[Log] Crime and Punishment, Eilidh-Style
Who: Eilidh, Gustive, Riadur
When: Day 26, Month 8, Turn 2
Where: Living Cavern, Telgar Weyr
What: Eilidh details Riadur's punishment for impressing a firelizard.
Telgar Weyr's Living Cavern
This huge cavern is sufficiently roomy to hold a large portion of the Weyr's population without feeling cramped. There's always a bustle of activity here. Fragrant dishes are constantly in prepartion for mealtimes: currently for the mid-day meal. Drudges are always present, either cleaning under Pierron's watchful eye, or helping fetch and carry. A myriad of glowbaskets and many ever-lit hearths make the cavern warm and inviting despite its size. The scents of cooking meats, baking breads and pastries, and the pungent aroma of spices hang mouthwateringly in the air. It is little wonder that those seeking to relax nearly always find their way here to do it. Dark summer blooms of vivid hue decorate the tables.
A short tunnel jaunts northward out to the bowl and the merry sounds of cooking, chores, and laughter echo from the kitchen at the southeast end of the cavern near the easterly passage to the rest of the lower caverns. Within the lower caverns is an entrance to the infirmary weyr to care for injured dragons and riders.
Contents:
FL: Cruor
PLAYERS: Gustive Riadur Pierron
OTHER: Telgar Serving Tables
Obvious Exits:
Inner Caverns Kitchen Bowl
Taking a break for lunch, Riadur wavers by the serving tables, torn between items. Finally, though, he selects his meal and turns to seat himself at a table. Spreading out the meal before him, he begins eating methodically.
Lounging and waiting for something, Gustive spots the newcomer and recognizes him. "Hoi!" He waves. "Didn't I meet you the other night at the firelizard hatching?"
Riadur jumps a bit, startled by Gustive's greeting. Quickly, though, he resettles with a shy little smile. "I--Yes, I think so," he answers. "You were with the little boy--Crispin." Pausing, his eyes find the candidate's knot Gustive now wears. "And now you're a candidate? Congratulations. Will you join me?" He gestures to empty seats nearby.
Gustive nods and gets up from his seat and grabs a few fishrolls from the serving table on the way. "Yeh, little Spin. Got himself a ferocious brown. Gentle with him at least." He settles himself down across from Riadur. "Didn't I see you Impress one, too?"
Riadur blushes, ducking his head guiltily. "Yes, I did," he admits reluctantly. "A blue. I, er, wasn't supposed to." He pushes his food about on his plate for a moment before taking another bite. "And did you? I left before it was over."
Gustive chuckles. "Did you get a yelling at for that? I did, I got a very calm brown, named him Cruor, he's doing his first errand for me. We'll see how he does. I guess I was lucky to Impress one before I was Searched."
"When were you searched?" Riadur inquires. "That night? Who did it?" He cocks his head curiously as he continues eating slowly. "I named mine Ebillan. He seems... good so far, but somewhat less than, well, trustworthy. He seems to like hoarding things." A shrug.
Gustive pops a fishroll into his mouth. "I was Searched a few days after the hatching here. I was lounging on the beach at Ista when Tenli came up to enjoy the weather, said it was good for old bones, I think. Her dragon kept creeping closer and closer and the next thing I know I'm agreeing to be whisked away. Not very dramatic, I always thought of being Searched as being a little more.. I dunno, grand, I suppose." He laughs. "And how did it happen for you?"
"Grand," repeats Riadur, sounding amused. "Yes, that's what I always thought myself, until it happened to me. Kassima's green Lysseth searched me one day a while back now. She... Well, she wanted me to poke her in the nose, and when I wouldn't, she called me names. It wasn't very glamourous," confesses the man sheepishly.
Eilidh walks in from the bowl.
Eilidh has arrived.
Gustive cocks an eyebrow at Riadur. "Poke her in the nose? I don't think I've heard of that." He laughs and shakes his head. "That was only my second time on a dragon, now *that* is every bit as grand as they say it is. Where was it you said you came from again?"
Humming cheerfully - it must be a good day - Eilidh wanders in from the bowl, on bare feet, which are kind of wet. Let it not be said that she's the smartest of the bunch, but at least she has a bright smile for everyone she passes, even hugs for some who seem a bit baffled by the exuberance of the blonde's greeting. "Hallo!" she calls out cheerfully here and there, snagging herself an apple and polishing against her rather dirty flying leathers. With food in hand, she traipses between the tables, eyes scanning quickly to find likely people to bothe... chat with. "Who poked what in whose nose?" And there, she inserts herself neatly into a conversation which she wasn't invited to in the first place.
Riadur blushes slightly again. "I hadn't, either," he admits. "It was... very strange. Embarrassing. I've only ridden a dragon a few times myself." He pauses to take a few more bites of lunch. "I've been living here for the last few months," he tells Gustive after swallowing. "Until I came here, I lived on the Southern Continent."
