Long Time, No See [B'run]

"Hey! Play nice," A'liran scolded, reaching out to thump the elder of his bronze firelizards on the head as he greedily snapped at the food. A pile of meat chunks sat in between the pair, and until his younger companion had started greedily hogging it all, Bastard had been content to behave. Of course, now that Lump was being fat and useless, Bastard was more than willing to live up to his name. He hissed and swatted at Lump's nose with one paw, claws unsheathed and eyes bright red. Ali snorted in amusement, watching as Lump cringed away and then looked sourly towards him.

"Suits you, fatass. That food is for BOTH of you, not just you," he said. He'd taken to talking to the flits like they were people. Astoreth thought it was charming, and so did about half of the passers-by...but the others clearly regarded him as crazy. Ali didn't care. Hhe supposed some internalized part of him liked the attention, but really he didn't see it as a problem. Besides, his fire lizards (especially Bastard) were smarter than most of the people he knew.

A'liran. Look down

A'liran, who'd been preoccupied by petting Bastard as a reward for putting Lump in his place, looked down to find that the older bronze had relocated to the exact middle of his own plate of food. Not only was Lump now covered in gravy, but A'liran's meal was ruined. He frowned. "...You little fucker!" he said in disbelief, picking the fire lizard up in both hands and lifting him. In true Lump fashion, the fire lizard lazily allowed his legs to dangle and gazed back at A'liran cluelessly, unimpressed, and fat.

A'liran had no idea what to do. Part of him wanted to throw the damn thing. The stare-down lasted for a few seconds before he just sighed and dropped the critter back on the table. Lump let out an undignified grunt and relocated to the other side of the table, irritated.

A'liran's namesake landed on his shoulder, chirping in interesting and laying a paw on his nose and looking him square in the eyes before launching off his shoulder and disappearing among the people. B'run followed shortly after her disappearance, moving into the dining hall and somehow ignoring the people around him. He moved towards A'liran and claimed a seat beside the man, ignoring the few looks he was getting.

He wasn't wearing a shirt.

His back was a mess of scars and wounds that were nearly a sevenday old. Jisralna had slathered him in numbweed and bandages and he'd headed out once she was done, hoping to catch some time away from the women and talk to A'liran about a couple things. It had been a while since he'd seen his one male friend and he was desperate for testosterone in his life.

"Evenin'." He drawled, setting his plate down and giving a soft sigh as the swarm of firelizards jumped out of Between and claimed spots on the table, none being so daring as to perch on his shoulders just yet. Lovely crooned worriedly at him and he passed her a bit of meat, which set the others about squabbling. He scolded them into silence, fed them each a piece and let them chew on them while he shoved a mouthful into his own mouth.

"How ya been?" He was acting like nothing was odd, nothing at all. He wasn't just lashed fifteen times or had two women move in with him at once. Or find himself playing Father to a baby. Nope. Nothing strange going on here!

A'liran jumped as a flash of green invaded his peripheral vision. He turned his head only slightly before he felt Ali's tiny paw on his nose, eyes widening as they met those of the little green fire lizard. "Oh...Hello," he said, staring back at the little beast before she took off. Lump lifted his head and chirped in interest, but before he could actually do anything, she was gone.

They weren't alone for long. A'liran turned to face B'run, frowning openly when he realized why exactly the bronzerider was breaking his rule about shirts. "What the shells happened to you?" he said, wrinkling his nose and sneering as he observed the man's tattered back.

He got in trouble the other night Astoreth offered helpfully, her tone lingering on the cautious side. She felt bad for B'run, but she also wasn't looking forward to A'liran's inevitable overreaction to it. Well, perhaps 'overreaction' wasn't the best word.  She bristled at the mere thouht of such a thing being done to her own rider, but it had been such a long time now, at least in her dragon's mind. What good would anger do now?

A'liran huffed a bit. I've heard the rumors he scowled back to her. He wasn't frustrated at her, but he did feel a spoke of indignation from her just the same. What is it you humans say? 'Don't kill the messenger'? she shot back, confident in her tone even though she wasnt entirely sure she was using the expression correctly.

