Log: Letters and Skipping-Stones
Who: Carisandra, Lujayn, Milani, Niena, Louvaen
When: Afternoon, 7/26/15
Where: Lake Shore, High Reaches Weyr
What: Letter-writing and skipping stones by the lake shore. Milani is typically blunt. And a little flirty.
Lujayn heads towards the lake shore, one hand already scooping up an opportune rock while the other holds a small bag. She waves to Carisa and Niena, glad for the cool breezes that relieve some of the stifling summer sun. "Sorry for the wait, I had to talk some ink out of the scribe. He didn't believe I actually wanted to write something.." A rueful smirk crosses her face. "How's the rock-throwing so far?" She sits herself down, removing a few pieces of scrap hide from the bag along with a pen and the ink. "I do intend to write that letter. Somehow, in between skipping stones and the firestone."
Carisandra grins as she answers. "Still looking for proper skipping stones." and she shows Niena the two smooth rocks she's found, each a half a finger length or more having at least one flat'ish side to it. "The flatter the stone the better." Looking up at Lujayn "Good luck managing to fit that in. Bet you don't finish it till late tonight after bedtime."
Niena nods studiously and begins searching, putting even more care into it than she did with the pebbles for the necklace. After a few minutes she has four potential skipping rocks.
Carisandra and Niena are scavenging the shores for rocks to skip, while Lujayn sits nearby writing a letter. "No harm in trying," The tall girl maintains, carefully filling the pen and contemplating her words. "Dear...everyone?" She scribbles, unsure. "Wonder who'll end up reading this." Her other hand fingers the rock she found earlier, watching the other two candidates.
Carisandra nods and finds a couple more stones. "The trick is how you throw it. Like I said, I never get more than 3 skips out of any of these. You have to throw it so the flat side hits the water at just the right angle." She pauses and grins at Lujayn. "You can probably show her better than I can."
Milani ambles up from the direction of the pond, hair still quite wet and dripping down the back of her dress. A rolled up towel is fitted under her arm and her sandals flap a little as she walks, making a soft *snick snick* sound against the gravelly shoreline. "Oh hey there!" she calls out as she draws near. "Skipping stones?"
Niena watches Carisandra closely, then tries with her first stone. Part of her problem is that her wrist is all wrong, and she ends up throwing overhand rather than skimming it. The stone makes a half-hearted attempt at coming back up, then plunks.
Lujayn nods, looking away from her nearly blank page. "Sure," She hops up, ink dotting the ground around her. "I've never tried to teach anyone. Just hold it like this," Arranging her index and thumb around it, Lu demonstrates easily, "Then pull it back and flick it out with your wrist, more like it's going to the side instead of straight out." She does so, letting the stone spin through the air and onto the water, skipping once before fading into the depths. "Hey, keep trying. It almost went for it."
Milani pauses just shy of the other girls and peeks through as Lujayn demonstrates. "Yep, that looks about right. S'all about keeping it flat to the water before you toss it." She shoots a glance towards the writing stuff Lujayn abandoned. "Whatcha writing?" Gee. Aren't we curious today.
Holding the stone pretty close to the way Lujayn showed Niena, Carisandra casts one out and it gives a halfhearted bounce and plops. "Yup. Lots of practice." she mutters to herself. "Give it a try Niena."
Niena nods, her expression one of almost painful concentration, and adjust her finger and thumb to something approximating what Lujayn did. As she begins the throw, though, she twists her wrist so that the stone once again belly flops. She gives an apologetic smile.
Lujayn twists around. "Hi, Milani. Carisa gave me the idea of writing back to Fort, but I haven't gotten very far," She grins. "Just the greeting." Now wandering back to the abandoned hide, scouting for rocks along the way, she bends down to retrieve it. Straightening in time to witness Niena's next attempt, now watching intently. "That's the way," She encourages patiently. "It'll happen sooner or later."
Milani sets her towel down and perches on a nearby rock, watching the attempts at stone-skipping. "Keep that wrist straight!" she chirps with an encouraging grin for Niena and Carisandra. "Oh? Miss your friends and family still? Writing's good. I need to write to someone myself soon."
Carisandra tries again, this time getting one full bounce out of it but a belly flop when it lands. "Can you tell I don't do this very often?" she asks no one in particular. Her next cast zooms straight into the water with barely a plop. "Hey, that was a pretty good dive. Now why can't I dive like that?"
Niena tries again, this time managing not to throw it or to twist her wrist, and is rewarded with a skip. She squeals happily and jumps up and down. "I did it! Thank you!"
"Not that much," Lujayn finds herself admitting. "Just those few days at first, but lately I've been so busy...haven't had time to think about Fort." She looks the barest bit guilty for forgetting, glancing momentarily downwards. "Carisa's mum writes all the time, and I thought maybe I should let everyone know how I'm doing." She stoops to examine a few rocks, but leaves them all where they lay. "Who d'you write to?" One curiosity to another. Lu grins broadly at Niena's success, catching the glee with soft laughter. "That was a good one!"
