Snow sculpting, taffy, and subconscious messages.

Fort Weyr - Center Bowl(#10486RJ$)
     The wide center of the bowl is often bustling with activity as riders come and go. Off westward can be seen the entrances for the candidate barracks and the guest weyr, while to the east is a large opening that leads into the dragon infirmary. The bowl stretches off both to the north and to the south, where the sheer stone walls rise steeply to the sky.

Filling Pralius' mug, Jayashri tops off her own, nestling the pitcher in a snow drift, though far enough away from where the Healer is working so that he won't kick it over. "It took me all day and a good portion of the night to finish mine." She grins, biting into her sweetroll. "Mmmm. Still warm," she sighs, a few crumbs falling past her lips. "It was definitely worth the effort, though." Washing the bite down, she examines the snarling mask. "Oooh, that looks creepy. It's awesome."

It's really hard not to notice A'di these days, what, with the new clothes that he's wearing, it makes him kind of...stand out...against all the white. And not to mention all the people stopping in their tracks to either fall over in a snicker of giggles, or stop to make fun of the interestingly dressed bluerider. A'di ignores them all, though, hunching his shoulders as he keeps his attention on the ground.

Pralius produces a fine-tipped probe and begins carefully carving details into the snarling visage. Then A'di appears. Pralius just stares at him for a moment, probe half-buried in the snow. After a few moments he clears his throat loudly, "Morning A'di... I see you went shopping too

Pern is AWESOME, and part of that awesomeness means that whenever there's a snow-building contest, there is magically enough snow for anything to be built. Thus it is that a certain new-comer to the Weyr has been working behind a 6 foot tall wall of snow, intent on hiding his entry to the contest from curious eyes until it's all done. Not that it'd stop a curious dragon from peering over, of course, so any rider probably already knows that's going on in there. But for the past day, Milo's been hiding behind his little snow-wall, and bringing in various things - an abundance of yarn, a towel, some fuzzy slippers, various tools of differing descriptions, and taffy candy in all kinds of shades. He's in there now, hiding and sculpting something, though what it is still remains to be seen, and the sound of his light tenor can clearly be heard, singing a song slightly off-key.

Fortunately for the CompCrafter, Jayashri's already seen A'di's gaudy ensemble, and is thus suitably immune to it's affects. "Morning, A'di," she intones in kind, sipping at her klah. "I see you're dressed as brightly as ever." Taking a delicate nibble of her sweetroll, she looks around for the unfortunate bluerider's Dragon. "Guess they must be pretty hard to lose, being so bright and all." Her attention is drawn toward the sound of slightly off key singing, absently humming the melody herself, albeit far more in tune. "Who's behind that?" she asks of no one in particular, gesturing toward the wall.

Dalasith happily bounces over towards his lifemate, trilling happily in a odd draconic song. However the wall grabs his attention. Dalasith keeps himself low as he slowly creeps over towards said wall, and, with just a little nudge of his muzzle, he knocks it over. Boo! A'di peers over at the dragon and sighs, nodding his head at Pralius, "Yes. I went shopping. With B'ky." There. That should be explination enough, right? Ashri gets a quiet snort from the bluerider, he's not a happy rider, he's a grumpy rider. "Hi, Ashri. Yes, bright as ever." Sarcasim just leaks from A'di.

Pralius blinks a bit, watching Dalasith up-end the wall, then shrugs, "Dunno, it was here when I got up." He squints slightly at A'di, "You look quite nice, but you seem to need a hat. Would you like some klah?" He glances back at the collapsed wall, "I hope no one was hurt..."

