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Post by Sparrow on Apr 2, 2011 10:51:48 GMT -5
Finth was scrawny, in a big way. Jackie couldn't quite think of the term for that. A beanpole? She had been called that. Maybe that was the word she was looking for.
I am not a bean or a pole, Finth pointed out, a little confused.
"I don't mean it literally. You'd be a lot easier to take care of if that were the case though." She had just finished giving Finth a bath, which she had already decided was 'so bad' because Finth was larger than the other new Greens... in her lanky, beanpole-ish sort of way. It was only going to get worse too, which wasn't something Jackie was looking forward to. She had known how big dragons got, but hadn't through about it much until she suddenly realized she was going to have to bathe that enormous body.
I like baths, Finth said brightly. The statement didn't exactly have the cheering effect on Jackie that she had been hoping for, not that Jackie was acting particularly down. She was just wet and a little unhappy about having to work, like usual.
"At least it'll all be worth it when I can actually ride you." She couldn't think of anything that could be better than flying on her own dragon. But even though Finth was a little big for a Green, she was still a small dragon. Riding her was a ways away.
Until then, with Finth temporarily satisfied in the ways of food and itching hide, they were stuck walking circles in the Weyr Bowl.
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Post by ShadowReine on Apr 2, 2011 13:27:12 GMT -5
Jackie might be complaining about the size of her dragon, but Fioloth was already far, far larger than her green sister. And she was trotting cheerfully across the bowl.
"Fioloth! Until I can ride you, you need to wait for me." Karisna, struggling to keep up with the young violet, jogging after her retreating tail.
Then she saw Jackie and actually quickened her pace a little. "Hey there!" She was pleased Jackie had got what she wanted...
Of course, she had...well. She had not thought about whether she wanted a queen in those terms. She had simply not expected to be worthy of one. Fioloth thought so, though, and Fioloth was the one who most had to live with that judgement. Therefore...she just had to live up to her dragon's opinion of her.
Which was never going to be easy.
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Post by Sparrow on Apr 2, 2011 17:20:06 GMT -5
As much as she thought about her own dragon's size, Jackie wasn't likely to catch on to the fact that people with bigger dragon's had it worse. She wasn't bathing their dragons. But she certainly didn't miss the much larger Fioloth coming their way.
"Hey Kari!" She hurried to meet her friend, while Finth lagged behind, still not sure quite how to act around her Violet sister. C'mon beanpole.
I'm not a bean! Finth sped up, but they didn't have far to go and soon had to skid to a stop again beside Jackie. She thrust her head under her rider's hand, demanding scratches.
"How're you doing?" Jackie knew that with Kari taking care of her, Fioloth would be doing fine. But with Fioloth to take care of, she didn't know that Kari would be the same.
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Post by ShadowReine on Apr 3, 2011 13:33:21 GMT -5
"Tired," Kari admitted. "I'm not sure I'm looking forward to having to bathe a full grown violet, even if she is the most beautiful thing on Pern.
Fioloth settled into a comfortable, yet elegant position, practically preening, her wings half unfurled.
"I'll just have to pay forward all the times various riders made me help scrub dragons when I was a Candidate." Of course, with Fioloth being a queen, she was likely to have few problems finding help. "So should you...greens are smaller, but still plenty big. And she's a gorgeous green...but you know that."
Because, of course, everyone knew exactly how gorgeous her own dragon was.
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Post by Sparrow on Apr 4, 2011 17:26:10 GMT -5
Jackie winced. "That'll be a big job." Plenty bigger than Finth, but Jackie wasn't about to suggest herself as a potential helper. She and Finth would be keeping very busy as soon as they were free from the weyrling restrictions. "I imagine queenriders get first priority to Candidates though."
Once they had three mature queens again, there were sure to always be plenty of Candidates around.
Jackie laughed. Kari's plan sounded like a good one too. "Oh, I've been tracking every favor." Not really, but she could still come up with plenty. "Yeah, she's very pretty." Jackie scratched Finth's neck and the dragonet rumbled happily. That was more like it. Not that she cared much about being called gorgeous or pretty, so long as she wasn't being accused of being a bean.
"I don't think I can top your compliments to Fioloth though." It got her out of saying the only thing coming to mind: she's pretty too. And making the most of it, but as far as Jackie could tell, that's what queens did. No need to point it out.
