The Grand Sulk, Aborted
Human misery must somewhere have a stop; there is no wind that always blows a storm. ~Euripedes
OOC Date: January 8, 2010
IC Date: Day 15, month 9, turn 21 of Interval 10.
Who: Silarra, Gabrion
Where: Diving Cliff, High Reaches Weyr Lake
Gabrion tells all his woes to Silarra. Somehow, he's unable to continue the maudlin sulky overdramatic hysterics around his cousin. Her sense of the ridiculous is too strong for both of them.
Gabrion sits on a rock atop the diving cliff, brooding and watching the sun set. He has a pile of small pebbles collected and he's rattling them in his hand, and tossing them idly into the lake, one by one, trying to skip stones off the surface. At this height above the water, he isn't having much success - one more thing to scowl over.
"Falling off a cliff trying to skip stones." Silarra states by way of greeting as she climbs up the stairs, pausing at the top to look over the lake. "That guy was right. This was worth the clim."
Gabrion looks around, read to snarl and scare off whoever's disturbed his solitude. But the aggressively challenging look on his face fades to sullen acceptance when he sees Silarra. "It's you. Hi. Yeah. Nice up here," he says in a flat voice, and turns around to face the water again, and throw another stone. Plop.
Silarra moves over to sit at the edge, dangling her feet off. She doesn't seem to mind the not-so-thrilled greeting that much. "Gee. Who rained all over you? Someone smack you around or something?" Silarra comments about that wonderful mood.
Gabrion throws the next pebble hard, not even bothering to try to skip it. He stares stonily forward in silence for a long moment before he finally says, "Jess is pregnant. And you can't tell /anyone/, because if Healer Hall finds out, I'm out of the craft."
"Shells. That sucks. It's yours?" Silarra asks looking out at the ripples in the water that stone made. "What are you planning to do? What about that between thing? Or the tea stuff? Or is that only before?"
"She wants to keep it," Gabe says glumly. "The tea is before. She lied about drinking it." He clenches his teeth. "Yeah. Probably mine, I mean, she says, and I don't know any different, do I? So. Basically, Delifa said she's not gonna tell on me, but if they find out there isn't really anything I can do. So I gotta get Jess to shut the shell up about it and quit trying to get me to play cothold with her."
Silarra shakes her head. "Well, if she lied about the tea, how do you know she's not lieing about other things, too?" Silarra questions, ever the uplifting one. "If she wasn't pregnant, I'd offer to punch her for you. Though, still, if you want me to." She shrugs.
Gabrion looks over at Silarra, blinking a bit, as if he hadn't thought of that. "Could be," he says. "Kinda doubt it though. But... well... I gotta talk to her anyway. /She/ has to shut up about it. Maybe she can find someone else to be the dad." He smirks. "No need to punch her. She's not that bright that she'd even get the message."
Silarra shakes her head. "How did you end up involved with an idiot?" She questions bluntly before she adds. "You could always threaten me punching her to get her to shut up. Well, or threaten something she actually cares about. Like that you'll never talk to her again?"
"Kind of a long story," Gabe says with a sigh. At the suggestion, he nods his head. "Yeah. That was kind of what I had in mind. The second one. Not you punching her."
"Tiriana gave me permission to punch someone. Well, if this /girl/ messes with the runners." Silarra states before she shakes her head. "Good luck. I hope she'll listen to reason that you don't end up getting into all kinds of trouble for this."
That gets a laugh out of Gabe. "So what you're saying is, if I do decide that I want her punched, I should send her down to mess with the runners?" he asks with a smirk. "Yeah. Hope so. I mean, reason isn't her strong point but I think she might just grasp 'I will never speak to you again.'"
Silarra nods her head with a quick smirk. "Yep. Well, at least if you want me to punch her without getting in trouble. I'd do it anyway if you want me to." Silarra states before she adds. "Or wherries. I bet we could take her out with wherries. Or spit dogs. Or simple, simple, very, incredibly simple logic."
