like snow on the beach - r.g.
Ridoc Gamlyn x marked!reader
a continuation of love at first fight, part of the Ridoc and Sweetheart series 🦋
words: 2.8k
🏷: FOURTH WING SPOILERS. she/her, feminine reader (wears a dress for Reunification Day, referred to as a girl/woman). mentions of canon character death, mentions of dissociation and anxiety. you have a panic attack, but someone helps you through it. titled after the tswift song!
“Don’t look now, but that guy from second squad is staring at you again,” Liam says quietly. “At your four.”
You twist in your seat as if cracking your back, looking over your shoulder. Sure enough, the cute curly-haired boy who had handed you the dagger you’d won from Jack Barlowe the other day is looking right at you.
“Say the word and I’ll handle him,” Imogen offers, picking at her nails with disinterest. She’s been itching for another fight since her last opponent tapped out after ten seconds.
The tall redhead sitting across from him notices you’re looking in their direction, and he kicks his friend under the table. He looks away quickly, starting a conversation with the rest of the group. Not discreet at all.
“Hurting anyone in Sorrengail’s squad wouldn’t go over well with Xaden. And look at him. He’s harmless,” you defend.
“He definitely doesn’t want to kill you,” Liam agrees. “He’s just smitten.”
You glance to your right again. He has his back turned now, still engaged in conversation with his friends, who are all laughing at something he said.
So he’s the class clown type. Interesting.
Imogen scoffs. “He can bark up that tree all he wants, but we all know it’ll never get him anywhere.”
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And bark he does. You can’t shake the guy and his sunny personality. He’s everywhere you are, always having something to say, some shameless line to drop on you.
“If I make this bullseye, you have to let me take you out for dinner. There’s an amazing pasta place in town, you’ll love it.”
“No,” you say flatly.
“You don’t like pasta?” He asks, and you know that if you say you don’t, he’ll just offer something else.
“I do. But we’re not going out.”
He misses by an inch and a half anyway.
You pick up one of your own blades, weighing it carefully in one hand before pulling it back and letting sail. It lands to the left of his, in the dead center of the target.
He doesn’t look embarrassed in the slightest. “Alright, we’ll stay in and work on my aim. Just you, me, and a whole rack of knives. What do you say?”
“I’d say that putting us in a room with one weapon is a bad idea.”
He grins. “There’s just something undeniably sexy about a woman who wants to kill me.”
“I don’t want to kill you.” It’s true -- you have no ill will toward the guy, you just wish he’d quit while he’s behind.
“That might be the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”
You falter for a moment, thinking about it. You don’t think you’ve ever been objectively mean to him, just blunt in declining his advances.
“You’re moving your arm too much,” you say instead, yanking your dagger out of the wood panel, but leaving his where it stands, off-center. “Less in the elbow, more in the wrist.”
You don’t stick around to watch him try again.
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Nothing seems to discourage him, not your dry responses nor being ignored completely. He’s determined to keep chipping away at your shell, but why?
“Is your dragon mated? I was thinking we could go on a double date. Aotrom’s an upstanding guy, she’d like him.”
You can’t even begin to imagine the conversations this guy must have with his dragon. Is he as weary of the boy’s enthusiasm as you are, or is he encouraging this behavior?
“I’d consider it if he wasn’t missing so many teeth,” Rhith muses. “But he’s a bit old for my taste.”
“Their personalities wouldn’t mesh at all,” you answer, as if you’re speaking about Rhith and Aotrom, and not you and Ridoc.
“I think if she gave him a chance, she’d change her mind,” he says slyly.
“I don’t date men under six foot.”
He mimes taking a knife to the chest. “You wound me, sweetheart. But I promise I can make up for it in all the ways that matter.”
“With that dazzling sense of humor?”
“I was going to make a dick joke, actually. But I’m glad you think I’m dazzling.”
You roll your eyes, leaving.
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You have never considered yourself vain, but you’d spent a full minute admiring your reflection in the bathroom mirror before heading down for the festivities.
The formal dress looks incredible on you. Tight in all the right places, the cut highlights the muscle you’ve gained since starting the term at Basgiath, but it covers enough to still be somewhat professional.
You don’t need jewelry -- your rebellion relic is the perfect accessory, the black swirls forming the illusion of a lace sleeve up one arm, complimenting the black satin draped over your skin.
You’d even fixed up your hair for the occasion, freeing it from its usual sweaty braids and washing and drying it carefully, letting it fall over the exposed curves of your shoulders. Simple. Perfect.
Imogen hadn’t hesitated to hype you up when she saw you, her jaw dropping at the sight. “Holy shit, girl, you look hot. If you’ve ever wanted to fuck anyone in the quadrant, tonight would be the night to do it.”
