"You used t' fly like that?"
Who: B'kaiv, G'dri
When: Early summer morning, day 18, month 7, turn 20 of Interval 10.
Where: Living Cavern, FTW
What: Kai learns a teensy bit about a younger G'dri as they discuss Chielyth's daredevil flying over breakfast.
Living Cavern, Fort Weyr
The interior of the living cavern is luxurious, relatively speaking -- the walls are smoothed and there are wall sconces in addition to the myriad array of glow baskets and lamps used to keep the place well lit. It's a large space, suited to handle large numbers of people, with dozens of tables arranged strategically throughout; serving tables are also conveniently located at various intervals. Tapestries hang on the walls, many of them having been there for hundreds of turns and periodically taken down for cleaning and restoration.
Up a flight of stairs would be the kitchens, where much of the hustle and bustle can be heard, if not seen. Food is transported down via discretely located dumb waiters and dispersed by servers as necessary, but the aromas of food being prepared is as pervasive as the constant chatter of people as they drift through in search of food, drink, or company. Servers are generally available to assist and ensure that cups are filled and tables are cleaned regularly.
To the west is both the main entrance to the bowl and also the night hearth, which is kept stocked with fresh klah and pots of stew. Other hearths are scattered throughout, radiating heat and warmth as well as providing gathering spots for private discussions. To the east, a short flight of stairs leads down to the inner caverns, while a stout wooden door with a purple caduceus to the south leads to the infirmary.
It's a little muggy this morning, even in those few hours right after the sun rises where the day's potential has not yet been tarnished. Breakfast is always a quiet meal and today is no exception: the largest group of people are a handful of Flint riders, laughing over the remains of their meal. There are others scattered about the room, of course, in various stages of waking up. And just turning away from the breakfast offerings, looking freshly washed, is B'kaiv, blowing on his ubiquitous mug of klah.
Not on quite the crazy early morning schedule, it'd be a natural inclination towards being an early riser that brings any Jasper riders down from their weyrs at this hour. As tidily groomed as always, if a little ruffled from the trip down, G'dri's simultaneously smoothing his hair and smothering a yawn as he wanders across the cavern towards the breakfast spread. A brisk shake of his head sends shock waves down through his shoulders and ends with briefly flapped hands, before he can properly focus again on more than just avoiding colliding with anyone or -thing directly in front. So only then will a resident he recognises receive a nod on the way by, and as he nears his goal, a certain greenrider will receive a smile and a pleasant, "Good morning."
B'kaiv might, perhaps, have caught sight of that yawning, bleary figure and moved to intercept, but what he does instead is slightly more telling. He offers his klah instead. "Mornin'." As soon as the word is out he chases after it with another: "Morning. Too sharding early, ain't it?" Despite the fact that Flint riders are always up this early, and Kai himself doesn't have the blurred, sleepy look of a man who's still struggling for wakefulness. "I ain't drunk it," he adds of the mug, with another little 'remember this?' hoist.
Ah. G'dri does hesitate, simply because divesting another person of the drink they've just fetched for themselves isn't within his norm. It's a moment's consideration, if a slightly long one, before the bluerider reaches gratefully to accept the offered mug. "Thank you, Kai. Kind of you." No words but a small nod, possibly agreement as he peers at the dark liquid a moment before risking a temperature-testing sip. "It is a bit," he elucidates after, nose twitching. "Though perhaps wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't stayed up later than I ought. Yourself and Chielyth, both well?"
One of Kai's twitchy, here-and-gone smiles appears and evaporates just as quick; he turns to pour another mug and back before there's time to adulterate it with anything. This one he keeps for himself, though, both hands safely occupied now. "Yeah, we're good. She's still sleeping." Of course. "Khameth's - he's a'right? She, uh... wants t' go flying with him. Want me t' remind her, next time she goes? He like flyin without you?"
