Logs:Mave-star
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| RL Date: 19 April, 2013 |
| Who: Mave, N'ky |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Mave and N'ky finally find the time to do something they were meant to do ages ago. |
| Where: Diving Cliff |
| When: Day 19, Month 7, Turn 31 (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: Telavi/Mentions, Sabella/Mentions |
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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 warm evening, with Rukbat just starting to set over the rim of the bowl, bringing the long summer day to a late end. After having bumped into Mave at dinner, N'ky has tossed out his plans of spending the evening studying in favour of meeting up with her - of finally showing her the marks he carved so long ago. Cailluneth is, for once, not to be seen, as the weyrling teen stands on his own at the far end of the diving cliff, leaning back against the boulders with his hands tucked into the pockets of his comfortable linen trousers, not the riding leathers he was wearing earlier. One stray curl, having grown back to a decent length in the past near-four months, hangs down over his forehead, at that impossible stage where it's too short to tuck away, and too long not to be an annoyance. Needing to first dismiss a couple of lower caverns kids who had rehearsal questions, Mave appears after a small lag, her hands smacking contentedly against her thighs as she struts up the carved stairs to the ledge. Spotting N'ky, she smiles, taking her time strolling along, glancing over into the whispering waters. The evening's of a pleasant flavor, and her mood the same. A usual shirt, trousers, and sandal combination: she's been working today, and it shows, but not so much to her detriment. Breezes cool off signs of effort, and dinner's settled the rest of the score. She's still grinning when she rounds up in front of N'ky, coming to a slow stop with her lower lip out and a finger drawing a fake curl in front of her forehead to mirror his pointedly. N'ky wrinkles his nose as he blows upward to try and shift the curl; when it bobs right back, he gives in with a shrug and a sheepish smile. "Hi." Spoken with soft warmth, as he holds out his hand for her to take, if she will. He cants his head towards the boulders blocking the entrance to the once-weyr, then looks up to the higher-most ones. "I'll give you a hand up, i-if you need it? It's, um, up there. Way up there." Fingers trek towards his only to be diverted at the direction towards climbing; Mave's preference instantly apparent when she scrambles forward, digging a grip onto the first of the boulders. "Way up there!" She repeats, approvingly. With a writhe of her ankle, she wiggles out of one sandal, drives the foot up onto the rock, then frees the other and mirrors. Barefooted and short-shorn nails scratching, eagerly she pulls herself up through handholds worn in by other Weyr 'explorers' before her. Or her on an earlier day. Mid-climb, she pauses, glancing around the graffiti'd rock left and right to ask, "What am I looking for?" Lest she forget entirely her purpose and climb into Rukbat itself. A hand frees, weight braced, to try and grab and tuck a few brambles aside as they try to prod her in the shoulder. One loosens, jumping back to bite her. "Um, m-maybe let me... um, show you?" Climbing is far easier for N'ky who has the advantage of his height, making even the bigger boulders a relatively easy job for him. He's soon enough caught up to Mave, though he's very wary of the bramble that catches her. Pausing in the climb to ask "Are you ok?", he then digs into the bag that's looped over one shoulder, pulling out a knife. It's small but sharp, and he cuts back the offending branch quick enough - stealing what few berries are on it before tossing it down to the ground. "It's a little higher." One berry is offered to Mave, while he pops the other into his own mouth. "I'll tell you when to stop, um, i-if you don't see it first, that is." Cheater, cheater! Not that Mave's to be deterred; so he has height, but she's a scrapper. Snatching the berry to stick into her cheek with her thumb, she yanks herself higher, determinedly keeping an eye out. Coincidence, surely, when she, on pulling herself up to the next boulder, veers over N'ky's path, blocking him with half her body's lean and a bare, smelly foot. "So, how has-- what did you say were you doing? Studying? Studying been." Talk's