Mystery solved.
RL Date: 4/22/09
IC Date: 7/16/19
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.
Breakfast is over, lunch hasn't yet arrived, and Jaeyi's enjoying a very little bit of downtime between one rush and another. Most people are busy getting things together for the lunch hour-- slicing bread, arranging cheese plates, peeling fruits and vegetables-- but she's perched on the counter (in a way that can't be sanitary), her feet dangling off the side to lightly thump the counter), eating very cold looking grapes out of a bowl. She looks a little wilted, it being a warm summer day, warmer inside.
Ysar is on a mission for the Headwoman. With one of those ever-present clip-boards in her arms (held rather like a shield in front of her chest), she enters a domain she doesn't usually have much to do with. But, today, she slips into the kitchens, trying very much to not get in anyone's way. It still looks pretty much the same since she was a child and helping in the kitchen was one of her chores. She never caused any disasters, at least, but it wasn't her favorite thing to do. After concluding her task (checking an order for a new set of chef's knives and new baking dishes), she meanders back through the workers. Spotting Jaeyi sitting on the counter, she pauses to smile. "You look comfortable," she says with a grin. "And whatever's baking smells wonderful."
"I strive for it," returns Jaeyi, smiling sunnily (and sweatily) at her state of comfort, a half-eaten grape held between her fingers not so far from her mouth. With her empty hand, she tilts the bowl invitingly toward Ysar, want some?, and goes on drumming her heels idly on the cabinet door beneath her. "Mmn, does it? I'm making--" She puts the rest of the rest of the grape in her mouth, waves vaguely toward the nearest stove. "--appetizers. It's my way of rebelling." The last is added in a lowered, conspiratory voice.
Since grapes are admittedly one of Ysar's favorite fruits, she gladly accepts the offer and helps herself. "Rebelling, eh?" she says, cocking her head to one side. "What kind? I loved the cheese and bacon ones out the other night. Those were delicious." One grape is popped into her mouth; gone in 3 seconds. Ysar turns a bit sideways, leaning her hip against the counter, clip-board finally detaching from her chest. "So, what are you rebelling against?" she asks with a grin, her own voice pitched to that low, conspiratorial level. "Oh, and we're ordering some new bake ware. Got anything special you want to tack on to the list?" She nods to the clip-board.
Jaeyi, surely aware that it sounds so typically teenager-y given the merriment that brightens her expression; "The world? Actually." She drops the bowl onto her lap, makes it easy-reaching for both herself and Ysar, and concludes, "My journeyman. Striving to prove that savory doesn't mean indelicate. I'll show them to you when they come out." The appetizers, she means, then points down the counter toward a cookbook open a few feet away. "Oh, loads I could tack on. Can you get that for me, I'll show you."
"Well, that's why I'm down here," Ysar says, grinning, glancing over to the recipe book. "That's the list so far," she adds, tapping a finger on a rather short group of scribbling. I asked about some new baking dishes and things, but the Head Cook just kind of shrugged. You want something, this is the time to ask. The budget'll cover a few new things, I'm sure." She helps herself to more grapes. "Love to see 'em," Ysar tells Jaeyi. "Any idea what your Journeyman project will be?"
Jaeyi puts the bowl aside for a moment and, leaning rather gracelessly, reaches for the book then, slides it along the counter until it sits near to the bowl, near to Ysar. "They'll be out in just a couple minutes, so hang around, kill time, I'll let you sample," she offers with a winning smile. "Here." And she flips to the back of the book, which seems to be comprised mostly of hand-drawn pictures of various bits of cookware: a few casserole dishes, bundt pans, rammekins. "I could use, like, forty of these little guys? They're pricy, though." The rammekins.
Watching Jaeyi with a bit of curiosity, Ysar is ready when the book comes close. "Hm." Just that. "I know as much about cooking as I do about---" She casts around inside her head for an appropriate word. "---sailing a boat. At least with the boat I could just let it float. In a kitchen, I flounder." She nods. "What're we talking about when you say pricey?" Can you give me an idea, and I'll at least run it by Shevena." And, finally. "What's a rammekins. It sounds like a nickname for a little kid." Nope, definitely not a baker here. "And what do you cook in them?"
"Well. They run--" Not such an exorbitant price that she quotes, for each one, but forty of them at a time? Jaeyi seems aware of the likelihood that /forty/ of them is a lot different than one or two, and that's why she hedges a sheepish smile to admit the cost. "It's a little small ceramic bowl, sort of? And you put, say, custard in it. Although, I bet there's at least one little boy called Rammekins? Or probably part of a ship." She chews a grape, thinks about her own minimal knowledge of boats. "Anyway. If you can't get them, you can't get them. It's all just a wish-list, hmn?"
Ysar looks thoughtful for a few minutes. "Let me see what I can do, all right? I've learned a few tricks over the past few turns. Sometimes it's actually cheaper the more you buy of something." She ponders this, then shrugs. "Shevena's pretty easy-going, but---" Isn't there always a but? "---could be she'd wonder how practical it is. Forty won't feed a lot of people. Unless I'm missing something? Would they be for special guests and dinners and things?" At any rate, Ysar takes her pencil and adds 40 rammekins to the list. "So, what've you been up to besides fomenting rebellion?" She grins at the other girl, nodding at one of the other girls ambles past.
"Oh, there are--" Jaeyi hops off the counter then, leaves the bowl and the cookbook and all behind to move just a little ways down and open one of the upper cabinets. Which is stacked with little white rammekins already. "--lots of them here. But forty more would be..." Cause for her to smile prettily back at Ysar. "Oooh, fomenting. I like that one. How do you spell it?" Since she's already down, she might as well check her oven on the way back.
"F-o-m-e-n-t. That's the root word. Then you just add the i-n-g on the end," Ysar explains. "It means to start something up, but kind of sneaky-like." She wrinkles her nose, and grins. "Like conspiracies and stuff like that. Clandestine stuff." Ysar watches Jaeyi check the oven. "If rammekins are something the weyr already has, it'll be easier to convince Shevena to order more. It's now officially on the list." She makes the words sound "real important" with her emphasis. "I haven't been doing a shardin' thing, lately. Decided to get myself drunk earlier this week. That experiment didn't work out so hot." She makes a face. "Next morning was awful."
Jaeyi repeats, tries it out a few times, "Fomenting. Fomenting. Fo. Men. Ting." She'll remember that, and looks pretty happy with the new word while she pulls out a tray of little tartlet thingies, thin pastry shells shaped into fluted-looking bowls, more than a dozen per sheet, and then sheet after sheet. Smells like onions and cheese. "Oh, goooosh," she drawls in the middle of her work, makes a face at Ysar's tale. "Drunk! Why in the world would you do that?"
