Who Sygni, Vossrik, Xhanfyr
What Sygni gets a new haircut.
When Summer, 2711
Where Shady Glade, Fort Weyr

xhanicon13.png SyIcon8.jpg


Fort Weyr - Fort's Forests ~~ Shady Glade

Covered by a canopy of interlaced branches, this secluded spot in the forest is shadowy and cool. Patches of sky show intermittently through the greenery above, creating dapples of diffused light that dance on the carpet of dry needles and leaves below. A scattering of tiny wildflowers adds a touch of bright color here and there.


Warm. Sunny. Afternoon. Xhanfyr takes advantage of an early release from pretending he knows how to repair things down in the lower caverns to slip off into the woods. A favored place as of late for the renegade born candidate. No secret meetings with daddy dearest today no, but the beastcrafter has a plan! It is a GOOD plan and with any luck a SUCCESSFUL plan. As nice as it is having wherry and such at one's fingertips whenever wanted, there was just something about hunting that got Xhan's blood pumping. He'd been tracking a small deer for some time now, using the silence his skill afforded him to walk along the dense forest canopy relatively undetected. Crouching, brown eyes focus on the ground, watching and waiting.

IT CAME FROM ABOVE. Where Xhanfyr is stalking, Sygni is lying in wait, patiently curled into the crook of a branch, bow strung and pointed ever since the small deer appeared in her line of sight. Patience. Slow, measured breathing. A satisfactory range and angle is achieved. Carefully she draws back on the bowstring, fletching tickling her cheek, watching hoofsteps, counting heartbeats until — release! And how fast is Xhan's blood pumping now, as an arrow from seemingly nowhere blossoms above the creature's far elbow, visible when he staggers, spins, falls. His descent is mirrored by Sygni's own, seemingly oblivious to Xhanfyr's presence as she drops from branch to branch and then to the ground, bow slung over person a she makes her way towards the fallen deer. Killsteal!

With the deer just coming into sight, Xhanfyr slowly extracts a dagger from his hip-sheath in preparation for the kill. No fancy bows here, no ma'am. Step after step his unsuspecting prey wanders just beneath the very branch that the boy was crouched. Muscles tense, focus centered, and he can almost hear his own heartbeat pounding in his ears. WHOOOOOOOOSH. Xhanfyr blinks as an arrow comes out of seemingly no where and takes down the buck before he has the chance to do anything at all. Instantly his eyes dart to the figure descending from another tree nearby and cue to looking absolutely crestfallen. Shoulders sag, watching as Sygni of all people makes her way across the forest floor to claim what should have been by rights, his. Softly sighing, Xhan drops out of the tree a few feet ahead of her, sheathing his dagger once properly on the ground. "Really?" he asks, head coming up. "REALLY?" Exasperated, he looks from her to the deer and from the deer back to her. "REALLY?!" There is some hand gestures too, before he covers his face with his hand. "I was tracking that buck for three hours."

Sygni has the good grace to look surprised when Xhanfyr drops from the tree in front of her, form tensing, hand sliding back towards her own sheathed hunting knife out of reflex before recognition hits her features. Puffing out a breath, the tiny woman squints her eyes at the dark-haired candidate in a mock glare, dimples flashing even as she approaches him instead of the deer, all swagger despite the fact that apocalyptic chic and black lace has been traded out for more practical hunting gear. "Yeah, well, next time you should probably do a little less tracking and a little more attacking, Rennie." Blue eyes flick up to his tree, back to him, over to the dear, back to him again, pale brows lifting. "What were you gonna do, anyways? Tackle it like some kinda feline? Rowr," she growls for flavor, hands coming up in dramatic claws, teeth bared first in a snarl, then in a grin accompanied by amused laughter.

Xhanfyr sighs, again. "Yeah well…" he breathes, glancing down at the deer and chewing thoughtfully on his bottom lip, fingers toying with the pommel at top of the hilt of one dagger. Drumming, if you will. "…bow and arrow was not part of Da's training, and I kinda suck at it." The more time he spent with Syg, the more comfortable he got with her. At this point, he could actually carry on an entire conversation with relative ease without clamming up or making a break for it. He tsks softly with his mouth though as she teases him, shifting his weight to one hip and shaking his head. "Okay, okay now that's just…" As she preforms her feline impression, he can't help the laughter that bubbles up from somewhere deep in his chest, a lopsided grin pulling his lips across straight white teeth. "…well that's adorable…" A pause to admire, but soon he's flopping a hand back and forth dismissively, "But, no…I had a plan. It was a really really good plan too."

