That Lesson
Who: Javeri and P'draig with Chadamalith and Jekzith
Where: Secluded beach
When: Afternoon around the end of month 10, turn 18 a few days before Javeri's turnday.
What: P'draig gets to give The Talk to Javeri. It's not really awkward or anything. Almost zero flirting occurs. Chadamalith and Jekzith ponder dragon/fish hybrids after discussing briefly Betweening underwater.
It might be a little bit of an odd destination to practice visualizing on, but it's a beach that Jekzith has given to Chadamalith and requested that the weyrling pair jump to that location. On arrival, they'd find P'draig quite alone on the beach, with two folding chairs already set up, an umbrella overhead and a pitcher of what looks like citrus margarita tucked down into a bowl of melting ice between those two chairs. There's a couple of towels rolled up on each towel and Jekzith? He's out in the deep already. Fishing. Paddy's eyes are shaded, the brownrider looking up at the sky now and then expectantly.
The grumbles about not being able to just fly there were between Javeri and Chadamalith and did not delay them but a short while. They appear overhead not too long after being summoned and the pair glide down to a landing that's far enough away from P'draig to spare him the spray of sand that flies up once the blue's touched the ground. The first thing she does is pull off her helmet and then remove her jacket. Once that's done she slides off the blue and removes his straps before gathering them and her jacket up to carry them to where P'draig and his chairs wait. The arm full of stuff gets dumped as Chadamalith runs into the welcoming waves and sends a silent blue greeting to the brown. "Working?" she asks with a grin.
That greeting is returned with pops of electric blue and green and a splash of neon pink. Excitement. << Hello hello! I am chasing fish. Would you like to come too? >> Paddy just grins as the pair come down for a landing and he bends to pick up glasses, puts one on the arm of each chair and pours the drinks while Javeri is dealing with straps and the like. "Actually, I am," P'draig says with a laugh. "Which is why I brought the drinks. I figure we're going to need them for this lesson." His mouth pulls to the side wryly. "Time to talk flights."
Once in the water Chadamalith makes a leisurely paddle towards where Jekzith is at. << Chasing fish? Do they not just go down? >> His feet stop and he dunks his head underwater before lifting it a moment later to continue. << I think they just go deep. >> But chasing them sounds fun so he's going to give it a go anyway. Dropping down into her chair as she grabs the glass to keep it from falling Javeri lets out a laugh. "Ahh. Is it that hard a talk?" she inquires before taking a sip and then eyeing the glass. "Not that I am complaining about the beverage mind. Maybe you should give these at all lessons." Not the best idea and she winks over at him.
P'draig just grins and settles down in his chair, shifting the rolled towel up behind his neck and stretches his legs out in front of him. "I figure this one might be tough for you and me. I thought about letting Bali do it, but in the end, Chadamalith is a guy dragon so getting the "I ride a male dragon" point of view might be more helpful," Paddy says with a little shrug. "Good excuse to get you alone with a pitcher of drinks too," he offers over with a cheery wink that has nothing lascivious in it at all. "Anyway, what do you know about flights? What've you heard? Anything you want to ask about first, before I launch into the standard run-down?"
"With the help of drinks we can get through anything," Javeri says cheerfully as she takes another drink and stretches her own legs out before frowning at her boots, but not taking them off yet. She turns her head and looks at P'draig with a grin. "Yea, I guess it could be...well, I appreciate the male dragon point of view I suppose." Setting her glass on the arm of her chair and holding on to it she stares forward thoughtfully. "I've heard a dozen horror stories in the last few days," she begins with a faint grin. "I swear I am never going to tease weyrlings so horridly as some of the riders do. I think I'd rather just hear the standard run-down. Because otherwise I'm going purely on conjun-conn-" Biting her lip she stares off more intently before saying, "Conjecture." That's a obviously a Chadamalith word and not one of hers. "Then I can ask questions."
P'draig reaches for his own glass and tilts it up for a nice long swallow. "Ahh, good stuff, and you bet," he says cheerfully, seemingly quite at ease himself. "Heh. Horror stories. Go figure, there's always a few jokers who think it's funny to scare the pants off the weyrlings." Paddy takes a deep breath and lets it out. "Okay then. So, here's how it works. You've probably noticed some of the greens going up around the Weyr the whole time you've been a Weyrling. T'mic, for one, he went proddy not that long ago and was all absent-minded and even over-the-top flirtier than usual. Aath was flirting up a storm too, showing off for Jekzith and any other male that happened to catch her interest and that was ... pretty much all of them. She doesn't really uh ... well she's not that picky," Paddy says with a laugh. "Anyway, what that means for you, is being on the look out, for those kinds of signs. Mic and Aath are really damn obvious. Other greenriders aren't as obvious and you might not see until the green starts glowing. Generally speaking, Chadamalith will either have noticed a long time before, or he'll at least pick up on it by the time there's any glowing going on. Greens also tend to run on a fairly predictable cycle and that's how you can kind of try to stay on top of who's going up when." He pauses to take a drink. "Any questions so far? I'll get into what it feels like, next."
"Yea, jokers. Luckily for them I'm used to sailor humor so I was unbothered by it all," Javeri's grin grows as she picks up her drink once more and then has a long sip as she listens. Her head slides over to rest her cheek on her shoulder as she pays attention while either staring in her glass or out in the water where she can just see Chadamalith chasing after fish. "So, either he'll notice before or not. But if I pay attention to those I know I should be able to pick up on signs they're acting out of character? I think I can do that. At least the ones I know well enough to notice the differences in." Now she takes a longer drink before adding, "Maybe he won't be too interested." Although she already sounds as if this is a pointless wish.
"That's good, most of them don't really mean ill, and it's best to take that kind of thing easily, just let it roll off," P'draig agrees with the way Javeri handled it. "Mmhm, if you're paying attention, most of the greens have some kind of tell and if they don't, their riders do. /Some/ do not though and they just suddenly /go/ before you have time to think. Jekzith's a randy brown and when that happens, I have a really hard time catching him at it fast enough if I really don't want him to chase. In the riders, the actual proddy behavior is all over the place, it's not any one thing, the key is really a /change/ in behavior around the time when you might expect their green or gold to go up, though with Chadamalith being blue, gold you don't have to worry about." Paddy takes a deep breath, lets it out. "It's a /lot/ harder to pin a male down when it's a gold going up," he says making big eyes and has another sip from his glass. "So, what it feels like. If it's relatively early on, you might just get a little backwash of him getting into the green, you know, admiration, flirtation, maybe feeling a little more upbeat, that kind of thing. If the green's about to go up though and he's interested, you might feel it like a prickling under your skin, or flashing too hot and too cold, almost like the start of a fever." Out there in the deep, Jekzith dives deep, pursuing a big fish. << They do go deep, but so can we. And there's so much to see, so much. >>
"But you can stop them right?" Javeri asks in a worried tone as she swishes liquid around in her glass. "I mean even if they want to go up? And what if you don't want them to chase someone in particular? Can you make sure they won't?" Closing her eyes she lets out a sigh before taking a larger drink. "It's just, you know? My mother is here and all. I really would rather not- you know. Eww." Eww indeed. She sticks her tongue out and scrunches her face up at the thought. On a more upbeat note she says, "At least we don't have to worry about golds. I suppose that's something." And then it's back to nerves because she sits upright and turns to stare at Paddy. "Shells, P'draig. If you're giving me this talk does that mean he's going to start? I mean- now? I mean not now, but...now?" Twisting her head she stares off at the ocean where Chadamalith spreads his wings and then pulls them in to dive down as well. << It is an entire world >> he agrees with Jekzith. << An entire other world. Can we go down without diving? >> His blue goes black and cold.
