The Past and Future

Half Moon Bay Weyr - Living Cavern
Here is the center of Weyr life, the living caverns. These two main rooms were man-shaped from smaller caves, and are joined by a carved arch with depictions of dragons in flight and dolphins leaping in swirling waves. One room has many round stone and wooden tables and a stone fire-pit instead of a hearth. Over the round-walled, gas fired pit is a large conical hood made of polished bronze, with reliefs of dragons with their riders flying over ships guided by dolphins. This hood and chimney keeps the room smoke-free. Through the archway is an enormous hall, with long tables and benches, some carved from the rock floor, many crafted of wood. This room is a combination dining and meeting hall, and can seat over 300 comfortably. Above both rooms, angled shafts lined with polished metal bring in sunlight during the day. Electric lights also burn, day and night.


For once, it's not the buttcrack of dawn, which usually would have meant a wide awake if not somewhat quiet and solitary Jaelyn tucked off in a corner growling at anyone who got too close. Since he'd become J'en, some of that had changed. He wasn't sitting off in the darkest smallest corner possible, and he was barely awake. While it was dinner time, and he had an enormous pile of roast wherry and roasted tubers smothered in a thick rich gravy plated before him, Jae had set his chin onto the palm of his hand and was precariously leaning to one side. Little by little, he was leaning more and more towards his doom, or rather the risk of falling out of the chair and onto the floor. No one was sitting anywhere near him presently, or paying any attention to the weyrling, and so the inevitable was bound to occur.

For once, it's not the morning, which usually would have meant a wide awake if not somewhat quiet and solitary Jaelyn tucked off in a corner growling at anyone who got too close. Since he'd become J'en, some of that had changed. He wasn't sitting off in the darkest smallest corner possible, and he was barely awake. While it was dinner time, and he had an enormous pile of roast wherry and roasted tubers smothered in a thick rich gravy plated before him, Jae had set his chin onto the palm of his hand and was precariously leaning to one side. Little by little, he was leaning more and more towards his doom, or rather the risk of falling out of the chair and onto the floor. No one was sitting anywhere near him presently, or paying any attention to the weyrling, and so the inevitable was bound to occur.

/Ila'den/ certainly isn't nobody, and when the bronzerider steps foot in the living caverns with alert grey eyes sweeping the bodies occupying the communal space, his attention focuses on J'en. There's recognition there, albeit vague, but amusement at the weyrling's increasingly precarious position tugs at the corners of his lips. Ila'den, MALEVOLENT CREATURE THAT HE IS, closes the distance between himself and the future bronzerider, reaching out one calloused hand to steady him. "Alright?" he inquires, and there's no missing the half-stifled laugh that curls around his words and gives a husky lilt to his burr. "It gets better, I promise," he assures then, as if this was a situation in need of assurance. Still, the man is only /half/ giving his attention to J'en, evident in the way his eyes are no longer on the weyrling, but searching everywhere else.

Thankfully where one tired weyrling is, others are never far. V'nyk is only just trudging in, but at least he's alert. At least enough for the acquisition of food onto a plate. He might be eating more than normal lately, but baby dragons run them ragged. He has a hand free enough to grab a drink, making a line then toward J'en. He's able to spot that guy no matter the circumstance, it seems. But Ila is there to save him from tumbling, and the teenage throws a grateful look at the bronzerider even as he plops right down next to Jae. Bodily support for the precarious leaner. "Of course it'll get better! You look like hell though, Jae. Not in an /awful/ way, but I probably don't look much better." Food is then stuffed into his mouth, forgoing manners in an effort to get food in his stomach. "You're that weird bronzerider, aren't you?" This to Ila, as he peers up at him from his seat. "If you'll forgive me saying so, /you/ don't look so great either. Like you're about to get bit by a spider you lost track of. Those are the worst kind…"

And all at once J'en is awake! After all someone was touching him and he nearly jumps out of his skin in an obvious gesture of gratitude from being saved a konk on the head and being spread out on a dirty floor. Golden eyes fly open and instantly narrow and he moves away from the sensation of a rough and calloused hand on his bare skin, as it takes him several long seconds to connect face to a name and only then does he relax, but only slightly. The tension remains all along his shoulders as he eyes Ila'den with all the warmth of a High Reaches deep winter storm, before his gaze slides in to V'nyk when the greenling makes himself at home. There is a long sigh and he rubs vigorously at his own face, "Pfft, ya get any hotter and ya'll set the weyr on fire." he mutters to younger boy, attention soon shifting back to the bronzerider, "Yer the dude that kept scaring the piss outta Pritkin." Just an observation, there was no judgement there as he reaches out and takes up his glass of water that was still cold from the looks of the condensation on the container, but sported no more ice cubes. There is a light tsk sound, before he takes a sip anyway and then sets it back down, "Ila'den, right?"

