[Jaeyi] The "tale" end of Ella's birthday party.
RL Date: 8/15/10
IC Date: 6/28/23
Meadow, Fort Hold
Set apart from the main hold, this meadow offers an inviting respite from the bustle of Hold life. Lush and verdant grasses and grains grow rampant and abundant in this peaceful and tranquil meadow. Shaded by a copse of softwood and evergreen trees, the light is dappled and freckled where it warms the ground. At certain hours of the day, small woodland creatures emerge from the small forest and may be seen frolicking about in the grasses. Paths lead back toward the hold, winding their way along near the inner edge of the orchards before returning to the white stone so familiar to the Hold's courtyard and main halls.
It's drifting towards late afternoon, it's warm and pleasant, a perfect summer day for an outdoor party and that party has been a pretty nice one at that. The cake has been cut, the presents opened and the festivities are largely winding down. T'rev sits off to one side in one of the folding chairs brought down for the occasion, his collar loosened from earlier formality, jacket slung over the back of his chair, hands curled around a glass of somewhat watery-looking iced tea, the cubes mostly melted and the lemon wedge floating on top a little wilted. Kids are running around not too far off, chasing each other in a summer's game of tag: a mixed blend of various relations, some of them from Nerat and up way past their bedtimes now, due to the time difference.
Jaeyi had been, for a time, engaged in a game with a few of those kids, playing with fake fishes and little pretend fishing poles with magnets on the end of them, giving candies as prizes for those who catch the right colored fish. But the game is over, the candy is all doled out, and she extricates herself from the play to make for the edge of the party, to the folding chairs where things are quieter. Taking a glass along the way, she collapses into a chair next to T'rev's with a sighed, "You know, I didn't much like the fancy parties Ella had at Four Sons, but I didn't really think how much easier it is to just stand next to a cake and look pretty for an hour or so."
They say that the rider mirrors the dragon and vice versa, but anyone who knows Hattie and Elaruth well enough would likely not say it of that pair in particular. However, this afternoon is different and queen and rider look to be pretty similar in both mental and physical state, the former lounging in the sun at the edge of the meadow and the latter lying in the grass beside chairs doing much the same, eyes closed and head propped on arms tucked behind her head. Comfortable, it looks like Hattie has been there a while and possibly actually sleeping, yet now she stirs and peers sleepily up at the occupants of chairs. "This is much better than all the curtseying and politics and dozens of 'how are you's," she murmurs.
T'rev lifts his glass and takes a sip, makes a little face for the wateriness and grins as Jaeyi approaches. "You look pretty all flushed from playin' though," he compliments the baker, reaches over to give her hand a little squeeze then drops a look down at Hattie, grinning all the more widely. "Shells yeah it is. Parties should be about fun n' relaxin'," is his opinion anyway. "Though I'll admit to be totally stuffed. Don't think I could eat another bite o' cake or anything."
Immediately and naturally, "I look pretty anyway." Even wilting into a chair, holding a cold cup to her forehead, though now distracted when she twists to look behind her at the figure resting in the grass nearby. "Oh, that's what I should've done. Is the grass dry?" Jaeyi asks, scuffing that under her chair with her toe, looking for dew or dampness. "No? I could go for another sandwich. Or just the tomato off one."
It takes a couple of blinks for Hattie to properly focus and look like she's really, honestly, awake and not about to doze off any second, but her gaze soon finds Jaeyi and she props herself up on one elbow. "I hope so," she says of the grass. "I'm not swimming, at any rate. Sun's been out long enough, so..." The goldrider twitches one shoulder; she certainly appears dry. "Looks like everyone had fun, anyway. I'm not entirely sure that everyone's behaved as if they're any /older/ than fifteen, which is somewhat appropriate," she goes on, slanting a glance T'rev's way before looking out across the meadow again.
"That you do," T'rev drawls agreement with Jaeyi, "but you look especially pretty with all them roses in your cheeks," he tells his weyrmate with a fond wink and loops his arm over the back of his chair to swivel his body the better to keep Hattie in view as well. "Been a nice dry day, no rain. We could all lie there n' look up at the clouds n' name their shapes," the bronzeirder proposes with humor in his voice. Speaking of not behaving one's age.
