Logs:Klah, the Ultimate Watchrider Tool
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| RL Date: 13 October, 2015 |
| Who: Dee, Parli, Swaronth, Taeliyth |
| Involves: Fort Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Flint's Parli is shadowed by Dee during her shift playing watchrider. |
| Where: Starstones, Fort Weyr |
| When: Day 27, Month 13, Turn 38 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: N'rov/Mentions, X'vin/Mentions |
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>---< Starstones, Fort Weyr(#779RJs$) >--------------------------------------< The Star Stones are located on a kind of stone platform on the rim of the Bowl, with the time-honoured Finger Rock, Star Stone, and Eye Rock in their respective places. It's also a perfect vantage point to observe the goings on far below. A watchdragon is generally posted here in addition to a few other choice locations along the rim of the Weyr. It's a little later in the afternoon and Parli is precisely where she's been told to be - at the Star Stones. Swaronth is pacing back and forth, head held high and his expression indescribably more grim than it usually is - it's just something about the set of his jaw, the hue of his eyes and the way his eyeridges sit, really. His rider is leaned up against something or another, thoroughly bundled up to the point where the only visible things are her eyes. A large mug of still-steaming klah is in her mittened hands and she is, currently, pondering the puzzle of how to get it in her mouth without moving the scarf. For now, the scarf is winning. Another mug of klah is nestled in a nook nearby to keep it safe from wind and free of debris, along with a pair of pastries wrapped in cloth. Taeliyth is timely in her arrival, the tiny (for a) wheaten gold landing neatly on the Star Stones. Her greeting to Swaronth comes in the form of the sound of crunching leaves and branches as a soft tread brings the wood with her arrival. Dee is quick to dismount and make her way over to the brownrider, to salute as she arrives. "Rider Parli," is the accompanying greeting, polite but with a friendly smile. Oh. Right. Salutes. Parli shifts her mug to one hand and returns the salute with one of her own; it's crisp, at least. Efficient. Then it's back to contemplating the mug after she has both hands on it. "Dee, right? Right. So. Um." She lifts her chin indicating the bowl of the Weyr - which she's facing, for now, while Swaronth turns his attention to the world outside. The weyrling gold's mind will meet with wood and whiskey; a solid presence, not unlike a mental wall. Audibly, he grunts and cuts a sidelong look her way. "Normally, we'd be out at some Hold or something, but X'vin said we're not supposed to do that any more or whatever." Her shrug is lopsided, matching the implied pull of her mouth. Thanks, scarf. "Sooo. We're doing this. That's your klah there. You'll need it. This is the most boring thing ever." "For a couple more months, ma'am," Dee adds as she dips her head to acknowledge the name. Her eyes go to the klah before she moves to take it up, "Thank you." She glances to her dragon, settling on the edge of the ledge and letting her head dip down eyes whirling swiftly with her keen interest in the on-goings. "Boring for us, maybe." A questioning look casts briefly toward Swaronth. "How do you get through it, ma'am?" "Parli. Just... just Parli. Seriously." Parli huffs out a long-suffering sigh that turns into a plume of condensation past the scarf. "He's just Swaronth - no matter what he says otherwise. Don't mind him. He takes this stuff so seriously." She finally gives in and tugs the scarf down, just enough to let her take a sip of the klah. The question is met with a bit of side-eyeing. "Through what? Watch duty? Or, like- weyrlinghood? Because it's all kind of the same, I guess. Just hurry up and wait for things to happen." Sigh. "I mean, he made me do things," Faranth forbid, "but, like, the rest of it really was just... waiting. And that's why Faranth created klah, or whatever." The brownrider's request gets an incline of the weyrling's helmeted head, conceding. "Does he find the duty engaging or just-- boring too?" It's not just Dee who'd like to know but Taeliyth, reaching to echo the inquiry directly. "I'd meant watch duty. Seems like different people have different tactics to stay awake, or not freeze to death," that last has a wry edge to it. "What kinds of things did he make you do?" Dee can't help but ask with brows furrowed in the beginnings of concern and an odd sort of curiosity. At least she doesn't start talking about klah bark and trees and other farmcrafterly nonsense to dissuade the idea that