Do I piss you off, Benden?
Who: Reyce and Laelle
Where: Caucus Commons
What: Reyce and Laelle have more stilted conversation!
Afternoon. Bustling. Idle students, with no classes to distract them, have congregated in the commons: discussing, gossiping, playing cards, commiserating over their finished studies. Among them is Seleda, in the thick of a gaggle of young women who chirp and chatter away. On their outskirts, close enough to overhear but far enough to be notably separate, is Laelle. She sits alone on one of the couches, feet up and beneath her, nestled against the arm. There's a notebook in her lap that she stares at intently and she holds her pencil with the end tucked into the corner of her mouth.
A bundle of jackets blows in with the wind from the bowl, a Bendenite tucked in somewhere underneath it. He eschews many practical items like scarves, hats, and earmuffs, but apparently has no problem with wearing three (progressively thicker) jackets at a time. At the door, he's stopped for a long time unwinding himself from these coats and hanging them each up on the same hook by the door. Then a detour takes him to get some klah, a few crackers set out for snacking, and retreat to a couch to the side of Laelle's, not far from it.
Here we go again. Reyce eating. Laelle reading. This time there is no loud spoon to distract the Nerat women from her work. The slight furrow between her curved brows shows her to be particularly absorbed. Her jaw starts to slip from side to side, lips tightening on the end of the pencil only to take it in her teeth instead. Even an outburst from Seleda and her friends, peals of high, giggling laugher, doesn't seem to make any impact.
It makes an impact on Reyce. He shoots them an irritated look over his shoulder, silently taking note of the gigglers before he turns back to his own space. On the way, he notices the nearby Laelle, with her pencil, his eyes pausing to narrow over the register. He does not pause for long: he has klah to drink and crackers to eat, and he goes about doing these.
Laelle's silent intensity turns into a heavy breath. She pauses, her dark-rimmed eyes blinking down at the page as she breathes in again with a flare of sensitive nostrils, sniffing as she catches a whiff of something in the air. That something? It finally lifts her attention from her work and she looks up to Reyce for the first time. But her eyes doen't seek the klah or the crackers, no it's not the food that she smells. Her low-lidded gaze is resting on him, on his face.
Reyce is becoming more and more attuned to her silent stares, and this one takes very little time to draw his attention back up and over to her. This time he just looks back - the 'what now' seems to be implied, but this time his expression stays bland.
A knowing smile, quiet and reserved as is usual for Laelle, but there nonetheless. Her lips curl slowly and slightly as a single brow deepens its arch. That's all Reyce's implied question gets for answer.
Both Reyce's brows deepen in the opposite direction, a heavy frown pulled over his level expression and bringing just the slightest twitch of his lip with it. "You have something to say," he begins, "it'd piss me off less if you just said it." Leaving the choice up to her, from this point, he tips his head back, eyes raised to the ceiling, and pours a drink of klah down his throat.
"Do I piss you off, Benden?" Laelle answers without a falter in her smile, despite the probability that he'll say yes. Those calm, insistent eyes stay on him as he shows her his throat. She lifts her pencil again to tap the end against her chin.
Reyce shows her his throat only for a short time, drink finished quickly and then swept back as he pops his lips together to get the wetness off them. "Yeah," he answers, turning that probability into a certainty, and looks back at her through hooded eyes.
Her smile actually deepens for that, if briefly, before she speaks. "Well," Laelle tells him, pausing there to tap that pencil against her chin. "If you wanted to know, you could just bypass being pissed and ask me." The teasing fades from her lips then and the angle of her brow changes as if the expression might be followed with a shrug.
"Tired of asking," Reyce informs her flatly. His brow doesn't change, but he actually does follow up with a shrug.
"Because you ask so often?" Laelle says, not bothering to hide that she's surprised by this thought. "So you would rather I share more..." she gestures with the pencil, presenting the word, "freely?" It makes her smile once more, another quiet and strangely satisfied expression. "That doesn't sound like you. Of course, I don't know you well, which is why I don't presume that you would want to know what I'm thinking in the first place." That single expressive brow now arches in question, or perhaps challenge.
