Wonderstruck (M'ta)

[Ember]

Wow. Just...wooooow. When Hyphen had a Gather it went all out, didn't it? The diminutive woman who had just entered the Hold blinked at the sight. The North, where she'd spent the majority of her life, didn't have Gathers often and even if they did there was always an air of tension...not so at this Gather. Of course, Jazheera's wonder was amplified several times by her childish salamandyr. Pweeeeetty! The green exclaimed from her perch on top of Jazz's head.

Jazz grinned rather foolishly as the 'mandyr slid down her hair, grasping the strands with her claws when she got low enough to scramble onto the bluerider's shoulder. Though not the most mature of women, Jazz usually had more self-control but damn the Gather was awesome! Nooohoho! Was Tod's nonsense response to her mummy's feelings. The green wasn't even aware of the fact that she was affecting her bonded's excitement. All she knew was that Jazz was sooo excited and that only made her all the more excited.

As Tod began to dash from one shoulder to the other, Jazz bounced happily over to the toy stall. Hey, it didn't matter how old she was! C'mon, toys were just plain awesome. She was eyeing rather pretty and fun looking marbles when something, or rather, someone else caught her eye. Bouncing away from the stall just as quickly as she came up to it she, went after the figure she'd seen. Fufufu, thought he could get away? Nuh-uh! Once she caught up she tapped M'ta on the back and waited for him to turn around.

She didn't give long for him to recognize her before Jazheera launched herself at him in a whole body glomp. "Missed you!" She exclaimed, kind of failing at being inconspicuous. She pulled back after a moment with a thoughtful frown on her face. "Waaaait. I'm mad at you, aren't I?" Jazz tried to remember why again, though she was having trouble dredging up bad memories with Tod beign so darn excited and affecting her so much.

[Requiem]

There was an aimlessness to the man's wanderings. He was already regretting leaving the kids with Kalierre. She'd offered, though, and Rel should be a good distraction. Especially for Teri. She'd smiled for the first time in days, on the floor in Kalierre's office, building with the older boy. It was better for the kids. But M'ta was already missing them in his arms. He only felt doubly guilty at the knowledge that it was Teri that he was thinking of, and Riaren as an afterthought. Riaren might be of R'wign's blood, but Teri was the child they'd raised together, as much of a love child as they were capable of having. It felt like she was his only real connection with the healer anymore.

Behruth was asleep. He slept all the time. M'ta suspected that the brown's dreams were a more pleasant place than reality. If not for the new office the brownpair held - indicated in the knots on his shoulder - M'ta wasn't sure that Ruth would have chosen to stay. It was...a hard thing. Having that doubt lying between them. Harder still that Behruth didn't really know, either. M'ta didn't know how to help him. He hoped once they took over their first class from the temp, it would get easier.

It had only been a sevenday since R'wign's cold had turned into pneumonia overnight, after all. Only a sevenday since M'ta and Behruth had lost their closest companions since 'Ruth's hatching. Kalierre told M'ta to go to Hyphen and stop brooding. Easier said than done, but he was grateful for the thought, anyway. So here he was. Maybe 'Ruth would prefer being away from the ledge and the infirmary, too...who knew.

So immersed was he in his own thoughts that the tap on the back startled him completely. Instinct took over. He whirled, dirk already out and in motion. Jazheera was fortunate that her brother had swift reflexes. The dirk didn't tear into her abdomen, turned harmlessly with the flat of the blade between them as he took a step back at the force of her embrace. M'ta didn't respond immediately. His mind was numb.

Then she was stepping back, and the dirk dropped from nerveless fingers. Sneak, who had taken to wing in startlement, settled back down on M'ta's shoulder and crooned a greeting to Jazheera, his gaze immediately fixing on the ever-intriguing other. There were no mandyrs to watch in his weyr anymore, after all...gone with the noisy two-legged. A second passed after the dirk hit the dirt, then M'ta was suddenly embracing his sister tightly.

"Jazz?" His voice broke slightly. It was hard to believe she was real. M'ta had deliberately put the doubts out of his mind regarding his wing and his sister, the relief he felt at seeing her alive and well catching him flatfooted. He breathed her in, finally releasing her reluctantly. "Probably," he murmured. "I wish you wouldn't be, though. You look...great."

[Ember]

Jazz, absorbed in her 'mandyr's emotions as she was, was still aware of the blade she had briefly felt pressed between her and her brother. It brought back memories of the first time she'd met M'ta again after so very long. Tod, meanwhile, was having her usual reaction to a draconid she wasn't familiar with. While a lot of draconids borrowed the memory capabilities of their bondeds, Tod did no such thing. Though she probably ought to have been at least a little familiar with Sneak she wasn't. And that made the firelizard...Scawwy.

