Logs:Talking as a Perk
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| RL Date: 23 August, 2015 |
| Who: Everett, Yesia |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: The perks of talking (to pretty greenriders, with confidence). |
| Where: Lake Shore, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 14, Month 8, Turn 38 (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: H'vier/Mentions, Jo/Mentions |
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>---< Lake Shore, High Reaches Weyr(#276RJs) >-------------------------------<
The rest of the bowl may be barren, grass barely surviving at best, but
here by the lake, it's brilliantly green in the warmer months: thickening
and thriving in the silty, boulder-dotted soil just before it transitions
to soft sand and thence to the cool, clear water itself.
A large freshwater lake fed by a low waterfall, it not only provides
warm-weather bathing space for humans and dragons, but has one end fenced
off as a watering hole for the livestock in the feeding grounds. The water
there is often muddier than the rest of the clear lake, whose shallows
drop off abruptly several yards out into deep water, and whose edge
undulates against the coarse-hewn bowl wall: here close enough to just be
bramble-covered rocks, there far enough away that a narrow land bridge
divides the main lake from a smallish pond. Between are several rocky
outcroppings that form excellent makeshift diving points, though only one
-- across the bridge -- has a set of narrow, slippery, quite possibly
tempting stairs. With mid-afternoon well upon the weyr, Snowdrift's drills come to a close in the nearby bowl and its riders disperse. Of the pack, a swift, pale green breaks off and beelines for the lake shore, decidedly less glowy than the previous weeks, and her bugle is of greeting to the children and few dragons in the water. She lands just shy of the water and begins wiggling impatiently while the smaller figure between her neck-ridges climbs down to start removing her straps. Yesia's curtailed only by her lifemate's excited little lunges towards the cool water, but her progress is steady and smooth. Mid-afternoon, which is to say, shortly after waking for certain people whose employment requires late nights. Staying up late enough to catch breakfast is one thing; doing that and then actually getting lunch is another. Consequently, Everett has snagged a few cold leftovers and taken off for a nicer spot than the mostly-empty living cavern to enjoy them. Sitting a little way up from the water, he's halfway through a sandwich when the dragon lands. That, in itself, is worth some attention, but the sort of watchful eyes that belong to a young man not yet accustomed to dragons. Unfamiliar, until he finally spares a second look for the rider. "Hey, you." He gets up and starts brushing himself off, leaving the food on the low, flat bit of rock he's been settled on. Yesia makes quick work of the straps as best she can, uttering once, "Stand still," to very little effect. Aeaeth nuzzles her gently when she's freed of her burden, and like liquid she gets into the water, barely disturbing the surface after the first few steps in; her path is submerged, and tracking her is simply a matter of watching rising bubbles, a thing she does perfunctorily until a voice cuts into her attention. The greenrider turns to face it, looking confused, then, "Oh. It's you." She fishes briefly for a name, any identifier, and says, "The bartender." A direct insult probably wouldn't have made his face fall quite like that, but it's momentary, rescued with a smile that's slightly less sure than the one there a moment before. "Everett," he offers up, reasonably successful at not making it a complaint. "That's your dragon?" He's just batting a thousand today, or whatever reasonable facsimile of that metaphor the Pernese would use. "Are you busy? I don't want to interrupt anything." Notoriously, Yesia's not the most observant when it comes to feelings that aren't her own, so she probably thinks that's just something Everett's face does regularly; at any rate, she doesn't openly acknowledge the look he gets. What she does acknowledge is, "That's Aeaeth, yes. We come here every day for her to swim before bed. It's just a ritual, nothing really important except I have to bring her down later if I don't do it right after drills." Which is to say, no, she's not busy. Her smile is easier than his. "You can keep us company." "I didn't know dragons could swim." Though Everett is, of course, standing right there, so it's not like he can deny what's right in front of his face. He doesn't approach too close, not overly-familiar, now, but stuffs his hands in his pockets instead. "Happy to be company. Hopefully will be good company. It's nice to see you seeming more... relaxed? Last I saw you, you didn't seem to be having such a great time of things." "It's her favorite thing," Yesia tells him, hooking her gloves into her belt and dropping into a seat on the shore, at which point she'll pat right beside her to indicate he should sit with an encouraging, "You'll be alright company. She swims better than fish, she says. Must do, since