Eradicating evil was always on my to-do list (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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bakerstreet2013-02-24 05:27 pm
cerebel) wrote in bakerstreet2013-02-24 05:27 pm
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.
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!
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!
Kinda interested in playing Will as a green rider, so I'm gonna try that.
[ Will is somewhat preoccupied with the process of getting his damn dragon into the damn water. She prances just out of reach of the crater lake's waves. Which is really just her teasing him, because he knows how she likes swimming. ]
It's just like swimming, except some people are giving you a massage with soap. Yes, really.
[ Funny, that a wingleader should have such a stubborn dragon. Usually, they're well-behaved, disciplined; but JJ is smart, quick. Brave as hell. It's Will that provides the steadiness in their relationship, and it's the merit of their unusual Impression that had Will moving up quickly to leading a wing of his own. ]
Ah, JJ -- !
[ -- This last because she decides to charge on in and flop in the water, everything from legs to belly to chin submerged, her wings stretched out as a kind of flotation device.
Will ducks under the brief wave from her movements and re-surfaces, shaking the water out of his hair. Good thing he already stripped to the waist.
Jayjeth stares back at him from eyes that are down at water level, the way she's swimming.
To Daniel: ] You're right. This was a lot easier, back in the day.
Got it!
The flop into the water isn't entirely graceful; it reminds Daniel for a moment of a Welsh Corgi bellyflopping off a pier. Without waiting, Yuggoth lifts up, almost clipping Daniel in the chin with his hip, and swims over to to the green dragon's side. Daniel has to wade over to them]
They were a lot easier to bribe in one place too. Now they know better to hold out for more.
I'd offer you a towel but there doesn't seem to be a point right now.
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He runs a hand through his wet hair, smiles ruefully. ] Nope, you'd just get the towel wet.
[ The green dips so her nostrils are under the water and exhales in a great gust, spraying the blue with a burst of water. On purpose.
It's affectionate. If she didn't like him, she'd be swimming the other direction right now.
Will wades until the water's above his waist, and then dives forward, swimming out to the two. There are others bathing nearby, a few wings' worth if you include the dragons sunning themselves on the shore, but for the most part they're further around the crater, in sight but not in immediate earshot. ]
Yours -- Yuggoth, right? [ He has a good memory for names. ] -- he's almost at full size, isn't he?
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[Daniel follows after Will, joining him as they tread water. Yuggoth is sprayed with water and does a flip turn - almost otter-like in the water, tugging at the green's tail. Yuggoth especially likes this green, and Daniel's got that feeling that when she does take to the sky for a mating flight, his blue is going to be pushing and biting to get to the front.
Daniel manages so he's floating on his back. He's not about to try to crawl up onto a rowdy blue dragon to try and wash him; tried that a few times, ended up spiraling around in the water. He'll wait for whenever Yuggoth is ready]
How've you been, by the way? I haven't had a chance to catch up since last Threadfall.
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[ He's aware of the tension between the two dragons. Who knows, JJ might even choose him, when the time comes. Will's got a pretty relaxed attitude about these things. He knows he'll find one person to settle down with all his life, someday; he knows that he hasn't found that person yet. Both of JJ's prior flights were flings, a lot of fun, a lot of passion, but ultimately not what Will wanted for the rest of his life.
And, of course, JJ doesn't seem like she's ready to settle any time soon. Which might just be a symptom of being a green. ]
They are debating leavin' my wing out there for more of the Fall. I don't like it. Greens are, you know, a very particular kind of dragon. They're good for the times you need someone quick to come in and revitalize -- not good for flyin' for hours. [ Will's wing is the best, is why. They're good spotters, able to weave in and out of the layers of dragons fighting Thread. Not a Fall goes by without them sweeping in and saving someone. ]
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[Daniel lifts his head a little, watching Jayjeth give as good as she got when it came to teasing and rough-housing with Yuggoth. He flares his wings finally, spraying water, and keeps them open, providing some needed shade to the area, and kicks at the water languidly, tail swaying like a rudder]
You're having riders transfer off? [tell him about it when it comes to Greens. A wry look comes across Daniel's face.] But not as good when it comes to endurance, yeah. But sometimes speed and agility's better than the long hours.
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And JJ finally starts making her way back into the shallows, after giving Yuggoth a couple of nudges, apparently attempting to knock him over. ]
I think that's our cue. [ He raises a hand at one of the adolescents on shore, and she comes diving in, bringing them a basket of sweetsand and some rough cloths. Will takes a handful of sand and dumps it on a cloth, offers the basket to Daniel.
JJ, now, has lain herself in the shallows, vaguely floating with her wings again. Will climbs right up onto her, works up a lather with the cloth, and starts cleaning out the ridges along her back.
He adores her, and she, him. It's easy to see, in the way he smiles, the way she responds and shifts to every little hint he gives. She might be rebellious and playful, but when it comes to it, she's absolutely his. ]
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[Yuggoth stumbles for her benefit, but wouldn't have fallen or lost his balance had it been any other dragon her size. He follows her out, keeping close to her and eying the other dragons around]
Thanks.
[Daniel sets to it, climbing up onto Yuggoth and reaching behind the eye ridges for a good scrub. He watches the two with a smile; every dragon is a match, but this one really is a perfect one]
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Now, if Will's ever seen a sign, that was it.
He hangs back, taking a snack from the basket he brought, to see how Yuggoth plans on taking space around her. ]
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He...should probably get to know Will a little better, if this is any indication. Daniel doesn't mind what comes from mating flights, you can't, really but personally, he does like to know something more about who he wakes up next to. That's granted a bigger dragon doesn't get to the green first, but better safe than sorry]
Looks like a match made in heaven. Until he starts annoying her.
[somewhat dryly.]
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Please. [ A pat next to himself, on the bedroll. He's on the same wavelength, Daniel. Offers him some of the bread, smoked meat and fruits that he brought along. ]
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I guess we'll see how it goes when the time comes.
[he takes the invitation, sitting down next to the greenrider, and takes the snacks with a thanks.]
You know, I never thought I'd be sitting here like this when I was younger. I assumed I'd be put into one of the Crafts. What about you?
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