Smack-talk.
RL Date: 4/30/09
IC Date: 8/12/19 --Took log from Kaida. :)
Commons Cavern, Fort Weyr
While not nearly as large as the living cavern, the commons do serve something of a similar purpose as a gathering point for residents. There are a few scattered tables and chairs, with a section of counter carved from the native granite for general use. The typically cool floors are covered with a handful of rugs, while tapestries serve to blunt the chill emanating from the walls. Lighting is provided through glow baskets for the most part, although some individuals might bring in a lantern if they think to.
It's a fair bit quieter than the living cavern and is designed more as a location for residents to meet and work on whatever work needs to be done -- mending, cleaning, and tending to children are only a small sampling of the things that can be seen going on here. It's most active later in the day, after the bulk of the work is done and people start to settle in for the night, but it's never empty of people.
It also serves as a hub for a variety of useful caverns -- the nursery is located across from the residents' dorms, with the bathing cavern situated between the two. The candidates barracks are somewhat off to the side, closest to the tunnel that leads back out to the inner caverns.
It's coming up on the end of brunch time, for those who keep track of time by their stomachs. With the weather being bright and beautiful, if a trifle on the humid side, those that can have taken their work outside. If their personalities suit such an option, that is. Apparently, Kaida's personality doesn't suit, since she's here in the Commons. She's rather less scruffy today, and rather more purple, smartly dressed in her usual attire of ankle-length skirt, knit waistcoat and wide-sleeved shirt. Perched on a stool, her dainty little spinning wheel sat in front of her, her expression the non-existant one of a person who's bordering on an almost trance-like state. One foot gently pushes down the treadle in a steady rhythm, fingers of her right hand flickering as she carefully drafts small amounts of fibre from the end of the mottled grey hunk of carded wool she holds in her left.
Or for those who keep track of time by other people's stomachs, such as the overwarm critter that comes plodding through into the common cavern right about now. Somewhere between the kitchen and here, Jaeyi's shed her apron and is now using it to fan her face, one hand employed toward that occupation and the other holding her hair up off her neck. In such a state, she passes behind Kaida's chair, two steps to the other side, then comes to a halt to turn, tilt her head, and peer at the Weaver's occupation. Has she stumbled upon a Weaver actually weaving? Or, er, spinning? It's like catching a creature out in the wild somehow, and even she has to stop and watch, blinking.
In her current state, you could probably march a parade of drummers through the cavern and Kaida wouldn't notice. So when Jaeyi passes behind her, and then stops to peer at her, she doesn't even give a flicker of a glance upwards. She's nearly at the end of her piece of tops, however, the short, even pulls that allow fluff to be drawn into thread eating it up remarkably fast. But then, she's not spinning anything particularly fine today, the strand of yarn being wound around the bobbin somewhere in the range of average. The whispering whir of the wheel slows as she eases off the treadle, leaving a tiny amount of fluffy end to the string as she lets the whole contraption ease itself to a stop. A series of blinks as she pulls out of whatever faraway place the methodic spinning had taken her to, she winds the thread around a small peg that seems to serve no other purpose than just that: anchoring spinning-in-progress so that the end doesn't get lost on the bobbin. A deep sigh, as she rolls her shoulders and arches her back.
Right along with that deep sigh, there's a burst of subdued applause, muffled slightly since the apron's still partially between Jaeyi's fingers. "That little harper," whom everyone surely knows? "Was saying something about writing songs or something about people's work. He really ought to come and watch this." 'This' with a vague gesture to indicate the whole contraption, the mesmerizing impact of it, all that fun stuff. And she wanders over, aiming to toss the apron on the back of the chair to facilitate inspection of thread.
Kaida's twitch could be called a start of surprise, as she turns and tilts her head up at Jaeyi. "How long have you been standing there?" Curiousity, not accusation. "Little har-? Oh. Kwei. Yeah, he met up with me a while ago and timed my knitting. Hasn't come back about the spinning; I think he might be pestering Bry to let him watch him weave." While the baker moves to examine the thread, she takes the opportunity to get up off her stool and indulge in a proper stretch, shaking out her arms and twisting her head back and forth to loosen her neck. "How are you today, Jaeyi?"
"Oh, ages," answers Jaeyi dismissively, her fingers flickered in some vague way that indicates time-out-of-mind. Not that she knows the first thing about thread, but there is something a little interesting in seeing it being created, in peering at the place where it winds around that peg. "Will it bother you if I send him back to watch the spinning, then?" Once she straightens a little, gives off trying to puzzle through the making of thread just by looking at the almost-finished product. Not something she's likely to understand. "I've been overseeing giant pots of boiling water all morning. How do you think I am?" With a crinkle of her nose and a swooping wave of her hand to indicate the whole perspired look of her person. "You?"
