Logs:Rescuing And Abandoning Lost Boys
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| RL Date: 1 February, 2013 |
| Who: Brieli, Madilla, Nicky, Val |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Madilla rescues newcomer Nicky. It's a pity she leaves him with Val and Brieli. |
| Where: Living Caverns, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 15, Month 12, Turn 30 (Interval 10) |
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| Living Cavern, High Reaches Weyr Stalactites hang high above this enormous cavern like a jagged chandelier or an inversion of the Spires themselves, but shadows cling to them instead of light. Below lie great tables arranged in rows, each large enough to serve a fighting wing, while in the nooks and alcoves around the cavern's edge sit more sensibly-sized tables, from six- and eight-seaters down to intimate spots for just a couple of diners. The only really open space is around the kitchen entrance, smelling of food and rarely quiet, and by the nearby serving tables with their long buffet of the day's offerings. Tapestries on the smooth walls -- some faded and others newly woven -- only slightly mute the sea of sound when a meal is in full swing, but they add cheerfulness augmented by the glowlight from wall sconces and the centerpieces of each table. Still, shadows always creep along the ceiling and into the mouths of the exits -- the myriad small hallways at one end of the cavern and, at the other, the twisting tunnel to the bowl near an array of coathooks and and hatracks -- and late at night, when the glows are allowed to dim, the chamber can seem very dark indeed. In the early evening, there is building buzz in the living caverns as people begin to file in for their evening meal. Hovering near the entrance and looking somewhat lost is one tall, curly-haired Nicky, who has his hands in his pockets as he casts his gaze over the gathering crowd, seemingly searching for something - or perhaps someone. Occasionally he looks back over his shoulder and out towards the bowl, sidestepping those coming in whose path he may be blocking and offering them a shy, apologetic little smile for obstructing them. One of those people is Madilla, whose dark hair is filled with snow from the raging torrent outside. Instead of acknowledging Nicky's apologetic smile and moving on, like so many others, the curvy healer comes to a halt, her green eyes narrowing in consternation as she considers the young man's expression. "Are you lost?" she asks, in a low voice that is as warm as the air outside is cold; there's something motherly in her demeanour, so infused with genuine concern. "Or looking for someone? Can I help?" Oh, hello. Someone's stopped! Nicky blinks in wide-eyed surprised at Madilla for a moment, then his expression softens with a slightly embarrassed, lopsided smile. He dips his chin, brushing back the curls that fall forward into his face. "Um, I was looking for my uncle, but..." Looking up again and casting his gaze around the cavern, he shrugs his broad shoulders. "I can't seem to find him." Nick chews on his bottom lip, digging his hands more deeply into his pockets. "He was going to show me h-how things, um, work. For dinner. I only got here this... this morning." A sympathetic smile blossoms across Madilla's face as she says, "Well, why don't I show you how it works? Hopefully, your uncle will catch us up later. If you're anything like any of the other teenage boys I know around here, you'll be starving." Having made the offer, the soft-spoken healer raises her brows in Nicky's direction, waiting to see if he will take up her offer before she sweeps him any further into the cavern. "I remember how intimidating this place can be. I was absolutely terrified, my first day." "I am kinda hungry," Nicky admits quietly, and with a thankful smile for the Healer. "If it's no trouble, I'd really like that. I-it's all..." Again he casts his gaze around the cavern, only this time rather than searching, it's in absorbing wonderment. "... /huge/. Very int-timidating, yes." He removes his hands from his pockets, offering one to the woman. "I'm Nicky. Th-thank you." Madilla matches that smile with one of her own, and pulls off her glove so that she can take Nicky's hand and shake it. "I'm Madilla; I'm one of the Healers, here." The Weyrhealer, even, but evidently that's not something she uses as part of her introduction. "Come on, Nicky, I'll show you in. I promise, it eventually stops feeling so enormous, truly. And the caverns become less confusing, too, even with all those twists and turns in the corridors. For the first little while, I spent most of my time lost, but everyone was terribly helpful." Nicky's handshake is firm, he hands work-rough but gentle. "Pleasure to meet you, miss Madilla. It's kinda hard to imagine somewhere this big getting easier to navigate." He slips both hands back into his pockets, rocking back on his heels. "But I guess it oughta be possible, or you'd all be lost all the time, a-and no-one'd get anything done." A hint of a blush colours his cheeks again, and he looks almost longingly over to where the food's being served. "We took lunch in the Smith area. I've not seen how you go about getting food in here." "Precisely," confirms Madilla, with another winning smile, as she indicates the caverns and begins to make her way through them. She passes down the aisle between the tables at an easy pace, occasionally smiling at people as she passes them - there are a few people who greet her, too, and she