Xanadu Weyr - Meadow
A large, slightly rolling meadow is set high enough above the riverbank on both sides to avoid suffering from flooding, healthy ground cover and grass spreading out from either side of the dividing river. Scattered amongst the meadow are a variety of weyrs, each with a narrow path leading up to it from a main, winding road. Some are set under a few trees, while others sit by themselves. The meadow continues with gentle rolls and dips, grass tall and short waving in the slightest of breezes, and eventually those hills grow higher and steeper, ending in a large rige that provides a fine view of that meadow and the rest of the Weyr, gazing out over the multicolored roofs of the houses and the cliff that holds the caverns.
Runner stables with the paddock beyond are to the south beyond the meadow weyrs, and a smithy and a woodcraft shop are settled closer in towards the path to the clearing. Trees border the northern side of the meadow, and more of those low, rolling hills can be seen to the northwest. A road passes through the meadow, coming from the east and used by traders and crafters alike. Wagons laden with felled trees from the forests or ore from the mountains are hauled by burden beast up the road through the meadow, over the bridge spanning the river to be processed in the appropriate workshops.
Mid-afternoon has arrived at the Weyr and with it something called DOOM. Or innovation. One or the other. In any case, Tealonie has been summoned via G'in's new flit Choco and now the rider waits for said brat. He's sprawled our rather unceremoniously in the meadow, hands behind his head and eyes closed. Irseth is his personal pillow at the moment and the green is only half asleep. The occasional twitch of her tail is the only sign that something else is going on.
Tealonie is hightailing it along the meadow, running as fast as his short little legs will take him. Over hill, over dale. Forget that dusty trail. He converges upon dozing green and rider, full speed ahead! "Hey! What's up! Whatcha need?!"
It's a few seconds after Teal's arrived and spoken that the greenrider bothers to lazily open one eye. In fact, it's almost to the point that the poor brat might think he needs to repeat the greeting…but luckily he does not. "You didn't come empty handed did you? A little green tells me that it's the perfect weather to test drive your contra—HEY!" Before G'in can finish his sentence Irseth is suddenly pushing up and sending the poor man tumbling in the grass. There's a warble in greeting for Tea and though she doesn't lick him, she'll gently nose him once.
The greenrider is indeed lucky, course Teal is a little old for jumping on people now. Being twelve turns old now, afterall. "Sure! I've got it!" He exclaims and then he's laughing brightly as the rider goes tumbling and he's gently nose. Arms go out around said nose. "Oh, you are a sweetie!" he croons.
"Excuse me, I'm still /here/ you know!" G'in sits up, rubbing his head a little bit and wrinkling his nose at boy and dragon. There's a slight groan as the not /that/ old rider makes it to his feet. Irseth nuzzles the boy for a moment longer before pulling away. "Have you made any adjustments to the design or is it the same as last time?" The rider moves over to lean on Irseth now and raises an eyebrow towards Teal. "With a bit more air and a higher take off it should work better same material or no."
Tealonie grins brightly as he shrugs off a backpack. "I saved up bits of allowance and Da helped as well. It's a real parachute. Kinda. Da took be over to Landing and we looked through different designs, and then we took it to a weaver and it's made of sisal since we don't have silk he said. But it should catch the air really nice. I had to promise to not go jumping of cliffs or anything. Least not without an audult with me." What he pulls out is a rectangular tpe of parachute, with separate sections and looking much better than the sheet and ropes."
G'in leans over to take a good look at the parachute. "Well if your Da approved it then it's probably fine. And well…I /do/ count as an adult even if I don't act like one." The rider chuckles softly before climbing up onto Irseth's back and motioning for Tealonie to do the same. He'll doesn't offer a hand to help…for now at least. He's 12, Teal can handle it! Maybe? Irseth's small even as far as greens go anyhow.
Tealonie is a weyrbrat, he's been up and down lots of dragons. "Da said if I was gonna do fool things, then I might as well have the proper equipment or else he'd be in trouble with Mother too." he says cheerfully as he scrambles up and settlign himself in and giving Irseth a friendly pat. "So where we gonna go? How high will we be?" he asks excitedly.
"We'll do it right here in the meadow, I'm not sure how we'd fare over the water with the winds out there." Irseth lets out a loud bugle before flaring her wings and pushing up into the air without warning. That's her reply where as G'in's is…"As high as she thinks is good enough!" The green continues to climb, higher and higher until they can see out across the entirety of the weather.