G'dri is becoming more alert by the second. Alert enough for his stomach to remind him that it's awake, too, and empty. "Can I impose on you a little further," he asks, after another swallow of klah, "to hold this while I dish something up?" His own smile is back, and sticking around. "He is, yes. He enjoys watching the Weyr wake up." A flicker of distance as his focus turns both inward and outward, quick mental check before returning. "He'd be delighted to go with her, if not otherwise occupied at the time. He often used to fly with... others nearer to his age."
"Uh," Kai says, but a hasty rearrangement of mug frees a couple fingers and a thumb to claim - or reclaim - G'dri's. "Sure." He steps out of the way to allow passage to the food and continues to linger in the other man's periphery. Just to talk, of course. "She's been... shells. I dunno. Collecting ain't the right word. But she's been going with any as'll go with her. She even got this brown up t' th' Reaches. An' she likes Khameth."
The pause after the indrawn breath might indicate that something other than "My thanks," was about to be said. Tipping his head slightly, G'dri keep his attention divided between listening to Kai and loading a plate up with a moderately sized, energy sustaining breakfast. "Since she enjoys it so much, it's good that she's finding others who will accompany her. Has she been reaching out on her own, or is she meeting them when duty or leisure takes you out-Weyr?" A glance to the side to see if he can catch hazel eyes, cheerful. "He likes her as well. There have been few enough lately that he can share his own passions with."
B'kaiv tries, for a few entertaining seconds, to drink some klah, but as his mug is only precariously under his control - and on the wrong side of his hand and arm to start with - he quickly gives it up as a bad job. "Uh... yeah? I mean, both. Corvinth we met when there was this gather at Nabol. An' she knows Bennth an' Saulienth, of course. Corvinth flat tires her out with all th' tricky flying they do." He gestures carefully with his plate-holding hand. "Not that th' others don't, but he. Uh. Pushes her? An' she wants t' get better. I try an' tell her she's a green, she ain't gonna got th' stamina of a brown, but that don't stop her from wanting t' try or nothing."
Once he doesn't need two hands himself, G'dri is quick enough to navigate through the motions required to once again divest the greenrider of a klah mug. Hopefully the one he'd gotten the first time around, and equally hopefully without anything getting sloshed or spilled during the transfer. That should make things easier all around. "As she gets better, I imagine she'll be able to tie him up in knots if he attempts to match her agility," he notes with a chuckle. "He may be able to outlast her, but that doesn't necessarily equal an ability to outfly her. A green's strength is her speed and reflexes." And well, here they are, plates and mugs, and as the morning marches on they won't be able to monopolize the meal table since there's several hundred other people who'll want to be fed soon enough. "Shall we find a table to continue our conversation, or will you be rejoining your wing?"
The greenrider's got another flashed smile of thanks for the removal of klah; the first thing he does, as soon as he can and the mug is fumbled right way round again, is have a drink. "I dunno, he's pretty small. An' real, uh... swervy." His plate waves side to side, hinting at the brown's agility. He does glance over at the other Flint riders, but it's to an empty table, away from them, that he nods. "Wanna sit there?" He's already moving that way, though with a hesitancy and a glance backwards to suggest he could re-route. "We went, th' other day, an' she showed me some of what she's been doing. S'nough t' turn my hair white. Khameth like doing that sort?" And to his fried tubers, "You want t' come sometime?"
"Hmm. Interesting." G'dri's smile has turned amused, his manner making it self-directed, though with his typical reservation there's no hint as to why he's laughing at himself. He inclines his head in silent acceptance, pausing just long enough that he won't be risking treading on Kai's heels when he moves to follow. The lines around his eyes might get a little deeper, his expression mildly encouraging in the wake of that hesitancy. "Shall I be concerned if we start to match?" Wait. Did he just crack a joke? He did! "Is it the stunts themselves that you find unnerving, or the risks she takes when doing them?" That's better. "He did quite a lot when he was young. He's much - hmm - steadier is perhaps not the correct term. But now that he's older he's more content to watch and encourage the young ones, though he does still indulge occasionally. We used to go on quite the harrowing flights, he and I. It would be quite enjoyable, to fly with someone else again." Adventurous tubers.
