Today's euphemism: cupcakes.
RL Date: 9/13/09
IC Date: 9/28/20
Kitchen, Fort Weyr
Fort's kitchens are both immense and well-appointed, which ensures that the kitchen staff is able to feed the Weyr's populace as efficiently as possible. The counters are carved out of the native granite, smoothed and polished through turns of use; there are several stoves and ovens placed along the walls, leaving plenty of room for various cooks to do their job and not be tripping over their fellows. Any ingredients or tools they may need can be found in drawers and cabinets, either within arm's reach or within reach of drudges. Hanging from the ceiling and on hooks on the wall are copper utensils, pots, and pans, all quite well-worn, but still serviceable.
In the middle of this room are a couple of 'islands', composed of wood and with marble countertops, to allow assistants to prepare things and not need to get in the way of the cooks using the main counters. Dumb waiters are located out of the way, but still convenient for getting food down to the living cavern, rather than needing to send people down the stairs. Despite the constant motion and activity -- which slows only at night, but never fully ceases -- everything is meticulously kept clean, from top to bottom.
"Mmm, guess so," T'rev answers about the timeline mix and match there, winks at her about the pigtail tug. "Sorry. You've got lovely hair," he tells her sincerely though. "And I don't know if a job makes a person interesting or not, it's more just ... who they are. I mean, if I weren't Weyrleader, I'd still be me, right? And if you were oh ... Lady of Fort, you'd still be you?" And there's his charming smile again. "So what's on the list of 'don't want to be'?"
There's a stack of dirty dishes waiting to get scraped off, but instead Genefra is over there talking to the Weyrleader at his late lunch instead, and very busily blushing. "Um. Thank you. I think." There's a way to shut her up. A little bit. It doesn't last. "Okay, so maybe if you weren't Weyrleader you'd still be interesting, and I'd still be a very dull Lady Fort. I don't think that's very likely, though. The Fort boys are all practically babies. And I've never been there." Like this was possibly a serious suggestion on his part? She toys with her hair as she goes on. "Um. I don't want to do dishes my whole life. I definitely don't want to be a crafter because I'd be pretty bad at all of 'em. I don't think I want to work in storage because it smells funny. That's pretty much it so far."
Jaeyi and another girl, pretty strawberry-brunette Riisa, come up from the stores bearing dual arm-loads of fresh laundry, the fairer girl with folded up dishtowels and the darker with aprons, some last giggle between them before their separate burdens part their paths. It's on her way to the hooks where those aprons go that she has to back-track a few steps, blinking at the empty spot in front of the stacked dishes. "Where's the dishwasher?" is her very logical question, her voice raised a little to those in the immediate vicinity. It's an older woman, one fussing over a pot of chowder to go out with dinner, her answers around a grin, "Looking at someone else's legs for a change, one'd hope! Though there was a little girl here earlier..."
"Yeah, Astivan's only twelve, almost thirteen. But you never know, he could grow up dashing like his uncle Esraval and you could catch his eye and boom, there you go, then you'd be almost Lady Fort, right?" He chuckles a little, picks up the soup bowl and empties out the last of the broth with a swallow, has a swig of beer, then picks up that nectarine and turns it around to find a good first spot to bite into. "You might not have done a lot of crazy things, and you might not be a big wig, but that doesn't mean you're not interesting. I think that -- " and /that/ voice cuts through what he was saying and T'rev's head drops to the side and he grins. "She's over here, Jaeyi. I kidnapped her," he calls out, looks back at Genefra. "What was I saying? Oh yeah, it's not what you do sometimes, it's how you do it."
"I didn't get kidnapped, I--" Genefra doesn't finish the sentence right off, possibly because it occurs that it's probably better to let the Weyrleader take responsibility for this one. Trouble is, it's still not true. "I just got distracted." At least she's not a fibber, then, one might assume. Chatterbox, yes. Then, to T'rev, "Even if he grows up dashing, he'll still be four turns younger'n me. That would be weird. Anyway, I'd make a rotten Lady Fort. I don't dress right to be Lady Fort. Everybody seems to think I don't even dress right to be me. And I wouldn't want people looking at me all the time and wanting me to behave a certain way and be ladylike because talking probably isn't. I don't know how I do things. I just do them." Loquaciously, that's obvious.
Jaeyi makes with a dramatic huff, takes a few steps backward to get a good line-of-sight to where T'rev's absconded with the dishwasher, mostly making sure she's visible for that huff. "My goodness, Weyrleader, can't you leave /any/ of the kitchen staff alone? Tsk tsk tsk, Cirse'll have you handing out dirty spoons for this, likely." There's a quick curl of her fingers for Genefra, just so the theatrics aren't taken too seriously, and she bounces off to hang the aprons with a be-right-back smile for the pair of them.
"That was a joke," T'rev confesses to Genefra, sotto voce about the kidnapping and he winks at her and takes a bite out of the fruit. "Would it be? Really?" he asks her almost philosophically about the age difference. "After a certain age, I'm told, it don't matter so much anymore." And there he goes grinning again, mischief in those dimples. The nectarine turns and he cocks a look at her. "Not every lady's a fashion plate, though yeah, folks do tend to expect it of Fort." Jaeyi's exclamation makes him laugh though and he gives her a little wave. "I'm inc-incorrigible. That's the word."
