Logs:Southern Comforts
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| RL Date: 13 September, 2015 |
| Who: Dee, G'vri, Taeliyth, Tovriath |
| Involves: Fort Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: While Dee is at Southern Weyr for the seven after her misjump, G'vri joins her for a bonfire and taste of home. |
| Where: Southern Weyr |
| When: Day 22, Month 10, Turn 38 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Gavrik/Mentions, Guzman/Mentions, J'zen/Mentions, Maj/Mentions, Zennia/Mentions |
| OOC Notes: Very back-dated. |
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| To Tovriath, Taeliyth's touch is laced with personal frustration. The watchful ways she bas of keeping tabs on the happenings in her home just don't work from so far away. Still, when she reaches for Tovriath, it's not about her, « Dee says there is a bonfire tonight and asks if G'vri will come. » It's only been a day since their arrival in Southern, but it's already known back home that they've been given a seven of R&R. Frustration piques Tovriath's interest and his mind touches the young gold's with the soothing heat of alcohol. He doesn't, however, ask her about her frustrations, simply offers a quiet, boring visual of the Weyr. Nothing interesting is happening. « G'vri says he would enjoy that very much. » (To Taeliyth from Tovriath) Tovriath's visual is a balm to the distance that chafes Taeliyth and she's able to offer some measure of appreciation as she holds the image, searching it for anything out of place or too normal. « She'll bring the booze, » is offered to conclude their arrangement making before she resigns herself to more local attention. (To Tovriath from Taeliyth) When evening comes, there is indeed the promised bonfire on one of the beaches and Dee can be found with a trio of familiar faces, including Dee's older and weyrmated friend Maj. The laughter and flow of the stories exchanged between the four is so natural it's practically a shame to interrupt. G'vri is spared the task by Maj's weyrmate and son's arrival to break up the little knot to take the little one home. The other two Southerners likewise excuse themselves to fetch more drinks, leaving Dee (however briefly) to her own devices. After watching their retreat, her eyes scan the immediate area and then further, rubbing her arms though the spring evening can't be considered chilly. G'vri's arrival to Southern is marked by Tovriath's briefly polite greeting to Taeliyth. It's a bit later that the bronzerider himself makes his way onto the beach to find the weyrling. He doesn't approach right away when he does, watching her with some of the people that they both used to know. But once she's left to herself, G'vri approaches, saying when he gets close enough that he can tilt his head toward her privately, "I didn't think we'd manage this so soon." It's teasing, staying light hearted about what could have been tragic. It's only natural for Dee to move to give G'vri a one-armed hug in greeting, her bright smile turning wan at his words. "That makes two of us," manages to be dry, but we're here now, so we might as well take advantage. I will pretend Taeliyth doesn't hate being here as much as I love it, you will pretend that I didn't have an accident that got my whole Weyr of big brothers sharing world's biggest pantie bunch and we will have a fabulous time." So sayeth she who's begun in the drink, obviously, the effects melding with what must be a natural high from being home. "Maj bought me a bottle of the good stuff as belated congratulations. For tonight." She makes gesture to where her beach bag must be. "Share with me, Gav?" He listens, smiling at her as she speaks. "A fabulous time with booze. That sounds like my kind of fabulous. One of these days, I'm gonna have to spring for this booze we drink. Doesn't seem right that I keep drinking yours." But it doesn't mean that G'vri won't drink hers right now. Mostly because he didn't bring any of his own. "Ah, but mine're gifts, so technically, we're both drinking someone else's, and if that doesn't sound like the tradition and spirit of a bonfire for us weyrbrats, I don't know what is." Dee grins at Gav, shifting to link her arms through his to lead him to where her bag is, "Brought a blanket, too, if you want to stake a claim somewhere, or we could go for a walk," she gestures down the beach, "catch some moonfish," comes with a dimpled smile for the game of catching 'wishes' and releasing them back into the sea popular among Dee's friend group since they were young enough to dream. "If it makes you feel better, I'll let you buy me a drink sometime, but only if you promise not to tell Ebeny that I