"Your hair ain't white," Kai tosses over his shoulder and then immediately has to eye his plate again in case something's been added. The silence lasts until he hooks out a chair and flops into it with the careless ease of a man who has yet to feel his age, and then it's important to adjust his plate and mug just so. And clear his throat. "Dunno. It's - she's - just so sharding /small/. Goes straight at a rock like th' only way out is *between* an' then she cuts over and suddenly th' rock ain't there no more." He runs a hand over his hair - not white - in memory before offering half of a wobbly-wry smile. "An' she says she's flying careful 'cause of me."
"Getting there, though," G'dri returns with an easy laugh, accepting of the inevitable. Hard to tell if his own, more decorous descent into a chair is entirely the result of his own age or simply a manner of comportment that's so ingrained as to be thoughtless. Probably both. His eyebrows lift as he listens to that description, occupying himself with chewing as he starts in immediately on his food. His first responce after swallowing is a wide grin. "Sounds like she's really amazing up there. And if that's -careful- to her mind...." He shakes his head slowly, but there's still an admiring edge to his expression. "Takes some getting used to if you're not already inclined towards being so daring. It is good that you seem to encourage her. I've noticed over the turns that the dragons who are indulged are often less likely to risk too much beyond their limits. They can get just as frustrated as we, though love for us will keep some silent."
"That's Chielyth," Kai says , his voice laced with admiration, with amazement, with disbelief. His fork gets loaded with tubers - too many to safely hold, one slices slips off - before he squints across the table at the other man. "You used t' fly like that?" With an unspoken 'too'. He gestures (another slice drops) at the bluerider's comportment: /that/ used to go tearing through the air and yelling out his excitement? Thick fingers regather the prodigal tuber and pop it into his mouth just before he shovels in the rest.
G'dri laughs softly, his own fork wagging up and down for a moment as he outlines Kai's face and the look thereon. Then, with a nod, "We did. I was your age, with the terribly exciting life of a jeweler ahead of me, when Khameth found me on the Sands. We were young and full of ourselves, full of each other, and the whole world was -ours- to play in." Fond and reminiscent, his features softening into tenderness as he speaks. "Where does she like it best? Or does she not mind so long as she can test her mettle?"
B'kaiv chews firmly, fiercely, swallows too soon and washes it all down with klah. "Huh. Well, if Khameth wants t' go," if G'dri wants to fly, "She'd be glad t' have him," Kai won't say no. "--Shells," he adds after a second, after a thought strikes him, and for a moment busies himself with breakfast again. Before another massive bite: "She, uh, don't really care. Anywhere. Long as she can fly. You wanna go tomorrow? Today ain't gonna work, unless it's after supper."
Resting his forearm against the table's edge, G'dri considers Kai for a quiet moment before nipping through a couple more small bites. "Khameth is already riffling through our memories, trying to choose places to suggest she might find enjoyable," he says with measured care. The mild expletive brings a flash of curiousity, but nothing more than that. "There are some challenging canyons up north of Reaches, or the glaciers beyond Telgar," is the next quiet offer. Lifting his mug to take a drink, his head remains tipped back after as he thinks. "I -believe- we are free tomorrow. I can have Khameth bespeak Chielyth later with a more definitive answer; I don't wish to commit only to have to back out."
In contrast, Kai plows through his meal like he's on a time limit - and maybe he is, for the other Flint riders are rising and drifting out in ones and twos, and the greenrider keeps shooting them considering looks. "That all sounds good." Distracted. "There's a place t' Nabol, too. --Scuse me," he finally says as he shoves back his chair and pockets a pastry. "I got t' go get her up. Tomorrow's good. Or th' day after." One last swig of his klah and he abandons the lot to jog after a slight woman with hair cropped close as his own and the thread of a brownrider on her shoulder.
