Xanadu Weyr - Main Clearing
A wide clearing stretches from east to west, the ground packed hard although grass grows across most of it. Trees are strictly forbidden in this space, their danger to the constant draconic traffic reason enough to banish them to the forest that creates a border to the north. Where the ground is less trampled, tiny flowers poke their delicate heads out from their shaded hiding places with upturned petals to wave to whoever may be looking.
The cliff looms imposingly on two sides. Toward the southwest, a spire stretches up to high above where the everpresent watchdragon sits on a lonely peak with Xanadu's Starstones. A massive rocky spur extends to the north, curved slightly to hold the clearing and pocked with doors and windows.
The hatching arena and Dragonhealers' Annex sit to the southeast, built together into a single complex that takes up a large portion of the perimeter beneath its domed roof. To the southwest, wide steps lead up to the caverns, and almost directly south is the entrance to the Infirmary. Nestled between the infirmary and the main caverns there's a human-sized archway with frequent traffic - it leads to the Wanderin' Wherry Tavern.
Tucked near the arch, just off to one side is a tiny wood-frame shop bearing the name 'Wildflower Boutique'. Windows have been cut along the cliff in various places along the cliff. Those of the administrative offices are placed to have the best view of Xanadu's airspace - to the southwest, over the entrance to the caverns and the infirmary. Others mark the dormitories and those of lucky residents, while toward the northern edge of that spur cluster the windows and entrances to the crafters' complex.
The rest of the Weyr lies to the north and east - a broad road that leads through the meadow and the trees of the forest beyond. At the far northern edge of the clearing, just inside the perimeter kept clear of trees, a clocktower sits and proudly displays the hour.
Today's being a warm, sunny day - the sort that makes the mud-wastes shrink and turns the grass its summery shade of brown. It's also the sort that makes dragons come out to sprawl, because they compete with cats for being solar-powered creatures. So, there's a fair few of them around - especially down toward the beach, which might help explain why Garouth is out here. The brindled bronze dragon lies against the cliff-edge, his head near the caverns as if ready to be door-guard - or at least, he would be if he looked more awake - and D'lei sits in against him, straddling one of his forelegs and leaning back against that draconic bulk. He, at least, looks awake. For now.
There's a dull clinking sound which can be heard coming from the direction of the clock tower, the quiet but rhythmic collision of metal against metal. It announces Nessalyn's arrival before she's anywhere near the caverns, clink-clink-clinking with every step she takes. The source of that sound comes from a bag slung over her shoulder, the contents hitting her hips as she moves. Her hair is done up in her typical style, that messy bun a riot of various bits of wire, tools, and the occasional tiny mechanical part that she wears as a sort of souvenir. Apparently annoyed by that constant clanking - or perhaps just the fact taht it prevents her from any form of stealth - the techcrafter attempts to hold the swinging vessel in place with one arm, so that by the time she approaches Garouth she has one arm stiffly held at her side in a way that TOTALLY doesn't look awkward at all.
LEIRITH NEEDS NO INTRODUCTION, Y'ALL. She is a shadow making, sun stealing, shamelessly obnoxious beast that somehow manages to both not appear concerned for D'lei's safety while being exactly concerned for D'lei's safety as she PUTS HERSELF DOWN. RIGHT ON GAROUTH, probably grossly gravid and grossly full of bad ideas to be here instead of OUT ON THE HOT SANDS, staring real creepy at Risabeth and annoying Aede with comments about BADASSES and BABIES. …or maybe that's why she's not on the sands. Listen, it's a very big, very loud (as in YOU CAN TOTALLY HEAR HER IF YOU WANNA, MEION) crash of bass and drums as Leirith says, « I CAME, I SAW, I CONQUERED. » Maybe that is for Nessalyn, in a bid to get some compliments or something. « YOU SOUND LIKE ME TODAY, MINION. » Noisy, she means. She's calling you noisy, Ness, and she's absolutely trying to put her head on D'lei and make a rider sandwich out of him. You'll only suffocate at little, bronzerider. Shhhh. Don't worry, Risali will probably be along shortly to rescue you. Or at least watch you all suffer.
