Logs:Thread, Needle, Rope
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| RL Date: 23 May, 2013 |
| Who: D'kan, Telavi |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Telavi and Solith enlist D'kan and Kazavoth's help in moving furniture. |
| Where: Bowl and Solith's Ledge |
| When: Day 10, Month 11, Turn 31 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Alida/Mentions, G'mli/Mentions, N'gan/Mentions, Quielle/Mentions, Sabella/Mentions, Z'ian/Mentions |
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| It's been a few days ago, now, that Telavi had buttonholed D'kan after drills, walking up to him and Kazavoth with her hands behind her back, looking at once wry and winsome with that helmet in lieu of her ever-present cap. When the man seemed to have a minute, though it's the dragon she'd sized up again first, there's the question. The favor, really, though she doesn't say so in many words. Seems she has some furniture, a big armoire that the handyman took apart just so they could get it moved over lunch... but the transport fell through. Could they help? Would they? She even said please, as she should. The answer would have been easy, regardless of that "please". Kazavoth was all over a chance to strut his stuff, as always, and D'kan? He's just a little worker bee. If Pern had bees. Arrangements needed to be made, though, and weather was not exactly the most cooperative of partners in the days since then. Which brings them to this particular afternoon. Out in the bowl, Kazavoth is in full gear, straps already assembled, tightened, and checked. In the living cavern, D'kan has his gear with him, but the relative warmth has made him remove most of it while grabbing a quick bite to eat, and by quick we mean, eating a sandwich while waiting in the area near the exit to the bowl. Solith's keeping an eye on things as she waits with Kazavoth, where 'keeping an eye on things' counts as crouching near him with wing- and tailtips twitching at irregular intervals, excited but also perceptibly less than thrilled at the very same time. After all, this is something she's been told she shouldn't so much as try to manage all herself, although when Telavi does muscle the trolley out from the inner caverns, there are a couple large canvas sacks for the green in addition to the significantly larger slabs of wood with their carvings turned inward. It isn't skybroom, but it's a hard dark wood, the armoire likely to be just barely taller than she can reach when it's all assembled again. The girl slants a look up at the sky, mutters beneath her breath, and whistles in a carrying tone: over here! Kazavoth, likely under orders from his riding to keep things polite and professional, greets Solith with a minimum of words, though the rest of his mindvoice nearly screams how much he's trying to restrain himself, and his own wings just about vibrate as he holds them just above what might otherwise have been a restful, waiting pose. D'kan strides out from the cavern as soon as he gets the heads-up from the brown, eyes searching until Telavi's whistle catches his attention. Last bite of sandwich goes into his mouth, leaving his hands free to start putting on that riding gear again. After the last few months, it seems so easy now. It's possible by this point that most of the motions are automatic. "Grabbed extra straps from the barracks this morning," he calls over to the greenrider before tugging on his helmet. "Just to make sure. No telling how big a window we'll have today with the weather, right?" Solith, not so much with the polite and professional, especially when there's such a show of restraint going on right there. Her narrow head's lifted towards the nearest ruddy-sailed wing, all too ready to snort ticklish air at it, when her rider shows up. That may not be so much of an obstacle, only a moment's hesitation, but then his rider shows up. She sighs instead, a great but less targeted exhalation that Kazavoth might pick up mentally as well, and moves over to join her rider with just a glance over her wingshoulder. Tela's stopped the trolley while it's still on stone, before it gets to the damp soil that would not only suck up its wheels but need a cleaning afterward, and leans on one support. "Thanks again, D'kan," she calls back. "It's looking not so bad," which might be wishful thinking, "but like you say. I've got the shelves and drawers for her, but for him, tell me how you want me to help." What's his plan? They'll make it happen. At least, if it works. For a long moment, both D'kan and Kazavoth seem to be sizing up the larger items, likely conferring with each other, going by the mildly glazed look on the rider's face. Soon enough, though, Kazavoth moves a little closer to that trolley and the steadier ground. D'kan heads toward the brown and begins unhooking some of those extra straps before glancing over at Telavi. "I figure if we strap half to one side of him and half to the other, should be more than manageable," he explains. Meanwhile, Kazavoth has reflected upon that sigh, sending a curious, questioning thought back Solith's way. « He can be annoying, I will grant you that, » the brown's raspy tenor shares, « but not overly so. » « So you will keep him around, then? » Solith inquires, her own thought quick and zephyr-like. "Balanced," her rider's as quick if more grounded in agreement. She