casual, all competition aside. A soft tug of her mouth denotes her general feel when it comes to such things-- she's not crazy about the idea, without fully dismissing the importance. N'ky waits patiently until Mave's out of his way... though he does give her a little boost to help speed that up. Smelly feet are gross and must be pushed away quickly! Then he clambers up beside her, and they're faced with one large boulder that's taller than he is, and as easy a climb as the ones before. "I've given up on it," he says, breath quickened slightly by the climb so far. "Um, when Tela and I climbed up here, I w-went up first, then reached down to help her... want me to do that for you?" His brown eyes flicker over the large boulder, as if to say 'it's high and you're small'... only he knows Mave far too well to actually voice such things. Being boosted surprises her, heel scrapping on its purchase, but Mave recovers splendidly so as to afford him the loud scoff he's earned for asking. Finding an indent takes her attention, then she weasels her small hand into a less-than-safe crevice, depending on it as she hauls her body weight up, ramming her foot into the next. Up she goes, no better -- or better looking -- than a crab on the beach, with just as awkward, gangly limbs; though, strong, and she's been showing more muscle in her upper arms than before, thickening her out. "Given up?" She asks, a few beats late from concentrating on the climb. Her foot slips on the smooth boulder-front, the next foothold too high for her and the rock-face unforgiving. She latches onto a bramble above, firmer despite its prickliness, slipping down with a stretch of her arm, to brusquely jam her foot into a lower place. The climb up for N'ky is much smoother, and much quicker; he finds a foothold high enough to boost himself up to grab the top, then hauls himself up - Mave's not the only one who's been bulking out in that department! Though, truth be told, it hardly shows on the lanky teen, no more than it ever did with his earlier profession. When Mave slips and grabs for the bramble, he's quick to curl fingers tightly around her wrist, peering over the edge to wait for permission to help her. "Given up," he repeats with a nod of his head, that leaves that one foremost curl bouncing. "Yeah, but, like-- forever? Right this second?" Echoing is all well and good, but Mave squints, unable to connect the dots on her lonesome. Inhaling, she bunches all of her muscles-- only to freeze when she feels N'ky's grip, sees that he's wrapped her wrist with his fingers. A pause as she waits, demonstrating with firmly planted hand and footholds that she's steady, before she glances up at him with jumping eyebrows, "Umm. Let go?" Her chin jerks up, "I need room to haul my ass up." Although he seems disappointed to have to do so, N'ky does as he's bid, letting go and moving off along the narrow ledge between boulders, already picking out his handholds for the next one they've got to climb. He doesn't wait for Mave, hauling himself up easily to perch on the edge, his booted feet swinging over. Given that he's sitting, that's probably as high as they're going to go... plus there's the fact that it's pretty much as high as they can go. He doesn't look down to watch her come up, choosing instead to lean back against a smooth boulder. Her question about studying remains unanswered. Hauling amounts to basically throwing-- a bid that she can grab onto the next purchase that's above her head before she can lose all her momentum and tumble like a broken toy back down. With a bump and scrape, Mave reaches her target, and the next height that gets her coming up even with N'ky, hair plastered to her forehead but grin as markedly stuck to her lips. Just a little perturbed twitch before she silences herself, squirming with a last effort of biceps to find a place to rest her bum. "Wooo eee!" She announces, for the view. It's only, many seconds later, that she realizes she should be looking around. "It's a p-pretty good view, right?" Especially now, with sunset's colours painting everything golden-red. N'ky knots his fingers together in his lap, then unknots them, rubs his palms against his thighs, slaps them on his knees to knock off whatever dust might be there, then links his fingers back together in position one once more. "Cailluneth's down there." He points to the edge of the lake, where the pale-hide green is just visible, play-fighting with a much larger dragon in the shallows