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While F’sey was busy trying to attract someone to cheat players, C’ren was busy trying to catch up on his sleep. Clearly, he must’ve been half-asleep when he had agreed to this… idea of F’sey’s. Either that or drunk. Either one seemed likely since he was still on Nightwatch. And the firelizards weren’t helping much. Naturally, he couldn’t leave Pyrite and Vox alone in his weyr. Besides, the little golden firelizard was drumming up a fair amount of business for F’sey.

Apparently, people thought her presence might mean there could be a gold egg in there too. C’ren snorted at the very idea. Although he wouldn’t say anything to dissuade people of the idea, the eggs were not actually hers. Actually, he had no idea where F’sey had gotten them, but he had a shrewd idea of it. He had spent enough time losing poker to F’sey to figure it out.

“Right. Well, wake me when something interesting happens, will you?” he said with another yawn. The younger Greenrider was lounging on two chairs, propping his legs and feet up on one. It wasn’t very comfortable, but, compared to the night, it was good enough. Vox, the blue firelizard, yammered happily and curled up on his owner’s chest like an extremely fat kitten. Pyrite was busy trying to look pretty, in hopes of getting something out of others. After all, she was wonderful. Why shouldn’t she get treats?

Pyrite immediately crooned at the girl who had entered, just in case Kytara hadn’t noticed her. And then trilled again, just to make extra sure. Because, you know, lots of people would totally miss a Gold firelizard. Preening herself carefully, she gracefully fluttered over to the girl and, more importantly, the offered treat. She gave it a few delicate sniffs before turning her nose up at it.

The Blue, however, had no such reserves. He didn’t snap to attention until after Kytara had revealed her little treat. At that point, she quickly became the focus of all the attention the fat firelizard could muster, which was quite a lot. His flight was a good deal less graceful than Pyrite’s. it was more like a fall, indefinitely postponed. Landing heavily----for a flitt---in front of Kytara, he snatched the meat away from her and stuffed it into his little jaws. And then Kytara was his best friend forever! Eyes swirling blue, he nuzzled her hands, hoping that another treat might appear by magic.

“You’ll never get rid of him now,” C’ren drawled lazily. “He’s an endless pit, that one.” He had opened one eye just long enough to make sure the firelizards wouldn’t cause any trouble. Once he was assured that everything was fine, he went back to his attempted nap.

F'sey watched the the girl try to make friends with Pyrite, grunting and shaking his head. Vox was easy to win over, Vox even liked him and that was saying something about the fire lizard's taste in people. F'sey hadn't quite believed his roommate the first time he described Vox as such a deadglow, but...yeah, Vox was a sharding fool.

Shuffling impatiently, F'sey strode over to C'ren and ruffled his hair. Not entirely sure that would wake the younger green rider, he began to prod him. Hard. "Hey. Lazy bones. Up!" He shook C'ren again and gave him a good ruffle. "Up up! You can sleep later. You need to go find me some more players, 'Ren." A hard poke with his boot.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, Ialluth scolded him for being so mean to Ceylith's, but the scolding barely had any weight behind it. He could ignore it.

"C'ren, let's go."

The gather was a relief. He was mostly anonymous here, he could avoid the glares of his fellow candidates if he chose, and he finally had a little time to himself. He wasn't sure why the tent had attracted him, but when he was greeted with the mention of poker... He did like a game of cards, and he didn't really have anything else to spend his marks on just now. He might even manage to win himself a friend for Gilden if he was lucky, it seemed.

The golden flitt in question chirruped a greeting to the two others in the tent as Conomor headed over to the table. "Hi," he said with a smile as he sat down. "I'm Conomor, this is Gilden." He hoped she wouldn't fight with the other queen flitt. He saw no reason why she should, but she'd never met another queen before so who knew. Her mood seemed calm, however, so he doubted there would be any trouble.

