Bane of My Existance

[Mystic Dragon]

The soft candle light of the library added an element of cozy safety to the stone-walled chamber. An aroma of old, weathered books and well worn leather perfumed the air. Even the chairs seemed design to capture the very essence of comfort itself. They were wide and well-lined, and didn't groan ominously when he sat down. For all his misgivings about initially coming to the Healing Den, Bane reasoned that he might actually enjoy his time here. That was if his bonds would give him a moment's peace.

The large, armoured man sat back in a heavy oak chair, a glass of wine in one hand and a book on the botanical history of Pern in another. He had just finished impressing upon his bonds the importance of quiet time, and so he expected to have at least an hour with his own thoughts and his own interests.

The first few minutes of solitude passed in blessed silence. The fifth minute introduced a quiet itch at the back of his mind. The itch crept closer, tickling at his senses and demanding his attention with the enthusiasm of a dog who'd spotted a human with food in hand.

At the tenth minute without a return to the peace and quiet he so desired, Bane let out a frustrated sigh and turned his attention skyward.

"What?" He demanded, both mentally and out loud to the empty room.

::It's just...:: came a tentative response with the tone and presence of a landslide, ::You said there'd be females. And you know... I want to leave you alone with your weird books and stuff but... I kinda thought I'd have females to keep me busy.::

::Oh for the love of the four gods,:: another voice answered before Bane could voice his own aggravation. Baaki'Virh had a tone like a velvet ribbon, all soft and reassuring violets. Yet in that moment, it cut with an impatient edge. ::The call just went out. The message is still being passed around. There will be females but you have to wait!::

::But it's not fair,:: Baneo'Mybl, Bane's scarred red geperna whined. ::You and Stacurik are spending all your time being lovey dovey together and I'm just over here by myself. Alone. Forgotten.::

::You are not forgotten,:: Bane cut in. ::You will be surrounded by females soon enough but you have to wait. And while you're waiting, I would really like just a few minutes of quiet.::

Silence answered his plea. Bane gave it a moment, feeling around inside his own mind for the presence of his bonds. They were not cut off from him, but they had withdrawn. He breathed a sigh of relief and lifted his book once more.

::Forsaken. That's another good word. Deserted. Isolated. Jilted-::

"Alright," Bane said, his voice rebounding off the quiet library walls. Snapping the tome shut, he dropped it on the nearest table, set his wine glass down beside it, then made for the door.

::Aw, you don't have to-:: Baneo said. Bane interrupted.

::We're going for a flight. Pick a world. Wherever you want to go. Just find somewhere that you can work out some energy, because it's clear that you need to do something or else you'll drive all three of us crazy.::

To his credit, Baneo's mental threads thrummed with guilt after Bane's decree. Yet the red did not refuse the offer of an activity off the floating rock that was the Healing Den. Though there were plenty of other dragons around, Baneo's social skills had always been a little on the unpolished side. With his sister fully occupied with her own thoughts about the impending flight, that left him with too much time to himself.

It took Bane only a few minutes to navigate the twisting, reshaping tunnels of the Den and emerge onto the landing pad. Baneo waited for him a few feet from the doorway, head down and tail tucked around his legs. Yet as Bane approached, the red's mental energy spiked perceptibly. Finally, he'd be able to do something interesting!

[JKatkina]

The Healing Den had a reputation as a place with an opinion about things. Whether that or simple coincidence was at play was a matter best left unremarked on, lest the speaker draw the attention of either coincidence or the Healing Den.

Whatever the provenance, Bane was not permitted the luxury of having the landing pad to himself. A trio of draconars had just made use of the wide space, two of the dragons having lowered their riders to the ground with the third just backwinging into the now-cramped space.

This was not an entirely neutral arrival to Bane's interests, either; two of the dragons were clearly geperna, with the third of a mixed conformation that nonetheless fit the mold of its fellows. His fellows; the odd man out was a ruddy brown, marked with grey, who was tucking his wings in a doleful manner against his sides. One was a towering black geperna, huge in his presence, who sat back on his haunches and watched with an inscrutable gaze. The third, who still held his rider, was a lithe white creature, his head craned back to confer silently with his bond.

None of the three, disappointingly, were females.

