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| Midnight Bath- Benden Edition [Open] | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 31 2018, 06:07 PM (139 Views) | |
| Arcane | May 31 2018, 06:07 PM Post #1 |
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R'set was simply bathing and minding his own business when all of sudden, a tiny girl was glaring at down at him, a towel around her torso. He was fairly sure she was one of those abhorrent female bronzeriders but..He didn't bother learning any of their names. They were freaks. A blip on history. Unworthy of his time. And Fort had far, far too many of them. It was the source of this disease and now its epicenter. That would change. Soon. Without any modesty at all, the girl dropped her towels and joined him with a mocking smile, "So you're R'set. I'm Essa. Welcome to Midnight Bath night. Don't get used to it. Tuckal will get rid of you all soon." |
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| ArthropodEyes | Jun 1 2018, 01:37 AM Post #2 |
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Weyrling
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It had been a long tiring day, and K'osh was in a mood. A mood to soak the tension out of his bones, far away from pretenders and heretics. It was late enough at night that he was sure the baths wouldn't be in use, so he picked up his most luxurious towel and a container of soapsand and headed off. His sandals flapped against his feet as he made his way down to the bathing area...and stopped in dismay and annoyance. There were people already here! To make matters worse, one of them was that very pretender he'd hoped to avoid. R'set just had to show up at this hour, to ruin any chance of quiet contemplation K'osh might have had. Was the man doing it deliberately? K'osh grimaced and suppressed a snarky remark. He was going to have his bath and do his best to ignore any other goings on. Putting his towel and the soapsand container to one side, he stripped off his clothes without a word and slid into the water, pausing only to nod briefly at the other bathers. |
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| Fel | Jun 1 2018, 01:14 PM Post #3 |
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Keeper of the Code
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Tana sank farther and farther into the bath as more and more people kept arriving. Why was Midnight Wing like this? What did they have against privacy? At least Essa had the right ideas about the Benden bronzeriders, but... she still didn't want to share a bath with this many people. It was weird. Plus, it wasn't really an organized bath night. People just... kept showing up at the same time. She was really starting to wonder who was actually orchestrating all of it, because it was a little ridiculous. She'd have suspected Essa, but it didn't sound like she was actually responsible in this case. And she refused to believe that Tuckal would invite these interlopers. It had to be someone else. "It's not really a... um... Never... Never mind." |
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| Tortellini | Jun 1 2018, 07:14 PM Post #4 |
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Kraken Pasta
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Gino of Bronze Charlth, tag Tana Gino had eventually been directed to the proper baths for non-Weyrwomen, and made his way to them after sparring. He cocked his head. Had there been a party invite he hadn't gotten? But no, judging by the looks on people's faces it was a coincidence. He slid into the water next to a small woman who seemed reluctant to be there, or was relaxing very hard, he couldn't tell which. "It's not really a what?" he asked. "A party? We could make it one." He grinned. If Tuckal showed up, then it would really be a party. Noa of Brown Argamath Noa had just wanted a bath in peace, shard it. After getting toddler all over him, he definitely needed one. He was not about to join whatever the forsk was happening, but neither was he going without a bath after taking care of Chemin. Reluctantly, he shed his clothes and entered the water, as far away from the Benden bronzeriders as possible. He was acutely aware that he was the only brownrider there so far. Normally, it wouldn't bother him much - there were very few brownriders in Midnight - but given the situation with Benden, and their disdain of non-metallic riders, he had to be on his guard. |
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| Arcane | Jun 1 2018, 08:35 PM Post #5 |
