LOG: Well-Meaning Men
Date: Day 9, Month 13, Turn 20
Location: Bennath's Weyr, Fort Weyr
Synopsis: Kash doesn't seem to want to see her brother, so he goes and visits Phara, instead.
Bennath's Weyr, Fort Weyr
Just inside the low slung entrance, the weyr opens out into a small dragon's area with a shallow wallow to the right. Further back, a neat lime green curtain hangs on hooks from the ceiling partially blocking off the view of the rider's portion of the cavern. To the left, shelves are carved into the wall, covered with a collection of rocks and other large knick knacks, above a row of hooks that hang with riding gear and an old trunk meant to hold dragon care equipment and sets of straps. Beyond the curtain a comfortable space opens up, divided up into little private nooks and crannies by tall columns of varying widths, surfaces bumpy and whorled. At some point someone took to embellishing some of the columns with fanciful figures, creating little 'pockets' within the stone to store small objects. These pockets have been filled to the hilt with oddities. Wooden tinker toys and bits of odd jewelry and broken children's toys. Even tarnished silverware and folded paper ornaments can be found in some of the pockets.
Shelving lounges along the left-most wall leading to the back of the weyr where an alcove with a stone shelf, piled high with a new mattress and bedding serves for sleeping. The bed is covered generously not only in furs, but deep purple sheets and copious amounts of pillows. Around the shelving in the living area is a series of purple strings that are hung with ornaments, little people made of beads, animals with moving joints, and little etched metal objects. A braided rug covers part of the floor to stave off the chill of cold stone and two wicker chairs sit before the hearth ready to welcome guests. The mantelpiece is an intricately carved work of art, echoing the style of the columns, speaking of some long-ago occupant with a talent for stonemasonry. Hanging from hooks drilled into the ceiling is perhaps the most curious feature added by the current occupant of this weyr -- glass globes with sand in the bottom and open tops are scattered throughout the weyr, lighting even the dark corners with a soft glow from fat, short candles nestled into the sand.
Dragon> To Bennath, Cadejoth and his rider arrived earlier, evidently to spend time with Nakasha, but now, as the evening extends onwards, the bronze reaches out, shaking his chains in a wave-like gesture. << Hello! >> And; << My rider's around. Is yours up for a visitor? He wanted to say hello. >>
Dragon> To Cadejoth, Bennath is sulking, mindvoice down to a gentle thrum. Cadejoth's touch bring cheer rolling back to him though. << Mine would like that! >> he announces without bothering to even check with Phara. << She has been in a bad mood for weeks, and yours always makes her happy. >> Why didn't he think of this sooner? Probably because he didn't remember. Oh well.
Dragon> There's no recognition from Cadejoth, as to why this bad mood might be, nor why Bennath might be sulking; he's full of the jangles today, clinking merrily as he reports this back to his rider. << We'll be up directly, then. K'del says there must be something wrong with women today... but he'll do his best to cheer yours up. >> (Cadejoth to Bennath)
Bennath offers Cadejoth a burst of sunshine and then turns his attention to warning his rider of imminent arrivals. When Cadejoth lands on her ledge, she hasn't yet had a chance to struggle to her feet so she remains seated cross-legged on the floor, a dresser tipped onto its side in front of her. It appears she's trying to glue a new leg onto the bottom of it since she's still bracing the glue while it dries.
Cadejoth makes the sunshine dance and sparkle over the clear, clean ice and snow below, as he makes his way up from the bowl, and into a landing upon the blue's ledge. He doesn't seem intent upon hanging around, lifting off again as soon as his rider's set both feet on the ground to zoom off through the night sky. K'del makes his way in Phara's direction, calling out his greeting as he goes: "Hope Bennath's right, and you don't mind a visitor? Hey, Phara."
Phara gives a non-commital grunt. "You're preferable to just about anyone else who could show up." But only marginally, says the silence afterwards. "Bennath thinks I need to stop pouting and come out. So I humored him. Then he got mad at me because I spent the day having run-ins with B'kaiv and he wouldn't even let me insult Chielyth." Pout. "Well. You might as well sit."
