Shooting Stars (Open)

[blueaid]

It started small, some time just after sunset, with a single flash of blue arcing across the powdery purple of a twilight summer sky. Those in the bowl stopped and took notice with a series of "oohs," with "did you make a wish?" asked between friends while they headed into the caverns for the night. Outside, one of those perfect late-summer nights was unfolding: the waves of the lake lapped idly, a dragon hunted in the feeding grounds, a breeze picked up just enough to cool the darkening air-- and another star drizzled across the thickening blueness of nightfall.

By the time the full spangling of stars stood out against the sky, there was a buzz of activity beginning in the bowl. From a handful of shooting stars to a full shower of them, ramping during those first two hours after nightfall from a few an hour up over ten, twenty, thirty, now reaching its peak and pushing fifty to sixty an hour-- one a minute. In a Weyr with a missing Wingleader, where people disappeared without a trace, where the political climate pitted weyrlings against Weyrleaders, something as simple and easy and distracting as a meteor shower was a welcome thing. So people filtered out from the lower caverns into the bowl, bringing blankets or benches, drinks and late dinners.

Down by the lake shore, a little party has evolved from the stragglers with their towels and blankets spread on the gravely sand. Subdued revelry grew while people sat with their heads tipped back, passing around wineskins, watching the trails of mostly-white drizzle across the sky. This is where Anayeli was to be found, seated on an old patchwork quilt, her weight resting on her hands behind her, her legs stretched out in front of her with her ankles crossed loosely.

A cluster of young people, mostly from the lower caverns with a few remnants from candidacy, made up the group that immediately surrounded black-haired Ana. They were spinning yarns to one another, talking back through shooting stars they'd seen during their lives; nearby, a little knot of older folks were listening in with the nostalgia often spared from the adult to the adolescent-- kids these days, sigh.

[Invisible]

Her day over Ramla had been heading out to the bowl anyway to find where H’gar waited for her. Their relationship was older than most of the people gathered to watch the shooting stars and she couldn’t help but smile at the way some of the younger residents had paired up in the darker recesses of the bowl. Since she was outside anyway the headwoman thought there no reason to hurry along. H’gar would find her where she’d paused near the lake. In the meantime she greeted a few people she knew and flirted with some of the older residents and riders. That would end when the brownrider showed up, but until then she basked in the glory that was her still fading beauty. Near enough to the youngsters, as others called them, she was able to listen in on their tales. Appear H'gar did and with not only a blanket for them, but a skin of wine as well. While Ramla was not the sort to cuddle she was willing to let H’gar fawn over her and treat her like the Lady she thought herself to be.


---------------


Genet had to work late, trying to finish up chores she’d forgotten during the day. The hazel-eyed woman had completely gotten caught up in other things and once dinner arrived had remembered stuff that had to get done so she had spent her evening working. Still, even she was not going to miss an impromptu gathering so with a final push of herself she was able to get done and find her way outside to watch the last of the show. There were not a lot of people she knew well enough to intrude on their watching, but there were a couple of, like her, failed candidates out there so that’s where she gravitated to. Without a blanket she just sat on the ground and offered a cheerful smile up and unwrapped a small bundle she had carried with her. “I have cookies,” she offers to the group as a whole. Best way to make new friends, or at least not get asked to leave, bring treats.

[blueaid]

Two of the boys were eager to divest Genet of her cookies, to reach over like they'd snatch the bundle right out of her hands, the zeal of youth toward food outweighing the zeal of youth toward flirtation. At the edge of the blanket, one kid nudged another with his elbow and nodded to indicate the headwoman and H'gar getting all cuddly, set them snickering before they tried to get in on the cookies before the cookies were completely gotten.

Dramatically, Anayeli contributed, "Cookies? I can't eat cookies, they go directly to my hips." Which was the cue for her little hangers-on, the two or three girls that she'd lured into buzzing around her like bees around their queen, to assure that she didn't have anything to worry about, to commiserate about how chubby their own thighs were by comparison, generally the useless prattle of teenage girls. Ana left them to it, satisfied to have elicited the response she was aiming for, reassured of their faithfulness to her shrine.

Overhead, the shiny show continued, streaks of whitish light arrowing across the sky at irregular intervals. Lights began to go out on the ledges around the Weyr walls while the occupants settled up there to watch the view, left the darkness that much more absolute each time a glow was shielded.

The sound of munching gnawed at Anayeli's resolve-- "Oh, just give me one of those, Genet, you terrible person."

