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.
IT'S SPRING! Of course it's Spring; if it was Winter Leirith's summons would probably have come from the Meadows, or the bowl, or somewhere definitely not the beach. BUT HERE WE ARE: LEIRITH ABUSING HER POWERS, RISALI PREGNANT AND GIVING NO CARES, abjectly aware of how terrible this idea is, and equally undeterred, WAITING FOR WEYRLINGS ON THE BEACH. But she's not the only thing waiting on the beach. There's a huge blanket laid out with lots and lots of watermelons stacked up on it. There are also deplorable little 'forts' that are less forts and more long pieces of wood that have been propped up as make-shift shelter. Leirith even went through the trouble of helping dig small trenches here and there, because when one executes a terrible idea, they do it all the way. « MINIONS! LITTLE BADASSES! THIS IS CLEARLY IMPORTANT, NOT AT ALL SUSPICIOUS. WE… REQUIRE YOUR ASSISTANCE. » All giddy, all sunbright, all bass and the heady beat of drums carrying a hint of laughter and definite mischief. « BRING YOUR DARK CLOTHES, THOUGH. IT WILL HIDE YOUR FEAR. » No, you're not imagining that AHAHAHAHA.
The last thing the Weyr needs is Iczobyth mimicking her mother, though continued exposure to the Queen of Bad Ideas may just cause that to happen sooner than later. Oh, no. Sooner, definitely Sooner. « HURRY, MY LITTLE BADASS. » Can be heard, the voice something similar to Leirith's, though definitely, definitely -not- Leirith, can be heard as she overprotects, and it is soon evident which of the weyrlings it came from. For Ricki, though she seems to have followed directions and is wearing dark clothes, looks rather unimpressed as she appears on the beach, mid-conversation with her life mate. "Iczy, you -can't say that." Pause. "No, really. I don't care if Leirith does, you -aren't Leirith." « WHATEVER. » Iczobyth counters, tail thrashing in the sand, though it pauses as the pair actually looks at the scene in front of them, sharing a long, quiet look then.
Whatever may or may not be happening the words have gotten Talanoath's attention and she large brown is quick to make his way towards the beach in that bounding sort of movement he honestly should not be able to do. « Here I… I mean /WE/ come! » Comes the echoing voice of said brown while his large wings ruffle and flutter against his sides with the movement. Nailii is following as quickly as she can, darker clothing on as it was said to do so but she wonders why really. "Talanoath!" Is called out towards the brown who is honestly not listening at this time. Talanoath is curious at the items befor ehim, and even has to skid to a stop sending up a spray of sand in his wake as he nearly runs into one of the forts as he was not paying attention. « I TOTALLY SAW THAT! » So the sand may have just taken out part of the fort corner..
N'kon is wearing clothes. Some are dark, some are not so dark. So, he half-assed the instructions - this should come as no surprise, any more than the sight of him trotting along at Tsarziath's tail, following in the little blue's wake. « That, » the blue replies to his sister crisply, « was decidedly uncalled for. » Whirling eyes turn disapprovingly upon his mother, although the little weyrling dragonet is smart enough, at least, not to chide the gold. That doesn't stop him from radiating a FROWN for her use of INAPPROPRIATE language. TSK TSK, QUEEN MOTHER.