Yeah. "Speaking of acting like we're all of fifteen." But Jaeyi doesn't exactly say no to the option, especially since the ground's dry and she won't run the risk of getting dirty (Faranth forbid it), instead leaning over the arm of her own chair to peer at Hattie. "Room for company?" she asks by way of permission, putting on her peachiest pretty-please smile to the goldrider. "You look comfy, and I could stand to be comfy for a while. We don't even have to name cloud-shapes unless we get very bored."
"Certainly," the weyrwoman answers the baker, even reaching out with one hand to pat at the definitely dry ground. "I even promise that it's comfy." With a smirk tugging at her lips, Hattie adds, "We could just let him," a nod for T'rev, "name cloud-shapes and just smile and nod if and when he does." Smirk now in residence, she peers over at the bronzerider again before flopping back to the ground, tucking both arms back behind her head once more. "When he gets on to naming stars, it might be time to head home," she jokes in a low voice.
T'rev laughs as the pair of them tease him about cloud-shapes. "C'mon, it's at time-honored lie-in-the-grass tradition," he says gaily and puts his glass down without taking another sip, then pushes to his feet, a hand held out to Jaeyi to help her up from her chair. "I like watchin' the stars come out." Agreeable.
"That's a brave promise," Jaeyi points out as if gravely, taking the offered hand to help her up after she puts her cold glass down at the foot of her chair, for later retrieving. "If I wind up laying on a rock or something, you could be held accountable," as if it would be such a crime. "Well, gosh, who'm I to go against tradition. Point out clouds, Hattie? T'rev can tell us what they are, since he's the expert."
"Then I'll honourably pay the price if there are any rocks kicking about here," Hattie promises too, nodding like she's sealing the deal. Playing along, she stares up at the sky for a while, seemingly very serious about deciding which cloud to pick first. It becomes apparent that she's got some sort of silly plan in mind when she chooses, "That one," over to the far right, that just looks like a muddle of nothing identifiable, or it must do to her. Challenge to T'rev, "Go," with a brief return of that smirk.
T'rev helps Jaeyi to her feet and leads the way over to Hattie's grassy patch, kneels down first. "I have an arm on offer as a pillow for either or both of you," the bronzerider drawls out with a grin. "For the whole comfort factor." As he settles down, he looks up at the cloud formation Hattie's picked and he laughs, tilts his head to the side for a moment then declares it: "A gather dress."
Jaeyi stomps in the grass a few times, looking for stones underfoot, finding none, tells Hattie, "I think you're safe, no price to pay. This time." Again with the gravity, and she settles down to pillow the back of her head against T'rev's arm, mumbling something about, "Sooooo generous of you." Nothing to do with the 'happy to cuddle two women' factor, so says the amused glance she tacks on. Turning her attention to the cloud in question, brows knitted, she adds, "Not one that I'd wear."
The goldrider lets out an amused snort and smiles for being safe for now. "I'm just fine, thank you," Hattie responds to T'rev, still with good humour. "I have arms of my own, see," she adds, twitching elbows of folded arms. Feigning irritation at the selected cloud being identified, she breathes out a put-upon sigh. "That's either not fair or you've spent too long cloud-staring over the turns," she declares. Tilting her head a little in Jaeyi's direction, she seems to agree about the state of the cloud-dress and decides, "T'rev, I think your fashion sense has failed."
T'rev's arm curls comfortably around Jaeyi and his grin widens. "What, can't you see it?" he says, wide-eyed and traces the shape through the muddle of something slinky. "And I might just spend a lot of time lyin' on my grandfather's roof starin' at the sky," the bronzerider agrees then presses his free hand to his heart. "You wound me. My fashion sense. Guess I'll have to check in with Amerie for a refresh on women's gowns."
Jaeyi, lightly, "I think it's a cheat, to say 'party dress' at a cloud. Like, if you want to mouth the words to a song and you don't know it, you just say 'watermelon watermelon watermelon' and it matches up no matter what." A few stray wisps off to the left, hardly a cloud at all-- "That one, then." Lifting her head to look across T'rev at Hattie, making a face, she asks, "Wanna lay odds on whether or not he says 'a lacy skirt?'"
Silent for a moment or two, Hattie mouths something (probably 'watermelon, watermelon, watermelon', along to a song in her head) and glances over Jaeyi's way again, nodding agreement of the skirt prediction and possibly the watermelon theory too. "Perhaps there should be a ban on declaring clouds to be women's apparel," she suggests. With a grin for T'rev, she teases, "Don't worry. We won't tell anyone of your clouds-as-skirts fixation."
