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The booth was small, but it wasn't easy to overlook - set up right near the Kitchen Cavern, with loud banners proclaiming "Itch Fix!", "Fight the Lice!" "Cheap and Effective!" The stand was small and sloppy - just a few wooden crates pushed together, really, and draped with a blanket - but a number of small leather satchels were proudly displayed, advertised as single doses available for half a mark. The product itself was sold in small leather satchels. It was a gooey mess of a liquid, but smelled alarmingly good - sweet, like klah, with some spices and a distinct medicine smell. Beneath the rest of the display, a smaller sign suggested; "Alternative cure: half-price haircuts".

The two boys manning it couldn't have stood as prouder examples of each cure option, the trader Okassis with his shaved head (if only he'd heard about this cure sooner!), and the junior Weyrling S`van with his hair intact, itch-free. Attracting attention along with them was the young brown Galliath, and the three of them made quite a ruckus in peddling their goods out to the crowds.

***

It was a little later in the afternoon than Okassis had wanted, but he'd had to run lap after lap after lap today, and had wound up getting his free time later than usual because of it. Tired as he was, though, there was no way that he would delay the grand opening of their lice cure stand - or, just as bad, let S'van try and run it on his own. It wasn't that he didn't trust his friend, of course!... but S'van was a seaholder, and Okassis was a trader. It didn't take much to realize whose talents were most necessary to this enterprise.

"Bugged by bugs? Itched by insects?" Okassis boomed out, his voice projecting easily over the Weyr. "Stop scratching your scalp! We've got your cure right here, folks. Half a mark gets you sleep at night again! Don't let those smarmy buggers pitch camp on your skull? Fight back with our 100% Guaranteed and Effective, Itch Fix!"

Oh yeah. He was in his element now, for sure!

GAAALLLIIIIATTTTTTTHHHHHH!

The voice was unmistakable in its enthusiasm and its simple and pure loudness. What was also unmistakable was that there was a bright green dragonet running hazardously towards Okassis' and S'van's display. It could have been a disaster, if her victim had been the display and not her friend. Miith skidded to a halt, though lost her balance and slid into Galliath's side anyways. But she was crooning happily at having found her friend. Really, she had just heard S'van's voice and knew that Galliath would be somewhere close by.

Do you want to play? she asked the brown wistfully, for now her bonded nowhere in sight, so she knew she might be able to get away with some of her more rambunctious games. Miith straightened herself, carefully pulling her wings into her side to make sure she didn't topple anything over. E'si would not be pleased if she went about breaking things again. He wouldn't let her climb onto his bed before they went to sleep because he was afraid she'd break it.

She craned her neck, noting S'van, and once he was noted... well, she wanted some attention too. Miith pressed her head against the Weyrling's chest, nudging him impatiently. She wanted to be scratched, of course, at least before E'si came and told her to quiet down!

"No."

Whhhhhaaaat? All she had to do was turn her gaze to the side a little to see her bonded, who was glowering at her in such a way that she knew he loved her.

"Whatever you're thinking, no." E'si grumbled softly, a hand impatiently shoving his bangs back from his face as he approached S'van and Okassis. "...Eh, sorry." He didn't seem to much care about the product they were trying to sell, really, though Faranth knows he could overhear them with how loud they were screeching. It was horrendous advertising, he believed, but he kept that to himself. "Miith heard you." he said quickly to S'van, as if that would thoroughly explain her sudden and eager appearance.

Without his pretty hair? Okassis had started grinning the moment he saw Kyllae - how could he not? He hadn't been so drunk at the Feast to remember its highlight! But he had apparently been so drunk that he thought he'd cut his hair long before that Feast....

Ah, but it hardly mattered. Kyllae had said it, after all - he was handsome enough, with or without a crest of blond to validate it!

"Thought I'd see you again somewhere!" greeted the trader, turning to his partner-in-crime. "This's my buddy S'van. He's a seaholder, y'know - you two ought to get along," he confidently predicted.

"But hey, talking about those bugs - you wouldn't happen to know anybody that's got a scratching problem, would you?"

"Yeah, and I at least want her to learn that playing is for outside... and does not consist of chasing Galliath down the halls hazardously." He reached over, fondly stroking the top of her head, as if to soothe the truth that she was no longer going to be allowed to play indoors. Besides, soon she was going to get too big to get away with playing inside, and he'd rather break it to her now rather than later. Still, it didn't seem to make his dragonet particularly happy, though she hummed her pleasure at the attention he lavished upon her. Really, how could he not love Miith? The green was absolutely darling around people she liked (and so long as there weren't any girls nearby - and yet he still found her dislike of her own gender somewhat cute as well). "Well, I'm certain you'll attract attention with the noise you're making," he remarked lightly, pretty sure he wouldn't emphasis on what he personally thought of the noise.

Because you are busy and Mine says I will have to be oiled soon. Maybe once I'm done being oiled I will play! There was likely no force in the world that would prevent Miith from playing with Galliath. It could be held off, but not prevented. Miith turned her head, lightly buffeting against Galliath's shoulder to reassure him that without a doubt they would be able to play together. But, the arrival of Kyllae marked the beginning of what was going to be a very un-adorable Miith.