THERE'S RISALI! She peeks up from behind one of those ill-devised fort things, all mischief in grey hues as she slowly, slowly pulls down her riding goggles and snaps them into place over her eyes. She takes in each face, each dragon, showing too many teeth in a smile that spreads slow for their appearance before she sinks back down behind her hiding place. "MAN THE LEIRITH!" she calls, but the massive queen is too busy to heed her rider's call; she BULLDOZES ALL OVER TSAR'S DISAPPROVAL and bunts his cute little blue butt with laughter, turns her nose into Iczobyth with a deafening, « DO NOT LET HER TELL YOU THAT ARE NOT BADASS ENOUGH TO SAY BADASS, LITTLE BADASS, » and then she's bunting Tala, nipping at wingsails and crooning as she rates his sandstorm a, « 15 OUT OF 10 LITTLE BADASS. » MOOAHAHAHA. Risali peeks up to watch the exchange, waits with the kind of jittery impatient of one full of terrible ideas, and then calls out again, a little more forcefully: "MAN. THE. LEIRITHHH." The gold bounds then, too big to truly hide as she joins her lifemate, as Risali loads her snout with watermelon guts, and then gives the call: "FIRE!" And Leirith jerks her nose up, sending all that glorious GOOP up into the air to rain back down INDISCRIMINATELY. And there's Risali again, arms hanging limply over the front of her wall, chin resting on the lip, looking smug as she breathes out, "Gotcha~" MOOAHAHAHA. But then she's pointing at the watermelons, raising her eyebrows. "I thought we could do a little smashing; you know. It's probably good for coordination or something with the dragons." UH HUH. OKAY, RISA.
Iczobyth turns to stare at Tsarziath, huffing at her clutch sibling as he acts all disapproving like, tail twitching behind her. « NOT A BADASS. » She declares loudly, though, given her attention shifts to Ricki, who exactly knows who she was talking to. Well, it seems we know who the little green has latched on to, for the time being - may her mind be changed sooner rather than later, though given the praise from her dam, who knows how likley that is. "Uhm, Risa-" Ricki is calling out as the goldrider appears, this weyrling giving the whole layout a suspicious look, before her examination is so rudely interrupted by falling chunks of watermelon. "Ugh, its -sticky-…" Ricki murmurs to N'kon, frowning as she holds her arms out to the side. The tiny green though, seems more than happy to continue her act of mimickry, for she is bounding off towards the field excited.
Man the what?… Nailii looks confused as she hears that beingyelled and blinks a few times while glancing one way and then another before catching sight of Risali finally and offersher a slight wave and smile seen. Then well… Watermelon goes flying andthe dragonhealer just goes wideeyed. "Oh dear…" Talanoath on the other talon warbles and croons out a bit with a wiggle on his haunches. « IT was AWESOME! Thank you for the aproval of such things! » The brown wigles and bounces looking rather happy at himself while sand is covering him a bit. Though when watermelon goes flying he rumbles and seems to grin even as it falls upon him. WHO CARES? He does not! Instead he is moving to a melon and gives it a good booping with a forepaw and turning to sending a swing os his tail towards the melon's side and thu is goes flying smacking into a piece of wood and cracks down th side but doesn't go splattering all over just yet. At least it stopped instead of hitting someone.
« You are a terrible influence, » comes the grumble as Tsarziath goes tail over snout from Leirith's smack. « Vagabond. » Or whatever. N'kon glances at his dragon, lips dragging up in a wry grin as the blue continues to mutter under his breath - mind - whatever, plopping his recently bunted butt on the ground and trading a disdainful stare between his royal dam and his… overenthusiastic… siblings - both of them. Then it's raining watermelon, and the young man closes his eyes, hands shoved into his pockets as he allows the sticky juice and pulp to rain down on him. Under the cover of Tsari's sputtering indignation, he leans towards Ricki and murmurs, very softly, "That's what she said?"
« AND YOU ARE BADASS. » CAN'T DETER LEIRITH. There's not an ounce of chagrin, apology, or anything other than pure, unadulterated joy filtering from this unrefined queen. It's a mysterious time of day because I NEVER CHOSE, but the important part is that Leirith has summoned all of the weyrlings and their dragons to the beach with one instruction: WEAR DARK CLOTHES. That's where they're at now, Risali hunkered down behind one of the two make-shift shelters that box in a large blanket piled with watermelons. When Talanoath jumps into the game, smacking a watermelon, Risali gives an indignant, 'EEP!' and then ducks back to safety, laughing at the thud against wood that heralds the strike of a wayward watermelon. But then she's peeking out again, looking from N'kon, to Ricki, to Nailii with another smile. "Come on then, Talanoath has the right of it." AND FINALLY SHE EMERGES, Leirith lowering her muzzle to watch as the goldrider strides out into the open and over to the watermelons. "First you have to smash it. We can pretend it's for something useful, like eye-tail coordination for the dragons." RIGHT? RIGHT. "Then, if you can beat me, I'll let you all make one demand — one — that I will grant so long as it's not a big, big, unbreakable rule. And if I win, well…" TERRIBLE SMILE. "Don't let me win." Knock knock on one of those watermelons.
