Logs:Whatever This Is
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| RL Date: 7 February, 2013 |
| Who: Jo, Z'ian |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Jo and Z'ian make each other uncomfortable. Jo offers him a getaway trip. |
| Where: Z'ian's weyr, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 2, Month 13, Turn 30 (Interval 10) |
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| It's evening, naturally. And Z'ian's weyr, being the mini-maze that it is, has a couple of hiding spaces. So someone familiar with it wouldn't be surprised when they came in and found him not immediately available in the living area. He's definitely home because the hearth is lit and the place is warm, indicating he's been here for awhile. There's a pitcher and one glass set out on the table. Down the little passage that leads to his 'bedchamber' are the distinct sounds of things being moved around. Big things. Like maybe the bed being dragged across the floor. Investigation would lead a person to find the bronzerider in there, his mattress pushed up against on wall and the wooden support of the bed up against another. And what he's doing is apparently repairing it? Replacing one of the underneath supports with a new piece of wood. Hammer in one hand and a couple of nails in his mouth. As is becoming increasingly customary for this Glacier rider, Jo and Tacuseth land with little to no announcement whatsoever. Of course with Tsanth being there on his ledge, there's always the brief time of warning to his rider that he was no longer alone as the tall, wiry woman slips down from her blue's side, pulls free her nightcap bottle for the customary occasion and clicks her tongue at the bronze in greeting before she's heading on in. Familiar with Z'ian's weyr by now, she is, so while she pulls back the drapery and steps in, she pauses to scan the general area of things. She can hear those big things being moved around towards his bedchamber area, and so she briefly sets the bottle down to adjust herself to the warmth of the place. Black leather jacket comes off and is slung over his table, revealing her in her usual white tank top before she takes up the bottle and approaches the area. When she spots him with the bed, she pauses and folds her arms, letting a little bit of humor into her smile as she says, "She must've been a wild one, if she has ya on the floor fixin' yer bed at this time of night." Uh-huh. Very obviously clueless to the arrival of dragon and rider, he startles quite easily at the sound of the bluerider's voice. He drops the nails out of his mouth and onto the floor, little pings as they roll away. Out loud, "Oh, Jo and Tacuseth are here? You don't say! Thank you, Tsanth. Useless dragon." The grumbling from the bronze can be heard echoing down the passageway. He's not useless! Not all the time anyway. Z'ian turns around slowly and leans one hand against the wall. Composed now, he smiles slyly. "It wasn't one particular woman that broke my bed. Think of it as a culmination of events." He wipes his forehead with his wrist and balances the hammer on the upturned portion of bedframe. Kneeling down he collects the nails off of the floor, dropping them into one cupped hand before he stands again to put them someplace for safe keeping. "I don't think you're here to watch me fix my furniture?" Laughter greets those words being thrown towards the bronze dragon out on the ledge as Jo gives a little shrug and says, stepping forward, "He didn' bother to announce my presence last time, either, when I found ya in that most settling position. I think he likes me. I think he likes havin' Tac and me around." She's so sure about that. "Perhaps the bronze is just the reflection of his rider?" Rhetorical, perhaps, and she does step forward more to assess his handiwork on the bed herself. To Z'ian's sly look and response, "Well. I do like a man that's good with his hands. And, looks like ya would need somethin' stronger then, hm? I happen to know somebody that knows somebody. My bed's been the best ever since. Ya should test it sometime." She's just bad. She uncrosses her arms and reveals the bottle that was tucked under one arm, lifting up for him to see. "I'm here to enjoy yer missed company," is her answer, the flecks of fondness there in the convict rider. "Been out for awhile on business. Telgar, in fact. Are we glasses tonite, or just the bottle?" His eyes go distant and he looks past Jo to the passageway behind her. "Stop eavesdropping, nosy." There are then some residual grumbles before the sound of Tsanth out in his couch tapers down to silence. For her rhetorical question, he slides her a crooked grin. "Maybe. I do hear that happens after a period of time." Z'ian flickers a glance to his half repaired bed frame, "Don't you always know someone who knows someone?" A rhetorical question of his own there. "You know what? Sure. Because this is the last time I fix this same broken spot. Let me know how much