A Not-So-Lovely Picnic (Open)

[weaving]

Hungry. “No.” Yes. “No.” Yes. Feed me. Now. No more wait. Hungry. “No! Now stop asking – Ow! SHARDS BRAT!” Fed up with Lennae’s constant refusal to feed her, the salamandyr had taken matters into her own hands, leaping up to grab firmly the septum of her nose. She was refusing to let go and the greenrider was afraid to tug at her for fear that she might actually cause damage. It as painful enough as it was, but tugging would only cause Brat to rip a chunk of her nose off. She’d probably eat it too, Lennae thought darkly. She was doing her best to glare at the gold, but it only made her cross-eyed and the normal passer-by probably found the entire situation amusing. If only they knew.

Perhaps you should feed her? Maybe she really is hungry. Besides, she looks cute hanging from you like that. As much pain as the sharding creature caused her, Amith absolutely adored her and was usually the first to rise to Brat’s defense. You wouldn’t be saying that if it was you she was hanging from, she shot back. Why was everyone ganging up on her? Maybe if you fed her, she wouldn’t bite you so much.

Lennae was sorely tempted to pick up an apple and throw it at the green, who was lolling about on the riverbank contentedly. She only had one left though, and she’d rather not waste it on something so silly as that. She’d planned a nice little picnic. The weather had been especially nice that day. Everything had been going well until Brat had decided that the lunch she’d been packed wasn’t enough. Stupid, piggish creature. She should have named the gold Fatass, but it hadn’t become apparent that Brat loved nothing more than eating until a few days after the hatching. She still thoroughly blamed K’lir for this whole mess of events and as such had made sure to give him the nastiest glares possible whenever she saw him.

Feed me now. Hungry. “Fine. But let go of my nose first.” Pleased at having gotten her way, Brat let go eagerly, only to find herself being held tightly by the greenrider. “Hah. There. Now you can’t bite me and I will not be feeding you.” Realizing her dilemma, the gold immediately began struggling and nipping at Lennae’s fingers, though the woman was able to ignore it. That had been one of the first things that she had learned to do upon impressing Brat, though it had since led to the gold finding other, more painful, places to bite. Seeing as that wasn’t working, she did the only thing left. She broadcasted as loudly as possible her predicament. Surely someone would hear her pleas and help her.

HELP! Hungry! Evil Minething no feed me! HELPHELPHELPHELPHELP!

Lennae sighed, though did her best to push the yelling thoughts to the back of her mind as she bite into her apple. Not that it did much good. It was times like this that she just wanted to throw Brat into the river and let nature take its course.

[Tashe]

Abby loooooves. Looovesloooves. Lovelymine. Rolling his eyes as the little Green rubbed against his jaw, the young man sighed heavily. Absinthe had developed an unusual habit of late, disappearing in the mornings just to return later as happy as can be. It wasn't very hard to figure out why the Green acted the way she did, actually the symptoms were rather apparent. When she tried to walk, she would wobble and sometimes even fall down. If she tried to climb, she would fail without any help from him. Let alone she tended to babble on and on about random things, which rarely made any sense because of the unique way Mandyrs strung together words. And if she wasn't completely tipsy, she was singing praises to everyone. Looovely love love yooou. "Love you... too, Abbs?" Feeling the Green move from his shoulder and up his runnertail, Nautic slowed so he didn't jostle her from her climb. She was uncoordinated already, he didn't want the little thing to fall.

HELP! Hungry! Evil Minething no feed me! HELPHELPHELPHELPHELP!

His eye twitched uncontrollably as the shrill voice entered his head, he was still unused to hearing voices in his mind that were not his own. We loooove? Looove loovelyvoice help? "I'm sure the er... what ever it was, is fine." Heeelplovelove. Prettymine. Loove. Loooovelovelove Prettyhelp. "No." Loove. "No." Loveever help. "No." Evilfeed. Lovelymine lovehelp. "Fine! We'll go investigate, but only if you stop pestering me." Loooooove you. "Don't I know it." Rubbing the side of his face, Nautic began down the shoreline, following unreliable directions from the plastered Green.

Flaring her stubby wings, Absinthe tried to steady herself as she climbed on top of her humanpet's head, using her claws as hooks so she wouldn't fall off. Prettylovely, we helphelp loooove! Abby Lovelove... wherehelp lovely?