"Well I guess that's a good thing then!" Milani says encouragingly to Lu. "Being too busy to be homesick, because I'll bet it's an awful feeling." The tall assistant headwoman slips her sandals off, drawing her feet up onto the sun-warmed surface of the rock and curls her toes against it. "To my brothers, my grandmothers, my grandfather." Beat. "And I'm planning to write to A'son and tell him his dragon's a wherryhead for going to catch an /Istan/ queen."
Niena tries again, still concentrating hard. Again she gets a skip and smiles in relief, as if afraid the last time was just a fluke.
Lujayn considers the other girl for a moment. "I'll leave these here for you," She decides not long after, taking her unfinished letter but leaving the ink and blank pages of hide for Milani. "No time like the present, right?" She scoops up that stone she'd been eyeing, stepping forwards and offering it to Niena. "Try this one, it's pretty flat. You might get two." A wistful smile. "They'll be missing me in firestone sacks by now. Good luck with the stones." She waves to those remaining, setting back off across the bowl.
"Ha, thanks Lujayn," Milani eyes the remaining hide and ink a bit suspiciously then slides to her feet, also ducking down to catch up a couple of different stones. "Good luck with the sacking, Lu!" she calls after the runner-candidate, then stands beside Niena to observe her next toss.
Niena doesn't concentrate so hard this time, her forehead remaining unwrinkled. As a result she's more relaxed, and the rock Lujan bequeathed does, in fact, skip twice. Simple mind, simple pleasures; Niena giggles happily.
Milani smiles as Niena gets those two skips. "Nice one!" she congratulates and hands over another stone. "Try this one next and relax just like last time. It's supposed to be a good mind-clearing thing to do."
Niena nods and concentrates on relaxing, then catches herself and relaxes for real. She gets about a skip and a half this time, and beams at Milani.
Milani nods again and hands over that last stone in her hand. "Keep going, get more like this one," then she leans over to pluck up the hide, ink and pen that Lujayn left behind and re-perches, chewing on the end of the pen thoughtfully. "Dear A'son ..." she murmurs under her breath and writes that down.
Niena tries again, getting two skips. Then she starts searching eagerly for more flat-ish rocks, skipping them as she finds them. When she has a streak of two skip tosses she meanders back and asks "Are you really going to call Nikoth a whereryhead?"
Milani chews on the end of the pen again, considering. "Hmm, I dunno, maybe, maybe not." And she writes again, handwriting a little loose from the fact that she's propping the hide on rock. "I hope you're enjoying the weather at Ista." Beat. "That's polite, isn't it?"
Niena nods, sitting down on the sand and pulling her knees to her chin. "It sounds good to me, at least. Though I wouldn't write it to someone here in the middle of winter.
"Well no, that'd just be mean, unless you know that they /like/ winter, which you know, I /do/." Milani dimples over at Niena and chews on the end of her pen some more. "I think I'll ask about Nikoth at least. Make sure he didn't like, get hurt in the flight or anything." And she writes a couple of sentences to that effect. "D'you do much letter-writing, Niena?"
Niena shakes her head. "I've never had to, really. Anyone I needed to contact has always been here."
"Even grandparents and so on?" Milani asks curiously, still writing, apparently having caught some form of inspiration. "My family's all over the place, but it's a little different writing to Ays."
Niena grins at that. "No, I think my family's been at the Reaches since the first crossing. How is it different writing to him? Was he your Weyrmate or something?"
"That long? Really? Wow." Milani continues to write, humming a little as she goes. Niena's remark brings her eyes up though and a wry smile crosses her lips, just the faintest hint of color in her cheeks. "Noooo. Got a little bit of a thing for him, but ... no. Besides, for all I may flirt and play around a little, I've never y'know, actually had sex before, and I think that's kind of a requirement for weyrmates." Oh so blunt. "So that's why it's a little funny writing to him. Because see, do I write to him like a friend, or just someone I know, or tell him all these things rolling around in my heart, yeah?"
Niena says "Ah." She ponders this for a while. "I guess it is sort of a requirement. Maybe write to him like a friend and say you would like to talk to him sometime, and then tell him about the stuff in your heart when you're in the same place as he is?"
Milani laughs a little. "Ohh, he knows. It's just more a case of ... do I bring it up again or not." She considers the hide a little further and shakes her head. "I think ... not. I'll just write like the friend that I am and leave it be. He's got plenty enough to worry about I bet without having some silly girl writing him /love/ letters on top of it all." She smirks slightly and continues writing. "There. All the news from me, asking all the right and mostly polite questions, though 'I hope your head didn't hurt too much after the flight' might not be /the/ most polite. Anyway. All done!" And she signs her name with a flourish. She does doodle on the margins further though, curlicues and flowers and things and nudges a rock with her toe. "Toss another, see if you can beat two skips?
Niena nods and picks up the rock, heading closer to the lake. This toss is much more natural even then those before, and she gets two and a half skips from it. "Almost!" she says cheerfully."
"Woo!" Milani cheers and scribbles a few more decorative doodles on her letter, then folds it up and slips it into her pocket. After that she slides to her feet and pads over to hunker down and pick out another pair of rocks. She hands one of this to Niena and the other, she draws her arm back with and launches, sending it out in a neat arc over the water so that it skips five times before sinking. "Shells that's satisfying!"
