[Log] Big Brother
Who: Cayri, I'neph
When: Day 18, Month 13, Turn 442
Where: Weyrling Barracks, Fort Weyr
What: I'neph gloats over his first flight to Cayri.
Weyrling Barracks
Large and spacious, the barracks were originally three large caverns that are now connected. From the entrance, the first cavern is the largest and boasts five picnic-style tables capable of seating about ten people at each - presumably a place for weyrlings or weyrlingmasters to work. To the left, a smaller "storage" area contains large oil bins, smaller oil buckets, long cupboards with gear for making straps, and a large but tidy pile of fresh rushes. Although the cavern is in use now, most of sixty-some cots and presses and couches are still in disrepair, folded up along the back wall in the third cavern, out of the way. Only thirty-three of them are currently kept up and in use, arranged in neat rows down the center of the semi-cavern to the right.
Once elaborate tapestries that hang from the walls are now dusty and crumbling, or removed all together, leaving bare spaces of discolored stone. The only way in or out is through one of the two large openings from the bowl. It's nighttime in the winter. The fire burns bright, crackling with the only cheer in the room. The rugs over the entrances are fastened tight against the cold.
Players:
I'neph.........6', athletic; olive skin, dark brown eyes & hair; early 20s.
Cayri..........5'6". 16 turns old. Black hair. Brown eyes. Skinny.
Dragons:
Oskeluth.......Brown dragon, 11.1 feet long, 6 months old.
Exits:
Lake..........................[SE]
Dioscuth> From the barracks, I'neph heads over from the lake.
Dioscuth> From the barracks, I'neph has arrived.
Almost everyone sleeps already, the barracks alive with snores of boys and dragons. Only a few people sit up, reading by shielded glows, working on straps, polishing boots, or playing solitaire like Cayri is. Enjoying her pajamas and her playing cards, she sits cross-legged on the end of her cot, letting Aydeth sleep while she plays a complicated game of columns.
I'neph prances into the barracks and over to his couch with a smug croon. I'neph is several seconds behind the bronze, waiting until Dioscuth is settled to make his grand entrance. And grand it is: nevermind that half the barracks are asleep, he enters with a flourish, arms thrown wide as he announces, "One more night, boys!" Long pause. "And girls," an afterthought. "Moving out first thing tomorrow morning."
One person throws a pair of dirty, balled up socks at I'neph's face, groans, and rolls over determinedly. The people who weren't asleep give it more attention, one brownrider calling, "What?" Cayri looks up cluelessly, curiously but completely turned off by the grandiose entrance. She leaves it to someone else to get details.
I'neph ducks the socks, maturely sticking his tongue out in revenge. He struts down the rows of cots, noting grandly, "That's right--we flew. Impressively, too, like old pros. Dioscuth's great at this. He had Reith so scared of his prowess he wouldn't even race him." Gloating of this sort continues until he's circulated all the way to the other end of the room and Cayri's cot. Perhaps struck with a conversational mood, perhaps too lazy to walk back, he sprawls out on the unoccupied cot beside hers with a broad, smug smirk, brows arching.
Cayri tosses one of her playing cards at Aydeth's head, managing to land it in the green's eyeridges and calling a sleepy snort. While a couple of boys rally around I'neph's triumph by chattering about their own future flying. Cayri waits until I'neph gets all the way over to her, then voices loudly, "Reith told Aydeth that Dioscuth was more a danger to himself than to anyone else. Funny that he got the story /so wrong/, isn't it?" The look on her face is pure sweetness.
"Well, would /you/ want to admit it if a weyrling was a better flier than you?" I'neph answers back easily. "I mean, honestly. He /should/ be ashamed. I don't fault him that." He shrugs easily, leaning back against the headboard as he studies her a moment. "Cards again, huh? Isn't it past your bedtime already? I mean, morning's at six." Concern, from I'neph? He masks it with an eye roll.
Cayri doesn't even bother to check with Reith again, rolling her eyes back at I'neph. "There's a room full of witnesses and you're here running your mouth. You're not very smart, are you?" She tsks cutely and leans over to retrieve the tossed card, spry enough to grab it without having to get her butt off her cot. "I'm an insomniac. It's very sad, isn't it?" She pouts.
I'neph shrugs. "I have my moments. Anyway, who are you going to believe, me--your wonderful big-brother figure around here--or the mean old weyrlingmaster, hmm?" He arches a brow and wriggles, making a mess of the cot's covers in his quest to get comfortable on it. Eventually, he settles again and notes, "Very sad. Kind of pathetic. How can you run around all day, doing what we do, and then not sleep? It's ridiculous. I've been up since six and I'm dying over here." Yet strangely loathe to go to his /own/ bed.
"I like J'tei better than you." Cayri informs this like it has some relevance to the conversation. "So I think I'll stick with believing the Weyrlingmaster and thinking you're too smug to be cute, let alone trusted." With the joker out of her deck, she taps the side of her nose in a knowing fashion. "You look like you're really fading fast. Do you need some of the bigger boys to carry you to your cot and tuck you in?" None of those boys are paying attention. The ones that aren't sleeping are in a huddle, attempting to figure out how they can be the next ones to get airborne. "Was it fun?"
