I don't wanna [Masquerade stall]

[Kisha-Ra]

‘I don’t wanna.’ Darya folded her arms, and stuck her nose in the air like a sulky child; somehow on the mature bluerider it lacked the right effect.

‘Oh yes you do…’ R’fuin laughed, made a suggestive eyebrow movement and grabbed Darya’s arm, bodily towing her through the crowds. ‘You at least need a mask. Then maybe you can hide your face for long enough to –Ow, I’m wounded!’ R’fuin’s sentence was cut off by Darya’s elbow, which was probably for the best as teasing between the two blueriders tended to take the form of insulting each other’s sexual prowess.

Darya cast a glare that was more amused than anything else at R’fuin and pursued what she considered the point, even as she was dragged toward the inevitable costume and mask stall. ‘I do not want to dress up. I didn’t even want to come out here but some brute of a rider dragged me from my weyr. Soon I won’t be safe in my bed.’ She declared dramatically, getting a few strange looks.

‘You aren’t safe anywhere Darya.’ R’fuin responded absently, pulling Darya up to the stall. ‘Now what do you like? Maybe something pink?’ He suggested with a grin, knowing that pink was Darya’s least favourite colour in the spectrum, and earned a kick in the shin. ‘Okay, not pink. How about that feather mask?’ R’fuin pointed to a mask adorned with bright red feathers.

‘Just choose something for yourself.’ Darya snapped, refolding her arms and sulking further.

[Avu]

“But you’d look lovely in pink!” Eriena proclaimed.

Eavesdropping, Eriena? Of course not. She’d just happened to overhear, and it was her wares that they were talking about, so she was hardly not going to enter the conversation! The stallkeeper bounced, beaming, and then bustled around the counter to join Darya and R’fuin, both hands making quick adjustments to her mask, her dress, her hair, before the seventeen-Turn-old girl pulled a sweeping curtsy for the two Riders. “Hi, I’m Eriena, and this,” she indicated the entire stall with a sweeping gesture, fingertips barely clearing the wall, “is my shop! Did you like that mask?” she added, nimbly lifting the red-feathered mask off of the wall. It wasn’t very elegant, truth be told – it was one of her younger sister’s creations; only firm instructions had kept the feathers all going the same way, and the shades of red did not entirely match up. “I like it a lot, but only if you have something to match it when you’re wearing it. Do you want to try it on? Here” – and she passed it to Darya before tilting her head to stare at R’fuin.

“I think you’d look good in gold. Or green,” she decided after a moment. “Bronze, maybe. Maybe a kind of goldy-bronze? Hold on – hold on, try these…” Eriena darted away, returning a second later with arms laden with masks; she thrust a bronze-hued full-face mask at R’fuin; the decorations had been etched in gold and given a metallic look; black rimmed the mask. “Try this one? Did you want a half-face one? This one’s exactly like that one, only half-face. Both of them tie behind your head, too, and look – here.” She fumbled among the masks for a moment before producing another one. “This one’s green – what about this one – ?” Said mask was indeed green; dark green, rimmed in lime green and etched in the same lime green for designs, half-face and to be tied around one’s head. “I like this one a lot…a lovely greenrider bought a green one a while ago, too. You’d match!”

Handsome gave a tired chirp from his perch on the counter. He hadn’t put himself up for this when he chose Eriena’s mother as his Bonded; must Eriena be so tiresome?~

[Kisha-Ra]

Darya cast one of her worst glares in the direction of the annoying voice. At least R’fuin was only suggesting pink to wind her up; this Eriena seemed serious, and loud. Darya subtly drew back, feeling her obvious sulking wasn’t enough of a defence. She was right, unfortunately the girl running the stall did not seem inclined to take subtle hints and Darya found the feathered mask pressed into her hands before the girl swept on to R’fuin. Darya hoped he found the child as disconcerting as she did but she couldn’t really hold out much hope on that score.

R’fuin was amused, and it showed in the slight quirk to his mouth as Darya tried to back off. He didn’t mind coming into the spotlight at all and quite happily leaned forward to examine the detail on the proffered masks and nodding his approval. ‘You shouldn’t have shown me two such good pieces,’ he said with mock ruefulness. ‘I’d buy both of them but alas, as I only have one face I shall have to come to decision.’ Flamboyant gestures somehow entered the speech as R’fuin went on. ‘I’ll have to think about it while I demand you find something for my friend. She’s terribly boring, so she needs people like us to help her.’ R’fuin turned to smirk at Darya, who had barely moved.

‘I’d be much happier with own clothes and face.’ Darya suggested mildly when attention turned back to her. ‘And I think you should go with the green R’fuin, you wouldn’t want to miss your chance to match a lovely greenrider.’ Darya ignored the barb about being boring and shot back one of her own.

‘You don’t have that option. Try on the mask.’ R’fuin’s voice sounded harsh for a single moment before fading back into its normal tones. Before Darya could argue further he plucked the feather adorned mask from her hands and tied it in place. Of course Darya squirmed and the mask consequently ended up slipping down over one eye. She still managed a credible sceptical expression with her face so covered.

‘Hrrm, no I don’t think so. It makes you look washed out.’ R’fuin looked crucially at the result of his tying, ignoring the lopsidedness and expression as easily as he had ignored the barbed comments. ‘She looks so evil don’t you think?’ He asked Eriena, with one of his best boyish grins. ‘Let’s see if I can coerce her into some costume or another. Something that’s supposed to be worn with a foul expression maybe.’ R’fuin darted over to a display of costumes and began considering his choices. He really wanted something in black or dark grey to match his friend’s thunderous expression, and he was barely contradicting himself at all after saying red would wash her out.

