Difference between revisions of "Logs:The Trip to Bitra"

Garden Patio Ledge, High Reaches Weyr(#634RJ) Partly sheltered by the curving stone overhang, partly exposed to the weather, the wide stone patio serves as a balcony for socializing or just plain drinking on a sizable scale. The repurposed ledge might once have let two large dragons land, but now there's too much furniture for that: two rustic tables with attendant chairs, plus a couple more in particularly good weather, and a wrought iron bench situated to make the most of the view of the western bowl and the lake beyond.

Other changes include rough little niches carved out of the stone walls to hold glows in colored bottles at night, the climbing plant that's being trained to grow up along the overhang, and the blue ceramic pots of flowers that dot the edge of the ledge as a colorful reminder not to fall off.

An archway leads to the Snowasis itself, housed in the ledge's former weyr, while a few wide steps descend along the wall to the bowl.

The sky is clear today. The air remains cool and damp, but the weather is overall pleasant today.

It's a wonderfully clear, afternoon day with practically no breeze. Lunch has slipped away and dinner is only a couple of hours off. Rather than sit on the patio with the rest of the weyr people enjoying their drinks and company, Sabella is situated on the steps leading up. At the midway portion of the stairs, she's tucked up against the wall. Her canvas bag is at her feet and her journal book is opened out across her lap. It doesn't seem like she's drawing today, but instead writing enough to fill one of the pages. The leather bound item is getting near the end, she only has so many good sheets left before she'll have to retire it. Unconsciously, she tugs on one of her loose curls sticking out from under her knit hat.

Being a sociable sort, E'sren was up on the patio having his lunch and catching up with a group of friends he's made since coming to the Weyr. They aren't riders, they're other people, crafters, workers, that sort, and they all laugh a lot. It's obvious why he's with them, and that he fits in with a personality like his. But now, with the acceptable amount of time spent not working on doing something chore-y winding down, he takes his leave from them and descends the stairs. Seeing Sabella there, he pauses a step up from hers and tilts his head to smile fondly down at her. "Hey partner."

Sabella makes a few quick notes in what looks like a personally developed shorthand, tapping her pencil against one of the pages. People are coming up and down the stairs so the addition of a few more feet don't really do much to attract her attention. However, E'sren's voice is another matter. She glances to her side first and then twists around to look up and behind her at him. Her mouth is quick to spark a smile and she wiggles her fingers at him. "Hey, there. Just finishing getting something to eat?" She wonders, eyes flickering behind him to the patio above.

"Yeah. Catchin' up with the guys. Now that things are loosening up a little with the babies, I get to do that." And E'sren's grin expresses well enough how cool that is. A little skip down lowers him to a seat on her step, but next to her, and he leans back on his elbows with his long legs stretched out in front. "It's so nice out." He tilts his head back and closes his eyes, soaking up the sun, then opens them to look over at her. "What are you doing in your journal?" "That's been nice, right? I think we're past that desperate attention stage." Sabella exhales, clearly experiencing the same sort of relief for it. She finishes with her journal, closing it on the pencil and holding it close to her chest. "Right? I mean it's still kind of chilly. But it's warm enough that I don't need to wear a hundred layers of clothes." That brings a happy twist to her smile and she shifts so that she can face him on the steps. "Oh, I was just writing the Misadventures of Sabs. I have to admit they've been kind of melodramatic since I've been at the Weyr. I blame the confinement." She wrinkles her nose at him for that admittance. "Hey, do you want to go to Bitra Hold with me once we can between?"

"The Misadventures of Sabs, huh? Wow. I wish my life was interesting enough for a 'misadventures of' book. So when do you publish that? I'd love to read it." His squint is because of his grin, but also because it's so bright! The sun, it burns. "You have seemed a little off lately. Not sure how. Just off." He's looking out at the world when she gives him that invitation. Request? Whatever. E'sren looks over at her again and thinks about it. "Depends. You did just tell me you're writing a whole book about your misadventures."

"You know, in a few turns. After I've had time to edit and really glamorize all the details beyond any recognition of the actual events." Sabs shoots back to him with a flashy grin. She leans back on her elbows too, thankfully facing away from the sun. Poor E'sren, hopefully he doesn't melt from the sun's rays. "It's nothing. Bad dreams mostly." The weyrling greenrider shrugs her shoulders easily. "Well, this wouldn't be a misadventure. It would be a grand sweeping adventure that we'd embark upon willingly. So you'd be fine and your life would possibly before interesting to talk about when you came home to have lunch with the boys."

