Not a game
Who: V'rel and Naimath (NPCed by T'rev), W'ton and Dasarth, Y'nolek and Agrith
Where: The bowl and the sky
When: Day 24, month 11, turn 19
What: Flaming rope drills
Note: My log ends abruptly as I had to dart thanks to RL interference.
It's a clear day when the weather's been getting increasingly poor and the weyrlings have been corraled out of doors to get into formation. V'rel stands waiting, slapping gloves against his thigh. There's ropes being piled up by some other riders, dragons all kitted out and getting ready. Sacks of firestone have been provided too and there's a sense of anticipation in the air. "Form up, form up!"
Y'nolek wanders aimlessly over to stand by Agrith. Form up? He looks around, waiting for some semblance of order to arise so that he can figure out where he ought to be.
Order! Duty! Work! This is all great as far as Dasarth is concerned. He's found his spot and looks ready to go. Drills always have him eager to get to work and even make him more sociable so when a brown nearly steps on his tail he just turns his head as his tail thwacks the other dragon's leg. Careful there, pal kind of warning. W'ton's standing beside him tugging on his gloves and looking expectant as his bronze's excitement gets to him as well.
The order went out earlier to line up, get into standard formation, V'rel's slapping glove gets more insistent and his lifemate's mental touch reaches for those not ready. << Come now, into your places! Today we /flame/. >> There's some jostling around going on in the background and this earns a glare and a sharp, "Cut it out or run laps!" from V'rel.
Oh, look, there are some lines. Agrith lumbers over to get behind Dasarth, and Nolek trots behind, grinning excitedly. "This is going to be /awesome/," he calls over to the other bronzerider, and Agrith gives a loud snort of agreement.
Dasarth turns his head to look at Agrith and informs the other bronze << This will be proper work. This is no game, Agrith. You must stay focused. >> Well, it's as sociable as he gets. At least he didn't call him an idiot! W'ton, oblivious to the conversation just nods at Y'nolek. He's focusing on V'rel lest he be sent to do laps and miss the fun.
Agrith snorts again, and flips back an image of Dasarth setting fire to his own tail because he looked behind him to lecture another dragon. He shares the image with the other nearby dragons, too, and Y'nolek coughs, but says not a word, schooling his facial expression to innocence.
There's a narrow-eyed look from V'rel at Y'nolek and he lifts a warning finger. "All right kids! Here we go, we're going up for the closest thing that you lot will ever get to Threadfall, Faranth willing no more comets go scooting by and making a mess of things. So look sharp. Those riders there will be dumping down chalk laden rope at you. You will be flying in formation to flame the 'Thread' out of the skies. For the purposes of /this/ exercise I'll be your wingleader. In future exercises, one of /you/ will be leading the wing." Warning glare. "Now, get 'stone, stoke your dragons up and get ready to fly." He makes a hand signal and word is passed to the riders with the ropes to take off and they vanish slowly high high up into the sky.
W'ton glares at Y'nolek and mutters, "This ain't a joke," to his fellow weyrling. Which suffices for both him and Dasarth who are now all about the work at hand. Fire! But first comes firestone once W'ton's double checked his straps to make sure they're ok. He's clearly working from a mental checklist since he does the same thing every single time they ever go into the air. Methodically working his way to 'give dragon 'stone' which comes last.
Y'nolek fishes a chunk of stone out of his sack and feeds it to Agrith. "Here you go bud, watch your tongue," he warns his bronze amiably, waiting until that stone is entirely chewed before he gets another rock to give to the dragon. Once he's well-started, Nolek gets a few pieces out of the sack and lines them up on the ground, to give himself some time to plug his ears against the very loud crunching. "Mind yourself," he says to W'ton, without even turning around. "We're fine."
Prowling along the ranks, V'rel starts being a pain in the ass. "Check that strap. Not so fast with the stone. Back up a little in the formation, you're too close." And so on. Not making himself popular today. Then again, maybe he's nervous. Could be why his jaw's so tight. And W'ton's right, it's no joke. Ropes. Real flames. Real formation. But they can't hop Between yet, which means the dangers of accidents are really damn high.
