Playtime (Avu)

[Ember]

Leather items are nice but not when you have a feline that thinks all leather is its personal chew toy. Or so T'san had discovered not long after acquiring his feline from a little girl at a Gather a while ago. Normally he was good about remembering to put away his boots and belts but last night he'd forgotten in his overwhelming desire to sleep. He'd woken up to see Spice contentedly purring away as he chewed on the left boot. While he managed to succesfully get that back, the cat had grabbed his belt. During the attempt to get it back from the cat it had turned into a game. Spice absolutely loved games.

It was only natural that the orange and cream cat lead the brownrider out of his weyr. Shoeless, sockless, and still sleepy the brownrider stumble-ran after the cat. As if that weren't enough there was another thing following T'san. The green salamandyr at his heels completed the trio of weirdos. Every now and then she'd pause as if trying to jump onto the running man's leg but then she'd miss her mark and have to scurry to catch up and try it again. She wasn't quite shrieking, not yet.

T'san snorted slightly in amusement. How could the fuzball run so fast carrying that thing? At least I'm getting my morning excercise, he thought optimistically. Little did he know that he'd be catching a break in a moment. Spice kept running and glanced behind him to see his humanpet still following. Good fun! The large cat didn't notice the person in front of him who had just come up the stairs until it was too late. He looked in front of him again to see legs and he leapt upwards as T'san shouted a warning. Softer impact than the legs.

[Avu]

Fuzzy! Mimic’s statement, along with T’san’s yelling, were possibly the only warnings the goldrider received before she looked up and was met with the sight of a feline. True, it was a domestic feline, but having a feline flying at her regardless of the size while she was walking up stairs was not a situation that Meira was fond of. Actually, it had never happened before, perhaps the reason she froze before hastily taking a step back, both arms raising in attempt to actually catch the feline, completely out of instinct. It wasn’t a conscious idea, and probably not a good one, but…it worked.

Up until a feline launching at her, it had been a normal day. Wake up, go to Weyrling Lessons, bathe, and go up to M’ta and R’wign’s weyr to pick Riaren up again. Or rather, start to go up to their weyr. Jingth had already informed Checkoth and Behruth of her approach and she was halfway up the stairs and…she was being intercepted by a kitten with a belt. Said kitten was caught against her lower abdomen, and she wobbled on the edge of another step precariously before regaining balance, blinking down in complete surprise as she held up the feline and quickly made her way up the rest of the stairs. Just in case any more felines were about to come barreling out. Safer not to be on the stairs.

Allowing Mimic to uncurl from her wrist and crawl curiously forward to inspect Spice, Meira looked up and crinkled her nose slightly as she caught sight of T’san. The kitten was held out towards him, rather awkwardly, as she stepped towards the brownrider. She did remember him – less as a patient at the Infirmary and more because he’d bought Riaren what was currently one of his favorite toys; the little dolphin doll she’d bought for him at the Gather and the rainbow stuffed star his father had had made ranked up there, too. Still, he did like the firelizard; she suspected it was because it was just like R’wign’s firelizards and allowed him to cling to it as long as he wanted, which was more than could be said for even the most patient of a living creature.

“Hi. Yours?” she inquired softly, as Mimic snaked down her wrist again, coiling around it and leaning forward to sniff at Spice curiously; the Salamandyr twitched his nose and then sneezed. His frill fluttered curiously; it wasn’t that he’d never seen a feline before – he’d seen Empress and Monster, after all – but he’d never seen this one. And – and – an Aliene! The feline was forgotten, Mimic squeaking a delighted greeting and leaping off of Meira to scurry towards the green, crooning pleasantly. Meira watched him for a second before regarding the feline in her hands with some nervousness. “If I put him down, he won’t eat Mimic, will he?” she added, anxious. Monster didn’t but not all felines were Monster.

Oblivious to any dangerous involving felines, Mimic scurried towards Aliene and flapped his wings in a greeting that could only be described as happy. No, she wasn’t the ‘best darkling’ who had won his complete awe and adoration, but she was still nice, yes? Hello, hello, he chirped, pleasantly. Fuzzy Yourspet? Fuzzy Monster, MyLove has.

’ruth’s is going to be upset if you’re late, Jingth observed. And that will upset you. Would you like me to tell him that you’ve been assaulted by a feline and may be delayed?

