Girl talk? Tomboy talk?
RL Date: 8/5/09
IC Date: 5/23/20
Lakeshore, Fort Weyr
The lake's shore is a broad crescent of golden-hued sand, stretching from the southwest wall near the feeding grounds and arcing toward the southeast and overlooking the blue waters of the lake. Where the lake deepens, that water turns a murkier blue-green, hiding an untold number of perils in its depths. It is an oft-used location for dragons seeking a place to sun or for residents and riders who feel a need to take a stroll; the sand is generally kept pretty clean and while there are no shells, there are periodic bits of obsidian and other volcanic stones to be found if one feels like picking around.
It is just too nice a day for people, even warm-blooded Bollian people, to be holed up indoors. Sometimes, even things like tea and toast need to migrate outside, and that's what's got Jaeyi sitting on her patchwork quilt a safe distance from the shoreline-- though "tea and toast" for the baker tends to imply also jam, honey, a few little cakes, some cookies, a couple of cheeses, crackers, some sticks of celery and carrots... yeah, it's really quite the spread, though likely it was more than just her, as there are three other cups on her teatray. "You're actually going in that water?" she calls, pushing up on one arm so she's not quite so prone, eyeing the souce of that splash dubiously, his rider even moreso.
Phara glances back when someone calls, perhaps reflex. But noticing Jaeyi she lifts her hand to wave and glances back at the water. "I don't think I have a choice," she says with a grimace. "Well. Maybe I can get away with a quick scrub on shore. He's not really that dirty. After he's soaked for awhile." She jams her hands in her pockets and tucks her chin down into the collar of her open riding jacket. "Picnic brunch?" she teases, indicating Jaeyi's spread with her elbow.
The icky-seeming expression answers for how Jaeyi feels about even a light scrub on the shore, her feet-- socks but no shoes, those being set to one side off the blanket-- wiggling in protest of the chill she can imagine. "And people envy dragonriders," she muses merrily, pats a spot on the quilt that's wide open and just waiting for someone to sit there. Presumably Phara. "Mmn? Oh, just a light snack." She smiles all sunny-like, acknowledges the humor that this counts as anything 'light.' "Eat. Even I can't finish it all."
Phara sits down where Jaeyi indicates, dangling her booted feet off the side of the blanket. "Lady, you just said the magic word!" she proclaims, picking up something tasty to munch. "Well, to be fair, I guess I could bath him in the hot springs but he likes the lake better - splashing room. Let me guess, you're a realist with no delusions of being a grand dragonrider?" the last few words probably come out a little funny because she's cramming food now.
Jaeyi's plate is not necessarily clean, not strictly, but it's not filthy or anything. She shakes the crumbs off onto the sand real quick, making some ants very happy in future, and starts piling it with a general mishmash of the remaining stuff-- sweets, savories, randomly lining the plate and then passed toward Phara. "I guess I can respect his position, splashing room, but doesn't really help you much, does it?" she continues, peers toward the water a second. "Realist? Me?" The beam obviously kinda likes that, though the likelihood that it's true seems pretty slim. "Nah, I've just been here long enough now to know better."
Phara doesn't mind crummy plates. "Thanks!" she enthuses, accepting the plate and poking through everything with equal concentration to the conversation. "Not so much. Especially when he dumps me. Sometimes I jump, but only in hte middle of the summer when it's not likely to send me into shock." She sniffs at a cookie and then pops it in her mouth. "You know, the weyrbrats should know better too but most of them would sneak themselves onto the Sands before they're due if they thought they could get away with it."
"I'd offer tea, but it's cold." With a crinkle of her nose. Jaeyi goes back to leaning on both hands now that he's done doling out the food, her attention dancing back and forth between Phara, Phara's food, and Phara's dragon. "Yeah, but they're just little kids, right? I mean, not so many of them would still try and sneak on the sands when they're, like, a little more grown up? I hope."
"You know, some people like cold tea," Phara points out cheerfully. "But it's a little nippy for it right now." She glances over at Bennath, splashing merrily in the water and making waves. "Well, it wouldn't really make sense for them to sneak on when they're older. You know, they usually get to stand if they just ask to. So, you know, pretty pointless to sneak on at that point."
Another nose-crinkle; "Cold tea that's brewed to be cold, maybe. But cold tea that was brewed to be hot?" Jaeyi sticks out her tongue, scrapes it along the back of her teeth-- ewww. Then a slight grin, a slight laugh. "Okay, that's a fair point, I guess. I just meant... don't you think they maybe start to realize that there's more to it than just big-best-friend?" Her forehead lowers to indicate Bennath. In the still-cold water of the lake. Expecting to be washed. "Anyway. I guess the idea of a dragon's nice and all, but it's not exactly all fun and games, is it?"
Phara shrugs her shoulders. "Point there," she agrees easily and nibbles on a carrot stick. She blinks at Jaeyi over it and asks, "That's not what they are?" in her best 'that's news to me' voice. "Kidding. But you know, everything worth having is work, don't you think. There's more to your job than just getting to eat tasty treats all the time, isn't there? But would you ever tell a prospective apprentice the hardships don't outweigh the perks?" She looks over at Bennath. "Children, husbands, friendships, don't they all require work and sacrafice and unpleasantries? I can't honestly say there's a single thing I do for Bennath that makes me sit down and go 'man, what a mistake I made.'"
Jaeyi does not, does /not/ answer what she might tell a prospective apprentice, though she holds a brow-quirked look to Phara before tipping her head back, catching a little sun on the understide of her chin. Like that's the place she needs a tan most of all. "Not to say that being a dragonrider is all work," she clarifies, some small laughter at the edge of her voice. "More that... Uhmn, it's probably not for everyone. Not for me. Neither are children, husbands, and friendships, when you get right down to it, huh? I like things easy and happy and nice. If I had to, say, dip myself in ice water once a day to keep a lover happy? He could go find himself someone else!"
Phara snorts in amusement, ducking her mouth into the palm of her hand to conceal her grin. "You know, Jaeyi, if a man told ME to jump in ice water for him, I'd probably say the same. But they're pain is your pain, and your pain is theirs. If he itches, if his skin flakes, it hurts me too. So the bond is much more... defined, personal than any other relationship you could have. But if you're not into long-term commitment, it might be a hassle. Not saying it's for everyone, just trying to help you understand."
"I know. I mean, I've heard that. I don't /know/ know." Jaeyi amuses herself with the distinction, the humor in her tone even considering her head's still mostly aimed back, absorbing friendly Rukbat. "It wouldn't bother me. The whole long-term-committment thing. More the whole... I dunno. Do you like having someone in your head like that? --I suppose that's not a fair question, huh? You're a rider, you have Bennath, you must like it? Part and parcel?"
