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Post by dragon on Apr 16, 2011 22:38:15 GMT -5
It was a puzzle as old as recorded history, but it was a new one to L'nu. Unfortunately, puzzles were to be figured out. Only unfortunately because when he wasn't paying attention in minute detail to his surroundings, his surroundings usually ended up in his possession. Usually in his pockets. A rather embarrassing double whammy, given he couldn't even explain to anyone why he was as good as lost in la-la land.
For, he had just recently discovered girls. And they didn't make any sense to him in the least. L'nu often found his mind wandering back toward the puzzle that was the feminine, trying to puzzle some sense into it all. Only to come to the here and how to discover he had some things that ... well ... weren't his.
Today, he set out down the halls that were lined with doors that led to neighboring weyrs. He carried a satchel on his side, the strap crossing his chest to run over one shoulder. It bulged in funny directions, filled with a wide and sundry assortment of items he'd discovered in his weyr. He really didn't mean to take them, and hoped to return them. His only problem? He had no idea where in the world he'd got them from. So today he was playing a bit of santa clause; randomly slipping into unoccupied weyrs and dropping items off. The chances were pretty good that they weren't going where they belonged, but at least they weren't in his weyr anymore.
There was only one problem to this solution; mysteriously, the satchel wasn't getting any emptier. Probably because he was picking stuff up when he put stuff down. Yay hot potato with random items!
"I'm doomed." L'nu sighed, making his way up to the next doorway and checking to see if there was anyone in there or not. Peeking into his satchel to see what was in there now, his heart sank slightly. A bodice dagger? Where in the world had he got a bodice dagger?
Rose boinked along the floor, mercifully silent as she followed him thither and yon. Of course, having grown up with L'nu, she didn't think there was anything strange about picking stuff up and collecting it. L'nu didn't quite realize it yet, but his growing collection wasn't entirely his fault anymore. The gold flitter was curious what her slave was doing with their collection of things, and had to check out every item that was left behind.
Shinies are good for collecting. 'Specially for keeping. Or giving. Giving is good too~ Paglieth remarked drowsily from his own ledge, sprawled out and half dangling over the stone edge, staring across the canyon at some of the greens over there.
"Yeah, whatever." L'nu replied, not even trying to decipher which of those comments were straight up and true, and which ones were scrambled and backward. He was pretty sure that Pag wasn't entirely coherent at the moment, not that he was ever coherent. Lifting the dagger from his bag, he slipped it onto a chest of drawers and scurried for the door again. Unbeknownst to him, Rose came sauntering back out from under the same chest of drawers with a new sparkly clamped in her teeth. Fluttering up to land on L'nu's back, she dropped the jewelry bit into the bag before crawling up to perch on his shoulder and hum contentedly. L'nu absently reached up to scratch her head as he made his way to the next doorway.
Thankfully, most Riders were out on duties this time of day. Or eating dinner, one or the other. They would be coming back soon though, he had to hurry!
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Requiem
Weyrleader S'rei WM M?ta Rider A'nd Harper/Handler Dmitri Weyrbrat Miguel
Posts: 2,861
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Post by Requiem on Apr 17, 2011 9:27:11 GMT -5
Invader, his little golden shoulder ornament hissed delicately, tongue flicking out to lick his earlobe. She perched much like a meercat, forelegs rubbing together as her eyes fixed on the man-boy skulking down the hall a fair distance away. Large wings were draped neatly around her in such a way as to almost resemble a shimmering robe. Her tail slipped along just beneath the collar of his shirt in something that could only be called a carress.
The almost freakishly tall wherhandler had his nose in a scroll - unsurprisingly. His interests covered a wide range of things, but lately he'd been pouring through all the dry histories and lists of names in search of anything to explain the current attitudes of the Holds toward the Weyr. For what purpose even he didn't know. Probably just to answer his own questions. Of course, he wasn't likely to find what he was looking for here. People didn't make a habit of recording things they didn't want people to know, and he strongly suspected...
Dmitri paused and glanced up. Dementia hadn't said anything else, but her irritation was washing over him in stronger waves than normal. The harper was as tall as his father now; he knew for sure, because they'd been eye-to-eye that day when S'rei had come to see him at the Gather at much risk to himself. More than anyone had guessed, actually, considering Ka'rys' sudden slaying. He seemed even taller because of his lean, slim build. Dmitri would have been pretty in the sandy blonde, boyish way some young men had, but his entire right side had suffered extensive burning. He was fortunate that his face hadn't half-melted like his arm had, but there was still extensive scarring in web-like patterns of dead white skin. Dark grey-blue eyes narrowed in interest on the largeish figure with his bulging sack...and no doubt the source of Dementia's irritation. A golden firelizard.
