Logs:Searching for Astivan
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| RL Date: 1 March, 2015 |
| Who: J'ayn, Katriona, Haiith, Yueth, Astivan |
| Involves: Fort Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: J'ayn and Katriona find the must unexpected patron in a seedy bar. J'ayn doesn't have a very good day but it all works out in the end!... For Katriona and J'ayn. |
| Where: Seedy Bar |
| When: Day 18, Month 2, Turn 37 (Interval 10) |
| Storyteller: Lilah/ST |
| OOC Notes: Warning: kidnapping. |
| The cold days of winter are coming slowly to an end, Rukbat lingering on the horizon those few hours more and more each sevenday that passes. There are still hours of daylight left and that many more opportunities for the Weyrleader to send sweeps of volunteers out to look for Astivan. J'ayn has been among those volunteering wherever the weyrlingmaster and her assistants permit. But Haiith is young and his stops are more frequent than those of older browns despite how he's grown. Haiith spots a building down below and shares the image with the others in his formation, his message clear that this is where his search ends tonight. A rest and then home. But more privately, he extends an invitation to his sister Yueth to join him - or rather for Katriona to join J'ayn, Haiith winging down well outside of the bar while awaiting her reply. For all that Yueth's health has improved in the months past, the green is still smaller and less hardy than many of her kin; she, too, is tiring, and despite her drive to know things -- and thus to keep searching as long as physically possible -- the day's search has begun to wear on her enough that both she and her rider are more than willing. It doesn't take long before the silver-green dragon descends to join her brown brother, and her rider slips down. The blonde weyrling stomps a few times, trying to restore proper blood circulation to her legs. "I think this is some of the longest we've flown at once," Katriona remarks. This seedy bar is rather boisterous inside, as daylight fades into evening. But no one comes out as the dragons land, nor do they seem to notice their approach inside. Flying is one of the few things that can bring a smile to J'ayn's face these days and as he begins to undo his riding gear still strapped into Haiith's neckridges, a grin flashes brightly across his face. He leaps down from far too high off the ground - the kind of leap that adventurous, daring young men are wont to do - and lands, tucking into a crouch to absorb the impact. Haiith stretches his wing, neck, spine and tail like a great winged feline, talons digging into the ground and piercing the earth while J'ayn ambles over to join Katriona, grin still lingering. "Yeah, it's great, isn't it?" asked with enthusiasm. "Do you have any marks? I'm thirsty." He nods his head at the bar and heads in, rambling about the view and the wind and the other dragons in the formation, his voice swallowed up by the noise of the bar as he walks through the door, scanning the bar for familiarity - the bar, the patrons, the tables. Katriona nods to J'ayn as she digs into a pocket of her jacket. In a teasing tone born of long acquaintance, she adds, "I always do, because I like to be prepared for anything any time I leave. But if you aren't, why should I share mine with you?" There's no actual serious edge to it, however, and she says it with a cheerful smile for the brownrider; for all the fatigue she's feeling from their lengthy search, the freedom of the flight -- freedom from classes, from worries about who might be watching, from worries about Ephie -- has left Kat in a good mood. There is no familiarity to be found in this place, at least not for J'ayn or Katriona. There are quite a few shady characters, however. One man whispering with another over in one corner, something exchanging hands. Another that sits with his back to the door by himself. Yet another, even, that is shaded in the dim light far away from the bar, tucked into a table as he looks over hides. Tease is met with playful tease. "Isn't my company worth one measly drink?" J'ayn asks, wearing a charming smile that still shines with the afterglow of flight. He reaches for Katriona's arm with the intention of leading her to the bar, sharp blue eyes combing over the details of those scattered throughout the place with the eagerness of youth. The only thing that sets him apart here is the knot on his shoulder and his obvious dragonrider apparel - even if it is all worn and second-hand. Not that J'ayn notices any differences here, behaving with the same easy casual air as he might in the privacy of his own weyr, though notably happier than he has been of late. "I'll go find us somewhere to sit, you get something to drink." He heads off, aiming first for the man with his back to the door. "Hey, you using those chairs? Mind if I take 'em?" he asks as he rounds the table and points to the empty chairs, aiming an innocent look at the lone occupant. "Mm. I think it's worth maybe one drink," Kat calls out to Jay's retreating back, before turning her attention back to the rest of the room. If there is anything that Katriona has practice with, it's playing the cheerful role even in unfamiliar territory. She did it as the laundry girl at Fort Weyr and she did it as a Candidate right up until Impression