[Jaeyi] There are some pretty dark things on Ella's mind. On her birthday, no less.
RL Date: 4/15/10
IC Date: 6/25/22
Kitchen, Fort Hold
Truly impressive is probably the most succinct and accurate way to describe the kitchens of Fort Hold. Multiple hearths line the walls, the latest and greatest kitchen equipment is installed in between and throughout with more than one central counter space in the middle of the room between all of those hearths. Storage room doors open off to one end of the space, a double dumbwaiter leads up into the Great Hall above as does a set of stairs off to the end of the kitchen farthest from the storage room doors. Another exit leads off to the private quarters of the bakers and cooks and other kitchen-oriented staff.
The dinner's already gone out to the Hall, along with the dessert, and the only people left in the kitchen are diswashers, a few serving girls, and one or two cooks preparing tomorrow's breakfast. Jaeyi counts as none of the above. She's got control of one of the back counters, standing with her small cookbook open in front of her, bowed low over it so she can rest her elbow on the countertop and her chin on her palm. Behind her, an oven seems to be in use, accounting for the reason she's still hanging around, filling her time.
Dinner in the hall isn't quite officially over, but Ella has excused herself early tonight. Rather than head for the corridors and up to her room, the sitting room, or the opposite direction of both which would be outside on a nice evening such as this she's headed towards the kitchen. Given the relative emptiness of the space it makes it that much easier to find the one person there that she's looking for. "Jaeyi?" she starts with her name as she comes up behind the baker. There's a hint of tiredness in the girl's eyes, a look that's lingered there for a good few days now, a seven or two even.
Jaeyi's idly flipping pages, not really reading anything in the cookbook by the looks of things, and she's none too disappointed for being interrupted at her useless way of passing time. She turns only partially at the waist, looks back over her shoulder at the voice, then brightens with a smile and turns the rest of the way, hips to counter. "Well, hey there, birthday girl. I'm sorry to say, that's--" With a toss of her chin toward the oven. "--not your cake, but I haven't heard about a party, have I?"
Fiorella turns a smile back to her at that greeting. "Thank you, and that's okay. No, I don't think you have. I don't really want one," she admits, "But last time I talked to T'rev we agreed something small. So," No real plans to speak of there. "I'm sure he has something in mind. But how..how are you?"
It's not quite a response to how she /is/, but Jaeyi indicates the oven again, this time with a tip of her hand, saying, "I am making sweet breads for later this evening. I'm pretty pleased with the recipe, my first time making them, so hopefully..." She crosses her fingers in the air. "How can you not want a birthday party, silly girl? You don't wanna look back on turning fourteen as the /one/ year your birthday wasn't festive, do you?"
Fiorella nods. "Well I'm sure they'll turn out wonderful," she replies. "Everything you make does." As far as she's concerned anyway. As for a party, she lifts her shoulders in a slight shrug. "No.. I suppose not, but.. I don't know. I guess I'm just not feeling very festive lately." Pause. "I.. I was hoping maybe we could talk?"
Jaeyi's, "That's too bad," doesn't seem like she plans on prying the reason for not feeling very festive out of Fiorella, sympathetic but not nosy by a long-shot. Maybe fourteen is the cut-off age for pestering? Anyway; "We absolutely can talk, sure. These have... oh... forty-five minutes before they have to come out." And she was apparently planning on standing here, doing nothing the whole time. "So now seems like a good time, hmn?"
Maybe it is, or maybe that question of talking means she might find that answer without prying. "If you're sure you can leave them, yeah. Um.." she turns a glance over her shoulder to the others in the kitchen. Then back to Jaeyi, "Do you know somewhere quiet? It's kind of.. well.." She gets the idea right. Not something she wants to converse about out in the open.
"As long as we're back in forty-five minutes, it should be fine," Jaeyi answers carelessly, a brow rising at the implications that they need some place quiet. "Well, there's my room? It's usually quiet. Or there's a small sitting room off one of the side corridors, but it didn't have a glowbasket last time I was in there, and it's dark out now, sooooo. Room? It's not much of a hike from here."
"That'd work," Fiorella agrees with a nod. "I try not to keep you too long." That said she leaves Jaeyi to lead, remaining quiet for the most part along the way.
Jaeyi leads the way in silence as well, none of the usual idle prattle to fill the trip. Out a side door from the kitchens, up some stairs, along a corridor, and into her suite, specifically the little sitting room off to one side. Ah, and she closes the door behind her, only then asking, "Soooo, what's the big secret, Ella?"
