Kaida and Jaeyi have quite the conversation, amid nudity and bathwater.
RL Date: 7/4/09
IC Date: 2/11/20
Hot Springs, Fort Weyr
The hot springs are contained with a high domed cavern, the walls perpetually glistening with a combination of condensation and mica. Steam hangs on everything, lending a soothing and dreamlike quality to the entire experience. In the center is the main pool, which is vaguely kidney-bean shaped, and large enough for a few fully grown dragons to lounge in comfortably and easily reached by the archway from the bowl. Three smaller pools, more suited for human use, are clustered near the entrance leading toward the inner caverns. Also located near the inner cavern entrance are a set of shelves, fully stocked with pots of soapsand and towels for those without the foresight -- or means -- to bring their own.
While the dragon pool is a natural creation, the human pools are the result of Ancient ingenuity and have been constructed with hewn steps and seating. The water in both pools is hot, but comfortably so, and are a perfect place to bathe young weyrling dragons or for residents to relax after a long day of work.
Where else does one find a Bollian in midwinter but the warmest, most humid spot in the Weyr? Most people have work to do, most people don't have all afternoon free to do no more than lounge in a bathtub, but Jaeyi is not most people. The middle of the day tends to be among the best times for soaking without getting leered at-- not that the leering is all that terrible-- but the relative emptiness of the three small pools gives her leave to fill up one of them with bubbles, with fluffy stuff that smells distinctly girly. Submerged, hair clipped up to the back of her head, she soaks in a state of abject bliss.
Distinctly girly smelling fluffy stuff. Is there -nothing- besides two men that these particular women have in common? Kaida will have more work to do later, undoubtedly, but the middle of the day has been long established as her own time to work on personal projects. And if one of those personal projects happens to be a bath well, that's her call. Leaving her clothing on a bench and walking over towards the pools, it's the smell more than the occupant that draws her attention first. "If you're attempting to make it smell like Boll in high summer, it's working."
Height. They also have that in common. Beyond that... perhaps the preference for midday baths? A slosh of water precedes Jaeyi sitting up straighter, her peering over the lip of the bath toward the voice and, only after finding it's Kaida, smiling promptly. "Is it? Lovely. It makes it easier to pretend we're not stuck at Fort in midwinter, hmmmn?" There's some more sloshing at that, shifting about beneath the water, finally a toe finding a nozzle and letting some of the over-fluffy water out to let some cleaner water in. "Join me? Unless you'd rather...?" She peers toward the tub occupied by old ladies, the next one over, lifts questioning brows at the Weaver.
"I don't know, I actually kind of like the scent of winter here," Kaida replies, a wry smile curving her lips. Pulling her braid over her shoulder, which had been unbound but not undone, she starts to work her fingers through the plait, loosening it. She's still eyeing the fluffy stuff a bit dubiously, but as the baker starts allowing some cleaner and less stinky water swirl in, some of that fades. A glance over her shoulder at the other indicated pool, and maybe she recognises one of those old ladies because her, "Gladly." might be a bit too prompt. Hunkering down at the edge of the pool before sliding in, and nevermind the sudden sneeze. "Shall I avoid asking how you've been, so that you can avoid avoiding the question?"
A sniff, as though there's more to smell than flowery steam drifting aimlessly upward from the refilling bath, and Jaeyi confesses, "I must not have been paying attention. Does snow smell like anything but cold and damp and awfulness?" She kicks some of that cleaner water across the pool from herself, clears out the layer of floating foam that much quicker so it's nearly clear by the time Kaida sinks down into it. "You can ask if you want to," while she straightens back up to the way she'd been reclining before, reaching up to fold the towel along the edge of the bath, a place to rest her neck. "But I'm afraid it's not been all sunshine and daisies, so you might be disappointed in the answer. You? Sulisah's run away from home again, must be awfully lonely, hmn?"
Kaida tilts her head slightly, expression thoughtful. "It does smell like cold, if cold smells at all, but not damp. Dry. And stone. And something else that I haven't managed to place yet." Yes, she's completely serious. Shifting back slightly, head against hard stone as she seems settling more for soaking than actual bathing at the moment. Then, accompanied by a sharp glance, "So, how have you been?" A less verbose answer might've made her leave well enough alone. A shrug of her shoulder, and she redirects her gaze towards the ceiling, "Yes." Yes Su's 'run away.' Yes it's lonely. "I'm managing."
Something else... "Awfulness?" Jaeyi looks serious, sounds serious, but likely enough hides a joke behind the ever-so-authentic blink that fans through the haze to her bath-fellow. Not that she expects it to be accepted, but she reaches up, behind her, fingers jiggling the row of glass bottles until she finds a wide-mouthed one filled with a bit of pale, greenish, pearly soap, and she holds it across the bath toward Kaida by the cork-stoppered end. "Better," she answers across that space. "I've been better, but it's lovely in here, I think. --Managing. Work work work?" Over a grin that teases.
