[PRP] Burnt (Niviora + Vimeran)

[Prism Shine]

Breathe. 1, 2, 3 --
Taking herself off the sands had been truly for the best, to move off to the side until A’ral had called them away. She’s at war with herself, and with every footstep away from the hot sands has the maelstrom threatening to lash, to pick up speed. The injustice, the anger from the little yellow egg having a tantrum pricked at her heart like a needle, wanting to bare her teeth like a wild firelizard at any who strayed too close into her space, lest they could see the heartbreak of old wounds torn back open.

Her mother, gone in the morning from a mistake made of anger. Of being loved and left with a “gift” in her gut. Left behind, again, and again, and again.
1, 2, 3, 4, 5 --

There was also some profound kick at having been left standing at Esurienth’s clutch. This one, she had a solid feeling for -- for the soft, scarred queen’s presence had always made the candidate feel -- calmer, soothed. But she had touched, and offended, one egg -- and no doubt she would keep track of the golden flourish egg in case the baby had reconsidered her apology. Chest ached, the barest bristle of the hair on the back of her neck. Scars to add to her collection, no doubt.

Having been so busy, so preoccupied on the sands hadn’t given her much time to seek out familiar people -- and her sharp, almost feral brownred eyes sought only one right now. “Vimeran,” Niviora’s gaze finally landed on the High Reaches candidate, and she does her best to take a deep breath to settle the biting anger, jogging to catch up with the taller boy. “That one was certainly quick, mm?” She's trying to go for friendly, but it's more teeth than she'd have intended.

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

Vimeran had been participating in Touchings and Hatchings for Turns now and he knew the drill well. Get in, don't piss anyone or anything off, get out. If one of the dragons likes you, move on to the next stage of becoming a dragon rider. If none of them pick you, back to the barracks and lessons. He hated and loved routine just as he hated and loved variables. Routine was safe. Routine he could manage. If he knew what was coming, he could deal with it. Routine kept him on the straight and narrow.

But it was boring.

Better boring than dangerous, he supposed. But that's where variations came in. They were unknown, surprising, exciting. But also very, very bad when it came to throwing him off his pivot. One little egg, one little thought or feeling could set him off and that was not what he wanted, specially out there on the Sands of a different Weyr. Not only did Vimeran have to represent himself, he had to represent High Reaches as well. Balancing that responsibility was difficult and each Western clutch that he'd been privileged enough to attend always put him on edge. Now that the Weyrs were at odds with one another that extra pressure certainly didn't help things, and when the upset egg had set him off he'd know it was time to step back and leave.

There were still little embers of anger cooling within him, ready to flare up and ignite with the subtlest breath. Vimeran knew he had a bit of time before he had to head back, so he figured a walk to cool his mind would do him some good. When his feet were moving his mind didn't need to think and he could walk out the pressure that was slowly diffusing inside of him.

His name, however, made him pause. The voice clicked a moment later and one of those little embers flared to life within him, making him clench his fists. Niviora was a...friend might be too strong a word. They'd bumped into each other at the first Touching he'd attended and seemed to gravitate towards each other ever since whenever a gold produced a clutch. Vimeran liked her well enough, he supposed, but she had some rather flitterbrained ideas that could irritate or amuse him, depending on a multitude of things. He knew with the way the Yellow Spiral egg had riled everyone up that today it would definitely be the former of the two and he really didn't want to get into a pissing match with the one person he generally sought out during times like this.

"Niviora," he said in return, his voice gruff but not unwelcoming. He gave a little huff and a shrug before starting to walk again, confident she'd follow.

"For the best when the eggs start acting like that. Getting everyone worked up, something was bound to happen if it wasn't cut short." Not that he was glad it had been. He rarely seemed to get to touch more than two or three eggs and, though he knew it wouldn't sway a dragon's decision when it hatched, a small part of him wanted to have an interaction with a dragon that was...personal. Intimate. Like the stories and songs he'd heard about.

But everyone on those sands wanted that too, so he had to be patient. At least he had a few more years than Niviora, the older girl's time to stand running out.

"You look a right sight. Pissed off too?"