Tick, tock, someone's stolen the clock? D'lei tilts his head, looking around as he starts to hear that sound… and then focuses on Nessalyn because … well, he doesn't have any better suspicions, and also she's pretty suspicious all on her own with that bag. "…was it broken before you got there?" he asks her as she gets near enough, a crooked smile to go with the words. Garouth, however, does not care. Whatever he's guarding, it has nothing to do with metal transit. He does, however, rumble - with his chest - as Leirith sits herself down on him and squishes him even more than usual with that extra-bonus-bulk. « All those babies, just waiting to be liberated from their conqueror. » His mindvoice is focused just to draconic bands, dark shadows and leaf-rustled humor, and his head lifts from that guard duty to turn back and nip at Leirith's neck as she leans down to squish rider as well as dragon. "Don't you go and sound like her," he admonishes the gold, reaching up - wait, no. He winces briefly and changes to the other arm to maul her cheek and jaw with an affectionate rub.
"I didn't break anything," Nessalyn states, although there's something very deliberate about that phrasing. She didn't break anything, but that doesn't mean she's entirely innocent of any form of destruction. She rattles the bag a little, causing the contents to jostle and clink-clank-clink some more. If Leirith believes she's getting any compliments from this quarter, SHE IS SORELY MISTAKEN. Nessalyn winces as the gold crash-bangs her way into the equation, unimpressed by the comparison. "Clearly, you can't hear yourself," she answers dryly, but does rattle that bag one more time. "This is nothing." She eyes the grouping before her with bemusement, waiting for someone to get injured so she can laugh at them. Err, help them.
Garouth totally (probably) likes it. And look! There's a hint of that more-to-Leirith-than-meets the eye despite the fact that she answers Garouth publicly. ENJOY AWKWARD, ONE-SIDED CONVERSATIONS, Y'ALL. « Well, they only have you to blame for being here, don't they? » Leirith turns her head into D'lei's affection, giving him one-last boop with her nose before she lifts her head and twists her neck so that she can return Garouth's neck-nip with a knob nibble. « You should stop letting me catch you, Garouth. Your track record is getting embarrassing. » BADUMBADUMBOOM. It's her own amusement branching out, heedless of conversations about CLOCKS and BROKEN THINGS except to answer D'lei with a booming, « BUT YOU LIKE IT, BADASS, » right as Risali does, in fact, finally arrive. But there is something a little more sedate about her, even as she brushes past Nessalyn with a mischievously playful, "I don't know, Ness. I think she's onto something." Right over to Leirith, whose forearm she is smacking and then pushing, and whose instructions the gold — SIGH — does obey as she answers Nessalyn with, « THEN YOU ASPIRE TO TOO LITTLE, AND YOU ARE A DISAPPOINTMENT. LIKE MY MINION. INSTEAD OF A BADASS. LIKE ME. » But she does make the very poor choice to get down from Garouth by rolling. Onto her back. Those stumpy legs are up in the air, she's laying on half a knob, and there is a moment of silence as she shifts and then… booms laughter. « I CANNOT GET UP. » Clearly a poor choice. « BUT IT IS FINE. THE NEXT PERSON TO WALK INTO THIS CLEARING FROM ANY DIRECTION VOLUNTEERS TO HELP ME LAY MY EGGS. » (Doooo it, Meion.) "That's not how any of this works, Leirith." Risali is just rolling her eyes and looking at D'lei with a quiet-er, "Are you okay?" Because her dragon is Satan, that's why. And then, with a clearing of her throat. "I think she is actually stuck." DIGNITY SCHMIGNITY.
There's a momentary chill, and a shadow where there wasn't before, as a loud green "voice" calls out to the other dragons «Clear for landing there?» Not that she's waiting for anything like a reply before fast-approaching the ground. She comes skidding in, courier-dragon with two humans on her back. The rider-clad one is demonstrating that one can, in fact, manage to demonstrate Fashion! without deviating unacceptably from standards. The second rider is a little smaller, and is already starting to hop off the green's back before they've quite reached the ground. She hefts a backpack nearly the same size as her, and once it's set down, grabs a second bag that's bigger. Meion looks around at the unexpectedly-occupied clearing, as the rider calls down to her. "Did we get you to the right place? Xanadu?" It's probably rhetorical. Probably.