The dragonet's eyes narrowed with immediate dislike as soon as she noticed the girl approaching them. It wasn't that she disliked Kyllae on a personal basis, but on the basis that she quite simply was the only acceptable female in the entire Weyr, and the rest could go sit with the wherries. Tell her to go away! Miith whined to her bonded, and while she was one of the dragons who were more comfortable talking to other weyrfolk, she outright refused to have anything to do with the girl approaching. She stood up, giving a pointed glare to the approaching girl, and made her way behind the display so she wouldn't have to see nor deal with the creature. Miith curled up behind S'van, trusting her rider to take care of the 'situation'.

E'si let out a strained sigh, light blue eyes dull with vague annoyance. He probably would have excused himself quickly and taken Miith with him, but the girl was already there and introducing herself to him... and wait. A brow arched high upon his forehead as the girl curtsied. CURTSIED. Like she was trying to sharding impress a wife-less (or not, it didn't particularly matter with some girls) lord holder. Then came the wink, and he had to cover his mouth to keep the first words on his lips from slipping out. He truly had no problem with playful girls, if they were his kind of attractive. But she wasn't his type, and thus he let himself be as annoyed as he should be when he wasn't trying to get laid. E'si never proclaimed to be the nicest of people in the Weyr, rather, quite the opposite.

He removed his hand from his lips that were now curled down into an unpleasant and disapproving frown. "Hmm, must be a hold girl with how willingly she'd lift up her skirts for the first interested party..." he pretended to muse to himself, glancing back to S'van as if he'd never noticed Kyllae in the first place. If he was going to gain a reputation for being mean, he might as well enforce it.

((No problem, I was just too lazy/braindead to work it out OOC, so I kept things moving IC. XD))

Okassis seemed equally perplexed about the reception Kyllae had gotten. He had no clue who the dimglow with the green was, but mentally had awarded him the title Mr. Scowly-Face already; but why was S'van being so tight-lipped? Was there some sort of big seaholder vs. Southern thing he'd somehow never heard about, or was this just another expression of his friend's awkwardness around girls?

"Kyllae's got some good stories to tell," the trader confided quietly to his friend, certain of what might loosen the brownrider up, "you ought to swap a few."

Of course, whatever Okassis had imagined about finding some common thread between his friend and his newly favorable acquaintance was lost the moment that word, barter, came into play. He broke away from S'van as quick as a canine at the call of its master - "Well, the price doesn't go much above the cost of materials," he answered immediately, with such a well-practiced tongue that it was impossible to tell how much of an exaggeration that was, "but I'm sure we could work something out. What did you have in mind?"

S'van was somewhat at a loss for how to respond. The presence of a very self aware flirtatious girl made him highly uncomfortable. More so because she was directing that flirtation squarely at his best friend, whom he had never pictured in that way. Granted, he had seen other girls flirt with him before, he just had never been brought into the flirting really. It was quite a new, somewhat odd experience. Glancing from Okassis to E'si, he tried to decide how to best respond. Is she the nice girl, mine? Galliath asked cheerfully, bouncing over to play with Miith, whose attempt at hiding he was utterly oblivious to. S'van reached out a steadying hand to keep the dragonet from toppling over the display.

Shifting uneasily, the weyrling drew himself up somewhat. "Stories like... what exactly?" He glanced at the girl, trying for a friendly smile, though it fell somewhat short. "What kind of stories do you have, then?" Okassis seemed determined to get him involved in the conversation, and he had never gone out of his way to disappoint his friend. He was not going to start now. "Must be something... you've got sort of an unfamiliar accent." He'd never met a Southerner before, for all of his time at a seahold. Given that he had not been involved in any actual cross continental sailing trips, that was not much of a surprise. A small hold like his own would not have come into contact with such exotic types. ... Exotic was pushing it really, but it was true that he was now meeting folks who were far, far different than he was used to.

A mark for three? Immediately, one of Okassis's eyebrows shot up. He might think the girl was pretty and fun to talk to, but that wasn't enough to make a dimglow out of him?

"Really now? And just a moment ago, weren't you telling me you didn't have a half-mark to your name?" the trader asked in a teasing voice, though his eyes narrowed shrewdly. "I think I could offer you three for a mark and a quarter, if you're feeling a bit pinched in the wal--"

That was about as far as he got, before he caught sound of E'si's mocking and instigating voice. His brow creased, and he shot a gruff glare at the greenrider. Who the hell did that guy think he was, getting in the middle of Okassis's business and talking to his lady friend like that?! He had half a mind to scruff the fardler by the back of the shirt and shove him off on his way - but for his turning to S'van with the mind of business, in fact, Okassis might have been only too happy to.

"... Maybe a mark and a quarter, if you'll forgive the fact I didn't beat the deadglow bloody for you," Okassis amended snidely.

Grimacing, S'van looked over the scar. Well, he had opened himself up to that, hadn't he? With a slightly pained look, he quirked an eyebrow. "Water-snakes... always the most fun. Run into a lot of those, do you?" Did he want to hear her story? Did he really have a choice at this point? "Just a moment. I need to talk with this fellow here, but then you can tell all of us your story." Cringe. Oh Faranth, Okassis was looking ready to deck E'si. This... was distinctly uncomfortable. Anxiously, S'van glanced between his two friends, utterly unsure of what to do next. ... Selling the product was important. Okassis would have to agree with that, wouldn't he? How do I make her leave? More importantly, how did Galliath do so without accidentally hurting her? "Erm, well... it worked for me in a candlemark. You leave it in your hair, and it kills the lice. Then you wash it out, see?" He tried an awkward, clumsy smile. Why was everyone so tense?