[Log] The World According to Tiriana
Who: Milani, Tiriana
When: Day 18, Month 13, Turn 17
Where: Living Caverns, High Reaches Weyr
What: Tiriana and Milani discuss various weyrlings and Iovniath.
Living Cavern, High Reaches Weyr
Stalactites hang high above this enormous cavern like a jagged chandelier or an inversion of the Spires themselves, but shadows cling to them instead of light. Below lie great tables arranged in rows, each large enough to serve a fighting wing, while in the nooks and alcoves around the cavern's edge sit more sensibly-sized tables, from six- and eight-seaters down to intimate spots for just a couple of diners. The only really open space is around the kitchen entrance, smelling of food and rarely quiet, and by the nearby serving tables with their long buffet of the day's offerings.
Tapestries on the smooth walls -- some faded and others newly woven -- only slightly mute the sea of sound when a meal is in full swing, but they add cheerfulness augmented by the glowlight from wall sconces and the centerpieces of each table. Still, shadows always creep along the ceiling and into the mouths of the exits -- the myriad small hallways at one end of the cavern and, at the other, the twisting tunnel to the bowl near an array of coathooks and and hatracks -- and late at night, when the glows are allowed to dim, the chamber can seem very dark indeed.
Contents:
Milani
Obvious exits:
Inner Caverns Kitchen Bowl
Afternoon is going towards 'late' but not quite there yet. Milani stands to one side of the cavern with a clipboard and a couple of the other assistants, the trio going over lists. "And you've got this work order covered, Greina?" Millie is checking, pencil upheld, eyes quesioningly on the other young woman. Whatever is on the docket today, the assistants seem busy.
The assistants might be busy, but Tiriana isn't so much so, loitering herself at a table off to the side of the room herself. She sits on it rather than in one of the chairs, her legs swiging as she takes a sip from her mug. She's watching the afternoon stragglers with a frown.
"Yes, got that and the second slip that you passed out earlier," Greina answers. Milani makes a few quick check marks on the clipboard and puffs out her cheeks. "All right, looks like we're on top of everything then, everybody take five and we should still be able to wrap up for supper," the strawberry blonde declares with a smile. "Oh good," Alieva says, looking visibly relieved, "for a bit there, I was afraid we'd wind up working a long night," she says with a nose wrinkled in distaste. "All right, all right," Millie makes a shooing motion with her hands. "Off to it!" And there's a little laughter as the three go in opposite directions. Milani takes a moment to take a breath and starts to move past Tiriana towards the klah pot. That frown on the goldrider's face meets a determinedly pleasant expression on Millie's and she nods as she passes. "Everything all right there, Tiriana?"
The trio of assistants earns a brief glance from Tiriana while she sits, but little more interest than that until Milani passes and speaks. Then, Tiriana pauses with her mug halfway back to her mouth, and her shoulders shrug. "Fine, I guess," she answers; prompted by the other girl's destination, she slides off the table and steps over to get a refill for herself, though cider instead of klah. "What was all that about?"
"Oooh, cider," Milani says happily and gets that instead. "With all the apples we brought in, we'll probably never run out," she says with a little chuckle then tilts a look over at Tiriana, moving back towards a table to perch on its edge just as the goldrider just was. "We got a late rush of work orders in this afternoon, nothing serious, just not the usual pace for the day, you know?"
With a fresh glass, Tiriana turns back to her table, too, and slides back on it, this time propping her feet in the seat of the chair she doesn't sit in. "And you're doing them now?" she asks then, with a faint wrinkle of her nose. "Should not bother, teach them to turn everything in this time of day." Even if it's not really /that/ late just yet, but.
Letting her legs dangle off the edge of the table Milani, takes a careful sip from her mug and slants a look over at Tiriana. "Sometimes things have to be taken care of, even if it's later. Cut off is supper time, anything that comes in after then usually shifts to the following day unless it's you know, coming down from Satiet or some other kind of emergency."
"You don't have to lecture me," says Tiriana, her lips pursing briefly at Milani's former words. "It would still serve them right. Anyway, it is dinnertime, sort of--some people get dinner now. It would be entirely justified." Nod nod.
