All the Tales of Pern (Dragonriders of Pern)
Author: Ashynarr
Summary: Because there are a lot of possible stories still to tell about the world of Pern, and I don't really have time for them all yet.
Disclaimer: DroP isn't mine.
Warning: x-overs with: Homestuck, Hetalia
~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~
((Pernstuck, the original series!))
Dirk Strider frowned as he sat back in his chair, wondering why he'd been unable to focus today on his modifications to the flamethrowers he and the other gold riders were taking out to fight Thread next time it passed overhead. Normally he could lose himself easily in the task, forgetting the hours passing by until his husband or one of his friends came by to drag him out and shove food down his throat.
In the back of his mind, he could feel Yaldabaoth stir restlessly, her sunning interrupted by the same twitchiness that was affecting him. You alright?
I want to fly, she complained grumpily, her emotions swirling as she became more alert.
I can be out there in a few minutes, He replied, setting his equipment down. Maybe some time in the sky would ease whatever was bothering him.
No, I want to fly now, she snapped, tail swishing in agitation. I want to fly and fly until I touch the stars, and I dare anyone here to stop me.
He frowned, feeling her emotions roil more. He also knew, with certainty, that she had broadcast that to everyone, startling several bronzes out of their own naps in response. His grip on the table tightened as he realized what was about to happen.
Flight.
Several other golds had already gone through the process, driving all the riders involved as close to madness as was possible for otherwise friendly, normal people. Even his brother, usually as good as controlling himself as Dirk was, had been in a half-there daze, dragged along with his dragon as a consequence of the bond no one has anticipated.
And the aftermath… the poor, confused couples who had others, but had gone as their dragons did…
God, he would never forgive himself if he slept with anyone other than Jake, but Jake had a wher, and wasn't here, and he could already feel himself being dragged from his body and his self as she stalked the horses, grabbing one by the neck and killing it before it had a chance to scream. She drank out its blood, licking her lips as she stepped back from the corpse to call her challenge.
Chase me if you dare!
And she was airborne, and he was as well, Yaldabaoth consuming him whole as her wings caught an updraft, climbing quickly even as the bronzes rose to her challenge. She didn't care for any of them at the moment, more focused on the thrum of desire in her blood and bones, to fly and fly and never look back, for what weak bonds could keep her tied to such a miserable thing as the ground? She was a Queen, and she bowed to no one!
The first bronze approached, his lust and eagerness already apparent, and she huffed and dropped away, catching speed as she fell and pleased to see she scattered the others attempting to approach from below. She caught another updraft and climbed again, dipping behind a cloud briefly as she considered her suitors.
She wanted one who was fast, clever, and would give her a good first clutch. Hephaeth would be good, but some part of her thought that might not be good in the long term - oh well, there were others, he would live with the disappointment. Perhaps-
"Dirk, Dirk!"
And who was that interrupting her thoughts! Why, the sheer nerve of that human-
Dirk came back to himself with a gasp, face stinging as he looked up into Jake's frustrated, worried expression. He could feel Yaldabaoth's moment of shock, having forgotten he'd existed as well, before returning her focus to the bronzes attempting to take advantage of her hesitance. She'd still outfly them all, with or without a human along for the ride!
"I- What did I…"
"You almost broke your flamethrower," Jake explained, sitting down alongside Dirk and grabbing his hands.
Dirk glanced over, seeing the device had indeed been moved out of the way, which he was more than thankful for. "Jake, I'm so-"
"It's not your fault - we knew this would happen eventually, and I'm just glad Jade was with Dave when the Flight started."
"Is he-" Dirk asked, trying his hardest not to fall back into the swirl of amused passion and emotionality that had shaken his confidence in his self-control.
"Jade's working on getting him out of the lust right now, I think," His husband replied. "We weren't sure whether we'd be able to do anything, and you looked ready to maul me when I tried…"
Dirk's hands tightened around Jake's, offering a tight smile. "It's getting easier - she's more focused on them, so I can block her out without her fussing for once. Hold me?"
Even as the words left his lips he flinched, not used to admitting to emotional needs verbally, but Jake understood, moving over to his lap and wrapping arms around him.
"Has she chosen someone yet?" Jake asked, lips close to his forehead.
"No, she's still flying loops around them," Dirk laughed softly, more able to appreciate the enjoyment his dragon was getting out of this now that he wasn't being dragged into it himself. His brows shot up as one of the bronzes dropped away, the darker shade suggesting it was Hephaeth. Based on the uncertainty with which he was dropping behind, Dirk suspected Dave had come to as well, and his worry of flying his brother's dragon had overridden whatever interest the dragon had.
"I think Jade did it too," He whispered, feeling as much as hearing the whoop of surprised pleasure beside his ear.
"Golly good! I knew she had it in her!"
Just then someone slammed into the doorway, panting heavily from exertion. Both men looked up, seeing their friend Roxy clinging to the doorway like a lifeline while focused intently on Dirk.
