The Baffling Conversation
Sometimes I'm real cool, but sometimes I could be a real asshole. I think everyone is like that. ~Eminem
OOC Date: October 24, 2009
IC Date: Day 11, Month 1, Turn 21
Who: P'ax, Gabrion
Where: Living Cavern, High Reaches Weyr
Gabrion still thinks P'ax is pleasant company. P'ax does all he can to disabuse him of this notion.
It's after dinner, but some people are still in the living cavern amusing themselves with conversation, drinks, card games. Gabrion is sitting at a table near the doorway, playing dragonpoker with two of his friends. They've just finished a hand, which Gabrion has won. He rakes the chits they're using over to his part of the table with a wide grin. "You know you're about as subtle as a bull herdbeast when you bluff," he tells one of the other guys as he scrapes his chair back. "I'm going get something to drink, anybody want anything?"
P'ax ambles on in, hands in his pockets, cap pulled down low over his eyes. He takes stock of the cavern, and survey complete, takes himself towards the meal table to see if there's anything worth being picked over. He wanders away again after a cursory inspection and turns, only to be confronted with Gabrion standing at the table. His head cocks and he waits patiently for the tiny young man to come over rather than going to him.
Gabrion makes his way over to the table and snags a skin of wine, hanging it over his arm, then fills a couple of mugs with klah. He glances up when he realizes someone is standing there, and smiles at P'ax. "Hey!" he says. "Haven't seen you in a while. How's Yyth?"
P'ax inclines his head towards the wine, eyebrow lifting. "Aren't you a bit young for that, kiddo?" he teases, the corner of his mouth curving up. A hand pulls out of his pocket, waving vaguely in the direction of 'out there'. "She's good. She's always happier at night. Seems you're settling in well?"
"Nah," Gabrion says, "Besides, I'm not drinking it all myself." He points to the guys waiting for him at the table. "I'm doing okay, I guess. They're making me work in the infirmary, but whatever. How about you, how have you been?"
P'ax's quirked lips spread into a true grin. "Infirmary, huh? Good thing, I could use a friendly face in there. Me? Hm, well enough I guess. Laying low, you know, recovering from all the festivities."
"What, you get sick a lot or something?" Gabe asks. "Most people don't really like hanging out in there. Madilla's nice at least. What'd you do for turnover, were you at the bonfires?" He doesn't seem to think anything of keeping his friends waiting for their drinks.
P'ax laughs lightly and shakes his head. His hat comes off, hand passing through his hair. "No. Yyth bites, remember? And I seem to have a lot of hobbies that scar." He glances past Gabe to his friends before refocusing on the boy in front of him. "No, I spent it alone, actually, in a place I know. What about you?"
Gabrion blinks. "Seriously? I thought that was a joke. She bites /you/?" He's never heard of anything like that; he shakes his head, befuddled. "I got totally plastered, I only remember about half of it. There was a snowball fight. Hey, you want to come and play cards with us?"
P'ax snorts, wry look on his face. "Yyth bites /everyone/ given half the chance. She mostly just does it to get my attention. It's my own fault for letting her, mind you, so I'm not complaining." He chews his lower lip. "Uh, I'll watch? I'm not very good at it though, so I think I'll hang on to my marks."
"Huh." Gabrion is still perplexed. "So you could just... not let her, then?" He jerks his head to show the direction his friends are, and heads over there, expecting P'ax to follow. He slides the two klah mugs across the table and sets down the wineskin. "Hey guys, this is P'ax - this is my brother and our friend," and the two of them introduce themselves. But the brother says, "Hey Gabe, I think we're gonna get going, there's a couple of girls we got to meet in a little while and we need to clean up a bit." Gabe frowns. "But you owe me money," he says, pointing to the chips. For his trouble, he gets a clap on the shoulder and a "We'll settle up later," and the pair saunters off, taking the klah mugs with them and leaving him standing there looking disgruntled.
"Could," P'ax agrees with the intonation of someone who has no intention of denying his dragon anything. He follows the younger boy without question, easy-going, and settles in silently. The exchange earns another quirk of his mouth. "Sorry, kid, but girls, man, girls. And that ought to show you why you should never play with friends and family."
Gabrion doesn't get it. "What's friends and family got to do with it?" he asks as he sits back down. Hey, at least now there's plenty of wine for the pair of them. He pours himself a glass and offers the skin to P'ax. "My brother's cool, it's just - you know. Sometimes." He smirks.