Who's lecturing?" Milani asks back quirking a look over at Tiriana. A look that's netural enough though Millie might just be trying really hard not to snap back. "And yeah, if you don't get your order in early enough, just means it's that much later before we get to it. So it kind of balances out." Theres a skeptical glance around the cavern at the few people getting snacks or an early dinner. "Okay, when they actually serve the evening meal."
"You," Tiriana answers, with a furrowed-brows look over at Milani--didn't she just say that? The point of the question is lost on her. She does shrug, though, giving the caverns another glance herself. "I was just saying," she points out. "It's sem... semantics." She takes a moment to come up with the word, but does so triumphantly in the end.
There's a quiet snort. "So just answering your question is a lecture?" Milani challenges a little, the last bit brings about a nod. "Yeah, there's a point there though, about y'know, getting things in /on time/," she says with a short laugh and has another drink. "It's good to have the tithe all put away though and the Candidates all be-weyrlinged, back to work or home. Got a little crazy there for a bit."
Tiriana, determined, "It is if I say it is." And she folds one arm--it would be both except she still has a drink, which she takes a sip of now. "Candidates," she repeats that bit somewhat less waspishly. "Glad most of them are gone, one way or another--they were annoying. All underfoot and everything. Least the dragons keep them busy now."
"The world according to Tiriana," Milani remarks a little dryly and then nods. "Yeah, they were getting a little bit that way towards the end. This group was pretty well behaved though. Just a couple were really young and homesick a lot." Her mug goes up, takes another drink. "Have you gotten to know any of the Weyrlings?"
The answer might be meant snarkily, but it seems to please Tiriana, who puffs up her chest just a little bit. Until-- "Homesick," she scoffs, with a roll of her eyes as she takes another drink, swirls the mug slightly. Another shrug. "Know a few of them. That one girl, with the crazy blue. P'ax. The bronzeriders. Don't like most of them, though."
"You've never been homesick?" Milani says skeptically. "I'd think you would've at least a little coming here from Telgar," the headwoman's assistant continues. "Eila and Kelerith," she provides the names readily. "P'ax has quite the tongue on him," is Millie's assessment. "And K'del seems to have his hands full with Cadejoth."
"No. Never," Tiriana vows, her mouth twisting into a scowl at the question; she moves on very quickly indeed. "Yeah, them. Eila. I know her--always had those kids with her, and now that blue." Sniff. She does not touch the subject of P'ax, either, but does make a face at K'del's name, too. "Him. With a bronze. I hate it when they do that. Get just what they want."
Skeptical indeed is the look Tiriana gets next, but Milani doesn't belabor the point. "She was a nanny, so yes, Eila often had kids around her," she says in a bland tone. "Kelerith does seem like even more of a handful than most little kids." A little chuckle and Milani's head ducks. "Why, because he'll be full of himself, bigger than his britches and all that?"
Tiriana waves a hand. "Nanny, right, that's what I said. With the kids," she tells Milani. Then, a pause. Her brows knit together as she tries to explain. "Because he was that already," she eventually says, just a little glum. She takes another drink, then shakes her head. "This--this just makes 'em insufferable because it's /justified/."
"Right. How much you want to bet he winds up being you know, the typical bronzerider, thinking just any girl will fall in his lap because he has a bronze dragon?" Milani looks over at Tiriana sidelong. "Or are you just worried that Cadejoth might catch Iovniath sometime in a few turns?"
"Because he didn't think that already," scoffs Tiriana, rolling her eyes in dramatic fashion. "He's an idiot. And anyway--" She pauses for a drink, which turns into a cough at Milani's latter words. The goldrider directs a glare at her companion. "Hell no," snaps the elder girl. "Hell. Iovniath has /taste/. /We/ have taste." Pause. Grumpily, "And anyway, never going to rise at this rate." Because two turns is 'never.'
"Mm, he did kind of, but you have to admit, he is a little bit cute around the edges," Milani says slowly, a merry twinkle in her eyes. "Just a little /young/." Like she's one to talk given how much of a flirt she is and was at that age too. That glare is taken in with a non-chalant roll of Millie's shoulders. "Don't think she'll rise? Really? And you know, sometimes, it has nothing to do with taste and everything to do with luck. But you know that. You're weyrbred."