When: Early summer morning, day 18, month 7, turn 20 of Interval 10.
Where: Living Cavern, FTW
What: Kai learns a teensy bit about a younger G'dri as they discuss Chielyth's daredevil flying over breakfast.
Living Cavern, Fort Weyr
The interior of the living cavern is luxurious, relatively speaking -- the walls are smoothed and there are wall sconces in addition to the myriad array of glow baskets and lamps used to keep the place well lit. It's a large space, suited to handle large numbers of people, with dozens of tables arranged strategically throughout; serving tables are also conveniently located at various intervals. Tapestries hang on the walls, many of them having been there for hundreds of turns and periodically taken down for cleaning and restoration.
Up a flight of stairs would be the kitchens, where much of the hustle and bustle can be heard, if not seen. Food is transported down via discretely located dumb waiters and dispersed by servers as necessary, but the aromas of food being prepared is as pervasive as the constant chatter of people as they drift through in search of food, drink, or company. Servers are generally available to assist and ensure that cups are filled and tables are cleaned regularly.
To the west is both the main entrance to the bowl and also the night hearth, which is kept stocked with fresh klah and pots of stew. Other hearths are scattered throughout, radiating heat and warmth as well as providing gathering spots for private discussions. To the east, a short flight of stairs leads down to the inner caverns, while a stout wooden door with a purple caduceus to the south leads to the infirmary.
It's a little muggy this morning, even in those few hours right after the sun rises where the day's potential has not yet been tarnished. Breakfast is always a quiet meal and today is no exception: the largest group of people are a handful of Flint riders, laughing over the remains of their meal. There are others scattered about the room, of course, in various stages of waking up. And just turning away from the breakfast offerings, looking freshly washed, is B'kaiv, blowing on his ubiquitous mug of klah.
Not on quite the crazy early morning schedule, it'd be a natural inclination towards being an early riser that brings any Jasper riders down from their weyrs at this hour. As tidily groomed as always, if a little ruffled from the trip down, G'dri's simultaneously smoothing his hair and smothering a yawn as he wanders across the cavern towards the breakfast spread. A brisk shake of his head sends shock waves down through his shoulders and ends with briefly flapped hands, before he can properly focus again on more than just avoiding colliding with anyone or -thing directly in front. So only then will a resident he recognises receive a nod on the way by, and as he nears his goal, a certain greenrider will receive a smile and a pleasant, "Good morning."
B'kaiv might, perhaps, have caught sight of that yawning, bleary figure and moved to intercept, but what he does instead is slightly more telling. He offers his klah instead. "Mornin'." As soon as the word is out he chases after it with another: "Morning. Too sharding early, ain't it?" Despite the fact that Flint riders are always up this early, and Kai himself doesn't have the blurred, sleepy look of a man who's still struggling for wakefulness. "I ain't drunk it," he adds of the mug, with another little 'remember this?' hoist.
Ah. G'dri does hesitate, simply because divesting another person of the drink they've just fetched for themselves isn't within his norm. It's a moment's consideration, if a slightly long one, before the bluerider reaches gratefully to accept the offered mug. "Thank you, Kai. Kind of you." No words but a small nod, possibly agreement as he peers at the dark liquid a moment before risking a temperature-testing sip. "It is a bit," he elucidates after, nose twitching. "Though perhaps wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't stayed up later than I ought. Yourself and Chielyth, both well?"
One of Kai's twitchy, here-and-gone smiles appears and evaporates just as quick; he turns to pour another mug and back before there's time to adulterate it with anything. This one he keeps for himself, though, both hands safely occupied now. "Yeah, we're good. She's still sleeping." Of course. "Khameth's - he's a'right? She, uh... wants t' go flying with him. Want me t' remind her, next time she goes? He like flyin without you?"