[Ember]

Spice had dropped the belt mid-jump in surprise and for a moment after Meira had caught him he appeared to be looking to see where it had gone. Oh well, maybe the nothishuman would play with him? His tongue rasped briefly against her shirt before he meowed curiously. They could hardly play while he was being held though. An ear flicked back as he heard the light panting of his humanpet approaching but he continued to attempt to look at Meira brightly. A bit hard to get a good look at her at stomach level. The little brown thing that scurried to her wrist caught his attention though. Ooh, play toy!

T'san helped Meira close the distance, grinning with little shame when he realized who it was. "Yeah, he is. Seems my luck this morning is better than I thought. Sorry about him though, I ought to have stopped him sooner but I guess I was having fun too." The cat being held towards him was an incredibley obedient one. He would have stopped at a word but the brownrider hadn't bothered to try. Besides, even domestic cats needed excercise. Playing could hardly hurt...except it nearly could have hurt Meira.

Spice's tail was twitching slightly as Mimic sniffed him. Much more brave than the little green one. She just hid and screeched. He was about to lick the brown when he was thwarted by both his humanpet and the brownling. T'san had relieved Meira of holding the feline and he glanced down at the two salamandyrs for a moment. "He certainly wouldn't eat him but try and play with and potentially hurt him by accident he might. Besides, I think he's happy where he is, don't you?" The purring was quite audible in the quiet hallway. He loved his humanpet, he did!

"What brings you to this level?" he asked curiously as he shifted Spice so that the feline was being leaned against his shoulder much as one would hold a baby to burp it. Don't mention that to him though. He went to retrieve his belt with the freed hand. He'd lost a shirt when Aliene Ran, he'd rather not lose another article of clothing. He'd been fond of that shirt too.

Aliene remembered that one. He'd abandoned her during her Run for that one. Her near-permanently yellow gaze was fixed on him, halfway between a glare and genuine interest in what he planned to do. The friendly greeting was not what she'd expected and she tilted her head quizically. He was an odd one. However, being associated with that nasty feline was not something she'd tolerate. Her tail whipped the air and she hissed. Fuzzball HATE, she spat mentally. Two simple words managed to convey her feelings well enough for Spice, though they held no judgement on Mimic...yet.

[Avu]

Please. Although you wouldn’t mind leaving out the part about the feline, would you?

Because yes. ‘Assaulted by a feline’ was kind of…kind of really overdramatic. Meira felt Jingth’s drolly amused acquiescence to her request and the gold fell silent, no doubt bespeaking Behruth. The gold probably knew it was Dsoleth’s feline that had intercepted her, given that Jingth forgot very little of what she wished to remember and her brownslaves would certainly never be forgotten. They were hers, after all. All the Weyr was, but her slaves especially; they were the special ones. And yes, as a whole she thought of them as brownslaves, namely because she only had one bronzeslave. Not the majority, clearly.

Meira glanced down at the feline in her hands at T’san’s words, crinkling her nose and shaking her head in slight amusement. “It’s okay,” she responded automatically, releasing him to his owner as soon as T’san reached out to take him. At least the feline wasn’t mean; her hands hadn’t been bitten or clawed or anything, anyway. Her gaze followed Mimic’s progress, flicking up to T’san again at the brownrider’s words, and she bowed her head, laughing softly. “Death by playing. I’m sure that’s a new one,” she murmured, smiling slightly at the feline. No, felines couldn’t understand what smiling meant, but still. The feline – T’san had said ‘he’, hadn’t he? – was cute. Probably cuter than Monster; Monster was really, really fuzzy and lazy. Not really playful like this one seemed to be.

His question made her look up again and she reached out absently to bat gently, playful, at the feline’s tail, more of a light stroke than anything else. “Umm. Riaren’s with R’wign and M’ta right now – I was going to pick him up again. Couldn’t take him to Lessons…” A half-smile at the thought of Riaren at Lessons (not that he’d be disruptive; Riaren was generally very quiet for a baby, though he did seem to like to ‘talk’ more now) before Meira tilted her head slightly to one side and added, “I wasn’t expecting to be – um, assaulted by a feline, but…” The words were far from upset, though; she hadn’t been hurt, after all, just startled at worst, and she liked felines well enough.