Most of Ysar's attention seems devoted to that sheet of appetizers coming out of the oven. Her stomach actually growls, possibly a tribute to the cook? "Oh, 'scuse me!" Her cheeks turn a little pink, but, then, she's leaning near an oven. The heat, of course. "Oh, I'd just kind of heard something ... disappointing," Ysar says in answer to Jaeyi's question. "I've always heard of drowning your sorrows in booze, so I thought I'd give it a try." A short snort of laughter. "All I managed to do was make a fool out of myself in front of a couple of guys. Weyrling. W'ton, I think he said. And Banain." A shrug. "I had three drinks and I was more than ready to be in bed---and not in the way I'd wanted. And drinking definitely did /not/ help one shardin' bit." She rolls her eyes, kind of giving a self-depreciating shrug. "At least I didn't get sick or anything."
Jaeyi lines 'em up on the counter, one tray after another, and looks pretty pleased at the end while all the crispy-golden things cool off. Likewise, cooling off, she fans her face with the end of her apron, saying, "Next time you're disappointed in something? Come see me. I'll give you something better as consolation," and nodding toward the trays. "Don't eat them yet, you'll burn your tongue. --I don't know Banain, but W'ton seems a little... trumped up? I wouldn't be so very embarrassed to be drunk in front of him, personally."
Ysar draws back the hand that was inching toward the closest of those trays, looking kind of sheepish. "It's a deal," she tells Jaeyi after that offer. "Anything you come up with has /got/ to be better than the stuff I was drinking. The last two weren't bad. I'd had it before. T'rev bought it for me a while back. The first one---? Wow. I couldn't breathe afterwards. It was strong." The babbling stops, and she nods in agreement. "He kind of seemed like a ... I dunno, prissy? In a manly way, but very into himself and how he looks, and all. He'll turn into a typical bronzerider, I'm sure. Not that it's a bad thing, just ... sometimes I'd like to be surprised by someone who isn't a /typical/ anything."
Leaning on her elbow, insistently fanning her face with the edge of her apron, Jaeyi asks, "What's a 'typical' bronzerider?" She lifts her chin off her hand just enough to make air-quotes with one hand, her brows drawing together just a touch. "Because, so far, I wouldn't typify any of the ones I've met. I mean, there's the stereotype? But is W'ton that? He's not exactly... charming. If you ask me."
Ysar is quiet a moment while she thinks. "Well," and it's long, drawn out, "I usually categorize bronzers in two groups---those who are dedicated, hard-working, good leaders, kind of the ideal bronzerider. The kind you trust, sometimes on instinct. Then there's the other group who're arrogant, swaggering, and seem to think they're the be-all and end-all of everything. Either group can be charming, and I'm not saying the second group are bad guys. They're just ... not as pleasant to be around unless you're into all that puffed up, I'm a bronzer stuff." A chuckle and a shrug. "All right, try this. Look at W'ton, and compare him to, say, T'rev. About the only thing they have in common is a bronze dragon. Give me someone like T'rev any day. He's ... well, despite his good looks, there's a good person inside."
Considering, head tipped, Jaeyi gives the idea of two-tone bronzeriders due thought, certainly doesn't dismiss it out of hand, but... "Okay, I'll grant you that T'rev and W'ton aren't exactly cut from the same cloth-- but neither is Y'nolek, hmn? If T'rev's heart-of-gold, and I'm not necessarily saying he is." She does the confiding voice for that again, looks impressed and daunted all at once, eyes round and merry. "And W'ton's a swaggering fool. Where's that leave my third example?"
"I don't know Y'nolek," Ysar replies, shaking her head, "So, I've not idea where he might fit into the equation. Perhaps I should've said three groups---heart-of-gold, swaggering fool and those who fall somewhere between?" It's a rhetorical question, that really doesn't need answering. "And, bear in mind, this's all just my personal opinion. I've always been kind of partial to brownriders, m'self, but they have their share of jerks, too." She kind of sheepishly grins. "T'rev's always been really nice to me, and I respect him a lot. I wi---" But that thought is cut off in mid-sentence. "Anyway, it's all just personal opinion. I'm sure a mindhealer could give more insight than I ever could."
"No?" Jaeyi delicately reaches for one of the onion-cheese-pastries, tests the heat of it with a slight hiss when it hits her fingers. "He's cute-- Nolek. Very... Mmn, he's kind of stammering and bashful, but wow can that kid kiss." She's off for a plate then, to serve up the pretty pastries in a cluster in the middle of it. "And T'rev is. Really nice to everyone, I'm pretty sure? And wow can that kid kiss," she echoes with a new laugh, one that fails to be embarrassed, slides the plate on over toward Ysar with a help-yourself nod. Teenage girls talking about boys: what else is new.
"I wouldn't know about that," Ysar says in response to the kissing as she does, indeed, help herself to the appetizers. "Oh, man, those are /good/," kind of explodes from her mouth as she finishes that first one. Fingers are licked. "Those are gonna be gone in about two seconds when they hit the food table. But, back to boys. "I've never been kissed like that. A peck on the cheek, a fumbled attempt at a gather once, but not a real /kiss/." She kind of sighs, reaching for another tidbit. "I was kind of hoping to remedy that recently, and I had a plan, but it sort of---" She waves her hand in the air to indicate those plans went "poof." The second pastry disappears about as fast as the first. "You know, there're a lot of us girls around these days. We should have a girl's night sometime. Just sit and gossip and such."
A little testily, Jaeyi says, "If only certain /Journeymen/ would realize that." She humphs emphatically, starts to disassemble one of the pastries with more professional interest than any need to eat it-- to see how the filling held up, if the crust is flaky, all that fun stuff. "Mmn, Su said something about that? Like, a girly party or something. Could devolve into a lot of hair-pulling and-- wait. Never?" That took a while to sink in, and she eyes Ysar anew, duly surprised.
It's the heat from the nearby ovens. Yes, that's what makes her cheeks turn a bit pinkish. Ysar looks down at the plate, as if she's contemplating one more of the treats. "If he doesn't realize what a great cook you are, then that certain Journeyman is out of his mind. This is a good recipe. Kind of...spicy? No,savory. Rich, not over-powering, flaky crust." Looks like she's talking herself into another one. "Maybe, maybe not." About the hair-pulling. "Might just be we all get to be friends. Friends are good." And then there's that blush. "No, never. Not a /real/ kiss, nor anything else, either." She pauses. "I got groped once, after a blue-rider lost a green flight. Scared me to daath. I don't want my first time to be the result of flight sex. That can be...intense."
Kwei steps up the stairs from the living cavern.
Kwei has arrived.
"He thinks I'm better at /being/ a tart than /making/ a tart. Which might be true, but hey." Jaeyi shrugs and, collecting a few now-safely-cooled pastries on her palm, goes back over to where she was sitting before and hops back up onto the counter, feet dangling anew. She chews, watches Ysar for a few seconds in contemplative silence while she talks about the lost-flights, then suggests by and by, "Wouldn't it be easier to just not? Help out after a flight, I mean." Onion-and-cheese tarts are the order of the afternoon, the two girls off by a hot oven on a hot day in a hot kitchen, eating, gabbing.
