Mission implausable (open)

[Kisha-Ra]

The kitchens were a chaos zone, as usual. K’fuzzi supposed that somewhere in all the madness there might just be a method, food did make it out of the kitchens and onto the tables most of the time. Unless, it was dropped, or burnt, or, as it might be, stolen by an enterprising greenweyrling. However as far is this greenweyrling could see there was far more madness in the method than method in the madness.

The small, black haired youth wandered with apparent purpose through the milling crowds of drudges and cooks, all going about whatever business they had without acknowledging K’fuzzi, since he wasn’t sneaking, and didn’t have his eye on any particular foodstuff as yet, it seemed to be generally assumed he wasn’t there to steal. A dark smile flitted briefly across the weyrling’s face, oh how little they knew…

K’fuzzi stepped aside to clear a path for a man burdened with a stack of plates, which if the way the drudge was muttering to himself and shifting his hands was any indicator, seemed to be rather hot. However it wasn’t only consideration that moved him, because that step took K’fuzzi close enough to a tray of delicious, warm pies to snatch tow of them while no one was looking. Now, as ever the challenge was getting away with the stolen goods.

Without looking too guilty, and trying hard to keep behind people, not hard in this ever shifting chaos, K’fuzzi made his way, agonizingly slowly, towards the exit. Soon he’d be able to bolt around a few corners, find a hiding place, and eat his ill gotten gains. But first he had to escape.

[Avu]

Unfortunately for K’fuzzi, his escape was not to be.

Although his lack of fortune was really not as bad as it potentially could’ve been. No angry Drudge descended upon him with all of their rage; no burning soup was spilled down his collar or anything of the kind – he was not, in effect, caught. He was just…stopped. Abruptly. With a human body, as it were, one that did not belong to a kitchen Drudge or himself. And it wasn’t even his fault, poor weyrling – he just happened to be sneaking around a particularly large Drudge exactly at the same time a goldrider that had places to be speed-walked around the same large Drudge.

Collisions were rarely graceful. At least this one wasn’t a full-out, domino-effect collision – at least, not for Meira, who almost caught herself right before the collision in question. She started to say something, probably a stuttered apology, instinctively reaching out to steady K’fuzzi before they actually collided. As she was holding a sandwich in one hand and a Salamandyr in the other, though, her attempts were less than helpful and her forward momentum was still a little too fast to stop so abruptly.

“Ow – okay, okay, crap – I’m so sorry – wow, I can’t believe – ”

She would’ve actually flailed her arms around a little in distress if it hadn’t been so crowded. Instead, she reached out with a hand still occupied by Mimic – the Salamandyr gave a little horrified eep at realizing he was about to become a Salamandyr elbow pad and fled up her sleeve – and caught K’fuzzi by one wrist, just to make sure there wasn’t a complete failure on the weyrling’s part (because she didn’t think she’d run into him that hard, though taken by surprise, falling certainly was an option). Meira let go of him almost immediately, though, and took a step back, blushing.

Go figure; Infirmary messed up her sleeping schedule, so she came to the kitchens as fast as possible to get food and then flee back to Jingth and her eggs (and probably sleep on the Stands, something she did quite often, what of it?), and…she literally ran into somebody.

“I’m so sorry,” Meira repeated, and why, yes, she did indeed feel ridiculous yelling apologies, but it was impossible to be heard in the kitchens otherwise. Chaotic kitchen was chaotic. “I wasn’t really looking and um – sorry…” And there was really no reason why she had to explain her hurry to the young man, but she did feel bad. But, uh, the tray of pies indicated she probably had just walked into the middle of a thievery. No Drudge would’ve just handed over an entire tray of newly-baked pies, after all. But hardly her place to interfere, anyway.

Mimic decided it was certainly his place. The Salamandyr squirmed forward interestedly, peering over the pies. Share? he inquired politely. Can’t eat aaaaall of them, go boom try.

