Logs:Trying to Understand
| |
|---|
| |
| RL Date: 27 April, 2015 |
| Who: Nala, Lilah, Tess, Jynth, Eliyaveith |
| Involves: Fort Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Nala and Lilah meet for the first time since the bluerider's return. Tess attempts to facilitate talking. |
| Where: Feeding Grounds, Fort Weyr |
| When: Day 24, Month 8, Turn 37 (Interval 10) |
| Whether returning from drills or sweeps, it's a rather off-colour Jynth who angles his way towards the feeding grounds, his rider deposited some way off and straps removed in as quick a flurry of motion as possible, leaving him free to drop down onto the nearest beast with none of his usual grace, brute force employed in the face of biting hunger. By the time Nala catches up and reaches the fence, he's ripping into the carcass right where it (and he) fell, manners cast aside and creating an unnecessarily bloody mess. It's a decent enough sight for Tippetarius, who clings to the bluerider's shoulder and /waits/, hungry gaze fixed on her bigger companion's meal, while Nala just drapes herself against the aforementioned face, something as wan about her as her lifemate. One gets the sense that Eliyaveith has been watching Jynth as he angles to the feeding grounds, the tip of a golden head following the blue from where she has perched on her own ledge. It is less subtle as she shakes out her wings, pushing her weight into the sky to make the short flight to join her brother. And as she carefully pierces her own beast near him, it might seem as if it will just be the golden queen that the pair has to worry with for the moment. Except after that moment, the familiar redhead appears from her weyr, fingers raking through still wet curls to twist them up as she strides across the bowl to join the gathering. There's a sound from Jynth that's close to a growl, spluttering as it is with cloying blood, and he instinctively hunches over to protect his kill as he notes Eliyaveith's shadow, more concerned about the potential theft of his meal, until he realises who the shadow belongs to. It silences his low, would-be threatening noise, yet he doesn't pay her much mind at all, his focus still on tearing apart breakfast (brunch?) piece by piece. With her back to the bowl proper, Nala doesn't manage to catch that Lilah has left her weyr, and though Eliyaveith is signal enough that the goldrider could appear at any moment, she remains draped over the fence, just watching her blue with an odd intensity and waiting for... colour to return? A low croon emits from Eliyaveith's throat, her own attention mostly for Jynth rather than the meal that her claws rest in which remains mostly ignored. She doesn't even bend her head to take a bite, as whirling eyes watch her brother. "Nala," then, is the first warning of the goldrider's presence behind her, as it is lifted in a clear, simple greeting. Her hair has managed to be twisted into a bun, dark pants and a simple cream tunic thrown on for the summer day with her knot. Her own attention doesn't turn to her gold, either, but rather those dark eyes rest expectantly on the bluerider as she moves to claim a spot against the fence as well. Once Jynth is done with that beast, he immediately lopes to merely to trip and snag and basically blunder into another until the job is done and he can get to continuing his meal, leaving Tipp to launch herself from Nala's shoulder and make her awkward, tumbling glide to tear at what he left of the first herdbeast. The bluerider twitches as she registers her name being spoken, or as she notes the voice speaking it, and after that she goes absolutely still, more so than before, as if she could convince her body not to betray her again. She doesn't look at the goldrider, but acknowledges her with a low, "Lilah," in a key similar to Jynth's. Eliyaveith tries to offer up her own meal as Jynth abandons his current, nosing it towards the blue in a way that cares little for the smear of blood across her muzzle. But there is no expectation in the gold, there, to her brother. Unlike the way Lilah's gaze rests on Nala, waiting, silent. It's only after a heartbeat or two has passed in silence that she finally says, flatly, "So, should I continue to go on acting as if you aren't back, then?" Maybe Jynth acknowledges that offer by way of the odd grunt that he gives as he falls into getting bloody all over again, or perhaps he's just eating too quickly to avoid making discomforting sounds here and there. It's only as he begins to reach the end of that second beast's usefulness that he really /looks/ at Eliyaveith and seems to understand who she is on a more basic level - and the fact that she's watching him. That a healthier tinge seeps through blue hide at more or less the same moment can't be a coincidence, nor can the quiet, relived sigh from Nala. "Please do," she