was drinking tonight. Technically, we're banned for betweening and I expect we'll be banned a while after this." But they're not going anywhere tonight, and it's a bonfire, and Southern, the arguments are all there, ready to come from her lips if only she need speak them. "I think I like the idea of not being alone with you. No-- that isn't the word for it. But after last time..." G'vri lets his voice trail off. "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable last time, Doll. I meant to say something sooner." But he didn't. Obviously. "So... You know, it should really be your choice. We'll do whatever you want to do while you can." Screw being responsible, apparently. Maybe this is part of why G'vri isn't one of those assistant weyrlingmasters anymore. Dee's brows dip, as G'vri speaks and it has her steps slowing to turn toward him, tilting her face up. Then, dissatisfied with the amount of light available, she seeks to shift them so she can better see his face by the light of the bonfire, her hands on his forearms. Her expression is perplexed. "You didn't make me uncomfortable." This much she can say with certainty, but that prompts the tilt of her head and the genuine question, "Why would I have been uncomfortable?" Yeah, that's not the answer he was expecting. It might be preferable to her being uncomfortable, but now it leaves G'vri in the uncomfortable position of having to explain himself. He glances down at her hands on his arms, then lifts his gaze to hers. "I tried-- I wanted to kiss you. The other night. I almost did." But he didn't. That should count for something. That he's not a completely horrible big brother figure, maybe. Not yet, anyway. He looks at her meaningfully, though. Does she remember now? That meaningful look? It meets further confusion and blankness. She straightens, but doesn't step back. Dee meets his eyes, and if he needed anything else to confirm that she doesn't, in fact, remember the incident in question, or perhaps didn't notice when such a thing was possible, she asks, softly, "You did?" G'vri draws in a breath and sighs it out through his nose, brows furrowed. "You don't remember. Of course you don't remember. And now I'm telling you how big of an ass I was." This night is starting out awesome. "Right, then. Are you still willing to share your booze with me? Because I think I'm gonna need it." But he can always get booze somewhere further away from her if she doesn't want to risk him getting kissy again. A single eye flicks closed as Dee's lips pinch and purse upward, as if trying to make sense of his words. "Did you-- only want to kiss me because Taeliyth's going to be Senior and you want to get on my good side?" She doesn't yet address the matter of booze; one thing at a time. His furrowed brows furrow further and it's G'vri's turn to look confused by what Dee is saying. "I don't care about who you're gonna be, Dee. I care that you're you. Right now. I like you." He's sincere, but uncertain. That's probably not something he's been wanting to talk to her about because it could get weird and awkward. It is awkward. So of course he needs to make a joke with, "Are you trying to tell me I'm not on your good side already?" Dee's head ducks in answer to his words, perhaps to hide her blush. "I--" is a start. "How about that drink?" That's what she comes up with when she looks back up at him. "And we can hang out and enjoy the bonfire and I can-- think about that?" She tries with an uncertain smile. "Please," says G'vri, entirely willing, eager even, to do his best to drink whatever share of her booze he can manage. "Maybe we can both forget about how big of an ass I'm being." That would be awesome, right? "But you really-- there's nothing you need to think about." There's something firm about the way he says that. They can forget about this and never speak of it again. Whether they actually forget or not. "So. What're we doing?" "Drinking!" Dee tells him readily, "And though I don't think you're being an ass, the rest..." She gestures something that says 'by all means'. "Maybe, though," the young woman muses, "I can start thinking of you as not just Rik's big brother. Have you ever played 'never have I ever'?" Games are safe, right? G'vri will readily ignore everything that has to do with his big mouth and ridiculous words. "Of course I've played it. Who hasn't played it." It's a rhetorical question. Because it has to be close to everyone. "Are you really sure you want to go there? I'm not very good at it." "Why not? It'll help me get to know you, and as I've historically played it, inquiries tend not to be very cementing of a big brotherly reputation." Dee points out as she releases