"Gevran said the same thing about those wherries at Healer Hall," Gabe says. "I seem to inspire a... violent sort of loyalty in people." But it has him smiling, at least. "Yeah. Very, very simple logic. I think that's the way to go. Though, if it fails..."
"Or it shows just how bloodthirsty your relatives are." Silarra states with another smirk. "Short sentences. Simple words. Not the time to use anything with more than four or five letters in the word."
Gabrion grins, and then sighs. "Yeah. I just - it sucks because it seems like no matter what I do, this stupid stuff keeps happening to mess it all up, you know? I hate that. I don't know what it is about me. Like, I must just really suck. But maybe it'll work out. If we can keep the hall from finding out..."
"Maybe your life is just doomed, and you'll end up dead by being eaten by little lake fish." Silarra states in a mock depressed voice. "And well, even I know that if you don't want to get a girl pregnant, you don't sleep with her." Silarra is just so understanding.
Gabrion glares at Silarra, and then throws one of his pebbles at her, though not hard. "I told you, she said she was drinking the tea." he growls. "Yeah. Doomed. That's me." He can't keep a straight face when he repeats her words, though. His lips twitch in a near smile, and he glares at her again for messing up a perfectly good sulk.
Silarra rubs overly dramatically at the spot the pebble hit. "Ow! That might leave a tiny red mark for a minute or two!" Maybe she's trying to ruin the sulk. "I may never survive. To bad there's not a tea for guys, too, so you could not have to trust what she was saying when you choose to break the Hall's rules for a /girl/." The word girl is said rather like it's a dirty word.
"There ought to be!" Gabe says, throwing his hands up. It's just another example of the monumental injustice of the universe. He sticks his tongue out at Silarra and then leans his elbows on his knees, smiling despite himself. "I tell you what, after this, I'm just - I'm not doing anything with anybody for a while. Or drinking, either," he adds.
"Or you could just stick to guys. Then neither of you are going to get pregnant at least." Silarra states with a little smirk over. "And guys are much cuter and not as annoying as girls."
"Yeah, but I dunno. I might swear off them for a while all the same," Gabe says. "Did you hear Madilla got her journeyman's knot? Isn't that awesome? And she's not even twenty yet."
Silarra shakes her head. "I don't think I heard that." Though she doesn't really know Madilla either. "That's great though. You get to work with her a lot?" Silarra asks. "I've been spending a lot of time in the stables. It's my happy place."
"Probably. I dunno how exactly it's gonna work though. I hope it's not weird. I mean, we've been apprentices together, and we're friends, and now she outranks me. It probably won't though." Gabe tilts his head to look up at the darkening sky, to see if any stars are out yet. "Madilla's like - it would be hard for anything to be weird with her, I think. She's just great." He smiles absently. "Do they let you ride the runners or anything?"
Silarra nods her head. "They do. Well, I had to prove to the head guy there that I knew what I was doing riding one first. They need exercise everyday. If they're not getting enough for some reason, we ride them. Some of the people that get stuck there wouldn't be good. Like the girl Tiriana said I could beat up. Bet she doesn't know how." Silarra pauses and then nods. "I bet she'd be too nice to, say, rub in her new status as higher ranking."
"She would never," Gabe says immediately and firmly. "She's the sweetest person ever. You really have to meet her some time." It's like he's talking about a real actual girlfriend, almost, except... not. His admiration for Madilla is strictly platonic. "Is it hard to ride runners?" he asks. "I've only ever ridden dragons, really."
Silarra nods her head. "You'll have to introduce me." Larra stretches her arms up over her head, stretching out her back. "It's really different than riding a dragon, really. Dragons steer themselves. They're much smarter. Runners aren't stupid, but you can't just tell them to run to the lake, and expect them to get there. You have to steer them."
"Can you teach me how sometime?" Gabe asks. "It might be fun. Something to do, you know." In all that time he's not spending having sex with girls or guys, or drinking.
Silarra nods her head. "I can try to teach you. If you'll promise to listen and not to be a complete dumb-head about it." There's a teasing tone to her voice there.