K'del doesn't answer her comments immediately, instead drawing himself down onto the floor beside her, though he keeps himself physically to himself: no touching. When he does speak, he keeps his voice quiet, his tone light. "Feeling uncomfortable?" he wants to know. "Anything I can do?" And; "You /can/ tell me to bugger off if you want. Kash already did, so I'm pretty sure I can take it. Just thought you might want to see a friend."
Phara decides the glue is set and drops her hands away to rest on the swell of her stomach. "Yeah," she admits quietly. "I didn't think it would hurt this much and I swear I'm getting bigger every day now." She sniffs, rotating her body to face him. "When I'm always wishing you'd come see me? I'm not about to tell you to get lost. You might never come back." She doesn't ask about Kash, it being not much of her business and all. "Friends are good. I don't really feel like I have any most days."
K'del reaches out, now, to rest his hand atop hers, just for a moment, though he's careful not to touch her stomach in the process: that's just rude. He waits to speak until she's entirely finished, and then, with a firm nod of his head, he tells her, "You have me, promise. May not be able to visit /that/ often, but I'm still here for you. How many more months is it, then? Before you're all cooked."
Phara wouldn't mind if he did, and the way her hand moves seems to indicate just that but she doesn't offer. Instead she smiles shyly at him and turns one hand over, offering her palm to him. "You missed all the fun bits, I'm afraid. Now it's just creepy." She thinks about it and then says, "Two and a half left. I guess that's not so much, right? I mean, I've already pulled seven and change. What's two more."
K'del, though, seems reluctant to make any assumptions, however her hand moves. Instead, he takes that palm, squeezing his fingers around hers, and laughs. "Creepy? Why so? Doesn't seem to me like pregnant women are creepy, no matter how big they are." He lets out a long breath and then adds, sounding more thoughtful, "Two and a half. That's not so long at all, really. Plus," he grins, "At least you're not going to be huge in the middle of summer when it's miserably hot. Got a sister who'd tell you all about how miserable that is."
Phara gets a mischevious glint in her eye and squeezes his fingers back briefly before seeking out the bottom of her sweater. She flips it up over her stomach and calmly points out the bulge of some unidentified body part distending her already strained belly. "/That/ is creepy." A face is made at the last little bit, the rest gone without comment. "Yeah, sort of wasn't looking forward to trudging through the snow while I'm at my biggest though, you know. I'm just going to stay in here. Eventually people will forget I even existed."
Okay, maybe K'del /does/ find that slightly creepy, his lengthy pause as he stares openly at her belly, not to mention his cautious expression, indicating that. After a breathy pause, he admits, "Guess that is kind of weird. What is it... a foot? a fist?" Something else entirely? A self-conscious, maybe even slightly embarrassed, grin follows after that, though his words are more inclined towards seriousness. "I doubt that. Though... you even going to be able to climb onto Bennath, at the end?"
Phara is just as quick to haul her shirt down, looking uncomfortable herself and murmuring an apology. "Don't know," she adds sincerely. "Oh, no... no. It's already getting really hard. How hard do you think it will be to get my meals sent up here?" Grin.
The apology gets waved away, as K'del notes, "It's kind of cool, though, too. I mean... you're making a person. That's a /person/ in you." The idea makes him grin, easily amused - and pleased, too. "Got weyrlings of the right kind of age?" he adds of the last, with a laugh. "And then there's getting down to the infirmary for the actual birth."
Phara mostly looks even more creeped out when he brings up her having a person inside of her. Ew. "Yeah, we do actually," she muses, smirking just a little. "Uh, I'll get someone to help me I guess. Not like the baby's going to fall out all the sudden. Those things take hours."
That she looks creeped out only makes K'del laugh more, though he shakes his head in apology, attempting to bite his lip to stop the torrents. "There you go. Weyrling meal delivery. Keep 'em busy." He bobs his head off the last concern, admitting, "Don't know all that much about that bit, at least from first hand experience, but I guess, yeah, it does take hours and hours."
Phara shrugs her shoulders. "Makes two of us," she decides, and exhales. "So, um. How's it going, in your neck of the woods?" Bracing her hand on the front of the dresser she manages to get her knees under her and from there her feet. "Can I get you anything to drink?"
"Guess you'll learn pretty fast," is K'del's assessment. He follows Phara's lead in drawing himself to his feet, deliberately doing so slowly so that he doesn't entirely outpace her. Even so, it's not hard for him to be faster. "Everyone hates me," he tells her then, laughing at himself. "Because I made a deal with Crom. We're going to be farmers; how pathetic. And no... no, I don't need anything. Can I get you something, though?"