Of the two humans who'd already dismounted, one -- a broad man with the general structure of a brick -- was making his way to the white dragon's side. The other, whose vibe even from all the way across the room was one of nonstop vibrational energy, was casting about the room with bright, interested eyes. Her firebrand hair, a cloud of red, was pulled back harshly from her dark brown face, tied as if she expected it to try and pull a runner.

"Ho." She'd spotted Bane, and her whole body pulled back a little in an exaggerated reaction. There was a good distance between them still, but her voice was sharp and bright, and carried.

"Aren't <i>you</i> a look." It didn't seem to be entirely a complement, but it was offered with a game joviality. Her eyes flicked to Baneo. "You two here for the flight?"

She maybe hadn't spent a lot of time looking at the attached personals ad.

The other had reached the white geperna, calling up to its rider, "Come on, man, no more of this stallng."

~We're not stalling,~ the white replied. His rider shushed him, holding up a hand in defeat, and accepted the offer of help down from his bond's shoulder. He was a spare thing, in a well-cut riding coat, dark-skinned and quick-eyed, and he did rather seem to be taking his time.

[Mystic Dragon]

The Healing Den didn't have air to speak of, but whatever it did have that filled the lungs and toyed with hair thrummed with a new energy at the arrival of the riders.

Bane stopped to watch their descent and dismount, standing at Baneo's side with one hand on the big red's shoulder. Baneo, for his part, abandoned his ashamed stance to straighten up and lift his head with pride and a little bit of eagerness (that quickly evaporated as soon as he realized the trio contained no dragons of the female persuasion).

"We are," Bane confirmed, dipping his head in a faint nod. He took his time to look over the three riders. The woman reminded him too much of Thayer in an instant. She had too much energy and spoke too freely. The other two seemed quieter, perhaps more reserved. That could be good. Gods, he hoped the woman wasn't here for him.

After a moment, Bane cleared his throat and stepped away from Baneo. He might as well try to be social.

"I'm Bane, by the way. You three are a bit early."

[JKatkina]

"Shit, you're the man of the hour?"

The other rider had finished dismounting, and the pair of men were on their way over. The one shaped like a shithouse had apparently had one ear on the meeting going on. "It's one thing to have other people do your homework for you, Hellie, but you should at least read the notes. There was a picture and everything."

"Bite me," she shot back.

The man's attention had turned to Bane with him barely seeming to even parse Hellie's cheerful profanity. "You are quite a look, though, she's not wrong." It was of something of a different timbre coming from him, though -- again -- whatever he was implying was a bit opaque and not cleanly complementary. Friendly enough, still. He held out a hand. "T'beon, of Nidus Aven, on Ortuth. This impossible creature's Hellie, on Hezen'Much, who -- as you are almost certainly unable to tell -- was quite interested when he heard there was a Geperna flight happening. You can attribute our fashionable earliness to him."

This earned absolutely nothing from the black dragon, who now sat statue-like.

~He is woefully underfurnished when it comes to the art of dialogue,~ intoned Ortuth, into their minds, his voice as brown as his study. ~It does not behoove him to take part in the sustaining give-and-take of daily conversation. A condition with which I empathize, though cannot say I have found it within myself to share.~

"Drama queen!" Hellie crowed. "He's just quiet, no need to go all thesaurus on it. Anyways, early just means we get to find out where the action happens here. You have any idea?" This, at Bane once more.

The third man arrived a little behind T'beon, and did not break into the conversation right away; there was, at first, a polite, buttoned-up kind of hesitance to him, although he was smiling, and then for a good moment he was distracted. His great white bond had begun to shrink, and shrunk and shrunk down to something in the ballpark of a very large flitter. He took to the air, circling elegantly above before stooping and coming to a dainty landing on the man's shoulder, whereafter bond and bonded leaned their heads briefly against one another's.

[Mystic Dragon]

Despite his best efforts, heat flushed through Bane's cheeks. He might've thought to call up a spell to counteract the sudden humidity in the air, but that would do him about as much good as a bucket of cold water over the head. It wasn't the atmosphere that was the problem. It was him.

He hadn't wanted to see the invitation before it went out. In fact, he'd made an express request to Baeris not to tell him about any part of it. There were only so many uncomfortable situations he could handle in a given time frame, and facing up to the fears and traumas of his past were enough of a struggle already. Though now he wished he'd made another express request not to include a picture.