[dragon]

J'rad would have detested such an outing, but seeing such a thing was infact a rare treat. He found himself at the lake, sitting down and leaning against a rock. Surely Althesia would not be found far from the bronzerider, and J'rad would wait with patience. It was easy to be patient when one was distracted by the stars.

Arcaith had his bath so he was asleep as usual. J'rad did enjoy a schedule and Arcaith had become a predictable one. Falling stars weren't much of an interest to him as sleep was. J'rad was satisfied however, Arcaith would likely find some way to rattle his cage. The bronze did seem to enjoy irritating his poor rider to no end.

J'rad was considered some distance away from anyone else that may have gathered to watch as well. He preferred it that way. Not only did it take to his character but this would allow him a bit more personal time with Althesia than socializing would allow. The rider was in a plain brown shirt and all but the top button was undone, still not liking the restraining feeling it gave. Pants were of a plain brown as well, but over his shirt was a black vest to keep from looking too mundane, though J'rad wouldn't have minded either way. The bronzerider let out a stretch and a yawn, still waiting for Althesia to catch up

[Invisible]

Ramla was quite aware of those that snickered at her and she made a mental note of those who did. They would find themselves paying for it later. She was not going to let anyone think her antics were to be laughed at. The headwoman did not stop H’gar from continuing to pour her wine and even allowed his arm around her shoulders to keep her warm. For all she was sitting on a blanket in the bowl she looked like a Lady dining in her Hall. There was no way for her not to after all. Her eyes took in the crowd as much as the sky and she considered a person or two that she might call over to join her. For now she did not, waiting for the right person to be gifted with an audience from her.


---------------


And Genet, nothing at all like a fine Lady, allowed the cookies to be taken. Every now and then she would swat at a boy’s hand who took too many. There were plenty to go around, but not if she didn’t maintain control of the supply. Besides she had to make sure she got some! “Your hips could use something,” Genet said with a roll of her eyes. Being pudgy herself she had no use for girls that did not eat cookies or who whined about being too fat. What was the point in life if you starved yourself just so someone else thought you looked good? Holding out the cookies for Anayeli she smiled brightly at the other woman. “Yep. I’m truly horrible. Next time I’ll show up and inform everyone I have cookies for everyone but you because your butt is too big.” If her teasing went the wrong way there was nothing to be done for it. It’s just how she was.

[anhydrous]

Althesia lazily picked her way past those who had already gathered to watch the stars fall, knowing that J’rad would never settle near his fellow weyrfolk. She had already spotted a dark form against the rocks, and carefully skirted around the lakeshore to meet her bronzer by the boulders.

Her pale legs flashed in the semi-darkness, the hem of her skirt stopping a far bit shorter than it usually did. The ruffles bunched around her knees as she stretched for footing on the irregular rocks, none-too graceful in her approach. In the woman’s arms was a heavy blanket, one that J’rad might recognize considering that she had snatched it off of the foot of his bed. It was bundled in a wad, tucked close to her side as she threw her other arm out for balance while she attempted to scale the boulders in the gathering darkness.

She greeted him with a small smile, finding a place next to him against the rock as she snuggled into his blanket. She didn’t say anything or make any moves to share the warmth, just leaned up against J’rad’s side and procured a darkened glass bottle from somewhere beneath the folds of the blanket. Her eyes darted upward to the sky while she uncorked her filched prize and took a quick drink, the smell of it distinctly stronger than wine.

Wincing against the burn of the bourbon in her throat, Althesia offered the bottle to J’rad wordlessly, not even glancing in his direction. Her eyes were trained on the sky, pale neck exposed as she tilted back her head, a bright flash streaking across the vast expanse of darkening blue.

[blueaid]

"Oh, you can't say that!" exclaimed one of the girls after Genet's butt-too-big remark, all horrified on behalf of her bestest friend. "Don't worry, Ana, your butt totally is not too big." Added with a sniff of disapproval, the very homely young woman proceeded to eat a cookie and ostracize Genet, a fact that didn't serve her very well when Anayeli turned her attention on her fellow former candidate.

She plucked a cookie from the supply, broke it in half, dusted crumbs off her fingers, and thought as much about eating it as much as she thought about the horror of being chubby. To fill the void, her eyes only cast idly toward the sky, she asked with a frown, "Didn't your brother disappear or something? I heard a rumor he was just gone." The question was put quietly from one girl to the other, words kept below the threshold of the chatter that surrounded them, easily lost in the inane babbling of a cluster of teenagers. Flirting, bickering, speculating.