mutters, pressing one hand to her head. "It would make things much easier." A dry response, if it weren't so matter of fact. Fingernails curve into the wood beneath the goldrider's hands, and-- is that a faint sheen of water in dark eyes that pricks immediately at that response? It might be hard to catch, as she does finally look at towards the feeding grounds and the dragons there instead, sharply. "Right. Because I make life so difficult for you," Lilah acknowledges sharply. "Obviously you are doing so well without me." The sigh that follows fast on the heels of the first is more measured, for all its sharpness. "Do you realise that you have spoken not one thing that is not about yourself or painting yourself as the injured party?" Nala enquires, continuing to keep Lilah just out of her line of sight, the tilt of her shoulders and lean into the fence an easy enough shield to keep her gaze directed elsewhere. "Are you here to tell me everything you told me before? You made your feelings /very/ clear. I see no reason why I should volunteer to let that happen again." "Because you did injure me, Nala, and you won't even acknowledge how I could be hurt by--," starts Lilah with that same angry sharpness, until she stops herself abruptly to push away from the fence, straightening. "No. You don't need to deal with my feelings. Is there anything that you need since your return? Is your weyr still in order?" Her tone takes on a weyrwoman tone, except for those soft, subtly stressed words. Enter the neutral third party. Tess' must have had an odd shift for usually her calisthenics are over and done with by this hour, and yet, here comes the healer, the warm red undertones in her glossy blonde hair especially prominent in the day's light, even bound back in a runner's tail as it is. As she jogs along the fence, the figures are noted and identified as she draws closer. just who it is, has Tess slowing her pace to a walk and moving to use the wall as support for her to put ankle in hand and draw her leg back in a stretch of her quads. "Am I interrupting?" would be more innocent if she weren't a mindhealer and if everyone here didn't know that. "Is that what you want? Acknowledgement?" There's nothing much of any particular, discernible emotion about Nala or her reply, her words cool and distant, save for the faintest hit of despairing amusement that colours them. "You have no idea," she levels at Lilah, giving a tiny shake of her head. "I've asked you for nothing. And you may be sure that--" What she might say is interrupted by Tess' arrival, even though she enunciates a crisp, clear, "No. I believe it's been established that we're done here." Lilah, at least, doesn't contradict Nala's answer to Tess. Indeed, she doesn't say much of anything as her fingers remain curled at her sides, her dark gaze leveled for a long moment more on Nala. Though what she could possibly be expecting now, well--. Soon enough, she breaks away to slide a look to Tess, murmuring to the Healer, "Sorry," before moving to retreat. "You are?" Tess asks, raising her brows at the bluerider and then looking to the gold. It's times like these that a mindhealer has to be mindful of what of what she knows is public knowledge and what would be seen as a betrayal of confidence. It's with casual care that she addresses the retreating goldrider, "Lilah, you went through weyrlinghood with Nala, right?" It's as if she's oblivious to the negative sentiment between the two. Nala supplies an offhand twitch of one shoulder for Tess, leaning all the more heavily against the fence in an effort to somehow obscure both healer and goldrider and pretend one and the both of them aren't there. Her name brings forth another wince or twitch, though any hint of why is lost in the fall of mismatched strands of hair that sweep to conceal her features as she redirects her gaze to her blue, who sits huddled at the foot of his second kill. The question addressed to her stops Lilah's retreat, especially where no answer is forthcoming from Nala. But when she answers, it is with a precise, "Eliyaveith and Jynth were clutchsibs." Her own gaze flicks to the dragons, even as Eliyaveith sits with her felled beast, not so much eating it as waiting for Jynth. Tess must have been through classes on body language, for when she finishes stretching only the first quad, she moves away from the fence to position herself casually in a place that makes both Nala and Lilah a part of her conversation circle. That they're both part of her conversation (if not each others') is reinforced by the fact that the healer's next question is directed to, "Nala, would you say Lilah and Eliyaveith relate as closely as you and Jynth do? Were there things that seemed easier for them in weyrlinghood or more difficult as a result of that bond?" It's not that Lilah can't answer, it's just that it's