Logs:Alida: future mom?!
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| RL Date: 29 April, 2013 |
| Who: Alida, K'zin, Ilicaeth, Rasavyth |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: K'zin happens upon Alida's relaxation spot. She generously permits him to stay and K'zin unwittingly becomes her "practice" for being sociable. K'zin finds out if Alida is pregnant or not while they discuss aspirations of all kinds. |
| Where: Diving Cliff, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 24, Month 8, Turn 31 (Interval 10) |
| Weather: Warm sunshine and cloudless skies make for a beautiful day and pleasantly warm evening. A breeze tempers the heat with no humidity lingering in the air. |
| Mentions: Madilla/Mentions, N'ky/Mentions, K'del/Mentions |
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| Diving Cliff, High Reaches Weyr Thrusting out from the shadow of the mountain, this long and narrow clifftop might once have been a ledge, but a pile of bramble-strewn, graffiti-chiseled boulders where a weyr's mouth would have been suggests a reason for its abandonment long ago. Though its views of the eastern bowl are grand, particularly the lake itself and the yawning air entrance to the hatching sands, its location makes the diving cliff unique: jutting some ten or twelve feet above the deepest part of the cool, clear lake. Especially in summertime, many climb up the narrow stairs to seek the thrill of a swift fall into the water, but those who just want to enjoy the view can take those same stairs back down: carved directly into the bowl wall, worn and crumbling and slick from use, but enough for the careful to get the job done. Warm sunshine and cloudless skies make for a beautiful day and pleasantly warm evening. A breeze tempers the heat with no humidity lingering in the air.
It's becoming rare to see K'zin without Rasavyth these days. While the littlest bronze was so fiercely independent at the start, now it seems they've found a very comfortable partnership that has them together virtually all the time that K'zin is anywhere that can be gotten to by dragon. But here he is, climbing the stairs to the diving cliff in a pair of blue swim shorts. He never used to wear swim shorts. That is, until they all got injured on the beach and too many people saw his very cold manhood that just didn't seem so manly that day. Lesson learned. He wears no shirt and no shoes. The sun sinks into his tawny skin tone and brings out a particularly shade that just seems warm. Rasavyth on an outcropping far back from the waters, snoozing in the sunshine. As he arrives at the top of the cliff to find Alida there, in-- well, a very different sort of outfit and her hair down and everything? He stops abruptly. The look on his face tells that he feels like he's intruding on some sacred ritual ne'er seen by the eyes of men before now, and he's not quite sure what to do. Stay? Go? Jump?? The look on her face when some fucking git intrudes, interrupts her solo enjoyment of away time from other humans... it's classic. Even Waki doesn't rate an invitation, Alida merely glowering at him for a moment - even as she stares at his own swim shorts getup - the bluie then pivoting around on her ass and glaring out at the lake below. Slowly, her hands reach out for the jar of sunscreen at her side, the woman unscrewing it in silence, then starting to apply the stuff to her pale skin on face. K'zin hesitates there, taking in the glower. Usually, he's haplessly go about his business, but the man's had a run of poor luck with interacting with his fellow humans lately, so he's a little on edge, and his face betrays that. Today, he has no interest in another debacle or exchanging friendly barbs with the guardswoman. Today, he turns and starts back down the stairs, feet carefully finding the next step and then the next. The way the steps are carved, it's clear they're more meant for going up than coming down. It's that very lack of his joining her that has Alida's pale head swiveling about, her irritated greens catching brief sight of Waki's odd expression before he's waltzing back down the stairs. Still...she'd let him go, even this time, if it wasn't for an astute Ilicaeth snooping on her mind. A pair of moments for some interaction between blue and his rider ends up in a gruff alto blurt of, "You got an hour..." to the descending bronzer, 'lida then returning to being herself...and applying more sunscreen to her neck and shoulders. How charitable of her. « Remember; if yer gonna' be a Wingleader...maybe more someday, you have ta' figure out how ta' interact with people even when y'don't wanna'. » (Ilicaeth to Alida) "What?" K'zin's baritone is confused and his face confirms it as he twists on the stairs to look back at the blonde. "An hour?" If she's giving him permission or a time limit, he doesn't understand, but he's paused in his descent. "Whatever