View source for Logs:N'thei Visits Talien After the Accident

{{Log
|involves=High Reaches Weyr
|type=Log
| who = Talien, N'thei
| where = 
| what = 
| when = Day 6, Month 5, Turn 13, Interval 10
|day=6
|month=5
|turn=13
|IP=Interval
|IP2=10
| gamedate = 2007.09.03
| quote = 
| weather = 
| categories = General
| mentions = 
| icons = 
| log = It's a change of pace that finds Talien up and 'pacing' - slowly pacing with the aide of Svodriyth whose stuck to her side. Helping him attain that sticky position is the white-knuckled grip she has on the lower half of his shoulder. A healer or two stands not terribly far away, observing or just supervising as the now bandageless Talien explores her immediate surroundings.

The courteous thing to do would be to give warning of his imminent arrival via Svodriyth, but N'thei foregoes courtesy. After circling the walls of the bowl a couple of times, Wyaeth finally back-wings to one of his thud-happy landings on the blue's ledge, jars his rider nicely, and gives a rumble of what is likely meant to be greeting. Followed by N'thei's placid voice; "Receiving guests today?"

Svodriyth's greeting, for there is a Svodriyth to greet the pair at the ledge, is the lowest of rumbles and a wary shifting of his stance as he mostly stands in the way of the entrance. Voices drift inward from it, indicating company is present. Company in the amount of one, a healer, who sticks his head out the entrance and nods once to N'thei. "Be one second," he says to the rider before disappearing back inside where he can be heard telling Talien just whose come knocking.

Wyaeth elects not to stay. Perhaps that has to do with Svodriyth's greeting, or maybe it's some ploy on the part of the rider to buy himself at least as long as it takes for the bronze to get back, but he wings away from the ledge, leaves N'thei standing there, pulling off his gloves. "Thank you kindly, sir." He mulls around uselessly.

The healer appears shortly after, ushering N'thei in while looking about for Wyaeth. "Where'd he - oh, right." The healer nods to his own question after putting one and missing dragon together. He joins Svodriyth on the ledge, who, other than looking quite unpleased at being kept at bay, is pleased with the departure of his clutch brother. And inside, Talien's seated at what serves as her table. There's one other chair there and it's facing hers. While waiting for him, or for signs that he's arrived inside, Talien bites her thumb and taps the heel of her foot against the leg of her chair.

N'thei steps inside, an obvious announcement even without eyes. He's wearing riding boots these days, complete with metal-tipped bootheels, and they make an awful lot of noise against the stone floor. Maybe that's on purpose? "I've been avoiding you for a month now." He says it matter-of-factly and without adding a greeting of any sort. "But that's over and done with. I came to check on you." From the safety of the doorway, not drawing any closer.

Talien starts at the noise, and after a moment of concentrated searching, is able to gauge N'thei's distance from her. That she assumes he's farther off than what he actually is is evidenced by her reply, which is a touch louder than necessary. "Hello to you too, then. Sounds like quite the pair of boots you got yourself, N'thei." Talien pulls her thumb away from her lip, motioning to the chair across from her, "You wanna sit so you don't wear 'em through?"

"I'm told they're as loud as you can get them. Supposedly, they make sparks on the right kind of paving stones." N'thei grinds his heels audibly a second time, rests his weight-- and there's a lot of it-- on both those heels while he swivels slightly on them. Despite her gesture to the chair, movement is a long time coming from the bronzerider, who continues to stand there; "Not particularly. Can you see at all?"

Talien winces at the grinding noise and when it at last stops, she looks quite relieved. "Um, yeah that's.. that's great, N'thei. Bet you're all kinds of...noticeable with them on." She tries a smile, attempting to convey a sense of sincerity. The smile falters almost completely at his question, and while she also falters to provide a reply, Svodriyth is prompt in offering a growling rebuke.

Since Svodriyth /can/ see, N'thei makes sure to give him an eyeful, a baleful look in exchange for his growl, but the look goes away when he returns his attention to the bluerider. Her faltering smile removes any trace of merriment. "You had to know I would ask, Talien. I haven't exactly made a point of paying you social calls before now, have I?" His voice continues, smooth and unbroken, and he scrapes his way across to the empty chair. "I'm sorry."

"Right, and the sky is orange today, too... or so I hear. I can hear, you know." Talien says with a crisp edge to her tone. "Jus' cause you didn't, didn't mean you couldn't...I didn't want you to," She corrects herself with a small shake of her head and continues talking whilst digging her fingernail into the tabletop. "So, ok. Anyways. I don't want to hear you say that and I don't hate you and as much as I still wanna hit you, it's not because of what happened. I just want to hit you 'cause, well, I do." Talien shrugs another little 'nothing but a pawn' shrug, before adding, "Congratulations, by the way."

"I'm not saying it for you. So I don't particularly care what you want to hear me say." N'thei has very bad bedside manner and fails to hide it. He sits down heavily across from Talien, drums his fingers on the table top, and pauses for a long spell. "Thank you, by the way. For what? Something snide, I imagine?" But he doesn't try to dodge the bullet.