Niena grins. "You tied Lujayn's best one!" She flicks her wrist more confidently now, finally getting a full three skips. "And now I tied Risa! They were right, this is fun!" And not working to have fun, either.
"Yay! And I did? Huh. Well then, have to try to beat the record-holder, yeah?" Milani's eyes sparkle and she goes hunting for more rocks, plucking up the few flat ones that remain in this little corner of the shore, offering one over to Niena again, then standing to send her own flying. Only four.
Milani hands over another rock and winks at Niena. "Okay, come on Niena, we've gotta beat those two!" And she hefts the last rock in her hand, closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. She waits a few more seconds, letting her whole body relax then lets loose that stone to fly. And fly it does, leaving six concentric sets of rings on the surface of the lake before disappearing.
Niena ohs, clearly impressed. "That was a good one!" She says. Now it's her turn, and she furrows her brow in concentration. The result is predictable; only one skip. Still, Niena smiles. "Better than when I started!"
Reaching over gently, Milani makes to squeeze Niena's shoulder encouragingly. "Yes! Much better. And it'll just keep getting better the more you do it." She smiles and wanders away a little distance since they've pretty much denuded the area of skippable stones, hunkering down again barefoot as she finds one that looks likely.
Niena waves happily to Louvaen. "I got some rocks to skip! Enough times that Iknow it's not a fluke. Want to skip with us? We'll need to find more flat rocks a bit away; we've used them all up."
Louvaen is on the long walk across the bowl to the barracks when he catches sight of the girls by the lake. Meandering over, he lifts a hand to return Niena's wave when the other candidate spots him. "Sure, why not?" he agrees with easy cheer. His steps pick up into a little jog to close the distance.
Turning slightly, at Niena's hail to Louvaen, Milani shakes almost-dry hair back over her shoulders and smiles up at Lou. "Have a rock?" she offers to the Candidate, holding another mostly flat specimen out on her palm, though she's still hunkered down, one knee partly bent to the ground.
Niena wanders along the beach, collecting a pile of any rocks which are even vaguely flat, some more so than others. When she has a veritable armload she returns to where MIlani and Louvaen are.
Louvaen's breath has the slightest pant to it as he pulls to a stop beside the girls. A hand goes up to ruffle fingers through his hair as he gives a little nod hello. He brings with him the musky scents of dust and leather as well as a hint of the sweet smell of glycerin saddle soap. "Thank you," he says with a grin as he reaches out to accept the rock from Milani. He holds it in his hand a moment, thumb running over the smooth planes.
"Let's see if I remember how to do this," he says, turning arched brows over towards Niena. Taking a couple side steps to get clear, he hauls off and side-arms the rock towards the lake. It skips once, then wobbles high and lands with a plunk another few feet off. His brows tick up, a little moue touching briefly on his lips: not good, not bad.
Milani shifts her weight back onto her heels and upright. "Seems like you're not the only one who needs practice, Niena," the assistant headwoman says with light laughter in her voice, eyes sparkling at Louvaen. "Lu and Risa were teaching today, I've taken ovr practice," she notes for Lou's benefit and hefts the other rock in her hand thoughtfully, then passes it over to him. "And look, now we've got plenty of samples to use."
Niena selects one of the better specimens and forces herself to relax again, then sends it spinning. This one skips three times, evoking yet another smile from the candidate. She turns to watch the other candidate try his luck again.
Amusement sparks across Louvaen's features at Millie's words. A wince and a chuckle pair with a hand lifted to his chest, playing as if she'd wounded him. "It was only my first throw," he protests in good humor. Nodding as he's filled in about the practice, he looks to the pile Niena's collected. "Thanks for finding these, Niena," he chirps. "Now I won't have to feel so bad for wasting Milani's stone." Eyes slide narrow and teasing to the girl as he plucks the second of her offered rocks from her fingers. It's bounced in his palm as he watches Niena's three-skip throw.
"Alright," he looks from one girl to the other, shaking out his arms dramatically. "Here goes." Aaand - this time the rock bounces twice, barely, before disappearing below the surface. He pouts.
"Oh pish tosh, not wasted, just a warm up!" Milani answers with a bright beaming smile and briefly reaches over to rest her hand lightly on Lou's arm before she pulls her fingers away to let him skip that stone. Her lips quirk a little and she takes a rock from the pile Niena brought. Lets her arm go loose, shoots Louvaen a pointed, but merry look, and skips that rock four times across the lake. "I get /lots/, of practice."
Niena picks up another rock and again sends it spinning. The angle is off, however, because although it almost surfaces again it actually doesn't. Niena shakes her arm and says "I think my firestone sacking yesterday is catching up to me. I'll keep practicing now that I have the hang of it, though." She shakes her arm again and heads toward the bowl.
Louvaen can only lift his brows and then watch helplessly as Milani's rock goes flying smoothly out over the water. He takes a breath as if to say something, but then just lets it end in a little glare out over the water. Niena's words pull his attention back, and he favors the other candidate with a sympathetic smile. "Ugh, it'll do that," the firestone sacking.
