Logs:Choices and Cake
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| RL Date: 1 October, 2015 |
| Who: Aiden, Faryn |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Aiden and Faryn meet and talk work, food, and family. |
| Where: Lake Shore, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 19, Month 12, Turn 38 (Interval 10) |
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>---< Lake Shore, High Reaches Weyr(#276RJs) >-------------------------------<
The rest of the bowl may be barren, grass barely surviving at best, but
here by the lake, it's brilliantly green in the warmer months: thickening
and thriving in the silty, boulder-dotted soil just before it transitions
to soft sand and thence to the cool, clear water itself.
A large freshwater lake fed by a low waterfall, it not only provides
warm-weather bathing space for humans and dragons, but has one end fenced
off as a watering hole for the livestock in the feeding grounds. The water
there is often muddier than the rest of the clear lake, whose shallows
drop off abruptly several yards out into deep water, and whose edge
undulates against the coarse-hewn bowl wall: here close enough to just be
bramble-covered rocks, there far enough away that a narrow land bridge
divides the main lake from a smallish pond. Between are several rocky
outcroppings that form excellent makeshift diving points, though only one
-- across the bridge -- has a set of narrow, slippery, quite possibly
tempting stairs.
Rumbles and flashes of lightning intersperse between the periodic fall of
snow throughout the day. There is humidity in the otherwise cold air.
-----------------------------< Active Players >-----------------------------
Aiden M 15 5'5" gangly, brown hair, blue eyes 2m
Faryn F 24 5'4" lean, long brown hair, brown eyes 0s
----------------------------------< Exits >---------------------------------
Diving Cliff Lake Bowl Far End of Lake
>----------------------------------------< 19D 12M 38T I10, winter night >---< Aiden is sitting on one of the rocky outcroppings between the main lake and the pond that in warmer weather would have been used for diving. But right now it seems to provide a convenient seat for him as he appears to be writing something. And just as quickly stops - Aiden looks like he's having trouble with whatever he's writing and spends as much time looking at the water as he does actually writing. Faryn's appearance is not from the bowl but from the copse of snow-touched trees at the far end of the lake. If Aiden's been wathing the water for any respectable period of time, it's unlikely that he's missed the slender slip of a fledgling brown firelizard who has been maneuvering from that faraway point, across the lake and back, and in the silence of the chilly afternoon the commanding whistles may well have been causing him some of his troubles. After all, they are sharp, shrill, interruptive. At any rate, she's not whistling now, as she makes haste towards the shore, blowing warm breath into her cupped hands while the brown tries to find an opening into her clothes - fuzzy blue sweater or thick bronze riding jacket - that will admit him to her radiating warmth. Aiden seems happy to be distracted by the firelizard when he glimpses it, and doesn't go back to his writing as fast this time. Not that it was fast to begin with. Whenever he looks down at what he's writing he frowns, so it may be understandable that he pays greater attention to the whistles and flight of the firelizard than he would have otherwise. He's wearing gloves, which seem to not help his writing one bit. It may be his seeming desire for a distraction that prompts Aiden to wave to Faryn in greeting if she turns in his direction as she approaches. Faryn doesn't seem terribly inclined to look at Aiden any longer than her fleeting glance, except there's that wave. His claws sunk deeply into the collar of Faryn's jacket, resigned to his frigid fate, the wave of greeting might as well be a summon for the gregarious creature, who launches immediately up and then dives down, against Faryn's "Hey!" of surprise. "Sully, no," brings her gaze back to the boy on the rock, and her eyebrows go up. "Tell him no," she says, even as the brown lands in the mostly melted snow and starts nosing towards Aiden's boot. Aiden seems startled by the suddent attention from the firelizard but is quick to do as he's told, and says "No?" though a little less forcefully than probably necessary. Not sure what the firelizard intends, Aiden stays here he is and doesn't move the feet that the brown has landed near. He does put whatever he's been writing into the pocket of his thick jacket, apparently more interested in this development than the pretense of writing. He says a quiet "Hello" to the firelizard, then looks over at Fayrn and adds a louder "Hello" to the woman as well. The sigh Faryn issues is exasperated, and after one whistle through her teeth - ignored - she snaps loudly. "Sully." The brown lift his head, either at the sound of her fingers or his name, or under the powerful annoyance of her gaze. He doesn't come back quickly, but after one last rebellious sniff he starts back her way, on the ground, slinking like he knows he's in trouble. "Hello," she issues once the firelizard has started the laborious crawl up her pants leg. "You have to be more assertive." Aiden watches the progression with an amused smile on his face. When addressed he looks up. "Oh? Yeah, I guess so. I don't have much practice telling people what to do. Or firelizards." He carefully gets up from the outcropping and steps away from the rocks next to the water. "My name is Aiden, it's nice to meet you. And Sully", he says with a nod to the firelizard. "You've trained him well, to get him to come back after he's noticed something interesting." At least one person is amused, because it isn't Faryn. And it isn't Sully, who aborts his mission to her shoulder once he realizes there is a gap at the bottom of her jacket just perfect