[Kisha-Ra]

It was typical of K’fuzzi, once he had pies in his hands, to focus solely on escaping with them, so it wasn’t really surprising that he failed to see the other person skirting around drudges, presumably also in search of food. Of course She had to be quite a small woman behind a large drudge didn’t she? Although compared to that human mountain Balath would look small. Stumbling back a pace K’fuzzi did some quick shuffling with his pilfered pies to stop the lot of them hitting the deck and some fancy (and rather silly looking) footwork to keep on his feet without going straight into one of the many people who’s attention he did not want to attract right now. The general impression was that he was going to start dancing around and juggling pies any second.

Fortunately, however, that didn’t seem to be essential for keeping his balance. Just as well K’fuzzi liked his pies edible, and since he’d never tried juggling anything, much less successfully. Once he was convinced his food was safe (always think of the important things first) the weyrling ventured a look up to see who he’d walked into, and whether some fast talking would be need, or just a quick bolt for the door.

Oh wonderful, of all the people available to walk into it had to be a goldrider didn’t it? Typical K’fuzzi luck, always bad. However, even as an embarrassed flush heated up his face, the greenweyrling gave a crooked grin, there was something so ridiculous about the shouted apology, and since it didn’t look like she was going to do anything about his thieving habits he was prepared to be amused. ‘It’s fine, no harm done I’m sure, and it’s not like I was looking either.’ Not that he’d have seen her if he had been, K’fuzzi thought with a sardonic glance in the direction of the human mountain.

Just he was thinking of slipping away, a strange mind voice caught his attention. Salamandyrs liked pie? No one told him.

A flutter of wings and a soft chattering sound heralded the arrival of Jubilee from wherever the green had gotten to this time (To K’fuzzi’s delight, and Balath’s eternal disappointment the green firelizard was very independent). Of course Salamandyrs liked pie, sillyhers! Everyone loved pie, and even though he was silly it was so clever of K’fuzzi to go and get some. They could share them with the brown and his pet, because K’fuzzi did want to be friends with these two didn’t he? Of course he did, the ones with big shinys knew all the best things, and her shiny had eggs. Eggs meant hatchings, which K’fuzzi would naturally want to see from the best spot. The green accompanied all this with a bright chirp, an affectionate lick for her bonded, and an image of eggs that clearly came from way above them. Jubilee was just dying to get a closer look but as well as curiosity she had a strong sense of self preservation. The green gave a cheerful flute to Mimic and Meria, of course they could have pies! Hers would be delighted to share with them.

[Avu]

Well, he didn’t seem too very upset at nearly being plowed over. Of course, anyone who was so close to escaping the kitchens with stolen pies shouldn’t be upset. Wasn’t like people just stole pies successfully every day. Meira hesitated, wondering if she should let him take the pies and just pretend she hadn’t seen anything when the kitchen staff found out that their pies had, indeed, been stolen. Left on her own, she would’ve ignored Mimic’s comment as unimportant; the Salamandyr wasn’t even hungry, just…extremely tempted by the proximity of pies. He would’ve been fine without them.

But then, there was the firelizard.

The very cute, if manipulative, firelizard. Mimic greeted her with a cheerful chirrup, not at all fazed by the suddenness of her appearance, the Salamandyr skittering forward hopefully along Meira’s forearm to lean closer to the pies. He’d just let Meira handle the whole dragon-business, Jingth never listened to him…Mimic flipped his tail hopefully, glancing up at K’fuzzi and then at Meira. Please, yes? he interjected, and nuzzled at the base of Meira’s thumb. Ask Jingthgold.

Because pies trumped everything, enormous, potentially raging, dangerous gold dragons included. Meira sighed, blinking down at Jubilee and then looking up at K’fuzzi. Guess that meant she couldn’t report him, huh. “Um, look,” she said, because she felt bad for denying Mimic and the firelizard (and for running into the firelizard’s owner) – “I’m actually going back to the Hatching Sands right now, so ah, I can’t really stick around and let Mimic eat or anything but if your flit wants to look at the eggs she’s welcome to come with me…”

Surely she could coax Jingth into letting the one firelizard in, especially since the gold didn’t complain about Mimic. And it wasn’t like the firelizard in question was going to hurt the eggs – the shells were already too hard for anything short of deliberate sabotage to injure them.

