Freedom in Solitude (Open)

[phlysolo]

Dinner had always been Brylorea's favorite meal of the day. All the stress of the day could be shrugged off with that first delicious morsel and by the time desert was served, all of the day's struggles seemed completely trivial. Despite the growing list of duties she needed to perform, Brylorea had found that the day had passed quickly and surprisingly easily. The violet riders had been far busier than she had been, of course, with their status as full riders. With Nayarath on the Sands, they had done more to pick up Kora's slack than the Weyrling Brylorea was expected to.

Thus, she transpired to the dining hall quite alone, but ravenously hungry. Voluspath, she thought idly, probably hadn't eaten yet. The young woman had discovered, in the course of raising her dragon, that if Voluspath was hungry then Brylorea would feel the problem herself, although perhaps on a slightly lesser scale.

Have you eaten yet, lovely? Brylorea asked her charge, her hand pausing before she piled several heaps of roasted wherry on her plate.

It was far too hot today, Bry. I shall, perhaps, eat before the sun goes down, Voluspath responded in a tone that suggested that Brylorea was silly to think she'd waste her energy hunting down a wherry buck in the atrocious heat.

What, no bronze to hunt for you?

Ahaha....

Amused by Voluspath's sudden grasp of sarcasm, Brylorea served herself a hardy portion of wherry and tubers and tucked in. There was no one immediately around her, she saw almost sadly. Perhaps she'd missed the dinner rush.

Brylorea didn't eat alone if she could help it and, if she did, tried to listen in on the conversation of others so that she might at least feel like she was socializing. With a sigh, she stabbed at an orange tuber, a sudden bout of sadness enveloping her.

Oh, don't be so dramatic. Bronzes like me the same way your men like you, Voluspath said idly and Brylorea could practically feel her adjusting on her ledge. If she could, Bry would have glared at the beast, but instead shoved the tuber into her mouth with a defiant huff.

They only like me for one reason.

Yes, and I am as wonderful as they always tell you I am. The gold said with some smugness.

Oh, let me eat in peace, will you?

Brylorea didn't have to guess that the gold's eyes were whirling in delighted amusement.

[ShadowReine]

Talking of bronzes?

No. Let's talk about tans, for that was the color of the knot on the stocky rider who was wandering over towards the goldrider.

"Hey there, Bry," B'can greeted in quiet tones, Guess on one shoulder and Stare on the other. The latter hopped down to try and steal from Brylorea's plate, which might make her wish she had no company.

B'can really hoped Apolloth could fly Voluspath. Except that the gold didn't like tans. She didn't want less than a bronze, and he knew that might come between them. That, not any lack of feeling, was why he had spent little time with the woman of late.

That and he had been busy, and so had she...a gold weyrling had a lot of training she had to undergo to be ready for her role. Administrative stuff he was glad he did not have to deal with, at least as long as he could avoid being wingleader.

Of course, if Apolloth did fly Voluspath...well. He had to face certain facts, and amongst those facts was the truth that APolloth wanted to be Weyrleader...whether his rider did or not.

[Missa]

You are going to eat, right? Despite the over-tone of boredom and even minimal annoyance, F'ynch alone could hear the under-note of concern in the blue's voice. It was his own fault, he supposed. He'd spent some fo the day flying with Truth, the blue enjoying some of the more acrobatic skills he could practise in the air. Some of the day trying to teach Snappy not to bite him at every oppurtunity and even some of the day then washing Truth and oiling Snappy. In the blink of an eye, his day was gone. Something F'ynch really hadn't noticed before hand, how busy the days were and how quickly they were gone.

Now, of course, he was starving. F'ynch liked Dinner, but then, F'ynch just liked food, plain and simple. Not one to scoff his food down, and while still fit and thin like all riders, F'ynch loved his food. This was a question of high debate between him and Truth. Truth felt one day F'ynch would be too heavy to ride him, and F'ynch was fairly sure with all the running around and Flights Truth got him into, that this would never happen.
Yes, actually, I'm going to eat now. And feed Snappy. Glancing at said brown firelizard as he responded to his dragon, F'ynch very nearly rolled his eyes when the brown met his gaze only to promptly pull on his hair.