That had to be L'nu. Harpers kept up with things, like who had gold firelizards in the Weyr, even nocturnal harpers like himself. And that man certainly wasn't the small bronzeweyrling. Dmitri couldn't remember anything else about L'nu, however, except he had a blue from the same clutch as Feyrianth. Teeth nipped his neck to earn his attention. Invader, bother silly she-dog. Think too much. The admonishment was a mild one, but yes, the gold was right. He'd distracted himself with unnecessary details.
Erilena was still asleep in their weyr; she worked nights. And that girl would shriek something awful at a random man with a bag stealing into their weyr. (Dmitri did not sleep nearly as long as normal people. Thus he was already up.) Carefully rolling the scroll back up in gloved hands, he slipped it into the belt that hung loosely on slim hips and strode for the man to intercept him before he set off the panic alarm that was Erilena. The bluehandler loved his fiance, it was true, but she could be pretty excitable. And they were under a lot more stress than normal right now.
His fingers coiled into the bag as he swung around in front of L'nu, suffering the inevitable minor collision without comment. Dmitri's own fault, after all. Not that Dementia agreed. Look where walking, asshat, she hissed at L'nu. A shrug of a shoulder brought her against his face in an odd parody of a nuzzle, the action mollifying Dementia. For now.
Now that the bluerider was stopped, Dmitri stepped back to give him space. "Not to be nosy or anything, L'nu, but what are you doing?" It looked an awful lot like he was robbing everyone blind with the aid of his gold while they were all out training. Speaking of which, why wasn't L'nu out with the wings today? Maybe his had the day off.
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Post by dragon on Apr 18, 2011 23:39:19 GMT -5
Perched on L'nu's shoulder, Rose had spent a moment eying Dementia even before Dmitri had started moving instead of thinking. But she had held her peace for the time being, if only because hers was busy doing something that he felt had to be utmostly sneaky. Which meant no screaming. And since she was collecting new shinies as they went, she was peacable with this. However, as Dmitri drew nearer suddenly, Rose let out a throaty hiss with clearly malicious backing.
The warning still didn't stop L'nu from stumbling squarely into the tall fellow he hadn't seen coming. Where had he come from?! L'nu lost several shades of skin color as he looked up ... and up higher at where Dmitri was. All stealth lost, that was all it took for Rose to bust out from merely hissing to screaming at the top of her lungs and flapping her wings at the little tiny Gold thing. Gold thing. This was not tolerable!! Her eyes whirled in fast colors of red as she made a leap for the tiny scrap that was up there on Dmitri's shoulder, with murderous intent. She would eat it, she would prove who was a real queen!!
Barely registering that Dmitri had said something before being distracted and half-deafened by Rose, L'nu squeaked something unintelligible before making a lunging grab for Rose. The only reason she had missed her mark was because Dmitri had taken that step back at just that moment. Gathering his rather pissed-off, flailing flitter back to his chest and hugging her tight with all the strength he could muster, L'nu had his face screwed up into a tight knot as he took the beating from her wings. And beat him she did, with every weapon at her disposal. Her massive and sturdy wings didn't stop, nor did her tail, and she laid into one of his forearms with her teeth, hissing and screaming through the material as her claws tore into his shirt. Thankfully, it was a sturdy material and he was hanging on tight enough that she couldn't really do much damage to the fabric ... or his chest. "Rose! Stop!!"
Rose eventually stilled, though she was quite mad. Her gaze locked on Dementia, though her teeth were still locked on L'nu's arm, eyes whirling very quickly in red and yellow colors. L'nu winced, but didn't dare even shift how he was hanging onto her, knowing the iron-hug was the only thing stopping her for the moment. She was almost as mad at him as at her, though, he could tell. Because he had stopped her.
"Uhhhh." He said, in an effort to answer the question that had just a moment prior been presented to him. "I ... I found a bunch of stuff. You know how ... um ... critters can collect things? Well ... I was trying to ... uh ... rehome a bunch of it." He offered uncertainly with a small worried grin, hoping that Dmitri would believe that it had been a critter's stash ... and not his own. "Not that I know where it came from, but anywhere's better than nowhere, right?"
Getting caught had so not been part of his plan. Much less getting caught my someone with a gold something tagging along. Half the Weyr had probably heard Rose's screaming fit. Definitely the flitters that she generally tended to order around. This was one time when Rose's huge size really was not a good thing ... she was too strong and too big to really have much chance of physically controlling her for very long. At least for the moment she was too pissed to think of betweening to get away from him and start over.
