Difference between revisions of "Logs:Panties In A Bind"

Eastern Bowl, High Reaches Weyr

Ringed by rough granite walls to all sides but one, this end of the huge bowl narrows from the even broader plain to the west, continuing the ever so slight downward slope toward the blue and green of the Weyr's lake and surrounding foliage. More open to sun and wind than the western bowl, but less frequented when there aren't weyrlings in residence, the bowl's grassy tufts keep the topsoil in place and thicken into a bloodstained meadow within the feeding pens that adjoin the lake.

At the base of the surrounding cliffs lie entrances to several caverns, including the dragon infirmary and the weyrling barracks: the former to the northwest near where the spires begin, the latter opposite to the southwest. Both archways are large and dark enough for any dragon to pass through, but it's the infirmary's that is haunted by faint smells of redwort and numbweed, as though over generations they have seeped into the very stone.

P'ax has brought Yyth out into the snow to work off some of her energy. While she hops around in the snow, wings unfurled and attempting ungainly leaps into the air in a juvinille attempt at flying, P'ax is stock piling a suspicious amount of snow from the newest fall that hasn't had a chance to get fouled or packed in. It looks almost like he is making a snow man, except it's mostly blobous at this point.

Up on a nearby ledge, Vrianth's coiled and... not watching, exactly, though one paw's dangling over the stone lip and her eyes are turquoise, attentive. More like, watching out for her rider, who's leaning against the base of the cliff and watching Yyth. Also P'ax. But mostly Yyth. Her mug of probably-klah's steaming, but getting cold.

"Come on," grouses K'del, waving his arm in the air in the generation direction of the bowl, as he and Cadejoth emerge from the barracks. "Go. Run around or something. Gotta do stuff, and you're driving me batshit, I swear." His already-sour expression purses further as Yyth and P'ax are sighted, and he abruptly turns in the other direction, though Cadejoth has no such biases, bounding towards the little green with interest, his tail flicking against the ground as he moves. In his moodiness, he doesn't notice Leova, nor Vrianth above.

P'ax is too busy sculping a very bad sphere to care about Leova watching him, though Yyth seems decidedly interested in showing off for the assistant weyrlingmaster and especially when Cadejoth arrives, she redoubles her hop-skip-flap efforts. P'ax glances up at K'del walking away and the corner of his mouth tugs in what might be disappointment. A gloved hand scoops up some of the sticky snow, patting it together firmly. Then it is launched at K'del's retreating back.

Leova half-turns upon Cadejoth's arrival, but much as the former stablehand doesn't call his young rider out on his language, neither does she warn him. In fact, one corner of her mouth turns up, though she stops short of egging P'ax on. Just part of the wall, here. For now.

To Cadejoth, Vrianth's noticed, flicks a deliberately blurred image his way, white and pillow-soft.

The snowball hits K'del at about collar-height, just the right point at which to start seeping in to his scarf, and perhaps drip down the back of his neck. He turns, and in this motion does note Leova - the glance he sends in her direction is almost as unpleasant at that which he delivers to P'ax, though it continues more a more sulky suggestion, a you-didn't-warn-me! note. "Don't do that," he complains, hands in pockets, scowling. Cadejoth tilts his head forward, to the side, considering Yyth's actions - then tries them for himself. Ooh!

To Vrianth, Cadejoth, confused, chain rattled, uncertain. What does that-- oh. Too late. « Oops! »

Yyth turns her head towards Leova and then -up- towards Vrianth. She hops a little higher this time, giving a futile wing flutter. She croons an encouragement to Cadejoth, tail swirling the snow into strange patterns. P'ax laughs loudly at K'del, "Never turn your back on the man with the snow!" He announces, packing another snowball sneakily behind his back.

The greenrider lifts a shoulder, lets it fall, got-to-be-prepared! Could be a coincidence, it's the shoulder with her assistant weyrlingmaster's knot, but it's not a coincidence that as K'del turns, she's narrowing her eyes after him: what's itching the boy? Not that she warns him about P'ax's further preparations, Vrianth's gleaming eyes on the scene from on high, the dragon in touch with weyrlings playing further along as well as the two below. But. Just in case. To the younger greenrider, "Not playing the game."

To Cadejoth, Vrianth's gravelly tone is an un-rattled rattling of her own: « Next time, » warm but... more watchful than expectant. He could notice. Could pick up on the clue. It could happen.

Though Cadejoth is probably not oblivious to his rider's current mood and situation, he looks the part, now leaping and frolicking with great enthusiasm, rumbling merrily at Yyth as his own tail pounds and twitches in the snow. K'del, still scowling, tells P'ax: "Leave me alone. Just... quit it. Grow up." Getting no help from Leova, he sighs plaintively, and turns away again.