his arm and moves the rest of the way to her bag, pulling out the blanket and spreading it there where here's room. The bottle of booze comes next and she settles down, one hand inviting him to join her even as she sucks off her shoes so as not to invite much sand onto the blanket. "I ought to get used to you as G'vri anyway, Gav. Tov will probably chase Taeliyth when the time comes," the facts of life are dismissed with a shrug. He moves with her, watching as she spreads out the blanket, then looking away when he realizes that he's doing it. Once she's settled, G'vri joins her, sitting at the edge of the blanket so he can keep his feet, bare now, in the sand. "I'm not sure there's that much about me that you don't already know." But he might also me overestimating how much people know about him. "Do you want me to make sure we aren't there?" That question is more serious. "I think you might be surprised," Dee counters with a smile. The question though, makes her suck in breath. "It... would be nice to see a familiar face, Gav," she says after some moments, "But I wouldn't see anyone trapped by a knot they weren't willing to have." Not like her, she doesn't say it but it's hardly a secret. "If you're not sure, I would have you choose your happiness and stay away." She reaches out a hand to casually touch his forearm, lest her words come off too harsh. "I can't say never have I ever told someone to stay away from Taeliyth's flight for their own happiness though, so let me think of something else." She opens the bottle while she does, offering it to him first. "Never have I ever... passed up a chance to go cliff diving, though I suppose that's done with now. Not safe for Taeliyth's lifemate," there's some humor there but the sort that exists so the one making the joke doesn't sob about it instead. "It's not forever," he reminds her, both that the Weyrleader's isn't... and that hers would be somewhat moreso. "I mean, I don't want it. But I can't say the thought of keeping someone else from taking advantage of you hasn't crossed my mind." G'vri sighs. But he takes the bottle from Dee with more enthusiasm. He seems just as enthusiastic to take a drink from it. "Wish I could say I haven't, really do. But I've been a dragonrider longer than you." It's teasing. She's had an advantage on that one. "Promise that there's still lots of ways to have fun." Then he's thinking, handing the bottle over. "Never have I ever betweened somewhere I didn't plan on going." Too soon? Dee's teasingly accusatory "Ass," in answer to his choice of topic and pulling the bottle from him to drink might make the "Ah, Gav," that follows less sweet if still appreciative, "that's sweet of you, but I'm a hard girl to take advantage of." Ha. She smiles at him. "Don't muddle up your life for me. I'd rather you happy. And if Tov ends up there and he wins, then we'll deal with that when it comes. Maybe Lilah will reappear from the great-- wherever." Dee sighs, clearly not holding hope for that for all that no evidence of her has been turned up. "Never have I ever visited a northern Weyr other than Fort." She flashes him a cheeky sort of smile. Weyrling limitations have to be good for something, no? "You're really gonna have to stop worrying about making everyone happy, you know. You can't. Even as a wingsecond that wasn't possible. Shards, even as a random one night hookup, that hasn't been possible." Woe is G'vri. He smirks back at her as he takes the bottle to take a drink, and he considers while he keeps hold of it. "Hmm. Never have I ever..." Pause. Then, "I told you I wasn't good at this game. Fine. Never have I ever worn a dress. In public." The last bit is a quick afterthought. He wiggles the bottle. "I can't make anyone happy, I don't think, except maybe select people at select times," Dee reasons, "But I can encourage people to not give up their happiness for me. If it's fair for them to want to, then it's fair for me want them not to," comes with another dimpled smile. Laughing, she takes the bottle to drink, shaking her head. "I'm not sure they make dresses in your size. Too many muscles," Dee teases before, "Never have I ever kissed a member of my own gender." The bottle is held out insistently as the game takes the typical turn toward sexual conquests (or lack thereof). G'vri makes a dismissive wave of his hand for the first of that and doesn't comment. "You'd be surprised at the sizes they make dresses in." But then she's saying that, and the bronzerider has to laugh. "You oughta try it some time. Girls taste good and they smell even better." He takes a drink and, if they're going that route, he seems to think he has at least one thing on Dee. "Never