"Sometimes you can and sometimes you can't," P'draig explains straightforwardly. "If there's blooding going on, it's usually best to catch him before he starts blooding, because once they get the taste of blood in their mouths, it's a lot harder to rein them in." Paddy smiles sympathetically for that scenario. "That one, I can pretty much guarantee won't happen, because he ought to be sensitive enough to the fact that you're utterly horrified," Paddy notes and takes another swig from his drink. "I'm careful not to visit the Reaches when my mother's green is about to go up though. Just in case. I mean, bad enough, girl on girl, can you imagine?" he says with a wrinkled nose and clears his throat a couple of times, slugs down more drink, then reaches for the pitcher to top off his glass. "See, that's what the drinks are for," he says with a little laugh. Her start upright though, makes the brownrider's head shake back and forth. "No, no, no, he's still too young. He might start to show an interest when there's one about to go, but he shouldn't hit the skies until he's closer to a turn old or beyond a turn old. Things to watch for though are that 'fever' feeling, or a sense of not being able to keep him out, or him being suddenly really really close, in your thoughts, and even feeling like you're a dragon yourself." Beat. "That's what happens with Jek and me, first it's just this prickly feeling at the back of my neck and then my arms start feeling like wings. By the time he's full on into it, I might as well be up there flying with him and /I/ want that green as much as he does. It can be confusing." Jekzith is pushing on deeper and spools his thoughts back up through cool depths to Chadamalith. << You can sense a little, but it's more interesting to actually /go/. >> He paints strange landscapes in washed out colors, without light.
"Well, good. I don't want him to get into so soon. Because I am really not looking forward to it. Do you get used to it? Because it seems like it would be so...jarring." That's a Javeri word. Short, to the point, few syllables. She empties her glass and slowly sits back down relaxing some now that she knows it's not something to worry about right away. "But it's different for everyone, yes? So I won't know until he goes up what it is like, right? I wish there were a way to know. To be prepared for it, you know? Or it's just going to be like waiting for the hatching when you just want it over and get more and more anxious until you feel like you're going to pop." Shaking her head she grins ruefully and fingers one of her braids. Chadamalith goes deeper, but not as deep as the brown. << But if we can vision what it might be like can we not go right there? If you can picture it how come we can not go right there? How we create it? >>
"A lot of weyrlings feel that way," P'draig says with a little nod, "at first it's really intense, maybe not jarring, but that depends on the person really, you might find it that way, or just rattling. I found it to be completely overwhelming at first and didn't know whether to fight it, roll with it or something else. Jekzith and I are really tightly bonded anyway and it was really easy for me to get completely swept up in flights when I was younger, right out of weyrlinghood. These days I'm a lot more used to it, more able to control my own reactions on the way in. I know what it feels like and how to kind of buffer him until I'm ready to let go and meld with him. The downside is that afterwards, it can be harder for me to disengage and come back down to the ground. I'm a lot better at it than I was even five turns or ten turns ago and definitely more capable than fourteen turns ago when we were fresh out of training. But it's still an intense thing and it really can get under your skin. Which ... brings us to dealing with post-flight feelings." Jekzith pokes at this idea. << Oh you mean, jump to it? I guess you could, but it's a lot more fun to swim. At least, I think so. >>
"Oh, I think my drink is empty." Javeri knows this as well and so she holds her glass out so he can refill it. Better than doing it herself and all. Leaning back with her arm stretched out for the refill she gives her head another slow shake. "We're not that close. We've never been that close. There's never really been a time when we've been so close I didn't know me." Which if it bothers her isn't evident in her words or expression. "Hopefully that doesn't change during a flight. I hope it doesn't. I definitely don't want to be that close with him when he's all...chasing." Again with a head shake as she stares out where Chadamalith is nowhere in sight. << It would be faster to just go I think. >> This as the blue has to stop diving and head for the surface where when he pops up he takes a large breath. << And I would not have to hold my breath so long. >>
Leaning down, P'draig catches up the pitcher and pours out enough of the mixed stuff to fill up Javeri's glass. "Mm. Chances are, it'll keep on that way then, but you never know, you might wind up surprised to find yourselves really close during flights," the brownrider says mildly and sets the pitcher back down again. "In some ways, it can actually be better that way, because then you really share his enjoyment, regardless of whom you wind up with. So then all you have to really deal with is the awkward afterwards," Paddy says with a little wry pull of his mouth to the side. "When he doesn't win though, that can be ... just as intense and in that case, there you are with all these feelings that've been pulled wide open, fierce longing, need, bone-deep. It's like being drunk without drinking, only far, far headier. You've got a couple of choices for dealing with that, go jump in a lake or the ocean and swim it off, get plastered, run it off, or find someone you like and not to put too fine a point on it, screw it off." Jekzith is still poking around for a bit but then he's heading for the surface too. << Faster, sure, but you miss a lot on the way down. And it's not like the air, there can be things that you don't expect and you could come out of Between in the middle of a fish or a rock. >>
Once her glass is full Javeri pulls her arm back and has a drink. "I'd rather keep my lust to myself," she says plainly with a grin. "But I guess I won't know what's happening until it does. Just one more thing to not think about until it happens." There's nothing wrong with putting things off after all. "By the way, can I just you could have held this talk until after my turnday. Your timing needs work, man." But she lifts her glass in a toast and winks before she has a sip. "So it's like meeting a guy and spending all night flirting with him and when you think he's wanting the same thing you are he tells you no? Only, like, a thousand times worse? Great. That sounds like fun. It's either pure frustration or winding up in bed with someone you don't even like? Lovely choices." But she sounds not so upset as just amused by it all. Floating on the surface Chadamalith ruffles his wings sending a couple of small fish fleeing. << But if you do not see a fish there how can a fish be there? And I could not wind up in a fish as no fish is as big as I am. But it could be in me. A fish swimming in my stomach. >>
More drink right down the hatch as Paddy finds the sky very interesting for a moment or two. "Yeah, unfortunately, flights kind of turn that up on its head. Everyone's lust comes out of the woodwork in that guest weyr. Most riders are able to stay ... at least moderately in control, but sometimes the mix is bad and it's been known for fights to break out. Lots of amped up feelings and all that, you know? So, best thing to do about in my opinion, is to try to ride the wave, rather than letting it drown you." P'draig laughs at the remark about his timing. "I've got plans for your turnday, that will hopefully take your mind completely off of anything you really don't want to be thinking about," he says with a wink and puts his glass down, stretches his arms up above his head and then drops hands behind as a pillow, elbows still up in the air but resting against the chair's back. "And yeah about that. Or if you think about the first time you ever really really wanted a guy, try that times ... a lot. That sweeping, hot and cold feeling, except it's ten to a hundred times harder to shake. Ten times if it's a green, a hundred if it's a gold." Paddy's eyes close and he takes a deep breath. "When Jekzith caught Nalaieth that one time ...." he trails off and just smiles slowly. Jekzith listens carefully, ponders this. << Or you could wind up combining with the fish and become this strange Fishmalith thing. >>
"So it's worse than the Sandbar the first night a ship docks? Those nights are always so fun." Javeri rolls her eyes although the sarcasm in her tone didn't require much assistance. So even she has a limit to sailors to be handled. "Noted. Go with it. Not that I'm likely to remember too much good advice from the sounds of it depending on how things go." She tips her head and looks over with a raised brow. "Really? But what will it put my mind on?" And they'd been doing so well until then, but he couldn't have expected her not to speak to that remark. And then she laughs before saying, "And we were doing so well. See? This was not any more uncomfortable than if someone else had been talking to me. At least you're spared tip toeing around me like a virgin. What do you tell them anyway?" For Jekzith's musings there is an image of Chadamalith only with large scales and gills and a long fish tail in place of his. << I prefer Chadafishlith. >> He must share this image with Javeri because back on the beach she splutters and nearly spits out the drink she had just taken.