[Kisha-Ra]

A patch of brown streaked along for a few meters then seemed to vanish. That was except for a pair of bright blue eyes that sparkled in the shadow of a fallen branch. Troublemaker was pleased. The reason for the brown salamandyr’s being so pleased with himself became apparent when something glinted in the sunlight. Trouble idly shifted someone’s gemstone ring from his mouth to his claws and back again. It was very shiny and quite colourful, and he had gotten away with it without anyone making annoying noises at him.

Once he was sure that no one was watching him Trouble made a dash for it. He ran silently and swiftly for the next bit of cover with his prize clamped in his jaws. Concentrating on running, sneaking and hiding, even though no one had noticed his theft. From under the broad leaf of some plant he spotted another salamandyr, a green. Had she noticed Troublemaker? No she seemed intent on climbing up her bonded.

HELP! Hungry! Evil Minething no feed me! HELPHELPHELPHELPHELP!

Troublemaker hissed around his shiny prize and stood up on his hind legs, totally forgetting about hiding in his ire. Loudloud veryloud! Foul bad! OITHATSMINE! SHARDDIT! Shut up! SHUTYOURFACE! He objected to the niose by making as much noise as he could back. Didn’t that annoying creature know he was trying to hide with his shiny? Well Troublemaker was going to give that little shiny beast a piece of his mind! Trouble marched off, contriving to walk angrily. The more pieces of his mind the brown gave away, the more he seemed to have.

[weaving]

Oh good, a response. Almost immediately, Brat quit her screaming and struggling, content to wait for her rescuer. She was disappointed that it was only a little green pest and had been hoping for a big shiny bronze to come and rescue her from certain death, but she’d make due with what she got. At least it meant attention, and she loved attention almost as much as she loved food. By river with minething and giant green ugly wings. Help and I love long time. No, Brat most certainly did not like Amith, despite the fact that the green was the only one to ever defend the gold hatchling. In her mind, Amith stole all of the attention and was the reason why Lennae refused to feed her. Stupid fat ugly green wings.

“Oh great.” She’d spotted the approaching young man and was now shaking her head and glaring at the tiny creature she held in her hands. “You just have to cause trouble wherever you go, don’t you? Maybe I’ll be like T’rid and just lock you up in a trunk, hmm?” She ignored the approaching person for the moment. If he was really intent on saving Brat then let him; she’d be more than happy to get the salamandyr off her hands for a while. Maybe he’d even feed her. The gold would probably follow him around for days if he did that, begging for more.

As if Brat hadn’t attracted enough attention already, another voice replied to her pleas for help, though this one wasn’t so concerned. No! No be quiet. You hush, quiet little thing. NO MORE. I COMMAND BE QUIET. At least she wasn’t afraid to throw her rank around, though it had her trying to boss around creatures of every species more often than not. Never mind that even the tiniest of green dragons could squash her like a bug. Brat was more than willing to shout at anything that so much as dared to offend her. As the brown turned to leave, Brat couldn’t help but let loose the last word. Walk away, yeah! SAY NO MORE. That would teach him. If Lennae hadn’t been holding her so tightly, the gold would have knocked him around a bit to further prove her point. As it was, she was stuck and in dire need of rescuing. Where was her savior?

[Tashe]

Therethere love! Greenwinglove. Uglyugly. Digging her claws into his head to keep balance, Absinthe struggled to stay on his head. She felt so goooood. She would help anyone, and prettyone said she would love Abby. Love was good. Hurrylovelymineface. There! Uglywingprettylove goodrocksandloooove.

"For Faranath's sake." Rubbing the bridge of his nose as his little Green began to babble nonsense again, Nautic sighed as he tried to think of something to say to the girl he was about to approach. He wasn't even going to help the ailing Mandyr, he was only going to appease his own Mandyr. Despite how much he already loved Absinthe, she could get very annoying, very fast when she wanted too. Fasthurry. Rockflywing. Oooh. Looksypail... All he could discern from that particular ramble was hurry up, then something about a flying pail. Tucking his hands into his pockets as he relaxed his posture, the young man glanced up at the out of sight Green. Wondering why he had even tried for a little pest in the first place.

Approaching the woman, Nautic stopped a few paces away, not wanting to seem overbearing or something along those lines. "Hello. Sorry to intrude but... I can't believe I'm actually saying this..." He sighed in apparent exasperation "... Absinthe hinted that if I didn't come and see what all the noise was about, she'd annoy me to death. She went so far as to guilt trip me." He paused. "But between you and me, I side with you in this mat--- ow Abby! Ow-ow-ow. No claws! Ouch!" Apparently she wasn't to inebriated to realize that he wasn't going to do anything to help the Gold clasped in the woman's hands.

