Logs:Friendly Faces
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| RL Date: 1 April, 2013 |
| Who: Jo, Vienne |
| Type: [[Concept:{{{type}}}|{{{type}}}]] |
| What: Vienne and Oswinth visits. The two catch up on politics and her current struggles with certain men. |
| Where: Jo's weyr, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day {{{day}}}, Month {{{month}}}, Turn {{{turn}}} ({{{IP}}} {{{IP2}}}) |
| Mentions: K'del/Mentions, H'kon/Mentions, Aishani/Mentions, Z'ian/Mentions, Taikrin/Mentions |
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| It's early enough before drills that Jo and Tacuseth can be seen still in their weyr, the former sitting at her table with Mime, her firelizard with a shortcan of meat cuts and a small rolled up sheet of hide. All of her leathers are on and her riding gear is also on the table, but it looks like she's not really leaving right away. As for Tacuseth himself, the blue looks to be on constant watch like a guard - seeming to always expect visitors. Today, Tacuseth's watch is warrented as another blue wings through the bowl, sending polite notice ahead of his intent to visit. Oswinth lands rather neatly and is quick to tuck himself up lest he claim more space than he needs. Vienne shakes her head a little as she climbs down from his shoulder, giving him a trailing pat as she moves away. She looks to Tacuseth to be certain there's no reason to delay before she heads in to the weyr to find Jo busy with her firelizard and a table full of gear. "How long before you have drills?" she asks instead of bothering with a proper greeting, adjusting the wrap of her snuggly cardigan around her middle, arms folding over it to hold it closed. With the nicer weather, her wardrobe has shifted to skirts and buttoned-up blouses and omnipresent sweaters. Tacuseth gives the familiar, landing blue the appropriate space before he resumes his vigilant watch. That it's likely Jo would be expecting Vienne in by now is a given, since she's already watching the lithe woman approach while she tends to Mime. The firelizard is already studying her arrival into his territory, too. "Gotta while," is Jo's answer to the greeting, sending her lopsided grin. "Just takin' care of home first. Leaning back a little to openly check her out, "Need a minute or more, darlin'?" she asks now, gesturing with a nod for her to join her at the table. "I've still got some breadrolls from the kitchens left if ya haven' eaten." There's a breath of a pause before she tacks on, perhaps predictably, "Unless yer hungry for somethin' else." Innuendo and all with that arched look. She wouldn't be Jo without saying it. Vienne lets her grin spread wide for Jo and her home-tending. "How is life with the new baby?" she wonders, teasing just a tiny bit for this vision of Jo-as-homemaker. Mime gets a smile too, for being the new baby, but her eyes don't linger on him so much as everything else that's on the table. As for how much time the smaller bluerider needs, she just shrugs one little shoulder in her sweater. "I just don't want to upset your schedule." She will, however, sink into the empty chair and reach for one of those rolls. The innuendo gets a sly tug at her mouth. "How have you been?" There's a snort for Vienne and her new 'baby', the firelizard in question sending her a chirp. "Only reason I'm botherin' is because I'm hopin' this little bit right here will be useful for me later on," Jo answers, giving the little beast's belly a gentle poke of one finger. "And, Mime's well. I'm glad he's over the needy period. Tac cares for him mostly when I'm gone. Hopin' all my tender lovin' care is worth it." Setting the shortcan down now and settling back in her chair, there's a slight brow lift before she states, "Ain' upsettin' anythin'. Ya know yer welcome here. I have somethin' to drink if ya want. Spiced cider." To her own question, there's a slight shrug and a, "Usual, I guess. Filterin' through the goin'-ons here and beyond. Yerself? Still thinkin' about joinin' Z'ian's wing?" Vienne's knowing smile seems to doubt that usefulness is the only reason for Jo's attention to her new pet, but she doesn't say anything about it. She just tears off a piece of the roll, pausing before actually eating it to sweep the resulting crumbs into a little pile. "Sure, yeah, thank you," she says for the cider, probably revealing more than enough honest interest in a drink. "I did join Boreal. I'm... I feel so certain about Z'ian, but there's just so much mess around the wing..." She shakes her head for al the trouble that's come concurrent with her transfer. "I don't want any trouble. I don't know if it was the right move." Getting to her feet and heading towards the wall where bottles on shelves could be seen, "Good," Jo says on her joining Boreal, picking up the cider in question. She uncorks it on the way back and collects up two cups along the way as she says, "He's a good man. Z'ian. Ya'd do well there. Yer talkin' about him bein' declared Weyrleader by his wing?" There's some amusement in her voice as she says it, dropping