Logs:Lost in the Corridors
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| RL Date: 31 January, 2014 |
| Who: Finne, N'dalis |
| Involves: Fort Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Dal finds Finne wandering the corridors. She is the most bewildering person he's ever met... but Suraieth likes her! |
| Where: Inner Caverns, Fort Weyr |
| When: Day 16, Month 12, Turn 33 (Interval 10) |
| Late morning means the inner caverns are quieter, some corridors downright empty. It's one of these less than habitated hallways that has Finne knocking and opening the doors to and peering into unanswered rooms. At least she's knocking right? Each one has the skin beneath her eyes puckering in bafflement and moving onto the next. *knock knock* "GO AWAY." "Woops." *knock knock* Afternoon delight noises. "Ooooookay." Somewhere down the hallway of rooms, the brunette starts whistling an off-key, merry tune. N'dalis must have /some/ reason to be down here in the caverns at this time of the morning, though it's not an obvious one. He's walking in the other direction, turning a corner that leads him into the corridor Finne's invaded in time to catch her whistle. He's a sober looking man, his base expression more serious than not, and now is no exception: he's even very nearly frowning. "Are you...?" Lost? Looking for something? Someone? Hello? Finne does a masterful job of not startling when she's approached, even if she's mid-door open. Well, no, let's face it, she's much more than mid-door open. And to be even more honest, she's not masterful at hiding anything. Her head is mostly inside the opening to peek when N'dalis speaks. The door slams shut reflexively, but not before she beans herself on the head as she tries to pretend she wasn't doing anything at all. "I'm Finne. And are you...?" Rubbing the side of her head with eyes squinted from holding back more pained yelps, "Lost? Looking for someone? Me? Did dad send you? Uh. Hi?" At the end, she aims a sheepish, crooked little grin at the very tall fellow. "Hey--" begins Dal, reaching out, and then stopping himself: he's not actually going to touch strange girls, even if they have possibly just injured themselves. "N'dalis," he adds, coming to a halt a few steps away from her, and giving first her, and then the door, and then her again searching glances. "No, your father didn't send me. Can I help you with anything? Are you hurt?" "No. No. I'm not hurt. I always do this. I mean, not /quite/ like this. But close enough. Dad says it's lucky I was born smart, cause that means I have a few extra head things to let loose when I run into things or hurt myself." Finne's sheepish grin turns disarming, or the attempt at least, widening across her mouth as she flashes a quicksilver smile up at N'dalis. "I don't know," those blue eyes appraise, "/Can/ you help me with /anything/? Or just something? Cause some people are good with some things but not any old things." The hand still attached to the doorknob is suddenly behind her back as she leans forward into N'dalis's space bubble ever so slightly. And then without a noise, it latches shut, none the worse for the wear for having smashed parts of the teenager's head in the process. "What'd you say your name was again?" N'dalis' mouth opens, and no words come out. Is he staring? He might be staring. "I think," he says, finally, after several seconds of bewildered silence, "that rather depends on what kind of help you need. There are certainly things I can't help you with... but if there's something that I /can/ help you with..." He stops. He's still kind of staring. "N'dalis. Dal, if you prefer." The hand /not/ on her head thrusts forward. "I'm Finne." The reintroduction is paired with a magical sort of smile, the kind that aims to be contagious rather than creepy. "And if you have time and you're from here, I'd love a tour. I've never been in a Weyr before. Daddy prefers sticking closer to the Holds and Halls while we travel, but mama says it's really cause he's afraid of dragons. We're actually halfway between here and the Hold but I...," the girl's lips purse. "Here I am, telling you my entire life story and I haven't even offered you a drink." A flask comes out from the folds of one layer of her oversized assemble. "Moonshine?" As if only now, abruptly, aware of how close Finne is, Dal takes half a step backwards. He does, at least, accept her hand-- and tentatively returns the smile. His is thin, but not /un/genuine. "No, thank you," he says of the moonshine, and look, there's that wary glance again. "I'm not /originally/ from here, but I could... you do realize that this corridor is full of private quarters? Perhaps we should go back to more public areas, maybe? I can show you some of them." Finne takes a long hard pull from the flask preceded by a suit your self shrug, and then grins one of her grins as she confides, "It's just water. Oh." What he says sinks in and she glances back, brow all puckered again. "I guess that would explain what that girl and girl were doing back there? I didn't look. But I was wandering and got lost and figured I might look around. If it was important, the doors would be locked, right? You put me on the right path again, Dal. How are you not originally from around here and still seem to know /every/thing about this thing?" Like that this was a private corridor. N'dalis