Sitting, Waiting, Wishing [Liv]

[Ruby]

Watching. Ha.

Sessions with Lilu were... going. T'ri wouldn't say they were going great, since he had to sort of try at least a little - he'd promised - but he'd made her laugh (bark, same thing when it came to her) once or twice and she wasn't yelling at him quite as much. He'd been pulled off his wing for screwing around during drills one too many times, but a) that didn't bother T'ri or Henny one tiny bit and b) Lilu said when she was done bringing him up to par he'd be reinstated. So if he felt like going back, he just had to cooperate with the Ice Queen and he'd be a wingrider again. T'ri liked flexibility in his schedule.

In the meantime, he was watching. As if Selenitas needed to be watched. Burimyu (er, Selenitas, the change was still weird for T'ri even after all these years) was a hidden weyr. It hardly needed to be watched. Visitors needed to be guided in, but that was about it, and they rarely got visitors. It was the perfect job.

That said, T'ri couldn't be the watchrider 24/7. The rest of the Wingriders were on their regular rotation, they were just excused from shifts during the day that they might normally have to work. As usual, the night shifts were covered by other truants and troublemakers who hadn't been TOTALLY pulled off their wings, so it was just the evening - dusk to 9 or so - when T'ri was relieved by a normal rider. He wondered idly who it would be today and took another swig from his flask.

That was maybe the best thing about being Watchrider, at least in the summer. Henny could laze in the sun all day, T'ri could sneak a flask and his guitar up with him and spend all day composing without getting caught. No one thought to check on the watchrider, after all. In fact, today he had escorted a grand total of one tithe caravan into the hidden weyr and spent the rest of the day drinking, oiling Cristal, composing, and working on his newest hobby: whittling. Arhenaiyth fit perfectly into the watch post's walled "human cage", as he called it, and he was currently curled around T'ri, tucked just inside the stone wall and 90% asleep. Cristal was perched on T'ri's shoulder, chattering conspiratorially in his ear and enjoying her shiny hide. T'ri himself had lost track of time, and had allowed his half-carved flower and carving knife to drift into his lap as he watched rukbat start to head for the horizon. It was going to be a beautiful sunset.

[Zephyr]

We’re watching? Nevarath grumped at his rider as they got their assignment that morning. He’d been irritated by a proddy green that morning, and as usual, decided to take it out on the world at large. Olivia, being used to these moods only smiled and snorted at the blue, smacking him on the neck lightly. “Stop complaining or I’ll get you put on something worse. This is a good thing. You could use some time off.” The blue snorted and grumbled, lowering himself so his rider could get on. Still, they could have doing something a little less braindead. The girl rolled her eyes, settling in place. “You can stop complaining anytime, you know. We still have to go watch.”

Nevarath acknowledged her words with a low rumble, but they both knew he’d stop complaining the day rukbat disappeared.

Liv didn’t pay too much attention to who she was relieving when she and Nevarath flew in. Of course the blue noticed and gave a rumbling sigh. Of course. He growled, but Olivia didn’t see anything wrong with the guy. She knew him, of course. Not on a personal level, since they’d run in different circles, but they’d been candidates together in Burimyu…and he’d impressed at the hatching she’d been left standing. Well, one of the many, many hatchings. She liked to tease Neva for taking his time, but the blue always informed her that he’d arrived at just the right time, thanks.

“What?” She asked, not really understand Neva’s problem with half the people he’s met. “He looks like he’s probably bored.” The blue snorted and circled around the watchtower, his mood bleeding, irritated, into Olivia’s consciousness. He isn’t bored, he’s lazy! “You don’t even know him, and you’re lazy most of the time too, if I have to remind you. Take us down.” Nevarath was clearly offended at not only being called lazy, but being compared to T’ri…or maybe it was the pair’s actions during flights that he doesn’t quite like. He was glad that some silly green hadn’t impressed to Olivia.

