Reky
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rekyct[M:-999]
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Post by Reky on Sept 11, 2012 20:34:03 GMT -5
Feoran went to see his father again. It was becoming a sort of routine without a schedule - something he'd do every few sevendays when he wasn't working, just to try and grow some semblance of a father-son bond. He had been so excited when he first came to Dalibor; the idea of finally meeting his dad was the brightest star in his myriad of thoughts. The initial disappointment had yet to wear off, but he was trying.
He had knocked boldly on the bluerider's door, after having been directed there by a wingmate, and entered to find a man who insisted he didn't have a son. A man who wore bags under his eyes and grease in his hair; who dressed oddly well for a washed-up drug dealer, as if it would hide the bad way he was in. Feoran had told him his mother's name and R'fus had sank further into his chair than had seemed possible. "Shardin' Faranth and the Red Star," he had groaned. "I did that to Olewan... I... Fall, fog, and fire."
Needless to say, Feoran had felt guilty. Like he'd ruined his mother's life and then came on to ruin his father's. Then he had realized that his father's life had been ruined already - by R'fus himself - and didn't exactly feel better, but at least felt resolve. He was surprised he hadn't ratted R'fus out for the fellis yet. He had always been such a good boy. Now, he harbored a man more than worthy of exile and even brought him home-made pastries.
"Oh, lizard shells and tunnelsnakes," he cursed to himself at his father's door that day. "What am I doing with myself?" But he knocked anyway, like the good son he was trying to be.
"Feoran--" R'fus murmured.
"Hi, dad," said the boy. He let himself in because he knew it would take R'fus a while to invite him. He pulled out a handkerchief and sneezed. "Hi, Eon." The blue dragon rumbled in a way kindlier than anything R'fus ever said.
"Feoran, you don't have to keep coming by." R'fus followed his son - almost sadly - into the bedroom. Feoran set down his parcel and stood tall.
"Yeah, I do, actually," Feoran had said. "Or, well, no, I guess I don't have to, but I want to. And I brought cookies and some wine. Maybe you can drink that instead of that wherry-shardin' fellis."
"You ain't got any right to talk to me like that--"
"Oh, come on, dad."
"Ain't got any right to call me dad, either--"
"Um, actually, I do, 'cuz you are my dad."
"I'll have you know I been clean since first-day."
"Oh, wow, congratulations! Today is, what, third-day? Oh, two days, you're well on your way--"
"I make a livin' off this, kid."
"No, you make a living off of selling it, not taking it. Oh, and, I don't know, your real job fighting Thread?"
"Faranth fly to the Red Star--"
"Look, dad, I brought you cookies and wine. Just... I don't know, put your shell back together and thank me or something. I'm just trying to be nice!"
"You're try'na be a suck-up."
"What do I have to suck up for?! You're the one who messed everything up!"
"Excuse me?"
And for a moment, Feoran was silent. His words were caught in his throat. His eyes were watering and he blamed it on Eondith and that stupid firelizard Molly, but he knew better. He rubbed his reddening face; looked down.
"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm sorry, dad, I didn't mean to get upset. I... I hope you like the cookies. Or maybe Molly will eat them. I don't know."
"Thanks," R'fus said, his voice hollow.
"I made them myself."
"Yeah, thanks."
"Maybe I'll stop by tomorrow. When're your drills?"
"Start at noon."
"Okay. You... probably won't be awake much before then."
"No."
"Tonight?"
"Busy."
"But can't you time it?"
"Just go, kid. Thanks for the wine."
"What about the cookies--"
"Go on, kid."
Feoran nodded glumly. He had a fit of sneezes and then turned to go. "You can call me Feoran, you know," but it was a little too quiet for R'fus to hear. Eondith gently nudged the poor boy's back as he went, but Feoran didn't think it was a good idea to pause and pat the dragon back.
He means well, Eondith told his man when the son had went.
I know he does, Eon, R'fus replied. I just don't know what to do about him. You know that.
I do.
-----
Feoran furiously wandered through the back tunnels of the Weyr. Down the innards of the south and east walls, he was seething. He had been at Dalibor for more than a Turn now, shard it, and his father still hadn't warmed up. Well, maybe he had a little bit, but, shells, what was he supposed to do? Was it because he didn't visit often enough? Maybe he should have been visiting every sevenday. Every day? Was there even anything he could do to help? He had wanted a good dad. He had wanted a badass, dragonriding, Thread-killing hero dad, and all he got was a fellis addict. Was it too much to ask for R'fus to at least like him? Or be kind to him?
He was kind, though. Sometimes he had good days. Feoran would talk about his new life and his friends and how his job cleaning was actually pretty okay and R'fus would listen. R'fus would talk about his drills, his past, his old friend Dranin; sometimes he'd talk about his fellis-running jobs and Feoran would feel uncomfortable and guilty. There were good days, but the bad ones always managed to get Feoran worked up - at least for a little while.
He was tearing up and sniffling and sneezing as he slowly meandered his way down to ground level. He wasn't entirely sure where he was, though, so when he found himself looking at an underground pool, he was confused. It was humid, cool, and musty where he was. It smelled foul and of draconic hide. Feoran sneezed violently and wiped at his nose.
