Difference between revisions of "Logs:Contrition"

The day after the note from N'rov comes, Iesaryth reaches out early in the morning, a rush of warm sunny waves that spray into the air as they crash, droplets shining as they fly. They're not staying at home today, not with the weather as it is, or the situation as it stands. They've been away a fair amount recently, as glimpsed in the flashes of images the queen sometimes sends Vhaeryth's way; different Weyrs, different places, sometimes the grassy field where the green wagon sits. That is where she and hers go now -- if they have the time and inclination still, they'd both like to see them... though the sense of Shani's faint nervousness lingers in the clouds on the horizon. It's probably not a coincidence that both dragon and rider have picked the time that they wait to lie in the sun, the girl on her stomach on a blanket -- white shirt abandoned to the grass for now, rays beating down on her back. At least she's not so obvious in her attempt at distraction that she's lying on her back? Not that N'rov's exactly unfamiliar.

Vhaeryth's response comes quickly, both agreeable and agreeing, but his physical approach takes longer. She'd be forgiven for falling asleep by the time he spirals silently down out of the blue, betweened in so high that there's no sound from displaced air audible below, no moment where he's visibly not there and then there again. He might have been up there considerably longer than before he descended into view, or have betweened so high that it simply took that long. Now, though, his flight path widens so that his shadow doesn't pass over the girl, though over Iesaryth, Vhaeryth has no compunction: rather, he plays at making some part of his shadow stay on her just as long as he possibly can. It's a hello.

It doesn't take much for Iesaryth to doze off, especially when she's warm and relaxed and content, when her rider isn't anxious or upset about something; though there's that little cloudy thread of worry, it doesn't affect her too much. It's the shadow that wakes the gold, the sudden shift from warmth to cool -- she lifts her head suddenly at first, but then more slowly as she sees who and what's caused the lack of light. There's a soft, amused rumble and a spray of seafoam for Vhaeryth. « Hello. » Aishani, who'd properly fallen asleep, takes a moment longer to look up, leaning on a forearm as she rubs her eyes, squints up into the sky. With a yawn she doesn't bother to cover, she lifts a hand in a lazy wave before sending it groping for her shirt.

Vhaeryth rumbles back, descending into the low wave of his sound, the sun transforming his wings from obsidian to dark-veined, tarnished-copper glass. « 'Before the beginning of great brilliance, there must be chaos.' » He tilts his wings, letting N'rov wave back down, and finally lands not far from the queen. N'rov can handle dismounting and walking over to Aishani on his own, even if he's not trying to be fast enough to intercept her shirt; the bronze adds to Iesaryth with amusement like hers, « How was your chaos? » what with being so brilliant now.

Bright for the bronze, water sparkling with its own light, Iesaryth is nonetheless dry in tone. « There is always chaos. I hope it is not the only thing that lends my brilliance. » Because that wouldn't be much fun, for all unrest is interesting; what people do and why. If Aishani's disappointed that N'rov's not moving that quickly, she doesn't really show it, but hey. It was worth a shot. She pulls on the shirt as she sits up, doing it up with all of two buttons, tying it at her waist. Not getting up, but holding out a hand to him instead, "Busy day?" She doesn't have much taking up her time, obviously, but she doesn't mention that. Yet.

Vhaeryth gives her the rise and fall of her very own waves, never twice the same for all that they come again and again and again. But, « That seems unlikely. » He yawns, as her rider had before him, and stretches himself out with his claws digging lightly into the turf. N'rov takes Shani's hand and lets it guide him down, though then he occupies himself with taking off his gloves and flight jacket. "Yes, and I'm feeling decidedly overdressed. Have you enjoyed yours?"

« Good. » Iesaryth does enjoy flattery, warming for it; her tail may sweep over to poke at Vhaeryth lightly, but she's content with the sun and company both. The real ocean is not so far off either that she couldn't rouse herself to go, should the bronze like that. But until then, her eyes close. "Don't let me stop you," Aishani tells N'rov, flashing a grin after squeezing the gloved hand once. Glancing back to the wagon, "There's water in there, if you want some? And so far. I haven't really been doing much." A pause. "I don't know if I like it, doing nothing, but I'm giving it a go."

Rousing will come later. For now, why not lounge, the bronze not even bothering to return Iesaryth's poke. What Vhaeryth does do is give her a long, long-suffering look before sighing his head the rest of the way down to his paws. N'rov, obligingly not stopped, tucks his gloves in a pocket before folding the jacket up like a pillow and sprawling on his side to look at her. "Later," he says of water. "I think you'll get bored soon enough, it's just a question of how long it takes you. Are you going to prove me wrong?"

One lid of one eye open briefly to catch the last of that look, that sigh, Iesaryth snorts softly. Vhaeryth is terribly hard done by. It's awful being him, truly. Instead of lying back down next to him, Shani shifts close, crossing her legs under her, taking N'rov's hand again now that it's ungloved. "I'm not going to prove you wrong just to be stubborn about it. You're probably right." She's been looking down at his hand in hers; when she looks up and over to him, it's a different sort of Shani, as she very rarely ever looks this contrite. If at all. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you right away." She doesn't even give excuses, just leaves it at that.