"Ripples from a skippin' stone," is T'rev's counter to 'lacy skirt'. "And I haven't heard that about watermelons before," he says with a laugh. "And somehow I don't think it's really cloud-skirts I'm all that fixated on," he claims merrily, turning his head to press a kiss to the top of Jaeyi's head fondly.
"It works, doesn't it?" Jaeyi asks of her watermelon-theory, watching Hattie a second longer with a measure of satisfuaction before she settles back the way she was, contemplating the so-called ripples with narrowed eyes. "I still feel like you're cheating, somehow, like you ought to be trying for things like... ducks and cupcakes and oak trees." Which none of the clouds overhead look like, at least not to her.
"I think it does," Hattie confirms of the theory. "Of course, now I'll have to resist the temptation to try and wind up a Harper with it," she confesses, pleased by the thought of doing so if the calculating look she sports is any indication. Lifting her left arm, she gestures to a sequence of three clouds and proposes, "Tell a story with them?" to the bronzerider. With a tilt of her head, she curves her whole body round a bit, adding, "Though that one does look a little bit like a flailing firelizard."
"It ain't the kinda game you cheat at," T'rev says with a little shake of his head. "More about y'know, bein' creative and whatnot than bein' right," he notes and curls his arm around the baker that much more. "Oh, nice, good idea Hattie," the bronzerider says gamely and considers the three shapes in question for a moment. "Does kinda, at that. Reminds me of Trouble," he says with a little snort then takes a breath and launches into a tale about three ships and, appropriately enough, a flailing firelizard. Let it not be said that T'rev does not have a gift for tall tales.
Jaeyi agrees, "It's not the kind of game /I/ would cheat at, true." Squinting hard at the flailing firelizard, head tilting and tilting like she can make the shape coalesce for her-- 'cause she clearly isn't seeing what they are-- she stays quiet about the matter to attend the tale, her laugh quiet while it progresses. "I think that might be the cleanest story I've ever heard you tell," she volunteers happily, lifting her hands from the grass to applaud lightly. "Tell one," she suggests to Hattie afterward.
Over the course of the tale, Hattie uncurls herself from the odd angle that she's propped herself at to try and see firelizard from cloud, eyes closing as she listens. She doesn't drop back off to sleep though and eventually utters, "Nicely done," at the story's conclusion, adding, "Maybe you should write that one down." Eyes open at Jaeyi's suggestion and her gaze roams the sky for a while until she can point at a series of clouds and adhere to the 'rules' of the game herself. "Be kind of awful if mine wasn't clean now," she murmurs wryly, before going on to tell a silly little story about a feline chasing a winged creature through the jungle and the desert and the mountains and so on. "Your turn," she returns to the Journeyman once she's finished, smiling faintly.
"That's because you /like/ dirty stories," T'rev teases cheerfully. "Hattie knows I tell plenty of stories as ain't got a drop of dirt in 'em," the bronzerider claims with a touch of pride and considers for a moment in the wake of the goldrider's comment. "Might do at that," he finally decides then quiets down to listen to Hattie, laughing now and then at the funny parts.
"Truuuuue," Jaeyi chimes to T'rev, like there might be some kind of argument she has about that statement-- that she likes dirty stories-- but the argument never manifests. 'Cause, really, what can she say? "Be kinda awful if /mine/ wasn't clean now," she echoes after the second totally-clean story of the night, applauding at the end of Hattie's story, too. Her own, which has nothing to do with the clouds, as she points out at the beginning, has no real plot or purpose and is just about a mouse that has set up housekeeping in someone's shoe closet and lives in perpetual fear of getting stomped. "...at the end, perhaps, T'rev's stupid firelizard comes along and eats the mouse or something."
Hattie settles back to relaxed and with eyes closed as she listens to Jaeyi's story, claiming, "That one should be illustrated. You could have people knitting little mice to go with it and everything. If it lives, of course," once a fate has been suggested for the mouse. "Though, T'rev, really. You should know better than to let Trouble eat domesticated mice," she tells him oh so very sternly. Deadpan, at least. "Not that I suppose a dialogue between mouse and firelizard would be very successful."