"See you later, Niena." He watches the candidate go a moment before shifting a sly smile back to Milani, knuckles coming up to rest on his hips. "Lots of practice," he says with a quirked eyebrow. "Do I now know where to send Hayda, if I catch her looking for you?"
Milani lifts a hand to wave after the toss, 'See you later Niena! Hope your arm feels better." She laughs merrily at Louvaen's hip-fisted stance and tilts her head to the side slightly. "Maaaaybe. Though I'm usually only out here when I'm off-duty. Like now!" And she makes big innocent eyes at him. "C'mon, Lou, show me what you've got. I just /bet/ you can do better coming from Tillek and all."
"Mmmhumm," Louvaen draws out, but it's more playful then accusatory. Those big innocent eyes make him chuckle and look away. "Okay, alright," he psyches himself up, darting a sideways glance at Millani as he crouches down by the pile. He riffles through the stones, rejecting that one, lifting this one up for closer inspection before tossing it down again, finally choosing /that/ one. Standing, he takes a moment to stare down the lake. And then his arm whips out in a fluid motion, back toe dragging forward. ...three, four, five, *plop*! A slow grin spreads across his face. Turning, he ambles a few steps towards the girl. "Satisfied?"
Milani laughs merrily again and waits while Lou makes a choice, hand propped on hip. She watches the toss, the five skips and gives a thumbs up. "Niiiiiice." Her head bobs up and down a couple of times, then she bends to fetch up another rock herself and skips it the same number of times after a slowly exhaled breath. "I toss rocks a lot when I need to think."
Louvaen is looking rather pleased with himself, really. He stops behind the pile of stones, leaning to grab just any one up this time. Her toss is watched, a slow nod given as she matches his skips. One hand setting at his waist, the other jostles the rock idly as he tilts a look to Milani. "Seems a good pairing," he comments lightly. "What do you think about?"
Hunkering down again, Milani picks out her next rock and looks up at the Candidate. "It's relaxing too. Sometimes if I need to /not/ think I do it too. And shells ... all sorts of things." Beat. "Usually stuff that's bothering me. Like, when I was embarrassed because I spilled soup all over a wingleader one time."
"I think my hobby helps me do that. Not think," Louvaen shares with a nod. His brows peak at the soup spilling. "Oh dear," he breathes, sympathy cut through with a chuckle. His hand stops bouncing the stone, fingers closing loosely over its smooth surfaces. "That doesn't sound good. Was he very angry?"
"Oh you mean all the wood carving stuff?" Milani inquires curiously as she turns her chosen stone around in her hands. Her shoulders lift a little and she nods. "Yeah, pretty well so. That was turns ago now, when I started growing. I was a little um ... klutzy back then." She straightens once more and nods towards the stone in his hand. "Your toss."
"Yes. It's easy to get focused on the feeling and the doing." Louvaen's fingers splay open, thumb holding the stone secure to his one palm, as he gestures towards an invisible object before him. His smile turns soft, eyes lifting back to Milani. "You know, I can't imagine you being klutzy," he notes gallantly. But then she's putting the attention back on his rock. The young man holds his hand in front of him, staring forlornly at it a moment. "I think I may have to retire, given that last throw," he says hopeful, peeking up sideways at the girl with a lopsided smile.
"Really? I don't really -- make anything," Milani explains, listening to him with open curiosity. "I mean, I manage to like, mend and stuff. But everything I'm good at is up here." She taps the side of her head. "Numbers. Remembering things." The little compliment brings forth a face-lighting smile. "Why thank you!" A laugh follows, bright and merry. "Oh well, if you're /not/ having fun, you don't have to. I just like to do it." And she turns and throws her own stone. It's a careless toss, only three skips. Her shoulders lift in a 'hey what can you do' motion. "The book's good by the by."
"Well, I don't make anything very useful. Or very well," Louvaen admits. He looks a little embarrassed at her pointing out that the stone throwing should be fun. Still, he only tosses the rock back and forth between his two palms instead of making any move to chuck it at the lake. Word of the book brightens his expression again. "Is it? I'm glad you think so. My foster sister found it at Harper when we were there. It was one of her favorites. I was glad to find it in the Records kept here."
"I think making something, whether it's useful or not is better than not being able to make anything at all. But I know what I do is good. Not everyone can hold big numbers in their head like me." And her shoulders lift again just a little before she's nodding again enthusiastically. "Oh yes. Thank you so much for pulling it out for me. It's an interesting story. Sad too I bet, though it hasn't /gotten/ sad yet." She eyes the rock being tossed back and forth and reaches out gentle fingers to still it. "Want to go get a drink? Sun's going down." And her head tilts towards the lengthening shadow of a spindle across the lake.
Louvaen gives a sincere nod at her shrug, supportive of the importance of her numerical abilities. A soft quirked smile is given at Millani's guess about the direction of the book. "It is," is all he'll say on that point. His eyes drop as her fingers reach out to stop his fidgeting. "I don't know," he hesitates, but he doesn't pull his hand away. "Don't you think I'm kind of stinky?" His brows go up, nose wrinkling as a half-grin, half-grimace stretches on his mouth.
