Difference between revisions of "Logs:Tried And True"

It's a lovely summer evening. The drilling for threadfall that doesn't currently fall has been on going for awhile now. The wings are more worked and tired than they have been and the grumbling has been fairly loud. Z'ian's returned to his weyr for the night, hanging his flight jacket and other gear up by the entrance. There's no reason to light the hearth since it's been warm again. Instead he sets about to changing into more relaxed clothes, a clear sign that he's not planning on leaving the weyr anymore today. His expression is carefully neutral even in private, probably a lingering side effect of being around everyone else more fired up than him all day long. Changed out, he sinks down onto the couch and covers his hands over his eyes and stretches his legs out in front of him.

The other wings aren't the only one grumbling by how hard worked they are. Glacier's probably getting the worse of it, if the weariness on the arriving blue pair is any indication. Tacuseth drops down on the familiar ledge and Jo dismounts almost sluggishly, already shrugging out of her black jacket to reveal her usual white tank underneath as she heads on inside. Her saunter into the inner weyr is slow as she approaches Z'ian, and if he doesn't stop her, she drops down beside him on the couch without a greeting or warning, turning her wiry frame so that she can drape her long legs right over his. While doing so, "Looks like ya can use a drink, darlin'," she greets, leaning back with a comforted sigh. She's stretching out on him, basically, and she doesn't have a bottle with her it seems.

Tsanth shifts over to his side of the ledge, leaving Tacuseth to settle tiredly into his customary spot. The bronze rumbles one of his simple greetings before finding the easy back and forth of conversation that he keeps up with the blue while he's there. Z'ian must have become use to her silent, greeting-less entry at some point in time, because he hardly seems surprised when she drops down next to him. When her legs stretch out over his legs, he languidly reaches over and pulls them further up onto his lap. "Looks like you could use a drink too. Question is, which one of us is going to get up and get it." He wonders outloud as his fingers been to slowly, but methodically undo the laces on her boots. "Are you having fun yet?" The bronzerider asks, a touch sarcastically, smile wry. Clearly in reference to the drilling they've all been stuck with.

Jo should probably notice how easy her dragon settles in with Tsanth, the blue folding his wings back and hunkering down as if he was done for the night. With Z'ian pulling her legs more onto his lap, there's a lazy smile for his question of drinks and at least, she's looking in the direction where he keeps his bottles. "I could always use a drink," she says belatedly, looking his way. "I think....if I can get up again...." and she doesn't look to be doing so anytime soon. She just settles against the couch pillow, his question on having fun getting her weary laughter as she watches him idly undo the laces of her boots. "Taikrin's been ridin' us hard, and not in a good and satisfactory way," is her answer, sending him a look. "Glacier's gotta look shinier than the rest, see. Yer not havin' fun? Fake threadfall too much for ya?" and she leans forward to run a light fist to his arm.

Z'ian tugs on the laces of the first boot until they're loose, then drags that first one off of her foot and lets it drop onto the floor. He hooks his finger into the top of her sock and slips it down and off. The process is repeated with the remaining boot on her other side. "Yeah, let me know if you think you can make it all the way to the other side of the room." He doesn't look like he's in the mood to get up and go over there either, even if he does flicker his eyes in the direction of the shelves. "Maybe she could take that Turnday present she got from Bones out. Would that make the drills more bearable?" The bronzerider's mouth twitches with amusement, but he tries to keep a straight face. "Don't you feel lucky being in the Weyrleader's wing." As for himself. He snorts and rolls his eyes, smile crooked. "Fake threadfall is fine. It's just ruining the operations that I was working on. I have to spend all my time here at the weyr, drilling."

