Logs:The Importance of Smiling
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| RL Date: 5 July, 2015 |
| Who: Lilah, X'vin |
| Involves: Fort Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Lilah and X'vin talk politics, processes, and the importance of a smile. |
| Where: Baby's A Red Weyr (X'vin's), Fort Weyr |
| When: Day 7, Month 3, Turn 38 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Hattie/Mentions, N'muir/Mentions, K'del/Mentions |
| OOC Notes: Takes place immediately after Handle With Care. |
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| "You might get lucky and find some there," was X'vin's passing remark, before Besmernyth launched up and beelined neatly for the ledge he'd claimed when they arrived. The ledge is large, certainly enough that Eliyaveith can land and maybe stay, if she's so inclined; Besmernyth is quick to slink to his wallow near the wall, in the shade; it leaves plenty of room, as he nudges his head over the edge of the ledge and watches the tiny movements below. X'vin is not possessed of small talk now, though he's welcoming, and courteous as they make their way into the weyr. The cabinet near the wall is regarded as he gestures for her to choose whichever seat she wishes while he peruses the liquor, saying, "Was there any reason for that? I thought you'd have better things to do than stop and check on a weyrling." Eliyaveith isn't so inclined; she takes to a ledge further below, one of those queens' ledges though not her own but rather one to overlook the weyrling barracks. Lilah doesn't take a seat. At least, not immediately, as she wanders in exploration of this first room of the weyr, shrugging out of her riding jacket to reveal an emerald green top that is silken, almost fine enough to visit a Holder or two. The jacket is folded over the arm of the couch, left there, before she stops at a bookcase to slide fingers over the spines. "I have plenty better. Better things than to visit with one of my wingleaders, even," hers, not E'dre's. "But, it keeps Eliyaveith happy when I do." "And yet...." He raises his brows at her, curious, before acquiring a pair of glasses from the top shelf and pouring two glasses of amber, offering one to her. "So you stopped, to check on her babe, and then came up here on the off chance that I had aged whiskey with my shipment." It's barely a question. "I've been waiting for you to ask after me. To go to Fort. I assume, with N'muir stepping down so close after Hattie, it slipped through your busy schedule." "Or maybe I have better things to do than to go play at polite words and diplomacy with Holders," Lilah replies lightly, though she doesn't have better things right now than to accept that glass. She even tips it in a simple thanks to X'vin before she lifts it to her lips, dark eyes sliding over him over the rim of that glass before she turns back to his shelves. "They will understand, with N'muir--. Much longer, and I am sure it will be an offense of its own." "You'll get them talking of rebellion, like that," X'vin warns astutely. "You knew that when you took that knot. Not that there's any other options. Dee, is it? That little gold?" He takes his own swallow of the drink, coming up beside her. Most of the books are worn from reading, from travel, and a few are marked with Benden colors. It wasn't a long settling process, apparently. "It may already be, Lilah. What were you before you Impressed? Nothing diplomatic, I wager." "I do not speak to them like that. Or are you suggesting that you might be the type to tell them words said in private, wingleader?" counters Lilah in her accustomed challenge. There is little change in her as he steps to her side, continuing her intrusive inspection of his books, but there is a sense of accommodating the presence there, a buried awareness. It takes her longer to answer his question, finally settling on a dismissive, "I was nothing. I worked at Dice for a few turns, and I was a drudge before that. Nothing compared to your life, I am sure." And at that, she does look up to X'vin, before sliding a look around his weyr. "Where would that get me?" X'vin asks, pointing out the absurdity of sabotaging. "Our relationship is...mutually beneficial." For now, he doesn't say. "I only mean, you don't have to speak your disdain for them to feel it. It's in this thing you do with your mouth, and your eyebrows." One thing is clear: he's been studying her, and carefully. "Few are," is an acknowledgement of fact that lacks any personal pride or arrogance. "Yours is much more eventful, I'd wager - and challenging. Trust me when I say they are easier to get with honey. Can you afford trouble, when you have to worry about how much change you can enact while you hope Eliyaveith rises before Taeliyth?" Lilah's brows curve upwards even as he points out that disdain might show there, but it is only a weight of dark eyes that seems reserved that falls on the bronzerider. "There is one thing that I can promise you, X'vin," the goldrider starts in a murmur, an easy sureness in the words that doesn't worry at his question, "Eliyaveith will rise before Taeliyth. The rest-- Is a worry on its own, yes, but I do have time." With that, she moves to brush past him towards the desk there, continuing her curious exploration. "You can't," begins X'vin, then clips it off. The wiles of weyrwomen and their dragons are not for him to comment on, so he takes her quiet assurance in a manner better than he takes the rest. "I'll help you any way I can," he says, turning but not immediately following; the room is for work, largely, with hides on the desk for wingriders, maps, trades, and commentary. He doesn't stop her from looking at them, or anything else, and doesn't seem terribly concerned about what she might stumble on. She has him by the balls already, so to speak. "I'll help you where I can. It's hard to overcome your nature. We really need to work on making you smile more." He gives her his own brilliant one, encouraging. A dark gaze slides back as X'vin begins that, another challenge in the way she watches him. As he abandons it, though, Lilah's gaze returns to the hides on the desk, flipping through them as shamelessly as she explored his bookshelf. "Are you offering to give me lessons in being more like a Holder, then? Teach me all of the things that I will need to do?" she questions. And, perhaps just to prove that she can, when she looks up at X'vin, it is a slow smile that curves at her lips, at once inviting yet sharp. "If you're willing to learn, yes," X'vin says. "It can only help." That smile earns a tilt of the head as he evaluates her, and then he crosses the