"Stables?" she guesses, brows lifting a little and shakes her head. "Not really. Unless you don't like that particular smell. It doesn't bother me. Old leather and runners. Firestone's a lot worse." Milani smiles at him warmly now and swings an arm out towards the lake. "Could always swim it off though."
"Stables," Louvaen confirms. His eyes search her face, a grin appearing at the gesture. He looks out at the water, considering a moment. "No," he decides after a moment. "I'd rather not be squishing in my shoes." He turns his back to the lake and offers the crook of his elbow. "If you really don't mind? A drink sounds nice."
"And whyever, would you be squishing in your shoes?" Milani asks, all big round innocent eyes again. But she picks up the abandoned loose hides and ink Lujayn left behind earlier and slides her feet back into her sandals before setting her hand lightly into the crook of his elbow. "I don't. I worked in there often enough myself before I got all knotted up. And I'd be delighted. I'll even winkle them out of the bar tender for free."
Louvaen shakes his head at her dubious innocence, chuckling. He waits as she gathers the writing things, finally throwing his stone as she does so. It arcs high over the water, not a skipping toss at all, and plunks out of sight in the deeper waters. "Free drinks are always tastier," he says brightly, smiling as she comes back to his arm. "I'm interested to see this winkling of yours at work," is added with amusement. The young man leaves the lake behind and leads over towards the Snowasis.
"Sure!" chirps Milani brightly juggling the stuff she picked up, which also includes her towel from earlier. "You know, it's a fine art. Winkling. I'm still learning of course, but I practice /all/ the time." With another beamingly wide smile she drops into step with Louvaen, chattering about random things like how sharding hot it is on the way across to the bar.
When: Afternoon, 7/26/15
Where: Lake Shore, High Reaches Weyr
What: Letter-writing and skipping stones by the lake shore. Milani is typically blunt. And a little flirty.
Lujayn heads towards the lake shore, one hand already scooping up an opportune rock while the other holds a small bag. She waves to Carisa and Niena, glad for the cool breezes that relieve some of the stifling summer sun. "Sorry for the wait, I had to talk some ink out of the scribe. He didn't believe I actually wanted to write something.." A rueful smirk crosses her face. "How's the rock-throwing so far?" She sits herself down, removing a few pieces of scrap hide from the bag along with a pen and the ink. "I do intend to write that letter. Somehow, in between skipping stones and the firestone."
Carisandra grins as she answers. "Still looking for proper skipping stones." and she shows Niena the two smooth rocks she's found, each a half a finger length or more having at least one flat'ish side to it. "The flatter the stone the better." Looking up at Lujayn "Good luck managing to fit that in. Bet you don't finish it till late tonight after bedtime."
Niena nods studiously and begins searching, putting even more care into it than she did with the pebbles for the necklace. After a few minutes she has four potential skipping rocks.
Carisandra and Niena are scavenging the shores for rocks to skip, while Lujayn sits nearby writing a letter. "No harm in trying," The tall girl maintains, carefully filling the pen and contemplating her words. "Dear...everyone?" She scribbles, unsure. "Wonder who'll end up reading this." Her other hand fingers the rock she found earlier, watching the other two candidates.
Carisandra nods and finds a couple more stones. "The trick is how you throw it. Like I said, I never get more than 3 skips out of any of these. You have to throw it so the flat side hits the water at just the right angle." She pauses and grins at Lujayn. "You can probably show her better than I can."
Milani ambles up from the direction of the pond, hair still quite wet and dripping down the back of her dress. A rolled up towel is fitted under her arm and her sandals flap a little as she walks, making a soft *snick snick* sound against the gravelly shoreline. "Oh hey there!" she calls out as she draws near. "Skipping stones?"
Niena watches Carisandra closely, then tries with her first stone. Part of her problem is that her wrist is all wrong, and she ends up throwing overhand rather than skimming it. The stone makes a half-hearted attempt at coming back up, then plunks.
Lujayn nods, looking away from her nearly blank page. "Sure," She hops up, ink dotting the ground around her. "I've never tried to teach anyone. Just hold it like this," Arranging her index and thumb around it, Lu demonstrates easily, "Then pull it back and flick it out with your wrist, more like it's going to the side instead of straight out." She does so, letting the stone spin through the air and onto the water, skipping once before fading into the depths. "Hey, keep trying. It almost went for it."
Milani pauses just shy of the other girls and peeks through as Lujayn demonstrates. "Yep, that looks about right. S'all about keeping it flat to the water before you toss it." She shoots a glance towards the writing stuff Lujayn abandoned. "Whatcha writing?" Gee. Aren't we curious today.
Holding the stone pretty close to the way Lujayn showed Niena, Carisandra casts one out and it gives a halfhearted bounce and plops. "Yup. Lots of practice." she mutters to herself. "Give it a try Niena."
Niena nods, her expression one of almost painful concentration, and adjust her finger and thumb to something approximating what Lujayn did. As she begins the throw, though, she twists her wrist so that the stone once again belly flops. She gives an apologetic smile.
Lujayn twists around. "Hi, Milani. Carisa gave me the idea of writing back to Fort, but I haven't gotten very far," She grins. "Just the greeting." Now wandering back to the abandoned hide, scouting for rocks along the way, she bends down to retrieve it. Straightening in time to witness Niena's next attempt, now watching intently. "That's the way," She encourages patiently. "It'll happen sooner or later."