robbed her of that energy. Now that part of that energy has returned with Yueth's improving health, it's easy to slip into old habits once again; even with the way her leathers leave no doubt as to where she hails from, she can try her best to fit in through sheer force of personality. And so she leaves Jay to sort out seating, and makes her way over towards the bar to order two of whatever is good and likely to warm them, offering whoever is tending it a bright and brilliant smile in greeting. The man doesn't even really speak in words, just grunts and a handwave as he stares hard into the liquor before him. In the corner, there, where the two men are exchanging whatever it is-- One man's voice lifts and then the other's, and a chair goes flying. In a second, it is likely that the rest of the bar will break out in their own pools of violence in reaction. In that second, the third man gathers up his hides and makes for the exit, hugging them to his chest and not even bothering to roll them properly. The bartender, of course, ignores it all to serve Kat her drinks. He's seen it all a million times. J'ayn's attention immediately snaps over to the thrown chair, and the rising tensions in the bar. He backs away from the stranger and his table and begins to walk backwards towards the bar, his sense of urgency doubled. "Kat, uh... I'm not sure I'm very thirsty anymore. Can we say you owe me a drink somewhere else?" he calls over his shoulder and turns, his path veering suddenly in the path of the man with the hides. "I think that sounds like a great idea, Jay," Katriona agrees a little hastily. She shakes her head to the man at the bar -- go ahead and pour the drinks back -- immediately moving towards her friend and fellow weyrling. It's clear the youngsters aren't nearly as sanguine about sudden eruptions of violence as the bartender is. She's already reaching out to Yueth, telling her lifemate to be ready for departure; any danger aside, they'll probably get in trouble with someone at the Weyr if they end up caught in the middle of a bar fight. "Hey! You have to pay for those!" the bartender shouts out at Katriona as she starts to turn away from the bar. And unfortunately for Katriona, that 'middle of a bar fight' ends up to be too true as one of the men seated at the bar takes it upon himself to become the bartender's enforcer, sending his weight (and his fist) at the young weyrling. The hides spill as the man collides into J'ayn, but he doesn't seem to let it slow him down. He doesn't bother to try to gather them up, but to spin away from the brownrider and begin a sprint towards the door, even if there are dragons outside. J'ayn smashes into the stranger and emits an all-too-polite, "Sorry!" as he bends to collect the hides. "Hey!" he calls after the man, waving a fist full of the hides. "You forgot your thingies!" Language has never been his strong suit but he glances at the hides as he quickly shovels them into a pile frantically. He tosses a look up at Katriona as he calls out, "Hurry up!" But as that last syllable is spoken, his eyes widen at the scene already unfolding. Paying for something you aren't buying after all strikes Kat as a completely alien concept. "But we're not going to stay and dr... whup!" Her protest is cut off as she tries to dodge the man's fist, and stumbles backwards to end up on the floor. This is not a good position to be in. She looks up at the big, looming man and waves her hands in surrender, evidently trying to signal she'll just pay and leave. She's young and small compared to large and strong there, so unless her dragon decides to wander inside the bar there's almost no conceivable way this fight ends well for her. The man doesn't come back for his thingies, which in the glance seems to be dates and maps, mostly. No, he is out the door with the intent on putting as much distance between himself and the bar. The burly enforcer, at least, doesn't actually punch Kat at her gesture. He leans over to bundle his fist into her jacket front, his hand thrust out at her for those marks. It's hard to say exactly what J'ayn might interpret from the big enforcer looming over his friend, a fist in her jacket. Maybe he's blind with idiocy. Maybe the violence is contagious. Whatever the reason, the hides are dropped, left to scatter on the floor as J'ayn does about the only thing that could possibly make this situation any worse - he hurls himself at the enforcer's waist with a wild battle cry, trying to tackle his target down from the side. Kat has just held out a hand with the marks in question, figuring that buying her way out and to safety is probably better than the alternative. "See?" she offers brightly. "Just a misunderstanding, so there's no need to get violent or anythiiieeeeep!" And then there's Jay, charging in. The man reaches for the marks, not yet letting Katriona go. But before his fingers can close around them, there is this young man tackling into him. He stumbles away, at least, from the greenrider, but his fist swings into J'ayn on reaction, pummeling against whatever bit of the brownrider he can get. It ends up his back, the first time, and then his ear. Meanwhile, that man hits the road away from the bar with purpose. The first punch sinks home into his back and J'ayn emits a low, hollow sound of pain, and outside in the fading