Stables, High Reaches Weyr
Taking advantage of a natural overhang in the side of the mountain for its roof, this building boasts sturdy stone construction braced by beams of tough-as-nails skybroom. Just inside a pair of broad doors, the ceiling rises a full two stories high for the full length and half the width of the building. Beneath the overhang, wide windows admit light and more fresh air, while opposite is the second-story hayloft.
The stables' main focus, however, is the double rows of stalls that line the walls below: one large stall serving as tack room, the rest housing a remarkable variety of beasts.
Chores of the day: Stable mucking. It's the early evening and Jolie had long finished, the candidate currently in the process of brushing one of the runners down for the night. Already most of the stablehands have left, and one was passing by her with a wave and a small farewell before he himself was gone. Her trusty backpack is lying against the wall as she works, and the leisurely way she brushes the runner suggests that she's not really in a hurry to finish anytime soon.
K'del is not exactly a frequent visitor to the stables, and particularly not of an evening, but he's nonetheless unmistakable, crunching snow beneath his boots as he passes into the stable's overhang. His curious glance from one end to the other is yet another illustration of his unfamiliarity - but it's useful at least in as much as, a few steps further, it presents Jolie to him. He pauses, holding still for a moment; watching.
It could have been the crunch of snow under boots that alerts the candidate to an arrival, but she doesn't necessarily turn to see who it is. Jo remains there brushing the runner's side from left to right, the same motions over and over again. Straightening up a bit as she prepares to move closer to the runner's head, "Do ya like to watch?" comes her wryly spoken words - ones that could be taken as suggestive even though her expression could not be seen.
That remark makes K'del smirk, as suggestive as it is - particularly since (at least as far as he can see) Jolie can't know exactly who it is, standing there. His response is made easily; he leans up against a convenient post, telling her, "Usually rather participate, but I take what I can get. Can't stay away, can you?" The stables. Stablehand duties. Whichever it is.
There's a low chuckle, the former stablehand finally looking over her shoulder to pin an amused smirk onto K'del. "I like an honest man," she muses on his comment, her brushing never ceasing before she's looking back at the runner. "I just so happened to have drawn the stable-muckin' shortstick," she continues on to say, the suggestive tilt leaving her tone for something more genial. "I -could- have foisted the chore off on someone else," and she says this in a way to suggest it was something she would do with a shrug, "but yer right. Can't stay away." Throwing a look over her shoulder, "Only place around here where I can think. What's -your- excuse?" she notes his presence here, having not seen it in all the time she's worked the stables and is making a comment on it.
K'del uses his arms to pull him up onto a low wall, his legs hanging downwards towards the ground. "Reckon it's helpful, sometimes. Sticking to what we know - what's comfortable. Particularly when things are uncertain." He makes that remark without any particular emphasis, except for the thoughtfulness that pervades his tone. "Me? Dunno. Took a walk, ended up here. Sometimes, a person wants to be /outside/ the weyr walls for a change, you know?"
"Uncertain?" The brush goes down and Jo steps away from the runner to turn towards the Weyrleader. "Ya mean -this-?" and with the brush in hand, she gestures toward the candidate knot she wears that's half-hidden by the brown overcoat. There's an easy shrug to that, the woman walking past him to drop the brush down in one of the buckets that are set all down the wall. "Well, nothing's ever certain, darlin'," she continues on to say, returning to the runner and taking him by the straps. "Didn' think I'd be a candidate, for example. Here I am. Whether I end up with a dragon or not, defective or not," she adds this last with a wryly pointed look in K'del's direction, "well.my fate's in the cards." To his last, the woman pauses in her activities and leans her lithe body against the runner to send a lifted brow in his direction. "Maybe yer hopin' to run into me?" she teases playfully in her deep tone, flashing him a crooked grin and a little turn of her shoulders before dropping the act. "I get it. I get that way, too. Us candidates -can- leave the Weyr, right?" she suddenly asks as if the thought has occurred to her.
K'del's gaze follows Jolie as she works, though there's no intensity to it: just watching. Ignoring her more pointed remark, he says, levelly, "Suppose nothing is. Still. Kind of a big possibility, the Impression thing. Can't just take it back, change your mind, if it doesn't work out." Her playful tease draws a flicker of something in his expression, and then a smirk - equally teasing is his, "Could be. You /did/ promise me a ride once upon a time, after all, and I do aim to collect on such things." Her last draws a bob of the head, though only a hesitant one. "For a little while longer. And only with a rider for escort. Don't want our candidates out and about when the eggs decide to hatch, after all." If they do. But he's being positive!
