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When one thinks about age and the way it affects a person's understanding of the world. One should respect their elders, the people who came before them. In a society such as this, respect for their elders is incredibly important. Sonority is fundamental to the military's function. It has been for the entire time that there has ever been the concept of the military. Especially in the dragon corps. In all of Sutton’s years of service, asking questions and learning how to be a strong captain are not only important fundamentals, especially with a dragon as big as Messoria.
That's one of the tricky things about being in the Dragon Corps. It's a very insular society. People from all over Britain united under the one fundamental goal of protecting the nation and keeping dragons safe. A normal member of the corps doesn't really talk to people outside of their community. Some people do. They marry out; they try to keep connections with their family. It gets to a certain point where it just gets hard to continue to build and grow upon those outside connections that don't revolve around your dragon. A captain's entire life is their dragon.
A dragon is a captain's partner. Dragons are a tool to some people, a weapon to many others. In all of that, a dragon is still a living creature that has thoughts and feelings and ideas of its own. Being in such an insular community can lead to problems of communication and understanding when one tries to pursue a relationship. To an extent that applies both to the human captains and to the dragons themselves. Which is why it's always important to ask your elders.
It was one of those things that crept upon Sutton and Messoria slowly; to be an elder. All people who have a dragon are captains in the aerial corps. There are still matters of seniority, mostly to do with age and how much time one has been in the core and also to how powerful and big your dragon is. Well, Messoria may just technically be a middleweight dragon. She is still bigger than a fair number of dragons, and they have also been serving for a long time.
The time it really sank in, that they were now considered elders in their very close-knit community — and it is the proper term, close-knit. Everyone knows everyone. Well, all the captains know each other, that's for sure. All their petty tiffs and all their petty arguments and who's sleeping with whom. The quiet open secrets that most people know about if they pay attention. Though some of them don't, and they couldn't care less, or they care too much. Sutton, as a point of quiet pride, tried to be respectful of some opinions. Of most opinions. He knew there were others who wouldn't see the necessity of being respectful like that. It was something he was good at. Adding to that age and knowledge building upon it, it will always be better, he thought, to take Grace and heed in this manner. Especially when genuinely thinking about it, he knew he was an impulsive rapscallion youth.
He'd come up with more than his fair share of harebrained plans. Some of them executed greater than others, to where there were whispers still about who had invented the tactic. Sutton would always just nod when he knew it was him and Messoria. There wasn’t a suitable term for it, but he was always trying the first thought that came into his mind. Sutton had done some idiotic things. Most surprisingly, he had survived every harebrained plan.
When the dragon corps comprises mostly youthful boys who have no paternal figures in their lives, and a fair share of girls who are just as capricious. One would think it was less a moment of panic and a genuine, brilliant execution of the tactics of his dragon. As the story goes one time to fend off a raiding party, his men jumped off Messoria's tail. Plummeting down at least 70ft onto the other dragon’s back taking the attacking captain captive.
Something like that an action taken and made in the moment of blind panic can be respected. Maybe some of the things Sutton had thought when he was in full control of his faculty could also be respected, though those took a little more pulling and stretching of the idea of respectability. He would always be one to listen and take it in. When he was assigned to Loch Laggan covertsome might have seen it as a slight. Sutton knew it was an honor to help Catherine Harcourt and her brand new Longwing, Lily. Not only that there was Maximus And his young captain Berkeley. The real problem child in his own special way, Temeraire and his Captain Laurence.
Sutton and Messoria are brought in to be part of Lily's formation to add some maturity and experience to the younger dragons and captains. Sutton is a veteran of four wars, with 30 years of experience and the Senior most captain. He is also somewhat pessimistic and given to using colorful words.
One would think Laurence; the man with his own career in the Navy. Wouldn't have as many questions. About the goings on about billing in a chain of military command. No, actually he didn't have questions about that. Most of his questions were about the interpersonal dynamics between Dragons and riders. A lot of them were about that. If a dragon knows everything about a person. But the rider doesn't know everything about a dragon. How do they communicate about this? How do they resolve any fights of conflict that might come up when the dragon is always significantly stronger than the human? And how does one navigate the interpersonal relationships that come with having sex? With another captain. Who's your superior?
Though when Laurence asked that question, he did not answer it. Skirting in that mentions, or at all actually referring to the problem if there could possibly have ever been one. But it didn't last long. It did. But then there was the messy business about them having to go to China. And the sickness. Then the court martial, sending them to Australia. Temeraire and Laurence making their way all the way to South America. Somehow in all of that winding up back in dreary old. England. Though technically Scotland.
In all that, and all the complicated mess of relationships that come with having Dragons and politics. The intersectional mix of both of them in the new ever changing world somehow. Sometimes you still have to ask your elders questions. Sutton is used to it though. Even though he retired. Finally, with a nice piece of land in the country, he flies around still and he visits and he talks. He's gonna be used to whenever he's at one of the coverts. He was not expecting it, though. It was one of those things that were never could truly expect it. Or, of all people, William Laurence. Asking him. How one should have sex on the back of their dragon.
He was expecting it from someone, but not Laurence of all people. The funniest part of that encounter, though, was how prim and proper he still decided to be in his manner of speaking, though. Probably once a Navy man, always a Navy man. Well, the aerial core was notoriously loose. Those are just some things you can't breathe out or beat out of a person, and prime and priority in proper countenance was probably not one of them.
It also probably didn't help that Menssoia would not stop laughing the entire time, because even Temeraire. As verbose and vocal as he was in his affections for other Dragons. Whether or not he genuinely liked them or just because he thought it would be an interesting match. Showed his embarrassment in his own way. His frills around his neck. Flexed enough that Sutton could obviously see the discomfort. That he was barely hiding.
It also felt more than a bit weird to give this talk that he had given numerous times to young men who joined his crew, or others whose captains were more focused on directly their deeds or their more senior officers and the young. Boys or girls who were running about their ship, that. One must always first ask consent for the dragon. If they are comfortable hearing that, the answer is usually a yes, though probably tinged with a bit of jealousy. And the second, more important thing is always to remember. You can fully strip. And in some cases, the extra harnesses could be enjoyable.