Prism Shine

 

[Prism Shine]

Being in the vicinity of Vimeran was an interesting experience. Turns of standing at touchings and hatchings, gravitating to one person in particular had left her with an odd taste of… friendship? Kinship? It was hard to nail down the term of whatever her and Vimeran’s relationship was quite like, if there was any kind of word for it. He was one of the few that Niviora could barely stand, right up there with that candidate who had fussed over her when she had first arrived. Yet small points of contact through these touchings and hatchings, lingering around feasts to trade conversation and sometimes sharper words had the woman looking forward to each time a gold rose at either Weyr -- and not just for the ultimate moment of impression.

Vimeran was kept at something of an arm’s length, and had Niviora pondering more than once if this dynamic of theirs would be different if they were in the same Weyr. There was a good handful of things they didn’t agree on, daresay outweighed the ones they did agree on. Sometimes not seeing eye to eye had her stoked, equal parts angry with him and.. glad? impressed? that he never hid his thoughts on her views, even if they weren’t the most conventional or traditional. Yet she found herself looking for him -- for a rise or simply familiar companionship, it was hard to tell.
6, 7, 8 --

Falling in step with him when she finally caught up, she took in his appearance briefly. Clipped tone, that hard edge to his gaze. At least she wasn’t the only one to be still affected. “Probably for the best. The amount of candidates I saw crying was quite.. something.” Maybe life experiences had let them feel that cascade of emotions differently, but what good did breaking down do to the face of injustice? Get angry, do something about it. At the very least, she had never let anyone see her cry -- and she refused to do so still.

“Sure am, sunshine.” Niviora grinned, a touch too wide, as she shrugged a bit. “You’d think after all this time, I wouldn’t get so keyed up with egg emotions, but here we are.” And wasn’t that just the deepest irony, that after over a decade, here she was, still standing, still waiting. Still bowled over by the emotions of babies who couldn’t control them, would maybe have one of those pretty pairs of facets find her instead of those around her. “Looks like that lil one got to you, too.”

She finally ran a hand over her face, tie plucked out as she ruffled her hair almost roughly, sending the bright red locks everywhere before settling over her shoulders. The need to move, to burn that energy out is bone deep -- maybe she’d go for a run during her free time later. “You have any decen--” she pauses almost briefly, mindful of her words even with the growing distance between them and the hatching sands. “Any memorable touches?” With a soft huff, she thought of golden flourish but briefly. “I.. only had one touch, and it wasn’t quite happy with me.”

SilverLutz

 

[SilverLutz]

Normally Vimeran didn't want company when he was irritated - it was harder to fight the urge to continue to be angry when others were around to bother him - but with Niv it was differed. She could toss fuel onto his fire but she could temper it and focus it with her own. She was someone he could snap and snarl at and she'd give as good as she got. Somehow it seemed safer this way, she knew the consequences of getting into a verbal fight and she accepted it. Though Vimeran didn't like giving in to his emotions like that, sometimes letting it burn out hot and fast was better than letting it fester.

He could hear the sharpness to Niviora's voice that echoed the hard tone in his own, treated metal against stone, sparks would fly but neither would leave a mark. That was fine. Anger was fine if no one got hurt, he supposed, though he was still loathe to give into it.

"Don't call me that," Vimeran said half-heartedly out of reflex. He hated pet names or nicknames of any kind, the only one he'd accept was if a dragon claimed him and he shortened it as was tradition. He still wasn't sure what he'd shorten it to, but he supposed he'd cross that bridge if he ever got to it. Niviora liked to needle at him and she knew calling him anything but his name was a sure fire way to get under his skin quickly.

Her question drew a shake of his head and a snort from the man. Decent touches. He knew what she meant and he also knew he wouldn't put it past the eggs to still be listening in, so the correction was understandable.

"Not really. Touched the one that ended up shutting everything down, and it was very excited. Off-puttingly so." The ones after that hadn't been anything to write home about either, indifferent and in the case of the last egg, he'd not touched it long enough to get anything from it before he'd walked off the sands.

"I suppose I had three, technically. But the last one was just a quick brush of the fingers before I left." He'd seen the other Candidates doing similar things - he'd not seen Niv on the sands at all, but he assumed she'd left as well - but the ones that had started to cry and try to comfort the egg were...mm. Well. There was a reason he didn't try too hard to make friends with people on the sands.

"I'm sure there's dragons out there that appreciate that sort of...emotional instability. The quicker they're off the sands the better. Hopefully this touching will go smoother than the last."

Of course, they were still baby dragons. He was sure there'd be blood regardless.

Prism Shine