"Ha ha," Kaida, not really laughing. "Very funny." Her tones are dry, mostly neutral really. Indolent and not willing to spare the energy for actual emotion maybe. The sound of glass clinking together as those bottles get jiggled drop her gaze back towards Jaeyi, and the offer is declined with a shake of her head and a vague little splash of water from the tips of her fingers. "I'll be sneezing all day. Thanks, but no thanks. I'll stick with sweetsand." Her brows pull into a little frown, "Is it just the cold getting to you? This is your first winter too, isn't it? Yes, work. Plenty to do, requests for knitwear came pouring in as soon as the tempurature dropped and haven't let up. Most of it can be shunted back to the caverns women with a bit of skill, but there's enough that's challenging as to be worth our time."
Not funny, no, but Jaeyi still beams proudly at the bad joke, the suspended bottle given a little shake in offering one-last-time; "You're sure? It smells like herbs, not flowers." Weighted as it is, corked securely, she's confident to drop it into the water with a plop and a splash and watch it bob around on the surface among the little splashes of luxuriating bathers. "Oh, no. It's my sixteenth winter." Sparkly smile. "Just the first one away from Boll. It gets cool and rainy there, amazing the things you miss when they're not around any more, isn't it?" All the business of knitting gets a crinkle of her nose, a sympathetic purse of her lips for Kaida's occupation. "At least you get a nice respite in summer? Not much call for scarves and mittens after the weather breaks, I bet."
"Entirely sure," Kaida affirms, eyeing the green stuff inside with suspicion. Eyebrows lift for the splash-and-bob, and if it bobs her way she'll determinedly push it back in the baker's direction. And right on cue, an eyeroll for the sparkly smile. "Boll is always too wet. If it's not chucking down rain, the air is thick with it anyway. So much water is just obscene." So thinks the desert-bred, anyway. Agreement though, for the latter portion, "It is. Sand gets -everywhere- back at Igen, but I miss the sound it makes when the wind blows the grains across the dunes." Sympathy is eyed askance. "Actually, it'd be great if people thought to request their sweaters and such during the warmer months. It'd actually give us time to finish them before winter's half over. Scarves and mittens are the work of caverns women, usually." She kicks a foot up out of the water, twists it around and makes her ankle pop. "Though there is something to be said for seasonal, I guess. There's never any less demand for the stuff you make, is there?"
Jaeyi's, "Nooooo," meets the obscenity of water, as does the flash of her toes finding their way up above the level of the pool to tap the bottle off in a wobbly, random direction. "It's lovely, to go barefoot and find the rain's warm on your toes. Not like sand, it gets hot and burns your feet. Did that hurt?" The ankle, likely. She draws hers up at that, pulls them so her knees come beneath her chin and, though hidden underwater, she likely hooks her fingers around her toes with that posture. "What do you do all summer? Me-- well, no, there's no less demand, but at least no one wants shaved ice in the winter. I /hate/ shaving ice."
"Okay, you have a point there," Kaida grins. Can it be the weaver's actually gone puddle stomping? "But I'll still take dry heat over wet any day of the Turn." Idly, she watches the bottle go bobbing off, and as long as it keeps itself on its own side of the pool, she won't object to its presence. "Did what hurt?" Blankly. As if the ankle-popping is so commonplace to her that she doesn't even notice anymore. She eyes what she can see of Jaeyi's new posture, all curled up like that. "Same thing I do all winter. Knit. And some tailoring, just to keep the skill. It's useful enough, but I swear I'm never touching another alteration or design-copy again once I make Journeyrank. I prefer making my own things." A soft chuckle, "Everyone gushes about your desserts like they're the next best thing to sex, and you're still required to shave ice?"
Jaeyi holds her leg up out of the water to display her own ankle, just one of the many bits of anatomy that she's always pleased to display, though-- no matter how she turns her foot-- she can't replicate the pop. "But who will give us all backless gowns to make people faint if you're only going to knit from then on?" Lashes, pretty-please ones, make the effort to convince Kaida here-and-now not to give up the alterations. "I'm not requiiiiired to do anything. People want shaved ice, so I shave ice. What can you do, you know?" There's a short pause, a tug of eyebrows, then; "You're sleeping with someone, aren't you? I mean, you aren't, like, totally chaste?" Kaida said the S-word; Jaeyi runs with it.
Kaida watches the ankle twist, and if she's not exactly as appreciative as a man would be, she's never said Jaeyi isn't attractive. Puzzled at first and then, "Oh, that. No." From ankle to face, and the pretty-please lashes have her laughing again. "That was a special favour for a friend." And as such doesn't count? "And I never said I was going to stop making dresses entirely. But, you know, special circumstances only. There's little point in specializing in something if you don't devote the majority of your time to it." Another tilt, another puzzled quirk, "But surely shaving ice is like, drudge work. It can't be hard to do, surely? Talent should be used where best it suits, and from all reports you belong in front of an oven." If her thoughts go anywhere beyond the baker's, well, baking talents, she doesn't speak them. After a moment, and meeting the younger woman's gaze steadily, "Occassionally. He's often... otherwise committed." Don't die of shock now please, Jae.