Faranth made this blessed beverage. "He needs things to keep him busy," Parli replies with another shrug and sigh. "This keeps him busy. He's kind of weird like that, I guess. I don't know." Another swig of klah is paired with a grimace. "This is worse than the stuff they served in Telgar," is mostly muttered. Louder, for the sake of conversation, she says, "Klah. Lots of klah. Like. The good strong stuff. And, like. The Candidate shuffle, or whatever you want to call it." She demonstrates by listlessly shifting her feet from side to side. Taeliyth's inquiry is met with, well, more of the same. Raw masculinity. Strength. He grunts again and, though he doesn't look at her, his attention turns toward her. « This is much better than trying to talk to Holders, » is his stance on the situation. "Ugh. Don't ask," Parli says with a wrinkling of her nose. "Oil him. Feed him. Make straps for him. Work. It's so gross. Worse when we had to help the Weyrlingmaster, because it wasn't just him." And, yes, that is a flickering flare of pride from the brown. Go figure. "But, mostly, he made me learn how to work with wood and leather and whatever. Because he can't. He made the mistake of being born a dragon." A laugh is muffled quickly at the demonstration of the hungry. "Maybe they need better klah at Telgar because it's so cold there. Colder than here, isn't it?" Dee seems unsure. For all that they've had their wings and betweening down now for some time, it sounds like Dee hasn't been making much of the privilege. She takes a tentative sip, but then a bigger one when it doesn't burn her lips. « Do you try to talk to Holders? » Taeliyth can't resist asking him with a tease to her tone. "Work," Dee takes in with a slow nod, the concern clearing from her face. Instead she schools her expression to something vaguely sympathetic. "And without him you wouldn't? Work, that is." There's something thoughtful to the way she asks, "What kinds of things with wood and leather?" "I guess? I mean," Parli purses her lips, the rest of her features screwing up a little with it. "To be fair, I had to dose mine with whiskey all the time. It made the klah drinkable. And, hey, it helped me to stop caring that my face was numb. Thanks, alcohol." A longer pull of her klah follows; it does not appear to have been doctored with booze. This time. « Me? Talk to Holders? » Swaronth doesn't laugh, but there is a puff of sawdust in his mind. Amused. « No. That's why I have her. » At least he's honest? That's something. "Ugh. No. Never. I managed to get through candidacy without doing a chore. And then he happened. So. I paid for it. Otherwise, I don't know. I guess I'd just... do whatever. Or something." She waggles one hand in a vaguely jazz-hands-y motion. "Anyway. I make stuff. Trunks and good straps and... just. I don't know. Stuff. He's full of ideas. I made some shelves a few turns back." A beat. "They're still in one piece." Side-eye. "What did you do before her?" The first has Dee's lips pressing together, a small smile there. "It's a good tactic against the cold, so long as one toes the line, I imagine. Too much probably doesn't make for a good watcher." Her smile tugs a litlte broader. « Does she do it well? » Taeliyth inquires with innocent interest. Innocent. Dee doesn't comment on the very descriptive 'whatever or something', but just nods slowly. "Have much experience shaping wood into serviceable planks that could be made into say, a wall?" This isn't an innocent question. It can't be. "I was a farmcraft apprentice down in Southern Weyr." "Well, he doesn't drink, sooo..." Parli will just leave that there, though. « She protects me from the stupid, » is the sum of Swaronth's probably-not-helpful assessment. He grunts and moves a little further away, squinting - or doing the draconic equivalent thereof - in the distance. « There. Do you see that? » "Uh." Parli slides a slow look askance to Dee again, though she takes a solid swig of her rapidly cooling klah before answering. "Sure. I mean. How tall of a wall are you talking about? How long? Or wide, I guess." Pragmatic, that. As for the apprenticeship, there's just a nod - acknowledging, but it's clearly not as much of interest as this hot wall talk is probably going to be. Dee blinks rapidly and looks down at her mug, lips pressed together again. « That's good of her, » Taeliyth's tone is touched with a tart sarcasm before her attention shifts to seek whatever he's seen. « Can you be more specific? » is requested of the direction with still a touch of sass, but now also sweetness. "I'm putting together plans to put up wooden walling in my weyr so as it feels a bit more like that I'm used to back at