Too busy feeding the 'stone to Dasarth to reply W'ton keeps just enough aware of what's going on to know when V'rel gets near enough to bark something at him if he's going to. Otherwise he's in full-on get ready zone. So, Nolek's words don't get a reply or even an acknowledgement and Dasarth doesn't have anything to say either. His rider has him busy enough he's not trying to tell the others what to do. Thank goodness for small miracles.
Yeah, about that. "Sir," Nolek says to V'rel after he's finished eyeballing Agrith's straps, and laying out some more rock for him, "How come we don't wait and do this after we've learned how to go between? In real Threadfall, riders go between to avoid the Thread and all, so..."
Eyeballing Dasarth as he passes, V'rel has no comment to make. Straps have clearly been checked. Oh wait. "Make sure your jacket's on right and your goggles aren't fogged." It's lame but hey, he came up with something! Y'nolek's question earns a flat lipped little smile. "Because you need to be able to know how to do it without going Between, too."
"Yes, sir," W'ton replies and while Dasarth chomps on firestone he checks his jacket even giving it a little tug although that's more to make sure it /looks/ right than anything else. Then he feeds another piece to his dragon before checking his goggles. The whole time he's listening for the answer given. If he'd wondered the same thing he didn't ask.
Y'nolek looks dubious about the wisdom of that, but he says, "Okay." Now that Agrith is all stoked, Nolek picks up the half-empty sack and ties it onto the harness. He tightens his helmet and lowers his goggles onto his face, and then swings up to a seat astride his dragon, posing proudly once he's gotten himself strapped in.
"You'll need to be able to control your flame regardless, and if you haven't learned that by now, then get out of this formation and go practice some more against the wall," V'rel says with implacable firmness. Then he's moving on through the ranks, being more and more of a pissant then comes back up to the head of the formation. It's passed from dragon to dragon as well as called out: "Mount up!"
Looking over his shoulder once V'rel's back up front W'ton tells Y'nolek, "Yea, don't singe us just because we're beautiful." Well, he's beautiful. Dasarth may not be so much. Up he goes though and once he's strapped in he double checks all that too just to be on the safe side. Safety first! His bronze flicks his tail as his talons dig into the ground. He's ready to go and he rumbles his desire to be in the air.
Y'nolek laughs! "That wouldn't be the reason," he says in return, but playfully. Agrith thumps his tail against the ground and rears up - he's /ready/.
<< Now then, be easy, stay in formation. >> From V'rel's lifemate to Agrith for that rearing. Atop his green's back, V'rel turns to check the formation, has everyone check in mentally before giving the signal to lift off. There's more checking after lift off too to be sure everyone's in the right place. And then up and up they go and any moment now it might be chalky rope a-comin'.
Agrith launches, and up they go! He moderates his at first too-enthusiastic ascent to bring himself back in line behind Dasarth and stay there. Nolek tips his head up and laughs delightedly, even as he's watching for falling rope.
He may be a pain in the butt and no fun at all to hang out with, but at least Dasarth knows what he's doing! A more serious student than his rider the pair of them launch into the air eager to get to it, but not displaying it. W'ton grins as they go up and scans overhead for what's going to be coming. Dasarth does the same, but since he doesn't have to yell to talk he tells Agrith << Do please keep your flame from my backside. >>
There's some bobbles in the formation and there's a request made to tighten up. V'rel waits until everything's good and proper and then ... they wait. And wait until ... well shells, that's rope a-falling out of the sky, turning end over end and clumping up messily. Naimath calls out the orders for meeting Thread calmly, though there's a thread of merriment in her sending, its source not readily definable. They're throwing the stuff down in relatively evenly spaced clumps right now: not so hard, right?
"There!" Nolek shouts, when he first sees the rope. Agrith, too, has his head up, watching, watching - then Nolek urges him upward, and his flame hits the clump they were after dead center, burning it to ash. Nolek pumps his fist in triumph, and nudges Agrith back to his proper spot in the formation. Distracted by actual flaming, the bronze forgets to make some smartass reply to Dasarth.