So did Mimic, and Aliene’s words made him deflate slightly, looking startled as he squirmed and then looked up at Spice, trying to figure out why he was HATED. ‘Hated’ with capital letters. Not lowercase. Capital letters. His frill flattened against his neck and the Salamandyr tilted his head anxiously at Aliene. Why? he inquired softly; he wanted to nuzzle her but she somewhat scared him, did Aliene, and he didn’t want to be HATED. He was scared he would be HATED if he touched her, so maybe it was better if he just talked to her. Fuzzball mean? Maybe it was mean. He didn’t know well enough to tell, after all. Surely Aliene would have a good reason for HATING the feline.

…poor feline. It looked cute to him.

[Ember]

Ironically, 'Dsoleth's feline" described Spice well enough. It was the brown that insisted he buy the kitten after all. Otherwise Spice would have gone to a different home. Anytime T'san thought of not having the feline around he just couldn't imagine it. A turn was evidentally long enough for something to feel like it had always been there. So to be more accurate, Spice was both his and Dsoleth's feline.

The brownrider smiled when she told him she was alright, but that was the automatic response for almost everyone, wasn't it? She was the healer though...she probably didn't need him fussing over her. He pretended to get serious when she mentioned death by playing. "I'm not sure about death but he is liable to drive you crazy. Between waking me up in the middle of the night and driving the monster into fits of screeching rage I'm going loopy," he said, the serious expression slowly melting into an amused smile as he talked, "Well, loopier anyways."

Spice's tail twitched as it was batted and he mewed slightly. So the nothis did like to play! He wasn't used to being the toy...but he could work around that. Most toys didn't make you chase them to play with. T'san had seen the wrist extend to and he half paid attention to her words as he shifted the belt to his other hand and used his free one to try and snag her wrist. "Hmm, Riaren is the tyke then? If I remember right the toy I gave you was a blue which means they match," he commented easily, as if he wasn't attempting to grab her.

Aliene twitched at his reaction. It wasn't like she'd meant him! If she had he'd have known it. The pang of guilt was unwelcome and she made a low sound of distress - a mix of a croon and a hiss. However at his question she froze. She considered how to answer that. Somewhere in her heart she knew the feline wasn't mean. It just didn't know any better. Maybe she ought to bite its nose and that would stop it...oh but those claws! She wailed slightly. The feline was scary! Always chasing her.

[Avu]

‘The monster’. She expected that was the little green Salamandyr that had Mimic so confused, but Meira didn’t ask; she grinned despite herself at T’san’s words, ducking her head instinctively to somewhat mask the amusement. It probably wasn’t nice to be so amused at the idea he’d proposed, even if it was just in jest. The feline’s tail twitching made her pause, batting gently at it again, before her wrist was intercepted and Meira looked up from Spice to T’san, blinking at him curiously. She didn’t actively try to pull away from the brownrider, though she did twist her wrist, first one way and then the other. Her fingers wriggled, forefinger brushing along Spice’s tail again.

His words – so casual, as if he hadn’t just grabbed her by the wrist – made her crinkle her nose, puzzled. Had he never met – oh. He hadn’t. Meira felt somewhat guilty about that; T’san had given Riaren the stuffed firelizard, after all. Did that not give him something of a right to meet him? Oops…she hadn’t thought of it, to be honest. “It was a blue,” she replied, and tilted her head slightly to one side, taking a step towards T’san so she could tug lightly at her wrist. “It’s his favorite – it’s in my weyr at the moment…he has a rainbow star while he’s at R’wign’s weyr…” She had a lot of his toys at her weyr, actually, since that was where Riaren stayed most of the time, including the small carved dragons and people M’ta had given her, though she hadn’t yet offered those to Riaren. They’d end up shoved into his mouth or up his nose, at such an age.

“Would I be able to have my arm back?” she added, a soft crooked smile passing across her face. “Or at least know why you need it…?” It wasn’t that she particularly minded; his grip didn’t hurt and she’d liked T’san when she’d met him before, and Jingth liked his dragon, but…yes, she was curious. It was her arm, after all.

