Milani discovers Derecho's and Chedayi's discovery.
RL Date: 4/28/08
IC Date: 6/3/16
Dark Hall, High Reaches Weyr
A long and relatively thin passageway in that it's not as broad and open as the general passages in the weyr at perhaps four feet across. On one end is a hardwood bookshelf with a random looking collection of things.
-- and --
Records Room, High Reaches Weyr(#3141RIJs)
Thick wooden doors have been artfully pinned together with wrought-iron fasteners, through which the records room opens up into a chamber that is not overly large but quite elegant in appearance, with its squarish-shape and stylishly rounded corners. Smooth walls have been covered in alternating rows of shelves and the occasional tapestry with its lively colors and scenes to warm the cavern. Master craftsmanship has gone into both the bookcases and shelving on the walls and are carved out of rich cherry. At the far end of the room, racks stand where large scrolls hang on thin poles, to be unrolled or rolled with ease.
In the center of the room is a large table with chairs, its polished surface free of clutter save for a collection of multi-sized baskets in the center. These contain various utensils for work and study, including a stack of cut-glass coasters. Hanging over the table, an iron fixture with branching arms holds many glow baskets, bathing the room in abundant light.
Comprised of a definite order, all the shelves are carefully labeled and a large basket on one shelf is designated by a plaque as the reshelving bin. One row on the wall farthest from the entrance is glassed off and locked, labeled 'restricted access'. The room holds the classic odor of ink and hide with only a hint of dust.
Ledgers. Always with the ledgers. Milani comes trudging through with at least five of them stacked atop each other, last turn's dates written on the spines. She huffs a little as she goes, apparently on her way to stack these up with others of their ilk. It's a yearly ritual after all, usually accomplished around this time of the turn when the books have been balanced. "Why in Faranth's name these have to be so heavy, I do /not/ know," the assistant headwoman mutters mostly to herself as she moves towards the appropriate shelf.
From the crisp spring air, into a small tunnel all dark and close, through musty rooms that writhe with tunnelsnakes and moulding tapestries, down a narrow passageway shoulder-to-shoulder... At long last, there's a sign of light up ahead for Chedayi and Derecho, shafts of it coming in through gaps between the back-side of a bookshelf. Voices echo through, muffled into the records room, Chedayi's voice at present; "Telling you, something brushed my leg a minute ago. If we don't get out of here soon, I'm going to-- I dunno what, but it won't be pretty, that I can assure you." Catch the rising note of panic.
"Think that was me," Derecho answers dryly, mouth twitching up in a smirk at Chedayi's tone. He, however, for all his amusement at his companion, is quick to dust at his hair, his clothes, when they emerge into the light. He even jerks a little to find a bit of a spinner's web on his pants, and he brushes it off all the more quickly. Nobody saw that. "So where /did/ you take us, anyway?" the honorary trader asks, smoothly as he can, composure regained. Of course it's Chedayi's fault, too. "Better, can we get back out of here?"
Millie's just passed said shelf and she blinks, stops as she hears voices. Eyes the bookshelf like it's growing heads instead of just echoing voices from behind it. Frowning, the assistant headwoman unceremoniously dumps the ledgers onto the nearest table and turns to examine the bookcase. She steps closer and pushes a few books aside. Just y'know, wood backing. "Hello?" she calls out curiously and shifts a few more books to the side, industriously intent.
Chedayi answers with the most obvious reply; "Someplace dark and--" He stops, jumps like a girl, clears about a foot of distance as he crowds away from the voice on the other side of the bookshelf. Pushing into Derecho, he's just shy of jumping into the other man's arms while he paws at his shoulders all twitchy and frightened. "Sh sh sh sh shhhh. I think someone is in there." He breathes it just above a whisper, peers white-faced toward the disembodied voice.
It's a little too late to shush Derecho by then, though. As soon as Chedayi jumps back, he's darting back himself, stumbling around in the dark over his own feet and the other trader both. "Hell, man!" the loud whisper escapes him, as if all the other commotion wasn't enough. More skittering ensues, a little swatting at the back of his neck when all the jumpiness starts getting to him, too. He moves to nudge a shoulder into Chedayi's back--push /him/ forward toward the voice and the light-shafts again.
"Oh for Faranth's sake, who's that back there? Sambal? Adeon? You two sound like a pair of shrieky girls instead of the men you want to be someday when you grow up. Now how'd you get stuck back there?" All practical is Milani, thinking the two traders are a couple of lower caverns brats like herself having a bit of a lark. She does however, start pushing on the bookshelf a little, maybe trying to shift it (dumbly so, not strong enough by far), then shifting some more books aside until one of those gaps in the back is revealed and she props her chin on her hand and peeers through into the dark. This might present the startling view of half her face with a briliantly blue-green eye in it. "So. How do I get you out of there .... oh shells. You're not Adeon." Blink.