Well...aren't you fancy

The table was covered in fire lizards now, of course. Bastard chirped gently and picked his way to the edge, hopping off and into A'liran's lap. Bastard was a gentleman and wanted to be nice and out of the way. Lump, of course, was too busy being wooed by the overwhelming female presence to bother with being a gentlemen. He walked right over to Lovely and immediately began to sniff at her.

A'liran scowled at Lump, but his main focus was B'run. "I heard you got messed up," the greenrider said with a hint of anger, eyes searching over the man for the easily-gathered evidence of the encounter. Disgusting...

"Had a bit of a disagreement." He shoveled a forkful of food in his mouth and shrugged, doing his best not to wince. Brat lurked beneath his chin, waiting for a bit of food to magically leap from the fork and into her waiting gullet. None came and the little green hissed at him, still waiting, perched on her haunches. The others seemed to have no further interest but Brat was getting a plump little belly from all her edible demands.

Lovely was sprawled out, taking up the most room both due to her size and the fact that she was enjoying the attention. She let Lump sniff and prod away until he got too close then a hiss came and she swatted at him, fluttering her wings in annoyance. Ali seemed fond of her namesake, choosing to lurk near him and hope his morsels fell to the table while Hush chattered away like Hush always did, talking to anyone that would listen about whatever it was fire lizards talked about.

"Jus' a bit messed up, eh? Took the worst. Had worse'n fifteen. Didn' even pass out." He'd wanted to, but he blamed that on the alcohol he'd downed beforehand. His 'record' if you wanted to call it that was twenty, and the source of most of the scars on his back but that had been a long time ago and he couldn't entirely remember what he'd done to earn them. Disobey, most likely. Or argue. He was good at both of those things.

"Likely won' be the last ones I get. Figger I'll let 'em heal 'fore I smart off again. Soon 'nough they'll be lashin' through leather at the rate my backs goin'." He gave a dry, harsh laugh and took another bite, pausing to wash it down. "Migh' need your help... Not with gettin' lashed, I've got that plen'y under control," he gave a small smile. "Somehow wound up wit' a whole slew o' women in my hut an' no damn room for 'em. Should prob'ly build on even if'n it's temporary." He glanced in A'liran's direction to watch the man's reaction, amusement twinkling in his eyes.

Like you don't like your women... The dragon scoffed, sounding far more amused than accusatory.
I like them fine, thank you. That's why I'm trying to make room. So they can stay. You're one to talk, Mr. Gives Every Green Attention.
I fully intend to give Golds my attention, too.
Between you and the girls I'm never going to sleep, am I?
Probably not, no.

B'run shook his head at the conversation and took another heaping bite. His plate was piled high and the man was ravenous, which was likely a good thing, given his slim build. "Ain't askin' ya t'do it for free, obviously. I'll think up favors t'trade eventually. Lookin' forward t'her risin' solely so I'll have eggs to swap." He prodded Lovely lovingly, earning a happy croon in response.

"Disagreement?" A'liran said with disgust, as if he even had to ask. He wrinkled his nose as he considered both the man's modesty about his scars and his general unwillingness to put himself in the public eye. This seemed like a fundamental violation of what made B'run B'run, but in the end, Ali couldn't claim to disagree.

"Sounds like you did the sort of stupid shit I would normally do," he said, nudging the bronzerider's foot under the table. "By the egg, dude..." He let it go at that, voice trailing away and eyes glassing over as he thought back in the many times he'd gotten in such situations himself. It always hurt to see someone else in that position...it stung, not only out of sympathy, but out of anger as well.

He let it go uneasily, choosing to let it slip away rather than belabor the point. Besides, B'run had come up with something new and exciting to talk about.

Wait, what did he just say?

I believe he just volunteered you for a building project

Ali stared at B'run for a moment. He was caught somewhere in between indignation and flat-out pouting. "Gosh B'run, that sounds just terrible," Ali said flippantly, adding a snide little snort to the end of the sentence for good measure. He leaned back in his chair and arrogantly situated his hands before his head. "Not for free, you say? You'd better convince me then, unless the big  nasty bronzerider is going to pull his rank on little ol' me..."