Dubious, the look that stays with Jaeyi even while she puts her foot back in the water. "It sounded like it hurt. People shouldn't pop like that." Talents lay here, talents there, one that doesn't want to do alterations but still does, one that doesn't like shaving ice but still does. The things people suffer for their respective arts. "If someone told you that you had to stop-- like, if the Weyrwoman told you that you weren't allowed to any more, would you stop? Or if you, well, you seem very happy keeping it all very secret, so I guess it's not really the same." She looks down, finds the bobbing bottle for a second, catches it with her fingers to draw it on back over, looks back up to meet the Weaver's steady gaze; "I got in trouble. Or, mmn, T'rev got in trouble, really, but it's all the same."
"If you think that's bad, you should hear my wrists," Kaida supplies with a mild grimace. She isn't offering to demonstrate, and her next words will reveal why. "That -does- hurt." She shifts around in the water, facing Jaeyi more fully as she just kind of stares in surprise. "If the Weyrwoman..?" Blink. Double and triple blink, even. "First, who I do or do not choose to sleep with is none of her damn business, nor anyone else's, which is part of -why- I keep my liasons discreet, and will even when I'm no longer an apprentice. Just because I attempt to keep the appearance of abiding by the rules doesn't necessarily mean I'm -happy- about doing so. I'm nineteen. By Hold standards I should be married three Turns with as many children by now, but the Craft is so jealous of their apprentices that they can't even give us credit for knowing how to prevent a pregnancy. At least, not us simple women, because -obviously- all we want is a man to take care of us and babies in out bellies." She snaps her jaws shut suddenly, and does at least manage to look sheepish for her little tirade. Apparently it's something of a sore subject. And then she's back to gaping. "You... -T'rev.- But I thought... I mean, you two. I just assumed, well, that everything was alright as far as that was concerned. Your both just... the way you both are. And T'rev is responsible, so it's not like the risk of pregnancy is great unless -you- haven't been taking precautions as well? Did someone complain, or something?"
Jaeyi's mouth gradually, securely turns to the shape of an O while Kaida grinds her particular axe. "And I thought I was pissed," she commits around the time Kaida winds up looking sheepish, releases a very small laugh to fill that short space before the gaping starts. "I don't know. Maybe. Probably. I got chastised by my journeyman for, uhmn, well. Let's just say that maybe T'rev and me? That's okay. But T'rev and me and our mutual friend T'mic? In the bar in the middle of the day might not be okay." She puts the little bottle back in the row with the rest of them, her shoulders against the lip of the pool for a second, her empty hands now examined and then displayed, palms-up. See? Pruney! "So I think that's what did it. And Cirse... she chastised T'rev for it. It's funny, isn't it? Everyone knows, and I don't know a single apprentice at this Weyr that's not sleeping with /someone,/ but gosh! We better all pretend otherwise."
Kaida clears her throat, waves a hand dismissively, which sends water droplets flying from the tips of her fingers. "Sorry." And that, as they say, is that. It's not about her, is it? Her eyebrows fly upwards, "Okay now that I'll admit, could make even some Weyrbred uncomfortable. Though probably more that they're too cowardly to engage in a threesome themselves, then that they find the idea itself abhorrant. Envy can look a lot like disapproval." See exhibit A, Kay herself. The weaver shakes her head a bit, and when those pruney hands are put on display, she actually reaches out towards one, simple friendly squeeze of fingers offered. "That is, though, one situation where blatancy was probably not the best policy. T'rev's a wingleader, and that brings with it a certain level of responsibility. Not just for his wing, but for the reputation of the Weyr as a whole. It doesn't help that Mecaith's bronze, to boot. His reputation is well known within these walls, and I expect more or less accepted and he's judged on his other merits. But word like that gets to the Holds and Halls? That's -all- they'll judge him for, and by extension, the entire Weyr." She rather fails at pep talks. "Funny. Irritating and stupid, is more like."
"It's okay. I mean-- I know. I'm not gonna get knocked up, I'm not stupid. But I'm a girl and a girl's not capable of taking care of herself. Kwei sleeps in Vani's room every night for months and..." Jaeyi ends over a shrug; preaching to the choir, no doubt. The squeezed fingers are appreciated, just a little pressure in return before her hands withdraw and find the edge of the pool, palms down. "I know. Hindsight," she admits with candid embarrassment, an actual blush before she hauls herself backward out of the water, knocks a few bottles on her way out. "It was, well, it was worth it at the time? And I know. I know he's a wingleader, I know all this stuff. I just--" She unravels her towel, feet still dangling in the water, eyes tracking quickly between the towel and Kaida and back. "I love him, I really do, and I didn't mean to be so stupid. It's just, that. Irritating and stupid. Shells, Kay, everybody knows I'm a whore, for crying out loud, why chastise T'rev for that?" A quick, bright smile and she concludes, "Cirse made him give away trays and trays of pastries. She might be a total bitch, I think."