for his svelte form. Up he goes, and Faryn engages some odd wriggling to accommodate him, all with a little grimace; no telling where those claws are finding purchase. "Mmm," she says shortly, at first, but then she settles and so does the lizard-lump under her jacket. "They're like dogs, or kids. And sometimes, even if it's not your place, you have to be able to tell someone something firmly. He's still learning. One day," presumably, "he won't get distracted by something as uninteresting as a hand wave. I'm Faryn. Why are you sitting in the cold?" Aiden nods and sticks his hands in the pockets of hsi jacket. "True, it's something I should work on." Whether he intends to or he's saying it to appease Faryn would be anyone's guess. "Well met, Faryn. It didn't feel that cold when I first got here, and I was distracted writing a letter home, and only realized how cold it was after a little while. But then I thought before I stopped I should write at least the first page...but I didn't realize it would take so long." He shrugs. "It was a little noisy in the crafter area so that was the original reason for coming someplace quiet." Truth or appeasement, it doesn't seem to be any skin of Faryn's (red-with-cold) nose, over which she runs a gloved hand quickly a few times to warm it. "It gets cold here, very fast. Storms are sometimes even faster." It's only now that Faryn seems to really look at Aiden, her head tilted slightly while she takes him in, then the paper too. She doesn't, at least, seem to try and read anything that's written on it. "Where's home, then? I always thought you could write ten pages, easy, on the shitty weather." Aiden smiles. "I guess that would have solved the problem if I'd thought of it. I'm from Balen Hold. When I joined the Bakercraft I was started my training here. It's easy to write to my mother, but not so easy my father. He didn't really approve of me becoming a crafter, and, well, it would be nice if he would change his mind. Or at least not mind it as much. So it's hard to know the right words to say. I mean write." "Benden," echoes Faryn with a little twitch of emotion at the corner of her mouth, not a pleasant one, but there and gone quickly. "Baker." For all she's feigning disinterest in the boy, she seems to have plenty of questions. "The crafts are a noble venture," she stresses, but is that a touch of sarcasm? Hard to tell; there's a certain, dry lilt to her voice that may be difficult to pin down. "What would you have done, if not a craft?" That's almost rhetorical, because she adds without being prompted, "I hope it works out for you. Knew a baker a couple turns ago, here. Nice guy, excellent baker. I would have let him take me out on a date if he brought me nothing but cake." Aiden nods. "Crafts are a good choice, but according to my father they weren't a good choice for me. He's Steward of the Hold, and expected me to be the same someday. So for the last few turns I'd kind of unofficially been apprenticed to him and did a lot of the work an assistant steward would do. It's not like it would be a bad way to go, and the things I've learned will help me in other ways, but I was more interesting in cooking than that. So I haven't heard from him since I came to the Weyr, so I figured I should make the first gesture." He smiles. "Maybe if I make *him* some cake, he'll realize I made the right choice." Faryn's laugh is a short bark, amused and apparently pleased, even if it doesn't linger beyond that tiny little smirk she wears constantly. "I did a stint as a steward that way," she notes, examining him again, "but not at Benden Hold. One of the minor holdings, further in the mountains. You do learn. But it's not...." She excuses the thought with a wave of the hand. "Good on you, doing what you wanted. At the end of the day, you're the one who has to live with it, not him. Might as well be happy." There's another low laugh, more huffed this time, for his last. "Make sure it's his favorite colour and flavor. Very tall, lots of fondant." Aiden smiles. "Well, if nothing else it will be something he's never tried before." He pauses with a thoughtful expression. "He may like ... now that's an idea." He looks back at Faryn with a smile. "Thank you. I was half joking about baking something, but it seems like a gift for him is a good enough way to practice my baking as anything else would be, and maybe it might work if it's really good." One shoulder lifts, not committing either way. Faryn's response is a meandering, musing, slow thing, each word selected with contemplative care, "It could just be that he's worried you won't do well, or won't go anywhere. If you show him you've got the talent, and that you're happy, it might help. No promises. I doubt either of my parents are exactly proud of my time in the craft, but I wager that's much different than yours will be. You seem a nice enough kid." Aiden smiles at the compliment. "Thank you. I don't know too much about you yet, but you may be surprised. Family can be resilient. Or at least I hopes o." He shivers a little and moves the collar of his jacket up to cover more of his neck. "I think it would be a good idea to get inside, since it still seems to be getting colder. It was nice meetng you Faryn. And Sully too." "Mmmm, my family." No adjective, no modifier. Nothing except that, full stop, is apparently meant to portray exactly how lucky Aiden is that he doesn't know her or hers well. At any rate, his shiver makes her tug the zipper of her flight jacket up, although she must surely be toasty. "You too, Aiden. I'm going that way," a nod towards the bowl, where the options are limitless. "You can tell me about your cake ideas on the way, if you'd like." Later, he might find this gracious offer a rare thing, if he asks around. At any rate, it's easy to dismiss if he wishes too, because she turns to stride that way, with or without his conversation to keep her until they part ways. |
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