[Log] Ganging Up on B'tal
Who: Audria, B'tal, Tiriana
When: Living Cavern, High Reaches Weyr
Where: Day 4, Month 9, Turn 20
What: Tiriana makes B'tal cry.
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:
Audria
B'tal
Obvious exits:
Inner Caverns Kitchen Bowl
Lunch time is a busy time in the living cavern but B'tal is kind of oblivious to that at the moment. He's sitting at the end of a table generally considered to be in the weyrling area but he's by himself and his empty plate must mean he's already inhaled his food. Now he's bent over a journal and apparently sketching something out.
Lunch time is a busy time in the living cavern but B'tal is kind of oblivious to that at the moment. He's sitting at the end of a table generally considered to be in the weyrling area but he's by himself and his empty plate must mean he's already inhaled his food. Now he's bent over a journal and apparently sketching something out.
The weyrling tables are not especially frequented by the Weyrwoman, but occasionally she's been known to check in on her dragon's children. Today is one such day, as she, plate in hand, makes her way over toward B'tal. Tiriana sets her plate down opposite him, hooks a chair out with one boot-toe, and seats herself with a, "Hey."
Audria makes her way out of the kitchen carrying a tray of rolls with another covered in cheese balanced on top of it. She slides them carefully onto the table, replacing empty platters. And then, well, everyone needs to eat sometime, and Audria moves to fill her own plate with food.
B'tal looks up at the movement and voice on the other side of the table and when recognition sets in, the greenrider looks back down at his journal. "Hey," he returns quietly and leans forward over the pages to they aren't as easy to see. "Um," he continues, looking down the table a ways before his uncertain attention is back on Tiriana.
"Gee," says Tiriana, her voice dry and mouth twisting into a faint smirk. "Is that any way to greet your Weyrwoman?" She lifts her brows, propping an elbow on the table and her chin in hand as she regards the working greenrider. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
Audria finishes filling her plate and glances around. B'tal is noticed, and well, at least it's one person she recognizes. She moves towards him, hesitating when she sees an unfamiliar face across from him. "Hello!" That's actually kind of cheerful before she asks with a slight flush. "Would it be wrong for me to join you? I mean, is this a table I can be at? Or would I be interuppting?" It all comes out in a rush as she shifts from one foot to the other.
B'tal has the grace - or sense - to look a little sheepish. "Sorry, Weyrwoman. It's been awhile. I-- um, is there something I can do for you?" he asks her with the same uncertainty but not as though he wouldn't be happy to. Then there's Audria and B'tal turns his head to look toward her with a small smile flickering over his lips. "Hey," he says to her, but looks to Tiriana to answer the girl's questions.
Audria hovers as she waits for an answer. When she hears B'tal call the other woman by her title, Audria turns to give her another, more nervous look. Her food is looked down at for a moment, before she gives B'tal a querying look. "I, uh..." But she stops there, not really having anything more to say.
Noting the way that Audria looks at Tiriana, B'tal says, "It's okay. Here, sit." He gestures to the seat beside him. "Audria, this is the Weyrwoman, Tiriana. And," he glances at said goldrider, "This is Audria. She's working in the kitchen." Because everyone should know everyone.
"Just checking in," is Tiriana's answer to B'tal, accompanied by a lift of her shoulders. She leans forward to pick up her fork and take the first couple of bites of her lunch. "It's been a busy couple of weeks, as I understand it." She gives the greenrider a long look, but the arrival of another interrupts her train of thought and earns Audria a look instead. Tiriana's brows furrow up, but she doesn't offer much in the way of greeting, leaving that to B'tal.
Audria takes a seat next to B'tal, settling her plate in front of her. B'tal gets a quick greatful look before she turns to nod a greeting over to Tiriana. "It's nice to meet you, ma'am, Weyrwoman." And then she'll start picking at her lunch as she listens.
"It's been a busy, well, ten months or so," B'tal returns, only a slight hint of sarcasm in his voice. He's looking down at his journal, though, when he says it, then finally puts his pencil in there and closes it over his impromptu bookmark. "Gotten slightly less busy, I think, really. Different kind of busy, I guess." He's obviously talking about drills and that sort of thing.
"Really? Less busy?" Tiriana looks surprised by that revelation, and she lifts one brow slightly. "I'd figure it'd be busier than ever, what with all the... well. Excitement." And she levels a pointed look at him, though a glance takes in Audria a beat later. "Hey," Tiriana greets her at last.
Audria gives Tiriana back a quick smile. "Hello." She pretty much repeats before she's looking between B'tal and Tiriana, trying to figure out exactly what this is about. "Less busy because your dragon is getting older?" She guesses before she goes back to nibbling.