Tealonie hmms a little "Yeah, I guess the wind does get a little wild over teh water. "He admits as he peers over the side of Irseth "Wow, we're pretty high up." he murmurs. Is that a bit of a gulp. It's one thing to be on a dragon up high, it's one thing to conemplate parachuting, it's a whole other thing to actually be so close to doing it.
"Too high?" G'in catches that moment of hesitation and rather unsafely whirls around so that he's facing the brat. Never follow this guy's example when it comes to riding safely. "You know, we can always go a little lower than necessary." He's only half teasing here. He will actually tell Irseth to go down. The green in question is holding steady now and gliding in a slow circle around the meadow.
Tealonie is quickly shaking his had "I'm not afraid." he claims, as if he'd admit otherwise. Gotta earn that man card, right?" It'll be good, and.. and gotta be high enough so the air catches in the 'chute. Right?" He does take a deep breath though as he watches the meadow and then he's arranging his parachute and clipping into a harness. Another addition his Da insisted on.
"Atta boy!" G'in throws back his head to laugh briefly. "Exactly, gotta be high enough and catch enough wind. Besides…I might steer you wrong, but Irseth won't." And she'll warble to that in reply. "Now we're going to be watching you the whole way down, but if you get into trouble just wave this thing about." And from a pocket G'in is producing a red handkerchief. "And yell too. That's just in case we can't hear you." You know, if he's too scared to scream. It happens! Despite the smile on his face, G'in /is/ looking over the entire contraption with a critical eye. It doesn't /look/ like anything's loose.
Tealonie gives a little smile, feeling just a little bit better that he didn't coward up. Still, he is tucking in that handkerchief into his harness "Okay." He places a hand on Irseth "ANd you'll catch me if need be." he states quite matter-of-factly. Course, he's pretty sure his Da wasn't meaning for him to be jumping of Dragons so high up, but what his parents don't know won't kill him. "Okay…" he murmurs and gulps slightly and takes another breath as he gets ready to jump.
"That we will." For that once sentence at least G'in is completely serious. He turns around again, facing the way that Tealonie is planning to jump off and glances downwards. "Irseth says she can easily reach you at any point. So….whenever you're ready." The rider grin's widely at the brat, though he won't give a countdown. The poor boy can jump when he's ready!
Tealonie is way up in the air, up on Irseth along with G'in. Anyone looking up might see the boy starting to stand up and then all of a sudden he jumps off. There seems to be something trailing with the boy and then he lets out a scream and then suddenly there's a rectangular parachute that spreads out from the cords and the boy is pulled up a bit and the scream is cut off. There's a some red the flutters up and away from him, even as he clings desparately to something as he floats downwards
G'in is uncharacteristically quiet for the first few seconds when Tealonie jumps, but as soon as the scream cuts off and the parachute opens up there's a sigh of relief followed by a laugh. Only…uh….wait, the emergency handkerchief is floating! "Irseth…just in case." Obligingly the green begins to float downwards until she's a good ten feet underneath the boy and going lower and lower. "How's it holding up?!" G'in calls upwards. Irseth will leave before a collision takes place!
Calisiya is making her way across the meadow. Given that she lives there; it's not an unusual place for her to be. She's puttering away towards the forest and the Innovation Hall with a stack of books held over her chest when the sound of screaming far above. She stops where she's going and what she's doing; shielding her eyes with her hand so that she can better make out what is going on. She ends up just staring and not in a good way either. Unbelieving; mind blown. Though she's not sure which of the three up there is the craziest.
Tealonie is speechless for several seconds afer G'in calls out to him. Then there's a reddening of the boys face in embarassment. "All, good. all good." he says and dispite a perhaps noticable issue with the cleanliness of his pants he's starting to enjoy himself. "This is cool!" Now that he doesn't have the living daylights scared out of him. And then he's looking own and he goes pale now as he spots Calisiya. Oh, of all the times she couls show up…
As soon as Tealonie says he's fine Irseth slips out so that she's hovering beside the boy instead of underneath him. There's an approving croon from the green and she circles around him once before going back to a brief glide. "I'm glad you aren't dead…and that you think it's cool!" G'in laughs briefly before following the boy's gaze down to Calisiya. "Hello down there! What do you think? Interesting, no?"
