Logs:The Same Team
| |
|---|
| |
| RL Date: 25 March, 2013 |
| Who: Sabella, E'sren |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: E'sren joins Sabella over lunch. She draws his picture, they become study partners. |
| Where: Kitchens, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 3, Month 5, Turn 31 (Interval 10) |
| Weather: Heavy Rain |
  |
| Kitchen, High Reaches Weyr(#267RJs) Polished marble and granite surfaces, gleaming metalwork and pale woods characterize the vaulted fastness of the kitchen. Several large hearths gape red-mouthed against the outer wall of the cavern, their fires almost always stoked for the constant cooking the Weyr requires to feed its denizens. Sinks line the wall to one side of the hearths, providing ample space to wash large quantities of dishes, while to the other, cabinetry and a deep pantry provide storage space for items commonly needed on a day-to-day basis. The remaining wall space is taken up by passageways and extra seating: swinging doors that lead variously to the main living cavern, the inner caverns and the storage rooms, a counter-height pass-through for food service to the Snowasis, and a series of nooks equipped with tables and benches for quick, out-of-the-way meals any time of day. The weyrlings are supposed to be taking their dinners together. But no one said they had to eat lunch together every single day. So it's probably no surprise that Sabella takes these precious minutes every day to sneak away to eat in the kitchen when it's slow. A nice little nook all to herself. Her meal has already been consumed, plate pushed off to the side. In front of her, the journal she keeps is opened in front of her. There's no writing to display on these pages, it's actually more along the lines overly elaborate drawings. Sketchings of flowers on vines that have been worked on for more than one lunch, picking up more detail each time. Her hair was sheared off recently, but somehow she's working the short, curly bob out to her advantage. Even if it means a touch more kohl around her eyes to accentuate the 'totally not a tomboy, okay?' message. Since she's thus occupied with her lunch and her drawings, Sabella probably wouldn't notice a little thing like E'sren's entrance. There's a lot more going on than just him besides, more people that bustle around cleaning up after the afternoon meal service, voices lifted in the leveled drone of well-practiced communication that happens every. day. The weyrling has an apple with him that he's polishing on his shirt with one hand while the other reaches over to tap her on one shoulder to trick her into looking that way as he circles around to her other side. Sabella pauses in her drawing to lean one hand into her palm, looking out across the kitchen and watching some of the workers. She's distracted enough by that, she really doesn't notice the entrance of the other weyrling. The tap to her shoulder stiffens her form and she turns her head, part-way to looking in the other direction. But there's no one there in her periphery and she quickly changes directions to catch the apple eating bluerider. Her eyes narrow a fraction, but her smile plays on her mouth regardless. "E'sren. Very cute, as always." Her nose wrinkles and she turns from, chin lifting as she puts pencil to paper once more. E'sren crunches loudly into his apple and leans up against the edge of her table, smiling at her with bulging cheeks when his trick works and for her when she doubles back to check her other shoulder. Pleased with himself, he finishes that mouthful and swallows, simultaneously taking a seat whether she likes it or not. At first he seems content to just do that, sit there, until he realizes she's working on something and with that realization comes curiosity. He leans over to catch a peek. "What's this?" Sit at her table? Oh hell no. Sabella tries to put her feet up over there before he can get in all the way. But there's that whole 'or not' part. So it doesn't quite work out, she huffs mock-indignantly and withdraws her booted heels. They clop onto the ground and she begins to shade the petal on another delicate little flower. "A drawing." Her hands work automatically, following the lines and jumping to another as she works. The non-doodling hand reaches across and taps his apple with a slender finger. "What's this?" It's an impish smile, obvious question for obvious question. Yes, 'or not'. He may have even wrestled a little bit with those heels, or just helped her move them if she's having trouble by sweeping them away from the bench, chair, whatever, and towards the floor. "A drawing? No way." As she taps at it, E'sren's lowered gaze brings the apple into focus and he says, "ha," in return for her sarcasm. "You should be nice to me. We're on the same team. What are you drawing? Flowers?" Crunch, a big one, followed my smaller ones as he chews. "It's pretty. You're good at that." "Way." Sabella responds with emphasis, smile tugging on the corners of her mouth again. For that reminder, she arches an eyebrow at him. "Really. We may both be weyrlings, but what makes us on the same team? Who are we against?" All the while she continues the shading, looking between him and the paper. She turns the journal, getting a hand on a better angle. "They're roses on a vine. And thank you." Unable to stop herself, "It's an apple, yes? You're awfully good at chewing." It's controlled effort that keeps her face straight. "The other team," E'sren suggests with no real validity, since they're just talking nonsense mostly anyway. He's still chewing when she compliments