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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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 Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 9:10 am
"Thanks," Tofir said sarcastically, making a face. "You know, people are supposed to trust me. I'm a healer. A mindhealer."
Shiv glanced over at Song and cheeped. Wasn't she ever going to make her human sit down? Shiv had to crane his neck to look at everyone at once because they were all on different levels, and he didn't want to. He was tired. His Tofir had been awake nearly all night with papers and hides and Shiv had been a good 'lizard and stayed awake with him. Mostly. He might have nodded off a little, but that wasn't the point. The point was that Song should make her Yulu person sit down. As an incentive, he suggested that he might even decide to sit on whatever cot they chose to sit on, if Yulu didn't touch him.
Tofir could only nod in response to Yulu's assessment of the eggs. What he knew about dragonhealing was what they covered in the basic course at the Hall, so that should a non-dragonhealer need to doctor a dragon they wouldn't be completely lost. He remembered everything he'd read for the course, naturally, but that didn't mean he could actually tell from examining an egg if it was doing all right.
"Um. With the colors those eggs are, could you really tell if they were discolored?" Tofir asked. "They looked pretty colorful to me. Especially some of the mottled ones."
Another thought occurred to him, on the subject of malformed eggs this time, "Are you sure they're not misshapen? I mean, those two that were on their sides when the rest of the clutch had all been stood upright...It's not like eggs can move, so if they were put in that position, they ought to have stayed that way."
Tofir was actually a little surprised that Yulu had admitted she'd felt anything with any of the eggs. Oh, he'd seen that some of them effected her and taken note of it, but hearing her admit to it was something else. In truth, he'd felt a little guilty taking notes on her reactions, but he'd been paying closer attention to her both because he considered her a friend and also because he thought her reactions might be different, and somehow telling. He wouldn't mention that to her, though. It wasn't something that ever needed said, really. She would only be embarrassed or angry. Or both.
"What did you feel with the eggs that swayed you?" he asked instead. He couldn't help himself. And suddenly his hands itched for note-taking materials.
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 8:23 am
"Discolored eggs, even with shells that bright, the spots are pretty obvious. It's like looking at a shiny plate and noticing that a patch of it is dull and tarnished while the rest of the plate is shiny enough to see your reflection in. this of it as saying the one egg that was almost a rich purple and very dark, having a spot other than those three patterned once, a spot that was a very light purple and very large. Such a spot could be a sign of trouble for the dragonet, though I don't think we'd have to worry. And as for them being misshapen it looks as though the Queen frets over them more than enough to keep them all well turned and properly warmed. A misshapen egg looks more like an oval at times, or it's just very undersized. The Queen usually pays more attention to those eggs anyway, or so I've been told."
Yulu could probably continue on and on about dragon eggs based on the information that her father had told her again and again, his goal for her to become a Dragonhealer like himself. When she told him that she'd gone into trauma instead, the act of treating people with massive wounds, he hadn't spoken to her for several months. Not really a difference in how he normally treated her, but for Yulu it was like a figurative slap in the face. She finally decided to sit down when Song made mention to her that Blue Shiver wanted them to sit, Tofir probably not getting up any time soon, and Yulu crossed over to sit on one of the other cots in the room. She had forgotten that Tofir shared a room, her own luck allowing her to be single in hers for the time being.
"But anyway, which eggs? Hm, probably all of them, though like I said some more than others. I rather liked that large red egg, or the one with the stripe. Both of them should prove to be interesting dragons in time, I'd like to see what comes out of it. As for feelings, you'd have to get me something to eat before I'm willing to talk about that with anyone. You should know better by now."
Her tone was teasing.
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:19 am
Tofir listened intently. It wasn't his area of expertise, but the egg lore was interesting anyway. Fortunately, he didn't feel any urge to remember the information, and so he could just listen. It wasn't as though he wouldn't remember it if it wasn't written down, but it wouldn't be perfect total recall. Which was fine. It was just interesting. He nodded along. She could lecture on dragons all she wanted. It wasn't the plague.
He continued nodding as Yulu answered his question about the eggs. But as he was nodding, he didn't look at Yulu. He was looking at the sheets on his bed, where one finger was drawing what would actually turn out to be letters if a person looked. Invisible writing didn't really do it for him, but it made him feel like he might remember it. He was also doing everything he could to commit Yulu's words to memory until he could write them down.