Chuckling lowly, P'draig nods. "Yeah. There's things I can describe that get close to it, but you won't really know until it happens, just like you didn't really know what Impressing would be like until it happens. In fact, I'd say that being caught up in a flight comes pretty close to /that/ level of connection and intensity." That tease just brings his glass up and P'draig smiles. "Hopefully the meal I've got in mind and how great it tastes," he says quite seriously. That following remark though earns a puffed out breath. "Harder with virgins, definitely. Especially the holdbred. Dealing with Neraset ... well I'm going to leave that to Balinne and T'mic. Most of them, I tell them to find a friend and deal with it before a flight happens. While it's not the worst thing in the world, a flight isn't really the best way to get an introduction into sex, either." Paddy drains his glass again, sets it down empty and puts his hand back behind his head. "At Fort ... I had a list of names. People willing to discreetly help out those in need of that kind of assistance. I think Mic has a list like that for here, though I think I know a few well enough now that I'd feel comfortable making that kind of recommendation." Jekzith's mind pops and fizzes, bubbles in electric colors zinging around. Traded back is one of Jekzith crossed with one of those long snakey-like fish. << And Jekfishth. >> And there goes Paddy's laughter joining on. "Oh shells ..."
"That's no fun at all," Javeri teases with a laugh, but she doesn't press further and lets her turnday go. "Oh, well, that's intense," she admits as she looks out at the ocean with a smile. "I'm real glad it's not like that all the time or I'd never survive. Sometimes just having an extra voice is more than I really want to deal with." Since it's her second drink she just sips at it slowly, but she sips at it slowly with a steady pace. "Oh, wow. A list? That's..." She trails off and laughs. Maybe it's just she still has Chadamalith-fish in her head so laughing is easier. "I don't know why that's funny, but it is funny to me. I think it would be worse to not have...and to be doing it to get it out of the way? Although I guess to be honest the first time is really always just getting it out of the way. Especially if you're a woman. It's not any fun at all." She looks out at sea and shakes her head. "I'm not sure I want to know what they're talking about." Chadamalith's calm blue dissolves into pictures of pieces of fish with different dragon bits attached swimming in the water or flying overhead.
"Don't be so sure," P'draig teases back with a little grin that's just this shy of smug. "I used to be a Baker you know." He nods though about the intensity. "Yeah." And then bends to fish out the pitcher and refill his glass. "Mm. It's not the easiest thing to do. Just ask someone to pop your cherry. But the alternative is leaving it up to the dragon to decide for you. A lot of people have more trouble with that," the brownrider says calmly. "So. I usually give them options." One of his hands lifts to the back of his neck and rubs there and he shrugs. "Depends on the woman, I guess. And her partner." Jekzith plays around with some more fishy combinations and stretches out into a lean-lined float. "Jekzith was concerned that Chadamalith would go Between underwater and wind up coming out into a fish."
"Well, then, I shall be breathless with anticipation for your food," Javeri says back with a bright smile. "It shall keep me awake these next few nights thinking about it." Another drink is taken before she rests the glass on her leg and squints to spy Chadamalith in the blue of the ocean. "I do not envy the person who has to talk to Neraset about it. Will they warn you before hand so you can run and hide before she throws herself at you again? Or will you let her?" It's curiosity that colors her words and teasing as she adds, "I know she's a weyrling and all, but it could be considered work as well. Although I imagine any man who sleeps with her would find it work. Please, please, please let Chadamalith never catch Vaylith. To be honest I'm not sure how I feel about the whole other women thing." Her head shakes and she peers more intently out to sea. "Great. Of course he'd get that idea. I swear he's going to make me pull out my hair over some of this stuff." But for now Chadamalith is content to float. He's not even trying to chase fish and some tiny little ones swim closer to examine the bluer blue in their ocean.
"Well, don't want you to lose /sleep/ over it or anything," P'draig replies laughingly and drops his arms down to his lap, tips his head back. "Haven't made up my mind yet, but I'll probably duck that one," the brownrider replies quietly. "Not because it would be work, but just -- she wants it too badly, you know? It's like she has some idea of what it'll be like and she's bound to be disappointed." He laughs again at that solemn wish. "Mm. I wasn't sure either, though girl-on-girl is theoretically a lot gentler than ... well anyway. Let's just say that the first time Jekzith caught a green it was a green with a male rider and I was /not/ ready and it made me very, very, skittish about it for a very long time." Beat. "Until Mic came along." And there his smile does turn positively salacious and he reaches for his drink to sink a good mouthful. For Jekzith and Chadamalith's shenanigans there's a simple: "Dragons." Because Jekzith is also floating and peering down into the water.
"Gonna lose sleep anyway," Javeri says with a shrug as she has another drink and then looks over before staring at the ocean. "Yea, girls that want it that much are always disappointed. She'll find someone taken in by her looks and I bet it won't be good enough and she never sleeps with them again and moans about how bad it was and tries for you again because surely you can do a better job." She's so cynical about some things, but she doesn't dwell on it because who wants to? "Well, it's still not something I've ever done. But I'm not sure I'm bothered enough to go looking for someone beforehand. Think I'll just deal with it if it happens." Best to procrastinate in some areas. "And yea, well, since there's not the same equipment it stands to reason it would be different." The Mic inspired smile is completely ignored. "Chadamalith is just always so calm except when he's not. When he gets excited he's all over the place and I can't keep up. I bet that doesn't bode well for me in the future. So, umm. Is that the talk? No other horrors to share?"