returns all of those greetings with apparently genuine warmth. "Ah, down in the craft complex? I often eat there, too, if I'm working in the healer workroom. Here, we line up and serve ourselves. It's frowned upon to take more than you need - waste is bad - but there's plenty: if you need seconds, you're welcome to them." Nicky follows Madilla, smiling coyly and dipping his head politely at whoever pays attention to him as they pass. "I'm training with my uncle, and some classes with the Herders, too, after I did my turns at the Smith Hall learning metalwork. I'm hoping to be a farrier, like my uncle is." The closer they get to the food, the perkier he looks, with a crooked grin slowly causing a dimple to form in one cheek. "That makes good sense not to waste anything. We were the same back home, too. Seconds are fine, s'long's you clean off your plate first." "We didn't have seconds, at my home. You got what you were given, and if you were still hungry? Too bad." Madilla's smile fades somewhat for the memory, but not for long. "There wasn't much to spare. We managed. The food here is pretty good." She joins the end of the queue, glancing sidelong at Nicky as she adds, "That sounds like a good career. Good for you. Farrier is-- runner shoes? I think?" "Yes ma'am, runner shoes. But you've also gotta know how to look after a runner's hooves, plus draybeasts and even sometimes other animals with hooves, too. That's why I'm learning with the Herders, too." Nicky slips into the queue to the side of, and a pace behind the Healer, so that she'll be served before him. "That's the harder part, the Herder learning. Working metal's alright - chances are it'll stay the same always, but animal feet always change. I guess Healing's kinda hard too, right?" Madilla and Nicky are in the queue at the serving tables, in the midst of the dinner hour, the healer standing just ahead of the teen. She's got her head turned to listen to him, her nod both enthusiastic and understanding. "I suppose that makes sense," she says. "I'd never thought about it. Runners are not something I'm terribly familiar with, or other beasts, really." The description of healing as 'kinda hard' has her smiling wider. "It has its moments," she confirms. It's a line Val's aiming for, sort of: half-hanging onto a wingmate's arm and shoulder, laughing, not attending to the Iceberg greenrider they'd ditched a blue-length back. Make that a brown-length, by now. No, not looking back at all, not shifty, even if her hair that's loose for once is blown back over her shoulder by their earlier speed. Nicky nods, standing with his hands dug deep into his pockets. "A Healer fixed my nose when I busted it as a kid. I got it kicked out of place by one of our caprines, and he sorta cracked it back. I don't remember his name, though. He was posted somewhere else not long after." He's relaxed a little now that they're getting a little closer to the food, and he doesn't feel quite so out of place in his new surroundings. "Far Reach is a farming hold, so there's a lot of runners and others need their hooves caring for." When Val joins the line behind him he turns to smile and bob his head with a shy sort of politeness. Coming in from the kitchens, Brieli doesn't seem to be in any particular hurry, for all that she's carrying a basket of bread over one arm; she can be helpful, but she doesn't need to go rushing across the cavern about it. Not like the kitchen staff that might dart past the goldrider - who stays out of the way, and doesn't make a nuisance of her 'help' - usually carrying something somewhat heavier. Her dark gaze can flicker around the cavern that way, take stock of the dinnertime buzz. "Such is the lot of Healers," admits Madilla, with a sudden note of ruefulness. "I've been very lucky to have held on to my posting here for so long; it was always a concern." But not, given the way she says it, any longer. It's in answering that that her gaze catches sight of Val (and her wingmate) on the approach, and a renewed smile blossoms in place of the ruefulness. "Evening," she calls, as the line moves forward and she's put into a position to grab a plate from the stack. "Evening!" the brownrider declaims, and look at Nicky! He's tall: tall enough to abandon her wingmate like a bump in the road, to round and make for his other side. Especially since Madilla's there, that healer less frequently visited in the days and then months since I'kris, no, surely since the onetime Weyrwoman had died. She's got a beatific smile for the healer that only widens when she gets a plate in her hands, only fading as she spots, "Bread. Tell me we aren't out of bread. You didn't let him steal it, did you?" and though the healer's being addressed, it's the teenager who gets the too-sharp eye. "I guess not being in a Craft properly, I don't have to worry about postings." Nicky blinks at the brownrider suddenly by his side, biting down on his lip and grinning awkwardly at Val - it comes out as a shy sort of grimace. When the line moves forward he waves for Val to step in in front of him, taking a plate and offering her one before getting his own. "B-bread? I... didn't see any... um..." He looks to Madilla for help, peeping out from behind a swatch of curls that have fallen forward into his eyes. Bread? The tall weyrwoman is canny enough to catch that, or both close enough and used to thinking about people wanting food at dinnertime to leave off her... lingering near a quiet conversation of lower cavernfolk. Brieli's again all brisk long-legged