"Mmm," says D'lei to Nessalyn's claims of well-specified and particular innocence. It's like he might still be dubious of something! « None of the other bronzes are as charming, » Garouth replies to Leirith. « Get them to improve, and I will consider it. » D'lei turns his head again as Risali arrives, with a smile for her and a lift of that hand from Leirith's maw to greet her rider. Garouth shifts again, moving his head to tuck over D'lei and make sure Leirith doesn't crush him - and shifting his further wing, to make a plan and help roll her right off… and over. Garouth lifts his head to observe this TURTLE-LEIRITH, his eyes swirling brighter with speckled gold and green. D'lei reaches up toward Risali, catching her hand in his for a squeeze. "Yeah." Or - the crooked smile admits - close enough, anyhow. His own gaze shifts back to Leirith and her … near-complete lack of being what a queen dragon is expected to be. "That's… probably a good omen, isn't it?" he suggests. "Something about quality of the clutch…" And he might have come up with a better one, but he's looking up to the sky just a moment after Garouth does, to green speed-diver. « If you - » had taken a few moments longer, that dark-shadows dragon-voice might have actually had time to speak. As it is… « …you have landed, have you not? »
"I aspire to plenty of things, I just don't share them with gold dragons who have no volume control." LOOK AT THAT SHADE. Nessalyn smirks, self-righteous and self-satisfied in equal measure, as always. "And she's on to nothing." The last is for Risali, the stubborn retort of someone more concerned with being right than demonstrating any real wit, at least for the moment. As the gold actually rolls off of Garouth, Nessalyn stares on with raised brows. There's a hint of disbelief, but her ability to summon surprise at Leirith's actions is shrinking with each day she spends at Xanadu. It's hardly even worth noting, these days. "Look who's the disappointment now." NOT HER. Her amusement with the situation only grows when it becomes apparent that the gold can't roll over again. "That's what you get for having eggs," she mutters, like that's somehow Leirith's fault and not plain old genetics. And then an unfamiliar green comes in for a landing, and in an unexpected show of hospitality (or maybe she's just being a jerk), the techcrafter calls out, "WELCOME TO XANADU. Congratulations, you have to deliver Leirith's eggs now."
Welcome, Rinian! On today's episode of As Pern Turns: Garouth is guarding something in the deeps of the caverns, Leirith has squished Garouth (and then D'lei) and made the very poor choice to roll off of the bronze and onto her back. She did, however, announce that the next person to arrive was volunteering to deliver her eggs (RIP, MEION), and Nessalyn is doing what Ness does best: SASSIN'. AND POSSIBLY THIEVING. Oh right, and Risali. She's just kind of there. « I KNOW THAT YOU ARE LAUGHING AT ME. » It comes for Garouth and probably Ness, but there is such amusement in the accusation that it's pretty clear she is laughing at herself. Don't mind Leirith, she is just going to - FEET IN THE AIR WIGGLE - just turn her head and - TOE WIGGLEWIGGLE - look absolutely ridiculous trying to turn her head to see new arrivals. This is the stuff of nightmares, you guys. You should probably run. « DO NOT BE JEALOUS, TICK TOCK MINION. I AM SURE SOMEBODY AS BADASS AS GAROUTH WILL ONE DAY PUT THEIR EGGS IN YOU. » … That's. Sure, Leirith. That's definitely how that works. « GREETINGS, MINIONS. I AM THE ONE THEY CALL LEIRITH, FIERCE BADASS OF XANADU, WISE LEADER TO MY FIERCE DISAPPOINTMENT. » Because who needs dignity. And while Risali catches D'lei's hand in her own, to interdigitate fingers and squeeze, she is leaning to try and see around Leirith, and then //looking at Nessalyn. "See? She's definitely onto something." But don't worry, that is PLAYFUL AMUSEMENT IN HER EXPRESSION, and then she's looking back to D'lei. "Definitely a good omen. What could possibly go wrong?" And she breaks apart from the Weyrleader, to move towards Meion with the kind of awkward smile that says she doesn't people so well, but she's trying. "Do you need help?" With the bags, she means. THEY CAN DROWN IN BAGS TOGETHER.
It's rather more of a flurry of activity than Meion expected she'd arrive into. She'd heard things were different here, but! She's not so fazed at hearing Leirith as might be expected - and she certainly heard the gold, taking a protective grip on both bags, even though that means she's probably not actually able to move either of them - or herself. "I've got them! But, um thanks." She looks up at the greenrider, who's already starting to look like leaving. "And thanks for the ride, dad." The green replies before her rider can, loud enough to be heard by the other dragons, «Hey, I did the carrying.»