Phara considers. "It's different for everyone. It bothered T'rev, the thought of having to share his mind, but him and Mecaith, as far as I can understand it they're not as entwined as some riders are. Me and Ben, we're pretty close. When I'm hurting, he knows exactly what to say to make me feel better. I never have to explain anything to him because he's already there with me and he KNOWS. Very convienient. And when I need privacy, he backs off, no questions. We don't share everything. Or at least, I don't hear everything he thinks and if he hears all my thoughts, he doesn't let on. So I guess it's more like having a best friend who knows you better than anyone ever could and never having to speak out loud." Her lips press together. "Is that it, the big downside? Cuz it's not, not really. I think it's the most wonderful part of us, together. The flying's great and being anywhere I want to be almost in an instant, that's cool too. But the...wholeness - that's exactly it. I'm /whole/." Yep, don't get her started on Benny. You'll never get another word in.
One hand lifts, stops supporting her weight behind her, and gestures to the bluerider. See? She must like it. Jaeyi listens, head tilted to the side instead of straight back, bringing Phara back into her line of sight. "A very big best friend that needs to be coated in oil and likes to dunk in the lake, even when it's freezing," she points out, tacks on a wink lest it sound like she's dissing on Bennath there. "That's not /it/. I'm-- I don't want to walk away from my life right now. Did you think you weren't whole before? Like, was there something noticeably missing?" By the tone, by the knit of her brows, that's not a concept that likely fits for Jaeyi herself.
Phara laughs. "No, I suppose that part isn't so great. But the nice thing about an interval is getting to do other things. Not that I had a craft before or anything. But I still travel whenever I want. I haven't given it ALL up. And I'd say I got a pretty big return for the time I lost. And the oiling just becomes routine. You don't even notice it, really, or mind, after so long doing it." She toes her boots off and then pulls her knees up to her chest, contemplating. "You know what's funny? I didn't even know there was a part of me left empty until Bennath filled it in. I wonder how you can't notice such a big part of you isn't there - it would be like missing a limb or something. I imagine it would probably ache something awful, if I lost him, knowing what I know now."
"Soooo, maybe it's not so much that a part of you was missing as now you have, uhmn, something supplemental?" Jaeyi squints a touch, vaguely toward the sun, though it's likely that the sun has nothing to do with it, being more a thoughtful expression. "Like, if you think about it, everyone who's a dragonrider can't have been incomplete before, right? Or else someone would have figured that out by now. And-- well, I hate to think about how a rider would be without their dragon, but there are bound to be people that /could/ Impress that just never get to try? Like, living at some backwater hold or something, right?"
Phara shrugs. "there's a lot of theories on what makes a dragonrider a rider. Some people think it has to do with having the ability to bond properly - which would explain why not everyone is Searched. Or maybe it is because we're missing something. A dragon won't pick anyone, you know. If the right one for them isn't there, they'll die. That's why there's so many candidates. If it was just a matter of providing a pair for every dragon, you could walk into any room of the weyr, say you, you, and you, and that would be it. Hah. Another great mystery for me, I guess. And sure, I guess there are people who COULD but never did. I imagine there's people like you who COULD but don't want to, right?"
Jaeyi's uhhhmn is prolonged. "Not what I was driving at. I don't think--" But she shakes her head, chasing away the maybes. "It just wouldn't make sense, though, if everyone who got searched had something missing in them. Like, what if you never got searched and were 'supposed' to?" The one hand makes the bendy-finger-quotes. "Does that mean you'd be broken or unwhole or whatever the whole rest of your life? That's a terrible thought." With a serious frown.
Phara shakes her head. "No. I don't think you'd ever even notice. I never did. It's... I don't know. Like ... never eating sweets. If you'd never seen them and never tasted them, you wouldn't know they existed or what you were missing, right? So in a way, you're whole in the sense that you had no clue you were missing anything. It's not ESSENTIAL, but it definitely makes life... better. I can't be sure it's this way for everyone though, you know. Just how it was for me."
"So..." No. Jaeyi shakes her head again, her smile coming to light by the time she gives up propping herself up at all and sinks onto the quilt, one hand hooking up to pillow the back of her head. "This conversation is too big. And I think we're kinda on different sides of the divide. I can't imagine missing something, and you can't imagine not. Makes it hard to find any common ground, huh?"
Grinning, Phara shrugs. "My conversations are always too big. I sometimes wonder that my head doesn't swell up to abnormal proportions and roll off down the bowl." She sets her plate aside and muses. "Wasn't always a rider, you know. I can remember a time when nothing was missing. Quite clearly, actually. But. What are these salty things?" She holds up one of the savory snacks, perhaps a little too close and her eyes cross a little trying to peer at it.
Jaeyi lifts her head without lifting the rest of herself, looks over the horizon of her own, uhmn, attributes till she can see what Phara's messing up her vision to try and recognize. "Onion tartlets with white cheese and that's bacon on top of them." Short version: cholesterol. "I recommend a nice minty gargle to go along with them if you plan on having anyone's tongue in your mouth for the next week after you eat them." Plop, back down with her head. "But tell me what you think? I don't normally put the bacon on them."
Phara pops the tartlet into her mouth and chews thoroughly before replying. "Darling, I haven't had a tongue in my mouth in... well, don't ask, it's depressing. They're good, I like them. And I'm not afraid of onion breath. The bacon's the best part. You should definitely add bacon more often." Food is a happy, easy subject for Phara The Bottomless Pit.
"That's sad." Really. Like, all that talk of dragonless riders and what-not? Did not turn her eyes all tragic the way that confession does. "I'd offer to put my tongue in your mouth, but-- well." She waves her hand vaguely, indicating something or another; simplest guess is probably that they've both been eating those tartlets and it might not go over well? Super potency. "See, everyone should just answer like that. 'Very good! Make them more!' But some people always feel like they have to give some little criticism for some reason." The eye-roll-tone, audible.
Phara makes a face. "No offense, Jaeyi, but... no thanks," she says, grimacing and looking significantly uncomfortable for a moment. But, food!! "Pah. You know, you'll never catch me turning down food. Any food. It's all good." She pats her stomach and sighs. "Some people just can't be happy, gotta find SOMETHING to grumble about."
Hey! "Why not?" Jaeyi pushes herself up on one arm at that, surrendering her whole totally-sprawled-out pose and everything. Despite having just said she won't, she looks distinctly offended at being turned down.