"Sure, which is why I usually stay someplace safe, like down in the dorms or stores or someplace like that," Ysar replies to Jaeyi's question. "It's voluntary, of course. No one gets raped or anything, but some riders don't really want to take no for an answer. They can get a bit forceful." She shrugs, grabbing one more of the pastries before turning to lean against the counter where Jaeyi sits. "I thought I had something figured out, but---he wasn't interested. Thought I wanted something more permanent like." Ysar pulls the neckline of her dress away from her throat, fanning it a little. "How do you stand it? Winter it'll be great down here, but today it's sweltering. If it wasn't for your tarts---and your Journeyman really /is/ a fool, by the way, if he thinks that!---I'd be gone, so you can tell your J-man I think he's lost it."
Kwei is on the prowl for some food apparently if the way he sticks his head round the corner of the kitchen door to see who is about. Scopeing the place out first he decides it's safe enough when he spies a pair of familiar and friendly faces, so it's with a renewed confidence that he makes his entrance and strolls over towards them. "Good afternoon Ladies." He greets them with a wide smile.
Jaeyi's bite, at forceful, is a little more luxuriant than absolutely necessary. Maybe she just thinks her own onion tartlet is that darn good? Could be coincidence like that? But probably not. Moving on; "Did you not, then? Want something more permanent?" She never gets around to answering about how she stands the heat, though her wilted appearance might speak for itself, as there comes Kwei, and he earns a lovely smile and a pastry held out on the end of her fingers-- bait. "Ah, my darlingest of harpers. Come and keep us from dissolving into girly foolishness?"
"Permanency isn't something I've seen a lot of," Ysar replied. "Oh, I know there're couples devoted to each other, and long term weyrmatings, but---?" She shrugs. "My own parents were never together, though Da stuck by mother until I popped out. And, he took some interest in me whilst I was growing up. Otherwise?---nah. I'm not particularly looking for anything permanent. If I ever really fall for a guy, maybe. Now? Nope." And then she hears a familiar voice. "Kwei!" She's apparently really glad to see the Harper. "How're you doing?" she asks. "Yes, please---save Jaeyi from my babbling," she says with a grin.
Kwei reaches one of his own hands out to Jaeyi's to accept the pastry from her. "Thank you kindly." He replies in his 'turned on the charm' voice as he glances between the pair of them, hot pastry starting to get passed between his hands, though he does appear to be favouring his left a little. "I'm not sure I want to get involved in girly foolishness, so is it a good thing to save you both from it or should I just turn round and flee now that I have some food?" He asks holding up the pastry as he looks at both of them in turn.
"Some people just aren't wired for permanent affairs, I think, and if that's what he thought you were after..." She trails off, shrugs, offers Ysar a sympathetic-seeming smile. And then Jaeyi promptly leans forward like she'd snag Kwei by the shoulder-knot, hook it with her pastry-free index finger, saying hastily, "If you run off, I'll chase you. Which could be fun, but it's a little hot for such exertions." /Exertions,/ with a drum of her heels against the cabinet beneath where she sits to emphasize the term.
"I told him I wasn't, but---hey, that's the way things work out sometimes." Ysar shrugs. "Or, don't work out, as the case may be. I'm sure there's something else mixed up in there, but it's all right." And then she's turning her own attention toward the Harper, smiling at him, and reaching a hand out to poke at him, but not touch him. "You need to stay and stop me from eating half a tray of those things," she tells Kwei, also reaching for one of those tarts to hand him. "Besides, it's been a while since you gave me a flirting lesson, and I need the practice." She gives the young man a wink and laughs, probably at herself.
Is the excitement of being poked at by two woman enough excitement for Kwei? Not yet it would seem as he stands his ground with a laugh. "Okay I'll stay, even though it'd probably be cooler in one of the other caverns or in the lake or even the hot springs right now." He explains with a bit of a laugh., he shifts his weight a bit, leaning closer to the standing Ysar to take the offered tart and bumps his hip against her gently in the process. "But seriously how could I refuse two perfectly beautiful women?"
Jaeyi, resting her forward-pitched weight on her palm on the counter, suggests sunnily, "Stay and be hot with us instead," to all the talk of cooler caverns, pft. Trying not to flat-out give away the previous subject, she makes the effort to conclude it with a quiet remark to Ysar: "If it makes you feel better, I think you'll probably wind up happier in the end. It's not something you should really... arrange? Like that." With that, she's all set to behold these flirting lessons, eat-and-watch.
"It was an idea, just not a good one, I guess," Ysar replies, nodding in agreement. "Happier? Maybe. We'll see. Time will tell, and in the meantime, I'll just do whatever it is I do around here." She grins, and doesn't seem too upset about things. "I got it out of my system, don't worry." And then she's getting hip-bumped by Kwei. "Keep that up and I'll think you're trying to start a new dance craze," she tells him with a laugh. "And, the one thing we have here those other caverns don't is Jaeyi---/and/ her incredible food. I'm gonna have to swim a dozen laps to work off these tarts, but they're fantastic. Say, Jaeyi---you should make some of these with crumbled bacon on them."
Kwei takes a bite out of one of the pastries, it's a delicate bite, checking how hot it actually is and how good it is at the same time. There's a definite look of pleased appearing as he swallows it down. "These are good, and to be enjoyed with hot women. I like it." He says with a smile before he glances to Jaeyi with a grin. "She's not all that good at spotting things is she." He says bumping lightly against Ysar's hip again and leaning towards her again. "Check other peoples body language." He tells her. "Generally if someone is leaning towards you, there is some form of interest, away from you and there's not so much."
"I have never made bacon without burning the sh-- without burning myself." Jaeyi puts a glance down to her hands, which presently look fairly pristine aside from a little grease on her palm from holding the tartlets. "Don't criticize," she chides Kwei importantly, done preening over the reception to her appetizers. They're good, she knows it, enough said. "I've seen him not quite sure how to react a time or two, Ysar. Don't let him fool you."
"That's an interesting observation," Ysar says in response to Kwei's comment about body language, "but he's right. I don't take enough notice of how others are around me. I'll have to start watching." She bumps his hip back, this time, cocking her head to the side and looking at him from the corner of her eyes. "Speaking of hot---I miss hearing you play out in the herb garden. You taking to practicing somewhere else?" The question is lightly asked, with a big smile on her face. "The bigger question is, are you going to tell me, or do I have to hunt you down?---which doesn't sound all that unpleasant."
Kwei flashes a smile at Jaeyi, "Okay yes, Levania had me seriously tongue tied for a while, you have that strange effect on me as well sometimes, but I'm getting better." He says with a bit of a laugh before addressing Ysar. "I've been playing in the commons more these days, the herb garden has been getting more and more crowded with the better weather, though I've not been playing as much the last sevenday." Although he doesn't say why, if she's watching closely enough she may spy a flexing of his right hand that isn't usually there. "I think I may be going to play for one of the dragons soon though, that could be a bit weird."
Hopping down again, off to scrape the rest of those patries off the trays before they permanently weld themselves there, Jaeyi offers merrily, "Mmn, give me a chance, darling, and I'd tie up the rest of you, too." Yeah, she's not really in the market for lessons. Subtly, she spatulas a few renewed pastries toward Ysar's plate while she offloads the trays, saying in the meantime, "What happened to your hand? --Kwei's. Not yours." With a nose-crinkle smile at Ysar.
