Good or Bad, You're Stuck With Me

[Onyxaeon]

Vsiasi scowled. Obsessively hovering? Well, at least he wouldn't be reprimanded her consistently as he had before she had taken her leave. Maybe that whole ordeal had taught him something. Or, at least the Weyrwoman could hope so. "I would have come back-eventually. I have duties here that could not be abandoned. We don't even have a junior queen yet. Besides, I don't plan on going anywhere. I rather believe Isionyth likes being the 'queen of her own world' too much to ever let me get away for longer than a brief moment." The woman sighed, releasing N'yx from her grip for a spare second before the Weyrleader swayed, and she was forced to grip his forearms as though he were about to fall down.

Clearly, he had not been getting near enough sleep as he should have over the past few weeks, and Xanntorith's words only helped to confirm her thoughts. "I will do no such thing, Xanntorith. N'yx is a grown man: he can handle himself. If he wants to fall flat on his arse from sleep deprivation, by all means let him do so. The body can only go so long without decent sleep and, at the rate he's going, too many others will be trying to slip him something in his food or drink for me to be adding on to his drug dosage. The absolute last thing either of us need is for the goon to overdose." Vsiasi chuckled softly, nudging the man toward the bed with a light touch upon his shoulder. "I can, however, seriously suggest he get some sleep. Strong incentives work too."

That having been said, the woman's arms crossed under her breasts, eyes going firm as she gazed up to N'yx. If he was going to fight dirty, then so was she. "I'll be awake any and every moment you are, dear N'yx. If you don't care about your own health, then put the babe's in the back of your mind. For every hour you're up, I am as well. You know, babies like to sleep: I hardly think he or she will be fond of my moving about when I should be sleeping or my running when he or she is supposed to be slumbering gently."

ooc:' -Bangs head on desk repeatedly- I'm sorry. Aeon just...GAH?!?!?!? Would you care to skip ahead?

[Desert]

ooc; i know already that this is gonna be short and kinda ick, but i have a feeling it's now or never. >_>'' you can timeskip your post, Onyx -- with the way Melpomene is at the moment, i won't be getting much out of her pertaining to WoP.


As exhausted as he was, N'yx slumped onto his bed without a fuss when Vsiasi gave his shoulder a gentle push. He'd been almost asleep when she'd shown up, anyway, and his sleep-deprived body was protesting that sudden return to alertness. Now that things seemed to have been settled for now, all the fatigue was catching up with him, and with a vengeance.

But when Vsiasi delivered her ultimatum, his head snapped up, looking at the Weyrwoman in incredulous indignity. "You can't be serious," he said slowly. "It's not like I make a habit of neglecting my own health. Extenuating circumstances caused my insomnia this time, not personal choice." Despite his recent behavior, N'yx did make a point of trying to get decent amounts of sleep -- but his definition of "decent amounts of sleep" differed slightly from the commonly accepted standard. Still, not by much, and he was capable of running on an hour or two less than most people.

[Onyxaeon]

The dawn had yet to greet the Weyr, but already Vsiasi was wide awake and had been for several hours yet. While N'yx was still slumbering peacefully for the rather early hour, the Weyrwoman was pacing back and forth, her eyes betraying her distress. Her usually flowing ebony tresses were pinned back in a lose bun to keep out of her face and, if one looked close enough, to keep the sweat of her brow from her hair. She had roused from another night terror, though this one had thankfully not woken her dear queen or the Weyrleader. No, she was forcing her mental composure refusing to allow her egg burdened Brimstone to wake up, and force her into taking to the Hatching Grounds to lay. It was closing in on her laying days in any case, but the Weyrwoman was not going to be responsible to throwing her dragon into premature laying. Regardless of her own state of being, it was not worth sending the senior queen into despair, because with her own fretted thoughts came the rest of the Weyr trying to fix her pain.