Joke or no joke, Genefra's still firmly red-eared and that doesn't seem to be going anyway anytime soon. "He's not bothering me," she offers to Jaeyi. And then she gets distracted by this notion of--"Ew, yes, it would still be weird. It's always going to be weird. To know that when a boy was twelve I was sixteen? Yuck." Accompanied by the usual variety of 'yuck' faces. She has a number of them in her repetoire. "Why would Cirse have you handing out dirty spoons?" then, with furrowed brow, in a quieter and utterly baffled voice while Jaeyi's off elsewhere.
Jaeyi puts on the last apron, ties it around her waist tidily, and passes by that older woman, Trish for those keeping score, to pass along an in-the-ear whisper. It's true what they say about kitchens and gossip, yes. Her way back around to the two of them is thus a little long, giving time to answer whatever little secret questions might be trying to finish before she's officially on the scene. "It's Gen-something," she comments on her way over. "I'm sorry, I know you've been in here before, and I feel like I ought to stop calling you 'that red-headed girl.'"
Amused, T'rev takes another bite out of the nectarine he's got. "You get over it, trust me," he says blithely about age differences. Given that here comes the girl who was all of /ten/ when he impressed. "Hmmm. Spoons. Punishment for flirting too much with girls much too young for me," he quips merrily, which isn't quite the truth, but it's close. His non-fruit-holding hand extends though as Jaeyi provides part of a name. "Don't think we did introduce properly. T'rev," the Weyrleader says absolutely needlessly, but it's the principle of the thing. "Hi Jae."
"Oh, good," Genefra replies to T'rev with a long exhale like relief. "Well, it's a good thing you're not doing that, then." She may be oblivious or in denial. Quite possibly. But at least the blush is finally going down again. "It's Genefra. But that's okay. I answer to all kinds of things at this point. Red-headed girl is better than some things. I don't think I know yours, either," to Jaeyi. A bob of the head in T'rev's direction. "I knew his, but then so does everybody else. I've been away for turns and turns so I have to meet everyone all over again, and it seems like half the place is all new people and even the ones I remember don't always remember me. Or other way around."
It's not a peach, no, but Jaeyi does bounce onto her toes a moment to eye T'rev's fruit with a little bite at the corner of her mouth. "Now where did you get that, sir?" Which is public-speak for 'where's mine?' She's got a few things left to collect, a lot of moving about the general vicinity, using the counter just down from them a ways, chattering in between, "Genefra. Hi. I promise I'll remember you from now on, just I don't think we ever got introduced. I'm Jaeyi, the baker. You're not really a dishwasher, are you?" There's doubt in that last question, like she can't pair the girl to the task by looks alone, and she tosses that doubt toward T'rev-- she's not really, is she?
That makes T'rev chuckle, dimples showing up in his cheeks again. "Good thing," he says deadpan and shoots Jaeyi a sly look, but contents himself with taking another bite of fruit. She's not returning his handshake so the Weyrleader drops his hand back down to the countertop. "Genefra. Well met." The nectarine is held out Jaeyi's way for a bite when she trots by next. "Genefra found it for me. She's very helpful that way," the Weyrleader notes.
"I was scraping plates so someone could wash? I can wash dishes, though. If I have to." None of this is obviously high on Genefra's list of activities. Finding fruit on the other hand--"Oh! There were more. Yes. Hold on." Scrambling off back to find them, returning with another in very short order. Very easily distracted, yes. "I try to be helpful. I don't want people to think I'm a lazy bum, even if sometimes I am a little bit. It would be bad for people to think that. And anyway, finding things now means I'll know where things are later when I need them. There's a lot to learn."
Jaeyi, grinning; "Which still leaves the question of where the dishwasher went. Hmph." For all she's not fond of him, she still gives his empty spot a bit of a cross look, though that's gone soon enough to catch a bite of T'rev's nectarine. "Such a generous Weyrleader we've got," she answers with a brief squeeze of fingers for his wrist before she lets go to resume her staging. "You don't need to--" But Genefra's gone off already, and she blinks after her. "Wow, she could certainly make a person feel focused, hmn?" is the remark shared with T'rev during the girl's absence. "Thank you, I'll make sure to tell anyone who calls you a lazy bum that they're just flat-out wrong, promise." Nectarine next to the big bowl next to the measuring cups on the counter.
"I try," T'rev tells Jaeyi humorously and his eyes track her away through staging. "Mm, busy girl," he says of Genefra while she's away. Upon her return: "I don't think that lazy bum really springs to mind, no. If you asked, I'd definitely recommend your work ethic," the Weyrleader jokes, smiling at Genefra again.
"Thank you," to both of them at once, and Genefra beams with pride. Never mind how ridiculously small a thing a nectarine might be. "I like to stay busy. Idle hands are evil's playground or something. I heard that once. It wasn't my mom. Who was it? I don't remember. I don't think I've ever really been idle. Or evil. I mean, I know I've never been evil." Only then does she get around to noticing Jaeyi's activities. "What're you making today?" No chance whatsoever of disguising the hopeful tone in her voice.
Jaeyi mmns praisingly at the I-try, leaning a hip against the counter for a second to pass a look over to the Weyrleader to congratulate his generosity, a simple treat for a simple trait. But then she does actually have some stuff to do, adding, "Oh, if you like to stay busy, I'm sure we could find some sorta work for you in here. Better than scraping plates. Unless you like scraping plates; you don't, do you? --I'm making cupcakes." Happy to report that, too. "With raspberry jam in them."
