Conspiring can be fun [74.11.14] (K'tar)

[Shoki]

Mau was certainly enjoying being a Senior Weyrling. The hall elective she’d picked was for the Tailorcraft Hall, and she found it messed really well with her other skills. She was used to making things for people, since she had a large circle of friends and they all had Turndays at some point. She had actually been thinking about Turndays while working on her elective stuff and now had to track down K’tar. She was currently hunting through the Weyrling barracks for him, as that was the first place she could think of. Hammer was following her, always interested in what she was doing. As promised, the Tiger had gotten very big, very fast and now he was well trained in carrying letters. Beat still came to the Weyr from time to time, to deliver letters from her parents, but now Hammer was always at her side when he wasn’t off to some Hold or another on a delivery. He certainly had a strong personality over Beat’s mellow nature, and she rather liked him for it.

Should I just flag down Viarith? It will be faster. Quimyenth was very much eager to help Mau with anything that was fun. The Green Dragoness was now shown to be a very large for her color, but she had lost none of her hyper energy yet. Qui loved flying, and any excuse to practice, but for the time being she was focused on Mau’s interesting goal for the day.

Mau sighed a bit then nodded. Best you do that. Thanks Qui.

No trouble at all Mau. Qui’s tail flicked back and forth while she sent a message out to the Purple dragon. Viarith, could you tell me where K’tar is? Mau’s looking for him.

In the meantime Mau continued out into the WeyrBowl, not wanting to waste time. K’tar could be very unpredictable in his movements. That’s just kinda what made him K’tar she supposed. She continued looking, the neon Tiger flitter trying to help out the best he could.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

Now that Senior Weyrlinghood has arrived, K’tar spent a great deal of his time out and about, flying and exploring with Viarth. Certainly, he spent almost no time cooped up in the Barracks, though that was also because if one stayed in the Barracks, there were always extra chores being handed out. K’tar had no real intrinsic objection to working, but he did view it as a necessary evil to be completed as quickly as possible. Therefore, it was no particular surprise that he and Viarth were out and about, nosing around Stormy Plains, actually, having just dropped by to say hello to Jatheiron, when Qui’s message came through.

K’tarMine, Green-friend-Qui says that classmate-friend-Mau seeks us. Viarth stilled his wings, coasting on a thermal so that he could focus on talking, rather than flying.

Why would she be looking for us? K’tar cast his mind around, but he couldn’t think of anything that he’d left undone recently, and this couldn’t possibly be because of the fact that he’d told the instructor for “intermediate between” that class had been cancelled, because the odds were that the instructor hadn’t mentioned that to anyone who’d know better, and besides, if they found out about that, he’d be getting a call from the Weyrling master, not a classmate. It couldn’t be about his re-writing the punishment records either, because there was no way that anyone knew that that had been him.

K’tarMine? You feel concerned-worried…

Nothing’s wrong, tell her we’ll be in the WeyrBowl.

Qui? We come. We will be in the WeyrBowl momentarily. Even as Viarth finished speaking, he was picking the home-visual out of K’tar’s mind. The next instant, they were enveloped between.

Cold between stole K’tar’s breath, as always, and then they appeared over the WeyrBowl, circling downwards. He thought he saw Mau below, but he wasn’t certain. He habitually checked to see if Holt was present, but he saw neither his friend, nor Korith. They must be out doing something, he thought, following Viarth’s movements instinctively as the now almost full-grown Purple glided downwards and prepared to backwing.

[Shoki]

Thanks Viarith. We’ll be there. Qui wasn’t too far from the WeyrBowl anyway, so she figured she could hang out now that Mau wasn’t running around inside. Mau, they are gonna be at the WeyrBowl soon.

