Kulap

Kulap is a very fiery Fae, with patience that is unending, until it isn't. When his patience does crack, it cracks massively, and a fiery temper is exposed. Insulting or threatening his family is the one way to immediately find oneself facing all of his fury. It was in one of these fiery tempers, after his son Shani had been kidnapped and ransomed, that his affinity for elemental magic was discovered. He may have, slightly, just barely created a massive fire tornado. But it really wasn't that big, darling, nothing to worry about.

Kulap, while very willing to settle down and become someone's mate, has currently had little luck in doing so. He's quite popular among the clan, as of all the dragons in the clan, more of his children grow up strong than any other, and with the harsh conditions that greet everyone every day, this makes him a very desirable mate. One of the dragons who noticed this was Almediha, and, through careful planning, lies, and an elaborate scheme, she wormed her way into Kulap's heart, ensuring that she owned every piece of it before shattering it entirely. If asked why she did so, she always smiled and said something along the lines of wanting to get back at his younger brother, Raynan.

This is one of the main reasons why Kulap had such difficulties connecting to his children-when he finally managed to pull himself together enough to try and be a father, Sabori was gone and Shani...Shani had found himself two new, better fathers. Or so he saw it. Kulap chose instead to remain in the background, watching Shani from afar and hoping that his failures wouldn't have a lasting impact on his son.

While his days are now split between his magic training and the many odd jobs he takes on, Kulap still finds massive amounts of time to fidget with his outfit until every single piece is perfect, with no wrinkles to be seen. This fidgeting behavior is not limited to his own clothing; he will fix any outfit that he is allowed to fix, but not everyone will allow him to.

His family bears the brunt of this, and Kulap can often be found gently fussing over his sister and quietly bemoaning the simplicity of her outfit. Indrani understands, but prefers to ignore his fretting. His younger brother, Raynan, is another frequent target of his fidgeting hands, and any attempts that Kulap makes to fix his bow are met with many more attempts to stop his hands from getting the chance to do so. Shani is the only person to truly tolerate his father's fidgeting, mainly because he reciprocates and often tries to fix his father's silks. The two can be found grooming each other quite often, and most of the dragons find it rather sweet.

In reality, the fidgeting is born from a deep-seated anxiety, which Kulap has come to terms with by ignoring it entirely, acting completely boisterous, and hiding his fears and stress behind a myriad of coping mechanisms. Most of them are healthy, and none of the dragons seem to have caught on yet, excepting for his son. As most of his coping mechanisms are considered to be fairly common behaviors taken to an extreme by Kulap, this has helped in his mission to keep his intense anxiety firmly under wraps. Those that are less normal are typically performed alone in his roost, or wherever he can duck away. Most notably is his tendency to run his paws over his arms, a soothing, mind-numbing behavior, often catching the delicate skin and making scratches in his path. He wears his gloves for this reason.

Another of his coping mechanisms, one that is far more pleasant than most others, is his tendency to just fly away from the Behemoth whenever something is troubling him. He is the fastest flyer in the Glade, out-flying even Imperials, and he'll just soar as far up as he can go and leave all of his worries behind on the world below. This was the key that allowed him to reconnect with his son and become part of his life again, after being too terrified of messing him up as a hatchling to be a father. Shani, extremely nervous and afraid of the outside world, had stayed land-bound for so long that his wings had begun to atrophy; Panacea prescribed flight to build up the muscles yet again, but it was only when he saw Kulap flying that he finally took a step into open air and flew for the first time in years.

Kulap noticed his son following him and dropped down to his level, keeping pace and landing as soon as he saw that Shani was flagging. From that evening on, they met to fly every day, and while Shani will never out-fly his father, he comes close to being able to keep pace with him.


Still reeling from the utter heartbreak that he suffered at the hands of Almediha, Kulap pulled away from those within the lair, choosing to remain friendly, but refusing to nest or spend any significant amount of time alone with anyone else. To prevent his heart from ever breaking so entirely ever again, he chose to pull away from those he cared for and put on yet another facade, something that he was entirely too good at it, if you asked Shani. When others within the clan realized what Kulap was doing and attempted to intervene, he instead chose to take to the skies for hours at a time, often leaving for multiple days and staying as far from the lair as possible.

In his state of near constant isolation, he entirely missed the two separate arrivals of two new Pearlcatchers, who seemed to take to each other like a house takes to fire. Which is to say they were a force to be reckoned with, as long as people could distract them from their friendly snapping and backhanded compliments to each other. Their petty arguments were soon the talk of the clan, but everyone seemed to fail to notice that both of them were quite close. They just...showed their friendship and affection in odd ways. The only thing they ever seemed to agree on was the importance of looking their absolute best, which lead to the general clan consensus that they were both as vain as could be.

It wasn't until months later that Kulap finally encountered the two newest Pearlcatchers, and when he did it was by stumbling right into the midst of one of their famed squabbles, both of them certain that the other was going to get them lost before they found the courtyard to catch whatever performance was going on that day. He had politely interjected, intending to give them directions, when the urge to fix their outfits until they were Perfect hit him. He had expected rejection when he said it, up until Dara groaned and began complaining that he had KNOWN the outfit was too complex, and yes please do help him fix it. Kulap...wasn't used to someone enjoying his fidgeting. When both Pearlcatchers were deemed Perfect, he guided them to the courtyard before leaving, with both Pearlcatchers calling after him to visit soon.

They began to run into each other quite often, and every time the Pearlcatchers saw him they welcomed him warmly and encouraged his anxious preening, all while soothing his nerves with small talk and gossip that Kulap could allow to run through his mind in the background.