Difference between revisions of "Logs:Post Bellow"

Living Cavern, High Reaches Weyr

Stalactites hang high above this enormous cavern like a jagged chandelier or an inversion of the Spires themselves, but shadows cling to them instead of light. Below lie great tables arranged in rows, each large enough to serve a fighting wing, while in the nooks and alcoves around the cavern's edge sit more sensibly-sized tables, from six- and eight-seaters down to intimate spots for just a couple of diners. The only really open space is around the kitchen entrance, smelling of food and rarely quiet, and by the nearby serving tables with their long buffet of the day's offerings.

Tapestries on the smooth walls -- some faded and others newly woven -- only slightly mute the sea of sound when a meal is in full swing, but they add cheerfulness augmented by the glowlight from wall sconces and the centerpieces of each table. Still, shadows always creep along the ceiling and into the mouths of the exits -- the myriad small hallways at one end of the cavern and, at the other, the twisting tunnel to the bowl near an array of coathooks and and hatracks -- and late at night, when the glows are allowed to dim, the chamber can seem very dark indeed.

Check out the pale-blonde chick settled on a chair before the fire...like an old Auntie, a blanket about her shoulders, her sock-clad feet pushed as close to the flames in the hearth as they can get without spontaneously combusting. Her head is covered by aforementioned blanket, and as such, her identity is disguised. The big mug of what smells like strong tea in her hands is cupped rather protectively in a grasp that appears just a hint red of skin.

Fresh from the outdoors and with a spackling of snow covering his broad shoulders, Nicky radiates cold. He meanders towards the fireplace to dispel the winter chill from his heavy coat; as he goes he sheds his scarf, hat and gloves, with the later two being tucked into a pocket and the former looped over his arm any which way - it's too long (even in comparison to his over-tall frame) to really do anything practical with. Alida catches his attention as he ends up standing beside her, cooling their shared air with what's left of his winter chill. "H-hi," he says tentatively, canting his head to the side to smile coyly at her. "Cold?" Because she certainly looks it!

Kaeden isn't all that far behind Nicky, similarly clothed and snow-dusted. He's only managed to remove his gloves by the time he joins both Alida and Nicky, though for the former he has to lean over slightly to peek under the blanket's "hood", at which point he just gives her a quick, wrist-action wave. His gloves, not quite soaking wet but close to it, are propped up on the side of the hearth where they can't catch fire, but where the hearth's stones are more than warm enough to help dry things. Next comes the stocking cap and scarf, though these aren't wet enough to warrant more than being draped over the back of a chair. Finally, he slides down onto a chair, coat still firmly in place, though he starts removing his boots. "So, uh... how are things?" he asks, the question meant mostly for Alida. Perhaps he and Nicky already had this conversation.

She's just come in from the cold herself, and also just finished some very onerous chores, and as such Alida is in a rather dour frame of mind. When the woman hears someone's approach, she hunches up even further inside her thick blanket then sips cautiously at her tea...finally breathing out a heavy sigh over the top of the restorative liquid. When it comes, the look that intense, clear greens give Nicky from out of the cover of that blanket is not warm in the slightest. "Whatever gave you that idea?" the guard grumbles out with dark sarcasm, her gelid eyes lancing into Nicky's for a moment before flicking back to the fire. Kaeden's peer into her blanket earns him a grit of teeth and a strangled little hiss oddly reminiscent of a fire lizard ready to pounce. A faint lift of stiff shoulders is the candidate's only answer to his inquiry.

"You're, um, wr-wrapped up, and you l-look cold?" Nicky ventures cautiously, taking the question for what it is rather than for the tone it's delivered in. His answer is in complete contrast; warm and genuine. Light brown eyes flicker to Kaeden in surprise at the blonde candiate's hiss, and he blinks at the older lad with the tiniest shrug of one shoulder - perhaps seeking an explanation for the woman's reaction, or reassurance that this is normal? In the meantime, he fills the empty air between them with a somewhat vapid, "It is cold outside."

Kaeden slides a look over to Nicky as he finishes removing his boots, then starts removing his heavy coat. "Yeah, but it won't last forever. Snow just makes it seem like it sometimes." He pauses to shrug out of his coat, then drapes it behind him. "At least the Weyr has all sorts of warm spots, though. Makes it easier to warm up again."

The massively roll of eyes to the rocky ceiling apparently begs it for respite or patience, Alida simply returning to sipping her tea instead of answering Nicky. Feel that cold, unwelcoming bite in the air, guys? It's not High Reaches' winter, but the Pars femme's demeanor as she seeks to tune out anything else aside from the warmth finally entering her bones, and the smell, taste of blessedly warming tea. At least Kaeden seems to have taken the hint, and left the testy, a-social woman alone.