Ila'den is silent when V'nyk slips in, adding onto his earlier statement and offering physical support for J'en. Those eerily observant grey hues are suddenly back on the duo as they exchange words, which turn into compliments, which turn into questions and observations about /himself/. Ila'den's lips are already curling at the corners, despite the raise of one eyebrow. "Yes," he drawls, amused. "I /am/ that weird bronzerider." Which has Ila'den suddenly leaning forward, hands on the table, with a Cheshire grin on his face as he levels his head with V'nyk's. "Boo." It's breathed, words husky (though not erring on the side of seduction), and complemented by muted laughter. That's when grey eyes switch their focal point to J'en, and the bronzerider's straightening with an absolutely lazy roll of his shoulders. "I am /also/ that… 'dude'." The word is said as if Ila'den hasn't quite heard it before, with no lack of humor, and then another soft huff of laughter. "Ila'den, Ila, Kil, Kilarden - whatever works." He'll even take 'crazy', and 'scary', and all the other mean whispers that're going through the weyr about him. Isn't he the one that just put the newcomer Journeyman in the infirmary? YES! Yes he is. Zero remorse. "And you are…" A pause, as grey eyes shift from one candidate to the other. "V'nyk and J'en." He points to each respectively, before giving them a genuine: "Congratulations." Though one last look is spare for V'nyk, despite the fact that he chooses not to comment at all on the teenager's observation of his state. Maybe there /is/ a spider that got away. Who knows?

V'nyk looks positively startled for a moment when talk of hotness happens, giving a curious look at J'en with an ever-growing grin. "Well I'll try real hard not to do that, then. I like living here." After a gentle nudge to the shoulder next to his, he starts up with the eating again. One never quite knew when a young dragon would start to stir and require their presence. There's at least more of a variety than what's on J'en's plate. The placement of Ila'den's name gets a nod at least though. That sounds familiar. "Yeah, D'nyl yelled it and stuff." A leaning in? A /boo/? The greenling just grins all the more at that, nodding. "Yep, that's you alright! And that's us. Only that's J'en and I'm V'nyk. You know..just to make sure." Sure that nobody's calling HIM Jenny. "Oh hey, thanks though!"

Calling HIM, Jenny, might end up with another Journeyman in the Infirmary. In fact, the bronzeling winces both times that name is used, working the bridge of his nose with finger and thumb, while looking as if he was suddenly far more tired to continue living altogether. "Just call me Jae…" J'en mutters, sighing very heavily, "…fuckin' dragon…" Then he drops the hand away from his face, lashes lowering some as he regards the much older bronzerider, chin lifting a few degrees before he takes up his water and helps himself to another cooling sip. Then another, and another. Once the beverage was half gone, he sets the glass back down upon the table. "Who ya lookin' for?" he asks, perhaps having noted that Ila'den had been preoccupied with scanning the living cavern even as he rescued the prince in distress from the leaning tower of weyrling. Golden eyes flick to V'nyk, a brow arching upwards before he chuckles briefly and shakes his head. "Yeah, ya do that."

LOOK AT THE LOOK HE IS GIVING V'NYK. It is amused, but in a manner that might not be /entirely/ friendly. "I know," he offers then, because he /did/ just point to each of them respectively. "But thank you." And the edge of his words is curbed by more of that husky laughter, which ends when Jae inputs his dislike for his name with colorful expressions - both physical and verbal. Ila'den doesn't amend himself to concede with J'en's preferred name, but he does clear his throat when the future 'rider asks who he's looking for. "Not sure," he offers around a smile that doesn't quite reach his eyes. He doesn't elaborate, he doesn't get scary, he doesn't do /anything/ except for flicker his gaze across the faces in a sea of faces once again. "Are you enjoying it?" he asks then, suddenly conversational as he looks between the two. It would seem that, despite a lack of manners, Ila'den hasn't shrugged off /all/ of his old Weyrleader habits. "Weyrlinghood, I mean, and being complete."

