Detailed Summary (IC)
By now the foundation for the rest of your training has been laid, and upon that foundation your teachers now build. The dragons have now mastered the basics of flight and are comfortable in the air. Flying with weights and walking on the ground with their riders, the next logical step comes to pass in their eleventh month of life when dragon and rider take to the sky. With such preparation the hope is that this memorable moment is, actually, rather uneventful. It will harken back to the dragon's first solo flight as it lasts but a short loop around the inner bowl, and builds longer each day until by the end of the month you can fly with your mate as long as they can safely stay in the air. After that all the drills we have been practicing on the ground move to the air. If it seemed hard before, it sure doesn't get any easier now! Formations are of particular interest as the months go on and every pair will get to fly in every wing position until they could do it blindfolded … in fact you may have to!
At the end of the first year, you will all be given weyrs. Here at Xanadu, riders of all colors, goldriders included, will be given a ground weyr located in either the Forest (@tel to #9202), the Meadow (@tel to #9290), or the Coastal Road (@tel to #9452). You will be asked at the appropriate time if you have a preference. Like rooms for residents and crafters, riders need 3 quota free for a weyr (one room and two exits).
Your Life This Month)
Growth:
Although your dragons are now probably telling you they're full size, that's not quite true yet. The DLG tells us that they're 70% of full size at one year of age, and reach full size at 18 months. Therefore, assume that your dragon is still growing a little, slowly now (you wouldn't notice a change from day to day, or even week to week sometimes). So you still need to be on the lookout for hide that needs particular attention as your lifemate grows.
Because we're doing unmanned and later manned flight, your dragons might also be a bit sore and sorry, using muscles that never got used before.
There will be tests taking place for all your politics lessons, and this will probably cause a pretty similar situation to that you've experienced at school – a whole stack of weyrlings cramming material for their quiz, then forgetting it straight after. You might want to RP suffering over your books, quizzing each other or taking breaks from study.
Straps! Your dragon has now out-grown the first, practice set of straps you made, so it's back to the drawing board to make a new set. These will be the ones you keep for good, so make them nice!
First mounted flight: Those straps you made are coming in handy, and for the first time we're into manned spaceflight! There'll be sessions on how to make sure you're buckled in right, and then with a rider at each end, your first mounted flight lesson!
Weyrs: Another major milestone at the end of these months is moving in to your own weyrs. There are a lot of RP opportunities around this, so brainstorm together if you can't think of anything!
RP Ideas
- Cramming for tests - moan, panic, attempt to force vast amounts of knowledge into the space between your ears, and retain them long enough to pass.
-More practicing formations - this can be done in a group. Obviously more fun if someone's constantly messing it up and marching in the wrong direction, and someone's trying to read it out of their manual and colliding with people…
- Strap making! Why? Because we LOVE gigantic needles, we really do.
- You're still running those $%&* fitness circuits you've been made to believe to be so important. Moan, marvel at your new-found fitness, do as you please!
- Catch us for that first mounted flight!
- Getting your new weyr - it it awesome? is it a mess? is it totally empty?
- Talk to staff/AWLM staff about a possible scavenging/yard sale event some time in these weeks.