it's going to cost me." His smile broadens, "And don't make offers you're not willing to follow through on." Just as bad. When she lifts the bottle up, he exhales quickly. "I think it's a bottle night. Just shift to the side, please?" He requests politely as he moves to drop the mattress onto the floor. "Figured. Telgar, huh? I have a brother that's moving from there back to the 'Reaches. I was just there a seven ago, actually." His eyes move to her as he drops down onto his bed-minus-bed-frame. "Weyr, Hold or Hall?" Jo turns her head just a fraction towards where the dragons would be when Z'ian speaks to his dragon, a smirk emerging. She doesn't even need to hear what Tsanth had said, probably. She meets his gaze then for his rhetorical, then turns it right on the bed with a slight tilt of her head. "Perks of the trade," is her comment on always knowing somebody. Whatever that 'trade' could be. "I'll get ya an estimate. A broken bed is just tragic." Right. Of course, stealing a look to that broad smile of his along with those accompanying words, a brows lift just a bit with that deliberate leer on him before she brings it back up and asks, "Who said anythin' about me not bein' willing to follow through?" with a lopsided smile on her face. Approaching him slowly, "Maybe I'm just tryin' to see what ya got, darlin'. Girl can' be the hunter all the time. Or don' want to be." Open invitation? She shifts to the side as asked then, hefting that bottle and uncorking it while Z'ian is moving the mattress to the floor. She lets up on the suggestive banter upon hearing about his brother moving from Telgar, "Which one is he?" she asks, since she knows he's the youngest of more than one. She then moves to settle down beside him, her knee touching his as she tips her head back and is the first to drink. "Weyr," she answers shortly, passing it over to him. "Had a few things I needed to do. Main one bein', checkin' up that lead I got on Kin and Bareta." "Tragic." Z'ian agrees with a quiet laugh. He undoes the laces on his boots and kicks them off across the room, each going in a different direction. What's a little more chaos to the room? He stretches his legs out, letting them half hang off of the mattress and onto the floor. Tilting his head up to watch her as she comes to sit down, "A couple of nightcaps ago," Because this is now a unit of measure. "We talked about enjoying what we had right now. First. I don't know, I just thought you weren't interested in moving it forward yet." He drops his hand onto her knee, teasingly creeping his fingers up her leg. "Because if you wanted follow through, I have been the hunter before. You know, a couple of times." Suggestive coupled with faux modesty, he flashes her a smile and wraps his hand around the neck of the bottle. "Mal. He's the oldest, married to a woman and the Smithcraft." He tips the bottle to his mouth and takes a generous swig before passing it back to her. "How did it pan out?" The bronzerider asks as his eyes drop to check out her knuckles, "No manhandling?" Jo leans back, all cavalier and devil-may-care in her long posture as she watches Z'ian talk - or rather, her eyes go intermittedly from his eyes to his lips and back again openly. With an odd side-sort of nod after a while, there's that sudden moment where the convict rider doesn't have that cocky, arrogant sort of smile on her face as she regards him before she says, abruptly, "Yer different, to me, Zach. Yer not one I can just...come away with me for a day." When it's personal, she's just not that good with words. It's a rare moment from her, but, it's short-lived. Bravado back in place with that soft snort, "Interest was always there, darlin'," and she's back with that wolfish grin of hers as he creeps his fingers up her leg, and she shifts that leg to those fingers. "So yer sayin' the dart's in my hand, now?" Using the reference of a certain turnday party, her tone one of equal challenge to his having hunted her. She nods to hearing about his brother now, "He comin' here, or the Hold?" she then asks, dark eyes full of curiosity. Once she got the bottle back, some of her smile sours as she lifts the back of her hand to him and shows knuckles with not a single bruise. "Gone," is her answer. "Found their camp, but they were long gone. Looks like they left in a hurry, too. Left some things I chose to collect up for safekeepin'." Steal. "Been wonderin' what spooked them to leave, actually. Very few at the Weyr even knew who they were. False names and all." He drops his eyes from her face, listening carefully without quite looking directly on at her. She's not exactly the only one who doesn't manage these conversations so well it would seem. His hand stops when it's about mid-way up her thigh, his index finger drawing lazy circles against the leather of her pants. Eventually he manages, "You're more than a really hot woman that I met at the bar. You're my friend now too. I don'- I won't push you. I don't want you