Logs:Compromises
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| RL Date: 30 December, 2015 |
| Who: Alysce, Drex, Farideh, Jo, Lys |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Farideh, Jo and Lys talk men and compromises before Farideh's man and his pretty female companion show up. |
| Where: Snowasis, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 9, Month 9, Turn 39 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: B'ren/Mentions, R'hin/Mentions, T'gar/Mentions, V'ret/Mentions, Z'ian/Mentions |
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>---< Snowasis, High Reaches Weyr(#555RJ) >----------------------------------<
The Snowasis is rarely quiet, and even then, the high-ceilinged former
weyr is kept from echoing by the fantastical booths tucked into its
convoluted perimeter. The secluded seating spaces have been shaped from
the truncated stalagmites that escaped the smoothing of the main floor,
and are both softened and separated by colorful hangings that are thick
and opaque enough to make each corner its own private nook.
Some of the smaller stalactites still roam the ceiling, their jagged teeth
tracing a bumpy, inverted spine to the hearth. There, a thick rug with a
low klah table and comfortable armchairs and couches sit, their upholstery
and cushions changed sporadically to match the season: bright, light
colors in the summer, fresh greens and yellows in the spring, warm
autumnals in fall, and clear, rich hues for winter. Small tables litter
the rest of the cavern, enough to fit up to four people each, while stools
stand along the smooth wooden bar behind which is the passthrough window
to the kitchen. Glass-paneled cabinetry behind the bar provides a clear
view of the available liquors, the many colors reflecting the soft light
of glows tucked into strategic niches around the cavern. The evening's not too crowded in the Snowasis. A few of the wings are present, engaged in card and dart games, whle the rest is clearly there just to get their booze on. Jo seems likely in both categories with Snowdrift engaged in a rousing card game that's not nearly as loud as the dart games between Glacier and Savannah used to be, but she's at the bar counter, watching the game happen while she downs whatever's in her glass. Where once Lys only came to Snowasis for the wings, now she heads away from a small knot of weyrlings on the patio ledge, making her way inside and to the bar. There's a little hitch in her step when she sees the bluerider there, but pressing her lips briefly together as some decision is made, she continues on, asking as she comes up on one side of the woman, "Buy a pretty blonde greenrider a drink?" Weyrlings are almost universally drink moochers, it's true. Everyone knows goldriders exist to ruin everyone's fun, so, magically, one of them appears on the threshold to Snowasis. "Excuse me-- yes, K'wen, that's lovely, now if you'll--" Farideh expertly side-steps the brownrider who steps in her path, to chatter on about something nonsensical, and makes her way to the bar. "Ladies," comes sweetly, as she slides onto a stool and glances from both women, to the bartender expectantly. Someone in the card game wins, drawing a round of both boos and handslaps. One of the girls look Jo's way as if she knew the wingsecond was watching - which of course Jo was, enough to raise her glass to her before Lys arrives. A brow lifts at the request before her mouth opens to speak, but nothing comes out when Farideh arrives too. Whatever she was going to say stalling, she gestures towards the goldrider as she says, "I hear weyrwomen can order anythin' they like'n not have to pay shit. I think Farideh should oblige the both of us, eh?" Yes, that must be a greeting to them both as she nods to one, and then the other. "Being a goldrider has to have some perks," Lys reasons aloud in a way that suggests she's only doing it as to help bolster Jo's point. She slides onto the empty stool there and leans forward to look at Farideh past Jo, with a grin and an inquisitive arch of a brow. "You would both be wrong, unless the bartenders have something against me personally." From the corners of her eyes, Farideh gives them a singular, caustic stare. "I have a tab, but," and she leans forward, pausing to twiddle her fingers at the closest of the bartender, "If you ask nicely, I suppose one drink each wouldn't put too much of a strain. I hear I've been watering plenty of weyrlings and drunks, as it is. It might as well be people I like." "If I ask nicely," Jo notes far too casually, "ya'll be blushin' from here to Fort." That's to Farideh for her response, and she takes a drink from her own glass. "Nice to have a tab, though. I don' have one of those here. The Rusty Nail takes care of me pretty good, though." To Lys, "What's the occasion?" she asks now - because weyrlings need a reason to drink, right?? "Have you?" Lys