Difference between revisions of "Logs:Storytime"

Revision as of 23:56, 9 February 2014

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-{{Log
+{{ Logs
-|involves=High Reaches Weyr
+| cast =Ali, N'rov
-|type=Log
+| summary =N'rov is sick, and Ali gives him soup and tells him a scary bedtime story.
-| who = Rhaelyn, Raum
+| gamedate = 2014.02.08
-| where = Settlement, Western Island
+| icdate =Day 11, month 13, turn 33 of Interval 10.
-| what = Later, Rhaelyn grills Raum. More metaphorically speaking.
+| quote ="You won't sleep if I tell it."
-|day= 2
+| location =Workrooms, Fort Weyr
-|month=9
+| categories =
-|turn= 25
+| mentions =
-|IP=Interval
+| icons =
-|IP2=10
+| ooc = This may have been inspired by the impending return of The Walking Dead. >.>
-| gamedate = 2011.05.05
+| log =
-| quote = "At best they're lazy vagrants and thieves, at worst, criminal scum who'll do anything for a mark."
+Somewhere warm. Somewhere quiet... but not /too/ quiet. Somewhere out of the thick of who's squabbling with which wing. Somewhere out of the thick of eggs-betting or knitting-comparing or dinner-... well, no, having dinner is /just fine/. N'rov's brought his here as long as most of the crafters are off to the main cavern anyway, but the bowl sitting on the side-table to his right is half-empty, all the dumplings eaten out of it but the rest largely abandoned. The bronzerider's slouched in a heaviy stuffed chair. His feet are up. His head's tipped back. There's a token strap across his lap. He's not /snoring/, but his breathing is a little heavier than usual as he stares glassy-eyed into the middle distance.
-| weather =
-| categories = Islanders
-| mentions =
-| icons = rhaelyn.jpg, raum.png
-| log = It's late, late enough that the kids and the old folks are being shuffled off to bed. In fact, most people are retiring to their caves or their little huts to take refuge from the cold, damp night on the island. The fire's gone low, but Raum lingers beside it, one knee propped up while he watches the glowing embers.
-Instead of going off to a cozy cave, Rhaelyn is coming into the settlement all bundled up in raggedy layers with a basket swinging from one little hand. She makes a swift path to the fire and Raum might be able to hear the clickity-click of her chattering teeth. Living here her whole life hasn't made her impervious to the awful cold. The newcomer is looked over in silence as she cuddles in closer and closer to the coals. "Hello. I have heard so much about you." Unaware that you likely don't know anything about her.
+Thunk! Thunk? That's the sound of a container being placed non-too-delicately on the table immediately in front of N'rov. "You're starting to scare the crafters," Ali says, in a low, amused voice. "They'll think you've turned into one of those dead-people-walking like in that silly harper story."
-Pulled from his reverie by the greeting, Raum peers up at Rhaelyn, though his eyes are slow to adjust to the darkness after the glow of the fire. "Have you." It's not a question. "I suppose I should expect to be gossip fodder for many more turns, no more than goes on here. Come warm yourself up, girl."
+All of a sudden N'rov's bolt upright with a 'N' on his lips, though whether it's 'N'muir' or 'No' or his very own name... he's staring past Ali, and then after a moment at her. "What?" He stares at her, harder. "What. I don't..." He scrubs his forehead with his knuckles. "I'm fine. How are you? You're going to tell me a story?" Like he was paying attention. "Harpers?"
-Rhaelyn holds out the basket to offer out her bounty of berrys, taking one herself. "I was told not to talk with you." She grins to be breaking the command as she scoots in closer to the warmth. "What has you up so late anyway?"
+Staring at him in bemusement for a moment, Ali taps the container. "Soup. For you. If you're full," she eyes the remnants of his dinner, "Take it up to your weyr for later. I can practically hear you breathing on the other side of the Weyr. One of the old aunties was getting upset." She might be exaggerating, but the glance over her shoulder suggests maybe not.
-"And yet here you are anyway," observes Raum, watching Rhaelyn now instead of the fire. He reaches in to take one of the berries, popping it into his mouth and chewing thoughtfully. "Age, and occupation," is his answer to the question. "I was a guard before--I'm sure you know. We keep odd hours. Why are you here? Other than they told you not to."
+N'rov blinks, slowly. "I didn't mean to upset her," he tells Ali. "Later is fine." He looks over her shoulder too, then at it, then over her shoulder once more. "Did it wake her up? Or did she think I was going to get her? And rip the meat from her bones?"
