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+---- Thread: Awkward Meetings [Open] (/showthread.php?tid=1376)
Awkward Meetings [Open] - S'cer - 05.Mar.13
Six Turns, and there were some things that hadn’t changed. The nape of Isscer’s neck itched, and when he reached to scratch at it, he could practically feel the heat. Sunburned again, shard it! With a displeased scowl, he tugged his wide-brimmed hat down further, hoping that it would at least keep some of the sun off his face. Despite the fact that it was technically autumn, it was still unbearably muggy. Already his clothing was sticking to him uncomfortably, and Isscer tugged at his tunic, unsticking it from where it lay plastered to his back.
Even if the sun was beating down and he felt like he was drenched in sweat, Isscer would not be dissuaded. He trekked stubbornly on, moving further on down the lake shore, away from the pack of screeching weyrbrats. He had begrudgingly asked a greenrider for a ride to the lake, smiled the polite smile his family had trained him to present for those of rank, and hoped for the best. He had gotten the ride, but hadn’t counted on the lake being the place to be for what seemed like all the snot-nosed brats of the Weyr.
After going what seemed an appropriate distance away (which was out of earshot, if not out of sight), Isscer began to shuck his clothing. It was stupidly hot, and shards but he missed snow! At least in Telgar winter had felt like winter; at Katila it always seemed to be hot, and Isscer hated it. It wasn’t long until he was in the water, pale arms and legs sprawled out as he floated on his back for a brief moment, enjoying the coolness of the water. Almost lazily he flopped over onto his stomach, allowing himself to sink into the water fully before bobbing back to the surface.
Isscer slicked his wet hair out of his eyes before settling into an even pace, swimming in as straight a line as he could manage, back and forth. What he didn’t plan on was someone moving into his path; unable to stop his momentum and not noticing until the last second, Isscer collided with them, arms flailing and sending water up in splashes as he tried to regain his bearing. If he had had the time to be self-conscious, he would have noted how awkward it was: his hands slid over wet skin, and he swallowed quite a bit of water before he managed to distance himself from whomever he had run into.
Now safely treading water, Isscer shoved his wet hair out of his eyes and rounded on the offending individual. "Why don't you watch where you're going, eh? Some of us are trying to swim here!"
Re: Awkward Meetings [Open] - T'rielle - 13.Mar.13
T'rielle's attention span was such that the fact that Caxith had just lounged herself quite solidly on the shore of the lake and allowed a crowd of gleeful children climb her like a mountain didn't manage to hold his attention for more than a few minutes. There was one, who kept attempting to climb into the proper place in front of the green's wing joints but kept getting fouled up in Caxith's wings, causing the dragon to shift and send the determined little boy sliding down her side and to the sand. T'rielle, for his part, was fairly convinced that she was doing it on purpose, and made a note not to let her do the same thing to him the next time he went to get on. It wouldn't be very rider-like to get dumped by your dragon before she'd even gotten in the air.
For his part, T'rielle was being the furthest thing from productive. He hadn't even brought anything with him down to the lake when the cursed green monster had decided she wanted a swim. And far be it from T'rielle's inventory of abilities to be able to tell her 'no'.
If I didn't know better I'd say you're terrifying. However, being that I can see inside your gorily creative imagination, I won't.
The water was cool, and even though T'rielle hadn't been working particularly hard so far that day, it was surprisingly refreshing. He was managing just fine swimming on his back (or well enough for someone who was self-taught), not paying any attention to his surroundings because whatever was in the sky was certainly more interesting than making sure he wasn't getting in anyone's way, because he was most definitely the only one who would have drifted this far away from the bulk of his child-swarmed dragon and he didn't need to look around to be sure of that!
Until, that is, there was a mild thump! and he was suddenly attempting to breathe water (it didn't work all that well). He came up sputtering, doing the same as whoever had run into him and trying to put some distance between them--flailing limbs were something he really didn't want to get acquainted. He was already apologizing before he got his hair properly out of his face and got a nice mouthful of water in the process. The fact that there was a certain amount of indignant anger currently being aimed at him seemed to go completely lost on T'rielle. He took a moment to properly remove his hair from his face before attempting to give another (hopefully more coherent) apology. "Sorry, completely my fault. I hope I didn't drown you too badly."
Re: Awkward Meetings [Open] - S'cer - 16.Mar.13
If it had been anyone else they might have laughed at T'rielle's comment, taking it as a joke. What had occurred was clearly an accident, and not necessarily only one person's fault, but Isscer was not 'other people'. He regarded T'rielle with a disdainful expression, already making assumptions about this man and the green dragon being swarmed on the the shore, mouth working into a dour frown.
