Caution: Requires Concentration [Open]

[Sheari]

Tantalizing scents wafted from the kitchen into the dining hall. Foretelling of morsels to come that would set ones mouth watering if they were not careful. There were other's here. Some involved in idle chatter while while others did work, either on paper or manual labor, and some still were simply honing the edges of their blades.

She sat there, eye to eye, with a rather determined little green. Akos bounced noiselessly between the two, looking from one to the other, and scurrying across the table. Anusha's jaw was at a slight angle and her mouth was a funny shape. There was something in her teeth that was annoying her more than anything else she could think of right now. A piece of something caught tightly between two molars, and rather than find something to awkwardly stick in her mouth to try and pry it out, she was using her tongue to dislodge it.

Aside form that, and the fact that she was staring down a young green, three months old, she looked as though she were sitting at the table contemplating something in an attempt to pass the time.

Blink, AnuMine. You know you want to.[/i]

Anusha's eye twitched but did not close. Her eyes were beginning to sting as she felt them slowly dry out. Her eye twitched again, but she kept it open. The slowly whirling blues and greens of the dragonette's eyes sparkled as though just opening from sleep. Minth had kept moving her transparent lid over them to moisten them. She said it didn't count as blinking since you could still see the eyes.

Blink.[/i]

It was a mental command from another mind and Anusha couldn't resist any longer.

She blinked.

"That's cheating!" she yelled, half-rising from her seat and pointing an accusing finger at the green, a humorous display of mock anger. Minth mocked hurt in return. The white Akos stopped in his tracks and stood on his hind legs, frilling slightly at His. She mustn't yell! Oh no, he did not like it when there were loud things around him! She mustn't yell!

[Avu]

Cheat good cheat good, make work does it.

Sylph’s arrival, the green skittering across the table and then flopping next to Akos with a pleasant croon, was a clear indicator of R’ahre’s imminent one: no longer did the blueweyrling allow his pet to roam freely. Her attack on F’lix’s weyr and Voyager’s death had made him absolutely furious. Not because they had (in his mind) failed, but because he’d trusted Sylph not to get in trouble. The green was usually impeccable with getting away untouched. And she had, but the same could not be said for Emoyan’s pets. Ahth had been lectured firmly, too, and the blue had agreed (temporarily) to stop trying to exact revenge on those who upset him for whatever reason. The promise had been reluctant at best, but he’d given it and so had Sylph. Peace. Probably not entirely; likely F’lix would still love to be able to gut him or something, but R’ahre was happy.

He had also actively decided that he was skipping chores. Because, apparently, he’d been assigned extra ones in the Infirmary for ‘bothering Riders’, and R’ahre didn’t want to get sick (nor did he feel he deserved them). Neither did he want to go back to the kitchens, except when he wanted to eat. Thus, skipping! Yes, it was pure genius, wasn’t it? Ironically, now he was bored. Surely the Weyrlingmaster would appreciate it. R’ahre had been trying to find M’kai to spar with him or something, but his hunt for his roommate was very effectively distracted by Anusha’s yelling. His head turned and brown eyes landed on the greenweyrling; a look of amusement flashed over his face before the blueweyrling altered his path to wind his way through the people to the table at which Anusha and Minth sat, pulling himself onto the table and scooping up Sylph along the way. The green cooed pleasantly and slid through his fingers to rest on his knee as the blueweyrling cocked his head downwards to look at Anusha and her mindmates.

“Hi, Akos, Minth,” he said quietly, nodding to the white Salamandyr and green hatchling respectively before he turned to look at Anusha. “What’s cheating?” he inquired, clearly not bothered by the idea that he wasn’t welcome. Indicating Sylph with a finger, he added, “Likely Sylph’ll approve – who was doing the cheating, hnn?” He wasn’t kidding, either – likely Sylph would approve. The green thrived on deceptions and ‘cheating’, as it were; R’ahre was convinced that something was wrong with him that he attracted such mindmates, but – he loved them both and if either Sylph or Ahth weren’t as manipulative and devious as they were, likely the pair would wage constant war instead of actually getting along. He preferred it this way. And they did listen to him, so it was okay…for him, anyway. Those who upset them, not so much; rare it was that R’ahre stopped them. Death of a firelizard, however, was cause for stopping them. “Have you seen M’kai, by the way? Or Futh?”