Vhaeryth's eyes have already closed, and he doesn't bother to snort either, being busy drowning his sorrows in sleep. If Iesaryth wants to catch up with him when it comes to napping, she'll have to hurry. "Not this time," N'rov says dryly. He doesn't look down to their hands, only at her in all her contrition. When she apologizes, he says with less emotion, "Or ahead of time. But, yes, you're making it hard to argue."

Iesaryth is excellent at napping. Though, as with most things, she's in no rush to catch up. She'll get there eventually, not that it should take long. Her rider allows a faint smirk for N'rov's dry rejoinder, but she's hardly in a position to argue. Shani seems a bit awkward otherwise, meeting his gaze, though not for too long, starting to bite at her thumbnail before she can stop herself. "Or ahead of time," she echoes, with a sigh. "I know. I... You seemed to have a lot to deal with. Maybe I didn't want you to talk me out of it. I don't know."

"I sure as shells don't." But N'rov wraps his hand more tightly about hers and then reaches for her other hand, the better to bring them both together and protect her thumb with his own. "Like I said, we'll survive. It's just as well that it's been a few days. Does it feel like a weight's off your shoulders?" Or a noose from around her neck.

She lets him take both her hands, easier for that small gesture, smiling slightly as his thumb covers her bitten one. "I didn't think you would want to. But... I don't know. I am sorry. Not... worrying you is a terrible excuse." Aishani glances up again, dark eyes on his grey before she unfolds long legs to lean over and kiss him, short and sudden. Long curls shading them from the sun, she admits when she pulls back, "Not really. But it feels like it's not my problem if someone does something stupid, so..." It's something?

"I'd want to even if I didn't want to. I'd," get himself cut off by a kiss, one that leaves him looking back at her, too. N'rov says, "Sometimes I don't want to worry you either. I'd still say not to do this again," but he shrugs, making light of it and its likelihood of reoccurring. "Have people stopped coming to you yet? Do you," and he finally smiles, "follow orders?"

"You'd... ?" Aishani gives an apologetic look for cutting him off, however pleasantly. Not as apologetic as before, but. Freeing her hands only to poke him lightly in the chest as she stretches out next to him, "I won't if you won't? Though I don't think you've neglected to tell me anything so drastic." With her own smile, still slight for all that it's encouraging to see his, "Mostly, yes. Though there's some that still do. And why should I follow orders if no one else does?" That's only a little bitter, her gaze darkening.

"Finished. Finished what I was going to say, that is." N'rov's gaze tracks Aishani's hands right through their poking, but since she doesn't break through his ribs and pull out his lungs or anything, he doesn't try to stop her. "I'm not promising I won't, though since I'd have to work pretty hard to come up with anything as drastic, you should be safe. The only thing I want to work at right now is not working." His reaching over to tug a curl of her hair so it lies over smooth bare skin is hardly work. "I'm just asking, Shani."

Nothing but a little poke, though her hand lingers as she rests her head on one bent arm, resting flat where she can feel his heartbeat. Aishani'd be hard pressed to hide her knives with what she's wearing, so there's not likely violence in the offing. With a little pout for not promising, she still agrees, "It would be. And I'll try if you try, then." It's more reasonable, but she still wrinkles her nose for it, softening as he reaches her hair. "I know. It's hard for me not to be angry, still. Not with you, with them. It. Everything."

"We can be trying together." But N'rov considers her. even as he lays another curl beyond the next, covering up a bit more skin. "Is it really easier if you out and out promise? You know," here he pauses and toys with the very end of that curl, tickling it along the edge of her neckline. "Y'ral has a punching bag strung up in his weyr, and one that doesn't even have my face on it the way E'dre's probably does. It's less fancy than the setup in the caverns, but it's less public too. I'm sure he wouldn't suspect a thing if I smuggled you in."

Dryly, "I think there's more than a few people that might think that's just the word, trying." Not that Shani seems to find N'rov trying at the moment, smiling slowly at the tickle along the edge of her shirt. Sliding her hand up to his shoulder and into his hair, she shifts a bit closer despite the warmth. Reluctantly, "No. Probably not. It's less realistic. Do you think I need to hit something? Or is this a ploy to find out whether I actually can or not?" She arches brows his way, eyes bright. "Do you think it's your face, or just some stick figure with your name under it? That sounds more interesting for sneaking around, but I doubt it'd be worth the issues."

"You're disturbing your hair," N'rov points out for all that shifting, not that his tone of voice is in any way an objection. It just means he has to continue his job of rearranging, which he does with great attention to detail. If the ends of her hair tickle when they're dusted against her skin, that's hardly his fault. "I firmly believe that you can hit. But it would probably be hot to watch you prove it, too. No, not a stick figure, but then it also might not be my face. Would that make it worth it?"