-Rhaelyn smiles and meets Raum's gaze and holds it, very interested in the stranger, as though she might find something different about him than others bred on the island. "What do guards do?" It seems an unusual title from her outlook on life. She chews on another berry before answering his question, "I couldn't sleep so I went to get berries." A small shrug, "This is just an added bonus, running into you like this." A look around to indicate not many people to drag the girl away from danger.
+"I think it was less ripping of /flesh/ and more ripping of-" well, judging by the fluster in Ali's expression, one could get at the alternative. As a distraction, leans to nudge his feet off whatever they're propped on. "I'd tell you a story if you were in bed like a good boy, but since you're not-"
-A lift of his shoulders, and Raum answers, "We watch things. You don't ever have to guard your supplies here? We guards stores, tithes, whatever else is valuable. Once some commoners were unhappy about the Lord so they threw dead animals in the well, and then we guarded that." A beat; while she looks around at the empty camp, he does not, taking another berry in the meantime. "Mostly, I guarded the Lord. Man like that--powerful men--they have a lot of enemies."
+N'rov, blank. And then in the next second, his nose wrinkles up. "I would /not/. None of those..." One foot falls off the chair, thud. The rest of the sentence disappears with it, and the other foot is teetering. He looks at Ali, wounded. "You moved my feet," he tells her. "I could be in bed. As long as I don't spill my soup in my bed. Someone else's bed would be okay for spilling but they would have to do it themselves and it would waste soup besides. Will you tell me the story? If I don't spill my soup?"
-Rhaelyn breaths out a thoughtful little 'hhmmm' about the job of a guard. "I don't think we have much things to 'guard'. We watch our own things." She makes a face and admits, "Although seeing as a lot of our things were piled up in the open not so long ago, perhaps we -should- have guards." The idea of things that a guard might do is aluring for the girl, "Did you have to fight these enemies of the Lord?"
+"I hear they were quite the looker in their time. Frequently. Something about fashion and," Ali's glancing down at herself, grimacing, undoubtedly the recipient of their 'advice' on that score. She takes another half-hearted swing at his remaining foot, though whether or not successful, she'll takes her place in the other chair in whatever space there is. "But you haven't been good." Even if... okay, so the dark-haired woman's a sucker. But she gives the warning first, "You won't sleep if I tell it."
-Raum's frow is thoughtful for a moment. "Not as such, not often," he admits. "Sometimes we'd go run the holdless off our land again, but that wasn't much of a fight. Sometimes we'd round up the latest convicts and take care of them. But the Lords themselves--it's all politics. Who's in favor, who's out. Who thinks they could be Lord if something unfortunate happened to the currentLord. They don't like to get their hands dirty, the Blood; they like deals and bribes and accidents."
+N'rov looks at her on cue, or at least in her general direction, but doesn't seem to see the problem. "That was a long time ago, she's probably blind." His other foot falls in slow motion, which must be at least partially on purpose, especially given how he says, "Boom," right there at the end. That makes him brighten nearly as much as Ali's implied promise, satisfaction in his smile. "That's okay. It's not sleep time yet. Besides, I bet you tell /Iska/."
-Rhaelyn holds up one of her hands at the reminder of not liking to be dirty and holds it to the fire to check before picking out another berry to snack on. "You run the holdless off?" Her eyebrows gather together as she tries to piece together the idea of this outside world. "Do the Lords only let the blooded family stay in the holds then? Are you Blood too?" There's a little grin about 'accidents' but she hides it by looking through the berries in her basket.
+"I would never tell this to Iska," Ali declares, with a firm shake of head as she squirms around to get comfortable. "So, it starts- there's this man called, I don't-" her brow furrows, trying to remember, "Rov-er. Rover." She's clearly made that up. "Anyway, his family lives up in the mountains, and he travels down to the nearest Hold to trade and buy supplies. When he's there, he notices people are all paranoid and awkward, but he just attributes it to- well, he's all-" she gestures at N'rov, "Scruffy. Like you, but add a few... dozen... Turns." She grins, wryly, and continues, "Anyway, it's as he's leaving he notices some sort of fight going on, and there's screaming and yelling, but he doesn't want to get involved, so he high tails it out of the Hold. That night, when he's sleeping on the road, he has these nightmares of those screams and he doesn't know why."
-"No, there's a few thousand unBlooded in the hold proper, too," replies Raum. "Not to mention in the outlying holds. The holdless, though--At best they're lazy vagrants and thieves, at worst, criminal scum who'll do anything for a mark. I'm no Blood, myself, but I was captain of the Lord's guard--at least as good, and maybe better. Though it makes a target of you as well."
+"Rover sleeps fitfully, and he's woken by the sound of something crashing through the woods near him. It's a wild herdbeast, and normally they avoid people, so he yells and waves his arm to scare it off, but it comes /right/ at him..." Ali's no harper, but she does know when to pause for dramatic effect, at least.