Mimic didn’t get a verbal reply, but the physical one made him feel bad just for asking and the Salamandyr crooned, comforting. It was okay! Maybe she just didn’t like felines. His said some people didn’t, which was why Monster had been relocated from Infirmary to their weyr for the majority of the time (though he still followed Meira to the Infirmary so he could see Empress daily) and while Mimic didn’t see why they wouldn’t, he knew it. The brown glanced up towards His, frill fluttering in anxiety. Aliene’s was touching His, so it would be okay for him to touch her too, surely? Mimic edged forward, slowly, before he reached out with his muzzle and brushed it against Aliene’s shoulder, tongue flicking out to lick her.

Is okay, the brown offered softly. Happy, is okay. Not fuzzball talk, something else? He’d let her pick the topic now, yes? Mimic liked socializing. He did. But it upset him when anyone he was near was upset, and clearly mention of the fuzzball upset Aliene. Mimic didn’t know her well enough to comfort her particularly well but he’d try, and he’d let her decide what to think about, what made her happy.

[Ember]

T'san arched a brow slightly as she lowered her head but he didn't comment on it. At least, not yet. He had a distraction in the form of her wrist. As Spice's tail twitched again while she made her discomfort known he grinned slightly. Her twisting actually helped him as he examined her wrist for and claw marks. Well that was good. This time it seemed like 'okay' really hadn't been false. Like she'd have a reason to lie about it. Yeah, yeah. I go commenting about someone else's trust issues and then pull something like this.

He made a small sound of surprised pleasure to learn he'd remembered right. What she said after that surprised him enough for him to glance up at her and he grinned. "Favourite hmm? He's got good taste," he joked lightly. R'wign. She'd also mentioned a M'ta before too. The names were unfamiliar to him but he figured R'wign was the father.

T'san chuckled and released her arm. "'M sorry. I tend not to trust the default response to everything. If Spice had hurt you it would be my fault. You probably already know this but some felines can give you nasty infection if they bite or scratch you. While I don't think he's infected its better to be safe than sorry." Spice twitched his tail invitingly, oblivious to the conversation. He knew some command words but no feline is expected to know more than that. T'san ran a hand down the cat's back and was amused by the increase in volume of his purring.

Her wailing was blessedly cut short by surprise. Mimic seemed the nice sort and simple - he'd ditched her for that ugly one after all - but she hadn't been expecting him to comfort her. His behaviour was starting to make her suspicious. Whippy tail making s-curves in the air, the green didn't jump back at his touch but neither did she lean into the comfort. That reaction was reserved for her person and Simper. Thinking of the blue made her crave his company and she would have run off in search of him if not for the brown's words.

Words. She blinked and tried to think of something. She wasn't to ogood with words. Emotions and gesturing tended to work as far as her person was concerned. A conversation with another speaking thing though...The green whined slightly. Oh she was sorry, but she couldn't. Responding to yes or no questions was easy enough and copying words for a short time. She'd only learned fuzzball because her person used it often enough to describe the feline.

[Avu]

“Of course…” The words were automatic, a faint smile twitching at the corner of her mouth. The firelizard had also been Riaren’s first toy; short of stealing toys from the crèche, Meira didn’t see how they could have gotten any until the next Gather. That could have explained the baby’s partiality to it if one completely ignored the fact that the baby loved attaching himself to anything remotely draconic and clinging. He seemed to like Monster, too, though the feline wasn’t as patient and openly adoring as Mimic – just tolerant. “I’m afraid he hasn’t named it yet,” she added; hadn’t he said something when he’d given it to her about namedays? “But that’s probably because he hasn’t starting talking yet.”

His words made her blink, startled by the motive, and she retracted her arm, looking down at the unmarred skin curiously, as if to double check. “Thank you…” She guessed? It was nice that he cared, but in the Infirmary she’d be washing her hands with disinfectant anyway, so didn’t really matter one way or another. “He’s too sweet to hurt…” The words were soft, and she reached out to rub the base of the feline’s ears, tentatively; it was something that Monster appreciated, but given that Monster was the only feline she’d much reason to pet, she wasn’t exactly sure how the feline species as a whole took it.

“I’ve interrupted your ‘fun’, haven’t I?” The words were laced with a slight teasing; she certainly wouldn’t have classified chasing after a feline as fun, but…each to their own.