"I apologize. I didn't know it was a project." Aishani obligingly lies very still to allow for all this careful arranging, though long fingers twine into his curls, or what little of them there are right now. Her smile widens as she glances down to see how he's coming along, then up through her lashes after. "I wondered if it being hot might have something to do with it. Hot if I'm not fighting you?" She has to smirk for that, arch brows again questioningly. "I'd prefer if it wasn't your face. I don't like how often people seem to want to hit you in the face, and with me never around." Because her trying to stop that would be so awesome too. "It'd make it worth it if you felt better for having your fears disproven. Or proven. As the case may be."

His hair was near-shaved at hatching time, but by now it's grown out slightly, and if she keeps tugging at it, she might be able to yank it even longer. N'rov returns the first two locks to their original locations, then reaches to the other side of her face to steal a third going the other direction. "If you're not fighting me, yes. Do you want to be around just to watch? To cheer them on? It might be embarrassing," 'might,' "for you to pull them off me, but then it might be worth it. Aishani, victorious." He does glance up from her hair to her eyes at that last, though. "Were you thinking something more serious than I was, just now? Because I was thinking of body parts not involving eye-balls... not to say that's not serious."

Maybe that's why she keeps at it, in hopes she can make it grow faster. Shani flickers another look down, but doesn't seem too concerned with her own hair. For once. "To cheer them on," she says reprovingly, as if. "I don't want your nose broken again." She'd lean in to bump noses with him then, maybe, if it weren't for the curl-arranging. "I think it's probably better that I leave you to defend your honor and your face on your own." As his gaze meets hers, she smiles, starts to shake her head, thinks better of it. "Nothing that serious, no. Just that it seems to happen around flights, the hitting. I'm not looking forward to... any of that. But nothing about fears, if that's what you mean?"

N'rov's moved back to plaiting her hair, more or less, over and under like a particularly attractive necklace... of hair. He does laugh for the cheering, and glances up right when she would have bumped noses. "'That 'probably' sounds distinctly like a lack of promise, you know." Not that he asked for one. "I like my nose staying unbroken too, all things considered. It's great that we have these things in common." More seriously, "Fears or no fears, maybe you can have all of us tied up ahead of time to avoid hitting." Or not entirely seriously, though there's an undertone that suggests he might after all mean it.

Aishani takes care not to move the 'necklace', for all that it mustn't be terribly cool... but she does enjoy when he plays with her hair. Smoothing her hand over the back of his head in case any of his curls are out of place, she wrinkles her nose again. "I acknowledged that it wasn't realistic. Promising that I can suppress my instincts and stand idly while you're assaulted is even less so." Loosing fingers to tap that currently-unbroken nose, "All things considered. I think we have a lot of things in common when it comes to your well-being. And tying the lot of you up might cause difficulties later on down the line. With the not-moving and all."

"You don't have to stand idly, you know. You can do a chant, wave your hands, bounce around some." N'rov's about reached the part of the over-under-ing that he can do with one full hand and the other impaired by leaning on his arm. "That would distract anyone." And as for the tying up and the not-moving, "You could untie if you wanted, anyway. Everyone else could have a designated untier coming around afterward, maybe make them drink some rum before letting them go."

Bemusedly, "Bounce around. I don't know if I do that. Should I try?" Not right now, though, not with the braiding and how comfortable Shani is, enough to slide her arm around his waist, close her eyes. "It might distract you," she points out. "But it's possible that you're slightly immune to such tactics, given I could do it for you anytime." Her brows come together in thought as she allows, "I suppose there's that. But it might be awkward before the untier comes around. I'd say it could just be your hands, but then there's the kicking. I wouldn't put it past anyone." There's a moment before, over a sigh, "I can't run off again." More as if she's convincing herself.

"Not right now," N'rov unknowingly agrees, even as that arm of hers makes it that much easier to relax from the braiding and let it go. He rests his hand on her hip, instead, cupping it with his palm. "You might be right. Actually, you should do it for me quite a few times, so I get used to it." He might have said more, but instead he listens. Instead of a reply in words, he strokes her hip, and then from her shoulder down to it again, and then from her shoulder down just as far as he can readily reach. It's a slow movement, intended to comfort.

With a slow smile that opens dark eyes, "You trust me enough to leave yourself at my mercy? Or is that the point?" Aishani glances up at him, smile not-quite-wicked just yet, even if he's touching her. Quiet, expression calm -- perhaps due to that caress and the comfort in it -- she edges closer, careful not to disturb the plaiting about her neck too much. Resting her forehead against his, she whispers, "It'll be better once it's done. And I won't wonder if I've made a mistake or not anymore." Not that she'd admit the possibility to anyone else, not even to him in anything above that murmur.

"The bouncing, woman. Practice the bouncing." N'rov is there for her as she moves close, leaning in just enough to make it easier to meet foreheads without actually crashing. "Yes," he hopes for how it'll be better. As for the wondering, whether he believes it or not, the bronzerider leans now to meet her lips.

"Ah..." Aishani's enlightened, but something about her smile says it's possibly an intentional mistake. Or she just wants to make him think that. She makes as if she might get up to start that practice, but it doesn't last long with him leaning in to kiss her; instead she tightens her hold on him as she returns it, soft against him. Maybe what comes next is a little close to work... or effort, anyway, but it's at least entertaining business that occupies them for what's left of the afternoon.