both cups on the table between them and starts to pour. "Yeah, it's a pretty bold move. Heard from those that were witnessin' in the livin' cavern that Taikrin didn' look too pleased, either. She'll punch someone for this. Not him, I hope." She passes a filled cup Vienne's way before she finally drops back down into her seat and says, "Make sure it's more the right move for you, than the right move for everyone else. If ya know yer better off with Boreal, then fuck what trouble it causes, if it does." "He is," Vienne agrees. "And yes," the Weyrleader thing. "I would like to help him, if I can, to avoid things like that in the future. But meanwhile, I don't... I don't like the assumptions it leads to. About me, about where I stand. K'del has already written me off because of my relationship with Aishani. People just don't understand." And resolute as she is, there's also a touch of regret in her voice, which welcomes the arrival of the cider. She takes a long drink and gives her thanks with a smile. "It's a move that's done now, so I guess this the path I'm on, wherever it's going. I just have to remind myself that there are no 'right moves'." There's a small frown from Jo when Vienne speaks about the first, shaking her head a little as she raises her cup to her lips for a drink. "Wait. K'del wrote ya off because ya talk to Aishani?" Clearly that's a tone of disapproval there. "Talk about fuckin' paranoid. And, he should know by now that ya don' take sides at all." She knows, for sure. "I mean, sorry to hear about it though. Sounded like ya and him got along pretty well, and it looks like he could use a friend like ya." She drains her cup easily then, but doesn't refilling it just yet. The last gets one of her acknowledging smiles, seeming to understand since she chases it with a breezy, "No regrets, Vi. Just look out for yerself, see. Z'ian needs someone like ya in that wing. Keep the ones that pull the moves like that one ya wanna avoid, from doin' it again." Vienne can only shake her head, not one of refusal but resignation, particularly when paired with a quiet sigh. "He should, but I'm not sure he does. Or maybe it's just not enough. I guess, really, he has very little reason to trust me. I'm not sure I can fault him." It does round her shoulders faintly as she picks at her bread. She also offers a piece out to Mime, just in case he's still interested after his meal. "Honestly, I'd have no objection to the idea of Z'ian as Weyrleader, just... what a terrible way to go about it, what a terrible time. Just as one thing starts to settle in, there's someone trying to turn it upside down again. I don't think Taikrin's response has helped Z'ian to sweep everything under the rug, either." Her eyes stay low, like it might soften the sound of her opinion. "Do ya want him to trust ya? Are ya still keeping to the fence?" Jo asks in slight amusement now, talking about her neutrality. Mime, himself, hops forward to take the piece from Vienne's fingers while there's a pensive look on the convict rider's face on the situation of Z'ian as Weyrleader. Little of her own opinion's given, though, most would figure where he loyalties lie in the matter. More or less. "Don' think this Weyrleader-thing is his doin'," she says, almost dry. "He wasn' even in the Weyr when he got declared. If it turns out to be though, he'll have a fight on his hands." Taikrin. Jo looks a little conflicted on the matter, too, since she knows both of them, as well. So there's a little shrug to that as she now leans over to refill her cup. "Anyway. Sure ya didn' drop by just to talk about that. If it's check up on me, I'd feel much better for the day if ya came by just to kiss me or somethin'. Cuz so long's nothin' on me ain' broken, I'm always good." One track mind, maybe. The first question receives no answer because Vienne is too busy frowning for the second. "You say that like I'm trying to play both sides. Is it so hard to believe that I could be friends with Aishani and friends with K'del without feeling like one of them is wrong and the other is right? I won't speak against her just to satisfy K'del, just as I wouldn't do that to him, if she were to ask." Which implies that she has not. Vienne leaves that piece of bread to Mime, her attention to the firelizard entirely idle. "I know Z'ian had nothing to do with it. And I don't believe he's interested in fighting with Taikrin." As for why she's come here, the small woman draws in a long breath and lets it out carefully, though her smile tugs to one side when she looks across the table at Jo's comments on kisses. "I just wanted a friendly face." "No," Jo answers that easily on playing sides. "Just....some folks are gonna keep expectin' ya to take sides eventually. Even if ya never do. Don' matter to me, either way," she notes wryly, leisurely nursing her drink. "Ya know where I stand and who I stand with. Most do. Doesn' change who my friends are. Who I fuck. Who I hang with. Some folks just don' know how to separate the politics from the personal." It's so casually given, as if the bluerider