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The Lord of the Rings


Date:  January 31, 2001
Place:  Telgar Weyr's Lake Shore
Game:  PernMUSH
Copyright Info:  The World of Pern is copyright(c) to Anne McCaffrey 
l967. The Dragonriders of Pern(r) is a registered copyright.

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Kassi's Note:  Just a quick, pleasant RP session.  No one has a greater
talent for making simple conversation intriguing and meaningful than 
I'sai; this is an example that I rather enjoyed, so while it's not a 
crucial moment in Kassi's life or anything, I thought I'd share it
anyway. ;)

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The Log:

I'sai heads over from the central bowl.

Seated on that large, convenient boulder, Kassima is attempting--stress
attempting--to fish. Unsuccessfully, to judge by the pile of wet flotsam
that's accrued near that boulder's feet, glistening damply in the dark.
Lysseth has chosen a far enough place to float that she's in no danger from
flying hooks or flopping prey, only the faint gleam of her eyes really
suggesting her presence at all.

I'sai ambles on foot, in no apparent hurry, yet also without particular
direction; still, Lysseth eventually serves as lodestone enough, or at
least the lake about her. Gloved hands shrugged into his pockets, elbows
slack at his sides, he's no immediate catch for any hook.

Perhaps she has become the Loch Lyss monster, drawing curious seekers with
the power of an enormous paleozoic magnet? Surely not; the quiet rumble she
issues him is modern enough, friendly enough. Likewise the glance that
Kassi darts over her shoulder. "I'sai," she greets, faint surprise coloring
her voice, "heyla and g'deve. Out a bit late, aren't you?"

"I thought it was early," I'sai says lightly and without surprise, if - at
the end - through a yawn; "Though if I'm late, so must you be. Why?"

"Early, late; tomato, tomahto," Kassi half-chants, with a brow slowly
lifting for that yawn. "Evading the question--but I'm up because I can't
sleep. I'd ask if'n you're the same, but that *yawn*...."

I'sai says lazily, happily, "I'm too tired to sleep. Or argue. So there."

Kassima chuckles, shaking her head once before she shifts to be looking
back over the late. "Point made. Help yourself to a seat," she belatedly
invites, "if'n you'd like one--and do tell me what has you so pleased, if'n
I'm nay prying t'ask it?"

I'sai looks; "Thanks," he says, and wanders over to rest a boot on one of
the boulder's lower outcroppings, bracing crossed forearms on his knee.
"Mmm? Oh, I don't know. It's something of a breather day; dawn sweeps over
the barrier range, some drilling with the weyr - well, I shouldn't call
them 'weyrlings' 'less I'm teasing them, but anyway, we're getting there.
Getting there. Have I asked you the ring question?"

"Used t'be 'twere Weyrlings until the Wingleaders tapped them," Kassi
points out, tilting a glance, "so 'twill nay protest or tell May on
you--though too much of it, particularly after Kvasith, and I could always
lapse into nostalgia. You've been warned." Oh, horrors. She flicks her line
out into the lake again. "Ring question. Ring question. Doesn't sound
familiar."

I'sai waves a hand - Maylia - "Right. So... all that jewelry you've got.
Jingly things. Earrings, that sort of thing. What's the thing you like the
most, what would you most hate to lose?"

Kassima stills her pole at that, surprise clear in the flash of eye-whites
in the next glance she gives him. "The jewelry? Shards... that's a bit of a
poser. Most of it's gifts, y'know, and I'd hate to lose any gift. But
'twould be a toss-up between the graduation ring," which twinkles
gold-and-green as she wiggles the appropriate finger, "and the pendant
Thera had made for me, with Lysseth's shell and all. I suppose the ring
would win; I've other pieces of shard, if'n it comes to that. Why d'you ask?"

I'sai mulls that over, the moonlight pausing fitfully along his pensive
profile, playing shadows in his fair hair. "That ring. I'll remember...
why? Because it's got to be important, see. Important to you. See, we're
pretending, and here we're pretending that you get upset - maybe Lysseth's
proddy, maybe you got drunk and J'lyn knocked you up again, whatever it
takes - and you toss the ring in. Way-deep-in. Or... maybe it's some other
piece of jewelry, one that you'd really do that to, even when you weren't
in your right mind... and Turns pass. Can you imagine that?"