P'ax grimaces apologetically and shakes his head for the offered wine. Seems Gabe might actually be drinking that skin alone after all. "I'm not allowed to drink anymore, it's sort of a deal I made with the Weyrleader." As for family and friends, he traces his fingertip against the grain of the table. "Oh, you'll never get your money is all."
"Oh. Well," Gabe says with another smirk, "I will eventually, otherwise - well I got ways to make him regret it, if he doesn't pay me." He takes a healthy gulp of wine, and says, "I met some uh - friends of yours," as if he's not sure whether 'friends' is the right word. "B'tal and this bronzerider guy."
P'ax just looks amused. "My, how fierce the kitten thinks he is." He lifts his hands to cup his jaw between them, stormy eyes fixing on Gabe and the amusement drains off. "W'chek and B'tal, huh. What'd they say about me?"
"W'chek, that was it - well, he was a complete asshole, just in general. B'tal just said he knew you. Said not everyone thought Yyth was cool... I guess if she bites people, that makes sense." Gabe snorts a little bit and tops off his wineglass. Yes, already.
P'ax smiles tightly. "Yes, Whit is a big asshole." His fingers splay against his cheekbone, tracing his eye socket. "I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually, but Yyth is about as pleasant as I am. Which is to say, neither of us are well-recieved by most company."
"I don't think you're unpleasant," Gabrion says with a shrug. After all, he invited him to share his table, right? He changes the subject. "So you said you were an apprentice before, right?"
"Thanks," mumbles the greenrider, shifting uncomfortably. "Oh, uh, yeah. Smithcraft. I didn't really have a choice. Would have rather been a Weaver."
"Oh, yeah? Your parents made you?" Gabrion asks with a knowing grimace. "It was kind of like that with my brother. Not that one, my older brother - he's a healer. He would rather have stood to impress, but Ma didn't want him to. Well, he's a good healer, anyway."
P'ax nods his head in confirmation. "Yeah, they're both Smithcrafters. They won't talk to me anymore..." He exhales. "And I'd sort of rather not talk about them...if that's alright."
Gabrion drinks deeply of his wineglass. "Yeah, no problem. ...Maybe I'll see if they'll let me stand, if they have another clutch soon. Ma'd blow a gasket, but."
P'ax lowers his hands to the table, curling one around the other. "Hey, take it easy there, kid. And why would your mother object to you being a rider?"
Gabrion wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, not directly acknowledging the advice to slow down. At his age he's probably not a veteran drinker but he doesn't seem interested in testing his limits in a judicious way, at all. "Ah, she's kind of nuts about it. Our oldest brother, he died before I was born. Weyrling betweening accident."
P'ax doesn't push it -- his head in the morning after all. "Ahhh," he says instead, nodding his understanding. "I suppose I can see how a mother would worry then."
"Yeah," Gabe says, shaking his head. "It's kind of annoying because, it doesn't /really/ have anything to do with us, you know? I wasn't even born yet. But we have to deal with her being on our case all the time about how if we don't put on a sweater we're going to catch pneumonia and die, or if we don't tie our shoes we're going to trip and fall in the bowl and break our necks, or something stupid."
P'ax chuckles and fiddles with a stitch in his sweater cuff. "She sounds a lot like my mother, she was... enthusiastic in her desire to keep me focused on my tasks and out of harm's way, I suppose. Well, unless you count chemicals as harm, in which case she threw me into the acid vats with gusto."
Gabrion snorts, amused. "Acid vats, that doesn't sound like a great place to be. Yeah. Well, what they don't know doesn't hurt them, right? So as long as she doesn't know if I'm doing whatever, then it doesn't really matter." He leans back in his chair, looking content.
P'ax shrugs helplessly at Gabrion. "You sort of shrugged me off the last time I tried to give you advice, so...have fun with that." Leaning back in his chair, he watches Gabrion, arms folded, gaze intense.
"I'm not some little kid," Gabe says, defensive. "I mean, okay, I get it, I look young, but good grief." He also says things like 'good grief.'
P'ax laughs, outright, and makes it sound hard rather than happy. "Looking young and acting young are different things, you know. I'm only 18. Was probably a lot like you when I came here too and Impressed Yyth." He pauses and shrugs. "Probably still am a lot like you. But I'm learning."
"Learning what?" Gabe asks, still sounding annoyed. He starts to reach for the wineskin, but changes his mind.