There is a chance that V'nyk just has no concept of being 'unfriendly'. That look he's given? It doesn't at all seem to bother or deter him. There's just an ongoing, pleasant grin plastered to his face. Between bites of food, anyway. J'en's reaction to the name does get a slight wince though, and an apologetic look tossed his way. "Sorry, sorry.. Only because he did, you know. You're still Jae to me and all." There's a quick bit of a pat on the shoulder for the other weyrling, and a slight tilt of his head, before moving a roll from his plate onto Jae's. Food apology! The actual talk of looking for someone though has the greenling's attention, brows lifting slowly before taking a look around. A slightly suspicious look, even. But eventually his gaze slides back to Ila'den again, nodding. "Oh yeah. Tiring and everything, but I'd rather have all of that and Lychenth than not."

Another brow is raised for the looks being exchanged between Ila'den and V'nyk, Jae opening his mouth as if to comment and then he seems to decide against commenting. Ryk was a big boy, he could handle himself, and it was looking as if he was doing just fine without getting in the middle of all that nonsense. Stifling a yawn with the back of his hand, he starts to dig into hi food which was probably cold but he doesn't appear to care with the way he starts wolfing it down. Hungry weyrling is hungry. He just shrugs at the greenling for the apology, though he does snag that bun when it arrives on his plate and uses it to dab at the gravy that lingers on his plate after he's cleared it. Because he has, already, cleaned it up in record time. Really, he's lucky that he didn't choke on it and die right then and there. "Oh ya, shovelin' shit is mah favorite, so is wakin' up at the asscrack of dawn, and salutin' a dude with a stuffed tunnelsnake clipped to his shoulder. Time of mah life." he replies, very flat, and very dryly. Sarcasm, at its best. "Wouldn't trade Leketh for anythin', but the rest of the bullshit is fuckin' insane." A pause, "Kinda like yer ass…" He drops his chin into the palm of his hand again, but he flashes the bronzerider a grin that spreads from ear to ear, teeth and everything as he chuckles at poor Ila'den's expense. "Ya aren't sure who're ya lookin' for? Ya gunna elaborate on that, or….?"

"Good," Ila'den says, pleasantly enough in response to V'nyk's whole weyrling experience. There are FOOD EXCHANGES, and looks, and /oh my/ hungry weyrlings inhaling plates of food. It's all terribly familiar, but not at all interesting to the bronzerider lingering unnecessarily long by V'nyk and J'en's Little Table of Solitary. For his much /more/ colorful rendition of weyrling day-to-day, J'en earns more of that easy-going-enough laughter from Ila, though the rider doesn't comment. At least - not until the comment about his /ass/ being insane. Grey eyes snap from inattention to attention, studying the face of the former candidate who flipped him off one forever ago in the candidate barracks. And then? Ila'den's offering a playful, "Weyrling, my ass isn't allowed to be on your mind yet." The smile he gets is returned: all Cheshire Cat, all deliberate mischievousness, no hint of animosity even if he /does/ really suspect that Jae was insulting his mental well-being. But a shrug is offered up, along with a cheerful, "Nope." And then just like that, Ila'den is moving away from the two to pursue /Faranth knows what/. No goodbye, no pleasantries, just Poof! Like that! BYEFELICIAS.

V'nyk laughs as well, although it's more for Jae's grumpy description of all they've been doing. He doesn't comment on it, probably because he's /right/, but still. Having a dragon does beat out all the hard work part of it. There's a quick look between his fellow weyrling and Ila'den at the talk of ass insaneness, brows lifting just a tad before he goes back to eating. There's a pause though, and a belated call of goodbye since his mouth is /full/ when the bronzerider makes his escape, before finally leaning on an arm and looking at J'en. "I feel like that was..weird. Was that weird?"

Jae, just keeps on smiling his pretty pretty smile until Ila'den vamooses and then and only then does he let the expression fade, "Fuck that was annoyin'." he says, rubbing at his cheeks with his fingers in a circular motion until he can work the perhaps sore mostly unused muscles. "Eh?" There is a blink and then he jerks a thumb the way that the bronzerider had vanished, "That dude is cracked, man. I'd say like, on the fuckin' precarious edge of runnin' naked into a renegade raidin' party tryin' to use his dick as a sword…CRACKED." Shaking his head, he flops back in his chair and interlaces his fingers behind his neck, "So, yeah. He's weird." This said, he looks down at his empty plate, and sighs. "I think I ate too fast." DUH! "Anyway, Lychenth all tucked in for the night?" Yep, as far as he was concerned, the conversation about the wacko was over and there were much more interesting things to discuss, like whether or not V'nyk's dragon was sleeping safely in the barracks. RUDE! Ila'den had been nothing but polite and appropriate, for the most part and there hadn't been even a second of the craziness of that night in the candidate's barracks.

