A Rough Night

Writers: Avery, Heather
Date Posted: 21st July 2017

Characters: L'pin, S'yar
Description: L'pin handles a rough night by drinking with S'yar.
Location: Elsewhere on Pern
Date: month 12, day 22 of Turn 8

S'yar walked to the exact barstool where he knew L'pin would be, and
sat down beside of him, "You started without me this Turn." He said as
he flagged the bartender for a drink of his own.

"It's a bad sevenday," L'pin said. It had been bad enough before the
River Bluff news.

"It has," S'yar agreed, nodding his thanks as the man behind the
counter set a mug of ale down on the counter in front of him.

"Too many sharding deaths in month 12." The bluerider shook his head.
"They lost eggs to a sharding cave in. At least Threadfall is how
we're supposed to die," he grumbled.

He wanted to be an optimistic person and he didn't like thinking about
death and he thought no death was good. Not for young weyrlings or
riders. But considering the idea of destroyed eggs before they could
even hatch...

S'yar nodded his head in agreement, "At least it didn't happen during
a hatching, where young bonds had already been made." It was
devastating to lose future dragons, but to S'yar it would have been
even worse to have a group of dragonless youngesters.

"That would have been awful," he said with a shudder. Of course his
mind circled to his son. What if Tahgirath had brought him back to the
Weyr? Instead of just /betweening/ and being gone forever? What if
L'pin had cradled a wounded R'min - one without his dragon? One who
needed the mercy to avoid life without his dragon?

Glancing sideways at his friend and recognizing that look, S'yar
looked back at the bartender and made a gesture with his hand, "We're
gonna need a shot of something a little stronger over here." The
bartender looked between the bluerider and greenrider and then set two
shot glasses down on the bar in front of them and filled them up from
a bottle he got from beneath the counter.

L'pin took the shot and drank it in one gulp, coughing slightly. "It's
so sharding awful either way. Whether the eggs crack, or we raise them
to be good young men and women and then Thread eats them, it's no time
to live!"

S'yar had heard L'pin say something similar in the past, and so he
responded with his usual line, "It is always a good time to be a
dragonman." He reached over and gave L'pin's shoulder a squeeze.

"We can't turn back time to prevent tragedies. But, if only..." he said.

There was a rational part of L'pin, one bolstered by Chaneth's love,
that understood that. It was the love of his dragon that had allowed
him to go on in the despondent days right after R'min's death. Right
now, though, the part that was always miserable at this time of the
Turn was dominant.

"Let's get some food to soak up some of this alcohol." S'yar said,
flagging the bartender again to order some deep-fried bread bites with
the cheesy dip that he loved.

That, L'pin could get behind. He ordered fried tubers and crisped
porcine bacon. "The food here is always fine."

"Grease pairs well with ale," S'yar said with a lift of his mug. He
turned an eye around the room as well. "And there's some half-decent
looking men here too."

"Looking for a conquest for the night?" That was a safe topic at least.

"Perhaps," S'yar admitted. "Always have to be careful though if the
man doesn't have rider knots on, could be some holder stiff who will
get all up in arms."

"That's the danger of picking up men here and why holder women are safer."

S'yar coughed out a laugh around a mouthful of fried bread, "Speak for
yourself, bluerider."

"You like running the risk of getting smacked?"

"Have you forgotten what color dragon I ride? If I had wanted to sleep
with women I would have Impressed blue." S'yar said, earning a pleased
bugle from his green outside.

"I'm always too afraid of holder men, to be honest. Weyrbred men are
better about turning you down. Have you ever run into trouble?"

"No, you can generally tell if they're interested or not." S'yar was
good at reading others.

"That's good. You're too pretty to get slapped," L'pin teased.

S'yar raised his glass with a smile, "I'll drink to that!"

Last updated on the July 28th 2017

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A Rough Night