He won't. There's no confusion, now, but no comprehension, either, just a shimmy of metallic warmth, as he launches himself over another snowdrift, accompanied by a quietly sad note - K'delK'delK'del - that he probably hasn't realised he's shared. (Cadejoth to Vrianth)

P'ax arches his own shoulder in amused acknowledgement of Leova. His eyebrows raise and he abandons his snowman efforts to jog after K'del. "What's got your panties in a bind, Kas?" Yyth hop-skip-snort-flutters closer to Leova. She bounces and turns her muzzle towards Leova expectantly. Her tail, meanwhile, snakes out to thump Cadejoth playfully.

Which means that Leova tips a nod to P'ax, good-job, rather than call after K'del. And braces herself: oncoming Yyth, who gets a gloved hand reaching out to her with palm turned up, a hand that's prepared to slap that narrow nose if she makes to bite instead of just rubbing up. Or sniffing. Or even licking. Or whatever else not-too-traumatic the green can think of, or Cadejoth for that matter.

"/Nothing/," insists K'del, eyeing P'ax in disbelief, as if he can't imagine what would possess the other boy to dare to follow him. Or question him. Or - who knows. "Except that now I have snow down the back of my neck, and it's cold, but Cadejoth won't let me go inside without him, and he's-- he needs to let off some energy." Deep breath. "So just leave me alone, okay?" Cadejoth lets out a little roar as he gets thumped, and charges after the green, grasping for her tail until they get to Leova, whom he eyes, though he doesn't approach. Thump, thump, THUMP goes his tail.

To Cadejoth, Vrianth notices that all over again, isolates that note for a moment or three and then puts it back into context with a shiver. « Cadejoth, » she names him even as he heads after Yyth, more importantly, as he heads toward her own lifemate. Her gravelly voice is assured, intending not to startle... though there grows an electrical sense of /motion/ flowing beneath that thought. Pay attention.

P'ax snorts in K'del's direction. A sneer curls up the corner of his mouth as he says in his little nasty voice, "Oh, is that how you wanted to do it? Well, being nasty to me won't work. I know something's eating at you but if you'd like to stew in it, I'll just go away and you can sit over here and sulk." He seems to debate for a moment smashing the snowball in his hand over K'del's head but then he tosses it aside instead and quarter-turns away from the older boy to watch Yyth and Cadejoth. Yyth seems to indeed be considering biting Leova. In fact, she even starts to open her jaws and then huffs, rounding on Cadejoth instead, trying to nip playfully at his flank.

To what Vrianth, to what? Cadejoth doesn't verbalise his question, but there the thought is, nonetheless, tangled with that confusion again, and the Sad, despite his playfulness with Yyth. (Cadejoth to Vrianth)

"P'ax," Leova says evenly, just loud enough that they can still hear. "Sounds like a good idea. Giving the man some space." Her attention refocuses on the toffee-haired boy for only a moment before returning to P'ax himself. "Think Yyth could bat some snowballs with her paw, if you threw them to her? She coordinated enough?"

Cadejoth swats at Yyth with his paw as she tries to nip him, kicking up snow as he darts out of the way. But his head turns back towards K'del, whose nostrils flare as he turns away from P'ax - and at the same time, from his own lifemate. The cant of his head shifts just slightly at Leova's words, but he says nothing. He does, however, cross his arms and slump his shoulders, doing a very good impression of the sulky teenager.

To Cadejoth, Vrianth keeps that link, flowing like a distinctly non-watery current with its own destinations and motivations, unbound by gravity for all the gravitas in her tone. « Your rider, » she says, energy shaping momentarily into a silhouette of K'del's lanky self before becoming the bronze's own profile. « Would you care to help him? Cadejoth. »

Despite himself, Cadejoth half lunges at that silhouette of K'del, eager, but drops back as it becomes his own profile instead. His chains rattle. « Yes. Oh - yesyesyes. He doesn't want to /talk/ to me. » How could this be? Why? (Cadejoth to Vrianth)

P'ax shakes his head just a little at Leova and mouths 'let me' and says carefully, "I'll tell you what, why don't you come in with me and we'll warm up and have some cider? Yyth can keep Cadejoth distracted that long, don't you think?" To Leova again: "She'd probably just eat them, honestly." The small green bounds after the bigger bronze, snarling with all the ferocity of a full grown dragon with the intention of a half-grown puppy.

Leova lifts a brow at P'ax, what a pity that the other can't help but follow with it. Holds up a finger against the side of her mug, briefly, and it's not even the middle finger: he can have a try. Just that. "So she could catch them in her mouth?" It's interest, but she keeps it casual, not order nor even outright suggestion. Not yet.

The Look that K'del delivers towards P'ax is more ferocious than Yyth's, and more scathing than - well, than a very scathing thing. "Why would I want to voluntarily hang out with you, P'ax, when I've already said I want to be alone? Buzz off." Cadejoth - coincidentally? - lets out a howl-like sound at much the same time as his rider finishes this speech, hurtling away from Yyth as he pelts towards K'del. Who just sighs.