Phara clears her throat. "I don't like women. I mean... sexually." Raging homophobic, her? NEVER! "I mean. Not that you're not a pretty girl. I just... am not comfortable... with gay people, or... having a... gay encounter." She stumbles and stutters through her explaination with a grimace that somewhere sits between comical and pained.
"Why?" So at least this time it's not totally offended, but Jaeyi's pretty darn confused by it. And there's one for the record books? The crafter who's totally okay with it, the bluerider who isn't? "Haven't you ever had to?" She points out toward the water, toward Bennath. Vaguely, since she drops back down at the same time, so her finger just waves aimlessly in the direction she knows the water to be.
Phara shrugs her shoulders. "He doesn't chase, unless I tell him it's okay. I mean, he will go but it's easy to call him back. So no, I haven't ever had to." She passes a hand across her eyes. "Call me holdbound, I just don't think it's right. My oldest brother, he's a bluerider too. I love him, but... I don't think he's right to like men. We don't talk about it, easier that way."
Again; "Why?" Jaeyi tries to shake her head and clarify the question, but it's so fundamental that nothing more comes out, just her head leaning to one side to consider Phara peripherally. "Haven't you ever been attracted to another girl? Or... Mmn, probably some people can't help wanting who they want. Like, there are people I've wanted-- /want/ and it's just visceral, you know? If that person happened to be another woman..." Shrug, so be it.
Phara blanches. "No, never. I don't think of girls that way. I notice if they're attractive but I don't.. /want/ them. Not like I'd want a man I find attractive." Her nose wrinkles. "It's just wrong. Just how I was raised. Just because some people can't help it don't mean... I can't. I don't really believe that anyways. I might be attracted to a married man or... I don't know, the Lord Holder of Crom! But that doesn't mean I should just indulge myself because of that attraction. Why do we have self-control if not to keep us from doing wrong things?"
"But that's different though, isn't it? If he was married, his wife might get hurt. Or if he was the Lord Holder of Crom, his Hold might suffer if he had an affair. If someone's unmarried and available..." Jaeyi trails off again, expecting the point to make itself along those lines. Thoughtful; "Why would we be attracted to people if it was wrong? I mean-- I like Kaida, to give you an example. I think she's attractive and smart and there's something alluring about her. If it weren't for there being bigger things between us than just me thinking she's sexy, I'd totally make a move on her. We wouldn't be hurting anyone, how would it be wrong?"
Phara shrugs her shoulders. "That's you, not me. I won't try to change your mind, I know my views aren't the most popular ones in the Weyr. Just how I feel about it." She sighs and presses her fingertips to her lower lip and then pushes out a breath. "Isn't there something else we could talk about?"
Jaeyi lives in a world of candy and happy and very few things that aren't fair-- and those are all relatively new. So, if she goes on looking puzzled for a spell, let's not hold it against her? "Okay," she commits after a short silence, during which she fails to make any headway on the subject. "What would you like to talk about?" Sunnily offered.
Phara snorts and grins at Jaeyi. "Do you think less of me?" she asks with an appologetic smile. And then: "I don't know. How about... what do you do... when you aren't baking, or... eating?" She spreads her fingers to indicate the blanket.
"No." Which is totally honest, by the way. "I guess that's just the way you're made." Jaeyi doesn't understand it, that much is obvious, but-- "There's a lotta things I don't get, and this can just be another one." No hard feelings, yay! To answer the question, she starts with a lengthy, "Iiiiii paint my toenails? And I sometimes try to learn to mix drinks. And, hmn. I write letters. I keep myself busy, I guess. What do you do?"
Phara grins. "Well, that's good at least. There's lots of things I don't understand either, so we're square." She listens, grinning. "Painting your toenails and mixing drinks? I can't figure out if that's kinda girly or kinda not. Well, I think that would be easy to figure out. When I'm not doing dragonridery-things I travel a lot, go on adventures. Rock climb, raft down the river, that sort of thing. I like seeing new places."
Jaeyi sits forward all at once, snags her sock by the end of it, and-- voila. Today, they're a kind of dark pink, the toes she wiggles for a second before dusting off sock-lint. "It's pretty girly, I admit. But, well." The sock-hand waves, indicates the whole super-femme package that is this particular baker. Second sock, just so she matches. "And /that/," she continues, smirking. "Is the exact opposite of girly. Travel." She makes a face, one that's clearly had this discussion more than once in her life.
Phara applauds roundly at Jaeyi's display. "Yeah, I'm not very girly," she admits sheepishly. "I can't say that I've ever painted my toenails. I /do/ like dresses. Sometimes I wish I was girlier, but that's just me I guess." She catches Jaeyi's glance and asks, "Don't you like new places?"
"If you ever wanna tryyyy it," Jaeyi drawls invitingly, her toes curled and then flexed happily at the thought of infecting yet another person's tootsies. Soon, her master plan will see fruition. "I like new places fine enough, but I don't like getting there. And I like being--" She tilts a look up, at the walls of the bowl, distant but not /so/ distant. "--some place safe. That's just me, I guess." The amused, pointed echo there.
Phara eyes Jaeyi's toenails but squinty-eyed thought. "Maybe," she conceeds, and then grins. "Getting there? Pssh, honey, I get there in /style/." She nods pointedly to Bennath. "And plenty safe, too. Yep. Never been afraid to go anywhere with Benny." She finds another tartlet and pops it in her mouth. "Nothing wrong with not wanting to go outside your comfort zone though, for sure."
"Yeah. Except your version of style and my fear of heights and absolute distaste for that whole 'can't see anything or hear anything or feel anything' issue?" Jaeyi shakes her head seriously; those things just don't jive. "It's not-- Like, I've been places where I know I'm safe, certainly with people I know wouldn't let anything happen to me, I just like being at my home with walls and security? Your aversion to toenail polish and my aversion to wide open spaces probably aren't all that far off."
Phara looks surprised. "You're afraid of Between?" she questions. "Well that explains more than it doesn't, I suppose. And I am /not/ aversed to toenail polish. Just never really been... all girly like that."
"And heights." Between and heights, yes. "So I prefer to keep my painted toes on the ground, except when I pretty much have to go somewhere." With a laugh, Jaeyi answers to Phara's last remarks with her usual levity; "Mmmn, I guess there wouldn't be a need for the word 'tomboy' if they didn't exist, huh?"
Phara scratches at the back of her neck, "So I guess you don't like really going up to people's weyrs?" She has a hard time figuring all this out. "Yep, tomboy. Fit that bill pretty well, especially when I was a teenager. One of the guys, prtty much."