Phara lifts an eyebrow at K'del's news. "Farmers? Huh." She snorts in amusement. "Wish food was our problem. We're losing our Crafters. You and T'rev can fight for 'Most Hated Weyrleader' I'm afraid." Her eyes rake over him for a minute, her mouth curling. "Ah, my dear, there are things you could get me, but none of them would be very nice of me to ask for." Forget that she hardly ever asks anyone for anything. "I'm not an invalid, I can still pour myself a glass of water."
"Farmers," agrees K'del, laughing at himself. "You can guess how mcuh people like that, even ignoring the whole Crom business. Mm, I've been hearing about that. Not good. Glad nothing like that is happening to us... and it better not start now, either." He sticks his tongue out at her, at the second comment, laughing merrily. "'Very nice'. Uh-huh. Anyway, didn't /say/ you were an invalid. Just being nice. Not allowed to do something nice for you?"
Phara sighs, falling easily out of the good mood he was teasing her into. "I've had exactly enough of well-meaning men who just want to do something nice for me." She puts her back to him, taking out one of the battered mugs from the tiny hutch by her table and pouring a cup of water from the pitcher. "Doubt you'll have a problem, since High Reaches doesn't get its supplies off the river down here. Though, they're getting bold. They picked off a train between two of the big Holds. The Holders will be out to lynch us next I bet."
K'del makes a face at her turned back, though he's smoothed it away well before she's turned back again. Rubbing at his elbow, he ignores her snarky comment, continuing, instead, to say, "Mm, maybe not, but I heard there were raiders at Boll, and we /do/ have a sea port or two. Guess it's less likely, now... tithes being in and all. And Kash was telling me you had a bunch of Blooded candidates, so that can't be making things any easier." Apparently he's intending to ignore her moodiness.
Phara inches her butt up onto the table, resting with the tips of her toes holding her steady. Over the rim of her mug she watches him steadily and then finally takes a drink. "Yeah, they're pretty peeved about that from what I hear too. Hatching's close enough and then we can send the lot of them home. They're all spoiled soft brats anyway." Craning her head back at the end of all that, the bluerider seems intent on staring bleakly at the ceiling.
K'del drops his hand from his elbow again, only to lift it so that he can run his fingers through his hair. "Guess they would be," he allows, wrinkling his nose. "Search is Search, but Bloods? Ugh. Trouble all 'round, I think." Beat. "Kash said as much, for the most part, though she said some of them were nice enough. Think she's friendly with one of them. Or was. Who knows, anymore." He hesitates, taking a breath, and then crosses the distance between them again, reaching for her free hand, to squeeze, if she'll let him.
Phara lets her amber eyes fall on his face again when he takes her hand, smiling wryly and setting her cup down beside her so she can lift that hand towards his face, brushing her fingers against his cheek if he allows it. "There was one who really got me. She told me she'd just find someone to oil her dragon for her." Her eyes close briefly, an annoyed breath exhaled through her nose. "I swear I'd have swung her right up onto Bennath's back and dropped her back at home if I could have. We don't need Fort Sea here anyway. I'd probably get tackled by every man between the cavern and Benny though. If she doesn't seduce every man in the Weyr before she goes home, it won't be for lack of trying."
K'del lets her, of course, with a soft little smile on his face. "That's nuts," he says, of the candidate in question, drawing his expression into a frown. "She'd get over that pretty fast." He doesn't have much to say about the rest of it, though his head shakes just slightly, unimpressed. And then; "Don't mind yourself over her. She'll Impress and learn better, or she won't, and she'll go home again. Right? So."
Phara lets her fingers curve to fit his jaw for a fleeting moment and then they fall away. She takes back up her mug and looks at a point past him. "I wish we'd worked out different. You're... easy to be with."
What can K'del say to that? He looks awkward, biting at his lip as he watches her. "Still part of your life, Phara," he tells her, finally. "Still here." After that, though, conversation returns to more casual topics, until eventually, with promises to visit again, he takes his leave. His final comment, before he goes is, "If you see her... find out what's up with Kash? Or don't, maybe, because she'd probably hate it. But. I don't know. She liked you. Likes you. Another friend, remember?" And then he's off.