"Uh ... sorry about that. Rose ... erm... doesn't like other golds. At all." He apologized, with another small grin. The insult probably hadn't helped any, but L'nu was pretty sure Rose would have reacted the same way anyway, even if Dementia hadn't offered such a nasty greeting.
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Requiem
Weyrleader S'rei WM M?ta Rider A'nd Harper/Handler Dmitri Weyrbrat Miguel
Posts: 2,861
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Post by Requiem on Apr 23, 2011 15:16:56 GMT -5
Dementia was devilishly amused. Even preening. Stupid Ugly. Did she really think she could successfully attack the true Queen when her HarperLove was there? (Or at all, really. Uglies just were not nearly smart enough to pull anything like that off.) Dmitri's hand had risen in an automatic protective gesture, falling back to his side when it became clear that L'nu - sort of - had Rose under control. It revealed a Dementia casually grooming her wings.
The slim harper looked down at L'nu with mild skepticism. Nervous sort, wasn't he? You'd think he was guilty of something, acting like that...especially with a large bag of valuables still slung over a shoulder. "That can't be comfortable," he commented flatly, eyes flicking down toward the older teenager's arm where Rose was latched on. L'nu's explanation wasn't making much sense, either.
Assfibberer, Dementia commented, picking carefully between the claws of her wing, cleaning it meticulously. Has UglyImbecileShiny bringing shinies, fill bag pregnant no? the gold commented to Hers calmly, as if they were discussing L'nu and Rose when the two weren't there. Maybe tell should bloodypeople come say theirs what isn't. Yessss, good idea HarperLove. Her eyes slitted as she regarded the pair, tail flicking slowly. Pleased with herself.
"I think you're right, Men. We'll have to mention this to the Wastelanders." Technically they were all the same now, like the pretty knots they were all supposed to wear suggested, but most of Selenitas still made a distinction. Wearing the same knots and working on the same wings could only go so far. Either way, the Sentinel was still mostly comprised of purely Selenitas handlers. "Unless of course L'nu decides to be honest about it. Don't have anything of mine in there, do you?" he questioned the bluerider, his voice never rising above a conversational tone.
The apology for the gold was met with little reaction. At least outwardly. (Not that what L'nu had said wasn't supremely obvious, but mentioning it made Dmitri consider the potential problems. He wasn't worried about Dementia. She was far smarter than a silly firelizard. But it was a needless tension.) "Why don't you go and make a mess of Erilena's hair, Dementia? I know how much you love that." His tone was wry. It wasn't an order. Though the gold obeyed him explicitly, or perhaps because of it, he didn't often give her orders. She knew she was being manipulated, too, and her eyes narrowed further...but Dementia did like the idea of making the 'dog' fret. Thus she finished cleaning her forelimb to make it clear it wasn't because he'd told her to, before turning and, with a dismissive flick of her tail at the restrained Rose, glided to the door a couple doors down and disappeared under the door with a parting shot of Asshat.
"Better?"
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Post by dragon on Apr 25, 2011 17:28:57 GMT -5
L'nu sighed, and shrugged. "Life with Rose rarely ever is comfortable." He replied, wiggling his arm a bit and hoping she would let go. Instead it garnered the opposite reaction and she bit down harder. L'nu's expression didn't reflect it though. He was more than used to her laying into him with her teeth. Unfortunately. What concerned him more was the flat expression that regarded him ... and the flat tone. While some might call the tonelessness neutrality, L'nu was quite afraid that it instead hid hostility. Which he could completely understand. After all ... he was carrying around a bag of other people's things!
"Yours?" He asked, haltingly. "How would I know if I had anything of yours in here? I don't know who you are, and I certainly don't know where all this came from." He explained. "You're welcome to take a look of course. And if you see anything you recognize as belonging to someone else, that'd be great too. So I know where to put it. I am trusting, of course, that you're not just going to randomly claim anything valuable. That, I'd have to report of course. Just to be safe. I hope you understand." L'nu answered. If this absurdly tall person was going to glower down at him and talk of talking to the higher ups and muckety mucks, he could play that game too. So long as he stuck to the story of it being Rose's fault, he was pretty sure he would be safe. Who could prove otherwise anyway? Just that the guy called them wastelanders told L'nu that he wasn't one of them ... or totally agreed with them being here. But that wasn't a point he was going to raise.
He didn't even bother to try and counter that quip about being honest. He already knew anything he said about it was going to dig him a deeper hole, no matter what. Rose hissed at Dementia's retreating form. Ah hah! Stupid worm knew it was outmatched and was fleeing! Ha ha! She triumphed yet again!! She wriggled and writhed in L'nu's arms, trying to get free again. She did let go of his arm finally, licking her lips to clean them of the metallic taste of his blood. Rose screeched one last time at the other gold's retreating tail. Mutant worm!