have I ever been taken by a man." "Oh," is as involuntary as the blush that is dark enough to be visible in golden glow of the bonfire. Then Dee is laughing, harder, half doubling over as she sits before she manages to settle herself enough to each for the bottle and pay her dues. "Girls are fine and all, nothing against them. I once pretended to have a girlfriend for a good cause and I'd've probably kissed her if it was needed to -- well, sell it, but it wasn't, so I didn't. They seem like they'd be... I don't know, less satisfying. Suppose during a flight it wouldn't matter much but-- I guess I'm not likely to have that happen." Her brow puckers, "I wonder how it is that bronzes tend to be the ones to win seniorship flights. Seems strange that browns sire often enough otherwise." She shrugs her shoulders, shakes her head dismissively. "Never have I ever..." she considers with eyes on the bottle, "had a boyfriend or girlfriend," she seems less certain of if this will require G'vri to drink, but she holds the bottle so he can take it, in case. "I've always wondered about that. How they... satisfy each other without--" G'vri pauses, glancing at Dee, then at the fire. He's change his mind on going there, evidently. "I think bronzes get more desperate, honestly. When it's a senior gold, I mean. Tov's only caught juniors, though. Her next never seems to make the bronzerider uncertain, too, because he starts to reach for the bottle, then hesitates before actually taking it. "I don't really consider any of the people I've been with to be that serious. But I've had the feeling that some of them have." So he'll take a small drink, anyway. "Never have I ever told someone that I love them. In a romantic way." As opposed to familial or friendly. Dee's smile is soft and her hand doesn't move toward the bottle. "It's funny how one heart can feel a way and another not. Suppose that's only natural, really, since no two people are the same and are likely to take the same experience two different ways." She reaches up to rub the back of her neck and up through her hair. "What do you do when you think someone might be falling for you and you're not sure you feel the same?" It might be an idle question and it doesn't stop her from offering her next, "Never have I ever worried about an age difference if I wanted someone." He makes a noncommittal sort of noise at her initial thoughts, glancing over at her when she asks that question. "If you don't think you'll feel the same way, probably best to tell them as soon as you know. You can always change your mind later, but it gives them a chance to move on." G'vri sort of sounds like he's speaking from experience. He ends up taking a drink from the bottle. "You know, it's really hard to think up stuff that I haven't done that you might've." Especially now that it's getting a little fuzzier to think at all. "Harder when you don't know if you will or not," Dee's look sours briefly. It's much more pleasant to think about the game and not pursue that line of thinking, so she does, giving G'vri a thoughtful look, "Who says it has to be things you haven't done that I might've? Maybe you should just start telling me things you haven't done but might like to, or things you have done that you'd like me to know about. It's not quite the game," she prompts, "but it is a good way for me to get to know you some." Then she adds nonchalantly, "Unless you're just trying to get me drunk so you can kiss me and I might not wonder if it was a good or bad idea." "I'm not that kind of guy, Dee." The words are offered with a careful levity as G'vri looks over at the weyrling. Does she think he's that kind of guy? Whatever concern there might briefly be, G'vri looks back at the fire, taking a drink regardless of the game. "Sometimes I think it might be nice to learn a craft. But I'm a little old to apprentice, and I'm not sure they'd take me even if I wasn't." Given, you know, the huge dragon he's telepathically bonded to. "There we go! Never have I ever apprenticed to a craft." The alcohol must be doing its thing if it's taken him this long to come up with that. There's laughter for the last and the obligatory drink. After, though, Dee's warm regard is laced with candor, "No, I know you're not. You might maybe need to be drunk to decide it were a good idea yourself," she reasons, "but not to persuade me." The way she says that might come off ambiguously, but is there really a way to ask for clarification without substantial awkwardness? "I'd like to think that dragonriders could be encouraged to learn crafts in the Interval. I understand it's impractical during a pass, but we'll be without Thread for a time," a long time, unless