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"See? That's the spirit," Essa deliberately gave her most annoying grin. Having a gaggle of little siblings around was teaching her how to be irritating, "You must be Gino." The one Tuckal had apparently had an...entanglement...with. Because he seemed a bit less intolerable than the rest of them. She couldn't see Tuckal going for someone like R'set, "Hi Noa. Hi Tana. Hi...whoever you are." The last was directed towards the other bronzerider whose name she thought MIGHT start with a K. She didn't really know. There were so many of them, they were all men and they were all jerks. No point wasting valuable brain space on all those names. --- No wonder this weyr was so broken, R'set thought. Bronzeriders indulged in hedonistic displays. One of the girls was rude. The other was apparently not bright enough to string words together. This was why bronzeriders should be men. Women simply didn't have the strength of mind to handle it. "A pleasure," he said dryly, shooting off a glare at Gino who had apparently gone native already over a weyrwoman's debatable charms, "But I recommend saving the festivities for an appropriate venue." Or never. He had no wish to party with these degenerates. |
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| thefaeriesfyre | Jun 1 2018, 11:37 PM Post #6 |
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True as Sunbeams
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blatant and intentional triggering of dysphoria, objectification this is rough Blaze was tired of letting these Benden bronzeriders call the shots. They wanted to waltz into his weyr, use his dragon's first Flight to take over his weyr? He couldn't justify the political backlash of denying the transfers. Junior queen flights were thrown open for a reason, and Benden's sanctions had not included shunning. But that did not mean that he had to sit by and let them decide his fate. They wanted to be junior weyrleader? He was an integral part of that rank, and it was time they realized just what they were going to get into. Blaze was not your typical gold rider, junior or senior. He used Nornth's ire as a shield to get into the bathing cavern. If he could get through this without thinking too much about what he was planning, he might be fine. What he did next terrified him. He was still barely comfortable sharing the bath with his usual wingmates. In better days, he might put one of his female bronze riders between him and the interlopers. Essa, maybe, who let him hide his dysphoria behind a shield of possibly feigned disinterest. Or traditional, unconventional Molly, who never seemed to act as though his gender issues made him any less of a rider, gold or not. Blaze had learned to trust his wing, and his bronze riders knew better than to look at him like a piece of meat. They wanted his favor? His dragon? His bed? His rank? Blaze dropped his robe, baring himself in front of perfect strangers for the first time in Turns. They would see him, with all the imperfections that came with being born in an ill fitting body. The scars on his leg where Thread had had its way with him. The still unhealed scratches where he had startled Inferno from a nap and not placated her in time. And if he turned around, there would be the scars from the High Reaches attack. "Eyes on the prize, they say. I make a pretty good prize, don't you think?" He spread his arms as if to show himself off better, and resisted the urge to cover himself. It was nothing his trusted wing had not seen, and it was nothing these usurpers should mind. They were the ones vying for his bed, after all. One of them was studiously ignoring the others, and Blaze stalked closer to him with the borrowed grace of a greenrider he knew. "What do you think, K'osh? Am I worth leaving Benden behind to win?" Beneath the shame and despair battling for dominance in his gut, Blaze dreaded the response. He hated everything about this. It would be bad enough if he looked more like a traditional weyrwoman. These bronze riders were behaving like animals, and all he had to offer was the skin he didn't even fit into? Faranth was laughing at him. |
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| ArthropodEyes | Jun 2 2018, 04:41 AM Post #7 |
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Weyrling
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TW: I have no idea what the hell to even put on here. Anyways. Bad stuff. K'osh watched with ever growing annoyance as more and more people streamed into the bathhouse. This had to have been pre-planned on the part of the Fort riders. He would not take their bait, however. His years of watching and waiting at Benden had trained him to better discipline than that. So it was that he did not react in the slightest to the woman -- a Fort bronzerider, presumably -- who greeted him with a sarcastic tone. He would not let them goad him. He turned his mind away from the others and concentrated on the temperature and the currents of the water. Until someone stood, approached him with arms outstretched, and spoke his name. K'osh blanched at being singled