Eyebrows arching, Kaida looks across at Jaeyi, trying to judge the truthfulness behind that dismissive answer. It's a failed task before it's begun, however, so she abandons it in favour of actual conversation. Her lips twitch into an amused smile. "If you send him?" Echoed, slightly mocking. "He's not a pet, you know. But no, and I've already told him as much. He's nice to talk to, I don't mind his company." Settling hands on her hips, it's back to curiousity, "What's with the giant pots? And in this humidity? Ugh." Shrug. "Well enough. Busy. Bry's not got enough assistants to keep up with the demands coming in."
With half-grinning confidence, Jaeyi counters, "He's not /your/ pet, perhaps." She shoots a meaningful glance through the common room toward a particular door, one belonging to the Levania-and-Ysar pair, though the brightness behind her eyes would speak to a different ownership of the poor harper. "Jarring things," is all she has to say about big pots, not an avenue of conversation she's eager to pursue. "Who's Bry? Let's sit down." Even though Kaida just got up to stretch, yes.
"Please, I don't want to hear any gooshy stories about him and Levania," Kaida counters rather swiftly. Too swiftly for that brightness to be noted, though when it is her smirk intensifies. "Su might have a few objections about that, as well. Jarring?" An amiable nod is given over at the suggestion of sitting, her own being added, "Somewhere softer than that stool, though. How about the couch over there?" One long finger points across the way. "Bryanten, Journeyman Weaver, and disgustingly, happily married so don't even think about it."
"No one," begins Jaeyi with that same smirky confidence, walking her fingers across the back of the couch while before she plops gracelessly into one corner, "is /that/ happily married. In my experience." Terms like 'don't even think about it' are not so much part of her vocabulary, no. "Jarring fruit. And I have a feeling it would be similar to me asking about, ohh, carding wool or something, so let's not discuss the process, hmmmn? I like this ensemble better." As a means for changing the subject.
Kaida shakes her head ruefully, watching those fingers rather than the smirk. "That wasn't meant as a challenge, you know." Dryly. Her own transition from standing to sitting is smooth, skirts smoothed down and legs crossed as she leans back. "Heh. Point taken. But I think we rather exhausted the topic of hair the last time we talked." A glance aimed down her nose takes him her own clothes, before she lifts her eyes again to look at her companion, quirking a grin. "Less wet. Thank you, though." Pause. "You know, I'm somewhat surprised you haven't been by with the rest of the hordes looking for pretty new clothes."
Jaeyi smiles right through the not-a-challenge, like the thought couldn't possibly ever even remotely have occurred to her. Never mind the wheels turning behind her eyes. It's the last remark upon which she siezes, while making a point (or a show, depending) on straightening out her skirt and all that stupid primping flouncing stuff. "Should I take that as an offer to join the 'hordes?'" She has to stop making herself pretty to put finger-quotes around that, a nose wrinkle indicative of her distaste for being thusly lumped. Also, a really-now look at Kaida; hordes?
"Just an observation," Kaida replies with a shrug. She folds her hands in her lap, one over top of the other, watching that stupid primping flouncing stuff with amusement. The really-now look met with bland innocence. "But since you -did- broach the subject of clothes first, are you so surprised I'd ask? Seems like everyone here has some favourite item or outfit they want replaced. Don't you?"
A thoughtful, "Mmmmmn." Jaeyi scrunches her eyes, creases her forehead, gives it a good-long-think before she submits with a one-shouldered shrug. "I've lost a few buttons since moving up here, but nothing as should tie-up the time of an actual Weaver. Unless you're that short on work." And the sideways look to the spinning-contraption-thing sort of doubts that. "You're the one that sent Su half-naked to the Gather, hmn?"
Kaida chuckles, nodding in a fair-enough type gesture. "Not so short that I'd be willing to replace buttons. Tedious and uninteresting; go find a newly knotted apprentice for that sort of job, or ask one of the caverns women." She settles her shoulders deeper into the chair back, uncrosses and draws up her legs, wrapping her arms around her bent knees. Despite the I'm-planning-on-staying comfy pose she's adopted, her voice when she next speaks in indignant, "She was -not- half-naked! That dress was perfectly decent and covered absolutely everything necessary to be covered."
Hard to tell if Jaeyi means it as a praise or a chide when she points out, "Defensive!" She attends Kaida's indignant tone with her own brows climbing, amused regardless of whether she means to tease or commend the Weaver's professional (??) pride there. "/Barely/ everything necessary to be covered. I'm pretty sure, won't swear to it but pretty sure, there was some butt-cleavage if she wasn't careful how she was walking."
Kaida's eyebrows fly upwards, a jerk of surprise making her shoulders briefly lose contact with leather. "If it was -that- low, a seam got ripped, and I do -not- do shoddy work. She get treated roughly and not tell me?" From defensive, to protective, all in a blink. And as for Jaeyi's initial praise/chide, a wrinkled nose is given. "Was a good dress."
"Uhhhhmmn," and maybe Jaeyi's feeling a little bad about it now, what with the change in the shape of her face toward an apologetic frown. "I have a tendency to exaggerate. And, uhmn, that was a nice impression of her super-possessive boyfriend, by the way." She even gives Kaida a thumbs-up for the effort, more assuming she's mocking B'kaiv than being possessive on her own behalf.