The wall comes tumbling down, and Milo is caught like a deer in the headlights, putting pink-taffy lips onto his sculpture. It's a girl climbing out of a bathtub. She's got long yellow-orange hair that trails behind her into the "water" of the tub, which is, like most of the rest of the sculpture, made of snow. The top of the water is melted snow, which has re-frozen into a sheet of ice, trapping the ends of the yarn hair underneath it. Locks and strands tumble over her snow-white shoulders and obscure certain parts, effectively covering anything protective parents might have an objection to. She's holding a towel - a real towel, soft yellow and fluffy, but frozen into place - across her lap and up to her chest, as well. One foot is slipping into a fuzzy slipper, and the other is touching delicately down onto a little bathmat, also frozen into place. Touches of color have been added with the taffy -- the pink lips, bright green eyes, her cheeks are red taffy covered in a mostly-concealing layer of snow, as well, so that only a hint of pink shows through. Her fingernails and toenails are all delicately molded soft pink taffy. A green and a blue firelizard perch on the edge of the tub, and another, brown, is half-submerged under the water, playing with her yarn hair. Milo groans and attaches the lips, adjusts them so her smile isn't too crooked, and turns around to look at the dragon. "Nice," he says sarcastically. "Ruin my big reveal, why don't you?" The sculpture, for all its detail doesn't quite look done. He notices people that he knows, and waves. "Hi, guys!"

Jayashri blink-blinks. "Dalasith!" she exclaims admonishingly. "You aren't supposed to knock the snow things over!" It's against the rules and all. "Oh, Milodann." Well, that answers the question of who is behind wall number one. "Morning." She gestures to the pitcher, tucked into the snow. "Want some klah?" she offers, sipping at her own. She shifts her weight slightly, tossing her curls back over her shoulder. "I would have brought you a mug had I seen you out there." Because she's nice like that. "Where's Elyciana?" Hazel eyes turn shifty as she glances about for the Beastcrafter, who always seems to be in Milo's shadow.

Dalasith will tilt his head innocently to the side, warbling a curious note. His head slowly turns to peer A'di-ways, "Well, it's your own fault for pushing down the wall, there wasn't any 'other world' behind it, you know. And even if there was, you'd be too big to fit into the door." Cough. A hand starts to run through his hair, but then he stops. "A hat? I'm not wearing a hat. This outfit is hidious enough as it is." A'di grumps loudly causing Dalasith to pratically croon over to his rider. "You can call it beautiful, and amazing all you want, Dal, but it's...gaudy." Yes, just the word for it too.

Pralius chuckles, shaking his head as Milo is revealed along with his sculpture, "Oh, Milo... come /on/ man, a naked lady? You couldn't do any better than that? It's so... you... frankly." He glances back at A'di and chuckles, "A'di, you gotta stop worrying so much about it. It's a nice outfit and it's not like you're the only one walking around the weyr dressed by their dragon or significant other." Yeah, he'd caught that A'di didn't have a 'girl friend.'

"Did you say 'klah'?" Milo asks, and quickly crosses the distance to the pitcher. "Ah, drat. No cup." Luckily, it's a short trip into the living cavern. He comes back out a few moments later with his own mug, another piping-hot pitcher, and a little tray of snacks for everyone. He's wearing that long scarf of his, but that's nothing on what A'di's got on. Milo does a double-take when he sees it. "Uh... wow," he manages, and hides his smirk behind his mug of klah. But he pops up a moment later to stick his tongue out at Pralius. "I happen to appreciate the aesthetic beauty of the female form, is all," Milo says somewhat loftily. "Besides, you can't really /see/ anything naughty." He removes some of the taffy from his pocket and twists off a piece before popping it into his mouth. "Mm, I love this stuff. Anyone else want some?" It's blue. "I'm done with this color."

"Yeah, sorry," Jayashri takes another bite of her gooey pastry, looking at Milo's sculpture in depth for the first time. "Kinda looks like Ely," she comments upon swallowing. "Hope she doesn't notice." Taking another sip of klah, her hazel gaze slides to the returning artist, contemplating the tray of breakfast goods he brought. "What's naughty about the body?" she asks innocently. No, really. It's innocent. The sex drive hasn't kicked in for this hatchling yet. "And thanks, but no," she directs to Milodann, lifting her sweetroll. "Maybe once I'm done with this." Her eyes narrow as she scrutinizes the taffy. "What /is/ that stuff anyway?"

"We're just friends." A'di quickly snaps at Pralius, "And I don't have anyone like that, never have, never will." A hand waves indifferently as he pulls at his outfit, "At least not while wearing this sharding thing." He sighs and lets his hands fall to his sides. "We still need to work on our own snow sculpture." Maybe a scupture of B'ky so he can punch it and rip it into tiny little..."Hello, Milo, sorry about Dal. He thought there was something behind your wall and he just had to look. He thinks your sculpture is really pretty." He's not even going to comment about the female in the tub. Nope.