Okay. Mau got comfortable where she was, out on the edge so that she didn’t get in the way. She held out her arms and Hammer landed in them, sitting up as she stroked him. The Tiger loved to be pet. Mau swore that she could feel him purr just like a feline but he didn’t seem to think he did. She was standing like that when Qui made her appearance, and then moved to the edge along with Mau. Soon enough a Purple dragon appeared over the Weyrbowl and Mau smiled. Good, looked like K’tar was here. She went closer, but not too close as Viarith landed, still holding Hammer.

“Hey K’tar. Enjoy your flight?” Mau looked friendly as usual, but was glancing around the Bowl. No Holt or Korith. Excellent. “Mind if we talk for a bit?” She gestured to where Qui was sitting, Hammer obligingly taking to the air so she could more easily talk with her hands so to speak. “I thought it would be good since apparently class is cancelled. Did you hear any reason why?” Light conversation aside, she obviously had something else to talk about, and was just chatting for something to say in the meantime.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

No sooner had Viarth started his downward circle then Qui came into sight, making the young woman standing below at the edge of the WeyrBowl Mau for certain. Viarth landed smoothly; really, there were so many better ways to learn flight than hours of lessons in which one simply repeated in utter boredom things that had already been done successfully several times.

“As a matter of fact, I did,” K’tar replied, sliding off his flight helmet as he spoke. Mau glanced around in what K’tar might have thought was a furtive manner, if it were someone else doing the glancing. He wasn’t sure that Mau even knew what furtive was, let alone how to be it. She snapped out of it quickly though, asking if they could talk for a bit, with a gesture towards where her Green, Qui, was sitting. With an amused smile, K’tar noted that the neon Tiger firelizard, Hammer, had obviously learned his mistress’s tendency to talk with a great many gestures, for he had taken off to hover above them as Mau started speaking.

“No, I don’t mind,” K’tar answered. There was a hint of curiosity in his tone, inevitable really, given that he and Mau, while having talked before, were not really so close as to seek each other out if there were others present. Then came Mau’s next sentence. For a brief moment, K’tar knew panic. Had Mau been asked to get information out of him? It was gone before it even really had time to rise though, and he was giving her the lie he’d already decided to use before he truly consciously realized he was speaking.

“No, I only heard it had been cancelled. Why, did they tell you the reason?” K’tar had started walking towards Qui as he spoke, Viarth trailing him on his left (the far side from where Mau was).

Have you and Yours enjoyed the free time, Green-friend-Qui? Viarth inquired as he trailed his rider over towards the Green. He wished that he could reveal his rider’s clever part in it, but he knew that that would only lead to bad-thing-chores.

[Shoki]

Mau smiled in response to K’tar. Flight was still fairly new and fun in the grand scheme of things so it was still a big thrill for her, so she wasn’t too surprised K’tar wasn’t bored with it yet. Hammer looped around lazily before heading ahead of Mau to Quimyenth. Mau merely smiled and started walking toward her dragoness with K’tar’s approval.

“No, didn’t hear anything. Then again, I’ve been using some of my free time to work on projects, so I haven’t been able to ask anyone really. Tera didn’t know.” Mau had been working on making a serviceable pouch, something that could go around a belt loop. Not fancy, but it was something useful that she could make with some effort. Which of course, had got her thinking.

Yes we have. Mau is making stuff for her paper-friends and I got to fly around with Hammer. Qui’s eyes betrayed her joy. She could get Hammer to play with her, though she had to take care with that. It was still fun to play tag as well as she could. He was pretty slippery when he wanted to be though. What about you? Did you go anyplace special flying?

Mau looked around again as they got toward the edge of the Bowl, just to see if anyone was listening in on her was around. Making sure there wasn’t she properly turned to K’tar and carefully kept her question at a perfectly reasonable (and not easily overheard) volume.

“Right. So I had a question for you. When is Holt’s Turnday? I thought you might know.”

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

K’tar shrugged in response to the — expected — negative answer as to whether Mau had known why class had been cancelled. After all, there hadn’t been a reason, although now that he thought about it, K’tar decided that he definitely needed to decide where he would say that he heard class was cancelled, so that if the instructor did find out that it hadn’t been officially called off, he wouldn’t get into any trouble.