Calisiya places the back of her hand on one of her hips and shifts her books to the opposite side to balance herself out. She remains unbelieving but the initial shock is starting to wear off and the dumbfounded and open mouthed look is settling into mere surprise as she watches Tealonie float downwards. She hasn't noticed anything amiss there; not yet. "Sure." She quips to G'in. "Seems like an interesting way to shorten one's lifespan." The harsh tones transition into something more like a smile as her natural pleasntness gets past the 'what the heck' of the shock. "It's an interesting idea; you two come up with it? Seems like something all dragon passengers ought to be wearing."
Tealonie is silent again as what had seemed a nice slow descent now has the ground seeming to come up awfully quickly. He can't help it, he chickens out about the landing and cries out "Irseth!" who needs the chicken flag? His voice is working quite well enough.
"Not me, him! I just gave helped him with height and wind." G'in gives Irseth a little bit of a pat. He's content to watch the boy glide down only….oh wait. "Er, better go get him." The man chuckles softly as the dragon drifts downwards until one of her wings is just below the boy. It's a softer landing than her back spines. "Whenever you're ready, just drop down!" Her wings are strong enough to handle it!
Calisiya is still watching; though her interest in Tealonie is piqued. She does help administrate the Innovation Hall afterall. So her eyes are on him and watching the performance of his device with a curious smile worn. This attention may not be the most oppertune of moments for the boy, either. But he'll easily be able to see she is actually fairly rapt on him. Of all the times; why now? Calisiya adds to G'in. "Good to know! Did you two test it by throwing things overboard before you threw him overboard?"
Tealonie fiddles a moment with things and then he's slipping out of the harness and dropping onto the wing of the dragon. "Don't drop me." he says and then he's grinning. Oh, this is cool. Wing walking on a dragon. And at least now, his pants are a little more hidden from view of the Harper? "He didn't throw me! I jumped. And this design is from Landing and Da paid for a weaver to sew it and all. And other things too."
"Er….you're supposed to test it on other things before you use humans?" G'in tilts his head while glancing down to Calisiya, a half smile on his face. Irseth lets out a little huff, of course she won't drop him! The green slowly makes her descent until she's alighting quite expertly on the ground. Her wing is tipped downward so the boy can slide off instead of just tumbling downwards.
Calisiya's face had been so happy up until a second ago. Seriously; she's gotten to see real innovation! An awesome prospect of something to add to the hall. She was thinking about making a pitch on how Tealonie really ought to come by the place and talk to her about his invention. Others would be interested in it too but G'in has the frown poofing upsidedown. She doesn't yell or seem upset only the complete absence of a smile. "Uh, yes. Yes. Or a flit? Something that could you know; save itself if everything went south without risking human life." Ah, well. Tealonie shatters her hopes and dreams by saying that it was from landing and she settles back to a reserved albiet pleasant smile instead. "Brave of you; though. You won't catch me doing that. What's it like to be falling all that way?"
Tealonie slides down off the wing and then there's a funny looking face that he's made and then he's backing up against the green. and pulling the chute in front of himself. He whispers a moment to Irseth "Sorry, I'll help wash you?" His gaze goes back to Calisiya and noting that she's not smiling anymore. "It was a lot of fun." Oh yes, he's not going to say anything about it scaring him shitless. Literally. "Da said I had a good idea on how to make it, but it was better for me to go with something that's already been proven. But I got to pick the design, and we had it made with sisal and all since we don't have silk. That's what they used to make it with, and other things called mylon and all."
"Oh he wouldn't have died, that's why Irseth was here! She could just catch him." G'in grins as he slides down the green. Only now there's a funny look on his face and a glance towards Tealonie, "OY! You're scrubbing her a good ten times for that!" Now the rider is grimacing. Fraught he definitely didn't predict that. "Pretty good design though, hm? It succeeded and all. An overall success if I do say so myself!" Irseth, for her part, is making a somewhat pitiful keening sort of sound.
Calisiya doesn't get it. Whatever has happened? It's gone straight over her head. She's fixated on Tealonie's face; taking a step or two towards him. "That's really clever of you." She murmurs. "Come by the hall and bring the plans for it anyway. Really, I'm impressed. That's some serious drive for someone as young as you are." She approaches closer yet; the wind blowing a few ends of her hair around her neck and chin as she reaches out meaning to pat him on the head with the happiest of smiles worn large on her face. And then she stops dead like she ran into a wall; nose twitching slightly and the hand hanging in midair. She might have been turned to stone for a second as she struggles very hard to keep her smile in place. "Well." She says; backing away a few hurried steps, so hurried that she almost trips over a stone. "I HAD BEST BE ON MY WAY."
