Logs:Figuring It Out
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| RL Date: 19 April, 2016 |
| Who: C'ris, Telavi, Lyrisa |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: C'ris and Telavi catch up. |
| Where: Lake Shore, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 6, Month 8, Turn 40 (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: Quinlys/Mentions |
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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. The sun shines bright overhead, marking it near noon. With many dragonriders and residents off on their own duties, it leaves the lake shore peaceful. Peaceful except for the blue that lurks in the lake unhappily, and except for the punctuated fussing of a baby that is unhappy to be laying on her stomach on the blanket that C'ris has laid out. He watches her carefully, and though there are occasional cries, he does nothing to free her from her predicament, not as she pushes at herself and rocks, strengthening muscles she'll later need. Enough toys are near at hand for her, including a beautifully carved rattle and a floppy, soft one, that she doesn't lack for entertainment. It is the bluerider that has nothing to occupy himself other than watching his daughter, instead picking at the grass and shredding it to keep his hands busy. Light, light footsteps lead into a lightly accusatory, "You are so mean, C'ris." Telavi pauses behind him, but her teasing doesn't; "Unless you're going to feed that to her after you're done? Make her spit up green?" Broken out of his own thoughts, confusion flits over C'ris' expression first as warm brown eyes are lifted up, up to Telavi. "What?" is followed quickly with a friendly smile, dropping the grass in his hands and brushing it with easy gestures from his lap before offering a gesture for the greenrider to pull up a corner of the blanket. Lyrisa fusses only more as things happen around her, pushing at the blanket and trying to lift her head to see with noises that never quite become a true cry. Telavi obliges, long legs folding with effortless grace-- but there's a hint of wariness to the tilt of her head even now, even after all her visits. It's alive. "She's not happy with you," Tela tells him. "You're thwarting her." "Oh, no. She's not," agrees C'ris on an exhale, his gaze drawn back to his daughter with a softly buried smile. He probably doesn't even realize when he reaches to pluck a handful of blades again from the grass. "But, sometimes being unhappy is what's best for you. It is going to make her stronger." Telavi wrinkles her nose at that, and quickly leans over, hand darting to try and rescue some grass clippings. "Wait until she's old enough to tell you that," she teases. C'ris' answer is to toss those blades at her lightly, quirking another smile even as he answers too sincerely, a bit sadly, "Then my heart will be crushed a bit each time, but as long as I am doing what's right for her--." He opens his mouth to add something else, and then closes without it, shaking his head. Instead he asks with genuine interest, "How are you, Tela?" Taking them is one thing; having them thrown at her is another. Tela makes a face before she says, "I meant, when she's making you unhappy to 'make you stronger.' I'm... fine? Good. Yes, good. It's a lovely summer. No plagues, no renegades, nobody dying who wasn't sup-- expected to. Don't you think?" "Right, right," C'ris replies simply, his smile fading a bit as he studies Telavi. "I think-- I'm glad you're good. Happy? And without weyrlings, how are you filling your time? What're you doing?" There's grass for Telavi to pluck, and so she does, this time, with purpose. "Oh, helping out here and there," she says, and her own smile is bright. It's public enough that Quinlys uses her where she can, but beyond that... "Catching up on mending, there's so much of it! But it travels. So much nicer when you can do it wherever you like, don't you think?" One of the blades is, evidently, intended for tickling the undersides of little baby feet. A bright giggle is elicited from Lyrisa, and a softer smile on C'ris' part as he watches the greenrider and his daughter. But he doesn't move to join the game, not as Lyri tries to push and roll from the tickling. Instead, he'll answer, "Yes, it is. It's nice to get out once and a while and--. I really should have brought my own mending but I am not all that good at it. And she goes through things so quickly anyways." More tickling! but with breathers now and again, lest anything get too much. Telavi does encourage the rolls to whichever side seems the most likely, just in case she can persuade Lyrisa to roll over. "Is it the stuff out the mouth or the stuff out the bottom that means cleaning the most often, these days? At least the mending, the more you do of it the better you'll be." "Both, really. You don't want to see her spit-up some days," teases C'ris with a flash of an easier smile as he watches Telavi with his daughter. "She's-- It's a lot of work, most days. But we're figuring it out." "I hope so." Tela's tickling pauses as she glances up through her lashes at C'ris. Her lashes fall. "I hope she'll want to come back soon." This time the tickling is aimed more precisely for the tiny toes, and better, the even tinier nails. C'ris doesn't answer at first, not as Lyrisa's reaction to that tickling holds his attention. Only after she has kicked away happily does he answer quietly, "Me too. But-- Some days I worry, Tela. I want us to figure this all out; I want this, but--. Do I want it too much?" "Do you want a real answer?" is as rhetorical as it is soft. "Yes," replies C'ris, his brown gaze lifted to Telavi and only that. Telavi's gaze is swept down, still, to those tiny toes she touches with that grass, not with her finger. After a few moments, "You want so hard." She might stop there. C'ris, for once, provides nothing in the way of conversation to hide behind or distract. Instead, no, he falls silent as he watches Telavi, as he shifts a look to his daughter's toes and back. "I'm surprised she made it this long," Telavi says without much affect. "She's brave." "Because of me. Because what I want has made her feel trapped into--," murmurs C'ris thoughtfully, sadly. And this time, as Lyrisa begins fussing again, he leans forward to scoop his daughter up and into his arms. He speaks to her, not Telavi when he says in gentle tones, "Shh, shh, shh. Ok, we're done with that. Such a brave girl, like your mother." Telavi doesn't deny him, isn't polite-- isn't indifferent. "Or how you want it," is softer in timbre at the very least. "I can't say it's not worth it, C'ris." "Neither can I though, can I?" C'ris says simply, though he takes a moment to offer the greenrider a reassuring smile as he rocks his daughter gently. "She's gone now. When she comes back, when she's had time-- We'll figure it out then." "Of course," Telavi says; her smile peeps out in answer, though not far, and there's no dimple. She thumb-flicks a few grass-bits at his toes, letting them fly in a small arc, and now she smiles a bit more. "Say something cheerful. Else she'll fuss and you'll have to go, or I will. Though," she reconsiders, "I suppose I should anyway. But still, first!" "Mivength misses Solith. That's kinda sweet and cheerful, isn't it?" is what C'ris offers back, wiggling his booted toes as grass falls over them. His own smile appears in turn, as if he couldn't not. He adds, "And I also-- I really appreciate your honesty with me, Tela. I'm glad we're friends." Sweet. Cheerful. "Solith does like Mivength, and he may always talk to her," Telavi says in a slightly higher-pitched voice. She glances briefly up to the cliff with its ledges, but not at their ledge. "I try. Thank you. I hope you have a wonderful rest of the day, both of you," is quite sincere, green-today gaze focusing on C'ris. She's quick to get up, then, to dust bits of grass off her skin, to head out with her mending, refashioning and general refurbishing. If clothes don't wind up her only focus, though... that's between her and the assigner of those other tasks. |
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