adjusts her gloves, then kicks the trolley's wheelguard in place and steps back in preparation to take the latter half of the first big board when he's ready. "It's a good thing they aren't full grown," she says. "Whoever winds up with this weyr after we're gone, if they don't like it, they'll have a hard time getting it out. What kind of furniture did your place come with, anyway?" "Big ol' bed," D'kan answers, grinning slightly as he prepares to take the other end of the load. He gives her a nod to indicate he's ready, then it's time to walk the dark planks over toward Kazavoth's first side. The brown has stretched himself out on his belly by now to make it that much easier to use the straps. There's some maneuvering and some jostling about as the weight has to be temporarily balanced on one thigh, but after the first strap is in place and tightened, the rest gets easier in a hurry. "Did you visit the one with the blue door, and the mural on the wall? It's that one. Which one is yours?" « He is handy to have around, » Kazavoth answers Solith in the meantime, amusement now leaking through the mental guards his rider had put in place earlier. « It would be difficult to reach some itchy spots on my own, much less apply that lovely oil. » "Nice. Mine too, but Alida has an alcove..." Tela has to negotiate her end through the bars of the trolley before she can get to the better part of that maneuvering, but then she's keeping close tabs on D'kan, the better to follow his lead with the lifting and balancing and everything. Blue door, he says. "Mural. Murals, weren't there, a lot of them? And that amazing wallow. Does he like it? I remember thinking I shouldn't show Solith. And," with a quick, over-the-shoulder smile at D'kan before she circles back for the next, "does it strike you, too, that moving this would have been a lot harder a few months back, even if they were still this big? All the drills and everything, it's good for more than just flying." Solith, who is not on her belly, but rather has been circling around them in hopes of seeing everything, replies just as lightly, « Well, then, in that case. For details like that! We have a firelizard, but I do not keep her around much. » « Firelizards are far too annoying, » Kazavoth replies in an off-hand tone. « So noisy. » The irony of that statement coming from him is lost on the brown, though his chatty reputation is still being curbed today by D'kan. "The wallow was one of the selling points, to be sure," the rider replies, grinning slightly at Telavi as they prepare for the next load. "Seems downright luxurious after the barracks, but Kaz still seems to think I should beggar myself to make it better. Like he could even feel the difference through that thick hide of his." Getting ready to lift, he gets his grip settled, then nods to the other weyrling. "I know what you mean. Not just flying drills, but all the different kinds of flying. Makes a difference." And lift. "How's Solith taken to the firestone stuff? Smells obnoxious, right?" "What counts as 'better'? More padding? Decorations?" Not to give Kazavoth ideas. Telavi hoists on D'kan's cue, then clarifies as they move, "Not just flying, but things like hauling this, you know? I don't feel like I have to worry how we're going to move, don't have to think too much about it, just walking or getting it to him, even.Not to mention, just talking like we're doing at the same time." By this point in their training, that part of the frame is still big and dense but more unwieldy than anything. Only the back and doors, top and bottom to go! Perhaps Tela's grin is audible in her voice as she balances her end so he can work on the straps. "Or maybe you wouldn't have had to huff and puff, but I never lugged around much more than my workbasket... Our ledge is up high above the feeding pens, high enough that it doesn't smell, but it's not the easiest to land on. Solith? Let's just say her burps aren't pretty," though they probably never were so great, carnivorous diet and all. "Kaz?" « She chatters too, » says overseer-Solith of her rider, « though it is not so noisy, exactly. I like it. Why are you so quiet today, Kazavoth? » « D'kan wishes me to work on a private lesson, » Kazavoth explains, tone nearly doleful for a moment before he continues. « Constraint. » That word is laced all the way through with a barrage of emotions; contempt and impatience are foremost. « He says I scare people away and get him in trouble. I say it is not my fault others lack appreciation and taste. » Meanwhile, D'kan, also maneuvering to get the second load strapped in, continues his own part of the conversation. "He has all these fancy ideas. He likes sisal. Can you imagine? All that fine stuff for a dragon butt? No way." And... cinch. Buckle. Done. "I worked on the docks down at High Reaches Hold. Lifting stuff was a way of life," he adds a moment later, grinning over at Telavi. "At least now I can get this brute to help." This is accompanied by an open-handed thump on Kazavoth's rump before D'kan returns to the trolley. "Kaz?" he echoes while tugging his gloves snug again before getting ready to grab one of those doors. "What'd you have to do to get this thing, anyway?" he asks, the word "thing" used only as a curious synonym for "armoire", which he's unlikely to know. Constraint? Constraint?! « I am sorry, » Solith