Logs:Making Friends

From NorCon MUSH
Making Friends
Do you always go out of your way to be mean to people you barely even know?
RL Date: 1 July, 2015
Who: Aikane, Ka'ge
Involves: Fort Weyr
Type: Log
What: Two weyrlings run into each other grabbing a meal, and it ends just a bit less friendly than it began.
Where: Nighthearth, Fort Weyr
When: Day 23, Month 2, Turn 38 (Interval 10)


Icon Ka'ge charming.jpg


>---< Nighthearth, Fort Weyr(#2044RJs$) >------------------------------------<

  An irregular archway leads into the alcove that houses the Nighthearth.   
  This cozy little nook contains a hearth, protected by a grate that can be 
  used to prop chilled feet to warm on cold days, that is surrounded with a 
  several leather, upholstered chairs. A small table pushed against the same
  wall as the hearth is kept stocked at all times with fresh, hot klah, a   
  pot of stew, and a basket of baked goods including breads and both savory 
  and sweet filled rolls. The Weyr's aunties also keep the space supplied   
  with a stack of perpetually renewed afghans in interesting color choices, 
  while the Headwoman's staff ensures that some of the older towels are     
  always on hand on a row of hooks for riders ducking in off of sweeps in   
  bad weather. Otherwise, the Nighthearth is undecorated but for the motley 
  collection of mismatched mugs, bowls, and spoons that line the mantel for 
  general use.


Ka'ge stands over the small table stocked with steaming rolls and stew. The kitchen staff had just put them out, and the smell permeates the little nook. A thumb and forefinger touch the peak of his hood, settling it better into place in an idle thing, a habitual thing. A bowl is collected with one gloved hand and the teen boy garbed in greys ladles some stew into it. A roll is dropped into the stew, if not for the taste then in order to free up a hand that, when he turns, drags one of the upholstered chairs to him. He more drops than sits, reclining back into it far enough to be little more than slouched. It's just after the main dinner rush, really, which provides some sort of quiet from the echoing caverns beyond.

Hurrying as much as she can, given the winter weather that can make fast motions hazardous out in the Bowl, Aikane finally enters the night hearth area still clad fully in whatever winter outer wear she could garner from the Stores after Impressing. Above her heavy, worn yellow scarf, brown eyes bear beneath them the dark circles of exhaustion, something that enough of the other weyrlings are well-acquainted with, too, their dark curves still visible upon her darker-toned skin. Though she's tried to keep to herself as much as possible, it's pretty difficult to avoid anyone who's in the way of her getting her late dinner....and so Ka'ge gets a wary look and a quiet nod of greeting as the Southerner picks her way towards the hearth itself.

"Lelith finally let you go?" Meaning, went to sleep but surely he couldn't word it as nicely. Ka'ge watches Aikane pass by him, though it's brief interest, since the more pressing item is the bowl he's balanced in his lap as he sits up straighter to hunch over it somewhat. Expression unseen, masked by his self-made shadows, the grin of him can be heard turning his tone more than seen, "Don't need to hurry. It's not running anywhere." The food table, assumably. "Sit." A gloved hand motions towards the couple of empty chairs nearby him. A command more than a friendly gesture. An invitation? Maybe not the most trusthworthy of welcomings given the creepy one who says it.

There's a sigh of utter relief when the heat of the fire starts to cut into the deep chill the Southerner feels, Aikane opening her long coat hurriedly in order to suck up the warmth like a tick. The teen's nod is followed by a low soprano, "Yes...." and a small wilting of her shoulders prior to shedding her gloves, setting them upon the mantle. As the girl grabs herself some needed calories in a bowl, she pauses for a few moments to peer at Ka'ge-in-the-hood, finally nodding and joining him at the table. Plunk, groan. If he's being any more creepy than usual, she can't tell, right now. Too tired.

Ka'ge doesn't watch her, or at least doesn't seem to be, while she's unfreezing herself. Soggy roll is mushed deeper into the thick stew with his spoon, soaking up the liquid and becoming less and less a solid thing. For as hungry as he seemed to be arriving, he's yet to actually pick at what he'd collected from the table. "Gonna survive?" Comes from somewhere underneath that hood, a breathy chuckle attached but brief. It's a loaded question, that. "Don't think I've had the," a beat, "honor" is decided, wry sarcasm attached, "to talk to you outside of classes and washing and oiling and.." His voice trails off, the spoon lifting to indicate the on-going-ness of it all. With the gesture, his head picks up enough for him to look over at her.

She hunched over her hot bowl of stew, hand cupped to gain even more heat, and so brown eyes likely miss half of Ka'ge's expressions. Aikane's actually shivering just a little, still. There's a non-committal shrug from coat-covered shoulders in answer to the bronze weyrling's inquiry, but his 'witty sarcasm' finally garners the greenling's more pointed attention. Is he teasing her? That's what it looks like 'kane's trying to decide as she murmurs, "Aikane." Pause. "You're the..." Creepy one? "The one with the creepy dragon." Blink, yikes! "That's what Lelith said."