Munching on the rest of his nectarine, T'rev listens to this little speech with slowly rising brows. Eventually he licks a bit of juice off of his thumb and then some more off of his forefinger. "Evil," he echoes looking bemused. But then: cupcakes and T'rev beams. "Sounds good. Bet they'll be delicious. Save me one?" Because it's likely he needs to get back to doing Weyrleaderly things long before they're ready.
This is probably a foregone conclusion, but: "I like cupcakes," says Genefra, as though that isn't true of practically every human being on the planet. "I don't really like scraping dishes but mostly it's just the standing around bit, the just standing there scraping stuff off plates bit. Well, and old food is kinda gross, but that's not really the worst bit. I just didn't have anybody to talk to!" Which is vitally important for someone like Genefra. Who would have thought?
"Come and get them if you want them," Jaeyi answers back, hands wiped briefly on the front of her apron before she's busy measuring this, sifting that, all the not-so-exciting stuff that comes with making cupcakes for a few hundred lucky weyrfolk who get in line quickly enough. "You can talk to the dishwasher if he ever turns up. Though--" She puts on a stage whisper for Genefra. "--I don't recommend it if you can help it. He's kinda..." Cough. "Anyways. Trish'll find you a good job if you wanna work in here. It's always busy, so you won't get bored, I'm pretty sure. And we do like to talk." Gossip.
"Can't," T'rev says with audible regret as he drops the nectarine's pit onto his empty plate, reaches for the long-abandoned napkin that lies there and wipes his hands more properly. "Won't be here for dinner," he notes lightly enough and smiles at both young ladies. His next target is his beer mug for a few swallows. "They do like to talk down here. You'll hear all sorts of tall tales about riders," he says gaily enough and shoots a twinkly look Jaeyi's way.
"But everybody--" Genefra eyes Jaeyi and then revises to both, "Just about everybody's so much older'n me. It's not very interesting." Picky, picky. "But I'm okay anyhow. It doesn't really matter. I don't mind going where I'm needed, it makes me feel useful. And helpful! And at least there's some variety that way." Head tilt then, back to the baker. "He's kinda what?" She's not so great on the picking up implications about things, evidently. "Tall tales about riders--well, I guess that's something," although she doesn't sound precisely raptly interested.
Important distinction. "It's not dinner. It's dessert. But I'lllll--" Jaeyi looks sorry about it, no doubt about that. "--save one for you." Her hand waves vaguely to indicate the everyone that's supposedly older than Genefra, most of those people really busy in their own stuff at the moment, though eyes will occasionally chase over toward the Weyrleader. And two teenage girls. Presumably, he's used to it. She sure is. "He's kinda different. Getta job in here, and I'll explain what exactly I mean, 'kay?" How's that for a dangling carrot! Less so is the straightforward, "He's talking about the fact that you'll probably hear about how T'rev likes to walk through here butt-naked sometimes. Which is only partially true."
"Are they?" T'rev looks around some more at some of the kitchen assistants who just can't be that much older than Genefra, right? He's forgetting already, how twenty can seem old to sixteen. "Thank you, sweetheart," T'rev tells Jaeyi chipperly however about the cupcake. And then she's being straightforward and he just grins sunnily at Genefra. "Just once, no matter what anyone might tell you," he says, confidentially.
That blush that had finally started to go away? Back again. For being weyrbred, Genefra does seem inclined to that. Or maybe it's just that for being so chatty, she's more shy than she looks. She elects to stick with responding to the first part of that, not the second. "Kinda different. Right." The flood of words seems to have slowed to a dribble. "I don't know how you can be around cupcakes and stuff all the time and not be enormous," seems somehow like a safer comment to make towards Jaeyi. "I would be enormous."
Jaeyi glances over to catch the blush, blinks at it a few times, turns the blink toward T'rev with a sort of helplessness, and then tells the bowl in front of her, "We're really gonna have to work on that." With a deep breath, this being quite the serious matter, people who blush! Then there's a long uhhhhhhhmn, a look down at her person, and a big old bunch of sugar dumped into the bowl. "Well, I'm not, like, skinny or anything?"
Jaeyi's look drops T'rev's head downward as he leans against the counter, weight spread across his elbows, arms folded. And then Genefra says that about Jae's figure and the baked goods and his shoulders start shaking. One hand lifts to bracket his eyebrows from above, shading his face from view. Poker face: fail.
The redhead gives T'rev a look like he's just gone completely mad. Genefra then gives Jaeyi a more muted version of the same look, and says, "Well, anyway, you're not like huge or anything. That's all I meant. What's so funny about that? Exercise is good, though. Very healthy. I think. I dunno, I just try not to eat too much, anyway. Especially sweets. But they're so good." The bafflement is at least forgotten at this point; she can't hold something like that in her head for that long.
"T'rev." Jaeyi puts a balled-up hand on her very-not-skinny hip and waits until the bronzerider gets through his giggling fit. "You are so on the verge of losing your cupcake rights. Contaaaain yourself." But even the warning look is tinged with fond amusement, 'cause-- well, she gets the joke. "Seriously, though. If you do wanna work in here some more, I'll tell Trish, and she can give you some work to do that's pretty okay. It's pretty good work, except when there're lecherous riders around making bad jokes."