"I know," says the choir to the preacher, gently. Listening now, less inclined towards another outburst, Kaida's eyes track Jaeyi's face through all her movements. "I know how that goes, too," she says softly for 'worth it at the time.' Likely not a threesome, because this is Kay after all, but yes she's done her share of stupid. Then, eyes widening slightly as she jumps to a conclusion, "So you're the one." But then, the weaver is moving, swiftly pushing herself over towards Jaeyi and reaching up towards her arms. Fiercely, grey eyes staring intently up at brown, "Don't say that. Not ever Jae, you hear me? You. Are. Not. A. Whore!" If the baker hasn't dodged or pulled away, each word might be accompanied by a little shake.
Whoa, there. Whether or not Jaeyi is the-one will have to wait, as anything she might have said along those lines gets pretty well waylaid, as does the completion of tucking that towel around herself. Her fingers follow Kaida's, closing around her arms nearer to wrists than elbows. "Ow," is more a stimulus response than any actual reaction to pain. "Kay. Calm down. It's okay. It's not like-- I mean, I am?" Up along the Weaver's arm till she curves one hand around her shoulder, leaning far forward to accomplish it, she presses with plump fingers to make the point; "If you snap my neck, sugar, people will be disappointed. A good time not yet had by all, y'know?" As in, stop, please.
That quick, Kaida releases her grip on Jaeyi, dismay and apology warring with the heat of anger in her expression. That word, that damn word. "How? How can you even think to call yourself that?" she demands. The press of fingers to her neck brings an instinctive step forward to try to relieve the pressure, and hopefully the movement isn't so much as to unbalance Jaeyi. Dropping her hands down to the rim of the pool, one to either side of the perched baker. An old pain dredged up anew, and the flare of protectiveness is perhaps an easy transferrence given that who unresolved issue. "It's a cruel, hard and innaccurate term. Never, never once in the gossip I've heard, has anything ever suggested that you're that... cold. Or calculating. Liking sex and being free with your favours does not make you a whore." Please, please believe her, her eyes practically beg.
Jaeyi leaves her hand there, scissors a bit of Kaida's hair between two fingers in an idle toy, a time-filler before she shrugs at that first question. "If you just own something like that, it takes all the power out of it. So either I can call myself a whore or-- well, I can let people like Kai do it. Put out or shut up, he says, and this way. Well, this way, he can't hurt me by saying things like that, right?" The sad eyes do wonders for someone as soft-hearted as this one, though, and she sighs and straightens some, makes a childish face that has no place in a conversation this serious. "You really have some issues to work through, huh? Will it make you feel better if I find some other term? 'Tart' always seems to obvious."
"No," Kaida answers the last first. "There shouldn't have to be a term for it at all. No labels, no damned boxes to pack people into. Why can't you just be you and leave it at that?" Skipping right past whatever her own issues might be, oh yes. A ten-foot pole still isn't long enough to touch those. "I just don't see why you should have to 'own it' as you say. B'kaiv is an ignorant asshole, and people like him are less than nothing, their words worth more than sand in the deep desert." Which is to say, completely insignificant. Aside from the necessity of moving her mouth to form words, the weaver might as well be a statue.
"But there /are/ labels and boxes, Kay. It's just... life, the way things are. Holders, weyrfolk, riders, crafters, prudes, whores, all the people in-between. It's just natural. Go and look in the spice cupboard some day, labels and labels and labels, and I could tell you what's in the jars by taste or smell, but it's easier just to read the label." Jaeyi gives a pragmatic little nod for that, not so much the statuesque type herself, more the bounce-through-life type. "I'm sorry if it hurts your feelings, though. I won't say it any more," she promises solemnly, gives Kaida's cheek an affectionate little pat, and resumes tucking a towel around herself. "Smile. I feel better, just talking it out helps, so don't look so..." Like that.
Kaida shakes her head, stubbornly, and sighs. "I think you missed my meaning. And I'm not good enough with words to try to make it clear." Another shake, and she backs away after that pat, retreating back to a distance further than the one she started from. "It's not my feelings I care about. It's an ugly slur, Jae. And if you insist on calling yourself that, someone somewhere is going to take you quite seriously and that person won't be the type to take 'stop' or 'no' for an answer. You look at it like it's just another word to be claimed. Others will only see a thing to take." She turns away, doesn't give the requested smile. Just says over her shoulder, "I'm sorry. I'm not... the type of person you should be talking to. I don't make people feel better." Moving to the absolute far end of the pool, and beyond, pushing out and walking further to be engulfed by the steam.
Jaeyi admits at the first, "Probably. I do that. Take things wrong." Pulling her feet up to the edge of the pool now, scooting back further all folded in half for a time, she watches Kaida's retreat with an expression that does not look at all as feel-better as she professed. "Don't be sorry. I was glad to talk to you, it helped even if you don't think it did. And don't worry about me." No reason why she shouldn't except that's the way the baker would have things, and-- recent events notwithstanding-- she's still accustomed to having things the way she wants them. Though there's very soon a little cry of dismay to find she went and tipped over a bottle and its contents have left a puddle of pinkish goop on the floor, all leaked out.