Where: The bowl and the sky
When: Day 24, month 11, turn 19
What: Flaming rope drills
Note: My log ends abruptly as I had to dart thanks to RL interference.
It's a clear day when the weather's been getting increasingly poor and the weyrlings have been corraled out of doors to get into formation. V'rel stands waiting, slapping gloves against his thigh. There's ropes being piled up by some other riders, dragons all kitted out and getting ready. Sacks of firestone have been provided too and there's a sense of anticipation in the air. "Form up, form up!"
Y'nolek wanders aimlessly over to stand by Agrith. Form up? He looks around, waiting for some semblance of order to arise so that he can figure out where he ought to be.
Order! Duty! Work! This is all great as far as Dasarth is concerned. He's found his spot and looks ready to go. Drills always have him eager to get to work and even make him more sociable so when a brown nearly steps on his tail he just turns his head as his tail thwacks the other dragon's leg. Careful there, pal kind of warning. W'ton's standing beside him tugging on his gloves and looking expectant as his bronze's excitement gets to him as well.
The order went out earlier to line up, get into standard formation, V'rel's slapping glove gets more insistent and his lifemate's mental touch reaches for those not ready. << Come now, into your places! Today we /flame/. >> There's some jostling around going on in the background and this earns a glare and a sharp, "Cut it out or run laps!" from V'rel.
Oh, look, there are some lines. Agrith lumbers over to get behind Dasarth, and Nolek trots behind, grinning excitedly. "This is going to be /awesome/," he calls over to the other bronzerider, and Agrith gives a loud snort of agreement.
Dasarth turns his head to look at Agrith and informs the other bronze << This will be proper work. This is no game, Agrith. You must stay focused. >> Well, it's as sociable as he gets. At least he didn't call him an idiot! W'ton, oblivious to the conversation just nods at Y'nolek. He's focusing on V'rel lest he be sent to do laps and miss the fun.
Agrith snorts again, and flips back an image of Dasarth setting fire to his own tail because he looked behind him to lecture another dragon. He shares the image with the other nearby dragons, too, and Y'nolek coughs, but says not a word, schooling his facial expression to innocence.
There's a narrow-eyed look from V'rel at Y'nolek and he lifts a warning finger. "All right kids! Here we go, we're going up for the closest thing that you lot will ever get to Threadfall, Faranth willing no more comets go scooting by and making a mess of things. So look sharp. Those riders there will be dumping down chalk laden rope at you. You will be flying in formation to flame the 'Thread' out of the skies. For the purposes of /this/ exercise I'll be your wingleader. In future exercises, one of /you/ will be leading the wing." Warning glare. "Now, get 'stone, stoke your dragons up and get ready to fly." He makes a hand signal and word is passed to the riders with the ropes to take off and they vanish slowly high high up into the sky.
W'ton glares at Y'nolek and mutters, "This ain't a joke," to his fellow weyrling. Which suffices for both him and Dasarth who are now all about the work at hand. Fire! But first comes firestone once W'ton's double checked his straps to make sure they're ok. He's clearly working from a mental checklist since he does the same thing every single time they ever go into the air. Methodically working his way to 'give dragon 'stone' which comes last.
Y'nolek fishes a chunk of stone out of his sack and feeds it to Agrith. "Here you go bud, watch your tongue," he warns his bronze amiably, waiting until that stone is entirely chewed before he gets another rock to give to the dragon. Once he's well-started, Nolek gets a few pieces out of the sack and lines them up on the ground, to give himself some time to plug his ears against the very loud crunching. "Mind yourself," he says to W'ton, without even turning around. "We're fine."
Prowling along the ranks, V'rel starts being a pain in the ass. "Check that strap. Not so fast with the stone. Back up a little in the formation, you're too close." And so on. Not making himself popular today. Then again, maybe he's nervous. Could be why his jaw's so tight. And W'ton's right, it's no joke. Ropes. Real flames. Real formation. But they can't hop Between yet, which means the dangers of accidents are really damn high.
