Xanadu Weyr - Shore of Lake Caspian
The cliffs that run along the shore come and go, various weyrs nestled along the tops of them or dug into the walls, but eventually they recede enough to expose a beach. The white sand echoes the rise and fall of the cliffs with a multitude of sandy dunes, endlessly creating tiny valleys that are constantly demolished and rebuilt by the frequent arrival or departure of dragons. The dunes smooth out as the gentle slope approaches the edge of the deep blue water. The sand darkens, and a shell here and there stands out for children to collect.
The beach narrows to the southwest, leaving a path barely wide enough for dragons in single file before cutting in to a smaller, more sheltered cove. The sands are the same white, the waters the same blue, but they're calmer and more tranquil, more protected from the winds that ruffle Lake Caspian and the currents that tug beneath the surface.
Rough, wide stairs lead up to the meadow above and the road that runs along the top of the cliffs, passing through the fields and heading for the river mouth that can be just barely seen from here. The largest of the staircases up the cliff is located near the docks that jut out onto the peaceful blue waters.
An amazing, sunny, glorious summer morning - sunlight reflecting off the lake as Rukbat clears the cliffs, the waves lapping gently at the beach.. and a Ricki pacing in the morning light, ruining all of it as she talks to herself. Each step is deliberate as she kicks sand up in the air, letting it drift backwards, the action punctuating the words that might be caught if the wind is just right. "But *What*. Are they DOING." A stack of papers in her hand, and she is doing anything but reading them, waving them around instead, and looking all the more crazy for it. "It just doesn't make SENSE." And with that, she is flopping dramatically to the sandy beach, sprawling and dropping an arm over her face to shield it from the sun.
WHY IS RISALI HERE? She lives here, silly. Well, I mean, yes in Xanadu Weyr, but also here on the beach! No not on the beach - LISTEN. CONTRARY TO POPULAR BELIEF, SHE HAS SOME SENSE OF PROPRIETY, OKAY. There's a little COTTAGE, and she BELONGS TO IT. So it's really not all that surprising to find her there on the beach, even if it might be a little surprising to find Leirith with her because eggs and sands and baking. "They might make more sense if you read them," Risali offers up from where she is alongside that mustard colored hide. Blue eyes whirl, that massive head tilts, and BOOMBOOMBOOM, the bombastic queen without a sense of noise control is thrumming right into the minds of every receptive soul within hearing distance. IT'S UNFORTUNATE, REALLY. KIND OF LIKE HER FACE. « YOU CAN TRY EATING THEM TO SEE IF THEY MAKE MORE SENSE. A BADASS ALWAYS EATS THE THINGS THAT IRRITATE IT. » AND NOW SHE IS IN RICKI'S SPACE, but so is Risali, maybe mostly so that she can push Leirith's head away when she attempts to nibble a corner of those papers.
"That's how I got here in the first place, trying to read the stupid things." Ricki snaps back at the voice without uncovering her eyes, a soft sigh escaping her as she flicks the wrist, causing the papers to ripple. And then there is a second, different type of voice. "You can eat them, not like they are helping any." But she doesn't exactly offer up the papers, so perhaps it was an exaggeration. It is only then, though, as she realizes there is a person - and something MUCH larger - in her personal space that Ricki is slowly moving her arm, the faintest hint of a blush coloring her cheeks as she identifies the sources. "Uh, I mean… That's how I got stuck, ma'am?" She offers, pushing herself hurriedly upright, coughing to hide her embarrassment. "Its just nonsense anyway. Don't know how ma and dad sort through to get the -real- good stuff." ANYWAY. "Sorry, if I, uh, bothered you."
Imagine Jenna Marbles in three, two, one… RICKI. GURL. You don't pour gasoline onto fires. Any other day, Risali might be of a mind to snap back, but patience has her in its grips today, and while brows might rise for snapped words, she doesn't snap back. She endures the same way that Leirith endures: amusement, a huff of laughter that accompanies the heady beat of bass and drums from her lifemate as they are SUDDENLY THERE when Ricki pulls her arm away from her eyes. Those grey eyes roll up, divining answers from Rukbat and her cousins, counting to ten (which might make for a pause that falls somewhere between 'Oh my gosh,' and, 'Is this really happening?') before she looks back to Ricki and… settles in the sand beside her. "You didn't bother me. And my name is Risali. Just Risali. Not 'ma'am', not 'Weyrwoman' - just… Risali. Please." AND IF IT WAS A JOKE IT WAS A BAD ONE, because there goes Leirith, A CHOMPING AT PAPERS and getting dragon drool everywhere. "What is it about?" A gesture to the papers. "And I'm sorry, I don't think that I caught your name last time." SHE IS BEING POLITE. She can be good at people SOMETIMES, see?