Fiorella pays close attention to the fact that the door is indeed closed. Biting her lip she turns around, her back to the baker for a moment and then back. "I just.. I need someone to talk to before I go crazy." she starts, not quite sure what to do with her hands. "I know I should talk to T'rev, but I don't know that he could do anything about it. I'm just.. what if the wrong person hears?" she questions as she paces a short lenght of the space. "What if they find out? They /can't/ know, Jaeyi!" the look the girl turns on her pleading to understand that much at least, even if nothing else she says makes any sence. "I just, I don't know who to talk to, but someone needs to know."
Jaeyi starts with, "If T'rev can't--" Then what can she? But that gets clipped at the evident urgency of Fiorella's issue, the pacing regarded from the safety of the sofa, which she pats with the flat of her palm; sit, dearie, sit. "What can't they know? Mmmn, and who?" She shakes her head hurriedly, trying to clear it, to catch up to the girl's busy-ness. "Why don't you start at the beginning, sweetie?"
She's here for one, and she might just understand on some level. That's the hope perhaps. "Something bad," she replies in a whisper as she gives into dropping to a seat beside Jaeyi, not quite sure if she should even say. "Why does it always happen to me?" It doesn't of course, but that doesn't change the feeling for her. "I don't like him Jaeyi, and I have lessons alone with him almost every day."
Jaeyi shakes her head slowly but surely, leaning forward a little, whether to catch the whisper or in response to the fact that she's just... not... "Ella, I don't mean to be difficult, but I don't know what you're talking about. Who don't you like?" Sure, if she set her mind to it, she could figure out with whom Ella takes lessons, but the whole thing just dropped in her lap means she hasn't had time to jump to conclusions yet. "Tell me what's going on?"
"Esraval," Fiorella replies, finally getting to a name though her voice remains quiet. "He's planing something." And all that is what has her on edge. "... I don't know what to do. I just... like I said, I had to talk to someone."
Here's where Jaeyi could share her similar epiphany, or here's where, brow knitted, expression uncommonly serious, she asks, "Why do you say that? I mean, has he said anything? Done anything?" While they sit in plush rooms of his appointment, waiting for sweets that will be his dessert to finish cooking.
Fiorella only nods at first. A long pause following where she waits for some responce from the baker. He said something, did something, but just what takes a bit longer for Ella to divulge. "He's taking the hold. I heard them say they have the votes. Astivan heard it too. And they want him 'out of the way'." Which should imply just what means it to. "If they know I heard..." she could be a liability too.
The actual politics of a Hold like Fort are so far beyond Jaeyi that she can't make an informed conclusion about what such talk could mean, but-- "Yeah, that doesn't really sound good." Her brows crease deeply, and she holds a hand toward Ella should she feel the need to hold it back. "They don't know you heard anything, sweetie. If they did, if they even thought they did, you'd know about it by now, hmn? So you just act normal, casual, and we'll tell T'rev and..." And something?
Fiorella takes the offer of that hand as the offer of a hug, leaning in to rest her head on Jaeyi's shoulder. Her stress over it all should be easily enough felt. "They heard me. He looked -right- at me. I don't think he saw me though. It was too dark. They thought it was snakes." Though what they said and what they actually thought she can't be too sure of. A nod for her suggestions, "I'm trying... I just, I needed to tell someone."
Jaeyi strokes Ella's hair with her free hand briefly, tucks it behind the girl's ear, and then lowers her hand away to pick absently at the non-existent lint on the arm of the chair next to her. "If Esraval really saw you, if he really thought you knew something... Ella, there's no doubt in my mind he'd be rid of you by now, one way or the other. As for Astivan--" She hasn't got anything as bolstering to say about that. "We'll keep an eye on him, hmn? You and me, and make sure he's safe. And I'll see T'rev at the Weyr soon, and I'll tell him what you said." There's no magic remedy promised in that, but at least it's getting the word out?
Fiorella shakes her head, "Esraval didn't. Rivellan did. He's the one who was suspisious." About it actually being snakes that is. "But you're right," she agrees, swallowing hard and trying to make herself believe it. "They'd have done something by now..." other than let her make herself paranoid about it all. Pause. "I tried to tell Nissa, but I couldn't. And... Thanks. I needed you here today."
Leap of logic, she's practically a genius, this one: "So it was Esraval and Rivellan having the conversation?" It's hard to tell if that means anything special to Jaeyi or is just a 'hmn, good to know' kinda fact, her frown light, thoughtful, then erased by a quick, forgiving smile. "It's okay that you couldn't, don't worry. And it's okay to be afraid, you just kinda have to not be so afraid that you can't function, hmn? Act normal, don't let on that anything's different, and eventually--" She takes a breath, eyes roaming the lush apartment before they come back to Ella. "Eventually, if they are up to no-good, it'll come to light, and they'll be stopped."