She doesn't flicker that silhouette again, not yet, keeping it in reserve. Static flickers black-and-white-make-gray around the edges of her presence: not talk? to Cadejoth? Anathema. But the sending that reaches out to the dragonet is largely free of it: « We will fix it, » with a fillip of intent behind /fix/ that is not quite /or else/. « Show me what happened. Just before he stopped. » (Vrianth to Cadejoth)

To Vrianth, Cadejoth leans in, somehow taking comfort from the surety of Vrianth, her intent to fix it. He hesitates, baffled, thinking back, and finally projects forward a green-tingued set of images: K'del, reading. Cadejoth himself, batting at something on the floor, his tail flying everywhere and knocking something unseen from the press to the floor. K'del, telling Cadejoth to go out. Cadejoth not wanting to leave him. And then, their arrival outside. « I didn't /mean/ to, » he whispers. « It's boring when he just sits there. He doesn't even want to talk much, then. But not like now. »

P'ax considers K'del for awhile and then shrugs and turns back to Yyth who is looking completely bemused by Cadejoth's flight. "You can play later." He tells the little dragon, shoving his hands in his pockets and slogging back through the snow in the completely oposite direction of any of them. Even Leova is ignored except for the almost murderous look lodged in his pale eyes as he stalks past.

Leova's mouth can't help but pull to the side at the taller weyrling's reaction, and if the look she gives P'ax is all wry better-luck-next-time, it might excuse some of his own expression. "Space," she repeats, plainly. And then, "So. P'ax. Over here, please," quite as though he didn't intend to walk right on by. "Let's see what she can do. If she can catch a snowball like you said. Or... if you think you'll have a hard time with your aim? I can give it a go."

Cadejoth's defection from Yyth appears to be mostly an attempt to get his rider's attention, but K'del is having none of this. The bronze tries to poke his head into K'del's stomach, leaning down to reach, but the tall young man pushes it away. "Go play with Yyth, Cadejoth." His tone is terse. Cadejoth lets out another of those low howls, skulking back to look at Yyth, at Vrianth, at Leova and P'ax. His tail flicks harder than ever, agitated.

And Vrianth, she has certainty and purpose in spades: if that's what it takes to comfort, there's plenty to go around. She takes in the images he sends, and Cadejoth might see them momentarily outlined in light before they... not so much go away, as /disappear/. Taken in. And her sending is quiet as his, nearly just between them: « Listen in, » is her suggestion. « Like you listen to his voice. Find him. What he is thinking, feeling, even if he does not put it in words for you. » (Vrianth to Cadejoth)

P'ax says flatly, "/Space/." And under his breath, a far ruder word is added, and it ends with itch. And yes, he does continue to walk. "If you weren't such a sharding idiot, maybe you'd get it together and realize that the last thing he needs is space and the last thing Yyth wants to do is have me throw snowballs at her. Drink your fardling klah and bugger off." Yyth is nothing if not forgiven, offering a gentle croon to Cadejoth and a tip of the head. Play?

To Vrianth, Cadejoth attempts to still himself as he listens to Vrianth's advice, though the agitation of his thoughts - mirrored by the flick in his tail - makes this nearly impossible to achieve. « Just listen? » Barely a breath of a thought, tangled up with hope and eagerness and uncertainty. « I will try. »

Whisper-light, his chains wound away so that they little more than clatter lightly as his thoughts move, nudges against the walls of your mind. He waits, as if expecting to be pushed away again, but when that doesn't happen, he seeks closer, as if warming himself against your very presence. (Cadejoth to K'del)

« For now, » Vrianth agrees, the better to buoy him up. Never for-always. « Listen. You will touch him later. » Soon. (Vrianth to Cadejoth)

"Sounds like remedial etiquette instruction for you, P'ax." Leova says evenly. "Recopying the lessons should help get them in your head, while everyone else is having free time for the next two, no, three evenings. And you'll start it off with five laps of the Bowl." In the snow. In the fading afternoon. Glancing sideways, "Yyth?" It's pointed enough that it should get her attention. "Help your rider be more polite, and he'll have more time to play with you."

K'del smirks - even in his mood, or perhaps /despite/ it, he seems to take great pleasure at the misfortune of others. But his expression falters, and, finally, he looks at Cadejoth, still crouched on the ground looking bereft. "Ca--" he begins, then he shakes his head, shuts his eyes. His lips purse, but he nods. "Come back in, Cadejoth," he says, finally, as he turns to leave, completely failing to so much as glance at P'ax or Leova, his dragon slinking behind him hesitantly - but hopeful.

To Vrianth, Cadejoth doesn't use words, this time, just expresses a feeling: he's maybesortof being let back in? Not entirely, but-- the closeness. It's something. For now.

You head to the weyrling area.