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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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 Posted: Thu Feb 18, 2010 6:27 pm
Waiting nearly a full day to talk to Yulu - Y'ul now, Tofir reminded himself - was more of a challenge than the mindhealer would have liked to admit. He wanted so much to talk to her about her Impression and Erath, and - perhaps selfishly - about his own plans for the future. He would be going back to Healer Hall, and he could hardly wait. As soon as he'd finished conducting what interviews he could with the newly-Impressed, he'd be done. For the time being, anyway.
And Shiv wasn't helping. The blue firelizard wanted to see Song again. Lately he'd been extremely anxious to be in the presence of Y'ul's gold firelizard, which Tofir just chalked up to the fact that the firelizards were fond of each other. However, Shiv's nerves finally reached the point, shortly after glows were turned, when Tofir had to give in to his skittish firelizard and make his way to the recently-vacated-and-then-filled weyrling barracks.
"Fine, you little monster," Tofir muttered, tossing his note-taking supplies aside and standing up. Shiv whistled happily and darted ahead, using his ability to find Song to figure out where they were going, even though he had never been to the weyrling barracks before.
Tofir followed at a more sedate pace. When he reached the barracks he stopped. There would probably be others there now. Well. It wasn't as though they hadn't seen him before. Just the same, he knocked and called in before following Shiv inside.
"Y'ul? Shiv thinks Song is here, so I'm assuming you are, too. Can we talk?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 5:08 pm
It was Song who greeted Tofir the moment he entered the bunk that now belonged to Y'ul, her friendly chirp from where she stood on the floor an indication that Y'ul was most likely in, the woman never leaving the Gold behind save for those rare times she was out on the sands. Song was welcoming Shiver's person Tofir! And Blue Shiver too, Song was very happy to see him! She had missed him!
Shortly after Song's chirp came the rumble of a dragon on its ledge, Green Erath raising her head in mock greeting as well to the one who just entered her space. In reality she had been enjoying the silence that Y'ul had been allowing in her bunk, a chance for her to take a nap in between being woken up to get oiled and fussed over, and now she was slightly ruffled that a bunch of noisy flitts had interrupted her little period of happiness. It took too much effort to say anything to the pair to make them be silent, her mind telling her instead to just shut them out. It was working quite well until Y'ul spoke up.
If you want them to be quiet, say so. I'm not doing it for you and it's no waste of energy to say anything. You honestly can't be that lazy.
I'll sleep through the noise.
Y'ul audible sigh followed whatever conversation they were having, giving away her position near the back of her bunk. She was sorting through something, or rather several things, the floor covered in what looked like papers and small trinkets. Whatever she wanted she was having a hard time locating, and she ran her fingers through her hair as she exhaled and turned to look over at Tofir.
"Hey, come on it. You're here for the interview, right?"
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 8:50 pm
"Hey, Song," Tofir greeted the gold. His greeting was less effusive than his blue firelizard's, but he was pleased to see her. He liked her, and enjoyed watching her interact with Shiv. Sometimes he wondered if maybe he should give up his current project and delve into the world of firelizard mentalities. They seemed even more convoluted than human ones, based on the miniature dramas he'd watched between Song and Shiv.
When he stepped inside he peered around with interest, wondering if he could possibly guess who belonged to which bunk. Probably everyone hadn't moved in yet. The hatching hadn't been that long ago. But they'd have to do it before they went to sleep that night, so that their dragons would have a place to sleep. Unless they were all right with sleeping on the floor or sharing a bed. Somehow he doubted that would turn out too well for anyone.
As he gaze landed on Erath Tofir inclined his head politely and wondered how in the world that green had come to choose the person she had. Not that he begrudged Y'ul her dragon. He just...didn't understand the dragon's choice. Not when Y'ul had wanted any other dragon, practically. Oh well. Not much to be done about it. Her life was permanently changed.
"Um, yeah. That, too."