Pralius chuckles at Milo's objections, "Nope, just seemed like as good an artist as you are that you would have done something... I dunno... more." He glances at Jayashri then begins chuckling, "Some people find the breasts and lower regions distasteful. I don't really understand why, but I'm a healer." He shrugs, trying to stop giggling, turning back to A'di sobered, "I don't suppose you'd believe me if I said I liked it, would you?"

"Like Ely?" Milo asks, looking dumbfounded by the observation. He tilts his head and blinks at it a couple of times, and then turns a bit red. "Ohh... uh... that's all in your head?" he says, though, now that it's been pointed out to him, he sees it, too. "And, um, to answer the previous question, I don't know where Ely is. Probably working?" He shrugs. "This is taffy. It's a candy. Very yummy." He tears off a generous piece of the blue candy and passes it over to Jayashri. "Try it!" To A'di, Milo just grins. "Nah, it was just the wall around it. Sculpture is fine, so... I guess I don't mind that much. What are you going to make?" He then turns toward the blue and waves. "Thanks for the compliment!" Milo rolls his eyes a little bit at Pralius. "Oh, come on. It's my first-ever sculpture contest. It was either a woman or a giant pot." He laughs a little bit, and then his gaze sharpens on Pralius. "So, have you asked my sister out, yet, or what?"

Jayashri frowns, her mouth twisting as the rest of her expression becomes one of bemusement. "Why would they?" Pralius receives a querulous glance. "It's just another part of the body, after all. We all have them." Well, maybe not the breasts, per se, but everyone has bits between the legs and all that. Anyway, it makes sense to her logic. "Did she get cold standing out here modeling for you?" Ashri directs to Milo, taking the offered taffy and eyeing it with suspicion. "And why would you have to do a giant pot if you didn't do Ely anyway? I'm sure you could come up with something more interesting than that." The CompCrafter has the utmost of confidence in the artist's creative skills. Yep. "Like those flowers you did." Her brows furrow suddenly and she sips her klah. "Wyndrei?"

A'di will stay out of the whole 'girlfriend' thing, he doesn't have one. "Like it? How could you like it? If you like it so much, you can have it." A'di says with a quiet snort. "It's not like /I/ want to wear it." Milo gets a quick peek, "Well, that's good, I'd feel bad if he knocked over your sculpture, or destroyed it." The snow gets eyed, his nose wrinkling in thought. "I'm not sure yet." Probably B'ky, least he can hit a snow B'ky, right?

Pralius starts chuckling again as Ashri continues her innocence, "I don't really know why they do either, but some people are offended by seeing them. I'm a healer. I get /paid/ to look at them, so it's never bothered me." He chuckles a bit more and Milo's commentary does little to step the flow. When he finally regains himself he gestures futilely to his new look, "What do you think?" He raises an eybrow at Milo, then turns to A'di, "I don't think Wyn would approve, but it looks nice on you."

As if on cue, said Wyndrei steps out of the Dragon Infirmary doors, pulling her coat around herself. "Hmmm? Someone need me?" she asks, grinning some, realizing full well she's walked in upon her name being dropped for some other reason. She looks around and waves to everyone, dark eyes sparkly bright in the whiteness of the snow and somewhat framed by the soft fur of her hat. "Neat snow-thingies..I got as far as a giant ball then.." and she lifts her shoulders. "My ideas are well out of my skill range," she says with a giggle.

Milo shrugs at Jayashri. He's standing there with some sweets and some taffy in his hand, offering pieces to anyone who wants them. "Eh. Those are the parts used for procreation, and some grown ups don't want their kids thinking about procreation until they're, you know, old enough for it." He looks at his sculpture, which is of a woman climbing out of a bathtub, complete with yellow-orange yarn hair pink taffy lips, and taffy firelizards cavorting around her, with a real towel held in strategic places, slipping her snow foot into a real fuzzy slipper. "Ely didn't model for that," Milo groans. "I didn't even realize it looked like her until you pointed it out." He considers the snowy art. "You think she'll be mad?" He makes a funny face at Jayashri. "Well, I draw a lot of people. But the only thing I've ever sculpted before were pots and plates and mugs, and things like that." He takes a long look at Pralius. "Much better," he says, eying the man's now-covered ankles. He grins at this sister as she walks in. "Hey, Wyn!" He extends his taffy. "Want some?"