The green's reaction was what finally broke the spell and allowed Jazz to reclaim her own wits. Sheesh, 'mandyrs...As if M'ta could ever be scary towards her. Look, he'd even dropped the blade and was hugging her. Mentally comforting Tod who was quietly sniffling and hiding in her hair out of fear while hugging M'ta was an interesting feat of multi-tasking. It got even more confusing when Dhavalth briefly butted in with a poetic comment about sibling love. In fact, it was all quite enough to have her eyes crossed for a moment.

When she was released again she reached into her hair and gently pulled the almost-white 'mandyr out and began to stroke her gently, soothingly. What did it say about her that she had more control when Tod was scared than when she was excited and playful? "Who else do you know is this short and loveable?" She asked cheekily. "But...great? I suppose I'm doing alriiight. And you, M'ta? Being paranoid again?" She was, of course, referring to the weapon she was toeing on the ground.

[Requiem]

Sneak's wings spread in a brief sign of protest. The male ducked his head, his fire-hued, roly-poly body curling in on itself a little. Rejected again. He'd only wanted to look at her. M'ta's fingers went to Sneak absently. Slid down his spine. The firelizard was one of two mindmates left to him, and the one that was the most comfort. Even if his interest in His was eclipsed by salamandyrs. "I'm sure she'll come around," he murmured quietly to the brown, even if he wasn't paying too much attention to it. Sneak would find other mandyrs to watch obsessively if this one continued to hide, after all.

And of course Sneak started crooning tentatively to the scared little green as soon as it was pulled out of Jazheera's hair. At least until he realized what he was doing and fell silent.

M'ta snorted softly at his little sister. Pretty much the only adult that didn't make him feel scrawny. "Well, since I don't know anyone as short as you, I guess you win the loveable category by default," he commented dryly. The turn to his lips betrayed his teasing even if his tone didn't. A glance was given to her before he bent to retrieve the blade she was nudging about with her foot, sheathing it at his hip again.

"I don't believe I've ever stopped." The brownrider avoided the question of how he was doing. It wasn't a topic he particularly cared to open up. Admittedly, though, the paranoia was worse than it had been with R'wign. Strange how secure the healer had made him feel. Stranger still when considering how little protection the man could give. But M'ta wasn't one to analyze feelings. He accepted them as the crazy, irrational things they were. It didn't help his paranoia, though, that R'wign was everywhere in their weyr. In the scents. In the bed. A voice, a touch. Almost enough to make a man believe in ghosts...or at least inclined to believe he was losing it a little. Memory was a treacherous beast.

A flash of a smile that reached his eyes, if only for a moment. "Come." His hand found Jazheera's elbow, steering her next to him. "Let's walk together for a time. Is there anything you've interest in buying? Or seeing?" It would be a good distraction. He was glad to see her, this crazy sister of his who'd chased him across an ocean.

[Ember]

Tod was just slightly more receptive to sneak while encased in Jazheera's safe hand so she dared a quick little peep of greeting. The firelizard was still scary but at least Tod knew it couldn't get her so...thus the sudden bravery. It wasn't like she was antisocial, either.

The diminutive woman scowled half-heartedly at M'ta when he replied. Teasing her, was he? He punched his arm. It wasn't exactly gentle, but then again she rarely ever was unless it was deliberate. "Since you're my brother, and the only man I know who isn't a giant, I guess you win forgiveness by default, huh?" The grin on her face was equally teasing. Two could play that game! Although, in all honesty, she'd rather banter another time. Say...when the exiles got their proper weyr back?

"Huh...good point," Jazheera admitted, regarding M'ta's paranoia. "And how's Terilyn? She missing her auntie?" As much as she mocked the title of aunt, she did care for her little adoptive niece. She wouldn't be terribly hurt if the young girl didn't miss her (such was the way of kids, adaptive little buggers) but she did care how she was doing. There were a couple of kids around Burimyu but Jazz didn't care much for them. They weren't hers, much to Dhavalth's disappointment, or related to her by any other means.

Jazz shortly found herself being guided and she let M'ta do it. Normally she'd retort that she could walk just fine without help but it was her brother so it was okay. No matter how often or how long they were separated, he was her family and not her father so it would always be alright for him. "I wanted to get Tod a little something," Jazz answered. "What toys I had for her were left behind. Maybe something for Dhav too, while I'm at it."

[Requiem]

M'ta made a show of rubbing his arm, returning the face his sister had so generously gifted him with. "I guess we can just thank our parents for all that, can't we?" he questioned flippantly. They were nothing more than faceless concepts to him, after all...perhaps the barest glimpse of a memory every once in awhile. No emotions attached to people that were not and had never really been a part of his life. Not outside the few memories Jazz shared with him.