Nith was one of the bronzes chasing Yaldabaoth. And, from the feel of things, Yaldabaoth was seriously considering him for her first clutch.
Jake hopped up onto his feet at a similar realization, marching over to her to offer the same services he had Dirk. She shoved him out of the way before he could try, marching forward and grabbing Dirk's shirt tightly.
Dirk replied by grabbing her jaw and nose, pinching both shut and waiting for the inevitable result. As far as things went, it was a lot less sudden and painful than a slap across the face, and was more likely to work, to boot.
In less than a minute her eyes had widened, pupils frantically narrowing as she flailed and panicked. Out in the air, Nith roared at Yaldabaoth's rider and the gold herself, pushing himself in equal parts anger and lust even as Roxy came back to herself.
She stumbled back into Jake's arms as Dirk let go, gasping for air and choking on a sob as she realized what she'd come close to doing to one of her best friends. "Oh my god, Dirk, I was-"
"I only just got out of it myself," He reassured, looking up to Jake to offer better emotional support than he could.
"You should have seen the way he snarled at me!" Jake chuckled, rubbing her shoulders as she centered herself. "Would have thought he was a werewolf on the hunt!"
Roxy snorted out a giggle, pressing a hand to her mouth. "I could totes see it. He's a bit scrawny for a big bad wolf, tho."
Dirk stiffened slightly in outrage, shooting a glare at Jake when he started laughing as well before relaxing and offering a hint of a smile. "You two are horrible; I don't know how I'm friends with you both."
"Because we're awesome and you know it," Roxy replied easily, stepping forward to wrap an arm around his waist while grinning up at him. "And Janey would totes agree if she weren't busy making sure the non-riders are keeping the riders contained. She's already decided there aren't gonna be any more incidents while she's around to stop them."
"Good on her," Dirk nodded, pleased to know the kind-hearted woman was putting her foot down as well on the tentative desire to ignore the ramifications of the aftermath in favor of focus on caring for the second generation of dragons. It was one thing to accept some cultural shifts in order to better prepare for decades of threadfall ahead, but another to let universal crimes slide just because of a lack of control.
Suddenly the two stiffened, realizing that Yaldabaoth had made her decision and was even now falling towards the ocean below, Nith latched to her with a deep hum of exertion and pleasure. Roxy tentatively released her hug, flushing as she averted her gaze.
"...congratulations, I guess," Dirk offered awkwardly, glancing over to a wildly confused Jake. "Yaldabaoth just let Nith catch her."
"...oh!" And now Jake was flushed as well, glancing between the two of them. "Are you, erm-"
"It's fine, I'm not about to do that to her," Dirk reassured, glancing back to Roxy as she closed her eyes and breathed deeply. "And I think she's good too. Still, we should probably wait a bit for them to finish before we go out and check on things."
"Right, right, of course. Do you want me to get you guys something?"
"Water, something light, and…" Dirk frowned, feeling the last of the lust disperse as Nith and Yaldabaoth broke and floated back to the ground together, wings almost overlapping. "Try to see how soon you can get a meeting together. We need to make sure none of our riders get affected like this again, especially if other critical things are going on at the same time."
If it happened during the rumored move up north...!
~0~0~0~0~0~0~
((Snippet for the Wherlady of Pern idea of mine))
If it hadn't been for the light of the moons that night, Jesla might have missed them entirely, even as noisy as they were being. As it was, it took her a long moment of leaning out the window to pick out the creatures running across the grounds of Fort, their hides gleaming and contrasting them from the darker dirt and grasses.
She knew, like any properly taught child of the oldest Hold on Pern, of the watchwhers that guarded the keep and halls at night, and helped the miners at their own hold dig into the earth for precious ores and firestone. Being creatures of night, however, she hadn't had opportunity to see them active before - and after what happened to the last two boys who thought to bother the creatures in their kennel, no one dared risk peeping on them while they presumably slept the day away.
But here she was, watching several of them run as fast any runner could dream, the lead well ahead and calling out to the three behind it with abandon. As if spurring them on, the rest fought to catch up, coming back around towards where she'd first seen them before one of the followers finally cut the leader off. The two collided, appearing to roll before coming to a stop.
The others made one last call, sounding almost disappointed even as what had to be the handlers came out and drag them back towards the kennels. After another moment the two tussling were pulled apart and dragged away as well, leaving Jesla alone with her wandering thoughts.
~0~0~0~0~0~0~
((Bella stuck on Pern whoops))
"Come on, you greedy beasts, help me drag this in so we all can eat."
The dragonets obliged, the golden one screeching at the others to grab hold of parts of the wonky science experiment bird that was somehow still edible despite all logic of alien ecosystems claiming that should be unlikely.
Isabel wasn't going to complain, however, because the meat would be a nice reprieve from fish and fruit and what roots and mushrooms she could tentatively put down as edible. Even if her supernatural constitution made poisoning more a discomfort than a problem, she wasn't fond of wasting an afternoon hating her life, so she stuck to what was safe unless necessary.