Mimic half-expected to be swatted and that thought made the brown Salamandyr decidedly nervous; his muzzle brushed gently across the green’s shoulder, as comforting as he could, before he cooed quietly. Still, the green didn’t speak, though, and Mimic flicked his tail, nervous. Had he done something wrong? Was he getting shunned? Her whine made the Salamandyr tilt his head to one side, confused, before his eyes took on an embarrassed pink tinge and he bowed his head. Is okay. No more fuzzball, he assured her, keeping the upset from touching his voice; the Salamandyr tilted his head, puzzled, confused, a little hurt that he received no verbal or physical response.

Meanwhile, Jingth stretched on her ledge, languorously, eyes spinning quietly, before she turned to croon thoughtfully in the direction of Hers and Dsoleth’s. If she hadn’t been so happy sprawled out under the sun’s rays (weak as they were given that it was technically winter) she might have bespoken the brown. As it was, she only brushed against Meira’s mind, lazily. I think Dsoleth’s worm is broken. It doesn’t speak.

Perhaps fortunately, Meira didn’t respond to that, though her gaze did drop down to the Salamandyrs and the sight of Mimic anxiously brushing his muzzle against Aliene’s shoulder made confusion flicker across her face. “Mimic…?”

[Ember]

T'san thought back for a moment. He knew the name was important for some reason but...ah-ha! Right he'd said something about the name and its nameday. He shrugged slightly and grinned. "In time I'm sure he'll name it. I'm willing to bet he names it after a person he knows. I named mine after a pet my family had," he told her. The only reason he actually knew that was because the pet in question had lived long enough for him to remember its name. The pet had also been a male and so he had a masculine name for a green stuffed toy.

He smirked slightly at the reaction. It was as easy to ruffle her as ever. His concern had been real though. Part of it was being a responsible pet owner but the other part was he was fond of the goldweyrling. At the petting Spice purred a bit louder and leaned into Meira's hand slightly. "You're right about that. He's never taken claw or tooth to me. He has a bad habit of waking me up in the middle of the night though." That and leather was not safe near him. Little troublemaker.

T'san chuckled and countered her tease with, "Indeed you have but you've provided me with another form of entertainment." Considering his attention had been on Meira since they bumped into each other (more like since his cat jumped into her arms) his 'entertainment' was fairly obvious.

The physical contact didn't bother the green. The knowledge that this brown wanted her to speak when she couldn't did. It upset her and it also seemed to upset him. As he assured her again that they needn't talk about the fuzzball she back up a coule steps and paced in a frustrated circle, whining slightly. T'san was beginning to take more notice of the jumble of feelings in the back of his mind that he'd become accustomed to since the little green had Impressed to him. Normally he had enough focus to block out most of the usual ones. He simply didn't have a reason to feel those emotions so logically they weren't his.

Between the green and Meira directing her attention to the brown, T'san finally looked down at Aliene and he blinked in alarm. Uh-oh. Much longer and she might have let her distress become known on a wider scale. His gaze flicked towards Meira for a moment before he clicked his tongue to get Aliene's attention. "Aliene," he called softly. "What's wrong, doll?" She creeled up at him and her frill flattened even more against her neck. A vague impression of the situation. Right, that was a good idea. He couldn't understand her since she didn't actually say much of anything, ever. "Think you could ask yours what's wrong? All I get from her is that she's upset and she thinks yours is too."

[Avu]

A faint laugh at the idea of the stuffed ‘lizard being named after a pet; she couldn’t help it – which pet, she wondered? Monster or Mimic – or Empress, Ellie, Stumpy, or another of R’wign’s fair? Hopefully not PMS, but…regardless, the range of names that Riaren would have to pick from was a wide one indeed. Her head tilted slightly to look down at Spice before she moved her fingers gently around to the bottom of the feline’s chin, rubbing gently against the delicate jaw bones. The response to the rubbing at his ears encouraged the attention. She knew where Monster liked to be rubbed and that was about it, but it seemed likely that one likeness would be linked to another.

The brownrider’s words made her smile again, tilting her head to look up at him while still keeping Spice somewhat in her line of sight. “One bad habit seems a fair enough trade,” she admitted. “The feline that stays in my weyr – Monster? – he likes to follow one of his sisters around; he needs to see her every day or else he gets grumpy…” There was an undeniable note of affection in her voice, though; she did love the feline even though he certainly was odd, his affection for Empress – it far outstripped hers for him, at any rate. “Normally he’s really sweet, too. Kind of like Spice, but lazier.” A slight dismayed crinkle of her nose; she expected Mimic would have loved it if Monster would play with him, but the feline just tolerated him and that wasn’t fun for the Salamandyr.