Sometimes, though, you just have to watch it burn. Watch it ALL burn. Ricki remains frozen in place as the silence extends into the uncomfortable territory, the young woman starting too shift in the sand before Risali finally says something.. and whatever response Ricki might have had is cut off and replaced with a yelp, the papers pulled back from the naming Leirith. "HEY! I wasn't -serious!-" She sighs as she stares at what is left in her hand, rolling it up and tucking it under her leg in the sand - can't exactly make it WORSE. "Just some.. uh. Well.." Stumble. "Just some notes. From a friend. About.. stuff. And people." SUPER informative, yes. "It's Ricki.. And yes, I know its a boy's name."
The look on Risali's face says just that: informative. No. Really. Please stop, one cannot possibly process so much information in one sitting. But Leirith's reprimand has the goldrider dropping her head and stifling laughter, the queen QUITE UNAPOLOGETIC as she opens her maw and UNLEASHES A TORRENT OF DRAGON SLOBBERED SHEETS. Just to make it easier for poor Ricki. « EATING IS ALWAYS SERIOUS, MINION. FOR A BADASS. » Which she ASSUREDLY IS, OKAY. "Well met, Ricki. This is Leirith - I don't know if you two had the pleasure last time." Which just means that the gold gets the pleasure THIS TIME, shoving her face into Ricki's side because THIS IS HOW YOU SAY HELLO, and THIS IS HOW YOU MAKE FRIENDS, and since Risali is not the type of person to pry (about notes or just who made fun of Ricki's name), she pursues a different topic instead. "Maybe you can take a break to clear your head. Go look at the eggs for a little bit, or something like that. Leirith would be ecstatic to have company outside of dragonhealers and me."
"I.." Pause, start over. "You'll hear about it, if its anything. I mean, it might be nothing." A shrug. "Ma would kill me if I gave away her exclusive." Especially if it wasn't really nothing. The slobbery mess from Leirith has Ricki making a face, dropping it to the sands with a flick of her hand and a frown. "Thanks.. I think." As Risali mentions the sands, Ricki glances sidelong at her. "What about Garouth?" And then she is glancing back at the shoved muzzle in her size. "Hi, Leirith.. Yes, you are very nice." Or something. "I don't know, there are always all the candidates and its sort of weird, sometimes. Live your whole life in the weyr, and these random people who just.. SHOW up.. watching you, judging you."
"Fair enough," Risali offers on an exhale, lips pulling into another smile as grey eyes find Leirith and the queen wuffles for compliments attained through MISCHIEF. IT DOESN'T MATTER IF RICKI MEANS THEM. NO TAKE-BACKSIES. As for Garouth, well. "She certainly enjoys his company, but she also lives with him even off of the sands. So let me amend with: somebody other than me, or D'lei, or Garouth, or K'vir, or Zekath." Or eggs, that she turns and assures of their badassery about a thousand times per hour. YES. HOUR. « HELLO MINION. » SUCH CHEER. Still, Risali listens, and then pursues with, "What do you mean? Do you mean the candidates watching and judging you?"
An absent hand pats at Leirith's nose, provided it is still there, and the gold doesn't change her mind or decide it is distasteful or what have you. "Eh, Candidates, Riders… Grandma." A shrug and she leans back on her elbows, the papers she was pondering over so carefully not long ago abandoned to the sandy beach. "Why are you good enough to be a candidate, blahblahblah." Shrug. "Grandmother is the worst, I swear. 'Oh, you are just like your mother, why can't you be like the rest of the family'. I don't know, old lady." Oh, there it is. The grumpiness that never ever can escape around scary retired goldriders.
IS RISALI BITING BACK MORE LAUGHTER? She is, but it still manifests as a smile from betwixt teeth that bite down on her bottom lip, grey eyes going out towards the water. "I guess I got lucky. My grandparent's on my father's side passed away a long, long time ago - but they were traders. And my mother's side, well… she was the first goldrider in that line." AND NOW HERE SHE IS, A GOLDRIDER HER DINGDANG SELF, with one OVERLY GIDDY AND SUNBRIGHT GOLD that does not shy away from touches to her nose; au contraire, she turns into the contact, another wuffle, another beat of bass and drums and deafening excitement. "But what was wrong with your Mother?"
