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Gabrion and his twin brother were born in the 6th turn of the interval to a High Reaches greenrider and her blueriding weyrmate. Their birth came less than a turn and a half after their eldest brother died in a weyrling betweening accident. With dragonrider duties much reduced during the interval, Gabe's ma threw herself into caring for her youngest children as a means of relieving the grief she felt for her dead firstborn. Unable to bear the thought of losing another child, she smothered and overprotected them, worrying about them constantly, hesitant to let them do anything on their own or take any risks.

Since they had never known anything else, Gabe and his twin had no reason to be anything other than content with their lot. Not so their still-living and much older brother, Seldon. Their ma's anxieties made it impossible for Seldon to stand for impression - but neither could he bear to stay at the weyr and have his every movement scrutinized for danger. Seldon left for an apprenticeship at the Harper Hall while Gabe and his twin were still toddlers.

Gabrion grew up idolizing his healer brother, the more so as he neared the age when it was time for him to consider candidacy or an apprenticeship of his own. Knowing that his mother would not react well - understatement of the interval; she'd probably have a breakdown - Gabe decided he would not request to stand for impression, but would seek his fortune elsewhere, like Seldon had. Just before Gabe's twelfth turnday, the family traveled to the Healer Hall to see Seldon receive his journeyman's knot. While they were there, Gabe latched onto his brother, asked dozens of questions, and begged to be allowed to tour the infirmary and see him treating patients. His eagerness and intelligence caught the notice of several senior Healers, and he was permitted to sit an entrance exam while at the hall. A few months later, he returned to stay as a healer apprentice.

But there was one problem: Gabrion had very visible and obvious stereotypically gay mannerisms. Growing up in a weyr, he never had any reason to try to behave differently. His brother Seldon had cautioned him when he arrived that he'd best not go around 'acting a greenrider,' but Gabe didn't understand the warning - or the reasons behind it - until it was too late. By the time he started to realize it might be prudent to try a little harder to blend in with the others, he'd already been labeled "the gay one."

One apprentice in particular, Zekaro, singled Gabrion out for daily ridicule and ongoing jokes about his 'little disease' and how it might be catching, so the other apprentices had best not get too close. Not wanting to cross Zekaro, who was older and known in the barracks for being a bully, they didn't. Gabe found himself isolated, unable to make friends. Though he wasn't lacking in aptitude, he came over time to believe that what Zekaro said was true, and that he didn't belong at Healer Hall. Midway through his third turn at the hall, disaster struck - Gabe failed his first aid practical exam. Seldon was perplexed and upset that his brother could not only fail an exam, but one in Seldon's own specialty, so he was less than supportive. Though apprentices were permitted to retake the course and sit the exam a second time if they chose, Gabrion decided instead to abandon his apprenticeship and return to High Reaches Weyr. And so, discouraged and defeated, he did.

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