Izobet is Searched!
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Xanadu Weyr - Observation Level
Dark blue seats form a semi-circle around the sands below, the lowest row separated from the multicolored red and white sands by merely a railing. The seats climb upwards, each row a bit higher than the previous, and they are broken up into sections by three sets of staircases. Between the first and second section, a glass wall descends to separate the observers from the heat of the sands. Air is kept in motion through a set of fans, and so these seats are quieter and cooler than the rest… though the noise and heat of the sands is still present.
Lights are evenly spaced along the outer wall, lighting the seats and the sands easily, though they tend to be dimmed unless a major event is taking place. A large balcony overhead connects to the glass wall. Vents for cooling run along the bottom of it, and the ledge provides a place for observers of the draconic kind to watch without obstructing the view for others.
The sand below is variegated in hue, individual grains of red and white that have a pinkish hue when seen from across the circle of the hatching grounds but - up close over that railing - are clearly two varieties mingled.


Izobet has been to places on many occasions in her expansive fifteen turns of life. She's practically an expert at being places at this point, ask anyone. But she's never been to DRAGON EGGS. And so here she is on this fine day gawking at said eggs from what she's probably assuming is a safe and reasonable distance. "You can hardly even see anything from here," she says to the void of space between her eyeballs and Leirith's handiwork.

OR DOES SHE SAY IT INTO THE VOID? That depends on who you ask, really. There are plenty of people that would categorize Risali as a void (or a blackhole, or a storm, or any amalgamation of unflattering epithets) if you sit them in a room long enough and convince them to tell you how they really feel. That's why it's Risali who, without much Weyrwomanly dignity, reveals herself directly behind Izobet with a soft, "Maybe you should get closer." And then she's grinning, a smile that holds too much fey amusement and bares too many teeth (probably) just as Leirith makes a DARING SHOW of wingsails A-THROWN BACK while she trots around a delicate clutch of six whole eggs to come RIGHT TOWARDS THE GLASS with not a single ounce of shame in sight. BOMPF. Her whole awkwardly knobbed head BONKS into the glass before she draws back and, without preamble, booms, « YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE THAT THEY ARE BADASS THOUGH, CAN YOU NOT? » See, Izobet, there's no such thing as a safe difference. Only misery, and embarrassment, and whatever this is where rider and dragon team up on POOR UNSUSPECTING FIFTEEN TURN OLDS. Risali isn't saying much to be honest. She's just trying really hard not to laugh.

There's exactly one squeak of surprise when someone is RIGHT THERE, and Izobet turns around to glare at Risali before she seems to realize that's maybe not the right thing to do or whatever. "How close can I—?" she's asking when all of her attention is drawn to Leirith's show on the other side of the glass, and she's left wide-eyed staring between the dragon and the eggs as she tries to figure out how to answer that honestly pretty straightforward question. The wheels turning in her head are practically audible. "Uhh. They're just sitting there, though?"

« SITTING THERE LOOKING BADASS*. » Is it possible for dragons to asterisk their mindvoices and make it clear that they think those on the receiving end made grave grammatical errors they were benevolent enough to fix? BECAUSE LEIRITH DOES IT, JUST NOW. And through that glass comes a part in her maw, a bob of her head, as if she is laughing at the joke she clearly just made and doesn't expect any self-respecting being - human, dragon, or otherwise - to find it funny and therefore TAKES THE BURDEN OF LAUGHING AT IT UPON HERSELF. Risali is laughing then, a shift of that much-too-small body so that she can come up alongside Izobet instead of behind her, clearly unfazed by fifteen turns of practiced glaring because she's pushing on fourty turns of practiced glaring and has been on the business end of a Lord Holder's displeasure to boot. Many times. "How close do you want to get?" Risali asks, grey eyes jumping from those scattered eggs back to Izobet, her eyes still laughing, her lips harboring hints of that humor even as she waits in patience for an answer.

