let me take a little more off your mind [Des!]

[Lauri]

The baths were quiet, the air thick, steamy and hot. It was silent, the glows lighting the heavy, sweet atmosphere beautifully. In the room across, some chattering Candidates made their meandering way to this, the last bath, and Jeri's last stop...

Lithe body flat to the floor, Jeri dumped the last of her load into the deep pool, the water welling and bubbling in question as the colored crystal granules disappeared into the the water. With a hard tug at the limp, course sack, the dark girl skittered about the edge of the pool, nearly crashing into a firelizard that had taken to following her, waiting there.

Her eyes glimmered in excitement, body tense and taut muscles jumping in frenzied anticipation. "It's done, let's scoot! I wanna get somewhere safe to watch this..." Brilliant teeth gleamed in the direction of the baths, mischief dancing in the white-rimmed eyes above them. With a clatter of bells and a catlike leap, Jeri skittered off, slipping through the stone doorway and scooting across the tiled rim.

Quickly she shoved the firelizard that had appeared squawking from between into their little nook of a hiding ledge, hopping up in front of it and peering eagerly into the water. She snickered at this bird's eye view of her plan and rubbed her calloused hands in anticipation.

"I can't wait to see some blue riders come outta here!" she whispered to the bronze, giggling.

[Desert]

"Ow! Shardit, who put that damn wall there?" Xavier slurred, hopping on one foot as he glared at the offending stone face. Being buzzed enough that his balance was in question, the young man had staggered against the wall and jammed his foot against it. Xavier recovered what was left of his aplomb and carried on his way toward the bathing chamber. He didn't intend on waking up with a headache tomorrow, and so had decided to immerse himself in the cold bathing pool in order to sober himself up before going to sleep.

When he entered the room where Jeri was hidden, Xavier wasn't put off by the fact that he'd gone to the hot baths instead of the cold ones. In his intoxicated state, one bath was as good as another, and he didn't feel like being attacked by any more walls. So he stripped off his clothes and slid gingerly into the steaming water, groaning luxuriously at the temperature. This was so much more pleasant that the cold dunking he had been planning to have! Xavier immersed his whole body in the hot pool for a moment, then came back up, snorting water from his nostrils and combing his fingers through his hair.

It took a moment for him to realize that something was up. Xavier held both hands in front of his face, a drunken frown etched across his features, and studied his hands. There was something wrong here. Why did his skin suddenly look blue? Xavier was stumped.

ooc; -cracks up- i love you, Lauri. <3

[Lauri]

"Ow! Shardit, who put that damn wall there?"

Ooh, a victim! Nails painted all the colors of the rainbow peeked over the smooth edge as she gripped tighter, grin stretching easily from one side of her face to the other. But she had to be silent! Squishing her mouth against the ledge she was on to try to stifle her giggles, she waited for Xavier to enter with terribly masked anticipation, her feet kicking as her body expressed what her mouth could not.

And what an interesting figure he had! Almost mistaking him for a girl due to his long locks from her up high view, she soon corrected her thoughts when he took off his clothes. Suppressing a whistle, Jeri now realized that her kicking had sent the flit into a frenzy of chirping, whirling around to shush it before it gave away their position. The man that had entered looked a little wobbly on his feet so he'd probably not notice them anyway.

And he went in! Laughing hysterically as she scurried down to the baths, she slid up near him and poked him.

"That's an interesting shade of color you got there!" Jeri snickered from behind him, kneeling and sticking a finger into his luscious cerulean locks, "I 'ave heard of people turning red when they are angry, but dis 'akes the cake!"

[Desert]

Xavier yelped when he heard a jovial voice behind him, and whirled around to face the stranger. Of course that meant he fell with a splash backwards into the dye-rich water, which slopped an amount of the blue liquid onto Jeri herself. He floundered for a moment before he resurfaced, gasping and hacking, and faced Jeri indignantly.

"Hoi! S'not nice to sneak up on people!" He slicked his hair back and peered at her, trying to identify his assailant. It was that dark-skinned girl; Xavier hadn't gotten the chance to get acquainted with her yet, though she was hard not to recognize. He looked down at his blue-dyed skin and grimaced, then glared at Jeri. "You did this, di'n't ya?" he demanded, narrowing his eyes. Xavier wasn't quite drunk enough to be all that stupid, and the surprise of Jeri's sudden appearance had helped to dispel some of the intoxication.