P'ax drawls, "How to be an adult." Shrugging broad shoulders, the greenrider slides to his feet. "Try not to drink yourself under the table, kid, they hate that." The brim of his cap is given an extra tug downwards and then his hands go right back in their pockets.
"Yeah, well, maybe 'they' can just suck it up and deal," Gabrion mutters rebelliously. Out of nowhere, he asks, "So why do you let your dragon bite you?"
"Hmm, you say that, and then you're drunk and jumping into lakes in the middle of winter because it seemed like a good idea at the time." At least P'ax can joke about the low points in his life, providing that was actually a joke. The question catches him off-guard, forcing him to pause in the act of lifting one foot to step away. "Huh. Because I love her, and I want her to be happy. Because she probably wouldn't listen to me if I told her no, and what's a stitch or a bandage here and there? Gives the apprentices good practice."
"I didn't jump into a lake," Gabrion argues, misinterpreting. "You've got me mixed up with someone else." He looks momentarily dubious - he /was/ pretty drunk on turnover - but surely someone would have informed him if he'd jumped into a lake. With a shrug, he forges on. "That's kind of dumb. If she keeps doing that, you'll wind up being pissed at her, and then neither of you will be happy."
P'ax grunts and shakes his head, correcting the ex-healer absently. "No, /I/ jumped in a lake." An eyebrow lifts. "Mad at Yyth?" It strikes him dumb and silent for a moment, a look on his face like he'd been slapped. "Yyth's a lot of rude and insufferable things, but I'd /never/ be mad at her for long. Look, kid, I suggest you actually Impress a dragon before you try to give me advice on how to deal with my own."
Gabrion smirks. "Fair enough. Maybe we just shouldn't either of us give each other advice," he suggests. He lifts his wineglass in a silent toast, and drinks.
It's hard to irritate P'ax, and harder to make him angry. Gabrion should take it as a credit that the greenrider's face screws up momentarily like he's sucked on a lemon. "Right then. Good night, Gabrion. I wish it had been a pleasure, but it really hasn't."
Gabrion gives P'ax a 'WTF' look. "Okay, man, fine, whatever," he says. "Sorrr-ry. Shells in a bucket." He makes a disgusted face.
P'ax just shakes his head as he walks out, muttering something about drunk kids and upstarts under his breath.
OOC Date: October 24, 2009
IC Date: Day 11, Month 1, Turn 21
Who: P'ax, Gabrion
Where: Living Cavern, High Reaches Weyr
Gabrion still thinks P'ax is pleasant company. P'ax does all he can to disabuse him of this notion.
It's after dinner, but some people are still in the living cavern amusing themselves with conversation, drinks, card games. Gabrion is sitting at a table near the doorway, playing dragonpoker with two of his friends. They've just finished a hand, which Gabrion has won. He rakes the chits they're using over to his part of the table with a wide grin. "You know you're about as subtle as a bull herdbeast when you bluff," he tells one of the other guys as he scrapes his chair back. "I'm going get something to drink, anybody want anything?"
P'ax ambles on in, hands in his pockets, cap pulled down low over his eyes. He takes stock of the cavern, and survey complete, takes himself towards the meal table to see if there's anything worth being picked over. He wanders away again after a cursory inspection and turns, only to be confronted with Gabrion standing at the table. His head cocks and he waits patiently for the tiny young man to come over rather than going to him.
Gabrion makes his way over to the table and snags a skin of wine, hanging it over his arm, then fills a couple of mugs with klah. He glances up when he realizes someone is standing there, and smiles at P'ax. "Hey!" he says. "Haven't seen you in a while. How's Yyth?"
P'ax inclines his head towards the wine, eyebrow lifting. "Aren't you a bit young for that, kiddo?" he teases, the corner of his mouth curving up. A hand pulls out of his pocket, waving vaguely in the direction of 'out there'. "She's good. She's always happier at night. Seems you're settling in well?"
"Nah," Gabrion says, "Besides, I'm not drinking it all myself." He points to the guys waiting for him at the table. "I'm doing okay, I guess. They're making me work in the infirmary, but whatever. How about you, how have you been?"
P'ax's quirked lips spread into a true grin. "Infirmary, huh? Good thing, I could use a friendly face in there. Me? Hm, well enough I guess. Laying low, you know, recovering from all the festivities."
"What, you get sick a lot or something?" Gabe asks. "Most people don't really like hanging out in there. Madilla's nice at least. What'd you do for turnover, were you at the bonfires?" He doesn't seem to think anything of keeping his friends waiting for their drinks.