The large man in the shiny black armour cleared his throat and inclined his head to T'beon and his cohorts after the other two finished speaking.

"There's no action to speak of yet-" Bane said.

::Yeah! You didn't happen to bring any females with you, did you? I was promised a party.::

A roar of outrage chased the tail end of Baneo's comment. Though standing several hands shorter than her brother and more prone to apologies than outbursts, Baaki emerged from a nearby tunnel looking like a violet specter of rage.

::Baneo'Mybl, she cried, narrowing her eyes at her brother, ::If you waste one more thought on crying about how there's not enough females around for you to ogle, I will scour your tongue with fire.::

::Hahah! Oh man, you're getting grumpy. I bet Stacurik's having a ball.::

The large, scarred red standing at Bane's side let out a warbling laugh, completely oblivious to his impending doom. Baaki narrowed her eyes and rumbled a low, threatening growl. If not for the slender slip of a blue dragon who emerged behind her and gently touched his muzzle to hers, the evening might've ended in blood shed.

Bane made a mental note to keep his two bonds separated until the time of the flight.

"Like I was saying," he said, returning his attention to T'beron. He met the other man's hand with his iron grip and gave it a quick shake. "You're quite early. No one else has shown up yet. It may be several days before there's action to speak of."

[JKatkina]

Hellie and T'beon looked at one another and shrugged.

"We've been stuck in the same hole for years. Years! A couple weeks somewhere new? I see no downside. Unless there's like, literally nothing else to do here," Hellie declared, and then at that last eyed Bane with a kind of alarmed suspicion, as if she'd just considered that might actually be the case. "Please tell me there's like, a pub, or games room, or, like, I don't know, just one little den of iniquity?

It seemed Hellie's staccato was par for the course: T'beon had clearly already stopped paying attention to her. He'd turned to the third rider again, whose attention had apparently been drawn, along with his dragon's, to the absolute drama happening amongst the local draconids.

"Come on, man, are you waiting for me to introduce you? You're not here for them."

The little white Geperna trilled an ironic noise and took off from his rider's shoulder, circling once before making a lazy loop in the direction of the squabbling siblings. The rider, though, had flushed under his dark complexion. It seems Bane wasn't the only one feeling a little off balance with the situation.

"Pardon me," he said, coming forward and trying not to make it look like it was under T'beon's nudging hand. He sketched a nod, almost a polite little bow. "A'slan, also of Nidus Aven, on Aimir'Fich. I didn't realize we'd be so early." He shot the other two a look. "I hope it's not inconvenient."

"Yeah, you would've put off till last second if we'd let you know," Hellie laughed.

"Come to think, how did you know to come greet us?" T'beon asked, considering Bane a second time.

[Mystic Dragon]

Bane allowed his attention to linger on Hellie a moment too long.

Oh gods, she was just like his brother. Thank the Four that Thayer had promised to stay home.

Without so much as a flicker of his expression, he returned his attention to T'beon.

"I didn't. I was just about to take Baneo out for a flight because he's driving everyone insane."

::Hey!::

::He's not wrong,:: Baaki seethed. The violet dragoness had taken up a hunched position over by the tunnel entrances. She sat with an arched spine and the end of her tail twitching against her forelegs like an irate cat. ::You'd be doing the whole of the Nexus a favour if you got lost on some distant planet for a while.::

Baneo craned his head to the side, catching the eye of the blue dragon hiding behind his violet counterpart.

::Hey, 'rik. You need to get Baaki in line. She's being a real-::

Though the words carried to every mind without a single verbal utterance, the thunderous roar that rolled out from Baaki's throat drowned out the end of the sentence. Bane stepped back as Baaki threw herself at her brother. Despite being several feet shorter than him, the vehemence in her lunge was enough to throw the bulky red off balance.

Bane, in the meantime, threw his hands up in the air and watched his bonds scrap from a safe distance. He'd never seen Baaki so riled. Then again, Baneo deserved it. Baneo always deserved it.

