Red's Ten - Ibared and Otared - I'red and O'red

Ibared and Otared, I'red and O'red

Age 16, twins, Tinkerers and Inventors

It had been clear very early on in the lives of the twins Iba and Ota, that they were inseperable. Not like some twins - they depened upon one another for support and insight even before they learned to walk. And they did learn to walk early. Talking as well - though Iba spoke first and almost constantly ... Ota's first coherent words were "shut up".

Born to a dramatic crafter woman whose laugh was echoed in theirs, she'd already had a girl before them, and promptly had others by other men of the mines and smithcraft hall. But she was no drudge or whore - absolutely not. And if anyone insulted her so, all of her children eagerly came to defend her. Not that she needed defending: weilding a crowbar in one hand and a mallet in the other, if someone pulled anything on her it might be the last thing they'd do.

Iba and Ota did take to the craft differently. As they grew in mind and body, one would put his own toys aside to examine his brother's, then they'd trade, and finally came to settle on certain bits shared and some untouched by the other. Ota loved to fiddle with the objects their mother brought back to her dorm. If it broke, he didn't ask for help with it, he set about finding the right tool to fix it. His brother Iba on the other hand cashed in on this: he would even charge admission to some of his brother's toy-making sessions by the time they were ten.

Ota could take something that Iba described, and make it real. Given enough scraps and bits, tools and permission to use them, Ota would often disappear for a day - his twin bringing him his meals as he worked. The Masters of the hall were duly impressed, though primarily by Ota's work. Iba... might not really get farther than a designer or perhaps an architect, in their opinion. Not that that would have been a poor thing. He loved spaces and ways to fill them after all.

Though they were able to predict, or perhaps emulate each other so well, when they were apart neither of them was of much use. Iba had become ill one winter, along with half the crafthall. It was worried that there would be another plague on their hands, but thankfully it turned out to only be a bad flu. However his twin hadn't become ill and was made to keep away from the infirmary where so many were being quarantined. He went so far as to design a long thin tube which could bear a message inside, on the end of a flexible device. He was caught trying to insert this into the air vents above the infirmary, though his message only read "better yet?"

As they grew older, and Ota became an apprentice to one of the more serious engineers in the place, Iba had to busy himself daily, and did so by practicing his winning smile and charming voice. Like his sire, he was no singer, but he was certainly a good speaker. The merchant guild members who stopped by regularly to pick up goods and deliver raw materials dearly wished he would come with them, but he always refused. However he did manage to sneak lessons of math and other needed things for the trade while the merchants were still there.

Then came the letter to them, asking for them to come to Dragonhope. Their mother was thrilled - she'd always wanted to see a Weyr, and this would certainly be a nice break from her work. The other kids were old enough to take care of themselves, and certainly Iba and Ota were as well, but she was specifically asked to come as well.

The pair were fascinated by the machinery in the Weyr's construction area, and as unlikely as it seemed, S'vax and his wife Tameshal took to them immediately, and gave them and their other brother Anored a far more indepth tour of the place than any mere visitors would get. There were secret machines, ancient technology here - things that had been forgotten for the better part of human habitation on Pern.

And they would most surely get to use it. They would also certainly have spots in the right wing - if they impressed. Oh how they wanted this more than almost anything in the world. If Ota and Iba rode... they could travel anywhere and sell anything they made! They could make discoveries, Tameshal had hinted that there was yet plentiful archive material in the deep southern continent; they drooled at the prospect of artificial limbs and life saving equipment, as well as great skyscrapers and structures that could withstand Threadfall without aid.

They spoke of almost nothing but these things, quietly to one another, the whole time they were in training. At Talis Weyr, the last bunch of clutches from several very different pairs were shaking on the sands and they were still talking about it. How it could change life on Pern...

I hope you don't want to make me obsolete, the mind of the curious and reasonably large blue dragon poked into Otared's. After all, I'm your partner!

Surprised at the contact, swooning with the Impression, Otared glanced at his brother, who was having a similar experience with a lovely green.

"She wants to know the same thing," Ibared laughed when his brother told him what his dragon's first words were. They laughed - and far from being nervous about suddenly having something very different to distinguish them from one another, they knew that now their dragons could always convey the more perfect version of their mind's needs to one another.

Their closeness to each other might have been an issue anywhere else, but at Dragonhope they were welcomed as a unit, rather than merely brothers. Their dragons asserted that this was the best thing for them. And even though he'd impressed the smaller green, I'red in general had a clear picture of what they needed to do, just like always. O'red would still be able to interpret these 'orders', and now as dragonriders they could fling themselves across the world or fight Thread as 'one with four heads and many legs'. In the Benteng Udara like their older brother, they would master forms and flights equally well.

NAME: Oltarth, impressed O'red
COLOR: Blue
SIZE: Large Blue
PERSONALITY: Sensitive, social, curious
PARENTS: Green Jenkith x Brown Oroth

NAME: Tineath, impressed I'red
COLOR: Green
SIZE: Medium sized green
PERSONALITY: verbally Quiet, likes puzzles, mentally talkative
PARENTS: Brown Mewielth x Bronze Velith