him on chewing, which means she makes slightly more sense than he just did, but stops to stare at her. His grin is sudden and wide and his eyes crinkle. "Why thank you. I didn't think anyone would ever notice." He takes another bite and settles into a comfortable (for him) silence while she draws, while he watches her draw. That lack of answer results in a quick glance up from her work. She tips her head to the side, as if to say 'alright then' silently. "You're welcome. I make it a point in my day to compliment others on seemingly mundane physical activities. I find it help builds feelings of mutual good will." The silence begins and Sabs continues to shade, eventually getting to the point where she can't do anymore, not realistically. Absently, she brings the pencil to her mouth and contemplates the lines in front of her. Coming to a conclusion, she flips the page and begins to sketch out something that's not a flower. It's distinctly cartoonish, the form overblown. And is there a coincidence that she continues to flicker those green eyes at him now and again? "Yeah except you're drawing pretty flowers. I don't think that's very mundane. Do you?" E'sren folds his arm atop the table and spins the apple idly in his hand and as it orbits it bares its flawless side and its bitten, browning side in turns. His eyes watch her as she works, but in an unfocused, half-attentive way. It could be Ahruth is stirring, or more likely he's just spacing out. But one of those times she looks at him he seems to snap out of it a little and his brow furrows. "What?" "I wasn't saying that what I was doing was mundane. Keep up with the conversation, will you?" It's Sabella. There isn't any true bite to her words here. It's cheeky and she's smiling at him when it comes. While he spaces out and loses interest in her, those fingers sketch away quickly. Bold lines, a few more fine ones. The shape of a face and body begin to take form, but again, they're quite cartoonish. It's an intentional style. A super long, lean figure. A narrow face with smallish eyes but an overly friendly grin, yet intense expression. A hand is lifted to the mouth, elongated fingers wrapped around a half-eaten apple. Coincidence? Perhaps. She looks at him, the picture of innocence with those big green eyes. She pulls the journal back towards herself, tipping it away. "Oh, nothing." Well obviously he's an idiot, idiots have to recognize when they're being their silly dumb selves, says E'sren's uplifted hands and mock-admonished facial expression. It's around then that he gets really interested again in whatever she's drawing, once he's gotten a glance and sees some of those carefully arranged lines. He meets her eyes, his lips parted to say something, then grins. "What is that, let me see." His free hand sneaks out to try to convince that journal back down to earth. Or table. It's not a full-hearted attempt to steal it, in keeping with the playful stuff. "What? No, you don't want to see any of this. It's not flowers. Totally mundane. Totally uninteresting." Sabella shifts and scoots over until she's in the far corner of her booth and out of the way of E'sren's grasping hand. Her smile is playfully challenging as she draws, now looking at him with some serious intent as she keeps the journal tilted away from his view. If he were to manage to get a look despite her efforts, he'd see that it's really starting to look like cartoon-him now. All it takes is that shift and scoot for him to realize he really, really wants to see what she's drawing now. People don't shift and scoot like that if they aren't trying to hide something. Her smile only further proves his theory, and E'sren abandons his apple in favor of half stretching out of his seat and reaching one long arm out. In doing so he manages to snag a corner of the journal, luckily it's a gentle hook that gives him that tantalizing glimpse of his own face on paper. His grin widens and he laughs through, "Mundane? That's my face. Okay, fine, I'm coming over there." It's just a leap out from his side of the booth and a swing into her side, afterall. Sabella pulls the book quickly away from that tug. She laughs when he responds to the mundane comment, clearly thrilled with his reaction. Her hand is moving furiously now, desperately trying to get in the final details before he can get too close. Eyebrows. Dimples. The clean lines of his face. So close. The clothes almost there, almost done. There's a squeak that escapes her when he swings into the booth and she'll hold it out of his range for a few more moments, but will give in to whatever fight he puts him. Relinquishing the drawing that's so E'sren to him. Oh, there's a sight. When E'sren finds his landing in that spot next to her he just sort of does things to her. Poke, poke, flip of one of her curls, boop on the nose. You know, the whole arsenal. None of it is aimed at any actual outcome, other than her annoyance, and he could just easily attempt to watch her over her shoulder or outright steal the journal from her, which he doesn't. When she does let him see he lifts his chin and sniffs, reaching for his apple to take a victory bite as he turns the page towards him and slouches in his seat next to her during his study of her drawing of him. A little smile tugs at one corner of his mouth and he turns it on her. "Okay. This is awesome." Touching. There's quite a bit of touching back from Sabs during the chaos of E'sren's calculated plan of annoyance. It's entirely possible that he'll miss the brush of her light fingers against various places on his lanky form. It should come