It had taken days of preparation, many wheedling conversations with the cooks and compromises of favors, and more than one attempt to keep the gifting game fair, but it was finally all done. Lithena stood in the dining hall and admired her hard work. She couldn't throw everyone a Turnday party, as much as that would be so fun and provide an endless supply of parties (to the practical chagrin of all the boring people), so instead she had endeavored to accomplish the next best thing: throwing a party for everyone all on the same day. And they would all enjoy it and it would be close enough. Plus it was a fine excuse to have yet another giant party.
"Well, I have to hand it to you," Rilora commented, gift box in hand, as she looked around the room. "I didn't think you could pull this off."
"Your confidence in me is inspiring," Lithena quipped. "Well, try not to be Lady Gloom all evening," she shot back as she wandered off.
Rilora watched her sister go. It took a certain kind of comment to upset Lithena. "...sorry," she mouthed to herself. Lithena would get into the party and she'd swing by again to patch things up and it should all work out. But she didn't want to be the rain cloud on her sister's event. It was already pouring hard enough outside.
So both sisters set to walking about the beginnings of the party crowd, looking for people they wanted to talk to and for the ones they had gifts for.
R’le dashed to the party as quick as he could manage, but he had been a bit late. The rain was coming down good, and he had been out in it so it had taken a while to dry his hair out. After drying it had turned into a mass of frizz, so he had to fix that too. Still, it happened that he hadn’t gotten into too much of a mess time wise, so he wasn’t more than a few minutes late. He strolled into the Dining Hall, holding onto the gift he had, which was in a flat box. He kept it close, and started slipping through the crowd, to find his target. It was setting up to be a grand party, so it wasn’t like it was as simple as pointing to the person across the room. He passed by Mau, who was even now making her way around the party.
Mau was clutching a gift as well, which she had some time wrapping. It wasn’t that she was bad at wrapping gifts, it was just that she much preferred putting them in boxes or the like. The paper around her gift was somewhat crinkled, since she had been holding it to her chest as she looked for the recipient. She had worked rather hard on it, so hopefully the person liked it a lot? She would find out. Mau sighed lightly after a bit and went to find a place to sit down. If she just ran around like a chicken with her head cut off there wasn’t much in the way of fun to be had. Maybe she would sit for a while and find her friends or something. Then she could surprise them when they least expected it. Or something. She head toward a seat even as a man she didn’t recognize was enacting the headless chicken routine. She didn’t envy him.
Lan was quietly freaking out. He had a really hard time coming up with gifts, and he didn’t know anything about the person he had. Still, he had something, but that didn’t assuage his fears any. He looked somewhat freaked out, but he supposed he would just have to man up and give it to them. Not like he saw them. He supposed this was as good a time as any to become friends with some people who didn’t usually frequent the lower caverns at night but really, he was so nervous about the gift bit, he assumed he wasn’t going to have fun until it was passed on to its owner. For the time being he headed around the party, skirting the edges, and looking for the person he had drawn. He passed a man sipping on K’lah in the corner, wishing he could be so relaxed about the whole affair.
Cr’wean was enjoying his K’lah, sitting on a chair he had picked out and taken to this corner. Something sat next to him, which he had taken care to cover up. He was vaguely aware that he might want to be moving around and looking for the recipient, but he wasn’t about to carry his gift around everywhere. Rather he’d just wait until he caught sight of them, and flag them down. He sipped on his drink, pondering the gift he’d picked out. Ah well, even if it wasn’t any good, he was sure that at least something could be done with it. He continued drinking and pondered the merits of these sorts of things. Well, maybe it would be okay, or something. He was neither optimistic, nor pessimistic about his choice. It just remained to be seen what was in store for this party. He watched some of the people run back in forth, including a Cloudrider who looked vaguely familiar. He wondered why.
R’le sighed for a moment, stopping in the crowd. Where’d she run off to? R’le continued to look around before spotting someone and trotting over.
“Heya Rilora, what’s up?” R’le waved a bit as he approached, looking around for a moment. “How’s the party treating you?” Not who he was looking for, but certainly someone to talk to if he could help it.