I do wish she'd never given that egg to you. He is a tad ill-tempered. And I notice you didn't check I'd eaten. How rude, passed over for a f'lizard. Attempting to sound insulted, Truth couldn't hide the note of amusement in his tones, so alike to F'ynch's voice. In response, F'ynch merely served himself a large portion of wherry meat-
Tubers too. Put them on your plate, now Mine. - and tubers.
I'm going to ignore you now, because you're making me eat tubers, and go talk to that lovely young woman over there.
The gold weyrling.
I'm not talking to you, remember?
There's a boy there too. A weyrling also.
What colour?
I don't know. I don't really care.

"Hello, you don't look too happy to be sitting alone, you two. I hate eating alone too, though I've usually got too much food shoved in to say much."
Oh lovely.
"I don't think I've actually met you before though, you're young Voluspath's rider, aren't you? I don't know your name, sorry. And you're... Um, not Appolloth's rider are you? I'm F'ynch of blue Truth - the runt."
Hey! I am not a runt!
"Oh and this here's Snappy, careful, he bites. And uh, he might try and steal your food."

[phlysolo]

The sudden and familiar voice startled Brylorea and she hastily chewed and swallowed the more than 'polite' amount of wherry she'd stuffed into her mouth. Mildly embarrassed and utterly delighted, the gold Weyrling stared up at B'can, wildly surprised to see him. Too incredulous to speak, she almost frantically gestured for him to sit. If Stare had stolen food off her plate, Bry was far too distracted by B'can's mere presence to have noticed initially.

"Hey yourself!" She finally said, beaming at him as though she hadn't seen him in Turns. A strange tightness filled her lower abdomen and she vaguely realized she was feeling Voluspath's displeasure at B'can's vicinity to her lifemate.

"Sit with me! Are you hungry? I'll get you something," In her haste to ensure that she'd have a conversation longer than five minutes with the tan rider, Brylorea's hand bumped a little too hard into a pitcher of water and sent it spilling over the table. "Oh, shard it!"

In her mind, Voluspath roared with laughter at her indignity, hoping in the same way that Brylorea was not that B'can would find her girlish enthusiasm in excess and choose different company.

HUSH YOU!

"Oh, look at the mess I've made. I'm as clumsy as ever," Brylorea muttered, red in the face as she mopped up the spill with a handy rag.

Another voice, this one completely unfamiliar to her, further shocked and humiliated the young gold rider. Great, someone else saw her folly. It wasn't enough that B'can, who had her eye, had put her in such a bumbling state, but to have someone else know just what exactly Brylorea-the-future-goldrider could be reduced to by the mere presence of another added insult to injury.

In her most composed voice, she managed to hitch a small smile to her face as she addressed the blue rider who had just introduced himself, "Oh, yes, that's me. I'm Brylorea and it's quite nice to meet you, F'ynch. As that little scamp Stare has already decided my food was good enough for him, I don't mind sharing with Snappy, too."

Hopefully by now, her blush would have faded properly...

[ShadowReine]

OOC: Stare is green, Bry

That was the worst of it. Voluspath did not want them to be together. B'can, of course, was not fully aware of the extent of the gold's distaste.

"Don't worry. I'll get it myself, but I promise to be back." He shot the bluerider a look. A look that clearly said that the other rider should not, in any way shape or form, mock or tease Brylorea. Everyone had their clumsy moments, after all...human or dragon.

Voluspath does not like me

Voluspath probably thinks you can't keep up with a bronze

Then Voluspath is being foolish. I will show her that I can!

B'can could almost feel the tan, on his ledge, spreading his wings before settling again, showing their full length. B'can did believe that Apolloth could fly a gold.

This gold? The one he wanted? It would be painfully ironic if he ended up weyrleader and Bry with another. But there was nothing they could do. Riders could only influence their riders to some degree. Those thoughts carried him to the food tables and back, although this meant Bry would be alone with the bluerider for, oh, a few minutes. But he did try to return as quickly as he could.

After all, he could tell she did like him...

[Missa]

"Oh that's fine, everyone makes mistakes." F'ynch was a generally cheerful person, but he didn't want the girl feeling embarrassed, he assumed that was because of the other man. B'can? Or something, F'ynch had to admit he wasn't that bad, but not really his type. Unfortunately, most of the good looking males in the weyr were straight as a pole outside flights. A true shame, a real waste really.