Sensing that she was no longer going to be on a homicidal spree, L'nu let her go and allowed her to clamber back up onto his shoulder. "Better? Not really. Yes, I guess. In that the irritation to her sensibilities was removed. But not in the sense that ... well ... frankly, she thinks she can win them all. I don't know how to break her of that notion that she's queen of the world, rather than just of her own nest." L'nu shrugged. "I never was very good with critters." He admitted. Now that his arms were free, he slipped the strap of the bag up over his head and off his shoulder, extending his arm out so that Dmitri could take a perusal if he wanted to. "Be my guest."
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Requiem
Weyrleader S'rei WM M?ta Rider A'nd Harper/Handler Dmitri Weyrbrat Miguel
Posts: 2,861
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Post by Requiem on May 1, 2011 20:38:36 GMT -5
Dmitri's bland expression remained unchanging. Clearly, sarcasm was lost on L'nu. Which he supposed wasn't particularly surprising considering the bluerider had been suspiciously sneaking around with a gigantic bag of stolen property on his back in the middle of the day. It wasn't exactly an accurate representation of intelligence level, but it was undoubtedly an indicator.
A brow lifted as said bluerider proceeded to inform him that sending away the gold salamandyr who was causing the conflict between the two golds was not a good thing because the gold firelizard needed to be brought down a peg. You know, right after he'd apologized for Rose's upset, struggling to keep her still while she ate his arm. Literally. Yeah, well, Dmitri didn't think that death matches with various critters was going to solve the flit's temprament problems. Just saying.
Then the handler blinked. "What? No." He pushed the bag back into L'nu's chest. Not hard, mind you, just making it clear he wasn't interested in sifting through the massive pile of stolen items. "If you've taken anything of mine, it's obviously nothing I'd miss, because I haven't noticed. I was teasing you." A fact that seemed to be completely lost on the older teenager.
After a few seconds, he added, "No offense or anything, but pets aren't just...you know the way they hatched. It has a lot to do with how you handle them, too. And I don't think Rose is going to be disabused of any such notions short of something killing her, which I doubt you want. So maybe you should control her. I mean, she's a flit. Surely you're smarter than something with a brain the size of a walnut."
Dmitri wasn't sure what to do about this maybe thief in the middle of the hall. He wasn't terribly interested in the whole randomly redistribute stolen objects to the wrong people gambit. "Why don't you just, I don't know, put it all on a table in the Main Hall and have people claim their stuff? It's not doing anyone any good you just throwing it into random rooms."
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Post by dragon on May 5, 2011 21:46:58 GMT -5
He was .... teasing him. Okay. Um. L'nu shrugged. "Sorry. I uh ... didn't catch that." he grinned sheepishly. "I'm sorry... I'm just ... kinda nervous. Walking around carrying a bag of stolen goods, you know. Kinda does that to a body. I don't want anyone thinking ... well ... you know. That I ... uh ... did it." Which was the truth, no matter who it was that actually took it. He really didn't want anyone thinking that he'd done it!
"I know ... at least ... I think I do?" L'nu admitted. "Obviously I am not the greatest at teaching a flitter things. Especially not one that bites me every time she gets irked." L'nu glanced sideways at Rose, and then wrinkled his nose. "It's easier to just ... try to keep her happy. Sortof. I don't suppose you know how to train a flitter do you? I mean ... one as bite-happy as her?" She was no small flitter either. She was strong enough and big enough to do real damage should she take a mind to. Thankfully, she didn't seem terribly prone to actually causing lasting damage upon his person.
Sure, her brain was the size of a walnut. But walnuts could be pretty big! And ... and ... and ... well... he'd never really been much good at anything beyond potting. He seemed to suck and fail at everything else. Even being a rider. So he wasn't terribly offended by the comparison of his brain to hers. Rose was scary, that was all he needed to know!
"The main hall?" L'nu asked. It would certainly be faster, but there was always that lingering worry. "You don't think they would assume I took it all, do you? I mean ... well ... I don't want people thinking I'm a thief ..." a very real worry. He had no idea what the punishment for stealing in a Weyr was, and frankly he didn't want to find out either. Much less the hard way. "Also how would you keep people from claiming the shiny bits that aren't actually theirs?" He really did want to get it all back where it belonged ... nevermind he was almost guaranteed to getting it in the wrong place as it was. But at least there was no problem of people being condemned by temptation. This way, everyone was at least innocent. Right? Everyone but him ... but there wasn't much he could do about that.