"Aye, and he'd be content to keep it at that." Ka'ge responds in regards to the adjectives, the 'naming' provided by the green clutchmate of his Bonded. He certainly doesn't seem offended, especially given the 'hmph' of amusement that comes right before he shovels a spoonfull of necessary nutrition into himself. He also doesn't appear to be quick name himself for her, either. "Sounds like you have a perceptive one attached to you. After you got dumped into the Weyr's hands and trapped here all at once." Is there a question in that? He's prying by nature of what he says, curiosity there but not in the tones of it.

Aikane quirks her head some at Ka'ge response to her unfiltered response, the girl just letting it lie, for now....especially since she's trying to eat. Unlike her fellow weyrling, the Southerner blows on her hot stew first, then tests the heat of the ingredients before placing the spoon into her mouth. Mumbled tiredly, "Not enough spice..." makes it out before she's looking at him once again in 'that' fashion. Is he poking at her? Those latter words of Ka'ge's elicit a perhaps odd response: the greenling's eyes misting over as she drops her gaze to her meal, mutely nods her hat-covered head.

If it's sympathy he should show, Ka'ge fails miserably. In fact, the grin that was kinda-there under the hood is now a broadened smirk at the sign of her misty eyes. It's one note shy of another chuckle which he does, at least, restrain. "Are you so sad you Impressed? What's at Southern that all of you are so desperate to cling to." Harsh words only get harsher, though the latter question seems broader as if she isn't the only one who has expressed such grief. His eerie blue-green gaze watches her closer now, interest increasingly present. Even the eating has stopped, as if her perils have become priority.

The look Aikane suddenly flashes at Ka'ge says it all: hurt, betrayal, anger, and they're all for him. "Do you always go out of your way to be mean to people you barely even know?" the girl mutters darkly at the youth, her misty gaze slowly clearing, though she does give a small sniffle. More food is placed mechanically into her mouth, chewed as the Southerner ignores those other, likely facetious inquiries. At this point, the teen girl is simply ignoring him.

The cocky "Yes." that Ka'ge gives in answer is one that preceeds leaning back his chair, the attention to eating gone. It's not like they have much time for this, so cost-benefits must be weighed. "Lelith is worth it, aye? Or was Standing simply a mistake?" There's pressure in that as he continues on despite the likelihood of him being ignored. He relieves her of the studious stare he'd had for sake of pulling off a grey-black glove to finger-pick some of the soggy breadroll bits that are floating in his stew. One mushy piece is eaten, drip dripping on the way to his mouth.

AIkane's response to his 'yes' might again be a bit odd. "Why?" She's still angry and upset, but those brown eyes are somewhat wiser than they might be as they affix a little harshly to Ka'ge's blue-greens. Well?! She's apparently not going to answer his other inquiries about Lelith any time soon...but her eating continues.

Ka'ge meets that brown stare, his grin creating lines of amusement across his face, narrowing his mischief-laden gaze. The oddity of her question seems to be more pulling than pushing of his pestering, "Does it matter that much? My wonderful personality should be the least of your concerns."

"Yes, it matters..." Aikane mutters dourly to Ka'ge, polishing off her bread with butter, now tucking into her hot tea. Warmmmm. Once again, those browns fix to his own gaze, and remain steadfast.

"Maybe I'm just so sweet, I'd rather you yell at me than get your tears all over the floor." Ka'ge lifts a free arm in a single-shouldered shrug, feigning an innocence about himself that is ruined by the smug expression that doesn't leave him. He stands then, breaking eye contact with her to take his bowl over a couple feet to lay it on a tray for collection of such things. Apparently he's done, even if he ate almost none of it. He returns to lean his forearms on the back of the chair he'd been sitting in. "Don't you think that's better?"

She's much more applied at the eating thing, Aikane not letting a drop or crumb go astray as she continues to slowly devour her meal. As Ka'ge fires back his answer, rises to take that arm-perch upon the back of his chair, the green weyrling finally finds herself giving up both anger and hurt in exchange for some exasperation. Noted with little-to-no artfulness, "Better for who? For you, because it keeps you safer from being hurt by others who might get close? It's not better for -me-." And, apparently, she's unwilling to tolerate anymore of her fellow weyrling's foolishness, for Aikane's rising slowly from her own chair -- wood scraping some on the stone -- and moving off with her bowl in hand to get more stew and bread from the fire.

"You can get as close as you want. We'll get plenty close later." Arrogance lines that, the absolutely charming look he gives her lasting long enough until she turns from him. Ka'ge is not supposed to say those things or even imply those things at this current moment in time, but apparently that doesn't stop him. He straightens from his leaning as she rises as if he was waiting for her to move before he did. "Until then." Though most likely, of course, well before that time, he'd see her. But regardless, he leaves her with that, a mocking salute touching his hooded brow before he aims to vanish back into the masses of the living caverns and back to his bronze.

"You don't scare me..." is murmured with continued exasperation over her shoulder, Aikane unwilling to look at Ka'ge. "And I hope you're not threatening me." Is there something inside the often silent girl that smacks of hidden backbone? Because that latter is not a question. It's only after Ka'ge's left that Aikane allows herself to slump into an armchair near the fire with her renewed bowl of stew and chunk of bread, a silent shudder and hitch of her breath given. There's nothing like feeling even -more- distanced from other human beings.



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