The Erikson family is a huge one. It would have been just slightly bigger, but for one stillbirth among 5 sets of twins. It's an ongoing joke around Blackstone, that half the population is cloned, and all the Eriksons are among that part of the population.
They're not clones. What's the point?
The guys have all already bonded dragons! What's up with that you ask? Why would they not want any of their sisters to pair off? Well the girls were off doing things like getting educations, putting in long hours in their apprentiships. That kind of thing. Not like they were making homes or being all domestic. Not one of them is all that domestic.
None of the girls, anyway...
Now that the group has settled well and firmly in Alskyr, they've had some time to reflect on where their lives are leading. And the girls are kind of annoyed.
"I look at it like it's them trying to be really popular," said one young man, in the lunch room.
"Nah, we can't tell 'em apart anyway, why would they want that?" Someone else laughed.
"I see it as," said a skinny bespectacled boy, "a lack of the skin to grow hair follicles on the sides of their heads."
Everyone looked at each other, then back at the egg head.
"They can't grow hair to save their lives," he said, when the others didn't quite 'get' it.
"It's like 'male pattern baldness' only ... it gets the girls too?" Someone else commented as they shoveled potatoes into their mouth, "th't k'nd'a zkkks," he completed only after a gigantic mess was sprayed across the table.
They were watching the Eriksons from across the room. Several security people, navigators, dragonriders, and admin were among their brood, so they could hardly be said to be under-achievers.
Nor could it be said that they were not annoyed to be the butt of so many jokes. While they were in school, sure. That was years ago, though. Now they were adults, and it was getting a bit old. Arylon, tallest of the girls (at least with her mohawk) and probably most aggressive, stood up from their table at the large cafeteria and strode over to the other where the abuse was coming from.
She stood with her hands as fists on her heavy hips, Purple caste outfit outranking all but one of the people at that table. However they didn't recognize the plug in her temple and the tech-created keyboard at her side, they just thought she was a freak. It didn't help that she had that bright crimson mohawk and the Blackbottom tuft of hair in a tail behind her head. That just labeled her more of a nut than most. The Blackbottoms only chose weirdos right?
"I hear you're talking about my family," Ary said in a husky voice. "I would like you to stop."
"Well I would like you to grow some hair and be normal," said one girl, "but you're not going to do that so I--"
Arylon's sisters Ferilon and Narilon - both Silver caste - had framed their taller sibling, and the other two, Carrilon and Joylon, stood beyond them. "I think we'd like you to shut up now too," said the one who was clearly wearing an Admin uniform. That uniform made the group at the table pause if nothing else did: they could cause some bad things to happen, couldn't they?
"Yes, we can cause bad things to happen," said Brown-caste Carrilon, leaning in over the table a bit, "and yes, I can read your mind." The girl at the table blanched and dropped her fork.
"Sorry, sorry," she said, turning back to her food suddenly.
"I'm not," said the bigger of the young men, "I think you guys should just leave Dawnlight, it's weird having people like you here."
"What's weird," said Joylon who was normally rather sedate and happy true to her namesake, "is that people like you are so susceptable to suggestions by the Lord Holders, and your friends. You believe everything you hear about us, don't you."
"It's absurd to do so," said Ferilon with a grin, "especially since I can alter your records to read that you're a slave instead of a, what?" She turned to Arylon who tapped something into her computer unit, and showed something on the screen there. "Instead of Malko doVor, son of blacksmith Wilko doVor. I mean, you could have a long and painful slavery ahead of you ..."
At that, the five girls just turned around and walked back to their table. "My food's cold," said Narilon, "darnit."
"Well my flame-vision isn't working today," said Carrilon with a smirk, "so you're going to have to just heat it up over the hot plate like everyone else..."
They laughed - she wasn't really able to read other people's minds, but the Admin position on that was unclear. Maybe she could, she always had something brewing in her mind, and that lime-green mohawk Blackbottom seemed to make whatever she said backed up as some kind of truth. She always said the right thing at the right time, at any rate. People were distracted enough from the fact that her eyes and hair were exactly the same color, to realize what she was saying, or even remember it later.
It was like that for most of the Erikson family anyway. The brothers had a lot of it while they were training with their dragons, and the girls while they were in school. They weren't bitter, they were canny. Ferilon was probably the smartest among them - and her quick rise into the higher Silver rank was one obvious effect of her intelligence.
Joylon and her twin Toylon were gentle and thoughtful, though since he'd been searched and she remained behind, she turned a little more prying with her gentle words, than sugarcoating. A gentle barb from her felt like a compliment, even when it was meant to get information.