Chedayi's heels practically squeal on the stone while he struggles to keep from being shoved to the front, back-pedals hard against Derecho's insistence. "By the first egg, they know we're in here!" he whispers loudly, scrabbling to try and get around behind Derecho; then the gap of light widens and there's an eye peering at them and he freezes like it's the face of the Medusa. His gulp is near audible; "Um hello. There. We were just-- hello." His smile is shaky, faltering, and he backs away a few steps, right at the place he could bolt if he had to; but something's moving back there, slithering in the dark, and it's a question of two evils now.
"Act natural!" Derecho hisses back, just when he sees Milani's eye, too. He promptly ignores his own advice, scrabbling back against the wall out of the light. Eeeding on back until a glance down the dark hall takes in its... darkness. "Oh, hey. Hey!" he tells Milani, way too casually now as he slinks back up against the wall and a little closer to her. "We were just... looking around. Took a wrong turn. Man," and he has a shaky laugh, jerking a thumb back over his shoulder. "You got some twisty passages back there, you know that?" Big smile, because that'll win her right over.
Chedayi. Derecho. Chedayi. Derecho. Flick, flick goes that eye. "Aren't you guys with that trader caravan?" Milani regards both for a moment, then turns the wattage up on her own smile in answer to Derecho's charm. "Yeah, you know, Stores are kind of like that. But I've known them all my life. Now /this/ this is kind of cool. Did /not/ know about this." She's peering past him into the dark. "Hold on a sec." And she backs away, vanishes from view. A moment later though, her hand is thrusting a small glow basket through the shelf-gap. It's a tight fight, but she makes it work by turning the small basket on its side and her hands are slender so it works. "Hm. Well I can't move this bookshelf out of the way. Think this is like some mystery story and there's a hidden pressure point or a lever or something that'll make the whole wall swing out?" She makes big eyes at the guys through the shelf, though of course, the effect is somewhat marred by the fact that there's only one of those oculars visible.
... tight /fit/ ...
Chedayi, act natural. Likely! "Um no." He stammers the first answer that comes to mind to Milani's question of their alliance with that caravan. "I mean, yes!" He calls this hastily as she disappears, jabbers on, "I mean, we are. Just not right now, you know. Not right at this second. Most of the time we are though. Thank you." He retrieves the glowbasket and, seeing as Derecho's doing a lot better at keeping his cool, he just shuts up and shines the basket around in the darkness, doing more to make the shadows and darkness seem even worse than really illuminate anything.
"Now see, that would make it a lot easier, if we lived here that long." Derecho is a lot more in his element when he has a girl to flash that grin of his at, and this time, he actually wiggles past Chedayi in the narrow corridor just so he can step up to Milani. "Hey hey, light! Thanks." He leaves Chedayi to handle the basket, though, while he tries to look casual himself, leaning up against the back of the bookshelf and glancing sideways at Milani. "Derecho, Chedayi," he clarifies, pointing at himself and the other trader in turn, not that the gesture's very visible in the gloom. "They really make things like that? Hidden levers?" Beat. Grin. The effect is ruined by: "Sh--Che--!" He straightens sharply when a turn of the basket makes the shadows crawl ominously, just visible out of the corner of his eye. Still jumpy all right. "Stop swinging that thing around already."
Amused, Milani just grins at the guys. Anyone coming into the Records would get prime view of her derriere swaying back and forth a little coquettishly though the fellas in there can't really /see/ it. It's just an after effect of leaning on the shelf the way she is. From the right angle though, Derecho might be getting another sort of pleasant view. Flirting goes both ways. "Veger was the name, right? And sure. Can't leave you in the dark with all those /snakes/." Faux-innocent. Let's see how far that ginger-haired one leaps next. "Well met. Derecho. Chedayi. I'm Milani. Headwoman's assistant. "And I dunno if they really make 'em , but I've /read/ all about them. Think I should just start yanking on this here bookshelf? Or do you see something right next to you there Derecho, maybe?" She giggles as the pair get all jumpypants again.
Chedayi fumbles the basket, exacerbates his predisposition for fidgeting with the light; "Sorry! Sorry, I was just thinking that she's probably right, probably tunnelsnakes in here, this being a tunnel and all..." He trails off while a skittering sounds in the distance, his adam's apple bobbing in his skinny neck while he tries to pierce the gloom with his eyes by sheer force of will. "Can you--" He turns back abruptly to face the eyes of Milani. "Get us out? I mean, open a door or something? We won't fit through the same hole the basket did." Nervous laughter, twittering. "Unless you cut us up into little pieces and like fit our body parts through-- not that you would! Cut us up. Not that you're that kind of person." He has to stop talking eventually, right?
Derecho doesn't correct Milani about the family's name, just waves it off. "Oh, sure, sure. Shine the light around here--I don't see anything." Even before Chedayi can fumble it around. And he just stares then at the other man, blinking blankly the more Chedayi talks. Oh, he has to stop talking all right: Derecho means to see to it by moving to clamp one of his big feet down on one of Chedayi's. Providing he actually finds it in the dark. "She's an assistant headwoman, right? Not a butcher. Nice, pretty young girl that'll get us right out," and he has another glance for Milani, since she so kindly leans herself right up there in view. "She'll get us right out, we'll be fine, there's nothing down here." His voice is impatient, although he shoots a wide-eyed look back at the dark, too, when it makes noises.