out. The spotlight was on him, this was the very opposite of what he had intended in coming to Fort. But then he was swept by a blinding fury. How dare they, these... anomalous... corrupted...perverse...! His inner sense of calm, what little had been left of it, was in tatters. And yet, a removed corner of his mind remained untouched either by fear or rage; it observed dispassionately the sight in front of him, tracing out the marks of Threadscore and flame on the body on display. So this was their goldrider. As scars or deformities went, he'd seen worse. He had a job to do and by the First Egg he was going to do it, whatever sacrifices might be necessary. All of this swirled within him, leaving him bereft of will, of motion. And then it coalesced into one thought: Forsk you, this is how you want it? You challenge me? So be it! K'osh rose abruptly, fists clenched with rage, water pouring off of his shoulders and tensed biceps, splashing loudly into the bath below. "I have no problem with your body," K'osh said in a flat tone. He looked at Blaze, no, examined him, slowly, deliberately, as though weighing his worth. "No problem at all." He raised his voice, speaking in crisp clear syllables so that his words would reach everyone in the bath chambers, as he drew himself up to his full height, standing nude and defiant before them all. "Do you have a problem with mine?" Let them dare speak against him now. Let them dare. He would tear them limb from limb, each one of them, he would destroy them here and now. From the fireheights, a bronze's distant bugle could be heard, even as a dragon whisper echoed in K'osh's mind: "That might not have been one of your better pick-up lines." |
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| Fel | Jun 2 2018, 03:50 PM Post #8 |
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Keeper of the Code
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"Baths are... Aren't for that," Tana mumbled, hoping to restore some sort of order because it seemed like everyone was on edge. That went doubly for herself. But then Blaze showed up and everything got much worse. She flinched back as one of the Benden riders rose, and very nearly ran into R'set. This was wrong. This was why she didn't much like Nornth or her rider; he provoked people. Tuckal at least tried to avoid problems, even if Serapheth didn't. But Blaze? He had a knack for showing up at the wrong time and not doing a thing to defuse the situation. Where was Tuckal? Tana was sure she would know how to fix this, if she were here. "S... Stop. You shouldn't..." But it was probably futile. She couldn't make her voice come out any louder. |
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| Arcane | Jun 2 2018, 06:35 PM Post #9 |
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TW: Objectification, general awfulness R'set of Bronze Kujumath R'set smirked. So the goldrider wanted to play this game- did he? R'set refused. A man's body hardly suited his taste. Nor did such...assertiveness or public displays. He simply leaned back and watched as K'osh awkwardly responded to the overture. Amateurs. The dragons decided the weyrleader. They were gold and bronzeriders. Personal preferences hardly mattered and while he would bed Blaze if that was what it took to secure his own position...He wouldn't relish it or rush it. There was no need for dalliance now. Especially when a bad end could spell the end to a rider's chances at the real prize- power. Essa of Bronze Gectusith Essa's stomach curdled. This wasn't what she wanted. She'd just been trying to tweak R'set's nose a bit. Not...well...force Blaze to be treated like an object to be won. She knew how that felt. She'd been a women in a conservative cothold after all. And now Essa wasn't an object at all. She was a bronzerider. The pursuer, not the prize. Never before had it made her so sick as it did now, at the sight of K'osh and R'set's leer. This was her fault. She should have just kept her distance...let Tuckal deal with them...Let it be. She stood up and stepped deliberately in front of Blaze. Let them look at her if they wanted. She wasn't a goldrider and it had been a long time since she'd been prey. "Enough. Blaze, you are not a prize to be won," she said firmly as she looked him in the eye before turning to the Bendenites, "Neither Nornth nor Blaze needs to have any of you. And even if Nornth does like one of your bronzes, Blaze isn't part of the package. That's not how this works. Blaze still gets to choose someone or no one. K'osh, if you look at Blaze that way again...well...remember he has a whole wing of Fortians behind him. You can't fight all of us and we're on his side. He's one of us." Gectusith- find Tuckal if you can. We need her... She was good at this kind of thing. Essa always made a hash of it. Edited by Arcane, Jun 2 2018, 06:36 PM.
