Logs:N'thei Punched the Door Instead of Milani
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| RL Date: 17 January, 2009 |
| Who: Milani, N'thei |
| Type: [[Concept:{{{type}}}|{{{type}}}]] |
| When: Day {{{day}}}, Month {{{month}}}, Turn {{{turn}}} ({{{IP}}} {{{IP2}}}) |
| Storerooms, High Reaches Weyr(#273RJs) Massive in scale, the Weyr's main storage passage connects to the kitchen on one end and the outbound tunnel on the other. Large enough to admit a wagon laden with goods, the tunnel easily permits the unloading and organization of supplies into the various storerooms. Branching off from this corridor are multiple caverns, the nearer two being 'open' stores from which residents can readily help themselves, while the deeper stores are kept locked up tight with a posted sign and inventory hung on a hook outside of each. An alcove next to the public stores serves as a catch-all area for reshelving items whose destination is uncertain; two sets of stone shelving and several bins hold these items neatly until a stores assistant has a moment to deal with them. Though the storage caverns vary in size, shape, and the smoothness of their walls, all belong to the same system: whitewashed walls, swept floors, and most importantly, neatly labeled and inventoried shelves providing ample space to stow all the supplies a busy Weyr needs. Though there's no direct internal lighting, a glowbasket may be brought in from the niche outsde each cavern, the better to ward off pests and the inky dark of deep caves. Late morning sees a fair amount of traffic through the Weyr's caverns and corridors. Tithe wagons came in about three days ago from Crom of all places and there was the typical flurry of activity to inventory, unload, get things settled. Milani's just pulling the door to one of the deeper store rooms closed and rummaging on her key ring to lock said door, clipboard tucked up under her arm. "Well then. Guess we're all set for little pieces of hammered metal for the turn," she says with a little laugh. Apparently she's taken to talking to herself. Which is good, since the person that enters next is one of the people who likes talking to her least. N'thei, laden. Without even F'rint to soften the grimness of him. Although he bears it over just one shoulder, he uses both arms to brace the brace the keg while he rounds a corner from one of the inner caverns, looking a little more ludicrous than normal with a scrap of paper hanging from his teeth-- for lack of a better place to put it. That Milani is in his path really suits neither of them, for he stops just short of walking right over the top of her with a grunt and a bobble of the keg. Catastrophe averted. Milani looks up, a little surprised and drops her keys. "Oh shells!" she exclaims and then gets caught between the decision to bend to pick them up and the decision to flatten herself against the door to get out of the way, leading to some rather ridiculous bobbing on her side of things. Finally she nudges the keyring aside with her foot and stands back, looks up the short distance to the Weyrleader. "Did you need a hand with anything, sir?" Polite. She's being polite. Yes, she's being very polite, asking questions of a man with both hands full and paper hanging out of his mouth to boot. Like Milani, N'thei has a conundrum: he can ignore her question and continue walking, or he can contrive to get the paper out of his mouth while suffering under the weight of a keg just to deliver an unnecessary response. In the end, a flex of his jaw indicates the paper, and a directly unmistakable look at Milani's keyless hand indicates her ability to remove it from his teeth rather than him just spitting it at her. --Which would be rewarding in a way, but let's not. A faint grin pulls at the corner of Milani's mouth and she takes a half-step closer, reaches forward to relieve N'thei of that paper scrap. "Sorry, you surprised me," she says simply by way of explanation as the thing is removed and held delicately between two fingers, likely to avoid getting spit on her hand. She doesn't read the paper. Since we're being 'nice' today. Good idea; no telling where that mouth's been. To answer the question, did he need a hand with anything, sir? "No." N'thei raises a questioning look just briefly in case there's any need for follow-up, fails to look apologetic for surprising Milani, and holds apart two fingers on the hand bracing the front side of the keg, wiggling them briefly. He means, in his verbose way, for her to return the paper there rather than his teeth, thanks. "I could get the door for you at least, if you're taking that someplace in particular, sir" Milani offers next even as she leans around said keg to tuck the paper in beween those wiggling fingers carefully. "Wouldn't do if you lost your grip and dropped it on your foot afterall." Beat. And her eyes lift to his face. "It would hurt." The breath that N'thei takes before he says anything, before he takes a step toward the exit, is a necessary thing. What he'd