IC Date: 2/11/20
Hot Springs, Fort Weyr
The hot springs are contained with a high domed cavern, the walls perpetually glistening with a combination of condensation and mica. Steam hangs on everything, lending a soothing and dreamlike quality to the entire experience. In the center is the main pool, which is vaguely kidney-bean shaped, and large enough for a few fully grown dragons to lounge in comfortably and easily reached by the archway from the bowl. Three smaller pools, more suited for human use, are clustered near the entrance leading toward the inner caverns. Also located near the inner cavern entrance are a set of shelves, fully stocked with pots of soapsand and towels for those without the foresight -- or means -- to bring their own.
While the dragon pool is a natural creation, the human pools are the result of Ancient ingenuity and have been constructed with hewn steps and seating. The water in both pools is hot, but comfortably so, and are a perfect place to bathe young weyrling dragons or for residents to relax after a long day of work.
Where else does one find a Bollian in midwinter but the warmest, most humid spot in the Weyr? Most people have work to do, most people don't have all afternoon free to do no more than lounge in a bathtub, but Jaeyi is not most people. The middle of the day tends to be among the best times for soaking without getting leered at-- not that the leering is all that terrible-- but the relative emptiness of the three small pools gives her leave to fill up one of them with bubbles, with fluffy stuff that smells distinctly girly. Submerged, hair clipped up to the back of her head, she soaks in a state of abject bliss.
Distinctly girly smelling fluffy stuff. Is there -nothing- besides two men that these particular women have in common? Kaida will have more work to do later, undoubtedly, but the middle of the day has been long established as her own time to work on personal projects. And if one of those personal projects happens to be a bath well, that's her call. Leaving her clothing on a bench and walking over towards the pools, it's the smell more than the occupant that draws her attention first. "If you're attempting to make it smell like Boll in high summer, it's working."
Height. They also have that in common. Beyond that... perhaps the preference for midday baths? A slosh of water precedes Jaeyi sitting up straighter, her peering over the lip of the bath toward the voice and, only after finding it's Kaida, smiling promptly. "Is it? Lovely. It makes it easier to pretend we're not stuck at Fort in midwinter, hmmmn?" There's some more sloshing at that, shifting about beneath the water, finally a toe finding a nozzle and letting some of the over-fluffy water out to let some cleaner water in. "Join me? Unless you'd rather...?" She peers toward the tub occupied by old ladies, the next one over, lifts questioning brows at the Weaver.
"I don't know, I actually kind of like the scent of winter here," Kaida replies, a wry smile curving her lips. Pulling her braid over her shoulder, which had been unbound but not undone, she starts to work her fingers through the plait, loosening it. She's still eyeing the fluffy stuff a bit dubiously, but as the baker starts allowing some cleaner and less stinky water swirl in, some of that fades. A glance over her shoulder at the other indicated pool, and maybe she recognises one of those old ladies because her, "Gladly." might be a bit too prompt. Hunkering down at the edge of the pool before sliding in, and nevermind the sudden sneeze. "Shall I avoid asking how you've been, so that you can avoid avoiding the question?"
A sniff, as though there's more to smell than flowery steam drifting aimlessly upward from the refilling bath, and Jaeyi confesses, "I must not have been paying attention. Does snow smell like anything but cold and damp and awfulness?" She kicks some of that cleaner water across the pool from herself, clears out the layer of floating foam that much quicker so it's nearly clear by the time Kaida sinks down into it. "You can ask if you want to," while she straightens back up to the way she'd been reclining before, reaching up to fold the towel along the edge of the bath, a place to rest her neck. "But I'm afraid it's not been all sunshine and daisies, so you might be disappointed in the answer. You? Sulisah's run away from home again, must be awfully lonely, hmn?"
Kaida tilts her head slightly, expression thoughtful. "It does smell like cold, if cold smells at all, but not damp. Dry. And stone. And something else that I haven't managed to place yet." Yes, she's completely serious. Shifting back slightly, head against hard stone as she seems settling more for soaking than actual bathing at the moment. Then, accompanied by a sharp glance, "So, how have you been?" A less verbose answer might've made her leave well enough alone. A shrug of her shoulder, and she redirects her gaze towards the ceiling, "Yes." Yes Su's 'run away.' Yes it's lonely. "I'm managing."
Something else... "Awfulness?" Jaeyi looks serious, sounds serious, but likely enough hides a joke behind the ever-so-authentic blink that fans through the haze to her bath-fellow. Not that she expects it to be accepted, but she reaches up, behind her, fingers jiggling the row of glass bottles until she finds a wide-mouthed one filled with a bit of pale, greenish, pearly soap, and she holds it across the bath toward Kaida by the cork-stoppered end. "Better," she answers across that space. "I've been better, but it's lovely in here, I think. --Managing. Work work work?" Over a grin that teases.