Sharding dragonriders, always making things more difficult. Isscer was not comfortable around dragon riders--especially greenriders--and tended to actively avoid them. Of course that was easier said than done, but he tried his hardest to keep his interaction with them to a minimum. Greenriders in particular made him uncomfortable because one of them had Stolen him, and the fact that the greens were especially sensitive to finding appropriate Candidate unnerved him; to date he had not Impressed, and Isscer seriously doubted the judgement of the greenpair that had Stolen him.
"It's fine," he grumbled testily, unwilling to continue a pointless argument. He shot T'rielle a look before glancing back at the lake shore, biting at the inside of his cheek. Curiosity won out over annoyance, and Isscer asked, "Shouldn't you be over there with the dragon? If one of the brats get hurt, their foster parents might come after you."
Re: Awkward Meetings [Open] - T'rielle - 16.Mar.13
Ignoring the way the other man's mouth twisted into a frown, T'rielle's own expression didn't change in the least. Brushing his hair out of his eyes again and putting a little more empty water between himself and the other man, T'rielle got his first good look at the person he'd inadvertently tried to drown. While not particularly dense, T'rielle was stubborn and he wasn't overly fond of the fact that not everyone wanted to be his friend. There was a point, of course, where he would be smart enough to back off (usually with prodding thanks to Caxith), though that tended not to happen until someone explicitly told him to leave them alone. So he usually managed to worm his way under the skin.
At the mention of his dragon, T'rielle glanced at her, his grin dropping a tiny bit as the other man's words settled into his brain. It didn't take very long, of course, before that grin was right back in place and as bright as ever. "If something's going to happen my presence won't change that. Caxith's a better babysitter than I am anyway."
There was a brief pause before T'rielle brushed her off with a mental shrug. "I'm T'rielle, by the way. You've probably figured it out, but the dragon's Caxith." The green (carefully) raised her head, sending children running with delighted squeals, and turned to look in their direction before going back to crooning at the children. "She says hello." It wasn't a particularly accurate translation--Caxith rarely gave humans the courtesy of actual greetings beyond the most banal--but T'rielle was smart enough to realize that Isscer wasn't the happiest about being run into, and his mood seemed to have plummeted (if his expression was anything to go by) when the other man realized he was a dragonrider. It obviously wasn't anything T'rielle could fix short of excusing himself, and he wasn't particularly inclined to do that just yet.
Re: Awkward Meetings [Open] - S'cer - 17.Mar.13
The greenrider--T'rielle--seemed to be of a cheery disposition; his grin came back, and Isscer mentally sighed. These ones were the absolute worst to get rid of because they didn't appear to notice when they weren't wanted. Or, if they did notice, they stubbornly kept trying to make conversation despite Isscer's consistent put-downs.
He sighed mentally, but was a little shocked to note Caxith's recognition. Isscer wasn't sure what to do with that, precisely; he was so used to avoiding others that he wasn't really used to being the focus of anyone's--let alone a dragon's--attention. But Caxith quickly turned her attention back to the children surrounding her, and Isscer breathed a sigh of relief; he was immensely glad that she had not spoken to him herself, as he was very uncomfortable with the idea of the dragons being able to speak to him in his head.
Isscer found himself curious, and figured that perhaps T'rielle's presence could be endured a little while longer if he could sate his curiosity. "Is she always that maternal? I thought that greens were not like that." Well, he knew golds could be possessive over their eggs but that was different: golds were more intelligent and the eggs were their own. He had never really considered that a dragon would care about children at all, thinking that they would see children as nuisances to be avoided.
Re: Awkward Meetings [Open] - T'rielle - 24.Mar.13
"Oh, not really. She gets bored, and apparently kids are more amusing than us adults. I never really thought about it in terms of maternal instinct or anything." Casting a caculating eye on the green dragon still lounged out on the shore, T'rielle grinned a little wider to himself before turning back to Isscer. "I suppose she does have her moments, though. Caxith isn't particularly forgiving, so if they do something that irritates her she'll warn them off and that's that."
Still stubbornly convinced that he could change Isscer's opinion about him (or dragonriders in general--no one ever said T'rielle had particularly realistic expectations), T'rielle cast about for something else to talk about. He was of the opinion that he had a certain affinity for lighting on topics that people liked to talk about, though the truth of the matter was that he was quite good at generalizing to a point that anyone would be able to pick up something that they enjoyed, no matter how different T'rielle's own interests might have been. He was the curious sort, never above exhausting a subject until he couldn't think of anything else to learn.
Unless it was about food or where she could get some, Caxith didn't much care for the daily workings of humans aside from the very short list of those that she actually found interesting. Which seemed to get longer and longer thanks to her overly friendly rider. Caxith tended to be very judgmental, and she didn't give people very many chances before she decided they weren't worth her time. T'rielle, on the other hand, tended to give people too many chances. Forgiveness could be a virtue or a vice.