Ysar was about to ask the same thing of the Harper, her brow creasing slightly. "Does it effect your playing?" she asks, concern written all over her face. "Maybe you should see a healer if it hurts?" That's her suggestion, but this one might not be quite as stupid as some of her other advice. "I know you're supposed to keep it cool if it's sprained, and warm if it's---" Nope, she can't finish that sentence. "I forget. Do you need to see a healer? I can see if there's one hanging around the living cavern," she offers.
Kwei grins and winks at Jaeyi as she goes to deal with pastries. "I know you would." He replies as saucily as he gets, taking the chance to turn and lean against the counter, holding his hand out in front of him. "One of the strings snapped on my harp while I was playing it, it flicked out as the tension was released and opened up the palm of my hand." He explains, there's not really much of a mark left by this stage except the light tracing where the skin was broken. "Vani saw to all that already." He tells Ysar before she even thinks about running off though he's not opposed to sympathetic mothering. "I've got some numbweed to use if it starts to itch."
The spatula, the pastries, they keep her too busy to come over and fawn over Kwei, but Jaeyi still chimes prettily, "Come over here and I'll kiss it better for you." Somewhere behind her, a dishwasher that's been hanging on every word of this conversation drops a handful of spoons into the bottom of the sink with a great clatter, no doubt trying to find some way to wound himself and get such an offer. No such luck. "Eat those," she adds to Ysar, starts to stack the oven-trays now that they're all emptied.
"Oh, that must've hurt," Ysar says in sympathy. "It doesn't look too bad, but if it keeps hurting, you see the healers, please? You've too much talent to let something like that prevent you from playing." She peers at Kwei's palm, then giggles when Jaeyi offers to kiss it and make it better. "I'd offer my services in that department, but I have to live with the results of any gossip that might start up," she says with a teasing grin. "I don't want to get smothered in my sleep!" And then those spoons go crash, and Ysar jumps about three feet---and right into Kwei's out-stretched arm, against his chest, even. She doesn't move for a second, then jumps back. "Oh, I'm /so/ sorry!" she exclaims, blushing bright red. Quick, look for a distraction! Yes! Jaeyi to the rescue with that plate. "Thanks." Plate is taken and Ysar turns to face the counter until she composes herself.
Tempting as it is to chase after Jaeyi to take her up on that offer Kwei stays where he is leaning against the counter. He does seem to find some measure of amusement in Ysar's fawning over him. "Been there." He murmurs softly in response to her comment right before things crash and she ends up in his arms pretty much, his immediate reaction is to wrap his other arm around her waist to steady her, the one with the pastry, probably way too close to the front of her for comfort. "You okay?" He asks her, the arm making it a bit more difficult for her to extract herself but he does let her go without a fight or anything. "It's healing fine, don't worry." He tells her as he settles back to watch the pair of them at work.
Something-- oh, something makes Jaeyi chuckle, shake her head, and pay a little more strict attention to the stacking of cooking trays than is absolutely necessary. But her work's done, and they sit, waiting for the butterfingers-dishwasher to come get them and do his thing. "He does that all day," she imparts after Ysar's jumping, leaning against the countertop with a nod toward the source of all the racket. "I guess you get used to it."
Deep breath. Yes, that's good. Breathing is good. It only takes a moment or two for Ysar to turn back around, chuckling softly. "I'm sorry about that, Kwei," she repeats her apology. "Not that it was unpleasant, just unexpected. Next time I'll relax and enjoy it," she teases. She's still blushing a bit, but it's better to laugh it off, than get all shy and stuff. "Kind of like dancing with you. We'll have to do that again sometime." If she seems a little rushed, like her laughter is a bit loud, well, chalk it up to being a little abashed. That plate of pastries is availed upon, and she bites into another tart, this time cheese running out the end. It's finger-licking time. "I guess you do," she agrees with Jaeyi. "I expect he gets pretty distracted by you, a lot," she says winking.
Kwei smiles and blows a kiss at Ysar just to enhance any embarrassment she may already be suffering from it. His hand drops away from her waist as she steps away, his hand hovers for a few moments as if he's lining up to pat it against her bum but then thinks better of it, probably thanks to the sound of Jaeyi chuckling and shakes his head. "I can understand why that could happen." He murmurs to the pair of them. "Dancing I can do, that's pretty safe and won't hurt my hand." He tells her. "I should probably get something more to eat and get back to my lessons."
"I expect he's sort of dim-witted, but whatever. He does what I tell him to for the most part." Which is why, despite the not-so-loving things she has to say about the dishwasher, Jaeyi still flashes him a forgiving, fetching smile. "If you want /real/ food," she begins toward Kwei, "you'll have to look elsewhere. It's all little frilly things on this end."
Ysar chuckles and looks a little shy at that blown kiss, but she reaches up and grabs at the air like a little kid. "I'll save it for later," she tells him with a wink. Maybe it's a good thing she didn't see that hand poised to smack her bum. At any rate, she finishes her pastry, and sighs. "I'd best be getting to work," she says, her tone a bit more sober. "It's been great catching up with you, Jaeyi. We'll have to do it again sometime. Girl's night, or something." To Kwei, she smiles. "Dancing would be nice, and I promise I'll behave. I still don't want to get smothered in my sleep over a misunderstanding." She gives both of them---and the dim-witted dishwasher---a nod, picking up her clip-board. "I'll let you know about the rammekins, Jaeyi. If you think of anything else you want, just let me know." With a wave, she's working her way off, negotiating a path out of the kitchens.
"Frilly things are okay so long as they're not too sweet, you know my tastes." Kwei replies to Jaeyi. "You'd better behave." He admonishes Ysar with a wag of his finger though he quiets as she walks off, waiting before she's out of earshot before his face hits the palm of his hand. "Oh dear." He mutters as he looks back to Jaeyi. "Behave indeed, well someone spotted us in the commons last week and told Levania." He tells her with a smile. "So behaving is a good thing, or at least telling her before."
With the grace to look a little apologetic, Jaeyi answers, "I know. Someone was in the middle of telling me the story of how we were pretty much all over each other-- then they realized the story was about /me/ and stopped. It was funny. To me." Hands tucked behind her on the counter, she's making the pretense of good behavior at the very least. "We didn't /do/ anything, so she really shouldn't have been cross at you."
Kwei smiles and nods his head. "Yeah she knows that after I explained what happened, but unfortunately the gossips got there first. Though admittedly she did rather enjoy the demonstration of fingering techniques." He does rather fail to say that with a straight face but he's pushing himself away from the counter he's leaning on. "So food, point me in the right direction if you would." He beams at her. "And away from temptation I'm afraid."
Let's be grateful that, for once, Jaeyi is not in the middle of eating anything when he says that: fingering techniques. She coughs anyway, takes a studious breath, and resolutely avoids /going there/. Instead, "Next time, I'll keep in mind that it doesn't do any good to behave, the story goes all wrong anyway. Come." And, reaching to pluck his sleeve at the shoulder, she's all set to deliver him unto regions with heartier food than her pastry-location.
Kwei laughs at the reaction and dips a bow to her just before she tugs him away to get fed.
