Liars and Pranksters

Monaco Bay Weyr - Craft Clearing
Tucked up in the lee of the rocky outcropping that extends from the hatching caverns, the crafter complex is a compact set of buildings and workshops that house the industry that keeps the Weyr running. The buildings ring a paved, octagonal central courtyard which is often used for apprentice lessons. Most of the major crafts have representation: the smithcraft has a squat stone building with billowing smoke rising from its chimney, while the miners and glasscrafters share a two-storied complex next door. Woodcrafters run up against harpers, which in turn abutt against the low-slung apprentice barracks. There's even a small cafeteria located just beside the barracks, for those crafters too busy to go all the way to the commons to catch a meal. To the south, behind a screen of scrubby trees, lies the beastcrafter area and runnerbeast compound, complete with a dirt racetrack oval.


It's early afternoon at Monaco and the Weyr is…well, it's quite noisy to be perfectly honest. Admist the screeching of avians, the business of flits, and the bustle of crafters there seems to be someone that's making things worse. A very pregnant Reya, who honestly looks like she's about to pop with that tiny frame of hers, is shuffling across the clearing. Her eyes are glancing about sharply as if she were looking for someone, but it's not quite clear who at the moment. "SNUFFY!" Ok, it's not exactly a person. "Snuffy! You get your butt back here now before I fry your wings!" Don't worry folks, nothing too out of the ordinary where the Junior Weyrwoman is concerned.

Still bright-eyed and bushy-tailed about her recent arrival to the Weyr, Wilough is sitting near the cafeteria with a refreshing drink and a small stack of totally boring papers of which she's currently rifling through. It only makes sense that the teenager is distracted by the huge— er, pregnant woman who's yelling for Snuffy while she makes her way across the clearing. Wilough stares. She probably shouldn't, she probably should avoid eye contact, but no. She's staring quite openly, mid paper-rifling.

Target, lock on. Reya's eyes meet with Wilough's and moments later the poor techcrafter finds the tiny/big pregnant woman coming right at her. "You! Have you seen Snuffy?" There's no explanation about who Snuffy is or what Snuffy looks like, not even a hello for this stranger that she hasn't met yet. There's a bit of huffing on the goldrider's part, mostly because she's been walking a bit too fast and is understandably not in quite as good shape as she was pre-baby bump.

Wilough glances behind her before her blue eyes fix on the pregnant woman again, a little wider now. "No?" she ventures uncertainly. Is that the right answer? Is that the wrong answer? Is there a right or wrong answer? Her gaze shifts away as an apprentice starts walking past behind the goldrider. "Is… that Snuffy?" asks Wilough suspiciously, one brow even arching as she points a finger at the unsuspecting boy.

"No? No!" Reya lets out a little huff of disappointment and begins tapping her foot against the ground. "Dammit, Snu—" At the mention of who might be snuffy, the goldrider turns around to spot the apprentice before wrinkling her nose at him. "What? No no, of course not. Why would that be Snuffy?" Why not! There's a long sigh before Reya invites herself to sit down next to Willow and holds up her hands so that they're about a foot apart. "Snuffy is about this big…green…annoying." Now, just a tiny pause. "She's my flit." This explains a few things probably. Maybe. Possibly.

The computer crafter looks a little disappointed with the apprentice not being Snuffy, too. That would have been an easy mystery solved. Wilough leans away when Reya sits, tilting just enough in her chair to face the woman slightly. "To be honest, they all look the same to me. Unless she was wearing a bright orange sweater or something, I probably wouldn't remember even if I had seen her. Can't you just… think at her? Isn't that how they work? Tell her you're going to give her a steak or whatever?"

"That's how it's /supposed/ to work. Damn firelizard. Hmph!" Reya pouts and throws her hands up in the air out of frustration for a moment. But then it seems the subject of the flit itself is leaving her mind and she turns a scrutinizing gaze to Wilough. "You know….I don't think I've seen you around here before…you new?" Or maybe the goldrider just hasn't been paying attention. She's terrible at names. Really really terrible.

"Do you need her for something?" There might be a sense that Wilough doesn't think a missing firelizard is that big of a deal. But she also seems more than willing to move onto the fact that this woman has no idea who she is. "I've lived here my whole life," she lies, feigning hurt that she hasn't been recognized at all. "I've heard that your brain gets all weird when you're pregnant, though. You don't remember anything. It must be horrible. Do you have stretch marks?"