"Exercise is definitely /very/ good," T'rev says back in control of the giggles at least, though my gosh, the wickedness in his eyes as he says that /deadpan/. "Very good for your health. I'm /totally/ one hundred percent behind exercise. Lots of it." He pushes upright off the counter and crosses over to Jaeyi, still grinning. "I am /not/ lecherous," he says very seriously, but he does reach for her hand, just her hand, to press a kiss to its floury back. "But I do make /terribly/ jokes." He straightens again smiling sunnily. "And I will leave you both now, to figure out Genefra's sure to be long and name-makin' career. Genefra, honestly, it's been a pleasure talkin' with you and /thank you/ for the nectarine," T'rev says sincerely, rests a hand to his heart and gives her a little half-bow. "Now, I need to go get ready for dinner with Lord Fort and if you can all think good thoughts for me, I am goin' to need them." Beat. "Jae --" but he only smiles, doesn't say anything else and turns to head out through the double doors to the living cavern.
"You're welcome. I mean, anytime. I mean, it was nice to meet you, T'rev-Weyrleader-sir." Cover all the bases there, Genefra. "Good luck! With whatever it is. Have a nice time!" She waves after him with wiggled fingers and then turns attention back to the baker's work. "That's so weird. Actually having a conversation with the Weyrleader. And he kissed your hand? That's so very chivalrous, I think. Don't you think?" Then something just starts to register. "Wait."
It's just a hand-kiss, but here's indoctrination into kitchen-gossip for Genefra: Jaeyi is stupidly enamored of the Weyrleader, and the dishwasher-- who returns just about that time-- does not care for it at all, and sets to banging pots and pans vigorously until Dimples there has fled the scene. Turning back to her work, she does call after T'rev, "Tell Lord Fort's brother I'm looking forward to the Hold's next Gather, hmn? I'm always happy to run into him!" Which thought makes her beam while she's measuring things, distracts her so she's just kinda nodding along with Genefra. Yes, weird; yes, chivalrous; yes, wait. "Wait. Wait?"
At the doors, a grin surfaces over T'rev's shoulder. "I'll definitely give Esraval your regards," he says merrily and the doors swing open letting in the mild hubbub of the cavern outside, then the Weyrleader's gone for now.
There's a teensy bit more blushing now, even though there's no really discernable reason for it. "Never mind," Genefra decides, with a glance after where the Weyrleader went. "You've met Lord Fort's brother? Wow. I've never even talked to a Weyrleader before! He's pretty nice, though. Nicer than I thought, I guess. Although I think he was kinda teasing me, which isn't really nice, but maybe he meant it in a nice way. About my hair and stuff."
Jaeyi's happy to report, "I have!" Met him. "He's actually really, like, nice and stuff, though he's pretty formal. Not like T'rev. Handsome, though." She even fans her face a touch at the mention of those looks, as though a ridiculously attractive man didn't just leave not ten seconds ago. A blink follows, one with her head cocked while she stirs almost mechanically, not so much thought put into the action. "Are you sure that he was really teasing you? I mean, he'd tease about some things, but about your hair and your clothes?" Quick; "Not that there's anything wrong with them. You're cute."
A little giggle. "Well, I don't mean teasing in a mean way. Just saying... you know, stuff." Vague in the familiar manner of adolescence, is Genefra. "Anyway, isn't he kind of... old-ish? If Lord Fort's in his thirties, then that'd make his brother... just ancient." By her standards, anyhow. "Anyway, thanks. It's nice to know that some people don't think I'm a total freak. I'm so self-conscious lately." She brushes a stray strand of hair out of her face. "Moving is hard."
"I think he's only about thirty, too." Uhmn, "Thirty, also. Not thirty-two. Or maybe he's thirty-two." Jaeyi shrugs a little at that, none too concerned. "He's still handsome. Plus, he's really-- smooth? I guess that's the word. Like, his manners are really nice, and he always says the right thing." Idle; "T'rev's twenty-four." She glances briefly over her shoulder the way the Weyrleader went, looking back to Genefra with an easy smile in place. "Oh, don't let the people here make you feel bad about yourself. Most of them are either totally stuck up or total hypocrites. But it is hard," she agrees with a sigh-and-nod. "Where'd you come from before here?"
"Only thirty!" Genefra rolls her eyes for that, which seems to apply just as much to the twenty-four afterwards. "Might as well be a hundred or something. Ick." A disgusted face; yes, she has a lot of them. "I was born here. But Benden, most recently. My parents split up. And then got back together. It's complicated. I knew people here growing up, but everybody's different now. Like, I know these two girls who used to be like best friends, and now they hate each other. And the other day this lady I don't even know started insulting my clothes." She leaves out the tears, though. Those don't need to be mentioned.
Jaeyi, sympathetically, "Oh, so it's not even just moving, it's moving /back/. Wow, yeah, I can see how that'd be even worse, really." Well-dressed she may be, but the baker doesn't seem to have paid much attention to the other girl's attire-- some of which probably owes to the curly-haired distraction, but he's gone and she doesn't turn up her nose or anything. "Uhmn, I gotta go get some stuff out of the stores, but if you go talk to that woman--" She points out the older woman, Trish. "--she can give you some better work than scraping plates. And maybe I'll see you around in here more?"
Finally a concession. "I'll do that. But then you have to dish about--" And Genefra tilts her head in the dishwasher's direction, "the next time I see you!" Big toothy grin to follow. All that earlier blushing forgotten completely, it seems. The thing about having a short attention span is that look, ooh, there's something shiny. "Thanks. I owe you one, I guess!" Presuming the next chore does indeed turn out to be slightly better than the one left behind, anyhow.