That's a tricky question, so says the pause and the slowly blossoming grin. To her credit, Jaeyi does not look at any particular ledge, just glances generally across the caverns that speckle the walls of the bowl before returning her sideways look to Phara. "Mmmn, I like being in people's weyrs, generally? But, no, not getting there. Though some people are pretty good at being distracting enough that I didn't really notice the getting-there parts." With a twittery, half-eager little sigh at that. Anyway-- "Now? You said it fit when you were a teenager, but now? Do you like being one of the guys?" asks someone who would not.
Phara chuckles. "Uhhhh..huh..." she says slowly, her grin growing in a knowing way. "Distraction," she repeats and smirks. "Now. No. Not now. I would rather... hmmm... be /with/ a guy rather than be one of them."
Jaeyi leaves it at uh-huh, considerate enough not to supply the full details. "I can imagine. Well, no, I can't. I've never liked anything boys like. All that getting dirty and tromping around and stuff?" She shakes her head seriously, makes a face at Phara even as a victim of those icky preferences. "It's okay being by yourself, though?"
Phara grins. "Well. I still like that stuff. But maybe not so much the spitting and the swearing and stuff, you know." She winks and shrugs. "It's okay. I have Bennath. Unless you know someone.." she adds in a teasing tone and follows it up with, "Kidding. Kidding."
"I don't," Jaeyi answers, kidding or not, and actually seems apologetic about it-- truly so. "Well, I mean, I know a few people, but if you're looking for someone to settle down with?" She shakes her head, still seriously, still sorry. "There's that smith I told you about, but he's married. His wife lives off at some cothold, and she doesn't mind what he does when he's 'on the road,' but it's sure not something you can rely on. Everyone else I know--" And by 'know' she means 'screws on a regular basis.' "--is definitely, definitely not the settling-down type."
"Don't give me that look. I'm not going to crucify you for being a girl." Phara chortles to herself. "No, no, really, I was kidding. I'll find someone eventually, you know, the proper way. Well, not that a friend setting you up isn't proper but... never mind. Digging myself a nice little hole."
Jaeyi's, "Proooobably," is both musing and light, bordering on glib in tone. "Probably, I'd be a bad friend to ask for a hook-up, anyways. The kinda guys I attract and the kinda guys you'd be looking for?" She grins a little crookedly at the thought, a side-by-side of her type and Phara's type and... "Yeah. But if you ever want some advice? That thing about the way to a man's heart being through his stomach is actually pretty true, though a man's-- er." Ahem. "Works better."
Phara can't help but giggle at Jaeyi's advice. "Oh yeah, I got that one nailed." She snorts though and leans in to bump the baker's shoulder lightly with her own. "Pah, what do you know about my type. Maybe I'm some ... I dunno...man sucking ...bitch. No, you know what, don't even reply to that. Aside from being very picky about who I want to have a child with... the rest, not so much. I just don't sleep with everyone who crosses my path - don't mean I'm opposed to a one-offer."
Cough. "If you could get yourself a little button that said 'man sucker,' I bet you could get all kinds of dates!" A little circle made with her thumb and index finger indicates right where Jaeyi would wear that button, right where a guy would be likely to look first, and it sure ain't that bumped shoulder. "If you want, I could introduce you to that smith next time he's here? He is really, uhmn, good. To be frank about it. And he's so totally not looking to make babies outside his marriage."
Phara rolls her eyes. "Yeah, but what would it do to my reputation? Shards, the look on my wingmates' faces if I showed up with THAT on at drills. The look on /T'rev's/ face." She's choking back laughter for a minute. "Nah. I believe you, but I think that one falls into my dubious and strange line of moral wrongs."
Brightly; "They might like it!" But, then, Jaeyi does have that tendency to project, and while /she/ might pull off a bustline button claiming to suck men... She gives up that line of thought pretty quickly, blinking anew at Phara. "Why? What's wrong about it? Because he's married?"
Phara snorts in amusement and pats her flat chest with a sigh. "They might. Or they might think I was just being crazy old Phara again." She nods at the last question. "Of course. It's like...earlier. Even if it's not hurting anyone, that doesn't necessarily make it right. In my mind, at least."
"So. If you had, like, a weyrmate or something, you'd be just totally him and you?" Jaeyi probably ought to work on not sounding so dang incredulous, but blame it on youth and naievete! In this, at least.
Phara shrugs. "Depends. If that was our arrangement, sure. Flights not withstanding, of course. But, to me, at least, if you weyrmate someone, it's because you want to commit yourself to them, right?" Jaeyi's tone and the question don't really seem to bother her.
Jaeyi's brows draw together, relax momentarily, then resume that same expression-- no, she didn't wind up figuring it out, after all. "I guess? I mean, yes, but I guess it's like you said, it would depend on what your arrangement in. I don't plan on being with just one person, though I could be happy with loving just one person, and knowing that-- I dunno. It's like how those traders are, where people get married but they're still free to enjoy other people if they want to, and it has nothing to do with what happens inside their marriage."
Phara just grins at her for a moment. "That's precisely why I'm not rushing off to weyrmate anyone, see. Leaving my options open." That's exactly what it is. "You know, Jaeyi, it's a shame you don't like flying. I'd take you out guy-hunting at a nice bar down south some time."
"Too far! There's a bar just over there." Jaeyi waves vaguely toward wherever over-there would be, the general direction of the lower cavern. "And I don't hunt guys," she adds with a particularly cocky little tilt of her head, said while she starts reaching for her shoes. Not her socks. "They hunt me. --Can I get you to pack up this blanket and drop it off at the kitchen when you get some time?" The rest, the food and stuff, she starts putting back in her basket, but she obviously doesn't want to kick Phara off the quilt.
Phara snorts. "And I've seen all the guys here." She sighs. "No sense of adventure in you, Jaeyi. Oh well. Someday you can paint my toe nails and I'll get you to some sunny locale with fruity drinks and tanned and tasty sailors." She nods. "Sure, I can do that. Gotta go haul Bennath out anyways, I guess. I'll bring it by after I have him washed, fair deal?"
Jaeyi mmmns, not a thoughtful one, more a tasty one. "I haven't seen all of them. Yet." She tosses the socks over the top of the closed basket, and beams down at Phara about the fate of her blanket. "Thanks, and good luck with that." The hauling, met with a look between Phara-- little!-- and Bennath-- not little! Yeah. She leaves the bluerider to it, swishing off across the bowl toward whatever it is she does between working and more working.
