I would like to accept
Who: Roa and Laelle
Where: Hatching Galleries
What: Laelle accepts the position as Roa's assistant.
It is, of course, silly-hot in the galleries and usually, the stands are empty. But with eggs on the sands, there is a small but reliable trickle of people in and out. Down on the hatching sands, Tialith is restless. She prowls, covers eggs, uncovers them, turns them, covers them...it is the draconic version of fidgeting. A bit away from the gold and the clutch, the sire is coiled up into a banal bronze lump, eyes mostly lidded, head mostly hidden beneath his tail. For the supposed noblest of the colors, Ruvoth has a marked skill at looking sad and pathetic. He displays it now.
Up in the stands, leaning against the railing, the slight little weyrwoman peers down. She doesn't seem to be watching anything specific, and her eyes seem a little glazed. Either she is speaking to her lifemate, lost in her own thoughts, or coming down with a fever. At any rate, she is here. Leaning. 'Watching'.
Laelle makes her way into the cavern with her usual unobtrusive quiet. The dragons get a glance, firm and wary, but as they seem completely occupied with egg-fidgetting and sad lumpiness, she doesn't give them any more heed. Instead her sights turn across the galleries, seeking and finding the small Weyrwoman. Her feet take her in that direction, a flush rising to her cheeks from the stark difference between cool spring air and the swimming heat of the sands. "Ma'am?" she says, gently seeking Roa's attention what whatever has her eyes in that glaze.
Roa blinks several times, the haze clearing so dark blue eyes can regard Laelle with vivid clarity. A small smile touches her lips. "Laelle. Hello, there. How are your studies coming along?"
"Well," Laelle answers, with a little polite smile of her own, the appropriate facial reaction. "I," there is a pause, an odd pause, portentous, though perhaps that is in the stiffness of the moment's still quiet. "I am sorry if I've kept you waiting, ma'am. I believe that I have my answer ready." Laelle would skip the small talk.
There is a small nod from the weyrwoman as she straightens a bit and leans her side against the railing, rather than her arms. She just waits, silent and expectant, her attention fully on the slender blonde in the wherry fluff.
"I would like to accept." Laelle says evenly. "If the offer still stands." She cants her head, a deferential motion that is plainly ready to have the offer rescinded if it is Roa's will to do so.
Roa expels a small breath, closes her eyes, and nods. "When can you start? Have you spoken to the headmaster regarding your caucus classes?"
"I have not," Laelle says, but she pauses there to watch the woman's face. "Are you feeling all right?"
"Hrm?" Roa opens her eyes again. "Oh. Tired, a bit. A little queasy. It's the heat. I probably should go out for more fresh air breaks. Her mightiness down there demands her misery keep my company. So..." a small chuckle and a shrug of her shoulder. "In short, I'm fine. Would you like to speak with the Headmaster, or shall I?"
Laelle is terribly quick be satisfied by Roa's explanation, but she doesn't press any further. "I believe it would be best if you spoke to him, unless that is a great inconvenience. If I'm to help, I should hardly start by adding to the demands on your time." Still, for that thought, she looks pensive and ready to say something else.
"I'm due to stop by for a visit with Sefton anyhow," Roa murmurs, looking back out onto the sands. "I'll mention it to him when I do. It's no trouble." Without glancing back to Laelle, the weyrwoman asks, "what is it?"
There is a quick pause, barely a beat. "I was wondering if you might be willing to write a letter for me. To my family. If that is at all possible," Laelle answers, explaining, "I feel as the it would be better received from you than from me alone." The murmur seem to sharpen that watchful look from a moment before. "Again, if it would be an inconvenience, I understand that would be counterproductive. Are you sure you're feeling all right? Perhaps you take some fresh air?" Even with her jacket on, Laelle does not seem terribly uncomfortable in the heat. Of course, she's only been in the cavern for a few moments.
"I'm fine," the weyrwoman laughs, shaking her head. "Promise. I'd be glad to write to your family. Just informing them of your new position?" She studies her hands before looking over to study Laelle. "Can I ask a favor in exchange?"
Laelle is still unconvinced, but for the moment, the request of a favor demands her attention. She lifts her brows. "Ma'am?"
"Would you mind, if you're going to be working with me now, just calling me Roa?" The weyrwoman's smile is a little sheepish.