Whers? he thought. It must be. But where are they? And he grinned, because even in such a sorry state, he could appreciate a good play on homonyms. [/blockquote] |
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Kestrel
Wingrider 
kestct[M:821]
Posts: 374
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Post by Kestrel on Sept 12, 2012 2:58:01 GMT -5
The wherling orangehandler was practically skipping as she made her way down the dark hallway, in part due to the exuberance that was her nature, but mostly because the high-stepping wher at her heels kept bumping into her leg if she didn’t think her bonded was moving those dark, wobbly legs quite as fast as she ought to be.
“Shells, Vresk, where’s the stampede? The bath isn’t going to up and walk away, you know,” she said down to the wher after one such shove from the smooth orange head. She was more amused than irritated, though—clear enough from the grin on her face. Vresk was not so amused.
Dirty! Vrell look, see Vresk back, Vresk wings—no shine! Kalesk egg-mom so clean Kalesk always shine, all other wher respect and think Kalesk best wher because Kalesk so much shine! Even Cilisk-brother shine. Vresk shine too if just be clean, and then all see Vresk and know is best. The wher even spread her tiny little wings for Vrell to observe, to show her handler just what the problem was. Oh dear. Half of Vrell’s smile dropped into more of a frown, and she scratched at her own somewhat greasy, unwashed hair for a minute. Her wher was undisputedly the best thing to ever happen to her, but there hadn’t been too many easy moments with this one, yet!
“Well…all right, we’ll get you so clean and shined up, you’ll be catching the eye of everyone in the weyr! I may not be much for baths myself, but I’ve polished up a fair amount of instruments in my day, so I’m sure this can’t be too different!” She grinned, bunching her hands into determined fists as she prepared to set them to work. She’d deal with the whole…shiny problem later. When she wasn’t half-running through the hall.
Vresk let out a happy rumble that sounded almost like a purr, and jogged a few paces ahead of her handler in her eagerness to get to the bath and get started. But she stopped, blinking her wide, faceted eyes, tilting her head as she saw that the bath wasn’t as unoccupied as she had expected. Not that there was any reason to expect it, really—the young orange just sort of assumed that no one else would be where she wanted to be when she wanted to be there. She turned her head back up toward her handler, who took longer than Vresk to notice the other occupant.
“Oh, hey there!” Vrell said brightly, grinning as she closed the last paces between them. Vresk seemed unhappy by her handler’s choice of response, letting out an annoyed little chuff sound. She butted her handler’s leg again. Vrell make him leave! Is Vresk bath time.[/color] Oh, keep your runners in the pen—he doesn’t look so good. Don’t you think we should make sure nothing’s wrong with him? And, you know, since he was already here, we could ask him if he knows if the water’s clean. To make sure we only have the best water for your bath, after all!
This seemed to mollify the little orange, though she tipped her head to the side quizzically. Runners?[/color] she mused, but Vrell was already busy. “You okay? You look kinda sick.”
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Reky
Alphahandler
rekyct[M:-999]
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Posts: 1,554
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Post by Reky on Sept 13, 2012 22:16:42 GMT -5
He had not wondered about whers for very long at all before one appeared before him. It was a strange one, though; stranger than whers tended to be, at least, which was quite strange. The small, orange creature earned a rather red, wide-eyed look as she and her handler wandered up. The staring did not do much to ease the awkward tension between Feoran and this newcomer as Vrell closed the distance between them. He didn't know when to start talking. Did he wait until she was right there? Did he greet her before she got here so it wasn't weird? Feoran fretted about this long enough for Vrell to get the first word in.
"Um, hello," he said, and made himself stop looking at Vresk. He looked at the girl instead, then reflexively up to the ceiling. He blushed and hid it with a handkerchief. "Oh, um, yeah, I'm fine. Heh. It's, uh, just allergies." He didn't really think he needed to tell her that it was to the whers. That would be awkward, considering she had one such beast.
"This is... This is the whers' place, then, right? I thought so." Since when do whers come in orange? he wondered, but he really didn't know much about whers. "Shells, well, I don't know how I ended up down here... It's pretty neat, though."
He pried his eyes off of the stalactite-adorned ceiling and peered at Vrell's eyepatch. "Um, oh. Sorry. I'm Feoran." He offered a sheepish smile and looked around again. He was almost nervous, but that, he figured, was better than being upset. He kept blinking back the wetness and redness of his eyes, to little avail. [/blockquote] |
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Kestrel
Wingrider
kestct[M:821]
Posts: 374
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Post by Kestrel on Sept 17, 2012 1:10:03 GMT -5
Vrell had never been the most perceptive of people, and while she could tell the older boy seemed out of sorts, she attributed it more to the strange illness he seemed to be suffering from instead of realizing she was making him nervous. She always liked meeting new people, and tended to assume everyone else was the same way. “Allergies, huh? That’s rough.” There had been a person at her hold who was like that—and a small farm-based hold was really a terrible place to be if you were sensitive to that. But she was only familiar with outdoors-based allergies…and they were certainly not anywhere near being outside. “…that’s weird, though, I wonder why they’re bothering you in here? Must be something somebody tracked in, I guess,” she said, looking around the cavern speculatively.