Tiriana just eyes Milani, looking disgusted; her nose wrinkles up, mouth curling in distaste. "His face is disgusting. Looks like... I don't even know what, but it's gross," she says of the pimply boy. As for Iovniath, the rider snorts. "Stupid dragons get caught by luck, and Iovniath's smart. She's, like--she--she's smart." And Tiriana utterly fails at description, waving a hand to fill in the blank. "She plans. And /thinks/. You know."
"When those bumps go away, he'll have something going on I think," Milani muses, finger tapping lightly against chin. Her eyes slant sideways towards Tiriana again though. "So it's always because the gold is dumb when a big gust of wind tosses her into a bronze she wasn't thinking about?" Her head tilts to the side a little and she nods. "Well. I'm sure she plans and thinks a lot. But that doesn't guarantee anything."
Tiriana does not look convinced on K'del, but talking about Iovniath has most of her attention just now. "Yes. Yes, it is," says the young woman, with all her determination. "It guarantees enough." And she sulks, too, arms crossing as she sits the remainder of her drink aside. This logic thing does not sit well with her, especially when she knows it for truth.
"Good luck with that," is Milani's take on that, "I really hope that when she does go up that it all works out." And she's not speaking platitudes either. Faranth knows how grumpy Tiriana will be if it goes badly. "Anyway, most of that group seem pretty good. P'ax though, he was a piece of work. Probably still is with that /green/ of his." Big eyes. "I've heard she likes to tear up her meat and get blood everywhere."
"Yeah," agrees Tiriana, her mouth pursing just for a moment more, before talking about P'ax and Yyth makes her eyes light up--although not in any pleasant way. "I hope she makes him suffer. I hope some male rider catches her every time. I hope it's horrible," she says, smirking; such prospects for the unpleasant boy delight her. "Serves him right. See, it's /good/ when they get what they really deserve." Hypocrisy, what's that?
"Wow," Milani says simply, taking in that look on Tiriana's face. "Did he uh - eat your shorts or something?" Milani's leg swings off the edge of the table and she takes a long drink from her mug, eyeing the goldrider curiously.
Tiriana sniffs. "He was a bastard to me, and then Satiet chewed /me/ out for it," she says, mouth tightening. "And I didn't even start it--really, I didn't for once. /I/ would have sent him away from the Weyr, exiled him, but nooo. Back at Telgar, the Weyrwoman, she said I could exile people if we ever needed to, except then--" Tiriana was the one that got herself exiled. But she doesn't say that.
"Well it is kind of your job to smooth things over and be diplomatic and all of that," Milani states, leaning back to rest her weight on both hands, mug left on the tabletop. "You can't exile people like that unless they do something really bad either. I mean, that's pretty serious. He didn't kill you, so." She shrugs once and eyes Tiriana skeptically. Yet again. "Are you seriously telling me, that Gay told you could exile people?"
"If I can do what I want to people, what's the point of being diplomatic?" counters Tiriana. "And if I was Weyrwoman--. I mean, what are they going to do, call a full Conclave over one stupid kid? They wouldn't interfere with us--they won't even do anything about /real/ stuff, like Tillek now." Of course, being called on the latter claim pulls her up a bit short, and Tiriana picks up her drink again, to scowl at it. "Well, that's what she said, anyway. Probably didn't really /mean/ it, though. She didn't mean any of it, the stuff she told me."
"You can't just do whatever you want," Milani says bluntly. "Whatever gave you that idea? Even if you're Weyrwoman, you can't just do whatever. You have to do what's good for the Weyr. And if you don't, then the other Weyrwomen and Weyrleaders will get on your case, because all of the Weyrs have to stay in good shape, even if it's Interval." Milani's nose wrinkles up and she shakes her head. "And you made me lecture!" she says with big rounded eyes for Tiriana. The last crinkles up her brow though. "Well I hope she didn't mean that bit. But ... what do you mean about the rest?"