"Yeah. There's /tons/ of snakes back there I bet. I mean, no light, nobody back there for turns ..." she trails off still all innocence. Uh huh. "Well see, I'm kind of trying, but there's no way I can budge this bookshelf all by myself. Does the tunnel end right there, or can you keep going?" The patter about getting cut up makes her roll her eyes. "Shells no, man. What would be the point? Two nice looking fellows. Pish tosh." And she pushes away from the shelf, settles hands on hips and tilts a look up at the bookshelf. Which might grant Derecho another nice view. "In all those harper tales, there's something to pull on," she notes pragmatically and bends down briefly to wink at Derecho, making a show of twirling her hair a little. "Keep the pretty words coming, trader-boy, it's motivational." Then she's eyeing the shelf again and knocking about here and there, pulling out books at random.
Chedayi gets stepped on, yelps, and defends himself with a further verbal flushing; "How do I know she's a nice girl? All I see are eyes and teeth, maybe she's just floating eyes and teeth and a voice, some kind of eye-teeth-voice creature." Worried about that now, on top of everything else, he swings around to cast light toward the bookshelf between him, Derecho, and the eye-teeth-voice creature. "Maybe you could go and get help, aye? Someone with like arms that could move the shelf, not that you don't have arms, and I'm sure they're lovely arms, just... bigger... arms..." He ends helplessly, sagging against the tunnel wall, bright red in the face from the exertion of nervousness.
Derecho ducks his head, squinting when the light hits his own eyes, adjusted for the dark. "Faranth, put that thing down," he tells Chedayi, rubbing the heel of his hand against his eyes a moment. At least it gets him to lean off the back of the bookcase, taking a step back away to eye the peephole and Milani through it. "Nice arms, right. Probably not what he's looking at, though. "They're nice eyes and teeth and voice, so the rest has to be good, too. The /inside/ bits, not just the surface, too." Such logic! He also suggests, to Milani herself, "How about you tell us which way, and we'll push? I mean, we're big strapping guys--" he eyes the sagging Chedayi, moves on quickly "--so maybe we can do it together. Just... don't let us knock something over and break it. Doubt we know our own strength." Sage nod.
"I'm a /very/ nice girl!" Milani, a little muffled, because she's standing on tiptoe to tap at a little decoration on the shelving (very nice view of straining bodice laces for Derecho and then she's dropping back to normal stance again and peeking through the gap again. "Someone else might not cut you as much slack as I am about you being back there in the first place," Millie notes mildly. "I don't think most of the Headwoman's staff would take too kindly to having a couple of Veger boys lost in the back of beyond doing who knows what, hm?" She flashes them another one of those bright innocent smiles and idly yanks on another book. No dice. Derecho's suggestions drop her gaze back down to the gap and she gives him a searching look. Inside bits. Uh huh. "If I can get you out, you can come have a look for yourself," she teases and winks at him, then there's a dubious slant of one eyebrow. "Hm." And without further comment she plucks at another book. Fourth shelf up.
Chedayi, flagged, hardly big and strapping, "We are?" He peers dazedly at Derecho, catches a glimpse of bodice, quickly tries to look enervated. "I mean, of course. Big and strapping, that's us." A fact which is quickly shown false, at least for his part, when Milani hits that right book and the shelf starts to swing inward with a creak and a scrape and he just about jumps out of his skin, back to pawing at Derecho. "Snakes!" There goes the basket, tossed up, tumbled, landed chaotically with glows spilled onto the dusty floor.
It swings inward! Derecho jumps back himself, out of the way, and he grabs at Chedayi, too, to keep the other trader between him and the door. "What the--!" he exclaims, staring. "Snakes, where?" His head jerks around, from the widening opening to the dark behind them. When nothing, however, jumps him right that instant (excepting Chedayi, of course), he calms down, too, reaching to rake a hand through his dusty hair, brush it back perfectly in place while the door opens up to reveal their rescuer. And then he can give Milani his best crooked grin and a slick, "Hey."
"Somewhere back there in the dark," says a grinning Milani as she stands there, hands propped on hips again, surveying the dusty, fraidycats. She gives Derecho a little wiggly finger-wave and a wink as that cute grin comes fully into view. "Hey there handsome, c'mon on out quick before that damn thing swings shut again or something. And you, get those glows up, the basket was pretty fresh." Brisk, business-like, but there's still something of friendly teasing in her tone and she takes a few steps back, leaaaans agains the table that bears the ledgers, presenting what some might consider to be an inviting picture. "So. Now you're out. Gonna tell me what you're up to?" Gaily. So gaily.
Chedayi ducks behind Derecho, his spindly fists clenched while he peers around the bigger man's shoulder toward Milani, forgetting to clarify why he screeched about snakes when it's nothing but a girl. He stays back when she walks out, dutifully bent to collect the scattered glows while he answers her question, regardless that it was meant for his more charming counterpart; "Up to?" Twitter. "Up to? That's funny, a funny question. Up to. Pshaw. We're not /up/ to anything, just having a nice stroll." Even with light flooding into the tunnel, he's still nervous.
