World Domination (Open!)

[S'yal]

Yarimine, what are we doing? Trusith's curious voice cut through Yari's silent vigil, the light eyes of the girl turning up to gaze into the sweet face of her dragon. His muscular neck was curved down, the tip of his muzzle touching lightly against her shoulder. Without thinking a hand rose automatically to caress the fawn hide of her beloved. It was something that came naturally now, the constant need to be touching her dragon. To prove that he existed beyond the soft, soundless voice in her head and the constant heat his large body radiated. But no, that soft hide was real underneath her fingers. She mused over her Brown as she traced the speckles of his hide, her eyes locked on the crashing waves of the shore.

"We're watching the waves, of course." She told him in a soft voice. Yes, yes. Trusith was real, he was not a figment of the imagination that had been stunted since she was a young teenager. "I find it relaxing. We don't often have time to ourselves, do we?" She questioned the large beast, who blinked at her with docile contentment. He enjoyed this time with her, the peace of the beach at night. Of course, he would enjoy his time with her even if they were imprisoned in hell itself, forever tortured by whatever sins they'd committed. "Without being surrounded by the... challenged members of this Weyr"

She smiled despite herself. Oh, the things she could do here! She had an opportunity presented by dearest Trusith, one that was bared to her despite her gender. A Brown could catch a Queen. Semith's clutching had presented a horrible, wonderful opportunity to the cunning girl. Semith could 'rise', Semith could Clutch. A Blue had become a Weyrleader, even if the position was just one of a figurehead. The Warden had the true power here... but there was still something that laid in front of Yari, something delicious and wonderful. She gazed up at Trusith, her lips twisting into a smile.

Trusith could catch that crippled Queen. Once he was old enough, once Semith took off on another parody of a Flight... Yari was going to make history. After all, who had ever heard of a female Weyrleader before? Once she had that position of power under her perfectly manicured claws, it would be simple to turn her eyes to the Warden.

Every man had his secrets, every man had his price. Yari could do her fair share of digging when it came to the Warden. She had to wonder how much power he would have with Yari holding the perfect blackmail over his head. Every man had something that could control him. All beautiful, cunning Yari had to do was find it.

I can do it, Yari. I can do anything for you. Wonderful, sweet Trusith spoke in his mind, and Yari beamed up at him. She knew he could. She knew he could do anything he was asked to. Yari could point at the sun and tell him to destroy it, and Trusith would find a way. Catching a crippled Gold would be beyond easy for her beloved Brown once he was grown. But... we don't have to hurt Semith, do we? I like Semith...

"Of course not, love" Yari spoke soothingly, rubbing his muscular head. "Why don't you swim? I know you like to." Trusith brightened and crooned lovingly at her before bounding down the beach and into the water, happily splashing in the shallows where he could easily reach Yari's side were she to be attacked. Yari for her part sat in the sand, reclining and looking up to the stars.

Pern would have no idea what hit it, when Yari was done with it. If she could gain control of the prison... She smirked. She was so lost in thought that she would not notice anyone who approached her. Oh yes, Yari had some changes in mind for Pern. She'd show them just what a woman could do...

Men were such silly, easily manipulated creatures.

[Wren]

Cress?

Hmm? Cress was roused from the edges of sleep by the sound of her dear dragon’s voice in her head. She rolled over and blinked at the little green, who fidgeted with excitement.

Cress, I can't sleep, can we go swimming?

Cress groaned and rubbed her eyes, waning nothing more than to stay in her warm, comfy bed. Can’t you go by yourself? She asked, a hint of impatience in her tone, though she immediately regretted it as Hibrith stilled and she felt the hurt drift through their link. Oh, alright, Bud, I’ll come, just gimme a minute. Hibrith brightened immediately began nattering about how much she was looking forward to the beach, and Cress quickly got dressed. The truth was that, with Hibrith in such a restless state, there was no way she was going to get any sleep, and so she might as well try to enjoy herself until the dragon was so tired that she passed out.

She was ready in no time, having just thrown on her roughest shirt and trousers (she didn’t plan on actually seeing anyone) and she climbed onto the dragon’s back without much fuss. With a flourish of bright, marbled wings, the dragon launched herself off the ledge of their Weyr and soared with practiced grace towards the beach. Cress lent forward on the dragon’s neck and closed her eyes; she loved HIbirth dearly and with all her heart, but sometimes the green’s constant energy was a pain.

Cress, I think there's someone there.

Cress sat up straight and blinked in surprise. Glancing down, she saw, that, sure enough, there was a human figure on the beech, and she appeared to be alone. That in itself was rather odd, but Cress was rather pleased; she’d rather have someone to talk to than not while Hibrith bathed. As the dragon swooped lower, the rider realised that she did not recognise the other person; her face held a vague familiarity, but then she’d wandered past most people at Warden’s at some point or another, and it was really to dark to make out much of her features.

“Good evenin’.” Cress greeted as she stepped off Hibrith’s back, sounding her usual, cheery self, being utterly oblivious to the woman’s scheming thoughts. “Nice night, in’ it? Hibrith wanted to swim so I had to come out.” As if to prove her words, Hibrith folded her wings and dashed into the sea, splashing about with all the enthusiasm of a young hatchling.

It was at that point that the dragon discovered the young brown, and she rumbled a greeting, swimming over to him. She was a friendly, gregarious creature, and the chance to make a new friend was appealing.

