futurology | [Video; UN: lessaofpern]

[Lessa has set her jaw as she looks into the projection of the network, grey eyes sparkling with unaffected warmth as she considers this strangely intuitive communication system. How like speaking to dragons it feels, and how strange.]

Good morning. I hope all of that merry-making last night didn't leave any of you completely indisposed, as I believe that we have a lot of work to tackle in the coming days.

I am Lessa of Pern. I am the senior Weyrwoman of Benden Weyr, Ruathan by blood, and rider to Golden Ramoth. Though it means little to those not from Pern, I can assure you that I have earned every last of those titles, and though I acknowledge that this team is a company of equals, I think we can all admit that if we want to find ourselves home sooner, we could stand to delegate and specialize to our strengths... not all of us want to retire to sandy beaches we know will decay into abandon!

I'd like to speak with those of you who are versed in ALASTAIR's values and practices, and those of you who have spoken with the Nalawi at length and have learned anything more than what we have been given prior to our arrival. Locations, traditions, values, any records that can be used to track the progress of this island's troubles... it could all be valuable.

[She affects to toss a lock of fine black hair from her face, thinking herself particularly clever for re-enacting the kind of proud-chested talk that her weyrmate has employed in the past.]

Please join me for a mug and a plate in the lower room of the inn. I'm looking forward to meeting you in person so that we can consider our options going forward together.

[Before she shuts her communication down, the proud, slight smile brightens suddenly with a kind of abandoned amusement, like she's come out of a spotlight on a stage... and that's because she has. Lessa has never been in a position where she could stand up and take singular charge before, and the thought that she might be able to now is a heady feeling. Watch her sit rigidly in the tavern of the Inn from the time the broadcast is over until the moment someone approaches; she's going to be on the edge of her seat expecting the outpouring of earnest team-members coming forward to hand her clues to go gallivanting off on.]

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[Rather than bring her amusement, the description brings a frown of concern to Lessa's face.]

From different worlds are bred different dragons... but where I am from that is the description of one lost to fury. The eyes, swirling red, mean the dragon is beyond words.

[She returns to a politic smile, apologetic after a fashion.] More unusual still is a woman with a male dragon! In all my days it's always been known that men bond to every dragon save the queen. Easier, when they take wing against dangerous Threads, not to worry of children left in the Lower Caverns... though the hidebound among us would have it that It Is The Way It Is. Being a mother of dragons grants you a lot of leeway. They wouldn't have it, at the Weyrs.

[ A year ago, that would have disturbed her, sent her to questioning what she had unleashed upon the world again. Perhaps frighteningly, it doesn't now. Dany is curiously calm. ]

Dragons are fire made flesh, I have always heard ... but I have only now begun to understand the meaning. [ She inclines her head from its proud stance, her gaze firm. ] Drogon will never be like your Ramoth, and so you must never think to reach him by words. Dragons respect only strength of will, nothing more. If he is fury, then I must be more than that.

[ Does she mean that she has to be more than that, or that she is more than that? Both. She speaks of this with relative ease, as though claiming strength over a dragon is a normal assertion to make. But with the explanation given, perhaps she might soothe some of the worry she's inspired. ]

Even still, left to his own whims, he would sooner fly and hunt, and be free. He has no fear of people, but he has no wish to lay waste to anyone without cause. [ Only to those who would threaten her, as he had proven with Khisanth. ] I understand Ramoth is a hatchling, but Drogon's body is only the size of a cat. ALASTAIR feared what he might do, I have no doubt.

[ She learns the customs of Lessa's world, and they give her pause, searching through the names she remembers. Those queens had ridden she-dragons, as well ... A small furrow appears in her brow. Am I the only queen to mount a male? ] Why do they take only men for their riders? It cannot be that only men are made worthy. [ No man would have dared tell Visenya Targaryen that. ] Has no woman tried?