Should bring pie, Mimic suggested helpfully, blinking up at K’fuzzi coyly. Bring two, one for Jingthgold, yes? Make happy, can see eggles if want. Bribery! Because Jingth would, of course, appreciate a pie that was smaller than her eye. Of course, Mimic didn’t really think in perspectives like that – he just couldn’t understand why Jingth hadn’t already been eating pie regularly. Because pie was pie and pie was good. Salamandyr logic – it worked.

[Kisha-Ra]

K’fuzzi was still trying to work out how he should react to Jubilee’s cheerful, and very forward, introduction of herself to Meira and her pet (anything he could do to the firelizard was severely hampered by his stolen pies. Besides, if he flicked her the green was quite likely to react loudly and draw attention to them, K’fuzzi was already feeling slightly insecure about how far Mimic’s voice and Jubilee’s chatters projected into the throng.

Jubilee evidently didn’t suffer from any of the problems that her bonded did, or indeed any shame whatsoever, because she neatly transferred herself from K’fuzzi’s shoulder to Meira’s and rubbed her head affectionately against the goldrider’s cheek. Such a nice humans she was! Oh but what about K’fuzzi? And the pies? Mustn’t forget the pies, not when her new little mandyr friend wanted one so much. One for the Goldie too if she wanted pie, there were many pies. Pie for everyone!

‘That’s okay, I think I should be leaving now anyway, before someone recalls that these shouldn’t be here.’ K’fuzzi replied, looking at his pies, which were rapidly being assigned new owners by his firelizard, plotting little beast that she was. He was actually even more worried now that the pies had becme the centre of attention around here. ‘Were you going to get anything else? If not I could walk with you and keep an eye on Jubilee.’ He suggested. ‘Then I can bring your pie obsessed friend one of these along. You should have one too, they’re good. I can wait outside for Jubilee though. I don’t need to see the eggs for myself, the most important one in my life already hatched.’

Jubilee trilled joyfully. Aw, her egg had been the most important one! How nice of her Fuzzi to notice that.

[Avu]

Adorable firelizard was adorable.

Meira blinked at the affections being lavished on her face courtesy of the little green firelizard, smiling after the surprise wore away. The goldrider juggled Salamandyr and sandwich for a minute – in the end, Mimic scrambled up to her other shoulder, still ogling the pies shamelessly – to free up a hand to tentatively stroke Jubilee. The firelizard was much bigger than Mimic, of course, and she doubted the ticklish spots would be the same, so she settled for just stroking down the green’s spine, rubbing at the base of the neck with her fingertips.

“Right,” she agreed, amusement lacing her tone now, and blinked. “Getting caught…yeah.” Talk about a shameless thief. Meira didn’t protest, though, turning on her heel to navigate around the large Drudge again, this time considerably more careful about her speed. She trusted that K’fuzzi would follow her – and even if he didn’t, that was okay, too; she wasn’t the one who’d wanted the pie and she’d still see if Jingth would allow Jubilee a peek at the eggs anyway. So she was swayed by cuteness – what of it?

Meira nodded at K’fuzzi’s suggestion – she was amenable to that, sure. A faint smile tugged at her lips, the goldrider commenting wryly, “I don’t need one, I wouldn’t want to deprive you of your um…honorably earned desserts. And Mimic won’t be able to eat much either, even if you do give him one.” As much as the brown would claim to be able to devour an entire pie, he…couldn’t. Probably had something to do with the fact that the pie was practically bigger than he was.