That fades Paddy's smile and draws his gaze back to Javeri. "Still?" he asks quietly and a faint dent furrows the space between his brows. Her further commentary about Neraset just lift his shoulders a little. "I actually hope she finds someone she likes and can make at least remotely close to what she's expecting," the brownrider says sincerely. "It's too nice of a thing to have it botched." He nods for her next, takes a sip from his glass. "Mm. Your choice. Me ... I wish I'd gone there with a guy before so it wasn't -- well it wasn't how it was." Deep breath in, long exhale. "There's some practicalities. Most flights go like this: green either bloods and goes up or doesn't blood and goes up. The males chase. The green's rider will head into the guest weyr, riders of the chasing dragons follow. At the end, the winning male and the green mate and the riders do to. Losing riders are supposed to leave, right away. Often enough, there's willing potential partners hanging around. Or just someone with a skin of something strong ready to hand off. It usually takes a little while for the effects to wear off, depends on the person though. Not usually more than a half hour or so. If he wins one, just be polite at least to the person you wind up with, but it's not rude to just say something to the effect of "Hello, I'm Javeri, I'm going to get dressed and head out now, thanks." He grins lopsidedly. "Basically you don't /have/ to linger, though it ... can be fun. Also it's possible that Chadamalith might connect with a green he catches and dote on her. He doesn't strike me as the type, but it's possible. Jekzith is often a doter. It doesn't mean you have to dote on the rider too."
The one word doesn't get a response, Javeri just ignoring it and letting that go to have another drink from her nearly empty glass. "I don't wish her ill, but girls like that...they just rub me the wrong way." Her smile is wry as she perhaps realizes what an odd turn of phrase that is considering their talk. "Well, if I change my mind I can always visit the docks. Not like there's not plenty of female sailors to be found too." She listens seriously as he provides an outline of a flight, nodding every now and again and smiling just a bit at the end. "Right, introductions are probably polite. Usually I do make those before bedding someone so it will be an adjustment. But I'm not really the lingering type." Well, sneaking around on the beach wouldn't make for lingering situations when one has to provide excuses to a father. "He doesn't seem to be the type who will dote, no. He sometimes seems to be taking an interest in a green that's not just his curiosity, but if she pays attention he loses interest. Ugh. I hope he's not one those kinds of guys. I hate those. I just want him to not do anything for some time yet. If he tries to do this quicker than normal I will be very annoyed."
It's possible that P'draig has noticed tht she's avoiding that topic, but he's not pushing her on it right now. On Neraset: "She rubs a lot of people the wrong way, but at least she's been trying harder and doing better for a while now." Paddy laughs about the sailors though. "There you go. You've got a backup plan so, it's all good." And he lifts his glass, tilts it towards hers. "Sometimes I am and sometimes I'm not, after a flight. Depends on the flight. Depends on the dragon. Depends on the rider. Jekzith chases once or twice a seven, roughly and he catches around a dozen times per turn, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. So for me, yeah, flights are something I've gotten used to." His gaze trails out towards the water and he watches Jekzith float for a bit. "Just have to wait and see. It's funny because greenriders have the reputation for being loose and easy, but really it's more the riders of male dragons who have to deal with flights all the time. Aath rises four times per turn, Tiasheth twice. That's ... so little by comparison." He takes a deep breath and shifts his legs, crossing one foot over the other. "I'll back up that hope, if only for your sake then, Veri. All any of us can do is try to be as ready as possible and then roll with it when it happens." When. Not if.
"Yea, she was just such a pain the beginning it's hard to get past that," Javeri says with a rueful smile. "I'm not so good a person that I can get over that easily is all. I do try, but...she's so pretty." Which is definitely part of the root of the whole annoyance with Neraset thing. "Plans and backup plans. I'm good at plans. I rarely follow them all the way, but I am real good at making them." She lifts her glass to that and empties it before resting it back on her leg. "Well, reputations are what they are. And there's more non-greenriders than there are greenriders I bet so of course they get the bad reputation out of all of it." It's as good an excuse as any. "But really? Once or twice a seven? That seems like...a whole lot. I'm not sure I want to be chasing that much. Hopefully he's not like -that- either. But you don't have to worry about me. I may be holderbred, but I'm not going to do any excessive freaking out. Just within normal perimeters. Wait. That's not it." Silence for her confer with Chadamalith before she says, "Parameters."
"She was a pretty big pain," P'draig agrees with another laugh then quirks a look over at her. "So pretty. But she's not the one getting offers," he points out with a wink then shakes his head about the greenriders. "Actually, there's more greens shelled than any other color dragon. So overall, there's more greenriders than any other color and I think ... if you add it up, half the riders on Pern are greenriders and the other half are all the other colors put together. Something like that." He waves a hand vaguely and laughs. "Some weyrlingmaster I am huh? Can't keep track of that." His glass lifts, more of his drink goes down the hatch. "Malsaeth chases more than Jekzith. And he doesn't chase every time he wants to, Jek. Because I hold him back." He slants a look over at her, nods. "Mm. Well, I can at least say, that if he chases and doesn't catch, you're welcome to stop by." That's said lightly and Paddy takes a deep breath, empties his glass again. "Last thing to say really, is about holding him back. It's mostly an effort of will, but you can also distract, re-direct, that sort of thing. Getting out of the Weyr helps too if you can. If you're on duty, obviously it's easier to pull a dragon back in to focus on drills. There's way to lay down the rules, basically, though in some situations ... he's just going to chase and that's all there is to it." The empty glass hits the arm of the chair and Paddy pushes to his feet, stretching. "And that's it, unless you've got more questions. And I think I need a swim."
"Yea, yea. It's not that, P'draig. It's... it's a woman thing. She's beautiful and I'm pretty and therefore I will always resent her even if I am getting what I want." At least it's a woman thing for Javeri who's just saying what it is honestly and without concern for how she might sound. "So goes it. And I forgive your lack of knowledge. Chadamalith hasn't had me do any reading on numbers so I can't even sound superior and all knowing in this instance. I'll try to do better next time." Now she winks and sits up to set her glass down in the sand. "So work more on getting the upper hand before then so I stand a chance when it happens. And if he loses and I don't want any of my other options you'll be the first one I come calling on. Unless it's a flight you beat us at. Then I'll just have to see about doing something else." Stretching her arms over her had she stands up and looks out to sea. A moment later Chadamalith stops floating and starts to head for shore. "Thanks for the talk. It wasn't horrible at all, was it? I think I'm going to go try to get some work done on a project before I get pulled away again. Tempting as it sounds to watch you go swimming and all. I'll see you later."
"I'll keep that in mind," is what P'draig has to say for that particular woman thing of Javeri's. "And you always do manage to improve," is the answering tease about the numbers and nods. "There you go. Another plan. And a good one to follow through on." Dead pan. "You're welcome. And if you think of any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Me. Balinne. Mic. B'ryce. We've all got slightly different experiences and views." He looks faintly disappointed she won't be sticking around but he only smiles again, lifts a hand to wave. "I'll see you later." Jekzith stays out in the water, Paddy wades in after. "See you Chadamalith," is his parting to the blue on the way by as Jekzith swims in a little to meet his rider halfway.