room, to set the glass down on the nearest surface so he can look at her. "No. Too...hard." He looks for a moment like he might touch her, but realizes he likes his hands where they are and says, "You look like you're planning to eat me for supper. What makes you happy?" "Perhaps I am," murmurs Lilah in turn, though his question draws a long silence from the Weyrwoman. And where he might hesitate over touching her, she does not have the same compunctions, lifting her fingers to catch at the fabric of his shirt and rubbing it thoughtfully between thumb and forefinger. She finally adds, quietly, "I don't remember the last time I was happy. There have been times--." She doesn't finish that thought, her words drifting back into silence. "You have to convince me," X'vin says, reaching up to take her wrist in a firm grip; he doesn't remove her hand though. "I know what you're capable of, or I suspect I might." She's still some level of unknown. "You have to make sure they don't. You must remember something. What were you doing? When you were happy? Where were you?" Only a single brow lifts upwards as he catches her wrist, but where he doesn't remove it neither does Lilah try to pull it away. "K'del and I went sailing, away from everything," replies the Weyrwoman, giving him that little bit only as she studies him. "What do you suspect I am capable of? What do I need to convince you of?" X'vin pulls, gently, to draw her closer. "I think you're capable of burning everything and everyone to get where you think you need to be. To prove..." she can fill that, if she wishes. "And that you will, if you're not careful, with this," his free hand comes up, to touch her knot. "If you can't convince me you're not going to, nobody else is going to believe you for a second when you say you won't." But he's thoughtful for a moment, smiling. "Sailing. Was it the water? Or the freedom?" If X'vin is expecting a resistance on the Weyrwoman's part at any point, a fight, he doesn't find it as she is drawn in closer. It's only her words that provide the challenge for the wingleader as she counters, "I can't convince you of it because it isn't true. It is time that we do, that we act. If it means burning down a Hold that refuses to properly tithe--. At least we won't have another situation like Astivan." It is hard, surely, to switch from that subject to the other. It is possibly a form of whiplash as she exhales a breath to answer, "Both. And the company. Getting away. I am always happier when I do not have to wear my knot, to be Lilah of Fort." "Who better to find the weaknesses in your smile than someone who knows exactly what it's hiding?" X'vin asks gently, releasing her wrist. He catches a lock of her hair in his fingers briefly, tugging the curl, then releasing. "We can't burn them; it comes to the same, in the end. The weyr struggling, and one lucky Hold sending you more than they ought." He shakes his head. "No, no. It won't do. When you smile at them, Lilah, I want you to think about sailing. And Freedom. And being Lilah of everywhere. You can even think of Reaches' Weyrleader, if that sweetens the pot." He steps away with the intention of getting his drink. "Just don't think about fire. It makes you look wild." There is no smile now, only the slight tightening of Lilah's jaw for the mention of K'del, perhaps, and dark eyes that study him for the rest of it as Lilah finally remembers her own drink and lifts it for a quick, bracing swallow. "And if I can't ever smile like that to them? While begging for them to do what they should do?" she questions in turn. X'vin thinks about that, giving her space to breathe while he finds his own drink. "Then maybe we repeat Benden's history. We steal their women while they come at us with pitchforks. We send them home with their tails down. But only after we've tried everything else." He drains his glass. "But you said yourself. We have time, and I think you are perfectly capable. There are plenty of rungs on the ladder before you escalate to setting their homes on fire." "But Benden had Thread," Lilah says, without needing to point out that they do not. They are both sharp enough perhaps, in this room, to realize what the other is getting at. She takes another slow sip of her drink, savoring it, before she adds simply, "I will do as you say. Learn to smile at them, and take whatever instruction you see fit to offer me. And if I am as capable as you think, I am sure we can accomplish it in the time we have." X'vin's wave is dismissive of Thread; the same rules apply. "You are," he says of her ability, with the same low confidence she had of Eliyaveith's ability to rise first. "And we will." He's moved back again, sliding a hand around her waist to tug her near, "Hm. What do you think? Let's see if I can make you smile. For practice." The whiskey is raised again, finished off and set aside before Lilah allows herself to be drawn close to the bronzerider. "I think that any mutual benefits to our relationship will be strained by that," she challenges in a low murmur, a hand lifting to his chest and settling there between them. "I need a teacher; I already have that." A bronzerider he is, but a bastard he is not, figuratively or otherwise. His grip is relaxed, enough that she could get away if she wanted with minimal of trouble, and it relaxes further at her claim. "I'd argue that sooner or later, we'll strain it anyways. But." A shrug, and X'vin drops his arm, this time leaving it to her to put distance there. "Whoever he is, I hope he makes you happy," is what he has to say, looking down at her. "For everyone's sake." "Well, he doesn't make me smile, but." But, does she have to say, when her expression suggests it. Yet, Lilah doesn't put any space between them, her fingers remaining even where they are as she replies in the same soft tones, "Let's hope it's later. After you've taught me as much as you can about the rest." Then she smiles, and this one is a warm one, though there's still a buried flicker of emotions to dark eyes, reflecting that wildness even if her lips do not. "I'll hold out that you're a quick study," he rejoins, and is rewarded presently with that smile. "Better. Much better." X'vin's praise is hard earned but genuine as he studies her. It's not perfect, no, if the way his eyebrows raise is any indication, but step by step. They'll work on the eyes later. |
Comments
Alida (00:06, 6 July 2015 (MDT)) said...
ArooooOOOOOOooooo! Alida almost always hears the 'call of the wild.' I think she and Lilah should go out incognito some time, and... prowl Pern. Burn a thing or two, perhaps. ^^
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