you wanna' do with yer hour up here's up t'you..." Alida notes brusquely, her face moving from irritated to expressionless as she continues liberally daubing her pale self with sunscreen. She pulls it out of somewhere, apparently, some inner recess that might be a little more shadowed and unused than the one that carries her patience, for the blonde follows her first words up with a bland, "Y'look like Rasavyth just slapped ya'." Yes; apparently, that will have to stand-in for a more typical invitation to talk, if Waki wants. The answer doesn't seem to clarify a whole lot for K'zin because now he's left looking a little leery. The last, though, does seem to get through his thick skull as an invitation to stay. He turns now, coming back up the stairs and finds a smallish rock of his own not far from the bluerider, to settle atop. "No, everything's fine with Ras. I've just--" He thinks how to say it before delivering: "-had a string of bad luck lately. Been waiting for the other boot to drop. Except more than one other boot has dropped, so I don't know how many more are coming. Just-- If I start annoying you, warn me to go before you get mad or something. Alright?" His eyes slide down to the lake below and pick out the blue among the other dragons. "How's Ilicaeth doing? You get the last bunch of notes from today's leadership stuff from Ras already? I've got my written ones on my cot for you to copy when you want." In self-imposed silence, the blonde listens to her buddy and partner in 'crime,' Alida not moving her attention off her ablutions, even when K'zin inquires after Ilicaeth. A soft, low grunt and a nod substitutes for 'okay,' the woman then forcing herself to speak up in order to answer something more direct and important. "Got 'em, socked 'em away fer later t'night." A moment longer reminds the guard to factor in a quick, "Thanks..." though it's again Ilicaeth - the never-ending-in-her-head presence - who pushes his rider to again address Waki's earlier 'issues.' Siigh. "Lemme guess: woman trouble, weyrling trouble, friend trouble." Her words are remarkably bland, just like the bluie's expression. « Practice on 'im. Remember what we talked about yesterday. » (Ilicaeth to Alida) "Lemme see," K'zin drawls, approximating the woman's accent briefly, giving a little amused roll of his eyes up to the sky. "I'm a man that likes women, so yes, there's woman trouble. I'm a weyrling, so there's obviously weyrling trouble. I've got friends, or used to, so yes, there's that kind of trouble. Are we missing any? Oh, yes, there's family trouble. There's that too. And I can't get the ears right. On my drawings. Any other kinds of trouble I forgot? I've probably got them too." He leans back, there being a taller rock behind him to support himself on. "None of it comes to anything in the end. Not something to concern yourself. I'm still up for all the tasks you expect of me." Exercising, attending classes, sharing notes, furthering their vague goals, and sparring. That echoing of her own clipped, harsher accent, her faster way of speaking earns Waki a low snert, Alida rolling one shoulder noncommittally to the bronzer's rhetorical question. "I'm notta' artist..." is muttered out, the woman then shaking her head and smirking wryly about it all being nothing to concern herself over. As for the tasks she expects of him, however... A look out and down to view Ilicaeth's swimming draws out into some extended moments of silence for thought, the blonde finally inquiring over her shoulder, "What're yer' biggest goals for our little...alliance? You 'n Ras." "Sure you are," K'zin contradicts with a grin. "Your art is in making people bleed." There's a thoughtful pause and he adds, "Or cry." Grin. "Or both!" Then there's serious talk and his face adjusts appropriately. "Well, there are our goals, your goals, our goals. There are also his goals, my goals, your goals, and his goals." He separates each set of alliances, theirs together, each of theirs with their lifemates, and then each individual. "There's a lot to be considered in that." Leaning back, he tilts his head and rests it on the taller rock behind, watching the blue of the sky as though in search of cloud. "We are going to climb as high as we can get, comfortably." This comes softly. "We are going to learn to be damn good leaders, and lead." He lifts his head and his gaze drifts down to his lifemate, the next words come with the heaviness that a fortune teller might relate a prophecy, "It's what we were born to do." Brown gaze flicks abruptly to pin the guardswoman. "What's your endgame, Alida? What do you and Ilicaeth want to be when all is said and done?" In speaking of this, K'zin's youth peels away to give a glimpse of the strong man he is becoming. Though there is a certain youthfulness to the vagueness of the ambition 'high as we can get', the resolve is clear. He believes it. Fervently. "Touche..." the