the Starsmiths that be are wrong, "and it would be nice to be able to be more self-sufficient, use our time better without neglecting the important elements of riderhood." Now she's waxing with near philosophic thoughts belonging to the Weyrwoman Dee will be. She waves a hand as if to dismiss heavy thinking. "Never have I ever been on a date." Lighter, see? "Us kissing or anything doesn't have to have anything to do with how either of us feel about each other," G'vri points out because he's evidently had enough to drink to think that seems like a thing to say. "I mean we don't have to be together or anything." They've had this conversation before. Just not quite like this. Fortunately he doesn't focus only on that. "I don't know what craft I'd take up if I could. Smithing has always seemed interesting." In the end, though, he ends up having to take another drink without offering any explanation for it. "Never have I ever really wanted Gavrik to Impress." He almost sounds guilty about it. "Yes, I suppose kissing could just be about rubbing other body parts the right way," Dee manages to say it dryly for all that she's seeking to wrest the bottle from him, the better to bring it to her own lips, though perhaps not in answer to his next declaration. Her hand arrests though before the bottle is taken from him, even, leaving her leaning toward him as she blinks and asks, "You haven't?" in curious but not accusatory tone. Even on the way to drunk as he is, G'vri is carefully neutral about that dry response. Since she doesn't take the bottle, he takes another drink, then pushes it into her hand so she can take it from him. "He'd be better off apprenticing. But I know he won't. I didn't really want you or Jem to Impress, either, I guess. You could be here, if you hadn't. You'd still be an apprentice. Your life wouldn't have been turned upside down." He draws in a breath to sigh it back out as he lays back against the blanket to look up at the sky. "Yeah, I suppose that's true," Dee's tone is one of musing, "Only I think my life would've been turned upside-down anyway." She takes a slow breath as she shifts to sit more directly next to him on the blanket. "Mom's pregnant," is said after a deeply drawn breath. "They're making my and Jem's section of the bungalow back to one area for the new baby. Maj's looking toward number two and even old Guzman decided to take Nanni on as an apprentice. Don't know if that was for lack of me or because she's about as determined as I was at her age." There's a faint smile from Dee. "And how long would it really have lasted? Apprenticing leads to journeying and journeying requires no small measure of travel either. I can't say I really would've chosen this if I'd known this were the choice," the young woman's eyes stray toward the beach, "but aside from the whole growing up fast to lead a Weyr thing," that little thing, "I might be better off where I am, Gav." Another shift sees her seeking to lay her head against his shoulder to watch the bonfire. "Maybe you should start hoping for Rik that he Impresses. It's his path. We can't choose the life our brothers make for themselves or neither Jem nor I would've been in Fort at all and we could've avoided the whole mess." "I probably wouldn't have ended up in Fort if not for Rik," says G'vri thoughtfully. "And now he's here and I'm not." He pulls in a breath, sighs it out heavily. "It doesn't matter what I hope for him. I've never told him how I feel about it. He'll do what he wants to do and I'll support whatever that happens to be." It's really his only choice. "Once again we find ourselves in the same boat," Dee's wry observation comes with a laugh that ends in s groan and a press of her face into his arm. "Hopeless, that's what we are," but there's comfort in not being in something alone and her expression is warmed by that sense of comradery as much as by the fire as she lifts it away from his arm to look up at him. "Hopeless," he repeats as if that must be the best word for it. G'vri smiles at Dee, lips at a dorky angle, when she lifts her head to look at him, relaxed and content from the alcohol. "I don't mind being in your boat," is definitely the sort of thing an intoxicated person says. "I think we'll be okay. And they'll be okay." "You know, if you'd asked me a seven ago, I'd thought the chances were as like as not," Dee answers, sitting up straighter with a wider smile. "But being here? Realizing that whoever I was when I left here, whatever intentions I may have had to go and return again as unchanged as a rock through one turn to the next, isn't who I am, who I ever could have been. Even if I'd gone and not Impressed, I'd have come back