Logs:Have To Do It. Dare.
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| RL Date: 13 September, 2008 |
| Who: Kasadel, Tiriana |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Tiriana totally pushes Kasadel off a cliff. |
| Where: Diving Cliff, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 25, Month 9, Turn 17 (Interval 10) |
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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. It's a cool, kind of gloomy autumn afternoon, only a few dull shards of sunlight seeping through the clouds. Despite this, and the wind that whips through from this height, there's a person sitting not far from the edge of the Diving Cliff, eyeing off the drop. Kasadel's boots are sitting beside him, socks stuffed into them, but he's otherwise fully dressed; he looks, if anything, mildly concerned. A gloomy day makes for restless people, Tiriana among them as she prowls along the bowl with her own morose expression. Eventually, she winds up at the lake, one dark spot among several far below Kasadel; but unlike the rest of them, she's headed up to his level, taking the crumbly steps two at a time as she quickly crests onto the ledge and slows, eyeing the boy on the tip of the cliff as she walks that way. Kasadel, with his vantage over the weyr, notes the figures below, his gaze shifting from one to the next, then lingering upon Tiriana as she makes for the stairs. By the time she's reached the top, he's eyeing her back, his brows slightly raised as he, very clearly, eyes her from head to toe. More lingering. "Here for the view--" Pause. "Weyrwoman? Or just meandering?" "I was going to jump off, like you're supposed to do," Tiriana answers at once, with a so-there snort as she frowns at Kasadel. And she comes closer to the edge, too, and him on it, though when she eventually gets there, she just stops to look over. "What are /you/ doing up here?" Crossing her arms, she glances down at him, and takes one little step back from the lip of the cliff, at least. "So was I," says Kasadel, and though he seems to be honest about this, his expression suggests he hasn't taken Tiriana at face value on it. "Only it's kind of higher than I expected, so I think I'm going to have to work my way up to it. Have to do it. Dare." His tone is light, but he seems determined, too, his back straightening just slightly as he speaks. Smiling, he adds, "Name's Kas. Kasadel." "Tiriana," answers the girl at once, but she's not so much interested in introductions as the rest of what Kasadel has to say. The idea of having to jump off doesn't seem to phase her; it's the part about it being too high that has her leaning over to eye the water far below again. "Too high," she scoffs. "It totally ruins it if you work up to it--just do it already. Do you want me to hold your hand or something?" Kasadel's back straightens further, the delicate ego of a teenage boy threatened by Tiriana's comments. "Now you're just mocking me," he decides, chiming in just moments after the hand-holding comment, a note of hurt barely audible in his otherwise unchanged tone. "Be fine. Apprehension is usually the best part about doing something new. Gets the blood bumping. Makes you feel alive." But his glance towards the edge is increasingly wary. "If that's what you have to tell yourself," Tiriana drawls with a smirk, far too pleased for the accusation of mocking. "But the /best/ part of it is when you actually jump off and you're falling, and then you hit the water and it's freezing cold, and..." Lifting her shoulders, she trails off, and then frowns thoughtfully. A step sideways puts her just directly behind Kasadel. "Could always just push you in, you rather." Kasadel, for a moment, looks truly pained, but he swallows, frowns, takes a deep breath, and then smiles. All in a matter of seconds. "Sounds delightful," he tells her, managing to sound 'dry' rather than 'dry throated'. "No." He turns his head, looking at her, as she comes up behind him. "Like to control my descent, thanks. Still dressed, anyway." Tiriana snorts. "Delightful, right. Who says 'delightful'?" she wonders, cocking her head as she peers down at him. As for all that rest? "Well, best get stripping, then, boy. Who dared you, anyway?" "Evidently," says Kasadel, still half turned around and staring upwards at Tiriana, "I do." This time, his gaze only lingers on her briefly; instead, he hoists himself to his feet, every lanky inch of him, and begins to unbutton his shirt, as if on command. "Geila. Kitchen girl. Said she'd go for a drink with me, if I did it." When Kasadel gets to his feet, Tiriana steps back, watching him expectantly while he starts getting undressed. "Poor thing, and you fell for that?" She sounds pitying, at least, this time, although that's possibly not much of an improvement over the mocking. "She's probably sitting in the back of the kitchens on her break laughing it up with all her friends about what she got this stupid boy to do. If girls want a drink with you, they don't send you on stupid dares first to try to get rid of you." Kasadel's shirt ends up on the ground near his boots, and he moves on to his belt, eyeing Tiriana with an unreadable expression as he goes. "It was her friends, mostly. She seemed amenable, but they said I had to prove myself. Embarrassed her. Said I would, to