"If ya move, then I'll have to move," Jo notes, meaning he's to stay right there. "If we get thirsty enough, one of us will move. Maybe." Her eyelids a little heavy as she watches him with her boots, the remark on Taikrin's turnday gift earns him a quick, "Yeah, it would, even if the men of the wing wouldn' find it all that much fun." Entertaining to her, maybe. "Guess it's not all bad," she goes on to say then, rubbing her abdomen with both hands. "I mean, I get what she's tryin' to do. Tac pretty fuckin' much likes it, if it means he gets to show off how fast he can go." To his answer on his wing, there's a tip of her head to the side against the couch as she wiggles her toes a bit, seeming to understand. "Be glad it's just a day," she tells him wryly. "That's what keeps us in Glacier goin'. That, and partyin' harder. Operations, huh? For Boreal?"

The second boot drops onto the floor with a thud. He pulls her feet closer to him and begins to deliberately and firmly press his thumb into the arch of one, working it against her slowly. "Maybe. I think it's more likely that the two of us will just fall asleep here on the couch and wake up in the morning with stiff necks." In regards to the men of Glacier, Z'ian lifts his shoulders and presents her with that crooked grin again. "Some men wouldn't like it. There has to be at least one that would." He quietly continues the slow massage of her foot while she speaks. "I get it too. I'm not sure it's necessarily effective, but I get it." He'll allow that much for the drills at the least. "The mock threadfall will be a day. Unfortunately she still hasn't said when it would be. In the meantime we drill until she figures that out. Maybe for sevens and sevens." It could almost be irritation that laces his voice but he breathes it out, relaxing his shoulders. "Yeah, for Boreal. Impossible to figure out anything long term when I have to keep calling my riders back to the weyr."

Okay. Jo's eyes can't help but to flutter close when Z'ian starts to rub her feet, mumbling a quiet, "Ya keep that up and I'll expect ya to do it for the rest of the night while I sleep right here," in light warning with her smirk. It fades a little in light of the acting Weyrleader though, the bluerider moving to settle her hands behind her head with a stretch and a "She gotta do somethin, darlin'. Ya'll can' be pissed off at her forever, or until one of the queen take flight again. After a while, don' all of it get borin'?" But. Well, she's slow in answering on the mock threadfall's date of execution, grunting at first only as she looks away. "I ain' exactly enjoyin' the increase of drills, either," she notes with a glance his way. "Ya know I got other things that need be doin' beyond the Weyr, and I can' do them properly if I'm so tired all the time. I get ya want it all done and over with. Guess I should've asked her myself when I last talked to her. She wants ya to get along with her, ya know," she offers idly, casually. "S'pose that's mutual on her end, too." So, she can understand his last, and she gives nod to it. "Trust that it'll pass," she gives quietly, soberly, perhaps in reassurance to him.

Z'ian smiles when she closes her eyes like that, a gently pleased reaction to her mumbling. He works his way down to the base of her heel, his fingers firm as they kneed into her flesh. "Once you're asleep I'll probably stop. So that I can sleep too, though I don't know how we're both going to cram onto this couch for that." He begins to shake his head on the subject of Taikrin. "Does she? You don't feel like this whole thing isn't just some giant desperate grasp for control?" The bronzerider doesn't sound as if he's being critical exactly, though maybe he is. "I'm not pissed at her. I don't think she's right for the job, but the Weyr hasn't fallen down around our ears either. And there aren't exactly open revolts going on. How much longer until one of the gold's probably rises anyway? We're far under two turns now." The casual offer is met with a snort and he glances away. "No, that's not what she wants. She wants patsies that agree with everything she says. I just met with her privately the other day." He sighs again and lowers her one foot in favor of the other. When she gives that reassurance, something not exactly common for her he squeezes her toes. "I know it will. Everything does."

"So I came over here to have ya rub my feet and to fall asleep on yer couch," Jo quips, almost deadpan along with her expression when her gaze could once again be felt. "If yer in this mood to cater to me, ya can feed me sliced fruit too while yer at it." There's a smirk for that, which, lingers as she shifts on the couch to drop, "Desperate? Taikrin? The woman's cut from the same cloth as me," she notes wryly. "She hasn' done anythin' I wouldn' do in her position. I don' think it's a grasp for control. She wants acceptance. To be recognized. So she declared herself Weyrleader. The Weyr hasn' gone to shit like certain folks predicted before." She stretches her foot about as he works with his thumb, falling silent as he talks about her not being right for the job. "And who should be right? K'del?" she eyes Z'ian then for that. "H'kon? Both don' seem to be on stable footin' themselves lately. If ya want technical, there have been some shitty Weyrleaders before that got in the traditional way." But then he mentions that they met, and her interest is clearly piqued. "What did she say?" she asks more casually than she should.

