and the masquerade will come calling [kaegan]

[Avu]

Hello, goldilocks, have your worshipful adorers told you about how absolutely raaavishing you look today?

From any other dragon, the compliment might have reeked of insincere flattery. In Sparath’s purring drawl, it was so blatantly a tease, a smoky note of mocking coyness in the bronze’s ‘voice’ a tantamount giveaway to the playfulness of his mood. Yes, he was pleased—genuinely so—to see Millieth, but it was a pleasure rooted in the solid knowledge that Millieth would, still, refuse to fall into his games of mocking flirtations; he had Caught her—once—but it meant nothing without his gleeful anticipation of her reception of him. The copper-toned bronze was no stranger to Selenitas’s skies, however rare a sight he might be; Inverness was his but Selenitas held its appeal, too.

Primarily in the company it offered.

You are insufferable.

Shall I send goldilocks’ humanthing a love letter for you?

Please do. Say, ‘Hello, Kaegan, I’m sorry my twenty-three year old dragon is less mature than your daughter, I will marry you if you can get Millieth to mute him for me.’

Sparath, still lazily circling above the weyrledges on the soft eddies of wind, made a low rumbling noise of mock indignation, fanned his wings as if to fall from the skies in shock. So rude! Your cruelty cuts deep. Goooldilocks, sung out again with an unrepentant swoop closer to the weyrledge, Ce’thian would beg of you your permission to steal away your humanthing’s attention, he comes bearing gifts to assuage your immeasurable wrath.

Land, you infant. The promise of gifts was true; Ce’thian visited when he could, but duties as Weyrleader at Inverness meant they were infrequent at best, and often short visits at that—he trusted Darya and his Wingleaders to run things in his brief absences, but it took a less paranoid Weyrleader than he to remain away for more than a handful of hours at a time. So, presents, most often small trinkets and toys for the children, a bottle of wine from Benden Hold; the occasional bottle of scented oil for Millieth.

So rude.

Still, the bronze coiled once more upon the wind, and then angled himself to sweep down neatly onto the weyrledge, fluttering his wings coquettishly at Millieth as he did. For a large dragon, he took up very little space, curling along the edge of the ‘ledge with his tail dropping off into space, swishing back and forth like a curious cat’s.

Ce’thian, unbuckling the straps, offered Millieth a wry smile. “Believe me, if I could leave him at home, I would.”

[Tashe]

Oh. Sparath. Its just you. The golden Queen made her greeting as monotonous as possible. Here I thought one of my admirers had come to visit. Despite aiming a snort at the Bronze, Millieth stretched and moved over so that there was space for the male to land. She was used to these visits, long ago finding out Sparath would simply bother her until she made room for him. Your timing is impeccable, we have just returned from meeting with the Lord from Southern. Mine is free for most of the afternoon and I'm confident the little ones would be happy to see Yours. Inwardly she nudged Kaegan letting her know Ce'thian was about to drop by. Resting her jaw against her wrists, Millieth watched as Sparath landed. She rumbled at Ce'thian in a friendly way as he addressed her, giving the impression she agreed with him.

Today had been relatively easy as far as check ups went, if there was one Hold she had very little problems with at all it would have to be Southern. Next to Blossom it was the one she had a positive bias toward. She enjoyed her meetings with Rocest and Asmorn as they always actually seemed genuinely happy to spend time with her. Massaging her had after putting away her pencil she was in the midst of shaking it out when Millieth announced the arrival of the Inverness Weyrleader. Well, her life was founded on surprises wasn't it. While she would have liked a heads up there wasn't any vexation felt on her half. "Kiddo's we've got a visitor, they're out on the ledge if you wanna say hi." It wasn't very often that Kaegan encouraged her kids to run off to greet a visitor, so when she did they knew it was someone they would probably want to see. The Brown Salamandyr who had been balancing on the back of her chair chirped as she got up, wanting her to take him with her. She put an arm out for Dash to scamper up before making her way over to the living room to greet Ce'thian when he made it past her kids.

--

"C'mon Inanae, lets go see who it is." Helping his sister down off of the couch Kai trotted out toward the opening that lead to the weyrledge, all the while making sure the toddler was still following him. Once they were out on the ledge itself he grabbed his sister's hand so she wouldn't wonder off. "Hey Ce'thian! Didn't know you were visiting." While he didn't really want to get any closer to Sparath Inanae wanted to go to the Bronzerider, plus Millieth was there so he felt a little more reassured with the Gold watching them. His sister didn't have the reservations he had about Dragons, she would climb all over them if they let her. Kai shuffled forward with a smile.