Derecho shoots a rather snakey glare down at Chedayi when he tries to answer the question. Leaving Chedayi to pick up the glows--hope that door doesn't swing back closed!--Derecho moves to saunter on out of the tunnel to join Milani in the records room itself. "Us? Told you, took a wrong turn," he says, with a wave of his hand at the dark tunnelway. "We thought it would just come right back out at one of the main ones, so we kept walking and then we turned and we just got more twisted around. Lucky you found us, really, or no telling how long we would have had to fight off the snakes. I tell you what, though--I'm never going anywhere around here without a glow of my own again!" he laughs.
"Sell me another one," she tells Chedayi promptly for that answer, but remains where she is, charmingly posed against the table while he fusses the glows back into the basket. "Yeah, but you were going somewhere right, when you took that wrong turn." Eyelashes batted innocently at Derecho. "Hm. Well you know, just pay better attention next time or you might not be so lucky as to have someone rescue you," she chirps with her head tilted to the side, eyeing the trader with a saucy grin. "And /that/ sounds like a /very/ good idea. Bring glows wherever you go. And chalk. To mark the tunnels." Big eyes.
"There's really a lot back there, you know." Chedayi, dusty and red-faced with the long and intense paranoia, emerges from the shadows to stand at the mouth of the tunnel, glows in one hand, basket in the other. "It goes all the way back, like an endless tunnel going on toward infinity. Only not really infinite, of course." Nonsensical idea, weak laughter. He only just now gets around to looking at more of Milani than her eyes-teeth-bodice, his own eyes growing wider by the time he's done, and he suddenly plucks at Derecho's sleeve with his dusty hand; "Better we go back and tell them we're all right, aye? Because, y'know, people get worried."
"Baths. I always lose the baths," says Derecho quickly, in answer to Milani. Smile. "Probably just as well we missed them, Chedayi's never been the same since that night he caught the saggies in there." As though that explained all the jumpiness and rambling. Derecho even steps over to clap a companionable hand on Chedayi's shoulder, like he's going to lead him to safety now. "Good point. I bet they're thinking we fell in and drowned in the water already. Riye's probably out of her mind worrying over me, y'know, Che?"
"Realllly," Milani crows and peeks back towards the tunnel. "Did you happen to notice any offshoots or big storage rooms or anything while you were lost?" That's delivered deadpan with a toss of her head that resettles long strands of strawberry-blonde behind her shoulders as her gaze slips back to Chedayi. "Because see, that would be /all/ sorts of useful." Whether the eye-widening is checking her out, or abject horror, Millie tugs a little to straighten her bodice out and tilts her torso /just so/ for maximum effect. Someone really ought to tell her not to play with fire where random trader boys are concerned. "Saggies?" The term clearly perplexes her. "In the baths ...." that trails off and she eyes the pair of them with another brow quirked askance. "Ohhhkay. Well, go on if you need to," a flick of fingertips. "But if you stumble across any other nooks, tell me, won't you?" She makes pleading eyes at them. "I love a good adventure." Then she's stepping up to the bookshelf and tipping the book again, skittering backward quickly as it groans forward and shut again.
Chedayi covers his eyes with his hand, a moment of pain in remembering saggies. "Never been the same..." Haunted voice. Mention of Riye, worrying over Derecho, has the effect of another burst of giggles; "Oh aye, aye, I'm sure she is. Probably she's all ready to go collect our bodies." Sudden, worried look at Milani-- "Not that she's a body-collector, not that she like goes around gathering up corpses, because what would she do with them? Can't make them dance or anything once they go all stiff." He thrusts the glowbasket at Milani in the middle of her just-so'ing. "Here." Please, Derecho, get the verbal train-wreck out of here?
"And mourn over them," Derecho has to add about Riye and their bodies, though even he can't keep a straight face over it. His mouth twitches into that grin again. "Never been the same, I told you. It's okay, we'll get you home and into bed and get Aunt Revi to tuck you in, it's okay," he makes soothing noises at Chedayi, looping an arm around the other man's shoulders and trying to nudge--okay, push--him ever so quickly toward the door to the main passage. To Milani, Derecho somewhat dodges the request by telling her instead, "Thanks so much for getting us out of there, don't know what we would have done otherwise. Maybe we can work out some kind of good deal for you, you stop by the camp? Thanks again, thanks a lot."
Milani is just kind of /staring/ at Chedayi at this point, almost not noticing as she takes the glow basket. Because he's word vomiting about /corpses/ and you know, who the heck is Riye anyway? "You betcha," the assistant headwoman replies to Derecho and she asides to him further in an undertone. "You might want to get him something for that crazy." Nodding wisely she moves to set the glowbasket down in the niche she got it from, one of the little ones next to a comfy reading chair and flips it closed. She does however, look over her shoulder after the departing traders, rather a thoughtful expression on her face.
Chedayi returned fewer glows than he started with, but a little petty theft has to be the least of his troubles. He leaves with Derecho, saying something plaintive about being absolute rubbish whenever there's a pretty girl in the room, rubbish but look at this nice pen-and-inkwell set he "found" on the table?