As long as the nose is there, fingers continue to offer little, albeit distracted, scritches to it, as she shrugs a little at Risali's question. "She never Impressed? Searched and stood and well, that's was it. Aunt and uncle both impressed, but ma, she never did. Still not sure that Grandma's forgiven her, for eventually turning down candidacy to be with dad." And have her and her siblings. "I mean, I don't know if it really matters, but. Grandma's only gotten crazier, since Cara Impressed, too. I don't get it, though.. not like -she- came from a long line of riders. She was the first one, as far as I know." So, just crazy.
"Ahh," Risali says softly, a grimace of sympathy crossing her features as she hesitates a moment and looks at Leirith who just LOOKS BACK EXPECTANTLY. She ceases turning her head into scritches just to do it, and perhaps (for once) the communication going on between lifemates is kept between Risali and Leirith, because bass and drums fade into the distance for one, two, three moments… and then explode back into existence. "I'm sorry about your grandma," Risali offers, carefully. "And that your Mother never impressed. I can't promise you won't be left standing, but…" A beat of consideration, and Risali is shifting again, to look at Ricki without the distraction of the sea to pull her gaze away. "Would you consider standing for us? Leirith has been watching you for some time now, and… I am not sure what you can tell your grandmother, except that a queen thought you worthy enough to stand for her own clutch." A beat, and then Leirith is adding on, « DO IT. I WILL BE YOUR FEARLESS LEADER, AND WE WILL BE BADASS TOGETHER. AHAHAHAHA. » Just in case there was ever any doubt.
"Its ok, she is just… Well, she was Weyrwoman for literally forever, I don't think she understands that *sometimes* things don't go the way she plans." A shrug and as the golden nose pauses, Ricki's hand pauses, and she blinks between the two. And then, there is a real blush that is spreading across her cheeks and her nose and her forehead. "Uhm.. I mean.. I'm didn't mean to.. like.. Make it like I was.. I don't know, asking." And then as Risali continues the explanation, the blush continues to spread, and Ricki is teetering very close to blotchy territory. "I mean, I would love to, but I.. didn't mean." Stumbled words accompany the blush. "Thank you." She finally manages after a longer than normal pause, finding Leirith's nose very interesting, rather than looking at Risali.
"You didn't," Risali assures. "Leirith liked you when we met you on the beach, and she's been keeping a careful eye on you ever since. So.. regardless of whether you told us about your grandmother's expectations or we discussed the color of the sky, we would have had the same question for you." Whether it was today, or tomorrow, or the next. Still, Risali is producing a knot from a pocket, perhaps just a little squished now, but certainly still fine. She holds it out for Ricki to take, Leirith bunting with nose and head to turn the newly minted candidate's attention towards that pristine knot. "But you should let whoever you need to know know where you'll be going. Maybe bring some things of import with you. Our Weyrlingmaster and their assistants work with our candidates, so somebody will be there to greet you and help get you settled. The rules are pretty simple, too: don't get drunk, don't fight, and don't get pregnant." A quirk of lips. "Any questions for me? Do you need help finding the barracks?"
The blush slowly begins to fade and Ricki nods slowly, her attention nudged back towards the knot offered by Risali. One more pat to Leirith's nose, and she slowly takes the (slightly squished) knot that is offered, fingers running over the simple white loop. "I think I can manage that.. I mean, I've managed it so far." A soft laugh at the mention of questions and barracks, and she shakes her head. "I'll have to go tell Ma, and then get settled in.. Trust me, I know where it is." *Someone* has probably only been pointing it out for the turns since Ricki has been eligible. "Thank you… both. Uhm, really." Even if it doesn't pan out.
"Thank you," Risali offers instead of those two words societal norms dictate should be said. Though she does laugh about Ricki already knowing where to find it. "I'll bet," she says on dry tones, grey eyes rolling towards her in a conspiratorial fashion. SHE KNOWS ABOUT YOUR GRAND NOW. INSIDE JOKES GO!!! "And while I wish I could stay and talk with you a little longer, Leirith's telling me that my son is awake, and my weyrmate isn't equipped to see to his needs." IF U KNO WUT SHE MEANS. So there's a smile, a sideways lean, a shoulder-bump, and then she's using Leirith's help to gain her footing. "Goodluck, Ricki. And if you see Cara before I do, tell her I miss her, and she owes me some girl time." AND THERE SHE GOES, running away because she's a COWARD and okay MAYBE HER PLAYER'S BRAIN IS DEAD BUT DETAILS.