Gray blue orbs swirled, dainty arms crossing as Vsiasi glanced over to the bed piled high with skins and furs, some scattered about for her abrupt departure. For all the commotion she had made, both N'yx and Xanntorith were where she had left them. Faranth be thanked for that, for she had no intention of speaking about this particular night terror. It had been the same that had plagued her since she had discovered she was pregnant, and was quite the gruesome dream. The same masked figure...That gleaming blade as he entered her shared weyr...Was it so unbelievable to watch that blade plunge into an expecting womb, to forcibly extract a growing babe and slaughter it before it even had the chance to scream out? She always woke just before he cut that cord, just as she would bleed to death and meet the welcoming embrace of between. It didn't help she could not share her fears, as giving another her burden's was so out of character for the woman. Even to her dragon, her most beloved lifemate, she could not hare her trauma. Because doing so would mean putting undue problems on another individual, and she would fight that until the day she died. It wasn't that she didn't figure others wanted to help her (she knew well many who would love to help her at any given moment) but that she would rather do something for herself. That way, the pain stayed to one and did not carry over to others. No more had to suffer than absolutely necessary. But that frame of mind was falling fast the longer the Weyrwoman stood there soon having to sit upon the floor with her knees cradled close to her chest as was manageable for her baby bulge that marked her first trimester. Her body unconsciously found itself in the fetal position, and her now faintly gray eyes had to blink away threatening tears as she crawled across the floor to the other side of the bed. She had to share this with someone. Anyone. Please.

Vsiasi's legs curled up under her as she stood on her knees, her arms propping the rest of her body up as they rested on the bed. She had been arguing over this very act for at least an hour, and Rukbat would soon be peeking over the Weyr's peaks, but she didn't care. Her head was hung low, choked sobs caught in her throat as she argued over waking the man. He would be up soon anyway, she reminded herself, shaking her head at her own cowardice. She had to tell him, or he would other wise probe her for answers and she would invariable snap at him, creating further problems. You couldn't fight nature, but this wasn't nature. Something so...numbing couldn't be, could it?

Mindlessly, her fingers touched his forearm, lightly shaking the Weyrleader. "N'yx..." Her voice was so soft, it as doubtful he would even hear it. Knowing this several moments later, Vsiasi gathered up a small mound of courage and shook him harder, her voice higher though not loud enough to pierce the slumbering thoughts of the dragons behind the nearby curtain. "N'yx, please, get up. I need you..."

[Desert]

For all that he was a high-energy dragon by day, Xanntorith was a heavy sleeper. The big tempest, once he dozed off, was all but dead to the world for the duration of his slumber, even in the lightest stages of sleep. The transition between states of consciousness were abrupt: when he went to sleep, it never took more than a minute or two before he was out, and when Xann woke, no matter what stage of sleep he had been in before, he came alert immediately in possession of all his wits. However, in the early morning when nothing short of an emergency would have given anyone any reason to rouse him, Xanntorith might as well have been a dragon-shaped log. Which was a very good thing for N'yx and the Weyr at large, because if Xann was woken before dawn, he didn't bother to hide his displeasure. Therefore, the surge of emotions coming from the sleeping chamber washed right over the slumbering tempest; his only reaction was to sigh and press closer to Isionyth, around whom he was curled; his usual sleeping position of late.

N'yx, unlike his dragon, was usually a very light sleeper. Unless he was in the deepest stage of sleep, a touch or spoken word was enough to pull him into waking. Even in deep slumber, one had only to raise their voice to a normal conversational volume or give his prone form a light shake to rouse him. He hadn't always been such a light sleeper, but Turns of being blasted from his bed at all hours to deal with the Weyr's emergencies, he'd trained himself into it. It also helped that he was the kind of person who could function fully on little to no sleep, though even N'yx knew he couldn't pull off very many consecutive sleepless nights.

So, the fact that he hadn't woken up, or at least stirred, when Vsiasi was driven into waking by a nightmare was unexpected. However, as soon as the Weyrwoman put her hand on his arm, N'yx twitched with the sharp intake of breath that heralded someone being started from slumber. His eyelids stopped their REM sleep flickering and snapped open, though they didn't initially register what was in front of them. For a moment, while the last vestige of dreaming fled and his mind shook free of sleep's embrace, N'yx blinked owlishly at Vsiasi. The second, firmer shake and accompanying plea chased away the confused incomprehension and snapped him fully into waking.

He half sat up -- his movements were jerky and rapid, thanks to the little jolt of adrenaline in his system released when he was pulled abruptly into consciousness -- and studied Vsiasi's expression, a concerned frown knitting his brows together. She looked awful, in a word; and N'yx knew that it had to have been very bad indeed for her to rouse him. Before Vsiasi's hand could slip off his arm, he caught it in one of his, and squeezed reassuringly. "I'm here, Vsiasi," he said quietly, while mentally thanking the powers that be that Xann was out cold. If Isionyth had been woken by her rider's distress, that would certainly have been enough to jolt Xanntorith out of slumber; and right now, the last thing Isionyth needed was to get worked up over something distressing her rider. It would just put more stress on Vsiasi to try and reassure her dragon.