IC Date: 6/3/16
Dark Hall, High Reaches Weyr
A long and relatively thin passageway in that it's not as broad and open as the general passages in the weyr at perhaps four feet across. On one end is a hardwood bookshelf with a random looking collection of things.
-- and --
Records Room, High Reaches Weyr(#3141RIJs)
Thick wooden doors have been artfully pinned together with wrought-iron fasteners, through which the records room opens up into a chamber that is not overly large but quite elegant in appearance, with its squarish-shape and stylishly rounded corners. Smooth walls have been covered in alternating rows of shelves and the occasional tapestry with its lively colors and scenes to warm the cavern. Master craftsmanship has gone into both the bookcases and shelving on the walls and are carved out of rich cherry. At the far end of the room, racks stand where large scrolls hang on thin poles, to be unrolled or rolled with ease.
In the center of the room is a large table with chairs, its polished surface free of clutter save for a collection of multi-sized baskets in the center. These contain various utensils for work and study, including a stack of cut-glass coasters. Hanging over the table, an iron fixture with branching arms holds many glow baskets, bathing the room in abundant light.
Comprised of a definite order, all the shelves are carefully labeled and a large basket on one shelf is designated by a plaque as the reshelving bin. One row on the wall farthest from the entrance is glassed off and locked, labeled 'restricted access'. The room holds the classic odor of ink and hide with only a hint of dust.
Ledgers. Always with the ledgers. Milani comes trudging through with at least five of them stacked atop each other, last turn's dates written on the spines. She huffs a little as she goes, apparently on her way to stack these up with others of their ilk. It's a yearly ritual after all, usually accomplished around this time of the turn when the books have been balanced. "Why in Faranth's name these have to be so heavy, I do /not/ know," the assistant headwoman mutters mostly to herself as she moves towards the appropriate shelf.
From the crisp spring air, into a small tunnel all dark and close, through musty rooms that writhe with tunnelsnakes and moulding tapestries, down a narrow passageway shoulder-to-shoulder... At long last, there's a sign of light up ahead for Chedayi and Derecho, shafts of it coming in through gaps between the back-side of a bookshelf. Voices echo through, muffled into the records room, Chedayi's voice at present; "Telling you, something brushed my leg a minute ago. If we don't get out of here soon, I'm going to-- I dunno what, but it won't be pretty, that I can assure you." Catch the rising note of panic.
"Think that was me," Derecho answers dryly, mouth twitching up in a smirk at Chedayi's tone. He, however, for all his amusement at his companion, is quick to dust at his hair, his clothes, when they emerge into the light. He even jerks a little to find a bit of a spinner's web on his pants, and he brushes it off all the more quickly. Nobody saw that. "So where /did/ you take us, anyway?" the honorary trader asks, smoothly as he can, composure regained. Of course it's Chedayi's fault, too. "Better, can we get back out of here?"
Millie's just passed said shelf and she blinks, stops as she hears voices. Eyes the bookshelf like it's growing heads instead of just echoing voices from behind it. Frowning, the assistant headwoman unceremoniously dumps the ledgers onto the nearest table and turns to examine the bookcase. She steps closer and pushes a few books aside. Just y'know, wood backing. "Hello?" she calls out curiously and shifts a few more books to the side, industriously intent.
Chedayi answers with the most obvious reply; "Someplace dark and--" He stops, jumps like a girl, clears about a foot of distance as he crowds away from the voice on the other side of the bookshelf. Pushing into Derecho, he's just shy of jumping into the other man's arms while he paws at his shoulders all twitchy and frightened. "Sh sh sh sh shhhh. I think someone is in there." He breathes it just above a whisper, peers white-faced toward the disembodied voice.
It's a little too late to shush Derecho by then, though. As soon as Chedayi jumps back, he's darting back himself, stumbling around in the dark over his own feet and the other trader both. "Hell, man!" the loud whisper escapes him, as if all the other commotion wasn't enough. More skittering ensues, a little swatting at the back of his neck when all the jumpiness starts getting to him, too. He moves to nudge a shoulder into Chedayi's back--push /him/ forward toward the voice and the light-shafts again.
"Oh for Faranth's sake, who's that back there? Sambal? Adeon? You two sound like a pair of shrieky girls instead of the men you want to be someday when you grow up. Now how'd you get stuck back there?" All practical is Milani, thinking the two traders are a couple of lower caverns brats like herself having a bit of a lark. She does however, start pushing on the bookshelf a little, maybe trying to shift it (dumbly so, not strong enough by far), then shifting some more books aside until one of those gaps in the back is revealed and she props her chin on her hand and peeers through into the dark. This might present the startling view of half her face with a briliantly blue-green eye in it. "So. How do I get you out of there .... oh shells. You're not Adeon." Blink.
Chedayi's heels practically squeal on the stone while he struggles to keep from being shoved to the front, back-pedals hard against Derecho's insistence. "By the first egg, they know we're in here!" he whispers loudly, scrabbling to try and get around behind Derecho; then the gap of light widens and there's an eye peering at them and he freezes like it's the face of the Medusa. His gulp is near audible; "Um hello. There. We were just-- hello." His smile is shaky, faltering, and he backs away a few steps, right at the place he could bolt if he had to; but something's moving back there, slithering in the dark, and it's a question of two evils now.