He didn't miss the fact that Isscer declined to give his own name in return to T'rielle's own introduction, but it only caused a moment of hesitation before he sprung to the next train of thought. "If I'm not prying--" He knew very well that he probably was, but didn't particularly care at this point, "--what is it you do?" He was hoping, clearly, for something interesting to latch onto .Or something not so interesting, but an obscure detail that caught his attention tended to work just as well as some impossible-to-miss one.
Re: Awkward Meetings [Open] - S'cer - 13.Apr.13
"Interesting." It was, to some degree, interesting despite the fact that dragons tended to make Isscer feel ill-at-ease. He had never considered that greens would get along well with children, but this was probably because Isscer didn't dwell on dragons very often. He had plenty of other things to keep himself occupied, and deciphering dragon-human interactions was not high on his list of priorities.
An awkward feeling settled over Isscer; did he say or did he go? He had said his piece, gotten his argument in--he was finished with the conversation. But T'rielle threw a wrench in Isscer's plan, and Isscer couldn't stop the slight frown at the question. But the question was somewhat unexpected too: Isscer couldn't remember the last time anyone had cared to ask him what he did. They were all too busy caring for dragons to notice him, to care that he was at least partially responsible for the bread in the kitchens. It was somewhat disgusting that the important people, other Stolen, were forgotten even though they did serve a practical purpose beyond being forced into Candidacy.
"I, uh." Isscer began, knowing full well that he sounded ridiculous but still momentarily stunned that someone cared. "I'm a Farmcrafter. Ah, Junior Journeyman Farmcrafter Isscer." For a brief moment, Isscer looked away from T'rielle, taking a moment to compose himself. Even if he had bothered to ask Isscer about himself, he was still a greenrider after all! "I grow wheat; it's my specialty. That's probably why they Stole me--to date I haven't had any luck Impressing."
Re: Awkward Meetings [Open] - T'rielle - 07.May.13
T'rielle was more than happy to take 'interesting' as an answer. There were certainly parents about the Weyr who were more than vocal about their dislike for dragons interacting with their children (completely ignoring the fact that the kids were generally the instigators). And unfortunately for the rider, it wasn't the dragon that parents came screaming to when they finally found where their kid had run off to. On the other hand, Caxith wasn't the sort to chase them off unless she was in a dour mood, even if she wasn't particularly playful. That, for the most part, she left to T'rielle, if only because she knew that he likely wouldn't do anything about it unless she complained.
He wasn't stupid, though he sometimes neglected to comprehend why, exactly, the Northerners were so adverse to their lot here. But then, he couldn't quite comprehend why anyone would have had problems with getting the chance to Impress a dragon. Growing up in a Weyr did that to people, clouded their perception, he supposed. It wasn't an issue that T'rielle tended to linger on for more than a couple minutes, and this time was no different. He gave a grin that wasn't dulled in the least by Isscer's hesitance when the other man answered his query.
"Oh, so I should in part be thanking you for breakfast this morning!" He said brightly. It wasn't a normal thought for him, by a long shot. "Oh, I doubt that! I remember there was this one boy, before the exile, who stood for eight Turns before he finally Impressed. Your dragon hasn't been clutched yet, that's all." He paused a moment, then backpedaled. "Not, of course, to say they didn't care about your Craft skills, though." He finished lamely.
Re: Awkward Meetings [Open] - S'cer - 13.May.13
"You don't have to," the Farmcrafter replied, brow knitting in momentary confusion. The joke went way over his head, and he didn't seem to realize it. "Most people don't think about where their food comes from--they just care that they have it to eat." Isscer was awkward at the best of times, but when he felt uncomfortable it seemed to get worse. Despite his inability to understand the joke, a pleased flush crept up his neck and spread across his face; it was rare that anyone recognized the dedication and work he put into his Craft, and to be to thanked was an exceedingly rare thing.
It was this rush of pride that tempered the disappointment of yet another person insisting that his dragon was waiting, that it was not shelled yet but it would eventually come. It made him want to tear his hair out, to stomp and yell, because couldn't they see? Of course they couldn't. Stupid sharding dragonriders did not seem to understand that there existed people who did not aspire to Impress. Isscer had only ever aspired to be a successful craftsman--nothing more.
"Perhaps." It was all he could manage without coming across as blatantly negative about the whole idea, and Isscer forced a wan smile that he hoped would fool the greenrider. "Ah, well. I should be going." He shot a look toward the sand that was almost longing before glancing back to T'rielle. "But it was nice to meet you--when I see you next, I will remember to say hello." The Farmcrafter didn't see much point in trying to continue a dying conversation, figuring that T'rielle would be more interested in looking after his dragon and knowing that the last thing he wanted to discuss was his future dragon--or lack thereof--any more.