she catches them all the time." Her smile is unbidden and fond, and not going away, even at the mention of previous encounters. "Ah," she says eloquently, her gaze averting. "Yeah. It was her first time flying." With the invitation thus offered, Everett goes to sit down. There's a glance back at his sandwich, but he seems to decide that in a choice between the two, proximity to a real live girl wins. He settles in, doesn't force the eye contact when she looks away. "I mean, it's fine. I was a little concerned, but nobody else seemed to be. Everything's okay, then?" Okay: a thing that things at High Reaches definitely are on a regular basis. "Made for a dull rest of the evening for me, but I managed to survive it somehow." Yesia looks at Everett a bit like he's an alien at his explanation, her smile bleak. "Well, it happens a lot here. It's normal, I just didn't know how - what to expect. I hope I didn't cause you too much trouble." There's a pause, then, "I would have thought plenty of people showed up to drink afterwards. There's only one winner, after all. I hear lots of people go drinking after, but - well. I always win." She sounds wry, not at all like a winner as it were. The bartender wrinkles his nose. "Yes, and that's the trouble. Any night I have to spend the whole time filling orders, I don't get much of a chance to actually talk to anyone. Much less anyone worth talking to. But, comes with the job." Everett looks out after the dragon who caused this whole business, as though some explanation might be found in what she's doing out in the water. Or maybe just as though he's still not sure about this eye contact thing, at this point. "You say it like that, I'd start to think it wasn't something I'd call winning. But--you at least have some time before it happens again?" What Aeaeth is doing in the water is finding the perfect rock to house her, one way out in the middle that is currently acting as a nest to a trio of firelizards. They are ousted as she surfaces, snorting water at the insistently and, when they don't move, threatening to squish them with superior bulk. They flutter away screeching lizard obscenities at her, hissing, and then each disappear between for a less agitating location while she organizes all her limbs just so, for maximum effect before the sun goes down. "You're a bartender. Your job is to pour drinks, not chat up everyone that sits down. If you wanted to talk you should have been a Harper. All they do is talk." When he fails to make eye contact, she turns her attention back to the water as well, drawing her legs up and resting her chin on her knees. "I win because at the end of it, I still end up with someone, just like Aeaeth." She squints. "This time I ended up in bed with someone that isn't Good," the capitalization is implied, "and now everything's gotten complicated...er. More complicated." She shrugs about time. "I might. She is supposed to fly a few times a year. A few months, yet." "My job is to pour drinks. That doesn't mean I'm not allowed to have a nice time while I'm doing it. Anyway, some people expect conversation with their drinks. And I can't carry a tune in a bucket." Cue predictable smile at her, finally looking over. Maybe Everett is looking more at her legs than her face, but he's at least got an excuse, right? Geometry. "I'm sorry you didn't end up with someone... Good." There's a careful shift of emphasis, but also doesn't sound much like he understands the reasoning behind it. "I was thinking we could maybe get together sometime. When I wasn't working. But I guess we sort of are? I don't know if this counts." Yesia laughs. "Maybe you should look at talking as the perk," Yesia suggests, turning to face him, switching chin for temple. "Then, when someone you don't like comes around, you can just tell them it's not your job to do anything but pour them drinks. It might help." His apology gets a lifting of the lip, a smal paring of teeth and, "It's not your fault," obviously, "it's just harder now. It's just sex." That sounds dubious, at best, but then she lights up again, her smile a slow crawl across her face, from one corner to the other. "Are you asking me on a date, bartender?" At least this time it sounds like she's nicknamed him, not so much like she can't remember who he is. She can't have forgotten his name already, at any rate. "Yes. I think." Everett is not exactly the picture of confidence, now, but at least he hasn't completely broken down in nerves. He's just a little uncertain in the way he regards her, now that there's a face. Lighter: "Now that it's incredibly awkward, and all. But if I don't now, I think I'll have missed the window of opportunity, and if it's only going to get more awkward, well, there it is. My nights off are awfully quiet, as it is." He runs his fingers back through his hair, but some of it just falls back into his face when he drops his hand back to his knees. "Hah." Yesia turns her head back out to the water, where Aeaeth is flicking her tail in and out of the water and staring skyward, like she's looking for something. "Last time I went on a date, someone took me to Ista," she tells him, apropos of nothing. "But you can take