could be unshakeable. She briefly inclines her head on Z'ian and Taikrin though, the woman merely pressing her lips together and shaking her head over the whole thing. She watches Vienne though, especially on that last bit before she asks, "Somethin' else go down, darlin'? Wantin' a friendly face tells me ya haven' been around one lately." "For some people, there's no difference between the two, the political and the personal," Vienne says, the answer of her smile only weakly mimicking Jo's wryness. She works on corralling some crumbs again as her roll slowly disappears. "'Going down'," she repeats with an empty laugh. "No, I don't think anything in my life really qualifies as something 'going down'. I just... I had an encounter with H'kon. It was upsetting, unsettling. I know Oswinth would probably forget, but he stumbles over it in my head and..." Her mouth tucks small, teeth working at her lips behind their tight purse. "I feel badly, because I know it's hard and complicated for him, but..." Not badly enough, it would seem, or so the shake of her head implies. "Good thing I know the difference, then," Jo's easy to counter. "Or we might be havin' the same problem yer havin' with K'del." There's that flashy smile as she drains her cup once more, setting it down as she adds, "That's the way of it, though. What happened with H'kon?" She pulls a slight frown in place in the furrow of brows, and Mime launches himself from the table to wing out towards the dragons on the ledge. "What did he do...to Oswinth?" All manner and talk of the current Weyr state shoved in light of this. Jo's statement seems to confuse Vienne, a hard etch cropping up between her brows as she studies that flashy smile without quite understanding. At least the expression is broken when her eyes go following Mime out to the ledge. "Arekoth said some things that... made me look foolish. Oswinth didn't appreciate it. They came by our ledge the other day and he didn't really want them there. And Arekoth kind of... crowded him. He wanted to leave, he didn't want to leave me... I told them Arekoth should go. And then it all just got uglier." As much as she might not be happy with the way it turned out, there's still resolve in her tone. "Oswinth is sweet and gentle and he doesn't deserve to be treated like that. Not by anyone. No matter how funny they think it is." Funny, a word she says with some disgust now. When Vienne starts to explain it, Jo's gaze goes toward the ledge where she could the blue bulks of both Tacuseth and Oswinth. She lets the other talk without interruption, looking bemused all the more towards the end. "H'kon didn' do anythin' about this?" she has to ask on the brownrider, looking a bit dubious. "I mean, we're talkin' about H'kon here, right? The man that's a stickler for rules and all that's traditional? Seems like he doesn' have a single out-of-control bone in his body, and yet his dragon does?" This was news to her. "H'kon seemed to think that it was all on me. That I was the reason he didn't get to say whatever it was he came to say. Because I insisted that Arekoth not be permitted to make Oswinth uncomfortable on his own ledge." Still annoyed? Oh yes. There's a little something too calm about tone, something unyielding about the way her eyes rest on the table. Vienne can only shake her head for the dichotomy of the brown and his lifemate. "I get the feeling that they are little alike." But on that point, she starts to think, taking her cup to drink again with her gaze drifting off to one side. She dabs her lips as she swallows. "It must be difficult." Of course, leave it to Vienne to find the sympathetic angle in Jo's words. "Why am I not surprised," Jo states more to herself than to Vienne on the first, her opinion on the brownrider pretty much implied there. "I haven' seen him much since the queenflights, but from what I've been hearin' on the man....I think yer right. Might be more to him than that shiny, upstandin' image of his." Which makes her think before she focuses on the other bluerider for the last and replies with a deadpan, "Hardly. He shouldn' be bullyin' Oswinth around, and H'kon shouldn' be actin' like a big ass about it." It's succinct. "What are ya goin' to do about it?" To her, something must be done. "Because, if this man's givin' ya a hard time, ya tell me about it. If ya need me to roll up my sleeves and give him a good talkin' to. Unless yer wanna deal with his disrespect yerself." Vienne is quiet while Jo considers H'kon's image and whether or not that's all there is. She's gone off the last of her roll, leaving it on the table beside the neatly gathered crumbs. "There's nothing to do. I'm just sorry it's turned out this way. I really wanted to... I don't know. Be friends." Which all seems quite unlikely now. But she lets her eyes rest on Jo across the table, since the woman is ready to offer her services. "I just wanted a friendly face?" she says again, shoulders hunched inward as she puts on a weak but hopeful smile. There might be something else too, from the way she doesn't quite commit