Nicky's boots remain firmly on his feet, though he does start unbuttoning his coat now that the fire's warming him up. "Lots of w-warm spots," the trainee farrier-turned-candidate replies to Kaeden, giving Alida an uncertain look. "And p-plenty of tea, too." He tries again to break the icy barrier put up by the blonde, leaning down a little to smile crookedly at her. "Tea's good. G-good for warming inside... d-don't you think?"

At first, Kaeden can only grin at Nicky in answer. He rubs his hands together a few times and glances at Alida's tea before giving the other candidate. "Certainly does the trick," he agrees before giving one sudden shiver. "Might go get some of my own, actually. Want some?" He slips back into his boots, though doesn't bother lacing them, then gets to his feet.

And out it comes, brought on by Alida's growing warmth of body and her simmering ire finally brought to a head by being exposed to people too long today. One of her pinkening hands rises from the large mug and makes a 'yapping' gesture upon the air between her and Nicky, reattaching to the drink once more when done as the blonde mutters in a dark, clipped alto: "I'm a-social; haven't you heard?" Unspoken: so leave me the fuck alone. Sip, sigh, shiver. For a fleeting moment, the holder actually looks over at Kaeden when he actually avoids her, her gaze studying him in a sweep from head to toes before it returns to the fire again.

"Y-yes, please. Just b-b..." Oh hello, what's that Alida's doing to him? Nicky's tea order is paused as he looks at her hand - then to Kaeden, then to the hand again... then back to Kaeden. "Black. Please." And back to Alida, to whom he nods with a gentle sort of reassurance."I-it's ok." He almost looks as if he's going to reach to her, perhaps for a little pat on the knee or shoulder, but he quickly withdraws his work-roughened hand. "I-I'm a social, too." The only difference is that when he says it, that tiny little 'a' becomes 'ah', not 'ay' - clearly, he doesn't get it.

Kaeden just kind of stares at Nicky for a moment, then glances at Alida, but only fleetingly so. "Black. Right," he says before clumping off toward the kitchen, intent apparently on getting some boiling water from the source. It takes him a few minutes, but when he returns, it's with two rather large mugs, both bearing a good deal of steam. He hands off Nicky's, then returns to his own chair, careful not to spill as he takes a seat again, then again while he toes off his boots. His own mug. rather than the black requested by Nicky, gives off a rather strong smell of mint.

The woman's chin drops to her chest, her eyes closing as they roll once again at Nicky's failure to take the hint... and his failure to get 'it.' Alida simply refuses to interact with him beyond eye-rolling, apparently, the woman's shivers slowly lessening as she re-warms her depleted body. At this point, she's hanging onto the dregs of 'polite' company, but who knows what the young woman might do, how she might react, if badgered further.

Nicky accepts the mug from Kaeden with a warm, lopsided smile, curling both hands around it to banish the last of the cold from his fingers. The eye-rolling from Alida is ignorned - perhaps he thinks she's got something in her eye, or something? - and he blows on the surface of his drink before taking a tentative sip. Finding it too hot, he leans back against the hearth and is content to just let things be for a moment, easy in the company and the temporary silence between them, that eventually has to be broken. "S-so... what do you think of the eggs?" Safe topic for all... right?

Kaeden has far more interest in holding his mug than sipping from it, settling as far back into the chair as he can, even slouching slightly to get more comfortable. Warm fire, warm tea, warm... company? He starts to close his eyes, only to open them again at Nicky's question. There's a flick of brown eyes toward Alida, then back toward the younger candidate. "They don't do much," is Kaeden's lightly drawled answer. "To be honest, I haven't been able to figure out why people keep going there, other than to get warm."

Now that's actually the first relevant thing to come out of Nicky's mouth, in Alida's silent opinion. Still, she's not feeling terribly social, so the blanket-enshrouded woman doesn't anwer the question, though she does run through the mental gamut of those colored ovoids. At least it gives her something to do while she continues to warm up...aside from sipping tea. When Kaeden's words hit the warmed air, the guard clips off in low, small sarcasm, "To get the shell away from all of you." That's her reason, anyhow...or was, until she was warned to keep away from the two queens. Such a delightful personality!

"M-most babies don't, um, do much. Eggs especially." They are eggs, after all. Nicky shifts his weight, standing up instead of leaning. "B-but I find them, um... peaceful? Quiet. K-kinda nice, really." He shrugs his shoulders, but then frowns at Alida for her rude response. "A-actually," he pipes up, initially mousily but with growing confidence, "i-it's where we'll be going to g-get away from y-you." News of angry gold dragons does spread, after all. "You're, um, not being very nice." He looks a bit uncomfortable for having confronted the woman, and half-hides behind his mug of tea as he sips from it.