Too busy feeding the 'stone to Dasarth to reply W'ton keeps just enough aware of what's going on to know when V'rel gets near enough to bark something at him if he's going to. Otherwise he's in full-on get ready zone. So, Nolek's words don't get a reply or even an acknowledgement and Dasarth doesn't have anything to say either. His rider has him busy enough he's not trying to tell the others what to do. Thank goodness for small miracles.
Yeah, about that. "Sir," Nolek says to V'rel after he's finished eyeballing Agrith's straps, and laying out some more rock for him, "How come we don't wait and do this after we've learned how to go between? In real Threadfall, riders go between to avoid the Thread and all, so..."
Eyeballing Dasarth as he passes, V'rel has no comment to make. Straps have clearly been checked. Oh wait. "Make sure your jacket's on right and your goggles aren't fogged." It's lame but hey, he came up with something! Y'nolek's question earns a flat lipped little smile. "Because you need to be able to know how to do it without going Between, too."
"Yes, sir," W'ton replies and while Dasarth chomps on firestone he checks his jacket even giving it a little tug although that's more to make sure it /looks/ right than anything else. Then he feeds another piece to his dragon before checking his goggles. The whole time he's listening for the answer given. If he'd wondered the same thing he didn't ask.
Y'nolek looks dubious about the wisdom of that, but he says, "Okay." Now that Agrith is all stoked, Nolek picks up the half-empty sack and ties it onto the harness. He tightens his helmet and lowers his goggles onto his face, and then swings up to a seat astride his dragon, posing proudly once he's gotten himself strapped in.
"You'll need to be able to control your flame regardless, and if you haven't learned that by now, then get out of this formation and go practice some more against the wall," V'rel says with implacable firmness. Then he's moving on through the ranks, being more and more of a pissant then comes back up to the head of the formation. It's passed from dragon to dragon as well as called out: "Mount up!"
Looking over his shoulder once V'rel's back up front W'ton tells Y'nolek, "Yea, don't singe us just because we're beautiful." Well, he's beautiful. Dasarth may not be so much. Up he goes though and once he's strapped in he double checks all that too just to be on the safe side. Safety first! His bronze flicks his tail as his talons dig into the ground. He's ready to go and he rumbles his desire to be in the air.
Y'nolek laughs! "That wouldn't be the reason," he says in return, but playfully. Agrith thumps his tail against the ground and rears up - he's /ready/.
<< Now then, be easy, stay in formation. >> From V'rel's lifemate to Agrith for that rearing. Atop his green's back, V'rel turns to check the formation, has everyone check in mentally before giving the signal to lift off. There's more checking after lift off too to be sure everyone's in the right place. And then up and up they go and any moment now it might be chalky rope a-comin'.
Agrith launches, and up they go! He moderates his at first too-enthusiastic ascent to bring himself back in line behind Dasarth and stay there. Nolek tips his head up and laughs delightedly, even as he's watching for falling rope.
He may be a pain in the butt and no fun at all to hang out with, but at least Dasarth knows what he's doing! A more serious student than his rider the pair of them launch into the air eager to get to it, but not displaying it. W'ton grins as they go up and scans overhead for what's going to be coming. Dasarth does the same, but since he doesn't have to yell to talk he tells Agrith << Do please keep your flame from my backside. >>
There's some bobbles in the formation and there's a request made to tighten up. V'rel waits until everything's good and proper and then ... they wait. And wait until ... well shells, that's rope a-falling out of the sky, turning end over end and clumping up messily. Naimath calls out the orders for meeting Thread calmly, though there's a thread of merriment in her sending, its source not readily definable. They're throwing the stuff down in relatively evenly spaced clumps right now: not so hard, right?
"There!" Nolek shouts, when he first sees the rope. Agrith, too, has his head up, watching, watching - then Nolek urges him upward, and his flame hits the clump they were after dead center, burning it to ash. Nolek pumps his fist in triumph, and nudges Agrith back to his proper spot in the formation. Distracted by actual flaming, the bronze forgets to make some smartass reply to Dasarth.