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| thefaeriesfyre | Jun 4 2018, 02:02 PM Post #10 |
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True as Sunbeams
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mentioned dysphoria, not nearly so bad as it was earlier Nornth roared loudly, both in his head and in the weyr, so that it echoed through the halls. Blaze's face was devoid of expression, save for a curl to his lip. To attack a gold rider, even one as untraditional as he was, was nearly a death sentence. K'osh was crossing a line that even Schneizel wouldn't cross. (He thought. The actual memory of his attack from the High Reaches fanatic was hazy now, and Schneizel had not been the body under Serapheth's claws.) "You dare." This imbecile had left his home weyr to attack another weyr's gold? The last time someone had attacked Blaze, it had ended with blood in Serapheth's claws and a body. Serapheth would not fit in the baths, and he would not subject Tuckal to this. Not today. His senior had too much on her plate to be bothered with this. It didn't even occur to him that one of his bronze riders might send for her. "Lay a forsking hand on me, I dare you." Blaze stepped out from behind Essa with a fleeting touch to her shoulder. He had never loved his own wing as much as he did in that moment. Essa had always let him hide behind her, whether he was hiding from his wing or his dysphoria, but this he had to handle himself. This was a message. "No one asked you to come here. I don't have a problem with your body, I have a problem with your presence." He could wish for clothes all he wanted, but it would an exercise in futility. Nornth's fury clouded his head. "Come at me like that one more time, and you will never fly again. That's a promise." Nornth echoed the promise with a bugle loud enough to be heard on the other side of the weyr. |
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| ArthropodEyes | Jun 4 2018, 02:15 PM Post #11 |
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Weyrling
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K'osh refused to back down. It had been the goldrider, after all, who had singled him out, and front of all these strangers, to boot. "I dare? You brought me into this all by yourself. And now you are too cowardly to deal with it by yourself? Maybe your riders have learned submission to your whims. I have not. And I will not!" K'osh gestured stiffly at the rest of the Fort bathers, still with fists clenched. "Go ahead, let them defend your so-called honor." |
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| Jabberwoky | Jun 4 2018, 02:28 PM Post #12 |
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Virtuous Man Martyred To Evil
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Tuckal would say she was not a violent woman, but that would be a lie. Serapheth notified her, and the woman made her way to the baths on the warpath. It was obvious in how she walked, heavy, deliberate footsteps with her one eye narrowed dangerously, Journey on her shoulder with eyes whirling red. Tuckal would tolerate none of this, not in her Weyr, not with her Junior. Not with anyone. Like some horrible, vengeful spirit, Tuckal appeared. Just in time to hear K'osh's words. She stood at the edge of the bath, looming behind Blaze and Essa. "Leave." She said in a low voice. "Or you will be removed." |
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| Arcane | Jun 4 2018, 09:41 PM Post #13 |
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Essa of Bronze Gectusith Essa smiled but tensed as Blaze confronted K'osh, not as a sacrifice come reluctantly to the alter, but the goldrider he always should have been. She still visibly relaxed at the sight of Tuckal's familiar back, slender but strong. She stood in place behind her, every line of her posture making it clear that Tuckal and Blaze had her respect. "Blaze doesn't need defending. Have you seen Nornth? We'll still protect OUR weyr and OUR weyrwomen," Essa declared, "And if you ever tell ANY of our riders they brought it onto themselves again...Well...You'll get to see exactly how cowed our riders are. And you won't like it." She wanted K'osh thrown out. Now. Because words like that should never be spoken. That was why she wasn't Weyrwoman. Tuckal was tough...but somehow it only occasionally caused an interweyr incident. R'set of Bronze Kujumath TW: transphobia, just...general bad Well this was fascinating, R'set thought, leaning back with a smirk to watch. A smart bronzerider would have kept his mouth shut for now. They sure were a persnickety lot, these Fortians. As if either of them even wanted to gawk at either of these weyrwomen. No. He was a bronzerider whose tastes ran to WOMEN. How Gino had slept with Tuckal was a mystery. She looked like a man in every particular and those scars... If he was to be here much longer, he'd have to find more pleasurable company. And keep to himself until it was time. Because these Fortians no longer knew right from wrong and would take any truth as a crime against them. He didn't need trouble...Not until he was weyrleader. |
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| ArthropodEyes | Jun 5 2018, 10:42 AM Post #14 |
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Weyrling
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K'osh remained where he was, standing with arms stiff and at his sides and fists clenched, just as he had been when first rising up out of the bath. He turned his head to see who had spoken; the voice was familiar. Yes, it would be her, the weyrwoman who had 'greeted' him when he arrived. "So this is your Fort hospitality? Single out the visitor, challenge him, then threaten him many on one? No, I will not leave." He said this last through clenched teeth, body wound as tight as a spring. "I. Will. Not. Leave." He barely tossed a scornful look in the direction of the woman who, in the same breath said that their goldrider didn't need defending and that they would all protect him. She was not worth his attention. |
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| Fel | Jun 5 2018, 11:37 AM Post #15 |
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Keeper of the Code
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This... wasn't getting better. At all. It was only getting worse, and closer to bloodshed. Tana squeezed her eyes shut and waited for everything to come crashing down. But then there was a voice. The one, singular voice that Tana wanted to hear. The one that could actually make things better. The one that could convince her to finally sit back down in the bath, albeit nearer one of the Benden riders than she would have liked, and believe that maybe things would actually be okay. |
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