Lump squeaked and slithered away from Lovely, who just wasn't giving him the attention he felt like he deserved. Ali reached down to lazily pat the creature, while Bastard craned his neck over to watch Lump suspiciously, almost as if waiting on him to screw up.

B'run chuckled. "Doin' a bit more than just stupid shit, eh?" But he dropped the topic as A'liran did, taking a healthy gulp from his mug and stuffing a piece of meat into Brat's mouth so she'd leave him alone. It worked and the little green darted off to eat without her sisters stealing it. It didn't work and Ali and Hush promptly swarmed her, each demanding her own piece from the chunk Brat had been given. B'run jabbed his fork into them, chasing them off and giving each one a piece. "Quit arguin'."

"Can I pull rank on you? Jes' once. Migh' be nice." He grinned, flashing his teeth. "Never know wot you'll take a likin' to." Was he... Was B'run flirting? Sober? It was hard to tell and he didn't make eye contact except for a quick wink and went back to eating his fill. He pushed his plate away, chewed and nodded as he did so. "Swappin' favors works for me if'n it does for you. Figure there'll be somethin' you need me for in the future."

A'liran had no idea what to make of the possible-maybe-flirting that was being tossed his way, which resulted in a most amusing facial expression, caught somewhere between disgust, amusement, and the outrageously sarcastic impulse to flirt back. He had a bronzerider aversion, but he liked B'run...and he also wasn't sure how to handle casual comments like that not being either violent, or innocent comments that he wrongfully assumed were violent. Mostly, he was just confused, and his noncommital expression was so ineffective that Bastard scolded him for it. The flitter squeaked at him, jarring him out of his confusion and causing him to snort.

"Trading favors? Fiiiiine...Bronzerider Sir," he said with a sarcastic sneer. A genuinely amused smile quickly crossed his face in place of the former confusion. "I'm sure I can come up with something. I've got some blueriders I wouldn't mind having you terrorize or something like that," the greenrider said casually. "Say, you willing to beat someone up for me? Hah, can you imagine?" Not that Ali couldn't beat people up on his own, thank you very much...but the idea of siccing a bronzerider on Z'ia or I'shan was fucking hilarious, and now he was dead-set on convincing B'run to do it.

"I'd rather not beat any'un up but I'll sure as shit look scary an' yell at 'em. Or see if'n Olemuth'll fly some green whose rider they're after. I'll even go flirt with 'em an' make 'em all uncomfortable like you get." He chuckled, slapping the other man on the back and wincing with the motion. He hadn't thought that out. "Been lashed enough fer a while without givin' 'em more reasons t'do it." And he was rather certain that if he spit into the wind it'd land on S'kef solely to cause him to get more lashes. Not that he hadn't deserved these ones, he had and he'd do it again just to spite that brownriding bastard.

"I'm sure you'll think of something outlandish 'nough t'make me regret favor swappin'. I do 'preciate yer helpin', y'know. S'gettin' cramped an' Trundlebug is only gettin' bigger. Jisralna ain't keen on sendin' her to the creche so guess she's stayin' put for the time."

A'liran winced at the slap as well, for different reasons. "Fine, fine...I won't make you do anything too stupid, okay? I'll keep you out of that asshole, tyrant brownrider's sight." S'kef would never be Weyrleader, not to A'liran. Screw that guy mightily. He wouldn't acknowledge it, not even in passing. He flashed B'run a brief but reassuring smile, then rose to his feet.

"...Just call me, I guess. Have Olemuth call Ast or something, we don't have anything to do. We'll be around." He whistled, summoning Lump and Bastard to his side. They fluttered to his shoulders, though there was a mild disagreement over who would be taking the nearer shoulder. As usual, Bastard won. Lump grumpily reassigned himself to the other side and then started to tug at A'liran's earlobe for attention.  The greenrider petted him for only a moment. "Damn needy thing," he grumbled.

Looking back to B'run, A'liran smiled almost sadly. It was a shame, to see the bronzerider back to tucking his tail, but that was the way of things around here.  Maybe laying low for a while was essential to keep from burning out.

"Take care, okay?" he asked, nodding to the bronzerider before turning to walk away. These were trying times for all of them.