me on a date. I think I might like that." On her rock, Aeaeth whips her head around with a low croon of inquiry; Yesia's face pinches briefly. "When are your nights off?" Aeaeth tickles with gentle concern, though there's apology there too, for eavesdropping. Blue. Blue. Aeaeth's favorite color lately strobing as a gentle reminder of promises made, and then drowned out when Yesia shoves her away; she is thinking about it. (From Aeaeth to Yesia) "Ista." Everett ends up rubbing his face, at this, and then abruptly stopping, clearly at the point where he realizes that it doesn't look any better to be doing that. "Is that what I have to live up to? I've never been to Ista. I was just thinking along the lines of a couple drinks, not... I mean, if you want to do more than that?" Take a deep breath, Ev. "I'm on late-ish tonight, then off tomorrow. Then I work through the nineteenth, so I have that off, and I don't know past that, yet. I'm the new guy, I get whatever's left, you know?" "Are you competing?" Yesia inquires innocently, but the touch to her smile is a little wicked, like she's enjoying it anyways. "He's a bronzerider, too. And a wingleader, and his dragon caught the last gold that rose here." She's ticking off on her fingers, but stops to give him a pointed look. "But I don't go on dates for charity. I'd be so busy if I did. So, maybe I just think you're cute, even more when you're all nervous." She reaches up to twist a curl of her hair between her fingers, considering him mildly. "You can just buy me drinks. You owe me one anyways, so what's a couple more?" For his schedule, Yesia musters a sympathetic sigh. "That's how it is in Snowdrift. I have elevator duty all weekend." Gross. A breath blown up so that it unsettles his hair for a moment. "Apparently I'm not, at least not on any of those counts. I'm..." Pause. "A bartender. I think I'm good company. I'm not entirely broke. It sounds a lot less impressive, here, when the other guy isn't just some farmer, doesn't it?" At least Everett can do the self-deprecating smile pretty well, there. "What's elevator duty? You... elevate?" "Confidence," Yesia advises, "is very sexy. You should work on it. You're already easy on the eyes. I can take myself to Ista now, it's not so impressive once you have the visualization." Her smile softens a little for him, and she straightens to cross her legs straight out in front of her, leaning back with her palms flat to prop her up. "It's the company that makes it important. Whether you're a bartender or a coal miner or...whatever. Being a rider takes some of the mystery out of what it might mean to be with a bronzerider," she admits. "It's not like the silly romance books." Her smile wavers slightly when his own is so disparaging, so she opts for, "You have to take people up and down, all over the place. People whose dragons are sick or hurt, or people who just want to go to the star stones, or people without dragons if nobody else can take them up when they're weyrmated. It's boring to tears." "I'm a bit out of my element," Everett observes. "I wasn't even entirely sure if this was going to get me laughed at, the asking, much less if you'd say yes. Folks here seem to move a bit faster than I'm used to, at least, of the sorts of girls who don't charge for their company." A laugh, instead of the sort of throat-clearing that might suggest too much familiarity with that. "That does seem terribly dull. At least there's a bit of an art to the pour, even when we're busy. With Thread gone, though, isn't much of what's left just getting people from here to there?" The sound Yesia makes is sympathetic, her eyes diverting to the water again, a little sad. "You'll grow out out of it," she says blandly. "I came from Crom. They'll make fun of you, hold-bred mentalities and morals. Handfasting and families. It's not important here. Well, sometimes it is. People make their own rules." Elevator duties being as they are, she says, "Maybe you could teach me to pour, and I can be a bartender through the Interva instead. I bet I'd get lots of tips." "All those things were always different, to different people." Everett turns to look at her as though seeing her with entirely different eyes, now. But only for a moment. Look, there's a lake. Isn't it fascinating. "By the time I was old enough to be thinking about girls, I wasn't thinking about wives. Maybe if I'd met different girls. Doesn't matter much, now, does it? I think... here is good for me. It looks like it's been good for you, too. On balance." A little gesture with the chin out at the dragon in the water. "Tips, yes. You'd do better than me, anyway. Men tip better than women for pretty." Sly smile. "Yes, but not this different," Yesia says, matter-of-fact. "Not for me. It's worse if you try to hold onto them, so I think I brought most of it on myself." It's a nice lake, yes, and both halves of the greenpair would agree. Even right now, when she follows the direction of his own eyes, just in case something interesting has his attention. "What were you thinking about instead of wives? Bars?" Another look at Aeaeth ears one of those fond smiles. The only explanation she can muster is, "I love