Rinian hurries across the clearing, likely on yet another 'gofer' request for /that/ Journeyman. Sadly, just like with the stick, she is probably going to disappoint him again, because the scene in front of her is a lot to take in. It sort of shoves the 'have to do this' thought to one little part of her brain as she tries to make sense of what she is seeing. But something she is slowly coming to grips with since her own arrival here not that long ago, is that at Xanadu it seems pretty much anything can, and does, happen.
« Who else? » Garouth asks Leirith, because doesn't that make the fact that they're laughing at her all better? There's deep amusement under it, the rich scent and warmth of leaves decomposing against the forest floor. His head remains high, observing the new arrivals with a keen interest despite a relaxed posture. "Absolutely nothing," D'lei replies to Risali, and grins crookedly before he lets go hand to let her go and meet and greet and be social, because he's going to take a longer route to actually standing up, first reaching for a cane and then trailing fingers up Garouth's shoulder for a brace-point as he stands. Don't mind him, just pay attention to mustard-loud over there! D'lei makes his way around, and Garouth shifts to a seated position where he doesn't have to crane his neck. « All the way to Xanadu, » he observes to the green, then rises to his feet to pad closer to Leirith and investigate just how stuck she may be with a few nose-nudges at her side.
Rinian hurries across the clearing, likely on yet another 'gofer' request for /that/ Journeyman. Sadly, just like with the stick, she is probably going to disappoint him again, because the scene in front of her is a lot to take in. It sort of shoves the 'have to do this' thought to one little part of her brain as she tries to make sense of what she is seeing. But something she is slowly coming to grips with since her own arrival here not that long ago, is that at Xanadu it seems pretty much anything can, and does, happen. Her pace slows as she moves to join the group and add a greeting to the newest arrival.
There's only a 90% chance Nessalyn stole whatever is in her bag, okay? And the crafters up in the clock tower don't need all those cogs, anyway. "Obviously I'm laughing at you." The fact that the gold seems to be laughing with them is no deterrent to finding humor at the queen's expense. Especially when she starts wiggling. But that smile freezes awkwardly on her face when Leirith claims someone will put their eggs in her someday. "I don't-" She's at a loss for words, apparently. "No. That's not… no, Leirith." A shudder. Whether that's for the visual image of someone putting EGGS inside her, or just the thought of procreation in general is difficult to say. "Something," she echoes, fixing Risali with her trademark suspicious look. YOU'RE UP TO SOMETHING, RISA. SHE KNOWS IT. But while some people might move toward Meion to help with all those bags, Nessalyn does no such thing. If anything, she takes a step backward, putting more distance between herself and helpfulness. Then, "Riri! Go get that girl's bags so she can deliver Leirith's eggs. She's in the birthing position already." Everyone should take a moment to be grateful that no one tried to put Ness into the Healercraft.
SUP GREEN DRAGGO. « I BET YOU LOOKED BADASS DOING IT TOO. » That's not all decomposing against that forest floor, there are some feathers too - you know, those bits of Leirith that greet Garouth's amusement with her own and simply add to it instead of taking it over or fazing it out. « I WILL JUST HAVE TO HIT YOU WITH THE SILENT TREATMENT, THEN. » Oh no, Leirith. Anything but that. But she does it, she reels in that bombastic mindvoice to make it that sudden kind of quiet that leaves your ears ringing because it's almost too quiet now. And she lasts all of five seconds before she sees Rinian. « HELLO, NOT-WIFE! » BOOMBOOMBOOM. And for just a moment, those too-big eyes are zeroing in on Nessalyn. One, two, three. « THE SILVER-BLACK ONE. » You know, Kaellian. That's who she is saying is gonna plant them eggs awwwwyiiiiissss and it can TOTALLY BE ALIEN-STYLE. IF YOU'RE INTO THAT. Meion's denial for help has Risali pausing, that smile lingering as she dips her head and offers, "Are you sure?" BECAUSE LISTEN, MEION (which is super close to Minion, or so says Leirith). You look a little stuck. "I don't mind, honest." But it does give Risali a chance to stop being such a bad weyrmate and shift to head back towards D'lei if for no other reason than to hover and look concerned and pretend she's not. Except, you know, she puts a hand on his arm and then looks to Riri with a raise of one hand in a half-wave before answering Ness. "You did just both announce somebody delivering her eggs." AND LEIRITH BOOMS LAUGHTER, even as she tries to roll and fails but tries anyway. « THAT TICKLES, MINE. » Garouth, she means. With the nose touches.