After a few more tugs, the bird was clear of the underbrush and the trap she'd put together just to catch something like it. The dragonets broke away, landing on trees or the ground while she pulled out her swiss army knife and started hacking away at the body. The belly was carefully torn open, guts pulled out and thrown to the waiting party, each one quick to snap up whatever came near them. Next came the muscles, her own meal once she got back to camp and started cooking it all over a fire, and these went into her specially repurposed carry bag.
Finally, she went back to the head, carefully tapping the skull before bringing the butt of the knife down enough to crack the bone, using the knife end after that to tear open the skin and pick out some of the thin bone. The gold dragonet, recognizing the now familiar offering, swooped down and got to work pulling more shards away, stuffing her face into the opening to get at the rare treat. The others of the flock followed, tearing into the remains of the bird she hadn't taken as she moved away.
Shaking her head in amusement, Isabel turned and started walking back to the beach, humming under her breath. For someone who'd been away from civilization for nearly a month, she'd been doing surprisingly well for herself despite her early worries. The fruits were plentiful and varied, the seas abounded with fish, and the trees provided shelter and resources to put together the basic tools she hadn't had with her when she'd first arrived in this place.
Surprisingly, she'd also ended up with company, something she'd stressed over since she'd first noticed the connection to her people felt... muffled. It was still there, but she couldn't get any sort of information from it besides the fact that her people existed, and it'd made it hard to focus those first few days.
Then the dragonets had come across her, observing her traps and shelter before deciding that she was apparently safe enough to work with.
Needless to say, she'd been shocked when she'd seen more than a dozen small dragons herding a panicking bird right into her net, a clearly intelligent and cooperative plan that provided enough food for everyone by the time it'd finally been stripped to the bone and feathers. It'd been a hearty meal, made more memorable from how alien the creatures were despite their broad similarities to Earth's mythology.
They didn't always stick around after that, but she saw them several times a week, either gliding around on the ocean breeze, diving into the ocean, or basking on the warm sands. She even watched how they fished in turns, or how they carefully tended to each other in elaborate grooming rituals that seemed to point to some vague hierarchy within the flock.
The gold was obviously on top, followed by her favorite bronzes. After them seemed to be the greens, with the browns and blues at a vague bottom that might have just been something peculiar to this group and not a firm thing. She couldn't be positive without running into more groups, but she hadn't actually seen any others yet, so for now she contented herself with what her flock would tell her.
(Sometimes, she couldn't help but wonder if they were studying her as well. For a wild species, they were certainly curious and bold.)
By the time she reached her camp, the sun was starting to sink towards evening, and her fire was still smouldering enough that it only took a bit of encouragement and fuel to get it back to a comfortable flame to cook her meat over. Her makeshift pans were laid out, meat strips carefully set across them before she banked the flames and set the meat-bearing rocks on top of the embers to cook slowly.
Several dragonets popped into existence overhead, spiralling down to a lazy landing nearby and settling themselves in for a nap. Two layers of eyelids closed over their eyes, wings stretched out to absorb the sun while it was still high enough to provide heat. They were almost like cats, really, only the dragonets were even nosier around her stuff when she wasn't there to shoo them away.
By the time the meat finally finished cooking, she was about ready to drop off herself, despite it being early. She'd certainly gotten out of the habit of being on her feet all day before this, hadn't she? Still, Isabel made certain to eat as much as she could before packing the rest away as carefully as she could so it would last over the next few days. After that, she crawled into her makeshift tent, adjusted her worn jacket so it cushioned her head, and fell asleep almost immediately.
~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~0~
AN: Part one of two for the stuff in my word doc so far. The stuff with the wherlady is something I'll probably do after I finish my current projects and have time to plot out a storyline and whatnot, because whers have the potential to be a lot of fun.
Likewise, I've taken a liking to dropping my Hetalia OC into other settings just to see how she reacts. This is one of them.
As noted from the other story this is mostly crossposted from:
Okay, this is something I've been pondering a while, and ever tried out for a bit on an rp forum before remembering I have crippling anxiety towards rping. But yeah, I basically ignore the whole 'gender exclusive colors' and 'flight lust' things in favor of my own entertainment and what might make an interesting story.
The main reasoning behind Dirk is, well, partially because part of my plans for the AU were to make the Queenriders the actual bosses of the Weyrs, not whatever random dude's dragon happened to fuck hers. Yes, the bronzes are still the ones leading wings in combat, but she tells the hold how to run and directs most of the combat even if the queens themselves can't flame.
Meanwhile, you have Dirk, who is a horrible people person. He has the potential to be great, but a lot of issues to work through to get there, which gives your entire personal development plot right there. Roxy, on the other hand is definitely more suited for weyr leadership but doesn't have the confidence in herself because of her previous issues with drinking back on Earth (before the cryosleep trip there).
So I suppose you could switch them around to their 'proper dragons', but I felt that this way would push for a lot more character development both for them and for those around them.