Post by Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro) on Dec 16, 2012 14:23:50 GMT -8
T’kar was putting the finishing touches on his present. He thought it might be something that R’le would like, and chances were that even if it wasn’t, R’le would find something to do with it. It had taken some negotiations to get all the pieces to match, of course, but, that was the nature of getting presents that were more than one piece. He was sitting cross-legged on his cot, actually, tying the wrapping into place with a large bow while Shadow and Boot lay right next to him and Star sat on his shoulder and peered down at the package.
“I’ll see you later,” he told Ancalanath, rubbing the eyeridge that the RR Flame placed at head level to him.
Unless you spend the rest of the evening the way you hope to Ancalanath responded.
T’kar rolled his eyes as he started towards the party, his three firelizards trailing after him. He got there just in time to see R’le arrive, with frizzy hair that indicated a too-quick drying job. Once again, the Cloudrider was demonstrating that nothing could keep him from flying. Not even Ancalanath had wanted to attend practice that morning, and T’kar had used the excuse of preparing for the party to cut the practice short about three-quarters of the way through, something that he normally never would have done but, well, everyone had been wet, and the visibility had been singularly awful.
He looked around the room, not wanting to give R’le the gift just yet. He spotted Rilora, and started ambling over there. Of course, R’le had shared his idea, but…
“Shadow, rest here,” T’kar whispered, patting the wrapped package. The Black firelizard cocked his head to one side and trilled a question, but obediently landed on the package and stretched out, making it impossible to spot the name written on the wrapping, or the overall shape of the package.
Grinning, T’kar walked up to Rilora and R’le. “Having fun?” he asked them both, grinning. He wished Lithena was here, then he could say hello to three of his closest friends, all at the same time, but two out of three wasn’t bad.
K’tar was hiding in a corner, waiting to surprise Holt as soon as the chance presented itself. He was also keeping an eye out for D’zael and D’ziel, being as he had a gift for D’zael. He wished that there was going to be dancing. Not so much for participating himself, as because getting Holt and Mau to dance together at the Turnover party had been such a fun activity.
More than a few forms had shown up, but only one of them was currently moving, her target seated in the corner, as was, she'd figured, typical of him. Humming softly uner her breath, she halted as someone went striding by, recognizing T'kar and inclining her head respectfully to her Wingleader and Weyrleader before contining forwards. "Hello Cr'wean," she said lightly, moving to lean against the wall near his seat, careful not to catch the dual toned tail of her Firelizard, seated on her shoulder. Chantelaube was listening to the gathering with interest, and Ylara could sense the flitter wondering if music would be played as it had at the last human Gathering she had attended.
Seated silently, her copper hair firmly tied back in a braided laced with a dark blue and silver ribbon, Adelia was watching the gathering quietly, trying to figure out what had triggered Lithena to do this. She knew the Two-Tonerider enjoyed a good party, and she guessed that the woman had found some excuse or other to convince her sister to let her do it, but still. The Dreamweyrling sighed and turned her head slightly, resting her cheek against the blue side of the one laying around her neck. Beam had been feeling unwell, which had her concerned, and the Sunlance was currently being snuggled in a sling curled around the girl's neck, shivering slightly every now and again. Adelia had yet to figure out what was wrong with her, and was seriously considering taking her to one of the Dragonhealers for help, not being as fully trained in that capacity as she might like.
In the corner, in the darkness, stood a tall figure, his pale blue eyes watching the Gathering intently, amusement shining in their depths. A toss of his head sent golden blond hair, tinged only faintly with red, to gleaming faintly, and he debated moving forwards, more fully into the light, then chose not to. He was fairly sure there were still a few who were unhappy with him over the way the Watch-Wher Hatching had turned out, and he'd rather not invite their ire on a day that was supposed to be for fun.
Querin was quiet, jet eyes intense on the Gathering, from where he was seated near the Hearth, humming softly under his breath, the tune a lullaby his mother had taught to him. His thoughts had turned inwards, and he was thinking, again, of the story he'd heard from the aging Lifewingrider, and what it might mean. He knew that to focus so fully on it would not be wise, so had forced himself to NOT do so as often as possible. But he was still curious. Where had the feather gone? What had happened to it?