Jayashri continues to look thoughtful as she munches on the last several bites of her large sweetroll, washing the final one down with klah and proceeding to lick her fingers clean. "Guess I'm glad I have neither a boyfriend nor dragon to dress me," she decides finally, reaching for the pitcher she set in the snow to refill her mug. Wyndrei is spied out of the Apprentice's peripheral, but she offers a smile to the Dragonhealer. "Wyn! Dragons keeping you busy?" She reaches in to pull the taffy from her pocket where she stuck it, eyeing it again with suspicion. Well, it can't port her to another dimension, can it? She takes a bite.

"I think I should probably get to the library. I'll talk to you guys later." Because hiding in a mountain of books is so much better than trying to fit in with the white snow. Right. Dalasith's quick to take off to the sky, landing on a distant ledge as A'di makes his way into the living caverns.

Pralius glances back towards Milo's sculpture again and rolls his eyes, "I hope not for your sake." Then Wyn's appearing from her work and he smiles, moving towards her, "Hey you. They're not working you too hard, are they?" He glances at Ashri, then waves a quick goodbye to A'di as he retreats /again/, "That man is terrified of himself. Still," he turns towards Ashri, "You'll change your mind on that someday, I think."

Wyndrei grins at Milo and snatches a bit of taffy, all sister-like, huff. "Of course.." she says to him then looks to his sculpture, "Hmmm...well given the detail she might be more unhappy if it looked nothing like her.." she says with a grin. She sees Pralius and her smile quirks with a trapping of her lower lip in her teeth and she shakes her head, "No, not too hard.." she answers, sidling up to him when he draws near. She glandes to A'di and then grins over at Ashri, "Been workin hard?" she asks, it seems to be the question of the day, "And yeah, dragons..among other things.." she says of being busy, a gaze flickering to Pralius.

Milo grins at Jayashri as she takes a bite of the candy. "It's good, right?" He waves as A'di leaves. "See you around, man!" He watches Pralius speak to his sister with a sharp eye. So far, so good. He'd really hate to actually have to shove splinters under Pralius's fingernails. He wanders away from the two of them, closer to his snow sculpture, and grabs a handful of snow from the surrounding wall that A'di's blue dragon knocked over. He starts adding here and there, removing a bit of snow with the tools laying around, perfecting his sculpture. He's not really out of conversation range, though, so he listens in.

Jayashri chews on the taffy, the sweet flavor taking a minute to sink in. It's raspberry, but tart! Her lips pucker slightly. "Oooh! Sour, but sweet. It's good." She looks from Pralius to Milodann, the cogs clearly turning in her head as their statements sink in. There must be something to this whole procreation thing. She just can't put her finger on it. "Well, I don't think she'll mind. I imagine she'll be flattered," she ventures carefully. She doesn't know the Beastcrafter very well, as yet. "If someone did an impression of me I'd be flattered." Not that she exactly has the parts for such an impression yet. Those will come later. "Bye, A'di," she calls after the bluerider as he departs hurriedly for parts more secluded. "I guess we'll see, huh?" This last statement is directed toward the Healer, though she is quick to beam a smile in Wyndrei's direction as well. "I've been helping Odisyn run the wire for the new computer room. We're still waiting on the rest of the furniture, though. I guess the winter snows are keeping them from getting it here." She shrugs. "Have you thought about doing a dragon skeleton? You probably have it memorized from your studies." And it'd be cool and realistic looking, made out of snow and all.

Pralius gives Wyn a light hug and a kiss on the forehead, "That's good. You can help with mine, if you want... I have a lot more carving to do still..." He glances at Milo and chuckles, "I think your brother's overprotective. What does he think I'm going to do, bite your nose off?" He chuckles again, "Ashri, a lot of things could change as you grow older. For all you know you might end up liking girls." He winks at her, "How's the new computer lab coming? Is it far enough along for people to start learning to use the things?"