Kaida slants a suspicious look at Jaeyi, lips pursing. "You would tell me, wouldn't you? If anyone hurt Su." The tone of her rough voice implying that if the baker considers the vintner a friend, she'd be looking out for her, too. The thumbs-up is met with a blink, the words making her gaze slide away again. She hugs her knees tighter to her chest, a puff of air blown out and up, stirring her bangs across her forehead. "Haven't quite got the scowl down yet," she says, trying to go along with the line. "Maybe if my eyebrows were bushier?"
Honestly? "No? It's not really my place to go tattling on Su's behalf, is it?" Just to talk about her and her boyfriend behind her back, yay! Jaeyi, again, looks apologetic about it, but not sorry enough to change things. "Or your shoulders broader, that might sell it, too. But don't grow your eyebrows out just for a bit of playacting? It's not exactly hot on girls." With a confidential whisper.
Kaida hmphs quietly, but leaves it at that. "That might be a bit more difficult. Unless I just padded the shoulders of an over-large tunic really well." She turns her head, resting her cheek upon raised knee, and waggles her eyebrows at Jaeyi, a slow tendril of humour returning. "Oh no? Are you absolutely sure I couldn't pull it off?"
"/Absolutely/ sure?" Jaeyi shakes her head, eyeing the wagged brows with squinting scrutiny, really trying to picture B'/kai/v instead of /Kai/da in the weaver's countentance. "No. You're imposing, certainly, but it's really the..." She trails off, outlining the much more svelte shape of the girl with a trace of her finger through the air. "...shoulders that aren't selling it."
Kaida laughs abruptly at Jaeyi's scrutiny, the trace of her finger. "Ha. Imposing, indeed. Maybe to an eight turn old." Her crooked grin settles into place comfortably, a shrug of too-narrow - when compared to a burly male, anyway - shoulders given. "Ah well, guess I'll just stick to creating the dresses that make doting boyfriends break out in hives."
Jaeyi clasps her hands underneath her chin, very damsel-in-distress, and offers in a twittery voice, "I could look intimidated if it will make you feel better?" Much the same that Kaida's not selling scary, Jaeyi's not selling scared. "Credit where credit is due, it was a helluva dress. I had to wander around with her for a while just to ensure all desirous looks were appropriately cast my way, even if it was only by-proxy."
"If that was intimidated, I'm an undercooked slice of wherry," Kaida notes, her rather off-the-wall way of saying that the expression looked more like indigestion. "That was rather the point, actually," she then says candidly. "Make her feel like she -can- compete with you, and others like you. Try to convince her that lucious curves and saucy wiggles aren't all that can catch another's eye."
Serious; "You can get sick from that." Undercooked wherry, she means. A little dubiously, Jaeyi goes on to request a little desperately, "Please don't tell me that Su suffers from low self-esteem. If I have to hear another girl crying and crying because they can't turn heads..." Hands around her own throat.
"No! Really?" Sarcastic, on Kaida's part, in reference to the undercooked wherry sick-making properties. But she's moving past the mockery with a swift gesture, straightening up and patting both against the air placatingly. "No, no. Not exactly. But she had rather convinced herself that there was no way she'd be able to turn Kai's head back her way when he wanted to-" Hmm, to be blunt, or diplomatic? "-bend you over backwards." So, it was rivalry more than self-esteem. "However, that's water lost over the falls. Su's a smart girl, she knows she's a looker." Until Kai is involved, when Su's brain dribbles out of her ears to be replaced by rainbows and cloud fluff.
Hah! That's a short, simple laugh with Jaeyi clarifying, "Boys just wanna bang me against walls, not run off and get married." There's one hand, there's the other, both open on her knees palm-up, then lifted in a helpless seming shrug. "So, if she knows she's a looker, doesn't that sort of contradict what you said about why she wanted that dress? Or-- why you wanted her in that dress?"
"Why is everyone so hot to get themselves hitched around here, anyway?" Kaida asks, though her musing tones make in unclear as to whether or not she truly expects an answer. There's also a lot of generalizing in that question, because 'everyone' certainly doesn't. And, to clarify, "She knows she's a looker, right up until she cares about who's doing the looking." Ye~es, let's just analyze her roommate's inner workings. Whether they're accurate or not. "She wanted the dress to fit her bust. I made it fit." A very simple statement, her gaze a little too hard. It's precisely the truth. Just not... all of the truth.
Taking it as rhetorical, especially since she'd hardly be the expert on getting-hitched, Jaeyi lets that first question go without response. Mention of bust has her look down a second, contemplating the very ample outlay of flesh there, then lifts a doubtful look across to Kaida. "That's not all you did though. If it was, Kai wouldn't have been looming behind her like he was afraid her back was going to get stolen out from--" Pause. Squint. "I almost said 'out from beneath him,' but somehow that doesn't seem like what I really wanted to convey. You know what I mean."