Nala's turn for a Tess Question. "No," Nala answers flatly, a pained exasperation beginning to creep into her tone. "But I am not here to judge how they operate, nor do I have any interest in doing so. I think it being intrusively common knowledge how everyone feels about my relationship with my dragon is quite enough, don't you?" Her lifemate, meanwhile, sits a moment or two more right where he is, before slowly stumbling his way towards Eliyaveith and her offered kill, to sink down at her side and eat more slowly now, sleepy edged. It is only as Jynth approaches her and accepts her offer that Eliyaveith's tension eases. She nuzzles lightly at Jynth and then slowly moves to curl around him protectively as he eats. "I have never judged your relationship with Jynth," Lilah answers to that question, a flat thing of her own as she glances to Nala. "I'm not asking you to judge. I'm asking you to tell me about what you observed, but obviously you don't have to indulge my curiosity." Tess isn't one to force the issue. She looks to the two, "It seems to me that the two of you should talk." There, pretext gone, she looks at them both evenly for a moment before turning back to the fence and moving to reach a hand onto it to stretch her other quad. Perhaps that's all the healering attempt they've earned. Jynth eventually slows to a halt with that third beast, and does absolutely nothing about the bloodied state of his muzzle or paws as he drops his head to his stained forearms and leans into Eliyaveith, mindless of the fact that where they are might not be the most sanitary or safe place to stay for long. At least his colour keeps growing stronger, little by little, though he stays far from his usual cornflower brightness. "You are asking me to surrender the means by which someone - if not you - may be able to hurt them, one day, with the twist of a word or phrase," Nala tells Tess, blinking her way closer to better clarity. "I won't do it." "She isn't," Lilah will defend of Tess even as she turns away, her lips tightening into a brief line. "She's trying to understand-- I have been seeing her," is continued in defense, the goldrider apparently willing to tell Nala that despite what promises she extracted from Tess. "I told her a long time ago if she wanted to talk, she could find me." This is addressed to the Healer as she turns there, turning away from the bluerider. Tess takes Nala's accusation as a raft faces a wave on a calm sea. It doesn't affect her mild look or her apparent interest in the feeding grounds themselves. "I would never ask anyone to betray another." That's firm, but she's not going to say more than that; she needn't. The fact is the fact and that's all there is to it. For the moment, she keeps her silence, in case it serves the pair of riders better for her to do so. "Then do not ask again," Nala reiterates, pushing back from the fence to draw herself up from her hunched slouch. "There's no need to believe it to be a denial unique to you. I would no more quickly tell any other. Whether or not you consider it to be a betrayal: I do. If it is not the answer that you wish, you'll have to find another to provide it." That last statement seems equally shared between Tess and Lilah, her attention only resting at the very edges of the goldrider's form. "I am not interested in talking. It only ever is as it is now: about her. If she cannot see that, the least she can do not begrudge me self-preservation." "Only ever about-- How many times did I listen to you talk about Hematite, bitch about them, or about M'vyn or about--." But Lilah realizes, belatedly, that she is talking to Nala and cuts herself off. Not without adding, however, "Believe whatever you want to believe, Nala. You always do." This time, there is no apology offered to Tess before the goldrider turns on a heel to walk away. Eliyaveith, as always, reacts little to her rider storming off, only snuggling all the closer to the pale blue. "I didn't," ask again. Tess' answer to Nala comes with a simple shrug of her shoulders. She watches the feeding grounds and the activity of the animals there in silence while Lilah takes her leave. Only after does she turn her chin toward the bluerider and to say, "You know where to find me," if ever she wishes, but then it seems her intent is to continue with her interrupted run. Once she's sure that Lilah has turned away, Nala does the same, back to the fence that she grips with both hands, her shoulders heaving with laboured breaths that transform Jynth back into a bulky blue oval of tension, though he doesn't seek to move from Eliyaveith in the slightest, and in-fact tips his head back to brush his muzzle against her neck. If the bluerider hears Tess, she doesn't acknowledge it, and she'll stay right where she is until equilibrium finds her again. However long that takes. |
Leave A Comment