"I always listen and I'm never a complete dumb-head," Gabe protests. Evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.
Silarra raises her eyebrows. "Never? Somehow recent events make me doubt that. Not usually a dumb-head might be a better thought. Or not a dumb-head when there aren't relationships or sex involved."
Gabrion laughs. "Yeah, we'll go with that. And I've never had relationships or sex with a runner, so you know. Should be fine there."
Silarra wrinkles her nose at that thought. "You'd better be fine there. Because the thought of otherwise? Ew. Just ew." She shudders with mock drama before she says. "Alright. So not a dumb-head around runners. Check. They're big, and could hurt you by accident if you were being one, so that's good."
"They wouldn't get pregnant either," Gabe points out, and then ducks as if he expects to be smacked.
Silarra reaches over and aims a mock smack his way, though she's not really trying to connect. "Ew. And have you seen the size of a stallion?"
"Uh." Gabe says. "Well, it doesn't really matter if you... okay, I am so not having this conversation with my cousin." Apparently there are some lengths to which he will not go. He stands up and tosses the rest of his pebbles into the lake. "Come on, let's get going. Maybe there's something good on the fire."
Silarra stands with another shudder. "Yes. As long as we don't have to think about that any more." She looks out the lake one more time and then nods. "I hope there's stew. Or maybe a nice soup."
"Maybe someone made cake or something," Gabe says hopefully as he heads for the stairs, muttering very quietly as he passes by Silarra, "Runner-sex."
Silarra aims a punch for Gabe's arm in retaliation for that. It's meant to connect if he doesn't dodge, but it's not as hard as it /could/ be. "Or bread or rolls that are still warm. I got there right after they put out fresh rolls the other day. It was so wonderful." The punch is apparently all the mention runner-sex is getting.
"Warm rolls would be /awesome/," Gabe agrees, as he heads for the stairs, grinning goofily. And well he might; he's hit on a new way to irritate his cousin! He saves it up for later, though, and behaves himself all the way down the stairs.
OOC Date: January 8, 2010
IC Date: Day 15, month 9, turn 21 of Interval 10.
Who: Silarra, Gabrion
Where: Diving Cliff, High Reaches Weyr Lake
Gabrion tells all his woes to Silarra. Somehow, he's unable to continue the maudlin sulky overdramatic hysterics around his cousin. Her sense of the ridiculous is too strong for both of them.
Gabrion sits on a rock atop the diving cliff, brooding and watching the sun set. He has a pile of small pebbles collected and he's rattling them in his hand, and tossing them idly into the lake, one by one, trying to skip stones off the surface. At this height above the water, he isn't having much success - one more thing to scowl over.
"Falling off a cliff trying to skip stones." Silarra states by way of greeting as she climbs up the stairs, pausing at the top to look over the lake. "That guy was right. This was worth the clim."
Gabrion looks around, read to snarl and scare off whoever's disturbed his solitude. But the aggressively challenging look on his face fades to sullen acceptance when he sees Silarra. "It's you. Hi. Yeah. Nice up here," he says in a flat voice, and turns around to face the water again, and throw another stone. Plop.
Silarra moves over to sit at the edge, dangling her feet off. She doesn't seem to mind the not-so-thrilled greeting that much. "Gee. Who rained all over you? Someone smack you around or something?" Silarra comments about that wonderful mood.
Gabrion throws the next pebble hard, not even bothering to try to skip it. He stares stonily forward in silence for a long moment before he finally says, "Jess is pregnant. And you can't tell /anyone/, because if Healer Hall finds out, I'm out of the craft."
"Shells. That sucks. It's yours?" Silarra asks looking out at the ripples in the water that stone made. "What are you planning to do? What about that between thing? Or the tea stuff? Or is that only before?"