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Requiem
Weyrleader S'rei WM M?ta Rider A'nd Harper/Handler Dmitri Weyrbrat Miguel
Posts: 2,861
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Post by Requiem on May 7, 2011 11:02:33 GMT -5
"How am I supposed to know?" the harper returned dismissively. "You're the one who knows what motivates her best. Just hold it hostage to her good behavior. I'm sure even flits can comprehend that they get rewarded when they're good and respond accordingly." Really, did L'nu expect a complete stranger to both solve all his problems and do everything for him? Dmitri had enough things on his plate nightly without babysitting a man presumably older and more mature than him. (If maturity actually directly correlated to age as seemed to be the popular belief on the subject.)
The bluehandler merely regarded L'nu with a sort of blankness of expression. All this worry that people would think him a thief. Pets stole all the time. It was a fact of life at the Weyr. If you wanted to keep anything valuable you'd best lock it up with creatures like these. Their nesting instincts had gone all haywire or something when they started Impressing to people.
"How would you keep people from keeping the 'shiny bits' you deposit in their weyr that aren't theirs? I don't see how it's one bit different except there's actually a better chance of people finding what they're missing this way." Really. Common sense was an issue. Dmitri strongly suspected it was a general fault in dragonriders. Who would want to Impress the savage beasts that had terrorized the north, in the middle of a war where the average dragon's lifespan was less than five turns? Might as well volunteer yourself for the noose now and get it overwith.
At any rate, the man was beginning to tire of this conversation. L'nu was interesting in the way that insects you hadn't seen before were curious, or the thin cracks lining the wall seemed to form a pattern but never quite did. A pastime for a curious and idling mind. The bluerider was not intellectually stimulating, however, and Dmitri strongly suspected that the longer he remained in conversation with the older teenager, the more likely he'd be unwillingly roped into helping the kid with this massive project involving the return of stolen goods. Not exactly his idea of a well-spent evening. He only had so many candlemarks until Dmisk would insist on ranging for the rest of the night.
Apparently there were still a couple curiosities eating at him, though. (Or maybe it was just the fact that he knew once Erilena was up he'd be stuck with her until she went to work, for better or worse. The greenrider did nothing without him. She cleaned in the weyr when he left while she was awake, which made him feel guilty. Irrationally.)
After another moment of studying L'nu's face, Dmitri broke into a smile that wasn't entirely friendly. "Couldn't help but notice that you keep on saying you don't want people to think you're a thief. Are you, L'nu?" There actually was no basis for the question, given that pets were terrible thieves and it was a completely plausible story. Maybe he was just interested in getting a rise out of the bluerider. (And if by chance L'nu was the thief, he'd probably see some sign of it in the teenager's reaction. Fun.)
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Post by dragon on May 11, 2011 22:31:43 GMT -5
Motivates. Hmmm. Honestly, L'nu had no idea what motivated Rose. She was needy but independent at the same time. She preferred him to do things for her, but she didn't need him to. Not doing them usually got him bit, and then she'd find some other way of getting what she wanted. L'nu knew that smaller colors sometimes wandered off and were never seen again by their owners. While at times this sounded like a darn fine idea when it came to her, he really truthfully didn't want her to leave. She was Rose ... she was his. Or he was hers, one way or the other. L'nu didn't want to find out if Gold flitters might do the same thing. Leave and never come back. Especially since she had figured out at a very young age that she could order almost all other flitters around to do her bidding. That sort of thing went to a creature's head.
But he got the notion that telling any of that to this fellow was going to be a collosal waste of time and effort. There were no good ideas coming out of him anyway. Maybe he only knew about mandyrs and didn't know squat about flitters. Thus trying to cover it up by being insulting and demeaning. Some people were like that, L'nu had long ago discovered. He'd also long ago learned to not trust everyone. Too many were in the habit of doing dastardly things just for the heck of it.
Which posed him a major problem in Dmitri. He didn't trust him as far as he could throw him. Who was to say that Dmitri wouldn't go and tell people he'd stolen these things? Whether he'd actually seen him pick anything up or not? L'nu didn't have any assurances that Dmitri was even half as helpful as he seemed to be pretending to be. Which also made him doubly edgy about just taking the stuff to the main hall or wherever. It just didn't sound like a good idea.
"After all that has happened lately, you really think I'd be able to just turn up with this stuff and escape all accusations?" L'nu asked skeptically. The local Selenites had been bad enough about back biting. But the new people that had pulled a coup and taken over were even worse. With them, people wound up dead for things a lot more trivial. "I'm not looking to take any chances on winding up dead." Or missing one or both hands.
