[Log] Easy to Please
Who: Sh'drian, Vaelis
When: Day 15, Month 9, Turn 4, 11th Pass
Where: Western Beach, Ierne Weyr
What: After their previous night together, Sh'drian and Vaelis run into each other on the beach.
+---( Sandy Western Beach - Ierne Weyr )-------------------------------------+
A hardened expanse of dirt spreads from the outer walls of the Weyr, trailing down towards the shore. While no greenery is present this close to human habitation, small holes and furrows show in the soil. A faint path has been formed, the earth packed so tightly that nothing green even attempts to get a foothold. As the ground slopes seaward, gradually the ground becomes less firm as dark, fine-grained sand begins to take the place of dirt. It soon takes over, forming a nearly unbroken, desert-like expanse. The waves wash up onto the shore, leaving behind their squiggly markings. Here and there, driftwood forms piles, the bleached grey-white coloring making a marked contrast to the black sand. The only thing that makes a more stunning sight against the dark ground are the glimmers here and there of translucent, sparkling quartz.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Exits: Bowl Eastern Beach Docks Water
Late morning, and Sh'drian and Eadranth are on the sandy western end of the beach. The playful bronze is romping in the water, splashing it up and marveling at the waves and rocks and fish nearby. Sh'drian is calmer, seated on the shore out of reach of the waves while he watches the dragon. His straps are folded at his side, as is his riding jacket.
Taking advantage of the warmer day after a series of storms, Vaelis revels in the lighter garb she wears as she prances down from the bowl. With her arms outstretched, however brief the warmth may be, she welcomes spring with solitary laughter, and after some of frolicking, where sand kicks into the air, she settles, eyes closed and inhaling deeply.
It's not Sh'drian that notices Vaelis, but Eadranth: despite his playing, the bronze is attentive to his surroundings, and when she approaches, he raises his head to peer at her and rumble. Sh'drian quirks a brow himself, tilting his head and cutting eyes around until he can just make her out from the corner of his eye. "Come to keep me company again?" he wonders idly.
As another deep breath is interrupted by Sh'drian's query, Vaelis' arms lower, hanging loosely at her sides, and taking her time from tearing her gaze away from the ocean, she slants the Weyrleader a glance, friendly. "Not really. Not unless you plan on joining me in the waters." She picks up her legs, displaying slightly sand-crusted feet for the rider's benefit.
"Do you want me to?" counters Sh'drian with a smirk, glancing around at Vaelis then. He makes a vague gesture toward the bronze, who, having paused his play, peers curiously at Vaelis. "I had no real intentions of it, actually; I'm only Eadranth's company today. We just finished drills, and he wanted to come swim."
"Well then," Vae returns evenly, "I wasn't coming to keep you company at all then. Conceited. Thinking every girl comes out to keep the likes of you company." The long strands of blonde whip lightly in the breeze, not held back by pins or ties today. Barefeet slap on the damper sands as she makes her way across to the bronze dragon in the water. "Does he need to be washed?"
Sh'drian eyes Eadranth, then shrugs. "If you want to," he tells Vaelis. "/I'm/ not going to, though. Not right now, anyway." Eadranth fixes Vaelis with a pleading look, his croon encouraging as he stares at her. Sh'drian smirks, adds arrogantly, "Don't they? Most of them do, even the ones that deny it."
Working against the lapping waves, Vae makes her way to Eadranth, stopping as she gets waist-deep in the water. Never mind her pants and the bottom half of her tunic gets wet. "It's almost spring, you can smell it in the air, and the smell of the sea's returning to the breeze, y'know? With everything frozen it's hard to feel alive." A broad smile graces her features, drawing color to her cheeks, and providing youth in the expression she grants Sh'drian - unassuming. "So, poor, put upon you, you're just here to keep Eadranth company, not enjoying anything yourself."
Sh'drian shrugs mildly. "I don't know. I kind of like winter," he remarks. "Though the summers here are nice, too. Better than Southern--hot and sticky, that place is, even in winter." He frowns lightly, watching the dragon and the girl; with a most ignoble squeal, Eadranth splashes over to Vaelis and arranges himself artistically beside her, his manner expectant. "That's the way of it, yes," he agrees with Vaelis' summary.