"She wants to keep it," Gabe says glumly. "The tea is before. She lied about drinking it." He clenches his teeth. "Yeah. Probably mine, I mean, she says, and I don't know any different, do I? So. Basically, Delifa said she's not gonna tell on me, but if they find out there isn't really anything I can do. So I gotta get Jess to shut the shell up about it and quit trying to get me to play cothold with her."
Silarra shakes her head. "Well, if she lied about the tea, how do you know she's not lieing about other things, too?" Silarra questions, ever the uplifting one. "If she wasn't pregnant, I'd offer to punch her for you. Though, still, if you want me to." She shrugs.
Gabrion looks over at Silarra, blinking a bit, as if he hadn't thought of that. "Could be," he says. "Kinda doubt it though. But... well... I gotta talk to her anyway. /She/ has to shut up about it. Maybe she can find someone else to be the dad." He smirks. "No need to punch her. She's not that bright that she'd even get the message."
Silarra shakes her head. "How did you end up involved with an idiot?" She questions bluntly before she adds. "You could always threaten me punching her to get her to shut up. Well, or threaten something she actually cares about. Like that you'll never talk to her again?"
"Kind of a long story," Gabe says with a sigh. At the suggestion, he nods his head. "Yeah. That was kind of what I had in mind. The second one. Not you punching her."
"Tiriana gave me permission to punch someone. Well, if this /girl/ messes with the runners." Silarra states before she shakes her head. "Good luck. I hope she'll listen to reason that you don't end up getting into all kinds of trouble for this."
That gets a laugh out of Gabe. "So what you're saying is, if I do decide that I want her punched, I should send her down to mess with the runners?" he asks with a smirk. "Yeah. Hope so. I mean, reason isn't her strong point but I think she might just grasp 'I will never speak to you again.'"
Silarra nods her head with a quick smirk. "Yep. Well, at least if you want me to punch her without getting in trouble. I'd do it anyway if you want me to." Silarra states before she adds. "Or wherries. I bet we could take her out with wherries. Or spit dogs. Or simple, simple, very, incredibly simple logic."
"Gevran said the same thing about those wherries at Healer Hall," Gabe says. "I seem to inspire a... violent sort of loyalty in people." But it has him smiling, at least. "Yeah. Very, very simple logic. I think that's the way to go. Though, if it fails..."
"Or it shows just how bloodthirsty your relatives are." Silarra states with another smirk. "Short sentences. Simple words. Not the time to use anything with more than four or five letters in the word."
Gabrion grins, and then sighs. "Yeah. I just - it sucks because it seems like no matter what I do, this stupid stuff keeps happening to mess it all up, you know? I hate that. I don't know what it is about me. Like, I must just really suck. But maybe it'll work out. If we can keep the hall from finding out..."
"Maybe your life is just doomed, and you'll end up dead by being eaten by little lake fish." Silarra states in a mock depressed voice. "And well, even I know that if you don't want to get a girl pregnant, you don't sleep with her." Silarra is just so understanding.
Gabrion glares at Silarra, and then throws one of his pebbles at her, though not hard. "I told you, she said she was drinking the tea." he growls. "Yeah. Doomed. That's me." He can't keep a straight face when he repeats her words, though. His lips twitch in a near smile, and he glares at her again for messing up a perfectly good sulk.
Silarra rubs overly dramatically at the spot the pebble hit. "Ow! That might leave a tiny red mark for a minute or two!" Maybe she's trying to ruin the sulk. "I may never survive. To bad there's not a tea for guys, too, so you could not have to trust what she was saying when you choose to break the Hall's rules for a /girl/." The word girl is said rather like it's a dirty word.
"There ought to be!" Gabe says, throwing his hands up. It's just another example of the monumental injustice of the universe. He sticks his tongue out at Silarra and then leans his elbows on his knees, smiling despite himself. "I tell you what, after this, I'm just - I'm not doing anything with anybody for a while. Or drinking, either," he adds.
"Or you could just stick to guys. Then neither of you are going to get pregnant at least." Silarra states with a little smirk over. "And guys are much cuter and not as annoying as girls."