"Act natural!" Derecho hisses back, just when he sees Milani's eye, too. He promptly ignores his own advice, scrabbling back against the wall out of the light. Eeeding on back until a glance down the dark hall takes in its... darkness. "Oh, hey. Hey!" he tells Milani, way too casually now as he slinks back up against the wall and a little closer to her. "We were just... looking around. Took a wrong turn. Man," and he has a shaky laugh, jerking a thumb back over his shoulder. "You got some twisty passages back there, you know that?" Big smile, because that'll win her right over.
Chedayi. Derecho. Chedayi. Derecho. Flick, flick goes that eye. "Aren't you guys with that trader caravan?" Milani regards both for a moment, then turns the wattage up on her own smile in answer to Derecho's charm. "Yeah, you know, Stores are kind of like that. But I've known them all my life. Now /this/ this is kind of cool. Did /not/ know about this." She's peering past him into the dark. "Hold on a sec." And she backs away, vanishes from view. A moment later though, her hand is thrusting a small glow basket through the shelf-gap. It's a tight fight, but she makes it work by turning the small basket on its side and her hands are slender so it works. "Hm. Well I can't move this bookshelf out of the way. Think this is like some mystery story and there's a hidden pressure point or a lever or something that'll make the whole wall swing out?" She makes big eyes at the guys through the shelf, though of course, the effect is somewhat marred by the fact that there's only one of those oculars visible.
... tight /fit/ ...
Chedayi, act natural. Likely! "Um no." He stammers the first answer that comes to mind to Milani's question of their alliance with that caravan. "I mean, yes!" He calls this hastily as she disappears, jabbers on, "I mean, we are. Just not right now, you know. Not right at this second. Most of the time we are though. Thank you." He retrieves the glowbasket and, seeing as Derecho's doing a lot better at keeping his cool, he just shuts up and shines the basket around in the darkness, doing more to make the shadows and darkness seem even worse than really illuminate anything.
"Now see, that would make it a lot easier, if we lived here that long." Derecho is a lot more in his element when he has a girl to flash that grin of his at, and this time, he actually wiggles past Chedayi in the narrow corridor just so he can step up to Milani. "Hey hey, light! Thanks." He leaves Chedayi to handle the basket, though, while he tries to look casual himself, leaning up against the back of the bookshelf and glancing sideways at Milani. "Derecho, Chedayi," he clarifies, pointing at himself and the other trader in turn, not that the gesture's very visible in the gloom. "They really make things like that? Hidden levers?" Beat. Grin. The effect is ruined by: "Sh--Che--!" He straightens sharply when a turn of the basket makes the shadows crawl ominously, just visible out of the corner of his eye. Still jumpy all right. "Stop swinging that thing around already."
Amused, Milani just grins at the guys. Anyone coming into the Records would get prime view of her derriere swaying back and forth a little coquettishly though the fellas in there can't really /see/ it. It's just an after effect of leaning on the shelf the way she is. From the right angle though, Derecho might be getting another sort of pleasant view. Flirting goes both ways. "Veger was the name, right? And sure. Can't leave you in the dark with all those /snakes/." Faux-innocent. Let's see how far that ginger-haired one leaps next. "Well met. Derecho. Chedayi. I'm Milani. Headwoman's assistant. "And I dunno if they really make 'em , but I've /read/ all about them. Think I should just start yanking on this here bookshelf? Or do you see something right next to you there Derecho, maybe?" She giggles as the pair get all jumpypants again.
Chedayi fumbles the basket, exacerbates his predisposition for fidgeting with the light; "Sorry! Sorry, I was just thinking that she's probably right, probably tunnelsnakes in here, this being a tunnel and all..." He trails off while a skittering sounds in the distance, his adam's apple bobbing in his skinny neck while he tries to pierce the gloom with his eyes by sheer force of will. "Can you--" He turns back abruptly to face the eyes of Milani. "Get us out? I mean, open a door or something? We won't fit through the same hole the basket did." Nervous laughter, twittering. "Unless you cut us up into little pieces and like fit our body parts through-- not that you would! Cut us up. Not that you're that kind of person." He has to stop talking eventually, right?
Derecho doesn't correct Milani about the family's name, just waves it off. "Oh, sure, sure. Shine the light around here--I don't see anything." Even before Chedayi can fumble it around. And he just stares then at the other man, blinking blankly the more Chedayi talks. Oh, he has to stop talking all right: Derecho means to see to it by moving to clamp one of his big feet down on one of Chedayi's. Providing he actually finds it in the dark. "She's an assistant headwoman, right? Not a butcher. Nice, pretty young girl that'll get us right out," and he has another glance for Milani, since she so kindly leans herself right up there in view. "She'll get us right out, we'll be fine, there's nothing down here." His voice is impatient, although he shoots a wide-eyed look back at the dark, too, when it makes noises.
