Logs:Further Planning With Amerie
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| RL Date: 27 October, 2007 |
| Who: N'thei, Amerie |
| Involves: High Reaches Weyr |
| Type: Log |
| Where: Resident Common Room, High Reaches Weyr |
| When: Day 28, Month 12, Turn 13 (Interval 10) |
| Despite the fact that it's the middle of the afternoon and most people are at some sort of work, Amerie is spending her afternoon near the hearth in the common room. She's pulled a chair up close to the small fire there, staring at it contemplatively, dark gaze far-off. Beside her is a basket of mending, but it looks sadly abandoned, and mostly untouched. "So the tables have turned." N'thei could have been standing in the doorway from the caverns for some time, could have had his shoulder leaned against the frame, could have been watching Amerie with amused eyes and faint smile. He chooses now to speak; "If you're trying to look brooding, miss, you'll need a drink and a five-o-clock shadow." With a blink, Amerie's reverie is shattered; she turns to regard N'thei for a moment, the comfortable lean. Suspiciously, "How long have you been there?" Giving the bronzerider a wary glance, she resumes her occupation with the hearth, but for the odd sidelong glance to keep taps on him. Tossing dark locks from her eyes, "I wasn't trying to look anything, but I'd still take the drink. As for the five-o-clock shadow, I don't see how it would suit." N'thei muses over the look of Amerie, thumb and finger pulling at his lower lip. "Don't know. With the big lips, you might be able to pull it off." He stays where he is, just in peripheral vision, and reaches into a pocket to bring out the glimpse of flask-silver, the tinkle of contained liquid. "I was looking for you." "Big lips," Amerie echoes archly. "You sure know how to flatter a girl. Charming, really." She gives N'thei a withering look, arms folding - then catches the flash of silver near his pocket. Schooling her expression to mere mild disdain, the tall girl arches a brow. "Were you. Any particular reason?" N'thei smiles-- charming, really; in a superficial way. "Mmmhm." After lingering a look on Amerie a moment longer, he lowers his eyes to the flask now contained on one large palm, now polished against the edge of his shirt. "That's a coy question, isn't it. Because I want your help. You certainly seem to have the time to kill." Amerie fails to be charmed, by smiles or dubious compliments. Seeming used to attention at the very least, she returns his look with a flat, level one of her own before rising in a quick, fluid motion. With a touch of her toe to the basket, "A waste of my skills. And I suppose I had some idea, but you could have said it straight out yourself." "And spare you the chance to demure?" N'thei gravely shakes his head at Amerie, eyes never raised from his polishing of the flask. "I want your help with Crom. I've been there, and I can't get enough information on my own. So I'm asking you." Now he looks up anew, gray eyes questioning without falter; "Will you help me, please?" Lips curving into a smug smile, Amerie seems rather pleased with N'thei's lack of success, noting loftily, "I told you." Three of her favourite words. However, when he looks up again, she meets his gaze and sobers a little. She lets a moment pass before giving a brisk nod. "All right. What is it that you need?" Surely, N'thei was braced for the inevitable told-you-so, no more than a twitch of his forehead in response to Amerie's smugness. "Information." Maybe because she was smug, maybe because he's now feeling less charitable because of it, the flask disappears into N'thei's pocket with a remarkable deftness for such crude-looking fingers, never a word about it. "In return for which you get--? Whatever it is you're asking for that I can provide." Dark eyes tracking the disappearing flask, Amerie wrinkles her nose a touch, abandoning her basket entirely drift across the room towards him. "Information, I have. And a few connections - I know who to ask about what," she offers, folding her arms, stopping just outside of arm's reach. "In return for which..." A glance around the cavern. "A bit of help establishing myself here. I'm tired of answering questions." Er - to drift across... Registering surprise, initially that she bothered to come over now that the flask's gone, N'thei blinks down to Amerie; "You want me to put a good word in for you?" Now he laughs, a quiet but blatant chuckle that exhales unchecked in bland amusement. "I can do that. I have the occasional drink with what you might call the right people. Do you want a job or something, or just someone to vouch for you? 'Nice girl, my mother's cousin's youngest daughter?'" "In a sense, I suppose. And I'd like a /decent/ job." Amerie glances over her shoulder to the mending with a derisive little sniff. "As I said, it's a waste. And sewing bores me." Looking up to N'thei, it's clear the amusement's not sitting well with the girl, though she limits her annoyance to a twitch of her lips. "I've already told both the Weyrwoman and the Weyrsecond I have no family, so a story is unnecessary." N'thei continues chuckling, fails to sober his expression or rein his amusement while Amerie proceeds. "What job would you like, miss? I'll certainly put in a request to the best of my ability, but you might ought to keep your involvement in all of this quiet if you hope to be treated like good people." With her closer, it's much easier to keep his voice low; with him blocking the door so incidentally, he needs only to glance toward the dorms to assure that they are alone in here. "What I have in mind is at least partially criminal. You'll be an accessory to that. You understood that?" Amerie's at least doing a decent job of concealing any annoyance in her expression, but there's something in her brown eyes and the set of her jaw that betrays it. With a shrug, "I'd like to assist the headwoman, but that won't happen as long as I'm not trusted... so you might have a point. For all that I'm confused that you now seem to be talking me /out/ of my involvement. Your attempt at helping me is enough for me... unless you'd like to owe me a favour." With a sweet smile, "Because that would be just fine." "I don't want people getting involved in things unless they're prepared to deal with the repercussions. That's all. If you're an honest