Kaida lifts her hands again, but this time in a protestation of innocence. "All I did was remove the back. The slit up the side was there already. And as for Su's-" Blink. "Nevermind." The protesting hands are now brought to her legs, more specifically the apron hiding the front of her skirt, fingers smoothing along the edge unnecessarily. An arched eyebrow, a twisting of lips into a smirk, "Er... yeah. Yeah, I know what you mean. Doing the whole 'she's mine and if you look at her funny I'll punch your lights out' routine?" A guess, since if anyone was paying attention, her own presence at the Gather was decidedly not. Despite promises to meet friends.
Frankly, "I'd kill him. I spent about an hour with them, and all he did was successfully ensure that /no one/ would pick me up the whole damn time." With lingering resentment, too, and Jaeyi's lips pull askew even at the memory of the wasted hour at the Gather. In her party dress, no less! "We're sure talking a lot of smack for people who're supposed to be Su's friend, huh," she comments after a second, the frown brightening gradually to a self-deprecating little laugh. "Does she know that you, like..." The dot-dot-dot is almost audible in the trailing way the question doesn't actually get asked.
That prompts another laugh from Kaida. "What, did he just glower at everyone indiscriminately or something?" Please don't tell her he's the gallant 'gotta protect the womenfolk' type. She sobers quickly enough, though, and lets out a long sigh. "Yeah. Maybe it's just our semi-shared dislike-slash-reservations about Kai? You know, being able to talk to someone who's not gonna get all snooty if you're less than supportive of the pairing." Then, cautiously, "Does she know... what?"
"That you have some issues with her would-be husband?" Is there something else? So ask the climbing of Jaeyi's eyebrows. 'Cause now she's kinda curious, and the blinking eyelashes prompt happily for info. Please. Gossip.
Kaida's hmph'ing again. "Weyrmate," she corrects Jaeyi's terminology. "Dragonriders aren't allowed to marry. And... I don't have a problem with Kai, really. How can I? Already told you I only ever met him the once. I'm just -worried.- Sure it's all sunshine and stolen kisses now, but he can't keep any promises. As soon as Cheilyth is mature enough to rise in her first flight, all declarations of undying devotion go right out the window. I'm just not sure... Su's never told me if she's hold or weyrbred." The rush of words doesn't give any sort of direct answer to the baker's climbing eyebrows and blinking eyelashes.
Jaeyi, quick; "Figure of speech. I didn't imagine they'd actually get married. But 'weyrmate' or 'permanent lover' or whatever people around here call it just doesn't have the same ring to it. Would /she/ care if he was, like, screwing around?" That actually opens up a whole new bag of worms, one that changes the reason for the blinking business. "Because, if he was all set to climb on top of me, that doesn't exactly bode well for his fidelity, does it?"
"I don't know!" Kaida says, frustrated, her voice strangling itself into a growl. "That's the problem. One the one hand, she doesn't bat an eyelash at T'rev, treats him with perfect ease. But Kai... shells. I think she loves him. Or at least is so infatuated that it might as well be. And love makes people-" Blithering idiots? "-lose perspective." She scowls at Jaeyi, or rather, she scowls, and is looking at Jaeyi at the same time. Her look does get a trifle sharper, and she can't help but ask, "Do you think there's a man with an eye for women who -wouldn't- be ready to climb on top of you? C'mon."
"Hey hey hey, don't get all worked up at /me/. I'm just putting it out there 'cause it occurs to me that--" That Kai and Su are totally screwed, yay~ But Jaeyi might be getting the impression that this is a bad conversation to have with Kaida, that (sharp looks aside) the chat may ultimately wind up spinning its wheels. Let's change the subject, hmn? "Are you single? Like, totally?"
Kaida blinks, has the grace to look apologetic. "Sorry. I..." Truth. "Su's the only reason I got settled in so easily here. Feel like I owe it to her to look out for her." And there she'll let the subject drop. Fingers dip to find the bottom edge of her apron, follow it to the corner and begin to wrap white cloth around her hand. And then unwrap. "Completely, totally and utterly," she nods. "Why, how many have you got?"
There's a particularly sage quality to the nod that Jaeyi essays at the 'look out for her' remark, not the first time she's heard that particular statement? But, yes, let's leave the subject alone. "At any given time? /Usually/ just one." With a quick-wink on the adverb. "But if you're not above picking up the pieces, that one boy? Y'nolek? He's awfully sweet and, well, I feel like I owe him the favor of sending a nice-girl his way. Sharing the wealth or something."
Kaida stares a little drop-jawed at Jaeyi. After a moment of her mouth working and no sound coming out, a very dry, "How awfully generous of you." It's almost visible the way her defensive walls get slammed into place, something touching off the weaver's - not pride. Secret vulnerability? Maybe. That sudden distancing of herself might also explain -why- she's totally single. "I should really get back to work." Shoving to her feet, she stalks stiff-spined across to her spinning wheel, bends to pick it up with one hand (yes, it really is tiny), and continues on to her and Su's shared room.