says quite sincerely, all big eyes and wonder and maybe even worry. « I think you are right. If they are scared, well, then they are scare-able, » and deserve what's coming to them. Solith, so helpful. Telavi endeavors to be more helpful, what with the fetching and carrying, though she's the one to nearly drop something when D'kan names sisal. "Sisal?" Her follow-up comment is decidedly more off-color than what usually emerges from her mouth, if not up to dockworker standards. She does nod for those dockworker origins, though not in surprise, still caught up in, "Imagine how quickly it would snag. And stain! It would look horrible in nothing flat, even if the price weren't an issue," which it clearly is. The glance she gives Kazavoth verges on baleful. Still, she can be redirected, though it probably helps that there's the physical redirection of the door as well. "What did I do... I made friends with some of the assistant headwomen, and I kept looking, and I waited, and I kept looking, and I waited some more. Are you looking for anything in particular?" Kazavoth is as quick to soak up the sympathy as he is to latch onto the scare tactic. « Every detail could be important someday, yes? » His mindvoice is a near purr, as it often is when plotting, or even quasi-plotting is at hand. "Kaz, roll left juuuust a little--there," D'kan instructs as they get ready to attach one of the doors, making the brown appear more like a dark, draconic pack mule by the load. Not that he seems to mind. "I know, right?" he adds, glancing back at Telavi. "Maybe someday I can negotiate with, like... a pillow or something. But not today." And heave. "He likes the idea of it more than the sisal itself. Overheard someone talk about how freaking expensive it is, and oh, but wasn't that just the thing for his great browness?" the rider drawls with a half grin, getting the straps ready again. "Otherwise... nah, not really looking for stuff just yet. Might want a new mattress someday, but for now, this beats the barracks any day, right?" « 'Could' does not always mean 'likely,' » Solith rejoins, which is not exactly disagreement. But given his voice, « What are you thinking of, Kazavoth? » She rises to her haunches, wings out and neck stretched so she can better survey the load. Tela's been keeping an eye out for what non-mental instructions D'kan appears to give his dragon, too, and not just those audible. Now she agrees, "A pillow, so long as he doesn't drool on it. Appliqued onto a blanket, even, that would be lovely and not run you much at all... though if it's the expense he's after, that might not help." She gives his brown the side-eye, taking a moment to stretch before starting to head back for the last pieces. "Definitely it beats the barracks. What do you think, are we going to see anyone else having to move back before we're all done?" D'kan waits next to the trolley again, in no particular hurry. Kazavoth, too, looks downright languid as he converses with Solith, his wings now relaxed, folded against his back, moving this way and that as the riders need. "Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out what it is Kaz needs and wants sometimes," D'kan admits to Telavi as he stretches his shoulders quickly. "If it's just the idea of a thing, it's easier to find something that works for both of us." Gloves are tugged at once again, just out of habit. "Man, I hope not," he answers, regarding moving back to the barracks. "Bit of a downer, right? Can't even imagine what Quielle's going through." N'gan is not mentioned just yet, though the lack of a mention might portray a similar lack of sympathy, at least on D'kan's part. Kazavoth turns his dark head to regard Solith for a moment, eyes whirling quickly before slowing down to the usual shimmers. « I am thinking what is simple truth, Solith, that knowledge is power. » And by his tone, power is delicious. Tela's glance at D'kan verges far too close to abject gratitude. "You too, then." Her voice is soft, as though that could possibly keep Solith from hearing, and by then she's schooled her expression again. She steps through the trolley this time, leaning on its uprights before she's out the other side. "Me neither. She'll need help, I want to help her more, but Sabs says to wait until she asks," and clearly Sabella's right. "I'm glad you don't rub it in, or at least it doesn't seem like it." The base isn't so large that she can't manhandle it herself, resting it on the toe of her boot and walking it over to the brown and his rider. « What would you like power over, Kazavoth? » Solith asks now that she's back down to all four paws, though there's an underlying drift of breeze that whispers with some humor, Besides 'everything.' In the meantime, the intrigued tilt of her head seems to find that deliciousness good. « The power to do what is right and good, » Kazavoth answers simply. While he does not outright specify whose good and right he's referring to, the statement carries a sense of something far more vast than just Kaz. "Nothing to rub in," D'kan replies during the draconic conversation. "It happens. She seems to want to continue. If we're far enough along in our training to make the one decision, we must be far enough along to make the other." He pauses to cinch the last strap tightly, then goes about checking all of them one last time. Won't do to have things