N'yx reached down with his free hand to grab Vsiasi's other elbow, and tugged gently to pull the Weyrwoman off the floor and up onto the bed next to him. He wrapped his arms around her and cradled her against his body. "I'm here," he repeated in the same soothing murmur. "Now, what's the matter? Tell me about it." She had made it so far as to wake him, but it was another matter to divulge what had caused her such distress. This was one of the things the two Weyrleaders had in common -- an unwillingness to discuss their emotions with others. So, at least in this one case, he could more easily help since he could better understand what was going through her head -- he hoped.

[Onyxaeon]

Vsiasi did not protest, did not so much as utter a sound as N'yx pulled her up and onto the bed, soon after pulling her close to him and gently probing her for what had so distressed her. She only wished it were so easy to explain. In a perfect world, you would never have to face the world alone. But this world wasn't perfect. It had so many flaws, one of which was the shunning of those who needed aid most, for more than one turned a blind eye to the blatant pain of the Weyrwoman. Perhaps that was because they feared crossing the senior queen, though, for Isionyth had quite the temper where Hers was concerned. But N'yx hadn't shunned her; no, he had lifted her up and was waiting patiently for her to voice her reason-or reasons-for her obvious discomfort. He wasn't like the rest of the Weyr who would stand down in front of the fierce ire of the queen, unless of course asked. He respected, but did not fear, so why could she not simply tell him about her nightmare, because he was in fact there, and he was willing to wait.

Because she was petrified of what telling him would mean. Because it meant opening up and spilling all the broken pieces with the hope they would be picked back up and stitched into place. Was it possible to be so vulnerable and to recover from it? Vsiasi was still faintly shaking, her eyes wide, muscles tensed as if she were a fearful rabbit ready to dart back into the woods at the slightest sound. He wouldn't understand. He didn't know of her deeply rooted fears, nor was he a dream interprator.

It's possible he will understand. There's only one way to know for sure: tell. Isionyth? The Weyrwoman's momentary confusion stalled her shuddering, her thoughts whirling to the only recently slumbering queen. She hadn't noticed her rousing...Oh, stop it! The Brimstone bristled, her many faceted orbs swirling a melting pot of hues, now a rainbow in their irritation. Vsiasi was caught off guard. She had gotten rather accustomed to hearing her dragon in a fair mood instead of seeing the snarling, waspish side she usually portrayed to the world. Apparently, the perpetual thorn in her side that made the senior queen that way was not something that could be removed, and so why Vsaisi had hoped for the Brimstone beauty to suddenly have a massive personality make-over was both unfair to the dragon and foolish on her own part. Mine, you are being a dimwitted wherry. Summon some trace of sense and spine: N'yx is sitting there awaiting you to speak, and yet there you lie silent and terrified like a small child! Dry your tears and stop trying to hide under the covers for your security. Some things must be met head on, and this is one of them. Now, go ahead. Tell him whatever is plaguing your mind. Honestly, there are worse things lurking in the shadows than what haunts your nighttime dreams.

While Isionyth's words were harsh and terribly bitter, they were in fact true. The Weyrleaders of a Weyr were supposed to be strong, of which Vsiasi was not. And, frankly, she needed to start being so. She had a babe on the way and, so long as Isionyth lived to produce healthy clutches, she would be Weyrwoman. A slow, airy sigh puled past the woman's lips and she rested her head against N'yx's chest, lids veiling over her light gray orbs. Isi, go back to sleep. You're going to wake Xanntorith up, and you know he'll be in a foul mood if he gets woken up so early. The Brimstone was about to offer another acid laced remark, though she did recognize the validity to her Mine's words, and so rested her head against her paws, one prickly barb nudging Asuka out from under one of her wings. The Alpha Cion hissed indignantely at being roused, but did not snap back at the larger reptile, for the Brimstone had lifted her lips to reveal enormous fangs. Fangs that could easily tear him to shreds. Without further hesitation, Asuka slithered over to Xann's side, curling up underneath the Tempest's wing to avoid the queen's surely state of being. Whatever had ticked her off, he didn't want to be on the receiving end. Or anywhere in the immediate area.

