Logs:Limitations
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| RL Date: 29 May, 2015 |
| Who: Hattie, E'dre |
| Involves: Fort Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: A deal and a lot of hypocrisy. |
| Where: Kitchen, Fort Weyr |
| When: Day 8, Month 12, Turn 37 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: N'muir/Mentions, Ebeny/Mentions, Elayne/Mentions, Eden/Mentions, Eryn/Mentions |
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| It's not uncommon knowledge that the Weyrwoman is hardly the first to race to seek out or collect breakfast of a morning, most of her hours spent in the council room becoming vaguely human over hidework and tea before attempting contact with caverns staff, yet this morning she's claimed a corner of the kitchen as her own and sits at a table, heels propped on the edge of her seat and skirts flowing over her knees to cover her feet, while she sedately makes her way through mint tea and a pastry. The kitchen staff have long accepted her presence there now and in turns gone by, and so she's left to her own devices to calmly and distantly observe the goings-on around her. E'dre heads into the kitchens looking like he has yet to sleep and it is possible that he still hasn't from the day before. He begs a fresh cup of klah from one of the staff and agrees to the breakfast shoved upon him in turn. He'd scoot out and back to the bustle of the day, but is pushed towards the table instead. "Eat here. Take a breath. I'm sure everything's fine for you to be here for a small amount of time," the woman informs the brownrider with a gentle pat on the man's back. E'dre only then notices Hattie and heads to join her. "I'll eat and go," he mutters to her as he slides into a chair, "Hopefully this is all they make me eat. I'm not much in the mood for food these days." He holds the mug up to his lips to gulp at the scalding liquid. Hattie eyes both the mug and the breakfast foisted upon the Weyrsecond, and she too casually remarks, "All they make you eat," over the rim of her own mug. "I'm not above ensuring that you're eating, and we both know you'll like my manner less." She sets the mug down and pulls another segment away from the pastry on the small plate sat to her right. "Try not to injure yourself in the process. No-one's going to gain anything from you being lightheaded and with burnt tongue, least of all you." Hypocrite that she is, her 'enjoyment' of breakfast doesn't appear to move beyond the mechanical. E'dre's made no moves to touch the food in front of him, though he has continued to sip at the klah as he stares at the tabletop. "Hm? Oh, yeah, right. I'll eat," he tells her vaguely, glancing at the porridge and then up at Hattie. "I've been behaving," he continues, then looks to her own pastry. "Are you heeding your own advice? Doesn't seem like you've touched your own food." He slumps back in the chair and stifles a yawn behind his mug. "It's been a rough go of it lately. And there'll be more eggs on the sands.. hopefully.. and more candidates underfoot." He doesn't seem pleased by that later part. "More people to organize." "Hey, I'm doing as I'm told," Hattie lowly protests, making a defensive gesture that ends up being little more than waving that fragment of pastry at E'dre to prove its existence, until she shoves it in her mouth just to prove her point. She's more mannered about the actual eating, then pulls another piece of pastry free as thought just to spite him or set an example. "If Ebeny isn't ready by the time the eggs hatch, her assistants will do what she can't," she states. "Including keeping an eye on any surplus Candidates. If all she can do is give orders from behind a desk, then fine. We'll manage." She shrugs. "If any of the Candidates step out line in your hearing, send them to me. We all know I'm here to snarl at people." "You really will have to ask her assistants how she is doing," E'dre's tone is somewhat sharp as he stabs his spoon at the porridge. "I only have an opportunity to gauge her when I'm home. Ben has the tendency to want to do well so she will take on too much too soon." Stab! Stab! He drops his spoon and drags a hand across his face with an aggravated sigh. "Not that any of us can do much about it." He reaches for his klah to finish. He settles his exhausted gaze on Hattie. "If you aren't careful in telling me to watch the candidates, I will have them doing every menial task I can find. They always annoy me." He pauses. "How are you? And N'muir?" He goes back to stabbing his food. Hattie observes E'dre in silence, no particular judgement readable in her expression, and rather than