Milani sets her towel down and perches on a nearby rock, watching the attempts at stone-skipping. "Keep that wrist straight!" she chirps with an encouraging grin for Niena and Carisandra. "Oh? Miss your friends and family still? Writing's good. I need to write to someone myself soon."
Carisandra tries again, this time getting one full bounce out of it but a belly flop when it lands. "Can you tell I don't do this very often?" she asks no one in particular. Her next cast zooms straight into the water with barely a plop. "Hey, that was a pretty good dive. Now why can't I dive like that?"
Niena tries again, this time managing not to throw it or to twist her wrist, and is rewarded with a skip. She squeals happily and jumps up and down. "I did it! Thank you!"
"Not that much," Lujayn finds herself admitting. "Just those few days at first, but lately I've been so busy...haven't had time to think about Fort." She looks the barest bit guilty for forgetting, glancing momentarily downwards. "Carisa's mum writes all the time, and I thought maybe I should let everyone know how I'm doing." She stoops to examine a few rocks, but leaves them all where they lay. "Who d'you write to?" One curiosity to another. Lu grins broadly at Niena's success, catching the glee with soft laughter. "That was a good one!"
"Well I guess that's a good thing then!" Milani says encouragingly to Lu. "Being too busy to be homesick, because I'll bet it's an awful feeling." The tall assistant headwoman slips her sandals off, drawing her feet up onto the sun-warmed surface of the rock and curls her toes against it. "To my brothers, my grandmothers, my grandfather." Beat. "And I'm planning to write to A'son and tell him his dragon's a wherryhead for going to catch an /Istan/ queen."
Niena tries again, still concentrating hard. Again she gets a skip and smiles in relief, as if afraid the last time was just a fluke.
Lujayn considers the other girl for a moment. "I'll leave these here for you," She decides not long after, taking her unfinished letter but leaving the ink and blank pages of hide for Milani. "No time like the present, right?" She scoops up that stone she'd been eyeing, stepping forwards and offering it to Niena. "Try this one, it's pretty flat. You might get two." A wistful smile. "They'll be missing me in firestone sacks by now. Good luck with the stones." She waves to those remaining, setting back off across the bowl.
"Ha, thanks Lujayn," Milani eyes the remaining hide and ink a bit suspiciously then slides to her feet, also ducking down to catch up a couple of different stones. "Good luck with the sacking, Lu!" she calls after the runner-candidate, then stands beside Niena to observe her next toss.
Niena doesn't concentrate so hard this time, her forehead remaining unwrinkled. As a result she's more relaxed, and the rock Lujan bequeathed does, in fact, skip twice. Simple mind, simple pleasures; Niena giggles happily.
Milani smiles as Niena gets those two skips. "Nice one!" she congratulates and hands over another stone. "Try this one next and relax just like last time. It's supposed to be a good mind-clearing thing to do."
Niena nods and concentrates on relaxing, then catches herself and relaxes for real. She gets about a skip and a half this time, and beams at Milani.
Milani nods again and hands over that last stone in her hand. "Keep going, get more like this one," then she leans over to pluck up the hide, ink and pen that Lujayn left behind and re-perches, chewing on the end of the pen thoughtfully. "Dear A'son ..." she murmurs under her breath and writes that down.
Niena tries again, getting two skips. Then she starts searching eagerly for more flat-ish rocks, skipping them as she finds them. When she has a streak of two skip tosses she meanders back and asks "Are you really going to call Nikoth a whereryhead?"
Milani chews on the end of the pen again, considering. "Hmm, I dunno, maybe, maybe not." And she writes again, handwriting a little loose from the fact that she's propping the hide on rock. "I hope you're enjoying the weather at Ista." Beat. "That's polite, isn't it?"
Niena nods, sitting down on the sand and pulling her knees to her chin. "It sounds good to me, at least. Though I wouldn't write it to someone here in the middle of winter.
"Well no, that'd just be mean, unless you know that they /like/ winter, which you know, I /do/." Milani dimples over at Niena and chews on the end of her pen some more. "I think I'll ask about Nikoth at least. Make sure he didn't like, get hurt in the flight or anything." And she writes a couple of sentences to that effect. "D'you do much letter-writing, Niena?"
Niena shakes her head. "I've never had to, really. Anyone I needed to contact has always been here."
"Even grandparents and so on?" Milani asks curiously, still writing, apparently having caught some form of inspiration. "My family's all over the place, but it's a little different writing to Ays."
Niena grins at that. "No, I think my family's been at the Reaches since the first crossing. How is it different writing to him? Was he your Weyrmate or something?"
"That long? Really? Wow." Milani continues to write, humming a little as she goes. Niena's remark brings her eyes up though and a wry smile crosses her lips, just the faintest hint of color in her cheeks. "Noooo. Got a little bit of a thing for him, but ... no. Besides, for all I may flirt and play around a little, I've never y'know, actually had sex before, and I think that's kind of a requirement for weyrmates." Oh so blunt. "So that's why it's a little funny writing to him. Because see, do I write to him like a friend, or just someone I know, or tell him all these things rolling around in my heart, yeah?"