"Might not work out," Jo notes lightly, moving the runner back carefully into his own stall. Projecting her voice as she does so, "I never think too far on such things. Live in the moment, that sort of thing." Then she's out, a rag in one hand that's getting slapped over one shoulder as she approaches him. "Ya ever live in the moment? Ya knowdance in the rain, cheat at a card game, bypass hidework for an impromptu trip to some remote place" A few more steps and she's next to him, dropping a hand down to the backpack against the wall without taking her eyes off of him. His last draws a smirk, looking pleased by his words. "I aim never to disappoint," she vows, a free hand going briefly to press upon her chest. "Tell me when and I'll come by, since yer the one with the schedule, Weyrleader." Her nod is more firm to his answer on candidates being outside the Weyr, her expression a thoughtful one. "Escort, right," she confirms that verbally. "I'll keep that in mind."
K'del allows, with a nod, that it's true: it might not work out. Still watching, as she approaches, his brows raise just slightly - but he's smiling. "Not much of a cheater, but sure: I've danced in the rain. Jumped off the diving cliff in autumn. Dropped everything to go somewhere. I'm not /all/ old and boring." He stretches his feet towards the floor, though not in a way that suggests he intends to actually stand. Instead, with a smirk to match hers, "Name an evening. These days--" He shrugs. He's free, apparently. And; "Be quick, if you want to go somewhere. Reckon no one'll take you far, at this point, and we'll ground you all entirely soon."
Jolie's head tilts back against the wall, her arms coming to fold across her chest as she regards K'del for his answer. "Spontaneous, but not a risk-taker," she makes that assumption by that answer, the smirk more pronounced. "And yer not -that- old. I think. Dunno yer age to say. As to boring, though." And she pauses, eyes flickering over him as if the answer to this would be obvious on his person. Either that or she's just pulling his leg again. Tapping a finger to the bottom of her chin to look as though this was stomping her greatly, "Hmmm. Ya don' -seem- like the boring type, but ya don' seem all for excitement these days, either." Gaze searching his now, "Every time I run into ya, y'seem pretty sad," she notes more soberly, her brows furrowing slightly before her hand drops from her chin. She takes her intense gaze off of K'del then in the silence that follows, then she moves on more amiably to answer his last: "Got some things I need to take care of first-" though what, she glosses over "-so give me a few days. Got nowhere far I need to be, as far as I can say right now, but still" Good to know. Already her mind is working though but the silence that persists, though she throws an easy smile in his direction to cover up her sudden contemplative behavior.
K'del apparently finds Jolie's assessment of him accurate enough, because she shrugs his shoulders, inclining his head forward just barely into a nod. He lets her silences linger, though his brows do raise at her contemplativeness; still, he answers all in one go on receipt of that last, easy smile. "Probably only a handful of turns older than you-- and if I'm sad. Well." He looks all the more sad, for a moment. "My life got a bit shook up, recently. Milani and I were lovers. She's the mother of one of my sons. I miss her. Guess it's left me with rather too much free time to mope." A couple of short sentences, punctuated by the briefest of pauses. More cheerful is his finally; "A few days. Good. Fine."
The smile withers some as K'del reveals the reason for his sadness, and it brings her posture up short a bit. Blinking once, there's a slightly frown of concern before her lips part. No words come forth for a moment so Jolie shuts it, then she tries again. "Damn, that's..." Tough? Sucks? She only met Milani briefly, when she arrived, so the candidate is regarding K'del more closely now. "Ya can't go visit her, or...?" she leaves that off, not knowing the details of the former Headwoman's sudden departure - or perhaps just not paying all that much attention to the rumors that swirl about the Weyr proper. Still, any other more proper woman would have words of comfort, but Jo is just not proper. Her words of comfort? She'll reach a hand to his shoulder if he allows it, gripping there as she searches his gaze and offers, "Got a good bottle of whiskey with yer name on it." Nevermind the whys on how she has one, but she offers all the same. Then she will drop her hand from him once his sadness clears, the last bringing a twitch of her lips and a wry, "It's settled then."
K'del mostly just seems embarrassed by Jolie's reaction to his reason - or perhaps it's just embarrassed by the sadness in general, and his willingness to talk about it. Regardless: he ducks his gaze away from it, though doesn't disolodge her hand from his shoulder, which does draw the faintest of smiles. "Sure, I visit. But she's-- not well." So it's not... the same? Surely he's not just talking about sex, right (and the lack there of)? Then, hurriedly, "Anyway. Thanks. Sorry. Shells. Really do try not to be mopey and all, you know? It's turned his cheeks pink, made his lanky frame seem suddenly as awkward and ungainly as a teenager's. "But. Yeah. Settled. Good."
"It's okay to miss the important folks in yer life, darlin'." Maybe she's got her small moments of being proper-like, here and there. This just might be one of those times. Even though K'del looks away, she doesn't, and his response on visiting Milani earns him only a faint nod. Arms going back into a fold, "Lost someone myself," she admits, her tone more matter-of-fact about it as she continues to study him. "His name was Deetan. Left my family to go travel the lands with him, and well....that was all well and good. Until it wasn't." This time she looks away, eyes narrowing at the memory before continuing. "I would do anything for him, until-" she stops, the rest of her words dying on her lips as she shoots a glance K'del's way and finishes rather lamely in a murmur, "...until he left me." It's likely unconvincing, that ending, but she doesn't look to be elaborating further. In fact, she looks rather uncomfortable herself, until she shakes her head and changes the subject. "So. Some of the others have been talkin' about going out and touchin' those eggs," she says briskly, pushing her own memories back in vain. "When ya think that'll be happening? Does touchin' them really matter all that much when it comes down to it?" Down to Impressing, that is.