The green LAUGHS, with eyes and mind-voice, attention taken from Meion's alleged ingratitude by the very large gold's comment. «Always!» Her rider adds to the more audible conversation. "I'd love to stay and help you unpack, but we've got enough deliveries to take us through to morning, and Her Greenness" - he gives an affectionate nudge to his dragon - "has this _thing_ about actually getting to sleep sometimes." So he blows a kiss down, as green and rider take skyward again. Meion seems to take dragon-sassing in stride, at least when compared to offers for help from friendly strangers! She stammers a little, realizes that she's not a convincing enough liar to say she can handle it alone, and - "Actually.. I probably do need a little help." A quick addendum. "If you really don't mind! Some of the stuff in there is fragile, though." And now she's already adding demands on when someone offered to help, how impolite of her! "Ah. I'm Meion, by the way. I'm - I've got a letter for -" she pulls it out from a pocket and checks the outside of the envelope. "D'lei and Risali? If you know where to find them." She has a terrible suspicion at least one is near, with such an imposing gold as Leirith around, but it's not apparent who!
D'lei puts his hand over Risali's, with a smile and then a lean in to give her temple a kiss. He's fine, really. As long as you ignore the cane and relative slowness of his motion… just like Leirith is fine as long as you ignore… well… ahem. Garouth gives Leirith another nudge, just to see if he can help invert-flip her like a nega-turtle, then stops with an exhaled huff of breath. « You may have to get comfortable, » he says, with a mental image of time passing in leaves falling and budding anew. « We can arrange a bucket brigade. » For the eggs, he means; like an oversized version of how people carry around their precious firelizard eggs. « Wire-hair can catch. » Everyone gets to help! D'lei gives a wave to Rinian as she approaches, then tugs his attention right back to Meion at the sound of… his name. "Well," he says, "That can be a challenge, sometimes." A half-beat, a sideways glance to Risali… and then a grin as his gaze returns to Meion. "Fortunately, you've succeeded."
Rinian doesn't even try to argue that Riri isn't her name. At least not with Ness, as it would be a losing battle. She's used to being told what to do, so she is quick to offer to Meion, "I'd be happy to lend you a hand." The rest takes a bit longer to process, and then she blinks back at Ness and then looks over to the wiggly footed gold. "Deliver Leirith's eggs?" Like, right here? Now? In the clearing? Like that? She's never been to a clutching or hatching but even so she's not sure that's quite…right. The not-wife greeting gets her to smile though even as she returns Risa and D'lei's waves. As usual, things she doesn't want to know about, she just ignores. Like eggs being put into Ness and such things. Nope. Ignorance is bliss.
Nessalyn knows perfectly well who 'the Silver-Black One' is and she is not. having. it. "He smells weird," she retorts waspishly. "And he can't keep up with me. Besides, I'm marrying Sylvarin." Or at least his desserts, which are the only true love in Nessalyn's life. Also, let's be real, the more often people try to get her into bed with Kaellian, the more determined the techcrafter becomes to have nothing to do with him. YOU CAN'T MAKE HER. "I'm being helpful," she informs Risali in a tone that is anything but helpful. She's probably up to no good, but she's forcing something that almost looks like a pleasant smile and announcing, "I'm Risali." She's definitely not Risali. "Welcome to my Weyr, where we light things on fire and hope for the best. Sometimes Leirith locks you in a tower and tells you she's going to eat you."