Niena says "Ah." She ponders this for a while. "I guess it is sort of a requirement. Maybe write to him like a friend and say you would like to talk to him sometime, and then tell him about the stuff in your heart when you're in the same place as he is?"
Milani laughs a little. "Ohh, he knows. It's just more a case of ... do I bring it up again or not." She considers the hide a little further and shakes her head. "I think ... not. I'll just write like the friend that I am and leave it be. He's got plenty enough to worry about I bet without having some silly girl writing him /love/ letters on top of it all." She smirks slightly and continues writing. "There. All the news from me, asking all the right and mostly polite questions, though 'I hope your head didn't hurt too much after the flight' might not be /the/ most polite. Anyway. All done!" And she signs her name with a flourish. She does doodle on the margins further though, curlicues and flowers and things and nudges a rock with her toe. "Toss another, see if you can beat two skips?
Niena nods and picks up the rock, heading closer to the lake. This toss is much more natural even then those before, and she gets two and a half skips from it. "Almost!" she says cheerfully."
"Woo!" Milani cheers and scribbles a few more decorative doodles on her letter, then folds it up and slips it into her pocket. After that she slides to her feet and pads over to hunker down and pick out another pair of rocks. She hands one of this to Niena and the other, she draws her arm back with and launches, sending it out in a neat arc over the water so that it skips five times before sinking. "Shells that's satisfying!"
Niena grins. "You tied Lujayn's best one!" She flicks her wrist more confidently now, finally getting a full three skips. "And now I tied Risa! They were right, this is fun!" And not working to have fun, either.
"Yay! And I did? Huh. Well then, have to try to beat the record-holder, yeah?" Milani's eyes sparkle and she goes hunting for more rocks, plucking up the few flat ones that remain in this little corner of the shore, offering one over to Niena again, then standing to send her own flying. Only four.
Milani hands over another rock and winks at Niena. "Okay, come on Niena, we've gotta beat those two!" And she hefts the last rock in her hand, closes her eyes, takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly. She waits a few more seconds, letting her whole body relax then lets loose that stone to fly. And fly it does, leaving six concentric sets of rings on the surface of the lake before disappearing.
Niena ohs, clearly impressed. "That was a good one!" She says. Now it's her turn, and she furrows her brow in concentration. The result is predictable; only one skip. Still, Niena smiles. "Better than when I started!"
Reaching over gently, Milani makes to squeeze Niena's shoulder encouragingly. "Yes! Much better. And it'll just keep getting better the more you do it." She smiles and wanders away a little distance since they've pretty much denuded the area of skippable stones, hunkering down again barefoot as she finds one that looks likely.
Niena waves happily to Louvaen. "I got some rocks to skip! Enough times that Iknow it's not a fluke. Want to skip with us? We'll need to find more flat rocks a bit away; we've used them all up."
Louvaen is on the long walk across the bowl to the barracks when he catches sight of the girls by the lake. Meandering over, he lifts a hand to return Niena's wave when the other candidate spots him. "Sure, why not?" he agrees with easy cheer. His steps pick up into a little jog to close the distance.
Turning slightly, at Niena's hail to Louvaen, Milani shakes almost-dry hair back over her shoulders and smiles up at Lou. "Have a rock?" she offers to the Candidate, holding another mostly flat specimen out on her palm, though she's still hunkered down, one knee partly bent to the ground.
Niena wanders along the beach, collecting a pile of any rocks which are even vaguely flat, some more so than others. When she has a veritable armload she returns to where MIlani and Louvaen are.
Louvaen's breath has the slightest pant to it as he pulls to a stop beside the girls. A hand goes up to ruffle fingers through his hair as he gives a little nod hello. He brings with him the musky scents of dust and leather as well as a hint of the sweet smell of glycerin saddle soap. "Thank you," he says with a grin as he reaches out to accept the rock from Milani. He holds it in his hand a moment, thumb running over the smooth planes.
"Let's see if I remember how to do this," he says, turning arched brows over towards Niena. Taking a couple side steps to get clear, he hauls off and side-arms the rock towards the lake. It skips once, then wobbles high and lands with a plunk another few feet off. His brows tick up, a little moue touching briefly on his lips: not good, not bad.
Milani shifts her weight back onto her heels and upright. "Seems like you're not the only one who needs practice, Niena," the assistant headwoman says with light laughter in her voice, eyes sparkling at Louvaen. "Lu and Risa were teaching today, I've taken ovr practice," she notes for Lou's benefit and hefts the other rock in her hand thoughtfully, then passes it over to him. "And look, now we've got plenty of samples to use."
Niena selects one of the better specimens and forces herself to relax again, then sends it spinning. This one skips three times, evoking yet another smile from the candidate. She turns to watch the other candidate try his luck again.
Amusement sparks across Louvaen's features at Millie's words. A wince and a chuckle pair with a hand lifted to his chest, playing as if she'd wounded him. "It was only my first throw," he protests in good humor. Nodding as he's filled in about the practice, he looks to the pile Niena's collected. "Thanks for finding these, Niena," he chirps. "Now I won't have to feel so bad for wasting Milani's stone." Eyes slide narrow and teasing to the girl as he plucks the second of her offered rocks from her fingers. It's bounced in his palm as he watches Niena's three-skip throw.