Southern, with the bungalows and all, but since we really have no idea what we're doing," she and someone or someones else, "we don't have plans for how big or anything." Swaronth doesn't look away from whatever he's looking at, but there's still that unmistakable sense of him staring at Taeliyth. That stare transmutes into a squint - but then it passes and he allows a new thought to slip free. « Here. » The image that's sent to her is crystal clear, startlingly so perhaps. Unnecessary details are then stripped away in layers, leaving only the visible shifting of something in the snow in the distance. An animal of some sort, probably. Hard to tell. "Uh huh." Parli turns her mug around in both hands, but her attention remains mostly on Dee. "Right. Well. Why not have someone just build you a bungalow somewhere instead of using the weyr." It's not quite a question. One eyebrow creeps up. "Unless you really just want to keep everyone out. I can totally understand that." Taeliyth tosses her head to regard Swaronth sidelong before looking back, her mind tracing along the image to seek out direction, to find the source of it with her own eyes. It's cleverly done, following those clues. "A lot of reasons. I don't have land to build a bungalow on, I don't have marks for that kind of project, so it's what I-- and my friend-- and our friends, I guess--" each edit to Dee's list makes her brows furrow just a touch more, "what we can do with our own hands and the supplies we can gather for free. Maybe you could come take a look sometime. Maybe give me some lessons about shaping the boards and joining them. I can ask at Southern, but that means going to Southern and I'm not sure it will ever not feel like 'an affair' to visit anywhere ever again." The movement ceases after a time. Yet, Swaronth remains keen on that spot for the time being, his focus intense. He remains utterly still and patient, as if he were actually stalking whatever it is, rather than watching from afar. Parli's raised eyebrow creeps a little higher as Dee continues speaking. "Right. Well. Good luck with that, I guess." She takes a swig of her klah, grimaces all over again, and steps aside to dump the remaining contents of her mug out over the edge. Where it lands, she clearly doesn't care. "You're going to have to go all kinds of places, so you should probably get over that right now," says she of that last bit, though her tone remains bland. "Holds. Halls. Other Weyrs. Oh no." Jazz hands again, listless and with both hands this time, even if one still has a mug in it. "I mean, you probably won't have to do as much of it as those of us in boring ol' regular wings, but you'll have to make your peace with it." Shrug. "Anyway. If you want our help, sure. We'll do that. Just, like... I don't know, talk to X'vin or whatever to get our duties switched." There's a little more blinking from Dee, probably about the time that the jazz hands make their reappearance. "Yeah," is empty agreement, "okay," as if it were really all just that easy. Taeliyth's attention lingers on Swaronth's but for less time than the brown, shifting away to her own observations. "I'll ask him about it. I don't mind doing the labor or it taking time-- actually, I'd prefer it," doing the labor and it taking time, "but I'm just not entirely sure where to start. I keep meaning to talk to the woodcrafters but... there never seems to be enough time." She shrugs, lifting her klah to her lips again. "Ugh." Parli squints into her mug, then looks askance at Swaronth before her attention, finally, settles on Dee again. "Right. So. Yeah. It'll be hard work, but whatever. If you're willing to do most of it, sure. But, you have to make sure the wood is good wood and then it has to be shaped and sealed and blah, blah, blah." That's all for the brown that's finally, finally turning his attention away from whatever was out there. « Next time. » "So. I guess, that should be your first project. Get the wood and, uh. I guess we'll just go from there." She looks in her mug again, as if it might have miraculously refilled itself. It has not. "I need to get more of this. So. Um. Just... stay here and we'll be back." Eventually. Hopefully. « Uh huh, » Taeliyth just might not be listening anymore. She's found interesting things to occupy her attention down in the bowl below. Dee gives a slight nod to the matter of the wood and a bigger one for the klah. She looks to Taeliyth before moving over toward the gold to tuck herself against the dragon's side, one of Taeliyth's delicate wings unfurling enough to create some measure of protection from the chill and wind at this altitude. |
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