Quite casually dumping himself into the seat opposite her, if F'ynch had known of B'can's worries, he would have laughed. B'can was more likely to attract his interest than the little gold weyrling actually, but if he wanted to worry, maybe he'd make a move sooner. Poor girl, she must like him alot. Shoving a bunch of meat into hi mouth to avoid having it stolen by his brown, F'ynch and Snappy went through a moment of glaring before the brown huffed and moved. Only to squeal when he stepped in a wet patch, that left him grumpy as he returned to be seated by F'ynch plate, glaring at the tubers.
"You can have them." The blue rider muttered at his pet, though it probably sounded like "Oo an haf bat." Around the meat.

Finally swallowing, F'ynch settled an oddly perceptive look on the girl, watching her silently before smiling again, dark eyes lighting up.
"Breathe. You'll only make it worse if you worry. If he's worth liking, he'll like you for more than your looks. Just breathe, smile and be yourself, the Gold wouldn't have chosen you if you weren't made of gold inside." The strange thing about the advice, was that F'ynch meant every word, grinning again before eying the tubers with a distasteful look and going for his meat again.
Eat. Your. Tubers.
"By the way, you couldn't make your lovely gold tell my blue to back off about the tubers, could you? I hate the horrid things."

[phlysolo]

The gold Weyrling watched B'can go and tried to be optimistic. He had promised to come back after all, in spite of the fact that Brylorea had just proved to at least two witnesses that she was a sad and utter fool. Restraining her eyes from rolling at the ceiling, she unhappily looked towards the young man who, in a disgustingly cheerful tone, commented that everyone made mistakes. Spare me, she thought almost savagely, eying him unhappily as he plopped down in front of her where, certainly, B'can should be sitting.

"Hm.." She replied, almost savagely tearing a meatroll in half and devouring it, idly shooing little green Stare away from her plate.

Her eyes flickered up towards the young man, looking him over. She couldn't quite place him, though, his obvious shoulder knots labeled him as a bluerider.

F'ynch. Truth is his blue.

Thanks. Say hello to Apolleth, will you.

Voluspath's silence amused the Weyrling much more than she would have liked to admit and instead occupied herself with listening to F'ynch. He was surprisingly insightful, much more than she would have liked to admit. She bit the inside of her lip and found that she really couldn't think of a reply, particularly not a snarky one. which was good, being that she wasn't a necessarily snarky person to begin with. Idly, she tore the other half of her meatroll into slightly smaller pieces before setting them down on her plate, suddenly not very hungry at all.

"Thank you," She said quietly, forcing a very slight smile onto her face that budded into an actual one as the blue rider continued.

"And in spite of your rather wonderful advice, I think Voluspath won't be telling Truth to stop you from eating your tubers," Brylorea quipped smoothly, taking a sip of her drink. "They are very good, you know. And I think we've received a shipment of salt from our last tithe. There's some here on the table.'

She pushed it forward and in the moment she wasn't speaking, stole a glance over to where B'can had gone for the food tables. He should be back soon, yes, yes.

[ShadowReine]

A soft 'ahem' came from behind F'ynch as B'can stepped around him to set down the food he had brought.

He didn't know the bluerider well, but the fact that he was pushing in on his girl. No, Bry was not his girl. She was Voluspath's girl and, in the end, the gold dragon would decide who she was with. Not her and not him.

But until that happened...he could perhaps...how did he prove himself worthy of her? He had never wished Apolloth's hide bronze before, he did now. Well, a little. He didn't want to change his dragon. He wanted to change her dragon. Pulling up a chair, he sort of sat on the corner, regarding F'ynch for a moment before turning his attention to Brylorea.

"So. How is Voluspath?" he asked, softly. "She's still being...isn't she."

No, the gold would not change. How could he expect her to, now or ever?

[Missa]

It honestly amused F'ynch that both weyrlings seemed so cautious of him, especially B'can. Why would F'ynch even bother with the gold weyrling? He rode a blue. And while Truth had shown tendency's to try and chase queens he'd never actually won, no he usually hurt himself trying instead. It was rather... Well, rather silly really, but he supported Truth in everything he did. To the blue rider, Truth was the only creature that held any amount of his heart. And probably always will be.

"Awh really? Bummer." Grinning at her easily, F'ynch eyed the tubers with distaste before putting some in his mouth and shuddering. Something that Snappy obviously found amusing because he then took a bite of the pile himself, only to shudder as comically as F'ynch had and spat it out.
"Lovely. No wonder you don't have a mate."
Like flitter, like bonded. Truth snickered mentally, before snorting to F'ynch
The boy does not appear to like you much. He should be a tad more respectful. You are a rider.
Shut up, try being nice to his dragon.
Fi-ne. Hello Apolloth, how are you this evening? Mine is quite enjoying the conversation with Yours and his friend, he is a rather interesting individual.
Good boy. Now sit.
On you? Of course. Eat your tubers.
"How are your lessons going? Are you still a weyrling B'can, or have you graduated? I apologise I'm not very well caught up with what's been going on."