Regardless of how he felt for T’ri or Arhenaiyth, he was ever the professional and spiraled down to perch on the tower, body stock straight as Olivia smiled down at the man and slid down off of her dragon, still smiling when she touched the ground. Her time with Lilu had affected her some, and she was many not as trusting as she’d been in childhood, but she was still and would always be a pleasant person. “Hey T’ri.” She smiled at him and tugged on her straps, stepping down from the platform. Impala peeped a greeting from inside the girl’s shirt, but she couldn’t really see anyone and it was really quite scary at night. “We’re here so you can go home. You must be pretty bored.” Nevarath snorted grouchily, clearly not shy about letting his own thoughts known. But he wasn’t going to not be polite when the other blue hadn’t done a thing to him. Arhenaiyth. He greeted the older blue simply, curling his tail protectively around his girl’s ankle.

Her eyes fell to what he’d been making and they widened, her face lighting up as she took a step closer. “What’re you making?” She was clearly curious, but not enough to prod too far into his business if he didn’t wish to tell her.

[Ruby]

Nevaraths descent surprised T'ri slightly - he hadn't realized it was already time to get off shift. He tipped his head to the side momentarily, consulting the sun and causing his hair to flop sideways too, into his eyes. He reached up to fix his hair and protect his face as the darker blue landed, smiling up at the rider. "Hey, Liv," he replied, not caring even slightly that he probably had never exchanged more than ten words with her and they were almost certainly not on nickname terms. As she checked her straps he sheathed his carving knife and retrieved his flask, tucking both safely in his belt. He didn't get up, though; politeness had never been his strong suit.

Arhenaiyth followed his rider's example and didn't move a muscle, blinking slowly at the younger dragon (or maybe just blinking, the filmy-eyed dragon always seemed to blink his two eyelids more than usual). He did snort at Nevarath, responding Hello, brother.[/i] Nevarath wasn't actually Henny's brother, of course, but Arhenaiyth was in a relatively good mood tonight. He flipped his tail tip a few times, then curled it up towards his body a little further and allowed it to 'fall' across Nevarath's, now that it was wrapped around Olivia's ankle. Convenient. Feel free to get comfortable, Mine wants to watch Rukbat go down for some idiotic reason so I guess we'll be here for a bit. What is exciting about the movement of a tiny dot is beyond me. [/i]

"Me, bored." T'ri considered the proposition with a flash of a smile in Liv's direction. "Never. I mean, I know it totes seems like I just chill up here all day, but for realz I'm pretty productive. Composing and shit. Lotsa time for worthwhile pursuits when the man isn't keeping you down. Plus, the view's awesomesauce up here. Sunset's gonna be great." Reaching out, he smacked Arhenaiyth on the side, making the Blue shift a bit so there was room for Olivia to sit on the wall or lean her back against it, if she so chose. "I'm gonna hang out until it's over, I think. If you wanna watch too you can sit."

When Liv noticed the flower, T'ri smiled again. "Oh this, this is just for practice. A first attempt, if you will. It's supposed to be one of the tropical flowers you see at Blossom but it def looks more like a cloud right now. Or something." He tossed the rough carving at the other bluerider so she could take a closer look if she wanted. "You got any hobbies."

[Zephyr]

Nevarath was a little irritated that Arhenaiyth’s wasn’t in any hurry to leave, and he considered tightening her grip on Olivia so she couldn’t go sit down next to him, but she was going and he let her go, letting out a huff and settling down next to her. He looked down at the other blue’s tail on his, blinked at it, and stiffened slightly, but refused to acknowledge it. That meant it would go away, right? Still, he couldn’t hide the bristle at the other’s words. He actually agreed with the other blue for once. Waste of time if you ask me. The grumpy blue rumbled, even though no one had indeed, asked him.