"I...I-" Vsiasi's eyes clenched tighter together, as if trying to force her mind away from the thought of revealing anything. Instead of what she wished to say-of the dream, the shadowy figure, the blade, that dying infant-three lonely, half worthy words stumbled from her lips. "A night terror." How pathetic. Vsiasi's temper flared, the woman hurling herself from her position atop of N'yx, though ever careful of the subtle baby bulge, her eyes bearing daggers through the faint slit in the curtain door where a fraction of Isionyth's gleaming eye could be seen. "Pathetic?! Isionyth, pull your head out of your arse, you overgrown, waspish tyrant! You didn't have to deal with the thought of being slaughtered in your sleep, or watching your babe being cut out of the womb by some complete madman! You didn't-" Realization dawned on the young woman, and Vsiasi could not longer hold up her anger as she notived teh Brimstone was staring impassively at her. Thank you. Of all the things Isionyth was, indeed her wit did show above all. Vsiasi may never have told other wise.

[Desert]

Soothingly, he combed his fingers through Vsiasi's hair as the Weyrwoman trembled against him. Clearly, she was frightened near to death, but there was nothing in the immediate area that looked particularly threatening, so N'yx could only assume that a nightmare was responsible for her distress. It wouldn't be entirely surprising. But he kept the guess to himself and waited for her shudders to die down; it would be better for her to try and articulate the experience herself.

Suddenly she stilled and her expression took on the blank look that indicated she was speaking to her dragon. N'yx touched Xann's thoughts lightly and was relieved to note that the big tempest was soundly asleep; thankfully, Isionyth's waking hadn't roused her mate. Even when Asuka slithered under his wing, Xanntorith barely twitched.

Apparently, Isionyth had cajoled her rider into speaking, because then Vsiasi spoke; though the sentence was brief and halting, it confirmed N'yx's supposition. It would probably take a while to get the full explanation out of her, but N'yx was prepared to take his time; he'd get nowhere rushing her. So he waited patiently for a few moments more, in case she decided to elaborate, before he prompted her for more information; but before he could open his mouth, suddenly Vsiasi surged off his lap and glared though the curtain at the subtly glowing dragon-eye visible through the darkness.

N'yx hid a smile. Patience was one way to get an answer; he privately wagered that only Isionyth could get away with provoking her rider into revealing her secret fears, since she knew Hers the best. Vsiasi apparently realized this fact moments after launching into an indignant tirade when her speech cut off. he leaned forward and extended one hand to touch Vsiasi's palm. "So you had a nightmare about someone murdering you and the child?" he asked gently. He certainly sympathized, though he hadn't had bad nightmares since he was a boy, or true night terrors when some unknown horror in his dreams sent him screaming into wakefulness, leaving no memory of what had frightened him so.

He sent out a thought toward Isionyth, on the off chance that she was listening to him, Thank you, Isionyth. I'm afraid it might have taken all night to get it out of her doing it my way.

ooc; nearly 30,000 fucking words for the fic, and then this. -sighs-

[Onyxaeon]

You are welcome. Now stop with your aimless chatter and soothe Mine. I have gone to the effort to have her tell you what was the matter, and now I'm going back to bed, as she is still faintly upset with me. I need my sleep, and so do you, but neither of us will find it if we don't get Vsiasi back together. My shift is over; now, it's your turn. The Brimstone heaved a sigh, the atmosphere around her nostrils clouding as if it were smoking, before she glanced to her mate. Thank Faranth for he having not awoken. Dealing with Hers was one thing; she knew exactly what buttons to push with her rider, and what to say where delicate matters were a glaring issue. But Xanntorith was another matter. She knew him well, yes, but not as closely as did His, and so there was left ample room for misinterpretation, error, and chaos between the two, something for which the senior queen cared little for at the current moment. Perhaps if she were not due to take to the sands soon, she would entertain a bit of banter between herself and he, but because there were eggs and small dragonets within to consider, she would not take the chance.

Isionyth's prickly tail coiled around the Tempest's own, ever careful of her barbs and equally rough, ebony ridges. Her great mass nudged closer to his bulk, wings tucking and her wedged head going to her paws. A moment or two more of shifting gave the queen a comfortable spot, a hum of contentment fleeing her maw as her many lidded eyes closed. She was only barely conscious, not quite ever drifting back into the deep slumber of previous moments. Another outburst would rouse her but, with any matter of luck at all, N'yx could keep Vsiasi calm so that Isionyth would not find the need to wake to fix this muddle again. Because if she awoke once more before dawn, she would damn well bring Xanntorith into the matter. Things rarely worked with two irate dragons on someone's tail.