"I tried to get him for you," I'neph says long-sufferingly, "but M'vari's wasn't having none of it. And I'll have you know I'm very cute, thank you very much." The trust issues, well. He doesn't touch them. Instead: "Ooh, now that'd be nice. Think you can rustle up a couple of them for me? Hell, might as well stay here, right? What's one more night when I get a weyr in the morning?" Gloat. He sobers at her latter question. "Uh... Well, we didn't die and we didn't even crash. I enjoyed that part?" he notes thoughtfully.
Cayri looks around the pretty well occupied room and sniffs amusedly. "I'm not as eager as you are to get into a cold, lonely weyr all by myself? I guess I don't see the lure of it." /Deserted island./ "Do you know what weyr you'll get to have for yours? From the looks of it, there's a /lot/ of empties out there." She concludes with a chuckled, "Are you cute? I hadn't noticed. Maybe I just like the russet-haired bumpkin types." She disgustedly throws down a deuce.
"Don't waste your time on him," advises I'neph. "He's taken. I, however, am not." He points helpfully at his chest. Then, with a shrug: "Can't say that, well. Never lived by myself, actually--always with my parents when I was little, and then the dorms and here. It'll be different, sure, but good, I think. No more creeping down to some deserted section of the Weyr if you want some time alone. Or with someone." Shrug.
Cayri looks wide-eyed. "You're single? I can't imagine why." She sounds aghast. "You sound more excited about getting a weyr than you are about the fact that you're actually allowed to fly now. Though I guess I wouldn't want to do much flying in the middle of winter myself. Do you get chillblains?" On the flat of her palm, she holds out the deck of cards and asks as a conversational aside, "Red or black?"
"Now that's a more appropriate response," says I'neph in satisfaction, nevermind he must surely know she's not serious. "Black," is his swift answer to the question, before he elaborates on the glories of flight: "It wasn't real smooth, actually. Thought I was going to... never mind. You really are taking your own life into your hands up there," he says, frowning.
Cayri turns over the top card and smiles cheerfully. "Black it is." And the next one, which seems to puzzle her. She reshuffles. "What did you think you were going to do? Crash?" She's even not teasing him for a second, bordering on genuine concern. "Don't tell me you were afraid you were going crash. I don't want to spend five and a half months worrying about crashing."
Cayri's concerned expression inspires I'neph to further dramatics. Throwing a hand across his forehead, he declares, "No, no. I can't talk about it. It was too horrible. My life was flashing before my eyes. All cold and dark. It was horrible!" But this phase lasts only a few moments before his grin breaks through again. "The only thing bad is take-offs and landings. You kinda lose your stomach taking off, and, well. It does kind of look like you're going to crash, but the dragons usually know what they're doing," he admits, surprisingly serious.
Cayri tosses one of the cards at I'neph the way she tossed one at Aydeth, pretty good at throwing them considering. "You're doing a bad job of being a good big brother figure. I'm a wilting violet here, and I need someone dependable and honest to look after me. Not a drama queen." She hmphs. "One good flight and you get to move into your own weyr? That seems hasty to me. Is M'vari anxious to get you outta here?"
I'neph plucks the card away, glancing at it and then flashing it at her--black again. A flick of his wrist sends it back toward Cayri. "What can I say? I have lots of practice at it," he says airily. "Five sisters, four of 'em younger. You get good at these things." Pause. "And, well, /duh/. He drank himself under the table when he heard how big our clutch was--of /course/ he wants to get rid of us. He wanted to get rid of the last one, too, and it was less than half this size." A gesture encompasses the rest of the weyrlings, almost all slumbering peacefully on again. "Least he hasn't killed any of us off yet," he adds after a moment. "Personally."
"Really? I feel bad for him." Cayri frowns as she looks at the third black card, reaching to collect it and return it to the deck for another thorough shuffling. "Just girls besides you in the family? Innnnnteresting." She chews on her lower lip, looking regretfully to I'neph. "I want to fly. I'm jealous of you. That is a bad joke, by the way. People keep looking at me like I'm going to expire any minute because of what happened to that other girl."
"One of the last bunch died /between/ing, what what I meant," clarifies I'neph. "He took 'em way early." But, reflexively, he glances toward that empty cot. "Samiya... Well. That was something else entirely. Anyway." He slides away from that subject by asking blithely, "What about your family, huh? Mine was thrilled--well, Dad, anyway. He's always been after me to make something of myself--you know how it is, parents always want to live vicariously through their kids. Couldn't ever make something of himself on his own, so that's what he's got me for, right?" A roll of his eyes.