IC Date: 9/28/20
Kitchen, Fort Weyr
Fort's kitchens are both immense and well-appointed, which ensures that the kitchen staff is able to feed the Weyr's populace as efficiently as possible. The counters are carved out of the native granite, smoothed and polished through turns of use; there are several stoves and ovens placed along the walls, leaving plenty of room for various cooks to do their job and not be tripping over their fellows. Any ingredients or tools they may need can be found in drawers and cabinets, either within arm's reach or within reach of drudges. Hanging from the ceiling and on hooks on the wall are copper utensils, pots, and pans, all quite well-worn, but still serviceable.
In the middle of this room are a couple of 'islands', composed of wood and with marble countertops, to allow assistants to prepare things and not need to get in the way of the cooks using the main counters. Dumb waiters are located out of the way, but still convenient for getting food down to the living cavern, rather than needing to send people down the stairs. Despite the constant motion and activity -- which slows only at night, but never fully ceases -- everything is meticulously kept clean, from top to bottom.
"Mmm, guess so," T'rev answers about the timeline mix and match there, winks at her about the pigtail tug. "Sorry. You've got lovely hair," he tells her sincerely though. "And I don't know if a job makes a person interesting or not, it's more just ... who they are. I mean, if I weren't Weyrleader, I'd still be me, right? And if you were oh ... Lady of Fort, you'd still be you?" And there's his charming smile again. "So what's on the list of 'don't want to be'?"
There's a stack of dirty dishes waiting to get scraped off, but instead Genefra is over there talking to the Weyrleader at his late lunch instead, and very busily blushing. "Um. Thank you. I think." There's a way to shut her up. A little bit. It doesn't last. "Okay, so maybe if you weren't Weyrleader you'd still be interesting, and I'd still be a very dull Lady Fort. I don't think that's very likely, though. The Fort boys are all practically babies. And I've never been there." Like this was possibly a serious suggestion on his part? She toys with her hair as she goes on. "Um. I don't want to do dishes my whole life. I definitely don't want to be a crafter because I'd be pretty bad at all of 'em. I don't think I want to work in storage because it smells funny. That's pretty much it so far."
Jaeyi and another girl, pretty strawberry-brunette Riisa, come up from the stores bearing dual arm-loads of fresh laundry, the fairer girl with folded up dishtowels and the darker with aprons, some last giggle between them before their separate burdens part their paths. It's on her way to the hooks where those aprons go that she has to back-track a few steps, blinking at the empty spot in front of the stacked dishes. "Where's the dishwasher?" is her very logical question, her voice raised a little to those in the immediate vicinity. It's an older woman, one fussing over a pot of chowder to go out with dinner, her answers around a grin, "Looking at someone else's legs for a change, one'd hope! Though there was a little girl here earlier..."
"Yeah, Astivan's only twelve, almost thirteen. But you never know, he could grow up dashing like his uncle Esraval and you could catch his eye and boom, there you go, then you'd be almost Lady Fort, right?" He chuckles a little, picks up the soup bowl and empties out the last of the broth with a swallow, has a swig of beer, then picks up that nectarine and turns it around to find a good first spot to bite into. "You might not have done a lot of crazy things, and you might not be a big wig, but that doesn't mean you're not interesting. I think that -- " and /that/ voice cuts through what he was saying and T'rev's head drops to the side and he grins. "She's over here, Jaeyi. I kidnapped her," he calls out, looks back at Genefra. "What was I saying? Oh yeah, it's not what you do sometimes, it's how you do it."
"I didn't get kidnapped, I--" Genefra doesn't finish the sentence right off, possibly because it occurs that it's probably better to let the Weyrleader take responsibility for this one. Trouble is, it's still not true. "I just got distracted." At least she's not a fibber, then, one might assume. Chatterbox, yes. Then, to T'rev, "Even if he grows up dashing, he'll still be four turns younger'n me. That would be weird. Anyway, I'd make a rotten Lady Fort. I don't dress right to be Lady Fort. Everybody seems to think I don't even dress right to be me. And I wouldn't want people looking at me all the time and wanting me to behave a certain way and be ladylike because talking probably isn't. I don't know how I do things. I just do them." Loquaciously, that's obvious.
Jaeyi makes with a dramatic huff, takes a few steps backward to get a good line-of-sight to where T'rev's absconded with the dishwasher, mostly making sure she's visible for that huff. "My goodness, Weyrleader, can't you leave /any/ of the kitchen staff alone? Tsk tsk tsk, Cirse'll have you handing out dirty spoons for this, likely." There's a quick curl of her fingers for Genefra, just so the theatrics aren't taken too seriously, and she bounces off to hang the aprons with a be-right-back smile for the pair of them.
"That was a joke," T'rev confesses to Genefra, sotto voce about the kidnapping and he winks at her and takes a bite out of the fruit. "Would it be? Really?" he asks her almost philosophically about the age difference. "After a certain age, I'm told, it don't matter so much anymore." And there he goes grinning again, mischief in those dimples. The nectarine turns and he cocks a look at her. "Not every lady's a fashion plate, though yeah, folks do tend to expect it of Fort." Jaeyi's exclamation makes him laugh though and he gives her a little wave. "I'm inc-incorrigible. That's the word."