IC Date: 5/23/20
Lakeshore, Fort Weyr
The lake's shore is a broad crescent of golden-hued sand, stretching from the southwest wall near the feeding grounds and arcing toward the southeast and overlooking the blue waters of the lake. Where the lake deepens, that water turns a murkier blue-green, hiding an untold number of perils in its depths. It is an oft-used location for dragons seeking a place to sun or for residents and riders who feel a need to take a stroll; the sand is generally kept pretty clean and while there are no shells, there are periodic bits of obsidian and other volcanic stones to be found if one feels like picking around.
It is just too nice a day for people, even warm-blooded Bollian people, to be holed up indoors. Sometimes, even things like tea and toast need to migrate outside, and that's what's got Jaeyi sitting on her patchwork quilt a safe distance from the shoreline-- though "tea and toast" for the baker tends to imply also jam, honey, a few little cakes, some cookies, a couple of cheeses, crackers, some sticks of celery and carrots... yeah, it's really quite the spread, though likely it was more than just her, as there are three other cups on her teatray. "You're actually going in that water?" she calls, pushing up on one arm so she's not quite so prone, eyeing the souce of that splash dubiously, his rider even moreso.
Phara glances back when someone calls, perhaps reflex. But noticing Jaeyi she lifts her hand to wave and glances back at the water. "I don't think I have a choice," she says with a grimace. "Well. Maybe I can get away with a quick scrub on shore. He's not really that dirty. After he's soaked for awhile." She jams her hands in her pockets and tucks her chin down into the collar of her open riding jacket. "Picnic brunch?" she teases, indicating Jaeyi's spread with her elbow.
The icky-seeming expression answers for how Jaeyi feels about even a light scrub on the shore, her feet-- socks but no shoes, those being set to one side off the blanket-- wiggling in protest of the chill she can imagine. "And people envy dragonriders," she muses merrily, pats a spot on the quilt that's wide open and just waiting for someone to sit there. Presumably Phara. "Mmn? Oh, just a light snack." She smiles all sunny-like, acknowledges the humor that this counts as anything 'light.' "Eat. Even I can't finish it all."
Phara sits down where Jaeyi indicates, dangling her booted feet off the side of the blanket. "Lady, you just said the magic word!" she proclaims, picking up something tasty to munch. "Well, to be fair, I guess I could bath him in the hot springs but he likes the lake better - splashing room. Let me guess, you're a realist with no delusions of being a grand dragonrider?" the last few words probably come out a little funny because she's cramming food now.
Jaeyi's plate is not necessarily clean, not strictly, but it's not filthy or anything. She shakes the crumbs off onto the sand real quick, making some ants very happy in future, and starts piling it with a general mishmash of the remaining stuff-- sweets, savories, randomly lining the plate and then passed toward Phara. "I guess I can respect his position, splashing room, but doesn't really help you much, does it?" she continues, peers toward the water a second. "Realist? Me?" The beam obviously kinda likes that, though the likelihood that it's true seems pretty slim. "Nah, I've just been here long enough now to know better."
Phara doesn't mind crummy plates. "Thanks!" she enthuses, accepting the plate and poking through everything with equal concentration to the conversation. "Not so much. Especially when he dumps me. Sometimes I jump, but only in hte middle of the summer when it's not likely to send me into shock." She sniffs at a cookie and then pops it in her mouth. "You know, the weyrbrats should know better too but most of them would sneak themselves onto the Sands before they're due if they thought they could get away with it."
"I'd offer tea, but it's cold." With a crinkle of her nose. Jaeyi goes back to leaning on both hands now that he's done doling out the food, her attention dancing back and forth between Phara, Phara's food, and Phara's dragon. "Yeah, but they're just little kids, right? I mean, not so many of them would still try and sneak on the sands when they're, like, a little more grown up? I hope."
"You know, some people like cold tea," Phara points out cheerfully. "But it's a little nippy for it right now." She glances over at Bennath, splashing merrily in the water and making waves. "Well, it wouldn't really make sense for them to sneak on when they're older. You know, they usually get to stand if they just ask to. So, you know, pretty pointless to sneak on at that point."
Another nose-crinkle; "Cold tea that's brewed to be cold, maybe. But cold tea that was brewed to be hot?" Jaeyi sticks out her tongue, scrapes it along the back of her teeth-- ewww. Then a slight grin, a slight laugh. "Okay, that's a fair point, I guess. I just meant... don't you think they maybe start to realize that there's more to it than just big-best-friend?" Her forehead lowers to indicate Bennath. In the still-cold water of the lake. Expecting to be washed. "Anyway. I guess the idea of a dragon's nice and all, but it's not exactly all fun and games, is it?"
Phara shrugs her shoulders. "Point there," she agrees easily and nibbles on a carrot stick. She blinks at Jaeyi over it and asks, "That's not what they are?" in her best 'that's news to me' voice. "Kidding. But you know, everything worth having is work, don't you think. There's more to your job than just getting to eat tasty treats all the time, isn't there? But would you ever tell a prospective apprentice the hardships don't outweigh the perks?" She looks over at Bennath. "Children, husbands, friendships, don't they all require work and sacrafice and unpleasantries? I can't honestly say there's a single thing I do for Bennath that makes me sit down and go 'man, what a mistake I made.'"
Jaeyi does not, does /not/ answer what she might tell a prospective apprentice, though she holds a brow-quirked look to Phara before tipping her head back, catching a little sun on the understide of her chin. Like that's the place she needs a tan most of all. "Not to say that being a dragonrider is all work," she clarifies, some small laughter at the edge of her voice. "More that... Uhmn, it's probably not for everyone. Not for me. Neither are children, husbands, and friendships, when you get right down to it, huh? I like things easy and happy and nice. If I had to, say, dip myself in ice water once a day to keep a lover happy? He could go find himself someone else!"
Phara snorts in amusement, ducking her mouth into the palm of her hand to conceal her grin. "You know, Jaeyi, if a man told ME to jump in ice water for him, I'd probably say the same. But they're pain is your pain, and your pain is theirs. If he itches, if his skin flakes, it hurts me too. So the bond is much more... defined, personal than any other relationship you could have. But if you're not into long-term commitment, it might be a hassle. Not saying it's for everyone, just trying to help you understand."
"I know. I mean, I've heard that. I don't /know/ know." Jaeyi amuses herself with the distinction, the humor in her tone even considering her head's still mostly aimed back, absorbing friendly Rukbat. "It wouldn't bother me. The whole long-term-committment thing. More the whole... I dunno. Do you like having someone in your head like that? --I suppose that's not a fair question, huh? You're a rider, you have Bennath, you must like it? Part and parcel?"