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Post by ShadowReine on Apr 4, 2011 20:32:00 GMT -5
Fioloth shifted her position so as to be even more of a pose. "Please don't. She does need to be able to get her ego off the ground when the time comes."
And shards, Kari thought to herself, the violet had one. The constant discussions about who was in charge of their relationship had become *part* of their relationship. She wondered if other riders had interactions with their dragons that were based around banter. K'laon, she wouldn't be surprised if the greenrider didn't get bantered at plenty.
Well. It wasn't boring. "At least there's one thing. I don't see either of us ever getting bored."
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Post by Sparrow on Apr 5, 2011 16:40:07 GMT -5
Jackie could manage not complimenting Fioloth, no problem. It felt like people were supposed to always be flattering queens, but if their rider said not to, she would take full advantage of it.
Finth was in between on that. Whirling eyes on the Violet, she slunk a couple paces closer and then struck a pose mimicking Fioloth's. Look, now I'm a queen. Whether a Green's imitation was flattery was questionable.
Jackie gave her dragon a leery look. "Definitely no chance of that."
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Post by ShadowReine on Apr 6, 2011 12:37:18 GMT -5
Karisna laughed. "Man. Seeing them do that makes the size difference scary." She didn't want to think about how huge Fioloth would be. Not as big as her dam, of course. And she would, even though she could chew firestone, fly with the queen's wing.
And no doubt have as much work as Kora could get away with delegated to her. That was what junior Weyrwomen were for.
At least she wasn't the only one. "That reminds me, I need to corner Inolyn and talk to her now she's out of the infirmary and doing well. About, you know, queenrider stuff." She didn't want to be set apart, but she was. Was from the moment Fioloth had looked into her eyes.
There was no going back and she certainly couldn't pretend to be a greenrider or something.
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Post by Sparrow on Apr 6, 2011 21:16:53 GMT -5
It was, a bit, and Jackie was very relieved her dragon was the smaller one. It was too bad that Karisna's dragon would always be so much bigger, and in a different wing, and a queen that would, if she hadn't already decided, decide that she wanted nothing to do with Greens. And that queenriders were probably very busy.
Eh. Although it would have been fun to go frolicking on Green and Barred and hunt for boys together among the Blueriders, having a queenrider for a friend would have its advantages.
"I guess so." Jackie frowned. "You know, you're the first queenrider I've talked to- unless you count when I asked Kora if I could go on the sands, but I don't really." She knew Kari had already met Kora in a non-clutch related situation. She wasn't sure if Kari had met Inolyn yet. There wouldn't have been much chance after the hatching.
"Do you think you guys will ever talk about not-queenrider stuff? Maybe I could meet them too sometime."
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Post by ShadowReine on Apr 7, 2011 19:49:04 GMT -5
Kari considered. "I don't know. Kora's very busy and I've not had any contact with Inolyn yet. She's the one I most want to talk to, of course. We'll be essentially equals, I suppose, once I graduate."
Her lips quirked. "I don't feel like a queenrider yet. Except when Fioloth insists on reminding me exactly what I am. She's...well. She's a queen. And vain about her appearance, too. I admit I like her color. Finth's attractive too, of course. She's going to be pretty."
Finth would get plenty of attention amongst the blues and browns...
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Post by Sparrow on Apr 7, 2011 21:44:44 GMT -5
"I guess so." From what she had heard about Jorindath, Fioloth was already acting far more queenly than the older Violet. It would be interesting to see if the dragons felt the same- and riders too, maybe. Jackie didn't know much about Inolyn.
"Well, I don't feel like a Greenrider yet. It's not like I've ever ridden Finth, just bathed her." It surely wasn't quite what Kari meant, but it was true. Jackie wouldn't feel like a rider until she had ridden Finth. Until then... she was just the keeper of a needy baby dragon.
Jackie laughed. "No wonder she's vain, you seem to be overflowing with compliments."
Finth, tiring of mimicking an unmoving queen, trotted back to Jackie's side. A few more scratches would be nice. She itched.