blonde notes, Waki's comment earning him a little smirk and a bob of Alida's pale head as she continues to anoint herself, now upon her haltered decolletage. The silence that ensues is all for what the bronzer relates to her, the bluie's head quirking so she can more easily hear him over the playful calls of some dragons below and beyond them. Finally, it comes in a casual turn of voice, the woman turning her head to the side so she can observe K'zin from the corner of her eye. "And if y'find leadin' ain't all it's made out ta' be..? Look't our current leadership. Fuck, look't K'del's time." She has little doubt that the pair are aiming for the top position a male rider can get in the Weyr. As for her own ambitions, the guard murmurs, "Whatever we want at that time. We're adaptable." Really? "People change...'n the first casualty uv' battle's the plan." Peer. She challenges his ambition, and K'zin is rising, but not to leave, it turns out. He steps over to her rock and slides into a seat next to her, the better to share more intimate scheming. "Leading isn't supposed to be easy. You don't get to keep all your friends. You have to make hard choices and live with them and do right by them. If K'del hadn't had to do it, it would've been someone else. And K'del got comfortable with leading. Dunno if he wanted it in the beginning, but he does now. I'll be next, after him. Once he's too old to lead." Since obviously Cadejoth's going to catch the next flight. (So K'zin believes of all of it; the timing and so on.) "I'll choose the hard road, Alida. I'm not soft like some think. And if I can't hack it, someone better will replace me. That's the way the world works. Survival of the fittest. Just means I have to be the best." Then he levels a look on her, "That's not a fair exchange. What do you want to become now? Where is your place in all this? Wingleader? Weyrlingmaster? I hear some Weyrs even have a Weyrsecond that helps the Weyrleader." It's not really that he cares about the fairness of the exchange, though there is something to be said for exchanging ambitions that keeps the balance. "So where can we help you get?" In another offer of assistance, his voice turns guileless, "Want me to put that on your back?" Of the sunblock. "Never said it was..." the woman clips off in her typical tones, those incisive green eyes affixing to Waki as he moves over by her to sit down. Moons ago, this would have likely been reason for her to move away, or to glare at him, but now...Alida simply observes her clutchsib. "Let 'em think what they want...within reason." A slender stab of a smile at perhaps darker thoughts presages, "Framing it in *your* parlance... if I c'n hack it, Wingleader... mebee' even Weyrsecond." Shoulder-roll. "Still...there's other things ta' plan for that aren't rank-related." A small squint out towards the glinting lake picks out Ilicaeth again, who's now butting chests with a brown weyrling, the sight making the often hardened woman smile just a hint. "Ever think about *those*?" Pause. "My da' did...spoke ta' me about stuff like that just before..." Shrug. She doesn't touch that 'help you get' with a twenty foot pole, though the offer to slather creme upon her back has the guard looking back into Waki's brown eyes for a long moment before she seems to casually murmur, "Now that'cha' offer..." Getting to her feet in an easy flow of limbs allows Alida to unbuckle her knife belt and settle it on the stone, after which she sinks down to knees, then stomach to sweep her long hair out of the way. Keen greens flash up at the bronzer over her shoulder, a small twist of lips an expression of faint, dark humor perhaps informing him that she realizes just how 'vulnerable' a position she's in. Well, except for those various pig-stickers well within easy reach, of course. Outside of rank, K'zin's brow furrows, "Goals that aren't rank related. Wait, you mean like... babies? And stuff?" He sounds genuinely like he might think this is the case. It might explain the gawking that he does at Alida. Everything else is lost, and even the hand that was reaching toward the sunscreen for the briefest moment. "Are you pregnant?" This is choked out hoarsely. The thing about keeping one's private affairs private is that he wouldn't know if she'd been mooning around with someone or not. Maybe he's got it all wrong... or does he?! "That's just part uv' it..." Alida clips off casually, still looking over her shoulder at K'zin. "Remainin' single 'r takin' a weyrmate's another, 'r gettin' pets...'r who knows, maybe even transferrin' to another Weyr if this one remains too unstable." Apparently Alida engages in some *heavy* thinking at night, after she's finished with a full day of *doing*. And then she's left to stare daftly back at her fellow weyrling when he goggles at her. But when the incredulous K'zin asks *that* question, well, her features