Location: Bennath's Weyr, Fort Weyr
Synopsis: Kash doesn't seem to want to see her brother, so he goes and visits Phara, instead.
Bennath's Weyr, Fort Weyr
Just inside the low slung entrance, the weyr opens out into a small dragon's area with a shallow wallow to the right. Further back, a neat lime green curtain hangs on hooks from the ceiling partially blocking off the view of the rider's portion of the cavern. To the left, shelves are carved into the wall, covered with a collection of rocks and other large knick knacks, above a row of hooks that hang with riding gear and an old trunk meant to hold dragon care equipment and sets of straps. Beyond the curtain a comfortable space opens up, divided up into little private nooks and crannies by tall columns of varying widths, surfaces bumpy and whorled. At some point someone took to embellishing some of the columns with fanciful figures, creating little 'pockets' within the stone to store small objects. These pockets have been filled to the hilt with oddities. Wooden tinker toys and bits of odd jewelry and broken children's toys. Even tarnished silverware and folded paper ornaments can be found in some of the pockets.
Shelving lounges along the left-most wall leading to the back of the weyr where an alcove with a stone shelf, piled high with a new mattress and bedding serves for sleeping. The bed is covered generously not only in furs, but deep purple sheets and copious amounts of pillows. Around the shelving in the living area is a series of purple strings that are hung with ornaments, little people made of beads, animals with moving joints, and little etched metal objects. A braided rug covers part of the floor to stave off the chill of cold stone and two wicker chairs sit before the hearth ready to welcome guests. The mantelpiece is an intricately carved work of art, echoing the style of the columns, speaking of some long-ago occupant with a talent for stonemasonry. Hanging from hooks drilled into the ceiling is perhaps the most curious feature added by the current occupant of this weyr -- glass globes with sand in the bottom and open tops are scattered throughout the weyr, lighting even the dark corners with a soft glow from fat, short candles nestled into the sand.
Dragon> To Bennath, Cadejoth and his rider arrived earlier, evidently to spend time with Nakasha, but now, as the evening extends onwards, the bronze reaches out, shaking his chains in a wave-like gesture. << Hello! >> And; << My rider's around. Is yours up for a visitor? He wanted to say hello. >>
Dragon> To Cadejoth, Bennath is sulking, mindvoice down to a gentle thrum. Cadejoth's touch bring cheer rolling back to him though. << Mine would like that! >> he announces without bothering to even check with Phara. << She has been in a bad mood for weeks, and yours always makes her happy. >> Why didn't he think of this sooner? Probably because he didn't remember. Oh well.
Dragon> There's no recognition from Cadejoth, as to why this bad mood might be, nor why Bennath might be sulking; he's full of the jangles today, clinking merrily as he reports this back to his rider. << We'll be up directly, then. K'del says there must be something wrong with women today... but he'll do his best to cheer yours up. >> (Cadejoth to Bennath)
Bennath offers Cadejoth a burst of sunshine and then turns his attention to warning his rider of imminent arrivals. When Cadejoth lands on her ledge, she hasn't yet had a chance to struggle to her feet so she remains seated cross-legged on the floor, a dresser tipped onto its side in front of her. It appears she's trying to glue a new leg onto the bottom of it since she's still bracing the glue while it dries.
Cadejoth makes the sunshine dance and sparkle over the clear, clean ice and snow below, as he makes his way up from the bowl, and into a landing upon the blue's ledge. He doesn't seem intent upon hanging around, lifting off again as soon as his rider's set both feet on the ground to zoom off through the night sky. K'del makes his way in Phara's direction, calling out his greeting as he goes: "Hope Bennath's right, and you don't mind a visitor? Hey, Phara."
Phara gives a non-commital grunt. "You're preferable to just about anyone else who could show up." But only marginally, says the silence afterwards. "Bennath thinks I need to stop pouting and come out. So I humored him. Then he got mad at me because I spent the day having run-ins with B'kaiv and he wouldn't even let me insult Chielyth." Pout. "Well. You might as well sit."
K'del doesn't answer her comments immediately, instead drawing himself down onto the floor beside her, though he keeps himself physically to himself: no touching. When he does speak, he keeps his voice quiet, his tone light. "Feeling uncomfortable?" he wants to know. "Anything I can do?" And; "You /can/ tell me to bugger off if you want. Kash already did, so I'm pretty sure I can take it. Just thought you might want to see a friend."