Where: Secluded beach
When: Afternoon around the end of month 10, turn 18 a few days before Javeri's turnday.
What: P'draig gets to give The Talk to Javeri. It's not really awkward or anything. Almost zero flirting occurs. Chadamalith and Jekzith ponder dragon/fish hybrids after discussing briefly Betweening underwater.
It might be a little bit of an odd destination to practice visualizing on, but it's a beach that Jekzith has given to Chadamalith and requested that the weyrling pair jump to that location. On arrival, they'd find P'draig quite alone on the beach, with two folding chairs already set up, an umbrella overhead and a pitcher of what looks like citrus margarita tucked down into a bowl of melting ice between those two chairs. There's a couple of towels rolled up on each towel and Jekzith? He's out in the deep already. Fishing. Paddy's eyes are shaded, the brownrider looking up at the sky now and then expectantly.
The grumbles about not being able to just fly there were between Javeri and Chadamalith and did not delay them but a short while. They appear overhead not too long after being summoned and the pair glide down to a landing that's far enough away from P'draig to spare him the spray of sand that flies up once the blue's touched the ground. The first thing she does is pull off her helmet and then remove her jacket. Once that's done she slides off the blue and removes his straps before gathering them and her jacket up to carry them to where P'draig and his chairs wait. The arm full of stuff gets dumped as Chadamalith runs into the welcoming waves and sends a silent blue greeting to the brown. "Working?" she asks with a grin.
That greeting is returned with pops of electric blue and green and a splash of neon pink. Excitement. << Hello hello! I am chasing fish. Would you like to come too? >> Paddy just grins as the pair come down for a landing and he bends to pick up glasses, puts one on the arm of each chair and pours the drinks while Javeri is dealing with straps and the like. "Actually, I am," P'draig says with a laugh. "Which is why I brought the drinks. I figure we're going to need them for this lesson." His mouth pulls to the side wryly. "Time to talk flights."
Once in the water Chadamalith makes a leisurely paddle towards where Jekzith is at. << Chasing fish? Do they not just go down? >> His feet stop and he dunks his head underwater before lifting it a moment later to continue. << I think they just go deep. >> But chasing them sounds fun so he's going to give it a go anyway. Dropping down into her chair as she grabs the glass to keep it from falling Javeri lets out a laugh. "Ahh. Is it that hard a talk?" she inquires before taking a sip and then eyeing the glass. "Not that I am complaining about the beverage mind. Maybe you should give these at all lessons." Not the best idea and she winks over at him.
P'draig just grins and settles down in his chair, shifting the rolled towel up behind his neck and stretches his legs out in front of him. "I figure this one might be tough for you and me. I thought about letting Bali do it, but in the end, Chadamalith is a guy dragon so getting the "I ride a male dragon" point of view might be more helpful," Paddy says with a little shrug. "Good excuse to get you alone with a pitcher of drinks too," he offers over with a cheery wink that has nothing lascivious in it at all. "Anyway, what do you know about flights? What've you heard? Anything you want to ask about first, before I launch into the standard run-down?"
"With the help of drinks we can get through anything," Javeri says cheerfully as she takes another drink and stretches her own legs out before frowning at her boots, but not taking them off yet. She turns her head and looks at P'draig with a grin. "Yea, I guess it could be...well, I appreciate the male dragon point of view I suppose." Setting her glass on the arm of her chair and holding on to it she stares forward thoughtfully. "I've heard a dozen horror stories in the last few days," she begins with a faint grin. "I swear I am never going to tease weyrlings so horridly as some of the riders do. I think I'd rather just hear the standard run-down. Because otherwise I'm going purely on conjun-conn-" Biting her lip she stares off more intently before saying, "Conjecture." That's a obviously a Chadamalith word and not one of hers. "Then I can ask questions."
P'draig reaches for his own glass and tilts it up for a nice long swallow. "Ahh, good stuff, and you bet," he says cheerfully, seemingly quite at ease himself. "Heh. Horror stories. Go figure, there's always a few jokers who think it's funny to scare the pants off the weyrlings." Paddy takes a deep breath and lets it out. "Okay then. So, here's how it works. You've probably noticed some of the greens going up around the Weyr the whole time you've been a Weyrling. T'mic, for one, he went proddy not that long ago and was all absent-minded and even over-the-top flirtier than usual. Aath was flirting up a storm too, showing off for Jekzith and any other male that happened to catch her interest and that was ... pretty much all of them. She doesn't really uh ... well she's not that picky," Paddy says with a laugh. "Anyway, what that means for you, is being on the look out, for those kinds of signs. Mic and Aath are really damn obvious. Other greenriders aren't as obvious and you might not see until the green starts glowing. Generally speaking, Chadamalith will either have noticed a long time before, or he'll at least pick up on it by the time there's any glowing going on. Greens also tend to run on a fairly predictable cycle and that's how you can kind of try to stay on top of who's going up when." He pauses to take a drink. "Any questions so far? I'll get into what it feels like, next."
"Yea, jokers. Luckily for them I'm used to sailor humor so I was unbothered by it all," Javeri's grin grows as she picks up her drink once more and then has a long sip as she listens. Her head slides over to rest her cheek on her shoulder as she pays attention while either staring in her glass or out in the water where she can just see Chadamalith chasing after fish. "So, either he'll notice before or not. But if I pay attention to those I know I should be able to pick up on signs they're acting out of character? I think I can do that. At least the ones I know well enough to notice the differences in." Now she takes a longer drink before adding, "Maybe he won't be too interested." Although she already sounds as if this is a pointless wish.
"That's good, most of them don't really mean ill, and it's best to take that kind of thing easily, just let it roll off," P'draig agrees with the way Javeri handled it. "Mmhm, if you're paying attention, most of the greens have some kind of tell and if they don't, their riders do. /Some/ do not though and they just suddenly /go/ before you have time to think. Jekzith's a randy brown and when that happens, I have a really hard time catching him at it fast enough if I really don't want him to chase. In the riders, the actual proddy behavior is all over the place, it's not any one thing, the key is really a /change/ in behavior around the time when you might expect their green or gold to go up, though with Chadamalith being blue, gold you don't have to worry about." Paddy takes a deep breath, lets it out. "It's a /lot/ harder to pin a male down when it's a gold going up," he says making big eyes and has another sip from his glass. "So, what it feels like. If it's relatively early on, you might just get a little backwash of him getting into the green, you know, admiration, flirtation, maybe feeling a little more upbeat, that kind of thing. If the green's about to go up though and he's interested, you might feel it like a prickling under your skin, or flashing too hot and too cold, almost like the start of a fever." Out there in the deep, Jekzith dives deep, pursuing a big fish. << They do go deep, but so can we. And there's so much to see, so much. >>
"But you can stop them right?" Javeri asks in a worried tone as she swishes liquid around in her glass. "I mean even if they want to go up? And what if you don't want them to chase someone in particular? Can you make sure they won't?" Closing her eyes she lets out a sigh before taking a larger drink. "It's just, you know? My mother is here and all. I really would rather not- you know. Eww." Eww indeed. She sticks her tongue out and scrunches her face up at the thought. On a more upbeat note she says, "At least we don't have to worry about golds. I suppose that's something." And then it's back to nerves because she sits upright and turns to stare at Paddy. "Shells, P'draig. If you're giving me this talk does that mean he's going to start? I mean- now? I mean not now, but...now?" Twisting her head she stares off at the ocean where Chadamalith spreads his wings and then pulls them in to dive down as well. << It is an entire world >> he agrees with Jekzith. << An entire other world. Can we go down without diving? >> His blue goes black and cold.