Kassima sets the pole down slowly, and braces her hands against that flat,
flat surface to better twist herself around to face him rather than silent,
untalkative water. "Lysseth being proddy's unfortunately possible--nay
*now*, but in some future time; J'lyn and me having more children isn't
bloody likely. But I'll take your meaning and say I can imagine. In the
Lake, d'you mean?"

"This lake, that lake, Benden's - if it had much," I'sai replies, peering
at the water's ashy denizen; "So it's been Turns. It's probably buried
deep. Maybe a fish swallowed it, or a little netted it the day after you
tossed it in... but it's niggling at you. It could be there. Down there.
Somewhere. Would you try to find it?"

"Might be Benden's," Kassi murmurs. "If'n we're talking long past. Would I
try?" As she'd glanced at him while facing the Lake, now she glances at the
Lake while facing him; the ashy denizen merely looks back, unfazed by human
concerns of glittering pretties. "Methinks 'twould depend on whether it
still meant something t'me now, and just how much it meant, and whether
'tis replacable. But on this assumption that it means a great deal and
isn't--'twould. Methinks. I'd at least attempt it."

"At least attempt," I'sai confirms after long moments of listening,
shifting so he's leaning a hip, now, against the rock. Still looking out at
the lake - and there's a wave for the toothy beast - "Now, how would you do
it? Would you do it all careful, grid it out and search square by square to
make sure you covered everywhere? Or would you swim in, and reach, and say
that if you caught it, it was meant to be... and if you didn't, it wasn't?
And - last - would you tell anyone you were going to do it?"

Lysseth dips her chin, lifts one wing from where it supports her in the
water long enough to wiggle its tip; hello right back. "The first thing I'd
do would be t'concentrate on remembering where it had hit the water, if'n I
knew," Kassi replies. "Or approximately where. I'd search there first, all
around. If'n 'twasn't there, I'd either give it up as a bad job for awhile
or start being methodical--depending on how stubborn 'twas feeling at the
time. I could see m'self trying that 'destiny' angle... but nay giving up,
at least nay for good, if'n it didn't work." And now it's time to blink.
"That'd depend, wouldn't it? If'n 'twas recruiting help or wanted advice,
'twould. If'n I felt foolish over tossing the thing t'begin with--and I
might, I suppose--then I'd probably have at least one go at finding it on
m'lonesome."

I'sai waves his -other- hand, to see what happens. "All right," he says,
and -then- he turns, smiles back at her, the angular features relaxed under
what starlight finds them, and his shoulders likewise, wherever she may
look. "Thank you, Kassima."

Why, Lysseth wiggles the other wing back, of course. What did he expect?
And Kassi smiles back, though there's a puzzled element to it; in the dark
eyes, too, but there's likely not enough light to illumine them for seeing.
"You're welcome as always, I'sai. Should I ask what 'tis that you've lost?
Or is this a strictly hypothetical question?"

I'sai chuckles, now, "Oh, -I- haven't lost it. I just wanted to know. How
you'd do it. I hadn't thought about asking someone, or not asking someone,
till someone else said that when I asked them... It's finding out what
matters." Time to wave both hands.

Kassima asks, her head tipping to one side, dragging the weighty braid over
with it, "You mean with that first question--which gewgaw is the favorite?
Most riders would give the same answer to that, I imagine. Unless they've a
weyrmate who gives them jewelry... then only perhaps." A moment of pensive
silence follows that; a brief headshake dispells it. "I'm flattered that
you'd be curious, I suppose--may I ask the same question back t'you?"

"With all of them, actually," I'sai says, dropping his hands. "And me? Oh,
I don't have much; -my- ring; a pendant from back when we were candidates,
she's a starcrafter now; ...a bracelet, Arallia's. That's about it."

"And what," Kassi must inquire, shamelessly curious, "do the answers say to
you, then? Stubborn, materialistic, nay precisely mathematically inclined?
Anyway, let's assume the ring for you. If'n that means the most." She darts
glance to that ring, or in its general direction. "And while I'm asking
questions aplenty, I'll add one as t'why Arallia gave you a bracelet.
Turnday? Turnover?"

I'sai wiggles his shoulders by way of shrug, "Some of that, maybe ...
wishing, too, some. As for Arallia, it was a long time ago. Long time...
'Skyfire Wingrider' is all it says; she was newly a wingsecond, then."

I'sai says "My wingsecond."