Wyndrei chews hers too, taffy that is, no noses. She beams a smile at Ash and nods her head, "Oh that's neat.. furniture too?" she asks, then shakes her head. "It's making deliveries slower for everything.. I've been waiting on some supplies for a sevenday.." she comments. The hug from Pralius is returned in kind and then when he kisses her forehead she sorta stares up at him a moment, suddenly glad it isn't possible for her to actually melt into a gooey Wyn puddle. "He..prolly is.. and..maybe.." she answers then blushes and looks to her brother. "I promise my nose is safe!"

"Glad you like it, Ashri," Milodann says to Jayashri. He takes another bite, himself, enjoying the flavor. "Wellllll," Milo says thoughtfully, looking more closely at his sculpture. "I didn't /mean/ for it to look like Ely... but now that it does..." He fishes one of the green eyeballs out of the sculpture, quickly fashions a blue one from his taffy, and pops it into place, delicately adding and subtracting snow as he goes so that now it really /does/ look like Ely, complete with mis-matched eyes. "Maybe..." he starts a thought, but doesn't finish it, and just grins a little foolishly at the sculpture. "Maybe she'll slap me good. But... all the naughty bits /are/ covered, so..." he shrugs. The computer crafter's suggestion of a dragon skeleton seems like a good idea, to him, and the turns to his sister. "Don't dragons go /between/ when they die? Has anyone ever actually /seen/ a dragon's skeleton? Or do you guys just go by firelizard necropsies?" Because, while firelizards usually go /between/ when they die, sometimes the eggs don't hatch, and Milo has the idea that those little hatchlings are useful teaching tools for dragonhealer apprentices. He eyes Pralius's hug and kiss of Wyndrei. "Hey, I'm all the family she's got right now. I'm allowed to look out for her." And look out he does, though he doesn't say anything threatening. "Your nose looks fine from here," he jokes, with a little laugh. He packs the snow a little bit more in a shoulder on his statue.

"Might end up liking girls?" Jayashri blinks and then blinks again. "That's an odd thought." She shrugs and shakes it off. "Well, we do have one computer in there and set up right now, and the antennae is up so the AIVAS database can be accessed. We're supposed to be getting one or two more at least, but again, snow." She smiles ruefully. "I wonder why they don't use Dragons to transport furniture, though. Would it make the wood break, going /between/?" she wonders aloud to nobody in particular. Glancing at Milo's sculpture, she smiles. "Now it definitely looks like Ely," she agrees before turning to Wyndrei, watching her blush. She really ought to read up on this relationship thing. It's really starting to intrigue her. She pops the last of her taffy into her mouth, letting her molars masticate contemplatively. "I guess I didn't think of that. The /between/ bit. How do you study the dragon's skeleton?"

Pralius smiles at Wyn, "You don't get your supplies by dragon? We do." He glances at Milo, "Oh, I know you're protective, if my sister were here I'd be too." Little does he know, oh yes, little does he know. The /between/ question has him pondering, "Well... they do have that annex at Xanadu for studying unhatched eggs... that'd be my guess... but if dragon hatchling develop anything like human babies, they skeletal proportions would change drastically for adulthood..." He glances at Ashri, "I'll have to check that out some time..." He's still thinking about skeletons though. Mmmm, bones....

Wyndrei finally pulls from her little moment of melting and straightens, lightly resting a hand near Pralius' hand, or arm, or whatever.. you know.. that awkward way of not knowing where exactly to put your own appendages. "Well.. right they between when they sense they are about to die.. so no full grown ones anyway..we use firelizards.. proportionally of course..it's not terribly accurate but, it works." She grins over at Ashri, "Yes, some girls like girls and boys like boys..but you know this..right?" Right.. hasn't she seen the boys head for the closet? "I figure the dragons are busier with all the weather related deliveries being thrown their way..and I think furniture betweens just fine.. maybe a few exceptions.." she says, hrmmmming.

Milo makes a thoughtful little humming sound as he steps back from his sculpture. "Well... I think... it's done. What do you guys think?" he asks them. All this talk of dragon autopsies and whatnot gets a little shiver from him. "Man, I don't know how you guys do it. Blood and guts and stuff." He makes a grossed-out face. "Yuck! That kind of thing just gives me the willies something bad." This might be why he's never been seen eating meat of any kind.