You don't need to tell Iczobyth twice - the green is charging towards the watermelons after her brown brother, though she does pause long enough to turn back and snort at Tsarziath as he wallows in the sand. « HURRY UP. » So loud. And so much smashing - or well, attempting to smash. Her first attempt - a forelimb at a watermelon off by itself seems to go awry, for the melon is gouged but rolling away before she is pouncing on it, and winning that war. Ricki stifles a giggle at N'kon's comment, before she's is inclining her head towards the other shelter, holding her hand out for a brief moment - but then Iczy's tail is sending melon bits skyward and Ricki is diving towards the closer of the two 'shelters' with a yelp. "I wasn't -ready yet- Iczy!" She calls from her hiding spot, peeking out cautiously after a moment, just in time for another round of watermelon guts. Ugh.
« This is SO… SO… undignified! » Tsarziath stares at the other dragons, aghast at their abject enthusiasm for such barbaric sport. He turns his great wedge-head towards N'kon beseechingly, looking to his rider to back him up. N'kon, unfortunately for the blue, is of no aid - he's taken shelter behind a fort not far from where Ricki has staged. Glancing back at his lifemate, the techcrafter gives an unhelpful shrug and points out, "Orders is orders." Cringing - probably at the truth behind that statement, but perhaps at the appalling lack of grammar, the blue gingerly approaches the nearest set of watermelons and prods one with a foreclaw before turning his back on it and smacking it sharply with his tail, as though whapping an offending masher with a cane… or, perhaps, a parasol. It breaks, goop flies, and the blue holds his tail up, wincing away from the dark red juice dripping along its immaculate length.
And Risali? Well, she looks delighted, moving aside for dragons, ducking and curling in on herself as if it might PROTECT HER FROM GOOP, and then she's running back behind her wall with a watermelon in tow - and impressive feat, considering she's pregnant and tiny and that watermelon probably weighs a decent amount of a lot. Still, she's shoving the thing into Leirith's maw, ducking behind her wall as she calls out, "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" and plugs her ears like some kind of explosion is going to happen. And it kind of does? BECAUSE THEN THEY CHEAT; Leirith's using her size to her advantage, to bring her head over the other wall and BITE DOWN and RAIN GOOP ON THE HEADS OF OTHERS, but not before she's telling her progeny just how very, « BADASS!» they are. She even has words of wisdom for her blue-child: « IT IS ALSO FUN. EVERYBODY HAS FUN, LITTLE BADASS, EVEN THE MOST DIGNIFIED DIGNIFIERS AMONG US. » Okay Leirith. You can't say that with watermelon dripping from your muzzle and expect people to take you seriously. BUT HERE WE ARE.
"No fair!" Ricki is exclaiming from the meager shelter provided by her hiding spot, ducking back underneath it with little hope of success - the sticky red mess dripping down into the bunker. For her part, Iczy looks rather indignant as the large gold 'cheats', puffing up. « NOT FAIR. NOT BADASS. » She counters, even as she is awkwardly rolling a watermelon off the pile and towards Risali's hiding spot, waiting until she is close and jumping on it - her body blocks a portion of the mess, but it also directs the rest of it at the goldrider. And then, Iczobyth is looking to her blue clutchsibling to help. « BE A MINION. »
« I do not… minion, » Tsarziath says with wounded dignity. « I will, however, assist you against this cheating… cheater. » Hey. Don't knock it if it works. He looks around for another watermelon and tail-whacks that one Risali-wards, while Niko strips off his over-shirt, offering it gallantly to Ricki to try and clear some of the watermelon guts from her face. « Take that, » he cries, and thwacks another watermelon towards the goldrider. « And that! Tallyho! » He might even be… laughing. Maybe. Naaah.