Although E'sren hears everything she said, he doesn't address things in order. A small knot of concern forms between his eyebrows when she mentions her bad dreams, likely he's heard of them or heard her having them since they're kind of roommates right now, but he pretends to be considering Bitra instead for the moment. "Hmm. You make a good point. I'd go, sure. Are we going just to go?" And before she can really reply to that, he adds, "You're still having bad dreams?" "No, we're not going to go just to go." Sabella replies, leaning over to pick up her canvas bag between them. She tucks her award winning future book away, you know, for safekeeping. "I want to visit one of the gambling houses, I want to see what they're like. I hear there's a pretty big trader market outside of there too, we could visit that too. Make it a whole day affair." And she pauses there, lips pursed thoughtfully. "Though I guess that is going just to go, in a way." The concept almost has her distracted when he references the bad dreams. "Oh, uh. Yeah, but they're not as bad." But still annoying enough that a person might hear her wake up at night if they were already awake. "It's just Ghislaith. I'm working on keeping her out at night, you know." Does he? Her shoulders lift and she smiles. No big deal.

E'sren listens. He's good at it, the whole watching without staring and being too intense, not talking over the other person, nodding at all the right points. He does yawn, but seeing as how he tries to hide it with the back of his hand it's probably more to do with their crazy sleep schedules, speaking of, and less a commentary on the content of conversation. "There's nothing wrong with going just to go," he tells her in case that was something she didn't want. "I've never been there. My brother went and told me about it, and I think I have some distant cousins who make that circuit. And I know what you mean. About keeping her out. Ahruth isn't scary though. And I don't have anything in here for him to rummage around in and bring up to scare me with." Not that it needs referencing, but he taps his temple with two fingers anyway. In here. After a quiet pause he looks down and at her again. "I hear you sometimes. Or I did. I never knew what to do. And someone else got to you first. So I just laid there and waited until I couldn't hear you anymore. So I knew you were asleep. And then I'd wait some more, just in case."

It's nice outside, the sun is shining. It's even kind of warm, but still chill enough to be comfortable. That should all translate to 'awake'. But it takes one single yawn from E'sren for Sabs to do the same, her delicate hand lifting to her mouth. "Damn it. I hate when that happens." The social yawn, she blinks quickly to shake it off. "Would you want to visit at a time when your family was going through there? How distant of cousins are they, would they know you?" She asks, pushing her short curls out of her face. Continued conversation on her nightmares has her taking a steadying breath and focusing a curious look onto the bluerider. "I guess some of us just aren't as fortunate not to have scary things in our minds." Her posture is vaguely uncomfortable as she begins to apologize, "I'm sorry that I woke you up. It seems it's been happening more than I thought. You don't have to stay up for me, I'm really okay. It passes." Until the next time, anyway.

"Gotcha." Not that he did it on purpose, it's a yawn, but still. "They'd know me. We're all scattered around, but we keep in close contact. I just don't remember if they're in the Bitra area or further north than that. But I can send a letter to my mom, see if she can tell me more about them. If we go when they're around, they'd throw us a party, so that would be cool. My family's pretty big on, uh, needless celebration. 'Woah, a bird!' Party. 'The baby said a word!' Party. That rhymed. Anyway. I know I don't have to stay up for you. You shouldn't be sorry, you can't help it. Nightmares suck. I just... stay up. Listening. I always fall asleep laying there but... I dunno. I just do it, I can't help it." E'sren shrugs, gives her a closed-lipped smile. "What are you dreaming about? What's she pulling out of your head?"

"What are the parties like? Are they like gathers or more... you know, actually festive?" The type of party that people go to and really have fun. Not the song and dance affair that holder things usually are. Sabella laughs when he rambles those examples out, tipping her head back and giggling lightly. "They sound like they're people to meet. That would be great if they were around when we were. Though since we have the dragons, we could just fly to them even if they were slightly north." No big deal. "Maybe you can say something funny next time. Like a nightmare ice breaker? For all the people apparently laying around listening to me." She suggests, amused but a little shy at the thought of him just pointing out in the middle of the night to everyone too. Sabs sighs when the eventual question comes. Almost candidly, "She pulls at my memories, brings them to life again."