Phara decides the glue is set and drops her hands away to rest on the swell of her stomach. "Yeah," she admits quietly. "I didn't think it would hurt this much and I swear I'm getting bigger every day now." She sniffs, rotating her body to face him. "When I'm always wishing you'd come see me? I'm not about to tell you to get lost. You might never come back." She doesn't ask about Kash, it being not much of her business and all. "Friends are good. I don't really feel like I have any most days."
K'del reaches out, now, to rest his hand atop hers, just for a moment, though he's careful not to touch her stomach in the process: that's just rude. He waits to speak until she's entirely finished, and then, with a firm nod of his head, he tells her, "You have me, promise. May not be able to visit /that/ often, but I'm still here for you. How many more months is it, then? Before you're all cooked."
Phara wouldn't mind if he did, and the way her hand moves seems to indicate just that but she doesn't offer. Instead she smiles shyly at him and turns one hand over, offering her palm to him. "You missed all the fun bits, I'm afraid. Now it's just creepy." She thinks about it and then says, "Two and a half left. I guess that's not so much, right? I mean, I've already pulled seven and change. What's two more."
K'del, though, seems reluctant to make any assumptions, however her hand moves. Instead, he takes that palm, squeezing his fingers around hers, and laughs. "Creepy? Why so? Doesn't seem to me like pregnant women are creepy, no matter how big they are." He lets out a long breath and then adds, sounding more thoughtful, "Two and a half. That's not so long at all, really. Plus," he grins, "At least you're not going to be huge in the middle of summer when it's miserably hot. Got a sister who'd tell you all about how miserable that is."
Phara gets a mischevious glint in her eye and squeezes his fingers back briefly before seeking out the bottom of her sweater. She flips it up over her stomach and calmly points out the bulge of some unidentified body part distending her already strained belly. "/That/ is creepy." A face is made at the last little bit, the rest gone without comment. "Yeah, sort of wasn't looking forward to trudging through the snow while I'm at my biggest though, you know. I'm just going to stay in here. Eventually people will forget I even existed."
Okay, maybe K'del /does/ find that slightly creepy, his lengthy pause as he stares openly at her belly, not to mention his cautious expression, indicating that. After a breathy pause, he admits, "Guess that is kind of weird. What is it... a foot? a fist?" Something else entirely? A self-conscious, maybe even slightly embarrassed, grin follows after that, though his words are more inclined towards seriousness. "I doubt that. Though... you even going to be able to climb onto Bennath, at the end?"
Phara is just as quick to haul her shirt down, looking uncomfortable herself and murmuring an apology. "Don't know," she adds sincerely. "Oh, no... no. It's already getting really hard. How hard do you think it will be to get my meals sent up here?" Grin.
The apology gets waved away, as K'del notes, "It's kind of cool, though, too. I mean... you're making a person. That's a /person/ in you." The idea makes him grin, easily amused - and pleased, too. "Got weyrlings of the right kind of age?" he adds of the last, with a laugh. "And then there's getting down to the infirmary for the actual birth."
Phara mostly looks even more creeped out when he brings up her having a person inside of her. Ew. "Yeah, we do actually," she muses, smirking just a little. "Uh, I'll get someone to help me I guess. Not like the baby's going to fall out all the sudden. Those things take hours."
That she looks creeped out only makes K'del laugh more, though he shakes his head in apology, attempting to bite his lip to stop the torrents. "There you go. Weyrling meal delivery. Keep 'em busy." He bobs his head off the last concern, admitting, "Don't know all that much about that bit, at least from first hand experience, but I guess, yeah, it does take hours and hours."
Phara shrugs her shoulders. "Makes two of us," she decides, and exhales. "So, um. How's it going, in your neck of the woods?" Bracing her hand on the front of the dresser she manages to get her knees under her and from there her feet. "Can I get you anything to drink?"
"Guess you'll learn pretty fast," is K'del's assessment. He follows Phara's lead in drawing himself to his feet, deliberately doing so slowly so that he doesn't entirely outpace her. Even so, it's not hard for him to be faster. "Everyone hates me," he tells her then, laughing at himself. "Because I made a deal with Crom. We're going to be farmers; how pathetic. And no... no, I don't need anything. Can I get you something, though?"