light, Haiith's eyes whirl with worry. When the second punch hits J'ayn in the ear, the sound the young brownrider makes is very clearly a yowl and Haiith trots urgently towards the bar entrance, pacing outside of its entrance helplessly in worry but not abject distress. J'ayn manages to crawl away and begins to make his way back onto his feet before the ringing in his ear can turn into stinging. "Let's go." That said to Katriona with anger to cover up wounded pride and stinging bones. Katriona struggles in the man's grip when she sees one of her closest friends in the world assaulted; the moment she's dropped, she hurries to Jay's side, trying to help him up. She's got no objections to the whole 'let's go' thing. Outside, Yueth is roused from her drowsing by Kat's rush of adrenaline, only to have her curiosity caught by the man simply booking it away from the bar. After all, that's something unusual, and unusual things should be studied. She stretches her silver-green head out towards the man, regarding him with obvious interest. In the time of the tussle, the man has gotten far enough away to not worry about the silver-green head that might be peering at him. And he continues, without looking back, without runner, or without his hides still scattered on the bar floor. J'ayn stumbles outside with Katriona's help, heading immediately for Haiith's straps and hauling himself up to dark neckridges with a cloud of miserable anger and defeat hanging over him. Other than hurt pride and future bruises to bear, he isn't outwardly too beat up. He follows Yueth's line of sight into the fading light of the evening. "What is that idiot doing?" he groans. "He's running the wrong direction. His fault for being a stupid coward." Says the stupid red-faced, hurting not-coward. When Yueth communicates her curiosity over the fleeing man, Kat makes a point to gather up the hides on the way out, though she hardly stops to examine them. If nothing else, they have dragons; they can catch up easily and return them. They owe him that much, right? After all, it was Jay who made him drop everything. But when they reach the dragons and her fellow weyrling makes his disparaging comment, she frowns. "I don't know, Jay, I think he had more sense than we did; he didn't get picked up or shaken or knocked around or anything." Isn't Kat so kind. And the man isn't even stopping for them. J'ayn eyes Katriona and her armful of hides and rolls his eyes skyward. "You can't be serious," he mutters, more to himself than to her. But perhaps he anticipates what comes next and puts his riding gear on without further argument, J'ayn and Haiith prepared to follow after Yueth and Katriona. Sure enough, Kat's going to play messenger. After all, if they can say they made some merchant or scholar feel favorably towards Fort, maybe that'll help get them out of any trouble they get into over the whole bar fight. So she's up and following his path quickly enough, trying to get Yueth to catch up and land ahead of him. The man doesn't seem pleased as the dragons catch up to him, and by the time Yueth has lowered to land in front of him, his fingers have drifted to something on his belt. His knife. That is what catches a gleam of fading light and shadows even as his path veers away from the dragons. Again. Haiith trails after the man, and when it becomes apparent that he isn't going to be caught easily, the brown descends on the man, trying to knock him over and pin him to the ground. Not exactly polite but (hopefully) effective. Well, that's just rude. Then again, some people are afraid of dragons. "Hey! You forgot your hides!" Kat calls this out, waving the bundle in the man's direction. "We're just trying to return them! The dragons won't hurt you." And then Jay tries to have Haiith pin him. This probably undermine's Kat's attempt to be reassuring. Tbh, yes, Kat. That is certainly why the man's knife is stabbing into the paw that pins him, digging in deep enough to draw out green ichor before the man tries to scramble away. But with J'ayn so close, perhaps, now he can recognize the man's features, despite dyed black hair. Astivan doesn't call back to Kat. J'ayn screams for a silent Haiith, the brown driven to flinch away suddenly from his much-smaller attacker and emit throbbing images of bright white in pain for a fluttering of seconds before J'ayn's command of, "Stop!" puts an immediate end to his dragon's broadcasting. J'ayn swings down from Haiith's neckridges at the same time as the brown reaches to pin the man again with his uninjured hand - this time far more cautious of that offending blade. J'ayn's anger is red hot, his face twisted with a mixture of his earlier wounded pride and agony for his dragon so that when J'ayn moves to kick the man, it's just a target for his anger - just a man. No one recognizable, not to him. "You stabbed him, you--" A wordless cry of anger is screamed through gritted teeth and J'ayn tries to grab at the blade. Haiith's pain is hard to miss, and when Yueth relays it to Kat she cries out -- not in pain, as Jay does, but in surprise. Her silver-green lifemate moves to block the man's escape, as Kat leaps down and runs over to Jay, perhaps intending to try to stop the violence before it escalates. When she gets close enough to see the man, however, her expression darkens. "Jay, wait! Look!" That