"I know that," Tiriana says, glaring at Milani when the other girl really does start lecturing her. "I'm not /stupid/. I could still do /stuff/, though." Sniff. With her pride all wounded over that lecturing, she's quite so in answering the latter question, sliding off the table and refilling her drink again first, before she finally flops down in a real chair at the table. Tiriana eyes Milani with a frown, as though she's considering her answer; then, she shrugs. "All of it. Her always acting like we were friends or something."
"Then why say that you could? Or act like you can?" Milani asks, fixing Tiriana with rather a demanding look. "I mean, do you really think just sending someone like P'ax home would've actually solved the problem?" Brows lift along with the question. "I'm not sure what I'd do, mind you. My job and yours share some things, but they're not the same." She quiets though as Tiriana walks away and refills. When she's back, there's a little frown on Millie's face. "Do think she was acting?"
"No. They're not," Tiriana says, her voice growing flat as gives Milani a hard look. A deep breath keeps her in her seat, though, even if she doesn't look particularly pleased about it. Her response to the question is still testy. "Didn't I just say that? She was acting."
That breath, that seems to impress Milani and her weight tilts onto just one hand, the other reaching for her not-yet-empty mug. "I meant, do you really, honestly think she was pretending, or do you think it was for real. I mean, I only met her a couple of times, but she didn't really strike me as a not-honest person."
"Well, maybe not to you," says Tiriana, with a shake of her head. "I was the one that was around her all the time, though, so who do you think /really/ knew her?" She sniffs, swills back another drink of her cider and then gives it a look. "Anyway, we weren't friends. Or I'd still be there, or at least until after she got herself killed." Pause. "Do you have to question /every/ thing I say?"
"I just said that I didn't know her well," Milani points out and listens without saying anything for the rest. "Sometimes friends have to make tough calls, especially when they're the Weyrwoman, don't they?" That last draws a smirk and a wide smile from Milani. "Definitely. I do it with everyone. I'm annoying that way."
Eyeing her drink, Tiriana swirls it a little and then sets it aside. "Well, then she's not my friend. She's the Weyrwoman," she points out. "Because friends don't turn on each other like that, not /real/ ones. Otherwise it's just, you know. Fair-weather friends, or whatever they call it." She nods, quite firmly on that point, though Milani's latter words earn the girl a withering look.
"Was it really turning though?" Milani asks, because yes, she's still questioning. "And well ... are you happier here than there, or would you go back if you could?" the headwoman's assistant continues.
"Yes. It was. Are you just--?" Tiriana doesn't even know what Milani might be, and gives up with a frustrated sound. She huffs. Then: "What kind of question is /that/. Am I happy. I wouldn't go back there for anything." Which is not, precisely, an answer to the question, or maybe it is.
"Well I mean, I'm not some high level diplomat and I don't have any harper training, but it seems to me that it might've been more complicated than that," Milani says with a little shrug. "A lot of things usually are, especially given you know, the whole /thing/ between Telgar and the Reaches," she points out and finishes off her cider. Tiriana's huffing doesn't seem to faze her. "An honest one. Just ask N'thei, when I'm not being completely annoying, I'm Miss Sunshine and Light trying to make sure everyone's happy and has everything they need," Millie says bluntly. "So. Even if you wouldn't go back. Are you /happy/ here. Do you like the Reaches? Or would you rather be anywhere else but here?"
Tiriana shakes her head. "It's not complicated. And neither was that thing between us and Telgar, either," she says. Her lips purse, though, when Milani presses the subject, and she shrugs. "I'm fine. Happy enough, I guess," she gives a begrudged echo.
"Okay," Milani answers, shrugging and then she smiles a bright, radiant smile. "Well then. I'll take that as a good thing. Happy enough is better than miserable," she says firmly and slips off of the table, picking up her clipboard. "I hope though that someday, it'll be better than just 'fine' and 'enough'. I should get back to work though. Those orders won't resolve themselves." Her hand hooks up her empty mug to take back to the dish bin.
"Yeah. Sure," agrees Tiriana, with a frown as Milani gets up. She reaches to pick up her drink herself, finishing it off, too. Unlike her companion, though, the goldrider remains seated, with a nod to Milani as she leaves. "See you around."
"See you around, Tiriana," Milani says politely as she steps away with a little wave. The mug clinks as she drops it in the bin and checks her clipboard for her next destination.