Kassima repeats, "Wishing? Wishing... ah, I see." Though the faint
furrowing of her brow would suggest it's a muddled vision. "How peculiar.
Has almost the sound of a shackle, that, though I doubt she *meant* it that
way... and now, a'course, you're hers."

"I am," I'sai agrees, without clearing that vision for her this night, or
perhaps just not now. "Thing about the copper, too, is it turns my skin
colors when I wear it... but being her wingsecond, being the wingsecond of
those sorts of people, that's peculiar."

"Wishing for what?" She does have a certain tenacity to find sometimes,
does Kassi, and if clarification isn't a ring in the muck it will still do.
For the moment. "Verdigris. Nasty stuff, pretty as 'tis. D'you mean the
sort of people who give tokens t'those they're over, or...?"

I'sai'd held up an open hand as she'd continued, to preserve the
wishing-thought, but as she continues his eyes widen, and he laughs;
"-Kassima-. No - oh - oh, no, what I'd meant was seconding M'rgan over
people who'd had the job before me, or at least who'd been in the -wing-
before me. I'd not have said something like that." The hand falls.
"Wishing, now... you'd like a little good fortune to come your way, I think
- something that wasn't all sweated for, something that was meant to be."

Talisha heads over from the central bowl.

"Well, one wonders," Kassi defends, though good-humoredly and not without a
hint of mirth all her own. "That I do understand; I'm Wingleader over a man
who was both Wingleader and Weyrleader over me, y'know, and 'tis... bloody
odd." Musing half-facetiously, "He didn't give out verdigris-ridden
bracelets, though." She tracks that hand as it falls, then brings eyes back
up to him. "I can't say 'twouldn't. Though most who know how I've made
m'fortune would argue I've already had m'share of that--but it's a
different thing... and likewise, they might say *you've* had luck in your
time, but 'tis all perspective, isn't it?" She's perched on the boulder
right now, facing I'sai, a fishing pole near at hand and Lysseth lounging
in the water's depths.

"At least wingleader's earned - " I'sai's leaning one hip against that same
boulder, stifling a yawn now and again... and here's another. "And as for
luck, well, they do say a good gambler makes his own."

Talisha wanders along the shore at a leisurely pace, pausing every so often
to kick at a stray rock and send it skittering down the sand to the water.
"Evening." comes her soft greeting towards I'sai and Kassima, though her
face does brighten upon seeing the bronzerider. She's holding in her hands
a bulky looking package wrapped in brown linen.

I'sai, at the greeting, rebuttons his collar before he turns to his new
wingmate; "Evening right back to you, 'lisha. 'Ware the catch; she has
quite the collection."

Kassima protests, if lightly, "And Wingsecond isn't? You might be
surprised--and Mart's nay one t'promote someone just for fun; that I'd
think you'd know." She slants a smile at the second. "Very astute, very
true, and thankee for recognizing it--oh, g'day, Talisha. Or g'deve, as
'twere." Not rebuttoning anything here, no.

"Wingsecond is," I'sai accedes, no more.

Talisha walks the final way up the shore to stand close by them, though
doesn't travel any further. "Fishing?" she asks, blinking several times at
Kassima before shrugging. "Oh and this is for you, I'sai." the package is
held up, then offered over with a smile. "Isn't anything much." and up to
Kassima, "Caught anything much yet?"

I'sai accepts it, slowly - though perhaps not with the caution that is
Talisha's due.

"Ah. *Weyrleader* isn't," Kassi deduces in a low-voiced murmur. "There's
some truth there--well, trying, anyway," she amends on a rueful and more
audible note. "Haven't caught aught but weeds, sticks, and someone's boot.
What's in the package?" She's subtle, all right.

"Just clothes." Talisha admits with what she hopes is an non-chalant shrug.
"Thought I'sai might be in need of them." for what reasons, she doesn't say.

"But it's become it, for ours at least," I'sai says with not a little
loyalty for the poor man, and pauses before opening it all up; "Timbril
sent this?"

Kassima concedes, "It usually does--for the ones who should've had it
t'begin with." Thinking of someone specific there? Her? Oh, maybe. "Open,
open, so I can see. Mayhaps she's given you a kilt t'wear to the
Masquerade?" Here she gives Talisha a hopeful look.