P'ax laughs lightly and shakes his head. His hat comes off, hand passing through his hair. "No. Yyth bites, remember? And I seem to have a lot of hobbies that scar." He glances past Gabe to his friends before refocusing on the boy in front of him. "No, I spent it alone, actually, in a place I know. What about you?"
Gabrion blinks. "Seriously? I thought that was a joke. She bites /you/?" He's never heard of anything like that; he shakes his head, befuddled. "I got totally plastered, I only remember about half of it. There was a snowball fight. Hey, you want to come and play cards with us?"
P'ax snorts, wry look on his face. "Yyth bites /everyone/ given half the chance. She mostly just does it to get my attention. It's my own fault for letting her, mind you, so I'm not complaining." He chews his lower lip. "Uh, I'll watch? I'm not very good at it though, so I think I'll hang on to my marks."
"Huh." Gabrion is still perplexed. "So you could just... not let her, then?" He jerks his head to show the direction his friends are, and heads over there, expecting P'ax to follow. He slides the two klah mugs across the table and sets down the wineskin. "Hey guys, this is P'ax - this is my brother and our friend," and the two of them introduce themselves. But the brother says, "Hey Gabe, I think we're gonna get going, there's a couple of girls we got to meet in a little while and we need to clean up a bit." Gabe frowns. "But you owe me money," he says, pointing to the chips. For his trouble, he gets a clap on the shoulder and a "We'll settle up later," and the pair saunters off, taking the klah mugs with them and leaving him standing there looking disgruntled.
"Could," P'ax agrees with the intonation of someone who has no intention of denying his dragon anything. He follows the younger boy without question, easy-going, and settles in silently. The exchange earns another quirk of his mouth. "Sorry, kid, but girls, man, girls. And that ought to show you why you should never play with friends and family."
Gabrion doesn't get it. "What's friends and family got to do with it?" he asks as he sits back down. Hey, at least now there's plenty of wine for the pair of them. He pours himself a glass and offers the skin to P'ax. "My brother's cool, it's just - you know. Sometimes." He smirks.
P'ax grimaces apologetically and shakes his head for the offered wine. Seems Gabe might actually be drinking that skin alone after all. "I'm not allowed to drink anymore, it's sort of a deal I made with the Weyrleader." As for family and friends, he traces his fingertip against the grain of the table. "Oh, you'll never get your money is all."
"Oh. Well," Gabe says with another smirk, "I will eventually, otherwise - well I got ways to make him regret it, if he doesn't pay me." He takes a healthy gulp of wine, and says, "I met some uh - friends of yours," as if he's not sure whether 'friends' is the right word. "B'tal and this bronzerider guy."
P'ax just looks amused. "My, how fierce the kitten thinks he is." He lifts his hands to cup his jaw between them, stormy eyes fixing on Gabe and the amusement drains off. "W'chek and B'tal, huh. What'd they say about me?"
"W'chek, that was it - well, he was a complete asshole, just in general. B'tal just said he knew you. Said not everyone thought Yyth was cool... I guess if she bites people, that makes sense." Gabe snorts a little bit and tops off his wineglass. Yes, already.
P'ax smiles tightly. "Yes, Whit is a big asshole." His fingers splay against his cheekbone, tracing his eye socket. "I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually, but Yyth is about as pleasant as I am. Which is to say, neither of us are well-recieved by most company."
"I don't think you're unpleasant," Gabrion says with a shrug. After all, he invited him to share his table, right? He changes the subject. "So you said you were an apprentice before, right?"
"Thanks," mumbles the greenrider, shifting uncomfortably. "Oh, uh, yeah. Smithcraft. I didn't really have a choice. Would have rather been a Weaver."
"Oh, yeah? Your parents made you?" Gabrion asks with a knowing grimace. "It was kind of like that with my brother. Not that one, my older brother - he's a healer. He would rather have stood to impress, but Ma didn't want him to. Well, he's a good healer, anyway."
P'ax nods his head in confirmation. "Yeah, they're both Smithcrafters. They won't talk to me anymore..." He exhales. "And I'd sort of rather not talk about them...if that's alright."
Gabrion drinks deeply of his wineglass. "Yeah, no problem. ...Maybe I'll see if they'll let me stand, if they have another clutch soon. Ma'd blow a gasket, but."