"Sometimes you can and sometimes you can't," P'draig explains straightforwardly. "If there's blooding going on, it's usually best to catch him before he starts blooding, because once they get the taste of blood in their mouths, it's a lot harder to rein them in." Paddy smiles sympathetically for that scenario. "That one, I can pretty much guarantee won't happen, because he ought to be sensitive enough to the fact that you're utterly horrified," Paddy notes and takes another swig from his drink. "I'm careful not to visit the Reaches when my mother's green is about to go up though. Just in case. I mean, bad enough, girl on girl, can you imagine?" he says with a wrinkled nose and clears his throat a couple of times, slugs down more drink, then reaches for the pitcher to top off his glass. "See, that's what the drinks are for," he says with a little laugh. Her start upright though, makes the brownrider's head shake back and forth. "No, no, no, he's still too young. He might start to show an interest when there's one about to go, but he shouldn't hit the skies until he's closer to a turn old or beyond a turn old. Things to watch for though are that 'fever' feeling, or a sense of not being able to keep him out, or him being suddenly really really close, in your thoughts, and even feeling like you're a dragon yourself." Beat. "That's what happens with Jek and me, first it's just this prickly feeling at the back of my neck and then my arms start feeling like wings. By the time he's full on into it, I might as well be up there flying with him and /I/ want that green as much as he does. It can be confusing." Jekzith is pushing on deeper and spools his thoughts back up through cool depths to Chadamalith. << You can sense a little, but it's more interesting to actually /go/. >> He paints strange landscapes in washed out colors, without light.
"Well, good. I don't want him to get into so soon. Because I am really not looking forward to it. Do you get used to it? Because it seems like it would be so...jarring." That's a Javeri word. Short, to the point, few syllables. She empties her glass and slowly sits back down relaxing some now that she knows it's not something to worry about right away. "But it's different for everyone, yes? So I won't know until he goes up what it is like, right? I wish there were a way to know. To be prepared for it, you know? Or it's just going to be like waiting for the hatching when you just want it over and get more and more anxious until you feel like you're going to pop." Shaking her head she grins ruefully and fingers one of her braids. Chadamalith goes deeper, but not as deep as the brown. << But if we can vision what it might be like can we not go right there? If you can picture it how come we can not go right there? How we create it? >>
"A lot of weyrlings feel that way," P'draig says with a little nod, "at first it's really intense, maybe not jarring, but that depends on the person really, you might find it that way, or just rattling. I found it to be completely overwhelming at first and didn't know whether to fight it, roll with it or something else. Jekzith and I are really tightly bonded anyway and it was really easy for me to get completely swept up in flights when I was younger, right out of weyrlinghood. These days I'm a lot more used to it, more able to control my own reactions on the way in. I know what it feels like and how to kind of buffer him until I'm ready to let go and meld with him. The downside is that afterwards, it can be harder for me to disengage and come back down to the ground. I'm a lot better at it than I was even five turns or ten turns ago and definitely more capable than fourteen turns ago when we were fresh out of training. But it's still an intense thing and it really can get under your skin. Which ... brings us to dealing with post-flight feelings." Jekzith pokes at this idea. << Oh you mean, jump to it? I guess you could, but it's a lot more fun to swim. At least, I think so. >>
"Oh, I think my drink is empty." Javeri knows this as well and so she holds her glass out so he can refill it. Better than doing it herself and all. Leaning back with her arm stretched out for the refill she gives her head another slow shake. "We're not that close. We've never been that close. There's never really been a time when we've been so close I didn't know me." Which if it bothers her isn't evident in her words or expression. "Hopefully that doesn't change during a flight. I hope it doesn't. I definitely don't want to be that close with him when he's all...chasing." Again with a head shake as she stares out where Chadamalith is nowhere in sight. << It would be faster to just go I think. >> This as the blue has to stop diving and head for the surface where when he pops up he takes a large breath. << And I would not have to hold my breath so long. >>
Leaning down, P'draig catches up the pitcher and pours out enough of the mixed stuff to fill up Javeri's glass. "Mm. Chances are, it'll keep on that way then, but you never know, you might wind up surprised to find yourselves really close during flights," the brownrider says mildly and sets the pitcher back down again. "In some ways, it can actually be better that way, because then you really share his enjoyment, regardless of whom you wind up with. So then all you have to really deal with is the awkward afterwards," Paddy says with a little wry pull of his mouth to the side. "When he doesn't win though, that can be ... just as intense and in that case, there you are with all these feelings that've been pulled wide open, fierce longing, need, bone-deep. It's like being drunk without drinking, only far, far headier. You've got a couple of choices for dealing with that, go jump in a lake or the ocean and swim it off, get plastered, run it off, or find someone you like and not to put too fine a point on it, screw it off." Jekzith is still poking around for a bit but then he's heading for the surface too. << Faster, sure, but you miss a lot on the way down. And it's not like the air, there can be things that you don't expect and you could come out of Between in the middle of a fish or a rock. >>
Once her glass is full Javeri pulls her arm back and has a drink. "I'd rather keep my lust to myself," she says plainly with a grin. "But I guess I won't know what's happening until it does. Just one more thing to not think about until it happens." There's nothing wrong with putting things off after all. "By the way, can I just you could have held this talk until after my turnday. Your timing needs work, man." But she lifts her glass in a toast and winks before she has a sip. "So it's like meeting a guy and spending all night flirting with him and when you think he's wanting the same thing you are he tells you no? Only, like, a thousand times worse? Great. That sounds like fun. It's either pure frustration or winding up in bed with someone you don't even like? Lovely choices." But she sounds not so upset as just amused by it all. Floating on the surface Chadamalith ruffles his wings sending a couple of small fish fleeing. << But if you do not see a fish there how can a fish be there? And I could not wind up in a fish as no fish is as big as I am. But it could be in me. A fish swimming in my stomach. >>
More drink right down the hatch as Paddy finds the sky very interesting for a moment or two. "Yeah, unfortunately, flights kind of turn that up on its head. Everyone's lust comes out of the woodwork in that guest weyr. Most riders are able to stay ... at least moderately in control, but sometimes the mix is bad and it's been known for fights to break out. Lots of amped up feelings and all that, you know? So, best thing to do about in my opinion, is to try to ride the wave, rather than letting it drown you." P'draig laughs at the remark about his timing. "I've got plans for your turnday, that will hopefully take your mind completely off of anything you really don't want to be thinking about," he says with a wink and puts his glass down, stretches his arms up above his head and then drops hands behind as a pillow, elbows still up in the air but resting against the chair's back. "And yeah about that. Or if you think about the first time you ever really really wanted a guy, try that times ... a lot. That sweeping, hot and cold feeling, except it's ten to a hundred times harder to shake. Ten times if it's a green, a hundred if it's a gold." Paddy's eyes close and he takes a deep breath. "When Jekzith caught Nalaieth that one time ...." he trails off and just smiles slowly. Jekzith listens carefully, ponders this. << Or you could wind up combining with the fish and become this strange Fishmalith thing. >>
"So it's worse than the Sandbar the first night a ship docks? Those nights are always so fun." Javeri rolls her eyes although the sarcasm in her tone didn't require much assistance. So even she has a limit to sailors to be handled. "Noted. Go with it. Not that I'm likely to remember too much good advice from the sounds of it depending on how things go." She tips her head and looks over with a raised brow. "Really? But what will it put my mind on?" And they'd been doing so well until then, but he couldn't have expected her not to speak to that remark. And then she laughs before saying, "And we were doing so well. See? This was not any more uncomfortable than if someone else had been talking to me. At least you're spared tip toeing around me like a virgin. What do you tell them anyway?" For Jekzith's musings there is an image of Chadamalith only with large scales and gills and a long fish tail in place of his. << I prefer Chadafishlith. >> He must share this image with Javeri because back on the beach she splutters and nearly spits out the drink she had just taken.