“Glad to hear it…” The words were softer, accompanied by a faint flush; Meira bowed her head slightly. She couldn’t help the blush; it was completely involuntary – but fortunately her attention only remained on the reddening of her own cheeks for a minute. Her gaze dropped to the pair of Salamandyrs and confusion flickered across her face.

So sad, Mimic commented softly to Meira alone, his eyes whirling worriedly as his head turned up to look at her; his tail flicked nervously. He was tempted to wind it around Aliene’s in an attempt to comfort her – she was upset, she was still upset, wasn’t she! – but that would be touching too much, perhaps, and he didn’t want to push it, either. So agitating, but he didn’t know the green well at all, and the last thing he wanted to do was upset her even more. T’san’s question towards his green companion made Mimic recoil from her timidly, muzzle gently brushing against her shoulder one last time before he settled down to sit nervously a little behind her. Perhaps it’d be better if she explained…

Meira glanced at T’san at his suggestion, before her hand dropped from Spice and she knelt down next to Mimic and Aliene. The brown Salamandyr scurried towards her, Meira reaching down to rub her fingers across his back comfortingly. “What’s wrong, Mimic?” she inquired softly, concern flashing across her face clearly. The brown’s reply was definitely more coherent than Aliene’s, at any rate – Greenling no love fuzzball. Too sad, mean fuzzball? Fuzzball make sad, so sad… A pause as his tail wound around her middle finger, his tongue flicking out to lick her fingers affectionately. No speak. Why? The words were prominently colored with confusion, and with some small amount of upset, and broadcasted to T’san, too; he wanted to know, yes?

[Ember]

T'san only had a vague idea of what had illicited the laugh but he smiled anyways. Perhaps one of the people or creatures often in Riaren's life had a funny name? He stroked the top of Spice's head once or twice when the goldweyrling shifted her attentions to his chin. The feline's purring didn't let up but he did prefer ear rubs to chin rubs. He was never one to object loving attention though. He withdrew his head from the girl's fingers slightly and gave them a lick.

T'san didn't admit it but the feline had more than one bad habit. He could think of four off the top of his head. The two most annoying ones were his leather chewing and waking him up at night. At first he'd tried several inventive ways of hiding his face from the playful kitten. Attempts included going entirely under the furs and laying face down on two pillows with a narrow airway made between them. In the end it had been easier to just try and sleep through it. He chuckled at the stalkerish tendencies of the feline Meira was talking about. That sounded similar to a certain green mandyr..."He sounds like an interesting character."

He was silently amused at Meira's reaction. He would have commented on it if not for the fact that the whatever was going on with the salamandyrs distracted her. He was curious about it too so he watched the green and brown with the occasional glance at Meira to check for any reactions.

Aliene was looking up at T'san and he could feel her mounting frustration. Why was it so hard to understand her? He knelt down too and brushed a gentle finger along her back. The action almost seemed to say 'shh, everything will be alright.' The green understood the sentiment well enough. Her long tail wrapped around one of his fingers to gain more reassurement before she looked at Mimic again. She let out a startled wail as she was scooped up but she had no objections. As long as the Fuzzball didn't get her...

As the brown salamandyr broadcasted to him realization dawned on T'san. "Oh, that was what had you two almost tying your tails in knots?" He addressed the brown directly, knowing that he was an intelligent creature. "Sorry Mimic, she doesn't talk much. She can repeat words just spoken a little bit but she remembers very few." Aliene chittered at him. See? She hadn't been not speaking because of him. T'san looked at Meira and grinned. "Of all the mandyrs I manage to Impress the one that can't talk.

[Avu]

Interesting character. She expected so; mostly Monster was just lazy with a borderline obsessive affection for his sister. Did it matter that she didn’t seem to care about him at all? Nope. Did it matter that he only saw her because Meira indulged him by taking him to the Infirmary? Nope. He still saw her, and Meira expected that not much else registered to the feline. Empress, food, sleep, don’t hurt Mimic, indulge Riaren if he wanted to grab at his tail; endless cycle. At least he didn’t seem too terribly fussed that all he did was sleep and eat and meow at Empress. Good enough for Meira, anyway. A faint smile crossed her face, automatic, but most of her attention was completely on Mimic.