of the water. As for the mark she's looking for? She won't find it - though she will find a crudely-carved 'T'. "It's lovely!" Rukbat's dying rays striking hard contrast onto their perch; Mave breathes it all in deeply before she leans forward, pushing up on fists next to her legs to look for the faint glimmer of green dragon. "Hiiiii Cailluneth!" The call is hardly loud enough for the dragon to hear, though enough to perhaps disturb anyone passing on the lake shore just below-- they will glance up and see Mave's dangling, dirty feet, slightly bramble-scored like her left hand. Leaning back, head gently bumping stone, she reaches, awkwardly angling her elbow, to trace the top of the T's cross. "T," she sing-songs outloud, but absent. Cailluneth did hear, though whether Mave's voice carried all that way or N'ky passed it on is unknown. She rears up on her back legs with a forepaw resting against the shoulder of the dragon she's playing with, stretching wide wings to their fullest so she can blast a raspy, happy roar up towards the two teenagers. Then she gets back to the more serious business of mock-fighting. "She says hi." As if it wasn't obvious! N'ky traces a finger along the T as well, but the lower part of it. "This is Telavi's. I showed her h-how to carve, and, um, th-this is what she did." As his design? He bites down on his lip, looking suddenly shy. The slight lean to touch the T may have revealed part of something on the rock that was previously hidden by his back, if Mave's sharp enough to catch it. Once he leans back, it's almost hidden again. Mave's bursting grin elicits one giggle at the greeting from the dragon, her heels kicking against the stone before she sighs and relaxes, hand leaving the 'T' to scratch along her cheek then down her neck. "Telavi, Telavi..." She must be trying to place it-- amongst the colors in the sky, if her gaze is any indication. "Teeellaaaviii..." One eye squinting heavily shut, she finally comes upon, "Is that the one you're going to Ista with?" There was a girl involved in that, right? Something something. "N-no, that was Sabella. Um... I d-don't think I'm going now, anyway. Telavi Impressed green Solith? She's the little green... smaller than Cailluneth." N'ky shifts a little, scooting away from Mave to slowly reveal the carving he's been hiding - a large crescent moon, with a shooting star, the same as the one on the pendant he gave her, crossing it. "Um... th-this is the one I did." He runs fingers shyly across it, around the curve of the moon, then along the tail of the star. "Oh oh, right. I should know that," Mave lightly admonishes herself, gesturing from her temple to the ground with a flourish of her hand, "But lately my brain's been-- " the exaggerated noises made are not flattering, and luckily trail off as she turns alertly to him as he speaks up again. Twisting one shoulder, she glances up, down-- oh, there it is. Her fingers set against his arm, bullying it idly out of the way as if he were a piece of bramble, to get the best eyeful. "Mm! N'ky, it's pretty," she grins at him, at it, then down, then over to him, "Pretty still, I guess I should say, since I've seen it before. Or, part of it. Or..." when her eyebrows dragging down means it's becoming complicated, she shucks the effort with a shrug. "You ever seen a shooting star?" N'ky is easily nudged out of the way, sitting back to watch Mave as she looks over his work. He seems relived when she comments positively, a crooked smile quirking up one corner of his mouth. "Th-that part of it is you," he says, quietly coy, cheeks blazing red. "The moon is Cailluneth." Her question gets a nod. "Lots. We used to camp out a lot when we were, um, h-herding, in summertime, and we'd sleep under the stars when the nights were like this." He gestures to the night that's creeping down on them, balmy, warm, summery. "B-but I made that star for you... it's... i-it's what you're like. K-kinda, um, sparkly, and all... all boomf." A gesture with his hands mimics an explosion. "It's a Mave-star." Mave sucks in breath and can't resist snorting it back out, her head shaking with a bashfulness not represented with that rude noise. "Sparkly?" She remarks, lifting an arm to examine to push up her sleeve and examine her skin curiously. "Am I coming down with something?" Teases make a convenient cover for a blush she turns into the night, gaze opposite him, absorbing the last of falling rays. Nibbling on her cheek, "I've seen shooting stars