He wanted to mention that she'd left the feast in a hurry. Practically fled, really, and he'd like to know what that was about, but he would bide his time. For now, he may as well conduct his interview. Even though he had nothing to take notes with or on. Oh well. His brain could use the exercise. He depended too much on notes anyway. Or so he tried to tell himself. He hated being caught unprepared like this.
Shiv saw his human looking for him and whistled breezily that he was fine. He would avoid the large green for now and just stay with Song. He wanted to ask her about the green. Did she like her? Was Yulu still going to keep Song? Did Song think the green would like him? Was he expected to do anything different around dragons? Lots of things. He conveyed them quickly to the gold in his usual manner, darting around as he did, though generally staying near Song and away from Erath.
"Is this a good time? I thought you might be busy earlier. Moving. Probably should have offered to help, but I was busy securing interviews with your fellow weyrlings. Sorry." He was off. His cadence was off in his speech, and his tone wasn't much better. He really needed to pull himself together.
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:30 pm
If Y'ul had been looking for something she most certainly had found it by the time she got to her feet, though she quickly tucked it in her back pocket as she turned and made her way over to Erath's side. She placed a hand on the Green's head, not as a loving gesture but more the kind a guy would do to a younger friend, and she grinned at the dragon as though the pair had shared a joke. Nothing was actually said between them, it was more or less Y'ul just feeling like being touchy. For now.
"Yeah, now's a good a time as any. I'm sure you're a lot busier than I am with your move and all coming up, the whole shift for me from barracks to barracks not that big a deal. I don't have much to my name anyway and thankfully I was given a wide berth in terms of having people in the bunks next to me."
She motioned to the several empty beds around her, noting her nearest neighbor was at least three over and that rider had been warned with his life over her things. Y'ul was pretty polite when needs be, but you sure as Faranth didn't touch her things. It got personal then.
"Anyway, let's get started. I don't want to keep you too long and Erath is actually awake. I should probably get to oiling her while we talk, if you don't mind."
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 9:53 pm
Tofir blinked and watched Y'ul go over to her dragon, thinking that he would have to get used to the sight of her with a dragon, and then remembering that he wouldn't, actually. That was a strange thought. He pushed it aside to deal with later. He was a little surprised to see that she had papers and whatnot spread out and just left them there to go to her dragon, but it wasn't as though she had any real cause to clean up. He wasn't going to snoop, and there was no one else around to make a mess of them.
"I'm not actually that busy. I just had to schedule some interviews. I'm not actually doing any of the others until tomorrow." He could feel that he was still off. Even though his mouth was making the right words, they still felt odd, which was a good indicator that he was bothered by something. He hated when that happened, because it never seemed to happen at a convenient time, when he could sit there and dissect it, breaking it down until it was nothing at all.
Shiv looked over at him, briefly ignoring Song, and whistled sharply for him to get his act together. Tofir was being confusing and Shiv knew that in their relationship the human was not supposed to be the confusing one. Tofir shot the blue a wry look and a thought along the lines of, "No kidding," though he doubted Shiv would understand exactly what he meant by that. He might get the general idea, though. Some days Shiv seemed more perceptive and intelligent than others.
"I'm glad you got some space. One of the things I'm looking forward to at the Hall is having a room to myself again - or mostly to myself, depending on how spiteful the masters are feeling. Either way, I doubt I'll be sharing it with three other guys." There. That was better. Some of his usual rhythm was coming back, and he had even managed to slip in a casual reference to his departure to see how Y'ul would react. Much more like himself.
"But, yeah. Go ahead. Oil away. Since she's awake, I guess I can start with her part?" Back to the odd cadence. So it was Erath that was putting him off. Unfortunate, then, that he'd not have time to get used to her, but also unnecessary for him to bother. By the time he came back, she'd be mostly or fully grown anyway, and have no memories of him.