You laugh. “I’ll be perfectly content to have a calm night. Some boring speeches, some fireworks, and then straight to bed.”
“Suit yourself,” she calls, headed off.
“Someone should tell Amari that she’s missing an angel.”
You don’t need to turn to know who it is, but you look over your shoulder at him anyway.
Ridoc continues to wax poetic, a lazy smile on his face. “You are a goddess among men. The kind of woman bards write songs about and men go to war over.”
“How many drinks have you had?”
“None,” Sawyer answers for his friend, sounding like he could use one himself. “This is just the way he is.”
Ridoc agrees, grinning. “Stone cold sober, gorgeous. I want to remember this sight forever.”
You laugh at his bold absurdity, and the light, clear sound goes straight to his heart.
He beams even brighter. “You laughed. That’s a crack in the armor.”
“You’re a menace to society, Gamlyn.”
“Gods, I love it when you’re mean to me,” he says with a dreamy sigh. “I’m gonna write about this in my diary when I get back to my room.”
“Goodnight,” you say, ending the conversation, or trying to.
“Someday, sweetheart,” he calls, watching you walk away. “I’ll get there someday, I know I will.”
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You should already be on the flight field, but the fear gripping your heart has your boots stuck to the stone ground of the courtyard. You’ll be no use to your friends in this state, anyway. You need to relax.
You close your eyes for a moment, picturing the meadows of Tyrrendor. A dozen blue butterflies materialize in front of you, the gentle motion of their wings as they float through the night air soothing your nerves.
“Whoa.”
You startle, and the butterflies vanish, your head snapping toward the voice.
Ridoc stands a few yards away, still in his dress uniform, though he’s undone the first two buttons of the shirt, rolled up the sleeves and ditched the jacket entirely. A few dark locks fall across his forehead, loosened from the gel that had been holding them earlier.
He looks good like this. Too good.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you,” he offers. “I’ve just never seen anything like them before. They’re beautiful.”
You compose yourself quickly. “They’re native to Tyrrendor. They don’t live anywhere else on the continent.”
“You’ll have to show me the real ones sometime,” he says, smiling.
You raise an eyebrow at the implication that you’d be bringing him home any time soon.
He continues, not missing a beat. “I may look like a hotshot dragon rider, which I am, but we both know you’d be the one in charge between us. I’d do anything you asked, sweetheart.”
“Anything except leave me alone?” you ask, regretting the sharp words as soon as they enter the air.
He’s silent. Maybe you’ve finally proven your point, proven to both him and yourself that you’re no good for him, that you don’t deserve the starry-eyed reverence he’s afforded you for months.
A whistle echoes across the courtyard, a three-note gliss you’d recognize anywhere; the one your parents had used to call you inside for dinner when you were kids.
You don’t turn toward the sound, still looking at Ridoc. For the first time ever, he isn’t smiling at you, and it feels like the world has stopped turning, that the sun has burnt out and the moons have disappeared from the sky.
You’re sick with guilt, struggling to form complete sentences. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to… that was a really fucked up thing for me to say. I just… I don’t understand why you-”
“Hurry up,” Garrick calls, impatient. “Xaden is pissed.”
“You should go,” Ridoc says softly. “We can talk about this another day.”
Why is he looking at you like that after what you’d said to him? Why does he still care about you? Why did he in the first place?
“Be safe,” he adds quietly, and that’s enough for you to finally move your feet, to run toward your foster brother, to follow him and Xaden to gods-know-where for their final assignment.
Garrick’s words go in one ear and out the other as you race toward the flight field. It doesn’t matter where you’re going or what you have to do, only that you come back, that you see Ridoc again and tell him the truth.
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The next few days go by in a blur, devoid of color. You’re barely aware of your existence, just going through the motions to keep yourself alive. You sleep, you eat, but your dreams are blank and the food tasteless.
You settle onto the cold stone of the main staircase, leaning your cheek against the banister.
It’s easy enough to conjure a few of the soft blue butterflies, watching them flutter about above your head. You reach forward, extending your hand to one, and it lands on your finger, flapping its wings gently.
“You’re getting really good at that,” Garrick says quietly, sitting down on the step above you.
Five years living as siblings has attuned him to your emotions -- he knows that something is wrong, that something had been wrong even before you were sent on this suicide mission and lost two of your friends. “Do you want to talk about what happened when I came to get you?”
You really don’t, but the words come out anyway. “I fucked up,” you whisper, still watching the butterflies. The sight of them only reminds you Ridoc, of the soft awe that had lingered in his eyes even after they’d disappeared — until you’d snapped at him. Gods, the look on his face…
You push the thought away, and they fade back into air. “I hurt him, because I was scared.”