"Mmm, well, shame," Sygni drawls, reaching up to offer a crisp pat-pat to his shoulder. "I suppose cat-like grace and what I assume is some modicum of skill with knives is enough. If you were any more talented, it'd be just unfair." His tsking elicits a grin, one that widens by fractions for headshakes, halted words, and his own laughter, one hand lifting to toss her hair over one shoulder in a gesture of arrogance. "Thank you, thank you. I know." Incorrigible, truly, and as always, she only gets worse with time. Brows shoot up again, this time with interest, issuing a trilled, "Ohhh, a plan, he says," voice pitched as though talking to somebody else. Blue eyes scan him over before her arms sweep open in a grandiose gesture. "By all means, show me this plan." And before he can even say it, she leans in, eyes flared wide with a stage-whispered, "I'll be the deer." And off she goes, prancing gaily, dramatically, going as far as to issue the occasional "Spring!" and "Frolic!" as she bounces, generally making nuisance of herself enough that really maybe he should put her out of her misery already.

Xhanfyr gives Sygni a long look for the pat to his shoulder, one that would almost be a pout if only he had stuck out his bottom lip. "Come on, I'm very feline-like and…hey!" he says over-dramatically, heaving a sigh and trying very hard to appear all put out. "Now you're just being mean." His questionable knife skills aside, brown eyes sparkle, clearly enjoying the young woman's company and jest. There is another round of soft laughter for her show of a healthy self-esteem, still standing by the corpse of a small buck with an arrow stuck out of it. Mouth opening, Syg begins to issue her challenge, forcing it to close and he purses his lips together. "Hmmmm…" With her leaning in, a single brow lifts rather than taking a step back as he would have with pretty much anyone else. "Tempting." Oh, the contemplation ensues, arms unfolding and hands going to the daggers on his hips. Tap, tap, tapping on the pommels with the tips of his fingers. With Sygni now prancing about such as she was, that brow that was lifted now twitches and his half smirk looks more painted on then genuine, "Getting more and more tempting…" He bites down hard on his bottom lip, "Eh, fuck it." Suddenly a dagger is drawn from his hip holster and whizzes through the air towards Sygni. This is it. This is how it all ends. FARE THEE WELL SWEET SYG, WE BARELY KNEW YEEer hair. Yes, her hair. Embedding itself into the trunk of the tree a yard or so behind the frolicking female, taking off a few inches of the longer side of her silky tresses in mid gallop.

"You don't know me being mean," Sygni sing-songs as she skips, executing a neat little pirouette before fixing Xhanfyr with a glance over one shoulder. "I can be much, much worse." Worse than a taunting dance around a clearing? Worse than a tongue stuck out at him for that first indication of temptation? Worse than a single middle finger coming up to point at him when he just stands there, tappa-tapping instead of doing something? Worse than her second hand coming up, smacking against her first fist as thoughthe force of the motion causes her second middle finger to rise? Skip, skip, skip — and then a breeze. Sygni's abrupt halt comes in time with an honest to Faranth cackle of laughter, eyes wide with disbelief as her gaze trails from suddenly shortened locks to the dagger embedded in the tree and back, fingers combing through haphazard blonde waves before she aims a borderline maniacally gleeful smile in Xhan's direction. "Rennie," she breathes as though he's just given her a priceless gem or a mountain of gold. "I didn't know you had it in you!" Wait for it… "I'm so proud of you." Hands clap together with a bounce, cut hair left on the forest floor so she can dance her way right back to him, turning abruptly to show him her back. "Go on, you have to match up the rest now. Don't leave me with an uneven cut," she drawls, voice still praise-level amused going on gleeful.

"What the SHIT, you guys!" comes the cry as, boarlike, Vossrik plows through the brush to stand, hands on hips, just in front of the clearing. "Is this like some kind of weird-ass Harper play? A fever dream? Y'all drunk? DUDES!" His arms flop around, then gesture at the two, then spread wide. "WHY WOULD YOU BE DOING THIS THING?"

Xhanfyr opens his mouth, then closes it. He takes a very serious and very real pause here to consider his next series of words before finally letting them fly, "Probably not." Wild stab in the dark there, so he'll just assume that Sygni is correct on this one. She might not know what he's seen, heard or done before they were searched and throwing into close quarters with a tireless infant, but by golly he's going to let her have a win. As soon as the dagger hits the tree, middle finger taunting, funky chicken dance and bum waggling aside, Xhan winces, breathing out a rather loud, "Damn. Missed." He's kidding…or is he? Welp, considering he's smirking pretty widely as Sygni CONGRATULATES him for chopping off her hair, one would have to assume, yes. Kidding. "See! Totally had a plan!" And Faranth said, let there be many high fives, because he totally offers one to her. He's beaming himself by the time she's turning around and telling him to even it out, pulling the remaining dagger from it's hip-sheath he gathers up what remains of he woman's hair in his other hand. "You're lucky I have like…a bazillion older sisters." Nope, not even going to hesitate. That is, until Vossrik comes flailing out of the woods at them like a psychic soccer mom after a minor fender bender. "Uh…" Already the flush was creeping along his cheeks, eyes shifting to the back of Syg's head and then very slowly tracking back to the interloper. "…I-I can explain…" This ought to be good, he's already forgetting to breathe.