As for that question, it was one he'd actually been expecting. He answered it in the most natural way he could think of. And he'd had a lot of time to think of it. After all, getting caught was the foremost fear for most of his life, even if the answer did morph over time. "Given the situation, if you were in my shoes you'd worry about the same thing I'm sure."
"Of course I'm not. But that is a lose-lose question and you know it. No matter what I tell you, you'll have some reason or other to believe whatever the shards you want to believe about me. Now won't you?" It really was an unfair question, one of those unfair questions posed to anyone about a whole variety of things. There just really was no good answer, right being beside the point. Condemned if you do, condemned if you don't. L'nu was just slightly lucky enough in that he did have a slight out. He did have a pet, and her talons were almost as sticky as his fingers... if not moreso. He hadn't stolen all the items in the bag, and even the ones he had ... he hadn't done it intentionally!
Here's hoping someone didn't start a petition to slaughter all thieving pets. Then his cover would be gone ... as well as Rose. He didn't want to lose Rose. All thoughts of stealing aside.
Sharded if he did, sharded if he didn't.
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Requiem
Weyrleader S'rei WM M?ta Rider A'nd Harper/Handler Dmitri Weyrbrat Miguel
Posts: 2,861
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Post by Requiem on May 15, 2011 14:03:15 GMT -5
Okay. Dmitri knew it wasn't exactly polite to stare at someone like they'd completely lost their marbles, but, well...he couldn't really help it. There was paranoid (take Lena's friend M'ta for example) and then there was flat-out stupid. "...Dead," he echoed. "Right. That's what that new overturned earth by the river is. A mass grave of nameless nobodies who weren't as smart as all the people you and I know and looked at the Wastelanders funny. Because there are so many people around here who just go missing for inconsequentials while others start fights and protests and go ignored."
The look of muted disbelief at how...ridiculous...this bluerider was did not go away as the older teenager continued to speak. Really. "Yup. Can't tell a thing from how defensive a person's answer is. And, for the record, no, I wouldn't worry about the same thing in your shoes. Because I'm not mentally retarded." He reached over and took L'nu by the ear, just as if he was the weyrbrat the dragonrider was acting like. (Nevermind the man could probably sit on him and squish him, or snap his ribs with a decent punch. Dmitri was used to dealing with people more powerful than him. That was like...most of the male population.)
"This weyr has lots and lots of salamandyrs and firelizards. They steal all the time," Dmitri explained, in the simplest terms he could think of. "If you are not a thief then there is nothing to hide. So you just give things back face-to-face and try to get it where it came from. If you are a thief a smart one knows that sneaking around with a big bag of goodies looks more like thieving than playing the role of bringer of gifts. So, logically, the only smart thing to do is to stop acting like you have something to hide. If they kill you I promise to make a loud sound of disapproval so they know how naughty they're being."
Dmitri continued dragging L'nu by the ear toward the Main Hall. Really, if L'nu was worried about being killed, sneaking unannounced into the weyrs of northern riders was probably the last thing he wanted to do. Mentally retarded indeed.
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Post by dragon on May 21, 2011 19:19:24 GMT -5
L'nu gave Dmitri a very strange look as he stared back at him. Had he locked up or something? Was he going to be okay? And then he started in talking about a mass grave down by the river. That was a new one on L'nu. As far as he knew, people were only threatened with death, and then they merely disappeared. Or so he heard. But there was an actual mass grave?! L'nu blanched visibly at the news, never realizing that Dmitri was being sarcastic fit to strangle a fish. His mouth worked silently for a moment as his heart hit his toes.
Being called mentally retarded snapped him out of it for a moment, and he shot Dmitri a hard look. "I'm not retarded!" He protested right before Dmitri reached out for his ear. L'nu was not the most trusting lad to begin with and flinched away from the motion. But when Dmitri actually grabbed his ear and started trying to haul him around for it, L'nu lost all sense of reason.
He'd been scared too badly too many times by too many bad people (or at least people who had successfully managed to bluff their way into making him think they were bad people), in fear for his life far too many times to take what was happening now with a nice face.
First the bag of odds and ends hit the floor, spilling across it in a wild array of items ... some were shiny, some were not. Certainly most were not valuable at all. Just random small items, most of which were small enough to be moved by a flitter or stuffed in a pocket and not be seen. But it was not a calculated move on L'nu's part - he'd merely let go. He exploded into action, defending what he saw as his person and possibly his life ... and lastly but not least, possibly even Paglieth's life.
Too many attacks during his impressionable childhood led to him reacting more than thinking. The only difference was he wasn't a gangly all elbows-and-knees kid anymore. He was almost grown, with the physique of a dragonrider. His defensive blows landed a big harder than they were intended to, even though they weren't exactly aimed either. Mostly they were aimed at center of mass, intending only to shunt Dmitri off balance and extract his ear from the wherhandler's grasp. Freed in a sudden burst of movement thus, L'nu lost his own balance, tripped over the things on the floor, and went crashing down on his back.