wonders, brows going higher. "Who? I can make it stop if you buy for me instead," what makes the blonde so sure before she even hears a name is anyone's guess. The offer doesn't stop her from saying, "In the meantime, pretty please, Farideh, will you buy me a drink?" Blue-green eyes shift toward Jo, "Remember that weirdness you were concerned about? I didn't think much of your worry, but then--" She trails off rolling her eyes. "Men are idiots," is her conclusion. The bartender moseys on over and Farideh pauses there, one finger lifted and words unspoken yet on her lips. "What will you have?" she asks them both, making the man behind the counter wait while they decide on their libations of choice. "I don't know who all. Drex invites them out for drinks, or something. I just show up to pay the tab," comes second before she issues her own order of "white wine, please". And once that's all settled, she turns, elbow on the bartop, to glance between bluerider and greenrider. "Weirdness? Men?" "Explain," Jo says of Lys about the weirdness, the bluerider looking all ears to her problems. She snickers upon hearing about Drex and Farideh's tab, shaking her head and commenting to that, "Do ya like lettin' him run rampant like this? I'll take a whiskey, darlin'," this last going towards the waiting bartender that arrives before she looks between weyrling and goldrider, waiting. The green weyrling is quick to give her inexpensive drink order to the bartender before looking back to Farideh. "Thank you. And that's--" what is it? "-generous of you," Lys settles on as neutrally supportive Good Friend comment for Farideh's choice, though she looks conspicuously elsewhere as Jo remarks less neutrally on the topic. She looks around briefly like there might be a good way not to answer, but glancing back at these women she seems to decide there's nothing else for it. "Well, man," for Farideh's benefit, "V'ret," is self-conscious somehow, then for Jo and Farideh both. "I guess some men don't like the idea of sharing, even for perfectly practical 'just sex.'" She rolls her eyes to express her feelings about that. The stars must have aligned! Or, they got the good bartender, who has their drinks out promptly and that before Farideh has recovered from Jo's chastising enough to form a sentence. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do. It's not like he's a pet I can tell to just-- stay or stop. He's here because of me, if you remember," the goldrider mutters, and lifts her wineglass to take an encouraging swallow of wine. "V'ret?" She sounds shocked, but maybe not half a shocked as she should be; gossip mills and all that. "No. No, they don't," is murmured into her wine, eyes finding Jo over the glass rim. "Perhaps this place should open up a tab for him on his own," Jo comments to Farideh with open amusement. "The boy drinks like a fish. I hope ya have enough to cover him alone." She nods her thanks to the goldrider as she claims the glass of whiskey now, savoring its flavor. When Lys explains on boys, the wingsecond gives a small sigh and shakes her head before noting to her, "I warned'ja, darlin'. Most o'em are like that. They're territorial. Even some women. Did'ja try to explain to him that yer a greenrider? Shit, a dragonrider, even? That it's even sometimes necessary?" Dark eyes find and linger on Farideh for a few breaths as she asks. Only a small guilty look goes to the goldrider at her shock. "I should've told you. It just has seemed... I don't know," probably unimportant compared to Farideh's present concerns. "You could tell him," Lys supposes, eyes on her own wine, "It probably would be more trouble than it was worth and wouldn't do much in the end." Her advice might speak to her own experiences giving her brief grimace. She wrinkles her nose before answering the bluerider, "Said that, more or less, offered to find someone else, but that didn't seem to please him any better." "Does he understand the greenrider part? That you'll be sleeping with other riders during those flights? Or are you saying--" Farideh's eyes widen a fraction, pointedly staying away from Jo, now. "You should let him know that you're not interested in a relationship. If you're not in a relationship, then he doesn't have the right to be mad, does he? Though, this is V'ret," she says, keeping it at that with an obligatory lift of her eyes to the ceiling. That Farideh is now avoiding her gaze has a smirk playing on Jo's lips as she regards her for a moment. Then she looks away to take a drink, saying to Lys, "I doubt V'ret'll be the type to share, like some of us can," with an air to her tone. "Perhaps he'll be down to compromise somewhere. I mean, ya like him, right?" She seems to agree with Farideh's words, too, since she nods to it and says nothing. Lys makes a face at her drink, though it's hardly the drink's fault. "It-- is. A relationship. Just-- not an