Logs:Dilan and the Too Many Girls
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| RL Date: 17 January, 2014 |
| Who: Dilan, Arekoth |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Vignette |
| What: There are too many girls in Dilan's life. Luckily, there's Arekoth. |
| Where: High Reaches |
| When: Month 10, Turn 33 |
| Mentions: Delifa/Mentions, Delinda/Mentions, Delvana/Mentions, Devaki/Mentions, Esiara/Mentions, H'kon/Mentions, Lilabet/Mentions, Leova/Mentions, Madilla/Mentions, Raija/Mentions, Sealene/Mentions, Vinien/Mentions |
| OOC Notes: Arekoth used with permission! (Actually, I was more or less tied to a chair and FORCED to write this, so. Blame H'kon.) |
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| Sometimes, there are just too many girls. Dilan is a boy who was raised by women - by his mother and his adopted aunts, mostly, with his sister, and his adopted cousins. For the first turns of his life, that's all there was. Girls and girls and girls. He doesn't actually remember that, although he knows it is true. It's only been a couple of turns, but he doesn't really remember, now, what life was like before there was an Are-- well, a H'kon, but the two are kind of attached, and really, Arekoth is the one Dilan thinks about most. He does remember, maybe a little vaguely, when Devaki first came into his life. In a way, maybe he has two fathers, now, which is better than most kids have, and one is a Lord and the other is a Brownrider. With a brown dragon! And there's Vinien, of course, but Vinien also comes with a sister. Sealene. And now? Now there's Raija at home, and Esiara at High Reaches Hold and... Sometimes, there are just too many girls. (And not enough brown dragons.) Why couldn't one of them have been another brother? Is that too much to ask? Dilan is wary about wishing for it, because he knows now what it's like to have babies around, but... he kind of wishes for a brother, too. Another one. One who isn't going to be a Lord one day; one who can be just a normal boy to play with. He's not a lonely boy, not even now that Lily is too busy at being grown-up to really play with him, but at night, when Raija wakes up screaming, he rolls over to face the wall and wishes she'd been a brother. Not that he minds her, really. She's kind of cute, and it's great being a big brother at home and not just when he goes to visit the Hold. Still. He tells all of this to Arekoth. Arekoth can be his friend. Is his friend. H'kon and Arekoth are going out. They're going to fly and Arekoth is going to get oiled and please please please please please can I come too? Lilabet is talking about the lace she wants to sew onto her dress, and Raija is sucking her quilt and Mama is sewing and... please don't make me stay with the girls. So he gets to go. (He misses - he always misses - the unspoken conversations going on in rooms around him.) He gets to use the riding belt H'kon helped him make. He gets to ride Arekoth, squeezing his legs tight and tighter and tightest. Later, he helps oil the brown, and he chatters away about everything: how he has too many sisters, now, and how they're all individually okay but there's just too many of them and it isn't fair. How Lily keeps insisting people call her Lilabet, and how she wants to get to go to the Hall when she's eleven instead of waiting until she's twelve, only she won't actually ask because she doesn't want to be refused. How he, Dilan, isn't ever going to go to any Hall, because he's going to have a brown dragon just as good as Arekoth. "He's going to be just like you," he insists. "But I'll still love you." In his head, he imagines Arekoth telling him that he loves him, too. He does that a lot, and then, sometimes, he can't remember later if the brown actually said it or if he made it up. He's ninety-nine percent sure he makes it all up, but he knows the brown has spoken to him. So. It's possible, right? He's pretty sure he's not making up that the brown is amused, though. Some conversations don't need words. Granted, he's not sure why Arekoth is amused - he's being deadly serious! - but... still. It's nice to know. Arekoth is (mostly) easier to understand than H'kon. H'kon is... even when he does use words, Dilan's not always sure what he means. Like Lily, sometimes. "They're both weird sometimes," he confides in the brown, when H'kon has stepped briefly out of earshot. "I don't get it. Why don't they just act normal? And Raija. Even Mama." People are confusing. Dragons? Much better. Easier. Simpler. He's not entirely sure what is going on behind those whirling draconic eyes, but he's definitely sure that it's fun. "Lily won't play with me," he tells Arekoth, wrapping his arms around that long, brown neck. "And I don't think Raija knows how. But you do. That's why dragons are better than people." Arekoth is definitely pleased, mantling his wings and... posing? Yes, Dilan decides. Posing. Dilan is pleased. He peppers warm (oily) hide with kisses, something which may, perhaps, render his point laughable: "I like you best of all the boys. But don't tell anyone, because maybe they'd be mad. Even if you're definitely better than a sister or a father." Raija screams, that night, and Dilan has to try and cover his head with his pillow to block it out. Sometimes, there are just too many girls. But at least there are Devakis and H'kons and Viniens and, most importantly, Arekoths. Later, after Mama has gone back to bed and Raija is quiet, Dilan gets out of bed and crosses to her bed. Her eyes open, so eerily bright in the darkness: she watches at him. "It's okay, Raija," he tells her, firmly but quietly. "You're a girl, but you've got me as a big brother. I'll look after you. Lily doesn't have one, but you always will. Okay? Now go to sleep. Tomorrow, I'm going to teach you how to play dragons." |
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