"Yeah, but I dunno. I might swear off them for a while all the same," Gabe says. "Did you hear Madilla got her journeyman's knot? Isn't that awesome? And she's not even twenty yet."
Silarra shakes her head. "I don't think I heard that." Though she doesn't really know Madilla either. "That's great though. You get to work with her a lot?" Silarra asks. "I've been spending a lot of time in the stables. It's my happy place."
"Probably. I dunno how exactly it's gonna work though. I hope it's not weird. I mean, we've been apprentices together, and we're friends, and now she outranks me. It probably won't though." Gabe tilts his head to look up at the darkening sky, to see if any stars are out yet. "Madilla's like - it would be hard for anything to be weird with her, I think. She's just great." He smiles absently. "Do they let you ride the runners or anything?"
Silarra nods her head. "They do. Well, I had to prove to the head guy there that I knew what I was doing riding one first. They need exercise everyday. If they're not getting enough for some reason, we ride them. Some of the people that get stuck there wouldn't be good. Like the girl Tiriana said I could beat up. Bet she doesn't know how." Silarra pauses and then nods. "I bet she'd be too nice to, say, rub in her new status as higher ranking."
"She would never," Gabe says immediately and firmly. "She's the sweetest person ever. You really have to meet her some time." It's like he's talking about a real actual girlfriend, almost, except... not. His admiration for Madilla is strictly platonic. "Is it hard to ride runners?" he asks. "I've only ever ridden dragons, really."
Silarra nods her head. "You'll have to introduce me." Larra stretches her arms up over her head, stretching out her back. "It's really different than riding a dragon, really. Dragons steer themselves. They're much smarter. Runners aren't stupid, but you can't just tell them to run to the lake, and expect them to get there. You have to steer them."
"Can you teach me how sometime?" Gabe asks. "It might be fun. Something to do, you know." In all that time he's not spending having sex with girls or guys, or drinking.
Silarra nods her head. "I can try to teach you. If you'll promise to listen and not to be a complete dumb-head about it." There's a teasing tone to her voice there.
"I always listen and I'm never a complete dumb-head," Gabe protests. Evidence to the contrary notwithstanding.
Silarra raises her eyebrows. "Never? Somehow recent events make me doubt that. Not usually a dumb-head might be a better thought. Or not a dumb-head when there aren't relationships or sex involved."
Gabrion laughs. "Yeah, we'll go with that. And I've never had relationships or sex with a runner, so you know. Should be fine there."
Silarra wrinkles her nose at that thought. "You'd better be fine there. Because the thought of otherwise? Ew. Just ew." She shudders with mock drama before she says. "Alright. So not a dumb-head around runners. Check. They're big, and could hurt you by accident if you were being one, so that's good."
"They wouldn't get pregnant either," Gabe points out, and then ducks as if he expects to be smacked.
Silarra reaches over and aims a mock smack his way, though she's not really trying to connect. "Ew. And have you seen the size of a stallion?"
"Uh." Gabe says. "Well, it doesn't really matter if you... okay, I am so not having this conversation with my cousin." Apparently there are some lengths to which he will not go. He stands up and tosses the rest of his pebbles into the lake. "Come on, let's get going. Maybe there's something good on the fire."
Silarra stands with another shudder. "Yes. As long as we don't have to think about that any more." She looks out the lake one more time and then nods. "I hope there's stew. Or maybe a nice soup."
"Maybe someone made cake or something," Gabe says hopefully as he heads for the stairs, muttering very quietly as he passes by Silarra, "Runner-sex."
Silarra aims a punch for Gabe's arm in retaliation for that. It's meant to connect if he doesn't dodge, but it's not as hard as it /could/ be. "Or bread or rolls that are still warm. I got there right after they put out fresh rolls the other day. It was so wonderful." The punch is apparently all the mention runner-sex is getting.
"Warm rolls would be /awesome/," Gabe agrees, as he heads for the stairs, grinning goofily. And well he might; he's hit on a new way to irritate his cousin! He saves it up for later, though, and behaves himself all the way down the stairs.