"Don't get ahead of yourself there, woman." Z'ian shoots back quickly, running his index finger against the more sensitive section of the bottom of her foot. His smile is indulgent for the quick tickle before he begins to work his thumb again. "Have you really looked at her lately? She's tired and she seems like she's sagging. I don't think going back to the old drilling ways is the best move. We should be looking forward to adapting the wings to be helpful during the interval, best that they can anyway." His crooked smile returns. "But it seems the people in this Weyr only want to buck tradition when they think it'll work for them. Women on bronze, but lets go back to cumbersome threadfall exercises from the last Pass!" He laughs quietly before shrugging his shoulders. "I would have said K'del back after the flights initially, but now I'm not so sure." It's Jo, so she gets admittance from him easily enough. "I never really thought H'kon was right for it. We'd be better off giving the acting Weyrleader knot to someone with experience, that's been around. And it doesn't have to be a man or a bronzerider or whatever. So don't you pull that sexist shit on me too." He points one finger at her in a mock warning. "The wings all think she's going to put one of her Glacier friends in charge of Iceberg. I wanted to speak with her on the dangers of outright nepotism. But she's so bitter and hateful against anyone she thinks might be against her. She wanted me to cut a deal with her, an accord. Run my wing the way she wanted and she wouldn't have Glacier take over Iceberg."

That tickle gets her to jerk her foot from his grasp momentarily, Jo quipping back, "I should say that the night's still young." After a beat, "She's tired," she can agree on that about Taikrin, rubbing a hand over her face. Quietly though, "Why not both?" she suggests, leaning forward. "I get it. I see it yer way, too. I can see a compromise on both happenin', but something like that won' happen is both sides won' shut the fuck up and shit their asses down and deal. No reason why there can' be a win-win here on both sides, right? I ain' a mediator," she notes with a chuckle, "but even I can reason with that. The woman's tired of the in-fightin'. She could be amendable to compromise if it means she gets to breathe in the end." Z'ian's admittance on choices gets a nod that could be relief, but, it's hard to tell with her. Instead, "Shit, I could be Weyrleader," she says, sitting up straight for only a moment. "I wouldn' make a real bad one, but I ain' interested right now in rank. Best I stay the bluerider that never seems to be around unless she's needed. I ain' gonna pull the sexist shit on ya," she tacks on, her crooked smile more pronounced, "but there are those out there that do believe that she's wrong for the job for that very reason alone." Hearing about the meeting now, there's silence as she mulls it over. It's hard to tell what she's thinking, though, she's nodding to things said. "How does she want Boreal run?" she asks first in curiosity. "As for the bitterness," and she pauses there with a quiet chuckle, "can ya honestly blame her at this point? I vouched for ya. She asked, for as much as it's worth."