her very much." Compliments being the best, and flirting being important in this moment, Yesia blushes prettily, not shyly, and reaches out to rest a hand on his forearm. She's very earnest when she says, "Then you'll have to teach me." There's a pause before Everett says, "Mostly cards. The liquor came later." The hand settling just there draws his eyes, and then his opposite hand, to rest very lightly over hers. A different sort of a smile growing, now. More comfortable. "So you can steal my job? No, if you ask like that, I guess I'm going to have to do it, aren't I? And damn the consequences, if it makes you smile." He does not, for the record, sound the least bit like he's really very worried about any of it. "Oh," Yesia says quietly for the gambling. "We never had enough to make it worth trying, I don't think. Not that I think I'd be very good at it." There is always the ight with his solitaire game as an example. Her eyebrows knit together, her mouth purses, her nose wrinkles very slightly. "I wouldn't steal your job," she assures him, though the promise comes only because, "Aeaeth wouldn't let me if I wanted to. We're still a pair, and I'm still a dragonrider." To a fickle dragon, who is watching the beach with pinioned wings and a low grumble of disapproval, for ...somethig, certainly. « You said, » Aeaeth supplies matter-of-factly, since subtlety has failed her, « that you would take your gift to Tacuseth's and apologize, and tell her you'd like to go out tomorrow. He's not her. » It meets familiar Maybe Everett doesn't know dragons well, but he knows grumbles of disapproval well enough to cast a worried glance in that direction. Just for a moment, though. "I'm glad to hear it. Both for the sake of my job, and your lovely dragon." Look, it can't hurt to throw that in, can it? "We'll start with a few drinks, then we'll see how much I can teach you, huh? Sounds like a good place to start. Think, in the meantime, I could get just a little something to get me through my shift tonight? Call it an advance on the actual date." Just a slight lean in, there. Meanwhile, just lest this moment be too pat, one of the firelizards has discovered his sandwich, and is making very good progress on the good bits of it while he's distracted. Lovely! Flattery, sir, will get you nowhere. At least with one particular green if the way that Aeaeth suddenly snorts water out her nose and turns it skywards in annoyance is any indication. Yesia smiles brightly at him, lifting a finger pointedly. "See? Confidence." It sounds chiding, and she'll even tap his nose with the tip of her finger gently like he's just been scolded. She can't be, though, smiling that way. Aeaeth moves from her rock with slithering grace as Yesia leans in kind, but the green won't be quick enough. "Just so you have a good night." The kiss she'll give him is as chaste as the one she gave on their first meeting, only this one is on the lips, and briefly lingering. "I'll see you to--" she begins, then Aeaeth is there, out of the water and dripping as she stalks closer. She gives a mutinous look at the pair, then stands there looking generally annoyed, for a dragon. Yesia sighs. "I'll see you tomorrow," she promises, taking her hand back so she can get to her feet, without explaining much. « I am itchy, I think a fish bit me, we need to go home. » It's a very rapid-fire request, brisk and cool with clipped syllables unlike Aeaeth's usual musicality. « Let's go, before my skin rubs off and we have to spend weeks in the infirmary and I am scarred hideously forever, Yesia. » (From Aeaeth to Yesia) Self-control. If Everett never exhibits it again for the rest of his life, it will be because it was all used up in that moment. Chaste. Entirely. Or maybe he's not been so easily free of his own upbringing? No, any holdbred young man is still a young man. "Tomorrow," he agrees, similarly getting up, and this is the point where he finally notices what's become of his food. "Oh, hell--shoo, get off of that." Hopefully a kiss can be sustaining where a meal is not. "Tomorrow!" again, turning back to face her, flash of a grin, before he sets about gathering up what's left. "Tomorrow," Yesia echoes back, behind bright laughter that only makes Aeaeth annoyed enough to stretch out her wings languidly and drip on her lifemate. Take that. "Have a good shift, Everett," she says, finding her coil of straps and making even shorter work of putting them on her dragon, because Aeaeth is cooperative and stock still for the process. Soon enough, she's climbed up and Aeaeth has launched to the sky, spraying water everywhere in departing -- but hey, at least it probably scares those 'lizards away, the vermin. |
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Comments
Jo (06:26, 24 August 2015 (PDT)) said...
(( punts Everett into Farideh's Pit and dons gladiator BATTLE GEAR!! )) * Aeaeth's my ride-or-die chick. * Awesome scene, guys~ ;)
Everett (06:34, 24 August 2015 (PDT)) said...
Ev is going to get murdered over a girl before he even gets to second base, isn't he?
Yesia (07:34, 24 August 2015 (PDT)) said...
Eyes on the prize, Everett.
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