G'dri is becoming more alert by the second. Alert enough for his stomach to remind him that it's awake, too, and empty. "Can I impose on you a little further," he asks, after another swallow of klah, "to hold this while I dish something up?" His own smile is back, and sticking around. "He is, yes. He enjoys watching the Weyr wake up." A flicker of distance as his focus turns both inward and outward, quick mental check before returning. "He'd be delighted to go with her, if not otherwise occupied at the time. He often used to fly with... others nearer to his age."
"Uh," Kai says, but a hasty rearrangement of mug frees a couple fingers and a thumb to claim - or reclaim - G'dri's. "Sure." He steps out of the way to allow passage to the food and continues to linger in the other man's periphery. Just to talk, of course. "She's been... shells. I dunno. Collecting ain't the right word. But she's been going with any as'll go with her. She even got this brown up t' th' Reaches. An' she likes Khameth."
The pause after the indrawn breath might indicate that something other than "My thanks," was about to be said. Tipping his head slightly, G'dri keep his attention divided between listening to Kai and loading a plate up with a moderately sized, energy sustaining breakfast. "Since she enjoys it so much, it's good that she's finding others who will accompany her. Has she been reaching out on her own, or is she meeting them when duty or leisure takes you out-Weyr?" A glance to the side to see if he can catch hazel eyes, cheerful. "He likes her as well. There have been few enough lately that he can share his own passions with."
B'kaiv tries, for a few entertaining seconds, to drink some klah, but as his mug is only precariously under his control - and on the wrong side of his hand and arm to start with - he quickly gives it up as a bad job. "Uh... yeah? I mean, both. Corvinth we met when there was this gather at Nabol. An' she knows Bennth an' Saulienth, of course. Corvinth flat tires her out with all th' tricky flying they do." He gestures carefully with his plate-holding hand. "Not that th' others don't, but he. Uh. Pushes her? An' she wants t' get better. I try an' tell her she's a green, she ain't gonna got th' stamina of a brown, but that don't stop her from wanting t' try or nothing."
Once he doesn't need two hands himself, G'dri is quick enough to navigate through the motions required to once again divest the greenrider of a klah mug. Hopefully the one he'd gotten the first time around, and equally hopefully without anything getting sloshed or spilled during the transfer. That should make things easier all around. "As she gets better, I imagine she'll be able to tie him up in knots if he attempts to match her agility," he notes with a chuckle. "He may be able to outlast her, but that doesn't necessarily equal an ability to outfly her. A green's strength is her speed and reflexes." And well, here they are, plates and mugs, and as the morning marches on they won't be able to monopolize the meal table since there's several hundred other people who'll want to be fed soon enough. "Shall we find a table to continue our conversation, or will you be rejoining your wing?"
The greenrider's got another flashed smile of thanks for the removal of klah; the first thing he does, as soon as he can and the mug is fumbled right way round again, is have a drink. "I dunno, he's pretty small. An' real, uh... swervy." His plate waves side to side, hinting at the brown's agility. He does glance over at the other Flint riders, but it's to an empty table, away from them, that he nods. "Wanna sit there?" He's already moving that way, though with a hesitancy and a glance backwards to suggest he could re-route. "We went, th' other day, an' she showed me some of what she's been doing. S'nough t' turn my hair white. Khameth like doing that sort?" And to his fried tubers, "You want t' come sometime?"
"Hmm. Interesting." G'dri's smile has turned amused, his manner making it self-directed, though with his typical reservation there's no hint as to why he's laughing at himself. He inclines his head in silent acceptance, pausing just long enough that he won't be risking treading on Kai's heels when he moves to follow. The lines around his eyes might get a little deeper, his expression mildly encouraging in the wake of that hesitancy. "Shall I be concerned if we start to match?" Wait. Did he just crack a joke? He did! "Is it the stunts themselves that you find unnerving, or the risks she takes when doing them?" That's better. "He did quite a lot when he was young. He's much - hmm - steadier is perhaps not the correct term. But now that he's older he's more content to watch and encourage the young ones, though he does still indulge occasionally. We used to go on quite the harrowing flights, he and I. It would be quite enjoyable, to fly with someone else again." Adventurous tubers.