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Post by ShadowReine on Apr 8, 2011 15:47:58 GMT -5
Kari considered that. "Really, we aren't *riders* until we get our own weyrs." She'd poked her head into the spare queen weyr that would likely be hers. Shard it, she had no idea how she'd furnish it. Heck, even the weyrs allocated to single green and blueriders were pretty large, after allowing for the space the dragon occupied. The ones for couples were very spacious indeed.
"Which will be a while. And yeah, a little while before we ride them. At least you won't have to climb as far to get on." Kari wandered over to Fioloth and reached for the nearest eyeridge...causing the violet to melt out of her pose in typical draconic hedonism almost immediately. "But then they won't be cute any more."
OOC: Sparrow, Sparrow, Sparrow...
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Post by Sparrow on Apr 8, 2011 16:05:33 GMT -5
OOC: What? D:
"That's... kind of disappointing to think about." Getting weyrs seemed very, very far away. Much further than the day she would be able to jump on Finth's back. And just what she would do with a weyr was beyond Jackie. She didn't plan to spend much time in it.
Jackie laughed. "Nope. Not far at all." In comparison to the mountain Kari would be climbing, anyway. "I just have to worry about Finth running away before I'm seated." She doubted that would ever be a problem with queens.
I'll always be cute, Finth pouted. That may require plenty of running away and being silly, but she expected to keep that up.
The cutest beanpole out there. That earned her a dour look from Finth.
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Post by ShadowReine on Apr 9, 2011 13:03:14 GMT -5
OOC: You don't know the name of your own dragon  . Kari laughed. "I'm sure you'll work that one out. Fioloth wouldn't do that, but your Finth seems to have way too much energy. Not a bad trait in a green, mind. They do need to be all..." She considered. "Active. She'll need it for the fancy flying." Which she sort of envied. Fioloth would never be able to pull the kind of stunts in the air Finth would find second nature. And Jackie would have a much easier life than she would, over the Turns to come. |
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Post by Sparrow on Apr 9, 2011 14:25:33 GMT -5
OOC: I figured it was something along those lines... but kept missing it. xP
"I'll just learn to jump on her like those people that can leap on a running runner. It'll be way more exciting on a dragon." Yep. But letting people see it so she could show off the skill would probably require encouraging Finth running off, which she wasn't sure she wanted to do.
Fancy flying would be the better way to show off. More than anything else, Jackie was looking forward to testing her daring riding some of that.
"What'll you and Fioloth do? Once you can ride her, I mean." She didn't think queens were much for tricks, but there was plenty of adventuring that could be done, with between making it particularly simple.
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Post by ShadowReine on Apr 10, 2011 14:08:48 GMT -5
Kari considered that. "We'll have to be careful. The guy who stabbed Inolyn might not be the only one out there. But the first thing I plan on doing is visiting my family. Then I can show Fioloth off." She grinned. "Nobody expected me to bond a queen."
A pause, and she rested against Fioloth a little. "Especially not me. I really thought I'd Impress green or barred. When I didn't Impress in Jorindath's clutch, I was kinda disappointed, but I thought it was because the clutch was so heavy on male dragons. It didn't occur to me...they say a girl meant for a queen won't bond anything less..."
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Post by Sparrow on Apr 11, 2011 12:09:53 GMT -5
Jackie grinned. "I'm definitely showing Finth to my mom, but I think she'll just terrify her." Quip her mom could handle, but she wasn't so fond of draconics. Someone who could hardly tolerate fire-lizards likely wasn't someone who would get on well with dragons.
Naturally, making that visit was a high priority.
Finth wandered off to bother Quip while she grazed and Jackie shrugged. "That seems hard to prove." Obviously she hadn't bonded anything less, but there weren't a lot of queens. Jackie didn't put a lot of faith into the idea of being "destined" for a post either. In her time at the Weyr, she had heard plenty of examples that seemed to lead otherwise.
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Post by ShadowReine on Apr 11, 2011 16:59:45 GMT -5
"Not like you could ever prove it. It's like proving a negative. I mean, it's like everyone says it's unlucky if a green hatches first, but I'm betting you won't find any real, long term effects."
She patted Fioloth again. "Still. I have the dragon I have. Not much anyone can do about it, including me. I might envy you sometimes, though, Jackie. Less work. Less dragon to scrub, too."
Which did, yes, bring them back full circle to Jackie's thoughts at the start...
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