IC Date: 7/16/19
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.
Breakfast is over, lunch hasn't yet arrived, and Jaeyi's enjoying a very little bit of downtime between one rush and another. Most people are busy getting things together for the lunch hour-- slicing bread, arranging cheese plates, peeling fruits and vegetables-- but she's perched on the counter (in a way that can't be sanitary), her feet dangling off the side to lightly thump the counter), eating very cold looking grapes out of a bowl. She looks a little wilted, it being a warm summer day, warmer inside.
Ysar is on a mission for the Headwoman. With one of those ever-present clip-boards in her arms (held rather like a shield in front of her chest), she enters a domain she doesn't usually have much to do with. But, today, she slips into the kitchens, trying very much to not get in anyone's way. It still looks pretty much the same since she was a child and helping in the kitchen was one of her chores. She never caused any disasters, at least, but it wasn't her favorite thing to do. After concluding her task (checking an order for a new set of chef's knives and new baking dishes), she meanders back through the workers. Spotting Jaeyi sitting on the counter, she pauses to smile. "You look comfortable," she says with a grin. "And whatever's baking smells wonderful."
"I strive for it," returns Jaeyi, smiling sunnily (and sweatily) at her state of comfort, a half-eaten grape held between her fingers not so far from her mouth. With her empty hand, she tilts the bowl invitingly toward Ysar, want some?, and goes on drumming her heels idly on the cabinet door beneath her. "Mmn, does it? I'm making--" She puts the rest of the rest of the grape in her mouth, waves vaguely toward the nearest stove. "--appetizers. It's my way of rebelling." The last is added in a lowered, conspiratory voice.
Since grapes are admittedly one of Ysar's favorite fruits, she gladly accepts the offer and helps herself. "Rebelling, eh?" she says, cocking her head to one side. "What kind? I loved the cheese and bacon ones out the other night. Those were delicious." One grape is popped into her mouth; gone in 3 seconds. Ysar turns a bit sideways, leaning her hip against the counter, clip-board finally detaching from her chest. "So, what are you rebelling against?" she asks with a grin, her own voice pitched to that low, conspiratorial level. "Oh, and we're ordering some new bake ware. Got anything special you want to tack on to the list?" She nods to the clip-board.
Jaeyi, surely aware that it sounds so typically teenager-y given the merriment that brightens her expression; "The world? Actually." She drops the bowl onto her lap, makes it easy-reaching for both herself and Ysar, and concludes, "My journeyman. Striving to prove that savory doesn't mean indelicate. I'll show them to you when they come out." The appetizers, she means, then points down the counter toward a cookbook open a few feet away. "Oh, loads I could tack on. Can you get that for me, I'll show you."
"Well, that's why I'm down here," Ysar says, grinning, glancing over to the recipe book. "That's the list so far," she adds, tapping a finger on a rather short group of scribbling. I asked about some new baking dishes and things, but the Head Cook just kind of shrugged. You want something, this is the time to ask. The budget'll cover a few new things, I'm sure." She helps herself to more grapes. "Love to see 'em," Ysar tells Jaeyi. "Any idea what your Journeyman project will be?"
Jaeyi puts the bowl aside for a moment and, leaning rather gracelessly, reaches for the book then, slides it along the counter until it sits near to the bowl, near to Ysar. "They'll be out in just a couple minutes, so hang around, kill time, I'll let you sample," she offers with a winning smile. "Here." And she flips to the back of the book, which seems to be comprised mostly of hand-drawn pictures of various bits of cookware: a few casserole dishes, bundt pans, rammekins. "I could use, like, forty of these little guys? They're pricy, though." The rammekins.
Watching Jaeyi with a bit of curiosity, Ysar is ready when the book comes close. "Hm." Just that. "I know as much about cooking as I do about---" She casts around inside her head for an appropriate word. "---sailing a boat. At least with the boat I could just let it float. In a kitchen, I flounder." She nods. "What're we talking about when you say pricey?" Can you give me an idea, and I'll at least run it by Shevena." And, finally. "What's a rammekins. It sounds like a nickname for a little kid." Nope, definitely not a baker here. "And what do you cook in them?"
"Well. They run--" Not such an exorbitant price that she quotes, for each one, but forty of them at a time? Jaeyi seems aware of the likelihood that /forty/ of them is a lot different than one or two, and that's why she hedges a sheepish smile to admit the cost. "It's a little small ceramic bowl, sort of? And you put, say, custard in it. Although, I bet there's at least one little boy called Rammekins? Or probably part of a ship." She chews a grape, thinks about her own minimal knowledge of boats. "Anyway. If you can't get them, you can't get them. It's all just a wish-list, hmn?"
Ysar looks thoughtful for a few minutes. "Let me see what I can do, all right? I've learned a few tricks over the past few turns. Sometimes it's actually cheaper the more you buy of something." She ponders this, then shrugs. "Shevena's pretty easy-going, but---" Isn't there always a but? "---could be she'd wonder how practical it is. Forty won't feed a lot of people. Unless I'm missing something? Would they be for special guests and dinners and things?" At any rate, Ysar takes her pencil and adds 40 rammekins to the list. "So, what've you been up to besides fomenting rebellion?" She grins at the other girl, nodding at one of the other girls ambles past.
"Oh, there are--" Jaeyi hops off the counter then, leaves the bowl and the cookbook and all behind to move just a little ways down and open one of the upper cabinets. Which is stacked with little white rammekins already. "--lots of them here. But forty more would be..." Cause for her to smile prettily back at Ysar. "Oooh, fomenting. I like that one. How do you spell it?" Since she's already down, she might as well check her oven on the way back.
"F-o-m-e-n-t. That's the root word. Then you just add the i-n-g on the end," Ysar explains. "It means to start something up, but kind of sneaky-like." She wrinkles her nose, and grins. "Like conspiracies and stuff like that. Clandestine stuff." Ysar watches Jaeyi check the oven. "If rammekins are something the weyr already has, it'll be easier to convince Shevena to order more. It's now officially on the list." She makes the words sound "real important" with her emphasis. "I haven't been doing a shardin' thing, lately. Decided to get myself drunk earlier this week. That experiment didn't work out so hot." She makes a face. "Next morning was awful."
Jaeyi repeats, tries it out a few times, "Fomenting. Fomenting. Fo. Men. Ting." She'll remember that, and looks pretty happy with the new word while she pulls out a tray of little tartlet thingies, thin pastry shells shaped into fluted-looking bowls, more than a dozen per sheet, and then sheet after sheet. Smells like onions and cheese. "Oh, goooosh," she drawls in the middle of her work, makes a face at Ysar's tale. "Drunk! Why in the world would you do that?"