It was so…uncharacteristic for the Salamandyr to be upset. Mimic was a very cheerful creature and he tended towards being obscenely bouncy instead of angry or arrogant (which seemed to color most peoples’ opinions on Salamandyrs; a pity – Mimic really was the exception, though) and him upset…made her upset, too. Her eyebrows drew slightly closer in a frown as she scooped him up into her palms, fingers overlapping to make a sort of bowl around the Salamandyr as she stood up again. For a moment her gaze was entirely for Mimic, before it flicked up towards T’san, too, at the wail that Aliene uttered at being picked up as well with an anxiety that was more Mimic’s than her own.

Indeed, the little brown was flustered; he crawled in her hands to peer over her thumb at Aliene and croon at he green quietly in an attempt to be reassuring. Sorry, so sorry, he offered, keeping the agitation from his ‘voice’ for her sake. She didn’t HATE him, did she? He couldn’t stand being HATED. T’san’s words made him look away from Aliene anxiously to the brownrider, though, and he trilled quietly before he made a sharp little clicking sound. No sad? he inquired softly, hardly daring to believe it as he pushed his forepaws up against Meira’s thumb and then crooned at Aliene, brightening immediately. T’san wouldn’t lie, so it must be true! And that made him so, so happy. No sad, yay – too happy, so happy…

The immediate rush of joy was disorienting; Meira blinked, raising the hand that wasn’t supporting Mimic to touch her temple lightly with a slightly bewildered laugh. “A Salamandyr that can’t talk doesn’t sound so bad compared to the insults some of them learn,” she pointed out, crinkling her nose at Mimic, who immediately began to lick her fingers enthusiastically, positively glowing in joy. “Didn’t expect they’d have such an effect on people…” The comment was a murmur, her hand dropping to stroke Mimic. “He’s always so happy…” Happier than Jingth by far, anyway; Jingth was more of a cool amusement type of creature, while Mimic was just endlessly happy.

[Ember]

Aliene had switched her tail to winding around T'san's wrist as she peered at Mimic with a slight bit of annoyance and guilt. She hadn't meant to upset him, really she hadn't, but did he need to be such a sap? The brownrider rubbed her with his thumb to soothe her. Well she supposed that was the quality of a mate that one would pick. Simper would never be bothered by that little exchange (or lack thereof). Where was he? She missed her bluelovemate. Cue behaviour similar to Monster's.

Before that train of thought picked up too much speed Mimic managed to derail it with an apology. Huh, what? She crooned in response but the tone was more reassuring than accepting of an apology. At least, that's what it sounded like to T'san who was slowly becoming accustomed to the differences in her sounds. She didn't hate the brown. Memory of her run did bring back some annoyance but given how he was she couldn't bring herself to hate him. As the truth finally came out she chirped in affirmation. See, no hate. No sad either. Now all was right again in his world right?

T'san winced sympathetically as he saw Meira's hand touch her head. He knew that feeling when it came to salamandyrs. He nodded in agreement, acknowledging the truth of the statement with a quiet, "Mm." The wince quickly turned into a grin as she continued. "Common expectation it seems. I had heard rumours but I thought they couldn't possibly be much more...er, well more than firelizards." He crinkled his nose. That was poor sentence structure there. Oh well.

He was glad for Meira's sake that hers was a happy creature. He tended to feel anger more often now and to him that was disturbing. He wasn't an angry person naturally. That knowledge sort of helped him sort out the emotions since the green was very often angry or upset at something. Who said logic wouldn't help with salamandyrs? It was still far to oeasy to slip into believing they were his own feelings though.

With the drama over and Aliene slowly returning to thoughts of Simper T'san spoke up again. "I believe you were headed to pick up yo - Riaren," he said, making an effort not to call him tyke like he did all children, "before my feline jumped you." Speaking of the cat with little mandyrs out of the way he could put him down again. Spice let out a slight mewl of complaint but otherwise he didn't appear to mind being placed on the ground. "It's not a very long walk to anywhere on this level but I could walk you there."