Laelle returns a smile of her own, touched with self-awareness around the edges. "I can try. Roa." There was a pause there, the instinct to slip 'ma'am' in when she is behaving in an obedient fashion, but she quells it easily. "When would you like me to start?" Since the matter of address has already been dealt with, she must refer to the actual work.
"Tomorrow, if it's not too soon. We can meet in the afternoon, go over the basics, and figure out your schedule and what we'd like to propose for a modified schedule. And," Roa smiles faintly, "we can write your letter as well."
"That would be excellent," Laelle says her polite smile growing a bit wider at the end. "Perhaps, now, I could get you a drink? Some water?" Because the faintness of that smile is not lost on the Nerat girl and she is used to such ministrations.
Blink. "You're really..." one of Roa's hands comes up to touch her cheek as she frowns a little. "Do I really look that awful?"
"Your appearance is fine," Laelle assures, bending to the side a little to be, well, lower and perhaps, for that brief moment, more eye to eye with the small weyrwoman. "But your manner is troubled. Or unwell."
"I'm sorry. She..." There is a glance back down to the sands and the pacing queen, "is very restless. It's distracting." Roa sighs. "I suppose my getting a bit of fresh air is something she might be able to live with, eh, Tia?" Though the gold's name is said with no more volume than the rest of the quiet words, the queen stops to turn her head and directly regard the pair of women in the stands as it's uttered.
Laelle draws up to have the queen dragon look her way, straight, but with her head turned to watch the gold with a sidelong gaze. "Is my presence upsetting? Would she prefer to be alone?" she wonders, aiming to discern and remedy what has her new mistress feeling out of sorts.
"She would prefer to be elsewhere," Roa says with a small smirk. "She's bored. She doesn't mind being watched. If anything, people around are appreciated. She just...is convinced she's missing the most amazing things outside, and I can't seem to convince her otherwise."
"I..." But Laelle falters there. "I'm sorry to hear that. Perhaps some sort of entertainment can be arranged? Nannies can bring some children in, they are generally interesting to watch..." It's a shot in the dark, but she's eyeing the gold again. "I don't have any experience with what a dragon might find entertaining."
"Mmm, perhaps. I think, really, she just needs to suck it up a bit. But you try telling her that." Roa rolls her eyes. "Don't really. I'm joking. She'll be fine."
"Well, this is her first time on the sands, isn't it?" Laelle replies smooth, but not quite easy. "One can hope that she will settle into it. I... know nothing of dragon behavior," she admits, slightly defeated by her own ignorance. "I wish I could offer more helpful suggestions." And no, she does not seem eager to tell the queen anything.
"It is. They all take to it differently." Roa again leans a shoulder against the railing, swallowing down a yawn. "She's just...I don't know. She's seeing to the eggs. She's watchful of them. She won't leave them. I suppose she just wishes they could bounce along after her and she could go out and go swimming.
"Perhaps, at some point, she will trust him to watch them for her and she can take a break?" Laelle offers weakly, casting her uncertain glance from queen to bronze. Of course his pathetic expression does nothing to encourage hopefulness. Meanwhile, the Weyrwoman yawns. "Would you like to sit?" she attempts. "I could have a meal sent here, if you have to stay."
"Faranth," Roa sighs. "I'm -fine-. Truly. Cross my heart. Stop that, or I'll develop an illness simply by your convincing." The weyrwoman smirks. "I doubt she will. Or, at least, they don't that I know of. They don't even leave to hunt. One of the other dragons has to bring food to them. I suppose it's no fun, coping with such overpowering maternal instincts. Can I ask you something?" This last tacked onto the rest with hardly any change of her easy tone.
The first of Roa's comments is met with a deferential nod, readily acquiescing with a small, obedient smile. The discussion of dragon habits has her attentive, archiving this new information, tidbits of Roa's life as it currently stands. The last, however, tips her chin to the side, ready. "Of course."
"I was just wondering, that is what are you...the weyrleader..." Roa presses her lips into a thin and frustrated line before huffing softly and trying again. "R'vain is not a subtle man. I presume you've noticed, then, that he's taken an...interest in you. Do you...know what you plan to do? In regards to that?"
