I'm a scholar and a gentleman (Attn: Br'son)

Yvalleth,Nolinth spoke to his clutch mate and queen, voice respectful but still tinged with amusement. He flashed her a quick image of his rider, who was trying to figure out how to carry his favorite blanket, an exquisit fur that he had made a trade for with the locals almost immediately upon arriving at the Weyr, and two bottles of alcohol. I thought it only fair to warn you,he offered the titan queen.

Jah'vi, meanwhile, had figured out how to carry the unwieldy blanket with the precious bottles, and headed through the back coordidors to the Weyrseniors quarters. The walk was second nature to him now, and took only a few minutes while sober. He knew from experience. He trusted Nolinth had given Yvalleth a heads up long before he reached the door.

Because he knew his clutch brother better than he knew himself sometimes. And the look on his face, sitting across from the two former children who now surpassed him in age and years of experience, had spoken volumes. He had seen it when the first rumblings of exile had begun. He'd seen it the night he'd brought what remained of Eastern to them.

"Coming in," he called out, sliding sideways into the room. Br'son didn't drink like he did, but Jah'vi could tell when the titan rider needed it. And if his clutch brother didn't give him the push to it, he'd wear a hole in the stone of his weyrfloor pacing all night.

As for the fur... it was comfortable as shit and he anticipated getting drunk enough to just sleep on the floor.

((Blanket is a total rip off of the Spirithoods blanket throw we got Alli for Christmas, go check them out, they are LUX.))

Thank goodness, the queen said sleepily. Egg-heavy as she was, Yllaveth spent most of her time sleeping. With the current turbulence in her rider's mind, however, she found it hard to get comfortable enough to rest. Nolinth's rider was exactly what she and Br'son both needed.

Nolinth's rider comes. Try not to argue with him. I need to get some sleep. She said to her rider, and settled herself once again into her couch.

Br'son was pacing, in fact, when Yllaveth's admonition came a heartbeat before Jah'vi's announcement. The Weyrsenior gaped as the bronzerider shuffled in, carrying a ridiculously plush bed fur and two bottles of what looked like Vid's stuff.

"Yllaveth is sleeping," Br'son said, feeling a bit like he was cornered, and a bit like Jah'vi was the one person he wanted to see more than any other right now. "But if that's liquor, then I'm blasted glad to see you."

"I'll be quiet," Jah'vi replied with an eye roll. If Yvalleth had minded company she would have told Nolinth to bugger off. "And yes, two bottles of Avidians' best, and no, I'm not willing to discuss how I got them." He sat the bottles down reverently on a clear space of table, not that there were many of those, and struggled to drape the ridiculous blanket around himself. "Needs a snap to hold it up or something," he mumbled, finally managing to get it in a sort of cape that wasn't too cumbersome.

"Get two glasses," he ordered Br'son, reverting to friendship instead of Weyr hierarchy. "And we're going to pretend that today was perfectly normal and not completely wherry shit insane."

"Uh uh," Br'son said, shaking his head in the negative as he went to his sideboard to get glasses. "I can't do that. It was too... Shards and shells, Jah'vi, I can't even process it all yet. How under the Red Star... " he cut himself off and grabbed two glasses, which he then turned and plunked down on the table.

"Pour," he demanded. "And don't be stingy."

"Yah, all of that," Jah'vi agreed, filling both glasses close to full. He held his up in a toast and said, "To me not losing my hair," before he tossed back a healthy amount that had him coughing for air afterwards.

"This is insane. Was insane. Will be insane?" he asked, honestly confused. "Nolinth is acting like everything is perfectly fine. I think that's what's unnerving me the most."

Br'son, after his own fit of coughing, nodded, and nudged the bottle with his empty glass as a way of asking for more.

"I know," he said, sounding slightly choked. "Yllaveth too. It's like time doesn't matter much to them... which maybe it doesn't, since they can apparently jump between times willy nilly. Shells, maybe we're making too much of it, come to that." He let out a gusty sigh.

"It's just... she's the same, but so different! And if I didn't know better, I'd say she hates me. Though for the life of me I can't think why! What did I do to her in the future that was so terrible?"

Jah'vi filled the glass back up, then quickly moved to catch up. As he poured his second glass, he looked up, slightly puzzled. "Why would she hate you? What did she do that made you think that?" he asked, replaying the meeting in his head. "She was short with all of us honestly, but her queen is about to rise so she's bound to be a little..."

He snapped his mouth closed on what he was about to say and took another long, long drink. Ensieth would be rising soon, Faranth. And that meant Nolinth would want to chase.

So much no.

Br'son took a deep breath.

"You're right. I'm sure you're right. She's just proddy. Faranth knows I can't fault someone for that... it's just... Teagan's voice, Teagan's face, even if it's older. But the sneering, and the smugness. That's not Teagan at all. And it's making my brain hurt."

And Eniseth about to rise. And Nolinth...

"Ah! You should let Nolinth chase her! I bet he'd win. Can't let Manticath get ahead of himself, can we?"

"How do you think I feel? Z'ash was like a kid brother to me, and Nolinth was teaching Manticath... now Manticath is bigger."

He almost spit out his mouthful of liquor at the suggestion, having to cover his mouth and nose. He was pretty sure he coughed up his liver recovering from that, and shook his head desperately. "You know I'd do anything for you Br'son," he said threateningly, somewhat not so intimidating when he was pointing a good two feet to the left of him, "but I am not going anywhere near that flight. Unless you can comfortably say you would have been okay with Manticath winning Yvalleth don't even suggest it again."

Both of the glasses were empty again, somehow. He concentrated on refilling them carefully. For good measure he retopped his off after taking a swig. Funny how after a glass or three it stopped burning.