exclusive one. And particularly not with this." She looks to Farideh, almost plaintive, "You've had flights, don't people get hurt if you don't know what you're doing?" It's almost like she needs some further confirmation that she's not just making up the importance of knowing what she's doing. "He says he understands the flights thing, but he's holdbred and--" She squints at Farideh and then Jo, "a man. Faranth only knows what they're thinking." Then, trying for the obvious segue, "What about Drex? Is he doing alright sharing you with Ethran and Roszadyth and your duties?" "It is a relationship," sounds dramatic and emphasized, and now she looks at Jo. "You and V'ret, in a relationship-- a non-exclusive relationship. Have you talked to him about that? If you want to be with him, then don't see other people outside of flights, but if you don't, then it doesn't matter." Farideh makes a sound in her throat, but stops talking so she can take another long drink of her wine. "People can get hurt regardless of what you know or what you don't know, and just because you don't know what you're doing doesn't mean they don't, or do--" Waving a hand, she scrunches up her nose and gives Lys a smile. "Drex is still-- Drex. He doesn't really like Jo," eyes flying, again, to the bluerider, with a conspiratorial glint. When Farideh meets her gaze, Jo doesn't look away. Despite her not putting much to the topic of relationships, she does drawl to Lys, "Well, Farideh would know more 'bout forever'n ever more than I. Or, 'least what relationships are 'spose to be. Ain' 'bout bein' holdbred," she says now, nodding to Lys. "It's 'bout layin' claim, darlin'. as for Drex," she gives Farideh a look in the pause as she shifts her lean against the counter, "he nothin' but layin' claim is all. Too much of that in this place." One can detect by her tone what she thinks about that. In starting at her glass, Lys misses that exchanged look. "We have talked about it. He knows. We're just not-- we don't really talk about other people, except Jo knows him and-- It gets complicated from there." She doesn't directly address seeing other people outside of flights otherwise, but one might safely assume... "Laying claim," gets a scoff and a long drink, and another mutter of 'men,' but then she's looking over to Farideh and then Jo, "Are you rubbing him the wrong way on purpose or just by happenstance?" she wonders of the bluerider, evidently having no doubt it's one or the other or both. "Does he still want to share himself with the sea?" she wonders of Drex, looking to his goldrider. "I think you should just tell him what you expect and he can tell you what he expects, and either you can compromise or-- find other people." Farideh delivers it simply, watching the weyrling for her reaction, but Lys is saved from the goldrider's probing stare by Jo. "I'd say. He swears you look at me with your heart in yours eyes and that you're bound to steal me anytime we're in the same room together. It's quite irrational," she admits, giving her wineglass a playful twirl. "The sea? Yes, I think he misses it, but he's stayed this long. Maybe he's only staying because of Jo." "I know him, but we haven' exactly talked much 'bout girls," Jo answers Lys with a snicker. "Still, some things ya can tell 'bout a person. Our weyrwoman is right. Compromisin's the best bet, especially as weyrlins'. Really, who's to say y'all even see each other much once ya graduate?" Talk on Drex gets her to drink before giving a shrug to them both that's not quite innocent in its deliverance. Matter-of-factly, "He likely knows I want his girl," she muses, glancing over at Farideh. "But I ain' territorial'n there ain' nothin' irrational 'bout how I look at ya." Pause. "I also do it to watch'em squirm." Right. "But our weyrwoman here is far too smitten with her boy for it to even matter. Exclusivity bein' what it is." It's bold, perhaps, and she adds for Lys, "Best ya learn what ya want early, Lys'n stick by it once ya do." Though the evening isn't a busy one in Snowasis, the bar seems a popular place to sit and drink, at least for a goldrider (wine), bluerider (whiskey) and greenriding weyrling (wine, too). "I can imagine Jo being powerful motivation for a man," Lys murmurs to Farideh, smile pressing into something amused, but warmly so. "I guess in a way, it's sort of nice if that's the case. If it's not just a territory thing, then he probably loves you a lot," there's almost a childish playfulness to that, though she resists making kissing noises in the air, turning her attention to Jo instead. "Are you saying now you don't care if things would be weird for you and V'ret if I needed your particular guidance?" Evidently Lys is unbothered about talking about this particular deal even with Jo having just expressed interest in the brunette beside her. "Who knew Jo-not-the-relationship-type had such great relationship