When: Day 18, Month 13, Turn 17
Where: Living Caverns, High Reaches Weyr
What: Tiriana and Milani discuss various weyrlings and Iovniath.
Living Cavern, High Reaches Weyr
Stalactites hang high above this enormous cavern like a jagged chandelier or an inversion of the Spires themselves, but shadows cling to them instead of light. Below lie great tables arranged in rows, each large enough to serve a fighting wing, while in the nooks and alcoves around the cavern's edge sit more sensibly-sized tables, from six- and eight-seaters down to intimate spots for just a couple of diners. The only really open space is around the kitchen entrance, smelling of food and rarely quiet, and by the nearby serving tables with their long buffet of the day's offerings.
Tapestries on the smooth walls -- some faded and others newly woven -- only slightly mute the sea of sound when a meal is in full swing, but they add cheerfulness augmented by the glowlight from wall sconces and the centerpieces of each table. Still, shadows always creep along the ceiling and into the mouths of the exits -- the myriad small hallways at one end of the cavern and, at the other, the twisting tunnel to the bowl near an array of coathooks and and hatracks -- and late at night, when the glows are allowed to dim, the chamber can seem very dark indeed.
Contents:
Milani
Obvious exits:
Inner Caverns Kitchen Bowl
Afternoon is going towards 'late' but not quite there yet. Milani stands to one side of the cavern with a clipboard and a couple of the other assistants, the trio going over lists. "And you've got this work order covered, Greina?" Millie is checking, pencil upheld, eyes quesioningly on the other young woman. Whatever is on the docket today, the assistants seem busy.
The assistants might be busy, but Tiriana isn't so much so, loitering herself at a table off to the side of the room herself. She sits on it rather than in one of the chairs, her legs swiging as she takes a sip from her mug. She's watching the afternoon stragglers with a frown.
"Yes, got that and the second slip that you passed out earlier," Greina answers. Milani makes a few quick check marks on the clipboard and puffs out her cheeks. "All right, looks like we're on top of everything then, everybody take five and we should still be able to wrap up for supper," the strawberry blonde declares with a smile. "Oh good," Alieva says, looking visibly relieved, "for a bit there, I was afraid we'd wind up working a long night," she says with a nose wrinkled in distaste. "All right, all right," Millie makes a shooing motion with her hands. "Off to it!" And there's a little laughter as the three go in opposite directions. Milani takes a moment to take a breath and starts to move past Tiriana towards the klah pot. That frown on the goldrider's face meets a determinedly pleasant expression on Millie's and she nods as she passes. "Everything all right there, Tiriana?"
The trio of assistants earns a brief glance from Tiriana while she sits, but little more interest than that until Milani passes and speaks. Then, Tiriana pauses with her mug halfway back to her mouth, and her shoulders shrug. "Fine, I guess," she answers; prompted by the other girl's destination, she slides off the table and steps over to get a refill for herself, though cider instead of klah. "What was all that about?"
"Oooh, cider," Milani says happily and gets that instead. "With all the apples we brought in, we'll probably never run out," she says with a little chuckle then tilts a look over at Tiriana, moving back towards a table to perch on its edge just as the goldrider just was. "We got a late rush of work orders in this afternoon, nothing serious, just not the usual pace for the day, you know?"
With a fresh glass, Tiriana turns back to her table, too, and slides back on it, this time propping her feet in the seat of the chair she doesn't sit in. "And you're doing them now?" she asks then, with a faint wrinkle of her nose. "Should not bother, teach them to turn everything in this time of day." Even if it's not really /that/ late just yet, but.
Letting her legs dangle off the edge of the table Milani, takes a careful sip from her mug and slants a look over at Tiriana. "Sometimes things have to be taken care of, even if it's later. Cut off is supper time, anything that comes in after then usually shifts to the following day unless it's you know, coming down from Satiet or some other kind of emergency."
"You don't have to lecture me," says Tiriana, her lips pursing briefly at Milani's former words. "It would still serve them right. Anyway, it is dinnertime, sort of--some people get dinner now. It would be entirely justified." Nod nod.