to feel trapped by me or stop coming around." Z'ian takes a breath and drags his gaze back up to her, smile lopsided. "Yeah, so in short. The dart is in your hand. Exactly." Laughing self-consciously he glances away again, the topic of his brother an easier one. Sort of. "He's moving to my parents cothold, with his family. I guess he's going to travel to and from the main Hold for his craft work. It's not terribly far out. My ma is going to need the help on a more permanent basis soon." He lifts a hand and rakes the hair on the back of his head. He looks troubled by her news, "That's peculiar. Maybe they pissed off the wrong people. Would someone have tipped them off that you were on your way to them?" It's perhaps easier to watch Z'ian's face when he looks away, Jo's eyes narrowing somewhat when he talks about them. Eyes drops to those fingers on her thigh, his familiarity with her has a little smile lingering on her lips. It of course quirks upwards at the first thing he admits, but it drops off to something curious - for her - for his next. Silence predictably greets them when he's done, but when he meets her eyes with that lopsided smile of his, she drops long fingers over those that makes circles on her thigh and then laces her fingers between his as she leans forward into his personal space. Keeping that bravado despite the next, "Hey. Me not comin' around ain' happenin', and ya don' gotta worry about me feelin' trapped. Ya make me uncomfortable," she admits a touch wryly, "but that's because it's been a long time since I've let anyone get close. I've kept people at a distance for turns. Stuff I told ya....haven' told in a long time." She pauses on that before she drops, "And, of course I'm hot." She couldn't resist with such bold confidence, but she does let it ebb when he agrees on it being her move, and she squeezes his hand she has before she drawls out, "Understood, darlin'. I could use some sun, and so can Tac, with his stiff limb and all. Know a place I was told about. Here's the dart. Come with us?" It's now more question than statement. There's that flicker of concern upon hearing that his mother is still not doing well, the bluerider grimacing as she says, "Shit. It's still bad, huh? She's lucky she has ya." That grimace doesn't fade in light of her missing her targets, either, something dark flitting through her eyes as she looks away from him. "Anythin's possible," she says to them being tipped off. "But that's alright. It doesn' matter. Those rats can' go too far with Tac on my side." Is that a little cold sweat that Jo can possibly feel on his fingers? No, certainly not on his hands. He definitely doesn't get this sort of nervous around women. He responds to her squeeze in kind, his mouth pulled to the side in mild, wry amusement by her response. "It's not the same, I know. But if it makes you any less uncomfortable, you make me just as uncomfortable. Tsanth and I haven't exactly been great at cultivating our personal relationships the last oh, decade and a half." Z'ian darts his eyes around the minimally decorated bedchamber. "Our life." He shrugs then and completes the distance into her space, lifting a hand to touch the underside of her chin. "I'll listen to whatever you want to tell me. Whatever you're ready to tell me." That line she drops has him laughing under his breath before he kisses her, not aggressively like the last time they said good-bye. It's gentle, reassuring contact as he answers her question. "Yes, we'll come with you." When he pulls away, he exhales slowly. "Ah, not her exactly. My pa is the one that's on his way out. But she's going to be a mess, so." There's a distinct change of tone between mention of his mother and father, more concern for her than him is evident for sure. Despite the death's door for the man. "Not just me. Mal and hopefully we can get a hold of our prodigal brother in time." He rolls his eyes before releasing her fingers, his hand traveling to place a light hold onto her hip. "It'd be nice if you knew how they left. On foot, wagon, dragon. It'd give you an idea of where they holed up next. Distance." Jo may not feel the cold sweat, but Z'ian's confession does have her as sheepish as he's probably looking. Both of them are just not good at this. "So we're both bumblin' through this," she notes deadpan, managing to find the humor in it - especially, considering, it's her. "Whatever this is." Her chin lifts boldly to his touch, his words taken in stride, her gaze intense before he kisses her. This time, she doesn't bring on the rough quality that she is, though it always hovers in the corners. Her gaze is sultry when he agrees to come along, the convict rider stating, "Good. We're goin' swimmin'. Brieli tells me this place is worth the trip." When he pulls away, she slides back into her lean and finally takes a long drink without letting her gaze off of him. Passing it back over, "Ya care for her more," she observes that subtle shift shown in the