HELL YEAH, GREEN SISTER. That is most definitely the metaphysical version of a dragonvoice HIGHFIVE. KAPLOW! And while Garouth tests Leirith's level of stuckness, the gold WIGGLES HER FEET IN THE AIR, MOST USELESSLY. NOT AT ALL GRACEFUL. Because she is a disgrace and brings SHAME AND DISHONOR TO THIS HERE XANADU WEYR. « GREETINGS, MENION. » "Leirith, she said Meion." « THAT IS WHAT I SAID, MINION. MENION. IT IS LIKE MINION, ONLY BETTER. GAROUTH, THEY ARE GIVING ME MENION PRESENTS AND IT ISN'T EVEN MY TURNDAY. » Yep. Just… ignore the mustard-colored headache over here, who is laughing at her own jokes as her rider makes an expression full of apology but also a lot of resignation at Meion. "I'm…" ahem. "I'm sorry about her." Fingers grip D'lei's arm to squeeze as she presses into that kiss, as she returns it by pressing a kiss into D'lei's shoulder and then — well. That look from D'lei is getting returned, and Risali might have been about to say something but then NESSA GOES AND DOES IT. The Weyrwoman bites down on her bottom lip in a bid to not laugh and somehow doesn't correct the techcrafter. This is fine. Everything is fine. WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG? Instead, she says, "I really don't mind," around breathy not-quite-laughing-but-pretty-close-to-it amusement. AWAY FROM D'LEI SHE GOES, "What can I take for you?" Though she is saying, "NOT HELPING!" to Nessalyn, even if she is laughing. « I BELIEVE THEY CALL THOSE PHEROMONES, TICK TOCK. I BELIEVE THIS ONE IS GOING TO RISE SOON, GAROUTH. »
Rinian takes the not-filled-with-fragile-things bag from Meion, and, for all that she isn't very tall, hefts it with little trouble. Probably it has a lot to do with regularly hauling logs, boards and all sorts of heavy wood objects. "I'll leave it for you inside." With that she's off, and who knows, maybe she'll remember that thing she was supposed to do for that Journeyman. She actually a few paces off before she remembers to add over her shoulder, "Oh, I'm Rinian, by the way."
Meion looks about to assume that D'lei's comment makes him D'lei - and based on the way the one he's kissing is acting about Leirith, she's probably… Wait, no. It's the one with the bag of who-knows-what, apparently? She keeps both hands on the letter, just nodding as Rinian takes the more obviously movable bag, then turning to helpful not-Risali. "Um. That one has the equipment, mostly - it probably should end up near a computer terminal somewhere." Because they'll totally let her set up camp at one of those, right? She just ends up holding the letter out with both hands in a very formal version of desperately hoping someone appropriately-addressed will snatch it from her and resolve this confusion!
« It is your turnday, » Garouth declares to Leirith. « You are turned over, are you not? » Quite definitively so, and not easily turned back to upright! The brindle bronze sits, tucking his tail around his haunches as he does, and casts his gaze across the rest. « She must be very close to rising, » he says of Nessalyn, « if she wishes to bear as many children as Risali. » All the squirrels and chipmunks of the forest, and all their squeaky babies! D'lei, well… he looks rather surprised at Nessalyn speaking up, turning his head to her with an arch of brows as she continues, then glancing back to actually-Risali-maybe with a look that starts with some question and then ends with amusement. "Well," he says, as his gaze returns to Meion. "I am definitely D'lei." Or at least… that's what he says - but he does reach out to take that letter. He even goes to open it and read it, so if he's not D'lei, he's pretending to be in today's exciting round of Who's Really Behind That Door?
If Nessalyn is surprised that her ridiculous lie goes uncorrected by Risali, her face shows nothing of it. "I'm absolutely helping," she replies to the Weyrwoman, grinning just a little too wide as the woman passes by her. "We should make sure she gets every bit of computer equipment she needs. Let's just give her whatever we've got. Also, here." She shifts that bag off her shoulder, rolling it once that weight is no longer dragging her down. Apparently it was a bit more wearing than she let on. In a surprising show of generosity - or maybe she's just tired of carrying it - she offers up the bag to Meion. "Here. A traditional Xanadu welcoming gift." It's filled with clock cogs, ranging from the very tiny to palm-sized, and more than one person could conceivably need. "We expect you to do great things with these." She manages to be oh-so-formal and straight-faced until discussion of her 'rising' begins to get to her. "I don't want any children. Or eggs. They're all yours, Leirith. So's the Silver-Black One, he's yours too."