D'rien was humming as he slipped through the crowd, just waving at people, saying the occasional "hi" here and there. For the most part though, the AuroraWeyrling wasn't really stopping to talk to anyone in particular. His target was near, but she was distracted, and he hesitated, not sure if he really wanted to bother her at that moment. She had power, and the ability to make the decision he was wondering about, but still... She was the WEYRWOMAN for pete's sake. Probably not all that inclined to give her time to a Weyrling who was still wondering what was going to happen to him and his Aurora when Rayneth gained the ability to fully fly...
It might come as a shock to anyone who knew Dalonia Jindarex at Rainbow Mists that despite the grumbling, scowls and general bad attitude, the young woman took her job rather seriously. She might loathe her charges and the very presence of her own wher most of the time but that never stopped her from doing her job and doing it well--something that had gotten her into the predicament of training the newest class of wherlings in the first place. So, when she'd been lurking in the corridors like the anti-social grump that she was and just happened to overhear a conversation involving sensitive subject matter--namely the entire reason she was trapped in this little bit of paradise--of course her first instinct had been to keep it to herself out of spite. However, after a few days thinking it over and instinctively trying to discover if the information would be of use to Tiberax she'd decided that it was probably best--however grudgingly she might have thought so--that she inform the Weyr of the potential of the murderer being right under their very noses.
Of course, the day that she'd finally chosen to share the precious details of the overheard conversation also happened to be the same day as some ridiculous celebration. For hours after getting up--just after noon--it had been impossible to find anyone of import to relay the information to. So, by the time she'd just decided to wait until the party itself, she was in a bit of a mood. Snippy, spiteful creature that she was, when the time came for people to gather, she lurked in what shadows she could find, watching and waiting for one in particular. If she was going to ruin the fun for someone she knew exactly which someone that would be.
Having long since given up hope that she'd keep DarkBlue Klutz from clinging to her, Dalonia had fashioned a pair of shoulder guards out of leather that were held in place by a pair of straps that criss-crossed over her chest and sported a set of five throwing knives--Dalonia never went unarmed and was always more heavily armed than one might think at first glance--and the small, clumsy creature clung to the thick material, head swiveling to take in her surroundings. Thief, however, remained perched on a vantage point somewhere above the woman, effectively keeping an eye on everything and everyone for his mistress. Klutz might be good for nothing but at least the brown was good for something.
After several minutes of waiting and purposefully avoiding eye contact with anyone who thought she might actually be there to join in the festivities--she wasn't exactly dressed for the part--she finally spotted her target and a faint smirk twitched on her lips as though fighting her for freedom. Pushing away from the corner she'd settled herself in, she slipped through the steadily growing crowd, a dark and slightly predatory shape in a blur of bright colors and shining faces.
Slipping up behind the Weyrleader, Dalonia cleared her throat softly, her features settling into the stony yet slightly annoyed mask that was so commonplace. She didn't say a single word but rather waited for the man to acknowledge her; lurking behind him. Thief, sensing his mistresses discomfort at being in such an exposed position, swooped down and ousted Klutz from her spot and took up a position facing over the woman's shoulder, his tail coiling around the front of her neck. Her only acknowledgment of the trade off was a faint twitch of a muscle beside her nose. Though she had to admit that they were essentially useful, Dalonia still wished that Dalosk would just eat the lot of them...or maybe his rejected spawn would do the honors; that Citrine seemed to go after anything she could fit in her mouth.
Post by Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro) on Dec 23, 2012 6:45:07 GMT -8
Star, who had perched on T’kar’s shoulder, turned around when he sensed the approach of violent-lady and brown-attacker and dark-blue-attacker. This wasn’t right, they should leave His alone to enjoy himself. So it was that when Dalonia cleared her throat, Star hissed, his eyes whirling a furious red. This one had no business bothering His!
Like most people who make a regular practice out of the art of combat, T’kar was generally aware of, by some means or other, when somebody was in close proximity with him. He knew someone was close behind him, even before that person cleared her throat, but it wasn’t until Star hissed that he pivoted slightly and stepped back, so that the other person would be a part of the group. Needless to say, he was not the best pleased to see a rather un-festive looking Dalonia, with what looked like an armory’s worth of throwing knives.