"I think there's some food in the trunk at the end of that cot," Tofir remarked. He never kept food like that, but that didn't stop his dorm mates from doing it. It seemed to Tofir an invitation for pests and rot, but he didn't much care as long as they kept their rotten food away from him. To be fair, nothing had yet spoiled, but he was certain it was only a matter of time.
"Help yourself." Also, he had no difficulty offering someone else's food to Yulu. He'd been offered the stash himself, and so he figured it just extended to Yulu. The guy was easy-going, if a slob.
Shiver fluttered to the bed with Song and Yulu on it. The boy who slept here snored. Shiv sometimes wanted to bite him. He told Song as much. He liked Yulu better, and Song much better. He was sure neither of them snored. The snores made it difficult for him to sleep, and a flit needed his sleep! Not that he was tired now. He was just saying...sleep was nice at night, and difficult when people around were snoring. It was rude of them.
"Come on," Tofir wheedled. "Layla's told me what she thought about the eggs and her feelings on them. It's for my research."
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Posted: Thu Feb 11, 2010 11:56 pm
"I'll have to pass on the food, I'm trying to cut back on my snacking between meals. It's not healthy for me to eat os much in the cold season when I can't get out and work it off, though I'm certain if I Impress a dragon I'll need all the energy I can get and eventually will be cursing my lack of snacking. It's never really a winning situation for me."
Yulu looked over at the chirping at her side, noticing that Shiver was getting rather close to song. A wicked grin spread across her face, one of good humor, and she almost laughed at the information Song was passing back about a person snoring and Blue Shiver not liking it so much. Song was pretty sure her person didn't snore, and sometimes her person didn't sleep but would wake up screaming for some reason. That always puzzled her, and Song moved closer to Shiver as if to continue their conversation in private.
"But really if Layla's told you everything she felt and knew about they eggs then why would you want to hear from me? I probably will not and cannot tell you anything more interesting then whatever it is she could come up with, so my opinion isn't worth going over. I would have thought you to know that by now."
She sounded rather sincere, as if merely speaking about whatever she did was a taboo issue. It really wasn't, it was actually Yulu acting stupid and trying to goad Tofir on, and she wondered if he'd take the bait. They'd played this game so many times before, Yulu always refusing to answer straight questions and Tofir always trying to get something out of her by never asking in a roundabout way. Song said she could not understand why her person did like to tease Shiver's Tofir so much, but there was never anything mean about.
Song was pretty sure that her Yulu really, really liked Tofir.
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Feb 12, 2010 1:27 pm
Tofir considered pointing out to Yulu that if she'd let herself get a little less angular, she'd probably have little difficulty attracting a man, but the decided that was just an idiotic remark to make. Yulu was clearly not interested in attracting herself a man, and hearing her say so in whatever cutting form she could come up with wouldn't really improve his day any. So he just shrugged and brought up a related, though different topic.
"I think everyone I know is dieting right now, as if dragons preferred slim people to heavy ones." As far as he knew, most people who Impressed were in decent shape simply because the Weyr made it their business to train them up. The fact that Jasrai, who was not slim by anyone's standards, had Impressed seemed to indicate that bodytype was probably not a universal determining factor.
Shiv shook as he usually did, even after settling down and wrapping his tail around himself, his blue coloration and shivering giving him the look of a firelizard about to perish from cold. When Song came closer he didn't move or back away. It was a compliment he paid very few people. But he sent her approving thoughts about people who didn't snore. His person didn't snore either, but lately his person also didn't sleep, so maybe that had changed and he'd not noticed it.
"And you know full well why I'd want to hear it from you. You might have had different reactions. Or you can confirm Layla's. Either way, my research moves along." He didn't add that he felt she was being selfish, being deliberately difficult when it wasn't as if he was asking her to give up one of her arms or something. That argument, rather like pointing out that she could catch a man if she softened up, would get him nowhere.
"I mean, if I thought you have half a damn about my thoughts I'd share them, but I think we both know you only tolerate me because I get loud when ignored." He grinned. He did have a tendency to become loud when he felt he was being ignored, but he doubted that was the only reason Yulu put up with him.
For his part, Shiv probably understood Yulu's impulse to tease Tofir better than Tofir or Song. He liked to tease Tofir, too, by staying just out of reach when Tofir was trying to handle him, or making noises like he was going to throw up, and then not do it. The most fun way to tease Tofir, though, was to wake him up with a shrill, panicked whistle, though that also woke up the other boys, which was not as much fun at all. They sometimes threw things, and frequently shouted.