Pralius stays quiet for another moment, pondering, "Wood might crack if it's /between/ too long... still..." He gives Wyn a tight hug, "I have a shift soon. I"ll be back later to finish my beast." He glances, "It looks great, Milo." Then *poof* he's gone down towards the people infirmary with a quick wave at the gathering.

Jayashri swallows the last of the taffy. A shiver runs down her back and she follows it promptly with a sip of klah, though whether the shiver was from the sour or the cold is uncertain. "I would imagine that you see dragon skeletons from when they break bones and such, or during other surgeries, right?" She offers Wyndrei a smile. "I know that some girls like girls and some guys like guys. I was born in a Hall, not under a rock," she quips, the humor lighthearted. And she wouldn't have seen the boys in the closet anyway, said closet being in the tavern. "I just wondered if the wood would split is all. Some things don't take to extreme cold well." Milo draws her attention again and she moves to inspect the bathing girl. "It looks really good, Milo," she compliments honestly. Not as elaborate as her scene, perhaps, but far more colorful. "I should have asked the kitchen staff for some dye to color the eyes of my Dragons or the eggs," she admits. "The color makes it look really lively." And not in that bluerider sort of way either. A wave is directed in the departing Pralius' direction, but he's already gone before she can raise her voice. Ah, well. "So what do you think the winner will get, Milo? I heard someone say firelizard eggs."

Wyndrei nods some then at the hug she smiles and nods her head, "Alright.." she murmurs, then watches him go. She turns back to the group grinning, mostly at Ashri for the moment, "I know I was just playin and yes via breaks and surgeries but not a full skeleton all laid out to study.. it's different.. when it's in little bits.." she comments. She looks to the creations again and hrms, "But it'd sure be neat.. likely take a long time..hmmm.." she ponders.

"Bye, Pralius!" Milo says, after raising an eyebrow at yet another hug. He laughs a little bit at Ashri's quip. "Thanks, Ashri." He ponders the dye. "Well, I think to get it to stay, you'd have to do something creative. Otherwise it would drain down, like in a snow-cone, right?" He adjusts the knit cap on his head. "Maybe if you froze some colored water, and then crushed it, that would make you some colored 'snow'." He uses his fingers to put quotes around the last word. "I don't know what the winner will get. Your sculpture is pretty great, I think you have a good chance." The firelizard egg possibility is new to him. "Maybe the winner will get a sled!" That idea seems to excite him. "A sled is nice, because you don't have to feed it!" He steps a bit closer to Wyn to snag his mug of klah, and drinks it. Still a little warm. "That would really be a neat thing, Wyn. Kind of gruesome, but neat."

Jayashri glances toward her Impression scene with a smile. "Thanks. It's kind of surreal that it's still here. I'm used to my sculptures going in a few hours. A chuckle floats up from her throat as he gets all excited about the idea of a sled. "Is it because you don't have to handle raw meat to take care of it?" she suggests wryly. That lack of eating meat has not gone unnoticed by the Apprentice. Her hazel eyes are far too keen for that. "Firelizards can be useful, though. My brother sends his to me every day for letters and he waits patiently if I'm still writing it." She nods emphatically. "A sled can't do that. It's good for carrying some things, but not messages. Plus, I hear they're good companions. More intelligent than a feline." The Lander glances toward the Dragonhealer, who is musing about bones. "I'll help if you want, Wyn, but I confess I've never seen a Dragon skeleton before. Do you have sketches or charts?"

Wyndrei grins at her brother then gives him the 'whaaaaa???' look after his stare down at the hug. She giggles some then shrugs, "A sled might be neat.." she nods then grins at Ashri. "I love my little Meelo," she says, and by name alone one might even think she means her brother. "He runs errands.. keeps my company.. chirrs in his sleep.. he's so sweet.." she says witih a glance to the Dragon Infirmary, which is where he must be roosting at the moment. "I might help Pralius with his.. we'll see after he gets off work and we can talk.."