"Y'know, I think Trouble might actually go for that," T'rev muses aloud thoughtfully, then bursts out laughing. "I had to teach him not to eat my sweaters, I don't think I'd have much luck with curbing his natural instincts to hunt. I imagine anything on those lines to be kind of like this: " Mouse: squeak. Trouble: chomp"
Pragmatically, never mind the fanciful tale, Jaeyi points out, "Well, really, it's not more than a mouse deserves for trying to set up residence in someone's shoe closet. Plus, it would give firelizards a whole new practical use-- as mousers. People might not be so cross about them if they served a purpose. Though." Hold one palm up as if to imagine such a thing curled there, she adds, "A knitted mouse'd be really cute. Till Trouble destroyed it, anyway."
Somewhere between 'squeak' and 'chomp', Hattie cracks up and has to press the back of one hand to her mouth to try and smother her fit of giggles. "If a mouse would keep my shoes clean whilst it was there, it'd be welcome to set up house in my shoe closet," she eventually manages to declare. "Until it was discovered by a firelizard and met a sorry end." Stretching her arms out above her head, she sighs and then reluctantly sits up, hands planted behind her for balance. "I should probably get back home. Gethin, etcetera," the weyrwoman explains.
"Ain't they already practical for snake huntin' and carryin' messages?" T'rev inquires, speaking of course of the variety of lizard that isn't Sugar (lazy) or Trouble (trouble). He looks up as Hattie starts to rise and nods. "Mm. Thanks for comin' down Hattie and for playin' along," the bronzerider says with a smile for the goldrider.
"...with a little feather duster and an apron," Jaeyi continues along, still imagining the knitted mouse. Not the real thing. Hattie sits up and she halfway follows suit, pushing up as far as her elbows so she can get enough of a vantage point to see beyond where the remnants of the party are winding down further and further and further, kids sugar-crashing-and-burning, adults left to deal with it. "Goodnight, Hattie. Take some leftover cake with you?"
"Or just simply hiding forgotten eggs all over the sharding place," Hattie adds on the subject of firelizards, trying to summon annoyance that doesn't really make it to convincingly genuine. Pushing to her feet, she takes a few steps away and brushes stray bits of grass from the skirts of her dress, careful not to send clinging greenery over baker and bronzerider. "Tell Ella goodbye from me?" she asks of them. "I don't think I'm going to catch her out in that lot. Though I might have to kidnap some cake, thanks. Goodnight, both of you." A quick smile and she's off across the meadow, Elaruth stirring from a sort of sunshine overload induced sleepy drunkenness.
Losing it at 'little feather duster', T'rev does wave as Hattie heads off, but doesn't manage to speak again, just nods about farewells to Ella. Eventually he recovers and sits up a little, to rub his hand lightly up Jaeyi's back. "We should probably think about gettin' back too. Or at least, I should ferry relatives home. Want me to bring you back to the Weyr before I do? It'll probably take a half hour or so to get 'em all back."
Jaeyi stays on her elbows for a time, watching the goldrider off, either lost in thoughts about Hattie or thoughts about mice with feather dusters; there's no telling. "Mmn, no. I think I'll tag along with Astivan back to the Hold, I have to be there for breakfast anyway. Go and be a good little dragonrider and take your family home." She leans over and puts a perfectly chaste kiss to T'rev's cheek, in keeping with the smut-free stories of the afternoon.
"Okay," T'rev says quietly and where her kiss is chaste, his isn't exactly naughty but is pressed to the side of her neck. "I'll come by to tuck you in when I get back?" he asks hand still wandering up and down her back, comforting more than anything else.
Rhymes with; "/Tuck/ me in?" Jaeyi shakes her head all serious-like, leaving it tipped to the side for a few extra seconds so there's a little more room for neck-kisses over there. "If you've got even an ounce of energy left after dealing with those kids--" The ones up way past their bedtime and running on fumes if not completely zonked. "--you can come and say goodnight, though. I won't slam the door in your face or anything."
With her head tipped so, T'rev obliges, kissing his way up to her ear and he smiles there. "I'll be by when I get back," he confirms quietly and takes a moment to just breathe, announces randomly: "You smell like sunshine and grass," like it's a good thing, then he sighs softly and tilts his head to kiss her lightly on the mouth just once. "Back soon, sweetheart." And hauls up to his feet, brushing at his backside to knock any loose grass free and goes in search of family to corral home.
Jaeyi, appreciative of his compliment, will linger in the grass a little while longer-- for all the good it does her, since she'll have had a bath before he gets back to the Hold anyway. So she flowery smells like soap and clean jammies by the time he gets back, which probably isn't so bad a thing, either. Anyway. She sends him off with a kiss blown from the end of her fingers, and welcomes him back later with a less chaste version when they're not at a kid's birthday party.