Most of Ysar's attention seems devoted to that sheet of appetizers coming out of the oven. Her stomach actually growls, possibly a tribute to the cook? "Oh, 'scuse me!" Her cheeks turn a little pink, but, then, she's leaning near an oven. The heat, of course. "Oh, I'd just kind of heard something ... disappointing," Ysar says in answer to Jaeyi's question. "I've always heard of drowning your sorrows in booze, so I thought I'd give it a try." A short snort of laughter. "All I managed to do was make a fool out of myself in front of a couple of guys. Weyrling. W'ton, I think he said. And Banain." A shrug. "I had three drinks and I was more than ready to be in bed---and not in the way I'd wanted. And drinking definitely did /not/ help one shardin' bit." She rolls her eyes, kind of giving a self-depreciating shrug. "At least I didn't get sick or anything."
Jaeyi lines 'em up on the counter, one tray after another, and looks pretty pleased at the end while all the crispy-golden things cool off. Likewise, cooling off, she fans her face with the end of her apron, saying, "Next time you're disappointed in something? Come see me. I'll give you something better as consolation," and nodding toward the trays. "Don't eat them yet, you'll burn your tongue. --I don't know Banain, but W'ton seems a little... trumped up? I wouldn't be so very embarrassed to be drunk in front of him, personally."
Ysar draws back the hand that was inching toward the closest of those trays, looking kind of sheepish. "It's a deal," she tells Jaeyi after that offer. "Anything you come up with has /got/ to be better than the stuff I was drinking. The last two weren't bad. I'd had it before. T'rev bought it for me a while back. The first one---? Wow. I couldn't breathe afterwards. It was strong." The babbling stops, and she nods in agreement. "He kind of seemed like a ... I dunno, prissy? In a manly way, but very into himself and how he looks, and all. He'll turn into a typical bronzerider, I'm sure. Not that it's a bad thing, just ... sometimes I'd like to be surprised by someone who isn't a /typical/ anything."
Leaning on her elbow, insistently fanning her face with the edge of her apron, Jaeyi asks, "What's a 'typical' bronzerider?" She lifts her chin off her hand just enough to make air-quotes with one hand, her brows drawing together just a touch. "Because, so far, I wouldn't typify any of the ones I've met. I mean, there's the stereotype? But is W'ton that? He's not exactly... charming. If you ask me."
Ysar is quiet a moment while she thinks. "Well," and it's long, drawn out, "I usually categorize bronzers in two groups---those who are dedicated, hard-working, good leaders, kind of the ideal bronzerider. The kind you trust, sometimes on instinct. Then there's the other group who're arrogant, swaggering, and seem to think they're the be-all and end-all of everything. Either group can be charming, and I'm not saying the second group are bad guys. They're just ... not as pleasant to be around unless you're into all that puffed up, I'm a bronzer stuff." A chuckle and a shrug. "All right, try this. Look at W'ton, and compare him to, say, T'rev. About the only thing they have in common is a bronze dragon. Give me someone like T'rev any day. He's ... well, despite his good looks, there's a good person inside."
Considering, head tipped, Jaeyi gives the idea of two-tone bronzeriders due thought, certainly doesn't dismiss it out of hand, but... "Okay, I'll grant you that T'rev and W'ton aren't exactly cut from the same cloth-- but neither is Y'nolek, hmn? If T'rev's heart-of-gold, and I'm not necessarily saying he is." She does the confiding voice for that again, looks impressed and daunted all at once, eyes round and merry. "And W'ton's a swaggering fool. Where's that leave my third example?"
"I don't know Y'nolek," Ysar replies, shaking her head, "So, I've not idea where he might fit into the equation. Perhaps I should've said three groups---heart-of-gold, swaggering fool and those who fall somewhere between?" It's a rhetorical question, that really doesn't need answering. "And, bear in mind, this's all just my personal opinion. I've always been kind of partial to brownriders, m'self, but they have their share of jerks, too." She kind of sheepishly grins. "T'rev's always been really nice to me, and I respect him a lot. I wi---" But that thought is cut off in mid-sentence. "Anyway, it's all just personal opinion. I'm sure a mindhealer could give more insight than I ever could."
"No?" Jaeyi delicately reaches for one of the onion-cheese-pastries, tests the heat of it with a slight hiss when it hits her fingers. "He's cute-- Nolek. Very... Mmn, he's kind of stammering and bashful, but wow can that kid kiss." She's off for a plate then, to serve up the pretty pastries in a cluster in the middle of it. "And T'rev is. Really nice to everyone, I'm pretty sure? And wow can that kid kiss," she echoes with a new laugh, one that fails to be embarrassed, slides the plate on over toward Ysar with a help-yourself nod. Teenage girls talking about boys: what else is new.
"I wouldn't know about that," Ysar says in response to the kissing as she does, indeed, help herself to the appetizers. "Oh, man, those are /good/," kind of explodes from her mouth as she finishes that first one. Fingers are licked. "Those are gonna be gone in about two seconds when they hit the food table. But, back to boys. "I've never been kissed like that. A peck on the cheek, a fumbled attempt at a gather once, but not a real /kiss/." She kind of sighs, reaching for another tidbit. "I was kind of hoping to remedy that recently, and I had a plan, but it sort of---" She waves her hand in the air to indicate those plans went "poof." The second pastry disappears about as fast as the first. "You know, there're a lot of us girls around these days. We should have a girl's night sometime. Just sit and gossip and such."
A little testily, Jaeyi says, "If only certain /Journeymen/ would realize that." She humphs emphatically, starts to disassemble one of the pastries with more professional interest than any need to eat it-- to see how the filling held up, if the crust is flaky, all that fun stuff. "Mmn, Su said something about that? Like, a girly party or something. Could devolve into a lot of hair-pulling and-- wait. Never?" That took a while to sink in, and she eyes Ysar anew, duly surprised.
It's the heat from the nearby ovens. Yes, that's what makes her cheeks turn a bit pinkish. Ysar looks down at the plate, as if she's contemplating one more of the treats. "If he doesn't realize what a great cook you are, then that certain Journeyman is out of his mind. This is a good recipe. Kind of...spicy? No,savory. Rich, not over-powering, flaky crust." Looks like she's talking herself into another one. "Maybe, maybe not." About the hair-pulling. "Might just be we all get to be friends. Friends are good." And then there's that blush. "No, never. Not a /real/ kiss, nor anything else, either." She pauses. "I got groped once, after a blue-rider lost a green flight. Scared me to daath. I don't want my first time to be the result of flight sex. That can be...intense."
Kwei steps up the stairs from the living cavern.
Kwei has arrived.
"He thinks I'm better at /being/ a tart than /making/ a tart. Which might be true, but hey." Jaeyi shrugs and, collecting a few now-safely-cooled pastries on her palm, goes back over to where she was sitting before and hops back up onto the counter, feet dangling anew. She chews, watches Ysar for a few seconds in contemplative silence while she talks about the lost-flights, then suggests by and by, "Wouldn't it be easier to just not? Help out after a flight, I mean." Onion-and-cheese tarts are the order of the afternoon, the two girls off by a hot oven on a hot day in a hot kitchen, eating, gabbing.