across as the greenrider simply being overly-familiar with him. When he gets the book from her, she sighs in mock-exasperation and crosses her arms over her chest. But there's a part of her that's watching him too, watching for his reaction. It's a positive one and she smiles brightly. "I was trying to capture your irrepressible boyish charm." Is that what they're calling it these days? Anything she dishes out is just retaliation so he doesn't think anything of it. "You also got the apple's warmth and lust for knowledge." The apple, for its part, is pretty much dead by now so E'sren sets its core down on the table and wipes his hand on his pants. That's what those are for, and since he Impressed they've seen a lot worse. Now he holds the journal in the finger-pinch of both hands at arm's length to gaze at it, then brings it in to clutch it against his chest. "I love it. Can I have it?" "Yes, that's exactly what that's in there for." Sabs shoots back, making it sound as if that really is why it's there. She curls her feet up under her, watching his furthered reaction to it. There's another of those impish smiles and purses her lips, pausing before giving him an answer. Letting E'sren hang out in space for awhile. "Alright, sure. You can have the drawing, but I want the journal back in once piece. Be careful when you pull it out. In fact, let me." She unfolds her arms and holds them out again, hands reaching. "Yes. Okay." E'sren placates her reaching hands with the freeing of the journal unto their wanting grasp and sits back. His elbow drops from the table's edge and his hand falls to his pocket, slipping in easily. A wrinkle forms between his eyebrows when he finds "Um." He digs his hand in deeper, delving, then pulls it out with the lining of the very empty pocket. "Shit. Do you see like a little... wooden thing?" Bending, he does that awkward look under the table for lost things stretch. Sabs has the book back and she tears the page out, very carefully and using her one hand to balance the rip. Her attention wanders to him when he begins to dig around in his pants. Her eyebrows lift and then draw together, looking quite genuine and authentic in her concern. "A little wooden thing?" When he bends to look around under the table, one of her hands slips slender fingers into the inner pocket of her jacket. While he's still down below and possibly explaining what that might mean, she has silently pressed that worn looking mark to the surface of the table in front of him. Not before taking a quick look over of it, however. She doesn't announce its return, merely tapping him on the shoulder and handing the drawing of him over. Her bright smile still very much in evidence. In a muffled voice from somewhere beneath the table's surface, "Yeah, it's a mark piece but you wouldn't really know it from looking at it." Which Sabella is doing, just then, with perfect timing. She'll notice that it is the right size and weight for a mark, but whatever markings ever denoted it as such specifically are totally rubbed away. E'sren's hand appears as she's placing it on the table, to help him in not hitting his head on the way back up when she taps his shoulder. Resurfacing, he looks at her, at the drawing, takes it absently while his dark eyes scan around. They land on the piece on the table and he slouches all over again, completely relieved. "Wow. Oh man. That's..." With his other hand he's reaching for it but he's also giving the greenrider a suspicious look out of the corner of his eye. "...crazy." Whatever there is to notice about that mark, Sabella has filed it away into that sharp little mind of hers. She watches, concern displayed across her face as he slouches over all relieved like that. "Are you alright?" The greenrider asks. And while the appearance of his mark on the table would certainly warrant some sort of suspicion under the circumstances... The girl in front of him doesn't look as if she's someone worthy of being wary of. In fact she lifts those slenders shoulders and smiles, cheeky. Disarming. "Oh! Is that it there? How long have you had it for?" Her hand touches his elbow and she leans closer a touch to get a little glance in at it. Again, E'sren's mouth opens like he might say something, but instead he turns that momentary pause into another smile and leans back so she can see it better. He also flips it over onto the backs of his fingers and walks it rapidly through them one at a time first one way and then the other. "This was the first mark I ever earned. I, uh," he soothes an itch on the side of his nose with his thumb, "made it at the Hold actually, when I was about twelve. A bunch of other families were there and my big brother was helping me out and this was my first cut. I've been carrying it around for luck ever since." He flips it over again and slips it into his pocket. "How long have you been drawing in that journal?" E'sren chooses not to say anything and one of her eyebrows lifts up smoothly, the silent question. Will he expose that he knows how that mark really made it back onto the table? When he transitions expressions, she drops hers and smiles easily. When he walks that mark along his fingers, she's easily fascinated by it. "What did you do to earn it? I heard that you were a trader before, yes?" Tearing her eyes away from the movement as he slips it into his pocket again, she looks up at him again. "In this one, maybe a turn. It won't be long before I have to get another. I like to draw pretty things and people, the things I notice most about them." "Yeah, me and my family. I helped my brother run