Reyce brings one of the crackers to his mouth while she's talking. He's been keeping them in a pile on his lap - none too clean, but clean enough for him, apparently - so that he doesn't have to hold them, but now he picks up a couple and slides them into his mouth while she's speaking. He gets through all three by the time she's done making her challenge. "Don't know what you presume," he answers that expressive brow. "Just piss me off. Can't decide if you've got something to say or not, so act like you do. Nobody knows."
The shrug may have taken a while, but it comes now. One of Laelle's thin shoulders lifts and falls, refolding the swag of her neckline across her chest. "I suppose you'll have to reconcile yourself to that. Ask, or deal." She takes another deep breath, this one without excessive sniffing, and glances back at her notes as if she half-assumes silence is bound to follow once again.
Reyce washes his crackers down with a mouthful of klah, holding it in his mouth with cheeks puffed when she responds. The first sound that greets her reply is the sound of him sucking liquid through his teeth, and after that - after he swallows it - a faint pop. "Okay." His shrugs are not delayed, and another one lifts now as he falls into silence.
Laelle doesn't seem to mind the silence. She reads a bit longer and then takes a moment to glance over at Seleda, who, along with her friends, is getting up to relocate. The two girls exchange a series of head-tilts and nods that act as communication, then Laelle looks back to her notes and crosses out a line or something. "So..." she says to Reyce without looking up.
Reyce has spent the silence working through his assembled snacks. The crackers gone, he's down to a drink of klah now, tilting it back when she speaks again. His eyes roll over to her, but he doesn't offer anything verbal in response.
Laelle's glance slowly slips to the darkened corner of her eye, looking at him sidelong as a smile start to form on her lips once more. "It's been nice talking to you, Reyce," she says quietly, sincere. She flips the cover of her notes closed and unfolds herself from the couch before heading off in the direction Seleda has just gone.
Where: Caucus Commons
What: Reyce and Laelle have more stilted conversation!
Afternoon. Bustling. Idle students, with no classes to distract them, have congregated in the commons: discussing, gossiping, playing cards, commiserating over their finished studies. Among them is Seleda, in the thick of a gaggle of young women who chirp and chatter away. On their outskirts, close enough to overhear but far enough to be notably separate, is Laelle. She sits alone on one of the couches, feet up and beneath her, nestled against the arm. There's a notebook in her lap that she stares at intently and she holds her pencil with the end tucked into the corner of her mouth.
A bundle of jackets blows in with the wind from the bowl, a Bendenite tucked in somewhere underneath it. He eschews many practical items like scarves, hats, and earmuffs, but apparently has no problem with wearing three (progressively thicker) jackets at a time. At the door, he's stopped for a long time unwinding himself from these coats and hanging them each up on the same hook by the door. Then a detour takes him to get some klah, a few crackers set out for snacking, and retreat to a couch to the side of Laelle's, not far from it.
Here we go again. Reyce eating. Laelle reading. This time there is no loud spoon to distract the Nerat women from her work. The slight furrow between her curved brows shows her to be particularly absorbed. Her jaw starts to slip from side to side, lips tightening on the end of the pencil only to take it in her teeth instead. Even an outburst from Seleda and her friends, peals of high, giggling laugher, doesn't seem to make any impact.
It makes an impact on Reyce. He shoots them an irritated look over his shoulder, silently taking note of the gigglers before he turns back to his own space. On the way, he notices the nearby Laelle, with her pencil, his eyes pausing to narrow over the register. He does not pause for long: he has klah to drink and crackers to eat, and he goes about doing these.
Laelle's silent intensity turns into a heavy breath. She pauses, her dark-rimmed eyes blinking down at the page as she breathes in again with a flare of sensitive nostrils, sniffing as she catches a whiff of something in the air. That something? It finally lifts her attention from her work and she looks up to Reyce for the first time. But her eyes doen't seek the klah or the crackers, no it's not the food that she smells. Her low-lidded gaze is resting on him, on his face.