Milo shrugs at Jayashri. "Eh. I mean, I've got a little green firelizard, and I feed her." By spearing already cut meat onto a plate or napkin. He does not, in fact, handle the meat with his bare hands, with the notable exception of the night he impressed her. "I'm not really /that/ grossed out by it," he says. "Most of my family eats meat, you know. I just don't like how it makes me feel all tired, and stuff, after I eat it." He looks curious. "Oh, yeah? A messenger, huh? I hear some colors are better than others. Like, blues and greens can be pretty silly, I've heard. There are firelizards at Eastern Weyr, too... I guess I just never paid much attention to them, before." Except as subjects for his sketchbook. "I love Emmy, my little green, don't get me wrong. But I think she's already learned how to go /between/ to southern climates. She brought back a seashell the other day for me, and hardly ate anything I gave her. I think she's going down there and fishing." He sticks his tongue out at Wyndrei for her "whaaaaa???" look.

Jayashri grins at Wyndrei, her eyes sparkling with a faint hint of mischief. "Your brother or your firelizard?" she asks, glancing at Milo. She does note the difference in pronunciation though, so the joke, while not lost, has less shock value than perhaps the Dragonhealer intended. "Oh, so you do have one." She nods in response to his explanation regarding the betweening and such. "They can be roughly autonomous once they reach adulthood. In fact, in the wild they're often thrown at nature from the get go. Golds will guard their clutch, but most greens don't seem to give two shells whether it hatches or not." She shrugs. "My brother has a bronze. It was a turnday gift. We thought it was going to be brown or something. Boy were we surprised!" She chortles, polishing off the last of her now fairly tepid drink. "You gotta train them young is what I hear. Kind of like a canine. They don't learn as well when they're older."

Wyndrei snerks at Milo and his tongue-sticking-outage then listens to Ash talk about flits. "I got lucky one evening and ended up with mine.. he can be kinda funny I guess.. lazy too but he's affectionate and obedient.." she nots. She pulls her coat tighter and steps closer to the hatching scene, "This is really good.." she says with a smile, "I don't think I can quite compete with you real artists.." she says with a laugh. "Oh and yes we do have sketches..but they are based on assumpations.. and comparisons to flits.."

"Yeah, a little green. Emmy. Like an emerald." Milodann rolls his eyes. "Not very original, I know. There's probably hundreds of green firelizards named Emmy." He listens to his sister. "Well... didn't the original colonists leave any pictures or diagrams, or something behind?" He thinks about it for a while. "And... I heard about this machine. I don't know if they've made any, yet. But it's supposed to be able to look inside of people. If you built one big enough, maybe you could look inside a dragon, too." He thinks for another moment. "I can't remember what they're called. But... it's like what dolphins do. I think." He looks like he's wracking his brain for any tidbits he might remember about this mysterious medical machine concept he heard about.

Jayashri smiles at the compliment regarding her hatching scene. "Thanks, Wyn. I had a lot of fun making it." She chuckles. "It's my longest lasting piece yet. I used to do them out of sand out down at the Landing, but the tide would wash them away after a few hours or a day at most." She looks to the hatchling and the boy. "The thought of this possibly staying around all winter is kind of strange." Her gaze flicks to the brain-racking Artist, an eyebrow raising. "Do you mean an x-ray machine?" she asks, taking a moment to sift through all that data in her head. "I saw records about them in the AIVAS databanks but I've never seen a live one. Only pictures." Glancing back to Wyndrei, the CompCrafter raises an eyebrow. "Have they made one yet, at Xanadu?"

Wyndrei grins at Milo, "Well.. Milo..Meelo...hello?" she asks then giggles. "What can I say.. I missed you.." and she nods to her brother. "All I've ever seen are composites done using flits.." She glances between the two, "I've never seen one in use.. and even so, none big enough for a dragon, you could do pieces I guess.." she says thoughtfully. "Why don't you get to work on that!" she chirps at Ashri. "We need a giant x-ray machine..on the double!"

"X-ray!" Milo says, snapping his fingers. "Yeah, that's it. I heard Mom talking about it, once. She's a Healer," he explains to Ashri, who wouldn't know. He, too, looks out at the sculptures. "Oh. I hope they don't stay out that long. Ely might not appreciate everyone oggling her likeness." He frowns over at it. "Hmm. I didn't /mean/ for it to look so much like her." He glances at his sister and at Ashri. "Do you think she'll believe me? Maybe I should re-sculpt the face?" He looks uncertain and nervous. But he nudges his sister. "Aw. I missed you, too. That's why I had M'el bring me here when I ran aw - left home." He clears his throat and grins, and then laughs at her demand for a huge X-ray machine.