Liv didn’t think she had any room to judge what was ‘productive’ in T’ri’s eyes. She knew what would traditionally be considered productive solely based on her time with Lilu, but She considered herself a little more open minded than her role model, and she went to go sit next to him, folding her knees to her chest as she took the flower from him. Neva stared at his rider, aghast. You’re aren’t actually going to sit there and watch the sun? Why not. Have something better that we could be doing? Nevarath actually didn’t, but that was completely beside the point. He wasn’t the one who was supposed to come up with productive things that they could be doing.

He was even more grumpy and feeling disagreeable, but he’d learned to make the most of the situation when his rider was being difficult. So he grunted and turned his attention from Olivia to Arhenaiyth again. He’d ignore her. That’d show her. Doing okay? Not training too hard, I hope. He knew that was probably impossible for the other dragon, but he would await the other blue’s response anyway. No reason to be rude. Olivia, on the other hand, wasn’t fazed at all by her dragon’s attitude and cupped the wooden flower in her hands, turning it this way and that so she could look it over.

“It’s beautiful.” She said at last. Even if it didn’t look precisely like a flower yet, she could kinda see it, and she couldn’t deny the skill…or at least skill greater than her own in wood carving. Which was pretty nonexistent. His question got a small smile and she handed the flower back with a little laugh. “I don’t have time for hobbies.” She licked her lips and wondered if she could pull off a decent Lilu impression, but decided against it and just shrugged, amused. “Hobbies get in the way of training. Anything that interferes with keeping Neverath and I in optimum shape is unimportant.” She waved a hand, the smile dropping for a bit. “Or so I’ve been told. Something like that. Sometimes it goes in one ear and out the other. But to answer your question, no. I’m totally boring.” She grinned at him again and motioned towards the flower again. “Where’d you learn to do that? I’d probably be terrible at it.”

[Ruby]

Agreed. Arhenaiyth snorted again, but this time there was a touch of amusement to it. I'm surprised. Generally everyone that comes up here is about as useless as rider-mine, going all gooey over colors that happen every day.[/i] Arhenaiyth shifted, settling in but also conveniently scooting closer to Nevarath. It was getting a bit chilly, after all, now that Rukbat was going down. Right?

While T'ri scooted over to make room for Liv to sit next to him, Arhenaiyth's lip curled up a bit, the dragon equivalent of a smirk. He recognized the other blue's posture; it was one he himself had assumed many times when His was being impossible. Normally Arhenaiyth might have rejected a companion, especially one as adverse to cuddling as Nevarath seemed, but he and his younger counterpart seemed to be cut from similar cloth. It was bound to be an interesting conversation, no? I never train too hard, it's part of my essence. Sometimes mine tries, but I usually put that to rest unless I feel like it. Very unfortunately, Venideth's has taken an interest in Mine for some reason, and she's been... difficult, to say the least. Are you and Venideth acquainted?[/i]

T'ri grinned for just a moment, the smile taking a good five years off his appearance. Almost immediately his face slipped back into the standard bored lines, but he still looked residually pleased. "Aw, shucks, ain't that sweet. Anyway, I've still got a long way to go. Luckily time is on my side." Taking the flower back, he tucked it away, that pleased look growing. In a week or two, when the little flower was done and had a hole in the top suitable for a thong or chain, Liv would find it in front of her door one morning with a slip of paper attached (the note, of course, would read simply call me maybe).

Trading the flower for his flask, he offered it tacitly to Liv before he even thought about drinking himself. He did not go so far as to explain that it was quickal with redfruit juice, but if Liv wanted a sip she'd find out soon enough. "You sound like a friend of mine," he said instead. "Hobbies enrich life, unless you're the least creative person in the world world they add to life, not take away from it. They're an outlet for stress, especially if you're one of those that thinks training is all dragons are good for. Ever flown along the coast at sunrise on a clear day?" That smile again. "Training training training is one of those things that should go in one ear and out the other. There's more important things in life than being a cog in a machine."

Philosophical lecture over, T'ri took a sip from his flask, then passed it back to Liv if she wanted it. "I bet you're a lot more interesting than you think. I didn't learn from anyone, just picked it up. Wanna try? As long as you don't cut yourself it's totes easy."