Logs:A surprise, a secret, and a solicitation
| |
|---|
| |
| RL Date: 11 August, 2013 |
| Who: Jo, Tayte |
| Type: Log |
| What: Tayte asks Jo to come by and reveals a surprise which leads to a secret and a solicitation of Jo's help and discretion. |
| Where: Tayte's Room, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 2, Month 7, Turn 32 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Azaylia/Mentions, Estarra/Mentions, H'vier/Mentions, Jeyli/Mentions, K'del/Mentions, Madilla/Mentions, Mikaelen/Mentions, Sisha/Mentions, Yvalia/Mentions, Z'ian/Mentions |
| OOC Notes: Some angst. Backdated (a lot!) and played via gdocs. Predates Logs: H'vier: Hero?. |
| |
| Tayte's Room, High Reaches Weyr The peculiar shape of this room suggests that it was unintentionally expanded, cement holding the ceiling together towards the peculiarly shaped alcove build into the back corner. It's larger than most personal quarters as a result, and though the uneven walls mean nothing sits flush, there's plenty of room for more than the usual amount of furniture. The larger lobe of the lopsided kidney shape that the room has might be considered a studio room. A large bed is tucked into the roundest part of the alcove, though there's a gap behind where the straight headboard does not meet the wall. It's piled high with furs and pillows. In this curve there's also a wardrobe, a dresser, and nightstands. Hooks extending from the ceiling over the dresser have been rigged with two layered chain-link that holds a number of bottles of alcohol of different varieties. The highest drawer in the dresser which is bizarrely the largest locks with a key. Opposite it, closer to the door, is a hearth that's had a throw rug and loveseat set in front of it, along with a few low tables. A set of shelves and a small desk sit opposite the curve of the smaller end of the room. Around the curve and into the little lobe, one finds a great change. There's color everywhere instead of the muted things in the front half. Scarves and streamers hang from little hooks installed in the ceiling, their lengths varying, and a crib is set up in the middle with two small boxes that have toys poking out of their not-quite-shut lids. There's a tall table stocked with all the tools a mother needs (well, those that are safe to be at toddler height) and a small dresser and wardrobe. The furniture is all hand-me-downs but in decent enough condition to make the occupants comfortable.
With the summer in full swing, warm and inviting, Jo seems to be taking advantage of the warm currents by being elsewhere when those don't catch her hanging either around the Weyrleader's ledge or around her old clutchmates (or even her wing). So once the note comes, at first she doesn't come right away. She sends her little firelizard, Mime with a brief note back to expect her soon and once she does arrive, she's dressed in her full black leathers with her riding gear hanging from her fingers as if she and Tacuseth had just arrived back to the Weyr for the day. When Tayte opens the door, she notes the disheveled look and distress on her face with veiled interest, but she says nothing yet as she's ushered in. She looks awkwardly about as she seems to be casting for a place to set her goggles and helmet down, and as she does so, "Ya look like shit." Well, it's a greeting, right? "What's goin' on, Tayte?" She reveals the folded note she had sent, lifting up and turning for the other to see. Her clothes look dusty as if she had spent the better part of the day on ground. There are hooks in the wall beside the door for such things, and Tayte offers politely to take them from Jo, to hang them on the hooks. "I know." The blonde answers the brunette with a breath that sounds hard to draw - almost sniffly. She could play a game, deny Jo the knowledge she's asking after, but Tayte's the one who called her here, so she gets straight to the point. "I'm knocked up, Jo. And I can't do this here. I need to go away, and it needs to be quiet and quick. Within a seven. I have a place to go, but I need someone to take Vali and me and keep my secrets." Blue eyes find brown. Obviously, that's the someone she's looking at. Passing over her gear, Jo nearly pauses fully when Tayte straight up tells her what the deal was. She blinks once, staring the other woman down before she echoes, "Knocked up? Lemmee guess." Well, no, in her deadpan voice, she doesn't guess, since she probably feels like it doesn't need to be said. She sniffs before looking away, not saying anything else for a long moment as she takes a slow meander about her and the room. Then, once she's to the side, she nods with a nonchalant shrug as she finally answers with a simple, "Sure. I can drop ya off. For how long?" Clearly, the full details of this business isn't her business, for she's not asking for further on that front, but she seems to be fine with taking Tayte wherever she wants to go. Tayte watches the bluerider. She watches her pause, her sniff, her wandering around the room. She takes it all in silence. She doesn't comment on the non-guess, but she does move tentatively toward Jo once she's