"Oh they're not gathers. Gathers are like... there's a way to do them. Our parties are crazy gypsy parties. Lots of bonfires if we can clear the space, if not then we just make one as big as we can without burning everything down and there's a lot of wine and really good food, and those of us who can play music and people dance." There's a lot of enthusiasm in E'sren's voice as he relays these memories to her, for her, but also something else. His dark eyes are either a little sad or a little wistful, or maybe that's just nostalgia. "I think you'd love it. And my mom would love you. You guys might be kindred spirits a little bit." He smiles again, for that and for the thought of being the comic relief for her bad dreams. It's a joke they can appreciate because they're both a little bit warped. But he sobers for her when she shares that, his hand reaching over to gently tap his knuckles to whatever part of her leg is closest. "Got some scary things in there?"

Sabella doesn't just listen to his explanation of a trader party, she practically absorbs the imagery from his words. When he's done there's a little slump to her shoulders and the girl replies with a wistful smile of her own, "I'd love to go to one of those, to see something like that. Your crazy gypsy people, they sound like my kind of people." She laughs too for the comparison he draws to his own mother, ducking her head. "Maybe we should be visiting your actual family and not the distant cousins." The teenager suggests with a sly smile. It makes her relax that he doesn't shy away from the joke that really lacks of class. Warped indeed. Green eyes drop down to his hand when knocks his knuckles against her leg. "Got some ghosts. Skeletons." She admits with a half shrug, bringing her gaze back up him again.

"We can visit all of 'em. There's actually a week in every year where we all converge on this one spot, another cousin has this little cothold and we all kind of take it over and throw one of those big parties and anyone who's in the area or who can get there comes. It's like a big reunion, and we all tell each other about the different parts of the world and some even come by dragon to see everyone. I remember being a kid and sitting in a big circle with all the other kids my age, and my uncle was telling us about Igen Weyr. And that to me at the time was like this totally imaginary place he was making up. But he was all tan so I knew he'd been there." E'sren grins at her, maybe because he picks up on how this is making her happy, and that's cool, but when he replies to her about what they're also talking about he's serious again. "I don't believe in ghosts," he tells her. "To me there's bad people and there's good people. Sounds like you got some bad people in your head. Lemme in there and I'll kick some serious skeleton ass."

Visit all of them. People coming together from all over. That seems to knock Sabella out, her fascination with the trader gathering has her leaning forward just a little bit. Her eyes are even a smidge wide and her smile plays on her lips. "Yeah, I can imagine how unreal something like that would seem. But didn't, hadn't you been to a weyr before? Your family travelled, you must have seen so many different places when you were with them." There's a touch of healthy envy in her voice for the type of lifestyle he led before coming to impress. "When is the next one?" She asks, folding her hands together into her lap. "Well, it's an expression. And they might as well be ghosts because they're not exactly real if they're living in my mind currently." She laughs at his joke briefly, shaking her head. Sabs exhales and flashes him a cautious smile on the subject. "I haven't thought much about most of it until she started digging around. I live a life full of well practiced personal denial." Ignore it, then it didn't happen!

"I've never been to another Weyr, I know it's crazy, but our branch of the family is High Reaches all the way. We work this area because it's our area. So I'd been here before, but Igen sounded like this desert oasis. Some place you find after wandering through hell for like a week. I dunno, I still have no idea what it's like really. It's on my list of places to go see. You should come too. We can go see the world together." Someone from upstairs tries to come downstairs and he has to shift a little so they can step around him to the step below, and the woman's shoe knocks him in the shoulder on the way. But for some reason, he says, "Sorry. Um. The next one should be later this year I think. Actually it might work out that it's right when we could go. I'll have to ask about that too, in my letter. I'll let you know what Ma says." He shrugs for the rest, for what's real and what's not. "Yeah, well. I can relate to the denial part I think. I'll just fill your head up with good memories from now on then, bury the skeletons."

"That's not so crazy. I mean, I heard that traders usually stick to a particular route and keep out of each other's way. It would make sense that you hadn't been all the way over to Igen yet." Sabella gives the woman that knocks him with her shoe and doesn't apologize to E'sren or acknowledge his, a dirty look. Somewhere on the steps there's a decent sized pebble. Not a rock, but not not a rock either. With a well aimed flick of her wrist she sends it flying to the woman. It hits her in the shoulder. If she should turn around, Sabs will already be conversing with the bluerider again. Perfectly innocent, smile. "That sounds great. I'd love to go to Igen, I hope your mother can get back to you soon too. Not that it matters since we have months anyway, but." Still. She's endlessly amused and less uncomfortable around him for the way he makes light of the serious subject. "Thank you, I'd appreciate that. I like good memories as a distraction."