"Unkie Thian!" Inanae broke free of her brother's grasp to cover the last five feet that was left between them and the man. "Hihi! Hi Spara!" She waved at the Bronze as she gripped Ce'thian's pant leg before reaching upward. "Up, up!"

[Avu]

Just me? Just me? Goldilocks, you wound me! For all that Sparath fluttered his wings in distress, his eyes remained a clean green of amusement, the purring drawl of his ‘voice’ still smoky with his unconcerned enjoyment. The gold’s pointedly flat tone certainly registered, but if Sparath fluttered off in a fit of hurt vanity every time a dragon refused to play the same game he did, he’d never get anything done—and anyway, it was almost more fun this way. Especially with Millieth, sweet little goldilocks she was—Shall I fawn as your admirers would? Bring you a herdbeast, a feline if it tickles your fancy? Rage at the sun for daring to compete? Proclaim my love unto the stars for you?

Millieth, Sparath had long before found out, made for better company—better teasing—than did the golds at Inverness; Ce’thian was certainly less fond of their Riders, and Sparath, in his turn, bored much more quickly of the dragons’ company. (Perhaps it was telling that the bronze preferred to spend his time with Azrath, casually reminding the blue that he had yet to Rise for him.)

Ce’thian couldn’t quite repress the amused smile that twitched at the corner of his mouth at Millieth’s rumble, patting Sparath on the shoulder absently as he slid down from the bronze—left the neatly wrapped packages attached to Sparath’s straps, for now, at the sound of footsteps approaching. The bronze was arrogant and annoying, but he knew better than to roll over with anything on his back; they’d be fine. Instead, he met Kai and Inanae’s approach with a grin, echoed in Sparath’s idle rumble at them.

“Hey, kiddo,” the familiar nickname was genuinely affectionate as he stepped away from Sparath and the edge of the weyrledge to meet them. “Unexpected break, figured I shouldn’t complain. Hey there, princess!” Ce’thian leaned down to meet Inanae, sketching a deep bow to her before he picked her up and spun her through the air to settle her onto a shoulder. “You sure got big since the last time I came, huh? How’ve you guys been?”

The question was punctuated by his free hand settling loosely on Kai’s shoulder, guiding them back towards the weyr proper. “I come bearing gifts, but I think we should be polite and go grab your mom first.” A wink for Inanae. “Sparath assures me that manners are very important.”

[Tashe]

"You're still Weyrleader right? Does that mean you snuck out again?" While Kai sounded accusational, he actually thought being rebellious was pretty cool. If he could get over his thing with dragons and impress a Bronze, he'd become a Weyrleader and do things like that. "We've been okay. I started advanced maths recently, but I hate it. I like writing a lot better. This last week Mom's been taking me with her when she visits the Holds, so I get to play with some of the kids there. We went to Southern today, it was pretty fun. Anyways I'll go get mom!" Hightailing it back toward the door Kai glanced back once before he was swallowed by the shaded hallway. Once in the apartment he imedietly ducked to avoid the Blue flit who tried to land on his head and trotted up to the Weyrwoman with a smile. "C'mon mom. Ce'thian brought us presents so I came to get you cause he said it would be polite." Kai grabbed Kaegan's hand and practically tried to drag her out onto the weyrledge as Master landed on his shoulder with a peevish chirp.

--

"Okay, okay. I'm coming." Hand in hand with her son the Goldrider let herself be guided outside. Shading her eyes from Rukbat so they could adjust to the light she let Kai go to raise her now free hand in greeting. It had been a while since they last saw Ce'thian, not that she was at all surprised due to his position, so it was nice that he could find some time to visit especially since she couldn't reciprocate. When riding a Gold you had a limited amount of space in which you could travel without getting chastised. "Hello Ce'thian. Its nice to see you." Taking care to give Ce'thian a side hug so he didn't have to put Inanae down she smiled before stepping away to wave at Sparath. "So I've been informed you've come to spoil my kids more." Kaegan put a hand on Kai's head when he flashed her a grin. "Well, once you're done I've got some food and drink inside, you've shown up just in time for snacks."

--

Millieth lifted her head up as the children wondered onto the Weyrledge, watching them to make sure they didn't do anything terribly silly in which she'd have to save them. Hmm that seems like an average day to me. She flicked her tail at Sparath. But I suppose I could hear it again if you would like to regale me with praise. Her mind voice was accented with a yawn. I'd much rather hear how you're getting on with Baith. She held little love for her dam, yet she did not despise her. It was more amusing that Sparath had caught Baith than anything else.