make it easier." Defensive, he adds, "I'm not a complete idiot. I know girls." His belt joins the pile of clothes. He looks cold, but, valiantly, he moves on towards his trousers. Tiriana points out, "And I am a girl." This is her trump card, as she dismisses Kasadel's thoughts with a wave of her hand. "You don't let friends do guys that way unless you want to do them that way, too." Pause. Her brows furrow, and she puts her hands on her hips for a moment. Then, she muses, "Could have just slapped them all silly and told them to mind their own business, though." Kasadel lifts a finger. One finger. "You're /one/ girl. Not all girls are like you. They're--" Pause. "Softer. Sweeter. Like that infirmary girl. And Geila. But not Geila's friends." His trousers finally join the pile of clothes, leaving him in nothing but his briefs, though this fact doesn't really seem to bother him - aside from the goosebumps now running up and down his body. "Could've. Didn't. Like impressing them. None of them've done the jump." Well. It's hard for even Tiriana to argue with that, and she tips her head toward Kasadel in acknowledgement. "True, I am different," she agrees, smirking with pleasure at that fact. Except, she still can't help pointing out, "Yeah, and neither have /you/." Kasadel's eyes roll; he doesn't seem to be terribly impressed with Tiriana, thus far. He's not even letting his gaze linger on her anymore. "Not /yet/. Will in a minute. You can be my witness." He turns his head, looking behind him at the long drop, then, hurriedly, turns his head back. "Heard and witnessed," vows Tiriana, holding up one hand to swear it. "Or--seen and witnessed, whatever." And expectantly, she watches, even if he's trying to ignore her now. "If a weyrwoman backing you up can't get you that drink..." "Well, at least you're good for something," says Kasadel, affixing Tiriana with an amused smile as he, finally, turns back about and heads for the edge. It would've worked much better, mind you, if he'd actually just dived straight off at this point, instead of hovering, toes curling over the cliff edge, staring down. "Good for a lot of things," says Tiriana slowly as she watches Kasadel head for the edge. Her expression dubious, she seems to doubt the whole time that he's going to actually do it; she leans forward with him as though that will urge him off. And when he stops, she's ready, too, with another smirk and a quickly attempted shove at his lower back. Kasadel snorts into the open air. "Yeah, right." Even Tiriana's forward leaning doesn't get him off the cliff, but her attemped shove, which connects, unbalances him, and sends him flying? Yes, that'll do it. His yelp echoes for a distance, but, luckily for him, he manages to straighten as he falls, entering the water feet-first rather than belly-first, with a resounding splash. Tiriana just laughs as Kasadel finally goes off, and she's quick to crouch down on the edge herself, leaning over with both hands on the edge to balance herself as she watches for him to come back up. "Good for that!" she shouts back. "S'it cold?" Kasadel's head breaks the surface a few moments later, and despite the length of the fall, he's spluttering, as if he simply didn't have time to remember to shut his mouth. "You /bitch/!" he calls at her, once he's managed to get himself back together enough to form words. "Course it's sharding cold. It's /freezing/." This does nothing, not a thing, to quell Tiriana's laughter. "Told you," she singsongs down at him, triumphant; she leans down to stretch out on the rock, head leaned over the edge as she sprawls on her stomach. "Besides, I was just helping. You weren't ever going to do it on your own! Now you can go tell your girl you did, and just not mention you had to have a weyrwoman help." Kasadel uses his hand to splash at the water - it doesn't reach anywhere near as high as Tiriana, but the implication is clear enough. "I was, too, going to do it! On /my/ terms. I should go back up there and see how you like being pushed off cliffs like that." He treads water; despite the cold, he doesn't seem to be rushing back towards the shoreline. "Your terms." Tiriana scoffs at that, with sneer and all. At the latter remark, though, she shakes her head, and reaches up to push her hair back from her face so she can eye him. "Please. I don't /have/ to be pushed in. I'll dive right in on my own," she assures him. "Unlike /some/ cowards." Kasadel, keeping his shoulders and head above the water with hearty kicks from his feet, extends his arms out, as if to welcome Tiriana. "Prove it!" he calls, watching her with an expression caught between disbelief and subtle amusement. "Come on - dive in. Right now." "Fine!" Tiriana, appparently as easily goaded as Kasadel, yells down one more thing as she gets her feet back under her and stands up. True to her word, there's no hesitation in her stripping down in preparation for the jump, her shoes and clothes piled up alongside his before she makes her way to the edge to look down for a moment. And then, after a couple of steps back to get a good start, she dives right in herself. Amusement colours Kasadel's expression, visible even from the distance of the diving cliff - he beckons Tiriana on with his face. When she actually dives, however, his annoyance at being bested by a girl - and this