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 10:11 pm
Song was walking kind oddly on the floor despite being so cheerful only a day before, though her tone of chirps towards Shiver stayed relatively the same as she clamored over towards Y'ul's foot. She was trying to send the message to her Blue friend that Y'ul still loved her a lot, that the Green wasn't a replacement for her, and that the Green liked Song too...or at least wasn't interested enough in her to try and be mean. The Green thing slept a lot and didn't care when her person Yulu stayed with Song. Hopefully that was enough to put him somewhat at ease, and Y'ul lifted the Gold into her arms with a gentle hold.
"Song, stay on my bed. I'll deal with you later, so just...ugh."
The command was simple as Y'ul shook her head, and the dragon equivalent of laughter rumbled from the fading back to sleep Erath. Her eyes were almost closed when the snapped back open, Y'ul probably yelling in her head to wake up and knock it off, the Green opening her mouth in a yawn before she slid off her spot and in front of her Rider. It was so amusing to just have simple, silent conversations, and Y'ul wondered if all Riders felt this powerful at first. Probably.
"Anyway, you can have a seat on the bed if you'd like. Sheets are clean if you're worried over that, as I didn't sleep here last night. I didn't sleep much of anywhere last night."
The woman had managed to get a jar of oil from somewhere and was already rubbing it onto her dragon's hide, her stained red fingers looking so odd and somewhat matching to the green that was Erath's skin. She looked over to Tofir and gave him an impatient look, as if to say 'hurry up, let's go'.
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Sat Feb 20, 2010 10:56 pm
Shiv supposed he would have to be reassured. But he wasn't going near the green. No way. No how. No.
Tofir waited for Y'ul to finish dealing with her various companions and wondered briefly how people managed to deal with a dragon and multiple firelizards. They must develop a great deal of mental discipline. Thinking about the relatively few people he knew with dragons and multiple firelizards he decided that must be the case. At least, they seemed to have more responsive firelizards. Maybe that was something he should look into with regards to his research. Maybe having firelizards...trained the mind for dragons?
"I wasn't worried about it," Tofir said truthfully. And he hadn't been until she mentioned it. Now that she had, he decided to sit on one of the empty bunks next to her bed instead.
"You should sleep. I'm fairly certain that no amount of sleep on your dragon's part is going to make up for a lack of it on yours. I don't think that's how the bond works. Otherwise keeping dragons fed would be as simple as feeding their riders." He'd had to do enough work in the store rooms and keeping records of tithes to know that was far from being the case.
"You," he said, speaking to Erath, "should make sure she takes care of herself. And, if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to hear about the hatching as you remember it, or earlier, if you can remember that far back. I don't particularly care whether you speak directly to me or through Y'ul."
Muttering to himself he added, "It's not like I'll be able to get it down verbatim anyway."
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Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 9:19 am
"Erath sleeps more than enough for both of us, her actions almost making us late to the Weyrling lesson this morning. There won't be a repeat of that, I can assure you."
She was mostly talking to Erath, but also in regards to Tofir as well. Erath simply yawned again and was about to lay her head back down when Y'ul started prompting her about answering the question. She didn't have to talk directly to Tofir, she was reminded, but she did need to answer. It was the right thing to do even if Y'ul herself didn't like being poked at, mostly because it was for the records and for Tofir being Y'ul's. . . friend.
You thought on that word funny.
Shut up and answer.
Fine. I was among the middle ground to hatch, though I suppose you could say it wasn't a full hatching since I did not want to come out from my shell right away. It was warm and safe in there and it was too much effort to get out of the shell as it were, but that Akerth wouldn't let me stay inside. I could tell he was moving around, being so impatient as usual.
The dragon paused to let Y'ul repeat it, her Rider going quite well to almost get her exact tone down as well. They would make a good pair, she smirked.
Akerth shattered me out and forced me to move early to find Y'ul, and I was able to get to her without any help. He just seems to think that he needs to watch over me so often, I'd like to show him a thing or-
"That's enough. I think he gets the idea that you're not fond of Akerth, so you don't need to keep telling me so I can tell him. We all saw it happen too you know."
