The Dragonriders of Pern AU Meme

[cerebel]

THE DRAGONRIDERS OF PERN AU MEME


WARNING: Contains situations of dubious consent, violence, and triggers. Click with caution.

Pern is a planet with an unusual problem. Every 250 years or so, orbits in the system bring the planet into a fifty-year shower of a substance they call Thread. Thread consumes every organic substance it comes into contact with, dissolving plastics, plants and people alike. It is stopped only by metal and stone. In order to combat this menace, the early colonists on Pern created dragons.

Now, thousands of years later, dragons are an ordinary institution. They carry passengers and transport messages, since they are able to go Between, a teleporting ability that produces several seconds of cold sensory deprivation every time it is done. They live in weyrs, places reserved solely for dragons, riders and support staff, usually in caves, often in volcanic areas in order to create warm grounds for egg-laying and hatching.

The dragons themselves bond with, or Impress, humans immediately upon hatching, creating a deep, psychic and very intimate connection. Dragons and humans are a pair, and they tend to bond based on personality, gender and sexual orientation. This comes into play during mating flights, when female dragons go into heat and fly away, requiring a male to catch her and mate mid-air. Often, sex between the riders of the mated dragons is not optional, no matter who the riders are or what they feel about one another. This creates a general atmosphere of sexual openness in the weyr.

That's a dragonrider's life. Skipping out to fight the latest shower of Thread, taking care of their dragon, hopping Between, and dealing with the occasional unwanted desires from a mating flight.

For more info, feel free to check out Wikipedia!

HOW IT WORKS:
1) Post with your character and canon. Feel free to take this opportunity to make a note about which sort of dragon your character would have, and any roleplaying preferences.
2) Tag around, and dragon this shit up.
3) Stick to canon, if you like; disregard it, if you like.
4) Have some goddamn fun with some goddamn dragons.

TYPE OF DRAGON
CANON:
Gold - the largest of the dragons and most rare, queens and egg-layers. Those who Impress a dragon like this generally end up in a weyr's leadership. These dragons canonically always have women as their riders.
Bronze - second largest, male; the gold's mating pool tends to draw from these. These dragons canonically always have men as their riders.
Brown - slightly smaller than bronze, male, steady and strong with a lot of endurance. These dragons canonically always have men as their riders.
Blue - the smallest male, and a somewhat awkward compromise between strength and small size/agility. These dragons canonically nearly always have men as their riders.
Green - quick, agile and flighty, without much endurance, making up about 50% of all canon dragon population. Female. Greens almost never lay any eggs, and lack much of a maternal instinct. These dragons may take riders of either gender.

NON-CANON/SLIGHTLY MODIFIED CANON:
(In case you'd like a few more options to play with.)
White - A mutation, but a surprisingly common one. White dragons have little to no sex drive, and are very small, but unusually intelligent and sometimes have strange and unique abilities.
Black/Dark Blue - Another rare mutation. These dragons can be of either gender, but are incapable of chewing firestone and producing flame. They tend to take dragonriders who are deceptive, sneaky, clever. They are often used as messengers or as night-riding spies.
Red - Female and medium-size, this dragon is a fighting dragon that does clutch, if not as numerously or as productively as the golds. They tend towards passion and strength, deep emotions that make them fervent fighters.
Yellow - Male, on the small side, jumpy and often somewhat thick-headed, yellows take longer to mature and are more difficult to train to work in groups, but once you do, the result is worth it. They are impulsive and brave and vicious.
Purple - Another dragon type that can be male or female. Small-bodied and huge-winged, this type is somewhat rare but ideal for long patrols. Their eyesight is famous and keen, so they're good spotters as well.
Other - If you have a particular idea, feel free to make up your own!

HIJINKS
1 - Threadfall. Time to get out there and burn this stuff before it manages to hit the ground. Hopefully you won't find yourself or your dragon in the path of this stuff. Otherwise, you might be out of commission for a while, and the scars never heal.
2 - Gather Day. It's a festival today! Get out there and spend some money, hear some music, and have some lovely food.
3 - Hatching. The candidates are ready, and those eggs look hard enough to break. Hatching could happen at any time. Are you ready for Impression?
4 - Feeding/Bathing. Dragons need a lot of taking care of. Whether it's feeding a hatchling an enormous basket of meat, taking a full-grown dragon out to hunt, or having a bath in the lake outside the weyr, keeping your dragon happy is a full-time job.
5 - Mating Flights. It's time. Your dragon is feeding on the blood of their kill, and they're about to take off. Who's going to catch them this time?
6 - Other. Wild card, if there's any other situation you'd like to explore!

Comments

[burnthemall]

Not always.

[He tends to start shit with everyone and anyone he comes across, including his superiors. The only person he listens to with any regularity is his sister and his dragon.]

You better be careful. You'll turn red with too much.