"Yeah. There's /tons/ of snakes back there I bet. I mean, no light, nobody back there for turns ..." she trails off still all innocence. Uh huh. "Well see, I'm kind of trying, but there's no way I can budge this bookshelf all by myself. Does the tunnel end right there, or can you keep going?" The patter about getting cut up makes her roll her eyes. "Shells no, man. What would be the point? Two nice looking fellows. Pish tosh." And she pushes away from the shelf, settles hands on hips and tilts a look up at the bookshelf. Which might grant Derecho another nice view. "In all those harper tales, there's something to pull on," she notes pragmatically and bends down briefly to wink at Derecho, making a show of twirling her hair a little. "Keep the pretty words coming, trader-boy, it's motivational." Then she's eyeing the shelf again and knocking about here and there, pulling out books at random.
Chedayi gets stepped on, yelps, and defends himself with a further verbal flushing; "How do I know she's a nice girl? All I see are eyes and teeth, maybe she's just floating eyes and teeth and a voice, some kind of eye-teeth-voice creature." Worried about that now, on top of everything else, he swings around to cast light toward the bookshelf between him, Derecho, and the eye-teeth-voice creature. "Maybe you could go and get help, aye? Someone with like arms that could move the shelf, not that you don't have arms, and I'm sure they're lovely arms, just... bigger... arms..." He ends helplessly, sagging against the tunnel wall, bright red in the face from the exertion of nervousness.
Derecho ducks his head, squinting when the light hits his own eyes, adjusted for the dark. "Faranth, put that thing down," he tells Chedayi, rubbing the heel of his hand against his eyes a moment. At least it gets him to lean off the back of the bookcase, taking a step back away to eye the peephole and Milani through it. "Nice arms, right. Probably not what he's looking at, though. "They're nice eyes and teeth and voice, so the rest has to be good, too. The /inside/ bits, not just the surface, too." Such logic! He also suggests, to Milani herself, "How about you tell us which way, and we'll push? I mean, we're big strapping guys--" he eyes the sagging Chedayi, moves on quickly "--so maybe we can do it together. Just... don't let us knock something over and break it. Doubt we know our own strength." Sage nod.
"I'm a /very/ nice girl!" Milani, a little muffled, because she's standing on tiptoe to tap at a little decoration on the shelving (very nice view of straining bodice laces for Derecho and then she's dropping back to normal stance again and peeking through the gap again. "Someone else might not cut you as much slack as I am about you being back there in the first place," Millie notes mildly. "I don't think most of the Headwoman's staff would take too kindly to having a couple of Veger boys lost in the back of beyond doing who knows what, hm?" She flashes them another one of those bright innocent smiles and idly yanks on another book. No dice. Derecho's suggestions drop her gaze back down to the gap and she gives him a searching look. Inside bits. Uh huh. "If I can get you out, you can come have a look for yourself," she teases and winks at him, then there's a dubious slant of one eyebrow. "Hm." And without further comment she plucks at another book. Fourth shelf up.
Chedayi, flagged, hardly big and strapping, "We are?" He peers dazedly at Derecho, catches a glimpse of bodice, quickly tries to look enervated. "I mean, of course. Big and strapping, that's us." A fact which is quickly shown false, at least for his part, when Milani hits that right book and the shelf starts to swing inward with a creak and a scrape and he just about jumps out of his skin, back to pawing at Derecho. "Snakes!" There goes the basket, tossed up, tumbled, landed chaotically with glows spilled onto the dusty floor.
It swings inward! Derecho jumps back himself, out of the way, and he grabs at Chedayi, too, to keep the other trader between him and the door. "What the--!" he exclaims, staring. "Snakes, where?" His head jerks around, from the widening opening to the dark behind them. When nothing, however, jumps him right that instant (excepting Chedayi, of course), he calms down, too, reaching to rake a hand through his dusty hair, brush it back perfectly in place while the door opens up to reveal their rescuer. And then he can give Milani his best crooked grin and a slick, "Hey."
"Somewhere back there in the dark," says a grinning Milani as she stands there, hands propped on hips again, surveying the dusty, fraidycats. She gives Derecho a little wiggly finger-wave and a wink as that cute grin comes fully into view. "Hey there handsome, c'mon on out quick before that damn thing swings shut again or something. And you, get those glows up, the basket was pretty fresh." Brisk, business-like, but there's still something of friendly teasing in her tone and she takes a few steps back, leaaaans agains the table that bears the ledgers, presenting what some might consider to be an inviting picture. "So. Now you're out. Gonna tell me what you're up to?" Gaily. So gaily.
Chedayi ducks behind Derecho, his spindly fists clenched while he peers around the bigger man's shoulder toward Milani, forgetting to clarify why he screeched about snakes when it's nothing but a girl. He stays back when she walks out, dutifully bent to collect the scattered glows while he answers her question, regardless that it was meant for his more charming counterpart; "Up to?" Twitter. "Up to? That's funny, a funny question. Up to. Pshaw. We're not /up/ to anything, just having a nice stroll." Even with light flooding into the tunnel, he's still nervous.