spoken again. "I'm not sure. The last time wasn't easy. Maybe not until I've given birth." She extends a hand toward Jo, her expression uncertain. "I hope-- I hoped that you might visit me. Sometimes. When you can. Might you?" She is, evidently, asking Jo to make it her business. At least to some degree. Jo turns to face her when she feels Tayte approach, stating on the first, "Where is this place? Back in Ista? And, I might be able to stop by a couple of times," she admits, giving her a lopsided grin. "It depends. I have some folks keepin' me around the Reaches these days, so between that and rider duties..." Well. There's a slight shrug before she takes Tayte's hand, squeezing it briefly in comfort - or rather, comfort is just not the ex-con's area of comfort herself. "I mean, shit woman. I leave ya for a couple of sevens and come back to find somethin' crazy has happened to ya. Keep that up and ya might end up as the crazy one around here, like me." Not that she's seeming to mind the titles or rumors that still lingers around. Sense of humor, she has in spades. "Anyone else know about this?" she asks now. "Southern Weyr. My sister's there. I've sent her a message and she says I can come. It's out of the way and I won't raise too many eyebrows. I just have to finish making arrangements with the Hall and Snowasis." Tayte's answer for this is straightforward, too. Her fingers curl into Jo's hand and she pulls the bluerider toward the loveseat, gently. "Madilla. She examined me yesterday." So at least the blonde waited to get most of the crying out of her system before calling Jo in. "And I'm going to tell H'vier, about the baby. In case. Then he can't say I didn't tell him, later. But I'm going to tell everyone I've gone home to Bitra, so Vali can meet her grandparents. That kind of thing can take a while before anyone would mind my absence." Or so she hopes. "Apparently, I just can't be trusted around men. I'd swear them off altogether if all women were so good as you in the sack." The blonde still has her sense of humor, and she employs it now, if only to try to show Jo that she doesn't have to be too sensitive around the mother-to-be-again. "Southern Weyr," Jo echoes that with a nod. She seems to be mentally filing that information away since she's the one that will be taking her, until Tayte pulls her close towards the loveseat. "How do ya know it's his?" she asks on H'vier, alluding to her tryst with K'del. "Good cover story, though." There's a snort on the next - about men - as she squeezes her hand again and states, "Yeah. I used to think that way, too, but...they ain' all that bad. Just gotta be careful and know whatcha want, and know who it is that would give it to ya." Perhaps she would know. "Besides, ya can' give up men completely," she adds wryly. "Regardless of how good I can give it. Sometimes it's good to just take a step back. I know," she drawls after that, "this from me, but, ya can be surprised when ya just step back and take a breath. So." She gestures about the room before meeting her gaze, "When are ya leavin'? I'll need to make sure I've got the space to take ya." Tayte means to sit with Jo on the seat, situating herself nearer the bluerider than would be strictly necessary. And maybe Jo is no good at comfort, but maybe Tayte takes what she needs from the way her thigh presses against the bluerider's. "The timing isn't right for it to be K'del's. It had to have happened that very first time. The night of Hraedhyth's flight." If it were, they might be having a very different conversation now. "H'vier's been avoiding me since he's been back from his punishment. But I feel like he's got some kind of right to the knowledge. I don't expect he'll want anything to do with anything, but then at least he knows and later he can't try to assert some crazy fatherly right he didn't pursue from the outset," is how she's thinking of it. Her eyes sweep around the room and then back to Jo, "I guess I won't swear off men. It's not like they can do me any harm for the next eight months or so. But I swear if I don't stop being this fertile..." She shakes her head, no follow-up threat being good enough. "In a seven or two?" She suggests a departure time frame, "I'm not taking everything. Just enough. Shouldn't be more than two or ... well, maybe four big bags. Nothing Tac can't handle, I'd expect." And those mostly full of clothes probably. "Since I'll be coming back. And maybe I'll come back before it's over, I don't really know. I need some time to get my head 'round things before I have to face--" Lip-bite, but only momentarily, "-- K'del." Sigh. Jo doesn't exactly go to sit in the loveseat - more like, she settles down on the armrest, her fingers lingering through hers, catching the thigh that's pressing against hers in result of her position. It's possible that the bluerider's avoiding getting too comfortable, which alludes to this not being the only stop she needs to make tonight. She nods on the timetable, then states almost wryly on H'vier, "I wonder why he was sent away before he came back." It's idle at best, especially when Tayte gives over the timeframe of