blade is caught, but not without biting into J'ayn's hand. And then Astivan abandons it, managing to roll away from Haiith. Yet, he encounters Yueth, trying to dodge around her-- And then when he realizes it is useless, he turns around, hands held up. "I demand to speak to the Conclave," he states clearly, to Kat who clearly recognizes him. There's a cry of anger and pain as blade tears through flesh, J'ayn left clamping his fist shut to hide the bleeding in an unusual mirror of his dragon, but where J'ayn's expression is wild and hateful, Haiith is meek and gentle in contrast. J'ayn surfaces from his pain and from his dragon's pain long enough to stare over at Kat. "What." His eyes flick to the stranger and his face transforms instantly, eyes wide, jaw going slack. "You." He looks back at Katriona. "You know what we have to do. Don't you." It's a question and it isn't, watching her intently as though the choice were obvious, and perhaps to him it is. Katriona's jaw -- and her fists -- are clenched when Jay turns his attention back to her. This isn't a confrontation she wanted to have. Flying in the search to prove her usefulness, certainly, but in her mind it was always going to be someone else who had to deal with actually finding him. But now... now it's her standing here -- with no witnesses -- and that could change things. Couldn't it? She doesn't answer Jay, yet. She just watches Astivan for a moment, as if weighing options. "I am still Lord Holder; I have the right to the Conclave," reminds Astivan, as she weighs, his own weight to the words. As if he expects to be listened to. J'ayn continues to watch Katriona intently, his gaze sharp, cold - no, hot. Burning. Vengeful. Astivan's words fall on deaf ears through the weight of his focus on Katriona. "If you can't do it, tell me." He points at his chest with his injured hand, blood dripping down the front of his old riding leathers - someone else's riding leathers. "If you can't, I can, Kat. I can do this. For us. For Ephie. Just tell me." A deep breath. For a moment, it looks like Katriona is deeply, sorely tempted. After all, everything wrong in their lives -- maybe everything that was ever wrong in their lives -- could be argued to trace back to this one man. This one man who, as far as she can tell, no one on Pern would miss. "If we take him back a prisoner," she says, as if trying to convince herself, "we're heroes. We earn everyone's trust." A better long-term situation. There is a silence on Astivan's part as it dawns on him what they are arguing about, posture only drawing tauter as he casts a glance from Katriona to J'ayn. "We take him to the island," J'ayn clarifies. "We deliver him in exchange for our freedom." J'ayn stalks back to Haiith's straps, hauling himself up between dark neckridges to sit tall with a hateful, cold dignity born from a mission, fuelling himself with belief in his own words. "He deserves to be there, Kat. No one here will miss him anyway, and we'll never have to worry about looking over our shoulders again." It's what he chooses to say, whether there's any truth to it or not. J'ayn leans forward in his straps, imploring Katriona. "Ephie, you, me- we can move on with our lives." This solution, Kat feels much better about, and it's visible on her face; her entire attitude brightens as she nods to the brownrider. "Free," she repeats, as if the word itself is almost alien. "And it's only justice. No one will even question it; his escape was so well-planned, he just vanished without a trace." She turns to Astivan and offers, with a smile that contains no warmth whatsoever, "And I'm sure they'll be so pleased to meet you." "You do not have the right to do this," Astivan answers, however it seems, for a moment, that he will allow Kat to escort him. It isn't until they are closer that he moves to push her, trip her, before sprinting in the other direction one last time. Useless, likely, but you can't blame a man for trying for his own freedom, right? "Free," J'ayn echoes, clinging to that idea. "It's about time he learn what it's like to live there just like we did." If he has any concept of the depth of their decision in the moment, it might be blinded by youthful ignorance or ideals. Astivan, living among the other islanders. Nevermind the ugly truths that haunt the island, that plague the children who only escaped for this moment in time to occur. So once more he says, "Kat. If you can't do this, I can." It's an offering, a question, his support behind her whole-heartedly. "You have no idea. We have every right," Katriona snaps back, as she leads Astivan over towards Yueth. Her tone has lost that cheerful babble she so carefully cultivates; it's turned darker, angrier. And then he tries to push her, which is enough to make her stumble... but her anger has been roused and she clings fiercely, limpet-like, to his arm. She drags him back to the dragons as best she can, offering Jay a shake of her head. "Help me check him and restrain him, and then I'll take him." If she's going to be the interim 'leader' -- such as they have, anyway -- until Ephie sorts herself out, she'll do it right and take the responsibility. Thus, with J'ayn's help, Astivan is restrained and bundled onto a dragon, off to parts unknown! Well, to him at least. |
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