shifting mid-flight. "I prefer to help rather than judge, personally. And... I think that's it, so if you and Solith are all set--" D'kan breaks off to gesture with a thumbs-up sign that jabs upwards a couple times. « I am told, » Kazavoth interjects, "loudly" enough for any in the near vicinity to hear, dragon or human, « Solith's ledge is difficult. Let us see about that, yes? » Solith's quickest to get to her ledge, offloading Telavi and the heavy sacks before hopping up to one of the smaller sub-ledges. There's room for Kasavoth to land even with his load, now, though it still isn't exactly easy. She watches, and Tela all but hovers from the human-sized ledge now that she's brought the sacks inside, all set to call out if it looks as though there will be a crash. There's an adult brown watching the whole process from a nearby ledge, too, but at least he keeps any predictions on the outcome to himself. There is... cause for concern, to put it lightly. Kazavoth might remember this ledge, vaguely, from when the weyrling group was being brought around to survey the real estate. It was tricky then, but he was a tiny bit smaller, and was carrying a far lesser load in weight. Especially with the current weight at his sides rather than balanced on his shoulders. His first approach is from the side, as if he might pull up at the last moment for a touchdown, but this is aborted several lengths from Solith's ledge. The second attempt is from above, but between the weight and the wind, it's just not doable. Third time's the charm, right? After hovering with a few exerted wingbeats, Kazavoth turns to head back over the bowl before he spirals back, and down, diving far beneath the ledge. At seemingly the last moment, he pulls up, gliding like a rocket upward like some Pernese avian to its perch. It has to be timed just right, and the brown comes... close enough. He's able to find purchase on the ledge, at least, and what flying finesse could not do, the sheer power of wings and talons does the best. Appreciation flows briefly across the mindlink toward Solith, as he seems impressed with the choice in ledge, mostly for its reinforced privacy. D'kan, once his own feet reach the ledge, might be a little pale, but it's hard to say. His smile toward Telavi is definitely a little shaky, but he's soon turning back to the brown to begin preparing the straps for unloading. The first approach is one thing, but with the second, Solith's leaning intently outward as though she could get Kazavoth into place by sheer force of will, hissing in disappointment when the wind gusts just the wrong way. For the dive that comes afterward, there's a sharper, worried noise that doesn't quite make it to a warble as she snakes her neck down to watch his descent, « What are you doing?! » But the proof's in the pudding and he gets a mental gust right back, relief and her own appreciation that has no sensitivity to her ledge's tender stone that just got clawed and clawed and clawed. "That was scary," Telavi doesn't mind saying out loud as she hops down to help as well. "Kazavoth, I think you get to look smug now. For a moment there, I thought you were going to hit your head on the way up." « Nonsense. I like puzzles. » Kazavoth's response is once again loud enough for all those on the ledge and nearby to hear (including that spying brown). His scratchy tenor is dialed back, however, as he turns his attention to Solith. « My rider had two ideas. Both were failures. I had to improvise. » A snort from D'kan indicates he was able to hear the last, though he doesn't argue, instead stating, "That last one was all him. Though we were going to dive straight into the Weyr's wall, myself." He stashes his riding gear out of the way, then tugs on his gloves again, making them snug. "Good thing it worked, though, right? Where are we putting this stuff, by the way?" he adds while peeking toward the weyr. « It is good that it worked, » is Solith's bright, pleased contribution, but Telavi's gotten that uncomfortable expression again, part unease and part headache. "I'd half-forgotten how he," she waves a hand, "broadcasts. It seems like I'd just gotten used to it before we were out of the barracks." It's an aside before Tela adds more ruefully, "I hope he hasn't given her any ideas about running off with me that way. Though it worked," that last an unconscious echo of Solith's. "My main goal is to get it right inside and far enough back so the weather won't get to it, and there's a step up, so we'll need to be careful. I don't know whether the handyman will want to assemble it out where there's more room to maneuver, or in the weyr where there will be less lugging," and her glance questions the other weyrling as to whether he has an opinion. "He says it can be put back together so it's good and tight, and after this, it had better!" "Shells, sorry about that," D'kan quickly replies, frowning between Telavi and Kazavoth for a moment. "I'm so used to him talking all the time. Doesn't always register with me when he... starts doing that." He gets ready to start moving the parts of the armoire, but in the opposite order this time. "I think as close to where you want it permanently makes the most sense. Less chance of messing it up once it's back together." Kazavoth, meanwhile, has very carefully sprawled himself across the ledge, with his head angled