before, too," commented both with lightness and a creeping weight; she lifts a leg, staring at her flexing foot. "They streak by and then they're gone." Tipping her head, she lowers the foot, letting it thunk into the stone. "If I... if I explode and then disappear, it sounds like I leave an awful mess." A reasonable thought, from the mouth of one who cleans up after so many. "Silly." N'ky smiles awkwardly, leaning over to gently tap Mave's forehead. "You're sparkly here. Wh-which... um... th-that sounded better in my head." He sits back against the rock, drawing his knees up to his chest and frowning in embarrassment. "I-I mean, um, you're like... a s-sparkly person. Like... you just are. It's a k-kinda stupid thing to say, I guess." Minus one for N'ky's confidence. His shoulders sink a little, knees drawn tighter against him. "Sh-shooting stars are b-beautiful, a-and even if they d-don't last long in the s-sky, they leave a m-memory, b-but I just th-thought it was p-pretty and it's what... it's wh-what you reminded me of, and, um, I-I... I d-didn't really think it through." Nerves bring up the stutter, which makes his cheeks even redder with embarrassment, leading N'ky to drop his head down to his knees to hide his face. Mave's ponderous face breaks into startled cracks when she, after a good long pause lost in her own sparkly head, eyes rolled up as if to stare straight into it decorations, manages to look over to spot N'ky's predicament. "O... oh," From surprise to a trailing, unhappy realization, "Oh, N'ky... I ruined your words. Hey, I'm sorry." Twisting on her rock perch, the stone scraping in soft but brisk noises, she reaches out to prod his knee with a single, wary finger. Then, instinctively, the touch spreads into a palm, lightly -- lightly -- rocking his leg. "No, hey, it was really lovely and all, it's just... I'm not, y'know. Bright." Eyes roll up to catch on the sky; stars, how you have betrayed her! Though none wink maniacally down on them quite yet. "I don't... know how to say that kind of stuff, so I tend to just-- laugh at it. Honestly, I haven't had a lot of practice with people saying it to me..." Her hand slips off, going to uncomfortably scratch at her leg, half-propped up in her turn. N'ky raises his head to rest his cheek against his knees, looking side-on at Mave. "I'm n-not used to, um, s-saying it. B-but I keep saying the wrong th-things to you, d-don't I, Mave?" He props his head up in his hand, leaning against his knees, then huffs out a long breath. "I'll t-try not to say them, i-if you'd prefer? Um... I d-don't want to, um, m-make you uncomfortable, or a-anything." He shrugs gently, then attempts to brush that errant curl out of the way. "Um... I th-think I'd like to go get some, um, k-klah. B-before taking Cai to the pens." "Wrong?" queries Mave, the word sounding foreign on her tongue as she tastes it; it sounds wrong, does 'wrong'. "I didn't say that, did I?" Eyes shift to the right, thinking. She doesn't remember saying it. Her fingers curl unhappily against her leg, scratching, digging harder. When asked her preference, her head bounces up as she looks at him, features coolly puzzling. "Well, it's not like you're doing it maliciously!" Thus, who is she to stop him, however: "I guess-- " but what she guesses, what her final resolution is gets batted aside when he proclaims his desire to go. Being closest to the path they took up, Mave nods quickly. "Yeah, of course," and swings around to start the descent. When her feet are both on solid ground, she circles indecisively waiting on his, then, turning to him, flicks his curl, smiles, and announces, "It is pretty, okay?" before scurrying off to take care of her own after-hours business. With his feet planted back on non-bouldery ground, N'ky sticks his hands deep into his pockets and gives Mave an uncertain, crooked smile in response to her assertion that his work was pretty. "Th-thanks," he murmurs, watching her run off before he begins a much slower descent, heading towards Cailluneth, rather than to the living caverns and klah - maybe he was just using that as an excuse? |
Comments
Azaylia (Dragonshy (talk)) left a comment on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 08:00:50 GMT.
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Mave is such a... Mave. xD Aah, rambunctious lil' gal. I don't know if she'll ever be comfortable with poetry like that, though. Poor N'ky. <3
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