shift almost as fluidly as Rasavyth's mental quicksilver - going through every possible iteration of emotion - until she has to finally settle on a dark wheeze of caustic laughter that has the bluie thumping her head upon her forearms a few times. After she's recovered... "You gotta' be fuckin' kidding, Waki. Like I'd ruin shit b'tween 'caeth 'n me - shit, ruin it fer me, period - by gettin' knocked up." He's instantly alerted to Alida's very brief mental upset by K'zin's question, a flurry of instantaneous golden and black sand whirling concealingly about his lifemate in the instant instinct to protect, defend... And then the blue figures out what it's over a second later, and instantly backs off his almost-roar of challenge, instead offering her the unswerving and total support of his rare, fallow desert, which blossoms under a revitalizing rain. No words are needed. (Ilicaeth to Alida) There's a number of things that make K'zin look shocked as Alida speaks. He remains frozen a long few minutes as his brain struggles to wrap around these concepts. Alida weyrmated. Alida with children. It almost breaks his brain. Down below the bronze shifts, calm sort of ripples lazily away from him, reaching as far as the cliff where his rider sits. He reaches to the sunscreen and puts a little dollop to rub between his fingers. Then he's placing those hands to her back. "Sorry, I just thought--" He doesn't need to explain, really. He already said he's had a streak of bad luck with people lately. It would be just one more. His hands are gentle but firm, providing almost a little unintended massage as he rubs the stuff into her skin. "I guess I just never thought of you as the weyrmating and kids type. Takes you a long time to be someone's friend and all. Do you trust lovers faster?" This is more a curious question than any driving or pointed inquiry. "What kind of pet would you want? Would Ilicaeth eat it?" He ponders aloud. "Would you really transfer? You wouldn't stay and try to build things better in whatever way you could? Isn't... isn't this your home now?" It's not asked, but it might be implied: doesn't she have loyalty to this place? These people? She finally grounded enough again to peripherally enjoy Waki's 'busted' look, Alida's nasty little grin slowly growing until he finally re-aligns his grey matter... make that *Rasavyth* does. One of her hands waves off his 'sorry,' the blonde only a little stiff under the attentions of his hands, though she appears to mutely accept them. As he works in the sun screen, she comments, "Honestly, I dunno' if I'm either... but a gal c'n toy with shit like that in'er own mind now 'n again." As for his inquiry, "I don' trust *anyone* easy 'r fast." He ought to know how lucky he is, after all, since it apparently took her only *months* to admit she sort-of likes his company, sometimes. A small shrug ripples fit muscles and the long scar across the skin of her back. "Pretty sure I wanna' canine. Love workin' with 'em." Beat. "Maybe a firelizard... *if* the thing's good at obeyin'." No, she wouldn't likely put up with an undisciplined pet. And finally, as the bronzer's question continue, the bluerider can't help but look back *pointedly* over her shoulder once again, and note dryly, "Do I look like a fuckin' encyclopedia?" before she sighs and grunts off, "No, he wouldn't...unless it purposely hurt me." Smirk. As for talk of transfer, "Ever think uv' how many old aunties 'n uncles finally gotta' transfer down ta' the South, Ista, Igen? Shells, even younger riders sometimes wanna' change. There's lots uv' reasons for transfers." "Yeah," K'zin allows his blessing for Alida to continue toying with such ideas. "I don't think it's for me." He volunteers, in the way that one might in a normal conversation between two people. It seems somehow out of place though, this being K'zin and Alida talking. His eyes track along the scar on her back, taking it in silently. He doesn't ask about it. Not now anyway. He's curious but not rudely nosy. "An encyclopedia?" He ponders, seeming to give it genuine thought as his rubbing on her back slows and stops. Then with an impish grin, his hands pick up their movement again and he says, "No, 'lida. Right now, you look like a girl." The rest is taken in, but he doesn't comment on it; just something to think about later. "Sure ain't for *anyone* while they're busy, young, 'n not stupid..." Alida comments briskly, setting her head down upon one forearm, her eyes slitting to keep the sun out of them. "Can't figure out why anyone not in some uppity-Blood-ass marriage would wanna' fuck up their lives by havin' a kid too young...'r havin' a boatload uv' 'em." Snert. Nothing like an opinionated guard. "Yeah... yer' a Crafter, you oughta' know what one uv' those is." Zing. And then those following, impish words of K'zin's have the blonde squinting up and over her shoulder at him again, her