bronzerider on his mother and father. "I get it. And the other one. Where's he?" Her hip is held and runs a hand through her hair, shaking her head on Kin and Bareta's whereabouts. "They wouldn' go near a dragon if their marks depended on it," she notes darkly with a little smile. "Imagine their surprise when they see me. Nah, I'm thinkin' it's either wagon or runner. Somethin' stolen, no doubt. Bareta and him were always the resourceful ones. Helped teach me everythin' I know, in fact." "Exactly. Again." Z'ian lets out a short laugh, crooked smile returning. "Whatever this is." His eyes distractedly follow her hand as she puts it through her hair, blue eyes captured there before he breaks his gaze away. "I'll wager that you're not as strong a swimmer as I am." He states, lifting his eyebrows challengingly as he accepts the bottle back into his grasp. Mention of Brieli's name warrants just a flicker of something across his features, but it's so barely there that it's gone before it can really be recognized for anything significant. His answer comes reluctantly, "I suppose that makes me a bad son. But yeah, I think all of us do." The bottle is tipped to his lips and he takes a long swallow. "Alec? Who knows. He was in the area the last time I was at your weyr. He was my visitor. Said he'd be doing cargo runs along the coast by High Reaches Hold, hitting the minors. If I can find him later on is another story." He rolls the bottom of the bottle against his leg, lifting it to take another quick drink before passing it back. "Wagon and runner keeps the distance limited. Means more people saw them too, likely." The hand along her hip squeezes gently, "And you know how they think already. They don't stand a chance now that you're this close." Said with the utmost confidence for her abilities. "Well," Jo drawls with a low rumble of laughter for the first. "I don' have a good track record with relationships, either. Not since Deetan. So I wouldn' worry, darlin'. We are who we are." Talk of being a stronger swimmer gets a bold, "How much ya got? Cuz I'd double it and betcha that I am." Challenge accepted. She does catch that flicker of something at the mere mention of Brieli's name, and there's just the shift of focus to regarding him even more. Something seems to make her say, "Suppose ya heard about what happened with my wing." Glacier. Her look turns pointed, but then falls away in light of family. She looks ahead of herself and answers back, "Ain' nothin' wrong with what ya feel. Think I give a toss about my douchebag of a father?" She takes the bottle from him then before she adds, "Family's family, but it don' mean ya gotta like all of them. Alec." She speaks the given name, nodding as she looks sidelong his way. "He does cargo run, huh?" Yeah, that's getting filed away. She moves on to Kin and Bareta, his squeeze to her hip getting a flash of a smile far more confidant than it should be. "Only a matter of time. They're not the big prize, though. Wanna get my hands on Deetan. I'll figure somethin' out. Get more information. Meantime, though, need to take a day off. Been runnin' Tac ragged lately, and Leova has me workin' on his jacked up leg right now." Grimace there that's close to a scowl, but it's clearly more directed at herself for her carelessness than at her greenriding wingmate. "I'll put..." Z'ian thinks it over, lips pursed thoughtfully. "Two marks in. You double it. Easy, friendly wager. I swim in fresh water until the lake starts to freeze over, darling. The salt will be as easy to swim in for me as the air is to the dragons." Just a touch cocky. The subject of Glacier is broached and it must have been something he was prepared to encounter with her eventually. "Yeah, I heard." The bronzerider neutrally moves around the topic with an even, "It was something that was bound to happen one way or the other." He rakes his fingers through his hair and produces a half-smile on the talk of fathers, "I guess that's why they say you get to pick your friends, yeah?" There's a quick sigh and he rolls his shoulders, "That's what he does. Says that he does, anyway. Like I mentioned, prodigal brother. You'd probably like him." His mouth curves from the half-smile to a fuller one, narrowing his eyes just a touch. "Though maybe I'll avoid introducing you two for awhile, you might like him more than me." He's sympathetic for the situation with Tacuseth's leg. The bronzerider is terrible with that hand in the meanwhile, it slowly inches its way to her lower back, pressing firmly. "Hey, I understand. I felt like an ass after I let Tsanth get his wing torn during the flight. We'll take the day off, it'll be good for both of us. Them too. He's supposed to still be taking it easy anyway." "Well...I might trip ya up, since I can' recall myself ever playin' fair," Jo notes with her deadpan expression in place to his touch of cockiness. Can't beat him, cheat him. "Ya've been warned, since yer not a man of risks, like ya said. I