when they're to leave. Her eyes get that glossed-over feeling that riders get when communicating with their dragons, falling silent for a few moments before it clears and she looks to the blonde as she states, "Yeah, I can wing it. Tac says there's somewhere we need to hit that night, but I think we're gettin' ya there in the afternoon, maybe? Especially if there needs to be more than one trip?" She does eye on the baggage situation, but it's obviously a tease. The teasing lingers until K'del's name is brought up, the ex-con quipping, "Face'im. Why ya need to? About this?" She's assuming, gesturing towards Tayte's belly. "Barfight in Snowasis. Beat the shit out of a brownrider over H'vier's extreme views on Sisha and women in power." Tayte is a well of information that only need be tap. "It was Sisha's justice, I hear, that sent him away. I think it's why, too, he wanted out of her wing. Don't know why Z'ian made him wingsecond. He must not be as worthless as people assume, I guess." Tayte thinks about the timeline and simply nods, "Whatever time you can give us would be appreciated. I hope it won't take more than one trip." The look is a little sheepish under Jo's tease, far too accurate to be denied a self-conscious blush. "He'll-- Jo, he was my best-friend. Before things got complicated. He knows how scared I was that I might--" Exactly this, her hand touching her abdomen, "If I slept with him. And I'm sure as shells scared now. Doubly because I'm not ready to have him back in my life. I can't just be his friend right now. And he'll want to be mine because that's the kind of person he is. I don't think I can bring myself to tell him to stay away even if his being near hurts me." She winces at that. "I'm not-- always the strongest person." But she does try. "I'll be leaving before I show, so... I'll come back when I can handle things. When I've had enough distance. When I can let him be my friend." "Admirable," Jo comments on the reasons for H'vier's absence, though it's hard to tell the tone she uses it with. "Bronzeriders, really." Beat. "It's not a problem, though," Jo goes on to say now, the words easy from her. "We'll come by when we're in the weyr." It seems sealed, her helping the blonde, and so unless the other has more information to give that she needs to know, she moves on to address her response with yet another bronzerider. She looks like she's about to say something, but when Tayte admits that she's not strong, the bluerider gives her a look and quips, "Yer strong, Tayte. Strong enough to even be thinkin' about him right now. Ya'll get by this, cuz ya have before. Ya will again. That's all ya gotta tell yerself, darlin'." "I think the word you might've wanted there was idiotic." The quip slides of Tayte's tongue without much thought needed. "I'd like that. I'm going to be sorely missing news of home, I'm sure." Home, which is now this place. She regards Jo seriously, taking her words in. Then she simply nods. "Can I have a hug, Jo? I won't keep you anymore, but--" She blinks her puffy eyes at the bluerider. Silently: please? Jo snickers on the word given instead, the woman shaking her head before saying, "Idiotic, maybe, but it must appeal to ya somehow," with her having slept with him again. Plans sealed now, the bluerider straightens up before the blonde requests what she does, leaning back. There's a quirk of her lips as she reaches over with her wiry arms and wrap them about her, seeming to gather her towards her in the embrace as she murmurs close, "All will be good in the end, darlin'. Drink instead of cry, eh?" Jo's branded advice, delivered from her lips to Tayte's ears. "I can't even begin to explain. I've tried." Tayte answers Jo, shaking her head, her look showing traces of the utter bewilderment she feels over her inexplicable attraction to H'vier. Her arms slip around Jo's waist to take full advantage of the hug when it's offered. "Some days, I just need to cry. I'm done now. I have a plan. It's just time to follow it through." As she pulls out of the embrace, her shoulders are squared and the blonde looks resolved. "I'll make sure I pull out some good bottles for you. To thank you properly for all this." There's laughter on the first, Jo having some experience there evidently since she relates with a wry, "They do manage to wriggle themselves into yer life, don' they? And ya try to keep'em at arm's length, everythin' ya do, and yet..." There's a helpless shrug there as she hugs Tayte to her, squeezing her before she lets her go and nods on the resolve. "Good," she states, the grin crooked. "Good, darlin'. That's what I wanna hear. Especially on the bottles." Of course. She straightens up then and drops a brief kiss to the blonde's shoulder before she steps away in preparation to depart as she adds, "Let me know? I'll be around, more or less." Tayte moves with a little more collected grace than she had when she greeted Jo as she walks her to the door. "I'll let you know. I need to square things away with the Hall, but it shouldn't be too much trouble." Her parting smile for Jo is thankful, but not an especially happy one. |
Leave A Comment