girl in particular - becomes visible, if only for a brief second, and only while Tiriana is otherwise occupied with the diving and the being under water. Tiriana comes up gasping for air--apparently, however ready you are to dive, not much prepares you for jumping into ice-cold water with little in the way of clothes on. It takes her a minute to get her breath back, but when she does, she grins at Kasadel, raising her brows slightly at him as if to say 'take that.' "Happy now?" Even if her teeth are chattering to do it. By the time Tiriana is up and composed, Kasadel has regained his own composure, and fully manages to grin back at her. "Nicely done," he tells her. "Maybe one day I can be as big a pain-in-the-arse as you are." And, still grinning, he uses his long arms to push some water at her. /He/ seems to have - as much as one can - gotten used to the water. "I wouldn't count on it," Tiriana assures Kasadel at once, dipping her head back in the water to get her tangled hair out of her face at least. The mini-wave pushed at her catches her off-guard and she spits the water back out with a glare. "I've had a lot of practice. But maybe you could at least get to the stage where you can, y'know, jump off on your own. Someday." Kasadel uses a wet arm to push his own hair out of his eyes, though, being shorter, it takes considerably less effort. Still grinning, good humor having one over teenage competitiveness at least for the moment, he tells her, "Ah. Well, I'll just have to see what I can do. Keep working, you know? Strive. Would've jumped on my own, though. You were just too impatient." Tiriana ponders that a moment, bobbing up and down in the water while she thinks. "I could do classes," she says after a moment. "Charge people. Got to be /some/body that would want to learn, and then I'd have more marks." Which is even for her a dreamy sort of that, that inspires a broad smile. Kasadel's latter words, however, bring her back down. "Yeah, right," she dismisses that claim. "If you can't just go and do it, you never will, 'cause you'll just talk yourself into being more scared instead." "Sure you could. Bet plenty of people'd want to take you up on it, with your reputation." Kasadel smirks, but good-naturedly, as he says this, and moreso after he finishes, sinking his hands back down under the water's surface. "Would not. Could go up and do it right now. Bet you anything." "With my reputation," agrees Tiriana, nodding slowly, as though she's really considering this. Maybe she is. Still, at his latter remark she turns toward the shore and starts swimming in quickly, turning back to lift her chin at him. "Yeah, whatever. Prove it," she tells him. "I'll even do it again if you will." Not that she had a problem at the start. Kasadel's head shakes, just slightly, at Tiriana's apparent consideration to the idea, though his expression remains otherwise neutral. As she begins to swim towards the shore, so, too, does he, keeping pace with very little effort. "Fine," he tells her, between strokes. "Don't really care if you do, or not. But I will." The shivering begins in earnest once more as he wades out of the water, the wind nipping at wet skin with a vengeance. Tiriana snorts at that, entirely unconvinced as she makes it to where she can reach bottom, and then out of the water. She's shivering too, goosebumps on her skin as the wind hits them both, and she curses, even as she heads for the stairs. "Whose idea /was/ this again?" "Geila's friend," says Kasadel promptly, rubbing his arms with his hands as he, too, hurries for the stairs. "Just keep thinking of the cute blonde who'll be warming my bed, and know that it's worthwhile," he adds, taking the steps, uneven though they are, two at a time. "Gonna go punch Geila's friend," Tiriana decides, her teeth chattering again as she darts up the steps right on Kasadel's heels; her arms wrap around herself for all the good it does. "And Geila while I'm at it. You can... comfort her or whatever afterward, girls like that." She's so thoughtful. "You," Kas points out, turning his head to give Tiriana an amused - if lopsided, thanks to the chattering teeth - grin, "Didn't /have/ to jump in, too. So it's your own fault: too damned stubborn, you are." He doesn't seem to mind the concept of the goldrider punching the kitchen girl - emotion runs deep in this potential match, absolutely. No hormones involved. At the top of the cliff, he steps close enough to the edge to allow Tiriana to step up behind him, and comes to a halt. "And you did?" retorts Tiriana, her best disdainful look directed at Kasadel's back. "Like you couldn't find some easier girl--it's a Weyr, man." She doesn't stop quite as quickly as he does, skidding right up on him before she can brake. At least there's one good thing to be said for him: he's big enough to hide behind and avoid some of the wind. "Not backing out /again/, are you?" she taunts. Kasadel has a very self-satisfied smile as he answers Tiriana: "Sure, there's plenty of girls. Plenty of /willing/ girls. But I like a challenge. More fun." He takes a few more steps forward as Tiriana comes skidding, looking down at her with amusement. "Way you're going, I'm going to have to start wondering if you're another of those willing girls. Trying to impress /me/. No, not backing out," he adds, as he turns back to