to the statement, but it doesn't seem to be coming. Jo regards her for a long moment, listening to her answer without her expression betraying anything on her part. Then, "First K'del, now H'kon? Woman, ya do pick interestin' friends," she observes, letting some casual humor into her tone. "Dunno what to tell ya about them both," she adds in now, getting to her feet and collecting up the bottle once she pops the cork back in it. "Difficult men. At least one of them didn' used to be so, as far as I know. Maybe all's not lost?" and she glances over Vienne's way, at least a little positive about it all. "Though, I dunno about H'kon. I'd keep them away from Oswinth and just deal with him on yer own, know what I mean? Bit of a cheap shot to go after that big-hearted dragon of yers." Even she's noticed Oswinth's sweet disposition, a big contrast to her Tacuseth. On friendly faces, she sends her smile and goes to return the bottle to its place, returning to catch that slight intonation at the end before she prompts back with, "And?" Since it sounds like that would be an and at the end. First K'del, now H'kon, so perhaps this all explains Vienne's impulse to show up on a friendly ledge, why the woman who sits across from Jo has spent much of her time with an arm wrapped around herself. "No, not lost. I don't mean it to sound like that. It just makes me sad." She slips herself from the seat, ready to leave her hostess to her riding gear and upcoming drills. Her free hand lingers at the table, though. "I don't know that I've ever had much cause to be angry with someone's dragon before," she remarks offhand, a brow flicking low as she tries to think back through her memory. But Jo's prompting pulls her away from those thoughts, curves a wry little smile onto her face. "And... I don't know. Comfort, I guess." Which she should probably also guess is not necessarily Jo's strong suit. Hands on her hips by the table, "The fault ain' in you, darlin'," Jo replies on her sadness, her concern for that statement of sadness lingering as she closes the distance between them. "Don' make their faults be yers. They gotta problem, then it's their to deal with." Vienne stands as well, and her long fingers trace patterns on the table surface when talk of one dragon and anger has her quipping back, "Talk to him about it. Ya will, right?" She lets that hang out there in the air, her gaze seeming to hope she does so for her sake, and then there's the last to draw something less brazen and bullheaded from her. No, comfort is definitely not Jo's strong suit at all, but a hint's a hint and even she couldn't miss that. On exhale, "Come here, then," she states quietly, closing that distance and letting one arm slip about Vienne's waist, loose enough that the other could dodge it. The other arm is tentative, offering an embrace, watching her intently and giving the safest level of comfort she can. "At some point," is all the confirmation Vienne can give on the subject of talking to H'kon, not in any hurry to throw herself against that brick wall again. She will, however, step in to close the distance between herself and Jo, one arm wrapping around the taller woman's waist and her cheek pressing against leather as she gives rather brief squeeze. "Thank you for listening to me. And Oswinth would like me to thank you both for sharing your ledge. He's... been very sensitive about it." There's a twist on her mouth when she steps away, but blue eyes lift to look at Jo. "Will you come visit us sometime?" Jo doesn't press on the H'kon matter, so she merely grunts and nods to that before she finds Vienne in her arms. The tension leaving her shoulders, she draws her in and wraps arm more tightly about her as she dips her chin to the top of her head. There's a playful little squeeze in return for her own, drawing a hand up her back in a gesture meant to soothe before she loosens her hold and leans back to see her face. "Might not be the best at the advice thing, but I am a good listener," she gives, that genuine smile faint, but nonetheless there. She lets her step away now before she adds on, "Of course he's welcomed to. We'll stop by sometime, he and I," she confirms the last with a nod towards Tacuseth. "Maybe bring dinner if ya haven' eaten when we call?" Vienne has a brighter smile once they're standing in their own space, so maybe there was enough comfort in the hug to satisfy, or maybe she makes assumptions about that soothing hand. Either way, she's grinning now, an amused shape in her smile. "I think advice is overrated. It just goes back to there never really being a right answer." So listening sounds just fine to her. And, "Dinner would be lovely." That sounds just fine to her too. Her teeth catch her lip, making her smile momentarily shy. "Take care, Jo. We'll see you soon." She rearranged the fold of her sweater, arms back to clutching it snug to her, and she turns toward the ledge where Oswinth is carefully stretching out his wings while trying to take up as little space as possible.
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