We went to visit powerful-friend-Jatheiron, and we got to see Farnaj and Keralt as well. We even got to say hello to Jatheiron-father-Lord-Famoran. Viarth started running words and images together towards the end. It had been a great deal of fun, flying there, and he liked the friends of K’tar’s that they had been able to visit, and he still tended to run things together when he talked about things that had been exciting. Lord Famoran let me try the seasoned-cooked-wherry that he was eating. It was great! We should eat all our food-tastes-good like that! Viarth accompanied these statements with transferred feelings of how wonderfully tasty and moist the wherry meat had been, prancing slightly and swishing his tail in exuberance.

When they reached the edge of the Bowl, Mau glanced around again, and then, out of nowhere, asked when Holt’s Turnday was. So that’s why she keeps looking around, K’tar realized. She wants to make sure he doesn’t overhear.

“It’s the tenth day of the sixth month,” K’tar answered. “I take it you’re planning something?”

[Shoki]

Ooo. Qui marveled at the fun that Viarith had, getting a great amount of enjoyment out of the way he got across how tasty the meat was. She was very interested in trying stuff like that. Anything novel was fun. That sounds like it was amazing! I must get Mau to make tasty-seasoned-cooked food. Viarith’s pattern of speech could be catching at times.

“Something like that.” Mau smiled, her usual crooked smile. “ Part of it is I want to know about how much time I have to make a gift.” Sixth month, tenth day. She’d remember that. “Of course now that there is so much time to plan, I suppose I will just have to start on something fun.” Mau wasn’t very devious, so this came off more pleased and less fiendish amusement.

“Ah well, guess I have time to think up what to make. And plan what to do.” She paused a bit, looking around one more time for good measure. She was more careful about surprises. In fact, she knew the easiest way to mess it up was look too much like you had a secret, but part of it was still just making sure you didn’t get caught. “I don’t suppose you wanted to help with a surprise like this…?” Admittedly, she didn’t talk to K’tar a whole lot, but she felt fairly safe in talking to him about keeping a surprise just that. After all, he liked a good bit of fun.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

“Help? Of course I’ll help! Just try and keep me away.” K’tar was grinning, but in his case, the effect was far more on the fiendish, rather than the pleased, side of the accounting. He couldn’t help it, being devious was a central part of him, at least when it came to planning surprises. Of course, he wasn’t certain what Holt wanted for his Turnday, but then, they did have time to find out, and there were ways and ways to do so without revealing anything that he didn’t want to reveal. The only method that was truly out was straight up walking up to Holt and asking him directly, anything else was a go. Well, asking Korith was probably out too, actually.

When she does, will you let me know? Viarth asked, just on the far side of pleading. Mine says he cannot do so, because he doesn’t know how. His tail was still twitching, both from the general all-around excitement of having flown successfully to Stormy Plains and back and from the carry-over of K’tar’s excitement; whatever classmate-Mau-of-Green-friend-Qui was suggesting must be something fun.

“I can find out what he wants,” K’tar offered. “Although, if all else fails he needs some nice clothes for wearing to Gathers and stuff. He probably doesn’t want them, but he does need them.” It wasn’t that K’tar was obsessed with fashion, but he had, for all intents and purposes, been raised like Jatheiron’s brother for half his life. He knew, as only those who’d been essentially raised by Lord Holders did, that sometimes clothing was extremely important.

“How many people do you think we should invite?” K’tar asked, already plotting how he would attempt to discover what Holt wanted for a Turnday present. Or rather, two things Holt wanted, so that one could be from Mau and the other from him.

[Shoki]

Mau chuckled at K’tar’s response, glad to have the help. Enlisting K’tar would have the added bonus of someone who knew Holt really well, and it meant that she could get more information easily. And, it certainly would be lots of fun.

