Logs:Pick Your Poison
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| RL Date: 4 August, 2015 |
| Who: Hattie, X'vin |
| Involves: Fort Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| What: Besmernyth is rude, but it means X'vin and Hattie have a reason to talk, briefly. |
| Where: Lake Shore, Fort Weyr |
| When: Day 16, Month 3, Turn 38 (Interval 10) |
| Weather: Cloudless skies, warm temperatures, a breeze that picks up now and then: this is the fair summer weather people wait for all Turn. |
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>---< Lake Shore, Fort Weyr >------------------------------------------------<
The lake's shore is a broad crescent of golden-hued sand, stretching from
the southwest wall near the feeding grounds and around to the southeast
where the sand gives way to soil and leaf detritus from a cluster of hardy
mountain trees. Where the lake deepens, clear blue water darkens to murky
teal, hiding stony depths. Dragons often sun here and riders use the lake
for dragonwashing in the warmer seasons, while all of the Weyr's denizens
may enjoy walks and picnics among the large, smooth boulders that
interrupt the smooth flow of sand. Many of the Weyr's children also play
at skipping stones with the wide variety of rocks available along the
water's edge.
-----------------------------< Active Players >-----------------------------
Hattie F 40 5'6" slim, dark brown hair, brown eyes 49s
X'vin M 32 6'3" muscular, black hair, dk brown eyes 0s The fair weather has brought many souls, both young and old, down to the shore of the lake to enjoy the sunshine before the sky gets any ideas about changing its mind, and though it's not overly crowded as of yet, dodging the paths of enthusiastic children and some of the younger dragons is a game unto itself. Out in the depths of the lake, Elaruth can be spied playing tag with a gaggle of greens, while her rider, who is looking more awkward by the day, has slipped off her sandals and walks through the shallows, her progress slow and seemingly with no destination in mind. Besmernyth's presence in the weyr has become increasingly crepuscular, though he has not quite disappeared entirely. That he's left most dragons alone, showed up for drills occasionally, and sometimes deigned to transport X'vin to their lofty ledge is something, given that the bronze has often hoarded himself away indoors during the brightest times of day. Presumably he hates the bright summer sunlight in a way his rider does not, but that doesn't mean he can forego such simple things as baths. So it is that X'vin watches the lengthy bronze wade into the water, disrupting several playing children and a indeed not far from Hattie, his eyes whirling with discontent and with several lids closed against Rukbat's harsh light. X'vin is a length or two behind, taking his time in approaching the water even as Besmernyth minces into them, disrupting the shallows without regard for the children playing in them, or anyone else, either. Hattie's one foot in front of the other is slow enough that she doesn't run the risk of wandering into the bronze, but it does give her the opportunity to watch him before she reaches a leisurely halt. She doesn't spot X'vin during her study of Besmernyth, and so is perhaps a little less unabashed about reaching a gentle hand towards his lifemate than she might be were she to be aware of his presence. Her fingers don't stretch to make contact with hide uninvited, but her hand is there, her dark gaze lifted to him as she murmurs, "Hello." One kid is just quick enough to get out of Besmernyth's way, since he for one doesn't seem to be stopping for any of them. They are tiny, and insignificant. Hattie, though - well, she is somehow more interesting. If X'vin has any objection, he keeps it to himself as he stops a ways back to lose his shirt, his boots, his socks, and leave them in a pile on a nearby rock, his eye always on his lifemate and now the pregnant weyrwoman. Besmernyth rumbles - it could be a greeting - and stills, staring at her hand. Perhaps that is invitation. The weyrwoman remains still, her hand steady, and when Besmernyth rumbles she stretches her fingers the tiniest bit more towards him. Hattie doesn't close any further distance of her own accord, though, from how she holds herself, it may have more to do with manners than any desire not to. "Don't you like the water?" she asks, just as she might ask another rider or resident, any patronising, childish lilt absent from her voice. She tilts her head and looks him over again, from head to toe rather than from nose to tail, and tries a smile. Hattie will get answers twofold. The first is Besmernyth, who doesn't close their gap but rather suddenly fwumps down into the water, making a big splash and small waves in his wake, not submerged in the shallow water but certainly not disliking it. The second is X'vin's cheery, "He hates the sun," and he is smiling for the probably wet woman now, an apology to it. "It makes him very rude." Hattie casts both her arms out before her in a futile attempt to keep the water from touching her, but all she does is protect her face and not much else, which results in water dripping from the hem of her dress and fabric clinging in an unflattering way. "...Quite something, for a dragon," she remarks to X'vin, lowering her arms little by little to examine the state that she's in. Her comment is bland enough to be about the bronze himself or distaste for the sun. "Am I to believe that he's rude in daylight in general?" X'vin tries to suppress his laugh, but it doesn't work entirely. "Oh, dear," he says, amused, holding a hand out to her to help her recover, if she needs it, or if she wants out of the water now. "He's - got his way. He says the brightness hurts his eyes, and the heat is uncomfortable. It makes him short." Implications that he is rude only serve to make Besmernyth resign to his fate, and roll over onto one side, at which point several splashed children on the other side of him try cautiously approaching too, probably hoping for more waterworks. "Shut up," Hattie half-heartedly growls, unable to summon the will to be truly venomous about it. She lets her sandals, secured by one finger of her left hand, fall back to her side and smudge the skirts of her dress with wet sand, resigned to that as much as she is to the state of the rest of her. Her focus goes distant for a moment, features pinched with pain or concern, but given that brief silence to ride it out, she reaches for X'vin's hand, meaning to steady herself as she steps out of the water. "He owes me a drink," she decides, low-voiced, as she picks her way those couple of steps to the sand. "I'm sorry," finally comes when she takes his hand, and X'vin