Like the two boys who shoved cookies in their faces, one of them making a disgruntled ooomph! when Genet swatted him, and about died of laughter watching Ramla and H'gar. The fact that they'd wind up paying for it tomorrow was a worry for tomorrow; youth never looked that far ahead.

A long, long reddish trail lit the sky about then, one of the brightest and most "colorful" stars thus far. A few people gasped, its reddish tint no doubt evoking superstitions from the more foolish onlookers, but plenty were just happy to "ooooh!" at the spectacle. Anything to break up the day-to-day grind was welcome by the masses.

[dragon]

J'rad didn't reallly notice Althesia's approach, though he likely would have been amused at the awkwardness of it. However, once she grew close enough and began to settle, his eyes were removed from the stars to look at her. If J'rad were impatient about her approach, he didn't show it.

However, he did raise an eyebrow to notice just what she was holding in her hands, easily recognized as an item that was on his bed. Was she truely making herself so at home to use his things so readily? He didn't comment, figuring it was fine as long as it found it's way back on his bed.

As she leaned against him, he instinctly wrapped an arm around her and turned his attention yet again to the stars. Though this was short lived as she offered him something from a bottle. It certainly wasn't wine and J'rad wasn't feeling like binging on alcohol this evening. He simply held out a hand and pushed it back to her, allowing her to have her fill of it.

For a time there was silence between them, but J'rad decided to break it. "It's certainly not something you see every day", he tried to comment as he looked at the shooting stars. Perhaps there was better things to say, but J'rad wasn't a man of words so they didn't come so easily and readily to him as it did some others.

[anhydrous]

J’rad’s decline was met with the slightest shrug, and perhaps a secret inward smile. Althesia’s thoughts dwelled on her bronzer’s last hangover, which had been a gentle one compared to what he would wake up with if he overindulged on bourbon. He must have known it, so she didn’t push the issue. After another drink she set the bottle far enough away that she wouldn’t kick it over, and then made good use of the welcoming posture he had adopted.

With her head against the side of J’rad’s chest, Althesia had the steady accompaniment of his heartbeat pounding in one ear while lights flashed across the sky. The silence seemed to be a comfortable one, but it was broken by a tentative comment. “Beautiful,” she agreed, not really finding the show all that interesting, but at least pleasant to view. The red light was met with placid indifference, superstition ignored by the woman who had been born into a time without thread and would die before it returned.

Under the cover of both the darkness and the blanket, Althesia’s hand wound its way into her bronzer’s. The pressure of his fingers against hers was comforting, an unspoken agreement of tenderness. While her thoughts drifted, her eyes followed the occasional bust of fire as it struggled past Pern’s atmosphere.

“The Weyrleader and I finally spoke about the commission that brought me here,” she said calmly, thinking that J’rad might be interested to hear about her work. Arcaith was a common topic of conversation, so she hardly saw any harm in bringing up her only love: painting. She wanted to hear her bronzer’s thoughts on the topic that J’fel had chosen for the portrait, but thought it might be better to test the waters with a casual mention first.

[Invisible]

When told she couldn’t say something Genet just laughed. “I can say whatever I want. Like how you should not be wearing that color because it makes you look dead.” If there was one thing Genet hated more than a bully or snob it was someone who latched onto one. People with no brains for themselves who were content to let someone bossier tell them what to do were a waste of the holder girl’s time. Sniffing with disapproval as she looked at the girl’s outfit Genet returned her attention to Anayeli when her brother was mentioned.

“He’s away on a very important mission for the weyrleader,” Genet said with a smile. That was not giving anything away at all really. Besides, what was she supposed to say? “He’s going to be back any day now.” Which was a total lie really since she had no idea when or even if her brother would be back. J’fel had not at all settled her nerves on that account. What could she do though? The conversation took second place to shoving a cookie into her mouth as the latest display appeared overhead. Smiling brightly up at the sky she let out a wistful sigh. “If my brother were here we could find where one of them landed.”

[dragon]

When Althesia's hand found it's way into his, J'rad squeezed it ever so softly. If nothing else, to let her know he noticed the effort. J'rad was appreciating the show, deciding the time wasn't a waste after all. He wasn't concerned with the science or cause of it, but it was a rare spectacle to enjoy, one that some may not see in a life time but the skies seemed to grace Telgar with a rare show.

J'rad found himself stretching again, arm removed from Althesia only for a moment so that he could. He then returned it and seemed to wrap it further around her curvey figure. J'rad would nod at her compliment, actually agreeing. However, he wasn't expecting conversation on such an evening.. Though conversation did find it's way to J'rad.