Who's lecturing?" Milani asks back quirking a look over at Tiriana. A look that's netural enough though Millie might just be trying really hard not to snap back. "And yeah, if you don't get your order in early enough, just means it's that much later before we get to it. So it kind of balances out." Theres a skeptical glance around the cavern at the few people getting snacks or an early dinner. "Okay, when they actually serve the evening meal."
"You," Tiriana answers, with a furrowed-brows look over at Milani--didn't she just say that? The point of the question is lost on her. She does shrug, though, giving the caverns another glance herself. "I was just saying," she points out. "It's sem... semantics." She takes a moment to come up with the word, but does so triumphantly in the end.
There's a quiet snort. "So just answering your question is a lecture?" Milani challenges a little, the last bit brings about a nod. "Yeah, there's a point there though, about y'know, getting things in /on time/," she says with a short laugh and has another drink. "It's good to have the tithe all put away though and the Candidates all be-weyrlinged, back to work or home. Got a little crazy there for a bit."
Tiriana, determined, "It is if I say it is." And she folds one arm--it would be both except she still has a drink, which she takes a sip of now. "Candidates," she repeats that bit somewhat less waspishly. "Glad most of them are gone, one way or another--they were annoying. All underfoot and everything. Least the dragons keep them busy now."
"The world according to Tiriana," Milani remarks a little dryly and then nods. "Yeah, they were getting a little bit that way towards the end. This group was pretty well behaved though. Just a couple were really young and homesick a lot." Her mug goes up, takes another drink. "Have you gotten to know any of the Weyrlings?"
The answer might be meant snarkily, but it seems to please Tiriana, who puffs up her chest just a little bit. Until-- "Homesick," she scoffs, with a roll of her eyes as she takes another drink, swirls the mug slightly. Another shrug. "Know a few of them. That one girl, with the crazy blue. P'ax. The bronzeriders. Don't like most of them, though."
"You've never been homesick?" Milani says skeptically. "I'd think you would've at least a little coming here from Telgar," the headwoman's assistant continues. "Eila and Kelerith," she provides the names readily. "P'ax has quite the tongue on him," is Millie's assessment. "And K'del seems to have his hands full with Cadejoth."
"No. Never," Tiriana vows, her mouth twisting into a scowl at the question; she moves on very quickly indeed. "Yeah, them. Eila. I know her--always had those kids with her, and now that blue." Sniff. She does not touch the subject of P'ax, either, but does make a face at K'del's name, too. "Him. With a bronze. I hate it when they do that. Get just what they want."
Skeptical indeed is the look Tiriana gets next, but Milani doesn't belabor the point. "She was a nanny, so yes, Eila often had kids around her," she says in a bland tone. "Kelerith does seem like even more of a handful than most little kids." A little chuckle and Milani's head ducks. "Why, because he'll be full of himself, bigger than his britches and all that?"
Tiriana waves a hand. "Nanny, right, that's what I said. With the kids," she tells Milani. Then, a pause. Her brows knit together as she tries to explain. "Because he was that already," she eventually says, just a little glum. She takes another drink, then shakes her head. "This--this just makes 'em insufferable because it's /justified/."
"Right. How much you want to bet he winds up being you know, the typical bronzerider, thinking just any girl will fall in his lap because he has a bronze dragon?" Milani looks over at Tiriana sidelong. "Or are you just worried that Cadejoth might catch Iovniath sometime in a few turns?"
"Because he didn't think that already," scoffs Tiriana, rolling her eyes in dramatic fashion. "He's an idiot. And anyway--" She pauses for a drink, which turns into a cough at Milani's latter words. The goldrider directs a glare at her companion. "Hell no," snaps the elder girl. "Hell. Iovniath has /taste/. /We/ have taste." Pause. Grumpily, "And anyway, never going to rise at this rate." Because two turns is 'never.'
"Mm, he did kind of, but you have to admit, he is a little bit cute around the edges," Milani says slowly, a merry twinkle in her eyes. "Just a little /young/." Like she's one to talk given how much of a flirt she is and was at that age too. That glare is taken in with a non-chalant roll of Millie's shoulders. "Don't think she'll rise? Really? And you know, sometimes, it has nothing to do with taste and everything to do with luck. But you know that. You're weyrbred."