He laughs when her foot jerks back and he pulls it back to himself, claiming it. Z'ian squeezes her toes again and lets his shoulders drop. "It is still young." The reply comes with a slow, easy smile as he traces his index finger along the top of her foot. Idle circles. "I completely agree. We'd all be in a better position in the long run if we found something that was more middle of the road. If you've got any suggestions for getting the two sides to calm themselves long enough to listen, I'm all ears. But as it is, your friend wants to strong arm the wings into submission and the wings are enjoying being as obnoxious as possible in response." At one of her remarks, he leans forward and begins to pull her legs closer to him and shift the position of his body. "You could be the Weyrleader. Do you want me to bring it up at our next wing meeting? Jo and Tacuseth for Weyrleader. It has a nice ring to it. Right?" It's the return of the mischievous smile for all of that, he's going to delight in whatever reaction she has for his words. But meanwhile, "And those people are total morons and no one really listens to them. A lot more are concerned about her past, her temper, her generally surly and unpleasant personality. I'm not saying it's right, fair or anything. But that's more an issue than what's in her pants. And it borderline infuriates me when people try to cloud that by saying, 'Oh, the wings just don't like her because she's a woman'. It's simply not the crux of the issue. Taikrin as a whole is." And he's not infuriated now, just maybe frustrated by the thought of it all. He's still moving, pushing her legs apart as he moves over the top of her, dropping one hand down on the side of the couch and the other on the back. "No, I can't. But she's losing perspective. I'm not her enemy." The bronzerider takes a breath. "She wants me to make sure that there won't be anymore open acts of defiance from the wingriders. In return, she won't put a Glacier rider in charge of Iceberg. I said no." And because that basically sounds totally unreasonable, he launches into a clarification. "I'm already making sure that won't happen, so the suggestion that I'm not doing it already is insulting. And also, she should know that putting one of her buddies in charge of that wing is only going to inflame those riders. She doesn't want acts of defiance? Putting a Glacier rider into Iceberg sure as fuck won't help with that. I won't make a 'deal' about something I'm already doing to get her to do something she should already be doing. It's... silly. Not to mention she was single minded and clearly determined to view me as out to get her from the minute we began to talk."

"I'm open to suggestions to what we wanna spend our time doin', other than yakkin' back and forth about Taikrin," Jo counters, flicking her toes at him. "It must involve not leavin' this couch." And well, speaking of Taikrin anyway, "I don' got anythin' all civilized and shit," she warns on how to get both sides to calm. "Not a mediator, like I said. I'd probably make shit worse, knowin' me. And, bein' the opportunist that I am, I should be enjoyin' the chaos this is all creatin' and takin' advantage. I'm not. Rather over all the squabblin' if ya want honest." Her legs shifted, when he brings up her being Weyrleader, she's already shaking her head and saying, "If those folks are cryin' over her bein' a damn convict, whaddya think they'll say about me? They'll think the Weyr's gonna sink into the ground with everyone in it if I'm Weyrleader. At least Aishani didn' go to the mines for murder, nor her father. Nah," and she shakes her head again. "Taikrin can have it. Rather like bein' intimidatin' out there than deferred to in here." To the rest though, that does give her pause as he shifts himself and her legs. She watches him as he talk, seeming to regard him with an unreadable expression in place before there's a faint nod and a faintly amused, "She doesn' know ya, and ya don' know her. As much as ya think she's viewin' ya as someone out to get her....are ya bein' alert in yerself doin' the same thing? Seein' her as someone that's out to get you?" She lets that sink in before she adds with a shrug, "Looks like there's some loss of perspective on all sides, here, from where I'm layin' my head. Ain' sayin' she's without fault, but, maybe look at this differently? I mean, shit. It's obvious she could use some help. Alittle guidance, even. That's more or less what I got from her, about ya," and she nods toward him. With a toss of fingers, "Tell her the wing's been taken care of! That sort of deal wasn' needed! Make another one. Ya make another deal. Turn it around. That's how ya get in. That's how ya show her what ideas ya got that could work, cuz, ya got ideas, Zach." Leaning forward, her gaze intent, "If ya really think she sees ya the way ya think, change it. Perspective, just like ya said."

"Why are we talking about Taikrin again?" Z'ian asks tiredly as he continues to brace himself against the side and back of the couch. One of his eyebrows lifts gently for the question, but they're still talking about her. So, "Yes. And I'm getting tired of the view everyone has of me that I'm K'del's yes man. I didn't go see Taikrin and wave my arms around and yell about the stupidity of the drills. Didn't do that about the Iceberg issue either. I laid everything out as calmly and neutrally as possible." The frustration that begins to leek through now is probably not necessarily at her. But it's also likely he's not talking about any of this to anyone else, so she's just the unfortunate recepient of him when he begins to crack. Not something that happens publicly, ever really. "Because my way isn't the only way. I know that. I don't know how she talks about me when she's with you, but she's different when she talks to me herself." At the toss of her fingers he just nods his head. "That's what I did tell her, Jolie. I'm not out to fight with her, but if being a reasonable person that presents a view to her that she doesn't like is just going to result in her being unreasonable... How do I turn that around? She doesn't seem to want to see." He glances away and takes a steadying, calming breath. "It didn't end badly. We just... We let it go. I went over the charts with her for today's drills, talked for awhile about less touchy subjects." Sighing he leans down to meet her and brushes his mouth against her lips. "I know I've got ideas. But maybe they're not for now. And that's okay, I'm alright with working the long angle."