toward the weyr. The less moving around the humans need to do, the better. « All puzzles work eventually, given enough time and attention, » Kazavoth tells Solith, his voice much quieter this time, likely reminded by his rider to keep a cap on it. "Don't worry about it," Telavi offers, though now that the brown's dialed it down, that discomfort eases noticeably until she's smiling again, even as she moves to hoist her fair share. "Let's do that, then, move it into the inner weyr, and if he can't see well then I'll just bring in more glows. It's three steps up to that, though." While they're working, her further reply pausing here and there as the job requires it, "How do you find most people react, these days, do you find many who are really easy with it? Imagine if you two were posted to watchriding and had random people unused to any sort of dragon about." Solith, « Time, attention, but occasionally... » There's an illusionary box, more perceptible than visualizable, its lines writ of not-quite-solid air... and then there's a claw that breaks it, and scoops out the treasure within. D'kan is careful of those steps, mostly following Telavi's lead as much as he can while moving in tandem. "Seems to vary. Some people think it's great, while some..." He can only roll a shoulder at the moment to express as he nods toward the other rider. "Doesn't seem too common. I've never heard another dragon in my head other than him." The first load is eased to the ground. Wash, rinse, repeat, lift. "He'd been pretty good about it lately, so I kind of let down my guard. He gets excited and just... brain-leaks over everyone." Careful so close to the ledge, he gets the next load ready to release from the straps. "Watchriding probably isn't in the cards for us, though, you're right," D'kan adds, grinning. "What about you and Solith? Given any thought to what you might want to do once we have grown-up knots?" Kazavoth seems to find this illusionary box downright fascinating. He seems to reach as if to keep it whole, perhaps for study, perhaps just to hold it, but when that treasure is scooped out of the intangible, he downright glees all over the mindvoice, sending spinning colored lights like fireflies fluttering in imagined eddies left by the broken box. « A puzzle is not complete without eventual satisfaction, » he nearly whispers in reply. "Great, really? Are they people who wish they were riders?" Tela asks as they haul. There's no flicker of air that suggests that Solith wants to change D'kan's 'never heard another' status anytime soon. But then, she's occupied by Kazavoth, delighted by that glee and those lights and those eddies pick up and up and up. It's enough to make Telavi smile, partway. "And 'brain-leaks,' what a word. I like it. Does it get tiring for you," too, says her voice, "having to be careful all the time? At least mostly she doesn't seem to pry, it's just sometimes." The tail end of the board swings into her hip, and she grimaces, but takes a better hold and keeps going. "I've... given a little thought, D'kan. A few of us were shadowing Boreal yesterday, and I liked what Z'ian had to say. But it's hard sometimes, looking to the end of this, you know? With everything else that's going on. At least when we put furniture together, it stays together," or it should. "Not always," D'kan answers while watching the steps up toward the inner weyr. "I mean, it's not like it's happened hundreds of times, but enough that I figured out pretty quick it's not exactly... normal." He has to laugh when she asks if it gets tiring. "Shells, yes. Less now than in the beginning, though. I thought we might get kicked out of the barracks a couple times." Kazavoth snorts loudly enough at that to be heard within the weyr, but D'kan doesn't pause. "Pry?" he questions, prodding for more while getting ready to set down this load next to the first. "And what did Z'ian have to say? Most of my shadowing's been with G'mli's wing so far. It's... different. But yeah, hard to get a good picture of it all. Especially with all the other distractions." The brown's snort brings out her laugh, too, and Telavi's still smiling when she replies with might have been a hesitant lift of her shoulder, were she not fetching and carrying. "Poking around, wanting to know things, often when I'm trying to go to sleep or I'm busy." It doesn't distract her enough to make the load land on her toes, or D'kan's for that matter, and she brushes her hands against the sides of her legs as she stands to head back for the next. Even when she gets back to Kazavoth, she stays there for a minute, resting her hand on the next load without actually moving to lift it. "He's your mentor, isn't he? Mine seems happy enough to just let me do whatever, she's 'there if I want to talk,' really mellow." Too mellow? "Z'ian... he was talking about connections, to High Reaches but also outside, Crafts, Holds. It sounded as though he was looking at breadth and depth in wingriders, knowledge that people have about things that aren't strictly riding. I like that, but I don't know that we would... count." D'kan's quiet "oh" in response to Telavi's explanation of prying is joined by a frown, followed by a glance toward his own lifemate. "I guess Kaz doesn't do that so much. Or if he does... I mean, he asks a lot of questions, and sometimes he kind of borrows," or steals, "stuff." Like