advice?" Farideh will just be over here, slow sipping white wine from her glass and not taking herself so seriously today; it could be the atmosphere or maybe it's been a good day. "Compromise," is her final say, in agreement, but since they're revolving through topics-- "Of course he does. He hates it here and he stays. Why else would he? Not for the food or the entertainment," is dry. "What guidance? Jo, are you taking her to one of your poison bars? It's a horrible experience, don't waste your time, Lys." And then, she's flagging down the bartender again, because she's drank all of her wine. Drex is looking a bit dirty, like he's been working and hasn't managed to make it to the baths yet. He's also carrying a mostly finished bottle of rum (funnily enough -- it looks like the one Jo brought the other seven), heading in from the bowl with Alysce. He stops once inside, scanning the crowd, frowning as he tries to catch sight of his girl. Luckily he has the advantage of height, and he nudges Alysce (again, with one of those dirty elbows into her nice clean dress) nodding towards the bar in Farideh's direction. "There she is," he says, with a kind of satisfied, see? tone to the words. Mind, he doesn't actually approach the group at the bar, so he could've just as easily been looking for a pretty girl to point out as his. Alysce's dress was nice and clean, a well-tailored dress, long-sleeved and perfectly fitted bodice that hugs her small curves, made of a cream fabric. Her nose wrinkles as Drex nudges her, and she brushes at her arm where the pirate nudges her, but she does lift her gaze to scan after him. She glances over Jo and Lys and Farideh all, lingering on Farideh last. "Wasn't she, like, the one who was all pregnant? I mean, she just had a baby; I don't think riders are into that," remarks the harper dismissively, shaking her head. Hopefully this isn't one of those awkward times that bar noise dies down as she talks. "Wait, you're a dad?" Pause. "Poor kid." Jo says, "Now I never said I was all forever-bachelor," Jo says to Farideh, leaning back. "I've been known to dabble in monogamy myself. For the right one, I'm willin' to bend my rules. Ain' a whole lot of 'right ones' out there, though." And as for guidance? Jo looks to Lys for that one, but she answers on V'ret, "I'm sayin' that he is my friend'n I wouldn' keep anythin' from him. Poison bar. I haven' even taken you to one of those yet, woman," she says the last to Farideh before she downs half her glass. of course, the wingsecond notices Drex and Alysce's arrival with them looking their way, but she's only watching them for now without bringing any attention." Lys, so far, has no reason to look beyond the conversation at hand. She glances to Jo briefly and then to Farideh, shrugging, "Not bars. I asked Jo to show me what I need to know for when Evy goes up, with women, if I end up needing it." It's a succinct answer, even if it does draw a blush to her cheeks. "It's good, though, Drex loving you like that. So you'd say picking up his bar tab is one of those compromises?" It's a genuine question, as if she's assessing how this compromise thing might work based on the FariDrex Relationship Model. "Did I hear somewhere," she asks Jo nonchalantly, "that you were with Weyrleader Z'ian back before he was injured?" "But, doesn't forever bachelor have a certain ring to it? Look at B'ren, and--" It's a nice effort, but she's easily distracted by the bartender placing her refreshed glass down on the counter. "You want to screw Jo, to prepare for the possibility of having sex with a woman in a flight?" Farideh slants Lys a curious look, and yet she doesn't have a runner in his race so keeps her thoughts to herself; maybe her own experiences with a certain bluerider keeps her mum. "I suppose you could call it a compromise. At least I can guarantee I know where his drinks are coming from," the goldrider replies, expression carefully blank as she turns away from the bartop, wineglass between her hands. The sailor rolls his eyes at the harper's response. "I'm a fuckin' amazing dad," Drex says, as he unstoppers the bottle of rum and takes a gulp from it, because clearly he won whatever bet they had going. "Just because she had a baby doesn't mean riders don't want to get into her pants. In fact," as his eyes narrow marginally, "That one there, next to her, is one of the wants that wants to fuck her." He waves a finger vaguely in Jo's direction, but his gaze doesn't linger overly long, looking back at Alysce expectantly. "So, should I take off my pants now or later?" with a grin. "One rider isn't all. I don't even know that rider. She probably just has bad taste," Alysce counters with a little thoughtful frown. It's only at the question that she lifts her book between them, aimed directly between his crotch and her just in case he does start stripping. "You can leave your pants on. I am