Cayri asks with a grin, eager to leave the more dismal subject, "Were they happy about me Impressing, you mean? I wouldn't really know about that." She pauses with her lips pursed. "Don't have siblings. My dad passed a few months ago. My mom's at the Reaches still." That sums it all up. "Now you're a bronzerider, so your dad's just tickled? When you become Weyrleader, I bet he's just gonna bust his seams." My how those dark eyes dance.
"Yep," agrees I'neph at once. "And then he'll be riding my back again about it. 'Do this, I'neph. You should do this. No, no, you shouldn't put him in /that/ wing? Can't you see he goes in /this/ one, you idiot?'" He does a passable impression of an older male's disgusted, exasperated voice, reverting to his normal voice with a wry smirk. "Father knows best, I guess. Anyway." He shrugs it off.
"Shouldn't you be man enough by your age to tell your dad to bugger off?" Cayri asks chidingly. "You sound like you have a lot of issues with your dad. Explains some things about your like bravado and such." She starts to deal out another hand of solitaire but gives up when the first two cards turn out to be black ones. "Who is going to loiter on empty cots and keep me awake to all hours when you move out?" she asks, abruptly bereft.
"Don't go trying to analyze me," notes I'neph, shaking his head. "Faranth. Girls are just supposed to 'aww' and fawn over me, not go all... mind-healery on me." He gives Cayri a pointed look; she's obviously slacking in that regard. However, to her latter question, he shrugs. "I dunno. Find you a replacement, I guess? One of the blue- or greenriders, maybe, although they probably won't care to charm you off your feet like I do." Riiight. "Of course, we'll all be up in the air soon enough, and you'll be in the only one in here at night." Way to be comforting, I'neph.
Cayri awws in a long, syrupy voice. "Aren't you just the cutest little thing. Like that?" She looks around at the other boys, most of whom have finally given up and gone to sleep. "No thank you. If I'm going to have boys vying for my attention, I would like them to at least have /prospects/." Grumpily, she adds to his cold comfort, "I hope your weyr is drafty and girls won't go up there with you." A plague on both your houses!
"Why, so you can have me all for yourself?" I'neph shoots back, grinning. Though, curiously, he asks, "What sort of prospects? I have prospects. More prospects than /most/ people out there."
"Noooo. So when you're lying cold and alone in your weyr, you can remember how you teased me about being all alone down here." Cayri pouts emphatically and tosses herself back on her pillow, stretching out lengthwise and determinedly. "What prospects have you got? Weyrlingmaster's whipping boy for life? Tsch."
I'neph eyes Cayri smugly. "Do you really think," he drawls, "it matters what the weyr is like? All I have to do is flash the shiny dragon and I have girls throwing themselves at me. I've been having to beat 'em off with a stick the past six months already. Besides, they'll already be up there before they know what the weyr's like, and then they can't get down until I take them." So basically, he's just going to hold them hostage until they sleep with him. Blithely, he adds, "Hey, I told you already. Weyrleader. Maybe a wingleader. Faranth, maybe I'll be the weyrlingmaster myself some day, and train up the next generation." Faranth forbid. "And just what sort of prospects do /you/ have?" he challenges. "Surviving?"
Cayri says surely, "I bet that's not true. J'tei's got a bigger dragon than you do, and he's taller, /and/ he has pretty fair eyes, so all you'll get are the dregs. The ugly girls with harelips." Meanwhile, she sighs in perfect teenage dreaminess about the /other/ bronze weyrling. "Surviving's not half-bad given the alternatives. I'm not the one trying to make something out of myself to impress people. I'll be happy just getting by."
"I'll have you know," retorts I'neph, "I qualify for tall, dark, and handsome. Girls /love/ that." And he nods firmly, convincingly. "Funny, though, from here it looks like you /ar/e the one trying to make something out of yourself by impressing," he adds after a moment, leaning back and folding his arms over his chest as he gives the girl a pointed look.
Cayri snorts gracelessly. "Is that what you think? Good job on not having a clue, tall-dark-and-handsome." She peers at him with one eye closed, subjecting him to a blunt survey. "I like light eyes. They're more honest. Honesty's important." Says the card shark.
I'neph shrugs. "Honesty's overrated. You don't get anywhere telling people the truth. See, if you lied and humored me, I'd like you more, and I'd be more willing to help you out. Might save your life sometime, see," he explains, shaking his head.
Cayri clasps her hands under her chin, looking all like a doe-eyed princess in despair. "Are you going to save me, I'neph? Protect me from the big scary world and keep me safe from all who would do me harm?" She drops her hands and sticks out her tongue. "Go to bed. You have a big day of moving into an empty weyr tomorrow, and I have to find someone else to keep me company into the wee hours."
"Of course, m'Lady," answers I'neph, in grand tones, sweeping a half-bow to the greenrider. He rolls off the cot to his feet and saunters a few steps back down the line of cots to his, calling to the girl with a backward glance, "You'll miss me when I'm gone."
"Probably." Cayri sighs in a sad way, throwing her elbow over her eyes in an effort to will herself to sleep. "But I'll find a way to move on with my life someday. Night, handsome."