After punishing her Humanpet, Absinthe cheerily turned her attention back onto the Gold. Prettylove! Abby savesavelove. Rockfly... we come. Herehere! Lovelovehiiigh.

[Kisha-Ra]

Troublemaker transferred his ring to his foreclaws again and twisted his sinuous body back to face that bossy gold. Be quiet? Make him! The brown sat back on his haunches and shrieked horribly, fanning his wings and his frill in defiance. No. No quiet, loud bratling babyyou. Unable to totally disobey Trouble moderated his mental volume. He looked around for something he could do to this bossy little beast. Ah-ha!

Back to his jaws went Troublemaker’s shiny, and the brown salamandyr suddenly darted around behind Lennae and climbed up the back of her shirt, carefully, Trouble didn’t want to be flung off somewhere. Perching neatly on the woman’s shoulder he looked down at the gold in her hand. Haha! I your place now. You smell you smell. Bratling. Take your toy. Mine now.

It was quite clear that Troublemaker had been sneaking around the crèche recently from his choice of language. Human bratlings always left so much food around for Trouble to collect. If the gold was hungry why didn’t she go there? Trouble would let her, he didn’t like some of those things they left around. Maybe she didn’t know. Human bratling give food. Gogo? He suggested tentatively, as if he had not been being purposely annoying only moments before.

[weaving]

Seeing that Nautic was indeed planning on speaking to her, Lennae stood up, not quite feeling comfortable with having anyone looking down at her, even if it was someone as innocent appearing as the boy approaching. She still gripped Brat tightly, but the gold was content to wait until hers let down her guard, her long tail twitching thoughtfully as she plotted her next move. The boy with the greenlove would provide a sufficient distraction and then she would be free! She could probably make it to the picnic basket before anyone was able to stop her and she was sure that Lennae had hidden lots of yummy treats in there. Soon they would all be hers and no one else’s. She refused to share with anyone. Maybe she’d share with the greenlove for helping in freeing her from the confines of Lennae’s head.

“They all seem rather good at being annoying, don’t they?” Lennae responded with a slight smile. She instantly filled with relief at his words. She’d been afraid for a moment that he’d come to chastise her on her treatment of Brat. As roughly as she treated the gold, she made sure to never harm her. As much as Lennae despised the thought of having pets, especially one like Brat, the creature had managed to worm her way into Lennae’s heart. Not that she’d ever admit that. “At least yours isn’t constantly demanding for food. Or if she is, she doesn’t gain weight.” No, his looked quite proportional compared to the fat tub of lard that was Brat.

As Lennae relaxed, Brat readied herself to squirm free. That annoying brown needed to be dealt with! As if the annoyance of his voice wasn’t enough, he suddenly appeared on Lennae’s shoulder, causing Brat to immediately go into a fit of rage. OFF MINEPET! NOT YOUR PLACE! YOU GO NOW! NOW! SHARDING ASSHAT! Squirming free of Lennae’s grasp, she lunged upward, fully intent on tearing off the brown’s head. How dare he try and claim Lennae as his. She was clearly hers and no one else’s! She only grudgingly allowed Amith to stay around because the green was far too large for her jaws to snap in half.

Before she could make it however, Lennae grabbed her once more, suffering several bites before the gold calmed down enough to realize that she was hurting Her’s as opposed to the evil brown ugly.

With a sigh, Lennae gave Nautic an apologetic look. At least Brat had kept her language fairly clean that time, which was surprising considering how often she swore at the gold. “I don’t suppose you know a way to make them better behaved?” She asked hopelessly. Briefly she wondered how Manners was so nice. Perhaps Jermayan had simply lucked out while some cruel act of fate had decided that she needed a pet that would drive her crazy. She’d probably find herself miraculously pregnant within the next sevenday, despite her lack of activity since returning to Selenitas, a fact that she tried not to often think about. It usually simply led to a lot of frustration and nothing to do with it.

Brat eyed the brown warily as he suggested a place to find food. Sure, she’d take that advice. After he got off of her minepet. She’d go and steal all of his food when he wasn’t looking. She’d show him who was more clever!