"Your hair ain't white," Kai tosses over his shoulder and then immediately has to eye his plate again in case something's been added. The silence lasts until he hooks out a chair and flops into it with the careless ease of a man who has yet to feel his age, and then it's important to adjust his plate and mug just so. And clear his throat. "Dunno. It's - she's - just so sharding /small/. Goes straight at a rock like th' only way out is *between* an' then she cuts over and suddenly th' rock ain't there no more." He runs a hand over his hair - not white - in memory before offering half of a wobbly-wry smile. "An' she says she's flying careful 'cause of me."
"Getting there, though," G'dri returns with an easy laugh, accepting of the inevitable. Hard to tell if his own, more decorous descent into a chair is entirely the result of his own age or simply a manner of comportment that's so ingrained as to be thoughtless. Probably both. His eyebrows lift as he listens to that description, occupying himself with chewing as he starts in immediately on his food. His first responce after swallowing is a wide grin. "Sounds like she's really amazing up there. And if that's -careful- to her mind...." He shakes his head slowly, but there's still an admiring edge to his expression. "Takes some getting used to if you're not already inclined towards being so daring. It is good that you seem to encourage her. I've noticed over the turns that the dragons who are indulged are often less likely to risk too much beyond their limits. They can get just as frustrated as we, though love for us will keep some silent."
"That's Chielyth," Kai says , his voice laced with admiration, with amazement, with disbelief. His fork gets loaded with tubers - too many to safely hold, one slices slips off - before he squints across the table at the other man. "You used t' fly like that?" With an unspoken 'too'. He gestures (another slice drops) at the bluerider's comportment: /that/ used to go tearing through the air and yelling out his excitement? Thick fingers regather the prodigal tuber and pop it into his mouth just before he shovels in the rest.
G'dri laughs softly, his own fork wagging up and down for a moment as he outlines Kai's face and the look thereon. Then, with a nod, "We did. I was your age, with the terribly exciting life of a jeweler ahead of me, when Khameth found me on the Sands. We were young and full of ourselves, full of each other, and the whole world was -ours- to play in." Fond and reminiscent, his features softening into tenderness as he speaks. "Where does she like it best? Or does she not mind so long as she can test her mettle?"
B'kaiv chews firmly, fiercely, swallows too soon and washes it all down with klah. "Huh. Well, if Khameth wants t' go," if G'dri wants to fly, "She'd be glad t' have him," Kai won't say no. "--Shells," he adds after a second, after a thought strikes him, and for a moment busies himself with breakfast again. Before another massive bite: "She, uh, don't really care. Anywhere. Long as she can fly. You wanna go tomorrow? Today ain't gonna work, unless it's after supper."
Resting his forearm against the table's edge, G'dri considers Kai for a quiet moment before nipping through a couple more small bites. "Khameth is already riffling through our memories, trying to choose places to suggest she might find enjoyable," he says with measured care. The mild expletive brings a flash of curiousity, but nothing more than that. "There are some challenging canyons up north of Reaches, or the glaciers beyond Telgar," is the next quiet offer. Lifting his mug to take a drink, his head remains tipped back after as he thinks. "I -believe- we are free tomorrow. I can have Khameth bespeak Chielyth later with a more definitive answer; I don't wish to commit only to have to back out."
In contrast, Kai plows through his meal like he's on a time limit - and maybe he is, for the other Flint riders are rising and drifting out in ones and twos, and the greenrider keeps shooting them considering looks. "That all sounds good." Distracted. "There's a place t' Nabol, too. --Scuse me," he finally says as he shoves back his chair and pockets a pastry. "I got t' go get her up. Tomorrow's good. Or th' day after." One last swig of his klah and he abandons the lot to jog after a slight woman with hair cropped close as his own and the thread of a brownrider on her shoulder.