V'nyk looks after Ila'den a moment longer, but shakes his head. "Oh he's not /that/ bad. I mean..not like I couldn't see him doing that, but..well now that I've thought about it..let's just not talk about it ever again." Because that image will now stay in his head..forever. Thanks. He pushes around the last bit of food on his plate though, apparently willing to slow down for it. "Spend all that time making sure /they/ eat slow, and here we go stuffing our faces, huh? Heh. Yeah, she's asleep..you know, now. She's going longer stretches without waking up at least, so that gets easier." There's a yawn then, one hand quickly covering his mouth before turning his eyes onto Jae, smiling. "Not that I'm terribly far behind. Tired /and/ full. Leketh's sleeping okay?"

"Only thin' keepin' that dude together is his dragon." J'en says, reaching over and grabbing a fingerroot stick off the greenling's plate and beleive it or not, taking a bite and chewing it thoughtfully. Yes, he just at a vegetable, but his face clearly says he's not enjoying it. "Ugh." he might say, but he finishes it least and even swallows, following it up with the rest of the water from his glass to wash away the flavor. "I do not get how ya can eat that crap, or why Leketh says I have to." Scrapping idly at his own tounge with the slight nail of one fingertip, he makes a few more sounds of displeasure before finally just letting it fgo. The dramaqueen. "Fine with me, dude is old enough to be mah father and he thinks I'm interested in his ancient saggy ass. I'm a fuckin' weyrling and mah dragon is two months old. Fuckin' insane if he thinks I'm lookin'." Okay so maybe he DID check the bronzerider out, but some habits die hard. Can't be faulted for that, can he? "Pfft. Right? Hypocrites, the lot of us." He laughs softly at that, finishing it off with a sigh. "I'm with ya there. Yeah, he's out. I was just tryin' to eat somethin' before he decides he wants to follow Xermiltoth out into the fuckin' weyrling field in the middle of the fuckin' night again." This is growled, and he scrubs at his face again, nice and hard to try and keep himself awake. "Seriously gunna kick Heryn's muscled ass."

V'nyk just smiles a bit. Yes, it's a faint one, not /too/ bright or beaming. It's there though, and it's a fairly constant thing, after all. "Yeah, well. Everybody's gotta leave his and all other asses alone in the meantime." No ass for anyone! There's a bit of watching for the eating of said vegetable though, smile only growing before heaving a tired sigh. "As far as I'm concerned, once I go down, Lychenth can take a little walk on her own if she's interested. Or just get one of you guys' dragons to carry her. She's talked about that, you know. Just climbing right aboard and being ferried around." Well..she likely could. She's much smaller. There's another yawn then, and a shake of his head. "But I want to get at least a couple of hours in before someone starts making noise in the barracks.. You comin'?"

J'en ranting when he was annoyed, wasn't anything new, neither was V'nyk weathering it like a champ. "I know. I KNOW. Dun remind me, I dun want to think about anyone's ass…I just…can't…" he growls and shoves himself to his feet, collecting the dirty dishes and making sure they make it back into the bin for the kitchen to wash. "I can't leave Leketh alone for a fuckin' second if he's awake, he's way too independent. He'd wander off and probably get lost. The moron." He might of just insulted his dragon, but there was no hiding that smile on his face or the chuckle that follows. "Come on beautiful, let's get ya to bed." he offers, when the greenling yawns, which is quickly followed by a deep belly laugh. "Really? I'll let Leketh know, he's got a serious boy-crush on her and would probably do anything she wanted him to." He waits for V'nyk to fall in beside him before walking him back to the weyrling barracks.

There it is again. That slightly bewildered stare for what just came out of J'en's mouth. V'nyk definitely pauses to just /look/ at the other weyrling for a moment, then shakes it off once again with a laugh. "I don't even think she really would understand what that means." He scoots away from the table then however, moving to follow Jae. "Best not to dwell on it all, huh?" Thinking too much about things leads to thinking /more/ about them. And..frustration. Loads of frustration.

If J'en noticed all the times that V'nyk has stared at him every time he's laughed, he's never commented on it, and wasn't about to start right this second. He just shrugs his shoulders and let's his face sport this crooked little grin as they head back. "He doesn't even understand what it means, and I ain't about to have THAT talk." he shudders and just puts that line of thought aside for now, because ew. Explanations. "Yeah no, not gunna dwell. From feast to famine and it fuckin' SUCKS." Frustrations? He's already THERE, and probably has been there for quite some time. Two whole months of NOTHING, and there was so much longer to go before there would be SOMETHING. There is another long, suffering groan from the bronzeling, but it was more comical than worthy of sympathy.


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