like to say and what he does say are separated by that breath, see; "Do you want something." That being the nicer version of what he thinks of Milani's concern and consideration, mhmn. Either he's intent on managing the door himself, or he expects the young woman is following along anyway while he paces the corridor with an extraneous grunt. Heavy work. "No, sir," Milani answers as she watches him pace on and after a moment, turns back to that door, locks it and walks after him, long legs making it easy enough to catch up to him. "If I did want something from you, I'd just ask," she tells his back, a frown briefly creasing her forehead. "You know, make things easier all around." For quite some time, the entire length of the hallway as a matter of fact, N'thei seems done with the conversation. Really, he was likely done with it before it started, but the lapse from his end is notable until he reaches that last doorway out into the lower caverns; breath released in a puff, he slides the keg down from his shoulder till it touches the floor and frees his hands. Then; "Just say 'no' next time. You know, make things easier all around." For a moment, once they've stopped, Milani's eyes close and she takes a deep breath, lets it out. Clearly she's trying very, very hard to stay civil. Her fingers even come up to pinch at the bridge of her nose and she doesn't say anything. Or rather, she opens her mouth and shuts it a few times, because everything she's coming up with is likely snippy. She fails eventually. "Why do you have to make everything so difficult?" Frustrated. Flippant; "Why does it still surprise you." N'thei pushes open the door with one hand, lets it swing wide before he takes a step to one side. That he gestures graciously for Milani to precede him looks very gentlemanly, but the practical upshot is that it gives him time to reheft his keg and exit without her being in the way in a relatively narrow corridor. "We were never exactly." Heave. Grunt. "Friendly." Milani steps forward to hold the door for him. "I told you I'd get the doors, you didn't have to put it down," she says about the keg and waits for him to pass, before swinging said door closed behind them. "That's not exactly true. Maybe not /friends/ and you were always putting me down for being younger, but we used to kind of get along at least." She chews on her lip thoughtfully, tagging along in his shadow. "I used to have your back, you know. Because I thought you were doing the right thing, even if it was kind of sketchy around the edges." "No, darling." N'thei braces himself against the wall once he's got the keg up, settles his balance and gets his grip on the thing repositioned so it's not likely to take a tumble on the way from stores to bar. Despite the effort, there's a perfect condescension to the lilt of no-darling. "I was using you, and you were happy to feel like you were involved in something. You stopped being useful." So he started being hateful. "Thank you." For the door, absently. Milani's footsteps stop. There's a slight sound he may or may not hear, fabric rustling against stone as she leans there in the corridor and tilts her head against the rock wall too. Takes a couple more deep breaths. Finally, echoing down the hall since he's probably gotten a few steps ahead. "I see." Beat. "So you don't really have any friends, just people you use for a little while and toss aside. Is that it? Was that how it really went with Amerie?" There might be something faintly choked about her tone. A sure sign he's gone and gotten angry; the real answer to that question is that it's none of Milani's business. The answer she gets, though-- "Yes. Do you want the whole list of women I fucked because they were convenient, or just the ones you know personally?" With a real question in his voice rather than the typical blunt-end speech. N'thei even stops, turns, and gives her a dare-you-to-continue look with his head cocked and a brow raised. Remembered belatedly, after he's already said more than he'd care to, "How it really went with Amerie? Is none of your business, Milani." By the time he turns around, she'll have gotten rid of the evidence of sudden tears though the end of her nose might be suspiciously pink and her eyes likewise suspiciously bright. "No, that's okay, you can keep that to yourself," she says flatly, pushes away from the wall to trudge on past him towards that next door. "She's my friend, N'thei. And I thought better of you than that." The door is pulled open, held and Milani stands there waiting for him to pass through. "You're a liar." N'thei takes in the bright eyes without sympathy. He's the one that's been accused, after all; plus, he kind of probably would get a right kick out of Milani's tears at this point. "If you thought better of me," he continues, nudging the open door with his foot on the way through despite the fact that it's plenty open enough. "You wouldn't have asked." Of all the things to take personally, this one sticks in his craw? Really? "I don't have