Fiorella nods for that question, and then again for the thought that follows it. "I'll do my best," she agrees. And then, "Is he.." she starts as Jaeyi takes that breath. She pauses for her to finish the thought however and starts again afterwards. "Is he here? Tonight?" Yeah, she knows about that too. "I'd feel better.." Not being alone once.
Jaeyi's regret is obvious and entire, her nod brief but pretty to-the-point. "At nine, yes. I-- Isobel's pregnant and--" She crinkles her nose, going no further to explain than that; the girl is, after all, still all of fourteen. "But you can-- mmn, I could come and get you once he's gone back to his own room? It might be late, but you could stay the rest of the night, and I wouldn't mind the company. Though I guess that wouldn't really be 'acting natural,' would it?" The last added with a light, frail chuckle.
"I don't like how he treats you either," Fiorella returns with a frown, but at least that comment is tinted with anger instead of the fear that was behind the rest of their conversation. "How he talks about you." Because the room, really not bad at all. She nods though. "I suppose not. But.. if its late would anyone know?"
A bat of her fingers dismisses whatever Esraval might have to say about her, that and, "I don't have much to say about him that he'd appreciate, either, so I guess that makes us equal." Jaeyi tilts a quick smile over at Ella, though, grateful for her indignance, even if she doesn't expressly /need/ it. "No, probably not. And, if they did, we could just pretend we planned a sleepover all along, hmn? I'll come and get you. After. And you can stay with me."
That earns a touch of a smile from Fiorella and she nods once again. "I apreciate it," she says, voice still quiet even though the parts that no one else should hear have passed. She'd be happy enough to stay now even, but there's another thought. "You probably need to check on your bread. Don't you..."
"It's no problem. I've got, like, the biggest bed ever, might as well put it to a good use." And not just its default use. Jaeyi leans over, nuzzles a quick kiss into the top of Ella's hair, and nods at the bit about her bread. "Yeah, if it burns, then I have to start all over. I may not particularly care for my dessert-date, but I'm not about to start serving sub-standard pastries just 'cause he's a prick."
"I'll see you later then," Fiorella returns as she finds her feet, hands smoothing her skirt as she stands. "And Jaeyi.. thanks again." That said, she offers a soft smile towards the woman, and when she heads back to the kitchen Ella heads up to her own quarters.
IC Date: 6/25/22
Kitchen, Fort Hold
Truly impressive is probably the most succinct and accurate way to describe the kitchens of Fort Hold. Multiple hearths line the walls, the latest and greatest kitchen equipment is installed in between and throughout with more than one central counter space in the middle of the room between all of those hearths. Storage room doors open off to one end of the space, a double dumbwaiter leads up into the Great Hall above as does a set of stairs off to the end of the kitchen farthest from the storage room doors. Another exit leads off to the private quarters of the bakers and cooks and other kitchen-oriented staff.
The dinner's already gone out to the Hall, along with the dessert, and the only people left in the kitchen are diswashers, a few serving girls, and one or two cooks preparing tomorrow's breakfast. Jaeyi counts as none of the above. She's got control of one of the back counters, standing with her small cookbook open in front of her, bowed low over it so she can rest her elbow on the countertop and her chin on her palm. Behind her, an oven seems to be in use, accounting for the reason she's still hanging around, filling her time.
Dinner in the hall isn't quite officially over, but Ella has excused herself early tonight. Rather than head for the corridors and up to her room, the sitting room, or the opposite direction of both which would be outside on a nice evening such as this she's headed towards the kitchen. Given the relative emptiness of the space it makes it that much easier to find the one person there that she's looking for. "Jaeyi?" she starts with her name as she comes up behind the baker. There's a hint of tiredness in the girl's eyes, a look that's lingered there for a good few days now, a seven or two even.
Jaeyi's idly flipping pages, not really reading anything in the cookbook by the looks of things, and she's none too disappointed for being interrupted at her useless way of passing time. She turns only partially at the waist, looks back over her shoulder at the voice, then brightens with a smile and turns the rest of the way, hips to counter. "Well, hey there, birthday girl. I'm sorry to say, that's--" With a toss of her chin toward the oven. "--not your cake, but I haven't heard about a party, have I?"
Fiorella turns a smile back to her at that greeting. "Thank you, and that's okay. No, I don't think you have. I don't really want one," she admits, "But last time I talked to T'rev we agreed something small. So," No real plans to speak of there. "I'm sure he has something in mind. But how..how are you?"