Wei had come to the Gather, predictably enough, on business. Having just recently established her research base at Ista Weyr, she'd been greatly looking forward to the excuse to meet with the other Starsmiths in the area and collaborate data with them - only to find remarkably few wearing the tabard of the Starhall at the Gather. Why, she couldn't imagine - even if they weren't weather specialists like her, surely someone would want to get a vantage on the Red Star from here!

But perhaps they'd chosen to stay at their research for the day. Lamenting, Wei wondered if she should have as well; but she'd gotten her morning measure of the skies already, and she could get a broad idea of the afternoon from here. Besides! Balor had always told her that living life to the fullest meant enjoying the fruits of one's labor, not just planting the seeds. She'd worked terribly hard to reach Ista, and she might as well take the opportunity to enjoy herself!

So she'd gotten herself some wine (a bit early in the day, but that didn't much seem to bother her - there was no perfect time to enjoy a good vintage!) and wandered the Gather a while, before coming at last on the gambling tent. Peeking inside, the dark-haired girl wandered in, quickly scoping out the scene.

"Cards, is it?" Wei asked drolly, making her way to the table. "Room for one more?"

Upon entering the tent Firyal automatically handed over the entry fee. One of the nice things about having a firelizard was that people were always keen to get ahold of their eggs, and though Numenor had only once flown a female, and a green at that, she and the other firelizard's owner had made a tidy profit distributing the eggs to desirous folk. Most of the marks she'd made from that enterprise she left with the Headwoman so that they wouldn't go missing, but she'd brought a few with her to the Gather on the off chance she'd see something she wanted to purchase.

As her eyes adjusted to the dimmer light inside the tent, Firyal looked around to identify the company she had fallen in with. The Greenrider who seemed to be in charge was one she was at least nominally familiar with, and she recognized the other Greenrider as his weyrmate, though their relationship might not be exactly what the title entailed. Gossip rarely reached her ears in anything resembling a timely manner, and she didn't care if it did or didn't, so she had no way of knowing whether there was anything to the speculation about the pair of short-tempered Dragonriders.

She saw two female Candidates that she'd not gotten around to meeting, considering her recent habit of going out of her way to avoid Candidates. Neither of them had been among those who were conspiring to make her life miserable as far as she knew, but she was still wary of them. The adult woman who spoke drolly was also unfamiliar to Firyal, but she wore knots indicating her affiliation with the Starhall, and so whether she was one of the weyrfolk or not, she was an object of some curiosity to Firyal, though she would contain her curiosity in favor of good manners.

The tent's other occupant was actually brought to her attention by Numenor, who was predictably excited to be in the presence of two golden firelizards. He was a bronze, and it was only to be expected, she supposed, but she would rather that he left the more familiar gold, Gilden, alone. She remembered Conomor from the night of the Hatching. Their acquaintance had been brief, but unpleasant. The evil looks he reserved for those he blamed for his besmirched record were almost enough to make her turn around and see if she could find Aderyn or E'rik or maybe Veyes, but she was already here and she had already found herself a seat and added her ante.

Behave, she pleaded with Numenor. Stay.

The bronze was obviously reluctant to be restricted to his perch on her shoulder, but Firyal was insistent and he obeyed, despite his desire to interact with the golds.

Producing her bet from a pocket on the inside of her tabard, Wei held it openly in the air, but stalled when it came to actually handing it over. Instead, the black-haired woman eyed C'ren with a tight smile.

"Before I ante up, I need assurance... you won't be having those pretty little lizards peeking at anybody's cards, will you?" Her eyes flicked pointedly to Conomor, Firyal and T'ka as well. Whatever else anyone might think of the Starsmith, she had never been anything but sharp and shrewd. It was hardly a fair match if some of the players had spies telling him everyone else's cards, after all - and well, it seemed like most the players had a one-up on her, in that regard. Wei wouldn't have a mark to spend if she wasn't careful about where she laid it down, and she wasn't going to start being lazy about it now!