Joke or no joke, Genefra's still firmly red-eared and that doesn't seem to be going anyway anytime soon. "He's not bothering me," she offers to Jaeyi. And then she gets distracted by this notion of--"Ew, yes, it would still be weird. It's always going to be weird. To know that when a boy was twelve I was sixteen? Yuck." Accompanied by the usual variety of 'yuck' faces. She has a number of them in her repetoire. "Why would Cirse have you handing out dirty spoons?" then, with furrowed brow, in a quieter and utterly baffled voice while Jaeyi's off elsewhere.
Jaeyi puts on the last apron, ties it around her waist tidily, and passes by that older woman, Trish for those keeping score, to pass along an in-the-ear whisper. It's true what they say about kitchens and gossip, yes. Her way back around to the two of them is thus a little long, giving time to answer whatever little secret questions might be trying to finish before she's officially on the scene. "It's Gen-something," she comments on her way over. "I'm sorry, I know you've been in here before, and I feel like I ought to stop calling you 'that red-headed girl.'"
Amused, T'rev takes another bite out of the nectarine he's got. "You get over it, trust me," he says blithely about age differences. Given that here comes the girl who was all of /ten/ when he impressed. "Hmmm. Spoons. Punishment for flirting too much with girls much too young for me," he quips merrily, which isn't quite the truth, but it's close. His non-fruit-holding hand extends though as Jaeyi provides part of a name. "Don't think we did introduce properly. T'rev," the Weyrleader says absolutely needlessly, but it's the principle of the thing. "Hi Jae."
"Oh, good," Genefra replies to T'rev with a long exhale like relief. "Well, it's a good thing you're not doing that, then." She may be oblivious or in denial. Quite possibly. But at least the blush is finally going down again. "It's Genefra. But that's okay. I answer to all kinds of things at this point. Red-headed girl is better than some things. I don't think I know yours, either," to Jaeyi. A bob of the head in T'rev's direction. "I knew his, but then so does everybody else. I've been away for turns and turns so I have to meet everyone all over again, and it seems like half the place is all new people and even the ones I remember don't always remember me. Or other way around."
It's not a peach, no, but Jaeyi does bounce onto her toes a moment to eye T'rev's fruit with a little bite at the corner of her mouth. "Now where did you get that, sir?" Which is public-speak for 'where's mine?' She's got a few things left to collect, a lot of moving about the general vicinity, using the counter just down from them a ways, chattering in between, "Genefra. Hi. I promise I'll remember you from now on, just I don't think we ever got introduced. I'm Jaeyi, the baker. You're not really a dishwasher, are you?" There's doubt in that last question, like she can't pair the girl to the task by looks alone, and she tosses that doubt toward T'rev-- she's not really, is she?
That makes T'rev chuckle, dimples showing up in his cheeks again. "Good thing," he says deadpan and shoots Jaeyi a sly look, but contents himself with taking another bite of fruit. She's not returning his handshake so the Weyrleader drops his hand back down to the countertop. "Genefra. Well met." The nectarine is held out Jaeyi's way for a bite when she trots by next. "Genefra found it for me. She's very helpful that way," the Weyrleader notes.
"I was scraping plates so someone could wash? I can wash dishes, though. If I have to." None of this is obviously high on Genefra's list of activities. Finding fruit on the other hand--"Oh! There were more. Yes. Hold on." Scrambling off back to find them, returning with another in very short order. Very easily distracted, yes. "I try to be helpful. I don't want people to think I'm a lazy bum, even if sometimes I am a little bit. It would be bad for people to think that. And anyway, finding things now means I'll know where things are later when I need them. There's a lot to learn."
Jaeyi, grinning; "Which still leaves the question of where the dishwasher went. Hmph." For all she's not fond of him, she still gives his empty spot a bit of a cross look, though that's gone soon enough to catch a bite of T'rev's nectarine. "Such a generous Weyrleader we've got," she answers with a brief squeeze of fingers for his wrist before she lets go to resume her staging. "You don't need to--" But Genefra's gone off already, and she blinks after her. "Wow, she could certainly make a person feel focused, hmn?" is the remark shared with T'rev during the girl's absence. "Thank you, I'll make sure to tell anyone who calls you a lazy bum that they're just flat-out wrong, promise." Nectarine next to the big bowl next to the measuring cups on the counter.
"I try," T'rev tells Jaeyi humorously and his eyes track her away through staging. "Mm, busy girl," he says of Genefra while she's away. Upon her return: "I don't think that lazy bum really springs to mind, no. If you asked, I'd definitely recommend your work ethic," the Weyrleader jokes, smiling at Genefra again.
"Thank you," to both of them at once, and Genefra beams with pride. Never mind how ridiculously small a thing a nectarine might be. "I like to stay busy. Idle hands are evil's playground or something. I heard that once. It wasn't my mom. Who was it? I don't remember. I don't think I've ever really been idle. Or evil. I mean, I know I've never been evil." Only then does she get around to noticing Jaeyi's activities. "What're you making today?" No chance whatsoever of disguising the hopeful tone in her voice.
Jaeyi mmns praisingly at the I-try, leaning a hip against the counter for a second to pass a look over to the Weyrleader to congratulate his generosity, a simple treat for a simple trait. But then she does actually have some stuff to do, adding, "Oh, if you like to stay busy, I'm sure we could find some sorta work for you in here. Better than scraping plates. Unless you like scraping plates; you don't, do you? --I'm making cupcakes." Happy to report that, too. "With raspberry jam in them."