This had better be good, T’kar thought. “WherHandler Dalonia, is something wrong?” he asked. He hoped it wasn’t about that poor little Citrine wher, but then again, he rather doubted that Dalonia would willingly involve him in anything to do with that, considering the effort he’d had to go to to discover what had happened.
R’le’s gaze shifted to T’kar as he spoke, and naturally stepped to one side to form a proper circle. He looked pleased, now that both the Sr. Weyrleaders were here. He was glad to be friends with them, less pleased that they were busy all the time. Ah well, they were both here now, and he got to chat.
“Heya T’kar. I’m certainly having fun, how’s the party treating you?” He grinned, though it flittered somewhat when he spotted Burn coming from Between. Clingy flitter was clingy, but he would stay mostly quiet. That and he had been smart enough to stay put until R’le was in the party, since he didn’t want to be very wet. So when Burn attached himself to his shoulder, he merely gave him a pet and went to gauge his friends again. And look around for Lithena. Hmm.
The Cloudrider noticed when a woman came over to the circle, intent on T’kar. Two firelizards also caught his attention, but his gaze rested on the knives that the woman wore. R’le’s face seemed to become a brighter smile as T’kar turned to the woman, who he identified as Dalonia. R’le was, to those who didn’t know him, looking happier about this new woman. To those who did, he was annoyed. The way he changed from an excited energy to a subdued smile was proof of that. Judging from the uncomfortable formality with which T’kar addressed her, it meant that this was work, and that meant less time for fun. R’le didn’t like that at all.
---
“Hello Ylara. Enjoying the party?” Cr’wean took one last sip from the mug before turning it down to look at the Woodrider. He noted the two-toned firelizard, who was looking about with interest. It actually reminded him that he should continue to sit here. However, after a moment, he realized that just leaning on the wall might be uncomfortable (or rather he supposed that to be the case, since he didn’t mind) so he piped up again.
“Would you like a chair? I think I can steal one for you quickly.” Cr’wean got up, and would go grab one quickly if she accepted the offer.
"I am indeed, although Chantelaube would prefer there were more music," she replied lightly, using her cheek to lightly touch the flitter's back and let him know of whom she spoke. The Citrine-Pink chirred adoringly at her, then looked around again, and the Woodrider smiled faintly for the LifeWingrider's offer. "I would appreciate that, but not at the expense of someone else." She glanced around, then shrugged. She would appreciate the seat regardless, she thought, so waited while he decided from where to obtain one.
“Eh.” Cr’wean made a non-committal noise in response to Ylara talking about her firelizard. He didn’t have a pet, and he liked music to a certain extent, just not as much as he was supposed to. Lifewings and all that. “Who knows what they have planned. I didn’t pay much attention.” He really hadn’t. Part of it was he had only come because Cyan had asked him to, and now she was… Gah. He would have to sort out his sister eventually. He didn’t know what to do about it now, and he had agreed to give a gift.
“I can manage that. Guard that please.” He motioned to the gift that was covered with a jacket. He hadn’t had a better idea. With that he headed into the party, having spotted a target before.it was a chair, looking relatively unguarded, though there was a tangent group he supposed might have a claim.
“Hey, you guys using this?” A few people turned to look at him and he got a few head shakes. “Okay then.” He slid the chair away and slipped back to his chosen corner before they could decide a friend of theirs might be coming so maybe it was better safe than sorry. He was back with the chair after a minute or so and slid it against the wall next to where Ylara was standing.
“There you are.” He flopped promptly back into his own chair, glancing around to see if he recognized his target. He didn’t see them, but he had spotted a familiar looking Purple weyrling. Hmmm. He would keep an eye on K’tar then. He and Holt hung out some, or at least that was his recollection.
It had taken Saphireth a good two hours to convince Elora to actually wrap her gift instead of wrapping herself and claiming that it was a gift. Suggestive reminders of her new relationship with N'kio and her fragile relationship with most of the Weyr was all that kept her from the 'joking' gift.