Phara considers. "It's different for everyone. It bothered T'rev, the thought of having to share his mind, but him and Mecaith, as far as I can understand it they're not as entwined as some riders are. Me and Ben, we're pretty close. When I'm hurting, he knows exactly what to say to make me feel better. I never have to explain anything to him because he's already there with me and he KNOWS. Very convienient. And when I need privacy, he backs off, no questions. We don't share everything. Or at least, I don't hear everything he thinks and if he hears all my thoughts, he doesn't let on. So I guess it's more like having a best friend who knows you better than anyone ever could and never having to speak out loud." Her lips press together. "Is that it, the big downside? Cuz it's not, not really. I think it's the most wonderful part of us, together. The flying's great and being anywhere I want to be almost in an instant, that's cool too. But the...wholeness - that's exactly it. I'm /whole/." Yep, don't get her started on Benny. You'll never get another word in.
One hand lifts, stops supporting her weight behind her, and gestures to the bluerider. See? She must like it. Jaeyi listens, head tilted to the side instead of straight back, bringing Phara back into her line of sight. "A very big best friend that needs to be coated in oil and likes to dunk in the lake, even when it's freezing," she points out, tacks on a wink lest it sound like she's dissing on Bennath there. "That's not /it/. I'm-- I don't want to walk away from my life right now. Did you think you weren't whole before? Like, was there something noticeably missing?" By the tone, by the knit of her brows, that's not a concept that likely fits for Jaeyi herself.
Phara laughs. "No, I suppose that part isn't so great. But the nice thing about an interval is getting to do other things. Not that I had a craft before or anything. But I still travel whenever I want. I haven't given it ALL up. And I'd say I got a pretty big return for the time I lost. And the oiling just becomes routine. You don't even notice it, really, or mind, after so long doing it." She toes her boots off and then pulls her knees up to her chest, contemplating. "You know what's funny? I didn't even know there was a part of me left empty until Bennath filled it in. I wonder how you can't notice such a big part of you isn't there - it would be like missing a limb or something. I imagine it would probably ache something awful, if I lost him, knowing what I know now."
"Soooo, maybe it's not so much that a part of you was missing as now you have, uhmn, something supplemental?" Jaeyi squints a touch, vaguely toward the sun, though it's likely that the sun has nothing to do with it, being more a thoughtful expression. "Like, if you think about it, everyone who's a dragonrider can't have been incomplete before, right? Or else someone would have figured that out by now. And-- well, I hate to think about how a rider would be without their dragon, but there are bound to be people that /could/ Impress that just never get to try? Like, living at some backwater hold or something, right?"
Phara shrugs. "there's a lot of theories on what makes a dragonrider a rider. Some people think it has to do with having the ability to bond properly - which would explain why not everyone is Searched. Or maybe it is because we're missing something. A dragon won't pick anyone, you know. If the right one for them isn't there, they'll die. That's why there's so many candidates. If it was just a matter of providing a pair for every dragon, you could walk into any room of the weyr, say you, you, and you, and that would be it. Hah. Another great mystery for me, I guess. And sure, I guess there are people who COULD but never did. I imagine there's people like you who COULD but don't want to, right?"
Jaeyi's uhhhmn is prolonged. "Not what I was driving at. I don't think--" But she shakes her head, chasing away the maybes. "It just wouldn't make sense, though, if everyone who got searched had something missing in them. Like, what if you never got searched and were 'supposed' to?" The one hand makes the bendy-finger-quotes. "Does that mean you'd be broken or unwhole or whatever the whole rest of your life? That's a terrible thought." With a serious frown.
Phara shakes her head. "No. I don't think you'd ever even notice. I never did. It's... I don't know. Like ... never eating sweets. If you'd never seen them and never tasted them, you wouldn't know they existed or what you were missing, right? So in a way, you're whole in the sense that you had no clue you were missing anything. It's not ESSENTIAL, but it definitely makes life... better. I can't be sure it's this way for everyone though, you know. Just how it was for me."
"So..." No. Jaeyi shakes her head again, her smile coming to light by the time she gives up propping herself up at all and sinks onto the quilt, one hand hooking up to pillow the back of her head. "This conversation is too big. And I think we're kinda on different sides of the divide. I can't imagine missing something, and you can't imagine not. Makes it hard to find any common ground, huh?"
Grinning, Phara shrugs. "My conversations are always too big. I sometimes wonder that my head doesn't swell up to abnormal proportions and roll off down the bowl." She sets her plate aside and muses. "Wasn't always a rider, you know. I can remember a time when nothing was missing. Quite clearly, actually. But. What are these salty things?" She holds up one of the savory snacks, perhaps a little too close and her eyes cross a little trying to peer at it.
Jaeyi lifts her head without lifting the rest of herself, looks over the horizon of her own, uhmn, attributes till she can see what Phara's messing up her vision to try and recognize. "Onion tartlets with white cheese and that's bacon on top of them." Short version: cholesterol. "I recommend a nice minty gargle to go along with them if you plan on having anyone's tongue in your mouth for the next week after you eat them." Plop, back down with her head. "But tell me what you think? I don't normally put the bacon on them."
Phara pops the tartlet into her mouth and chews thoroughly before replying. "Darling, I haven't had a tongue in my mouth in... well, don't ask, it's depressing. They're good, I like them. And I'm not afraid of onion breath. The bacon's the best part. You should definitely add bacon more often." Food is a happy, easy subject for Phara The Bottomless Pit.
"That's sad." Really. Like, all that talk of dragonless riders and what-not? Did not turn her eyes all tragic the way that confession does. "I'd offer to put my tongue in your mouth, but-- well." She waves her hand vaguely, indicating something or another; simplest guess is probably that they've both been eating those tartlets and it might not go over well? Super potency. "See, everyone should just answer like that. 'Very good! Make them more!' But some people always feel like they have to give some little criticism for some reason." The eye-roll-tone, audible.
Phara makes a face. "No offense, Jaeyi, but... no thanks," she says, grimacing and looking significantly uncomfortable for a moment. But, food!! "Pah. You know, you'll never catch me turning down food. Any food. It's all good." She pats her stomach and sighs. "Some people just can't be happy, gotta find SOMETHING to grumble about."
Hey! "Why not?" Jaeyi pushes herself up on one arm at that, surrendering her whole totally-sprawled-out pose and everything. Despite having just said she won't, she looks distinctly offended at being turned down.