I will! I’m sure Mau will love to have more people happy with what she makes. It didn’t occur to Quimyenth that perhaps making of food might be different enough from making stuff like bags and clothes that Mau wouldn’t know how to do that. So the Green was already planning on how tasty the food would be. A shame Picosith won’t want any… Are there fruit-season-cooked things that she might like? The thought only occurred since they spent plenty of time with Tera, and the wood dragon by extension.

“Well, I can try my hand at that. I’m pretty good at making useful things, otherwise.” Most of what Mau knew how to make was on account of her family being on the road. Having the supplies to make things yourself was always wise, since things could break at the most inconvenient times. So bags and tools were easy to make and repair respectively; and she had learned to change a wheel on a wagon when she was young. Simple patch work had been on the list of things she could do for a while but now she was learning how to make clothes properly, and it sure was interesting. She was sure that most of the accessories that she could make wouldn’t be useful for Holt, so she sort of jumped on the first idea that K’tar had. After all, making things took time, so she liked having extra time to slack off in the meantime.

“Hmm, well not too many, but we certainly want all the good friends present. Unless of course…” She frowned a little then added thoughtfully, “If he usually spends his Turnday with family it might be best to shift what day it is, or if they were planning to visit to get them involved.” Yeah, this wasn’t her first planning of a surprise party. “Still, we got plenty of time to deal with issues. I think it’s safe to just go with who you would recommend. I’ll manage to get supplies for the event.” The crooked smile appeared again, since she was pretty optimist about this whole affair.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

Viarth cocked his head slightly to one side, considering. He still found Picosith’s dietary preferences odd, as His and Hers had moved in different circles for their lessons. Even more different than those of His and Qui’s Mau, for Mau was around good-friend-Holt sometimes, and so His had upon occasion actually spoken to her outside the context of lessons. I do not know for sure, Mine eats a wide variety of tasty-cooked-food-things. I believe there might be, let me ask him. Stepping to one side, Viarth bumped K’tar with his nose.

K’tar laughed. “What is it, mister pushy?” he asked, grinning at the eye that Viarth was holding at his head height.

Is there tasty-cooked-food-things made from non-meat-fruit-stuff? Viarth asked.

What in Faranth’s sake sparked that question? K’tar responded. and yes, there are. They are called pies.

Green-friend-Qui wanted to know, so that Wood-Picosith might perhaps like to try cooked-tasty-food. Viarth replied. She says Hers can make these things, oh awesome one. Turning back to Qui, he said: Mine says that there are such things. They are called “pies”.

K’tar rolled his eyes. “Viarth wanted to know about pies,” he explained for Mau’s benefit. “As for guests at a party…” K’tar’s voice trailed off as he thought, mentally comparing the list of people he knew with those that Holt would probably enjoy being around. “Well, D’ziel is definitely on the list, and that means we’re probably inviting his brother D’zael too. I think he’d get along with Svak, and… maybe that newer Candidate, Aelynn. I don’t know about Tera, or Kokoro.” Actually, K’tar was pretty sure that Holt would get along just fine with them, it was more that he thought that if he, himself, had to voluntarily spend more time around them he just might blow up. K’tar hesitated for a few seconds, but he couldn’t think of anyone else at that moment, and he said as much to Mau.

“We can probably pass the word around while we’re all getting ready to drive the tithe herdbeasts into their pen,” K’tar added. His grin broadened. Planning surprises in the future was all well and good, but diving at herdbeasts from dragonback, and that very evening, that was true excitement.

[Shoki]

Qui waited while Virarith consulted his, who was apparently knowledgeable about many sorts of food. The Green pondered the new word she was given, vaguely aware she had heard it before. Maybe someone had talked about them before? Pies… The dragon turned toward Mau and confidently told her, We’ll have to have tasty cooked meat for me and Viarith and some pies for Picosith.

“Wait what?” Mau turned to Qui, who had spoken just after K’tar. “I’m not cooking for three hungry dragons!” Small dragons or no, that certainly was going to drive her mad.