“Scared of what?” He asks. There’s no judgment in his tone, just gentleness; he genuinely wants to understand.
“That he was being serious, that he actually likes me,” you answer. “I keep pushing him away, but he keeps coming back, he keeps looking at me like… like I mean something to him, and I don’t understand why. He doesn’t know me, he isn’t one of us, he isn’t even in my squad. There’s no reason for him to care about me.”
Garrick lets your words hang in the air for a moment before he speaks. “I thought it was fitting that you developed an illusion signet.”
You look up, waiting for him to elaborate.
“It took me a full year to figure you out when we met, to realize that the person you really are on the inside doesn’t match the person that you show people. I think he saw right through that perpetual stone-faced look, saw the girl that I’m proud to call a sister.”
“You really think so?” You ask quietly.
“I know so.”
You rest your head against his shoulder, a gesture that he knows is equivalent to a tight embrace from anyone else -- you’ve never been a touchy person.
You’ve never been good at feelings, either. “It’s too damn quiet in this house,” you say after a moment, changing the subject.
He laughs. “It really is.”
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Ridoc is standing in front of you.
You’re relieved at the sight of him, that no terrible fate befell him in the week you’d been away, but you can’t handle the conversation that you need to have, not when you feel like your heart is going to give out.
“I can’t do this right now,” you say, but the words don’t come out as strongly as you’d hoped, not enough air in your lungs to speak properly. “So if you could find somewhere else to be, that would be great.”
In true Ridoc fashion, he isn’t discouraged by your protests, kneeling down next to you. “Can you look at me, sweetheart?”
His seriousness confuses you enough to comply. You raise your chin, stunned at the softness in his eyes -- you’ve never been this close to him before. He’s beautiful.
“I’m gonna check your pulse, okay?”
You nod silently, allowing him to extend a hand toward you. Two fingers press into the side of your neck, feeling for your heartbeat.
He’s never touched you before. His hands are warm.
“Do you know where you are?”
“Basgiath,” you answer easily.
“Good. How long have you been sitting here?”
“I don’t know. Since we got out of formation?”
He realizes exactly what upset you — that must have been your first flight since you got back from War Games with the rest of the marked ones.
“I don’t know what you saw out there, and you don’t need to tell me, but whatever it is, it can’t hurt you right now,” he promises. The genuine sincerity in his voice has the tears falling faster.
Through your blurred vision you see him open his arms, and you lean into them without hesitation. He’s so warm that you can’t help but melt as soon as your skin touches his.
He rubs your back, speaking softly. “You’re okay, pretty girl, you’re safe. Just breathe with me, okay?”
You attempt to match the even pace of his chest rising and falling against yours, deepening your shuddering breaths.
“That’s it,” he soothes. “You’re doing great.”
Grief comes flooding out of you, and you clutch at the fabric of his flight jacket to remain upright. “I miss them so much,” you sob. “They didn’t deserve to die.”
Liam and Soleil, the two marked ones that hadn’t come back with you.
“I know, sweetheart. I’m so sorry.”
He continues to rub your back, murmuring soft reassurances to you until your grip on him has loosened and your breathing has slowed.
You’ve relaxed, your heart no longer pounding as it had been when he found you, but you still don’t want him to go, you couldn’t bear it if he left right now. “Stay?” You ask in a small voice.
“Of course,” he answers, pulling back to sit beside you. “As long as you need.”
Your tears have dried, leaving you with a headache and a hollow feeling in your sinuses. “Why did you help me?” You ask quietly, looking out at the river.
He wraps an arm around your shoulders. “Because it was the right thing to do. And because I can’t stand to see pretty girls cry.”
“Of course you’re back to cracking jokes already.”
“I’ve never been joking with you,” he says, shaking his head. “I meant every word I said to you, sweetheart. You’re beautiful, but you’re so much more than that, too. You’re capable, strong, witty, kind, caring, gentle… everything about you is good, and I wish that people would see past the relic on your arm and realize that.”
You blink at him, stunned.
“It’s true,” he says softly. “When you smiled at me that day at challenges, I knew that there was a soft heart under all that steel.”
A soft heart. A sweet heart.
There’s a moment of quiet while you work up the courage.
“Is that pasta place still there?”
He laughs, perhaps a little too loudly, but you’ve grown to love that sound, and the way it shakes his chest is comforting, like the rumble of a thunderstorm when you’re safe and dry indoors. “I think so.”
“Wanna go there tomorrow? Together?”
He grins from ear to ear. “Are you asking me out right now, sweetheart?”
You look over at him. “Yeah. I am.”
“This is going in the diary too, for the record.”
You can’t help but laugh, leaning back against him. If only for a moment, your anxiety has melted away.
You feel like you could face anything, as long as you have Ridoc to come home to.