any reason to lie," Milani says, chin up now. "And you just finished telling me that you only use people. So am I supposed to believe you when you say that, or believe that /you're/ the liar and you're not telling me the truth? Either way, I'm the bad person for not thinking the very best of you at all times, even when you're telling me that you suck." Her hand tightens on that doorknob and her forehead leans against the wood. "I know Tiriana's taking care of almost everything in the Snowasis. But do you want full staff support back, or not?" The keg lowers quickly, considering all the effort N'thei's had to expend to get it up there, and a hand reaches to close over the doorknob as well, whether or not Milani's is still there. That door will be shut, as he'll not have his dirty laundry aired right out in the relative open. "No, I said I used you. Can understand that pride would prefer if it wasn't just /you/, but if you ever throw my personal life back at me again, it will be the last thing you ever say to me. Do you understand?" --Does it seem he's saying that a lot to Milani? Does she understand? His hand closes over hers and the knob and Milani winces a little, can't exactly pull her hand away as the door swings shut and she winds up leaning against it. "No, I don't. I don't understand," she finally blurts out. "It's got nothing to do with my pride. You just /said/ that it was a lot of people. How the hell am I supposed to understand you when you say one thing, and then another and they don't add up?" Because for the most part, she still takes things very much at face value. "And I don't get it either, why you keep threatening me like that, when all I'm /trying/ to do is figure it all out." "Fucking hell, woman!" The upshot of N'thei losing his temper is that he stops squishing Milani's hand against the doorknob. The downside is that he slams his fist into the wood of the door just to the left of her head. "Why is this so hard for you to comprehend," while he presses his fingers into his forehead like, if he could physically jam the concept into his own brain, it might gel in hers. "I don't want you in my business. I don't want you in the Snowasis. I don't want you to know that I ever said a word to that girl-- or any girl." Then, taking a step back, flexing his hand (which hurts), "Can't you just leave well enough alone?" That has the effect of making Milani really jump and her eyes go wide. Her breath draws in sharply and it looks like she might cry again, only she doesn't. "I can't -- I don't --" a couple of abortive starts and then she starts to reach for his hand, then doesn't, folds her arms across her chest instead, pushes away from the door and starts to walk back down the hallway the way they came. "How am I supposed to take care of things. Of you, even, if you won't let me know what I need to. It's what I'm supposed to do. It's my duty. But it's ... it's what I do. I can't help it. Even when you're being despicable." But she keeps on walking. "I won't ask you about anything again. I won't offer to help. I'll just leave you alone." And as she reaches the other end of the hallway, she looks up and back over her shoulder at him. "I'm sorry." The far door swings open and she looks out into the busy corridor back into stores, re-tucks her clipboard under her arm. Don't let N'thei start believing again that he has to punch things to get people to listen to him. Doesn't bode well. The barest of olive branches while he rubs his knuckles, "You have a whole clipboard full of shit to take care of, hon. Just stick to that. Because this?" Them. Him. Half a decade ranging from co-conspiracy to list that should never have been written to a poor trader lad taking a fall to a promotion he never endorsed right up to an innocent door getting punched. He shakes his head at her across the new distance; this is irreparable. Milani's eyes close likely visible, even at a distance. Maybe she's thinking about that list she thought she was supposed to write. Or that trader lad whose fate still pricks at her conscience and she's never likely to forget. People move by just outside, one of them shoots her a curious look that she doesn't see. Then she looks back over her shoulder at him, face sad, blue-green eyes seeking out his for just a moment, maybe trying to say things without saying them. The things she can never manage to say right when she uses actual words and only winds up with his fist slamming walls and doors near her head. So this time, she doesn't say anything, just nods, swallows hard once and walks through the door, shuts it behind her, leaving him alone in that long hallway between things. Yep. It's just too much to be water under the bridge, and there's nothing but a shrug for the gravity of her expression, put right before she heads off. Smartly, N'thei waits for a little while before he goes on about his business; the added "sonofabitch, that hurt" is just for the cold-comfort sake of the door. |
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