Riadur adds to Eilidh, shrinking back from the cheerful woman, "Lysseth wanted me to poke her, when she searched me."
Gustive laughs heartily. "She must be quite a handful. Tenli told me it would be a good excuse to avoid my mother marrying me off. Never thought I'd hear that one." He grins up at the woman and extends a hand. "Hello, Name's Gustive from Bitra."
So since her clothing is dirty, it stands to reason that the apple? It's not quite as clean as it was just moments before. Still, Eilidh chomps down into it, her bite small and very particular in being smack in the center of one curve where russet red turns into a pale yellow-orange shade. Her eyes fly wide open at Riadur's comment, unnoticing of his shrinkage from her person. "Poke her? You're kinda small to poke her, y'know. At least I think you are, maybe she thinks otherwise. But," she leans in conspiratorially, "Greens are kind of odd like that sometimes. Very pretty, fun to watch fly, but a little cuckoo in the head." This is coming from /her/, so grains of salt should be passed around in abundance. "I think I'm supposed to talk to you about something." Fidget. "Oh! Hiya," she beams at Gustive, catching a sight of the white knot on his shoulder, "I'm Eilidh, Cayetath's rider, and I'm supposed to be here.. exist, or something, not that I don't exist 'lready, but y'know. I'm here for you." Ever eloquent, she rubs a sticky apple hand against her clothing and then holds it out to the other boy.
Riadur cocks his head, pausing with fork half-raised to his lips. "Your mother tried to marry you off?" he repeats curiously. He quiets, however, as Eilidh interjects, allowing her her piece. He fidgets as well, glancing down at his hands as she continues. "About my firelizard?" he supplies tentatively.
Gustive snorts. "Well she'd been threatening to marry me off if I didn't settle down soon. I was really enjoying my bit of traveling and then, ahh. Guess I'm stuck here till the Hatching but it beats getting married off to someone you've never met." He cocks his head at me Eilidh. "Here for me? Did I miss some chores?"
"Exactly!" She's so pleased, it's written all over her face that Riadur understands. She even wiggles, which is an odd sight for a girl who looks closer to twenty than ten. Eilidh rubs that hand against her pants and resumes chewing idly on her apple, letting it sit on her lips every so often as she listens to the conversation. "Ma never said I would get married, but we did live in a Weyr, so I guess it'd be kinda odd. I think. But you know, if you don't want to get married, you should tell her that, instead of running away." Not that she's never run away from an oppressive mother, no. "Nono," she's quick to shake her head, "I'm just, well, they thought I'd be good with candidates since I was one so recently myself, well three turns or so ago, and I'm just here if you have problems, or questions, or issues, or just want to talk. As long as I'm not in drills or my own duties." But back to being serious and Riadur, her face turning solemn, "You Impressed a firelizard. I pulled the short straw and must talk to you, but you can still come to me too! I am not scary, really! I don't think I am, do you think I am?"
Riadur tenses at Eilidh's further talk, prepared for the worst. "My mother," he tells her and Gustive, voice strained, "didn't force us into anything. She let us make most of our own decisions." A shrug ensues as he pokes at some of the food remaining on his plate. Then, at the rider's latter question, he looks up at her, eyes widening. "Oh! Oh, no, ma'am. That is, er... Not /really/." Pause. "You mean well?" Which is to say, of course, a resounding 'yes'. Riadur blushes. "Should we, er, talk here, or somewhere more... elsewhere?"
Breathing a great sigh of relief that it wasn't him she was looking for, he gives the other lad an encouraging wink. He starts to mumble under his breath. "Boy, how long does it take a firelizard to deliver a message. Maybe he got lost, I should go look for him..." Gustive coughs a little and starts to back away from the table.
"Oh, nah!" Eilidh reassures with a careless wave of her hand, "You didn't really do anything wrong really, firelizards, I guess go where the food is, and you had food. Course if you didn't have food then you wouldn't have gotten one, but I have one too. What did you name it? Blue right? Lorany Impressed a blue. Dragon, that is." Not that Riadur has a clue who Lorany is, the non-sequitur just is another one of the girl's growing list of noticeable quirks. Gustive receives a bright smile, "You've a firelizard too? How nice!" Clapclap, "But you don't have to get punished, I guess. But when you go looking for him, don't get yourself lost. I've heard the corridors down in the caverns can get all dark and musty and losty." For a moment she seems a bit befuddled and then shrugs it off quickly to announce to Riadur, "Well, I guess I should tell you what we decided." A quick reassuring smile is shot in hopes to alleviate the silence that draws out after that last statement.
Were Riadur to look up at Eilidh, he might be reassured; he does not, however. He focuses intently on his plate while his cheeks continue to redden. "Yes, a blue. Ebillan," he answers with the firelizard's name. "And... Yes. My punishment. I'm really sorry."