Munching on the rest of his nectarine, T'rev listens to this little speech with slowly rising brows. Eventually he licks a bit of juice off of his thumb and then some more off of his forefinger. "Evil," he echoes looking bemused. But then: cupcakes and T'rev beams. "Sounds good. Bet they'll be delicious. Save me one?" Because it's likely he needs to get back to doing Weyrleaderly things long before they're ready.
This is probably a foregone conclusion, but: "I like cupcakes," says Genefra, as though that isn't true of practically every human being on the planet. "I don't really like scraping dishes but mostly it's just the standing around bit, the just standing there scraping stuff off plates bit. Well, and old food is kinda gross, but that's not really the worst bit. I just didn't have anybody to talk to!" Which is vitally important for someone like Genefra. Who would have thought?
"Come and get them if you want them," Jaeyi answers back, hands wiped briefly on the front of her apron before she's busy measuring this, sifting that, all the not-so-exciting stuff that comes with making cupcakes for a few hundred lucky weyrfolk who get in line quickly enough. "You can talk to the dishwasher if he ever turns up. Though--" She puts on a stage whisper for Genefra. "--I don't recommend it if you can help it. He's kinda..." Cough. "Anyways. Trish'll find you a good job if you wanna work in here. It's always busy, so you won't get bored, I'm pretty sure. And we do like to talk." Gossip.
"Can't," T'rev says with audible regret as he drops the nectarine's pit onto his empty plate, reaches for the long-abandoned napkin that lies there and wipes his hands more properly. "Won't be here for dinner," he notes lightly enough and smiles at both young ladies. His next target is his beer mug for a few swallows. "They do like to talk down here. You'll hear all sorts of tall tales about riders," he says gaily enough and shoots a twinkly look Jaeyi's way.
"But everybody--" Genefra eyes Jaeyi and then revises to both, "Just about everybody's so much older'n me. It's not very interesting." Picky, picky. "But I'm okay anyhow. It doesn't really matter. I don't mind going where I'm needed, it makes me feel useful. And helpful! And at least there's some variety that way." Head tilt then, back to the baker. "He's kinda what?" She's not so great on the picking up implications about things, evidently. "Tall tales about riders--well, I guess that's something," although she doesn't sound precisely raptly interested.
Important distinction. "It's not dinner. It's dessert. But I'lllll--" Jaeyi looks sorry about it, no doubt about that. "--save one for you." Her hand waves vaguely to indicate the everyone that's supposedly older than Genefra, most of those people really busy in their own stuff at the moment, though eyes will occasionally chase over toward the Weyrleader. And two teenage girls. Presumably, he's used to it. She sure is. "He's kinda different. Getta job in here, and I'll explain what exactly I mean, 'kay?" How's that for a dangling carrot! Less so is the straightforward, "He's talking about the fact that you'll probably hear about how T'rev likes to walk through here butt-naked sometimes. Which is only partially true."
"Are they?" T'rev looks around some more at some of the kitchen assistants who just can't be that much older than Genefra, right? He's forgetting already, how twenty can seem old to sixteen. "Thank you, sweetheart," T'rev tells Jaeyi chipperly however about the cupcake. And then she's being straightforward and he just grins sunnily at Genefra. "Just once, no matter what anyone might tell you," he says, confidentially.
That blush that had finally started to go away? Back again. For being weyrbred, Genefra does seem inclined to that. Or maybe it's just that for being so chatty, she's more shy than she looks. She elects to stick with responding to the first part of that, not the second. "Kinda different. Right." The flood of words seems to have slowed to a dribble. "I don't know how you can be around cupcakes and stuff all the time and not be enormous," seems somehow like a safer comment to make towards Jaeyi. "I would be enormous."
Jaeyi glances over to catch the blush, blinks at it a few times, turns the blink toward T'rev with a sort of helplessness, and then tells the bowl in front of her, "We're really gonna have to work on that." With a deep breath, this being quite the serious matter, people who blush! Then there's a long uhhhhhhhmn, a look down at her person, and a big old bunch of sugar dumped into the bowl. "Well, I'm not, like, skinny or anything?"
Jaeyi's look drops T'rev's head downward as he leans against the counter, weight spread across his elbows, arms folded. And then Genefra says that about Jae's figure and the baked goods and his shoulders start shaking. One hand lifts to bracket his eyebrows from above, shading his face from view. Poker face: fail.
The redhead gives T'rev a look like he's just gone completely mad. Genefra then gives Jaeyi a more muted version of the same look, and says, "Well, anyway, you're not like huge or anything. That's all I meant. What's so funny about that? Exercise is good, though. Very healthy. I think. I dunno, I just try not to eat too much, anyway. Especially sweets. But they're so good." The bafflement is at least forgotten at this point; she can't hold something like that in her head for that long.
"T'rev." Jaeyi puts a balled-up hand on her very-not-skinny hip and waits until the bronzerider gets through his giggling fit. "You are so on the verge of losing your cupcake rights. Contaaaain yourself." But even the warning look is tinged with fond amusement, 'cause-- well, she gets the joke. "Seriously, though. If you do wanna work in here some more, I'll tell Trish, and she can give you some work to do that's pretty okay. It's pretty good work, except when there're lecherous riders around making bad jokes."