Finally, slowly, K'del turns his attention back towards Jolie, as she begins telling her own story. Likely, he /doesn't/ entirely believe the end of her story, but he doesn't seem especially inclined to press: presumably, if she doesn't want to give the real details, it's for good reason. "I'm sorry," he says, genuinely, with feeling. "It's pretty awful. I mean-- shells. Never intended to have anyone that /mattered/, you know? Just a bunch of friends. But." His shoulders shrug. These things happen. Bypassing her discomfort (at least in as far as comment might go), he says, "Not sure it /truly/ matters. Egg touching, I mean. Except that it gets you more used to being up close to the eggs. And the dam and sire. Don't think I ever touched Cadejoth's egg, but he found me all the same. /My/ favourite egg hatched a green, so go figure. Anyway: ought to be soon, probably."
With a wave of her hand, "It's alright," Jo makes it sound like Deetan was nothing but a fling, though the guarded expression probably speaks volumes otherwise. Crinkling her face, "That's the thing, right? Ya never intend for any of it to go anywhere....to have them -matter-. Just happens. Even gotta be careful with friends." Eyes go to K'del's, speculative at best. "Doesn't mean that we screwed up if we did let it get far," she tacks on, letting in some dryness to her deep voice. "I mean...it's not yer fault she left, right? Just like it sure as shards ain't mine that -he- did." It seems to make sense to her, anyway, her tone firm on the matter before she returns to the topic of the eggs. She mulls over what he says, the guarded expression not so heavy now as she straightens up from her lean and pushes herself from the wall with her hip. "So it really is all just..luck," she concludes, sounding like she's pleased with the statement as though this was a topic of argument before in the barracks. "Some in the barracks think it really matters," she actually voices, sending the Weyrleader a look. "One girl's been tryin' to brow-beat it into me. Says that the ones ya touch will be more susceptible to wantin' ya or something. She still hasn't answered my question on what if all the eggs -she- touches turn out to hatch bronzes." A corner of her mouth lifts at that, her amusement evident.
K'del watches Jolie, levelly, his expression not giving away too much about his thoughts, though it would be hard not to assume that all of his is giving a great deal to think about. "Guess that's so," he allows. "Just sneaks up on you, and then-- out of your control. But no, it's not our fault. Just the way things go. Still sucks pretty hard, though." Her reaction to the latter part of the conversation seems to amuse the bronzerider, who admits, after a moment, "I was /convinced/ that favourite egg of mine was a bronze, and it'd be /my/ bronze. When it hatched green... Shells. Felt awful. But no: don't know that touching 'em makes any difference whatsoever to them chosing you. They'll pick who they will, so long as you're there. Last clutch, one of 'em picked someone from the /galleries/, even. That's not so common, though."
"Out of our control, right," Jo agrees, moving over to check the latch on the stall door of the runner she was brushing before turning back to him. At his last on the first topic, "It sucks -now-, but it won't forever," she says that with one of her charming grins - the type that could warm a face up and be contagious if the other's caught off-guard. "Give it some time, and some whiskey. And then," and she's moving back towards him, bending to collect up her backpack to sling over her shoulder, "if ya ever need to talk or vent," she adds with a brief incline of her head, the grin still in place. "If ya find me, that is." Jo wasn't always are her usual spots, after all, though if one studied her patterns long enough they would find her at certain spots more than others. Stepping towards K'del now, "I've heard a bit about gallery Impressions," she answers on that account, her expression appearing dubious. "Makes ya wonder. I reckon I'll let Tamaris know, then, since she's so adamant. I better go and get back." She seems hesitant to leave, but she steps passed him and turns enough to touch his shoulder with a meaningful look. She won't say anything more on his troubles, perhaps deciding she had said enough for the day and seems willing to give him his peace.
"Right," agrees K'del, firmly, as though he's doing his very best to convince himself that she's right, and that it really won't suck forever. He manages a smile, even. /Particularly/ as she touches his shoulder again: a low bob of the head accomanies it. "Thanks, Jolie. 'm sure I'll see you around. And-- in a few days. Look after yourself." He'll watch her go, too, though he himself seems intent upon staying here in the stables, for at least a /little/ while longer.
The touch to K'del's shoulder lingers, and she's mindful of it, before Jolie pulls it away completely. "In a few days," she agrees firmly on that, nodding once as she starts to take steps backwards away from him. There's an easy cavalier wink from her and a wry "Be well, K'del," before she's pivoting on a boot and sauntering out of the stables with a mind of knowing that he was watching her go. She will leave with an ease of one that has no destination at all, the backpack being the only lightly-colored thing on her seen in the growing darkness.
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