Y'ul had been repeating up until that point, but her dragon's constant nitpick over the actions of the brown were annoying. She finished off what she was saying and looked to Tofir for the next question, her hands still oiling itchy hide.
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 12:54 pm
"What an impression you must be making on J'ev," he said, forcing himself to relax. Which didn't work very well at all, naturally.
Shiv whistled at him sharply once more. Be normal! I'm trying! Tofir protested, glancing at his firelizard eloquently. Shiv was not sympathetic. Tofir felt this might be another taste of the blue's idea of comeuppance and made a mental note to be more effusive in his consolations and reassurances to the blue firelizard.
Tofir listened to Y'ul's interpretation of Erath's narration intently, unsure whether he ought to be watching the dragon or his friend for a better idea of how the dragon felt. He guessed the inflection Y'ul was putting into it was Erath's, but he wasn't quite positive.
"It's fine, actually," Tofir said. "I don't mind hearing about it. Particularly since she's not actually mentioned why she chose you."
It occurred to him that he might be able to get more out of Akerth than he would from Y'ul. Unless Y'ul edited it. Which he wouldn't put past her. Sometimes he wished he did have the draconic ability to look into people's minds. Puzzles were fun, and he loved them, but not when people deliberately hid or stole the pieces. That irritated him. But Erath might not be as suspicious.
"So, how about it, Erath? What was it about Y'ul that made her right for you? The way she smiles and then looks at you like she'll deck you if you say anything? 'Cause that's pretty much my favorite thing about her." He grinned, waiting for something from the mess Y'ul had been dealing with to be thrown at him.
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Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 1:48 pm
Before Y'ul could even respond to yell at Tofir her dragon was already doing it, Erath's eyes a warning red for a flicker of a moment.
Y'ul is a woman with the heart of a man, and the brain of a woman. No one else would be right for me, she is the only one who could be both a man and a woman. Anyone else would not work, they are not worth it. You would not have been able to do it.
Erath looked straight at Tofir and let her words flood his mind quickly, though once she had finished speaking she sent something entirely different to Y'ul, which the girl repeated. It was something like 'Because she's strong' or whatever else may have sounded good to the dragon, and Y'ul shrugged her shoulders with a slight frown. That didn't sound right to her and she'd probably ask Erath what she meant later, though for now the issue wasn't pressed. She hadn't seen the red eyes, her head having been lowered to look at spots between Erath's wings.
There, that itches.
She had found the spot and she rubbed it pretty hard, allowing the dragon to release a croon of pleasure as being treated nicely. Y'ul herself seemed to be smiling, though when she remembered Tofir's presence her face smacked back into its default frown. No cheer here.
"Alright, next question. And hey Shiver? Why don't you go stay next to Song, she's been wanting your company."
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Feb 23, 2010 2:43 pm
Tofir's eyebrows shot upward as he caught a flicker of red in Erath's eyes so quick that he almost thought he'd imagined it. They stayed there for the duration of her miniature tirade. At least that answered his question. Very thoroughly. He wasn't about to try to respond to her mentally, so he just ducked his head meekly.
"She is," he agreed mildly as his eyebrows returned to their proper place. "Remarkably so, sometimes."
As he spoke he looked past Y'ul, obviously directing his reply to Erath. He wondered if Y'ul would take him to task for speaking about her as though she wasn't there. That didn't particularly worry him. He actually continued to grin as he saw Y'ul perform the action he'd just described to her dragon. He'd been telling Erath the truth. It really was his favorite thing about Y'ul, the way she chose to be prickly, but sometimes let down her guard enough to be happy.
After running one hand through his close-cropped hair, Tofir leaned back on his hands and caught Shiv's eye. With a quick but pointed glance at Song, he seconded Y'ul's suggestion. Shiv flicked his tail dismissively toward his human, who was clearly behind his help, and did as the Yulu person suggested. He liked Song. He'd made his human come here so that he could see her.
