Logs:Maybe Friends After All
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| RL Date: 2 October, 2014 |
| Who: H'vier, Lycinea |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Lya's finally taken everyone's advice, but a chat in the bath puts an end to that. |
| Where: Bathing Pools, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 17, Month 12, Turn 35 (Interval 10) |
| Mentions: Farideh/Mentions, Tayte/Mentions, Telavi/Mentions |
| OOC Notes: Slightly back-dated. |
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| Bathing Pools, High Reaches Weyr Omnipresent clouds of steam slink across the tops of three naturally warm pools, set into the floor of this kidney-shaped cavern. Near the entrance the ceiling is high and polished, gleaming with little mineral specks as it sweeps downward into increasingly ragged, uneven steps. The foremost of the pools is squared off with wide steps leading down into the water and has faucets for bringing in cooler water from a rain-catching cistern. Primarily used for laundry, there's an almost constant film of suds along its surface until the circulating current clears it at the end of the day. Four sinks line the nearest wall and various tubs stored beneath allow for the washing of delicates. Laundry bags can be dropped off in the bins near the door and clean, folded laundry is stacked in rows of tall cubbies for easy pickup. The bend in the cavern leads to a rougher-hewn part of the chamber where the two circular bathing pools welcome those in need of a wash. Towels and washcloths are kept in neat stacks on shelves along the wall, along with sacks of sweetsand and a few bars of precious soap. Stone benches provide a place for sitting to remove shoes and clothing, while a row of gleaming brass hooks stand above, ready to hold clothes and robes.
H'vier is actually here for business today. Business being bathing. Which is usually why he's here, admittedly, but today there's not much looking around to enjoy the various views. It's not even until he's standing by the pool that he notices the girl that he hasn't seen in sevens. "Lya," he says her name, both as a simple sort of greeting and kind of like a question. H'vier probably knows that freeze. It's a generic one that women who don't want to run across his path do when he approaches. The only difference is that Lycinea's has her sinking a little lower in the water, collarbone disappearing. "H'vier," she greets after clearing her throat, trying to sound nonchalant and failing hard with her voice lilting upward like that. Maybe that's all the talking they need to do. She vanishes under the water, resurfacing some small distance into the pool, just from her nose up. Yeah, totally normal behavior, right? H'vier is somewhat familiar with this phenomenon, it's true. But, like usual, it doesn't deter him or hurt his feelings. "Haven't seen you for awhile," he says as he makes his way into the pool, not seeking to lessen the distance between them. He's here to take a bath. She just happens to be here at the same time. "How's things?" "Fine," Lya answers, with minimal attention, acting as though there's something more interesting out where the pool gets deeper. She stops just where she has to balance on tip-toes. He submerges himself to wet his hair and comes back up, reaching for soapsand, before refocusing on the girl. "You're acting weird," H'vier points out oh so observantly. "What's going on?" "Nothing." Lycinea is a good liar, but the lie itself isn't a very good one. "We're not friends, right? You said you didn't want to be my friend," well 'said' is a loose interpretation of the series of events the first time in his weyr. "So how is it strange to simply not be speaking to you?" She's not looking at him though, her gaze flitting in what might be nervousness to everywhere elsewhere, but slowly. "Is it just you not speaking to me? We've gone from you showing up uninvited and alone in my weyr to shying away from me in public." Like H'vier said, it's weird. And he's noticed. "People keep warning me away from you," the girl shrugs. Didn't he at one point or another? "Ah." H'vier does not seem surprised. "So, you've finally decided to follow the advice?" Because, yes, he's pretty sure even he warned her away at some point. And if not, surely she should have picked up the warning through his less than stellar behavior on occasion. "Should I?" is not an answer. Though it does sound decidedly curious. That? H'vier can't really answer that for her. But he'll try anyway. "I've never hurt you." And he only tried to force himself on her the one time. "I buy you nice things. Do you think you ought to stay away from me?" Lycinea hesitates looking at him, and then she's moving again, this time toward him, though she keeps her body sunk low so at most her shoulders peek out. "Not now that you understand what isn't okay." She did make her point about that, didn't she? Her tone threatens to revisit the topic if necessary. "Are you still worried about people thinking I'm sleeping with you if I hang around?" H'vier continues along casually with his bathing routine while he talks, only glancing at her now and again for a few moments at a time. Certainly not leering or anything like that. "I wasn't worried about people. I was worried about one person. I still am, I suppose, to some extent. But that's complicated." "Telavi's friend." Lya's guessing, "The one you dumped?" She tilts her head, "I could tell her, if you wanted. That we're not. Or Tela could, I'm sure. Maybe better coming from a friend. More believable, possibly." She's stopped still some distance away, but no longer as far, and of course, when he gets to the delicate bits, she'll happily avert her gaze. The bronzerider makes a sound that will have to stand in for a 'that's the one.' But mention of telling her? H'vier shakes his head at that. "I think it's best not to involve yourself there, Lya. I'm fairly certain Telavi wouldn't be interested in helping you on my behalf anyway." Not that she'd probably want to tell Tayte he was sleeping with a teenage girl when he wasn't, either. "She'd probably do it on my behalf, though," Lya returns without much thought going into it. "She's teaching me to sew, and braid and-- some other stuff. And that would really be the point, wouldn't it? To not involve myself. Because it would be better if she didn't think I was after your attentions, for