"Manticath would be a fine 'leader," Br'son said staunchly. "Maybe not two days ago, since Z'ash was so young and all... but I suspect that he's grown in the next few days. If Manticath were to catch Yllaveth, I think he'd do very well. And yeah, it'd be weird. But no weirder than being with a man in the first place."

He shrugged, and took another mouthful of the Lightning. The burn in his mouth had become a kind of pleasant vibration all around the inside of his skull. "Nolinth has good genes. We need him to sire a clutch."

Jah'vi shook his head again. "Give me time to adjust to her being an adult," he said, "and then we can discuss this again. It's... weird," he finished, a distasteful look on his face.

He shook his head again, not sure if he'd already done that or not. "Plus there's three other shadows, and Yllaveth and Klaroth. If Pern still needs bronzes in the bloodline there's plenty of other queens." That was a morose thought, and he stared at his drink sadly for a moment before taking a drink.

"Of course we need bronzes in the bloodline!" Br'son said. "I've been keeping track and I think that without the bronzes, the traditional colors are in danger of dying out! And I bet you have to have a bronze to sire a gold, right? You always did before. So if we're ever gonna have golds again, we gotta have the bronzes. Plus... Holders." He said this last bit as if it should speak for itself while he nodded sagely and took another drink.

"What if the traditional colors are just... gone, though?" Jah'vi asked, a sad look in his eyes. "Teagan and Z'ash both said they couldn't tell us everything. What if everything is all the traditional colors just go... poof," he finished with flourish of his hands.

"But I guess, yah, Holders...," he continued, tapping his empty glass absentmindly. "They sure get all puffed up over a bronze... and Nolinth likes kids for some reason." He made another face, then remembered the day before, and the healer he'd found in that little Hold, and a small smile came back to his face.

Okay so going to the Holds wasn't that bad afterall.

"Should send you out on Search. You and Nolinth. Brought in a new one didnt ya? Healer?"

Br'son squinted at Jah'vi, then abruptly decided it was time to lie down. So he stood, wobbled, and then got to his bed without disgracing himself.

Victory was his.

Jah'vi kept smiling, staring off into space slightly. "Yah, Andren," he said, thinking about the healer and his soft brown eyes. "He's got a good feeling to him," he said, then paused and replayed those words in his head.

No, he thought confidentially, that was right.

And then Br'son was trying to... walk, or something. Jah'vi started laughing before the Weyrsenior had even made it to the bed, and practically fell out of his chair when Br'son finally made it.

He reached up and grabbed the open bottle before he let gravity do its work, finishing his slide out of the chair and landing with a quiet thump on the floor. That made him laugh even more.

"We almost finished an entire bottle," he slurred to Br'son, turning as much as he could in the limited space he had between table and chair. He paused, then shrugged and finished off the bottle in one gulp. Turning it upside down for proof, he amended, "Make that we finished one bottle. The second one is what gets you in trouble."

"Gets you in trouble," Br'son said. "'M already in trouble. With snotty smugh Teagan all grown up and being a pain. What I want to know is, how in bloody shells am I going to screw up so badly that she feels like she has to come back here and be a complete wher to me? How's that fair? She wanted to go!"

Jah'vi had finally gotten comfortable, one leg wedged between his hip and the table and his head thrown back on the seat of his chair. He managed to roll his head in the direction of Br'sons voice. "Maybe you're a giant jerk in the future?" he suggested. "And it was MY Z'ash that threw Wingleader knots on the table after demanding you give them Eastern," he pointed out with a groan. "I think we all screwed up. At least we're not all dead in ten Turns."

"M'never a giant jerk," Br'son said, sounding wounded. "Have you ever known me to be a jerk? Evr'yone loves me. I'm awesome."

Try as he might, he couldn't keep his eyes open, so the Weyrsenior let them drift closed and enjoyed the gently rocking motion of his bed.

Which wasn't actually moving, of course.

"You're right," Jah'vi agreed, snuggling up inside his ridiculous fur blanket. "Too cute t' be a jerk. An' good at cuddling." He craned his neck as far as he could, and was able to see Br'son, barely, eyes closed.

Even as drunk as he was, he felt a pang in his chest. It was a good thing he couldn't reach the second bottle, way up there in the sky on the table. "Hey, 'r'son," he said, low enough that he wouldn't wake him up if he'd fallen asleep already.

He was almost asleep. But when your best friend calls your name, you answer.

"Yeah?" Br'son asked, feeling the weight of the darkness on him.

Jah'vi sighed and rolled his head back, staring up at the ceiling. His brain was crowded with things he wanted to say.

Instead he just said, "Everything will work out." It's was a promise. He wasn't his weyrmate, or even on his radar, and probably never would be, he thought, pretending that the wetness on his cheeks was sweat from all the alcohol. But he could do best friend. That was good enough, right?

"Thanks, man," Br'son said, meaning it. He let out a gusty sigh, and was silent for long enough that he might have actually fallen asleep. But then one eye opened and he spoke again.

"Thanks for coming. You always know when I need you."

"'Course I do," Jah'vi said, letting out a monstrous yawn that he couldn't hold back. "And I'll always be here when you need me. Promise."

Two eyes opened.

"Promise?" Br'son asked. "Cause I need something else. Not more liquor... but... let Nolinth chase Eniseth, wouldja? If Manticath has flown her before, maybe she likes bronzes... and I want Nolinth's genes in the pool."

There was a long pause, but the answer was a given.

"Just let him try to out fly Nolinth," Jah'vi said, giving him a bleary smile. "We'll fix this, Br'son. I promise."