Talisha brings one hand up to cover over her mouth, save she start laughing
at that comment. "Personally I'd rather he wear those velvet shorts to the
Masquerade. Although they could be worn /under/ a kilt." brows move into a
thoughtful expression, but then she shakes her head. "Nope, it's not a
kilt. And not from Timbril either."

Kassima asks obediantly, and with real curiousity to boot, "Velvet shorts?
I'sai, you've never mentioned velvet shorts." Imagine that.

"You're right!" I'sai says brightly, hands still tucked neatly about the
package. The cloth package. "I haven't. Well, who's it from, then?"

"Me?" Talisha asks, placing her hands on her hips as if he /should/ have
known. "And velvet shorts.. oh you'll just /have/ to get him to show you.
Maybe you'll have better luck then me trying to convince him to wear them."
It's all said with an innocent smile, before she taps her foot impatiently.
"What do you think?"

"What do they look like?" Kassi prods. Poke, poke. That tenacity again. "Or
better yet, what would it take t'get you t'wear them? If'n Talisha thinks
you should, why, I'll take her word. I bet you'd look stellar modelling
them in the fashion show."

"I haven't opened it yet!" I'sai pleads. "How'm I supposed to know. You,
huh..." and he opens it, but slowly, slowly, unfolding leather of midnight
blue matched to a dusting of blacker glitter.

Kassima whistles a low, appreciative note; the light might be poor, but
there's enough for that glitter. "My word. But... those aren't Is-sized,
are they?"

"-Two- sets?" I'sai wonders nearly as one.


	Upon unwrapping, the thick linen covering of this package would reveal,
neatly folded -

	Ceria's flying jacket has been crafted from a deliciously soft suede
leather. Dark shades creep down the sleeves, blue deepening into midnight
as the colours move down into cuffs. Folded back, these cuffs reveal a
scattering of black beads, each tiny sphere catching a flicker of light.
Long, the jacket's hemline travels down to mid-thigh, and is stitched with
an extra panneling of suede to accommodate the swell of her belly.
Adjustable straps allow the jacket to be fastened up her front - but opened
reveals a peek of soft black lining. A pair of matching suede pants fit
snugly to her legs, again edged with the sprinkling of black beads. 

	Softly sueded leather molds it's way around I'sai's legs, covering them in
velvety smooth darkness. Midnight sweeps around in dusky shades, broken up
only by the pin-pricks of light sparkling around the pants very hem. Black
beads, a simple scattering - barely there - also appear on the cuffs of his
jacket, dark in it's colour, matching with that of the pants. The white
collar of his shirt beneath can be seen peeking over the jacket's mandarin
style collar, thick lacings left loosened for ease of movement.


Talisha bounces up on her toes to peek in at the package. "Yes me, and
because you're spawning here there and everywhere.." at that a blush -
perhaps at just /saying/ that, "..so you'll owe me a favour for getting you
something so nice." a sweet smile is turned on I'sai, before that same
smile is turned towards Kassima. "Oh they're suposed to be /tight/."

"Oh--are those," Kassi asks, gesturing to indicate the smaller of the sets,
"for Alessi, then? Is dark blue really her color? I'd have thought
purple--but the Weavers would know best, I imagine; I'm hardly any expert
on fashion." The larger pants get a long look. "Let's hope nay too tight.
Or that'll be the end of his spawning spree."

"I'm not going to owe you a favor," I'sai says automatically. "Didn't I
tell you not to try bribes in front of a wingleader? Especially some other
wingleader? Though otherwise they look, real good for it being dark and all
and ... Er. And tight. I hope it stretches, it... Augh! _Kassima_!"

"Well that's a rather good point, but then I've been told numerous times
that M'rgan doesn't like spawning in his wing." Talisha coughs lightly to
herself, then prods the second pair of leathers with one finger. "No,
they're for th'other one he's spawned with." and which one she doesn't say.
"But now I've got to be off..you know, things to do and people to see."
another series of light coughing, a wink to no-one, and she starts back up
the beach.

"What's so horrid about owing favors?" Kassi asks with not unjustified
suspicion, squinting. "And what's wrong with bribery in front of me? You
surely don't think I'm any stranger to it... oh, what? What? Deny it, go
on!" Peer pressure! Only, she's now too busy being surprised to pressure
further: "The *other one*? Oh... g'deve, then, Talisha. Sleep well and all
that."

Talisha heads in the direction of the central bowl, leaving the shimmering
lake.