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*Edited on 12/15/2023 to add Aaric and Devera.*
*Edited on 12/22/2023 to add assorted details*
*Edited on 01/03/2024 to update Aaric’s name and alias (I know his actual middle name is Aaric, but the name/middle name/last name format ruined the ✨aesthetic✨ since no one else has a known middle name)*
*Edited on 02/10/2024 because I realized on my reread that Jack pushing energy on Violet likely isn’t actually a manifestation of his signet, as much as it is him using Venin powers*
*Edited on 09/18/204 since Xaden gave us new information on Emery*
Made this because I know I’ll forget many details by time book 3 comes out, and I figured I’d share it for those interested. It’s a combination of information from my own read throughs, and from The Empyrean Wiki.
Please let me know if you see any mistakes, or if you have more to add.
I decided against doing Flyers for the time being, as what information we have is rather limited.
⚠️Warning: contains Iron Flame spoilers⚠️
Rider Data Masterlist
Violet
Surname: Sorrengail
Signet: Lightning wielding
Dragon’s name: Tairn/Andarna
Dragon’s description:
- Black Morningstartail (M)
- Golden Feathertail (former); Misc. Scorpiontail (current) (F)
Xaden
Surname: Riorson
Signet: Shadow wielding/Inntinnsic
Dragon’s name: Sgaeyl
Dragon’s description: Blue Daggertail (F)
Rhiannon
Surname: Matthias
Signet: Object summoning
Dragon’s name: Feirge
Dragon’s description: Green Daggertail (F)
Ridoc
Surname: Gamlyn
Signet: Ice wielding
Dragon’s name: Aotrom
Dragon’s description: Brown Swordtail (M)
Sawyer
Surname: Henrick
Signet: Metallurgist
Dragon’s name: Sliseag
Dragon’s description: Red Swordtail (M?)
Liam
Surname: Mairi
Signet: Farsight
Dragon’s name: Deigh
Dragon’s description: Red Daggertail (M)
Sloane
Surname: Mairi
Signet: Siphon
Dragon’s name: Thoirt
Dragon’s description: Red Daggertail
Garrick
Surname: Tavis
Signet: Unknown
Dragon’s name: Chradh
Dragon’s description: Brown Scorpiontail (M)
Bodhi
Surname: Durran
Signet: Countering signets
Dragon’s name: Cuir
Dragon’s description: Green (unknown tail type)
Imogen
Surname: Cardulo
Signet: Erasure of recent memories
Dragon’s name: Glane
Dragon’s description: Orange Daggertail
Quinn
Surname: Unknown
Signet: Astral Projection
Dragon’s name: Cruth
Dragon’s description: Green Scorpiontail (F)
Dain
Surname: Aetos
Signet: Retrocognition
Dragon’s name: Cath
Dragon’s description: Red Swordtail (M)
Jack
Surname: Barlowe
Signet: (Pain projection - Signet or Venin ability?)
Dragon’s name: Baide
Dragon’s description: Orange Scorpiontail (F)
Aaric
Full name: Cam Tauri, Aaric Greycastle (alias)
Signet: Unknown
Dragon’s name: Unknown
Dragon’s description: Blue Clubtail
Mira
Surname: Sorrengail
Signet: Extending wards
Dragon’s name: Teine
Dragon’s description: Green Daggertail (M)
Brennan
Surname: Sorrengail, Aisreigh (alias)
Signet: Mending
Dragon’s name: Marbh
Dragon’s description: Orange Daggertail (M)
Lilith
Surname: Sorrengail (maiden name unknown)
Signet: Storm wielder
Dragon’s name: Aimsir
Dragon’s description: Brown (unknown tail type)
Augustine
Surname: Melgren
Signet: Battle foresight
Dragon’s name: Codagh
Dragon’s description: Black Swordtail (M)
(Unknown)
Surname: Devera
Signet: Unknown
Dragon’s name: Unknown
Dragon’s description: Red Clubtail
(Unknown)
Surname: Kaori
Signet: Illusionist
Dragon’s name: Smachd
Dragon’s description: Unknown
(Unknown)
Surname: Carr
Signet: Fire wielder
Dragon’s name: Breugan
Dragon’s description: Orange Daggertail (M)
Burton
Surname: Varrish
Signet: Weakness reading
Dragon’s name: Solas
Dragon’s description: Orange Daggertail
Naolin
Surname: Unknown
Signet: Siphon
Dragon’s name: Tairn
Dragon’s description: Black Morningstartail
Heaton
Surname: Unknown
Signet: Breathing underwater
Dragon’s name: Unknown
Dragon’s description: Unknown
Emery
Surname: Barnes
Signet: Air manipulation
Dragon’s name: Unknown
Dragon’s description: Brown Clubtail
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