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Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 9:19 am
"Fine, I'll spill what I felt before you start whining like a little girl. Sometimes I forget that when you go into Mindhealer mode you're like a hen-pecked foster mother. I guess I'll start with the Orange Stripe egg then. That one there - it was almost like I could understand the disgust it seemed to be feeling. Yes I felt disgust, but more towards the other eggs than perhaps myself, almost like it resented whatever it turned out to be. I could relate to that, thinking on dragons only because of their color and hating that aspect. At the Hall we were taught all dragons are anatomically the same, hides are just pretty meat sacks."
Song turned her head away from where she'd been having her private conversation with him when Yulu mentioned colors, never have heard her person say something like that before. Song was worried that her person wouldn't love her anymore because she was a gold, though she was firmly reassured that such was not the case. Yulu loved Song for Song, nothing more and nothing less.
"There was that blue egg too, Streaked Sky I hear people calling it, the one that was overly hostile. It amused me, but I don't know why. It clearly wanted to be left alone but I couldn't bring myself to stop bothering it."
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 4:41 pm
"Thank you," Tofir said sweetly.
He ignored all the insults that came with Yulu's compliance. They were unimportant. The important part was that he would have more responses to compare after the hatching. The more responses he could get from a multitude of sources, the more thorough his research would be, and thus the more likely it was to be accurate, and maybe useful someday. Or maybe someone else would be able to build on his research, and their work would make a difference. He wanted to be the one who made a difference, but he could be forward-looking enough to accept that he might only lay a foundation.
"Oh, that's a flattering description," Tofir interrupted. He'd learned similar things about humans, but even when his paranoia about contamination had been at its height, he'd never seen human beings as pretty meat sacks. He believed there was more to them than that. Which was probably why he found mindhealing appealed to him. It proved he was correct.
Shiv whistled reassuringly to Song. It didn't matter to the blue what Yulu said about dragons or golds. He wasn't either. But Song was a good gold, and she wasn't a dragon either. She was a good firelizard like him. She didn't even throw up. Definitely good, and of course her human loved her.
"So, basically, you seek out the least pleasant things on the sands. Why am I not surprised?" He grinned. "What about that pink one? Did its color call out to your feminine side?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 11:31 pm
Song was thankful that Shiver thought so much of her, it made her happy that should could feel the same way about him. He was certainly one of her favorites, it not THE favorite flitt she knew, and he was very kind and smart. This wasn't really saying much as Song knew no other flitts save for Hinalle and Rinel, but she wasn't thinking that far ahead. Instead she gave a polite chirp and extended her neck, her head closer to Shiver's.
"That pink one that was laying on the blue? It was entirely too needy for my tastes, with its desire to be the center of attention. I'm the kind of guy who likes to be social when it benefits me, not merely for the sake of getting noticed. There never really is such a thing as 'positive attention', at least not from my experience of it all. MY childhood worked the best when I was left to my own devices, same with my time at the Healer Hall. Whenever I did get attention at those times it was never anything I wanted and usually ended up going downhill."
Just mentioning stuff like that was probably going a bit further into Yulu's past then she wanted, so she quickly switched back on the the task at hand and kept going.
"But anyway like I said - too needy. I felt the same way for the other blue egg, the one in front of the Gold. It's not that I particularly liked the feel of the angry eggs, it's just that many of the others had feelings I couldn't relate to or had no interest in. I've no desire to be overly friendly and having a dragon who demanded much of me would probably drive me into a wall. I'm just thankful that Song is so low-key and not high strung or else I wouldn't know what to do. If I were to Impress I wouldn't mind having to work hard for my dragon's upkeep in terms of health but I'm not playing social games."
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Feb 14, 2010 3:03 pm
Shiv whistled back at Song and held still, more or less. He was, of course, shaking like a leaf, but he wasn't otherwise twitching or fidgeting. He wasn't sure how he felt about being touched, still. There were days when he liked it and days when he didn't. And it also depended on the person. He loved his Tofir, and almost always let him touch him. And he liked Yulu, and would sometimes let her touch him. It was more complicated with Song. She wasn't a person like them, she was a person like him. He decided in the end that he liked her enough to not flinch away, should she decide to touch him, but he wasn't going to initiate contact.
Tofir could only shake his head and grin at Yulu's assessment. She would see the pink egg as needy. Personally, he'd liked it. He'd liked the way it felt, though he could understand Yulu's aversion to it. It wasn't her kind of creature, really. He said nothing about her mention of her past. That was a puzzle he was putting together slowly. He never took notes on it, even in coded shorthand. She had never given him permission to try to take her brain apart, and so if he was going to do it, he would have to be circumspect. He could do that.
