and herders to shelter, aided by swarms of wild dragonets. The green recovered but Anka's brother was devoured, along with several dogs and more than half of their herd. Shaken, she retreated to Landing, carefully hiding away the remaining llamas in case the menace descended again.

Well, the humans of Pern began to adapt, as all now know. Sleds were refitted to sear Thread from the skies before they could eat everything in their path. Biologists and geneticists were all drawn into their new project. The llama herd slowly recovered, and Anka began training the newest of the puppies to herd the beasts to stone shelter. She grew attached to the red-and-white canine and named him Mezzo.

Two years later came Cheza. Mezzo's daughter, the hyperactive puppy was just as quick to learn and equally work-oriented. Now well settled on the outer side of the Caldera, with personal rooms reserved inside often going unused as Anka instead watched over her reduced herd, she set to training the blue merle pup. Her social life was, understandably, a bit strained, but since she had always been preoccupied with her livelihood, she simply ceased to make new acquaintances. Her friends still drop by to visit some evenings, but she hopes to have some more time now that Cheza is becoming able to help with the herd.

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Pets



Name: Mezzo

Species: Canine

Breed: Australian Shepherd

Gender: Male

Age: 3

Description:A red or liver bi-colour, Mezzo is blocked off into several large areas in terms of colouring. His back, upper forelegs, belly, and most of his rear legs are solid red, as are both sides of his head. A white stripe splits the two sections there both above and below, though his nose is reddish-brown rather than pink. He is slightly below the average height for his gender but is stocky and well-muscled enough to meet the mean weight. Like Cheza, his ears are usually folded forwards, cocked so much as they can be to carefully sift through any sound.

Personality: Dedicated to his work, Mezzo will do whatever it takes to protect his herd, even though the alpha male llama is quite capable of managing that department himself. He is quite intense and very single-minded. If he's on the job, no amount of temptation will distract him, though they may receive a disdainful glance. He has a very good nose and loves putting it to use in 'search and rescue' games, though he has never had an opportunity to use the skill for real. He lives for his work. The ear and belly scratches are just the extra perks.

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Name: Cheza

Species: Canine

Breed: Australian Shepherd

Gender: Female

Age: 1

Description: Nearing the end of her growing and the beginning of her true usefulness, Cheza is a slender blue merle with tan points. She is quite symmetrical for a merle, with her head split evenly between white, tan, blue-gray, and black. She has tan eyebrows, and her chest, lower forelegs, and rear toes are white. There is also a large black patch just before her hips. For her breed, she is a little tall but quite scrawny and lightly built. Her ears tend to flop forewards rather than back, though if she thinks she's in trouble they'll flip right around.

Personality: Obsessive to the point of sheer insanity, Cheza is a hyperactive puppy through and through. She respects and obeys her owner absolutely, but she does still have some trouble with 'stay's... She simply has too much energy. She is learning to control the herd well, and it gives her a chance to work off some of that need to run. She loves to bark at anything that moves and will fall off her feet - literally - for a good belly rub. She might be a bit suspicious of people she doesn't know at first and often searches them with her nose, but once introduced accepts them as part of her herd... and treat them exactly the same as anyone else she knows.

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Name: Frill

Species: Dragonet

Colour: Green

Age: 4

Description: A fairly minty green, Frill's most unique feature is the pale, almost silvery shade of her neck ridge. Beyond this light streak, her hide is uniform in tone. She is of average length, width, and height for a fully mature green dragonet, with a snout just on the narrow side. There is a slightly puckered scar across her left rear foot, and the outermost toe is missing the final joint and claw; a Thread injury saved by the ice of between.

Personality: Frill is actually quite calm and laid-back for a little green beastie. She has an air of intelligence though the average lack of it, likely due to her habit of listening intently with a slightly cocked head. Still, despite her deficiency of excessive energy she loves to insist that all males are hers and that golds should just live with it, being too snobby for their own good. She also tends towards emotions and blurry images than verbal noises when working with her owner. Anyone else, though, gets the full blast of her voice.