-Rhaelyn's nose crinkles, "That sounds awful. So dangerous. I think I'd want my very own guard too." She lifts her chin and then giggles and asks, "Does the Lord's children get guards to look out for them? Or are they sent to the Harper? Why do the holdless think they have such rights? To be lazy and steal and not pull their weight." She sniffs delicately, if anyone is going to be lazy, it's going to be someone with a right to the highlife.
+Maybe Uncle N'rov will have to tell Iska one day. It just depends on what the story's going to be. In the meantime, he slouches lower in his seat to try and prop one foot up on Ali's knee, eyes closing. Not that they don't open shortly thereafter. "/I'm/ not scruffy. I'm never scruffy." Not true, though 'few dozen' turns his squint into a smirk. It keeps him awake through the ''fight'', during which he adds various fake screams in the background until... "And tramples over him and then he wakes up? And turns into a girl? And turns /him/ into a girl?!"
-Raum swipes another berry. "Oh, they've guards too, of course. Wouldn't want them to get hurt or stolen, either. But by and large, it's peaceful; the conspirators know they have to go through us first and that's impossible without a man on the inside. Which we also take pains to guard against." As for the holdless? His brows knit slightly. "Why not? They've discovered it's easy, and it works, and so of course there's always somebody who'll exploit the system. You don't have that here?"
+"Rover manages to leap dramatically out of the way just in time-" a beat, as Ali says, "This would be more dramatic if I had someone to do the actions, and no, that's not an invitation," she squares her shoulders, and continues, "But Rover- well, he's stunned by the fact that the herdbeast nearly knocks itself out against the tree. The large thing staggers, and he's sure it's going to fall... but it doesn't. There's blood all over its head, though. And then the thing /looks/ at him and it's all- crazy-like, and making these heavy breathing sounds, just like-" again, Ali's gesturing towards N'rov with a brief grin that fades quickly enough. "And Rover's freaked out and he decides to just leave, no time to collect any of his belongings. He manages to outrun and lose the herdbeast. He's kicking himself by this time about leaving all the supplies and thinking of going back when he notices tracks along the road he's travelling- made earlier in the day, and not by him. And he thinks about his wife and young son at home alone and he /races/ home."
-Rhaelyn frowns as she thinks this over, "I wish my great grandparents would have had guards...then maybe they could have killed the dragonriders who came for them." The mainland might think that thought is outragous but not so for this young lady. "Maybe that is why it's like that now...maybe the know people just....'vanish'." She shudders at the thought, "I wonder how many other islands there are..." A little sigh then and she's distracted by the qustion, "Oh, the elders make sure to punish anyone who doesn't pull their share. unless you're Blooded. Although I've been in trouble plenty for not doing work. It just isn't 'fair'."
+"When he gets there, it's quiet, eerily so. When he steps into the cothold, he hears a noise like-" Ali tries to emulate his heavy breathing, but it's probably more /laughable/ than frightening, coming from her. "And he spins, and sees his wife. Except she's all bloodied and crazy-eyed just like the herdbeast, and she's lunging at him! He doesn't know what to do because she's going crazy, and he falls back over himself trying to get out of the door in time. She shambles after him, and outside he can see her more clearly, and she's all," Ali scrunches up her face as if to do some sort of fearsome facial expression. It mostly fails. "Rover doesn't want to hurt her, so he races around the cothold, out running her, and locking her out. Moments later he hears the /thud/, /thud/, /thud/! of her pounding on the door." The thuds are accompanied by the stamp of her boots.
-"Riders are a different story. One doesn't just charge into a fight with them," is Raum's even observation to that. He leans over to take a branch and stir the fire back into more life, the better to take the chill off them. As to the latter-- "Have you. Well, that's just a shame, that they don't see the merit of you sitting around uselessly while we slave."
+"Beneath the noise of the thudding, he hears something else, /inside/ the cothold with him. It's coming from one of the storage closets, and he flings it open to find... his son. He's so relieved, he gathers the boy up into his arms and they hug each other. The boy's exhausted, so Rover puts him to bed, but he won't sleep without his father there, so they lie there in bed, listening to the thudding. At some point... Rover realizes it's stopped, and that he'd fallen asleep. He sits bolt upright, straining to listen... and that's when he hears it. The breathing." She does a little better at her imitation of him this time, leaning forward. "Only this time it's coming from... right next to him!"
-Rhaelyn laughs prettily, "Oh, don't sound so sour. Everyone is expected to be productive here. So, you should be happy that we have no holdless criminals for you to fight off." She watches the fire blaze up as the stick pokes at it. "Why can't the holders just...take over the Weyr? Do they really have that much power? Mind control right?" She taps the side of her head.