"If you'd like to be relieved, go on," Vaelis flickers her fingers dismissively to the bowl. "I'm sure, you're -exceedingly- busy, Weyrleader, sir." With a mock salute, a poor imitation of the weyrlings, those moving fingers come to her temple and then fall. But Eadranth's splashing over can't be ignored, and with a girlish squeal in response, the lanky woman turns with open arms once more to the bronze.
Sh'drian arches a brow, nodding slowly. "Busy. Yes, I am," he agrees easily. "Or should be, anyway. I get breaks, don't I? I make my own, actually. No one above me to make sure I keep working. ... Not that that would really change anything." He shrugs, glances up the beach boredly while Eadranth offers himself up to be bathed.
Midst laughter and splashing, Vaelis makes her way around the bronze, her fingers working without soap or scrub brushes in scritching the ocean water into the dragon's hide. "Your own sense of responsibility should police you, not that I-," but what she's about to say gets drowned, literally, as a misstep has her walking off an underwater cliff. It's all apparently taken in stride, the lungs full of water and all, as she swims and emerges on Eadranth's otherside. Spluttering, she manages to finish her comment, "Like I was saying, not that I expect you to have any sense of responsibility. In spite of you saying you own us all."
Sh'drian watches Vaelis, unable to suppress a snicker at her fall. Eadranth, too, emits a rumbling laugh, eyes whirling with amusement. "Such a good, observant hunter you make," mocks Sh'drian when she resurfaces, shaking his head. "Faranth. Anyway, my sense of responsibility is secondary to my capriciousness. It's a luxury of power," drawls the man.
Scowling, though the anger doesn't quite reach her eyes, Vaelis glowers at the bronzerider on the shore. "I think Eadranth should grab you by your pants and drop you in the water with us," she remarks, voice all lofty, and with a toss of her head that doesn't do well given how waterlogged the blonde locks are, she kicks Eadranth's front flank with little force against the water's movement, "Mind giving me a lift up to your neckridge so I can scritch there as well? And you," she points at the rider, "You can tell me what power is."
"Eadranth knows better," Sh'drian replies smugly, watching the pair. With a snort of agreement, the bulky bronze ducks down and extends a foreleg to Vaelis. "Be careful around the wings; he's touchy about them." Then, leaning back on his elbows and studying the pair, he lifts his shoulders in an awkward shrug. "You don't know that? It's... not something I can explain. I'm no harper, after all. You just have to know who has it, and who doesn't."
"And you have it?" Vaelis asks innocently. "Oof!" Her grunt coincides with her haul up, even with the help of a forelimb, as she works herself cautiously past the wings. "I don't see how you can do this daily." As she straddles the lower neckridges, an unbidden smile emerges, pure and overjoyed. "The view is spectacular though. If I fell and drowned, would you bother to save me, or leave it to Eadranth?"
"Yes," Sh'drian answers simply. "I do. I'm the Weyrleader." He falls silent and after a few moments restlessly sits back up straight. Eadranth is perfectly still for Vaelis, except for one involuntary twitch of a wing as she passes nearby. Sh'drian queries in return, "Are you planning on jumping?"
"If I did, would you catch me?" Teasing, the smirk an indicator that she doesn't believe he will, Vae feigns a movement down the bronze's side. "There's the matter of a room, I think. You said I need to sleep with someone higher up, someone with power, and technically, I have."
Sh'drian smirks, not moving himself. Even Eadranth doesn't seem very worried, standing placidly while she scrambles along his back. "Technically," agrees Sh'drian with a smug smirk. "Was that what you were thinking of the whole time?" He arches a brow provocatively, then shrugs, mild again. "I'll see what I can do, I suppose. Providing, of course, that I get to see the... fruits of my labors, hmm?" He leers.
Vaelis deadpans, arms folding over her chest, "What labor?" The hint of a smile that plays on her lips gives her away though, before blossoming fully once more in the span of seconds. "No. I enjoyed our night," her voice lowers, lending far more mystery and intrigue to the comment than there was in reality, "Together. But it was an afterthought. I'd like my own room."
"You're easy to please," observes Sh'drian with a smirk. "Anyway, I might have to work hard to convince someone to let you get a room. No telling what I'll have to do, but I'll suffer stoically, for your sake." He shrugs again, then adds lazily, "Good thinking, though. Get what you can out of me while I still remember just how... exquisite our night was." He sneers sarcastically.
