Avon
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Posts: 18
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Post by Avon on Jan 17, 2013 17:39:27 GMT -5
Nathan had spent a good deal of his time on Pern so far drunk or hung over. The wine flowed freely, especially the Benden variety that everyone seemed to favor, and there were so many new drinking buddies to meet. And girls to flirt with...unfortunately, his devotion to Marnie wasn't quite so clear a few glasses in.
Today, however, he was sober and clear-headed, because he had a flitt to take care of. Ruby interrupted every time he started socializing, demanding food or attention. She was perched on his shoulder now, dozing off, but he was sure that she would start making trouble any second.
In the mean time, he was bored and had decided to explore the parts of the Weyr he hadn't gotten to yet. Including that big sand-filled cavern. Apparently dragons laid eggs in it, but it was empty right now. As he stepped inside, he yelped. "HOT!" Dancing around, he made his way towards the stone steps surrounding the cavern.
This must be nice in the winter, he thought to himself as he reached the Stands. It would be like a sauna then. Right now, it was rather unpleasant. So the people who wanted dragons had to stand here in the heat while they hatched? It seemed like some kind of endurance test. So Pern was not without its challenges, despite all the partying.
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Post by Zaxal on Jan 22, 2013 13:07:26 GMT -5
Sometimes, when they had trouble sleeping, Oxasar would hide out in the Stands. The radiating warmth from the Sands was more comforting than their bed, and they found that the noises of mother dragons or whers caring for their eggs made great background noises. If one needed to feel safe, there was no place better.
Even when there weren't eggs on the Sands, it was awfully warm and comforting to the wherhandler who had never quite gotten the hang of sleeping during the day.
The sudden exclamation of pain caught their attention in their half sleep. Peeking up from their chosen napping spot, Oxasar immediately noticed the person darting off the Sands. They stifled a laugh behind one hand before sitting all the way up and pulling themselves up to sit.
Their hair hung loose around their shoulders, frazzled from the sleepless tossing and turning. Oxasar tried futilely to push it behind their ear as they called out, "You'll get calluses from Standing. After the first time or two, it's not so bad."
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Avon
New Member
Posts: 18
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Post by Avon on Mar 3, 2013 15:13:26 GMT -5
Nathan breathed a sigh of relief as he reached the steps. The voice startled him, and he nearly toppled back onto the sands. He turned around, looking up at the...person who had addressed him. Either a manly woman or a womanly man. The look on his face probably made it more than clear what he was thinking. The confusion irked him, mainly because if he didn't know then he wasn't sure if it was okay to flirt. It wasn't any stranger than giant dragons, though, he supposed.
Ruby really didn't care about human genders. She had woken up at this point and she jumped off Nathan's shoulder to circle around Oxasar, looking for pets or snacks or anything else fun.
"Standing?" Nathan said, finally reacting to what the mysterious person had said to him. "Why would I want to do that when there's all this room to sit down?" He shook his head. "Ruby, stop that." The brown had started grabbing at Oxasar's hair, which wouldn't make conversation very easy.
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Post by Zaxal on Mar 4, 2013 17:29:23 GMT -5
Oxasar's smile only widened at Nathan's apparent confusion -- there were times when they liked that look on people's faces when they were trying to figure them out and failing. Oftentimes, it could last ages and wouldn't fade because they were too stubborn to ask them.
Oxasar would explain it to the presumed candidate, but first he had to ask.
The moment the small firelizard approached them, Oxasar lit up even more. They held out their hand, clicking their tongue encouragingly in hopes that the flit would take notice.
"Standing," they explained, tittering suddenly as Ruby tugged at their hair, "is what candidates do. That's how people Impress dragons and whers and sometimes these little guys, though whers and firelizards aren't always on the Sands. Standing puts you closer to the hatchlings, makes it easier for them to find you. Granted, what a baby wants, it'll get, if it has to climb up the stands to do it, but it's generally safer for future riders and handlers to be away from everyone else." Reaching back, they slowly but deftly untangled the firelizard from a knot in their long hair, making a mental note to brush it out sometime later. "Hungry hatchlings don't always watch what they're doing, end up hurting people."
"You must be new to the Weyr to not know all that," Oxasar said, their attention falling on Nathan again. "Welcome to Igen."
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