[phlysolo]

B'can was back! Her heart settled back to the place where she supposed it normally should be, instead of wretched with worry that she'd driven the tan rider away from herself. Voluspath, perhaps only content that Brylorea was content, even seemed to relax a little herself. Utterly oblivious to any nonverbal exchange between F'ynch and B'can, Brylorea grinned

"See? Juicy and delicious," Brylorea said, giggling as the blue rider's firelizard spat out the tubers with the same amount of distaste as his bonded.

To her mild disappointment, B'can turned the conversation to her dragon. It wasn't fair that Voluspath was so...well, gold. Brylorea had done her best in the past Turn to tone down her beliefs that any color 'ranked' below bronze was not worth her time. Honestly, Brylorea couldn't tell if it was helping at all, though she had spied her dragon communicating civilly with greens and blues. True, she might bore of their company quickly, but just the fact that Voluspath would "lower" herself to speak to the "lesser" dragons was a victory in itself.

"She's getting better. I've been trying to get her to see just how worthwhile and valuable the other colors are, but it's a struggle," The gold Weyrling paused, gathering her thoughts and hoping that she didn't sound pompous and arrogant. "It's just that I haven't had the time, with the lessons and all, to really get together with another rider and, if I have to, force Voluspath to have a conversation with them."

Brylorea snorted, "I'm sure that if I just expose her some more to more of the Weyr's dragons, she'll get off her high ledge and appreciate everyone more....I wonder if Kora had the same problems with Nayarath."

It was an awkward situation. Volupsath did not WANT to associate with any other color but bronze, but Brylorea knew it was of the utmost importance to be familiar with riders of all colors in the Weyr. After all, she'd very soon be depending on them to fight well against Threads...

[ShadowReine]

B'can nodded. "I wonder...maybe we could try getting her to talk to a rather unusual dragon."

He knew Brylorea and Gwenduinne knew each other somewhat.

"One who doesn't quite fit in the normal Weyr hierarchy." There was something about Tyrth that set the white dragon apart and aside. He might fly with the greens in formation, but he did not fly *like* a green. Or act like one. He did not act like any other dragon. "How does she get on with Tyrth?"

He then glanced towards F'ynch. "We just graduated. And your firelizard is being kinda silly, isn't he." Not that Stare wasn't silly...she was very much a green, and you didn't get sillier than greens, dragon or firelizard.

I don't think yours is going to eat those tubers Apolloth sent with amusement to the blue. His tone held a little patronization in it, but not a huge amount. He was more entertained by the banter going on than anything else.

"Then again, does anyone have a firelizard that isn't silly. Well, Guess isn't too bad, but he is, after all, a brown." Browns were the sensible color, supposedly.

[Missa]

F'ynch shrugged slightly, eying his brown with distaste. He hadn't even wanted Snappy, but he'd still ended up with him. It was Truth's fault, all sharding Truth's fault. Though B'can was probably lucky F'ynch wasn't a very snobby or arrogant rider, some wouldn't have appreciated a newly graduated rider comment on whether or not their flitt was being stupid, he'd trained the stupid thing as best he could. He couldn't stop it eating what he wanted.
"He eats what he wants. Whether I warn him or not. Obviously it looked nice, I dunno. Truth understands him better than me." Just.
"Snappy's brown, obviously. He's just ... Snappy."

You'd be surprised. If I talk to him enough, he will, just to shut me up. Mine is like that, he takes a little prodding but he gets there in the end. Truth murmured lightly, obviously amused by the fact his rider was still as stubborn about tubers as he had been the turn he impressed him.
He's been saying he won't eat them since I chose him. That was... A long time ago. He still hasn't gone a night meal without them.

As predicted, one more comment from the blue had F'ynch eating his tubers, watching the two new riders talk. They were amusing, golds didn't really talk to anyone, did they? He'd always thought that was a natural part of being a gold, being arrogant. Getting her to talk to lower ranked colours might be hard.
"Try getting her to talk to older dragons. And about something she wants to learn. I'm sure many of the older dragons would be willing to talk to her about her duties in Thread, if Nayarath hasn't. Or even drill training if she's interested."