He began to detail the last day's activities beginning after the last time he saw her. His human had begun to do very strange things. He was taking apart their sleeping area and moving everything around, and he was talking to lots of people with small dragons and arranging to talk to them more. He kept focusing on three days, whatever that meant, and saying that he'd be leaving soon. Going where? That's what Shiv wanted to know. Where else was there to go but the place they were? Maybe they were leaving like Y'ul had left her place, and moving to a new sleeping place? Did Song like their new place?
"Next question's for you, Y'ul. What do you remember of the hatching? And please, don't spare me any of those dull details you tend to leave out when you think I won't be interested." He raised his eyebrows at her pointedly, but he was still smiling. He'd be fine with whatever she felt like telling him.
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Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 8:44 am
"I remember that I got the one egg that I hadn't wanted out of all of them, mostly because I knew what was coming out of it would be lazy and not want to do much. I wasn't proven wrong, but I was picked by that dragonet. I'm still trying to figure out why, since I'm not inclined to believe whatever she's telling me right now. Erath seems the type to say what she thinks will get what she wants. So far she's gotten a few things out of me, but I'm raising my guard. I won't be fooled twice."
You'll last only as long as your memory does.
Which is longer than yours. By far.
Y'ul snickered in her mind as the Green's realization that it may be true, though Erath wasn't going to go down without a fight. She figured there had to be a way for her to get what she wanted from Y'ul eventually, all it would take would be time and patience. She had both of those to spare since they would be together until it came time to part, but Erath didn't want to think about that - not yet anyway.
"Anyway, I got separated to stand with the guys as you saw, but it's not like I didn't belong there. I would have preferred to be allowed to wear the breeches like they were wearing, but we can't be picky when following tradition. Bah. but let's move on, you were there. I'd rather not talk about that just yet if you were there watching me the whole time, unless I was mistaken that your eyes fell on me quite a bit?"
Song opened her eyes when Shiver started to pepper her with questions, a little yawn escaping her lips as she happily took to being with her favorite friend. She had missed seeing him, she liked when he was there at the hatching where the Green one had come from! But -
They were moving things? Was the person Tofir looking for something? Going? Did that mean Song would not be able to see Shiver again? That thought made the Gold chirp with unhappiness, though she kept trying to get more information from Shiver. Would he stay with Song? She wanted Shiver with her, she had something to say maybe. She wasn't sure, she was just tired today! Their new place was nice, the Green one didn't bother Song much, and her person Yulu didn't cry in her sleep.
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Feb 24, 2010 9:13 am
"Like she says, yours is a strong personality. Unlike the other girl who Impressed, you actually seem like you won't break under Telgar's prejudice," Tofir replied, his gaze shifting briefly to Erath. He would let her explain her choice to Y'ul in her own time, if she ever did. He wouldn't be the one to break it to her.
"I don't think I've congratulated either of you on the Impression, by the way. Please consider yourselves congratulated. I don't really know you well enough, Erath, to assure Y'ul that she got the best dragon in the bunch, but I think I can say with a high degree of certainty that you probably got the best of the candidates." He gave a half smile.
This would probably be the last time he saw Y'ul in many months, and when he returned - assuming he was allowed to Walk quickly - she would be a senior weyrling. They probably wouldn't see each other at all. If he was going to be complimentary, this would probably be his last opportunity. It was a nuisance that the Hall wasn't closer to Telgar. At least he had Shiv, who could deliver messages if asked. Probably. He'd never tried using him that way before.
"Actually, o vain one, I did have other things to look at besides you during the hatching. People getting tossed about by tiny bronzes and mauled by kleptomaniacal blues, for instance. By the way, the woman lived. She'd just fainted." He thought she might like to know that little detail.
Tofir wasn't looking for anything, Shiv replied to Song. At least he didn't think so. He was just putting everything in different places and making it neat and orderly. It was distressing and uncomfortable, like when he made his knuckles make awful sounds. He didn't really understand why he wouldn't be able to see Song if he went somewhere else. He could go between, after all, and get wherever he wanted to go very quickly that way. Of course he would see Song still, but he couldn't leave his Tofir. Tofir needed him.