« THAT WAS ALMOST FUNNY, GAROUTH. » But it was funny because Leirith is laughing even as Risali returns D'lei's look, affects a half-shrug with a deviant smile, and still doesn't correct Nessalyn in an attempt to clarify who is actually who among those present. Risali does grab the aforementioned bag, watching Nessalyn approach and bequeath gifts that have Risali raising a brow and then tilting herself sideways to Meion. Shoulderbump. "Unless you want to be an unwitting accomplice to what was probably a crime, I wouldn't accept that." But it's a stage whisper, so that Nessalyn can hear it too before Risali hikes her burden up a little higher and sticks her tongue out at the techcrafter. Then it happens. « MINION. THE ONE WHO THINKS ALL OF THE LEATHERS SHOULD COME EQUIPPED WITH BUTTON-UP BUTT FLAPS HAS SAID THAT IT IS URGENT. HE IS ON YOUR DESK, ALONE, WITH NO CLOTHES ON. HE IS ALSO RUNNING HIS HANDS UP HIS — » "LEIRITH." BOOMBOOM. Risali winces, and then turns a scowl onto D'lei that's not really directed at him so much a silent communication of the eyes. "I'm going to murder him, Dash." But she moves to him, to go up on tiptoes and STEAL A KISS around an armful of things, and then she's turning back to Meion. "I'll get these where they need to go." A beat, and a smile - less awkward and more warm. "And I'm Risali, by the way. Don't let Nessalyn get you into trouble." ANOTHER LOOK FOR D'LEI, the kind that says she really is going to commit murder and then Risali is departing. First to deliver things! Then to go deal with D'merial. Leirith? Well, she… is falling asleep? She is. It's okay. They'll get her cleaned up eventually.
Meion quickly manages enough presence-of-mind in the face of chaos to realize that A) apparently the weyrwoman here has just walked off with her bags, B) said weyrwoman totally stood by while someone impersonated her, instead of pulling rank, C) the Weyrleader now has her letter of introduction and nobody has yet kicked her out, D) this bag of cogs is apparently not something she wants but, E) she seems to be holding it anyway, and F) what does a programmer even need with a backache-sized bag of cogs anyhow? This all adds up in total to her stammering out generally-addressed thanks all around, as she starts to rush after the real Risali. "I'll come too! I need to see where I'm going anyway.." This place is weird, but… but it seems like they're not chasing her from the weyr with pitchforks yet! She'll take it.
Garouth is not funny. Garouth is dignified. See him sitting here being all dignified? Yeah, that's him. D'lei, on the other hand, is not exactly laughing at D'merial's… demonstrations… but he's pretty close, even as Risali gives him those eyes. "Don't get blood on anything important," is his admonition to her, given along with a returned kiss, and then he looks up from that letter to… the place where Meion recently was, and where there is now an empty space shaped like her against a backdrop of empty space. "Mmh." His head turns, seeing her as she pursues Risali, then turns a bit more to see Nessalyn once more. "You know, if you want to impersonate her through a couple reams of paperwork, I'm sure that could be arranged," he says. "We'll even distract the kids while you do." NO BABIES. JUST BUREAUCRACY.
"I've never committed a crime in my life." Cue the hand over her heart and the exaggerated sense of scandal. HOW DARE YOU SPEAK THE TRUTH, RISALI. Nessalyn is not having it. Her feigned outrage continues even as she has to smother a laugh, because she now knows way more about this D'merial character than she ever needed to know. But she manages, somehow. She still looks deeply injured by the implications as Risali corrects some misconceptions and her bag of booty goes wandering off with the new arrival. At that point the expression drops, as her intent gaze follows the new girl so that she can chase after her after a short head start. She needs those cogs back, see. "Do you really want to let me do your paperwork? Think about that for a minute." It's not a no, though. SHE CAN TEAR DOWN THE SYSTEM FROM THE INSIDE. SOW THE SEEDS OF CHAOS BY HER OWN HAND. ETC. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I believe that Minion just stole my bag from me."
"Depends on the paperwork," D'lei says to Nessalyn with a slight smile. "But, go on. Save the Weyr from the terrible scourge of illicitly taken materials, and do something useful with them so we can pretend it's all worthwhile." A crooked smile. "Or at least something entertaining enough to distract us." He makes a shooing gesture to her, then makes his own way off in a different direction. Sweet freedom! (For now.)