"Exactly, exactly." That look can't be good, and E'sren follows it to the woman who's continuing on downstairs like nothing happened. His eyebrows shoot up when that pebble finds its mark and his heart stops. Luckily he's quick too, when the woman turns around to find the culprit he has his chin lifted and is ready to receive Sabella's equally innocent conversation. Nothing! When she's far enough away though he chokes on a laugh and, grinning, leans over to grab the greenrider's knee in one of his hands and jiggle it playfully. "You are somethin' else. We're gonna get in trouble, I can see it now. Sure, the trip to Bitra sounds like no big deal now." He doesn't comment further on the subject of bad dreams and good memories, maybe because he's currently in the process of helping her with that right now.

Sabella ends up giggling too, covering her mouth with her hand as she glances in the direction of the disappearing woman. She directs that innocent expression onto the former trader, lifting those slim shoulders of hers. "What?" Sure, she's all coy now when a second ago she was aiming a stone at a mannerless stranger. Then there's more laughter from her when she shakes her knee and she ducks her head. "I told you that it was going to be a grand sweeping adventure. And so we might get into a little mischief while we're out there, it never hurt anyone."

"Yeah, you say that now. Next thing you know we're both in jail." Or whatever. Since they're speaking purely hypothetical, it doesn't matter if jail isn't actually a thing. Still grinning, and hitching one arm behind him to rub at a spot on his back where he now sports a little indent where the step had dug in, E'sren turns his gaze outward to look around, not at anything in particular. After that pause, "Look, I know you've probably heard this before, I know people have probably talked to you already about all this, but if you do ever need... help. With anything. You can count me in." Meeting her eyes to really drive that home, he adds, "I'm in your corner."

"At least we'll be the best looking people in the slammer." Sabella replies in jest, her smile bright despite the topic being: go to jail. "Then we could dedicate the entire time we're there to plotting our daring escape out the window through knotted sheets or digging out with spoons." She doesn't seem to mind the lapse into silence, leaning back against those hard steps without looking at all concerned. Until they're talking about the dreams again and she's pursing her lips, quiet while he speaks. It seems like the right moment to look at him, so she turns in time to meet that intent look of his eyes. "Just be... I appreciate everyone's concern. But I just need everyone to be normal about it. So just be E'sren, Chase, whoever with me so I can feel less like there's some great big spotlight of pity."

She's allowed her request, he does hear her, but E'sren is quick to say, "That's actually not what I meant." And even though he did give her a smile for the idea of that daring escape from jail and other such adventure, he's serious again now. "I mean yeah, that's what I meant, but not just that. Not just the dreams. I mean like... if you ever need anything other than me being normal. Like when we were studying, and how we're gonna help each other escape jail and all that stuff. If you ever need somebody. I mean I get it, you're tough, you got it. I'm just sayin'... I dunno. Nevermind, I'm fucking it up. Just pretend that was smoother. Remember me as a smoother person when you remember this."

It's serious time now and Sabs reluctantly gives up the part of their conversation where she dreams up wild stories of them in jail. She glances away from him briefly before bringing her gaze back around his way again. Her hands find some purchase in her skirts and she plays with the material. Eventually something that he says has her laughing again, which might not be exactly the response he's looking for. With a sigh, "You know something, I think that I kind of love you." And that sort of answer can't be all bad. "I promise to remember you as a smoother person. And if my tough act isn't working for me, I'll try and remember that you're around too. Being smooth."

At least there's that, at least he made her laugh. Even if it was because he was being an idiot. At some point he pulled that worn mark piece out and he's walking it across his fingers when she speaks. What she says results in the coin stumbling, losing its place, and toppling off one hand and into the other, palm up beneath it, that his quick reflexes put there for that very catch. E'sren doesn't have words for her at first, there's nothing he can think of to say that would be appropriate. But suddenly he grins at her, she's laughing, maybe he's being smooth now, by not saying anything that could go wrong. "You can't even believe how smooth I'll be." Good cover. And just like that, he's moving on, eyeing her journal as if he's remembering something from earlier. "Hey are you almost out of pages?" And that will hopefully start them along a whole new line of conversation, away from bad dreams and feelings, with more laughing and joking and plotting.