inappropriate songs. "But I'd never have called it prying, exactly." The brown has tilted his head rather quizzically at the two riders before turning his attention back to Solith, though he's still quiet happily exploring the ideas of puzzles, boxes and treasures. D'kan nods, confirming G'mli's role for the brownrider and dragon but stays quiet otherwise, getting the third load ready to release from the straps. "Connections, huh?" he asks, and... release. "Why wouldn't you guys count?" Stuff! "That reminds me," Tela says. "Before you go, I've got a sack with some things she collected that I need to bring back to the barracks, you can look through it if you want. But mostly she gives me space." Solith isn't entirely oblivious, but she has gotten to nosing at her wing, where apparently something has gotten stuck even if she can't see it. She can do that and shape puzzles at the same time, though she does drift in and out of what passes for complete attention. Tela waits to reply further until she's not only gotten her share of the next load, but actually past that first step. "Well," she says. "I've got my uncle at Benden, of course, and friends, but it's not like I know Weyrleaders or wingleaders even, you know? And I was just a seamstress, and yes, I could mend your shirt if you needed or, better, tell you how to get it cut next time so it doesn't wear as much, but it's not as though I know anywhere near as much as a real crafter would. And that's aside from... did I mention what he said about the color balance?" "Souvenirs?" D'kan asks, grinning crookedly. "Yeah, I'll take a peek." And then he, too, is crossing that first careful step up. "That's the thing about connections, though, right? Sometimes you don't even know they're there because you're just too used to them. Or because you've never considered them from a different perspective." He cuts off for a moment as they shuffle toward that second step. "It kind of surprised me once I stopped and really thought about who and what I did know." He slows down so Telavi can take the next step at her own pace. "Color balance? No, I don't think so..." "Maybe so." Tela rests the slab on her thigh long enough to secure her hold, but then nods to him and lifts. "You know how Boreal's mostly bruisers, the browns, the bronzes? He said he's looking at adding more blues and greens as others leave. Which is horrible," her tone makes that into a joke, mostly, "because that means I have to actually consider that wing as a real possibility instead of just... information. I really wish I could have asked him how it felt to have the golds make him go places, too, but it seemed too presumptuous, you know?" Her voice is softer, quieter by the end. A speculative frown appears on D'kan's face for a moment as they continue to shift the furniture toward its eventual resting/building place. "Just occurred to me, I have no idea how they decide what to do with us in the end. Are we supposed to pick? Hadn't even been looking at the wings that way." There might be a soft tone of fretting in there, but maybe it's just from shifting his grip on the slab of armoire. "You probably could have, though. I don't know Z'ian too well, but he's always seemed really approachable, you know?" He pauses a moment, likely to see where this load's going to be placed, then gives Telavi another crooked grin. "Probably not too hard to imagine how anyone these days feels about being ordered around by the golds, right?" Tela slides the other weyrling a quick, lit-up smile, "And you, look how long it took you to get a weyr. A wing? Would he be half again as old by then? I'm sure they pick, but it's not like I've done this before... but I'm used to finding ways to make my preferences known, even if I'm not asked, and I imagine you could do the same. Of course, some days they work better than others." She makes a face, more humorously disgruntled than otherwise. "Let's swing this around, I think it's upside down." Rotating buys her time to get back to the rest. "Approachable? Maybe I will next time, then. But you're right, I could imagine. Can imagine. Still, I like to think it's different hearing it straight... what did you decide, 'about who and what you do know'?" Fretful speculation is replaced by mind relief, then a smile. "Yeah, you're right. The weyr thing, though... that was just kind of... well." D'kan stops there so he can help swing the piece of furniture around the other way, then he shrugs slightly before finishing with, "That was just stupidity on my part, really. Now we're moved in, it's pretty great. Wings, though? I think I'd be pretty happy to go where they want us. Any situation can be made to work." Influenced by the dragons' puzzle conversation earlier? Could be. D'kan stretches his hands after that load has been settled. He frowns at a blank space on the wall, then shrugs before glancing toward Telavi again. "In short, I know more than I thought, I guess." The tone of the answer is about as unhelpful as the answer itself. "I mean, sure, my connections are kind of insignificant in the big picture, but sometimes you need a small tool, not a great big sledgehammer, right?" Telavi does wiggly fingers, and she's smiling. "Details, please." She can stretch her hands meanwhile. D'kan laughs as he motions toward the ledge, though he doesn't seem entirely gung-ho about it at that