Sulking does not become you (Ruby)

[kat]

His wherhide boots could be heard walking down the corridor to the Weyrling Barracks common room. They announced the bluerider's--or blueweyrling's--presence well before T'lor entered the large room, glancing around at the several Weyrlings who were there. Training was done and so was supper. They would have a couple of hours to themselves before having to go to bed, just as T'lor did. Only T'lor was definitely an odd one out. Neither a full rider nor actually a Weyrling at the same age as the rest of their dragon's were, he had been the only one to not graduate when the rest of his Weyrling class did. Sharding fractured leg! Why of all times did it have to be a few months before graduation? His luck was just foul.

He didn't really see much of the full riders now that he was attending his lessons every day. He was due to graduate when the eight month old dragons were ready to as well. Only thing was that he didn't actually know any of the current Weyrling class. Not a single one of them. He'd caught a couple of names but the first class he'd been at had gone horribly. Three Weyrlings had died going between for the first time. T'lor hadn't known them or their dragons but it was horrific nonetheless. He felt even worse for M'kai and Futh. He knew them at least. They were in the class he was supposed to have graduated in. He couldn't imagine how poorly the bluepair must have felt upon losing not one but three Weyrlings. Not that it was their fault. It was the Weyrlings themselves who'd failed to follow instructions and ended up paying the ultimate price. He shuddered inwardly and pushed such thoughts aside. He hadn't come here to reminisce on his first Weyrling class with these Weyrlings. He'd come here because he was tired of fitting in with neither the riders nor them. It was time to do something about that.

He took up a seat on the comfortable long chair provided and glanced around. Usually he was so sharding good at socializing. Why was he balking at it now? If he wasn't lying to himself he knew the answer. He felt out of place for the first time in a long time. Not that it had been his fault he hadn't graduated but he was still the odd one out. That unsettled him. He felt Shith was still snoozing in the back of his mind. The blue had been the one to suggest he make friends. There were 'lots of pretty greens' he had said. Shith did love his greens. And golds, too. He recalled that Shith had wanted to chase Jingth and it was all T'lor could do to ground the blue. He might not get so lucky next time. Shith seemed to have a dragon sort of crush on the pretty gold. Not that he could blame him, Jingth was a nice looking dragon. Meira wasn't so bad either, really.

He tried to remember some of the names of the Weyrlings he'd seen in class but failed to see any he could recall. There'd been the one greenrider girl that he'd caught the name of. Ruliana, or something like that. But he didn't see her here and with each passing moment he began to feel more unsettled. Maybe he should just get up and say hello to someone. It was what he was good at, right? Right. He was still sitting there and watching them five minutes later.

[Ruby]

Tenlie was deep in concentration, so deep that she didn't even notice the room's new occupant. She'd decided to work in the Barracks instead of the Forge this evening, now that class and chores were over; better light, not to mention that she'd only be here another month or so before moving to her very own Weyr. That idea was appalling to Ten, who hadn't had her own room since she was a little child. Of course she'd have Rajnith, Grip, Big Brother, Ugly Duckling - the pack seemed to grow every day - but it wouldn't be the same as having Jazz to chatter at late into the night. At first Ten had been a little wary of the Blueweyrling, but the two had turned out to be good friends, and Dhavalth and Rajnith got along just fine. It would be strange to leave.

Even though she'd intended to relax tonight, just do some light work instead of the more difficult forge-work, Ten had still gotten drawn in to her work. She had a pair of pliers, thin silver wire, and a handful of color coordinated glass beads. Despite her Weyrling status, she was also a Glasscrafter, and she was way behind with her work. She'd have nothing to show at the next gather, at this rate. Carefully stringing the wire through a bead's minuscule hole, she twisted the end into a decorative spiral, lifting the half-finished earring up to inspect her work. A spray of small beads dangled from what would be the earring's hook, arranged like a clump of berries. Cute, but no great artwork.