[Avu]

Mimic didn’t know the definition of constantly sad. He just didn’t. He sulked sometimes if Meira was too busy to pay attention to him, but he always found something else to amuse him (and the brown was quite easily amused, too; he liked talking to people and there were always people around), or she apologized and that made him happy again. The Salamandyr coiled around the goldweyrling’s wrist, eyes bright green again, and he actually fluted pleasantly at Aliene again. But since Hers had said she didn’t like talking, then he wouldn’t talk. Made sense, right? Yes, yes, it made sense…his head rubbed, adoringly, against the heel of Meira’s hand, and he curled tighter. He’d just love on His, yes.

“Firelizards are to Salamandyrs as whers are to dragons?” The words were murmured; it was something she’d thought about before – she’d just never voiced it before. Meira looked down at Mimic, blinking as his tongue brushed against her palm affectionately, watching the delicate flutter of his wings idly. There’d been a reason she’d never mentioned the analogy before, not even to Jingth – because it made Meisk’s death and her Impression of Jingth seem like an upgrade. Maybe she was thinking too deeply into it, but it did and that made her hate herself.

“Ah…right.” His offer made her blink before she bit her lip, shyly. Meira liked his company; it wouldn’t be terribly demanding to accept, would it? “Thank you, that’s really – thanks.” The smile that crossed her face was definitely self-conscious before she brushed against Jingth’s mind, found the gold still loathe to move from her ‘ledge. So lazy. The weyrlingrider repressed the amused sigh as she started down the hallway, glancing backwards to make sure T’san was following, before she glanced down at Spice again. Didn’t want to step on the feline, no; she doubted any feline would appreciate that, regardless of how sweet they typically were otherwise.

“Haven’t seen you lately,” she commented softly, more to alleviate the silence than anything else. It wasn’t that Meira minded silence so much as she was afraid it would turn awkward. Not good. “Life’s good?” The question was diplomatic; if he didn’t want to answer, he could avoid it without much effort – not too invasive, hopefully? Resisting the temptation to fall back against Jingth’s mind (the dragon was something of a safety net, after all), she glanced sideways at T’san for a moment before looking back down at Mimic, who seemed content to cuddle against her wrist as long as she kept stroking him.

[Ember]

With the brown's silence Aliene found herself annoyed and bored. She welcomed the occasional touch of Hers along her back. The stroking was reminiscent of cliche Earth villains with a cat purring away on their lap. Without a doubt the idea would have amused the brownrider. Alas, Pern didn't have electronics. The green's tail slowly unwound from Hers' wrist and she looked up at him with an adoring croon. Love him she did but she wanted to go fine SimperHers. T'san might have paled slightly as the unbidden longing washed over him. No. Not his, Aliene's. Aliene's for Simper.

Preoccupied, T'san missed her mutterings - he'd probably have missed them anyways - but he noticed the quiet after a moment. He glanced at her to see her looking down at her salamandyr and wondered what she was thinking about. His green chose that moment to use his clothes to scramble down his front and he shook his head as she scampered away at full speed. Thanks be for distractions or he'd have holed himself in his weyr or gone off with Dsoleth somewhere for a while. He brushed gently against the brown's mind and was amused to find a sleeping mind. Silly brown.

T'san returned her smile without any of the self-consciousness. He felt into step easily beside her. It was interesting to consciously note that he was only a little bit taller than she was. Spice stayed out of Meira's path but he swirled around his owner's feet, making a game out of dodging kicks. T'san flashed a grin Meira's way at the feline's antics and dangled his belt away from him and the goldweyrling. Naturally, Spice could not resist such a toy and he batted and jumped at it playfully. Silly fuzzball.

T'san had been finding the silence companionable more than awkward but the shift into conversation didn't bother him in the least. "I haven't had reason to visit the infirmary lately," his tone amused, "though if you miss me so much I'm sure I could always find some reason to drop by." Flirting, him? Never. If she actually did want him to visit she'd have to deal with his occasional flirting too. He considered the question and hmmed thoughtfully. "As good as could be, I suppose. I know there's trouble brewing but in all honesty I'm a bit bored. Thread falls much less here and while its hardly peaceful there's not as much to do. I was glad for the Gather. How about you?"