both of us, wouldn't it?" Not that she knows or understands whatever messed up relationship H'vier involves himself in. "So long as Tayte doesn't think it's coming from me. She'd assume it was a lie." Which probably says a lot about the level of trust the pair had in their relationship to begin with. It was doomed to fail. H'vier scrubs soapsand into his hair while he talks, then considers. "Fuck it, do whatever you want." He's clearly in a healthy emotional state. But at least he doesn't try to drown himself once he goes under the water to rinse his hair. Lycinea isn't what one would call sensitive, but she's not stupid. She wrinkles her nose at the response. "What's wrong with you? You're not being pervy at all, and not cocky and not-- did someone finally tell you you're bad in bed?" The last is a little playful, she's trying to cheer him up, at least a little, and maybe puzzle out just what's wrong with him in the first place. (Though arguably, that could take turns longer than she's willing to dedicate to the cause. "Nothing's wrong with me." Obviously. "And I have been told I'm bad in bed. Suppose I'm not always very considerate." Wow, H'vier must be feeling really off. "But I try to make it good, more often than not." Now that his hair is rinsed and he's basically done, the bronzerider settles on the ledge and tilts his head back against the side of the pool. Really off, indeed! Someone might want to tell Lya that the last thing Oliwer (or V'ros or Telavi or-- well, anyone else that's warned her about H'vier) would want her to be doing is coming right up to him where he's settled and reaching out a wet hand to feel his brow for signs of fever. And yet... that's just what happens. H'vier is just not making a very good case for all of the fuss other people have put up about him. He's obviously harmless. He opens his eyes to look at Lycinea only when her hand moves away from his brow again. No fever, though, other than what might be expected from the warm water itself. "She wants an excuse to keep me from seeing my new son," he explains like that explains everything. "You've had another baby," Lycinea absorbs with furrowed brows, sitting back against against the wall. "Then I guess that makes you reformed then," as though this is the only answer to that. Her tone is contemplative, and she certainly doesn't seem concerned about now sitting next to this bronzerider she's been warned away from. Talking about relationship issues with a teenage girl is probably not the best use of H'vier's time. But all the same, he says, "She says we're over. And it's what I wanted, I suppose. But... I don't like it as much when she says it." Of course he doesn't. "She says no more sex, too," which is evidently in another category than 'over' as far as he's concerned, "But if I fucked Farideh again, she'd lose her shit." At least he isn't using Lycinea herself as a hypothetical example. "Ew, what?" Lya's suddenly leaning away from him and looking at the bronzerider like a penis just popped out of his forehead and waved hello! "Farideh slept with you? Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew. Ew." Lya's so flattering! This reaction, at least, keeps H'vier from going on. He's too busy staring at Lycinea like she's just as young as she is. That will probably be a good thing, in the long run, anyway. "Very willingly," is all he'll say to that, just in case the girl tries to make up reasons on her own. "Gross, H'vier," Lya hits him. That's right. A really girly strike to his shoulder. "Gross." It's a scolding, to be sure. "Now I'm going to have to talk to Fari about it, or I'm going to have to avoid it forever, and do you have any idea how much effort that will take? Why did you have to tell me that? Haven't you ever heard the phrase 'don't kiss and tell'? Maybe you'd be better off if you were more discreet, and not telling me about them. I gossip, you know," she threatens the empty threat. She listens, to be sure, but gossiping herself? It's just not her style, and that much should be obvious from the fact that no one has come banging on H'vier's figurative door about that time by the lake. His brows furrow and he glances down at his shoulder when she hits him. But it's not like it hurts, so it's probably just the fact that she does it at all that baffles him. H'vier also doesn't understand something else. "What do you mean gross? It was fucking hot." A++, would bang again. "Even if she's kind of a bitch." He refocuses on Lya, though, pointing out, "It's not a secret. Nothing's a secret in this place." Except that one time. "Even if it was, I know you wouldn't tell anyone. You can't even say the word 'sex' without making a face." "Hey!" She hits him again, "Don't call my friend a bitch. I only have, like, three of them." Friends. Which is up from her earlier estimates. "Four if I decide to count you." Big If right now, Pervy Bronzerider! Lya sighs. "I can say sex." To prove it, "Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex." She even does it without blushing anymore than the heat is already causing, and the only face she makes is her defiant duckface. "Stop," with the hitting. H'vier doesn't comment on calling Farideh a bitch. She is one. That's just that. "Okay, I get it. You ought to be proud of yourself, I guess. You can say sex. Congratulations." The bronzerider eyes her for a few moments before his gaze starts to wander. He might even leave if she weren't likely to comment on how gross him being naked is when he got out. "Do you get it? The point is, you're not always right." Was that the point? Doesn't matter now. Lycinea will shift so she can stand up on the ledge and climb out of the bathes and grab her towel to wrap around her. "Don't fuck my friends. There's a whole weyr full of people you can fuck and you're still in this messed up thing with your ex," as far as she can tell anyway. She pauses to look back over her shoulder, "Congratulations, on the baby," which might mean they're friends. H'vier doesn't keep himself from looking at her as she gets out of the pool, though he doesn't stare, either. So that's something. Whether he agrees to her demands or not, he doesn't comment on her friends. Or his messed up thing with his ex. "Thank you," is all he says, staring at the water thoughtfully now. Maybe he'll stay a little while longer, after all. |
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