Shooting Stars (Open)

[dragon]

J'rad followed beside her as she left so readily for his weyr. Perhaps the two had different perspectives of what would happen when they got there. J'rad's thoughts were conversation, dinner, and entertainment. Though not the entertainment Althesia may have been hoping for. He was still interested in watching the shooting stars.

As her arm brushed past his, he took his pinky finger and hooked it around hers. A simple gesture, meant innocently. J'rad made his way past rocks, people, and other obstacles keeping silent the entire time. Thoughts were on what this conversation would turn out.

[blueaid]

Anayeli wiped off her palm, where cookie crumbs clung, in a wholly graceful little gesture before she extended her hand toward Emeni, echoing, "Pleasure," in that bland way that teenage girls seemed to have perfected.

A quick up-to-speed for the new arrival: "We're discussing the 'possibility.'" Yes, she even made the air-quotes around the word. "That Genet's brother could find a fallen star." That was punctuated by a very stern look at Neratel, who was very obviously on the verge of regaling them with exactly how improbable that was. He bit his lip sheepishly and trailed off, trying to find someone that would listen to his scientific reason.

"Really, I just think it's an excuse to stay up late and sleep in tomorrow." So saying, she leaned back on her hand and tilted her head skyward, well aware what a pretty profile she presented in that collected darkness. Vanity!

[Invisible]

Since Emeni had noticed the cookies there was no need for Genet to explain. Just to make sure they were within reach. With as few left as there were Genet made sure she got at least one more and was about to take a bite when Anayeli spoke again. At first she bit her tongue and tried to not comment because she thought the seamstress was just trying to rile her up.

Unfortunately self-control was not high on Genet’s list of things to practice. “We could too find one!” she said hotly. “Just because you don’t think so doesn’t make it true. You are not the controller of all things!” Really, how dare someone say that Genet and her brother could not do something! “You’re just content to sit and watch stuff instead of do things. Well, some of us are not like that.” She did not settle down so much as decide it was best to stop talking and since Genet was not sure she would be able to without help she stuffed her last cookie into her mouth. Cookie silencer.

[Slim]

"I'm up," Emeni offered. Even in the darkness, it was easy to tell what a big grin she had on from the starlight glancing off her teeth. She looked from Genet to Anayeli. "I mean, for finding stars. I'm sure there's a rider here I could get to take us. Why not? Like you said," as she nodded to the lovely silhouette that Anayeli had become, "it's an excuse to stay up late. Who even cares if we find one?"

She brushed the cookie crumbs off on her pants, then stuck her hands in her pockets. Beautiful or not, the night was cold, and she didn't like her hands getting chilly. "So you want to sit and watch stuff, or you wanna go do things?"

[blueaid]

"I meant--" Anayeli furrowed her pretty brow prettily. Pretty pretty pretty. If only she had the personality to match it. "I meant watching them is an excuse for staying up, not hunting them. You may as well take up hunting needles in haystacks." She waved one hand dismissively at the two girls, holding an extra-long look on Genet while a cool little smirk curled her own lips. Easy to bait, that one.

And then the accusation of doing-vs.-watching came, hot on the heels of Ana's insistence that she was only interested in watching the stars. So, with something of a sigh, she answered both of Emeni and Genet together: "I'm doing something. I'm being sociable." Such a chore! "Personally, I don't think tramping around in the cold night air looking for something you're never gonna find is really doing something. Except maybe wasting time." Her look landed drolly on the two of them.

Having hit its peak, the meteor shower began tapering gradually toward a slower pace. There was still enough to keep most people out and about, but the crowd thickened steadily with people wandering back off to turn in for the night. Even a few of the hangers-on around Ana's quilt retired; her nearest-and-dearest sycophants were still on hand, taking up the threads of conversation to discuss whether or not they'd be bothered to hunt chunks of rock.

[Invisible]

“Well, finding one would definitely be a boon,” Genet said with a bright grin. “Or at least finding a spot where one landed.” Because one would land, she was sure of it. There was no doubt in her mind that the bright things that fell from the sky would land somewhere and she could locate it. Looking at Emeni she grinned. “I don’t know any other riders but my brother, but if you know one who would help us that would be great!”

Hmph. If Anayeli wanted to just sit around so be it. Her and her sycophants could sit around until their butts froze to the ground. Wouldn’t that be a funny sight in the morning she thought. Now she stood up and brushed herself off. “Come on then! Let’s go find something. It has to be more fun than sitting here.” With Anayeli especially who just wanted to be catty anyway.