[chromatist]

[Gretel is far easier to deal with than her brother. Perhaps that's why Lydia doesn't like her as much.]

I am aware of how sunburns work, thank you. [She gestures around to the patch of shade she's staked out for herself.] Once Ikath grows bored of pretending to be a fish, we'll go back into the weyr and nap until it's time to ride.

[burnthemall]

That's a big fish.

[Though his Ondoth is much, much larger. Hansel is going to be scrubbing for awhile.]

You've got a mission tonight?

[chromatist]

Let her have her moment. [Like Lydia, Ikath is on the smaller scale of her species. It makes it easier for them to slip under peoples' radars, since a large dragon blotting out the stars is fairly easy to spot, even in the dead of night. If they move quickly enough, Ikath and her rider can pass undetected virtually anywhere they want to go.]

Mhmm. We leave at sundown.

[burnthemall]

Where are you going?

[He's always curious about what other riders are up to. He gets to fly Thread and that's about it. It can get boring between falls.]

[chromatist]

High Reaches. I'm just passing along messages tonight, no spying. I don't even know what the scrolls say, I haven't been given them yet.

[burnthemall]

That's no fun, Red, I was hoping for something good.

[chromatist]

Get used to disappointment.

[burnthemall]

[Hansel smirks and without warning Ondoth swings his tail and sends a huge wave crashing over Lydia.]

Whoops.

[chromatist]

[Lydia only wastes a moment spluttering before she's up at her feet at the edge of the lake, shrieking as she launches herself at Hansel, hitting him center-mass and knocking him off his dragon into the water.

She chooses to ignore the undercurrent of amusement she can feel in the back of her mind from Ikath. Right now she has an arrogant rider to dunk.]

[burnthemall]

[They roll off Ondoth and hit the water. Hansel sinks down a few feet before kicking his way towards the surface.]

[chromatist]

[Lydia's waiting for him, attempting to tread water even in her boots and leather trousers, barely giving him a moment to surface before she's clinging to his back and rubbing her knuckles into his hair.

It's possible the other riders nearby are staring at them.]

Hansel!

[burnthemall]

Hey, Ondoth, a little help here?

[The brown dragon picks them both up and puts them on the shore. He doesn't want his rider to drown after all.]

[chromatist]

[She takes the moment they're airborne to push her wet hair out of her face.] Thanks, Odonth.

[Their relocation does not stop Lydia from hitting Hansel, solid closed-hand punches to muscle, nothing that would damage or hurt too much, but enough to get her point across.]

Asshole.

[During their tussle, Ikath had finally decided to relinquish her place in the lake and was instead perched on a rocky outcrop, watching the riders with amusement as she spread her wings to let them dry.]

[burnthemall]

[Hansel laughs through the whole assault. It's possible he's a little crazy. Most other riders think so.]

I was just cooling you off, Red.

[chromatist]

I hate you.

[She'd never admit it, but she likes him a little crazy. It's much more fun that way. Huffing again, she rolls off him and flops down to the ground, her clothing clinging to her and her hair hanging like wet ropes against her neck.]

[burnthemall]

I've heard that before.

[He wades back into the water. Ondoth is not perfectly clean yet.]

[chromatist]

A lot!

[She doesn't bother to raise her head as he walks out of her field of vision, just lies there in the sun and closes her eyes, letting the red of the inside of her eyelids grow slowly stronger.]

[burnthemall]

I hear that a lot too.

[He is totally used to it. He knows she doesn't mean it either. She's just upset he made her have fun.]

[chromatist]

Sounds like the common denominator in all those accusations is you, Hansel.

[Ikath slowly makes her way down from her rock and perches just above Lydia's head instead, spreading her wings again to dry them and keep her rider out of the direct glare of the sun.]

[burnthemall]

It's my charming personality.

[He's only really close with his sister. They survived a threadfall on their own as children. They have a bond that's almost as strong as his bond with Ondoth.]

[chromatist]

I wouldn't know about charming...

[That's not true. Despite her better judgement, it should be pretty clear Lydia likes Hansel. She's one of the few riders who will put up with him all the time, no matter what his mood. Similarly, most of the riders tend to avoid her as well, though that's usually because they don't trust spies.]

[burnthemall]

I am very charming, thank you very much.

[Ondoth rumbles in a dragon version of a laugh. Apparently he agrees with Lydia. The traitor.]

[chromatist]

Oh sure, during a mating flight. [When it doesn't matter how charming someone is. She lifts her head enough to smile at the dragon in the water and his rider, winking cheekily before settling back down in the shade under her dragon's wing.]

[burnthemall]

[The pair had never won a mating flight and that sort of stings. No one wants Hansel. He's used to that though. His parents did toss him away with his sister when they were kids.]

It's not my fault you can't appreciate my natural charm.