"Exercise is definitely /very/ good," T'rev says back in control of the giggles at least, though my gosh, the wickedness in his eyes as he says that /deadpan/. "Very good for your health. I'm /totally/ one hundred percent behind exercise. Lots of it." He pushes upright off the counter and crosses over to Jaeyi, still grinning. "I am /not/ lecherous," he says very seriously, but he does reach for her hand, just her hand, to press a kiss to its floury back. "But I do make /terribly/ jokes." He straightens again smiling sunnily. "And I will leave you both now, to figure out Genefra's sure to be long and name-makin' career. Genefra, honestly, it's been a pleasure talkin' with you and /thank you/ for the nectarine," T'rev says sincerely, rests a hand to his heart and gives her a little half-bow. "Now, I need to go get ready for dinner with Lord Fort and if you can all think good thoughts for me, I am goin' to need them." Beat. "Jae --" but he only smiles, doesn't say anything else and turns to head out through the double doors to the living cavern.
"You're welcome. I mean, anytime. I mean, it was nice to meet you, T'rev-Weyrleader-sir." Cover all the bases there, Genefra. "Good luck! With whatever it is. Have a nice time!" She waves after him with wiggled fingers and then turns attention back to the baker's work. "That's so weird. Actually having a conversation with the Weyrleader. And he kissed your hand? That's so very chivalrous, I think. Don't you think?" Then something just starts to register. "Wait."
It's just a hand-kiss, but here's indoctrination into kitchen-gossip for Genefra: Jaeyi is stupidly enamored of the Weyrleader, and the dishwasher-- who returns just about that time-- does not care for it at all, and sets to banging pots and pans vigorously until Dimples there has fled the scene. Turning back to her work, she does call after T'rev, "Tell Lord Fort's brother I'm looking forward to the Hold's next Gather, hmn? I'm always happy to run into him!" Which thought makes her beam while she's measuring things, distracts her so she's just kinda nodding along with Genefra. Yes, weird; yes, chivalrous; yes, wait. "Wait. Wait?"
At the doors, a grin surfaces over T'rev's shoulder. "I'll definitely give Esraval your regards," he says merrily and the doors swing open letting in the mild hubbub of the cavern outside, then the Weyrleader's gone for now.
There's a teensy bit more blushing now, even though there's no really discernable reason for it. "Never mind," Genefra decides, with a glance after where the Weyrleader went. "You've met Lord Fort's brother? Wow. I've never even talked to a Weyrleader before! He's pretty nice, though. Nicer than I thought, I guess. Although I think he was kinda teasing me, which isn't really nice, but maybe he meant it in a nice way. About my hair and stuff."
Jaeyi's happy to report, "I have!" Met him. "He's actually really, like, nice and stuff, though he's pretty formal. Not like T'rev. Handsome, though." She even fans her face a touch at the mention of those looks, as though a ridiculously attractive man didn't just leave not ten seconds ago. A blink follows, one with her head cocked while she stirs almost mechanically, not so much thought put into the action. "Are you sure that he was really teasing you? I mean, he'd tease about some things, but about your hair and your clothes?" Quick; "Not that there's anything wrong with them. You're cute."
A little giggle. "Well, I don't mean teasing in a mean way. Just saying... you know, stuff." Vague in the familiar manner of adolescence, is Genefra. "Anyway, isn't he kind of... old-ish? If Lord Fort's in his thirties, then that'd make his brother... just ancient." By her standards, anyhow. "Anyway, thanks. It's nice to know that some people don't think I'm a total freak. I'm so self-conscious lately." She brushes a stray strand of hair out of her face. "Moving is hard."
"I think he's only about thirty, too." Uhmn, "Thirty, also. Not thirty-two. Or maybe he's thirty-two." Jaeyi shrugs a little at that, none too concerned. "He's still handsome. Plus, he's really-- smooth? I guess that's the word. Like, his manners are really nice, and he always says the right thing." Idle; "T'rev's twenty-four." She glances briefly over her shoulder the way the Weyrleader went, looking back to Genefra with an easy smile in place. "Oh, don't let the people here make you feel bad about yourself. Most of them are either totally stuck up or total hypocrites. But it is hard," she agrees with a sigh-and-nod. "Where'd you come from before here?"
"Only thirty!" Genefra rolls her eyes for that, which seems to apply just as much to the twenty-four afterwards. "Might as well be a hundred or something. Ick." A disgusted face; yes, she has a lot of them. "I was born here. But Benden, most recently. My parents split up. And then got back together. It's complicated. I knew people here growing up, but everybody's different now. Like, I know these two girls who used to be like best friends, and now they hate each other. And the other day this lady I don't even know started insulting my clothes." She leaves out the tears, though. Those don't need to be mentioned.
Jaeyi, sympathetically, "Oh, so it's not even just moving, it's moving /back/. Wow, yeah, I can see how that'd be even worse, really." Well-dressed she may be, but the baker doesn't seem to have paid much attention to the other girl's attire-- some of which probably owes to the curly-haired distraction, but he's gone and she doesn't turn up her nose or anything. "Uhmn, I gotta go get some stuff out of the stores, but if you go talk to that woman--" She points out the older woman, Trish. "--she can give you some better work than scraping plates. And maybe I'll see you around in here more?"
Finally a concession. "I'll do that. But then you have to dish about--" And Genefra tilts her head in the dishwasher's direction, "the next time I see you!" Big toothy grin to follow. All that earlier blushing forgotten completely, it seems. The thing about having a short attention span is that look, ooh, there's something shiny. "Thanks. I owe you one, I guess!" Presuming the next chore does indeed turn out to be slightly better than the one left behind, anyhow.