Izobet watches the dragon with a slightly awkward half smile, like she's not entirely sure she's supposed to be smiling but also not sure she isn't supposed to be smiling. Probably also not sure if she's supposed to be talking to the dragon who just popped the eggs out recently. There's a lot going on here! Enjoy that weird half-smiling grimace, Risa! "I want to get as close as I'm allowed to get." She probably thinks this is a clever answer. "What do they feel like? Can you hear what's inside? Do they talk like her?" Izobet sort of eye-gestures at Leirith, then actually looks at her because it's not like she couldn't also answer. She'd know better than anyone, right?

Probably Leirith should know better, but she's a dragon. Her memory spans a scattering of weeks before it resets and that's on a good… month, day, fortnight, turn, WHATEVER. That's why it's Risali who answers that grimace-smile with a softening of her own smile, why that humor persists even as she drags her attention back out to the sands and the queen blocking her vision of them, as if she might see through her to a brighter future instead of just… MUSTARD-YELLOW MONSTROSITIES. "Well, it's complicated. Yes, the eggs can talk to you — when you touch them, at least. Or… well. I'm not exactly sure what happens, but suddenly you're there with them instead of on the sands and they're pulling at your memories. Sometimes the dragons that hatch are at complete odds with what you brushed fingers against in the sands, but sometimes they're exactly what they projected themselves to be." But they're dragons and dragons can't be evil… right? Still, Risali pauses for a long moment and then asks, "Is this your first time seeing dragon eggs?" Another beat and, "May I ask your name?" « I BET IT IS SOMETHING BADASS, MINION. LIKE REDFRUIT MCGEE, OR TUNNELSNAKE THE WRANGLER. » Now it's Risali's turn to grimace and force a smile. Notice how she conveniently fails to acknowledge her lifemate spoke and Leirith, in true Leirith fashion, only laughs about it.

The girl listens, fascinated by the impromptu lesson in dragon eggs. What she gets out of it, though, is a wide-eyed look of accusation in the general direction of the eggs that Leirith may or may not be blocking, and Izobet murmuring to herself but also very much out loud, "Some of them are liars." She doesn't sound horrified, at least. She might sound slightly impressed. "Oh, well, it's actually Tunnelsnake McGee," she adds, straight-faced, "But you were really close!" The side-eye she gives Risali is very much a PLEASE DON'T RUIN THIS, but she adds in a very soft voice that means this is obviously just between them, "It's Izobet." Then, normal voice again, "I've seen, like, a baby dolphin right after it was born when it's all cute and derpy, but I've never seen dragon eggs before." Totally comparable.

« TUNNELSNAKE MCGEE, THAT IS THE MOST - » Look. Risali didn't tell Leirith, but Leirith is connected to her mind and all of those secrets better left unsaid go RIGHT DOWN THAT PSYCHIC MINDLINK to Leirith's bombastic head. That's why there's sudden silence and then the WUBWUBWUB of a much too amused, « CLEVER MINION. I ALMOST FELL FOR IT, IZOBET. » A long pause, as if Leirith is considering the flavor of such a name in her WILDLY VAST MINDSCAPE and, « WELL I AM SURE THERE IS SOME PART OF YOU THAT IS NOT AS DISAPPOINTING AS YOUR NAME, MINION. CAN YOU JUMP ON ONE LEG WHILE YOU RUB YOUR BELLY AND PAT YOUR HEAD AT THE SAME TIME? » It's Risali that, even though she's laughing (a little tight, because she's clearly straining against an onset of embarrassment brought to you by the LETTER L and GOLD DRAGONS WITHOUT DIGNITY EVERYWHERE), puts out a hand immediately as if she means to stay any ideas that even think about attempting that. "Don't. She's joking." « OR AM I. » But there is giddy, exuberant laughter that follows, something that might be teasing except it's hard to gauge how Leirith feels about, well, anything. "She is or I'm getting new dragonhide boots. I'm Risali, Izobet. The queen in dire need of apologizing to you is Leirith and she is very sorry if she hurt your feelings. Baby dolphins, did you say? I've never seen one. I've always wanted to. Are you in Xanadu for long, or are you just passing through?"

In the moments before Risali is telling her to DO NOT, Izobet is looking a little panicked that she might have to do something embarrassing. So it should come as no surprise that Risa is suddenly Izobet's new favorite person. "It's okay, I don't have feelings. Er— I do have feelings, I just… they're fine." Very clever, indeed. "I think we're here for awhile? We're supposed to be getting to know the pod here. Getting to know anything takes time." That sounds like she's quoting someone else. "I think my journeyman is hoping to find a partner in one of them, which probably means he'll end up here forever."