"G'in!" Teal exclaims in mortification "Did you have too??!!!" Oh can't the ground just open up and swallow him whole now? ANd hear she asked him, Him!, to come bue. Now how can he even show his face again? And then has Calisiya hurries back away from him, he looks almost shattered and stares accusingly at G'in "This is all your fault!" he cries and then he running back for him, deeply mortified and mad.
"It's not like I SAID anything! She figured it out herself!" G'in groans and isn't quite letting Tealonie run off yet. "C'mon it'll be fine, I mean…it's not like she'll remember it….maybe…." There's a slight pause as he register the departing Calisiya and a slight wave. "Um, see ya!" Irseth lets out a quiet croon, she's sorry too! She didn't mean to embarrass him!
Calisiya waves cheerfully as she gets out of scent range and then turns her back to hurry off towards the forest. The worst part? There's a gagging sound from her and she's even one of two mothers to a newborn. Tsk. Poor Tealonie. A gold firelizard hovers in the air out of nowhere, chirps distressedly at him and scurries off to follow Calisiya until they both vanish into the forest.
Tealonie turns and points at G'in "You did, you did!" He then just collapses to the ground. It's no use. "Now she'll never want to be with me." he whispers and lets out a long forlorn sigh. He looks up at Irseth and then lets out another heartbroken sigh. And then he hears the gagging and he's burying his face in his hands. "Oh shards, I'll never be able to show my face again."
G'in shoots another glance to the departing Cali and gold flit….that….yeah. There's a little cough from him though it's from awkwardness rather than gagging. He's a mind healer, he can handle this. Probably. It's a good thing Irseth is there. The green dragon drops her head, moving her neck to curl around the poor boy. "Had a crush on her, huh?" G'in asks rather matter of factly before settling down on the grass. "She's a bit old for you anyhow, isn't she?" Oh that's so helpful. "All you have to do is prove to her that you're more than this, alright? Accidents happen. I imagine she knows that. Just…make her forget the embarrassment with something cool." He doesn't usually deal with brats, and it shows, painfully so!
Tealonie stares at G'in and shoves at the green "It's not a crush! I love her!" he exclaims and then just flomps down again. "It's no use. She's never going to look at me now, and she's not old!" he also exclaims. He lets out a sigh "Sure accidents happen, but why now? Why did She have to show up now? Why did I have to turn out to be such a sissy. Grown men don't.. don't.. they do't do that."
G'in purses his lips slightly and looks at Tealonie for a long few seconds. "First love? No wonder you're so worked up over it." The man sighs and runs a hand through his hair. At least he's not telling the kid he's imagining things? "Sometimes things happen without any rhyme or reason. I honestly don't have an answer for that. But, you're not a sissy. In fact, you being willing to try that makes you the exact opposite of a sissy. It's actually why when you were falling there Irseth mentioned I should give you this…" So saying he digs into a pocket and pulls out a white candidate's knot. It's dangled in the air in front of Teal. "You want to be a grown man? Enough of the self pity. It happened, oh well. Instead make something out of it. Use your candidate resources to improve your contraption, impress the socks off of her….and maybe Impress someone to help you test whatever new thing you invent. And let me say this now, she's not offering this to you out of pity."
Tealonie is silent and does listen "You think so?" he asks, and then he's looking up at G"in and the knot and he's blinking. "Wait, what?" he asks as his eyes go wide "Seriously?! Oh wow! Thank you Isreth." he can't believe his eyes hardly. "Oh. Do you think if I Impress a dragon that'll impress her?" he asks as he starts grinning brightly!
"Maybe, just maybe." G'in grins and then reaches out to ruffle the boys hair. "Give it your best shot, that's all you can do. Oh…and if you need someone to run ideas by, we're always free." He is in /no/ way doing this because it would amuse him. He really is just trying to be helpful. Mostly! "Alright, there's some cleaning up to be done. We'll meet you at the beach…you still have to scrub her." And with that the rider and dragon are wandering off! One sacrificial off— candidate down.