Please not Futh, Ahth commented, the dark blue hatchling slinking in and circling the table to put himself next to Minth instead of Anusha. Those three words were private; his dislike of Futh was strong to the point that he often slept in Baoth and K’lir’s room because he simply couldn’t bring himself to stay in a room with Futh. Hello, Minth, he added, pleasantly enough. The blue was really quite talkative when he wanted to be, and he’d nothing against Minth. Maybe she could even tell him something he wasn’t aware of yet, something he could use later on. How have you and Yours been? he inquired politely, sitting and winding his tail around his legs. The large blue’s eyes whirled rapidly as he turned his head to croon low in his throat at Minth. The greeting was impersonal at best, but it was hardly rude. Ahth wasn’t, usually.

Cheat well, greenthing did, Sylph interjected helpfully.

[Sheari]

See...Sylph?...even thinks I did good.[/i]
Sylph thinks your cheating as well!
I was not cheating little green, I was bending the rules.[/i]

The last thought was directed for the Salamandyr in question as she flopped next to Akos. He, in turn, nuzzled her before Her's scooped her up. He'd not many friends outside of Anusha and Minth, and so she was very welcome company. He dashed over the R'ahre's leg and stood up, placing his for paws as far up the man's thigh as he could in pursuit of Sylph. A good friend she was, and he flashed her a brilliant image of herself. The colors around her were dim in comparison; or was she over-saturated? He watched her intently. What game would they play? Would they play the same on as His and BigLittleGreen did?

"Minth kept moving her inner lids over her eyes so they wouldn't dry out, but since you can see her eyes through them, it isn't cheating." She looked at Sylph, wondering vaguely out of her and Minth, who's side she was on. She expelled the though from her mind before Minth had the chance to pipe up and say something. "We were having a staring contest," she added absentmindedly. On the contrary, the green was distracted briefly by the blue next to her.

Hello Ahth.[/i] The thought was accompanied by a soft croon. Me and Mine are fine, we've been going to the beach. It's fun there.[/i] She did not add exactly why they traveled to the beaches so often. She didn't want her time with Her's cut into, nor did she want to be caught fumbling about as she did. It was not fun to be the clumsy green and she rather enjoyed running (or trying to) around on the warm sand. Her coordination got better everyday.

Sand. A very pleasant thing to her.

R'ahre's question caught Anusha off guard a little. "Uhm, no, I haven't seen M'kai or Futh." Come to think of it, she hadn't seen anyone outside of her brother, R'ahre, and anyone she saw in passing. She suddenly felt isolated, like she needed to go out and socialize with her class more. In all reality, she suddenly felt trapped. Minth looked at her, her cool blue-greens tinting on the yellow of concern until a mental reassurance allowed her to turn her attention back to Ahth.

[Avu]

Rule bend cheat, same, know that, you don’t? Sylph replied unabashedly; she knew no shame, after all, and that it might offend Minth did not occur to the little green in the least. It was the truth, after all; to bend the rules meant you were cheating in some way or form. Not bad, not bad, is smart, smart you, she deigned to add afterwards, scurrying down to peer at Akos with a pleasant crooning purr. See, see? She could be nice. She could be good, so wouldn’t Hers let her go wandering again? But R’ahre was distracted now; she’d ask later, she would. The little green extended both wings and bounced on R’ahre’s knee, crooning again. Smart cheat, stupids not. Stupids /loose/. Very stupid not, they, the green added wisely, nodding and displaying her frill in Minth’s direction. It wasn’t an aggressive motion – just to make sure that she had the green’s full attention, see, see? Her frill was splendid, wasn’t it, didn’t it make her look and listen more closely? But next minute, Sylph herself was distracted by Akos; the white Salamandyr was one of her brothers and she liked him, she did. But – oh! She had to tell him –

The picture made Sylph croon in pleasure before she skittered over to Akos’s side and rubbed her head against his shoulder, twining her tail around one of his forepaws. BrotherMine, she announced, and then “whispered” – Know Showoff? Best bronze, best, best. More best flutter brown. Belong Showoff, yes? Don’t want flutter stupids, not claim. Bad flutter; better best Showoff, yes? ‘Mandyr, ‘mandyr better. We best, not have flutter sire. The Salamandyr-speech was garbled, but surely Akos would understand? She’d decided that Showoff was her sire, yes – because he was better than Hazard, see, and she didn’t like Hazard because he was a firelizard. No, Sylph much preferred the idea of Showoff being her sire, which would make Dael her mother, and she was okay with that, too. And she liked Akos, and claimed him as her brother, so clearly he was also of said parentage. She’d just had to tell him that, so he wouldn’t accidentally tell anyone anything else. Because Salamandyrs were much, much too good ever to come from a firelizard.

