Logs:Bits In The Baths
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| RL Date: 2 July, 2013 |
| Who: H'kon, K'del |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: K'del tries to make non-awkward conversation with H'kon. They're in the bath, and they're them; it doesn't really work. |
| Where: Bathing Pools, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 20, Month 2, Turn 32 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Azaylia/Mentions, Sisha/Mentions, Taikrin/Mentions |
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| Bathing Pools, High Reaches Weyr
The bend in the cavern leads to a rougher-hewn part of the chamber where the two circular bathing pools welcome those in need of a wash. Towels and washcloths are kept in neat stacks on shelves along the wall, along with sacks of sweetsand and a few bars of precious soap. Stone benches provide a place for sitting to remove shoes and clothing, while a row of gleaming brass hooks stand above, ready to hold clothes and robes.
It's late enough, too, that some of those unobtrusive adults are in the baths on a mission, the endpoint of which is not, in fact, the pools. H'kon moves as such, at any rate (or rather, at a relatively quick one), stripping down, finding a relatively unoccupied pool, and lowering himself in. This is a slower process than he might like, force of acclimatisation. His eyes are on his toes (or something) for most of it. So by the time he looks up and spots K'del, really it's too late to leave. It's really much too late, especially because the slopping sound of disturbed water has caught K'del's attention, and drawn his eyelids open again. His lips part, but if he really does intend to say something, anything at all, he doesn't do so yet. Instead, he inclines his head forward, just once: hi. H'kon's discomfort is only communicated in the little pull at the edge of his mouth - otherwise, K'del is greeted as most are, with a long, pensive sort of look, and, eventually, the slightest lift of his chin to acknowledge the bronzerider's nod. He might realise they're two guys in the baths, which could explain the lack of continued staring thereafter. Or, he might just need to be soaping up (as he goes about doing) and getting on his way. While K'del is very deliberately keeping his gaze above the water-line, he doesn't glance away - two guys in the baths or not. He draws himself away from the edge of the bath, though, reaching for this abandoned scrubbing brush quite as if H'kon's soaping up has reminded him of something forgotten. "Miserable day out there," he says, conversationally. H'kon has no brush; he scrubs with his bare hands, inviting exfoliation to stay or go as it, and callused fingers, please. His head is bent to the task of his left arm, but it jerks up for K'del's attempt at verbal contact. "It has settled to something more predictable." "Oh," says K'del, after a moment's hesitation. "Well, that's good. Bit shit to fly in, earlier, but we did okay." His face screws itself up, just a fraction: resorting to talking about the weather to avoid awkward silence between two people with a complicated history, check. "Well, anyway." "We've always found wind and snow challenging," comes with a bit of ardour, that's just got to be Arekoth's, surely, almost definitely, tipping the edge of what might have started as an impulse to smile. H'kon hasn't stopped soaping his arm, but all at once it's again very interesting for him to watch, and his expression calms. Well, anyway. K'del's response to that is prompt. "Cadejoth likes it - the challenge. Much more interesting than when it's clear skies and no wind." He turns his brush in his hands, gaze dropping towards it in a thoughtful, almost determined manner. Then, "Avalanche looks good, these days. Sisha's a good Wingleader. A good leader." That gives H'kon pause... but then, what doesn't? Soaping turns into a pensive massage of his forearm, and then, the heel of his palm, those rubbing fingers slowing, slowing... but only stopping when the arm is plunged and he looks up again. "She is," deserves so much emphasis, even, of a curt nod of his head. "She's good in the wingleader meetings, too. So calm." K'del doesn't seem to have a point with this: H'kon's answers don't seem to be changing much of what he has to say. He's rambling, really, pulling together words to fill the silence, as if it needs to be filled, or else. The brush gets held over his shoulder, scrubbing at his back. "It's a pity she's a woman, really. She'd be a good caretaker Weyrleader, until the flight, if it weren't..." And H'kon? He starts on his right arm. "She has been leading a long while," Comes in a strange sort of burst, though H'kon clearly means it to be continuing the conversation. This time, that look ends as a more casual glance might have, before he checks his progress with the whole bathing thing. "A woman has been appointed to the position before." His shoulder gets some extra attention. "Although, if memory serves, her dragon was not encouraged to fly for leadership beforehand." K'del's brush pauses. "In general, I have no problem with a woman in that position," he says. "But after Taikrin, it seems... unwise. Better to choose someone who won't upset anyone. Although," he inclines his head, "at least Sisha would never be in the running for the actual position." The two lower caverns girls climb out of the bath. Evidently, this conversation is boring, and interrupting their own. "But, of course, it's not up to us. Azaylia will..." He frowns, and then, a moment later, shrugs. "No. She would not." H'kon takes a deep breath and pushes it back out, converted into a sigh, before he ducks the short way to get his arm fully submerged. He sets to work on his chest next, chin dipping toward breastbone as he scrubs. "Azaylia is now acting. And I do not refer to the name of her position." That line of hair between his pectorals gets some extra fingertip work. "Though it would not be objectionable if the decision were made sooner..." "Azaylia needs someone experienced to... ameliorate her inexperience." It's not exactly easy to tell for sure, but nothing in K'del's stance suggests he's trying to allude to his own qualifications: he's too thoughtful for that. "Sooner would be better. Sooner for a decision, now, and sooner for a flight, too." He abandons the brush, and runs damp fingers through damp curls, instead. H'kon stays quiet through K'del's musings, and for some time thereafter. It's time to get to awkwardly reaching at his back, and rinsing what he'd managed. He pauses before continuing the downward trek, and stares at swirls of water before him. "Sisha and I," resumes the old topic, "have recently the issue of leadership differently." Maybe why she's started trying to hawk off the brownrider, if under tables. "But I would not object to her being appointed, should it occur." Eyebrows raise K'del's way, as if to check the answer was satisfactory. Or even received. "Have you." K'del is neither surprised nor unsurprised - or maybe it's just that his answer is studiously neutral. "You should pick another wing before she forcibly transfers you," follows, without any particular indication that he believes his advice will meet willing ears. His sudden duck under the water might (but might not) cover his expression: for a moment there, he looks wistful, lonely, disappointed. And yet, when he emerges again? "We'll have to see what Azaylia is thinking, I suppose. I know no more than anyone else." It's not bitter. Much. "I will hope that she is willing to provide time enough that affairs might first settle," H'kon returns, flat-voiced, flat-faced. He manages to lift a foot up to his hands without falling over - though with only himself and K'del in the pool, it's not like there will be too much for unexpected motion that might upset his buoyant balance - and picks at something near his toe. "Indeed." "I'm sure she'll be reasonable," says K'del, evenly, having recovered some of his emotional balance (though he's back to leaning up against the edge of the pool for the physical variety). "Hopefully we'll have a Weyrleader in place before the weyrlings need assigning. I hate to think of the arguments that will eventuate without that. Perhaps they can fight over you, too." "Perhaps," is dry. H'kon puts his foot down, gives K'del a nod that has some finality to it, and goes back to washing. Conversation or no conversation, bronzerider or no bronzerider, he's got bits to attend to. And that is reason enough to end the discussion, it seems. K'del is, for the record, more than happy to abandon any attempts at conversation, if that is the next order of business. Oh yes. Lalalala. |
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