"Ha ha," Kaida, not really laughing. "Very funny." Her tones are dry, mostly neutral really. Indolent and not willing to spare the energy for actual emotion maybe. The sound of glass clinking together as those bottles get jiggled drop her gaze back towards Jaeyi, and the offer is declined with a shake of her head and a vague little splash of water from the tips of her fingers. "I'll be sneezing all day. Thanks, but no thanks. I'll stick with sweetsand." Her brows pull into a little frown, "Is it just the cold getting to you? This is your first winter too, isn't it? Yes, work. Plenty to do, requests for knitwear came pouring in as soon as the tempurature dropped and haven't let up. Most of it can be shunted back to the caverns women with a bit of skill, but there's enough that's challenging as to be worth our time."
Not funny, no, but Jaeyi still beams proudly at the bad joke, the suspended bottle given a little shake in offering one-last-time; "You're sure? It smells like herbs, not flowers." Weighted as it is, corked securely, she's confident to drop it into the water with a plop and a splash and watch it bob around on the surface among the little splashes of luxuriating bathers. "Oh, no. It's my sixteenth winter." Sparkly smile. "Just the first one away from Boll. It gets cool and rainy there, amazing the things you miss when they're not around any more, isn't it?" All the business of knitting gets a crinkle of her nose, a sympathetic purse of her lips for Kaida's occupation. "At least you get a nice respite in summer? Not much call for scarves and mittens after the weather breaks, I bet."
"Entirely sure," Kaida affirms, eyeing the green stuff inside with suspicion. Eyebrows lift for the splash-and-bob, and if it bobs her way she'll determinedly push it back in the baker's direction. And right on cue, an eyeroll for the sparkly smile. "Boll is always too wet. If it's not chucking down rain, the air is thick with it anyway. So much water is just obscene." So thinks the desert-bred, anyway. Agreement though, for the latter portion, "It is. Sand gets -everywhere- back at Igen, but I miss the sound it makes when the wind blows the grains across the dunes." Sympathy is eyed askance. "Actually, it'd be great if people thought to request their sweaters and such during the warmer months. It'd actually give us time to finish them before winter's half over. Scarves and mittens are the work of caverns women, usually." She kicks a foot up out of the water, twists it around and makes her ankle pop. "Though there is something to be said for seasonal, I guess. There's never any less demand for the stuff you make, is there?"
Jaeyi's, "Nooooo," meets the obscenity of water, as does the flash of her toes finding their way up above the level of the pool to tap the bottle off in a wobbly, random direction. "It's lovely, to go barefoot and find the rain's warm on your toes. Not like sand, it gets hot and burns your feet. Did that hurt?" The ankle, likely. She draws hers up at that, pulls them so her knees come beneath her chin and, though hidden underwater, she likely hooks her fingers around her toes with that posture. "What do you do all summer? Me-- well, no, there's no less demand, but at least no one wants shaved ice in the winter. I /hate/ shaving ice."
"Okay, you have a point there," Kaida grins. Can it be the weaver's actually gone puddle stomping? "But I'll still take dry heat over wet any day of the Turn." Idly, she watches the bottle go bobbing off, and as long as it keeps itself on its own side of the pool, she won't object to its presence. "Did what hurt?" Blankly. As if the ankle-popping is so commonplace to her that she doesn't even notice anymore. She eyes what she can see of Jaeyi's new posture, all curled up like that. "Same thing I do all winter. Knit. And some tailoring, just to keep the skill. It's useful enough, but I swear I'm never touching another alteration or design-copy again once I make Journeyrank. I prefer making my own things." A soft chuckle, "Everyone gushes about your desserts like they're the next best thing to sex, and you're still required to shave ice?"
Jaeyi holds her leg up out of the water to display her own ankle, just one of the many bits of anatomy that she's always pleased to display, though-- no matter how she turns her foot-- she can't replicate the pop. "But who will give us all backless gowns to make people faint if you're only going to knit from then on?" Lashes, pretty-please ones, make the effort to convince Kaida here-and-now not to give up the alterations. "I'm not requiiiiired to do anything. People want shaved ice, so I shave ice. What can you do, you know?" There's a short pause, a tug of eyebrows, then; "You're sleeping with someone, aren't you? I mean, you aren't, like, totally chaste?" Kaida said the S-word; Jaeyi runs with it.
Kaida watches the ankle twist, and if she's not exactly as appreciative as a man would be, she's never said Jaeyi isn't attractive. Puzzled at first and then, "Oh, that. No." From ankle to face, and the pretty-please lashes have her laughing again. "That was a special favour for a friend." And as such doesn't count? "And I never said I was going to stop making dresses entirely. But, you know, special circumstances only. There's little point in specializing in something if you don't devote the majority of your time to it." Another tilt, another puzzled quirk, "But surely shaving ice is like, drudge work. It can't be hard to do, surely? Talent should be used where best it suits, and from all reports you belong in front of an oven." If her thoughts go anywhere beyond the baker's, well, baking talents, she doesn't speak them. After a moment, and meeting the younger woman's gaze steadily, "Occassionally. He's often... otherwise committed." Don't die of shock now please, Jae.