flushes at mention of the two girls and whatever it was that he's presumably imagining they were doing. "I've been here a few turns, now," he says, answering what is clearly the easiest thing she's said, as he gestures towards one of the turn-offs and begins leading the way in that direction. "I suppose a lot of people don't lock their doors. I'm not sure. I haven't actually lived down here, myself, but my son plays with-- well, I come down here occasionally. You said you travel?" "You have a son?" Finne's question chimes in right with his to hers, but she's the one waiting expectantly for an answer, somehow managing this looking sidelong at him while walking in the general direction he leads without bumping into much else. Oh, sorry, was that his heel she stepped on? "Woops." N'dalis lets out a terribly undignified yelp, as she steps on his heel, though surely the heavy boots he wears must have absorbed some of the impact. He stops, shaking his foot out carefully (as though that will do something to stop it from hurting!) and says, in a voice that suggests he can't be in too much pain, "I do. Jaymin. He's five. Do you... frequently cause injury to yourself, or other people?" Finne honestly looks apologetic and a little embarrassed. "I don't mean to. But daddy says that's what comes of being as smart as I am. My head doesn't have room for anything much else like watching where I go, or remembering that the pan is hot. Or accidentally lighting my hair on fire cause I was trying to straighten it with an iron. Well," she concedes with an eye roll for her own hyperbole, "Lightning on fire is probably a stretch. It just kind of singed off. Are you ok? Should I kiss your booboo better?" Now, there's an impish turn to her grin and she's off walking ahead of N'dalis, expecting him to catch up. Except, that's the wrong direction. One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. Dal's just staring, really, and it's only when Finne starts walking that he seems to be able to stir himself enough to say: "Uh, Finne? Wrong way. Over here." At least he's put his foot back on the ground, and manages to add, after that, "I'm fine. It... you should maybe spend more time thinking about real things. Like where you're going. Maybe? Su can be like that. She has her own logic." "Right, left, right, lef.. Huh. Oh, right!" Finne turns herself around and saunters back to N'dalis. "I totally did not mean to do that." It's hard to tell, but then she's hooking her arm around his elbow and walking down the other direction. "Tell me about Su. Is she someone I should be jealous of?" Poor Dal. At least he starts walking so as not to cause another mishap, though the short look he gives her arm is bewildered all over again. "I'm sure you didn't," he agrees. "I'm no longer surprised that you ended up lost. Su's... Suraieth. She's my green. Should you be jealous of anyone in my life?" This, too, is bewildering. "Oh." There's the startle she managed to mostly hide earlier, and the arm drops as Finne just stops short. Her head tilts from one side to the other as she reappraises N'dalis. A little hesitant, something not quite jiving with the world order in her head here, "You're a greenrider?" They're never going to get anywhere on this tour at this rate. Then, just as suddenly, she reanimates, "/Of course/, you're a greenrider! Is she jealous of me yet? Should I stop holding your arm?" Not that she's still holding it, but that's not the issue here. N'dalis' brows lift, as Finne studies him so, as if he's silently asking her for her assessment. "I don't think she terribly minds whose hands are one my arm," he promises her. "She's not really the jealous type. She thinks you sound interesting, though. Would you... like to meet her?" Maybe having a /purpose/ will get them out of the residential corridors before the day ends. Maybe. "Oh, I couldn't." Finne is suddenly all shaking her head and her hands and taking a step backward. "I'm terribly shy." How she manages to say that with a straight face, well, Faranth only knows. "Are you talking to her right now? Does she ever talk to your son? Hey, what's this room?" /Shy/. N'dalis just... stares. Again. He's doing that a lot. He could keep doing it, too, but mention of /that room/ has him grabbing for her arm, apparently with the intention of physically drawing her away. "Another person's private quarters," he says. "So we're not going to go in. I don't think she talks to Jay, but yes, she we were talking. She's a thinker more than a talker, though." Again, Finne's brows pucker, though she's willingly led away. "I don't think I've had private quarters... well, ever in my life. I don't think I own anything of my own other than the clothes I'm wearing right now. What's it like?" Wide blue eyes and a pixie's curious face look to N'dalis, as if he might know the answer. "It's..." N'dalis seems to struggle to know what to say to that. Then: "I never had private quarters, either, not until Su and I got our weyr, and I suppose that's shared, too. But it's different, when it's your dragon. I don't know if it really counts. It can be... quiet, at first. But... you don't own anything? No favorite possessions or anything?" They're (finally) coming up on the actual main caverns, now. Dal may be relieved. "It's hard to travel with lots of stuff." Finne say simply. "My parents provide clothing and a