Her signature grin bounced right back to her face at the mention of whers. “Sure is! I live right up that way with the other new wherhandlers. We all even get our own rooms! I hear weyrlings and candidates have to share sometimes. There’s a whole lot of us wherlings now, too—between Kalesk’s clutch and Yusk’s, there were a ton of new whers.” She proudly pointed back toward where she’d come from to indicate the rough direction of her room. She seemed even happier to hear he liked the wherhandler’s quarters, and was fast enough to agree with him. “Isn’t it? I think it’s just perfect—a whole big part of the weyr like this, just for whers! It’s nice to see them get there own place somewhere—the kind of place they deserve.”
Vresk shifted between her forefeet with mounting impatience, curling her tail around one of Vrell’s legs. Why boy stare Vresk? Why no leave?[/color] the orange wher asked almost conspiratorially of her handler. Shard it, she needed her bath, and he was holding things up! Vrell almost jumped, startled at the interjection from her wher. “Oh! Right, sorry—I’ll get you cleaned up in just a minute, okay?” Vresk seemed less than pleased as Vrell turned back to Feoran. “I guess you’ve probably noticed Vresk here—she’s from Kalesk’s clutch. She wants a bath so she can get all spruced up and pretty—not that she needs it much, being so pretty already, am I right?” Vrell flashed a grin down at her wher. “Anyway, I’m Vrell. Nice to meet you! You a candidate, then?” He looked about the right age for a candidate, and since she hadn’t seen him at the hatching, he must not be there for whers.
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Reky
Alphahandler
rekyct[M:-999]
SO PRO
Posts: 1,554
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Post by Reky on Sept 23, 2012 14:04:43 GMT -5
"Yeah, I guess so," Feoran said. He cracked a mildly nervous smile. "Or mold or something." Or that orange beastie. "I'm used to it, though. No issue." And he dabbed his nose and eyes and sniffled again.
Vresk looked fine enough, though. He always did like dragons despite his allergies. They were just so wondrous - a few sniffles and sneezes couldn't deter anyone from wanting to be near them. Though, he supposed there were people who didn't like them at all? That just didn't make sense to him. They were great. Even Vresk looked pretty great, even though she was small, pretty upset, and a wher.
"And with the no-light and all," Feoran chimed in. "I read about their photosensitive eyes." He was a little pleased to have snuck in a bit of his extensive knowledge. It made him feel a little better about himself.
She asked him if he was a candidate, though, and that brought him right back down again. He probably never would be. His allergies were impractical, even if he wished they weren't. "Oh, no, I'm just a regular person," he said. "I clean stuff. You know, for marks, and so I'm not bored. It's alright. Candidates are super lucky, though, unlike me." He laughed at his own expense. "I'm not cut out for it. Never been Searched." [/blockquote] |
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Kestrel
Wingrider
kestct[M:821]
Posts: 374
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Post by Kestrel on Oct 5, 2012 0:07:05 GMT -5
“Ohh,” Vrell said, peering with fresh understanding at the dank weyr walls. “That fuzzy black stuff? Yeah, my mom always said that’ll make you sick. Maybe I should get some people together and scrub the place down, huh? Won’t do to have our visitors sneezing and sniffling all day.” She flashed Feoran a smile. Cleaning wasn’t really Vrell’s favorite pursuit, but she was certainly dedicated to whers, and it just didn’t seem right to have their special place in the weyr not be just as nice and taken care of as everywhere else.
Vrell nodded. “Yep! That’s why all we wherhandlers have to be nocturnal. It’s cool though—we’re like guardians of the night.” Vrell put her hands on her hips, striking her best guardian pose. Vresk, though still not very pleased, glanced at Vrell and took this as her cue to strike a pose as well, unfurling her tiny wings and puffing out her chest, eyes whirling. The pair looked more silly than intimidating, but at least they matched. Vrell beamed down at the orange with pride. “See? You can already tell we’re gonna be a great team.” The best ever,[/color] Vresk reminded her, and Vrell nodded. “Oh yeah, of course. I meant the best team.”
Vrell’s smile faded a little—she’d just sort of assumed Feoran was a candidate, due to his age, but she supposed that went to show why assuming stuff was bad. “Oh, sorry—I’m pretty new to this whole weyr thing, actually.” She brightened again. “But hey—you should be a wher candidate then! They’ll take just about anyone, you know, so I’m sure they’ll take you too!” If there was anything insulting in that statement, Vrell failed to see it. “Whers are way cooler than dragons anyway.” A thought struck her, and she looked between Vresk and Feoran. “Hey! You could get some wher experience by helping me wash Vresk, if you want.” That was quite an honor in Vrell’s eyes. Vresk was a bit less enthused, butting her handler’s leg, but Vrell didn’t retract the offer, and still seemed pretty happy about it.
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