changed, seeded with Fort's ideas and lives. I wonder if I could have ever been content to be here." A pause that comes with a quick re-thinking, "Well, no, if Taeliyth had been here, I'm sure I could've belonged here. After all, it's almost the same as what's happened to me. I might not be Fortian yet, but Taeliyth is and will always be and so must I too, and-- that's alright." She takes a sip as though to celebrate that revelation. "Try not to want to transfer away from Fort, will you? I mean, if it's your happiness, of course-- but I'd like you to stay," as she expressed once before. "Life does have a way of changing us," muses G'vri with a hint of facetiousness. "But don't let your Weyrleader transfer me off and I'll do what I can. Wasn't my decision to stay at Fort. Might not be my decision to leave." A wingrider can only do so much about these sorts of things. "It won't be me putting in a request anytime soon, anyway. We don't mind Fort so much." He and Tovriath. "Good," must be for the last and "I won't," for her Weyrleader, and to address it all is Dee's firm, "And if you start to get homesick in the meantime, come and see me." They can do that much for each other, surely. She gives him an earnest look before looking at the bottle and giving it a shake. "Never have I ever thought seriously about kissing Rik's big brother before tonight," she dares say, bringing the fact that they were playing a game back sharply into focus. "I will," he murmurs, a smile pulling at one side of his lips before the rest makes him laugh. G'vri takes the bottle, though, leaning up on an elbow so he can manage a drink. "That's hardly fair. If I could kiss myself, I probably would. Been told I'm pretty damned good at it." And he's too busy trying to think up his comeback to realize how that might sound. "Never have I ever wanted more to be seen as something other than Rik's big brother." That comes with a laugh, too. There's laughter from Dee, too, for both the second and the last. There may even have been a few snorts mixed into the first that she couldn't hide and her eyes are bright with mirth when she manages to sit up from the way her muscles had refused to pay heed to silly things like sitting while she lost it. Grinning at him, her eye linger on his face and then stray before she forces them back to the bottle. "It's sort of funny, really. It shouldn't matter that you're Rik's big brother, and maybe it doesn't really, but we find these roles, these people we fit with, and maybe we would never notice how our roles change or how we blind ourselves to whatever else isn't relevant to our view of a person if we never had left here. Maybe I would be Dee the apprentice forever-- or at least until I made journeyrank and had to move away to somewhere else to a new role with new people. Maybe in a way we should be grateful to Fort. Whether we kiss or not, I have a chance to be Dahlia and you have a chance to be G'vri and we have a chance to see how we fit together without the blinders of youth." Perhaps Dee shouldn't drink if she's going to get philosophic. "Maybe Dahlia should've been a harper instead," G'vri teases her. "And maybe I am grateful to Fort, whatever reason there was for being transferred. I'm glad for the people I've met and I'm glad that I'll get to call you my Weyrwoman." He lays back again. "I could call you my Weyrwoman now, even. Would you like that, Weyrwoman ma'am?" Dahlia's nose wrinkles to show just how much Dee likes that idea (not at all). "I suppose you'll have to someday, but my days of not being called that are limited. I'd like to enjoy it while it lasts, if you don't mind. And if you do mind, I'll have to-- I don't know, pinch you? Tickling sounds too dangerous a thing when you're not just Rik's big brother anymore." The young woman shifts to lie back alongside him, her eyes casting up to the stars. "Tickling is dangerous," G'vri says, quite serious. "Not sure I like the sound of pinching much more. Dee, it is, then." That's the safest answer, even when a man is drunk. Probably especially when a man is drunk. "This is nice," he murmurs once she's laying alongside him. If he's left to his thoughts for too long, he might start drifting off here. He must be getting old. The silence is comfortable. So is the way Dee shifts to tuck herself alongside him. It might blur the line of strictly friendly or strictly more to do so, but this is a bonfire, the booze and the heat of the flames is apt to make anyone sleepy. "Gav?" The inquiry is made softly, but when no response is forthcoming, the young woman's eyes flutter shut and she lets the sound of the surf be her lullaby. |
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