+N'rov, /forestalled/. He gives Ali a /look/. At least he gets to make heavy breathing sounds, and not the other scary kind, because obviously those can't count as /actions/. "Yeah, that was stupid," he chips in for losing the supplies. And because just now it's not just Rover who's stupid, "So it wasn't just her time of the... you know?" Scary girl things. He shuts up for more of the rest, enough that he may well have actually bought into the kid and the story and the... "The herdbeast broke in and ate his kid?!"
-Raum shrugs. "It'd be a nice change of pace," he admits. "Something to do. It's boring out here, with no scheming rivals and Blood vendettas. I don't know how you people stand such lives. --The Weyr, though? You can't take the Weyr, and you certainly couldn't hold it. They could lay siege to you, burn your fields, eat you, even, I expect. If you're going to start a war, you want them fighting with you, not against you."
+"No, no. The kid was /already/ infected, but he didn't go crazy till later. Look," Ali says, exasperated, "If I have to explain how it's scary than it clearly didn't work. Harpers tell it better. My brother used to do a really good telling of it, when we used to sleep in the far paddocks looking after the herdbeasts."
-Rhaelyn makes a sour face, "They are horrible. They are the reason we're here. I know you'll hear other stories but ...." she bites off her words and sighs, "At least that is the story that my father tells me. I would rather have nothing to do with them. How could you trust them? Burning holds to the ground and killing people." The girl makes a face as she pulls her blankets around her tighter, "I think you'll find we have our own flavor of rivals and vendettas...you just have to nose under the right rocks. Anyway, I should be going. Enjoy the rest of the berries though." As she hands over the basket she adds, "I'm Rhaelyn by the way. Not accustomed to people not knowing me." And with that she strolls back into the darkness to find her way home.
+"Oh." N'rov says, "Sorry." And then he says, "Wait, /you/ slept /outside/? On the ground? When it wasn't a nice warm beach?"
+"All the time. I love sleeping out under the stars. I used to do it now and then when I first came to Fort. Mitl and I would-" Ali stops, abruptly, and gives N'rov a look. "Were you always like this at storytime? Suddenly, I feel incredibly sympathetic for your mother. Remind me to write her a sympathy card."
+"Write my mother a happy sweet sympathy card with recipes," N'rov promptly parrots. "Why did you stop?"
+Ali, with a sigh: "Because that's the end. It's one of those harper dramatic endings, where they never explain what really happens, and when you ask them, they point out that no one knows because they were never found again, and when you ask them how they know the first part of the story if that's the case, they give you one of those harper-omniscent looks and distract you with some bedazzling word play."
+"No, no, stop," but then N'rov's dazzled, or something. Temporarily. "Well, but... Yes, exactly that, how would they know the first part. Did I tell you I met a harper the other day? Maybe that's one of the looks she was trying for. I'm not sure. It might have been a 'I just got something on my shoe' looks. But," because the bronzerider finally gets back to it, "Why did you stop sleeping under the stars? I bet Isyath would like that."
+"Because I can't really sleep out on my ledge where everyone can see, and Isyath /likes/ her wallow. And-" standing, abruptly, Ali glowers down at N'rov. "Stop distracting me. I told you the story so you'd drink your soup and go to bed."
+"So you can just go somewhere else you like and she can put up with it," N'rov jumps right into his reply, even if his foot /does/ wind up going thud again, thanks to Ali. "You do a lot for her, she can do things for you and..." abruptly he sneezes.
+Ali's expression is set, clearly /not/ wanting to get into the intricacies of her and Isyath's relationship, and certainly not here and now. When he sneezes, she puts her hands on her hips. "If you go, I'll have someone bring up some breakfast in the morning. If you don't-" maybe she's getting good at dramatic effect after the story, or maybe she can't come up with anything quickly enough.
+"It'll be breakfast and lunch?" N'rov wonders hopefully from behind his forearm. He looks at her. He looks at her some more. "I think the hands on hips, that's a good touch," he determines. "You look much more threatening that way." With a groan, he starts levering himself up towards his feet. "See, I'm obedient."
+"Good. I'll write your mother and ask for more tips." Is that a threat or is Ali merely teasing him? She certainly looks like she's considering it, as she reaches to take the container and pass it to him once he's standing. "I'll consider it," lunch, presumably, and once she has N'rov moving, she doesn't linger to watch, heading back towards the caverns.
+All of which means that, before he tromps off to his dragon and his weyr with the slosh of soup, N'rov has to groan extra loudly to make /sure/ Ali hears this one too.
 }}