Dubious, the look that stays with Jaeyi even while she puts her foot back in the water. "It sounded like it hurt. People shouldn't pop like that." Talents lay here, talents there, one that doesn't want to do alterations but still does, one that doesn't like shaving ice but still does. The things people suffer for their respective arts. "If someone told you that you had to stop-- like, if the Weyrwoman told you that you weren't allowed to any more, would you stop? Or if you, well, you seem very happy keeping it all very secret, so I guess it's not really the same." She looks down, finds the bobbing bottle for a second, catches it with her fingers to draw it on back over, looks back up to meet the Weaver's steady gaze; "I got in trouble. Or, mmn, T'rev got in trouble, really, but it's all the same."
"If you think that's bad, you should hear my wrists," Kaida supplies with a mild grimace. She isn't offering to demonstrate, and her next words will reveal why. "That -does- hurt." She shifts around in the water, facing Jaeyi more fully as she just kind of stares in surprise. "If the Weyrwoman..?" Blink. Double and triple blink, even. "First, who I do or do not choose to sleep with is none of her damn business, nor anyone else's, which is part of -why- I keep my liasons discreet, and will even when I'm no longer an apprentice. Just because I attempt to keep the appearance of abiding by the rules doesn't necessarily mean I'm -happy- about doing so. I'm nineteen. By Hold standards I should be married three Turns with as many children by now, but the Craft is so jealous of their apprentices that they can't even give us credit for knowing how to prevent a pregnancy. At least, not us simple women, because -obviously- all we want is a man to take care of us and babies in out bellies." She snaps her jaws shut suddenly, and does at least manage to look sheepish for her little tirade. Apparently it's something of a sore subject. And then she's back to gaping. "You... -T'rev.- But I thought... I mean, you two. I just assumed, well, that everything was alright as far as that was concerned. Your both just... the way you both are. And T'rev is responsible, so it's not like the risk of pregnancy is great unless -you- haven't been taking precautions as well? Did someone complain, or something?"
Jaeyi's mouth gradually, securely turns to the shape of an O while Kaida grinds her particular axe. "And I thought I was pissed," she commits around the time Kaida winds up looking sheepish, releases a very small laugh to fill that short space before the gaping starts. "I don't know. Maybe. Probably. I got chastised by my journeyman for, uhmn, well. Let's just say that maybe T'rev and me? That's okay. But T'rev and me and our mutual friend T'mic? In the bar in the middle of the day might not be okay." She puts the little bottle back in the row with the rest of them, her shoulders against the lip of the pool for a second, her empty hands now examined and then displayed, palms-up. See? Pruney! "So I think that's what did it. And Cirse... she chastised T'rev for it. It's funny, isn't it? Everyone knows, and I don't know a single apprentice at this Weyr that's not sleeping with /someone,/ but gosh! We better all pretend otherwise."
Kaida clears her throat, waves a hand dismissively, which sends water droplets flying from the tips of her fingers. "Sorry." And that, as they say, is that. It's not about her, is it? Her eyebrows fly upwards, "Okay now that I'll admit, could make even some Weyrbred uncomfortable. Though probably more that they're too cowardly to engage in a threesome themselves, then that they find the idea itself abhorrant. Envy can look a lot like disapproval." See exhibit A, Kay herself. The weaver shakes her head a bit, and when those pruney hands are put on display, she actually reaches out towards one, simple friendly squeeze of fingers offered. "That is, though, one situation where blatancy was probably not the best policy. T'rev's a wingleader, and that brings with it a certain level of responsibility. Not just for his wing, but for the reputation of the Weyr as a whole. It doesn't help that Mecaith's bronze, to boot. His reputation is well known within these walls, and I expect more or less accepted and he's judged on his other merits. But word like that gets to the Holds and Halls? That's -all- they'll judge him for, and by extension, the entire Weyr." She rather fails at pep talks. "Funny. Irritating and stupid, is more like."
"It's okay. I mean-- I know. I'm not gonna get knocked up, I'm not stupid. But I'm a girl and a girl's not capable of taking care of herself. Kwei sleeps in Vani's room every night for months and..." Jaeyi ends over a shrug; preaching to the choir, no doubt. The squeezed fingers are appreciated, just a little pressure in return before her hands withdraw and find the edge of the pool, palms down. "I know. Hindsight," she admits with candid embarrassment, an actual blush before she hauls herself backward out of the water, knocks a few bottles on her way out. "It was, well, it was worth it at the time? And I know. I know he's a wingleader, I know all this stuff. I just--" She unravels her towel, feet still dangling in the water, eyes tracking quickly between the towel and Kaida and back. "I love him, I really do, and I didn't mean to be so stupid. It's just, that. Irritating and stupid. Shells, Kay, everybody knows I'm a whore, for crying out loud, why chastise T'rev for that?" A quick, bright smile and she concludes, "Cirse made him give away trays and trays of pastries. She might be a total bitch, I think."
