Log file from Sissi.

13/04/01 08:33:40

This thin strip of cozy sand lines the southwestern rim of the Weyr, leading from the cave-in northward almost to the fence of the feeding pens, where the lake carves out some water for the herdbeasts. Cliff to one side, water to the other, there's no direct Bowl access other than by air or through the lake itself; thus, particularly in colder weather, it's often a good, quiet place to think. In warmer weather, however, relaxing (and drying off) on the beach proves to be a delightful pastime, serenaded by the assorted bugles and splashes of dragonkin revelling in the lake. At the end opposite the herdbeasts, the sand becomes a little grassy, with even a clump here and there.

It is a spring before dawn. Hazy clouds warm the sky.

Shendti's perched, buddha-esque in the pre-dawn light, upon one of the rocks nearer the water's edge, watching Naevyth - recognisable only by the brilliant silver-streaks that flash through the water - splashing about happily. That gives it away too.

Klimth gets just enough out of the lake to let Sissi slide off his neck and down into the shallows, hollering a "Morning!" to any of the early morning out and about dragons, people or firelizards; scrubbing is over now, so she'll relax.

Naevyth warbles a throaty greeting to Klimth, submerging until only the tip of her muzzle sticks out of the water as Shendti waves vigorously back. "Heya Sissi!"

Klimth trumpets a far-too-bright morning greeting in return, then settles to lounge right there, neither in the water nor out of it, and Sissi flounders along knee deep in the water over towards Shendti. "Yours gets up at the crack of dawn as well, does she?"

K'rill's words must've had some effect--Shendti's wearing that detestable outfit and /enjoying/ it. "Yep." She says, none too miserable about it either, kicking water about with bared feet. "There's interesting company, this early."

Shendti

Trim of frame, with muscles toned by unwonted exercise, the ineffable charm which flaunts itself along her tall frame clings as well to tanned features in the guise of an oft displayed dimple and smirk. Illusionary innocence captures thick-lashed eyes of mocha deception; an illusion only, for gold's corruption tints them as surely as the blonde which streaks tawny curls, their length shorn messily to curl about chin and ears, sweeping over smooth brow.

Low cut to the point of indecency, a vivid shade of scarlet flaunts itself eye-catchingly along the even more attention-grabbing curves of the tightly cut top, ebony threading webbing through the flared-from-wrist-over-hand sleeves. Tighter still are the black pants, light-retarding hide fitting snug as a second skin to her leg, tucked under the tops of tightly laced knee-boots.

Shendti is 20 Turns and 14 days old.

Sissi lets out a sound that might be some sort of a suppressed laugh. "Late at night's the /really/ interesting company, but then again at this time of the day the lake's not chock a block full, and Klimth doesn't like it too busy, especially not now the sun's out so much." She clambers up onto a rock, dripping and fairly dishevelled, and flops, pretty much the same way as her lifemate did on the shore's edge.

Sissi

Her chestnut-brown hair is untidily cut in a variety of lengths which average out around her jawline, undecided between frizzy and straight, but decidedly a mess; framing a thin face in which bright blue eyes tend to sparkle mischievously from under asymmetrical eyebrows and an old broken nose makes all her features look a tad awry. Only just edging on the tall side of average, her figure nevertheless reminds one of a beanpole - seemingly thin to the point of unhealthiness.

The assistant weyrlingmaster's tassels of black and brown are disguised, just about, by the twist of blue wrapped around them, the whole concoction clinging helplessly to her shoulder.

It was once a white sleeveless dress, about a size too big for her, hem cut up to around mid-thigh, and worn with her old patched-up navy trous and scuffed-up boots. An indigo chiffon blouse worn over the top, not buttoned, just knotted together above her waistline, keeps the sun off her shoulders.

Sissi is 26 Turns, 9 months, and 16 days old.

Shendti leans over to scoop some lake-water over her face and hair, then flicks freshly drenched curls back out of her eyes to smirk at Sissi. "Ahh, but late at night you meet the drunks. Early in the morning you meet the people with out-of-control hormones and the people with hangovers." She mulls over this for a moment, toes swirling through the water, then: "But drunks can be pretty interesting, I'll cede you that."