Kaeden starts to reply to Alida with the beginnings of a "Hey now", but he's interrupted by Nicky, first by his standing, then his response. Kaeden rubs a thumb along the back of one side of his jaw for a moment, just watching. After an uncomfortable moment, though, he sits up a bit out of his slouch and gives both the other candidates a look out of the corner of his eyes. "Let's just chill, all right? Nick, she was giving you every indication she wants to be left alone. And Alida... shells. It's not like he was hurting you."

Letting Nicky have his say allows Alida to sip more restorative tea, as well as letting her expression of sudden, dark ire to be flitted away unnoticed behind the cover of her blanket. Once her temper's evened out, the bland-sounding woman clips off in an aside to the youth, "Seems you actually got it for once, kid." Durhey. Addendum: "Seems you actually grew a vagina." As opposed to balls, since those are weak, sensitive, and exposed. Perhaps it's some kind of round-about and half-assed compliment for him being able to sort-of confront her. No matter...more tea is ingested, and finally 'lida's feet are withdrawn some from the heat of the fire. Her skin's finally returning to its normal color, too. Kaeden's almost response has the femme pivoting her head and neck about to lock cold green eyes onto his own gaze, as if to dare him to say something wrong - then finally smirking in chill fashion as her alto murmurs, "Not possible..." before she sips the last dregs of her tea.

If Nicky was looking uncomfortable as a result of what he'd said, what Alida comes back with, especially that one word, makes him blush crimson from ears to neck. Not knowing what to do with himself, he looks wide-eyed at her for a second before averting his gaze to stare down at his toes, before clearing his throat - and managing to stutter through it, too. The awkwardness doesn't fade when he tries to speak. "I-I-I..." Giving up with a shake of his head, he looks apologetically at his fellow male before simply walking off, heading towards the inner caverns at as quick a clip as possible without breaking into an all-out run.

Kaeden starts to raise a hand to wave to Nicky, but the younger guy's gone too quickly. Instead, he turns a mostly blank look on Alida, blank except for a small movement of eyebrows in that "are you proud of yourself?" sort of way, though he doesn't actually say it. In fact, he doesn't say anything more for the moment, content to sip at his tea now it's started to cool.

"Oh fer Faranth's sake..." Alida mutters out low in mixed asperity and dark humor as Nicky flees the power of a single word of anatomy, the young woman then lifting a white-gold brow to Kaeden's own dual-lift. Judging by her poker face and flat eyes, the guard could apparently care less. It's at this point that she settles her empty mug on the hearthstone, then sets about donning her boots and heavy coat.

And Kaeden just lets her. After all, he's only just started on his own tea. And his gloves aren't nearly dry enough yet. Or maybe his toes haven't thawed. Or maybe he doesn't give a gram of crackdust right now! All sorts of possibilities, until quite a few seconds have ticked by, and he gives Alida another glance. "Bet the infirmary has all sorts of ways to fix those hands of yours," he tells her in a low, even tone, his brown eyes simply watching, maybe wary, maybe just tired.

Best to be wary around a gunpowder keg like her. Alida stands in an unconsciously graceful motion reminiscent of a predatory animal, the woman donning her heavy scarf and hat - her blanket shed at her feet - finally awarding Kaeden's glance and low comment with a cheeky, "Your concern warms my heart." Nimble fingers fasten up her coat, then move to fold up the blanket and lay it out of the fire's way upon the hearth, the femme then drawing on her heavy hat, and pulling up her hood.

"Happy to oblige," Kaeden drawls quietly before huddling back into the chair, apparently all set to stay there for a while. Legs are stretched, ankles crossed, mug held steady as he sips. He'd look all sorts of relaxed if he weren't still watching Alida. Just making sure the fuse isn't going to go off, probably.

Apparently the fuse has been temporarily snuffed, as Alida only curls a wintry smirk to Kaeden's riposte as she fastens up her jacket tight against the murderous 'Reaches chill outside. A very blithe and facetious wiggle of now-gloved fingers is all for the youth as the guard pivots about on a boot heel, and marches off towards the exit to the Bowl. Seems she's had enough of things for this night.

Comments

Azaylia (Dragonshy (talk)) left a comment on Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:14:58 GMT.

< Awhaw! Nicky stood up for himself. <3 Or at least tried. And Kaeden is ever patient. Smooth.