[PRP] Can it be too exciting? (Mhinadi/Oreune) [FIN]

[Samuel Carlin]

The Toyching may have been over, but Mhninadi's mind was still racing. No matter how many times she went through this, she thought she'd probably need a couple of days to calm herself down. The way she needed a couple of days to recover when she didn't find her match.

But there was always a next time, and maybe, just maybe, it would be a this time.

They had a break between chores and supper and Mhinadi had been trying to find things to occupy herself. She'd rebraided her braid twice already and her fingers were still tingling, so when Orelune happened by her bunk, she just sort of blurted out, "Are you still excited, or is it just me?"

houllow

 

[houllow]

Oreune looked at Mhin and shrugged, her thoughts still somewhat scattered over everything that had happened. "I mean, I always expect the worst so I go in ...semi-excited? I dunno how to explain it." That probably wasn't the best way to phrase it and Oreune understood - a lot of people could often question her with legit reason about how she said or did things, but .....eh.

"I mean, after touching comes Impression stuff and that is pretty exciting one or way the other. Last time I stood I got gored pretty bad so I'm hoping this time is different." That....wasn't at all what the girl had asked and so Oreune tried again. "But uh...yeah. I'm...excited, sure. A chance to be a dragonrider is something anyone would be excited about."

Samuel Carlin

 

[Samuel Carlin]

Her eyebrows lifted a little, the faintest line drawn between them for a moment as she tried to follow the twists and turns of that response as Oreune spoke. Her expression smoothed, then, and she nodded, since ultimately they'd reached the same conclusion. Excitement! Even if they got there by different paths.

"I'm sorry that happened," she said. "It's always scary when someone gets hurt. More for you than for those of us who just see it," she allowed. "Does it make you nervous, too? Oh, nevermind." She corrected herself. "You already said you eexpect the worst, so I guess that's a yes.."

She paused a moment, then said, "I don't think that's going to happen this time."

houllow

 

[houllow]

'I always expect the worst in a situation, or I go in expecting nothing. And I mean like...literally nothing. Which we're not supposed to do on the sands because it's ~bad~ and all that, so I try not to think on it when I'm out there." Oreune shrugged again and thought about sitting, though she stayed standing. "If you go in expecting nothing then you're either going to be pleasantly surprised if something does happen or you're going to be proven right."

She knew her logic was super weird but that also meant she needed to explain it, sometimes. Which she didn't mind, not really, because there was no harm in it. Either this girl understood and was okay with it or she thought Oreune was ridiculous and ignored her in the future. Not a huge problem.

"And me getting hurt was an accident, or at least that's what they told me and what we're all supposed to understand anyway. It's not like the dragonets do it on purpose." That was a lie, but since it was ~explained~ that a dragonet before Impression had no real ~control~ they were just supposed to accept it. Which Oreune would do because what else was she supposed to do? "And yeah I don't expect to get hurt this time either. I'm not that unlucky."

Somehow this conversation had turned into a downer. "But anyway, did you have an egg you liked? What kind of dragonets do you think we'll see?"

Samuel Carlin

 

[Samuel Carlin]

Maybe Oreune leaned a little or looked uncomfortable, or maybe Mhadi had been planning to invite her to sit anyway. Either way, she scooted toward the head of her bunk, patted the now-open space beside her in invitation, and pulled long legs up to brace her feet on the edge of the frame, wrappoing her arms around her knees.

"I don't think I could think about nothing. I'd get all tangled up in thinking about nothing and then I'd be thinking about something. Then I'd have to start all over again. Or pretend that I was hearing, I don't know, nothing but wind in my mind the whole time. But what if you were concentrating so hard on hearing nothing that you missed hearing [i[something the dragonets said. That would be bad too." And so tangled a thought that it made her frown at herself until she shook it off. Whuf.

Which eggs she'd liked was a much easier topic to follow and she beamed. "The black and yellow striped one. The dragonet in there was so sweet and so happy to have someone who wanted to stay near it. It felt just like it was leaning against me. The one that looked like it was dressed up all proper, like for a Gather? That one didn't like the fact that I got sandy when I sat down for a minute. That one's going to be fussy."

"What about you?"

houllow

 

[houllow]

"The best method, or so I've come to understand, is just to have the head empty, nothing here hello baby sort of mindset. Or maybe just endless flattery and praise? I'm really not the best person to ask this sort of thing but ehh.....you gotta try everything at least once. I can't even remember what I was doing last time before I suddenly got attacked so all I can do is hope it doesn't happen again." She really didn't remember much about the attack either, which the mindhealers said was common for dealing with trauma, and considering she'd talked to the very same dragon who'd done it to her shortly after and not instantly died of a heart attack, maybe it was for the best.