IC Date: 8/12/19 --Took log from Kaida. :)
Commons Cavern, Fort Weyr
While not nearly as large as the living cavern, the commons do serve something of a similar purpose as a gathering point for residents. There are a few scattered tables and chairs, with a section of counter carved from the native granite for general use. The typically cool floors are covered with a handful of rugs, while tapestries serve to blunt the chill emanating from the walls. Lighting is provided through glow baskets for the most part, although some individuals might bring in a lantern if they think to.
It's a fair bit quieter than the living cavern and is designed more as a location for residents to meet and work on whatever work needs to be done -- mending, cleaning, and tending to children are only a small sampling of the things that can be seen going on here. It's most active later in the day, after the bulk of the work is done and people start to settle in for the night, but it's never empty of people.
It also serves as a hub for a variety of useful caverns -- the nursery is located across from the residents' dorms, with the bathing cavern situated between the two. The candidates barracks are somewhat off to the side, closest to the tunnel that leads back out to the inner caverns.
It's coming up on the end of brunch time, for those who keep track of time by their stomachs. With the weather being bright and beautiful, if a trifle on the humid side, those that can have taken their work outside. If their personalities suit such an option, that is. Apparently, Kaida's personality doesn't suit, since she's here in the Commons. She's rather less scruffy today, and rather more purple, smartly dressed in her usual attire of ankle-length skirt, knit waistcoat and wide-sleeved shirt. Perched on a stool, her dainty little spinning wheel sat in front of her, her expression the non-existant one of a person who's bordering on an almost trance-like state. One foot gently pushes down the treadle in a steady rhythm, fingers of her right hand flickering as she carefully drafts small amounts of fibre from the end of the mottled grey hunk of carded wool she holds in her left.
Or for those who keep track of time by other people's stomachs, such as the overwarm critter that comes plodding through into the common cavern right about now. Somewhere between the kitchen and here, Jaeyi's shed her apron and is now using it to fan her face, one hand employed toward that occupation and the other holding her hair up off her neck. In such a state, she passes behind Kaida's chair, two steps to the other side, then comes to a halt to turn, tilt her head, and peer at the Weaver's occupation. Has she stumbled upon a Weaver actually weaving? Or, er, spinning? It's like catching a creature out in the wild somehow, and even she has to stop and watch, blinking.
In her current state, you could probably march a parade of drummers through the cavern and Kaida wouldn't notice. So when Jaeyi passes behind her, and then stops to peer at her, she doesn't even give a flicker of a glance upwards. She's nearly at the end of her piece of tops, however, the short, even pulls that allow fluff to be drawn into thread eating it up remarkably fast. But then, she's not spinning anything particularly fine today, the strand of yarn being wound around the bobbin somewhere in the range of average. The whispering whir of the wheel slows as she eases off the treadle, leaving a tiny amount of fluffy end to the string as she lets the whole contraption ease itself to a stop. A series of blinks as she pulls out of whatever faraway place the methodic spinning had taken her to, she winds the thread around a small peg that seems to serve no other purpose than just that: anchoring spinning-in-progress so that the end doesn't get lost on the bobbin. A deep sigh, as she rolls her shoulders and arches her back.
Right along with that deep sigh, there's a burst of subdued applause, muffled slightly since the apron's still partially between Jaeyi's fingers. "That little harper," whom everyone surely knows? "Was saying something about writing songs or something about people's work. He really ought to come and watch this." 'This' with a vague gesture to indicate the whole contraption, the mesmerizing impact of it, all that fun stuff. And she wanders over, aiming to toss the apron on the back of the chair to facilitate inspection of thread.
Kaida's twitch could be called a start of surprise, as she turns and tilts her head up at Jaeyi. "How long have you been standing there?" Curiousity, not accusation. "Little har-? Oh. Kwei. Yeah, he met up with me a while ago and timed my knitting. Hasn't come back about the spinning; I think he might be pestering Bry to let him watch him weave." While the baker moves to examine the thread, she takes the opportunity to get up off her stool and indulge in a proper stretch, shaking out her arms and twisting her head back and forth to loosen her neck. "How are you today, Jaeyi?"
"Oh, ages," answers Jaeyi dismissively, her fingers flickered in some vague way that indicates time-out-of-mind. Not that she knows the first thing about thread, but there is something a little interesting in seeing it being created, in peering at the place where it winds around that peg. "Will it bother you if I send him back to watch the spinning, then?" Once she straightens a little, gives off trying to puzzle through the making of thread just by looking at the almost-finished product. Not something she's likely to understand. "I've been overseeing giant pots of boiling water all morning. How do you think I am?" With a crinkle of her nose and a swooping wave of her hand to indicate the whole perspired look of her person. "You?"