Jayashri bursts into laughter at Wyndrei's impetuous demands. "Hoo," she breathes, her laughter dimming to a chuckle after a few moments as she wipes a tear from her eyes, straightening and looking up at the Dragonhealer. "Wyn, I'm a CompCrafter, not a TechCrafter. Sure, we build circuit boards and program things -- that's my specialty -- but we don't build big machines like that. We might make some of the components, but certainly not all of it." She frowns. "I'm not even sure if we can come up with the components to do so. They used a special technique that required a special kind of chemical that I don't believe has been found on Pern, so..." she trails with a shrug. "Well, Milo, if she smacks you for it then you can resculpt the face, but otherwise, I'd leave it." She glances toward the end of the bowl furthest from the living caverns. "Besides, after the Winter Games I'm pretty sure they'll reopen this area to dragon landings again. All our creations will get smashed before spring."

Wyndrei grins at Milo and then shakes her head, "I'd leave it.. see what the reaction is.." she says with a nod. "Yeah yeah.. left home.." she snorts then she grins over at Ashri, a bit sheepish. She toes the snow and pouts, "Awww come on.. can't you whip something up?" and she makes a whipping-up motion with one hand.

"Well. I'm going to come back out here after the judging and eat the taffy. No reason to let it get smashed into the ground." Milo grins, and takes the last bit of blue from his pocket to eat it. The medical/technical talk flies right over his head and he ignores it, the better to contemplate his competetitor's entries. "All right. I'll leave it is it is. If she smacks me, she smacks me. Maybe she'll see it and realize how pretty she is, though. That's be the best outcome." He grins at them both and suddenly starts walking back toward the living caverns.

Jayashri sighs. "'Fraid not, Wyn. Things like that can't just be made out of /between/ you know." She offers an apologetic smile. "But maybe someone else will be able to figure out a way to get around the chemical limitations." She nods, this toward Milodann as he departs. "Have fun with that," she calls before starting to pick up the pitchers and snack tray that have been left outside. "I'm starting to freeze a bit myself and we should get these back to the kitchens before I merit an encounter with The Spoon." She glances toward Wyndrei. "Mind lending a hand?" It is a bit much for the tiny nerd to handle on her own.

"Eww..after it's been out here in the...outside?" she asks of the taffy that Milo /claims/ to intend to collect after judging. "Well maybe she'll smack you for something else entirely.." she says with a snort to him then she grins at Ash, "I know I know.. just teasing.." she too turns to wave to her brother then nods and starts picking up pitchers, "Sure.." she answers.


Milodann's Snow Sculpture
Sitting in the bowl with the other sculptures, surrounded by a bank of snow that used to be a concealing wall, a girl made of snow is climbing out of a rectangular bathtub, also made of snow but sculpted with a stone-like texture. She's got long yellow-orange yarn hair that trails behind her into the "water" of the tub. The top of the water is melted snow, which has re-frozen into a sheet of clear ice, trapping the ends of the yarn underneath it. Little eddies are outlined with regular snow to make it look like it's frothing in strategic areas. Locks and strands tumble over her snow-white shoulders fetchingly. She's holding a towel - a real towel, soft yellow and fluffy, but frozen into place - across her lap and up to her chest, as well, effectively covering anything protective parents might have an objection to. One foot is slipping into a fuzzy yellow slipper, and the other is touching delicately down onto a little bathmat, also frozen into place. Touches of color have been added with the taffy -- the pink lips, bright eyes, and her cheeks are red taffy covered in a mostly-concealing layer of snow, so that only a hint of pink shows through. Her fingernails and toenails are all delicately molded soft-pink taffy, frozen hard in the winter air. A green and a blue firelizard perch on the edge of the tub, and another, brown, is half-submerged under the water, playing with her yarn hair. The firelizards, too, are all made from taffy. While not originally intended, the sculpture bears a striking resemblance to a certain amber-haired goat herder, right down to her eyes, one blue, and one green, which are framed by eyelashes made from real hair. It's all so realistic that she almost looks like she'll say something sarcastic any second, now.