That. Laelle's expression only evens for the change of topic, returning to its usual mild mask if only because the expectancy of her brow has now ebbed. "I would presume that such interest is levied at every female in the Weyr," she says, a wryness in her voice that doesn't quite turn her lips.
"Mmm. Not -every- female, but a generous number of them, admittedly." Roa rolls her eyes and notes, idly, "I have a chart, if you want to peruse it. I don't know if he would have let his attentions drift if you'd made yourself scarce, but taking the job means you -won't- be scarce and, I assure you, he'll take the opportunity to pursue, ah, his suit."
'Chart' gets a look, but otherwise, Laelle seems unperturbed by this description of the Weyrleaders activities. And yet, "If I'd made myself scarce?" she queries, or more precisely, queries the implication that she had not been so.
"Avoided, you know, the council room and things. Look..." the weyrwoman winces at her own words and shakes her head a little, eyes closing and fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. "Sorry. It's not my business, really. I just...you should let me know. If this is something I should be discreetly ignoring or not worrying about one way or the other, or finding ways to help keep him off you. It's fine, whatever you wish to do. I'd just, it would make my life a bit easier. Knowing." Her hand lowers again and she blinks over at Laelle.
"I can avoid the council room if you prefer," Laelle says without hesitation. Her eyes, though, they are watching that wince, the way Roa pinches her nose. But she claims, "I do not think it is something that you should feel the need to worry about. I do not anticipate that his notice should in any way impede my work."
"It's not about what -I'd- prefer, Laelle," the weyrwoman notes quietly. She closes her eyes again and then sighs. "Right. I think I am going to get some air. And if you say I shouldn't worry, then I won't. Just, please, do speak up if you start to feel...well....he is what he is. "
"Certainly," Laelle promises with a tip of her head. "Shall I leave you?" she wonders, waiting to make sure she is being dismissed.
"I think we're set? And I'll see you tomorrow?" The weyrwoman offers another little smile. "I'm glad you decided to give the position a try."
Laelle nods, "Yes, tomorrow," she confirms. She takes a step back, preparing to leave. "I'm glad also. I look forward to beginning," she says, her smile small but genuine, perhaps even a touch warm. "I hope you feel better." And then she turns to leave.
Where: Hatching Galleries
What: Laelle accepts the position as Roa's assistant.
It is, of course, silly-hot in the galleries and usually, the stands are empty. But with eggs on the sands, there is a small but reliable trickle of people in and out. Down on the hatching sands, Tialith is restless. She prowls, covers eggs, uncovers them, turns them, covers them...it is the draconic version of fidgeting. A bit away from the gold and the clutch, the sire is coiled up into a banal bronze lump, eyes mostly lidded, head mostly hidden beneath his tail. For the supposed noblest of the colors, Ruvoth has a marked skill at looking sad and pathetic. He displays it now.
Up in the stands, leaning against the railing, the slight little weyrwoman peers down. She doesn't seem to be watching anything specific, and her eyes seem a little glazed. Either she is speaking to her lifemate, lost in her own thoughts, or coming down with a fever. At any rate, she is here. Leaning. 'Watching'.
Laelle makes her way into the cavern with her usual unobtrusive quiet. The dragons get a glance, firm and wary, but as they seem completely occupied with egg-fidgetting and sad lumpiness, she doesn't give them any more heed. Instead her sights turn across the galleries, seeking and finding the small Weyrwoman. Her feet take her in that direction, a flush rising to her cheeks from the stark difference between cool spring air and the swimming heat of the sands. "Ma'am?" she says, gently seeking Roa's attention what whatever has her eyes in that glaze.
Roa blinks several times, the haze clearing so dark blue eyes can regard Laelle with vivid clarity. A small smile touches her lips. "Laelle. Hello, there. How are your studies coming along?"
"Well," Laelle answers, with a little polite smile of her own, the appropriate facial reaction. "I," there is a pause, an odd pause, portentous, though perhaps that is in the stiffness of the moment's still quiet. "I am sorry if I've kept you waiting, ma'am. I believe that I have my answer ready." Laelle would skip the small talk.
There is a small nod from the weyrwoman as she straightens a bit and leans her side against the railing, rather than her arms. She just waits, silent and expectant, her attention fully on the slender blonde in the wherry fluff.