"Come off it, you enjoyed it too." Hiding a smile, Vaelis ducks her head down so leaves of blonde obscure her face. Gently working her way along his neckridges, easing onto barefeet so she's balanced precariously along the bronze's back, the lanky huntress pats Eadranth intermittently. "Maybe I'm easy to please, but I don't have many aspirations, y'know. I mean, what use is ambition for a girl like me." Honestly, her alto brightens, her face appearing from around the bronze's side, "Never been pretty enough, or smart 'nough, or much of anything other than the other girls. Shards, if I were prettier, at least I could aspire to be Lady Holder somehow, like in those sappy harper tales."
Sh'drian frowns lightly. "Not really. I found it rather unfulfilling," he notes. "Can't say you're wrong on the rest of it, though. Don't believe in true love, regardless of looks? No, I suppose not. That doesn't /really/ happen." Cynically, he laughs at that, giving a shake of his head to discount the thought. "Ambition, overrated. My only ambition has always been to what I like and not give a shit about anything else. Look how that one turned out." A grandiose wave of his hand indicates the entirety of the Weyr, accompanied by a wry smirk.
"You own everyone now." Vaelis says, a trifle flatly. "Well, the world is what it is. Either you're born privileged, or you can get ahead. And it's hard when you have nothing to get you ahead." She shrugs. "Tell me," she sinks down so both legs swing off the same side and idly sways them back and forth against Eadranth's side. Her lean frame splays along the bronze's neck as she stares down at the rider on the shore. "What you would find fulfilling than being in the same bed with me?"
Sh'drian watches Vaelis as she relaxes aboard Eadranth, eyes narrowing slightly. The bronze is still, eyes half-closed by this point after her scrubbing earlier; Sh'drian, after a moment, shrugs and affects the bronze's languor. "That's pretty much it, actually," he tells Vaelis. "I'm easy to please myself."
Vaelis' fingers still work idly along Eadranth's neckridges, particularly the one closest to her. Starting at the base and moving up along the sharper slants, the motion is repetitive and meant to be soothing. "So if that's pretty much it, why are you acting like a sarcastic little prat about it all? Sir." Smirking, she gives the base another round of scritching before getting to her feet and executing a clean dive off the dragon's tail end, the deeper end. She doesn't emerge for a little while, though little bubbles show her stationary stance beneath the water near the bronze's tail.
Sh'drian shrugs, quirking a brow. "Guess that's just how I am," he tells her. Gathering up his straps and slinging them over his shoulder, he stands and dusts himself off with his free hand, turning back toward the Weyr. "You could have been more interactive, though," he adds over his shoulder, already walking back toward the bowl.
The bubbles move along the water until she slides up along the sand, with her chin resting in her hands. Most of her lanky frame is still submerged, and she watches Sh'drian's back. "Interactive?" is called out towards the departing man, bland innocence in the sweet tone.
Sh'drian's only answer is a smirk, cast backward at Vaelis as he swaggers away. Eadranth lowers his head to peer at Vaelis, rumbling his own concerns to her. No more scritching?
"And here," Vaelis reflects in a voice loud enough to reach, though completely nonchalant, "I thought, the Weyrleader could take whatever he wanted for himself." Her feet lift, kicking idly in the air, and stretches waaaaaay back to where Eadranth is - not reaching of course. "I don't see how you can stand him," she comments, flopping over onto her bottom and gazing up at the large bronze before her.
At that comment, Eadranth straightens, edging snootily away from Vaelis. Muzzle upturned, he emits a disappoving snort as his opinion on the criticism of his rider.
Vaelis crosses her arms behind her neck and chuckles. "Well, I suppose you two are well-matched." A touch of wistfulness echoes in the aftermath of her words, reflected more in the way she watches the bronze dragon, and the shadow of Sh'drian that's departing.
Eadranth eyes Vaelis again, then, rather sulkily, turns and sloshes to the shore and after his rider.
Vae watches the shadow of the massive bronze pass over her, wordless. And after a pause, lets off a soft whistle that gains strength in its aimless tune that dances across random notes - cheerful despite the somewhat damp glaze of her eyes.