Logs:Independence
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| RL Date: 29 October, 2015 |
| Who: Tabitha, Gethin |
| Involves: Fort Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Tabitha discovers that Gethin has returned to Fort. |
| Where: Solarium, Fort Weyr |
| When: Day 19, Month 2, Turn 39 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Hattie/Mentions, N'muir/Mentions, Harriet/Mentions |
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| Usually, Tabitha opts take her lunch break later than those she works with, if only to have some quiet time and try to sneak a look at anything new that she hasn't yet had a chance to read over. Today is no different, and it's mid-afternoon by the time she's left the records and moved over to the solarium, to settle down with a large mug of tea and a sandwich from the sanctuary, a book she's smuggled out for her free hour or so open in her lap. She's sat on one of the larger couches, plate balanced on an armrest, mug kept at an awkward angle from the book, to hopefully minimise the chance of spilling anything on it. Gethin had arrived early in the morning for his posting and immediately met with his new mentor. The hours trickled by and lunch most likely was forgotten about amongst the business of getting acquainted and plotting out the tasks set ahead for the foreseeable future. He's been released to wander the Weyr and reacquaint himself for the next couple of hours and Gethin seems intent on doing just that. His trek into the solarium is one of ambling silence as he takes in all the changes from his childhood home. He pauses upon entering, the smile that spreads across his face a slow and content movement as he spies his sister. "Is it a good read?" he asks. Tabitha is so engrossed in her drink-balancing and book-protecting that footsteps don't encroach upon whatever world she's been spirited away to this time, and it's not until words that aren't written on the page are spoken that she looks up, eyes wide and staring. She remains frozen that way for a moment or two, unsure of the quickest route to her feet that doesn't involve spilling anything in her haste, but she soon figures out to set the drink down on the floor and let the book flip itself shut as she twists and stands to quite literally throw herself at Gethin, arms reaching. "You're here!" Then: "How are you here? Why are you here?" Gethin's laughter serves as his response as he catches Tabitha and hugs her close. His arms are strong and sure, his body clearly finishing the path out of awkward teenage turns towards the physique of a man. He sets her back and takes a moment to look at her, his smile a white flash against his dark skin. "I am here. I haven't found mother yet, don't let her know I found you first! The Hall posted me here to work underneath Journeyman Hal. Have you ever met him? He's quite brilliant and has a whole hypothesis that in 10 turns another comet will pass," he pauses to take a breath and cuts himself off. "You don't seem to have changed at all. How've you been?" "You know her. She won't chase after you even if she wants to." Tabitha angles a glance towards the ceiling in the wake of that dry remark, not entirely disparaging, but not exactly understanding either. "So... you're here for good? I mean... a long time? Not just a month or anything like that?" She just about manages to stop any other questions spilling out, turning her attention to her appearance as he looks her over. Absently, she smoothes at her skirt and offers a wry smile when she looks back up again. "We can't all go off and have adventures," she says a little more quietly. "I like my work. It's... well, it just is." "She likes us to be independent," Gethin replies in a soothing tone, "and that drives a lot of her motivations I think." Says the son who rarely tries to understand his mother. "I don't know how long I'll be here," he tells her with a twitch of a shrug. "It depends how long I'm useful. But without any issues and if Journeyman Hal," he can't seem able to drop the older man's full title, "remains happy with my work I may be able to stay up to a turn or so, I think." He frowns at her mention of adventures, "Tabs," he chides gently, "you could easily go and do anything you want to do. You don't have to stay here." He moves away from her then to go and settle on the couch she had abandoned. "You're smart," Tabitha declares without a trace of doubt. "You'll be useful, I'm sure of it." Bit by bit, she follows back to the couch, though she doesn't immediately sit down. "I know I could," she sounds far less sure about. "But it's... nice. The records are nice, and--" she reaches to collect up the book she's left there on the couch and hugs it to her chest, "--it's near enough to Harper and Ruatha River, and sometimes Mam wants help with Harriet, though she doesn't ask, and..." She smiles the tiniest bit. "Someone has to be here to hug you whenever you show up." Now she turns to sit beside her brother on the couch. "What's it been like out there, anyway?" Gethin's frown descends at Tabitha when she describes reasons to remain at the Weyr. "You are a great help to her, I'm sure. But," he shakes his head and sighs, giving her a thoughtful look to decide whether or not he should fall into an argument they may have had more than once. "I wish you would just try to see if something else suits." He leans back against the couch cushions, tossing one arm up and over the nearest one as he glances towards the door. "It's busy out there. People who aren't weyrbred can have some peculiar ideas. There's this one girl at the Hall who is convinced that dragonriders still steal away girls to bring them here to be candidates for golds. The outdated