Sissi wonders, lying on her stomach, legs kicking up behind her, "And you're the former or the latter?" Eyeing that scarlet top, she's not sure she can quite tell.

Naevyth flicks her tailtip through the water, sending a spray of water in Shendti and Sissi's directions, humming an invitation to Klimth to come and join her as Shendti replies, rolling on her stomach to imitate Sissi's posture, "Hard to say. I could be drunk, but right now that's remarkably like sober, so..." She shrugs off the ending, resting her chin on her clenched hands to eye Sissi mischeviously. "Take your pick."

Sissi looks Shen in the eyes and replies flatly, "I wouldn't know, but then maybe proddy's a mixture of both." And Klimth, he's creeping, slowly, seamlessly sliding in, down into the water, snout submerged and blowing bubbles that rise to the surface by the dozen.

"I think so." Shendti agrees after just a fraction of a pause where she decides whether to take offence or not, then smiles. "And you, you don't have to go through this -" A gesture of both hands, towards herself and Naevyth, who's slipping through the water to blow gentle bubbles in Klimth's direction - "But there must be a downbeat to riding blue?"

Klimth slides through the water, angling himself head on to Naevyth, increasing the rate of bubble blowing with something of a professional air. Sissi lays her head on her arm, casting a glance sideways towards both dragons for an instant, then laughs. "Proddy's downbeat? Some of them relish it, you know." Sissi discounts the fact that Shendti is, indeed, 'one of them,' before deciding, "Oh no, no. Blue's perfect. Klimth's perfect. It's just the /Weyr/ I can't stand."

"So I've seen," Shendti murmurs wryly, laughing softly. "The /weyr/? Why not?" This coming from the girl who spends much of her time up in her own private little hole. "--Well, proddy is a buzz." She admits after a moment, pushing off the rock and into the water to emerge a few feet away.

Sissi agrees, "Bzzzzzzzzz," curling up on her side, she's staying right there. "The Weyr? Oh, it's not the place, the place is, well, I suppose it's good enough, but... all the people, and all the - the /organisation/." She's resigned, these days, but still will give her two-eighths of a mark: "It's pointless, and it's stupid, and it's boring."

Comprehension dawns: "The people." Shendti flicks water-sopped hair back, swimming a few strokes then rolling over to drift on her back. "Any people in particular?"

Naevyth's headed for the deeper portion of the lake, twisting and darting like so many fish beneath the surface.

Klimth chugs along the surface, slow and sure, not given to too much exertion at this point. Just blowing bubbles, and tail revolving like a paddle-steamer wheel: whisking.

Sissi rolls on her stomach a bit, ever so slightly side to side. "It's not the people. It's the /positions/. They start telling you what to do and then, you know. They get all worked up about it."

"Then, if you don't do what they want, they start giving threats." Shendti agrees as Naevyth sinks deeper, paddling back towards her rock. "And then if you ignore the threats, they get all...puffed up." She knows. "Fort Hold was worse."

Sissi wrinkles her nose, saying decidedly, resignedly, "It's the same everywhere." She perks up at the thought of Fort, though. "But it's fun to go to Fort, and tell them all sorts of misleading information. There it's all right. They can't do anything to you personally."

Shendti's interest is piqued by this, and as she hauls herself back up onto the rock she asks, "What kind of information?" She wants details, examples - brows slant down over bright eyes as she muses over that.

Sissi has to remember, now? "Oh, you don't tell them anything. You just pretend to know things, and then not tell them. And - oh, what's her name - Teresa? She's /paranoid/." Sissi giggles.

"Terise," Shendti clarifies with an almost visible lift to her interest. "I'll have to remember that." Get some revenge for the curtailing of her dyeing. "What about Sabin?"

Sissi thinks about that, for a bit. "Don't think I've run into him much," she decides, eventually. "I'm not given with remembering all of who they are and what they get up to, I don't care that much, besides some amusement."

"Well, it certainly provides me with a personal reason to go and 'check' on those dear Holders." Shendti murmurs, properly amused by the idea and smirking. "--Would would be good things to imply but not say, do you think?"

Naevyth bursts out of the centre of the lake, sending up a spray of droplets that glimmer briefly about her, then she slides back into the water, warbling softly.