R’ahre didn’t even try to hide his amusement, tilting his head to look down at Minth before he winked playfully at the green. He didn’t know why he liked draconic creatures so much – but they definitely were treated with a level of friendly familiarity that most people were not awarded with straight off. “Oh, that wasn’t cheating,” he replied, his face serious again as he looked back up at Anusha; “it’s not our fault we don’t have three sets of eyelids, is it, Minth?” Childishly swinging his legs, the blueweyrling glanced back at Ahth, who regarded him with a silent, amused whirl of his eyes before turning his attention back to Minth. “Do you normally have staring contests?” he added, crinkling his nose slightly. Must’ve been pretty bored to do that, he assumed…he’d never considered the idea of having a staring contest with Ahth or Sylph, and neither of them had expressed interest in the concept of such, and for that, R’ahre was grateful – just because he could keep his face relatively emotionless didn’t mean he was used to staring.

Still, the greenweyrling’s response to his question made R’ahre sigh, rolling his eyes. “Figures.” One word only, and the dry tone gave away nothing. The only time he really saw M’kai anymore was at night and in the morning, and that was because they shared a room. Crystoph…he’d never seen him again, and while R’ahre was not actually very fond of the Candidate, that agitated him. Crystoph was from Benden and while M’kai was linked permanently (or as permanently as having a Weyrling dragon could get you) to Selenitas, Crystoph wasn’t and his disappearance made R’ahre very, very uneasy, though it could have just been one of the random vanishing tricks that some people were pulling nowadays. “Hnn…” If only Ahth would deign to contact Futh – then the two blues could figure out where each of Theirs were, but Ahth outright refused to do such a thing. Awkward. But neh…having company was better than wandering around stupidly. “So…how’s life?” he inquired, before he half-turned to Ahth.

Couldn’t you just – this once – Futh – [/i]
No.

Ahth didn’t even blink as he interrupted His firmly, and continued, switching from a private thought to one directed to Minth: Ah, the beach…if you don’t mind my asking, what’s there to do? The river is much nicer for swimming. Not that Ahth was excessively fond of swimming anyway; he was just trying to probe. The blue wasn’t picky about what he learned about anyone; he just wanted to know. His eyes were swirling steadily, giving away none of his internal emotions: Plain, generic shades of blue. Generally associated with happiness, but that was mainly because Ahth preferred people to think he was happy as opposed to any other emotion. Happiness made others comfortable, made them more likely to talk and spit out things they normally wouldn’t to someone who appeared grumpy or upset or sleepy or something.

[Sheari]

I know it's cheating, but it's more subtle.[/i] Minth barely got the private thought out before Sylph's attention diverted to Akos. She wondered if the rather boisterous creature knew anything about subtlety. She herself knew she'd never be able to sneak about the way Sylph could now. Maybe one day, with enough practice, she'd be able to be quiet and subtle, and graceful! How she wished to be graceful like her other siblings were. Her thoughts were interrupted with Ahth's words. She caught the speech of R'ahre and vaguely nodded in his direction. The river /is/ nicer. It's also always got someone in it and the beaches aren't as warm.[/i] At least, they felt cooler than the ones on the ocean. The lack of salt in the river was also nice, but it had slippery rocks that had slimy moss. The rocks on the beach aren't slimy, either.[/i] Quick! Anything that sounded moderately plausible so he wouldn't show up to gawk at her while she fumbled around in the sand! Minth was suddenly caught between not accidentally giving him reasons to investigate the beaches and making herself not look like a fool. She was sinking on a fast boat for both.

BrotherMine...Akos was totally fine with being claimed. He leaned in closer to better "hear" the Salamandyr's "whisperings". The ones like His did it all the time, why not him? And yes, he'd heard Showoff. Loud that one was. The white grew more confused as Sylph continued to tell him that Showoff was his sire. All this time he'd thought Hazard was! But the gold that had been there wasn't Dael, was it? Akos felt a slight pang of dread. Had he been wrong the whole time?! Sylph must be right, since he didn't get out much and preferred to stay with his. He'd have to ask the next time she did something, to see if he could go along.