"This is pointless, you know," Tofir announced without preamble, startling his firelizard with the sudden change in his mood. "I don't even know why I'm bothering to try to interview you. Anything I want to know that might actually help me with my research, you won't tell me. I hope you won't be mortally offended, but I have to pack and get ready and finish sorting out my files from everyone else's in that closet I call an office. I'll leave Shiv here so that Song can play with him, since he was the one who insisted we come by anyway, but I really don't have time for this."
He got up and moved toward the door. Goodbyes sucked.
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Posted: Sat Feb 27, 2010 10:15 pm
Wait, wait, where was he going?! Was Tofir seriously thinking of stomping out on Y'ul in the middle of their conversation?!
Y'ul felt her heart drop into her stomach the moment Tofir rose and started towards the door, and shortly after she was on her own feet and close at his side. Her eyes were wide and her face pale, though her cheeks held a hint of red that indicated she was either flustered or blushing, a hard choice coming from someone who was difficult to read emotionally. Her departure from Erath's side had been unsettling even to the green, who'd been laying and getting rubbed without much complaint, though she kept herself silent while watching how Y'ul would interact to all of this. Erath would be there to help her back up when all of this was over.
"Wait, are you really walking out without saying good-bye to me? Are you really not wanting to talk with me, to play our normal games?"
Y'ul's voice sounded weird, even to her own ears, and she bit her lip as she tried to think of what else she wanted to say. Sure she could spell it all out for Tofir, tell him everything that she felt on the sands, right down to the unhappiness that her two friends were not with her as riders, but that seemed to be forcing her to admit something else as well. Surely Tofir knew and understood that, or so she had thought, but clearly he didn't if he was at her door ready to leave.
She had to stop him somehow, to say anything to get him to stay a little longer and talk to her. It wasn't that she was trying to prevent him from packing, to keep him for as long as possible, but it was more or less for them to have a good conversation together. There was nothing else behind Y'ul's motives. . .right? Right?
"Is this...is this really how we're going to part ways?"
She sounded choked on the last two words, like she was trying to clear her throat, and Y'ul bit down harder on her lip to try and deny what was happening on her face. A single tear had managed to slip itself from her eyes and was trailing down her cheek, staining the skin that was so normally free from any type of feminine emotion. Startled by her own action she raised one of her hands and roughly wiped her face with the palm of her hand, though soon she was doing it for more than just one falling tear. For every one that she wiped away two seemed to come in its place, and soon her shoulders were shaking with the weight of silent crying.
"Do...don't...."
Y'ul couldn't bring herself to say the rest of her sentence, a gentle voice in her head telling her to let it go.
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Princess_Feylin Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2010 8:39 am
Tofir stopped and turned to Y'ul and ran one hand tiredly through his hair. He needed a haircut. He never really let his hair get longer than an inch, and sometimes wondered what would happen if he did. Then he decided it would be a scary thing and he didn't want to find out.
"Y'ul, I would love to talk and screw around, but honestly I have so much to do right now that my brain is buzzing and I don't have time for games." That much was certainly the truth. Organizing schedules with a bunch of weyrlings was like herding firelizards.
His hand found its way over the crown of his head to the back of his neck, which he rubbed as he apologized. "I'm sorry. I'm not really being fair to you, am I? Forget the interview. It wasn't why I came here anyway. Please note the lack of quills, ink, or hide."
And then, just like that, his attempt at levity failed completely when Y'ul started crying. ******** cheating, you know," he remarked not unkindly. "Going all leaky at the eyes. Fighting dirty and all."
And, because he was Tofir and obsessed with cleanliness, he actually did have a handkerchief tucked somewhere, which he produced and offered to Y'ul.
"Come on, cheater. Let's sit down. By the way, I don't want that handkerchief back."
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