strides and business as she comes up to the serving tables with a brief but brilliant smile for the line, the healer, the young man, the bread-less brownrider. "My apologies. They didn't let me know it was urgent." Oh, but would they? Though she doesn't take up a plate, she'll stay in line, apparently there for something. Madilla's long look in Val's direction is interrupted by the quest for bread, though Brieli gets there to get the situation in hand long before the healer has the opportunity to enter the fray. "Brieli to the rescue," she says, half-teasingly, as she smiles in the goldrider's direction. "It looks like you're saved, Val. Val, Brieli - this is Nicky. He's brand new here, and a little lost, so we should be kind to him. No accusations, if you please." She eschews the bread in order to fill her plate with other options: primarily, salad and stew. "Aren't you sweet," Val says, briefly coquettish as she accepts the teenager's plate and his position all in one with dark, laughing eyes, though again it's Madilla who gets her yet more brilliant smile. That's preempted, but only by that manna which Brieli brings. "These are your duties, now? I could eat them right up," or at least the slice's worth that she takes. While Madilla's busy with the filling, and thus Val's busy with the waiting, "Nicky. I was about to ask. But you didn't say: where did you find him, your protege'?" "Brieli." Nicky repeats the name softly when he hears it, looking thoughtful as he tries to place it. When the penny drops, he looks even more awkward - but then there's Val and her coquettishness, which leaves him clutching the edge of his plate tightly. "P-pleasure... miss Val... Weyrwoman?" The questioning lilt emphasises his uncertainty; did he remember the name right? Just in case he's wrong he decides to give his excuses up front: "I only got here this morning. Miss Madilla j-just rescued me from the entry over there." With a quirk of her lips for 'rescue', "Mm. Yes. I'm a problem-solver." Brieli's tone might shade a touch wry, but she has reason enough for it. "And I try not to make accusations unless I have reason to do so." Her gaze shifts back to Nicky briefly before Val distracts her. She can do it. "Not mine, no - though I did think if I was coming out anyway, I might as well be useful about it." Faintly amused by both brownrider and Nicky, "Yes. Iesaryth's. And just this morning? What a morning for it." The blizzard. How pleasant, High Reaches. For most people, it would be dismissed as civic duty, but Madilla? She looks fond as she glances up at Nicky (nevermind the length, or lack thereof, of their acquaintance). "His uncle has gone missing," she offers, turning back from her plate-filling to make the remark. "And I know better than to keep a teenage boy from his dinner. Nicky-- will you be able to find yourself a seat? I need to head back to the infirmary." "Yes ma'am, the snow was pretty awful, but we got to land safe enough. My cousin L'ry brought us in, and even though his blue's pretty sturdy we got buffeted about a good bit." Nicky nods his head at Brieli, looking a little nervous when addressing her. "M-missing? No, he's not... I mean, he's somewhere, he's just... he's not /here/, but he'll um, turn up... I'll save him a seat. Th-thanks, miss Madilla. I think -" he looks at Val, wide-eyed at the arm-pat, "I think I'll be alright now." He grins sheepishly, clutching his plate tightly and trying to keep the blush that's burning up his cheeks from spreading further. "I only st-stammer sometimes, miss Val." Nicky bites his lip, while trying to offer a smile that's not entirely driven by nerves. "That's unfortunate." For the young man's uncle, and Brieli does look like she thinks it is in fact, unfortunate - though, perhaps, not so unfortunate as the healer leaving him to Val. Because, she doesn't seem terribly inclined to do much but watch, finally reaching for a mug. "Please don't let them bother you while you eat at least, Madilla?" For the brownrider's comment, with a shrug, "I suppose the work would get done were I less decorative, but it does help." She then ahs to Nicky, enlightened. "Wandering about the Weyr." If she looks entertained, dark eyes bright at that hand on the young man's arm, well. She's had a hard time lately. Fun ain't easy to come by. She may be able to take her plate and leave, but Madilla has not left yet - and now, she widens her eyes, silently begging Val to-- what? Play nice? Play fair? "Lily and Dee have a cold," explains Madilla, "and several of my staff are down with it, too. There's simply no one else. I'm sorry; I really do need to go. Nicky - good luck. If you ever need anything, don't hesitate to come and find me. Val--" But she's already made her silent plea, and now, plate in hand, she takes a step back. "Have a pleasant evening." Val watches that blush with the sort of fascination that some people reserve for alcohol-topped fruit that's been set on fire and then served up expressly for them: not so much an overt gleam in those dark eyes, more an attentiveness', an inclination of her figure. It's not so singleminded that she'd miss eyes on her like that, though, and she shares a glance with Brieli that's somehow conspiratorial before dropping her gaze towards the food on display. Salad, she takes. Stew, she eschews. "I see," she murmurs, one hand posed outstretched with fingers slightly parted towards the fruit on display, considering. "Do you..." but Madilla makes her plea, and her voice trails off, if with something closer to indulgence