Difference between revisions of "Logs:Neutral Party"

It is somehow more busy here in the kitchens without the regular workers, but this is likely because no one works as efficiently or as well. People are going in different directions without the usual sync of the kitchen staff. It is what would usually be the midday lull, between breakfast and lunch, but workers are still busily prepping and already falling behind. And at one counter, stands the Weyrwoman and a greenrider, looking over a sheet of bread that came out of the oven with burnt spots. "Just-- do the best you can, Elci. I don't expect you to have total control over what happens here, but... You were a baker before you Impressed," Lilah says tightly. It is a sharp retort that Elci gives back, telling the Weyrwoman, "But I never ran a brigade," before she picks up that pan of bead and storms away. And for a moment, dark eyes only follow her, as the goldrider refrains from anything else.

It's never been uncommon for Hattie to wander into the kitchen at all hours, having missed one mealtime or another, and it must be a difficult habit to abandon, even when faced with the prospect of a kitchen not exactly functioning within normal parameters. She no longer looks like she's going to keel over at any given second, and nor is her progress into the kitchen anything more than an amble, so her visit can't be all that pressing, despite the interest she pays in a passing tray of... questionable baked goods. The goldrider stops only a few feet into the room, though out of the way of the door, and just... watches. Without comment. Given a moment or so to collect herself, she begins to edge out of the way and towards one of the tables in the corner.

There is no immediate reaction to Elci's backtalk; there's no immediate reaction to Hattie's appearance, either, despite the rumors that have to have gotten to the Weyrwoman's ears already. Lilah only watches her for a moment, and then straightens. It is she, not any of the workers who may or may not know to do so, that gathers up a plate of food, for all that the pickings are slim. It isn't the usual bounty that the kitchen staff usually keeps on hand, but it is something, and that is what she brings over to Hattie, setting it down at the table. "How is--?" is her greeting, a gesture made to the other woman's stomach.

Hattie certainly doesn't look pleased with or proud of what's going on, and in-fact every effort is made to avoid the gaze of any of the riders who look her way, which involves more or less picking a spot on the far wall and pretending to be terribly interested in it while she slides into a chair and settles, as close to the edge of the room as she can possibly get. She's only just realigning her focus when Lilah places that plate down in-front of her, and once she's got over the initial surprise (perhaps only of there being food) she gives her a murmur of thanks and a wry smile. "Kicking," she replies. "Often at inopportune times. So, I'm going to go for 'spirited'."

"Good. She will need some spirit," Lilah replies simply, her dark gaze sliding over Hattie's features in a withdrawn study. But, when she continues, the neutrality of her words do little to hide the point of them, "I hope you are resting and taking advantage of your time off. Wouldn't want to worry the Healers."

"That's you and Nimarie and Elaruth who're in agreement that it's a girl," Hattie remarks, neither obviously pleased nor upset by the prospect. She begins to use thumb and forefinger to pull at a piece of bread near the edge of the plate, only to stop and abandon that intent to focus on Lilah with a heavy, if patient look. "Would you like me confined to quarters under the guise of it being for my own good?" It can't be a genuine question, yet it lacks the sharpness to be a dig. "What would be the point in my stepping down and then engineering some... silly little revolution?"

Lilah's lips lift into the hint of a smile for the remark, knowing, but it doesn't slip as Hattie moves on to her questions. She answers, dismissive, "No, Hattie. I don't think you are behind this nor am I going to send you away or confine you. But--." She shakes her head, before adding firmly to the goldrider, "Whatever Shevena wanted from you, she is not getting it."

"Why do you assume that Shevena wanted something from me?" Hattie replies with an ease that speaks volumes for what so relatively little time off is doing for her. "Have you asked her what it would take from you to bring them all back?" She goes after that bread again, the retrieval of that bite completed this time, and, after a silence dictated by the manners of eating, she tilts her head a little and puts to her, "Has it occurred to you that Shevena may be only a figurehead for this? The one who got landed with it by default?"

"Did you want something from her, Hattie?" counters Lilah in response, only the slight curve of a brow slid upwards at it though she doesn't press that point. But the questions seem to only draw a tense line in the Acting Weyrwoman, her gaze weighted on her junior. "I, frankly, don't care. Whether or not she chose it, she is leading it. She has chosen to put the good of herself and the cavern workers over the rest of the Weyr."

Patience makes the slightest shift to indulging, as Hattie enquires, "Such as?" The flick of her fingers motions towards Lilah's knot. "No offense, but even without that, I can have almost anything I want. What do I serve to gain from having a Weyr upset and unbalanced, which upsets Elaruth? It entirely defeats the purpose of why I gave you that knot." She pulls another piece from the plate, though hesitates to eat. "...Maybe you should care enough to find out what they - and she - wants and why."

"My point was that if you didn't want something from her, it stands to reason that she wanted something from you," explains Lilah slowly, though it seems her 'no offense' has done little to alleviate any offense her words may have caused as the Weyrwoman straightens at the motion to her knot. "And I don't care what she is, figurehead or not. What they want-- They are going to see quickly that we can run well enough without them. I will replace them all before I give in to any demands."

"Or I could have sat there and listened to her, while working on something else at the same time, as I've subjected her to for turns, and be in the position to hand over what she told me. And a half-written letter to my sister, but I could spare you that." Hattie shrugs and finally lets herself have that bite. Silence, again, as she eats, with no obvious hurry to speak again. "...And when the sweeps and deliveries and visits don't get done, you'll have the holders asking why," she says gently. "Gossip spreads and this gets much, much bigger than it need be."

"It was already bigger than it needed to be when Shevena and her people decided to strike," Lilah replies flatly, her gaze sliding briefly to those dragonriders that are working the kitchens before sliding back to Hattie. She adds to Hattie simply, softly, "You can't be a neutral party in this, Hattie. You can't be with Shevena and with us. Just like you can't be not the Weyrwoman and also in control. You can't have everything you want." It seems she will leave it on that, though, because she turns to leave as she finishes.

"Oh, for Faranth's sake..." Hattie murmurs, momentarily closing her eyes. "I'm not with anyone," she insists almost too lazily, "and nor will you be if you court destruction just to prove a point. If you don't feel in control, you've only your own handling of the situation to look to." If she has to say those words to Lilah's back, then she will, but she doesn't shout them for anyone to overhear. Nor does she stare after her, plate more pressing than any other immediate need.

Lilah doesn't turn around to answer those words, nor does she acknowledge them. She doesn't stop to do anything further in the kitchens, leaving it in Elci's hands for now.