IC Date: 6/28/23
Meadow, Fort Hold
Set apart from the main hold, this meadow offers an inviting respite from the bustle of Hold life. Lush and verdant grasses and grains grow rampant and abundant in this peaceful and tranquil meadow. Shaded by a copse of softwood and evergreen trees, the light is dappled and freckled where it warms the ground. At certain hours of the day, small woodland creatures emerge from the small forest and may be seen frolicking about in the grasses. Paths lead back toward the hold, winding their way along near the inner edge of the orchards before returning to the white stone so familiar to the Hold's courtyard and main halls.
It's drifting towards late afternoon, it's warm and pleasant, a perfect summer day for an outdoor party and that party has been a pretty nice one at that. The cake has been cut, the presents opened and the festivities are largely winding down. T'rev sits off to one side in one of the folding chairs brought down for the occasion, his collar loosened from earlier formality, jacket slung over the back of his chair, hands curled around a glass of somewhat watery-looking iced tea, the cubes mostly melted and the lemon wedge floating on top a little wilted. Kids are running around not too far off, chasing each other in a summer's game of tag: a mixed blend of various relations, some of them from Nerat and up way past their bedtimes now, due to the time difference.
Jaeyi had been, for a time, engaged in a game with a few of those kids, playing with fake fishes and little pretend fishing poles with magnets on the end of them, giving candies as prizes for those who catch the right colored fish. But the game is over, the candy is all doled out, and she extricates herself from the play to make for the edge of the party, to the folding chairs where things are quieter. Taking a glass along the way, she collapses into a chair next to T'rev's with a sighed, "You know, I didn't much like the fancy parties Ella had at Four Sons, but I didn't really think how much easier it is to just stand next to a cake and look pretty for an hour or so."
They say that the rider mirrors the dragon and vice versa, but anyone who knows Hattie and Elaruth well enough would likely not say it of that pair in particular. However, this afternoon is different and queen and rider look to be pretty similar in both mental and physical state, the former lounging in the sun at the edge of the meadow and the latter lying in the grass beside chairs doing much the same, eyes closed and head propped on arms tucked behind her head. Comfortable, it looks like Hattie has been there a while and possibly actually sleeping, yet now she stirs and peers sleepily up at the occupants of chairs. "This is much better than all the curtseying and politics and dozens of 'how are you's," she murmurs.
T'rev lifts his glass and takes a sip, makes a little face for the wateriness and grins as Jaeyi approaches. "You look pretty all flushed from playin' though," he compliments the baker, reaches over to give her hand a little squeeze then drops a look down at Hattie, grinning all the more widely. "Shells yeah it is. Parties should be about fun n' relaxin'," is his opinion anyway. "Though I'll admit to be totally stuffed. Don't think I could eat another bite o' cake or anything."
Immediately and naturally, "I look pretty anyway." Even wilting into a chair, holding a cold cup to her forehead, though now distracted when she twists to look behind her at the figure resting in the grass nearby. "Oh, that's what I should've done. Is the grass dry?" Jaeyi asks, scuffing that under her chair with her toe, looking for dew or dampness. "No? I could go for another sandwich. Or just the tomato off one."
It takes a couple of blinks for Hattie to properly focus and look like she's really, honestly, awake and not about to doze off any second, but her gaze soon finds Jaeyi and she props herself up on one elbow. "I hope so," she says of the grass. "I'm not swimming, at any rate. Sun's been out long enough, so..." The goldrider twitches one shoulder; she certainly appears dry. "Looks like everyone had fun, anyway. I'm not entirely sure that everyone's behaved as if they're any /older/ than fifteen, which is somewhat appropriate," she goes on, slanting a glance T'rev's way before looking out across the meadow again.
"That you do," T'rev drawls agreement with Jaeyi, "but you look especially pretty with all them roses in your cheeks," he tells his weyrmate with a fond wink and loops his arm over the back of his chair to swivel his body the better to keep Hattie in view as well. "Been a nice dry day, no rain. We could all lie there n' look up at the clouds n' name their shapes," the bronzeirder proposes with humor in his voice. Speaking of not behaving one's age.
Yeah. "Speaking of acting like we're all of fifteen." But Jaeyi doesn't exactly say no to the option, especially since the ground's dry and she won't run the risk of getting dirty (Faranth forbid it), instead leaning over the arm of her own chair to peer at Hattie. "Room for company?" she asks by way of permission, putting on her peachiest pretty-please smile to the goldrider. "You look comfy, and I could stand to be comfy for a while. We don't even have to name cloud-shapes unless we get very bored."