helps her out of the water, even offering to take her sandles, after they've already smudged her clothes. When her expression pinches up, he frowns at her. "Are you okay, weyrwoman? He didn't hurt you, did he?" At that prospect, Besmernyth does get a look, not quite scolding, but there's another quick laugh for her proposal. "I guess that means I owe you a drink. What's your poison?" There's a twitch that's the instinct to keep the sandals as if they're her dignity, yet Hattie soon surrenders them to X'vin without comment, not that she looks all that pleased with herself for doing so. "Just a bit of a shock," she assures, relinquishing his hand once she's steady on her feet. "Not sure that the baby appreciated it." But she's still standing, and so squares her shoulders rather than curl in on herself. She eyes X'vin sidelong as she admits, "I'm not allowed any poison for longer than I'd like," in a near mutter. "Just remember for me, when there comes a day I don't have healers stalking me." "Yes, but for all the wait, if it comes in a bottle, maybe I can get my hands on it. I like to plan ahead, as it is." She'll meet no resistance when she removes her hand from his, because X'vin is ever more polite than Besmernyth, who gives those kids waterworks in the form of rising and sluicing water off his back, all the better to wade deeper, closer to Elaruth and those younger dragons, where he watches them critically with alternate turns back to face X'vin expectantly. That the bronzerider doesn't come at once is cause for concern. "Ah, I'm sure he - she -" and a shrug here, "didn't mind terribly much," is given with a smile. "It can't be much longer now, can it?" Elaruth doesn't behave much like one might expect a queen to, and especially not at play. Dignity and colour - and any watching eyes - be damned; she chases and splashes with the rest of them, her size her only real hindrance in her pursuit of her smaller companions. "Whiskey," Hattie declares, something close to longing edging her voice. "It's sad that I actually can't remember the last time I had a proper drink." Her lips twitch in a wry smile, "I'm pretty sure that I shouldn't be waiting for this to be over for that. But no... not long." That sobers her. "And long enough." Her second's worth of an attempt to put her appearance to rights is abandoned. "Do you have any? Children." Dignity and color mean something to Besmernyth, apparently. His voice is frosty contrast to the day, recalling winter effortlessly, fractals spreading across his impression that ends up as wordless...not exactly disapproval. Bemusement? "I'm good for my word," X'vin tells her, hands sliding into his pockets. "I'll be sure to get you something, to celebrate that baby and your ability to indulge." Her question gets another laugh, but at least it's directed inwardly. "Afraid not. At least, none that I know." He is, after all, a bronzerider, and relatively young at that. "No weyrmates, no partners, no children. It's hard to keep goals when you have them." She needs no-one's approval, says the joyfully glimmering sunshine of Elaruth's presence, the light refracting through her touch not dissimilar to the summer sunlight reaching and bouncing off of the surface of the lake. Hattie's acceptance comes in the form of a dry, "I still think it should be him..." and the bob of her head towards Besmernyth, but she's smiling just a little bit as she speaks. She looks X'vin over in a manner not unlike how she studied his lifemate, though her focus is too distant for her to be truly considering his physical form. "Time was, I would've agreed with you," she replies. "Times change. But then, I probably have a decade on you to answer to for that. And it... depends on what your goals are." "He's me. I'm just the better half," X'vin says teasingly, as Besmernyth whuffs at Elaruth, physically and mentally. Her glimmering sunshine pushes back the cold calculation of him, and he doesn't deign to explain why he finds it's so odd, her behavior. Surely even a junior queen has better things to do with her time. "Then perhaps in ten turns time, I'll change my mind. For now," he draws his gaze down to her again, "I have plenty of things and people whose well-being I worry about without having to feel guilty for not giving someone close to me the time they want. Maybe one day. Not now." Whether in fleeing or pursuing (it's not so clear, in the tangle of the game), Elaruth pauses for long enough to drift more sedately past Besmernyth, aiming a nudge of her slender muzzle at his nearest shoulder, like she'd tag him into their play, even if it must be a phantom touch over the distance. She favours him with a bright, off-key clatter of sound, then darts off to mingle with the greens once more. "True enough," her rider answers, without clarifying which part of X'vin's response she agrees with. "I hope I'm here to provide sickeningly cocky reminders if and when that day arrives." Something in her own phrasing makes her hastily avert her gaze, which she then directs down to the bump that possesses her. "...I should go and find some dry clothes," she murmurs, silently reaching out a hand for her sandals. Besmernyth will not be drawn into that nonsense, no no. He can't roll his eyes, but he rolls his whole head, having suffered so, and stares at X'vin on the shore before his tail starts lashing the surface of the water. Come on. X'vin seems to forget that he has Hattie's shoes, with all that lashing, but when he notices he's a mite sheepish, passing them across with a quiet, 'oh' of surprise. "I'm sure you'll be her for quite some time, weyrwoman. And I'll welcome all the scathing commentary you have when the time comes." He doesn't seem to think much about Hattie is scathing at all, though. Rather, "I should wash him, too. He wants to go back to his dark corner of the world sooner rather than later." Hattie accepts her sandals with a murmur of thanks, giving them unnecessary focus, and it takes her until she can nonchalantly sling them back to dangle at her shoulder blades to insist, "Cocky, not scathing," with a brightness that doesn't quite hit the mark, despite the smile she tries to plaster in place to support it. She briefly looks out over the water and must be content enough with Elaruth's contentment that she leaves her be and doesn't seek to disturb her. "Afternoon, X'vin," she says more quietly, before beginning her journey across the sand. "Afternoon," X'vin says in kind, the smile in his voice as much as on his face, his gaze following hers to that playful gold before he turns and makes his way to his much less jovial lifemate, where he at once is lifted to begin scrubbing between a pair of neckridges. |
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