Tiriana just eyes Milani, looking disgusted; her nose wrinkles up, mouth curling in distaste. "His face is disgusting. Looks like... I don't even know what, but it's gross," she says of the pimply boy. As for Iovniath, the rider snorts. "Stupid dragons get caught by luck, and Iovniath's smart. She's, like--she--she's smart." And Tiriana utterly fails at description, waving a hand to fill in the blank. "She plans. And /thinks/. You know."
"When those bumps go away, he'll have something going on I think," Milani muses, finger tapping lightly against chin. Her eyes slant sideways towards Tiriana again though. "So it's always because the gold is dumb when a big gust of wind tosses her into a bronze she wasn't thinking about?" Her head tilts to the side a little and she nods. "Well. I'm sure she plans and thinks a lot. But that doesn't guarantee anything."
Tiriana does not look convinced on K'del, but talking about Iovniath has most of her attention just now. "Yes. Yes, it is," says the young woman, with all her determination. "It guarantees enough." And she sulks, too, arms crossing as she sits the remainder of her drink aside. This logic thing does not sit well with her, especially when she knows it for truth.
"Good luck with that," is Milani's take on that, "I really hope that when she does go up that it all works out." And she's not speaking platitudes either. Faranth knows how grumpy Tiriana will be if it goes badly. "Anyway, most of that group seem pretty good. P'ax though, he was a piece of work. Probably still is with that /green/ of his." Big eyes. "I've heard she likes to tear up her meat and get blood everywhere."
"Yeah," agrees Tiriana, her mouth pursing just for a moment more, before talking about P'ax and Yyth makes her eyes light up--although not in any pleasant way. "I hope she makes him suffer. I hope some male rider catches her every time. I hope it's horrible," she says, smirking; such prospects for the unpleasant boy delight her. "Serves him right. See, it's /good/ when they get what they really deserve." Hypocrisy, what's that?
"Wow," Milani says simply, taking in that look on Tiriana's face. "Did he uh - eat your shorts or something?" Milani's leg swings off the edge of the table and she takes a long drink from her mug, eyeing the goldrider curiously.
Tiriana sniffs. "He was a bastard to me, and then Satiet chewed /me/ out for it," she says, mouth tightening. "And I didn't even start it--really, I didn't for once. /I/ would have sent him away from the Weyr, exiled him, but nooo. Back at Telgar, the Weyrwoman, she said I could exile people if we ever needed to, except then--" Tiriana was the one that got herself exiled. But she doesn't say that.
"Well it is kind of your job to smooth things over and be diplomatic and all of that," Milani states, leaning back to rest her weight on both hands, mug left on the tabletop. "You can't exile people like that unless they do something really bad either. I mean, that's pretty serious. He didn't kill you, so." She shrugs once and eyes Tiriana skeptically. Yet again. "Are you seriously telling me, that Gay told you could exile people?"
"If I can do what I want to people, what's the point of being diplomatic?" counters Tiriana. "And if I was Weyrwoman--. I mean, what are they going to do, call a full Conclave over one stupid kid? They wouldn't interfere with us--they won't even do anything about /real/ stuff, like Tillek now." Of course, being called on the latter claim pulls her up a bit short, and Tiriana picks up her drink again, to scowl at it. "Well, that's what she said, anyway. Probably didn't really /mean/ it, though. She didn't mean any of it, the stuff she told me."
"You can't just do whatever you want," Milani says bluntly. "Whatever gave you that idea? Even if you're Weyrwoman, you can't just do whatever. You have to do what's good for the Weyr. And if you don't, then the other Weyrwomen and Weyrleaders will get on your case, because all of the Weyrs have to stay in good shape, even if it's Interval." Milani's nose wrinkles up and she shakes her head. "And you made me lecture!" she says with big rounded eyes for Tiriana. The last crinkles up her brow though. "Well I hope she didn't mean that bit. But ... what do you mean about the rest?"