shop and I romanced the crowd with my irrepressible boyish charm." E'sren grins at her, dimples and all. "We had a good crowd that day and we did well enough that he scraped a little off the bottom for me. He said it meant I was a real Renai man." He lets his eyes linger on the journal and remembers the drawing he's holding, which he now surveys again as if to glean something from it. "What did you notice the most about me?" Sabs shifts around in the booth until she has her slender body turned to him, legs tucked underneath. "That must have felt good." There's the hint of a wistful smile before she comments, "And you've carried it for about a decade then. I guess that it's been serving you well in the capacity as an agent of luck?" She smiles lopsidedly at him when he mentions his irrepressible boyish charm, the phrase thrown back at her. She stretches her arm out and traces her fingers along the drawing, those cartoonish exaggerated lines. She's no true artist, certainly. But, "The expression on your face, even when you're smiling. Alert. It's in the eyes. Your form." She can do that, she's little. E'sren can't, he's too tall and leggy, so he just kind of half-turns to put more of his everything on one shoulder because just eyeballing her in his periphery would get kind of uncomfortable. "I guess, as far as luck goes, I'm here. I have Ahruth, and you, and the rest of our class. I belong somewhere now. I'm a pretty lucky guy." His attention too moves to the drawing with hers, probably kind of an alien sight for him, outside of the occasional mirror or shiny, reflective thing. "Well... it's pretty awesome. You are really good at this. Did you teach yourself or did someone teach you?" Something along the way gets Sabella and it's one of those rare moments when the greenrider hitches her breath, caught in a moment of thought in front of someone else. But whatever it is, she pushes past it quickly and has only a bright, deeply entertain smile for their continued conversation. "You are pretty lucky. And Ahruth is certainly a handsome blue, you're going to have to fight to keep the greens from corrupting him." It's a light tease, hardly deep and meaningful. "I learned it from a street worker when I lived in Crom. I used to pass him on my route all the time, he was old and grizzled. And he used to do these for the cheap marks. They made people laugh, usually." "Oh don't say that, don't say that, he'll wake up from the sheer knowing that someone is complimenting him and then I'll have to leave." He fixes her with a suddenly serious stare and shushes her with a finger to his lips. And then like that didn't happen, "But yeah he's obviously the coolest looking dragon. But enough of that. You're from Crom?" To some, this would be a very interesting piece of information, but to E'sren, who remains ignorant by that aforementioned practiced luck or by sheer force of will, it means... she comes from Crom. "Nice. Now you can do it too, make people laugh. Made my day at least." Sabs laughs and ducks her head when he admonishes her. She presses her fingers to his mouth and looks appropriately put into her place. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to raise him from his sleep. Shhh, of course." Shushing herself she leans one elbow onto the back of the booth and dips her head against her hand. Propped up in only the way a skinny girl could do. "That's where I came from before I was at Greenfields, yes." She clarifies, happy enough to give out that sort of not-so-descriptive detail. Her mouth curves once more, a demure display for his compliment. "I'm glad that you enjoyed it. I'm working my way through most of the people in the barracks. But I haven't gotten so far yet, not a lot of time." "Oh yeah, the little guys are pretty demanding so far, right? I did some reading and it gets better the older they get, but man I don't see that happening ever right now. Sometimes I just feel so overwhelmed and tired." To demonstrate, and maybe just bringing it up brought this on, E'sren rubs his eyes with thumb and forefinger and sets her drawing of him on the seat there so it doesn't get wrinkled or torn or make contact with any errant apple cores. "Like... he needs everything all the time. I never had this much to do before, never." "I hear that it's supposed to start getting better soon. That really, we can let them be alone for awhile now when they're awake even. As long as they don't require that much attention. Ghislaith is rather independent, I guess that I'm lucky." Sabella has an endearing smile for that last comment. She looks on sympathetically as he rubs at his face that way. "Maybe you should be trying to sleep and rest more when he's down, so that you're not so tired when he keeps you up." The greenrider suggests gently. "Yeah, I know. I should. I just... whenever I'm up if he's asleep I try to study?" There's an uncertainty that implies that question mark, like it's something that he for sure does but he isn't so sure he wants to tell her about it. "I mean... I've lived in this area my whole life, I know a ton about living here, but I don't really know anything that matters, and I'm learning that more and more. They have this... program, later, I heard. Like for leadership. I dunno if it's actually a thing." E'sren's shrug encompasses a lot of things: effort, if ineffectual, is one of them. That E'sren spends his time studyng outside of sleeping and dragon tending, garners a certain interest from Sabs. She doesn't react in a way that would make him necesssarily uncomfortable, however. "You are?" It's asked for a confirmation