She paused and pressed on with the new topic she'd suggested. "I had an egg tell me to piss off while threatening to tattle on me all at once." She smirked at this, having found that the more she talked about it the less it stung. "Probably a record, yeah?" The young woman took a seat on the bed in the space left open, careful to move her hair so she wouldn't sit on the braid. Shards, she needed to invest in pulling it up into a bun maybe. "I also had another egg sort of ask me to sit too? Or at least hang out with it. It was nice."

Samuel Carlin

 

[Samuel Carlin]

"Right," Mhadi agreed. "Wind noises. Nothing but wind noises." She opened one hand so she could wiggle her fingers while she did a very bad impression of wind blowing through ...something. A cavern? Her head. It didn't much matter, since it was essentially a tuneless, breathy whistle. She ended it by saying, "Don't go in hoping you won't get attacked. Go in knowing you won't. My father says that if you think like a target, then the people who are looking for targets will always find you out. So don't be a target."

Once Oreune sat, Mhadi leaned a little toward her. Not close enough to touch or even crowd her. Just closer. "I'm pretty sure the fancied up egg meant for me to go away, too." She shrugged. "Some of them were nicer than others. Just like we are, right?"

houllow

 

[houllow]

"I mean you gotta think of something. Usually I try and think of like...feeding and oiling? Stuff a dragonet would want. Or also maybe like 'hi you're pretty'. Basics." Anything would be better than true nothing. Mhadi's lean towards Oreune went semi-unnoticed, as she wasn't that big on personal space to begin with. After nearly two turns of being crammed in the Candidate barracks folks tended to get over their need for room. It was that way back at the crafthall too, and Oreune could recall (with fondness) falling asleep literally on some of her friends after they all finished a particularly difficult assignment.

Sometimes she missed those moments, that closeness, because...well. Those were thoughts for another time.

"Yeah, they are. It makes sense if you think about it, since dragons are their own person...er..people?" She paused. "You know what I mean - they're all unique in their personalities too. I've never really met two dragons that were exactly the same, even if they came from the same shell. I know Kleoth is a twin but she's nothing like her sister."

Samuel Carlin

 

[Samuel Carlin]

Mhinadi thought about that for a long moment, chewing the inside of her cheek until she said, "Maybe that's what did it. If you were thinking about feeding them, maybe that's what got the dragon that attacked you all confused and upset. Maybe it thought you were food. Somehow. I mean, they're not dumb, but ... maybe it just got confused. Maybe we're safest to think of oil, like you said. Nice, soft, not itchy oil."

That seemed like a good plan.

She shook her head then, though she was agreeing. "It makes sense that they wouldn't be alike, though, really. People who are twins don't have exactly the same personalities, so why should dragons?" Speaking of which: "Can you tell those two boys apart? The Candidates. Oh-la... something, and the other one. I keep trying, but I'm pretty lousy at it."

houllow

 

[houllow]

Oreune shrugged. "It also kinda happened because one of the dragons was sitting on the lifemate of another, and they wouldn't move and blah blah fighting." She waved her hand around in the air in the same way someone would to indicate 'this happened, bah bah'. Normally Oreune didn't even think or talk about her accident, not as often as it seemed, but since it was getting a lot closer to a hatching maybe that was why it slipped into conversations? Ah well.

At the mention of being able to tell candidates apart, Oreune shrugged again and shook her head. "Honestly? I know names but whether or not I can put a face to the name remains to be seen. Either I know your face or know your name, getting both is special." There were so many candidates that filtered in and out it was honestly hard to keep track. Maybe she should really step it up and do better? "And when it comes to twins....you have a 50/50 shot there. Just do like I do in situations like that and never address them by name." She snorted, apparently amused by her own trick.

"Speaking on close personalities though and twins - do you think we'll have doubles in these eggs? The mother was a twin so...."

Samuel Carlin

 

[Samuel Carlin]

:Oh." Blink blink. "Well then you weren't a target at all. It really was just an accident. That should make you feel better. It'd make me feel better anyway., You didn't do anything wrong. You were just in the wrong place. So, you're right. Of course you aren't unlucky enough for it to happen again." And with that, Mhadi considered the matter settled.

Now, the twins...