M'ta's silence was probably telling. He knew that he should mention it to Jazheera, but it would just taint the brief time they had together at this moment, and...well...he didn't know how he'd react to Jazz's inevitable attempt to seem like she cared more about it than she did. M'ta wasn't stupid; he'd always known how she felt about R'wign. R'wign had too. It had been one of the stressors in their relationship, among others.

"Terilyn misses many people," he finally said, with complete honesty. Feeling a pang of guilt that he'd be taking Riaren away from his daughter now, too. "She's been better, but she'll bounce back. Kids are very resilient." And M'ta did his best to not let his grief affect how he was with Teri too much. The girl was a highly sensitive creature.

Releasing her elbow after a moment, he strode in the direction of the toy stall, paying little attention to the trilled greeting Sneak returned to Tod. "You probably should put her somewhere she can't be seen," he commented after a long moment. The brownrider didn't think that the riders would cause a fuss, here, in a hold, during a Gather...but Wasteland didn't often make that much sense to him. And it wouldn't be difficult to spirit someone away to a place where they could do as they pleased.

More paranoia, anyone?

"I'd be happy to cover anything you want or need. Clothes or boots, for instance." He glanced at her sidelong. Jazz couldn't have access to too much in the way of clothing. And M'ta made enough. Not to mention what R'wign had left behind. They'd never done poorly, the two of them, when it came to marks. But who really did, at a weyr, where lodging was provided for you? And meals? Far different from the world of his childhood.

[Ember]

At the comment about parents Jazz just shrugged. Beyond the dislike of her father and the fonder memories of her mother she didn't care too much about them anymore. She was a dragonrider and an exile. She barely had room for her brother as family in her life just then.Perhaps one day if things ever calmed down she'd go visit them...but probably not. Their places had been taken up by Dhavalth and Tod. Even Cr'oph held more importance at that point.

The bluerider realized something odd was up when she actually had a moment to think. She looked at her brother curiously, wondering just how to approach it. She had no trouble being blunt but it was M'ta after all. She could make more of an effort if it was him. News of her niece made her smile sadly. Yes, she probably wasn't the only one Terilyn liked who had left. Jazz sswept her hair back with on hand before deciding to just forge on with her question. "M'ta, are you alright? You seem off." He either better be a good liar or tell the truth, otherwise her curiosity would eat her alive.

At the suggestion Jazz was forced to turn her attention to the completely unsleepy Tod. Crud. "What would you tell Terilyn if she was super excited and had to hide?" Jazheera had no idea what to say to the green 'mandyr so that she'd hide and stay out of sight when she was so enthralled by everything around her. Dhavalth made a few poetic attempts at calming the green before stopping his rather futile attempts. She is usually very nice, but this is quite the vice, was his closing comment on the matter. Jazz sighed. And the blue wanted her to have a baby?

The small woman glanced at her brother and smiled brightly. "I hate to ask but...that would be great. Don't have too much where I am." She didn't have to elaborate on why. It was better than before with the tithe thefts but she never took too much advantage of those. Barely enough clothes and food was all she really tried to use. "I don't need too much, I don't think."

[Requiem]

He didn't answer that question right away. Didn't know how to. Jazheera was swiftly asking other things, anyway, so it didn't really matter in the long term. Well. Didn't matter, except he knew she'd be asking him again. That was just the way his sister was. Couldn't let anything go once she'd sunk her teeth into it. Which was probably another family trait of theirs, just like their being vertically challenged.

"If you need a little more than that, I'm good for it. No need to worry." A much easier topic than the others, and he was tackling them in order of what was easiest. M'ta eyed Tod for a long moment, thinking about it. "The truth? That if the bad men see him they'll do bad things, so he has to be very careful not to be seen or make a sound if he wants to look at everything." M'ta found that truth was usually the best policy when it came to children.

Which of course left the last and most difficult topic Jazheera had brought up, one he was sorely tempted to put off until she brought it up again. But what was the point? It wouldn't change anything to say it later rather than now. "No. We're...not, really." Trouble came in threes, they said. M'ta hoped they were wrong. That meant they were still short, and the first two had been bad enough.

"The deformed hatchlings were killed at the last Hatching. 'Ruth was hurt trying to stop it...he can't fly a wing anymore. Which bothers him, but he's coping okay with that. It's just...R'wign. He got this cold and it wasn't that bad but then overnight...I woke up and he was dead." The brownrider swallowed. "A sevenday ago." That was all he could muster to say on the topic.