particular moment. Actually... how about he just sits a while on that topmost step. Seems the thing to do. "Which details? The stupidity or the tools? Also, man, I'm suddenly grateful our weyr came with so much furniture already in place." Tela answers the motion with a light shrug, apparently none too worried about the prospect of Kazavoth running off with whatever furniture-parts remain. Maybe it's because Solith is so great a guard! Leaning on the archway, her head tilted with its curve, "What you know. I'm," her smile is sudden, and suddenly obscure if for just that moment, "convinced about the right sort of tool. If mine's a needle, what's yours? Or do you have a whole kit?" D'kan glances toward the ledge, but more for reference than because he can really see the dragons from where he's sitting. "See, a needle is an excellent tool, right? All sorts of things you could do," he insists while stretching out his feet to let them rock slightly on the boot heels. "But me? I guess maybe..." He trails off, face screwing up on one side as he puzzles it out. "Rope?" There's a quick frown, but the expression soon clears. "Actually, yeah. I'd say mine's rope." Including poking people who don't reply to your questions, or so Telavi's poke-poke at the air could be construed to mean... if he weren't answering hers. Or, one of hers. "Why rope?" the weyrling asks with a quirky lift to one brow. "Tying things together," she glances towards the ledge too before turning back, "seems obvious," and that lifts into a question, too. "I thought you said Solith was the one doing the prying," D'kan says in a wry drawl as he gives Telavi a highly crooked smile, clearly teasing. "Sure you're not a Harper or something? Oh wait! The needle. Right." He winks at her, then leans back on his hands and crosses his feet at the ankles, definitely not aiming to grab that last bit of armoire just yet. "Well... yeah, holding stuff together, but lifting stuff," this, with a gesture out toward the ledge, along with another crooked grin, "and sometimes it's a fence... guardrail sort of thing, right? Rope needs to be strong... offer a good grip. But there are limits." He shrugs, the crooked grin still there, if mellowed. "Rope." Now Tela has to flash a brilliant smile right back at D'kan, right before she interjects, "I never claimed not to pry. You malign me." But she listens to him, too, ever so slowly sliding down the archway towards the topmost step. "Hm, guard rail, I can imagine that. A leading rein too, maybe. Fences," she makes a face. By now she's nearly into a knees-together crouch, not quite sitting. "Do your ropes get knotted up, D'kan? Do they snag? Or maybe I'm likening them too much to thread." D'kan laughs as he slouches slightly. "Not if I'm paying attention," he answers, clearly enjoying the metaphor game. "Wouldn't be shipshape if the rope gets tangled. What about you? Does your needle ever get bent out of shape? Lose its point? Refuse to take the thread?" "No? Why, I thought it took a knot to make a rope properly hold its place. Sometimes, they even look a lot like lace." Telavi's dimples show briefly, right before she battens them down again, and she stays almost-sitting with her back braced comfortably on the wall. "And of course it does, all three. That's what emery is for, if you want your needle to stay properly sharp. As for refusing... why, sometimes the thread's a little too thick. Not the thread's fault, really." "Tangles and knots are two totally different things," D'kan drawls, fixing Telavi with teasing sort of teacher stare. You know the kind. He goes back to his usual grin, then laughs toward the end. "Sometimes you just have to find the right combinations of tools, too." He glances out toward the ledge again and takes a deep breath, steeling himself for the task at hand. "Point being," the brownrider states while pushing back to his feet and tugging his gloves snug again, "we all have a place. Someday we'll even know where that place is. Seems okay for now to not know, though. Keep our options open, right?" That look! Telavi whistles, that rising-falling pitch that goes so well with one crooked brow. "Sometimes," she notes to D'kan ever so warningly, "if the thread gets itself too argumentative, it gets cut." Two fingers snick-snick on cue. "Even if we do get into trouble with the spinners," and there's her full, warm laugh even as, reluctantly, she stretches up again. She's kept her gloves on, and now just double-checks their wrist straps as she heads for the ledge. "Maybe so. But I see your plan now: everything in its place, people in our places, furniture-pieces in their place. Here and I was starting to think that Kazavoth wanted it as, I don't know, extra but horribly misshapen neckridges." "Yeah, well it would take a little needle forever to cut through all that," D'kan argues right back, though he just laughs as the metaphors begin to unravel. Heading back to the ledge now, he frowns at first in reply to Telavi's summary, but then ends up laughing again, if far more quietly. "I guess so. Probably why..." He trails off while stopping next to Kazavoth, suddenly intent on getting those straps loosened so they can finish the job at hand, though more for something to do with his hands as he fidgets to make things just so. "I keep getting kind of... well." He stops to give Telavi what is a rather