There's a slight flush that rises in B'tal's cheeks and he looks at Tiriana with her pointed look. "Are we... talking about the same thing?" he asks since there's little point to dancing around it. He glances toward Audria with a small nod and notes as well, "I guess drilling could be considered exciting. Especially now with the middle flights." But he seems doubtful when he returns his attention to the woman across from him.
"I don't know," and Tiriana feigns innocence, not very successfully, as she goes back to her eating. "I'm talking about W'chek. Madilla. Z'yi, too. What are /you/ talking about?"
Audria looks up as Tiriana lists off a series of names. She blinks. "Hey. I've met them." As if that might be a surprise. "Madilla mentioned something about a guy. Don't really remember what."
Even if he already, rather obviously, suspected this, B'tal frowns and looks a little like he'd rather be somewhere else once it's actually said out loud. "Oh," is what he says instead, glancing at Audria and again at Tiriana. His expression shifts slightly then, from his usual little boyness to something, well, slightly less so. "I was talking about weyrling stuff. But if we're talking about -that,- then yes. Since I'm only sleeping with -one- of them now, it's a little less busy." He looks both irritated and sad. "Not sure why it's any of your business," he murmurs more quietly.
"Because." This is Tiriana's answer, as she sets her fork down on her plate. "Why shouldn't it be? You're my weyrlings, for one, so that makes it all my business. And, well. Supposed to be friends, too, right?"
"You were sleeping with all three of them?" That comes out of Audria's mouth without stopping to think. A fact which brings a bright flush to her cheeks. "I mean, uh, sure you were." And the recent transplant turns her gaze down to her food. Nice, safe food.
B'tal looks a little sheepish again as he studies Tiriana and finally looks down. He doesn't even know how to respond to that, but he's saved from having to by Audria. "No! Of course not," he says quickly, looking surprised by the thought. And then, like this will somehow be -better,- he says, "Just Z'yi and W'chek."
"Madilla," Tiriana reveals, "is a good girl. She doesn't fuck people." It makes her shake her head, just a little bit, just to think of that. But she moves on quickly, drawling to B'tal, "Yeah, and somehow you end up settling for W'chek."
Audria looks over to B'tal. "Is that why he was nicer than I'd heard when you were around?" Yeah, that's likely still not thinking much before she speaks. Somehow though, that does seem better, to Audria at least. Two is better than three. Maybe. Or at least she relaxes a bit, giving Tiriana a nod for her revelation.
"She -is- good," B'tal says in an echo of Tiriana though maybe a little more defensive about it. Or earnest. "I didn't settle. Besides, Z'yi-- well, he..." Whatever he's trying to say must be harder than he'd first figured it might be, so he says to Audria instead, "He's not as bad as people say he is."
"Really? /Really/?" wonders Tiriana. "Must be a damn good lay, then, because he's pretty damn awful to all of us. Us and our weyrbred morals, and how evil we all are, and how screwed up in the head all our children are... Bet he's had some pretty choice words to say about you, too. And that's not even touching what he did to Madilla." Beat. "You know what he did to Madilla?" She slants a glance at Audria, tone conversational. "Nice girl. He led her on, crushed her dreams. Made her look like a fool for the whole Weyr."
Audria shakes her head as Tiriana turns a question on her. "He did? That's not very nice. I'd be so very embarrassed if someone did that to me. And hurt. Really hurt." Audria states, though all this talk of how good people are in bed has a flush going up her cheeks.
Because it wasn't bad enough that Tiriana is saying horrible things, B'tal goes a little pale when Audria starts in on it, too. His gaze fell somewhere in the Weyrwoman's words and he's looking blankly at the table now. The greenrider doesn't speak up to defend himself but he does murmur quietly, "He wanted the same thing."
"Oh, well. That's okay, then," says Tiriana, eyes rolling. Her food's half-finished, but she picks the plate up in her hand now while she shoves her chair back. "Nevermind, forget I said anything."
Audria is female. She's got to stick with the girls in these things, after all. Her gaze moves between the two blinking as Tiriana shoves her chair back. "You're not done with all that food." She comments looking at the Weyrwoman's plate.
B'tal finally finds his ability to move again and he picks up his journal and his plate before shoving away from the table. He heads off to dump the latter in a bin and if there's any wiping at his eyes or cheeks, it certainly wouldn't be the first time he's been crying in the living cavern.
Tiriana glances down at her plate at Audria's words, then at Audria herself for just a moment. She snorts briefly, shakes her head, and then turns, to drop her dishes off in the bin and head out herself.
Audria pauses for a moment before she stands, leaving her plate behind for a moment as she mutters under her breath about the waste of food people worked hard to cook. And then she's going after B'tal. Whether she'll get to him before he leaves the cavern, who knows.