"She stole something." Presumably something important? As Wilough continues, Reya's lips turn upwards in a wolfsih smile and she lifts an eyebrow. "Your entire life, hm? Quite a believable lie that is." Soon enough though, that grin is turning into something more wicked and the goldrider leans in as if to scrutinize the tech crafter more. "Damn brat, you've got a mouth on you, haven't you?" Reya's elbow moves upward until it's resting on Wilough's shoulder. "So dear little crafter, you got a name?"

"Oh," says Wilough of the firelizard in question, briefly thoughtful before she's re-distracted by the rest again. "I do have a mouth, yes. And a name. Just like everyone else." For a moment it seems as though she might not actually say what her name is, too, but then, "Wilough. Computercraft apprentice." Maybe it's the other woman's proximity that makes her say it. Nothing worse than getting bopped by a stranger for being a prat. "And are you someone Important who I'm supposed to be nice to no matter what?"

"Hm? No no, of course not. I'm just a crazy pregnant woman passing by…you can call me Fey." A pair of crafters passing by happens to overhear this and eyebrows certainly raise in the goldrider's direction, but they aren't saying anything. The woman's got a reputation. "Well met Wilough, computercraft apprentice." There's a slight pause as that canine-like grin flashes at the girl once more, "Besides…what's the fun in being nice all the time? Especially when you're supposed to." Good influence right here.

"Fey," repeats Wilough dubiously. But whether she notices the crafters or not, she shrugs to herself and glances at the papers on the table before her gaze returns to the goldrider. "There's really not a lot of fun in dealing with Important People," the capitalization is audible, "honestly. They can be so, just, ugh. They're annoying." Pause. "You're kind of annoying, Fey." The last is pointed out while the brunette squints her eyes as though she might be able to see the goldrider's Importance better that way. She even keeps a perfectly straight and serious face.

"No kidding, they're all stuffy about rules and crap. Do this, don't do that, blah blah blah." Reya rolls her eyes before glancing towards Wilough and snickering. "That's rich coming from you, brat. Lying about living at Monaco all your life? Tsk tsk." Information courtesy of Fuerioth. Reya's knot seems to have been what's stolen, thanks Snuffy, so Wilough won't be able to see any importance in that regard. Maybe she can see it in the totally unreserved behavior, who knows! "So….brat….wanna earn a few extra marks by helping a crazy annoying pregnant woman?"

"Well, the Hall isn't that far away," Wilough says defensively. Not that she's lived there her whole life, either. She considers the rest of what the crazy, annoying pregnant woman says, then asks, "Are you gonna make me go looking for your firelizard that I'm not going to recognize anyway? I mean, you can pay me for that if you want, but I don't know how helpful I'm gonna be with it." At least she's honest? About this, anyway. Not everything.

"What? No, forget about that." Reya waves a hand in the air dismissively. "You need to get into a little bit of fun now that you're out of that hall." This can't bode well. Or can it? There's a tiny groan as Reya gets to her feet and a glance over to the building where the weavers are located. "They've got some dye vats in there and the colors need a bit of…adjustment…unfortunately, I'm not quite limber enough to climb to the top of all of them at the moment." This is definitely not Reya's first time bribing people to help her with pranks. She did ruin dinner not too long ago. "You game? Or are you going to be baby and cop out?" Reya's definitely trying to egg her on, who knows if it'll work!

Wilough might be relieved to forget about the dumb firelizard thief, but she doesn't seem sure this is a great replacement. Then again, "How much are you going to give me for it? I have to actually work around these people, you know. Not like… whatever it is you do. Make trouble, obviously." That's what Reya-Fey does as far as Wil is concerned.

"What? You're going to work with the weavers? They won't see you anyways. I already checked out the place and apparently your Wingleader's called them into a meeting." A slight pause. "Watch out for that one by the way, Miyan's got a screw loose." Says the totally psychotic pregnant woman. Reya smirks again, digging into the pockets on her shorts and pulling out a couple of marks. "So what say you?"

"Around them," Wilough corrects with a gesture of her hand that's probably meant to include the entirety of the crafter area as though it's not possibly big enough to hide from the weavers if she does get caught. But she's eyeing those marks in a way that basically answers the question before she actually does out loud. "Fine, crazy woman. But I'm blaming you if anything happens to me."