self-deprecating smile. "Not to belabor the topic, but I keep getting wound up lately. Stuff in the Weyr. Things aren't in the right place, and it really gets to me sometimes." Kazavoth starts to peer around to see what all the fuss is about with his straps, but D'kan lays a hand on the brown's side. Moving around too much right now is not a good idea. Telavi doesn't counter that argument this time, not out loud, though the mischief in her smile might speak volumes for alternatives. But that's before they have moved on to work, again, and before her expression turns quizzical. It clears as he clarifies, though not to pleasure. She pauses, her hand on the wood and not the brown dragon who holds it. She also doesn't look at Solith, but rather at the brown's rider. "I get that," she says after a moment. Quietly, "Sometimes I think I'm ignoring it all right, because what can we do, really? but then things pop up. How do you," she waves a hand in a circle, "...de-wind? Not snap." Like a rope, even one that a needle couldn't soon cut through. At first, D'kan might be feeling like he said too much, going by his suddenly closed expression, but that soon relaxes. It helps that it's time to start easing that last bulky section of armoire out of Kazavoth's straps. Once it's clear and they're able to start moving inside, Kazavoth stretches his back and wings, prompting a, "Yes, you did very well," from the brownrider, speaking of his shoulder. Then he turns back to Telavi. "That's the other part of the frustration. I mean, we're not really kids anymore, right? But as far as riders are concerned, we may as well be. I'm so done with sitting at the sharding kiddie table. And as for not snapping..." He's back to the lopsided smile as he looks across the bit of furniture at Telavi. "I guess I'll have to let you know when I figure it out." She doesn't break into the silence, not until it's not silence anymore and Tela can echo just a touch teasingly again, "Very well." It's short-lived, because they have to walk in tandem, though she at least seems used to it now. With the big board still between them, even once it's set down into place, "Do you mean the ones who make cracks about us still having to wipe our dragons' butts? I'd like to think that's not most of them." It's less counterargument, more quest for clarification. "And for the rest... you know, I'd let you kick my wall and all, but your poor toes." At last! With the heavy moving complete, D'kan removes his riding gloves and tucks them into a back pocket so he can flex his hands again (and probably surreptitious wipe them dry, yay for leather). "Just a general feeling, I guess," he answers once that's done, frowning down at the relocated pieces of the armoire. "Every rider had to be at this same point in time once, right? But we're here now, and with all the other stuff going on in the Weyr, not to mention outside it..." The frown deepens while he hooks his thumbs behind his riding belt. "Just impatient, I guess." He presses his lips together, frown clearing before he looks across at Telavi, while Kazavoth's shadow darkens the weyr as he cuts off the sunlight from the ledge, trying to peer further inside. "Don't worry," D'kan assures, after a brief glance at the brown, "neither of us are in a kicking mood right now. So, uh... all set?" he finishes, gesturing toward the furniture pieces while he takes the gloves back out and folds them between his hands. Hers, properly lined thank you, get tossed onto the little clothespress the armoire's replacing. "We're here," Telavi agrees, stretching out her back with hands on hips to do it properly, and nodding as the other weyrling continues for all that he doesn't look. Her expression stays unread that way, too, though by the time he looks back she's smiling just slightly. "Some-" but she breaks off at the change in light, deepened by how if Kazavoth is going to look in her weyr, of course Solith has to supervise. "I'll try not to worry. But I still might walk behind you on the way out! And... thanks, D'kan." Tela reaches across that last board to offer her hand, her eyes searching his. "Thanks for your help. Let me know when you need some." There is a good-natured handshake in reply as D'kan reverts back to his usual chipmunk-cheeked, cheery smile. "Any time. And I will," he promises before taking a step back and pointing a thumb back toward the ledge shadows. "I'd better get him out of the way. Such a well-meaning troublemaker. Good luck with the reassembly." Then he's tugging on the gloves once more (likely in need of proper airing out after all that), followed by a slight lessening of shadow as Kazavoth backs away. "If that guy doesn't get the thing back together as promised, I'll tie him up, and you can needle him at will, right?" All those extra, empty riding straps need to be gathered and tightened out of harm's way, but it's quickly done, and soon D'kan is up among the brown's neckridges. « I very much enjoyed your puzzles, Solith, » Kaz sends, mindvoice thrumming with genuine congeniality. « May you find many treasures. » Carefully, he turns, but leaving the tricky ledge seems to be far easier than reaching it had been, and after falling with style for a second or two (likely just to be a dork), the brown begins gliding toward the lake and easier landings. |
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