that she doesn't exactly wait for. "I do too, when I'm not drawing." There's an unconscious glance down to the paper before she flickers green eyes back to him. "I want to make a good impression, you know, for that. I think that it is a thing. If it can help me move forward once we're finally graduated." Her shoulders lift and it's clear she thinks it's worthy of their effort. "I hardly know if I'm studying the right information half of the time." It would seem that all it took was some reciprocity of his interests to bring E'sren out of that slight slump. So it isn't stupid! He lifts his eyebrows at her, his spark rekindled, and wheels his hands around between them as if he could draw this information and more out of her. "Yes! Exactly! I mean especially here. They have a woman on brown as Weyrleader." Regardless of how those tides might be turning. "Who says some guy with a blue dragon and some awesome chick with a green dragon can't rule the world? We should pool our efforts." That energy that he has become so known for is there in the intense, serious eyes he is giving her right now. Sabella smiles again, the demure careful one as she gauges his reaction to her mutual interest. It's only positive once again she leans forward in the booth, the body posture of someone about to engage in conspiracy. Her voice is pitched low now, like this whole studying thing is a secret between the both of them. "Right? A woman that used to be in the mines. Taikrin, she rose up from nothing.." Is there a certain awe there, well maybe. But moving along, "So do you want to maybe study some of these things together? Ghislaith usually goes down after dinner. We could go to the records. Those evaluations are coming up this month too. I'd like to uh, work on my penmanship." Notice there wasn't so much writing in that journal, but lots of drawings. The leaning forward inspires him to do the same, he hitches his bent knee up on the seat between them so he can better turn towards her, moreso than he had been, and matches her as best he can. His tone is just as serious, just as hushed, for all their secretive planning. "I would love to study with you. I think we owe it to all the underdogs out there. Ahruth is about the same, any time he's full he's out like a light. We can work on that, I can help you, I want to learn more about the history here and the wings, y'know? And I only wanna go up." His finger points up for him, E'sren then holds his hand out for her to shake. "Partners?" The way they're bent in towards one another, it could certainly be construed differently from other people passing by. And it's entirely possible that it is, even if it is innocent. Sabella smiles as he drops his voice as well. "Tomorrow I'll make sure that Ghislaith stuffs herself before I go to dinner. Then afterwards, it's you and me until they kick us out of the records to the barracks. You show me what you know, I show you what I know." The plan is set in motion, apparently. She takes his hand and offers him a surprisingly strong handshake in return. "Partners." Surprisingly strong is right. E'sren is a beat behind noticing, but when he does he drops his mouth open and looks down at their joined hands as if she just broke his. "Jeez, wow, are you mad at me?" But it's all in jest, he's grinning, and when they let go he mimes shaking out his poor abused digits and wiggling them to make sure they're all intact. "This is really exciting. I'm excited." Hand to chest now: he, E'sren, is excited. "We're gonna kick some serious ass." They're basically like, secret geeks or something. They're cool to be those people though, right? "What? No!" Sabella responds and furrows her eyebrows, glancing down at their hands joined together. She releases his and makes a face at him, though it's hardly really put out. She's much more intrigued and pleased by the concept of the work they're going to accomplish together. "We're going to destroy those tests when they came up. Or at the very least we're not going to crash and burn, right?" "No, only utter destruction. We settle for no less. Those tests are gonna rue the day, Sabs. Rue. The. Day." If nothing else, E'sren will more than make up for any lack of confidence. "Operation: Smarts commences tomorrow after dinner. It's just sweet success for us, dollface." He's grinning up til now, when suddenly he kind of gets this odd, distracted look on his face. It clears just as fast and he lets his eyes drift, a physical manifestation of his mind's eye wandering along the inner walls of his brain, looking for the other entity he shares it with. "Ahruth almost woke up just then. I should probably get back. Just in case. But you," he takes the drawing, "and me," and the apple core, "tomorrow," and picks himself up to exit the booth. His last for her is a wink and a grin as he backs up a few steps towards the exit, before turning the right way around to fully take it. That over the top response to her has the girl laughing, something delighted in that bravado of his. She sighs when he gets up and leans her head further into her palm, her smile amused and pulled off to the side. "Go on, I'll catch you later. Maybe I'll even sit next to you for dinner this time." As opposed to what, avoiding him? Or maybe just not noticing him all that much until today. Her eyebrows arch as he winks, steps backwards and exits the kitchen. Quietly she laughs and snaps closed that journal book that's all full of pictures and no words. The pencil is tucked behind her ear and she slips out as well, choosing a different direction from the bluerider. |
Leave A Comment