Atlas' One-Shots

[AtlasHyperion]

Table of Contents
1) Bake an Extra - Vox finds a bronze firelizard egg while making Quinn a cake
2) Swallow Step - Leo practices her punches then finds a garnet firelizard egg
3) Leaving Home... Again - Laurie and Lacheith decide where to transfer to
4) Red and Gold - Qrow finds himself with a new flit that reminds him of someone

[AtlasHyperion]

Bake an ExtraVox had found himself with some free time on his hands from the mundane repetitiveness of weyrlinghood, and that, of course, meant that he would hole himself away in the kitchens until he was needed again. There was nothing better in the world than knowing how to make your own food, especially if it was not for you.

He thought that he'd be making a 'Congratulations! You Impressed!' cake with all the bells and whistles- in sugar form, of course- for his former roommate, but lo and behold, she was not happy with who she Impressed to. That chimera, that conceited little dragonet was causing her distress and Vox, for one, wouldn't put up with that. He knew what it felt to be hurt by your dragon, and he knew that Quinn of all people didn't deserve that pain.

An 'I am so sorry that you got probably the worst and rudest dragon in the clutch' cake was in order, then.

Fewer bells and whistles, more and more pound cake and simple vanilla icing. Pound cake was Quinn's favorite, she told him. Basic, he thought, but it made sense because Holds didn't have cake like Weyrs did. He'd put some berries on top for flair so it would at least look pretty.

He had finished setting out all the ingredients when he was pulled out of his thoughts by the sound of cracking eggs. "Strange," he thought. "I didn't place the basket of eggs down that hard..." Vox didn't always have the gentlest of touches, but he always tried to place eggs down with the utmost of caution. Removing the cloth on top of the basket, Vox realized why there was a problem with his dozen eggs.

There were thirteen eggs, not twelve, and the thirteenth was shaking and cracking.

Panic ensued, this was a firelizard egg! This was a firelizard egg, you were supposed to feed them when they hatched and he had no food- He paused. He was in the kitchen, he had tons of food. He grabbed some of the extra berries he brought to snack on while he baked and had them at the ready for when the little flit popped out.

Soon enough, a snout popped out. And not soon after came the rest of the firelizard. A little bronze beauty. Vox held out one of the berries to the flit and watched as he gobbled it up. "Aww... aren't you a little angel? Sweet little number thirteen." He thought for a second. "...Oh! Thirteen! Baker's Dozen, that's you."

Now, hopefully, he'd have enough berries left over for that cake.

[AtlasHyperion]

Swallow StepA rose by any other name is still a rose, and by the same way, Leo was a fighter. As kind as she could be on the inside, she wanted to be able to throw a mean right hook on the outside. Whenever she got the time, and whenever her roommate, Honerva, was out of the room, Leo got to practising her punches.

It wasn't like she had anything to punch, anything she needed to punch, anything she wanted to punch, but it was good practice. Plus, if worst came to worst and someone ticked her off or tired to hurt her, she would be ready. Leo bounced around the room, pretending that she had an opponent in front of her. In her mind, it was one of those fights where all the kids would group around, cheer for their friend to win. Those didn't happen often in her Hold, but she could remember one or two, and she was prepared to win this one.

A right hook!

A left jab!

And an uppercut!!

And the opponent is down! Leo raises her arms in victory, laughing. Plopping down onto her bed, she gently swung her legs up and relaxed for a second. Wait- no, that was uncomfortable- wait- she stood back up. She moved around the blankets to find a single firelizard egg, bundled up and cozy... and cracking. Who the forsk thought it was funny to put one of those in her bed? She scrambled around the room for some food, lucky to have brought back some fruit from the dining hall to eat as a snack.

A crack on the right!

A crack on the left!

The shell is broken!

And its... a garnet firelizard! Cheeping and squawking like crazy, Leo shoved the fruit right up to her face. The flit nipped at the fruit and Leo's fingers, making her retract her hand. "By Faranth, you're a little fighter, huh? No biting when I feed you, alright?" The garnet squinted at her as Leo held out the food once more, no biting was to be had.