Talien blinks in surprise and jerks back slightly at N'thei's initial response, and again there comes a rebuke from Svodriyth who - orders be damned - has worked his way closer to the conversing duo. N'thei continues to fall on the receiving end of a most unhappy, low-pitched whine. "I- I heard that you'n Wyaeth were in a flight. Don't think anyone could've won it-" The shrug now is abashed and mostly to dismiss her thought that /losing/ a flight earned congratulations. Talien's heel-tapping stops as she pushes her knuckles into the tables edge, cracking several upon each fist. "I didn't think - graduating.. I got you a gift." Going for broke and brief, she settles her hands in her lap with an addition of, "B'yan'll bring it 'cause it's... it's not ready yet, but he'll bring it 'cause I figure you wouldn't - won't be visiting again."

N'thei says in a perfect present-exchange tone of voice, "And I didn't get you anything. Ah, well. I guess I'll have time to pick something up later." Then he draws a long breath, in through his nose, out through his mouth, rearranges his seat so that he leans more on his elbows with his fingers laced across his lips, and begins again, quietly. "Is there anything I can do? Anything you need?"

Talien's head cants downward, even if she doesn't quite look that way. "Yeah," she says after a moment of somewhat silent pause, "Just...no-" She pulls in a breath and releases it slowly. The knuckle grinding stops, but only as she's now taken to sitting on both hands. "I'm sorry... it's.. you know, it's us whose to blame. Me and Svodriyth were gonna set you and Wise-as.. Wyaeth up and we just.. we weren't paying attention so, you know, we're - I'm sorry. It's our fault and I'm tellin' everyone who asks."

Another long pause ensues, not even any noise this time. N'thei doesn't move except to blink slowly and calmly, and then his eyes look sideways toward Svodriyth for a second; "This is what you really believe? That it was your fault?"

Svodriyth's regard remains guarded, and if he's feeling any surprise over Talien's revelation it's not showing in his behavior. Talien, though, is an open book. Her sat-upon hands are wrung, her lip bitten and twisted before she offers a nod. Rushing her words, Talien says, "Yeah. 's the truth. Wyaeth'd... he wouldn't've had to do Svodriyth's if we weren't messin' around." A quick beat spaces that and her next, "An' everyone hates you 'cause you know, you and him kinda burned me, but I don't... I'm gonna be OK and I don't hate you."

"Talien." N'thei sounds patient, carefully so, the quality of a person who has thought about this at length and put of vocalizing it at least as long. "It wasn't your fault. It wasn't my fault. It wasn't Wyaeth's or Svodriyth's fault. It was an /accident/. I'm sorry, so sorry, that you got hurt, but I can live with myself for that. If you blame yourself though, if you believe this is your fault." He swallows audibly; "That I can't cope with. Please."

"Don't do that." Talien demands of N'thei with noticeable anger, "Don't make that... that noise and just keep hating me or something, ok? And I can hate you too if you can't hate me and need a reason to." Talien nods to give credability to her illogical statement, but irrationally continues with, "I'm gonna be OK so there's just... it's just gonna be 'till then and then we can keep fighting like we did before 'cause sometimes it's fun."

N'thei leans farther over the table, hands lowered and palms flat on the tabletop between himself and Talien. "I never hated you, but I will go back to playing that horrible little game any time. But not..." He hesitates, a looking-at-his-fingers kind of hesitation. "But not if you won't admit this was /no one's/ fault. Give me that at least?"

"It was our fault." Talien says with the same desperate conviction of earlier, "I don't want it being anyone elses and... everyone always says you take blame for what you did." Her hesitation is more of a silent mental debate and it's a game of guessing when she tries to find just where it is N'thei's hands are placed so that once one is located, she can squeeze it to emphasize, "We were messin' around and that's why it happened." She's quick to withdraw her hand, too, whether she finds her target or not. "Never hated you either, just he's so damn cocky, you know? Svodriyth didn't like it and I.. I didn't want you gettin' hurt.""

"Dammit, you stupid child!" N'thei pulls his hand away with barely enough time to touch it let alone squeeze it, and he stands fast enough to stutter the table on all four legs with the rush of it. "Are you trying to make me angry, or are you just stupid as well as blind?" A month biting his tongue comes to this, him leaning hard on his palms against the table across from Talien, below the belt. "/It was not your fault/."

Talien jerks upward and nearly falls back from sheer surprise. Svodriyth, surprisingly, does nothing to counter N'thei's actions or words. Hasty and hurt, Talien's reply is one intended to quell the fire. "I'm sorry - don't.. ok? It's... it was an accident - not me, not you and no one's to blame 'cause it just happened."

N'thei drags his palms back across the table, and they squeak across the wood and leave a little trail of moisture behind-- the former obvious for Talien, the latter apt to be missed by anyone but himself. She can't /see/ him putting himself back together, finding his composure, so he explains it to her; "I'm leaving now."

Perhaps in an attempt at proving she's not stupid, Talien nods to his statement. "Ok." A careful bit of feeling rewards her with the edge of her chair, and she slowly settles down into it. Fisting her hands together, she waits all of two seconds before adding an uncertain sounding insult. "Hope you break a leg on the way out."

N'thei leaves without saying anything else. There might be the sound of a short, gruff laugh, but that might just as well be a snort of frustration. The sound of his steps is horrible and firm, strides long and loud. One can assume that did /not/ go as planned.


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