[Lessa, small as she is, has never once doubted any of the dragons of Pern. Though they might each possess words and a will of their own, for whatever reason her blood is concentrated such that she can speak with all of them where most men can't. It has lent her a particular fondness, but in this case it might be a case of foolhardiness. Luckily, Daenerys' warning isn't brushed off entirely. Being one of the few women that Lessa has found she can connect with, even on a politic and slightly distanced level, is something she hasn't managed in years! She won't scoff in the face of the mother of dragons.]

A dragon Impresses who it makes a mental connection with. Older minds assumed that there were simply men better suited to the company of a female Green, promiscuous and flighty, and some to a male Bronze, bright and steadfast... but since my Weyrmate and I took charge of Benden Weyr, we've discovered that familiarity with the eggs as they harden seems to be key.

[Lessa's smile is bittersweet. She misses F'lar and his risky gambles; they so often pay off, and they so often turn stone-headed old fools on their ear that she misses that sense of visceral engagement with the unknown. Dany's question stokes a sudden, tart fire in Lessa's breast, and her smile turns sharp.]

Before F'lar and I, there was only Nemorth and her wilful, slothful Weyrwoman Jora. R'gul was the Weyrleader before F'lar took over, and he was so hidebound he wouldn't allow me to fly with Ramoth, a dragon clearly possessing wings and the will to use them, let alone give a woman a chance to bond a dragon of any other colour. Even F'lar was leery of allowing Ramoth and I to practice the more dangers maneuvers every dragon knows in their blood.

[She laughs, a sharp, short sound.] There are likely good reasons, as I've said--to lose a dragon, a rider, and a child all in one moment to a clump of Thread would be harder for the Weyr than our odds already are... but we lost so much in the last four hundred Turns that I can't say for sure if women in our Wings were one of them.

Your weyrmate. [ Dany repeats the word, allowing it to marinate on her tongue. ] This F'lar, did you marry him? [ She has twice shared power with men--once with Drogo, who had made a queen of her, and once with Hizdahr, who had sought to undermine her every decision. Both times, she had married only because she must.

Her own world is scarcely kind to women, but Lessa's stinks to her of a restriction she would not abide. The queen wrinkles her nose in distaste. ] When Drogon is grown again, I have no doubt that my captains will protest my riding into battle. [ Upon Drogon's back, she felt whole and free--content, for the first time she could remember. They could not dissuade her even if they tried. ] They voted to a man to dissuade me when my mount was a horse, and they could never agree upon anything before. Tell me, how could I have denied them that? [ A wry, albeit fond smile. ] But if my dragons are to be ridden, I must take to the skies and lead them.

[ There is no one else to do it, save for two men somewhere in the world. The dragon has three heads.

A dragon, a rider, and a child--Dany frowns. Is she pregnant? ] You have been long at war with these Threads, then. But how can it be that a war lasts four hundred years?

[ Two and a half years of waste has been enough. ]

'Marry'? [Lessa had never really felt that her position with F'lar was one of marriage.] My Ramoth and his Mnementh flew together and mated, which I suppose is about as close as one gets, in a Weyr. The eldest golden dragon determines the senior Weyrwoman, the dragon who mates the Gold becomes the Weyrleader. It's how it was always done. We certainly fight like we're married, [she admits with a fond bit of salt to her voice.]

[So many traditions on Pern. Some, she's lived her entire life without questioning. Others, she's openly derided with every waking chance. There are things that Dany says that perk Lessa's attention, like that plural 'dragons', but she will have to wait. Given the opportunity to talk about how foolish the leaders of Pern had become, she'll take it.]

A war can not, and that is the problem. We lasted four hundred with no sign, no scrap, only Harper tales to teach us about the danger of return of Threads. With all the Weyrs abandoned at the end of the last Fall it's as though every man decided to turn their backs on the remaining Weyr, Benden, as though they were safe forever. Foolish, short-sighted Lords.

[Video; UN: lessaofpern] | Rallying the wings

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