Phara clears her throat. "I don't like women. I mean... sexually." Raging homophobic, her? NEVER! "I mean. Not that you're not a pretty girl. I just... am not comfortable... with gay people, or... having a... gay encounter." She stumbles and stutters through her explaination with a grimace that somewhere sits between comical and pained.
"Why?" So at least this time it's not totally offended, but Jaeyi's pretty darn confused by it. And there's one for the record books? The crafter who's totally okay with it, the bluerider who isn't? "Haven't you ever had to?" She points out toward the water, toward Bennath. Vaguely, since she drops back down at the same time, so her finger just waves aimlessly in the direction she knows the water to be.
Phara shrugs her shoulders. "He doesn't chase, unless I tell him it's okay. I mean, he will go but it's easy to call him back. So no, I haven't ever had to." She passes a hand across her eyes. "Call me holdbound, I just don't think it's right. My oldest brother, he's a bluerider too. I love him, but... I don't think he's right to like men. We don't talk about it, easier that way."
Again; "Why?" Jaeyi tries to shake her head and clarify the question, but it's so fundamental that nothing more comes out, just her head leaning to one side to consider Phara peripherally. "Haven't you ever been attracted to another girl? Or... Mmn, probably some people can't help wanting who they want. Like, there are people I've wanted-- /want/ and it's just visceral, you know? If that person happened to be another woman..." Shrug, so be it.
Phara blanches. "No, never. I don't think of girls that way. I notice if they're attractive but I don't.. /want/ them. Not like I'd want a man I find attractive." Her nose wrinkles. "It's just wrong. Just how I was raised. Just because some people can't help it don't mean... I can't. I don't really believe that anyways. I might be attracted to a married man or... I don't know, the Lord Holder of Crom! But that doesn't mean I should just indulge myself because of that attraction. Why do we have self-control if not to keep us from doing wrong things?"
"But that's different though, isn't it? If he was married, his wife might get hurt. Or if he was the Lord Holder of Crom, his Hold might suffer if he had an affair. If someone's unmarried and available..." Jaeyi trails off again, expecting the point to make itself along those lines. Thoughtful; "Why would we be attracted to people if it was wrong? I mean-- I like Kaida, to give you an example. I think she's attractive and smart and there's something alluring about her. If it weren't for there being bigger things between us than just me thinking she's sexy, I'd totally make a move on her. We wouldn't be hurting anyone, how would it be wrong?"
Phara shrugs her shoulders. "That's you, not me. I won't try to change your mind, I know my views aren't the most popular ones in the Weyr. Just how I feel about it." She sighs and presses her fingertips to her lower lip and then pushes out a breath. "Isn't there something else we could talk about?"
Jaeyi lives in a world of candy and happy and very few things that aren't fair-- and those are all relatively new. So, if she goes on looking puzzled for a spell, let's not hold it against her? "Okay," she commits after a short silence, during which she fails to make any headway on the subject. "What would you like to talk about?" Sunnily offered.
Phara snorts and grins at Jaeyi. "Do you think less of me?" she asks with an appologetic smile. And then: "I don't know. How about... what do you do... when you aren't baking, or... eating?" She spreads her fingers to indicate the blanket.
"No." Which is totally honest, by the way. "I guess that's just the way you're made." Jaeyi doesn't understand it, that much is obvious, but-- "There's a lotta things I don't get, and this can just be another one." No hard feelings, yay! To answer the question, she starts with a lengthy, "Iiiiii paint my toenails? And I sometimes try to learn to mix drinks. And, hmn. I write letters. I keep myself busy, I guess. What do you do?"
Phara grins. "Well, that's good at least. There's lots of things I don't understand either, so we're square." She listens, grinning. "Painting your toenails and mixing drinks? I can't figure out if that's kinda girly or kinda not. Well, I think that would be easy to figure out. When I'm not doing dragonridery-things I travel a lot, go on adventures. Rock climb, raft down the river, that sort of thing. I like seeing new places."
Jaeyi sits forward all at once, snags her sock by the end of it, and-- voila. Today, they're a kind of dark pink, the toes she wiggles for a second before dusting off sock-lint. "It's pretty girly, I admit. But, well." The sock-hand waves, indicates the whole super-femme package that is this particular baker. Second sock, just so she matches. "And /that/," she continues, smirking. "Is the exact opposite of girly. Travel." She makes a face, one that's clearly had this discussion more than once in her life.
Phara applauds roundly at Jaeyi's display. "Yeah, I'm not very girly," she admits sheepishly. "I can't say that I've ever painted my toenails. I /do/ like dresses. Sometimes I wish I was girlier, but that's just me I guess." She catches Jaeyi's glance and asks, "Don't you like new places?"
"If you ever wanna tryyyy it," Jaeyi drawls invitingly, her toes curled and then flexed happily at the thought of infecting yet another person's tootsies. Soon, her master plan will see fruition. "I like new places fine enough, but I don't like getting there. And I like being--" She tilts a look up, at the walls of the bowl, distant but not /so/ distant. "--some place safe. That's just me, I guess." The amused, pointed echo there.
Phara eyes Jaeyi's toenails but squinty-eyed thought. "Maybe," she conceeds, and then grins. "Getting there? Pssh, honey, I get there in /style/." She nods pointedly to Bennath. "And plenty safe, too. Yep. Never been afraid to go anywhere with Benny." She finds another tartlet and pops it in her mouth. "Nothing wrong with not wanting to go outside your comfort zone though, for sure."
"Yeah. Except your version of style and my fear of heights and absolute distaste for that whole 'can't see anything or hear anything or feel anything' issue?" Jaeyi shakes her head seriously; those things just don't jive. "It's not-- Like, I've been places where I know I'm safe, certainly with people I know wouldn't let anything happen to me, I just like being at my home with walls and security? Your aversion to toenail polish and my aversion to wide open spaces probably aren't all that far off."
Phara looks surprised. "You're afraid of Between?" she questions. "Well that explains more than it doesn't, I suppose. And I am /not/ aversed to toenail polish. Just never really been... all girly like that."
"And heights." Between and heights, yes. "So I prefer to keep my painted toes on the ground, except when I pretty much have to go somewhere." With a laugh, Jaeyi answers to Phara's last remarks with her usual levity; "Mmmn, I guess there wouldn't be a need for the word 'tomboy' if they didn't exist, huh?"
Phara scratches at the back of her neck, "So I guess you don't like really going up to people's weyrs?" She has a hard time figuring all this out. "Yep, tomboy. Fit that bill pretty well, especially when I was a teenager. One of the guys, prtty much."
