Imogen (sweetwings) wrote in bendenweyr, @ 2013-03-30 18:46:00 |
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Entry tags: | imogen, k'rin, kenzie, r'ger |
Who: Imogen, Kenzie, T'lus, K'rin, R'ger
When: Two weeks after K'rin's demotion
Where: Candidate barracks, Kenzie's quarters, Werybowl, K'rin's weyr
Summary: A green rises, Shielth chases. Imogen finally snaps under the stress of the teasing and has a bit of an anxiety attack over her relationship with R'ger. Kenzie is basically the best BFF ever.
Imogen was helping a wingrider of the Fourth scrub his blue when she heard the angry shriek of a dragon and a squeal from the killing grounds of the Weyr. The blue, Ninith, raised his head and warbled questioningly towards the grounds before raising his wings, showering her and his rider with water as he waddled out of the way and took wing, bugling an answer to the green’s shrieks of challenge. Imogen pressed her lips together and took a hasty step back to avoid being run over by the man she’d been having a nice conversation with three minutes before. His eyes as he passed her were already starting to look a bit frantic.
She shook her head at him and turned her head to see who would give chase. Most of the dragons of the Fourth were there-they had just finished a long series of drills-and had their heads turned towards the green. The majority turned back to wallowing in the cool lake, but a few were interested enough to try their strength and speed. She noticed a movement to her left and her eyes went wide. Shielth? The bronze was rumbling and waddling out of the lake, flapping to dry his wings quickly. R’ger spared her a torn look and stumbled after his dragon, aiming towards the growing cluster of riders across the meadow.
Imogen stared, confused. Well, not confused, but perhaps surprised and most definitely dismayed. Shielth was going to give chase? Bronzes did not always follow the greens, she knew this. And she hadn’t expected Shielth to show any interest. She had been naïve, she admitted sourly. Of course the dragon would fly females and R’ger would fall into bed with their riders. She knew that, but she’d refused to absorb it until now. She understood the Weyr way, but she’d never been in a relationship in this setting. She didn’t realize she’d started to follow after the bronze rider until B’nilen, a green rider in R’ger’s wing, blocked her path and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her out of her thoughts. “Come on, Jaduth could use more scrubbing. There’s no stopping them now.”
She nodded meekly and set to work on Jaduth’s brilliant hide, too caught up in her own head to realize that the green needed no cleaning. B’nilen was distracting her, and later she would be grateful to him for that. She paused to watch the proddy green lauch quickly, outpacing her suitors by several lengths before they even left the ground. Jaduth twisted her head around under her wing to nudge at Gen's torso. Apologetically she resumed scrubbing coarse sand firmly into the hide and firmly put the flight out of her mind.
Dusk was setting when she’d finally finished working with the riders. She’d assisted one other green and the brown that was R’ger’s wingsecond. She didn’t have time to notice R’ger’s continued absence; the wingsecond was ridiculously strict and did more hanging over her shoulder and directing her than actual cleaning himself. She had to wonder why he'd ordered her to help at all if he didn’t trust her to do a satisfactory job. Finally, though, it was time to go back to the barracks. The drills had run late, the bathing had taken the remainder of the daylight, and she was famished and eager to scrub herself clean after washing away such a large amount of firestone stench and shoveling away a younger dragon’s accidental disgorging of his second stomach. Firestone ash reeked.
She scrubbed and changed into a fresh tunic and light skirt. Something R’ger had bought her at the gather that flared as she turned. The necklace he’d bought had yet to leave her body. Faranth knew whether she’d find it again if she left it at her cot, and she wanted to keep it safe. She bundled her hair into a knot at the back of her head and smoothed her skirt down.
A candidate passed her area and backed up, peering in. She stiffened and leveled a glare at the boy. He was one of the worst of her bullies and it was largely his fault that most of the others avoided any long conversation with her. It just wasn’t worth bringing his harassment down on their own heads. Gen would be seriously shocked if the brat Impressed.
“Heard your bronze rider won,” he taunted, grinning widely at her. “Definitely saves money, his dragon being randy enough to chase a green. With all the gifts he gives you I would have thought you would be doing more to keep him satisfied.”
She reacted instinctively, grabbing the nearest object and hurling it at the older boy’s head. He ducked and whirled around to look at the ground behind him. Lyrra’s early work, her first gift from her cousin, lay shattered where it had smashed against the wall. “Don’t think this won’t be reported,” he called as he moved down the hall.
Gen stood and stared at the glass, colors shining on the ground against the glow lights. Her eyes began to heat and she cleared her throat to stem the flow of tears. Tears would only make him happy, and they were weak. She knew what she was getting into, even if she hadn’t really been thinking about it too deeply.
She was out the door of the barracks and heading towards Kenzie’s room across the bowl before she had formed a proper plan. Imogen hesitated only a moment before reaching up to rap her knuckles lightly but insistently against the door. She needed her best friend to whap some sense into her head, to break her out of this funk.