But it was successful, and Elora had eventually wrapped her present, a mess of cloth pulled into a bag form holding a handful of ripped paper and a small card promising a free meal next time the receiver went to Cliffside Sea Hold. (She hadn't used the need to buy a present as a point to visit Cliffside in an attempt to see N'kio, of course. She just needed a present.)
(She hadn't seen him.)
(She hated that she had been disappointed.)
But now she was inching her way into the dining hall, and though she was normally a creature of social and gossip, Elora lingered on the sidelines. Even with Saphireth, some people in the Weyr remembered the rumors of how she had gotten there.
D’ziel was carrying a box, taking great care to keep it upright. He was sort of rubbish with gifts at times. If he had gotten Dan, or even Holt or K’tar, that would have been different. But he hadn’t. So he slipped into the party, careful to not upset the gift inside. He looked around for a minute to gauge the party. He could see some of his fellow Weyrlings about, most notably K’tar. The purple Weyrling was alone (for the moment) since he didn’t see Chan about. More notable, he didn’t spy Holt or Dan. Too bad. He was about to head over to chat with K’tar when he spied Elora, looking relatively uninvolved in the party. Huh. His gaze flipped back to K’tar for a moment before walking over to talk with her instead. K’tar would be fine by himself. He wasn’t sure about Elora.
“Hello Elora. Haven’t seen you for a while.” He freed one of his hands to give her a small wave as he approached, but then returned his hand to steady the box he had. “How have you been?” D’ziel more mellow at the moment, since that was his natural inclination when he didn’t have to sit still in a seat. Pounce was not with him, since it was raining outside after all, and she had a nice Moonlight dragon to bother back at home. Felines. So he got to focus on the party and having fun rather than worrying overmuch on his pet or his dragon. He could worry about Dan though, if he got too late in coming. He was allowed.
“Me? Just fine. Bit worried about the gift thing. Not too bad though.” He smiled, even if he was worrying. He was allowed to be nervous about the gift. Considering. “Pounce is hiding from the weather. I’m pretty sure that I’ll get an earful from Hocteth in a minute about how she is trying to steal his spot or something.”
Shall I begin my complaints now, or wait for more offenses? D’ziel tried not to flinch, but didn’t really succeed.
Later please… He didn’t know, nor want to know what Hocteth was finding annoying now.
“Oh this.” He looked down at his box and smiled sheepishly. “It’s for the Sr. Weyrwoman actually. I hope she likes it.” Now it was obvious why he was a bit worried about the ‘gift thing’. “What about you? Have you seen your target yet?”
"Oh, I don't have a target." Elora patted the cloth bag fondly with a shrug. "It just always feels strange to come to a party empty handed. So I brought this. And if I see somebody who doesn't get a gift, well, I suppose they can get this one."
It sounded like she had set out to do a nice thing. That wasn't it at all.
But hey, if a nice thing should occur, that would be great.
“Really?” D’ziel looked surprised for a moment, but broke into a smile a moment later. “That’s great. I’m sure there is someone out there who will really appreciate it.” His smile faded somewhat and a brief sigh escaped him. Pounce and Hocteth…
“Get along is relative. Pounce really does like Hocteth, but she can be a bit of a…well she’s a feline. Therefore, everyone and everything is hers and that means people have to do things her way. Hocteth wants everything to be proper and Pounce isn’t. Well to him anyway. I swear she antagonizes him on purpose.” After a moment he shrugged mildly. “Still, as far as I can tell, Hocteth doesn’t really hate Pounce, he just really likes to tattle on her.”
Hmph. D’ziel could tell that the Moonlight did not agree with the assessment, but wasn’t presenting an alternate argument. Made D’ziel think he had got it just right.
“Take my advice, if your dragon really likes things to be orderly, don’t get a pet unless you are really, really sure they will behave. Less headaches all around.” It was pretty obvious that despite headaches, he wasn’t wishing away either his feline or dragon.
D’ziel looked up toward the center of the party, observing some of the people that weren’t hunting down others to give gifts. There were a few people dancing, in time to the songs being played. A question presented itself to him, as he readjusted his attention.
“Do you dance Elora?” It was a mild question, the way he said it. He thought she might be the kind of person who would dance, but wasn’t sure. He was rather confident that she was the kind of person other men wanted to dance with, that was for sure.