That first gets laughter, as tired-sounding as it is from Jo. Then, "Yer not K'del's man," she says decisively. "Ya yer own, darlin'. Make them see that. Maybe they already do, or are beginnin' to." She can feel his frustration though, reaching out to knead her fingers into his arm. After something said, "How she talks about ya, yer not her enemy," she states that simply. She frowns a bit, her brows furrowing a little on the rest before she gives into a spread of her hands a breezy, "Hey, I tried. Can' blame a girl for tryin'. I still stand by my words. I think anythin' can be negotiated, but, I hear ya. Just, don' get yerself hit in the face or somethin', okay? Or shipped somewhere crazy. Then I'll have to act unreasonably against her and start swingin'." Despite the humor in her words, one can think she's merely joking. Maybe. "Anyway, sucks ya have the rough of it lately. Been thinkin' it might be time for another trip." To where, she doesn't say. She instead meets that brush of his lips.

"Maybe." The hedging response to her words on the realizations of others. Z'ian keeps his one arm braced against the couch's back while the other by her head gradually moves closer. His fingers find their way into her hair and sink in. "I guess we're going to have to see on that. I just hope that nothing happens in the meanwhile and we can keep working on it somehow. I'm just tired of walking some divide between the sides. I don't know how I got onto it, but it was a lot easier on my brain when I got to think I was right all the time." That has him laughing, at first lightly and then fully when she makes her remarks. "You can come visit me at my far north postings." But more seriously, "I do appreciate you trying. You don't really have to." He knows that, certainly. And he's sincere in thanking her for the efforts, for involving herself in something she possibly would have rather not. The contact of their lips makes him appear a bit more lively and the kiss ends up heated, like they usually manage to do. Is anything between them ever really casual? "Another trip. You know, I think that you might be right about that." The idea brings a smile to his mouth and he moves in again.

Her head moving to his touch, "Ya don' gotta be someone yer not," Jo states on the first, glancing his way. "Ya know that. And yer involved because of that big shiny know of yers. Another reason why I rather not." As to visiting him where he gets posted - should he get posted - there's a mock stern look from her before she nudges him and says, "Yeah, I'll visit - just to needle ya. I'll come up with all kinds of really bad jokes and I'll make ya sit there and listen to every single one since ya can' go anywhere." Some of that humor ebbs from what he says next, noting the sincerity before she gives a bit of a sheepish nod. "I gotta," she says on trying. "I don' much like those I like fightin'. Reminds me too much of home." The home she doesn't talk about back in Keogh, her face sobering up in that one, short moment. But the kiss warms her up from those memories, apparently, the smile lopsided on the talk of trips as she says, "Somewhere new," seems to be a condition of hers about it, before she succumbs and gives into his heated kiss once more.

"Jo for Weyrleader." Z'ian repeats from earlier. "Jo for Wingleader too." His smile has returned and turns up in a decidedly wolfish twist as he gives her hair a playful tug. "I was thinking that you could come visit me and do things other than listen to your comedy routine. But I guess you'll probably be pissed at me and won't be so interested when you come up." His teasing and joking takes a detour as well and he leans in, bumping his forehead onto hers. It's been awhile, so he doesn't hesitate to slip in a quick, "I'm sorry. For putting you there." The making out on the couch like a couple of teenagers is more than enough to distract him. "Yes, somewhere new. But far away." And it probably distracts him for the rest of the night. And were they both thirsty? Because he at least forgot all about that.