But he didn't stay there. Rolling sideways, he was back on his feet in a jiffy, backing away from Dmitri with a really distrustful expression on his face. "Stay away from me." He warned, though in his mind it wasn't a warning. He still didn't quite understand that he wasn't a little guy anymore. He had completely missed Dmitri's little lecture in the face of the panic attack that had resulted in him over here and Dmitri over there.
But he had no intentions whatsoever of being another random body in another random mass grave on the banks of the river. No way was that happening while he could still ... still ... do something about it. Something. Anything. He was completely prepared to bolt down the hallway now, should Dmitri make any sort of lunge at him.
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Requiem
Weyrleader S'rei WM M?ta Rider A'nd Harper/Handler Dmitri Weyrbrat Miguel
Posts: 2,861
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Post by Requiem on May 21, 2011 20:02:58 GMT -5
Now, Dmitri wasn't completely out to lunch. He had been aware that L'nu may not react altogether favorably to his ear being grabbed. The other part of that, though, was that the bluerider hadn't reacted immediately so the handler had taken that as a sign that there wouldn't be a physical reaction. Mistake. He hadn't included in his calculations the time it would take for L'nu's synapses to fire and produce an appropriate (or, rather, an inappropriate) response to being treated like a wayward weyrbrat.
The sound of everything falling to the ground alerted him somewhat. But, really, in the time it took for the objects to strike the ground L'nu had already begun his 'counterattack'. Calling it a counterattack was perhaps not entirely accurate since he hadn't been attacked to begin with, but you know. Trivial details aside. The point remains that Dmitri became aware of things striking the floor at about the same time that he became aware of blows striking him, so the warning wasn't terribly helpful.
The first couple caught him in the side, the wherhandler's grip on the dragonrider's ear released the moment he'd had a chance to react (though it would've happened anyway considering the force of desperation L'nu had behind those punches and general flailings). The harper turned toward his attacker and stumbled backward at the same time against the force of the blows, catching another in the stomach before he could either get his arms in position to properly defend himself or move out of range. Considering how much power L'nu actually had on him, Dmitri was fortunate that the kid ended up tripping on the baubles and didn't come up aggressive.
Now the women (namely Erilena and Elysia) who'd been in close association with Dmitri might have marveled at how solid he'd become, but that was all comparative. L'nu had quite efficiently overwhelmed him and probably could have done a good deal of damage, catching the harper so flat-footed, if he'd wanted to. As it was, the bluerider was able to say whatever he damn well pleased (which turned out to be not much at all) because the younger of the two was still trying to catch his breath after all the air had been emptied from his lungs forcefully. He was leaning back against the opposite wall, half-curled around his pain as his arms hugged his sides and stomach. Dmitri glared at L'nu's words, even if he didn't have a response for them presently.
A rib had been bruised, cracked or broken. Maybe more than one. He couldn't be sure given how diffuse the pain was at the moment, but each captured breath made it exceedingly clear that the brief outburst had done more than enough damage despite its brevity. He finally managed a breathy hiss. "What the fuck is wrong with you? Did you think I was going to tear your ear off? Or are you so dense as to believe that was foreplay? I have no interest in your ass, retard." Yeeeeah most people didn't insult people who'd just demonstrated their ability to beat them up, but then, Dmitri wasn't most people.
That's what you got for trying to help someone.
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Post by dragon on May 21, 2011 22:28:16 GMT -5
L'nu was more than shocked. He certainly hadn't expected that to happen. He'd actually managed to successfully fend off the wherhandler? He certainly hadn't expected to do enough damage to leave Dmitri in his current state ... unless he was faking it. Right now L'nu was not in a trusting mood at all. He edged another step away.
Tear his ear off? No. Ears didn't come off that easy, despite all appearances to the contrary. And ... what? What? Really? L'nu just blinked owlishly at Dmitri. "What?" he asked. Did he seriously just say that? "No. Neither. I ... I ... I am glad you don't." He finished, lamely.
Freaky.
"Don't ... just don't ... touch me." L'nu said, uncertainly. "I ... I didn't mean to hurt you. But," well, how to explain really? "People have tried to kill me before."
It was probably entirely too late to worry about such things now, but L'nu couldn't help but ask. He really wasn't a violent person by nature, though frightening him with the idea he was going to die was a quick way to tip him over that edge. "Are you okay?"