Chuckling lowly, P'draig nods. "Yeah. There's things I can describe that get close to it, but you won't really know until it happens, just like you didn't really know what Impressing would be like until it happens. In fact, I'd say that being caught up in a flight comes pretty close to /that/ level of connection and intensity." That tease just brings his glass up and P'draig smiles. "Hopefully the meal I've got in mind and how great it tastes," he says quite seriously. That following remark though earns a puffed out breath. "Harder with virgins, definitely. Especially the holdbred. Dealing with Neraset ... well I'm going to leave that to Balinne and T'mic. Most of them, I tell them to find a friend and deal with it before a flight happens. While it's not the worst thing in the world, a flight isn't really the best way to get an introduction into sex, either." Paddy drains his glass again, sets it down empty and puts his hand back behind his head. "At Fort ... I had a list of names. People willing to discreetly help out those in need of that kind of assistance. I think Mic has a list like that for here, though I think I know a few well enough now that I'd feel comfortable making that kind of recommendation." Jekzith's mind pops and fizzes, bubbles in electric colors zinging around. Traded back is one of Jekzith crossed with one of those long snakey-like fish. << And Jekfishth. >> And there goes Paddy's laughter joining on. "Oh shells ..."
"That's no fun at all," Javeri teases with a laugh, but she doesn't press further and lets her turnday go. "Oh, well, that's intense," she admits as she looks out at the ocean with a smile. "I'm real glad it's not like that all the time or I'd never survive. Sometimes just having an extra voice is more than I really want to deal with." Since it's her second drink she just sips at it slowly, but she sips at it slowly with a steady pace. "Oh, wow. A list? That's..." She trails off and laughs. Maybe it's just she still has Chadamalith-fish in her head so laughing is easier. "I don't know why that's funny, but it is funny to me. I think it would be worse to not have...and to be doing it to get it out of the way? Although I guess to be honest the first time is really always just getting it out of the way. Especially if you're a woman. It's not any fun at all." She looks out at sea and shakes her head. "I'm not sure I want to know what they're talking about." Chadamalith's calm blue dissolves into pictures of pieces of fish with different dragon bits attached swimming in the water or flying overhead.
"Don't be so sure," P'draig teases back with a little grin that's just this shy of smug. "I used to be a Baker you know." He nods though about the intensity. "Yeah." And then bends to fish out the pitcher and refill his glass. "Mm. It's not the easiest thing to do. Just ask someone to pop your cherry. But the alternative is leaving it up to the dragon to decide for you. A lot of people have more trouble with that," the brownrider says calmly. "So. I usually give them options." One of his hands lifts to the back of his neck and rubs there and he shrugs. "Depends on the woman, I guess. And her partner." Jekzith plays around with some more fishy combinations and stretches out into a lean-lined float. "Jekzith was concerned that Chadamalith would go Between underwater and wind up coming out into a fish."
"Well, then, I shall be breathless with anticipation for your food," Javeri says back with a bright smile. "It shall keep me awake these next few nights thinking about it." Another drink is taken before she rests the glass on her leg and squints to spy Chadamalith in the blue of the ocean. "I do not envy the person who has to talk to Neraset about it. Will they warn you before hand so you can run and hide before she throws herself at you again? Or will you let her?" It's curiosity that colors her words and teasing as she adds, "I know she's a weyrling and all, but it could be considered work as well. Although I imagine any man who sleeps with her would find it work. Please, please, please let Chadamalith never catch Vaylith. To be honest I'm not sure how I feel about the whole other women thing." Her head shakes and she peers more intently out to sea. "Great. Of course he'd get that idea. I swear he's going to make me pull out my hair over some of this stuff." But for now Chadamalith is content to float. He's not even trying to chase fish and some tiny little ones swim closer to examine the bluer blue in their ocean.
"Well, don't want you to lose /sleep/ over it or anything," P'draig replies laughingly and drops his arms down to his lap, tips his head back. "Haven't made up my mind yet, but I'll probably duck that one," the brownrider replies quietly. "Not because it would be work, but just -- she wants it too badly, you know? It's like she has some idea of what it'll be like and she's bound to be disappointed." He laughs again at that solemn wish. "Mm. I wasn't sure either, though girl-on-girl is theoretically a lot gentler than ... well anyway. Let's just say that the first time Jekzith caught a green it was a green with a male rider and I was /not/ ready and it made me very, very, skittish about it for a very long time." Beat. "Until Mic came along." And there his smile does turn positively salacious and he reaches for his drink to sink a good mouthful. For Jekzith and Chadamalith's shenanigans there's a simple: "Dragons." Because Jekzith is also floating and peering down into the water.
"Gonna lose sleep anyway," Javeri says with a shrug as she has another drink and then looks over before staring at the ocean. "Yea, girls that want it that much are always disappointed. She'll find someone taken in by her looks and I bet it won't be good enough and she never sleeps with them again and moans about how bad it was and tries for you again because surely you can do a better job." She's so cynical about some things, but she doesn't dwell on it because who wants to? "Well, it's still not something I've ever done. But I'm not sure I'm bothered enough to go looking for someone beforehand. Think I'll just deal with it if it happens." Best to procrastinate in some areas. "And yea, well, since there's not the same equipment it stands to reason it would be different." The Mic inspired smile is completely ignored. "Chadamalith is just always so calm except when he's not. When he gets excited he's all over the place and I can't keep up. I bet that doesn't bode well for me in the future. So, umm. Is that the talk? No other horrors to share?"