I'sai says primly, and as if quoting, "A Skyfire wingsecond must be above
reproach." Still, he's not above bundling the clothes back up again. "Not
Aless, Ceria, I think she means. Double the fun."

Kassima makes a rude noise. "Above reproach. Mmm-hmm. Nay that you don't
come close in some ways, Is, but I can think of an incident or two...."
Mercifully--perhaps--she doesn't actually mention said incident or two.
"Ceria. *Ceria*? Goodness, Is, how'd you escape Mart striking you dead? And
she a brownrider." That raises a moment's brooding with a question to
follow: "Myk knows, I suppose?"

"I, er, haven't gotten around to mentioning it to him - and yes, Ceria;
it's Talisha's fault, after all, it was after _her_ flight - and of course
he knows. First one I told," I'sai defends. "He snickered a lot."

More like a bass guffaw, but - I'sai can paraphrase.

"*That* makes sense. Perfect sense. Just like Caitria and C'vadan blaming
me for Katrisdan, just because he was conceived and born during--well,
after--Lyss-flights." Kassi is innocent of the logic of this, or at least
can fake it. "That's good t'know; some people get touchy--but after Leya, I
suppose he wouldn't. Nay K t'be using between your name and hers. Pity.
Will you leave me something when Mart kills you?"

"Leya..." and I'sai's smile is a touch rueful, there. "Yeah. That same sort
of thing; and clutchmates, too... The way we've got it, well, it's nicest
if the other one's home, but if he's not, well. Don't want him to be cranky
the whole day, you know? Night. Whatever. And I'll leave you a sock or two."

Kassima's answering smile isn't without a touch of sympathy, for all that
it goes unvoiced. "Well, felicitations t'you both, even if'n you're dead
meat for putting *another* brownrider out of commission. Mart's going
t'have ovines, porcines, bovines, and caprines at this rate--first Alerith,
then a Wingsecond?" She makes a great show of shaking her head and clicking
her tongue in the classic tsks. "Sounds like a workable enough system, and
probably healthier in the long run. Thankee *ever* so much for that. I'll
hang them on m'weyr-walls in tribute."

"Not even your wingsecond - Alerith? I didn't have a _thing_ to do with
Merielan," I'sai swears right over the weyr-walls.

"And here I thought mayhaps she'd gone t'you for help in her quest
t'spawn," Kassi teases openly. "Nay, nay, I know you didn't--T'kar's, 'tis.
He's pleased as bloody punch, and so am I, since they're going t'name it
K-something. But d'you see why you're doomed? And what about m'Wingsecond?
You didn't get *her*--or him--pregnant... did you?"

"He'd be happier if it were your wingsecond instead of his," I'sai points
out even while still a-blink over Merielan. "Well, about time that he'd get
one he knows is his own."

Kassima agrees readily enough, "That's certes true. Given that we're the
spawning Wing, the thought might even occur t'him... but Leya's like me."
In what fashion, she doesn't clarify; maybe she sees no need. "He's been
most understanding about Erika, I thought, given that you know Meri and
K'nan didn't really need a flight. But methinks he's extra pleased t'have
one that's his by blood, too. He wants a 'little him,' methinks--Faranth
help the poor lad. Or lass."

"Like you?" I'sai promptly asks: payback time. "And of -course- he'd want
his own blood, even if he's nice about that other; who wouldn't?"

"Without a match," Kassi clarifies, returning promptness for promptness.
"And either nay inclined t'sleep about or lacking suitors, though there
*was* M'dei--I'm nay certain how far their relationship extends. I'll keep
m'fingers crossed. Anyway, *I* would. Other people's children are fine and
good, but they're still *other* people's children."

"Oh. That. ...Yeah." I'sai tucks the clothes closer to him, straightening.
"Well, don't think he ever asked whether she'd done deciding whether she'd
weyrmate him or not," and once he's given her that much, wishes a quick,
"Good night."

Kassima echoes, smiling faintly, "That. Aye... and there's that. I'd nigh
forgotten he *had* asked." A quick headshake is followed by an agreeable,
"G'night, I'sai. Next time, I'm going t'corner you about that ring
question, see if'n I don't." Pause. "If'n you survive Mart, that is."

I'sai tips her a wave of his chin by way of salute, says, "Our best to
Lysseth," and marches off into the dark to his doom.

I'sai heads in the direction of the central bowl, leaving the shimmering lake.