"I would like to accept." Laelle says evenly. "If the offer still stands." She cants her head, a deferential motion that is plainly ready to have the offer rescinded if it is Roa's will to do so.
Roa expels a small breath, closes her eyes, and nods. "When can you start? Have you spoken to the headmaster regarding your caucus classes?"
"I have not," Laelle says, but she pauses there to watch the woman's face. "Are you feeling all right?"
"Hrm?" Roa opens her eyes again. "Oh. Tired, a bit. A little queasy. It's the heat. I probably should go out for more fresh air breaks. Her mightiness down there demands her misery keep my company. So..." a small chuckle and a shrug of her shoulder. "In short, I'm fine. Would you like to speak with the Headmaster, or shall I?"
Laelle is terribly quick be satisfied by Roa's explanation, but she doesn't press any further. "I believe it would be best if you spoke to him, unless that is a great inconvenience. If I'm to help, I should hardly start by adding to the demands on your time." Still, for that thought, she looks pensive and ready to say something else.
"I'm due to stop by for a visit with Sefton anyhow," Roa murmurs, looking back out onto the sands. "I'll mention it to him when I do. It's no trouble." Without glancing back to Laelle, the weyrwoman asks, "what is it?"
There is a quick pause, barely a beat. "I was wondering if you might be willing to write a letter for me. To my family. If that is at all possible," Laelle answers, explaining, "I feel as the it would be better received from you than from me alone." The murmur seem to sharpen that watchful look from a moment before. "Again, if it would be an inconvenience, I understand that would be counterproductive. Are you sure you're feeling all right? Perhaps you take some fresh air?" Even with her jacket on, Laelle does not seem terribly uncomfortable in the heat. Of course, she's only been in the cavern for a few moments.
"I'm fine," the weyrwoman laughs, shaking her head. "Promise. I'd be glad to write to your family. Just informing them of your new position?" She studies her hands before looking over to study Laelle. "Can I ask a favor in exchange?"
Laelle is still unconvinced, but for the moment, the request of a favor demands her attention. She lifts her brows. "Ma'am?"
"Would you mind, if you're going to be working with me now, just calling me Roa?" The weyrwoman's smile is a little sheepish.
Laelle returns a smile of her own, touched with self-awareness around the edges. "I can try. Roa." There was a pause there, the instinct to slip 'ma'am' in when she is behaving in an obedient fashion, but she quells it easily. "When would you like me to start?" Since the matter of address has already been dealt with, she must refer to the actual work.
"Tomorrow, if it's not too soon. We can meet in the afternoon, go over the basics, and figure out your schedule and what we'd like to propose for a modified schedule. And," Roa smiles faintly, "we can write your letter as well."
"That would be excellent," Laelle says her polite smile growing a bit wider at the end. "Perhaps, now, I could get you a drink? Some water?" Because the faintness of that smile is not lost on the Nerat girl and she is used to such ministrations.
Blink. "You're really..." one of Roa's hands comes up to touch her cheek as she frowns a little. "Do I really look that awful?"
"Your appearance is fine," Laelle assures, bending to the side a little to be, well, lower and perhaps, for that brief moment, more eye to eye with the small weyrwoman. "But your manner is troubled. Or unwell."
"I'm sorry. She..." There is a glance back down to the sands and the pacing queen, "is very restless. It's distracting." Roa sighs. "I suppose my getting a bit of fresh air is something she might be able to live with, eh, Tia?" Though the gold's name is said with no more volume than the rest of the quiet words, the queen stops to turn her head and directly regard the pair of women in the stands as it's uttered.
Laelle draws up to have the queen dragon look her way, straight, but with her head turned to watch the gold with a sidelong gaze. "Is my presence upsetting? Would she prefer to be alone?" she wonders, aiming to discern and remedy what has her new mistress feeling out of sorts.
"She would prefer to be elsewhere," Roa says with a small smirk. "She's bored. She doesn't mind being watched. If anything, people around are appreciated. She just...is convinced she's missing the most amazing things outside, and I can't seem to convince her otherwise."
"I..." But Laelle falters there. "I'm sorry to hear that. Perhaps some sort of entertainment can be arranged? Nannies can bring some children in, they are generally interesting to watch..." It's a shot in the dark, but she's eyeing the gold again. "I don't have any experience with what a dragon might find entertaining."