[Tashe]

"From what I have seen... yes. But I suppose there are a few that aren't... I've heard that the Weyrwoman's is rather quite tame." Looking down at the Gold Mandyr as the young woman commented about it's weight, Nausi chuckled. "Absinthe is more into... getting plastered. Thats the best way to put it I suppose. I mean, she's already an alcoholic... even now she somehow got into the stuff." It was true, he had woken up to find her in this condition. How she was able to find any wine was beyond him.

Moving quickly to catch the falling Green, Nautic sighed as he cradled her in his hands. At least in this state, he could work with the Weyrbrats and not have to worry about her injuring them. "I personally haven't yet found a way to break her of her behavior. I wish there was a well known way to." He paused for a moment, a sheepish wince crossing his face. "I'm sorry, I haven't introduced myself. I'm Nautic and this is Absinthe, Abby for short. I'd shake your hand but, as of right now, our Mandyrs seem to be occupying them."

Laying on her back, the little Green looked up at the sky.
Whoooa. Bigbluebig. Whitefluff... gethowhere? She tried to get onto her feet, but was having a hard time doing so. Finally she righted herself, flaring her long wings for any amount of balance she had left. Nostruggle. Patience! Humanpretty let lovely go. Trickytrickylove. Sneaky. Nosuspect. Looking at the brown the Green added. Funnylove. Brownsilly. Goldylove no like?

[Kisha-Ra]

Troublemaker looked disparagingly down at Brat, his dignity somewhat marred by his raised frill and the ring in his mouth. Off? Not yours, you bite. Bite bad. OW CRYINGOUTLOUD THAT REALLY HURT! SHARDS! Trouble’s tail danced against Lennae’s back as he carefully explained his point of view, comleate with some of the things humans said when they were bitten. Also he totally ignored the fact that he bit his humanpet on a regular basis. My friend is. Not bite. Trouble chirped softly and rubbed his muzzle, ring and all, against Lennae as if to prove that he didn’t bite.

Silly falling. Why fall? You want food gogeteat? Trouble lost interest in baiting the gold for the moment and turned his head to look at the strange wobbly green, probably a bad mistake on his part. If they were going to get food for the humanbratlings he needed to hide his shinything too. People were always making noise at him and taking his things. They were just jealous.

[weaving]

“She’s an alcoholic? What’s she like when she’s not drunk?” Lennae raised an eyebrow as he described his ‘mandyr’s tendency to get plastered. An alcoholic salamandyr? Well, she supposed that it was possible, though the thought had never occurred to her before meeting this boy. Then again, Brat was an addict in her own way so she couldn’t be too surprised. For perhaps the thousandth time she cursed her luck at getting stuck with the worst of the bunch. At least Abby, though an alcoholic, was at least nice when she was drunk. The only thing that feeding Brat did was make her pass out for a few hours and then wake up later hungry again. There was no escape from her constant complaints of hunger and her demands for food and attention.

“I’m Lennae and this is Brat. It’s nice to meet you Nautic.” She smiled warmly as she introduced herself to him. He was a nice boy, much better than the last candidate she’d bothered to interact with. It had been nearly a turn ago, but she’d failed to forget about the Saeo and Pepsi incident by the river. Her thoughts immediately darkened as she remembered that the girl had been the reason why she’d lost one of her knives. She hadn’t seen much of that girl around lately; she’d impressed which meant she was busy with weyrling lessons which Lennae made certain to stay far away from. The idea of getting roped into teaching anything made her squirm a bit mentally. She’d make a horrible weyrlingmaster and would probably end up threatening her students by throwing knives at them.

Apparently Brat had taken Abby’s advice and was now laying limply in her hand. She eyed the gold warily. “Are you going to be good now?” Yes. Promise be very good. The gold sounded sincere, but she held onto her for a few moments longer before letting her go. At just that moment Troublemaker rubbed up against causing her to jump slightly. A split second later, Brat lunged. NononononoNO! NOT YOUR MINEPET. YOU GO YOU GO! UGLY NASTY DUNG FACE SHARDING WHERRY LOVER! The insults came as a steady stream as she lunged for the brown, eyes whirling an enraged red.

Lennae was confused by the fact there was a brown salamandyr on her shoulder. How had he gotten there? Somehow, she’d failed to notice him until now, though it suddenly made sense as to why Brat had been so angry earlier. She brushed at the intruder brown, hoping to shoo him off of her shoulder before Brat could get to him, though he had really brought it on himself. It was hard to feel too sympathetic for him when she had Brat’s rage toward him flowing freely through their bond.