"Maybe so, but telling someone to blink gets rather annoying," Anusha masked what might have been an otherwise irritable tone. "No, but we're pretty bored at the moment." Staring contests didn't appeal much to her. They always made her eyes itch and burn and she wasn't exactly up for self-torture. "As far as life goes, we're pretty much only doing lessons and chores. Trying not to disappear or get sick, y'know?" The thought of finding herself somewhere she was unfamiliar with very suddenly, or dying, or losing Minth, made her shudder. T'rid of Cornith had gone missing at a Gather of all things, and the bronze had betweened as a result. The reports were turning up as quickly as wild wherries flocked to a carcass. "If you are willing to share what you do in your spare time, I'm open to suggestions," though I doubt you'll tell me anything.

[Avu]

More subtle? Pfft. Sylph tossed a look at Minth that spoke clearly that she didn’t have to bother with subtlety – she was fast enough not to have to care. Nobody seemed to notice her; she was roughly the same size as Akos, perhaps a centimeter or so bigger, but still small enough to go completely overlooked by almost everybody. And she was faster on her feet than almost anyone; it took practice before R’ahre could actively follow her progress accurately when she chose to run as fast as she could, and nobody else had had the opportunity to practice like ‘RusaHers’ had. And, yes: She was very proud of it. Faster than Skink, she was (or so she liked to think; she hadn’t gotten caught in a jar by a silly pretty). The green Salamandyr opted not to reply, though; it didn’t matter once it no longer applied to her, and once subtlety was the topic, it didn’t, because Sylph wasn’t unless she had to be in order to pin blame on someone other than herself, and she didn’t have to do even that anymore – Ahth was helpfully doing that for her. So nice, that.

But see, see? Akos understood, he did. Because he was smarter than the flappy-green. As far as Sylph was concerned, only Ahth and Baoth were smart in terms of dragons – and Baoth only because Ahth thought highly of the green and the blue didn’t just like anybody. See, love BrotherMine, see see, the green commented happily, brushing her head against Akos’s flank affectionately. Showoff bestest, we bester ‘n sillies flittersire. She bounced slightly, and then cooed thoughtfully. Hrm, hrm…funny, she didn’t think she’d told Skink about that yet. Oh well. She’d get to Skink later; she hadn’t been seeing much of the green since His disliked Skink’s to an alarming degree and refused to go near him, meaning that Sylph, sentenced to being stuck near Hers, couldn’t really go far either. Siiiigh. All best ‘mandyrs Showoffsire, the green added in explanation. Only not-goods flittersire, BrotherMine see?

There usually some people on the beaches, Ahth corrected. How did he know? He’d spied, of course. Shamelessly. But that wasn’t necessary information to give. Most people are staying off of it since the disappearances began. Same with the jungle. It’s farther from the Weyr. More dangerous. Or so they thought, anyway. HisR’ahre hadn’t gotten disappeared and he’d taken Ahth out there once since the disappearances began, just to sun. Clearly His was superior to those who were vanishing mysteriously. Clearly. Do you go there /every day/? Gently probing, he was. Ahth wanted to know. He didn’t know what exactly it was he was trying to discover, or if he’d even recognize it if he heard it. The blue just liked to know things and, regardless of whether or not it ever came in handy, he’d know. And that’d be more than anyone else did. But he didn’t want to scare them off, either; his questions could be considered nothing more than simple polite interest.

Lessons, chores, trying not to disappear or get sick. R’ahre tilted his head, and then crinkled his nose slightly. So, basically, getting bored to death and avoiding things. How simply…boring. Not that he’d much more on his schedule, but at least his day-to-day had been a little more interesting. If you could count nearly being drowned as ‘more interesting’, anyway, which he wasn’t quite sure whether or not he ought to. Certainly was interesting…Anusha’s question drew a shrug from the blueweyrling. He didn’t really like anyone knowing his exact schedule; it made him distinctly uncomfortable in a way he didn’t really understand. Still, it couldn’t hurt…“Not much. Mostly the same. Lessons, avoiding things…” His head bowed thoughtfully as he looked down at Akos and Sylph, and his fingers brushed the hilt at his belt. “Trying to find M’kai to make him spar with me…” Throwing hissy fits at blueriders (pure rage had driven that one; he didn’t take kindly to anyone throwing rocks at Ahth), skipping chores…the list went on.