Phara lifts an eyebrow at K'del's news. "Farmers? Huh." She snorts in amusement. "Wish food was our problem. We're losing our Crafters. You and T'rev can fight for 'Most Hated Weyrleader' I'm afraid." Her eyes rake over him for a minute, her mouth curling. "Ah, my dear, there are things you could get me, but none of them would be very nice of me to ask for." Forget that she hardly ever asks anyone for anything. "I'm not an invalid, I can still pour myself a glass of water."
"Farmers," agrees K'del, laughing at himself. "You can guess how mcuh people like that, even ignoring the whole Crom business. Mm, I've been hearing about that. Not good. Glad nothing like that is happening to us... and it better not start now, either." He sticks his tongue out at her, at the second comment, laughing merrily. "'Very nice'. Uh-huh. Anyway, didn't /say/ you were an invalid. Just being nice. Not allowed to do something nice for you?"
Phara sighs, falling easily out of the good mood he was teasing her into. "I've had exactly enough of well-meaning men who just want to do something nice for me." She puts her back to him, taking out one of the battered mugs from the tiny hutch by her table and pouring a cup of water from the pitcher. "Doubt you'll have a problem, since High Reaches doesn't get its supplies off the river down here. Though, they're getting bold. They picked off a train between two of the big Holds. The Holders will be out to lynch us next I bet."
K'del makes a face at her turned back, though he's smoothed it away well before she's turned back again. Rubbing at his elbow, he ignores her snarky comment, continuing, instead, to say, "Mm, maybe not, but I heard there were raiders at Boll, and we /do/ have a sea port or two. Guess it's less likely, now... tithes being in and all. And Kash was telling me you had a bunch of Blooded candidates, so that can't be making things any easier." Apparently he's intending to ignore her moodiness.
Phara inches her butt up onto the table, resting with the tips of her toes holding her steady. Over the rim of her mug she watches him steadily and then finally takes a drink. "Yeah, they're pretty peeved about that from what I hear too. Hatching's close enough and then we can send the lot of them home. They're all spoiled soft brats anyway." Craning her head back at the end of all that, the bluerider seems intent on staring bleakly at the ceiling.
K'del drops his hand from his elbow again, only to lift it so that he can run his fingers through his hair. "Guess they would be," he allows, wrinkling his nose. "Search is Search, but Bloods? Ugh. Trouble all 'round, I think." Beat. "Kash said as much, for the most part, though she said some of them were nice enough. Think she's friendly with one of them. Or was. Who knows, anymore." He hesitates, taking a breath, and then crosses the distance between them again, reaching for her free hand, to squeeze, if she'll let him.
Phara lets her amber eyes fall on his face again when he takes her hand, smiling wryly and setting her cup down beside her so she can lift that hand towards his face, brushing her fingers against his cheek if he allows it. "There was one who really got me. She told me she'd just find someone to oil her dragon for her." Her eyes close briefly, an annoyed breath exhaled through her nose. "I swear I'd have swung her right up onto Bennath's back and dropped her back at home if I could have. We don't need Fort Sea here anyway. I'd probably get tackled by every man between the cavern and Benny though. If she doesn't seduce every man in the Weyr before she goes home, it won't be for lack of trying."
K'del lets her, of course, with a soft little smile on his face. "That's nuts," he says, of the candidate in question, drawing his expression into a frown. "She'd get over that pretty fast." He doesn't have much to say about the rest of it, though his head shakes just slightly, unimpressed. And then; "Don't mind yourself over her. She'll Impress and learn better, or she won't, and she'll go home again. Right? So."
Phara lets her fingers curve to fit his jaw for a fleeting moment and then they fall away. She takes back up her mug and looks at a point past him. "I wish we'd worked out different. You're... easy to be with."
What can K'del say to that? He looks awkward, biting at his lip as he watches her. "Still part of your life, Phara," he tells her, finally. "Still here." After that, though, conversation returns to more casual topics, until eventually, with promises to visit again, he takes his leave. His final comment, before he goes is, "If you see her... find out what's up with Kash? Or don't, maybe, because she'd probably hate it. But. I don't know. She liked you. Likes you. Another friend, remember?" And then he's off.