That's a tricky question, so says the pause and the slowly blossoming grin. To her credit, Jaeyi does not look at any particular ledge, just glances generally across the caverns that speckle the walls of the bowl before returning her sideways look to Phara. "Mmmn, I like being in people's weyrs, generally? But, no, not getting there. Though some people are pretty good at being distracting enough that I didn't really notice the getting-there parts." With a twittery, half-eager little sigh at that. Anyway-- "Now? You said it fit when you were a teenager, but now? Do you like being one of the guys?" asks someone who would not.
Phara chuckles. "Uhhhh..huh..." she says slowly, her grin growing in a knowing way. "Distraction," she repeats and smirks. "Now. No. Not now. I would rather... hmmm... be /with/ a guy rather than be one of them."
Jaeyi leaves it at uh-huh, considerate enough not to supply the full details. "I can imagine. Well, no, I can't. I've never liked anything boys like. All that getting dirty and tromping around and stuff?" She shakes her head seriously, makes a face at Phara even as a victim of those icky preferences. "It's okay being by yourself, though?"
Phara grins. "Well. I still like that stuff. But maybe not so much the spitting and the swearing and stuff, you know." She winks and shrugs. "It's okay. I have Bennath. Unless you know someone.." she adds in a teasing tone and follows it up with, "Kidding. Kidding."
"I don't," Jaeyi answers, kidding or not, and actually seems apologetic about it-- truly so. "Well, I mean, I know a few people, but if you're looking for someone to settle down with?" She shakes her head, still seriously, still sorry. "There's that smith I told you about, but he's married. His wife lives off at some cothold, and she doesn't mind what he does when he's 'on the road,' but it's sure not something you can rely on. Everyone else I know--" And by 'know' she means 'screws on a regular basis.' "--is definitely, definitely not the settling-down type."
"Don't give me that look. I'm not going to crucify you for being a girl." Phara chortles to herself. "No, no, really, I was kidding. I'll find someone eventually, you know, the proper way. Well, not that a friend setting you up isn't proper but... never mind. Digging myself a nice little hole."
Jaeyi's, "Proooobably," is both musing and light, bordering on glib in tone. "Probably, I'd be a bad friend to ask for a hook-up, anyways. The kinda guys I attract and the kinda guys you'd be looking for?" She grins a little crookedly at the thought, a side-by-side of her type and Phara's type and... "Yeah. But if you ever want some advice? That thing about the way to a man's heart being through his stomach is actually pretty true, though a man's-- er." Ahem. "Works better."
Phara can't help but giggle at Jaeyi's advice. "Oh yeah, I got that one nailed." She snorts though and leans in to bump the baker's shoulder lightly with her own. "Pah, what do you know about my type. Maybe I'm some ... I dunno...man sucking ...bitch. No, you know what, don't even reply to that. Aside from being very picky about who I want to have a child with... the rest, not so much. I just don't sleep with everyone who crosses my path - don't mean I'm opposed to a one-offer."
Cough. "If you could get yourself a little button that said 'man sucker,' I bet you could get all kinds of dates!" A little circle made with her thumb and index finger indicates right where Jaeyi would wear that button, right where a guy would be likely to look first, and it sure ain't that bumped shoulder. "If you want, I could introduce you to that smith next time he's here? He is really, uhmn, good. To be frank about it. And he's so totally not looking to make babies outside his marriage."
Phara rolls her eyes. "Yeah, but what would it do to my reputation? Shards, the look on my wingmates' faces if I showed up with THAT on at drills. The look on /T'rev's/ face." She's choking back laughter for a minute. "Nah. I believe you, but I think that one falls into my dubious and strange line of moral wrongs."
Brightly; "They might like it!" But, then, Jaeyi does have that tendency to project, and while /she/ might pull off a bustline button claiming to suck men... She gives up that line of thought pretty quickly, blinking anew at Phara. "Why? What's wrong about it? Because he's married?"
Phara snorts in amusement and pats her flat chest with a sigh. "They might. Or they might think I was just being crazy old Phara again." She nods at the last question. "Of course. It's like...earlier. Even if it's not hurting anyone, that doesn't necessarily make it right. In my mind, at least."
"So. If you had, like, a weyrmate or something, you'd be just totally him and you?" Jaeyi probably ought to work on not sounding so dang incredulous, but blame it on youth and naievete! In this, at least.
Phara shrugs. "Depends. If that was our arrangement, sure. Flights not withstanding, of course. But, to me, at least, if you weyrmate someone, it's because you want to commit yourself to them, right?" Jaeyi's tone and the question don't really seem to bother her.
Jaeyi's brows draw together, relax momentarily, then resume that same expression-- no, she didn't wind up figuring it out, after all. "I guess? I mean, yes, but I guess it's like you said, it would depend on what your arrangement in. I don't plan on being with just one person, though I could be happy with loving just one person, and knowing that-- I dunno. It's like how those traders are, where people get married but they're still free to enjoy other people if they want to, and it has nothing to do with what happens inside their marriage."
Phara just grins at her for a moment. "That's precisely why I'm not rushing off to weyrmate anyone, see. Leaving my options open." That's exactly what it is. "You know, Jaeyi, it's a shame you don't like flying. I'd take you out guy-hunting at a nice bar down south some time."
"Too far! There's a bar just over there." Jaeyi waves vaguely toward wherever over-there would be, the general direction of the lower cavern. "And I don't hunt guys," she adds with a particularly cocky little tilt of her head, said while she starts reaching for her shoes. Not her socks. "They hunt me. --Can I get you to pack up this blanket and drop it off at the kitchen when you get some time?" The rest, the food and stuff, she starts putting back in her basket, but she obviously doesn't want to kick Phara off the quilt.
Phara snorts. "And I've seen all the guys here." She sighs. "No sense of adventure in you, Jaeyi. Oh well. Someday you can paint my toe nails and I'll get you to some sunny locale with fruity drinks and tanned and tasty sailors." She nods. "Sure, I can do that. Gotta go haul Bennath out anyways, I guess. I'll bring it by after I have him washed, fair deal?"
Jaeyi mmmns, not a thoughtful one, more a tasty one. "I haven't seen all of them. Yet." She tosses the socks over the top of the closed basket, and beams down at Phara about the fate of her blanket. "Thanks, and good luck with that." The hauling, met with a look between Phara-- little!-- and Bennath-- not little! Yeah. She leaves the bluerider to it, swishing off across the bowl toward whatever it is she does between working and more working.