"So, no needy eggs for you. Why do you hang out with me, again? Aren't I just as needy and high strung?"
A part of Tofir was amazed that he would say two such similar things so close together. He analyzed it briefly and came to the conclusion that his lack of strong feelings during the touching had spooked him a little, and he wanted reassurance that he was still worth spending time with, even if he wasn't able to connect to a dragon. Wow. That was just pathetic. Maybe he should go get laid or something.
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Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 2:31 pm
Song actually did not decide to touch Shiver, her head still staying close, and she kept a happy feeling in her mind as she looked at him. He was so silly how he shook, it made her want to make him feel warmer, but her person had said that Shiver did not like being touched, and she remembered that enough to not touch him. Song had manners!
"I hang out with you because you're the closet thing to a friend I've got in this whole shardin' Weyer, seeing as you don't look at me like a freak on two legs. I'm sure you'd love to get inside my head one day and figure out what makes me tick, and that irks me occasionally, but for the most part I enjoy our games of wild cat and wherry."
Yulu grinned back, her smile large on her face, and every now and then she would turn her glance from him and back down at the mini-drama going on between their flitts. It was interesting to watch, maybe even a little cute if she dared allow herself that comparison, and she wondered how much longer Song would hold out before she just pounced on the poor nervous Blue. It would be something she didn't want to miss.
"Besides, if you're high strung and needy then what am I? Fiesty and pig-headed, probably."
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Feb 17, 2010 7:40 pm
Shiv's eyes whirled blue and green in spite of his quivering. He was content. His person was happy, he was with other people that he liked, and there were no scary or unpleasant things around. Nothing wet, nothing bit, nothing that moved too fast or seemed like it might eat 'lizards. Oh, and Song was there. And her person and his weren't even play-fighting, which made him happy. He always worried when they play-fought that one of them might get hurt. They were so careless!
A smile that Tofir couldn't and didn't bother to repress spread across his face. That particular admission on Yulu's part was worth more to him than any sneaky interviewing he might get done with her today. Friends. He'd considered her a friend for some time, but he'd always wondered a little if her opinion of him was that she merely tolerated him, and mostly because Song liked Shiv. Which was pretty damn amusing.
"Oh, well, sure I'd love to get into your head. That's what I do." He was making an effort to regain the flow of conversation that had been going until he'd gotten distracted by Yulu calling him a friend. Well. Almost a friend. "But please note that I've mostly resisted the urge."
"Hm? Oh, yes. Definitely. But, hey, feisty and pig-headed tends to end up with dragons more frequently than high-strung and needy from what I've observed." He smirked. "And that was my professional opinion, by the way."
As he spoke he absently cracked each knuckle. Every time he did, the popping sound made Shiv flinch and shake more furiously. He didn't like when his human did that to himself. He was sure it had to hurt.
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Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 7:22 am
"As a Healer you should know better than to crack your knuckles like that, you're going to end up with Arthritis and probably turn whiny. I'd have to leave you at that point and take our relationship with me, as I don't think I could handle a triple threat just yet in terms of dealing with others. It's better to keep it to two and see how things work from there."
Yulu had almost winced as Tofir cracked his knuckles, her own fingers bending in sympathy for the strained digits. She tried to avoid cracking her own knuckles the best she could whenever possible as it caused her more pain than relief, though it turned out to be for the better since her fingers were long and their joints healthy. A Healer who focus on trauma would need her hands more than anything in the world, so despite Yulu's obvious lack of care for almost any other part of her body, she took care of her hands.
"Tell you what though, if somehow I do manage to Impress out on the Sands this time you can come and talk to me, or whatever it is you Mindhealers do. It can only be about my dragon and my feelings about Impression, because the moment it turns into anything else I'll send you out faster than a dragon can go between. Got it?"
There was a playful threatening tone in her voice, the grin on her face very clear that she wasn't actually threatening him. If Tofir wanted to try and slip into her past while talking about her beast he probably could, but he'd have to watch his step - Yulu's mind was like a trap used to catch wild creatures. It was sharp, fast, and could leave a creature hurting.
As for the two flitts still teasing one another, Song had pulled her head back and scooted closer to Shiver, still a distance enough apart that she wasn't actually touching him but he probably could feel the heat radiating from her golden body. When he flinched from Tofir's knuckles she tried her best to reassure him that the sound was okay and maybe her person could make it stop?