"Mmm, perhaps. I think, really, she just needs to suck it up a bit. But you try telling her that." Roa rolls her eyes. "Don't really. I'm joking. She'll be fine."
"Well, this is her first time on the sands, isn't it?" Laelle replies smooth, but not quite easy. "One can hope that she will settle into it. I... know nothing of dragon behavior," she admits, slightly defeated by her own ignorance. "I wish I could offer more helpful suggestions." And no, she does not seem eager to tell the queen anything.
"It is. They all take to it differently." Roa again leans a shoulder against the railing, swallowing down a yawn. "She's just...I don't know. She's seeing to the eggs. She's watchful of them. She won't leave them. I suppose she just wishes they could bounce along after her and she could go out and go swimming.
"Perhaps, at some point, she will trust him to watch them for her and she can take a break?" Laelle offers weakly, casting her uncertain glance from queen to bronze. Of course his pathetic expression does nothing to encourage hopefulness. Meanwhile, the Weyrwoman yawns. "Would you like to sit?" she attempts. "I could have a meal sent here, if you have to stay."
"Faranth," Roa sighs. "I'm -fine-. Truly. Cross my heart. Stop that, or I'll develop an illness simply by your convincing." The weyrwoman smirks. "I doubt she will. Or, at least, they don't that I know of. They don't even leave to hunt. One of the other dragons has to bring food to them. I suppose it's no fun, coping with such overpowering maternal instincts. Can I ask you something?" This last tacked onto the rest with hardly any change of her easy tone.
The first of Roa's comments is met with a deferential nod, readily acquiescing with a small, obedient smile. The discussion of dragon habits has her attentive, archiving this new information, tidbits of Roa's life as it currently stands. The last, however, tips her chin to the side, ready. "Of course."
"I was just wondering, that is what are you...the weyrleader..." Roa presses her lips into a thin and frustrated line before huffing softly and trying again. "R'vain is not a subtle man. I presume you've noticed, then, that he's taken an...interest in you. Do you...know what you plan to do? In regards to that?"
That. Laelle's expression only evens for the change of topic, returning to its usual mild mask if only because the expectancy of her brow has now ebbed. "I would presume that such interest is levied at every female in the Weyr," she says, a wryness in her voice that doesn't quite turn her lips.
"Mmm. Not -every- female, but a generous number of them, admittedly." Roa rolls her eyes and notes, idly, "I have a chart, if you want to peruse it. I don't know if he would have let his attentions drift if you'd made yourself scarce, but taking the job means you -won't- be scarce and, I assure you, he'll take the opportunity to pursue, ah, his suit."
'Chart' gets a look, but otherwise, Laelle seems unperturbed by this description of the Weyrleaders activities. And yet, "If I'd made myself scarce?" she queries, or more precisely, queries the implication that she had not been so.
"Avoided, you know, the council room and things. Look..." the weyrwoman winces at her own words and shakes her head a little, eyes closing and fingers pinching the bridge of her nose. "Sorry. It's not my business, really. I just...you should let me know. If this is something I should be discreetly ignoring or not worrying about one way or the other, or finding ways to help keep him off you. It's fine, whatever you wish to do. I'd just, it would make my life a bit easier. Knowing." Her hand lowers again and she blinks over at Laelle.
"I can avoid the council room if you prefer," Laelle says without hesitation. Her eyes, though, they are watching that wince, the way Roa pinches her nose. But she claims, "I do not think it is something that you should feel the need to worry about. I do not anticipate that his notice should in any way impede my work."
"It's not about what -I'd- prefer, Laelle," the weyrwoman notes quietly. She closes her eyes again and then sighs. "Right. I think I am going to get some air. And if you say I shouldn't worry, then I won't. Just, please, do speak up if you start to feel...well....he is what he is. "
"Certainly," Laelle promises with a tip of her head. "Shall I leave you?" she wonders, waiting to make sure she is being dismissed.
"I think we're set? And I'll see you tomorrow?" The weyrwoman offers another little smile. "I'm glad you decided to give the position a try."
Laelle nods, "Yes, tomorrow," she confirms. She takes a step back, preparing to leave. "I'm glad also. I look forward to beginning," she says, her smile small but genuine, perhaps even a touch warm. "I hope you feel better." And then she turns to leave.