Rose was for once perplexed enough to not have had a hand in the whole thing, instead having fluttered to the floor in surprise. Which had rendered her silent for the most part ... a stark contrast compared to all the other times L'nu had got himself in a pickle.
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Requiem
Weyrleader S'rei WM M?ta Rider A'nd Harper/Handler Dmitri Weyrbrat Miguel
Posts: 2,861
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Post by Requiem on May 22, 2011 13:07:18 GMT -5
Neither. Dmitri fixed him with a frankly unamused look. Well, if he wasn't worried that he'd die by ear-pulling or the handler was going to pull him into some dark corner somewhere and have at him, what was the kid's problem? Yes. Kid. L'nu was acting like a child half his age (perhaps a little older, but Dmitri wasn't feeling in a particularly generous mood). The shrinking back from him and nervous stammering wasn't helping that impression any. You'd think a kid would act a bit less like a frightened deer toward the person he'd just beat up.
Dmitri snorted openly at that comment. Oh, had people tried to kill L'nu before? Really? Such an isolated incident, that. The snort had tugged on his ribs painfully, however, and the handler didn't voice the thought aloud as a result. His breath was sufficiently back, however, upon the question as to his well-being. The harper had to roll his eyes at that. Really?
"Oh, yes. Just peachy. I often spend my days as a punching bag. You should try it sometime. Possibly with a bear." Wincing slightly, he straightened to give himself more room to breathe, fingers probing gingerly at his side. Already swelling. Beauuutiful. It occurred to him that he might actually need to get someone to look at it. Potentially broken ribs weren't something to play around with, being sharp and near vital organs and whatnot. Well. No doubt Erilena already knew through a none-too-happy Dementia.
"I still say you're completely mental," Dmitri commented, almost conversationally. (He was fairly certain that if he remained here long enough his weyrmate would be out to fuss over him. Not exactly ideal in that he doubted it would be comfortable to have someone prodding at his ribs, but since he had to see someone anyway...no need wasting pointless energy seeking them out when one would come to him.)
"If everyone who had someone try to kill them at one point freaked out needlessly like that, you'd be wading up to your knees in blood. We'd have to employ ferrymen to get from one place to another so we didn't ruin our boots. Not to mention the smell. Not exactly an environment conducive to your health." He gestured broadly at the side of his face permanently scarred from the burning. It wasn't quite as persuasive as his arm, which had been literally half-melted and was disfigured almost beyond use, but Dmitri didn't make it a habit of imposing that monstrosity on the general populace. "Did you think I'm just a pyro who got a little carried away? Reality check. Almost everyone here has had someone try to kill them at least once. Pull yourself together and stop being such a pussy. Before you kill someone. Then you may have to worry about the Wastelanders finding a nice unmarked grave for you."
His nose wrinkled. "Just in case you missed the obvious, there is no mass grave. The only person I know of who has died here under even slightly suspicious circumstances is that sadistic bastard Z'ves, and he was one of them." A glance was spared to the crap now littering the floor. The start of all this mess. "I hope you don't take offense when I say you're on your own with that," the handler concluded dryly. Just thinking of bending over to gather that stuff made him internally wince.
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Post by dragon on May 24, 2011 18:19:57 GMT -5
Wow. Dmitri talked a lot when he was purportedly in pain. L'nu didn't want to think about how much stuff would gush out his mouth if he was really gravely injured. He just stood there and listened to him more or less rant. And rant. And ... rant some more? Gosh, he must have found the 'make Dem talk alot' button somewhere. And mashed it really really really hard. It must be stuck. Or something.
L'nu shifted his feet on the floor, really at a loss for what to do. There wasn't much he could do. When his gaze strayed to the mess on the floor, he sighed a little and stooped to start gathering it back up again, sweeping things back into the bag. Whether or not they agreed on methods, they did agree on one thing. L'nu needed to get rid of all this stuff.
The sooner the better. But he did feel somewhat better once it was all hidden away inside the confines of the bag again. Out of sight. Not quite out of mind. "Everyone is entitled to their opinions I guess." L'nu offered placidly. Really, it wasn't the first time someone had told him that they thought he was touched in the head. His own family had thought that, back before he'd been brought to the Weyr. Everyone here seemed to agree, everyone but Paglieth. And well ... Paglieth was special, himself. Given to lies, not that L'nu was about to admit that freely.
Which really meant that there really was no telling whether or not his own dragon agreed with that sentiment. It really was an interesting pickle to be in. "Do you want me to go find someone to help you?" L'nu offered, entirely unwilling to get close to Dmitri again. Not only because he didn't trust the wherhandler, but also because apparently the guy was easily breaky.
It must really suck to be so fragile as that. Didn't he ever eat right, or do anything taxing?
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