Narilon and Ferilon were fearless, though for certain Nari in her white-Silver Guardian outfit was the more bold of them. Strong and fiercely willful, Narilon was more a 'shoot first' type than the others. But they usually deferred to Ferilon's wisdom before going in guns blazing. Only Arylon could wrestle Nari to a standstill, but Arylon was also more adventurous and outgoing, enjoying the spotlight when she got it from her sisters.
They finished their meal, and headed back to the family hold. Like most people who lived in Dawnlight, they were alotted land when they reached Alskyr, the Erikson famliy was already well off back on Pern. How else could they afford to confidently bring five sets of twins minus one into the world? And expect them all to do well?
Their parents never expected to barter off brides or trade sons for land. They expected their children to go out into the world and make something of themselves, before they earned a plot of their land! They couldn't hardly expect to just hand it over, could they?
And particularly since the boys had all gone off and impressed dragons, the girls were in a position to inherit all the land they could sit on.
But ... they wanted to sit upon dragons' backs, too. And these days, even in the heart of Dawnlight's walled core, there were dragons! Dragonriders who were able to house their mounts and friends on their own land. The dragons didn't seem to mind, as long as they weren't so huge they couldn't fit.
Though... truth be told, Arylon and Narilon wanted anything but 'small' dragons. Perhaps not one of them were suited to a gold - maybe Joylon just because of her genial attitude - they always banded about the idea that they'd all bond boy dragons...
To say that the Erikson girls were competitive with their brothers was putting it lightly...
Frankly, one time Ep'son told Arylon that she'd probably be able to impress a bronze if he'd have her, and doubtless fly for a gold. As confusing as that might sound to typically old-world people, the girls thought it would be great fun to be weyrleaders and scouts and weyrling trainers!
But Ep'son also told them more. While his brothers had impressed fairly normal dragons from fairly normal sands, he had been at a hatching with purple, white, even his very special white-white-bronze colored dragon. There were other things in the world, he told them even on Pern before they relocated to Alskyr, there were other kinds of dragons. Ep'son had participated in numerous mating flights with his lovely Jaluth, on worlds without description.
He recommended that they leave Alskyr for a bit, and come to a place where he'd been involved with a huge battle, many of the Protectorate's riders had fought there. He'd fought by Kevan's side, with the big bronzes and burly browns, while the stealthy blues and the old-guard greens slipped in and out of hard combat. Now that the war was over, he said, it was time to celebrate.
***
Wars always seemed to be followed by parties. And births. This time was no exception - dragons had mated in joy and relief, above the towers of the Warren. A huge number of eggs were there. It was also rumored that there were eggs on local sands by those same pairs, that only some eggs were here - was it because the mothers wanted to preserve their lines? Or just realized how many more there would be if all laid were hatched at the Warren? It would have been a madhouse!
And as it was, it was a bit of a madhouse... There were so many people! Battle-hardened warriors, mages and even priests, men and women who rode dragons and fought with their very souls. The group of Erikson girls recognized a bunch of riders from Blackstone, their brother had introduced them years before. Some were still nursing injuries, a couple wary of the weird magicks that the locals could weild - while others had embraced it, others still sported technological replacement parts that shone in the midday sun.
The girls, had they been any weaker of will, would have been overwhelmed by the place. The Warren... But they weren't weak, they were very strong indeed. Someone, several people in fact, commented that their dragons said they should be Searched if they weren't already, just while they walked on by. The Protectorate's riders had dorms nearby, and that was where the group of girls were led. From the eggs might come a dragon for them - there certainly would be enough chances to find out at this hatching!
Joylon Erikson - Purple caste, is not a blackbottom
Starcrafter, specializing in weather patterns and planetary movement, but also enjoys cartography and making detailed lists of things.
Ferilon Erikson - Silver caste, white /b
Admin/white, keeping track of people is her goal. Nothing escapes her mind, her eyes or her paperwork...
Arylon Erikson - Purple caste, crimson /b
Security/cyberdeck specialist, able to tap into the limited resources of Dawnlight's computer frames, but also uses any opportunity to jack into larger and more complicated computer systems.
Narilon Erikson - Silver caste, white /b
Security/Guardian full ranked. As a Guardian Nari's job is to protect citizens, as well as preserve the Dawnlight way of life. However she sees fit. She sees fit in some mighty unusual ways...
Carrilon Erikson - Brown caste, neon green /b
Admin/white, as her sister, keeping paperwork and people straight. She is somewhat empathic, and uses this to her advantage when dealing with irate people in the Admin center.