« ALL IS FAIR AND BADASS IN LOVE AND WATERMELON SMASHING, » Leirith intones, unrepentant in her unsubsiding humor, blaring laughter into minds when Iczy joins in on the SMASH and Risali is forced to curl again - for what little good it does her. There's a harpy-esque shriek, undignified and indignant, and then laughter as the goldrider swipes goop from her person. BUT THEN THERE IS TSARZIATH, and Risali's managing a huff of, "O-oi!" between bouts of more laughter as she tries to dodge and maybe isn't all that successful because GROSSNESS IS STARTING TO COVER ALL THE PARTS OF HER. Especially not when Leirith just idles to watch with pride and joy and - KIDDING. She's got another watermelon that she noses into a maybe choice spot, and then stomps down on it with a paw. WAHPOW! WATERMELON EVERYWHERE! And Risali? Well, she's gathering up goop, and making a RUN for it, across the battlefield, skidding around the other wall with delight and mischief and handfuls of NOPE that she deploys rudely - right at Ricki and N'kon. MOOAHAHAHA! "Surrender!" Because being the most dramatic is the best. « OF COURSE YOU DO NOT MINION; NEITHER OF YOU DO. THAT IS WHY WE HAVE MINIONS. WE ARE BADASS. » And covered in goop, but that's what the water is for, okay.
With her target suddenly abandoning shelter and running towards her life mate, Iczobyth actually freezes, seeming almost concerned for Ricki's wellbeing. Swiveling, she is spreading her wings and *trumpeting* loudly. « MY MINION » She declares possessively, watermelons abandoned as she bolts - rather gracefully considering she is on all fours - to plop herself between Risali and Ricki, spreading her wings and dropping her muzzle to stare at the goldrider - though, given Risali's condition, all she does is stare, pretending to look all menacing. « SHE IS MY MINION. » She repeats, even as Ricki is using the kindly offered shirt from Niko to wipe off some of the goop - just in time to get another faceful - which then is sort-of cleaned off again as she peeks around a green wing. "I do believe surrender is not an option.."
« Surrender? » Tsarziath stares at Ricki as though she's grown a second head. « What a foolish notion. You dear, pretty child, » he adds kindly. Niko sends the blue a sharp look, but whatever he says to his lifemate is non-vocal. It does, however, have a marked effect on the blue, who hunches slightly and offers a somewhat sulky, « Sorry. I didn't mean it, » to Ricki. Dignity ruffled by his rider's apparently stinging rebuke, he rapid-fire slaps watermelon bits towards his dam and Risali. After watching for a moment, Niko sighs, then strips off his red-splattered undershirt, waving it fitfully towards the goldrider. Maybe surrender is an option? Or a water fight. In the water. That would work too.
Woah, woah, woah! Risali puts up her hands but doesn't really look like she's afraid of the green; at least, she has no reason to be either way when Leirith is there as well TO RUIN ALL THAT MENACE with a NOSEBOOP. « VERY NICE, LITTLE BADASS. » All appreciation ALL THE TIME. Even if Risali's FLINGING WATERMELON GOOP is not appreciated. Risali's laughing more as Tsarziath rains down more goop, but she points at that WHITE FLAG OF SURRENDER and declares, "WE WIN!" Or maybe it's just leading into her surrender, because she's getting splattered, and smiling through it, and then chinning towards the water. "You should probably get cleaned up. I have to go be a mother." SUDDEN, quite unexpectedly, but she's giving Leirith a little push and smiling between Tsar and Iczy, between N'kon and Ricki. "At least it looks good on you," she informs them. The watermelon, she means, and then she's OFF. TO GO DO RISALI THINGS. And probably de-watermelon herself before she does them. HUZZAH.