"If they catch you, just tell them Fey did it. I'll play look out anyways." Reya grins before handing one mark over and waggling the other in the air. "Half now, half after so I know you won't back out. Now…c'mon." There's a wicked smile for Wilough before the pregnant lady begins to lead the way over to the weavers' building. Hopefully the computer crafter decides to follow! Reya might be getting a few looks, but no one's stopping her.

Wilough hesitates for a second, then shoves the papers into her bag and slings it over her shoulder, putting her mark in her pocket and following the huge, tiny woman toward the weavers' poor, innocent dye. Someone is getting pranked. Whether the weavers or the apprentice. It's happening, either way. "So… what am I supposed to do?"

"So there's a custom dye order for….well there's a custom dye order." Reya won't specify for who. "We're going to throw a little bit of something in it so their order comes out just a tad more fabulous." Because who doesn't want fabulous? The goldrider leads the way into the building, taking a few turns here and there before she finally finds her way into the dye room. There are several vats, a few larger ones with the more usual colors and then several tiny ones on a tall rack that are for custom colors. There's a ladder leading up to these and it's apparently this that Reya needs her to scale.

The apprentice follows in thoughtful silence all the way up to the ladder. She reaches out to give it just enough of a shake to check for sturdiness before she's dropping her bag off to the side. "Okay, so which one is it?" Wilough looks at the various vats and then lets her gaze fall back onto Reya, who she will presume has the actual stuff to throw in there. She doesn't even ask the obvious questions. Perhaps she has played minion before!

"Third one on the left." Reya replies quickly before digging into her pockets once more. The best thing about special pregnant person shorts? She's got big pockets. What she produces is a fairly small vial of a mysteriously colored liquid with some flecks floating in it. It's rather hard to tell exactly /what/ the liquid is, but apparently the goldrider isn't going to explain that. For now. Instead, she'll hold it out to Wilough. "Make sure all of it gets in there, alright?" Not that she sounds too worried about that.

She takes the vial with dextrous fingers, eyeing it with the same suspicion Reya herself was receiving not so long ago, and then she's looking up to pick out the vat. Finally, Wilough makes sure the ladder is where it needs to be. "You're gonna hold this and make sure I don't fall and die, right?" is asked before she just goes ahead and starts climbing her way up. She's counting on you, Fey! "This one?" she makes sure once she climbs up, uncapping the vial to pour it in only once she has confirmation.

"Mhm, don't worry! I'd get in trouble if an apprentice died." She's got your back! Reya makes her way over to the ladder, steadying it as Wilough goes up before she watches which vat the girl goes to. "Mhm, that's the one. Perfect!" No sooner has the last drop of the mysterious substance hit the dye than a sound comes from somewhere near the front of the room. It looks like the weavers are returning! "Hurry, I know a back exit!" By the sound of it, it's a large group of weavers and they're here to check on the dyes! Whatever changes might have happened to the dye will have to be seen some other time…possibly when one of the Weyr residents gets an unpleasant surprise!

Wilough squeaks, like legit squeaks, when the returning weavers draw her attention. She practically slides down the ladder back to the ground and nearly forgets her bag before grabbing it at the last moment to follow the pregnant woman toward this convenient back exit. Right now she'd probably follow her through the weavers, granted. She still owes her a mark!

Reya can't exactly run at the moment, but she's shuffling along as fast as she can…and it's just fast enough! They make it out the door before she leans against the building letting out shallow huffs. "YES!" There's a broad grin on the goldrider's face before she digs into her pocket once more and this time produces Wilough's second mark. "Mission accomplished, thanks." And look, no one saw!

Wilough takes the mark in exchange for the vial because there's no reason the woman wouldn't want her evidence back, right? "Closer than I'd like," says the girl, but she doesn't actually seem sour about it. Almost getting caught is a thrill all of its own. "Good luck finding your firelizard," she says as some weird farewell even as she starts to walk away just like that.

"Spend your money irresponsibly!" Reya calls out after the disappearing Wilough, though she doesn't quite move to leave yet. No, she'll stay at the scene of the crime a bit longer to catch her breathe before heading back to her Weyr. The goldrider may not have found her flit and stolen knot, but…what's that matter when there are pranks to be done!


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