"Certainly," the weyrwoman answers the baker, even reaching out with one hand to pat at the definitely dry ground. "I even promise that it's comfy." With a smirk tugging at her lips, Hattie adds, "We could just let him," a nod for T'rev, "name cloud-shapes and just smile and nod if and when he does." Smirk now in residence, she peers over at the bronzerider again before flopping back to the ground, tucking both arms back behind her head once more. "When he gets on to naming stars, it might be time to head home," she jokes in a low voice.
T'rev laughs as the pair of them tease him about cloud-shapes. "C'mon, it's at time-honored lie-in-the-grass tradition," he says gaily and puts his glass down without taking another sip, then pushes to his feet, a hand held out to Jaeyi to help her up from her chair. "I like watchin' the stars come out." Agreeable.
"That's a brave promise," Jaeyi points out as if gravely, taking the offered hand to help her up after she puts her cold glass down at the foot of her chair, for later retrieving. "If I wind up laying on a rock or something, you could be held accountable," as if it would be such a crime. "Well, gosh, who'm I to go against tradition. Point out clouds, Hattie? T'rev can tell us what they are, since he's the expert."
"Then I'll honourably pay the price if there are any rocks kicking about here," Hattie promises too, nodding like she's sealing the deal. Playing along, she stares up at the sky for a while, seemingly very serious about deciding which cloud to pick first. It becomes apparent that she's got some sort of silly plan in mind when she chooses, "That one," over to the far right, that just looks like a muddle of nothing identifiable, or it must do to her. Challenge to T'rev, "Go," with a brief return of that smirk.
T'rev helps Jaeyi to her feet and leads the way over to Hattie's grassy patch, kneels down first. "I have an arm on offer as a pillow for either or both of you," the bronzerider drawls out with a grin. "For the whole comfort factor." As he settles down, he looks up at the cloud formation Hattie's picked and he laughs, tilts his head to the side for a moment then declares it: "A gather dress."
Jaeyi stomps in the grass a few times, looking for stones underfoot, finding none, tells Hattie, "I think you're safe, no price to pay. This time." Again with the gravity, and she settles down to pillow the back of her head against T'rev's arm, mumbling something about, "Sooooo generous of you." Nothing to do with the 'happy to cuddle two women' factor, so says the amused glance she tacks on. Turning her attention to the cloud in question, brows knitted, she adds, "Not one that I'd wear."
The goldrider lets out an amused snort and smiles for being safe for now. "I'm just fine, thank you," Hattie responds to T'rev, still with good humour. "I have arms of my own, see," she adds, twitching elbows of folded arms. Feigning irritation at the selected cloud being identified, she breathes out a put-upon sigh. "That's either not fair or you've spent too long cloud-staring over the turns," she declares. Tilting her head a little in Jaeyi's direction, she seems to agree about the state of the cloud-dress and decides, "T'rev, I think your fashion sense has failed."
T'rev's arm curls comfortably around Jaeyi and his grin widens. "What, can't you see it?" he says, wide-eyed and traces the shape through the muddle of something slinky. "And I might just spend a lot of time lyin' on my grandfather's roof starin' at the sky," the bronzerider agrees then presses his free hand to his heart. "You wound me. My fashion sense. Guess I'll have to check in with Amerie for a refresh on women's gowns."
Jaeyi, lightly, "I think it's a cheat, to say 'party dress' at a cloud. Like, if you want to mouth the words to a song and you don't know it, you just say 'watermelon watermelon watermelon' and it matches up no matter what." A few stray wisps off to the left, hardly a cloud at all-- "That one, then." Lifting her head to look across T'rev at Hattie, making a face, she asks, "Wanna lay odds on whether or not he says 'a lacy skirt?'"
Silent for a moment or two, Hattie mouths something (probably 'watermelon, watermelon, watermelon', along to a song in her head) and glances over Jaeyi's way again, nodding agreement of the skirt prediction and possibly the watermelon theory too. "Perhaps there should be a ban on declaring clouds to be women's apparel," she suggests. With a grin for T'rev, she teases, "Don't worry. We won't tell anyone of your clouds-as-skirts fixation."