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 7:46 am
Tofir glanced down at his hands, as though surprised to learn that he'd been cracking his knuckles. Some habits were harder to shake than others, and - to be perfectly honest - Tofir kind of liked making people wince when he did it. It wasn't as though he needed his hands to be in perfect working order in his old age. He wasn't that kind of healer. If he ever ended up arthritic and unable to write, well...
"Sorry. I promise, I'll only whine to my pretty young assistant, who will coddle me and be half in love with me and half in awe of me. She'll also be the one taking my notes for me." He grinned. That was a very pleasant, if extraordinarily unlikely fantasy. He should develop it further sometime, when Yulu wasn't around. She definitely wouldn't want to hear the sordid, adolescent details.
"Only your dragon and your feelings on Impression. Got it," Tofir agreed. He could be sneaky and subtle as needed, but he really did try to allow Yulu to keep her secrets. He couldn't help it that his natural inclination was to try to figure everything out by taking it apart and then putting it back together. Well, he could help it, actually. That was what made him human and why he had refrained from making any sort of concentrated effort to puzzle Yulu out.
Shiv turned to Song with wide eyes. Could her human make his stop doing that? He hated it. Even if it was just a sound. It made his hide feel like it didn't fit right and he couldn't settle again. It was horrible! He scooched away from Tofir to emphasize his point: he was not happy. He liked Song better right now. To make his point very clear, he twitched his tail very deliberately so that it touched one of Song's claws and looked up at Tofir. See what I did there?
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Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 8:10 am
Song almost made a chirp of surprise when Shiver's tail touched her, but she kept it in rather well since she was slowly learning her companion's nature. Loud sounds made him unhappy, mostly the sudden ones she decided, so it would be good to be quiet around him! Her person Yulu liked when things were quiet anyway, the pair spending a lot of time in silence, so such an idea wasn't hard for Song to understand and try to carry out. Song also wanted to touch Shiver back for his kindness, but she didn't because she also knew he didn't like to be touched. Silly Shiver, you make it hard for Song to show she is happy!
"You, getting an assistant? I suppose then that I should consider the offer you made to me when we first met now void in favor of a nice set of breasts, hmm? I didn't know you thought like that, but don't worry - I'm not hurt of it. As a Rider I'd probably have less time to help you out anyway, were I to Impress. The same goes for you if you get a dragon this time around, you'll have to give all of that up."
Yulu was grinning again, the stupid grin she always seemed to wear each time the conversation between her and Tofir drew a little blood. She was smiling over the challenge this was becoming, and wondered if perhaps she may one day go to far in her barbs and be the one chased out instead of doing the chasing. She doubted it, since Yulu knew her own limits very well.
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2010 8:27 am
Shiv's defiance didn't last very long in its current incarnation because Tofir wasn't even looking. He was paying attention to the Yulu person. He was missing the point, even after Song chirped. Frustrating human. The cause for his initial irritation forgotten, pushed out of the way by this new irritation, Shiv whistled piercingly and waited for everyone to pay attention to him. Once he had everyone's attention he deliberately stood up and walked around Song once, debating within himself whether it was worth it, and finally decided it was. Then he lay down again with his chin resting on her. That'd show them. If he could keep from twitching too much.
Tofir would have replied immediately to Yulu's remark when Shiv's temper tantrum interrupted his thoughts and forced him to watch with some astonishment and amusement as his firelizard tried to punish him. He wasn't sure what Yulu would make of it, since she wasn't the one Shiv was sending So There thoughts, but for his part he was amused. It was a shame his firelizard's attempts were falling so flat, since they were amusing, but Tofir wasn't really sure there was anything he could do at this point anyway. He couldn't uncrack his knuckles.
"Oh, you can be my other assistant," Tofir said airily once he'd recovered from his surprise and amusement. "The one who's actually useful. The other one, with the breasts, can be the one who fetches my slippers and makes my klah and follows me around adoringly, thus giving you some free time. Doesn't that sound nice?"
He didn't mention that he remembered fairly well that she, too, had a nice set of breasts. That would not go over well at all. She would probably throw something at him. Or hit him. Which would be such a typically feminine reaction to that kind of statement that Tof wouldn't be able to help laughing at her, and then he'd only earn himself more abuse. Yes. Better not to say anything on the subject.
"I know," he said, suddenly serious. "I'm not sure I'm ready to do that. Give up my work, I mean. Not that I really have a choice in the matter. But I have more to do. Besides, I'll age out of candidacy after this clutch, so it really doesn't matter."
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