going to get my own drink." The harper then will head in the direction of the bar and the women there, carelessly. Jo looks nonplussed by the fact that she's been propositioned by Lys. Eyeing the blush to cheeks, "It's a good idea," she says to Farideh with a slight shrug. "If her choices fail her. I doubt they will. I'm not B'ren," she adds with a snort to that as she looks towards the card tables before them. "I go by my own rules. Y'all should know that by now." Gaze seeks out Drex and Alysce again before Lys's question involving the former Weyrleader draws away some of her amusement before she nods once. "Guess it wasn' really known back then," she confirms it. "We were pretty exclusive, too. Stranger things have happened." "Yes," is a succinct answer for Farideh's summation of the situation. "Up to four flights a turn, they tell me. I don't want to go in blind. Jo's experienced, why not? It's just sex." It's somehow said blandly for someone for whom sex is still new, though she did spend that turn with those traders, so who can say. Maybe she's as wanton as the riders beside her are supposed to be. Perhaps it's out of deference to the reduction in Jo's amusement that Lys doesn't pursue the topic of Z'ian. Plenty of things go unvoiced while the weyrwoman watches her two companions in silence, her lips near perpetually glued to the rim of her wineglass. In the end, where Lys wisely dismisses Jo's past, Farideh is not as apt -- plus she hasn't noticed Drex or Alysce yet. "Do you miss him?" "Oh, come on," Drex says with a roll of his eyes as he trails after Alysce for a couple of steps. "You can't tell me she's not hot. And hey, you," he taps a random brownrider on the shoulder, grins at the older man, and points at his girl, "You'd do her if you had the chance, right?" The brownrider takes one look at Farideh, his grin making his answer plain even if he didn't say, "Faranth, yes!", said grin only marginally less bright when Drex gives him a warning scowl, before he gives Alysce a self-satisfied look. "See?" With a shrug of shoulders. "Fine. I'll leave my clothes on yer floor for you to attend to. You can leave them, clean and pressed, in Farideh's weyr when you're done." He doesn't follow the harper to the bar, apparently deciding being outnumbered by girls -- one of them his -- is not great odds. Instead, he heads for the bowl. With any luck, he's heading to the baths. "I hope you don't need pants, then," is what Alysce will call after Drex as he abandons her, her nose wrinkling once again in a pointed gesture. But she doesn't seem annoyed past the moment to be abandoned, nor is she upset to be unnoticed. True to her word, her intent is to post herself at the bar to get a drink. Once there, she opens her book to an empty page and writes two words. (They happen to be 'Fish's Nipples'.) "That I am," Jo agrees with Lys's assessment of her predicament, nodding. "Experienced." There's a lingering pause to Farideh's question, the wingsecond meeting her gaze for a long moment before she looks away and lifts her glass before answering, "As much as I do R'hin." Silence follows that, the woman drinking after her brief toast and finishing her whiskey. It's only after a moment - perhaps to steer the conversation from darker waters - that she nods towards the entrance after a retreating Drex and notes, "Yer Drex was here. With another girl." Lys is quiet in the wake of Farideh's question to Jo, her eyes on the bluerider's face before going back to her drink, though she chokes a little on it when Jo murmurs what she does, turning, obviously, to look the way she nodded before looking to Farideh with furrowed brow. An inkling of worry presents itself in Farideh's face when Jo's gaze meets hers, and she looks momentarily chagrined by her choice of question, but true to form it's a sensation that doesn't last long. She's spotted Drex as he retreats, even before the bluerider mentions it, and that's what has her sliding off her stool and onto her feet, wineglass still in hand. "I saw him, not--" Hardly giving either woman a proper glance, she waves a hand as she starts for the exit. "I'll see you both later. Good luck, Lys, with your problem," of V'ret, probably. Jo gives a barely-there shake of her head to Farideh when she sees that smidge of worry before she nods towards the entrance where Drex vanishes and doesn't look surprised that Farideh is heading out. "Catch'a soon," is all she says, and only nodding to Lys with, "I should head back to my wing's game. Ya'll be alright?" she asks now as she straightens up. Lys does a lot of watching at the end, watching Farideh, briefly watching Alysce, then Jo. She nods, simple. "Always am," is something that holds some variety of darker humor. "Thanks," and in a matter of sips, her wine is gone and she's getting up, too, to be about her own business. |
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