P'ax lowers his hands to the table, curling one around the other. "Hey, take it easy there, kid. And why would your mother object to you being a rider?"
Gabrion wipes his mouth with the back of his hand, not directly acknowledging the advice to slow down. At his age he's probably not a veteran drinker but he doesn't seem interested in testing his limits in a judicious way, at all. "Ah, she's kind of nuts about it. Our oldest brother, he died before I was born. Weyrling betweening accident."
P'ax doesn't push it -- his head in the morning after all. "Ahhh," he says instead, nodding his understanding. "I suppose I can see how a mother would worry then."
"Yeah," Gabe says, shaking his head. "It's kind of annoying because, it doesn't /really/ have anything to do with us, you know? I wasn't even born yet. But we have to deal with her being on our case all the time about how if we don't put on a sweater we're going to catch pneumonia and die, or if we don't tie our shoes we're going to trip and fall in the bowl and break our necks, or something stupid."
P'ax chuckles and fiddles with a stitch in his sweater cuff. "She sounds a lot like my mother, she was... enthusiastic in her desire to keep me focused on my tasks and out of harm's way, I suppose. Well, unless you count chemicals as harm, in which case she threw me into the acid vats with gusto."
Gabrion snorts, amused. "Acid vats, that doesn't sound like a great place to be. Yeah. Well, what they don't know doesn't hurt them, right? So as long as she doesn't know if I'm doing whatever, then it doesn't really matter." He leans back in his chair, looking content.
P'ax shrugs helplessly at Gabrion. "You sort of shrugged me off the last time I tried to give you advice, so...have fun with that." Leaning back in his chair, he watches Gabrion, arms folded, gaze intense.
"I'm not some little kid," Gabe says, defensive. "I mean, okay, I get it, I look young, but good grief." He also says things like 'good grief.'
P'ax laughs, outright, and makes it sound hard rather than happy. "Looking young and acting young are different things, you know. I'm only 18. Was probably a lot like you when I came here too and Impressed Yyth." He pauses and shrugs. "Probably still am a lot like you. But I'm learning."
"Learning what?" Gabe asks, still sounding annoyed. He starts to reach for the wineskin, but changes his mind.
P'ax drawls, "How to be an adult." Shrugging broad shoulders, the greenrider slides to his feet. "Try not to drink yourself under the table, kid, they hate that." The brim of his cap is given an extra tug downwards and then his hands go right back in their pockets.
"Yeah, well, maybe 'they' can just suck it up and deal," Gabrion mutters rebelliously. Out of nowhere, he asks, "So why do you let your dragon bite you?"
"Hmm, you say that, and then you're drunk and jumping into lakes in the middle of winter because it seemed like a good idea at the time." At least P'ax can joke about the low points in his life, providing that was actually a joke. The question catches him off-guard, forcing him to pause in the act of lifting one foot to step away. "Huh. Because I love her, and I want her to be happy. Because she probably wouldn't listen to me if I told her no, and what's a stitch or a bandage here and there? Gives the apprentices good practice."
"I didn't jump into a lake," Gabrion argues, misinterpreting. "You've got me mixed up with someone else." He looks momentarily dubious - he /was/ pretty drunk on turnover - but surely someone would have informed him if he'd jumped into a lake. With a shrug, he forges on. "That's kind of dumb. If she keeps doing that, you'll wind up being pissed at her, and then neither of you will be happy."
P'ax grunts and shakes his head, correcting the ex-healer absently. "No, /I/ jumped in a lake." An eyebrow lifts. "Mad at Yyth?" It strikes him dumb and silent for a moment, a look on his face like he'd been slapped. "Yyth's a lot of rude and insufferable things, but I'd /never/ be mad at her for long. Look, kid, I suggest you actually Impress a dragon before you try to give me advice on how to deal with my own."
Gabrion smirks. "Fair enough. Maybe we just shouldn't either of us give each other advice," he suggests. He lifts his wineglass in a silent toast, and drinks.
It's hard to irritate P'ax, and harder to make him angry. Gabrion should take it as a credit that the greenrider's face screws up momentarily like he's sucked on a lemon. "Right then. Good night, Gabrion. I wish it had been a pleasure, but it really hasn't."
Gabrion gives P'ax a 'WTF' look. "Okay, man, fine, whatever," he says. "Sorrr-ry. Shells in a bucket." He makes a disgusted face.
P'ax just shakes his head as he walks out, muttering something about drunk kids and upstarts under his breath.