the cliff, to focus. Outrage colors Tiriana's expression as she glares up at Kasadel; nothing short of furious over his accusation. "I am /not/," she informs him after a moment, when she's found her voice. "I never back down for anybody. And anyway, I have a weyrmate who's a lot better-looking than you--" she takes a step back to look up him and down with a curl of her lip "--not that /I/ would even be in your league in the first place." Hmph. Which brings mirth, more mirth, to Kasadel's pock-marked face. "I heard you don't even live with your weyrmate; couldn't even get him sent the same place you were. After you were thrown out. But, no, I suppose you're right. I'm way out of your league. It'd be terrible for my reputation to be seen out with you." And with that - and a tongue poked right out of his mouth - he takes a running jump off the edge of the cliff. Hah! Oh, it is a very good thing Kasadel jumps off then, because if he were still in Tiriana's reach when she gets over her initial gaping shock? Well. She grabs for him anyway, too slow, and then takes off after him, leaping off the edge herself for the chase. Kasadel emerges coughing and spluttering, despite his more controlled descent, paddling towards the shore a ways - being drowned by an angry weyrwoman might not be a terribly pleasant way to go. He's beaming, though whether it is for his own successful jump, or satisfaction with his barbs at Tiriana is impossible to know. Tiriana at least has her breath when she bobs back to the surface, immediately looking around for Kasadel. "Bastard! Come back here! Don't you run--swim--whatever--get /back/ here now," she shouts after him, unable to get any sort of coherent command into words. She takes off after him again, though, still playing catch-up as he heads for shore. Right. Definitely not the time for a lazy swim back to shore, no matter how cold. Kasadel's paddle turns into a more vigorous swim, getting him safely to the shore before too much longer. Once there, he does turn back to watch Tiriana, calling at her, "Nice to know you can take it as well as you give it, mm? I'm going inside before I freeze." Anger makes Tiriana not a very controlled swimmer, and it's not hard for Kasadel to pull away from her for all her frantic paddling to reach him. "Bastard," she repeats. And then, a beat later and in a tone just a little bit wheedling--nevermind the cursing at him thirty seconds ago--she asks, "Don't suppose you thought to bring a towel?" "Bitch," he returns, with a light shrug of the (goosebumped and purple) shoulders. "I'm a man - we don't need things like towels. We just take the short-cut through the infirmary and dive into the steam baths before anyone notices we're dripping everywhere." Tiriana snorts, and does not get out of the water and brave the cold air just yet, though she gets in far enough that she can touch bottom easily. "And get your clothes all wet, which defeats the purpose of taking them off," she says. "Unless you want to just run through there naked, and that would finish off the people that's already in the infirmary." Beat. "/My/ weyr comes with its own bath," the girl boasts quickly. "I was going to collect my clothes later," shrugs Kasadel, striking a pose, though it's pretty clear he hadn't thought quite this far in any of his plans. "Might impress the cute little healer, though. She might feel sorry for me, and offer blankets, and body heat." Right. "Does it? Bully for you. Is it closer? That'd make things easier." "Uh-huh, sure," Tiriana brushes off that in favor of narrowing her eyes and looking at the two bowl walls. "Probably," she decides of her weyr's location, glancing from it to the infirmary's doorway and back. "I'm sure it is. Makes things a lot easier for /me/, at any rate." Gloat. Despite the best efforts of his hands, rubbing at cold, wet skin, Kasadel visibly shakes with the cold. "Well, if you're going to be that inhospitable to a man still new to this weyr, you'd better run off there, and leave me to my public streak through the infirmary. Before we both freeze. I'd suggest body heat, but... I don't think we have enough between us, really." Tiriana rolls her eyes. "Well, should have thought of that before," she tells him, shaking her head and pushing her soaked hair back again. The last suggestion has her actually shuddering, on top of all the shivering that's setting back in. "Ugh. That would mean actually, like... touching /you. Ew." She's quite eloquent when needs be. And eyeing the opposite end of the bowl again, where her weyr is. Not very close at all, whatever she might say to impress him. Kasadel, more amused than offended, merely smirks at Tiriana. "Have it your way," he tells her. "I'm going in. Before I freeze. Need my nuts for later. I'd say it was nice to meet you, but..." He trails off, then shrugs. "Happy nudey-run." "Yeah, good luck with that," agrees Tiriana, nose wrinkling up. "After all this shrinkage..." She trails off, but does muster up a smirk for him all the same as she finally hauls herself back out of the water. "See you around." "I'll be fine," Kasadel tells her, with the confidence of youth, sweeping a sort of hurried bow in her direction, despite the smirk, before he turns to jog off towards the infirmary, still shivering. Brr. |
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