Sissi shrugs, "You just have to be vaugue. Imply that you know what they're up to." She grins, cheerfully, "They're always up to something, probably no good, either, but I don't care. Do you think they infected the herdbeast? I wouldn't put it past them."

"I don't think they have the brains." Shendti replies happily, though she adds thoughtfully: "Though theirs /is/ the only stock that seems to be unaffected."

It /must/ be a conspiracy. "And they were up at the Weyr not so long ago," Sissi points out, gleefully. "Once they start offering us herdbeast at inflated prices, we'll know it's them. In fact," she muses, "Next time Klimth wants herdbeast, we might just have to pop down to their herds and get a couple. At night, of course."

"Their blood won't be contaminated, right?" Shendti asks, a horrible thought having suddenly occured to her. Then she dismisses it, settling comfortably onto her now-wet rock. "We can always 'borrow' a few herdbeast."

Sissi shakes her head, now firmly with a thought of conspircay planted in her head. "Oh no, I'm sure they'll have made sure of that. And we can do right down to the south of the demesne, too. It'll definitely be safe down there."

"It would be just the sort of thing that they'd do...and I bet they'll blame it on someone else." Shendti agrees, wringing the water out of her clothes with tense hands. "At least the wherries are still okay, right?"

Sissi opines, "Dragons cannot live by wherry alone, though." Or maybe 'cannot' should be 'should not'. "Of course. They'll blame it on us. Or at least on the Weyrleaders. At least we're out of it."

Shendti tilts her head towards where Naevyth is engaged in drifting about in wing-propelled circles, "Naevyth says they could eat fish as well, but just think of how /much/ fish they'd have to eat. Plus, fishy-breath. What about Ista's herds?" Maybe they could move to Ista.

Sissi says, surprisingly loyal for her, "Istan herdbeast doesn't taste as good. Besides, the Istans never notice when you've stolen some, much less care. That's no fun."

"And if we borrow from the Hold, Terise will be thrown into a right tizzy." Shendti finishes, looking gleefully out into the centre of the lake to call: "Naevyth darling, how'd you like a change of diet?"

Sissi thinks about that. "We'd better let them know that we're borrowing, then. Daylight raids." She does'nt bother to ask Klimth, she knows he'll be quite up for it.

Shendti beams at her lifemate in pleased surprise, "Quite right darling." She turns back to Sissi with a positively evil look; "She says that it's only proper that they should support their weyr in times of need." A beat. "And it solves the problem of fishy breath too."

"Stuff proper," Sissi says, cheerfully, "but anything to avoid fishy breath. Not to mention that fishy smells linger in the Weyrs for /days/..."

Shendti shudders, "Fish is possibly on par with numbweed for stink."

Sissi shakes her head, "It's worse. Far, far worse. Oily and greasy and you can't get away from it. Numbweed's bearable." Or at least has to be, coming from a one-time healer apprentice.

"I don't like their eyes," Shendti admits, writing finger-patterns across her rock and watching them dry. "They're so cold, so...dead?"

Sissi shrugs, quite eloquently, "That's just the way they are. Used to go fishing in the river, when I was little. It wasn't very surpising, then, that they didn't look friendly."

Shendti glances upwards and at the just rising sun, giggling a trifle too lightly. "Friendly fish..." Someone is a little too tired.

Dessa muses. "I like fish. Cooked fish, anyway. Not sure about piles of dead fish just lying there..."

"The only /nice/ fish," Shendti opines, "Are fried fish, and even that's open to debate." She dashes back a curl of dry hair, and peeps out again towards where Naevyth's playing in the centre of the lake.

Sissi agrees, still all flopped out, ungainly, all over that rock. "They're only nice when you don't have to do the cooking."

Shendti rolls back off her rock, to stand waist-deep in the water. "Speaking of fish, I'm going to go grab some breakfast before too many people make it down there." So saying, she waits as Naevyth splashes inwards for her rider to mount.

Shendti swings up to Naevyth's neck, settling between two neckridges, and smiles down to her lifemate.

"Fish for breakfast?" Sissi puts a hand to her tummy in protest. "/Ugh/! I think I'm going back to bed."

Naevyth ducks her head to thrum a soft goodbye, then launches with a swift downstroke of too brightly silvered wings into the sky.