"Ripples from a skippin' stone," is T'rev's counter to 'lacy skirt'. "And I haven't heard that about watermelons before," he says with a laugh. "And somehow I don't think it's really cloud-skirts I'm all that fixated on," he claims merrily, turning his head to press a kiss to the top of Jaeyi's head fondly.
"It works, doesn't it?" Jaeyi asks of her watermelon-theory, watching Hattie a second longer with a measure of satisfuaction before she settles back the way she was, contemplating the so-called ripples with narrowed eyes. "I still feel like you're cheating, somehow, like you ought to be trying for things like... ducks and cupcakes and oak trees." Which none of the clouds overhead look like, at least not to her.
"I think it does," Hattie confirms of the theory. "Of course, now I'll have to resist the temptation to try and wind up a Harper with it," she confesses, pleased by the thought of doing so if the calculating look she sports is any indication. Lifting her left arm, she gestures to a sequence of three clouds and proposes, "Tell a story with them?" to the bronzerider. With a tilt of her head, she curves her whole body round a bit, adding, "Though that one does look a little bit like a flailing firelizard."
"It ain't the kinda game you cheat at," T'rev says with a little shake of his head. "More about y'know, bein' creative and whatnot than bein' right," he notes and curls his arm around the baker that much more. "Oh, nice, good idea Hattie," the bronzerider says gamely and considers the three shapes in question for a moment. "Does kinda, at that. Reminds me of Trouble," he says with a little snort then takes a breath and launches into a tale about three ships and, appropriately enough, a flailing firelizard. Let it not be said that T'rev does not have a gift for tall tales.
Jaeyi agrees, "It's not the kind of game /I/ would cheat at, true." Squinting hard at the flailing firelizard, head tilting and tilting like she can make the shape coalesce for her-- 'cause she clearly isn't seeing what they are-- she stays quiet about the matter to attend the tale, her laugh quiet while it progresses. "I think that might be the cleanest story I've ever heard you tell," she volunteers happily, lifting her hands from the grass to applaud lightly. "Tell one," she suggests to Hattie afterward.
Over the course of the tale, Hattie uncurls herself from the odd angle that she's propped herself at to try and see firelizard from cloud, eyes closing as she listens. She doesn't drop back off to sleep though and eventually utters, "Nicely done," at the story's conclusion, adding, "Maybe you should write that one down." Eyes open at Jaeyi's suggestion and her gaze roams the sky for a while until she can point at a series of clouds and adhere to the 'rules' of the game herself. "Be kind of awful if mine wasn't clean now," she murmurs wryly, before going on to tell a silly little story about a feline chasing a winged creature through the jungle and the desert and the mountains and so on. "Your turn," she returns to the Journeyman once she's finished, smiling faintly.
"That's because you /like/ dirty stories," T'rev teases cheerfully. "Hattie knows I tell plenty of stories as ain't got a drop of dirt in 'em," the bronzerider claims with a touch of pride and considers for a moment in the wake of the goldrider's comment. "Might do at that," he finally decides then quiets down to listen to Hattie, laughing now and then at the funny parts.
"Truuuuue," Jaeyi chimes to T'rev, like there might be some kind of argument she has about that statement-- that she likes dirty stories-- but the argument never manifests. 'Cause, really, what can she say? "Be kinda awful if /mine/ wasn't clean now," she echoes after the second totally-clean story of the night, applauding at the end of Hattie's story, too. Her own, which has nothing to do with the clouds, as she points out at the beginning, has no real plot or purpose and is just about a mouse that has set up housekeeping in someone's shoe closet and lives in perpetual fear of getting stomped. "...at the end, perhaps, T'rev's stupid firelizard comes along and eats the mouse or something."
Hattie settles back to relaxed and with eyes closed as she listens to Jaeyi's story, claiming, "That one should be illustrated. You could have people knitting little mice to go with it and everything. If it lives, of course," once a fate has been suggested for the mouse. "Though, T'rev, really. You should know better than to let Trouble eat domesticated mice," she tells him oh so very sternly. Deadpan, at least. "Not that I suppose a dialogue between mouse and firelizard would be very successful."
"Y'know, I think Trouble might actually go for that," T'rev muses aloud thoughtfully, then bursts out laughing. "I had to teach him not to eat my sweaters, I don't think I'd have much luck with curbing his natural instincts to hunt. I imagine anything on those lines to be kind of like this: " Mouse: squeak. Trouble: chomp"
Pragmatically, never mind the fanciful tale, Jaeyi points out, "Well, really, it's not more than a mouse deserves for trying to set up residence in someone's shoe closet. Plus, it would give firelizards a whole new practical use-- as mousers. People might not be so cross about them if they served a purpose. Though." Hold one palm up as if to imagine such a thing curled there, she adds, "A knitted mouse'd be really cute. Till Trouble destroyed it, anyway."