Leo sighed. Welp, it looked like whoever put the egg there was missing out on a flit. "You fight? I fight too. We're fighters together now. What's a name for a fighter like you..." She thought for a second, there was no way she was naming the thing 'Uppercut'. Throw some sounds together then! "Baji. Bajiquan. Just please stop nipping at my fingers from now on, alrigh- OW!"

Leo had a strong guess that she was always gonna have bite marks on her hands from now on.

[AtlasHyperion]

Leaving Home... AgainLaurie'd graduated, something that she didn't think actually possible. In a way, she didn't feel like she was ready- but how could she? One could only do so much to prepare themselves for the rest of their life... all the studying in the world could never have prepared Laurie for Impression, for graduating, for becoming a dragonrider. The thought of it all hung heavy on her mind... was she ready for all of this?

Of course you are ready, you have prepared yourself to the highest standards that you could possibly do, Lacheith spoke to her, tone firm and slightly encouraging sounding. I am sure that I would not have chosen you if I had not thought that you would not perform aptly, and here you are today, graduating, becoming one of many dragonriders who fly the skies.

Laurie smiled at her dragon. Thanks for the pep talk, Lacheith. She was glad to have had Impressed to a dragon so sensible, one that could appeal to her analytical mind. They got along, which was more than some other rider pairs could say. Can I get your opinion on something?

Of course, my dear.

...I don't want to stay here. I left before, it was my decision, and I want to leave again. But, I don't want to go back to Semaca where I had originally transferred. The flooding there is bad, and... I don't think that I'm personally up to help.

Fort Weyr is always an option.

Fort is always an option, but, Fort can be pretty cruel sometimes.

Everything and anything can be cruel at any given moment, it is all based upon how you perceive it. From my standpoint, I perceive your situation to be thus: you do not wish to stay here, you do not wish to go to other Weyrs because of their situation or their cruelty. All Weyrs have their bad patches, but the best thing for you to do is pick one that you'd like to go to and make your own decisions.

Laurie sighed, thinking over her options. Her dragon was right, always sensible, as usual. She'd need to settle on an option sooner or later. ...Fort?

Fort Weyr is a lovely option, my dear.

Guess I'll have to get my things in order, then. We're heading to Fort Weyr.

[AtlasHyperion]

Red and Gold
Firecracker was a brash girl, and Qrow had figured that out through the short amount of time he’d had her around. Although, it felt like longer. It was kind of funny how much that little gold reminded him of his niece, Yang. It was… eerily funny, actually. But, he wasn’t one to look fate in the mouth. So many times Qrow had been kicked in the face by the forces that be, he wasn’t one to look a gift dragon in the mouth.

He walked through the halls of the lower caverns of the weyr, every so often taking a bite from the cookies (only three, he wasn’t greedy) he’d taken from the Dining Hall. If he wasn’t taking a bite, he was breaking off a little bit for the flit on his shoulder. Qrow didn’t actually know what his goal was walking around with Firecracker on his shoulder in the middle of the night, he just knew that he didn’t really want to stay in bed.

It was peaceful, he’d give it that. It was nice walking around with nothing to bite him in the ass. Plus, Brachyth was asleep, so it wasn’t like she was going to insult him. It was just calm, and he didn’t get calm often.

And then, it wasn’t. Firecracker squawked, almost directly in his ear at that, and flew off to some round object on the floor. He sighed. Nothing was ever simple, was it? "Come on, FC, we got no time to be running around making a mess," he spoke to his flit, walking up to her. "Why don’t we just make one more lap and go b-" He cut himself off when he noticed exactly what the round object was.

An egg? In the hallway? Weird.

But, again, wasn’t going to question it. Was just going to accept it. "This egg better not be yours, huh? For Faranth’s sake." He sighed, crouching down by the flit and the egg. Then- crack. Crack! CRACK! All of a sudden, the shell of the egg began to split, revealing a tiny little garnet flit. She immediately started zipping around Qrow and Firecracker. Faranth, she was a speedy little gal, wasn’t she? "Calm d- calm down, Pipsqueak, just-" He held out the rest of the cookie he was eating, and the dark red flit immediately started chomping away at it.

Qrow looked between the two gals, the colors immediately reminding him of his nieces. It seemed to him that fate was sending him as message… or not, he didn’t really know or care. He just hoped that Brachyth wouldn’t eat the little red for being so… zippy.