[S'yal]

Yari jerked with surprise as she heard another voice, smoothing her suddenly irritated face into a smile. "Hello." She spoke, not unkindly. Trusith's happiness at swimming had put her into a good mood- so long as Cress was polite, Yari would be as well. Besides, with her plans, it would not be good to make any enemies. Every ally counted. Every enemy did as well... "It's a lovely night. Trusith and I were on a walk, and he wanted to go off for a swim." The brownweyrling spoke pleasently, turning attention to the green who had swum out to greet Trusith in the waves. "That would be Hibrith? She's lovely." Her face twisted into a fake smile. Not as lovely as Trusith. She added mentally.

"If that's Hibrith, you must be Crescendia. I'm Yari, and the brown in the water is Trusith. Pleased to meet you- we're Brownweyrlings." Her voice held the proper tone of respect for a senior rider, despite the fact she reasonably outranked the other woman. Yari had learned that faking respect for her senior riders got her respect back. For how she knew of Cress's identity... well, the future weyrleader and warden had to know everyone in the Weyr, yes? She merely knew her name, bothing about the woman. She didn't even know where she came from.

Trusith, meanwhile, was estatic at company. Yari's actions meant this was someone he was allowed to be nice to, and the dragon very rarely spoke to other dragons. Yari despised his 'clutchmates', so he didn't talk to them. The adult dragons were usually busy, so he didn't talk to them either. He rumbled back at the green, his eyes a happy blue as he closed the distance between them to greet her. Have you come to swim too? Yarimine says that swimming is very good, Yarimine says that it makes me stronger! He was ready to preach the gospel of Yari, it seemed. Of course, he was always ready to preach what Yari said!

The brown regarded the green with curiosity, happy to have company. He was never lonely, he had Yari always, but sometimes he craved the company of his own kind. Dragons were social creatures, after all. Would you like to play a game? He asked, nearly shyly. I know some good games. Yari taught them to me! Yari knows all the best games!

[Wren]

Cress nodded and smiled more widely as she was correctly identified. The greens and blues were so common that individuals tended to get mixed up with the rest, and people rarely bothered learning all their names or the names of their riders. She was pleased at the praise for Hibrith too; although ‘lovely’ was not a word she would ever use, she always appreciated it when people recognised her dragon’s intrinsic beauty.

She was not really aware of the woman, Yari, using a particularly respectful tone, but then Cress tended to treat everyone in the same manner regardless of their social status, and expected people to do the same back, so she just assumed that, where she used easy familiarity, Yari preferred politeness. She did sit up and stare though, when Yari told her that she was Impressed to a brown dragon. “Oh,” She said wide-eyed with curiosity. “You don’t get many female brownriders, you’re gonna’ be pretty famous.” Doubtless Yari was already aware that she was a rarity, and had it not been for all the new colours popping up, she would probably have been the talk of the Weyr. “Nice to meet you to.” She added, remembering her manners just in time to stop it from seeming like an afterthought, “And congrats on Impressing. I saw the hatching. It was… different.” She grinned. Personally she loved the new colours, they certainly made things a bit more interesting.

Hibrith meanwhile, was oblivious to any strangeness in Trusith’s choice of life-mate, and was equally ecstatic to get a warm reception as the young dragon was to see her. Yes, I'm here to swim. I like swimming, it's fun. It's good if it makes us stronger too. Hibrith was quite happy to believe the gospel of Yari, so long as it didn’t contradict anything that Cress said. Seeing as she didn’t remember Cress saying anything about it one or the other, well, she might as well go from what Trusith said. At the mention of a game, the green nodded vigorously, an odd gesture for a dragon, and paddled closer. Yes, let's play a game! What shall we play?

[S'yal]

Yari's lips quirked into a smile, feeling just slightly charmed by this woman. Yari had a soft spot for those that acted friendly, after all. "Indeed. I would prefer to be known for my skill and my dragons... but my gender will let me get a drop on the boys when I become squadleader, hm?" She didn't speak arrogantly, mainly convinced that she would become squadleader. Hard work and a bit of manipulation would get her there, in the end. "Thank you. My Trusith comes from the donated clutch, but the hatching was indeed impressive." Her eyes passed over to Trusith. She was not the only female brownrider to impress, but she was one of only a few. As far as she knew, there were only two other female brownriders in the weyr-prison. "Indeed. I will admit I was a bit... disappointed when I saw there was no gold, but i'm beginning to warm up to the idea of new colors." She admitted, almost sounding embarrassed. Yes, Trusith had convinced her of how useful the new colors could be to her schemes.

Especially if that little Opal was a clutcher.

"What brought you to Warden's?" She questioned casually, passing cunning eyes over Cress and coming to some conclusion. She would continue to be polite to this woman. She was not foolish enough to dismiss a greenrider as useful, after all. A greenrider was just as useful as a bronzerider at warden's... in fact more so, now that blues and browns could catch Semith. A green was better at catching escaping prisoners then a bronze, and required less food. "It's a shame that most Weyrs regard being sent here as a punishment. Indeed, it's quite honorable for a rider such as yourself to come here and help control the prisoners." She added, deciding to add a little praise to her words.

Trusith, meanwhile, was estatic. Let's play dive! Okay, this is how you play. You swim out, and then you dive down and get shells! Whoever gets the prettiest shell wins! Trusith announced, proudly. Mine makes necklaces out of the shells I get her, sometimes. The ones that are too big, she keeps. Here, watch! The proud dragon swam out to a place where he could dive, disappearing under the waves and returning with a plain looking shell. See? My Yari says I am the best diver she has ever seen. Are you good at something?