Get to Know Your Dragon
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Week 2: Get to Know your Dragon

IC

Your dragons continue to grow like weeds, but there won't be a whole lot of difference in the physical care you will be providing for them. You're still cutting meat up for them, oiling them, bathing them, and mucking out their couches. However, now that they're older and wiser, you have a little more freedom of mobility. You can now venture together through all the bowls, which means your dragon will get to start meeting a lot more strangers; you're still not allowed on the plateau or down to the main beaches, though, so bathing can still only take place in the pools.
Although the vast majority of your time should still be spent with your dragon, you may now go for brief visits into the caverns for a bite to eat or a bath. Remember, though, that if your dragon becomes panicked or worried, it's your duty to come right back out and see to them. No klah-sipping just yet.
The mind link should be a bit more normal to you now, and in this month the weyrlingmasters will begin running you and your lifemate through exercises to help strengthen it. These will include things like communicating to your dragon non-verbally (until now, most of you probably will have been speaking to them out loud), having your dragon relay messages from another rider to you (by communicating with the other rider's dragon), blindfolding yourself and having your dragon be your eyes and guide you around based on what they see, etc.

Tips and Limitations:

  • You and your dragon may wander together to the pools, and the three bowls (northeastern, central, and southeastern). You may go into the living caverns or baths, but only for a short period of time. (No, your dragon can't come with you for that.)
  • You're still cutting up an awful lot of meat (provided to you in the barracks), going through jar after jar of oil (also provided), and washing your still-fairly-little lifemates whenever they need it.
  • Until your dragons learn to go between, they will be doing their business (i.e., poop) primarily in their couches. It's definitely your job to clean up after them, no matter where this happens.
  • Though you are now getting your own meals, you still may not have alcohol or any other sort of drug. Romantic relationships remain forbidden as well, not to mention pretty impossible; remember, your dragons are still taking up almost all of your time.
  • The mindlink exercises will probably be difficult at first. Don't be surprised if your dragon complains of echoes the first time you actually start trying to think of it; remember s/he can probably hear you thinking of what to say, and then thinking at him/her too. You might also find that the first time you're going around blindfolded, your dragon will get distracted and let you walk into a chair or something. And relaying messages? Think 'telephone' from when you were a kid. « Gudrotgoth is wearing a tub purple monkey dishwasher. » With practice, though, this should get a bit better.

OOC

The only real new thing this week is the ability for the rider to be in the caverns while his/her dragon is in the bowl. As was alluded to in the IC section, this might be traumatic for some dragons. Feel free to play basic panics/concerns on the dragon's part, but if you want to do something really dramatic, please run it by the WLM staff to make sure it will be IC and that anyone who may be involved in it knows what to expect.
You will be getting more interaction with the weyrlingmaster staff ICly this week; please remember that if you want a scene with a A/WLM, it is your responsibility to ask the weyrlingmasters for RP. WLM staff does their best to try and put on scenes now and then, but they can't know that you want to RP at a specific time unless you tell them.
Feel free also to NPC your own AWLM if you're comfortable doing so; that's part of why we added the WLM guide on each of these pages.
Finally, if you have any suggestions regarding mindlink exercises, please let us know! This is a fairly new (official) addition to IW's weyrling program, and we'd love your help in developing it.

Tips and Hints:

  • If you're not done setting the messages on your dragon, now's a great time to finish!
  • You still need to have the weyrling uniform @wearing; we'll let you know when this changes
  • Remember that *wlm is your friend; an @send there will be seen by all WLM staff, and that's the place to start with organising TPs or offering up interesting scene ideas

WLM Guide

Apart from trying to answer probably-individualised questions about dragons that have no generic answer, the weyrlingmasters will be running through mindlink exercises with the newly-impressed pairs this week. It is the weyrlingmasters' duty to make sure that these exercises don't result in a mini-dragon freak-out, and that the more physical ones (i.e., the blindfold exercise) are done in a safe environment. Stubbed toes are one thing, broken legs are quite another.

  • The weyrlingmaster's job is to make sure that the exercises are understood before they begin. Make sure that everyone knows what's happening OOCly before proceeding ICly, so that all players involved can participate fully.
  • If you can come up with more exercises than those listed above, great! Just keep in mind that the dragons are only a month old, and even some of the stuff listed above will be pretty difficult; they probably aren't going to be playing mental chess with their riders just yet. Some simpler exercises than those listed above might be even better, and feel free to stick them up on the wiki.
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