Her eyes re-focused beyond the earring after a second, finally registering T'lor's presence. There were some other Weyrlings scattered about (Ten spotted T'mund, the insufferable Brownrider, in a far corner with his nose in a book), but this Weyrling was new and interesting. His dragon was as old as Futh, but something had kept him from graduating. Ten couldn't help it - her curiosity was peaked. Of course, he'd picked Ruiliana out to talk to at the lesson, meaning Ten would have ignored him if she were around, but she wasn't. Might as well give it a try.

"You do be T'lor, yes?" she asked, raising her voice a little to catch his attention and trying her hardest to be confident, not to blush. His eyes weren't aimed at her, but he was at least faced mostly her direction. "Do you mind coming here for just a sec?" She asked, pointing at the chair next to hers and smiling, impressed with her own bravery. She got an answering mental rumble from Rajnith: Yes. All males were hers.

[kat]

He was gathering up the courage to just up and go talk to someone. Shells, he even had a few people he was eying. The girl by the table looked concentrated on something though. The boy in the corner had his nose buried in a book of some kind. Others were already talking to someone else or doing something. Just his sharding luck. Usually this was so easy. Usually this was easy as bubbly pie. Usually this wa--

A voice cut through his thoughts. An unfamiliar one; and it was female. He was surprised a little though. She was asking him to come over to where she was? Did she need something, then? Well it wasn't like he was doing anything. Anything that didn't involve looking around the room at everyone like a rock stricken wherry. So he got up out of his chair and crossed the short distance between them. Sitting in the chair next to hers he felt that unfamiliar nervousness. This was ridiculous. This was not him and by the first egg he would shake it. He grinned at the girl in a friendly manner, brushing a strand of hair behind his ear.

"You needed somethin', miss?" He didn't have her name but she had his. Feeling the nervousness abate a little he commented, "seems yah have somethin' of mine. Ah'd be willing to accept an exchange though," he told her solemnly, though there was a twinkle in his eye and a slight upturn at the corner of his mouth. He paused a moment for emphasis and then went on, "you seem t' have my name but I don't have yers. Hardly seems fair, don'cha think?" He leaned back in the chair, relaxing his posture more. No need to look tense or even to be tense. He was curious as to why she'd called him over in the first place. Not about to look a gift runner in the mouth though. After all she'd saved him a lot of awkward sitting and debating over what to do. He owed her for that one.

[Ruby]

"Aye," she confirmed, most of her attention on the spiral at the bottom of one of the beads - it was curled the wrong direction, she realized as T'lor took the seat next to her, and she had to fix it. Lips momentarily pursed in deep concentration, she was caught off guard by the Blueweyrling's question. With a perfectly round-mouthed expression of innocent surprise, she blinked at him once or twice before he went on. "Oh!" she exclaimed, unable to suppress the giggle that escaped her as she realized what he meant. "That do seem to be the case, no? Will you accept mine in exchange?"

Pausing only long enough to change her needle-nose pliers out for a pair that looked like they had a silver crab's claw on the end, she went on, "I do be Ten. From Tenlie, but I do hate that name. Far too foofy." A few adjustments to the claw apparatus and she eyed T'lor for a second before making a few more. Good, all ready.

"Now, do sit forward, and hold still," she added, not to be distracted until her work was done. She held the earring up next to T'lor's earlobe, adjusting the length up and down once or twice until she seemed satisfied. Pinching the chosen area between her fingers, she reached for the claw device, using it to make the perfect curve. However, she did all of this suspiciously close to T'lor's ear, where he couldn't really see what was going on. If he twitched, she'd just move, keeping the earring right in line with where it would hang from a pierced hole. Too long or two short it would look funny, it had to be just right! Once everything was worked to her satisfaction, Ten sat back, admiring her work. Blinking, she re-focused on her companion, laying the finished earring on a black velvet bag and picking up the second, setting to work on the spirals and smiling up at T'lor. "Thank you, that do be impossible to do on myself."