Somewhere between 'squeak' and 'chomp', Hattie cracks up and has to press the back of one hand to her mouth to try and smother her fit of giggles. "If a mouse would keep my shoes clean whilst it was there, it'd be welcome to set up house in my shoe closet," she eventually manages to declare. "Until it was discovered by a firelizard and met a sorry end." Stretching her arms out above her head, she sighs and then reluctantly sits up, hands planted behind her for balance. "I should probably get back home. Gethin, etcetera," the weyrwoman explains.
"Ain't they already practical for snake huntin' and carryin' messages?" T'rev inquires, speaking of course of the variety of lizard that isn't Sugar (lazy) or Trouble (trouble). He looks up as Hattie starts to rise and nods. "Mm. Thanks for comin' down Hattie and for playin' along," the bronzerider says with a smile for the goldrider.
"...with a little feather duster and an apron," Jaeyi continues along, still imagining the knitted mouse. Not the real thing. Hattie sits up and she halfway follows suit, pushing up as far as her elbows so she can get enough of a vantage point to see beyond where the remnants of the party are winding down further and further and further, kids sugar-crashing-and-burning, adults left to deal with it. "Goodnight, Hattie. Take some leftover cake with you?"
"Or just simply hiding forgotten eggs all over the sharding place," Hattie adds on the subject of firelizards, trying to summon annoyance that doesn't really make it to convincingly genuine. Pushing to her feet, she takes a few steps away and brushes stray bits of grass from the skirts of her dress, careful not to send clinging greenery over baker and bronzerider. "Tell Ella goodbye from me?" she asks of them. "I don't think I'm going to catch her out in that lot. Though I might have to kidnap some cake, thanks. Goodnight, both of you." A quick smile and she's off across the meadow, Elaruth stirring from a sort of sunshine overload induced sleepy drunkenness.
Losing it at 'little feather duster', T'rev does wave as Hattie heads off, but doesn't manage to speak again, just nods about farewells to Ella. Eventually he recovers and sits up a little, to rub his hand lightly up Jaeyi's back. "We should probably think about gettin' back too. Or at least, I should ferry relatives home. Want me to bring you back to the Weyr before I do? It'll probably take a half hour or so to get 'em all back."
Jaeyi stays on her elbows for a time, watching the goldrider off, either lost in thoughts about Hattie or thoughts about mice with feather dusters; there's no telling. "Mmn, no. I think I'll tag along with Astivan back to the Hold, I have to be there for breakfast anyway. Go and be a good little dragonrider and take your family home." She leans over and puts a perfectly chaste kiss to T'rev's cheek, in keeping with the smut-free stories of the afternoon.
"Okay," T'rev says quietly and where her kiss is chaste, his isn't exactly naughty but is pressed to the side of her neck. "I'll come by to tuck you in when I get back?" he asks hand still wandering up and down her back, comforting more than anything else.
Rhymes with; "/Tuck/ me in?" Jaeyi shakes her head all serious-like, leaving it tipped to the side for a few extra seconds so there's a little more room for neck-kisses over there. "If you've got even an ounce of energy left after dealing with those kids--" The ones up way past their bedtime and running on fumes if not completely zonked. "--you can come and say goodnight, though. I won't slam the door in your face or anything."
With her head tipped so, T'rev obliges, kissing his way up to her ear and he smiles there. "I'll be by when I get back," he confirms quietly and takes a moment to just breathe, announces randomly: "You smell like sunshine and grass," like it's a good thing, then he sighs softly and tilts his head to kiss her lightly on the mouth just once. "Back soon, sweetheart." And hauls up to his feet, brushing at his backside to knock any loose grass free and goes in search of family to corral home.
Jaeyi, appreciative of his compliment, will linger in the grass a little while longer-- for all the good it does her, since she'll have had a bath before he gets back to the Hold anyway. So she flowery smells like soap and clean jammies by the time he gets back, which probably isn't so bad a thing, either. Anyway. She sends him off with a kiss blown from the end of her fingers, and welcomes him back later with a less chaste version when they're not at a kid's birthday party.