"Is that so?", the bronzerider asked, raising an eyebrow questioningly. If he held anything against Telger's weyrleader, it wouldn't be seen beyond his usual gruff and aggitation at the world around him. The question would likely delve further into the subject, but J'rad wasn't sure just how this topic of Althesia and Telger's young bronzerider weyrleader would go. He wasn't jealous, not yet. It certainly would take more than a mention of another man to get him jealous, even if it was J'fel.

[anhydrous]

Althesia slid closer, if that were possible, letting J’rad’s hand meander towards the gracious curve of her hip. Maybe he was trying to protectively compensate for the mention of another man, but perhaps he just couldn’t keep his hands off of her. The woman welcomed either, thankful that she had bought a blanket to hide any activities that they might pursue further along in the night.

Sensing no pointed danger in her bronzer’s tone, Althesia continued. “Yes,” she replied tersely, “And you’ll never guess what he asked me to paint.” Doubting that J’rad would actually guess, the artist left only a brief pause between setting the stage and the reveal. “Dragons. He wants me to paint Jordeth and Pelegaoth together.” Her tone made it clear that J’fel’s request had been a strange one, assuming that J’rad wouldn’t have already figured that out.

While a common dragonrider could commission a painting of their mount without ridicule, it was almost inappropriate for a weyrleader to do so. Especially to be so bold as to match his dragon with the senior queen in such a painting, and hang it in a place that was by no means private. Althesia didn’t say anything further for the moment, curious as to what J’rad thought of the commission.

[dragon]

The hand fit perfectly in the curve of her hip, as if made to be there. It was a nice feeling, like two pieces of a puzzle put together. J'rad certainly wouldn't complain. To be honest though, the rider had no thoughts of venturing much further beyond holding one another and watching the spectacle.

J'rad pondered on what she had said. Dragons, that was plural. Was this boy so bold as to paint his beast with the weyrwoman's? That seemed rather odd, and infact fishy, to J'rad. "Odd", he thought aloud to respond to Althesia. But that's all he spoke out. He couldn't help but ponder over it. It did seem strange for such a thing to be asked. But J'rad wasn't really going to act on it either. Let J'fel make any plan he wanted. In the next flight of the senior's gold, he may find his stay was not a long one.

S'lyn still had hopes of returning to his place as weyrleader, but J'rad had his own agenda as well. Undoubtedly there were other bronzeriders thinking the same as well, some worthy and some not so worthy. Still, he didn't care about the other contenders. Let them hassle the weyrleader, for all J'rad cared.

On the outside it may have appeared that J'rad wasn't really holding up his side of the conversation or that he wasn't interested in one. But really, this new bit of information ran all sorts of thoughts in the bronzerider's head. He couldn't really look distracted by thought either. The night and his continued attention to the stars would likely block that. Still, if anyone had a chance to guess such a thing it may have been Althesia.

[anhydrous]

“That’s it? Odd?” Came Althesia’s darkening retort. She did not appreciate his sparseness, as it left her with too many conclusions to jump to. Whatever warmth that the languid positioning of her hip had supplied was undoubtedly fading, stiffening to the possibilities of her bronzer’s limited response.

The woman could read his tone. She knew that thoughts were running through his head, and didn’t need the light to see it clearly. He might mind his expression, but Althesia’s bright stare and intuitiveness conquered his carefully laid defenses. With a frown and another drink, the harper felt the tiniest bit less guilty for so enjoying the weyrleader’s company. If J’rad wasn’t going to share his thoughts, Althesia wasn’t going to feel bad about defiling his trust.

Yes, she held a double-standard, and no, she didn’t feel troubled enough yet to question herself about it.

[dragon]

J'rad could feel irritation creeping up on him as he was questioned in his response. "Yes. Odd. And fishy too. Are you happy?", he said, a bit too quickly, irritated, and silently. He allowed a moment to pass so he could calm himself, then sighed. "I'm not going to say much more in such a populated place", was his next words, chosen carefully. He wasn't going to allow himself or his words to be the chosen gossip of the weyr. It did, however, hold a tone that he would speak of it later in private, if he could trust her enough to keep it to herself.

This woman was certainly hard to please and for J'rad it was both hard and frustrating. His hand that had rested so idlely and lovingly on her hip was now tense as the rider was fighting the frustration. J'rad didn't enjoy being questioned, especially in such a tone. For now, he would keep quiet.