"I know," says the choir to the preacher, gently. Listening now, less inclined towards another outburst, Kaida's eyes track Jaeyi's face through all her movements. "I know how that goes, too," she says softly for 'worth it at the time.' Likely not a threesome, because this is Kay after all, but yes she's done her share of stupid. Then, eyes widening slightly as she jumps to a conclusion, "So you're the one." But then, the weaver is moving, swiftly pushing herself over towards Jaeyi and reaching up towards her arms. Fiercely, grey eyes staring intently up at brown, "Don't say that. Not ever Jae, you hear me? You. Are. Not. A. Whore!" If the baker hasn't dodged or pulled away, each word might be accompanied by a little shake.
Whoa, there. Whether or not Jaeyi is the-one will have to wait, as anything she might have said along those lines gets pretty well waylaid, as does the completion of tucking that towel around herself. Her fingers follow Kaida's, closing around her arms nearer to wrists than elbows. "Ow," is more a stimulus response than any actual reaction to pain. "Kay. Calm down. It's okay. It's not like-- I mean, I am?" Up along the Weaver's arm till she curves one hand around her shoulder, leaning far forward to accomplish it, she presses with plump fingers to make the point; "If you snap my neck, sugar, people will be disappointed. A good time not yet had by all, y'know?" As in, stop, please.
That quick, Kaida releases her grip on Jaeyi, dismay and apology warring with the heat of anger in her expression. That word, that damn word. "How? How can you even think to call yourself that?" she demands. The press of fingers to her neck brings an instinctive step forward to try to relieve the pressure, and hopefully the movement isn't so much as to unbalance Jaeyi. Dropping her hands down to the rim of the pool, one to either side of the perched baker. An old pain dredged up anew, and the flare of protectiveness is perhaps an easy transferrence given that who unresolved issue. "It's a cruel, hard and innaccurate term. Never, never once in the gossip I've heard, has anything ever suggested that you're that... cold. Or calculating. Liking sex and being free with your favours does not make you a whore." Please, please believe her, her eyes practically beg.
Jaeyi leaves her hand there, scissors a bit of Kaida's hair between two fingers in an idle toy, a time-filler before she shrugs at that first question. "If you just own something like that, it takes all the power out of it. So either I can call myself a whore or-- well, I can let people like Kai do it. Put out or shut up, he says, and this way. Well, this way, he can't hurt me by saying things like that, right?" The sad eyes do wonders for someone as soft-hearted as this one, though, and she sighs and straightens some, makes a childish face that has no place in a conversation this serious. "You really have some issues to work through, huh? Will it make you feel better if I find some other term? 'Tart' always seems to obvious."
"No," Kaida answers the last first. "There shouldn't have to be a term for it at all. No labels, no damned boxes to pack people into. Why can't you just be you and leave it at that?" Skipping right past whatever her own issues might be, oh yes. A ten-foot pole still isn't long enough to touch those. "I just don't see why you should have to 'own it' as you say. B'kaiv is an ignorant asshole, and people like him are less than nothing, their words worth more than sand in the deep desert." Which is to say, completely insignificant. Aside from the necessity of moving her mouth to form words, the weaver might as well be a statue.
"But there /are/ labels and boxes, Kay. It's just... life, the way things are. Holders, weyrfolk, riders, crafters, prudes, whores, all the people in-between. It's just natural. Go and look in the spice cupboard some day, labels and labels and labels, and I could tell you what's in the jars by taste or smell, but it's easier just to read the label." Jaeyi gives a pragmatic little nod for that, not so much the statuesque type herself, more the bounce-through-life type. "I'm sorry if it hurts your feelings, though. I won't say it any more," she promises solemnly, gives Kaida's cheek an affectionate little pat, and resumes tucking a towel around herself. "Smile. I feel better, just talking it out helps, so don't look so..." Like that.
Kaida shakes her head, stubbornly, and sighs. "I think you missed my meaning. And I'm not good enough with words to try to make it clear." Another shake, and she backs away after that pat, retreating back to a distance further than the one she started from. "It's not my feelings I care about. It's an ugly slur, Jae. And if you insist on calling yourself that, someone somewhere is going to take you quite seriously and that person won't be the type to take 'stop' or 'no' for an answer. You look at it like it's just another word to be claimed. Others will only see a thing to take." She turns away, doesn't give the requested smile. Just says over her shoulder, "I'm sorry. I'm not... the type of person you should be talking to. I don't make people feel better." Moving to the absolute far end of the pool, and beyond, pushing out and walking further to be engulfed by the steam.
Jaeyi admits at the first, "Probably. I do that. Take things wrong." Pulling her feet up to the edge of the pool now, scooting back further all folded in half for a time, she watches Kaida's retreat with an expression that does not look at all as feel-better as she professed. "Don't be sorry. I was glad to talk to you, it helped even if you don't think it did. And don't worry about me." No reason why she shouldn't except that's the way the baker would have things, and-- recent events notwithstanding-- she's still accustomed to having things the way she wants them. Though there's very soon a little cry of dismay to find she went and tipped over a bottle and its contents have left a puddle of pinkish goop on the floor, all leaked out.