expression touched by dark humor with some serious underpinnings that have greens meeting browns quite firmly once more. "That's *woman* t'the likes uv' *you*." Snert. "I'm not sure why anyone would go for it ever." K'zin's returning comment comes. It's not that he dislikes kids, he was always good on nanny duty, "Though I guess the fact that what proceeds the babies is supposed to be pretty pleasurable. Or so I hear." Since he has no experience of his own to look to, and doesn't keep that a secret. "You'd be surprised how much they don't teach you in a craft. Like being a weyrling, they don't want you distracted by realizing there are such a thing as girls." He smirks now, finishing up the application of the sunscreen with the back of her neck, fingers still gentle, then withdrawing. "The likes of me? What, you mean a man? Or do you mean a bronzerider?" He chooses all the best possibilities to suggest, of course. "Guess it holds its own appeal, fer whatever reasons..." Alida murmurs, her shoulder blades rising again in a small shrug. "Until someone's actually *havin'* the baby..." is murmured with sudden darkness, the bluie returning to resting her head upon one arm, again. If she thinks oddly of the former Smith's virginity, the woman's not saying anything...for once. "Mrph... 'they' figure that weyrlings, apprentices, yadda-yadda will figure out screwin' all on their own, in time." Cue another soft snort. With that withdrawal comes the weyrling's looking over her shoulder again, while she drawls off a snarky, "*You* take that however ya' wannit'." Beat. "Thanks." For the sunscreen application. And finally, she sits up, pivoting around on one buttock-hip to face the bronzerider, 'lida then taking up the sunscreen and applying it to her lower legs. And, from out of left field: "How much shit are y'in with Nicky?" "Well, Madilla's a mom..." K'zin says thoughtfully, frowning slightly. "She seems to love it. I guess it's different for different people." Another pause, "You know, I like kids, I just don't know about having any of my flesh and blood. Not sure that kind of thing ought to get passed along." He purses his lips, "Though with mating flights, I may not get as much say in that as I'd like. Shards, with sex in general I guess I won't get much of a say. Sort of a shot in the dark, isn't it." That thought makes tension come to his shoulder. "I-- maybe it sounds dumb, but I never really thought about that part, at least not that way." He takes a breath and expels it slowly, "Guess I ought to just let go of the idea of control with that. People'll have kids or not have kids. I'm gonna sleep with them anyway, if I'm inclined to." Then there's a shake of his head, "Nah, they figure that we'll do it when they want us to. So many don't though. Apprentices get knocked up, kicked out, it happens." Not with any alarming frequency of course, but it does happen. The matter of N'ky is given thought before answer. "Probably a lot. I was trying to help him, but I knew he was mad, so I let him hit me. Again and again. Ras wasn't happy about it. And I held him while he cried it out. Only, then he was still mad and upset, so I don't know that crying and punching me really helped anything. He gave me a note the other day, but says I deserved the punches and I know I did wrong with saying what I said, but, 'Lida, the only reason he got so mad was because he was expecting me to say all of the stuff I said, when I only ever said it because it was the opposite of what I thought of him and what I wanted him to do. Do you know... that means he thinks I'm a horrible person inside his head and was just waiting to hear it out loud? It means he doesn't like me. Not really. Because he expects horrible things from me. Why would he do that? I've always respected him, liked him, been his friend. And then ever since hatching he just expects that I will snub him, or berate him, or think ill of him. Why would I? Why would any of that change?" Now he's lost in the confusion of all of it. "And then there's other stuff too. He's not going to be happy about it, I think, when he finds out. I don't know how to tell him. I don't even know that I should be the one to tell him." He stops, chewing on his lower lip, staring down at the dragons, at his lifemate in particular. Concern, confusion, stress, it's all there on his face for her to see. "Some people just got it in'em for havin' kids...like they always knew they'd want 'em..." Alida responds casually. A look up from her sunscreen application to K'zin's face - when he mentions not necessarily wanting to reproduce to avoid passing on unwanted whatevers - doesn't last long, given the subject of mating flights and sex comes up. Greens remain doggedly upon her legs, now, while the blonde responds low, "If the rider ya' accidentally knock up from a flight *tells* ya... well, y'*do* have a say, though it's not the final one. If