::I am terribly sorry about this.:: The soft, painfully apologetic threads came from the slender blue dragon as he sidled up toward the group. He walked with his belly low to the ground, tail tucked as close to his legs as he could manage without tripping over the fanciful fin at the end. To the new arrivals, he offered a short bow of his head. ::I am Stacurik, by the way. A pleasure to make your acquaintance. Though I once again must apologize for the conditions.::

[JKatkina]

Hellie laughed, but didn't get the chance to jump in with her motormouth again. The apologetic nature and impeccable manners seemed to resonate with A'slan, who turned to the blue with a genuine little smile and offered him the same nod he'd given Bane.

"A pleasure to meet you as well, Stacurik. Don't worry yourself about it.. We all three grew up around dragons; it's a manner of hubbub we're used to."

"If anyone swings a tail over this direction, though, I'm going to get Ortuth to write poetry about it," T'beon added, raising his voice a little so the squabbling dragons would get the message.

Ortuth, for his part, sniffed; an odd, resonant noise from a dragon. He'd been carrying his slightly rotund self around the perimeter in an exploratory march, but now he stopped and resettled his wings with great dignity. ~My poetry is not a weapon, T'beon, really.~

Aimir'Fich had finished his long circuit, too, and now sketched a tighter one around where the siblings were battling it out. The flit-sized geperna had back-winged urgently at that first big roar and lunge, startled, but he'd lost that fear quickly and now he was doing strafing runs, observing. When he spoke, his mind-voice was lighter, drier, and less polite than his bonds, but there was a definite resemblance.

~Interesting. One so rarely sees a male run so proddy.~ It was definitely a chide, and definitely by someone who didn't know Baneo's usual disposition.

Predictably, Hellie cackled again. "No wonder you're taking them out for a run! Hey, where does a guy go flying here? If you're going out anyways why don't we all?"

[Mystic Dragon]

Baneo lacked in many departments, but physical prowess wasn't one of them. As his enraged sister flew at him with the skill and zeal of a rabid badger, he slapped away one near hit after another. That was until Aimir's comment sidetracked his focus.

The red's head whipped around, eyes narrowed to slits. Indignation wafted off him in waves, and he would have responded with a biting comment, had Baaki not taking that exact moment to smack a claw against his nose so hard that the red let out an involuntary blat. His wings pinwheeled and his tail whipped side to side in a desperate attempt to salvage his balance before he landed on his hindend with a solid thump. This less than graceful tumble seemed to mollify the violet, who gave her brother a displeased snort before turning around and stalking back to Stacurik's side.

::I am just fine here,:: Baaki said, her mental threads still bright with irritation. ::But if you could find some asteroid to drop that jerk off on, that would be great. Excuse us.::

Stacurik dipped his head in an apologetic nod to the group as Baaki nudged his side. Then he too turned around and moved back toward the tunnels at her direction.

Bane let out an aggrieved sigh and rubbed a hand against his temples.

"This was supposed to be relaxing," he said under his breath. The stress smoothed from his features as he refocused on the trio of riders. "I was just going to take him back to Tris'Hath to work out some energy. You're welcome to come if you like."

[JKatkina]

As if Bane had said the quiet part loud, T'beon cast quite a look at the big, armoured man. "You arranged a group flight because you thought it would be relaxing?"

That comment earned him a look from A'slan, but was not quite enough to warrang a nudge. Besides,Aimir, feeling his work had been well done in tipping the sibling slapfight, had circled around again and was paying enough attention to the humanoids' conversation that he came in for a landing on his bond's shoulder again.

::Another world? I think I would very much like that.::

"We've had a dearth of skies in our lives the last few years," his bond added, as if it had been one sentence between the two of them. "If that's genuinely alright? We don't want to intrude."

"Speak for yourself!" Hellie, again, of course.

In the meantime Ortuth was watching Stacurick and Baaki leaving, thoughtful; he said nothing, yet, but the poet of a dragon had at least taken note of their connection. He clicked his talons together, honed sharp and ink-stained as they were, and sighed a great thoughtful sigh.

[Mystic Dragon]

A faint spot of colour darkened Bane's cheeks. He hadn't meant the flight when speaking of relaxation. More of his time away from Thayer. Yet to explain that to a group of strangers felt like digging himself deeper into a hole he did not want to explore. Instead, he cleared his throat.

"Have any of you been to Tris'Hath before?" He hoped the topic change would provide enough of a distraction.

Meanwhile, Baneo rubbed at his nose and scowled at nothing in particular. He was not bloodied or bruised, but his ego might not recover for a while.