Derecho shoots a rather snakey glare down at Chedayi when he tries to answer the question. Leaving Chedayi to pick up the glows--hope that door doesn't swing back closed!--Derecho moves to saunter on out of the tunnel to join Milani in the records room itself. "Us? Told you, took a wrong turn," he says, with a wave of his hand at the dark tunnelway. "We thought it would just come right back out at one of the main ones, so we kept walking and then we turned and we just got more twisted around. Lucky you found us, really, or no telling how long we would have had to fight off the snakes. I tell you what, though--I'm never going anywhere around here without a glow of my own again!" he laughs.
"Sell me another one," she tells Chedayi promptly for that answer, but remains where she is, charmingly posed against the table while he fusses the glows back into the basket. "Yeah, but you were going somewhere right, when you took that wrong turn." Eyelashes batted innocently at Derecho. "Hm. Well you know, just pay better attention next time or you might not be so lucky as to have someone rescue you," she chirps with her head tilted to the side, eyeing the trader with a saucy grin. "And /that/ sounds like a /very/ good idea. Bring glows wherever you go. And chalk. To mark the tunnels." Big eyes.
"There's really a lot back there, you know." Chedayi, dusty and red-faced with the long and intense paranoia, emerges from the shadows to stand at the mouth of the tunnel, glows in one hand, basket in the other. "It goes all the way back, like an endless tunnel going on toward infinity. Only not really infinite, of course." Nonsensical idea, weak laughter. He only just now gets around to looking at more of Milani than her eyes-teeth-bodice, his own eyes growing wider by the time he's done, and he suddenly plucks at Derecho's sleeve with his dusty hand; "Better we go back and tell them we're all right, aye? Because, y'know, people get worried."
"Baths. I always lose the baths," says Derecho quickly, in answer to Milani. Smile. "Probably just as well we missed them, Chedayi's never been the same since that night he caught the saggies in there." As though that explained all the jumpiness and rambling. Derecho even steps over to clap a companionable hand on Chedayi's shoulder, like he's going to lead him to safety now. "Good point. I bet they're thinking we fell in and drowned in the water already. Riye's probably out of her mind worrying over me, y'know, Che?"
"Realllly," Milani crows and peeks back towards the tunnel. "Did you happen to notice any offshoots or big storage rooms or anything while you were lost?" That's delivered deadpan with a toss of her head that resettles long strands of strawberry-blonde behind her shoulders as her gaze slips back to Chedayi. "Because see, that would be /all/ sorts of useful." Whether the eye-widening is checking her out, or abject horror, Millie tugs a little to straighten her bodice out and tilts her torso /just so/ for maximum effect. Someone really ought to tell her not to play with fire where random trader boys are concerned. "Saggies?" The term clearly perplexes her. "In the baths ...." that trails off and she eyes the pair of them with another brow quirked askance. "Ohhhkay. Well, go on if you need to," a flick of fingertips. "But if you stumble across any other nooks, tell me, won't you?" She makes pleading eyes at them. "I love a good adventure." Then she's stepping up to the bookshelf and tipping the book again, skittering backward quickly as it groans forward and shut again.
Chedayi covers his eyes with his hand, a moment of pain in remembering saggies. "Never been the same..." Haunted voice. Mention of Riye, worrying over Derecho, has the effect of another burst of giggles; "Oh aye, aye, I'm sure she is. Probably she's all ready to go collect our bodies." Sudden, worried look at Milani-- "Not that she's a body-collector, not that she like goes around gathering up corpses, because what would she do with them? Can't make them dance or anything once they go all stiff." He thrusts the glowbasket at Milani in the middle of her just-so'ing. "Here." Please, Derecho, get the verbal train-wreck out of here?
"And mourn over them," Derecho has to add about Riye and their bodies, though even he can't keep a straight face over it. His mouth twitches into that grin again. "Never been the same, I told you. It's okay, we'll get you home and into bed and get Aunt Revi to tuck you in, it's okay," he makes soothing noises at Chedayi, looping an arm around the other man's shoulders and trying to nudge--okay, push--him ever so quickly toward the door to the main passage. To Milani, Derecho somewhat dodges the request by telling her instead, "Thanks so much for getting us out of there, don't know what we would have done otherwise. Maybe we can work out some kind of good deal for you, you stop by the camp? Thanks again, thanks a lot."
Milani is just kind of /staring/ at Chedayi at this point, almost not noticing as she takes the glow basket. Because he's word vomiting about /corpses/ and you know, who the heck is Riye anyway? "You betcha," the assistant headwoman replies to Derecho and she asides to him further in an undertone. "You might want to get him something for that crazy." Nodding wisely she moves to set the glowbasket down in the niche she got it from, one of the little ones next to a comfy reading chair and flips it closed. She does however, look over her shoulder after the departing traders, rather a thoughtful expression on her face.
Chedayi returned fewer glows than he started with, but a little petty theft has to be the least of his troubles. He leaves with Derecho, saying something plaintive about being absolute rubbish whenever there's a pretty girl in the room, rubbish but look at this nice pen-and-inkwell set he "found" on the table?