Not the whole meal, just enough to taste the tasty food. Qui still looked confident about this whole affair going through, even while Mau stared at her incredulously. After a moment though, the rider laughed; having figured out a long time ago that trying weird things out was part and parcel of being bonded to the Green.

“Leaving that aside for now…” She’d figure out what exactly the green had signed her up for later. “Sounds good. We’ll figure out the guest list as we go if we forgot someone. I’ll figure out Tera and Kokoro, I think they’ll be interested at least.” She wasn’t exactly familiar with everyone who K’tar had mentioned, though she vaguely knew that D’ziel hung out with K’tar and Holt, she hadn’t realized he had a brother. Svak had been at the firelizard hatching, she remember that, and of course she knew Tera and Kokoro too. She wasn’t too worried, if K’tar said it would be a good idea, she could chat with people she didn’t’ know just as well as those she did.

“Sounds like a good enough time to get everyone to get the date in their heads.” Qui was excited about the tithe, since; again, it was novel and therefore fun. She realized a moment later he didn’t mention a thing about Chantrea, but she was a little fuzzy on what exactly Holt though of her. Admittedly Mau hadn’t talked too much with her personally, but she seemed nice. There was something she might be forgetting about though, she felt like she shouldn’t bring it up. Why was that she wondered. “Sounds like a plan, we can keep adding stuff if we need to. Other than that, seems good.” She was extremely excited, both for what was current and plans for the far future. Hammer rounded her again, enjoying the atmosphere.

[Ghost of Fire (Fëanáro)]

K’tar laughed. “So that’s what they wanted to know about pies for!” he exclaimed, still laughing. He could well imagine the sheer volume of food that three weyrlings could put away, particularly if they were hungry. It was an incredible amount, particularly since dragons ate like once every few days or so, so when they were hungry, they were hungrey. Of course the next thing wasn’t so amusing. Of course she would actually consider inviting Tera and Kokoro.

I probably shouldn’t have even brought them up, he thought. Although, to be fair, it wasn’t as though he really had anything against the prospect of inviting Tera, it was just that Kokoro… well, for Holt’s sake he reckoned he could tolerate anything, and since Holt liked Mau and Mau knew Kokoro… Time to start practicing formal behavior and polite talk again.

“That sounds like a good idea,” K’tar said. “I’m not sure they’d like it if I told them.” I wish I could invite Chantrea, but I can hang out with her the next day… K’tar’s thought trailed off. He had an idea. An awesome, wonderful, brilliant idea. After all, he knew something that Holt really wanted, and he thought he saw a way to arrange it too. This would take some thought but… Well, first things first, he probably needed to get ready for the arrival of the Stormy Plains tithe, and to investigate the potential for getting a Harper on the day following the party.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you at the tithe then. Let me know if you find out what happened with class, ok?” After all, “intermediate between” was the last class of the day, and K’tar had no intention of spending free time where he could be found and given chores.

[Shoki]

“I’ll figure out if they want to come, and Svak too. If you can handle the rest I’d be grateful. “ Not that she had anything against the rest, she just didn’t know them as well. Well, K’tar could probably talk to all of them, as far as she knew he was pretty easy to talk to. The prospect of tithes and turnday parties was an interesting mix she expected, watch her try and focus on her current project now.

What about food? The Green was still thinking about the idea of interesting things to try.

Not today Qui. One fun things at a time, please.

Okay, okay. Just had to think about tithe, the dragoness thought. Not too hard.

“Alright. I’ll see you there. If you think of anything else just go on and get a hold of me.” She waved a bit and started to go before turning back, smiling just a bit. “Don’t get into too much trouble in the meantime.” She was joking of course, partly because she knew K’tar was gonna do what he wanted, but eh, she was just having fun with him. Hammer landed in her arms, since she was done talking, and she carried him as she headed back to the Barracks. Off to ferret out what people thought about a party. Well, to her mind everyone should like a well put together party, but one could never tell…