Reyce is becoming more and more attuned to her silent stares, and this one takes very little time to draw his attention back up and over to her. This time he just looks back - the 'what now' seems to be implied, but this time his expression stays bland.
A knowing smile, quiet and reserved as is usual for Laelle, but there nonetheless. Her lips curl slowly and slightly as a single brow deepens its arch. That's all Reyce's implied question gets for answer.
Both Reyce's brows deepen in the opposite direction, a heavy frown pulled over his level expression and bringing just the slightest twitch of his lip with it. "You have something to say," he begins, "it'd piss me off less if you just said it." Leaving the choice up to her, from this point, he tips his head back, eyes raised to the ceiling, and pours a drink of klah down his throat.
"Do I piss you off, Benden?" Laelle answers without a falter in her smile, despite the probability that he'll say yes. Those calm, insistent eyes stay on him as he shows her his throat. She lifts her pencil again to tap the end against her chin.
Reyce shows her his throat only for a short time, drink finished quickly and then swept back as he pops his lips together to get the wetness off them. "Yeah," he answers, turning that probability into a certainty, and looks back at her through hooded eyes.
Her smile actually deepens for that, if briefly, before she speaks. "Well," Laelle tells him, pausing there to tap that pencil against her chin. "If you wanted to know, you could just bypass being pissed and ask me." The teasing fades from her lips then and the angle of her brow changes as if the expression might be followed with a shrug.
"Tired of asking," Reyce informs her flatly. His brow doesn't change, but he actually does follow up with a shrug.
"Because you ask so often?" Laelle says, not bothering to hide that she's surprised by this thought. "So you would rather I share more..." she gestures with the pencil, presenting the word, "freely?" It makes her smile once more, another quiet and strangely satisfied expression. "That doesn't sound like you. Of course, I don't know you well, which is why I don't presume that you would want to know what I'm thinking in the first place." That single expressive brow now arches in question, or perhaps challenge.
Reyce brings one of the crackers to his mouth while she's talking. He's been keeping them in a pile on his lap - none too clean, but clean enough for him, apparently - so that he doesn't have to hold them, but now he picks up a couple and slides them into his mouth while she's speaking. He gets through all three by the time she's done making her challenge. "Don't know what you presume," he answers that expressive brow. "Just piss me off. Can't decide if you've got something to say or not, so act like you do. Nobody knows."
The shrug may have taken a while, but it comes now. One of Laelle's thin shoulders lifts and falls, refolding the swag of her neckline across her chest. "I suppose you'll have to reconcile yourself to that. Ask, or deal." She takes another deep breath, this one without excessive sniffing, and glances back at her notes as if she half-assumes silence is bound to follow once again.
Reyce washes his crackers down with a mouthful of klah, holding it in his mouth with cheeks puffed when she responds. The first sound that greets her reply is the sound of him sucking liquid through his teeth, and after that - after he swallows it - a faint pop. "Okay." His shrugs are not delayed, and another one lifts now as he falls into silence.
Laelle doesn't seem to mind the silence. She reads a bit longer and then takes a moment to glance over at Seleda, who, along with her friends, is getting up to relocate. The two girls exchange a series of head-tilts and nods that act as communication, then Laelle looks back to her notes and crosses out a line or something. "So..." she says to Reyce without looking up.
Reyce has spent the silence working through his assembled snacks. The crackers gone, he's down to a drink of klah now, tilting it back when she speaks again. His eyes roll over to her, but he doesn't offer anything verbal in response.
Laelle's glance slowly slips to the darkened corner of her eye, looking at him sidelong as a smile start to form on her lips once more. "It's been nice talking to you, Reyce," she says quietly, sincere. She flips the cover of her notes closed and unfolds herself from the couch before heading off in the direction Seleda has just gone.