As soon as they escaped the kitchens, Mimic reevaluated the situation briefly and then scrambled into a flying leap from Meira’s shoulder, ignoring the goldrider’s startled exclamation in favor of focusing on landing safely on K’fuzzi’s forearm and scrambling up to his shoulder. Wouldn’t do to just go straight for the pies – people were nice, too, even if they were considerably less edible. Name is? he asked politely, licking K’fuzzi’s ear cheerfully. Promise of pie made for a happy Salamandyr. Nice meet, am Mimic~

And the brown proceeded to nuzzle up to K’fuzzi. People were good. People who gave him pies were better. Nice people who gave him pies were the best.

[Kisha-Ra]

K’fuzzi couldn’t help a wry smile as the goldrider attempted to free a hand to pet Jubilee. His newest bonded was very good at getting the things she wanted in life, and as far as Jubilee was concerned the obvious way to do that was to be nice, and utterly adorably cute. And shameless. K’fuzzi added that to his thought as his firelizard made happy little sounds and promptly arched into the petting.

Jubilee turned her head a little more to chatter at Mimic, such a lovely bonded he had here, how clever of him to choose this one!

It seemed Meira wasn’t going to suggest anything blatantly stupid, such as leaving his hard won pies behind. He’d earned these pies, even if it wasn’t in the approved manner, and he’d hate to have to come and steal them all over again later. Wandering around the same drudge as he’d been sneaking by in the first place K’fuzzi was motivated to wonder if the man was stupid, deaf, or just very good at ignoring people.

‘I wasn’t really expecting him to eat a whole one, any more than I’m really expecting your dragon to want a pie. Dragon’s don’t seem to like pie, or at least Balath doesn’t, but then a pie’s hardly a filling treat for a dragon is it? All over in one bite. I expect Jubilee would be perfectly willing to help Mimic out, you know if he can’t finish it. She really likes pie for some reason.’ K’fuzzi followed along smartly, talking as he went. Adorable pets, and dragons of course, were very easy to talk about.

Speaking of pets, it seemed K’fuzzi had gained a new passenger. For a moment he gave the salamandyr a suspicious look, the brown seemed pleasant enough but it was very hard to find anyone with a good word to say about the little beasties, even those bonded to salamandyrs. But the brown just climbed up to his shoulder and settled there. K’fuzzi laughed, charmed by the little lizard despite himself. ‘Hello Mimic, good to meet you, I’m K’fuzzi.’ At least he could assume a salamandyr would start laughing at his name, it probably wouldn’t make the connection everyone else did.

[Avu]

Hallway: Breathing room, thank you Faranth.

Meira exhaled in relief, still stroking Jubilee without really thinking about it – it was just fortunate she had yet to try to stroke the green with both hands. Sandwiches did not typically make for a particularly good rub. She was content to listen to K’fuzzi talk for the moment; apparently no Drudge had instigated a last minute seizure of stolen goods if he was still with her. “Balath’s your dragon?” she asked, just to make sure – it was certainly a dragon’s name, but that didn’t necessarily mean it was his. Who knew, some Candidates probably did think of firelizards as being the most important.

Up until they Impressed, anyway, but still, the point remained. He looked young enough to be a Candidate, anyway (although Meira, technically, was still young enough to be a Candidate herself). “Ah,” she added, and nodded at Mimic. “He’s sweet, I don’t really know, I got lucky or something, I guess, you don’t have to worry about him. He won’t even go for the pies without permission, probably.” Although…judging by the way Mimic was eyeing the pies in question, it certainly was a great temptation for the Salamandyr.

Fuzzi, Mimic echoed, parrot-like, leaving off the ‘k’ at the front – whether by design or simply because it was easier for him to ‘say’ was unclear. The brown bounced slightly on K’fuzzi’s shoulder, and licked his earlobe pleasantly. Fuzzi, hello. Yumpies, hello. Why yes, yes he was talking to the pies. And greenpretty, hello. He offered Jubilee a closer-up picture of the eggs cheerfully – she’d wanted to see them, right? Being Bonded to Meira had its benefits when it came to viewing clutches, it did~