It's not quite a response to how she /is/, but Jaeyi indicates the oven again, this time with a tip of her hand, saying, "I am making sweet breads for later this evening. I'm pretty pleased with the recipe, my first time making them, so hopefully..." She crosses her fingers in the air. "How can you not want a birthday party, silly girl? You don't wanna look back on turning fourteen as the /one/ year your birthday wasn't festive, do you?"
Fiorella nods. "Well I'm sure they'll turn out wonderful," she replies. "Everything you make does." As far as she's concerned anyway. As for a party, she lifts her shoulders in a slight shrug. "No.. I suppose not, but.. I don't know. I guess I'm just not feeling very festive lately." Pause. "I.. I was hoping maybe we could talk?"
Jaeyi's, "That's too bad," doesn't seem like she plans on prying the reason for not feeling very festive out of Fiorella, sympathetic but not nosy by a long-shot. Maybe fourteen is the cut-off age for pestering? Anyway; "We absolutely can talk, sure. These have... oh... forty-five minutes before they have to come out." And she was apparently planning on standing here, doing nothing the whole time. "So now seems like a good time, hmn?"
Maybe it is, or maybe that question of talking means she might find that answer without prying. "If you're sure you can leave them, yeah. Um.." she turns a glance over her shoulder to the others in the kitchen. Then back to Jaeyi, "Do you know somewhere quiet? It's kind of.. well.." She gets the idea right. Not something she wants to converse about out in the open.
"As long as we're back in forty-five minutes, it should be fine," Jaeyi answers carelessly, a brow rising at the implications that they need some place quiet. "Well, there's my room? It's usually quiet. Or there's a small sitting room off one of the side corridors, but it didn't have a glowbasket last time I was in there, and it's dark out now, sooooo. Room? It's not much of a hike from here."
"That'd work," Fiorella agrees with a nod. "I try not to keep you too long." That said she leaves Jaeyi to lead, remaining quiet for the most part along the way.
Jaeyi leads the way in silence as well, none of the usual idle prattle to fill the trip. Out a side door from the kitchens, up some stairs, along a corridor, and into her suite, specifically the little sitting room off to one side. Ah, and she closes the door behind her, only then asking, "Soooo, what's the big secret, Ella?"
Fiorella pays close attention to the fact that the door is indeed closed. Biting her lip she turns around, her back to the baker for a moment and then back. "I just.. I need someone to talk to before I go crazy." she starts, not quite sure what to do with her hands. "I know I should talk to T'rev, but I don't know that he could do anything about it. I'm just.. what if the wrong person hears?" she questions as she paces a short lenght of the space. "What if they find out? They /can't/ know, Jaeyi!" the look the girl turns on her pleading to understand that much at least, even if nothing else she says makes any sence. "I just, I don't know who to talk to, but someone needs to know."
Jaeyi starts with, "If T'rev can't--" Then what can she? But that gets clipped at the evident urgency of Fiorella's issue, the pacing regarded from the safety of the sofa, which she pats with the flat of her palm; sit, dearie, sit. "What can't they know? Mmmn, and who?" She shakes her head hurriedly, trying to clear it, to catch up to the girl's busy-ness. "Why don't you start at the beginning, sweetie?"
She's here for one, and she might just understand on some level. That's the hope perhaps. "Something bad," she replies in a whisper as she gives into dropping to a seat beside Jaeyi, not quite sure if she should even say. "Why does it always happen to me?" It doesn't of course, but that doesn't change the feeling for her. "I don't like him Jaeyi, and I have lessons alone with him almost every day."
Jaeyi shakes her head slowly but surely, leaning forward a little, whether to catch the whisper or in response to the fact that she's just... not... "Ella, I don't mean to be difficult, but I don't know what you're talking about. Who don't you like?" Sure, if she set her mind to it, she could figure out with whom Ella takes lessons, but the whole thing just dropped in her lap means she hasn't had time to jump to conclusions yet. "Tell me what's going on?"
"Esraval," Fiorella replies, finally getting to a name though her voice remains quiet. "He's planing something." And all that is what has her on edge. "... I don't know what to do. I just... like I said, I had to talk to someone."
Here's where Jaeyi could share her similar epiphany, or here's where, brow knitted, expression uncommonly serious, she asks, "Why do you say that? I mean, has he said anything? Done anything?" While they sit in plush rooms of his appointment, waiting for sweets that will be his dessert to finish cooking.
Fiorella only nods at first. A long pause following where she waits for some responce from the baker. He said something, did something, but just what takes a bit longer for Ella to divulge. "He's taking the hold. I heard them say they have the votes. Astivan heard it too. And they want him 'out of the way'." Which should imply just what means it to. "If they know I heard..." she could be a liability too.