suppose that has changed now, since ya seem to enjoy playin' with fire still." The fire that is her. There's something faintly akin to a smirk on her face at Z'ian's response on the latest Glacier news, finding his choice of words amusing, apparently. "Is that how ya really feel?" she can't help but to say, hinting at his true feelings on her wingmate. Her opinion on the change seems to be missing, for now. Oddly enough. There's the amused snort on his brother, his teases getting a bearing of teeth and a wry, "Shady, and has eyes like yers? I might end up lurin' ya both into the hot springs with me." Trouble, and she doesn't look one bit apologetic for her suggestive comment. Eyes check out the man with his hand pressing into her lower back, the convict rider arching one brow at him before she nods to the last. "Tac will pass on the coordinates. Be good to unplug for a little." "You trip me up in the ocean, I'll end up drowning. Unless you mean to take me out there to kill me. I don't know much, but I was under the impression that you did like me. Just a little. Enough not to let me die." Z'ian teases playfully, eyebrows lifting. He breathes out and shakes his head, glancing away. "I guess that has changed. In more ways than one recently. It's not so bad." When he looks back to her again, it's with a crooked little smile again. "It's not how I feel at all. It's just a statement on how things are right now." Her lack of input on it is something that he probably files away this time. Even if he's not saying much. Just then he laughs however and ducks his head, hand dropping away from her back. "You, me and my brother in the hot springs will never be my idea of a good time. But now I know to keep the two of you separate as long as I can." It's mocked up jealousy, he doesn't sound as if he's really threatened or worried. "Just let me know when you want to go. I'll find a way to get the time." At the first, Jo outright laughs, and it's loud if not brief. "Take ya out there to kill ya? That's pretty elaborate. Lucky I do happen to like ya. Just a little. Enough not to kill ya." Tease for tease before she drops that on his next and adds, "Yeah. I see that. I just may get ya to a card table yet, now. Stick with me long enough, I'll have ya tryin' anythin'." She sounds very confident on that score. Z'ian's answer on the state of things has her smirking just a tad along with, "Perhaps I'll prod that particular nest, once we're in the warm sun." Laughter again greets that mock jealousy of her hot spring suggestion, rolling a shrug before she slowly gets to her feet. She turns to hold out her hand for him to take in case he wants to get up, saying, "I'll let ya know. It'll be soon. Real soon. Guess I better let ya get back to yer bed-fixin', there. Unless yer feelin' extra bold tonite to come check out mine. Doubt ya'll get any sleep, though." She sounds so serious as she says it. "An elaborate plan for a complex woman. Wouldn't put it past you." Z'ian teases, still playful as he accepts her hand. For manliness purposes it should be noted that he doesn't really use her to pull himself up, he manages the bulk of it on his own. "Maybe we can play another game of poker, after you don't drown me and you're trying to poke my nest." He slips an arm around her shoulders, "I think that I'll just deal with it tomorrow. I'll sleep on the floor tonight, can't be worse than sleeping on it with the frame broken. At least it won't be bowed in the middle." He laughs at that so-serious suggestion, "Yeah, I bet you wouldn't let me get any sleep. Too bad I have these things called drills early in the morning. Lucky me being in Avalanche." The wing of torture, it would seem. "I'll walk you to the ledge." Just to squeeze a little extra time with her while she's still here. He doesn't seem ashamed at the transparency, keeping some sort of contact with her down the passage and even as far as the steps to the ledge until she's gone. "Ya wouldn' have it any other way, bronzerider," Jo notes pointedly as he gets to his feet without too much of her help - well, despite the fact that she's female, she does have a tendency to act 'gentlemanly' at times. "Deal on a poker night," she takes on, easy to lean against his frame when his arm is about her now. There's little fatigue in her, suggesting her night was likely far from over. She pitches that smirk his way for his response on him getting any kind of sleep, the bluerider stating, "And see, I have this lovely greenridin' brunette waitin' for us and everythin'. Such disappointment." She does poke a fist to his side a little before adding, "Lucky me bein' in Glacier. I don' have to worry too much about that. Maybe ya should transfer over to us malcontents, eh?" With that, laughter in her wake, she lets the bronzerider lead her out towards the ledge, seeming just fine with the lingering contact before she and Tacuseth take to the skies and homewards. |
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