She laughed out loud at Oreune's suggestion. "No names. That could get tricky. I guess I could just point," she said, demonstrating by pointing at different places in the air. "You. No, not you. The other... you. Like that?" Eyes dancing, she looked to the other girl for approval.

"Oh, that's a good question. I did hear that twins were happening more often. Of courde, that could mean bad things about..." She paused and lowered her voice to whisper, "Thread." Speaking normally again, she said, "If more dragons are hatching, like, extra dragons, maybe it's because we need them. But ... sure, mavbe." She shrugged. "What do you think?"

houllow

[/quotre]

 

[houllow]

"Just address them with 'hey' and don't specify who you were looking for. Works all of the time, seventy-percent of the time." Oreune didn't consider herself a great comedian but she did enjoy being funny now and then. Or at least what she thought was funny, or what could be accepted as funny.

As for the reason for twins.... "Well I mean, I dunno. It's not like we have unfettered access to records like weyrwomen and other people of rank do so whatever we hear about an increase of Thread we've got to base on what we see as well. I do know it's been happening more and more frequently, plus we have the food shortages...." It was all downright terrible and depressing, if a person let it get to them, but well - life was short. Plow ahead. "The more dragons we have though the better, it's gotta be. Just means there needs to be more candidates out there on the sands, too."

"There's also been an increase in golds being born - I wonder if this cluch is gonna have one. It's always nice to see one, and I bet whomever she Impresses to is gonna be amazing." A pause. "If there is a gold, that is." Oreune didn't even DARE to think she'd Impress a gold, considering she hardly thought she'd Impress a dragon.

No, she'd just stand until she aged out or got injured enough she wasn't able to stand anymore. That was how she saw things and that was probably okay. In fact, it was absolutely okay with her if it happened, since Impressing would be a wonderful surprise.

Samuel Carlin

 

[Samuel Carlin]

In this moment, she was funny. At least Mhinadi was amused, and that had to count for something, anyway. "Always, seventy percent of the time? I'm not sure whether those are good or bad odds, but the next time I'm stuck beside them, maybe I'll try it out and let you know how it goes."

Her amusement faded a little as the topic got more serious and required more thought to talk about. "No, of course we can't see all the records. And don't remind me about the food," she groaned, wrinkling her nose. "I still can't even think about fish without my stomach making bubbles." She pressed a hand against it just in case it decided now was a good time to contribute to the conversation.

"You're right, though. All these dragons have got to be a good thing. It just means that, whatever happens next, we'll be ready for it. All of Pern will be ready." Right? Right. It had to be. They couldn't be caught off guard like they had when Thread came back again.

"I hope there's a gold," Mhinadi said eagerly. "At least one. That's a good sign. It's good luck," she said. "It's proof that Western's dragons are strong and healthy and ready for anything."

That was what her father had taught her, at least. She had to believe.

houllow

 

[houllow]

"Bah! I'd take fish over the paste I had to eat for nearly six months! I'll tell you now, if you want to lose weight just get attacked in the gut by a dragonet and you'll be on the worst diet of your life. With the way that stuff tasted sometimes I'd cry out for a merciful death." Oreune again was in good humor, a bright grin on her lips that showed teeth, her eyes scrunched up in amusement. "The fact you got to eat fish...I'm so jealous." Of course she ate fish now and whatever else there was, but the sight of infirmary food would forever roll her stomach.

As Mhinadi mentioned her hopes for the Gold, Oreune raised an eyebrow. "Are you hoping it'll look to you though? Or maybe even say hi - that would be nice. Personally I'd like it if a dragon interacted with me in a more....positive light this go around." The bar was set so low for what she was expecting at the hatching it was basically underground at this point.

Samuel Carlin

 

[Samuel Carlin]

"Paste?" Mhinadi actually stuck her tongue out as she made an even more horrible face, before dissolving into more laughter. "I'll be happy if we can just have bread and wherry once a sevenday. I'll take that over endless fish stew or, Faranth help us, paste. That sounds awful!" With luck she'd never know whether informary food was actually paste-like or not.

And, of course, she sobered again, taking a big breath before she exhaled happily. "Oh, I'd settle for a nice hello, I guess." She tipped close enough this time to nudge Oreune's shoulder with hers. "But you can't tell me, even with all your hoping for nothing and empty thoughts in your head, that you've never dreamed that you might be the next girl to sit a gold. We all dream about it, whether we believe it'll come true or not. Even just for a second. If you say you've never, I'll know you're lying."

houllow