Sygni can't help it - she eyeballs him for that plan, all headwaggles and disparate eyebrows, one raised and the other lowered as she fixes him with a sarcastic look. "Your plan was to give me a haircut all along?," she drawls, grinning wide and jauntily to show she knows what he means and is grossly misinterpreting it on purpose. "How rude!" Still, she totally has him on that high-five, reeling her hand back to smack her palm against his with alacrity, planting herself firmly in front of him with no fear until— ENTER VOSSRIK, and Sygni's nearly in stitches, hand pressed to her side and body rigid with the attempt to keep from laughing her ass off while Xhan has a handful of her hair and is about to chop at it. "Us? We're just fine. Are you drunk?," she trills, aiming a careful, muchly-amused glance over her shoulder at Xhanfyr. Beat. "Oh for Faranth's sake," Sygni breathes when the dark-haired goes all breathy on her, turning to snatch up his knife before she cuts off anything she needs. She's no Van Gogh, okay! She can't rock the one-eared look! "You have the worst timing, Kitten," the woman playfully accuses of Vossrik, beaming in the face of his further bemusement, even as she gathers up the ends of her shortened hair and sets about trimming the dangling extras to match Xhanfyr's new length. "He did it 'cause I told him to. Turns out he has balls," she says approvingly, posture shifting so she can nudge Xhanfyr with one booted toe, eyes moving away from her hair to fix on Voss again. "Why are you here?"

Vossrik mouths 'kitten', adding it to the list of various diminutives that have been ascribed to him over the course of Candidacy. "An-ee-waayyyy, so like, what if I had gotten here like ten seconds sooner! I would've scared you and then, BOOM! Sygni'd have a KNIFE in her FACE. A KNIFEFACE!" Reaching back into the bushes, he grabs the spear he discarded, muttering various cuss-laden opinions of the situation. "And I'm here 'cause I got bored as shit and wanted to see if I could actually hit something with the spear that wasn't already super dead. Did NOT expect for the dead thing to almost be YOUR ass, lady. Seriously, Xhan. Why would you be doing the thing?"

Blink. Xhanfyr loses all words. All of them. He was not expecting Sygni to make that particular leap in logic, and as his mouth opens it may even seem as if he was about to counter her statement with a healthy helping of truth, but instead he just sighs and concedes. Syg 2, Xhan 0. "Yes, that was my plan. The whole time." he says, nodding. "Frankly, those last couple of inches were offensive and something had to be done before it was too late." For the good of the weyr. After softly scoffing about his apparent rudeness, and enjoying himself the highest of well earned fives, the youngest of the three looks between the other two as they make their exchanges. Eyes dart from one to the other as they speak and he can only look at his now empty hands as hair and dagger are summarily removed from them, probably for the best really. He's a little taken aback though at mention of his balls, apparently having been figurative to this point, but it does serve to close his mouth again for about a second. It just opens, about the time that Vossrik is addressing him directly. More soft breathy sounds and starting syllables unfortunately without that nice smooth finish everyone enjoys during a good conversation. The tap that the woman gives his foot sets his jaw and he stalks over to the dagger he's thrown into the tree, yanking it out again. Taking a very deep breath, he stands himself tall and tosses his head up. "Because it was fun." So announced and rather red-faced, "…and I never miss." WHOOOOOSH the rest of the overly gathered air is let out all at once.

Sygni plays along for her part in their repartee, face scrunching up most solemnly at Xhanfyr, nod grave, both betrayed by glittering eyes. "You are right. Shame on me for wearing it for so long. It promised it would get better, but I shouldn't have trusted it. You did the right thing. The weyr thanks you. I thank you." Ham. Sygni dimples over at Vossrik for his mouthing of her nickname, but barrels right on past commenting back, instead raising her eyebrows and laughing faintly for the idea of her taking a knife to the FACE. "Man, could you imagine explaining the look on the Healer's faces though? Walk in with just the hilt of a knife sticking outta your face like, 'I think I require assistance?'" It amuses her far more than it should, amusement that carries as Xhanfyr stalks over to the tree to fetch his blade and also his speaking ability. Too many teeth bare in a grin for the dark-haired candidate, brows lifting over at Vossrik with a Vanna White gesture and a drawled, "See? I wouldn't've let him if I didn't trust him to do it right. For example, I'm definitely not going to offer to be live target practice for you." Point. Right at Voss. And then she's back to trimming her hair, chopping it down to more-or-less the same length all around before shaking it out with a satisfied, "Perfect. Thank you. Catch." She lobs the knife!… underhand. Carefully. See, she has some sense, you guys! "Regardless, your arrival is fortuitous. There's no way I can get this on my own, and with two of us it'd be exhausting. Giving us a hand is the least you could do, after you almost got me knife-faced, right?" Beam! Gesture! Come help her! And if not, well, she'll grab it by the front legs anyways and head off with it dragging like a sled behind her. Bless.


Add a New Comment