Eyebrows arching, Kaida looks across at Jaeyi, trying to judge the truthfulness behind that dismissive answer. It's a failed task before it's begun, however, so she abandons it in favour of actual conversation. Her lips twitch into an amused smile. "If you send him?" Echoed, slightly mocking. "He's not a pet, you know. But no, and I've already told him as much. He's nice to talk to, I don't mind his company." Settling hands on her hips, it's back to curiousity, "What's with the giant pots? And in this humidity? Ugh." Shrug. "Well enough. Busy. Bry's not got enough assistants to keep up with the demands coming in."
With half-grinning confidence, Jaeyi counters, "He's not /your/ pet, perhaps." She shoots a meaningful glance through the common room toward a particular door, one belonging to the Levania-and-Ysar pair, though the brightness behind her eyes would speak to a different ownership of the poor harper. "Jarring things," is all she has to say about big pots, not an avenue of conversation she's eager to pursue. "Who's Bry? Let's sit down." Even though Kaida just got up to stretch, yes.
"Please, I don't want to hear any gooshy stories about him and Levania," Kaida counters rather swiftly. Too swiftly for that brightness to be noted, though when it is her smirk intensifies. "Su might have a few objections about that, as well. Jarring?" An amiable nod is given over at the suggestion of sitting, her own being added, "Somewhere softer than that stool, though. How about the couch over there?" One long finger points across the way. "Bryanten, Journeyman Weaver, and disgustingly, happily married so don't even think about it."
"No one," begins Jaeyi with that same smirky confidence, walking her fingers across the back of the couch while before she plops gracelessly into one corner, "is /that/ happily married. In my experience." Terms like 'don't even think about it' are not so much part of her vocabulary, no. "Jarring fruit. And I have a feeling it would be similar to me asking about, ohh, carding wool or something, so let's not discuss the process, hmmmn? I like this ensemble better." As a means for changing the subject.
Kaida shakes her head ruefully, watching those fingers rather than the smirk. "That wasn't meant as a challenge, you know." Dryly. Her own transition from standing to sitting is smooth, skirts smoothed down and legs crossed as she leans back. "Heh. Point taken. But I think we rather exhausted the topic of hair the last time we talked." A glance aimed down her nose takes him her own clothes, before she lifts her eyes again to look at her companion, quirking a grin. "Less wet. Thank you, though." Pause. "You know, I'm somewhat surprised you haven't been by with the rest of the hordes looking for pretty new clothes."
Jaeyi smiles right through the not-a-challenge, like the thought couldn't possibly ever even remotely have occurred to her. Never mind the wheels turning behind her eyes. It's the last remark upon which she siezes, while making a point (or a show, depending) on straightening out her skirt and all that stupid primping flouncing stuff. "Should I take that as an offer to join the 'hordes?'" She has to stop making herself pretty to put finger-quotes around that, a nose wrinkle indicative of her distaste for being thusly lumped. Also, a really-now look at Kaida; hordes?
"Just an observation," Kaida replies with a shrug. She folds her hands in her lap, one over top of the other, watching that stupid primping flouncing stuff with amusement. The really-now look met with bland innocence. "But since you -did- broach the subject of clothes first, are you so surprised I'd ask? Seems like everyone here has some favourite item or outfit they want replaced. Don't you?"
A thoughtful, "Mmmmmn." Jaeyi scrunches her eyes, creases her forehead, gives it a good-long-think before she submits with a one-shouldered shrug. "I've lost a few buttons since moving up here, but nothing as should tie-up the time of an actual Weaver. Unless you're that short on work." And the sideways look to the spinning-contraption-thing sort of doubts that. "You're the one that sent Su half-naked to the Gather, hmn?"
Kaida chuckles, nodding in a fair-enough type gesture. "Not so short that I'd be willing to replace buttons. Tedious and uninteresting; go find a newly knotted apprentice for that sort of job, or ask one of the caverns women." She settles her shoulders deeper into the chair back, uncrosses and draws up her legs, wrapping her arms around her bent knees. Despite the I'm-planning-on-staying comfy pose she's adopted, her voice when she next speaks in indignant, "She was -not- half-naked! That dress was perfectly decent and covered absolutely everything necessary to be covered."
Hard to tell if Jaeyi means it as a praise or a chide when she points out, "Defensive!" She attends Kaida's indignant tone with her own brows climbing, amused regardless of whether she means to tease or commend the Weaver's professional (??) pride there. "/Barely/ everything necessary to be covered. I'm pretty sure, won't swear to it but pretty sure, there was some butt-cleavage if she wasn't careful how she was walking."
Kaida's eyebrows fly upwards, a jerk of surprise making her shoulders briefly lose contact with leather. "If it was -that- low, a seam got ripped, and I do -not- do shoddy work. She get treated roughly and not tell me?" From defensive, to protective, all in a blink. And as for Jaeyi's initial praise/chide, a wrinkled nose is given. "Was a good dress."
"Uhhhhmmn," and maybe Jaeyi's feeling a little bad about it now, what with the change in the shape of her face toward an apologetic frown. "I have a tendency to exaggerate. And, uhmn, that was a nice impression of her super-possessive boyfriend, by the way." She even gives Kaida a thumbs-up for the effort, more assuming she's mocking B'kaiv than being possessive on her own behalf.