"I know that," Tiriana says, glaring at Milani when the other girl really does start lecturing her. "I'm not /stupid/. I could still do /stuff/, though." Sniff. With her pride all wounded over that lecturing, she's quite so in answering the latter question, sliding off the table and refilling her drink again first, before she finally flops down in a real chair at the table. Tiriana eyes Milani with a frown, as though she's considering her answer; then, she shrugs. "All of it. Her always acting like we were friends or something."
"Then why say that you could? Or act like you can?" Milani asks, fixing Tiriana with rather a demanding look. "I mean, do you really think just sending someone like P'ax home would've actually solved the problem?" Brows lift along with the question. "I'm not sure what I'd do, mind you. My job and yours share some things, but they're not the same." She quiets though as Tiriana walks away and refills. When she's back, there's a little frown on Millie's face. "Do think she was acting?"
"No. They're not," Tiriana says, her voice growing flat as gives Milani a hard look. A deep breath keeps her in her seat, though, even if she doesn't look particularly pleased about it. Her response to the question is still testy. "Didn't I just say that? She was acting."
That breath, that seems to impress Milani and her weight tilts onto just one hand, the other reaching for her not-yet-empty mug. "I meant, do you really, honestly think she was pretending, or do you think it was for real. I mean, I only met her a couple of times, but she didn't really strike me as a not-honest person."
"Well, maybe not to you," says Tiriana, with a shake of her head. "I was the one that was around her all the time, though, so who do you think /really/ knew her?" She sniffs, swills back another drink of her cider and then gives it a look. "Anyway, we weren't friends. Or I'd still be there, or at least until after she got herself killed." Pause. "Do you have to question /every/ thing I say?"
"I just said that I didn't know her well," Milani points out and listens without saying anything for the rest. "Sometimes friends have to make tough calls, especially when they're the Weyrwoman, don't they?" That last draws a smirk and a wide smile from Milani. "Definitely. I do it with everyone. I'm annoying that way."
Eyeing her drink, Tiriana swirls it a little and then sets it aside. "Well, then she's not my friend. She's the Weyrwoman," she points out. "Because friends don't turn on each other like that, not /real/ ones. Otherwise it's just, you know. Fair-weather friends, or whatever they call it." She nods, quite firmly on that point, though Milani's latter words earn the girl a withering look.
"Was it really turning though?" Milani asks, because yes, she's still questioning. "And well ... are you happier here than there, or would you go back if you could?" the headwoman's assistant continues.
"Yes. It was. Are you just--?" Tiriana doesn't even know what Milani might be, and gives up with a frustrated sound. She huffs. Then: "What kind of question is /that/. Am I happy. I wouldn't go back there for anything." Which is not, precisely, an answer to the question, or maybe it is.
"Well I mean, I'm not some high level diplomat and I don't have any harper training, but it seems to me that it might've been more complicated than that," Milani says with a little shrug. "A lot of things usually are, especially given you know, the whole /thing/ between Telgar and the Reaches," she points out and finishes off her cider. Tiriana's huffing doesn't seem to faze her. "An honest one. Just ask N'thei, when I'm not being completely annoying, I'm Miss Sunshine and Light trying to make sure everyone's happy and has everything they need," Millie says bluntly. "So. Even if you wouldn't go back. Are you /happy/ here. Do you like the Reaches? Or would you rather be anywhere else but here?"
Tiriana shakes her head. "It's not complicated. And neither was that thing between us and Telgar, either," she says. Her lips purse, though, when Milani presses the subject, and she shrugs. "I'm fine. Happy enough, I guess," she gives a begrudged echo.
"Okay," Milani answers, shrugging and then she smiles a bright, radiant smile. "Well then. I'll take that as a good thing. Happy enough is better than miserable," she says firmly and slips off of the table, picking up her clipboard. "I hope though that someday, it'll be better than just 'fine' and 'enough'. I should get back to work though. Those orders won't resolve themselves." Her hand hooks up her empty mug to take back to the dish bin.
"Yeah. Sure," agrees Tiriana, with a frown as Milani gets up. She reaches to pick up her drink herself, finishing it off, too. Unlike her companion, though, the goldrider remains seated, with a nod to Milani as she leaves. "See you around."
"See you around, Tiriana," Milani says politely as she steps away with a little wave. The mug clinks as she drops it in the bin and checks her clipboard for her next destination.