supply an immediate response, she tries another bite of pastry and then pushes to her feet to seemingly abandon him without any explanation. It's a half-minute or so before she returns, with two pastries glazed with a mix of jam and sweetener, one of which she plants next to him. Then she's off again, and this time she returns with a jug of klah, which she uses to refill his mug before she returns it from whence it came. Finally, she settles back in her seat and lifts her mug to cradle with both hands. "I know she's not meant to be left on her own, but there are more people who could watch her." His enquiry, she takes longer to address, study of the remnants of her tea made. "...I'll do you a deal," she says quietly. "I'll keep the Candidates off your back and keep an eye and ear out for your weyrmate, and you look out for mine." E'dre leans back in his chair and straightens up as Hattie moves around him. He blinks at the pastry and the refilled klah before turning his smile towards the Weyrwoman. "Thank you," he offers, reaching for a pastry to nibble at before he goes for the klah. "I always look after N'muir. Though..," he pauses, taking a speculative sip of klah. "He and I haven't been on the best terms since the whole issue with Nala. And other things," he hastens to add with a shrug. "But, I'll watch him." He can't help the strain in his voice as he plucks at a bit of pastry. "All I can do is watch them. It's not like we're able to stop the things that happen from happening to them. When I think about Ben and that landslide," he worries further at the pastry and takes the bits he's flaked off to his mouth with a sigh. "Anyway, Hattie. I'll do my best. And I'll report what I find on either of them to you, if it'd help your own stress." She tries out a smile instead of any verbal answer to his thanks, her expression a little softer than it might usually be. "...I know," Hattie murmurs. "But... please. I don't expect any reporting. I just... I know there are things that he tries to hide, and worries he tries to make sure I don't see." She swallows hard. "And I'm one of them," she confesses even more softly. "So, of course he won't let on to me." She tips her mug to drain some of the last of her tea, though she gives the mug an unnatural amount of her attention. "...I know it's not... ethical, but... I could find one reason or another to keep Ebeny from that sort of thing, at least over the next turn or so," she offers. "He hides it, or tries to, from all of us," E'dre notes wryly, having polished off at least half of the pastry before finally setting it down and pushing the plate away from himself. "It's not as easy to hide with the wing and after drills though. I will keep an eye on him." E'dre shakes his head at her offer. "It'd ruin us if she ever found out that I asked you to put limitations on her. She already feels like her position is precarious and that she may not do the best job all the time. If we did that, no. It's part of life. I hate her taking risks with our daughters still so young. I don't take them as much," he shrugs, looking at his hand on the table. "I think maybe my one near death experience shook me from trying to repeat them. The landslide was an accident. Still...," he trails off and sighs, "She isn't her usual self and it's hard." Hattie accepts that without providing any argument, her acknowledgement of his line of thought nothing more than a nod. "I'll make sure that Elaruth listens out for Laurienth, in any case. She'll probably be the first to know if anything is wrong, after all." She empties her mug with a final mouthful and sets it down on the table, then tears off a piece of the highly-sweetened pastry to chew on, even if it looks like an effort. "...I don't think I was myself for a long while after I hit my head. It'll fade, in time... with any luck." Whether or not she's any reassurance at all, she's plainly trying. "Just... give yourself a break." Says the woman who won't, and the woman who swipes up the rest of that pastry and waves it in a brief farewell. "Remember: if I don't hear you were at lunch and dinner, I'm not against turning up at your weyr." And off she goes, headed for the stores. |
Comments
Kaleidoscope (12:26, 1 June 2015 (EDT)) said...
Poor E'dre and Hattie (and Ebeny and N'muir)! I could feel so much tension here and loved the glimpses into all the things I imagine they're holding inside. I appreciate how much their concerns overlap and that they look to lean on one another to feel a little less helpless/to get a little more information about the people they love. <3
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