Kaida slants a suspicious look at Jaeyi, lips pursing. "You would tell me, wouldn't you? If anyone hurt Su." The tone of her rough voice implying that if the baker considers the vintner a friend, she'd be looking out for her, too. The thumbs-up is met with a blink, the words making her gaze slide away again. She hugs her knees tighter to her chest, a puff of air blown out and up, stirring her bangs across her forehead. "Haven't quite got the scowl down yet," she says, trying to go along with the line. "Maybe if my eyebrows were bushier?"
Honestly? "No? It's not really my place to go tattling on Su's behalf, is it?" Just to talk about her and her boyfriend behind her back, yay! Jaeyi, again, looks apologetic about it, but not sorry enough to change things. "Or your shoulders broader, that might sell it, too. But don't grow your eyebrows out just for a bit of playacting? It's not exactly hot on girls." With a confidential whisper.
Kaida hmphs quietly, but leaves it at that. "That might be a bit more difficult. Unless I just padded the shoulders of an over-large tunic really well." She turns her head, resting her cheek upon raised knee, and waggles her eyebrows at Jaeyi, a slow tendril of humour returning. "Oh no? Are you absolutely sure I couldn't pull it off?"
"/Absolutely/ sure?" Jaeyi shakes her head, eyeing the wagged brows with squinting scrutiny, really trying to picture B'/kai/v instead of /Kai/da in the weaver's countentance. "No. You're imposing, certainly, but it's really the..." She trails off, outlining the much more svelte shape of the girl with a trace of her finger through the air. "...shoulders that aren't selling it."
Kaida laughs abruptly at Jaeyi's scrutiny, the trace of her finger. "Ha. Imposing, indeed. Maybe to an eight turn old." Her crooked grin settles into place comfortably, a shrug of too-narrow - when compared to a burly male, anyway - shoulders given. "Ah well, guess I'll just stick to creating the dresses that make doting boyfriends break out in hives."
Jaeyi clasps her hands underneath her chin, very damsel-in-distress, and offers in a twittery voice, "I could look intimidated if it will make you feel better?" Much the same that Kaida's not selling scary, Jaeyi's not selling scared. "Credit where credit is due, it was a helluva dress. I had to wander around with her for a while just to ensure all desirous looks were appropriately cast my way, even if it was only by-proxy."
"If that was intimidated, I'm an undercooked slice of wherry," Kaida notes, her rather off-the-wall way of saying that the expression looked more like indigestion. "That was rather the point, actually," she then says candidly. "Make her feel like she -can- compete with you, and others like you. Try to convince her that lucious curves and saucy wiggles aren't all that can catch another's eye."
Serious; "You can get sick from that." Undercooked wherry, she means. A little dubiously, Jaeyi goes on to request a little desperately, "Please don't tell me that Su suffers from low self-esteem. If I have to hear another girl crying and crying because they can't turn heads..." Hands around her own throat.
"No! Really?" Sarcastic, on Kaida's part, in reference to the undercooked wherry sick-making properties. But she's moving past the mockery with a swift gesture, straightening up and patting both against the air placatingly. "No, no. Not exactly. But she had rather convinced herself that there was no way she'd be able to turn Kai's head back her way when he wanted to-" Hmm, to be blunt, or diplomatic? "-bend you over backwards." So, it was rivalry more than self-esteem. "However, that's water lost over the falls. Su's a smart girl, she knows she's a looker." Until Kai is involved, when Su's brain dribbles out of her ears to be replaced by rainbows and cloud fluff.
Hah! That's a short, simple laugh with Jaeyi clarifying, "Boys just wanna bang me against walls, not run off and get married." There's one hand, there's the other, both open on her knees palm-up, then lifted in a helpless seming shrug. "So, if she knows she's a looker, doesn't that sort of contradict what you said about why she wanted that dress? Or-- why you wanted her in that dress?"
"Why is everyone so hot to get themselves hitched around here, anyway?" Kaida asks, though her musing tones make in unclear as to whether or not she truly expects an answer. There's also a lot of generalizing in that question, because 'everyone' certainly doesn't. And, to clarify, "She knows she's a looker, right up until she cares about who's doing the looking." Ye~es, let's just analyze her roommate's inner workings. Whether they're accurate or not. "She wanted the dress to fit her bust. I made it fit." A very simple statement, her gaze a little too hard. It's precisely the truth. Just not... all of the truth.
Taking it as rhetorical, especially since she'd hardly be the expert on getting-hitched, Jaeyi lets that first question go without response. Mention of bust has her look down a second, contemplating the very ample outlay of flesh there, then lifts a doubtful look across to Kaida. "That's not all you did though. If it was, Kai wouldn't have been looming behind her like he was afraid her back was going to get stolen out from--" Pause. Squint. "I almost said 'out from beneath him,' but somehow that doesn't seem like what I really wanted to convey. You know what I mean."
