School Never Ends [Future Designs Weyrling Class. Open!]

B’jin was in a high mood as he made his way toward the gather square where the kids were gathering, bickering good naturedly with Larrikith as the pudgy dragon walked along beside him. With their being assigned as Weyrlingmaster, they’d been dropped from their wing, and Larrikith had quickly put the weight back on that she had turned into muscle tone during their work outs. She was a hungry little dragon, and had never gotten over the need to eat far more than she physically required. Another ‘don’t do what I did’ that B’jin had pointed out to the class. His own Weyrlinghood had been traumatic, with the Harper making every mistake there was to make, and doing them tenfold worse than anyone else. He had ended up in private lessons and gotten more than his share of lashings when the Weyrlingmaster had picked up exactly how much the young man didn’t care for his dragon.

In contrast to Larrikith’s increase in weight, B’jin had retained his (albeit) questionable level of fitness. It was only fair, if he was going to make the brats run every day that he did similar. It certainly didn’t hurt that he had good company, and early morning swims usually ended in far more delightful activities. Such may or may not have been responsible for the damp hair, good mood and subtle smirk. His modesty preferred a bedroom, his situation preferred the beach. Larrikith made a sly comment, causing B’jin to laugh as they closed the distance to stop before the Weyrlings. B’jin considered the class for a moment before flopping down on Larrikith’s foreleg as she lay down, eyes swirling contentedly.

Clean dragonets and shiny oiled hides were pleasant and B’jin was pleased with the efforts being put forth, though the inter-mingling scents of everyone’s different oils was not quite as pleasant as it might have been. Most of the class had taken to using the lavender oil B’jin and Larrikith preferred, but the rest had decided to create their own concoctions, with variable degrees of success. B’jin didn’t mind at all, but the combination of scents was why the greenrider had taken to outdoor lessons, where they wouldn’t be over powered by the smell of dragonets, oil and each other in a small room.

“Morning, Kids.” Despite the fact that all of his candidates were definitely adults of various ages, and some were closing in on thirty, B’jin continually referred to them by the collective title of ‘kids’, as he had done during their Candidacy. B’jin didn’t do it to be insulting, but it was a nice general way to refer to all of them without having to think much on it. ‘Boys’ was also used regularly, the greenrider leaping on the fact that there were no girls in his class to get pissy over the use of that collective. “So, we’ll start you off on mindspeaking.” B’jin smirked at the group. Learning to mindspeak wasn’t hard, but getting used to it was a small hurdle that could be hilarious to watch. Most people figured it out within a week or so, depending on how much they actively practised.

People like B’jin took months, but that was neither here nor there, and certainly not something B’jin was going to share with them. “Dragons have this shit down pat, as you will have noticed since Impressing. They can get into your mind with little to no effort and poke around and talk to you. The idea now, is to learn how to talk back without sounding like a dickhead.” A grin spread across the greenriders lips. “Once you figure it out, you’ll just look like a dickhead.” Larrikith gave a chirp of amusement. B'jin was rather eager to see what humorous expressions this group came up with. Frowning, scowling, scrunching, and dream land were pretty common.

“It’s generally considered bad manners to hold a conversation with your beast in the presence of others, unless the dragon is including them. Depending on who you are with, you can hand wave it and essentially tell them to go fuck themselves, or include them by speaking verbally. You’ll see most dragonriders do that if you pay attention at your next meal. However, for now most people will encourage you to speak mentally to your dragons. It’s really not all that hard; it’s simply getting the hang of not blabbing. Our natural response is to speak out loud, because that’s how we’ve always been taught to convey our thoughts. Now you have your own brain bug, so you don’t need to.”

The greenrider grinned. “It’ll take a little bit. But you can get into their brain as easily as they can get into yours. That’s really what you want to do, as opposed to simply projecting your thoughts for the world to hear. Larrikith is going to be correcting projectors; she’s sensitive to loud thoughts and will be able to pick up who isn’t on the right track. Now, different things work for different people. Get your dragonet to help guide you.” B’jin leaned back against Larrikith, lifting his hands as an indicator that they should start giving the exercise an attempt. He wasn’t sure he’d given them enough instruction to go off, but Larrikith was likely to be far more use in this class than he was. His mind was a brick wall for dragon thoughts.