[Slim]

Emeni wasn't quite ready to give up yet. Planting her hands on her hips, she cocked her head to the side and watched Anayeli through squinted eyes. "You're a failed candidate, ain't ya?" Failed candidates were a fact of Weyr life, and it didn't even occur to Emeni that such a designation might be seen as offensive. "So you might've had a dragon. And now you're gonna pass up a chance to go flying, just for the sake of it?" Her voice took on a needling tone, trying to poke holes in Anayeli's haughty refusal.

"But all right," she said, turning away slowly. She gripped Genet's shoulder as she turned, promising to find somebody to fly them out but unwilling to interrupt her attempt at getting Anayeli off her butt. "If you don't wanna, Genet and I'll just go alone. Us and R'thos." At least, she hoped that figure she'd just seen was that of the well-known, handsome young bluerider. "I'm gonna go get him. You guys wait here!"

Not giving the other two a chance to respond, but leaving Ana plenty of time to think, she dashed off through the crowd to catch up with R'thos and call in that favor he owed her.

[blueaid]

With hauteur that fit her like a glove, Anayeli replied, "I'm not a failed anything." That's all the more response she had for either girl, content enough to lean on her hands and fall back to the praise and petting of her little clique. So, yes, she was going to pass on going flying just for the sake of egoism, just for the sake of sitting and looking pretty rather than tearing around on what she saw as a wild-goose-chase. R'thos didn't really stir a response from her, for all the flip-skirt reputation, she just turned a bland look toward Emeni while the girl went scurrying off.

Cheerfully, that kind of sickening cheer that clearly bespeaks irritation, she added, "But you ladies enjoy yourselves. I'm sure you'll find something." In an aside to the two girls that buzzed around her dutifully-- "Something useless." It was a weak joke, but they giggled, and that's all that mattered: a false sense of superiority was better than none!

[Invisible]

It seemed to Genet that Emeni knew what to say so she let the other woman talk for now. The words were unimportant anyway since she had already said they would go. Now Genet just had to wait for things to be arranged. Doing her best to keep from hopping up and down like a little kid she settled for fiddling with the amber worn around her neck.

As Emeni went off Genet turned her attention to Anayeli. “Failed candidate and you can’t change that fact,” she said with a merry laugh. “Deny it all you want, but you left the sands alone same as the rest of us but one.” The needling didn’t bother her now since she was going to do something. Instead she laughed again. “At least we won’t just find a fat butt stuck to the ground from sitting on it too much. That’s for you and your friends.”

[Slim]

((OOC: Lest I kill discussion between you two too quickly, I'm going to sit out another round of poses before Emeni comes back. Go on catfight, go!))

[blueaid]

Emphatically, Anayeli countered, "Unless that was the very last clutch of eggs ever." The dramatic overtones merited another sycophantic giggle, though it seemed even Ana was getting a little annoyed with her hangers-on and silenced them with a stern look. "Then it doesn't make me a failure. Maybe it makes you a failure because there's nothing better for you to do with yourself?"

The lilt, the tilt of her head, the pretty bat of her eyelashes were so sympathetic, so sorry for Genet that she had nothing more to offer Pern than a failed candidacy. "I'll go back to my crafthall and make something of myself eventually, just enjoying a little holiday first. One that does not involve running around in the dark like an idiot searching for useless junk that I'll never find." Her sniff was as derisive as her tone was negative. Glass-half-empty much?

[Invisible]

“Queen eggs don’t come every time,” Genet pointed out with a smirk. “What if there’s not another one until you’re too old?” Then a thought came into her mind that made her laugh. “Or you have too many kids so who’d want you on the sands?” Hey, it was Anayeli’s reputation after all. It’s not Genet’s fault the girl was known to be more than a flirt. Then the inconsistency caught her and she laughed again all merry about the whole thing.

“Back to your crafthall? I thought you said there’d be other eggs? Hedging your bets then? So unsure any dragon would want you that you’ll go skulking back to your sewing? Make up your mind.” To Genet that was ridiculous. Either she should stay and take her chances or crawl home. “Besides, back at your crafthall that’s what they will say. Oh, look. There’s Anayeli. She stood and failed so came back here. Just like we knew she would.” Maybe that’s not what they would say, but it sounded like something to rile the girl up.