person--" N'thei pauses here, holds a studying look on Amerie with the contained annoyance and the set jaw. Mid-study, he pushes his posture upward, gives up his long-held lean against the door frame to reach his hand to his back pocket. "If you're an honest person, and I don't believe you are, I'd hate for you to get in over your head. And no; I'd rather just put in a good word and call us even, miss." "I'm honest when it's required." Which doesn't really say all that much, does it? Amerie gives N'thei a bemused glance at the pause, but lets it go, shrugging diffidently. "I don't think I'd get in over my head - after all, aren't I just giving you information? If you choose to take action on that, how am I supposed to know?" Aside from being told about it in advance. Feigning disappointment, she sighs, "Oh well. It was worth a try, at least." From his back pocket, N'thei removes a hide folded in the particular and maddening way of a map, a map he then holds toward Amerie. "This is a map of Crom and the farms and mines around it. I've been to the Mine Hall and circled all the ones that produce cromcoal." He must have given up caring now if Amerie's over her head or honest or even disappointed. "Could you tell me which ones might barter with us, and which ones might not keep a decent watch?" Blinking, Amerie seems momentarily puzzled by the shift in the conversation, but she just goes with it. Taking the map from N'thei, she turns towards the table, unfolding it on the way over to eye it thoughtfully. "I can tell you what I know," she says, tone businesslike. "And the ones I'm uncertain about could be - well, someone could listen for a day or two to find out which way the wind it blowing." N'thei follows, only after he closes the door onto the corridor regardless of how suspect that action alone makes the occupants. He takes a stance on the far side of the table, arms crossed, frown directed at the map-- an imperfect creation, older, of apprentice-make by the looks of it. "Someone?" Quickly, he drags his eyes from the map up to Amerie, questioning eyebrows gaining altitude; "Volunteering?" "I didn't say that," Amerie says quickly, glancing up to N'thei from her lean over the map, palms on the table, brow arched. "Someone as in 'someone'. I could but I... tend to attract attention." Her tone is matter-of-fact for her last, as she looks down at the map with sudden interest. "Though I do know a little of these places," she continues, pointing out a few of the desired holds. "Beyond allegiances." "Nothing attracts attention like evasive action." N'thei's eyes follow Amerie's fingers, his teeth now filing across his lower lip in a nervous attitude. "I would think you'd be quite the perfect candidate for it, a local, pretty, young, not usually the kind of person you look to be a spy." He raises his eyes briefly; "But you have something to hide? --I watched this one the other day. They're poor. Do you know them?" It's just some random minehold on the outskirts of Crom proper. With mild impatience, "I don't necessarily have anything to hide. I just don't really like to discuss my life with near-perfect strangers." Amerie is still looking over the map, tracing over a few places with fingertips, thoughtful and absent. "I know them. They're poor specifically due to being overly loyal, in my opinion. Easy to take advantage of." Flicking a glance up to N'thei; "I'll think about it." N'thei seems surprised again. "No? Huh." Pinky-tapping the poor people place, weight leaned on the balls of his fingers at the edge of the table, he nods along with Amerie's assessment of the location. "Overly loyal to whom? Crom?" He sounds hopeful for the alternative, adding, "You mean they might be persuaded to sell at a low price?" Amerie looks up, straightening - and arching a brow at N'thei's surprise. "Is that unexpected?" Leaving it alone with a shrug, she confirms, "Crom." So much for hope. "I meant he tends to take advantage, however it's possible they could be convinced if they thought they were doing it for different reasons. But I wouldn't go there first." With a shrug, N'thei answers Amerie's question in the most deflective way he can fathom, sweeps his hand across the map to indicate it as the focus of the conversation. "I'll leave it with you. Just give me some ideas, some place to start? But don't get caught with it." To help avoid such happening, he starts to refold the map again, somehow managing to follow along so that it folds exactly the way it was to begin with. "People might get the wrong idea." Shrugging in return with an amused quirk of her lips, Amerie watches N'thei fold the map, advising, "Start closest to the Weyr. That's fairly safe. But I'll... I'll look it over and see if I can sort out a order of sorts. A plan." With a laugh at the very idea, she holds out her hand, palm up. Confidently, "I won't get caught. I don't get caught. And the last thing I need is more of the 'wrong idea'." N'thei looks far from convinced; "Says the girl who tends to attract attention?" He turns the map over between his two hands contemplatively, only to eventually relinquish it on to Amerie's upturned palm with a warning look down at her. "I was serious. Don't get caught." At so opportune a moment, the door from the corridor squeaks open and the image of a busybody, right down to the knitting needles stock through a fastidious bun of gray hair, shuffles into the room with peering little eyes. "That just must mean I know how to be extra careful." Amerie's confidence is not affected by N'thei's lack thereof, immediately sliding the map into her pocket after taking it from him. She doesn't quite roll her eyes at the serious look, but it's obvious she wants to; soberly, "I know. I won't. I promise." Hand to heart, even - backing away towards her mending as soon as the door opens, then lifting fingers in a lazy salute. N'thei says in a long-suffering whine, "I hate dealing with teenagers." His expression lingers troubled and forlorn, but he turns his back to Amerie with nothing short of a wink and a grin for the elderly woman, precisely timed to give exactly the wrong impression about what goes on behind closed doors. Though he has no need of it, he straightens his collar and cuffs while he's on his way out of the room. You stride out to the hallway and caverns below. |
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