Vsiasi flinched when his fingertips graced her palm, the woman's heart slamming into her throat, breath quickening. No. He wasn't him. She had woken up, and that shadow was no longer before her. She was safe. For now, at least. With a startling amount of force, she bit back her shivering and made the effort to calm her heart rate before she climbed back into the fur laden bed, her eye's playing over his features hopelessly. A wordless utterance dropped from her lips, her tongue refusing to work and, again, she had to demand her body to operate. "I don't know who this person is, but it's happened before...Many, many times before, N'yx. When I first found out, that was the first night I dreamed of...this shadow. It wont go away and, at first, I thought nothing of it. I have terrible dreams frequently but, this is different." The Weyrwoman leaned against his chest, pulling a stray fur back over her body. It may have been in the dead of summer on the Eastern Continent, but she was deathly cold. "I don't know if it's male or female, the stranger in the weyr, but the death is always the same. The emotion from he or she, is always the same. Jealousy. Malice. Contempt...Whoever they are, they want me dead. They want to watch you suffer, to wake and see two mutilated corpses....I can't take it anymore. I have to find out who this person is, and I have to get as far away from them as possible."

[Desert]

N'yx wrapped his arms comfortingly around Vsiasi's shoulders when she leaned into his chest. He held his silence as Vsiasi spoke, just listening wordlessly, and remained quiet for several moments once she had finished explaining. Thankfully, it seemed like once the first few words had gotten out the rest followed more easily, rather than having to fight for every bit of information.

After thinking for a while, N'yx finally spoke. "I'm probably the wrong person to be trying to interpret a dream, but it seems to me that perhaps this dream is your mind's way of expressing your anxieties over your welfare and the childs' during this pregnancy. I could be wrong, but that's just what I think. It would be like you to be worrying even in your sleep," he remarked wryly, with a slight snort.

"If that's the case, then there might not be much we can do other than see if the Healers have something to help you sleep better." N'yx was rather skeptical of the possibility that her nightmares were any sort of premonition, or they they reflected a real person or event. He'd never been the superstitious type; N'yx had a hard time believing things of that nature unless he saw the phenomenon with his own eyes.

ooc; nope. gone. -sigh- no Muse. sorry.

[Onyxaeon]

Vsiasi dismissed the suggestion almost before if fled from the Weyrleader's lips. "I've tried the Healers already; they said they cannot give me anything to better my sleeping habits for fear of harming the babe. That, my 'body is already so accustomed to the lack of proper sleep and night terrors that it would do more ill than good to erase them.'" The Weyrwoman sighed. What a load of wherry dung. "And I'm not concerned with my own personal health enough for that to be a reason behind it all. I never think of myself first. Why should it be so in a dream?" Though the point was indeed an odd one, it did make sense. The only she would be concerned for would be the child. But the dreams did not focus solely on the tiny being, for both newborn /and/ mother suffered in them. N'yx's theory made no sense to the woman in that light. She wasn't worried about either's health-they were both fine. So, why was the nightmare still there?

"I would feel better if it could be looked into, is all I am asking. I'm not saying have people follow me to make sure things go well, but, maybe, just don't allow the opportunity for the fiction to become reality. I'm not one to get worked up over nothing, and you know that. If something's got me wary, it's something of importance." Vsiasi heaved herself to her feet, carefully pushing herself off of N'yx until she could scoot off the bed and stand on her own. Whatever the case, she wasn't going back to sleep. She had spent too many nights dealing with the same dream to not know when laying in bed would do no good, especially when other things needed and could be done about the Weyr. "It's going to be light very soon, and I have been told I /have/ to eat breakfast for some strange reason. With as much as you make me eat, it's a wonder people question what has made me "different' as of late." The Weyrwoman was only jesting of course, an attempt she hoped would lighten the mood around the two of them, at least for the while. She loathed being vulnerable, and the entire last several hours had been far too much a tax on her for the woman to not want a reprieve.

OTC// Apologies. -.- My muse just....Aeon didn't want to write, apparently, but I did so...meh.

[Desert]

It was true that the substances in many sleep aides were probably not good for the child, but the rest of that excuse sounded like bull. Still, he wasn't in a position to be arguing with the Healers, so N'yx just shrugged it off. Whether or not her body was used to it, she needed more sleep -- but he digressed. If they couldn't do anything about it they couldn't, and no amount of arguing from him was going to change it.

"All right, we can have someone look into it," he agreed. There was nothing harmful about it, after all, and if it would help her peace of mind it could only help. N'yx chuckled at her attempted joke and stood up as well.

ooc; yeah, she's gone. this is all i'm getting out of Melpomene, and i'm pretty damn sure she's not gonna work with me much more on this. sorry.