Kaida lifts her hands again, but this time in a protestation of innocence. "All I did was remove the back. The slit up the side was there already. And as for Su's-" Blink. "Nevermind." The protesting hands are now brought to her legs, more specifically the apron hiding the front of her skirt, fingers smoothing along the edge unnecessarily. An arched eyebrow, a twisting of lips into a smirk, "Er... yeah. Yeah, I know what you mean. Doing the whole 'she's mine and if you look at her funny I'll punch your lights out' routine?" A guess, since if anyone was paying attention, her own presence at the Gather was decidedly not. Despite promises to meet friends.
Frankly, "I'd kill him. I spent about an hour with them, and all he did was successfully ensure that /no one/ would pick me up the whole damn time." With lingering resentment, too, and Jaeyi's lips pull askew even at the memory of the wasted hour at the Gather. In her party dress, no less! "We're sure talking a lot of smack for people who're supposed to be Su's friend, huh," she comments after a second, the frown brightening gradually to a self-deprecating little laugh. "Does she know that you, like..." The dot-dot-dot is almost audible in the trailing way the question doesn't actually get asked.
That prompts another laugh from Kaida. "What, did he just glower at everyone indiscriminately or something?" Please don't tell her he's the gallant 'gotta protect the womenfolk' type. She sobers quickly enough, though, and lets out a long sigh. "Yeah. Maybe it's just our semi-shared dislike-slash-reservations about Kai? You know, being able to talk to someone who's not gonna get all snooty if you're less than supportive of the pairing." Then, cautiously, "Does she know... what?"
"That you have some issues with her would-be husband?" Is there something else? So ask the climbing of Jaeyi's eyebrows. 'Cause now she's kinda curious, and the blinking eyelashes prompt happily for info. Please. Gossip.
Kaida's hmph'ing again. "Weyrmate," she corrects Jaeyi's terminology. "Dragonriders aren't allowed to marry. And... I don't have a problem with Kai, really. How can I? Already told you I only ever met him the once. I'm just -worried.- Sure it's all sunshine and stolen kisses now, but he can't keep any promises. As soon as Cheilyth is mature enough to rise in her first flight, all declarations of undying devotion go right out the window. I'm just not sure... Su's never told me if she's hold or weyrbred." The rush of words doesn't give any sort of direct answer to the baker's climbing eyebrows and blinking eyelashes.
Jaeyi, quick; "Figure of speech. I didn't imagine they'd actually get married. But 'weyrmate' or 'permanent lover' or whatever people around here call it just doesn't have the same ring to it. Would /she/ care if he was, like, screwing around?" That actually opens up a whole new bag of worms, one that changes the reason for the blinking business. "Because, if he was all set to climb on top of me, that doesn't exactly bode well for his fidelity, does it?"
"I don't know!" Kaida says, frustrated, her voice strangling itself into a growl. "That's the problem. One the one hand, she doesn't bat an eyelash at T'rev, treats him with perfect ease. But Kai... shells. I think she loves him. Or at least is so infatuated that it might as well be. And love makes people-" Blithering idiots? "-lose perspective." She scowls at Jaeyi, or rather, she scowls, and is looking at Jaeyi at the same time. Her look does get a trifle sharper, and she can't help but ask, "Do you think there's a man with an eye for women who -wouldn't- be ready to climb on top of you? C'mon."
"Hey hey hey, don't get all worked up at /me/. I'm just putting it out there 'cause it occurs to me that--" That Kai and Su are totally screwed, yay~ But Jaeyi might be getting the impression that this is a bad conversation to have with Kaida, that (sharp looks aside) the chat may ultimately wind up spinning its wheels. Let's change the subject, hmn? "Are you single? Like, totally?"
Kaida blinks, has the grace to look apologetic. "Sorry. I..." Truth. "Su's the only reason I got settled in so easily here. Feel like I owe it to her to look out for her." And there she'll let the subject drop. Fingers dip to find the bottom edge of her apron, follow it to the corner and begin to wrap white cloth around her hand. And then unwrap. "Completely, totally and utterly," she nods. "Why, how many have you got?"
There's a particularly sage quality to the nod that Jaeyi essays at the 'look out for her' remark, not the first time she's heard that particular statement? But, yes, let's leave the subject alone. "At any given time? /Usually/ just one." With a quick-wink on the adverb. "But if you're not above picking up the pieces, that one boy? Y'nolek? He's awfully sweet and, well, I feel like I owe him the favor of sending a nice-girl his way. Sharing the wealth or something."
Kaida stares a little drop-jawed at Jaeyi. After a moment of her mouth working and no sound coming out, a very dry, "How awfully generous of you." It's almost visible the way her defensive walls get slammed into place, something touching off the weaver's - not pride. Secret vulnerability? Maybe. That sudden distancing of herself might also explain -why- she's totally single. "I should really get back to work." Shoving to her feet, she stalks stiff-spined across to her spinning wheel, bends to pick it up with one hand (yes, it really is tiny), and continues on to her and Su's shared room.