That fades Paddy's smile and draws his gaze back to Javeri. "Still?" he asks quietly and a faint dent furrows the space between his brows. Her further commentary about Neraset just lift his shoulders a little. "I actually hope she finds someone she likes and can make at least remotely close to what she's expecting," the brownrider says sincerely. "It's too nice of a thing to have it botched." He nods for her next, takes a sip from his glass. "Mm. Your choice. Me ... I wish I'd gone there with a guy before so it wasn't -- well it wasn't how it was." Deep breath in, long exhale. "There's some practicalities. Most flights go like this: green either bloods and goes up or doesn't blood and goes up. The males chase. The green's rider will head into the guest weyr, riders of the chasing dragons follow. At the end, the winning male and the green mate and the riders do to. Losing riders are supposed to leave, right away. Often enough, there's willing potential partners hanging around. Or just someone with a skin of something strong ready to hand off. It usually takes a little while for the effects to wear off, depends on the person though. Not usually more than a half hour or so. If he wins one, just be polite at least to the person you wind up with, but it's not rude to just say something to the effect of "Hello, I'm Javeri, I'm going to get dressed and head out now, thanks." He grins lopsidedly. "Basically you don't /have/ to linger, though it ... can be fun. Also it's possible that Chadamalith might connect with a green he catches and dote on her. He doesn't strike me as the type, but it's possible. Jekzith is often a doter. It doesn't mean you have to dote on the rider too."
The one word doesn't get a response, Javeri just ignoring it and letting that go to have another drink from her nearly empty glass. "I don't wish her ill, but girls like that...they just rub me the wrong way." Her smile is wry as she perhaps realizes what an odd turn of phrase that is considering their talk. "Well, if I change my mind I can always visit the docks. Not like there's not plenty of female sailors to be found too." She listens seriously as he provides an outline of a flight, nodding every now and again and smiling just a bit at the end. "Right, introductions are probably polite. Usually I do make those before bedding someone so it will be an adjustment. But I'm not really the lingering type." Well, sneaking around on the beach wouldn't make for lingering situations when one has to provide excuses to a father. "He doesn't seem to be the type who will dote, no. He sometimes seems to be taking an interest in a green that's not just his curiosity, but if she pays attention he loses interest. Ugh. I hope he's not one those kinds of guys. I hate those. I just want him to not do anything for some time yet. If he tries to do this quicker than normal I will be very annoyed."
It's possible that P'draig has noticed tht she's avoiding that topic, but he's not pushing her on it right now. On Neraset: "She rubs a lot of people the wrong way, but at least she's been trying harder and doing better for a while now." Paddy laughs about the sailors though. "There you go. You've got a backup plan so, it's all good." And he lifts his glass, tilts it towards hers. "Sometimes I am and sometimes I'm not, after a flight. Depends on the flight. Depends on the dragon. Depends on the rider. Jekzith chases once or twice a seven, roughly and he catches around a dozen times per turn, sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less. So for me, yeah, flights are something I've gotten used to." His gaze trails out towards the water and he watches Jekzith float for a bit. "Just have to wait and see. It's funny because greenriders have the reputation for being loose and easy, but really it's more the riders of male dragons who have to deal with flights all the time. Aath rises four times per turn, Tiasheth twice. That's ... so little by comparison." He takes a deep breath and shifts his legs, crossing one foot over the other. "I'll back up that hope, if only for your sake then, Veri. All any of us can do is try to be as ready as possible and then roll with it when it happens." When. Not if.
"Yea, she was just such a pain the beginning it's hard to get past that," Javeri says with a rueful smile. "I'm not so good a person that I can get over that easily is all. I do try, but...she's so pretty." Which is definitely part of the root of the whole annoyance with Neraset thing. "Plans and backup plans. I'm good at plans. I rarely follow them all the way, but I am real good at making them." She lifts her glass to that and empties it before resting it back on her leg. "Well, reputations are what they are. And there's more non-greenriders than there are greenriders I bet so of course they get the bad reputation out of all of it." It's as good an excuse as any. "But really? Once or twice a seven? That seems like...a whole lot. I'm not sure I want to be chasing that much. Hopefully he's not like -that- either. But you don't have to worry about me. I may be holderbred, but I'm not going to do any excessive freaking out. Just within normal perimeters. Wait. That's not it." Silence for her confer with Chadamalith before she says, "Parameters."
"She was a pretty big pain," P'draig agrees with another laugh then quirks a look over at her. "So pretty. But she's not the one getting offers," he points out with a wink then shakes his head about the greenriders. "Actually, there's more greens shelled than any other color dragon. So overall, there's more greenriders than any other color and I think ... if you add it up, half the riders on Pern are greenriders and the other half are all the other colors put together. Something like that." He waves a hand vaguely and laughs. "Some weyrlingmaster I am huh? Can't keep track of that." His glass lifts, more of his drink goes down the hatch. "Malsaeth chases more than Jekzith. And he doesn't chase every time he wants to, Jek. Because I hold him back." He slants a look over at her, nods. "Mm. Well, I can at least say, that if he chases and doesn't catch, you're welcome to stop by." That's said lightly and Paddy takes a deep breath, empties his glass again. "Last thing to say really, is about holding him back. It's mostly an effort of will, but you can also distract, re-direct, that sort of thing. Getting out of the Weyr helps too if you can. If you're on duty, obviously it's easier to pull a dragon back in to focus on drills. There's way to lay down the rules, basically, though in some situations ... he's just going to chase and that's all there is to it." The empty glass hits the arm of the chair and Paddy pushes to his feet, stretching. "And that's it, unless you've got more questions. And I think I need a swim."
"Yea, yea. It's not that, P'draig. It's... it's a woman thing. She's beautiful and I'm pretty and therefore I will always resent her even if I am getting what I want." At least it's a woman thing for Javeri who's just saying what it is honestly and without concern for how she might sound. "So goes it. And I forgive your lack of knowledge. Chadamalith hasn't had me do any reading on numbers so I can't even sound superior and all knowing in this instance. I'll try to do better next time." Now she winks and sits up to set her glass down in the sand. "So work more on getting the upper hand before then so I stand a chance when it happens. And if he loses and I don't want any of my other options you'll be the first one I come calling on. Unless it's a flight you beat us at. Then I'll just have to see about doing something else." Stretching her arms over her had she stands up and looks out to sea. A moment later Chadamalith stops floating and starts to head for shore. "Thanks for the talk. It wasn't horrible at all, was it? I think I'm going to go try to get some work done on a project before I get pulled away again. Tempting as it sounds to watch you go swimming and all. I'll see you later."
"I'll keep that in mind," is what P'draig has to say for that particular woman thing of Javeri's. "And you always do manage to improve," is the answering tease about the numbers and nods. "There you go. Another plan. And a good one to follow through on." Dead pan. "You're welcome. And if you think of any questions, don't hesitate to ask. Me. Balinne. Mic. B'ryce. We've all got slightly different experiences and views." He looks faintly disappointed she won't be sticking around but he only smiles again, lifts a hand to wave. "I'll see you later." Jekzith stays out in the water, Paddy wades in after. "See you Chadamalith," is his parting to the blue on the way by as Jekzith swims in a little to meet his rider halfway.