Drinks and Conversation

Writers: Rochelle, Devin
Date Posted: 28th February 2009

Characters: R'syl, R'masu
Description: R'masu and R'syl get together for some drinks and conversation.
Location: River Bluff Weyr
Date: month 1, day 9 of Turn 5

The dining hall was pretty quiet at this time of the evening, and
R'syl enjoyed the low murmur of the last few parties lingering over
their meals a few tables away. The relative quiet was refreshing after
a day of chasing -and reprimanding!- weyrlings. Young dragons were
worse than small children at getting into trouble, and their riders
were mostly too young to really comprehend the enormous responsibility
that trying to raise such children entailed.

He nursed the mug of beer before him, watching the doorway for his
drinking partner to arrive. Well, sort of drinking partner. R'syl
rarely drank more than a mug worth of beer because of the weyrlings,
but since they'd met and struck up a conversation in the new Vinter
Hall tavern he and R'masu had used it as an excuse to get together and
talk occassionally.

"Sorry I'm late," the brownrider announced as he took a seat across
from R'syl. "I had a strap that needed mending."

"Late is relative." R'syl said with a faint chuckle. "Straps can be
just as ornery as any weyrling. Here." He shoved another mug across
the table. "I got your drink."

"Thank you." R'masu took a sip. "I thought it would be better to take
care of the strap _before_ I started drinking." It really wouldn't
make much difference, though. He would probably only have a mug or two
before calling it a night.

"Probably best." R'syl agreed. "How's drills been going?"

"Fairly routine." R'masu shrugged. "I find it amazing that people can
get used to just about anything."

"That's part of what makes a good dragonrider." R'syl pointed out,
lifting his mug. "If you can't get used to having someone else inside
your head all the time, then how are you supposed to get used to all
the other little changes that having a dragon entails? Even the most
inflexible riders have to be pretty flexible to compensate."

"Actually, I was thinking more about Fall," R'masu said, glancing down
at his mug. "It was supposed to be ancient history, and yet almost
five Turns ago we had to dramatically change our lives to confront it.
And now ... for many of us it's almost routine."

R'syl smiled. "My observation still stands." He pointed out. "Besides,
if you do anything once or twice a sevenday and it becomes routine.
Familiar. It's part of human nature. You can become inured to
anything, even facing death if you do it often enough. And thank
Faranth for that, or we'd have dragonriders breaking down in the
middle of Fall."

"That still happens ... to the young ones," R'masu said quietly.

R'syl sighed. "True. But that's also why we have Blooding -to keep the
losses once they reach an actual wing to a minimum." He grimaced at
the painful reminder of one of the worst moments of his profession,
and took a long pull from his beer.

"We do the best we can with what we have," R'masu said, using a
favorite phrase from one of his teachers.

"To do anything else would be a crime." R'syl agreed quietly, taking
another drink.

"We have such cheerful conversations."

R'syl held up his mug. "I blame the beer. It gives us an excuse to say
things we wouldn't normally admit to thinking."

R'masu chuckled. "Perhaps it's good to get it off our chests, then."

R'syl smiled faintly. "Isn't that the whole point of having a
'drinking partner?' It's not like either of us gets drunk all that
often. And I for one appreciate the chance to unwind after chasing
weyrlings all day, no matter what the topic of conversation."

"Drinks and conversation, two of the best comforts in the world." He
couldn't remember feeling gloomy after sharing a drink with R'syl,
even after discussing less than pleasant topics. Thoughtful, perhaps,
but not gloomy.

"Like anything worth having, good drinks and conversation are hard to
find." R'syl agreed, raising his mug a little in a slight toast before
taking another sip.

Last updated on the March 11th 2009

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Drinks and Conversation