"Sure, which is why I usually stay someplace safe, like down in the dorms or stores or someplace like that," Ysar replies to Jaeyi's question. "It's voluntary, of course. No one gets raped or anything, but some riders don't really want to take no for an answer. They can get a bit forceful." She shrugs, grabbing one more of the pastries before turning to lean against the counter where Jaeyi sits. "I thought I had something figured out, but---he wasn't interested. Thought I wanted something more permanent like." Ysar pulls the neckline of her dress away from her throat, fanning it a little. "How do you stand it? Winter it'll be great down here, but today it's sweltering. If it wasn't for your tarts---and your Journeyman really /is/ a fool, by the way, if he thinks that!---I'd be gone, so you can tell your J-man I think he's lost it."
Kwei is on the prowl for some food apparently if the way he sticks his head round the corner of the kitchen door to see who is about. Scopeing the place out first he decides it's safe enough when he spies a pair of familiar and friendly faces, so it's with a renewed confidence that he makes his entrance and strolls over towards them. "Good afternoon Ladies." He greets them with a wide smile.
Jaeyi's bite, at forceful, is a little more luxuriant than absolutely necessary. Maybe she just thinks her own onion tartlet is that darn good? Could be coincidence like that? But probably not. Moving on; "Did you not, then? Want something more permanent?" She never gets around to answering about how she stands the heat, though her wilted appearance might speak for itself, as there comes Kwei, and he earns a lovely smile and a pastry held out on the end of her fingers-- bait. "Ah, my darlingest of harpers. Come and keep us from dissolving into girly foolishness?"
"Permanency isn't something I've seen a lot of," Ysar replied. "Oh, I know there're couples devoted to each other, and long term weyrmatings, but---?" She shrugs. "My own parents were never together, though Da stuck by mother until I popped out. And, he took some interest in me whilst I was growing up. Otherwise?---nah. I'm not particularly looking for anything permanent. If I ever really fall for a guy, maybe. Now? Nope." And then she hears a familiar voice. "Kwei!" She's apparently really glad to see the Harper. "How're you doing?" she asks. "Yes, please---save Jaeyi from my babbling," she says with a grin.
Kwei reaches one of his own hands out to Jaeyi's to accept the pastry from her. "Thank you kindly." He replies in his 'turned on the charm' voice as he glances between the pair of them, hot pastry starting to get passed between his hands, though he does appear to be favouring his left a little. "I'm not sure I want to get involved in girly foolishness, so is it a good thing to save you both from it or should I just turn round and flee now that I have some food?" He asks holding up the pastry as he looks at both of them in turn.
"Some people just aren't wired for permanent affairs, I think, and if that's what he thought you were after..." She trails off, shrugs, offers Ysar a sympathetic-seeming smile. And then Jaeyi promptly leans forward like she'd snag Kwei by the shoulder-knot, hook it with her pastry-free index finger, saying hastily, "If you run off, I'll chase you. Which could be fun, but it's a little hot for such exertions." /Exertions,/ with a drum of her heels against the cabinet beneath where she sits to emphasize the term.
"I told him I wasn't, but---hey, that's the way things work out sometimes." Ysar shrugs. "Or, don't work out, as the case may be. I'm sure there's something else mixed up in there, but it's all right." And then she's turning her own attention toward the Harper, smiling at him, and reaching a hand out to poke at him, but not touch him. "You need to stay and stop me from eating half a tray of those things," she tells Kwei, also reaching for one of those tarts to hand him. "Besides, it's been a while since you gave me a flirting lesson, and I need the practice." She gives the young man a wink and laughs, probably at herself.
Is the excitement of being poked at by two woman enough excitement for Kwei? Not yet it would seem as he stands his ground with a laugh. "Okay I'll stay, even though it'd probably be cooler in one of the other caverns or in the lake or even the hot springs right now." He explains with a bit of a laugh., he shifts his weight a bit, leaning closer to the standing Ysar to take the offered tart and bumps his hip against her gently in the process. "But seriously how could I refuse two perfectly beautiful women?"
Jaeyi, resting her forward-pitched weight on her palm on the counter, suggests sunnily, "Stay and be hot with us instead," to all the talk of cooler caverns, pft. Trying not to flat-out give away the previous subject, she makes the effort to conclude it with a quiet remark to Ysar: "If it makes you feel better, I think you'll probably wind up happier in the end. It's not something you should really... arrange? Like that." With that, she's all set to behold these flirting lessons, eat-and-watch.
"It was an idea, just not a good one, I guess," Ysar replies, nodding in agreement. "Happier? Maybe. We'll see. Time will tell, and in the meantime, I'll just do whatever it is I do around here." She grins, and doesn't seem too upset about things. "I got it out of my system, don't worry." And then she's getting hip-bumped by Kwei. "Keep that up and I'll think you're trying to start a new dance craze," she tells him with a laugh. "And, the one thing we have here those other caverns don't is Jaeyi---/and/ her incredible food. I'm gonna have to swim a dozen laps to work off these tarts, but they're fantastic. Say, Jaeyi---you should make some of these with crumbled bacon on them."
Kwei takes a bite out of one of the pastries, it's a delicate bite, checking how hot it actually is and how good it is at the same time. There's a definite look of pleased appearing as he swallows it down. "These are good, and to be enjoyed with hot women. I like it." He says with a smile before he glances to Jaeyi with a grin. "She's not all that good at spotting things is she." He says bumping lightly against Ysar's hip again and leaning towards her again. "Check other peoples body language." He tells her. "Generally if someone is leaning towards you, there is some form of interest, away from you and there's not so much."
"I have never made bacon without burning the sh-- without burning myself." Jaeyi puts a glance down to her hands, which presently look fairly pristine aside from a little grease on her palm from holding the tartlets. "Don't criticize," she chides Kwei importantly, done preening over the reception to her appetizers. They're good, she knows it, enough said. "I've seen him not quite sure how to react a time or two, Ysar. Don't let him fool you."
"That's an interesting observation," Ysar says in response to Kwei's comment about body language, "but he's right. I don't take enough notice of how others are around me. I'll have to start watching." She bumps his hip back, this time, cocking her head to the side and looking at him from the corner of her eyes. "Speaking of hot---I miss hearing you play out in the herb garden. You taking to practicing somewhere else?" The question is lightly asked, with a big smile on her face. "The bigger question is, are you going to tell me, or do I have to hunt you down?---which doesn't sound all that unpleasant."
Kwei flashes a smile at Jaeyi, "Okay yes, Levania had me seriously tongue tied for a while, you have that strange effect on me as well sometimes, but I'm getting better." He says with a bit of a laugh before addressing Ysar. "I've been playing in the commons more these days, the herb garden has been getting more and more crowded with the better weather, though I've not been playing as much the last sevenday." Although he doesn't say why, if she's watching closely enough she may spy a flexing of his right hand that isn't usually there. "I think I may be going to play for one of the dragons soon though, that could be a bit weird."
Hopping down again, off to scrape the rest of those patries off the trays before they permanently weld themselves there, Jaeyi offers merrily, "Mmn, give me a chance, darling, and I'd tie up the rest of you, too." Yeah, she's not really in the market for lessons. Subtly, she spatulas a few renewed pastries toward Ysar's plate while she offloads the trays, saying in the meantime, "What happened to your hand? --Kwei's. Not yours." With a nose-crinkle smile at Ysar.