Xavier was glad that he'd come alone. Some of his drinking chums had offered to come with him, but Xavier had left them to the wine-skin. It had made him sad to leave before it was all gone, but Xavier really wasn't fond of the vintage his chums were consuming. He was more of a beer person anyway; wine had never appealed to him the way good ale did. Besides, after having suffered a spectacular hangover that morning, Xavier didn't want to repeat the experience two mornings in a row. The Candidatemaster had gotten onto him about imbibing so much alcohol, anyway -- not that Xavier was in any way repentant, but he needed to at least look like he was changing his ways for a while, until the Candidatemaster relaxed his vigil.

Xavier looked down at himself -- he was blue from head to feet; his dark hair had become a more indigo-looking color. A sudden idea occurred to him; he abruptly reached out and grabbed Jeri's wrists, and pulled her into the dye-water as well with a thunderous splash. He grinned hugely at his own cleverness and leaned against the rim of the bathing pool smugly. "So there! Get summa what you dish out," he said, smirking at Jeri. Vengeance was sweet.

[Lauri]

"Aw hey, watch were ya spill that stuff!"

Leaping back with a spring and managing to scrape off much of the skin off of her dusty kneecaps, she hissed and moaned dramatically. The fact of the matter is that it didn't sting at all, having known how exactly to juggle knives since she was 10 Turns of age (the generous amount of scars on her arms was proof of that), but Jeri did not like her schemes being found out and unraveled. Everything was supposed to go according to plan and half the Weyr would be blue! But no. Because of this ruckus, riders were avoiding the Pools and it frustrated her. When he resurfaced, she stuck her fingers in his long hair and attempted to braid it with a smug grin on her face. Her revenge would taste so delectable.

"It wasn't me! It was, uh, this guy...with this face..."

And then he grabbed her by the wrists, tugging her so that the exceptionally light acrobat landed with her arms outstretched and her feet pointing towards the ceiling. She laughed deftly as she was tossed in; the dye would have a much more prominent effect on her clothes than on her skin and her clothes could always use a little more color. Promptly swimming back towards him to poke him in the ribs, she grinned. Didn't he realize that she was the one with the master plans here and that he was the naked one?

"That wasn't very nice! Imma get ya now, just you wait!"

Unfurling a long, lanky arm, Jeri grabbed the lush's with a triumphant ha-HA!, pushing off of the side of the bathing pool so that he'd be immersed in the blue water once again.

He probably wouldn't notice the braids until much later.

[Desert]

Xavier was hauled under once more as Jeri yanked on his arm. Sputtering and coughing -- the water tasted questionable since it had the dye in it -- Xavier gave in to the inevitable and allowed himself to be dunked. Instead of coming up for air this time, he stayed under and wrapped his arms around Jeri's knees, then twisted himself around to hopefully throw off her balance and make her go under as well. Once this was accomplished he surfaced, sucking in a huge gasp of air, and spat up the last of the water he'd unintentionally swallowed.

Some guy with a face, eh? That was an old excuse, and the conspicuous stammering didn't help him believe her. She was the perpetrator all right. "Well, you've gotta face, though I doubt you're a guy," Xavier remarked wryly, poking her collarbone. "And now that I'm on to you, you won't be the one getting me. Quite the opposite, in fact." Yes, Xavier's typical self was returning now that he was over the shock and indignity, and though most of the buzz was gone that still didn't stop the hormones.

He grinned wolfishly and advanced toward Jeri. Her clothing was wet, and though stained with dye it still clung to her figure in a very revealing manner. And since Xavier still had a blood-alcohol level that was higher than normal, it didn't take much to set him off. Sure, this one wasn't much like the other women he'd been with before, but that was what made her interesting: she was a novelty, exotic. And she had already stirred up his mischievous side, which was pretty much also his flirtatious side.

ooc; grar. e_e if i try to do anything more it'll just suck, so i'll leave it at that. TT^TT