Darya stuck her tongue out at he back of R’fuin’s head after freeing herself from the mask, she was seriously considering making a break for it when R’fuin turned around with the ‘perfect costume in hand. Darya couldn’t even guess at what it was supposed to represent but it seemed to consist of a garment that could only be the off spring of a fancy nightdress and a sack, the basic shape was negligible, it could have fitted either a man or a woman, and for some unknown reason the sleeves were wide enough to hide a dragon in and came to points that almost touched the ground. Apparently that hadn’t been enough for someone and the entire garment had been liberally sprinkled with embroidered silver stars. It also came with a ridiculously long hooded cloak. Darya broke into a disbelieving chuckle. ‘You cannot be serious R’fuin.’

R’fuin looked at his find, which he assumed was the garb of some night time evildoer of stories, and shrugged. ‘I saw a frilly pink dress…’ He turned slightly and as he expected Darya stepped forward to snatch the black robe and cloak costume from his hand with a glare. ‘Great now what should I wear?’ He asked himself, considering Darya settled.

[Avu]

In her defense, Eriena didn’t know she came off as excessively, annoyingly happy at all; the girl locked her fingers together, head tilting curiously at the pair of blueriders. Were they a couple? It seemed likely – albeit a couple who didn’t seem to get along that well. Maybe it was an expression of love. Her head turned from one Rider to the other as they spoke, and as her opinion was asked, Eriena couldn’t help but giggle slightly, one hand (gloved in white!) rose to cover her mouth politely. “Not evil! Just…um, well. Kind of…just a little,” she assured the bluerider, bouncing slightly on the spot again. As the male picked out a costume for his friend, and she apparently decided to keep it, Eriena cocked her head to one side, and indicated the mask with her index finger. “That’s a mark and a half if you want to buy it, and the costume’s three and a half. It comes with a staff, too, want that too…?” She squirmed backwards a step and then plucked a long, wooden stick from behind a counter, carved in a spiraling pattern with a fake, cheap-looking stone set into the top. Eriena waved it around slightly for emphasis. “It’s free, I mean, so…here, see what you think.” With which, she thrust that, too, into Darya’s hands, and then waltzed back into the shop to help R’fuin.

She riffled through the racks, clearly in her element, and then picked out a few costumes, crossing back to the pair and hanging each of them on her arms. “What about any of these?” One of the costumes was of a bird of some kind; brilliantly-colored plumage. “You’d need a darter-type mask, though…” She shifted awkwardly to display another. “Or this one” – an elegant silver-and-green suit – “or any of these?” Eriena bobbed her head downwards to indicate the costumes in question, ranging from a common, dusty-brown with huge, prominent Masterfarmer’s knots to what looked like that of a sheep. Their costumes were all one-of-a-kind, or she would have pulled out a pirate costume. Unfortunately, someone else had bought that one awhile ago. He’d been most condescending, too, but that hadn’t stopped Eriena in the least. She verbalized, “I’d offer to sell you a costume for a king or for a pirate or for something like that, but they already sold.” A frown touched her lips, and then she shrugged. “But – but – do you like any of these…?”

[Kisha-Ra]

R’fuin looked over the costumes proffered to him and tried to ignore the way Darya was hefting that staff just behind him. That huge tacky fake jewel looked heavy, and he had a feeling it was going to hit him in the head if he took much longer. Well that would be a small price to pay for having Darya properly attired.

For himself R’fuin had no clue, but Eriena, a most helpful child, had something in her collection that perfectly matched one of the two masks he’d liked earlier. ‘I’ll take that, and the green mask.’ He decided, pointing at the silver and green creation. ‘I guess I really can’t pass up a chance to match a reputedly lovely greenrider.’

He turned to look at Darya, who shrugged inscrutably. ‘You sure? You’d look good as a darter.’ She asked blandly, quietly amused that she’d been right. Turning to Eriena Darya nodded and said. ‘Yes, I’ll take this lot.’ Though she privately thought that the entire effect would be ridiculous. At least no one would know it was her, she hoped.

[Avu]

Eriena beamed and bobbed her head at R’fuin as the bluerider selected his costume, handing it to him and shifting the other costumes on her arm. She’d put them back in a little bit, she would…“The mask is one and a half marks, and the costume’s four,” she said, reaching out to adjust the fabric slightly before she leaned back and rocked on her feet for a moment. “Is that okay? Do you want to try it on or anything, either of you? I mean, we don’t have a changing room – not specifically, but – but there is a little room in the back. You might hear the baby crying, but it oughtn’t to stop you from changing, right? I think it looks like it should fit, though,” she finished matter-of-factly, staring at the costume again before she turned to Darya.

“The mask is one and a half, too,” she said, indicating the mask in question. “If you were going to take that. But otherwise, the costume’s three and a half.” Eriena nodded absently, and then indicated the staff. “I think sparkles are supposed to come from the end of that. Somehow. I don’t know; Dad made it. There’s a button somewhere and if you press it, it spits out…sparkles. I don’t know where it is, though, and it’ll probably run out of sparkles…I think Dad didn’t tell me ‘cause he thought I’d use them all up, I don’t know…” Her words trailed off as she glanced around at Handsome, who flared both wings wide and then took to wing, soaring to land neatly on the end of a rack of masks nearby, and chirped flatly at both Darya and R’fuin – as much as to say ‘pay up’. Nobody needed to listen to Eriena’s rambling. Really. The Gather did not need a crazy woman waving a staff around, let alone a sparkling one.