than obedience. Instead, "Madilla's so nice. Don't you think?" "Thank you, miss Madilla, have a good evening." Newcomer Nicky wiggles his fingers at the departing Healer without taking his hand from his plate; it's a farewell as awkward as the tall teen feels. "W-wandering the Weyr, Weyrwoman, yes, he's... s-somewhere. Work must've caught up with him - he's a S-Smith." Moving along the line after Val, he opts for stew, some cooked vegetables on the side, and no salad. He has a smile and a nod in response to Val's question. "Yes, ma'am, she s-seems very kind. I th-think maybe you've got to be that way, to be a Healer." Brieli would wish the same to Madilla, but the healer's circumstances pretty much guarantee the opposite. Besides, she's trying to kill her entertainment, and that's no fun. As she glances back, it's an easy thing to catch Val's gaze - and her expression is guileless and ignorant. What? She's not seeing anything. Anything to report to mothery healers, at least. "Well," she tells Nicky, "I imagine he's in the caverns. Best to learn your own way around anyway?" Helpful Brieli. As she too moves along, mug in hand, "Terribly self-sacrificing, Madilla. Not all Healers, I think." "And you, Nicky, would you like to be a healer? Would you say that you're... kind?" Val's chosen a fruit, at last: it's soft-skinned, marrred here and there by transport, but sweet where it's not bruised. "Self-sacrificing, possibly, as our weyrwoman describes. Or do you have ambition to follow after your uncle, and wield a hammer?" She seems so focused on collecting her meal, though, Madilla's intervention having spared Nicky from more than the soft touch of her voice. There are finely-chopped sweet-and-spiced nuts to add to her salad, after all. She's not even looking at Brieli... though surely the nuts aren't what cause her smile. Nicky nods to Brieli. "Yes'm. I'm going to try find my way around after I've had something to eat, ma'am." A beat, before Nicky adds, "Indoors, at least. I might leave the outside for another time. It's b-big enough in here to keep me lost f-for a sevenday, at least." He smiles crookedly, looking a little less shyly at Val; perhaps he's finding her easier to digest when there's no immediate threat of touching. "A-actually, miss Val, I do wield a hammer - I'm training to follow in his footsteps as a farrier. Hammer, tongs and all." None of the actual food holds any interest for the goldrider; if Brieli's been in and out of the kitchens this evening, she's likely had her dinner already. But lining up despite that affords her the chance to listen and watch - in this particular case, watch Val and Nicky. Glancing to the entrance briefly, "Leave it for a nicer day besides. If the snow is bad enough, there's not much to see anyway." Fine brows draw together at the explanation, and she pauses a moment before, "But you're not an apprentice." To be fair, there's no judgment there, just a matter-of-fact bluntness. "Do you. I would ask about his footsteps," and here Val pulls a little moue, having finished adorning her meal, "but I'm promised elsewhere." Perhaps it's her own glance back. "Forgive me?" this with another would-be pat for the non-apprentice's arm, this time accompanied by a limpid glance that lingers for a moment. At least it's not the sarm that's holding his plate. "Good luck, I will say, and good night, weyrwoman." Having completed a sufficiently-ambiguous transition from one to the other, Val slips out of line and moves to disappear within the crowd: a breath too late to entirely avoid that other woman's spotting her, but it seems sometimes sacrifices must be made for a properly-worded conclusion. Even if, someday, it leads to her too-early 'conclusion.' Juggling the weight of his plate from one arm to the other, Nicky nods. "That's right, ma'am, I'm not an apprentice, not to any one Craft, anyway. I sorta straddle both Smiths and Herders, so I'm more've a student, or a... an apprentice to my uncle, maybe? Something like that." The boundaries are fuzzy even to him, and he brushes away his explanation with the shrug of one shoulder. Another pat on his arm from the brownrider has him stiffening up, lips twitching in an awkward half-smile, particularly brought on by that /look/ the woman gives him. "Y-yes, m-miss Val. H-have, um, have a good evening." He looks almost relieved that she seems to be going... and yet can't help but watch after her for a few seconds before he remembers his manners, and snaps his attention somewhat guiltily back to Brieli. "Sorry for asking, ma'am, but where's a g-good place for me to sit? I d-don't want to... to intrude on anyone's space." Fine brows arch a touch again at the brownrider's escape, but Brieli has just come up to the pots of tea and klah finally, and can delay no longer. Therefore, Val is given little but a faint farewell. She too watches after the older woman, though not for as long and not for the same reasons; with a look up at Nicky, her lips twitch before, "Ah. Well. I suppose that makes sense." The young man's question though - that's met with something closer to incredulousness - does he not see people just... walking up to tables and sitting down? "Where ever's free. But if a group of people are loud and obnoxious, sitting nearby is likely unwise. If you'll excuse me? I ought to check on things again." There's a tilt of her head to the kitchen and another bright smile before she starts off, quick about getting across the cavern this time. |
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