The actual politics of a Hold like Fort are so far beyond Jaeyi that she can't make an informed conclusion about what such talk could mean, but-- "Yeah, that doesn't really sound good." Her brows crease deeply, and she holds a hand toward Ella should she feel the need to hold it back. "They don't know you heard anything, sweetie. If they did, if they even thought they did, you'd know about it by now, hmn? So you just act normal, casual, and we'll tell T'rev and..." And something?
Fiorella takes the offer of that hand as the offer of a hug, leaning in to rest her head on Jaeyi's shoulder. Her stress over it all should be easily enough felt. "They heard me. He looked -right- at me. I don't think he saw me though. It was too dark. They thought it was snakes." Though what they said and what they actually thought she can't be too sure of. A nod for her suggestions, "I'm trying... I just, I needed to tell someone."
Jaeyi strokes Ella's hair with her free hand briefly, tucks it behind the girl's ear, and then lowers her hand away to pick absently at the non-existent lint on the arm of the chair next to her. "If Esraval really saw you, if he really thought you knew something... Ella, there's no doubt in my mind he'd be rid of you by now, one way or the other. As for Astivan--" She hasn't got anything as bolstering to say about that. "We'll keep an eye on him, hmn? You and me, and make sure he's safe. And I'll see T'rev at the Weyr soon, and I'll tell him what you said." There's no magic remedy promised in that, but at least it's getting the word out?
Fiorella shakes her head, "Esraval didn't. Rivellan did. He's the one who was suspisious." About it actually being snakes that is. "But you're right," she agrees, swallowing hard and trying to make herself believe it. "They'd have done something by now..." other than let her make herself paranoid about it all. Pause. "I tried to tell Nissa, but I couldn't. And... Thanks. I needed you here today."
Leap of logic, she's practically a genius, this one: "So it was Esraval and Rivellan having the conversation?" It's hard to tell if that means anything special to Jaeyi or is just a 'hmn, good to know' kinda fact, her frown light, thoughtful, then erased by a quick, forgiving smile. "It's okay that you couldn't, don't worry. And it's okay to be afraid, you just kinda have to not be so afraid that you can't function, hmn? Act normal, don't let on that anything's different, and eventually--" She takes a breath, eyes roaming the lush apartment before they come back to Ella. "Eventually, if they are up to no-good, it'll come to light, and they'll be stopped."
Fiorella nods for that question, and then again for the thought that follows it. "I'll do my best," she agrees. And then, "Is he.." she starts as Jaeyi takes that breath. She pauses for her to finish the thought however and starts again afterwards. "Is he here? Tonight?" Yeah, she knows about that too. "I'd feel better.." Not being alone once.
Jaeyi's regret is obvious and entire, her nod brief but pretty to-the-point. "At nine, yes. I-- Isobel's pregnant and--" She crinkles her nose, going no further to explain than that; the girl is, after all, still all of fourteen. "But you can-- mmn, I could come and get you once he's gone back to his own room? It might be late, but you could stay the rest of the night, and I wouldn't mind the company. Though I guess that wouldn't really be 'acting natural,' would it?" The last added with a light, frail chuckle.
"I don't like how he treats you either," Fiorella returns with a frown, but at least that comment is tinted with anger instead of the fear that was behind the rest of their conversation. "How he talks about you." Because the room, really not bad at all. She nods though. "I suppose not. But.. if its late would anyone know?"
A bat of her fingers dismisses whatever Esraval might have to say about her, that and, "I don't have much to say about him that he'd appreciate, either, so I guess that makes us equal." Jaeyi tilts a quick smile over at Ella, though, grateful for her indignance, even if she doesn't expressly /need/ it. "No, probably not. And, if they did, we could just pretend we planned a sleepover all along, hmn? I'll come and get you. After. And you can stay with me."
That earns a touch of a smile from Fiorella and she nods once again. "I apreciate it," she says, voice still quiet even though the parts that no one else should hear have passed. She'd be happy enough to stay now even, but there's another thought. "You probably need to check on your bread. Don't you..."
"It's no problem. I've got, like, the biggest bed ever, might as well put it to a good use." And not just its default use. Jaeyi leans over, nuzzles a quick kiss into the top of Ella's hair, and nods at the bit about her bread. "Yeah, if it burns, then I have to start all over. I may not particularly care for my dessert-date, but I'm not about to start serving sub-standard pastries just 'cause he's a prick."
"I'll see you later then," Fiorella returns as she finds her feet, hands smoothing her skirt as she stands. "And Jaeyi.. thanks again." That said, she offers a soft smile towards the woman, and when she heads back to the kitchen Ella heads up to her own quarters.