she doesn't tell ya'...well, like y'said." Grunt. "Unlike those idiot traditional gits, I think a woman is always ultimately in charge uv' her own body." A pugnacious little jaw thrust only adds credence to 'lida's stance. Snert. "Can't kick out a weyrling..." Smirk. "Only delay the inevitable." Word of the greenie slugging Waki repeatedly earns him a quick glance, words that the guard almost started to speak clipped off before budding as the bronzer sort-of spills his guts further. As more words come, the bluerider's features become more level, perhaps almost set, until K'zin's done, and she once again stares directly at him, and once again notes, this time from center field, "Rasavyth once commented that Ilicaeth was 'only a blue.'" How neutral, how cool the woman's voice sounds. "If yer dragon has that attitude towards a blue, what might he have towards a green... towards their riders? And what uv' his rider, too?" The topics of kids and mating and so on are dropped. K'zin's brown eyes do something a little bit funny. It's like he's reading, but the air, not a book. His eyes scan back and forth with precision. It's a quiet few moments before realization lights his face, "Actually," He turns his head now to look at Alida, "To be very specific, what he said was that Ilicaeth made a mistake that any blue could make. He never said Ilicaeth was only a blue. Is that why Ilicaeth has never been fond of him? Because he has thought all this while that Ras held his color against him? Any blue, any green, any dragon could have made that kind of mistake. It's not my fault that you told Ilicaeth that I snore when I don't." The explicitness of K'zin's recall is likely all too telling to the astute guard: near perfect recall. (Just one more perk of having an evil genius as a lifemate!) She studies that 'reading' expression and the movement of K'zin's eyes like a good little guard, Alida suddenly quite interested in that mannerism, even more than she's interested in the bronzer's explanation. When that does finally come, however... "I'm not lookin' ta blame anyone," the woman murmurs, still watching her clutchsib with intent, her tone still neutral. "I found out later that it was that kid from the Tillek area that was snorin'. He was next ta' ya' then, and placed in such a way that it sounded like you." With her end of that day sealed up, the woman returns to the matter more-at-hand with a bland, "I'm curious as t'why Rasavyth didn't say 'make a mistake that any *dragon* could make.'" Head quirk, smile. "After all, there's been history uv' some downright stupid golds 'n bronzes, some brilliant browns, blues, greens." "Why do I say any guy instead of any person when I mean any person?" K'zin answers her curiosity with a question. "Sometimes words are used interchangeably even when they're not really." He shrugs, "A blue is a dragon, he was probably just thinking about Ilicaeth in particular. He was trying to give him a graceful retreat from being wrong. Even if it was your fault." That last is quipped with a playful edge. Clearly, K'zin doesn't think there was anything more to it. « Y'know, a retarded spiderclaw could make a better excuse than that... » comes the extra-gritty, extra-witty riposte to K'zin's words of Rasavyth. (Ilicaeth to Alida) "Possible..." Alida notes casually to K'zin, her cool greens returning back to look at her feet as she applies the last bits of sunscreen to them. And then, quite suddenly, comes a cough and a fit of giggles that cannot be repressed by the blonde, who jams the heel of one hand into her yap to try and do so. By the time she's done, 'lida's gasping for some breath, getting herself back under control with some soft sniffing and another set of coughs. Nope, nothing to look at, here. K'zin watches, with a single raised brow, forehead slightly wrinkled. "Care to share?" Because it's obvious that either she or Ilicaeth came up with something very droll indeed. "Nope..." is commented glibly, Alida then moving around so that the sun's rays hit as much of her pale skin as possible before she lies down on her back. "Alright." Apparently that doesn't bother him. K'zin is pushing onto his feet then, and stepping toward the diving ledge. "Think I'll forfeit the rest of my hour." It's said so casually, that when he abruptly bursts into motion it might come as a surprise. The bronzer lets loose a whoop that echoes as he goes running and leaps off the diving cliff, body tensed, form good, though not expert to lead him neatly into the waters below. Well then... the hour's coming to an abrupt end, just like their conversation. Alida sits up suddenly, and simply watches at K'zin hurl-dives himself over the edge, the woman awaiting the proper splash... and nodding a couple of times as it comes, her form laying back down again. "Jus' like dad said... fuckin' crazy kids." |
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