Ysar was about to ask the same thing of the Harper, her brow creasing slightly. "Does it effect your playing?" she asks, concern written all over her face. "Maybe you should see a healer if it hurts?" That's her suggestion, but this one might not be quite as stupid as some of her other advice. "I know you're supposed to keep it cool if it's sprained, and warm if it's---" Nope, she can't finish that sentence. "I forget. Do you need to see a healer? I can see if there's one hanging around the living cavern," she offers.
Kwei grins and winks at Jaeyi as she goes to deal with pastries. "I know you would." He replies as saucily as he gets, taking the chance to turn and lean against the counter, holding his hand out in front of him. "One of the strings snapped on my harp while I was playing it, it flicked out as the tension was released and opened up the palm of my hand." He explains, there's not really much of a mark left by this stage except the light tracing where the skin was broken. "Vani saw to all that already." He tells Ysar before she even thinks about running off though he's not opposed to sympathetic mothering. "I've got some numbweed to use if it starts to itch."
The spatula, the pastries, they keep her too busy to come over and fawn over Kwei, but Jaeyi still chimes prettily, "Come over here and I'll kiss it better for you." Somewhere behind her, a dishwasher that's been hanging on every word of this conversation drops a handful of spoons into the bottom of the sink with a great clatter, no doubt trying to find some way to wound himself and get such an offer. No such luck. "Eat those," she adds to Ysar, starts to stack the oven-trays now that they're all emptied.
"Oh, that must've hurt," Ysar says in sympathy. "It doesn't look too bad, but if it keeps hurting, you see the healers, please? You've too much talent to let something like that prevent you from playing." She peers at Kwei's palm, then giggles when Jaeyi offers to kiss it and make it better. "I'd offer my services in that department, but I have to live with the results of any gossip that might start up," she says with a teasing grin. "I don't want to get smothered in my sleep!" And then those spoons go crash, and Ysar jumps about three feet---and right into Kwei's out-stretched arm, against his chest, even. She doesn't move for a second, then jumps back. "Oh, I'm /so/ sorry!" she exclaims, blushing bright red. Quick, look for a distraction! Yes! Jaeyi to the rescue with that plate. "Thanks." Plate is taken and Ysar turns to face the counter until she composes herself.
Tempting as it is to chase after Jaeyi to take her up on that offer Kwei stays where he is leaning against the counter. He does seem to find some measure of amusement in Ysar's fawning over him. "Been there." He murmurs softly in response to her comment right before things crash and she ends up in his arms pretty much, his immediate reaction is to wrap his other arm around her waist to steady her, the one with the pastry, probably way too close to the front of her for comfort. "You okay?" He asks her, the arm making it a bit more difficult for her to extract herself but he does let her go without a fight or anything. "It's healing fine, don't worry." He tells her as he settles back to watch the pair of them at work.
Something-- oh, something makes Jaeyi chuckle, shake her head, and pay a little more strict attention to the stacking of cooking trays than is absolutely necessary. But her work's done, and they sit, waiting for the butterfingers-dishwasher to come get them and do his thing. "He does that all day," she imparts after Ysar's jumping, leaning against the countertop with a nod toward the source of all the racket. "I guess you get used to it."
Deep breath. Yes, that's good. Breathing is good. It only takes a moment or two for Ysar to turn back around, chuckling softly. "I'm sorry about that, Kwei," she repeats her apology. "Not that it was unpleasant, just unexpected. Next time I'll relax and enjoy it," she teases. She's still blushing a bit, but it's better to laugh it off, than get all shy and stuff. "Kind of like dancing with you. We'll have to do that again sometime." If she seems a little rushed, like her laughter is a bit loud, well, chalk it up to being a little abashed. That plate of pastries is availed upon, and she bites into another tart, this time cheese running out the end. It's finger-licking time. "I guess you do," she agrees with Jaeyi. "I expect he gets pretty distracted by you, a lot," she says winking.
Kwei smiles and blows a kiss at Ysar just to enhance any embarrassment she may already be suffering from it. His hand drops away from her waist as she steps away, his hand hovers for a few moments as if he's lining up to pat it against her bum but then thinks better of it, probably thanks to the sound of Jaeyi chuckling and shakes his head. "I can understand why that could happen." He murmurs to the pair of them. "Dancing I can do, that's pretty safe and won't hurt my hand." He tells her. "I should probably get something more to eat and get back to my lessons."
"I expect he's sort of dim-witted, but whatever. He does what I tell him to for the most part." Which is why, despite the not-so-loving things she has to say about the dishwasher, Jaeyi still flashes him a forgiving, fetching smile. "If you want /real/ food," she begins toward Kwei, "you'll have to look elsewhere. It's all little frilly things on this end."
Ysar chuckles and looks a little shy at that blown kiss, but she reaches up and grabs at the air like a little kid. "I'll save it for later," she tells him with a wink. Maybe it's a good thing she didn't see that hand poised to smack her bum. At any rate, she finishes her pastry, and sighs. "I'd best be getting to work," she says, her tone a bit more sober. "It's been great catching up with you, Jaeyi. We'll have to do it again sometime. Girl's night, or something." To Kwei, she smiles. "Dancing would be nice, and I promise I'll behave. I still don't want to get smothered in my sleep over a misunderstanding." She gives both of them---and the dim-witted dishwasher---a nod, picking up her clip-board. "I'll let you know about the rammekins, Jaeyi. If you think of anything else you want, just let me know." With a wave, she's working her way off, negotiating a path out of the kitchens.
"Frilly things are okay so long as they're not too sweet, you know my tastes." Kwei replies to Jaeyi. "You'd better behave." He admonishes Ysar with a wag of his finger though he quiets as she walks off, waiting before she's out of earshot before his face hits the palm of his hand. "Oh dear." He mutters as he looks back to Jaeyi. "Behave indeed, well someone spotted us in the commons last week and told Levania." He tells her with a smile. "So behaving is a good thing, or at least telling her before."
With the grace to look a little apologetic, Jaeyi answers, "I know. Someone was in the middle of telling me the story of how we were pretty much all over each other-- then they realized the story was about /me/ and stopped. It was funny. To me." Hands tucked behind her on the counter, she's making the pretense of good behavior at the very least. "We didn't /do/ anything, so she really shouldn't have been cross at you."
Kwei smiles and nods his head. "Yeah she knows that after I explained what happened, but unfortunately the gossips got there first. Though admittedly she did rather enjoy the demonstration of fingering techniques." He does rather fail to say that with a straight face but he's pushing himself away from the counter he's leaning on. "So food, point me in the right direction if you would." He beams at her. "And away from temptation I'm afraid."
Let's be grateful that, for once, Jaeyi is not in the middle of eating anything when he says that: fingering techniques. She coughs anyway, takes a studious breath, and resolutely avoids /going there/. Instead, "Next time, I'll keep in mind that it doesn't do any good to behave, the story goes all wrong anyway. Come." And, reaching to pluck his sleeve at the shoulder, she's all set to deliver him unto regions with heartier food than her pastry-location.
Kwei laughs at the reaction and dips a bow to her just before she tugs him away to get fed.