thinking is rather daunting to navigate. But most people are nice. And some people are so smart," he continues, his enthusiasm leaking into his tone as he returns a smile to his sister. "It's fun to learn." "Like what?" isn't so challenging, and nor is it really a question, not with the way that Tabitha grips that book to her all too protectively. Mindful of where she's put her tea, she turns and tucks herself into one corner of the couch, retrieving the sandwich as she goes, half of which she offers to Gethin with a wordless nudge of the plate towards him. "Seems to me that it's girls stealing dragonriders away, more often," she remarks. "You should hear how some of the girls in the dorms go on about this bronzerider and that bluerider. I wonder if they'd even look twice at some of them without their dragons." She takes the other half of the sandwich for herself, then sets the plate down on the floor beside her mug. "I'm glad you're happy," she tells him, with a genuine warmth that lights her face. "See, you were meant for it." Gethin does not need much encouragement to descend on that sandwich. He eats it with a tilted head as he listens to Tabitha. He waits until he's polished off more than a few bites to reply. "Some girls come here to have that freedom though, Tabs. To y'know," he waves his hand as a descriptor rather than detail out his thought, "be with men." He finishes off the rest of the sandwich and eyes the remaining half in her hands. "I forgot to eat," he admits with a boyish grin, "thank you for sharing with me." He dismisses her 'meant for it' with another wave of his hand and a snort. "I just pursued something and applied myself. It isn't hard." Tabitha wrinkles her nose at the very idea of being with anyone, then starts in on the sandwich rather than voice any of what she feels about all of that, though her colour has deepened a little. "I guess," she concludes between bites, giving an awkward shrug. "It's not like the people in holds don't get up to anything. They're just... more offended when you find out." There's an awful lot of certainty there. She smirks. "Maybe you'll be a Master in the next decade. Then you'll be the one girls are throwing themselves at. Or boys." It's Gethin's turn to color at the turn in conversation. He gives her a sideways look and a quick shake of his head. "I'm not- and boys-," he can't quite frame the sentence around that. He looks uncomfortably upwards, focusing on the ceiling. "Some of the girls already- y'know. A Hall isn't as strict as a Hold and some of the girls when they apprentice," he pauses, blinks a few times in quick succession, and swings his gaze back towards her. "I'll be a Master and that'll be my focus. I don't want to have the responsibility of a family." He takes a breath and tries to steer the conversation elsewhere, "How is the baby doing? How is mom?" "Not boys," Tabitha interprets a little too hastily. "Got it." More sandwich disappears. "Maybe they're just clever," she supposes. "I guess your mentors can't want anyone going and getting into that kind of trouble. Out of sight, out of mind?" With her lunch finished, she leans down and collects her tea back up, though she sets the book down well away from it. His words about family are accepted for what they are and without argument, perhaps even a little too easily. "Harriet's... growing. She might always be dainty, people keep saying. Not sure how Mam feels about it. She's just..." she looks down into her mug, "...I don't know. I don't think she's happy. Maybe you being back will help." "Maybe," Gethin replies cautiously, "but I think her unhappiness may be larger than missing a son." He shifts uncomfortably on the couch, lowering his hands into his lap to clasp. "It can't be easy for her with N'muir and all that's happened here of late." He puffs out a sigh and shakes his head, turning a look to Tabitha that is too old for his turns. "We can do our best to help her though, right Tabs? That's all we can do. Our best." He seems to want to reiterate this by shifting a hand to rest briefly on her thigh. "I'll make sure to visit with the younger ones and mother tonight," he assures her, "and I'll see how much free time I can wrangle. But it may not be a lot. I don't want reports of my slacking or lack of focus to get back to the Hall." "...She won't tell me. She probably won't tell any of us." Tabitha takes a long drink from her tea, then lowers it and gives a single, affirmative nod. "Don't risk your apprenticeship. I think she'd hate that more than anything. She won't even let me look after Harriet half the times I ask, and I know she doesn't want her to be in the nursery as often as she is." Any guilt she feels is well suppressed when she tells him, "Us all being unhappy or in trouble won't help anything. Like you said: she wants us to be independent." She reaches for his hand to clasp for a moment. "So, that's what we have to be." Gethin pats Tabitha's hand with his other one. "Now that I'm here, hopefully some of the burden will be lifted from you all the same. You worry too much, I think, than you should." He glances towards the door and then gives her a crooked smile. "I really should go and get some more to eat and return to work. Will you have dinner with us tonight? I'll make sure to send mother a note, before I forget, that I'm here so she can organize something." He slaps his hands on his thighs and then shifts forward to stand. "I'll be around though, Tabs. You can always come and find me, y'know? I can make time for my favorite sister," is added with a wink and a wider smile. He shoves his hands in his pockets before he treks back down to the living caverns. |
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