Toying with her necklace again Genet grinned. “At least have an adventure while you are here. Don’t sit around and let your mouthpieces tell you how pretty you are and how mean I am.” She knew the sort. As soon as she was gone they’d go on about how she should just be ignored. “Let me guess. I’m probably jealous too, right? Well, let’s clear that up. I would never be jealous of you who prefers to sit on her butt and let being pretty get her everything. I may be a failed candidate, but just you wait. Someday I will be famous for something really great.”

[Slim]

Emeni hadn't managed to convince R'thos, who claimed he was too busy to pay back the favor just now, but he had helped her catch another fish. D'ray. She was just introducing herself to the brownrider as they wove back through the crowd, although it was in all ways an informal introduction: she had her hands on the brownrider's back and was steering him from behind, leaving it to his greater body mass to cut a path through the crowd. She didn't want to duck and dive between people again: it was hard, and much easier simply to follow in somebody else's wake.

"So I'm Emeni, and Genet's gonna be our guide because she came up with it, and there's another girl Ana-something who I'm not sure if she'll come or not. She didn't seem too interested but - uh, whoa." She'd caught the tail end of the conversation Anayeli and Genet were having, and she slipped out from behind D'ray to go peer at the other two girls in the darkness. "That doesn't sound too friendly," she murmured softly to herself, but quickly turned to smile at the brownrider anyway and drag him forward with her.

"Hey, guys!" She raised her voice to cut loudly into the argument. "R'thos was busy, but this here's D'ray. He and his - Pharoth, right? - they're going to go flying with us. So come on, we gotta figure out where to start looking for that star! Genet, whatcha think? Where would your brother look?" She planted her hands on her hips and looked expectantly at both other girls.

[dragon]

D'ray was met by his fellow dragonrider, finding himself not too far away from R'thos to begin with. When he heard just exactly what he was wanted for, D'ray decided it was the crazy, pointless adventure he needed to spruce up the night. His answer was filled with excitement. "What do ya know? I was just thinkin' to myself, Gee I wish I could fly around some pretty ladies and look for some shiney orb thingies. Must have read my mind", was a quick thought and flirty response. D'ray quickly got up from where he was sitting and dusted himself off as he was being introduced ever so formally. "D'ray's the name, fun's my game, and Pharoth's my...big brown dragon", there was a short pause after the introduction. "I should probably work on that rhyme", he finally spoke up. Knowing D'ray, he was likely going to go back to his weyr to really think of a better introduction rhyme.

D'ray simply nodded as the girl explained and introduced a couple more girls. "Well the more the merrier. Well, actually there's a limit. Even Pharoth can't hold every girl in this weyr", D'ray spoke again, in his usual comical tone. Nor do I want to. I would rather not carry more weight than is necessary, mine. Pharoth had to complain to his rider, to make sure he wouldn't be overburdened with girls. Though this wouldn't be the first time D'ray took on a load of girls on a flight. Pharoth always complained about it. D'ray's was the only weight he really found acceptable enough. Speaking of the brown beast, he was somewhere near the lakeshore curled up and resting, lazy beast that he was.

When D'ray surveyed the girls before him, he put on a charming smile and ran a hand through that long hair of his. "Well hello there", he spoke up. "I am D'ray and I'll be your charming guide for this evening", he could only grin at the oh so noble sound of his voice as he bowed curtiously at the girls before him. As he rose, he looked between the three girls. If he was going to go off on a random escapade, best done around this group. And for D'ray, charm and flirty were but a switch turned on when a female was present.

[blueaid]

Anayeli started to argue with Genet; it was obvious that was her intention. Her posture even straightened a little like she was really digging in for the long-haul of a hard exchange. Then, abruptly, she just slunk back to the way she had been, with her weight resting on the heels of her hands, with her smile being cold and coy at the corners of her lips. "I don't think chasing shadows in the cold night air really qualifies as adventure. Or maybe I'm just not that bored yet," was all that she came up with in response, letting go of the fight-back reflex with a shrug of one perfect shoulder at Genet.

D'ray's arrival was met with bland interest, as if she couldn't be bothered just now to rise to the occasion and put on her syrupy friendliness. After all, it was late, there'd been a little quarrel, hardly the best occasion for meeting up with smarmy dragonriders. "I'm not going," she reiterated adamantly, the words aimed for Emeni rather than D'ray. There was the sense that, mind made up, she really meant it. For all her prettier-than-thou overtones, at least Ana didn't seem like a downright hypocrite.

Maybe her only saving grace tonight?