AT LEAST SHE IS SOMEBODY'S FAVORITE PERSON, IZOBET. She is not Leirith's, who only finds her minion all the more disappointing for RUINING HER JOY. But Risali listens to Izobet explain away feelings (or NOT feelings) with that smile threatening at her lips again, a hint of laughter in her eyes as she waits for explanations and then nods her head once before looking back towards Leirith and the sands beyond her massive boxy BUTT. "I don't want to take away from your pods, Tunnelsnake McGee, but I'd be happy to let you get closer to the eggs if you'd like. She," a clear indication towards the dragon on the other side of the glass barrier protecting them from the physical repercussions of her excitement, "seems to think that -" « YOU ARE PRETTY BADASS, TUNNELSNAKE MCGEE. JUST DON'T LET PEOPLE KNOW YOUR REAL NAME IS IZOBET; THAT WOULD BE EMBARRASSING AHAHAHAHA. » " - ignore her - you're pretty impressive." So there's a pause as Risali shifts to dig around in a pocket, comes up empty with only a piece of paper to her name and then shrugs apologetically as she breathes out, "Well, it's not a knot, but I can write an IOU on one if you want to accept it and take it to the weyrlingmasters. If, of course, you want to see the eggs up close. I know they're not dolphins or anything, but…" IT MIGHT BE FUN? « DON'T SAY NO OR I AM TELLING THE WHOLE WORLD YOUR REAL NAME. »

If Izobet knew what being punked was right now she'd probably be looking around for the cameras. This is clearly not how she thought getting a peek at the eggs might end up. Those gears in her head are GRINDING away but all she seems capable of coming up with is, "Oooh, Sarmo's gonna be so mad at me." But she doesn't even actually sound that sorry about it, that's a problem for FUTURE Izo to deal with. Especially since her name is now Tunnelsnake McGee. "Yes, of course I want to see the badass eggs up close!" Leirith is a great role model.

Risali's smile only grows, the predecessor of a laugh that lives too briefly on her lips but echoes Leirith's burst as she breathes out, "Excellent." And then Risali is feeling around on her person for a pen or a pencil or something to write with except, again, she comes up hopelessly empty even as she murmurs, "Let me just - I know I had one - Faranth. You know what, Tunnelsnake McGee? I have a plan B." Cue that empty piece of paper being folded and tucked back into a pocket as Leirith booms, « SHE SAID YES! » for the Weyr to hear and Risali jerks her chin towards the exit of the hatching arena. "I will take you to see the Weyrlingmasters myself and, if Sarmo decides to get too angry, I'll stand in the back and look very menacing until he agrees to let you stand." Which will be impressive, given Risali's a startling five foot NOTHING and intimidates literally nobody with her size (but packs a very impressive capacity for violence so THERE IS THAT). "Come on," comes just as she's starting to head towards the exit. "We'll get you taken care of and all settled in and then we'll see about -" a beat, a gesture over her shoulder at the eggs, "all the rest." There will probably not be any egg touchings today, but those are most certainly in her future.

It's kind of hard not to be at least a little hyped up by Leirith's booming, so Izobet is on the verge of BEAMING when Risali suggests they take a field trip to the Weyrlingmasters. "I don't think he could be that mad with you there." For some reason that she doesn't seem to think about explaining as she moves to follow after the Weyrwoman. But not before she offers a bright, "Thank you!" to the gold on the other side of the glass.

« YOU ARE WELCOME, MINION. » comes loud, but warm, and Risali LEADS IZOBET AWAY TO DESTINY, FATE, AND ALL THE CHAOTIC PROMISE THAT COMES WITH PLEDGING TO STAND ON XANADU'S SANDS FOR A DRAGON. Izo should have run while she could. Now she can never leave (JUST KIDDING SHE CAN BUT THERE WILL BE MANY SAD DRAGON EMOJI'S PROJECTED INTO SUSCEPTIBLE BRAINS AND NOBODY WANTS THAT).


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