place to sleep, and I have... oh! I do have a wooden doll my uncle carved for my turns ago. But he, well, daddy doesn't like to talk about him much. He became a bluerider at Ista Weyr. Oh, hey, I recognize this room. It's where I got lost." There's a long pause after that, and it's probably not because they've finally made it to somewhere Finne recognizes. No: Dal's staring at her again, and abruptly, he looks kind of... blush-y. "Because... he's a bluerider? And your father doesn't like dragons?" "Honestly, I think he's scared of them. He says dragons can see into your head." Finne looks to N'dalis, a ready shrug to her shoulders, "And there's a lot of things in my father's head he don't want seen." Her pause is shorter than his, a hand to his arm tugging him into the thick of Fort's late morning, which is not so thick at all. "What's that room over there." This time, thankfully, it's not a private room. "And say, can your dragon read my mind?" Short answer: "The hot springs." But that's not where Dal is looking - at least, not except for the moment when he turns his head to identify where Finne is looking. "No, she can't read your mind. She can... sense that you're there, though. That's, um..." Deep breath. "She likes you. What she can see through me, I guess. She thinks you should Stand for Elaruth's clutch." Hi. "Not even if I close my eyes and think real hard?" It goes without saying that Finne might be talking over N'dalis at that first no. And it goes without further saying that what she's saying, she's doing, as those pretty blue eyes disappear and her knuckles turn white with tension as she thinks /really/ hard at Su. "Wait. WHAT?" Well, that is until he finishes talking and she's actually listening at this point, cause she's thinking and not talking. Those blue eyes fly open and she's outright staring at the greenrider, mouth agape, probably in a similar way to how he's been staring at her all morning. "Oh dear." N'dalis' cheeks are definitely flushed now. He may have been staring at /her/ all morning, but now that she's staring at him? Eek. "You don't have to say yes," he says, quickly. "If it'll make things difficult with your dad, or if you're not sure, or don't want to, or... Su says it's part of the pattern, but she'll be okay. Honestly." "No. Yes. I mean. Yes. The no was for... oh, I don't know. Did I mention I'm sometimes shy? I really meant sometimes, I just don't know what to say. Awkward? Is that a better word?" Finne stands in place, dancing from foot to foot as if a fire were lit under her, but whether that's from excitement or something else entirely is a whole other story. His flushed cheeks are mirrored on hers though, as they suddenly suffuse with color. "Yes, yes. Yes. Wait, can I think about it? No, yes. I don't know. What do you think I should do?" This is all just... utterly bewildering. Completely and utterly bewildering. N'dalis opens his mouth, and then closes it again. And then opens it. "You can think about it," he agrees. "If you want to. I... well, I said yes, obviously. But it's not for everyone. It's something you should do deliberately. Because you know it's something you want." Finne presses, "Why did /you/ say yes?" N'dalis hesitates, and abruptly frowns, as if he's trying to remember. "I... wanted a new start," he says, quietly, and finally. "And I felt it was my duty." "Even," Finne considers, "In an Interval?" She's so drawn to this thought that she's suddenly bracing herself against a wall. Her body eases back into it and she looks at N'dalis, curiously. "I'm not going to ask why you need a new start, but I think a lot of people would like a new start. Y'know? A chance to start over and not have things chasing you." "Oh yes," agrees Dal. "I think so. We're still useful, even in an Interval. And... it's important, to remember that." He's more serious, now, and part of that may be due to that 'new start' reference; it's hard to really pin it down, though. "Yes, I understand that. New starts are... useful. I needed to step away from my family again. My son and I. It's worked out well for us." The curious light in Finne's expression goes deeper than the superficiality of just her eyes, or her mouth. In this, however, she does not inquire further. Her sprite-like body eases off the wall and she nods her affirmation. "I'll need a few days to think about it. Figure things out. It's the first time I'm in a Weyr and all, and... I just have to figure it out. Mmkay? Should I just find you when I decide?" N'dalis looks... almost sad, though it starts before she says she needs time, so it's probably not about that. Hastily, "Of course. Take all the time you need. You can... come and find me, or find the Headwoman, or anyone else with a big knot. Tell them Dal and Suraieth searched you, and it'll be fine." He gives her a tentative smile, something that looks almost foreign on his face, as though he's not used to smiles. "All the time you need, honestly. There's no rush. And if you decide the answer is no... that's also fine." "I'll find you. Promise." That's no threat. Finne's incapable of sounding or looking threatening at all. "Thanks for the tour." What tour? And there she goes, walking down some random hallway again looking almost as pensive as N'dalis. Lost, lost, lost in thought. N'dalis just... stares. |
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