Gustive backs away and gives a wave. "Well then, I'll see you all later. Good luck and what not, Riadur. Lady rider" He gives a quick bow and darts out.
Gustive walks towards the inner cavern.
Gustive has left.
"Pretty! I've named mine Firelizard. For now." Creative when it comes to thinking pink may be black in some different imaginary world, and dragons may be canines, prospective names for firelizards have somehow leaked out one side of her head and into oblivion. "Maybe I'll figure out something better later." Eilidh approves of his name, and she ducks her head down to try and peer up at Riadur from below, hitting her head on the side of the table. Unfazed, she lifts two fingers. "Um," her brow furrows in thought and she begins to speak slowly, as if remembering exactly what she was supposed to say, "Well let's see, first you have to make sure there's always fresh meat at hand in the barracks and make sure the vtols and dung bugs don't get to it during the day, cause you don't want them creeling at night and waking everyone up. Cayetath almost ate mine cause she kept waking up in the middle of the night and I had no food except for crumbs under my bed. But you need to make sure it doesn't go bad, cause than it'll go stinky and people don't like stinky very much. Unless they stink and then they can't really smell stink." So that's one finger down, one more to go.
"Firelizard. That's... creative," notes Riadur uncertainly, glancing up to Eilidh at length. He offers Gustive a fleeting smile as the other candidate exits, then focuses all of his attention on the brownrider. He nods slowly in reponse to her detailing. "Yes, ma'am," he replies meekly.
Eilidh blinks, concern in her eyes, "You look kind of peaky. You should eat more. Ma always said that if you're not healthy you should eat more. Are you doing ok? Do you feel sick? Are you /scared/ of me?" The last is said with giggles, as if that's the least likely choice. "Ok, the second one," she pauses again, thinking, and grins, "You just have to make sure all your chores get done. All of them! Don't neglect any of them and it'll be ok. That's it, that's not bad is it? Or scary? Just chores, and make sure there's food in the barracks for your lizard, and well, I guess now Gustive and Tegara's cause they got lizards too." She makes a sad little smile for Riadur, "It's sad that you only get punished for it, when they did to, but I guess they were lucky. It's ok though, if you need help I'll try to help here and there, as long as you don't tell Claret or Breena. They /might/ get mad at me for helping, but maybe not."
Riadur quickly shakes his head, looking unreassured by Eilidh's words. "Oh, no. No, ma'am. I feel fine. And I will. Do all my chores, that is--and keep the meat properly." He nods in answer to that, then frowns. "I can't ask you to help me," decides the young man after a moment. "It's not your place. It's my punishment, so I have to do it."
Eilidh shrugs, her mouth full right now with a large chunk of apple. She chews slowly and grins, teeth hiding the munched up fruit from public view. With a visible swallow, her eyes scrunch up and her head bobs down and up again. "Don't be silly! I'll be by later to check in on the barracks and stuff. Not an inspection, really!" Cause she likes playing good cop, "But just to see if you all are doing ok, have enough blankets, pillows, furs, sweaters? Shells, it gets so cold up here sometimes and my bed is a mountain mess of blankets." Her brow quirks up, puzzled at the candidate's expression, and then beams again, free arm - so the apple juice won't go everywhere - moving to try and give the boy a half hug. It's not quite as exuberant as the ones she gave those in passing along this way, but it's heartfelt at least if it makes its mark. "Chin up, it'll be fine! Candidacy is fun, if you forget about the work, and the nervousness, and everything else." Which is just about everything. "'k?"
Riadur accepts the hug awkwardly, looking embarrassed. "Um. Yes, ma'am," he tells her. "Thank you. I... Well, it's really nice of you to offer, anyway. I think I've got everything I need, but some of the others might not--especially the ones from the warmer areas: Igen, Ista, the like. It's a very big change to come here." He offers a small little smile then, as Eilidh's cheerfulness finally infects him.
"I can understand that." Eilidh steps back, cheered that her hug was accepted and at the embarrassment on Riadur's face. Bouncing idly, she goes from foot to foot unable to stay still and flicks her wrist to try and get the core of her apple into a passing drudge's clean up tray. Score! "/That/," she grins at the candidate, "Was fun. And I'll see what I can do about getting some more random blankets in the barracks for the other warm-blo.. well, the candidates who are used to warmer weather." Each syllable is punctuated with a decisive nod. "Like I said, if you need anything, come by and ask, and I have to go attend to some things now. Responsibilities and stuff." Like who would actually depend on her for anything is another question. "Have a good day, Riadur! G'luck with your lizard, mine's sleeping on Cay's nose. He promised not to eat her yet. Bye!" And with a skip hop, she pads out towards the bowl again in the same way she walked into it earlier.
Somewhat dumbfounded at his encounter with the candidate coordinator, Riadur nods mutely. "Yes, ma'am," he finally finds his voice. "Thank you." He watches her exit with a mystified expression, then, relieved, turns back to his meal and finishes it quickly.