"Alright," he looks from one girl to the other, shaking out his arms dramatically. "Here goes." Aaand - this time the rock bounces twice, barely, before disappearing below the surface. He pouts.
"Oh pish tosh, not wasted, just a warm up!" Milani answers with a bright beaming smile and briefly reaches over to rest her hand lightly on Lou's arm before she pulls her fingers away to let him skip that stone. Her lips quirk a little and she takes a rock from the pile Niena brought. Lets her arm go loose, shoots Louvaen a pointed, but merry look, and skips that rock four times across the lake. "I get /lots/, of practice."
Niena picks up another rock and again sends it spinning. The angle is off, however, because although it almost surfaces again it actually doesn't. Niena shakes her arm and says "I think my firestone sacking yesterday is catching up to me. I'll keep practicing now that I have the hang of it, though." She shakes her arm again and heads toward the bowl.
Louvaen can only lift his brows and then watch helplessly as Milani's rock goes flying smoothly out over the water. He takes a breath as if to say something, but then just lets it end in a little glare out over the water. Niena's words pull his attention back, and he favors the other candidate with a sympathetic smile. "Ugh, it'll do that," the firestone sacking.
"See you later, Niena." He watches the candidate go a moment before shifting a sly smile back to Milani, knuckles coming up to rest on his hips. "Lots of practice," he says with a quirked eyebrow. "Do I now know where to send Hayda, if I catch her looking for you?"
Milani lifts a hand to wave after the toss, 'See you later Niena! Hope your arm feels better." She laughs merrily at Louvaen's hip-fisted stance and tilts her head to the side slightly. "Maaaaybe. Though I'm usually only out here when I'm off-duty. Like now!" And she makes big innocent eyes at him. "C'mon, Lou, show me what you've got. I just /bet/ you can do better coming from Tillek and all."
"Mmmhumm," Louvaen draws out, but it's more playful then accusatory. Those big innocent eyes make him chuckle and look away. "Okay, alright," he psyches himself up, darting a sideways glance at Millani as he crouches down by the pile. He riffles through the stones, rejecting that one, lifting this one up for closer inspection before tossing it down again, finally choosing /that/ one. Standing, he takes a moment to stare down the lake. And then his arm whips out in a fluid motion, back toe dragging forward. ...three, four, five, *plop*! A slow grin spreads across his face. Turning, he ambles a few steps towards the girl. "Satisfied?"
Milani laughs merrily again and waits while Lou makes a choice, hand propped on hip. She watches the toss, the five skips and gives a thumbs up. "Niiiiiice." Her head bobs up and down a couple of times, then she bends to fetch up another rock herself and skips it the same number of times after a slowly exhaled breath. "I toss rocks a lot when I need to think."
Louvaen is looking rather pleased with himself, really. He stops behind the pile of stones, leaning to grab just any one up this time. Her toss is watched, a slow nod given as she matches his skips. One hand setting at his waist, the other jostles the rock idly as he tilts a look to Milani. "Seems a good pairing," he comments lightly. "What do you think about?"
Hunkering down again, Milani picks out her next rock and looks up at the Candidate. "It's relaxing too. Sometimes if I need to /not/ think I do it too. And shells ... all sorts of things." Beat. "Usually stuff that's bothering me. Like, when I was embarrassed because I spilled soup all over a wingleader one time."
"I think my hobby helps me do that. Not think," Louvaen shares with a nod. His brows peak at the soup spilling. "Oh dear," he breathes, sympathy cut through with a chuckle. His hand stops bouncing the stone, fingers closing loosely over its smooth surfaces. "That doesn't sound good. Was he very angry?"
"Oh you mean all the wood carving stuff?" Milani inquires curiously as she turns her chosen stone around in her hands. Her shoulders lift a little and she nods. "Yeah, pretty well so. That was turns ago now, when I started growing. I was a little um ... klutzy back then." She straightens once more and nods towards the stone in his hand. "Your toss."
"Yes. It's easy to get focused on the feeling and the doing." Louvaen's fingers splay open, thumb holding the stone secure to his one palm, as he gestures towards an invisible object before him. His smile turns soft, eyes lifting back to Milani. "You know, I can't imagine you being klutzy," he notes gallantly. But then she's putting the attention back on his rock. The young man holds his hand in front of him, staring forlornly at it a moment. "I think I may have to retire, given that last throw," he says hopeful, peeking up sideways at the girl with a lopsided smile.
"Really? I don't really -- make anything," Milani explains, listening to him with open curiosity. "I mean, I manage to like, mend and stuff. But everything I'm good at is up here." She taps the side of her head. "Numbers. Remembering things." The little compliment brings forth a face-lighting smile. "Why thank you!" A laugh follows, bright and merry. "Oh well, if you're /not/ having fun, you don't have to. I just like to do it." And she turns and throws her own stone. It's a careless toss, only three skips. Her shoulders lift in a 'hey what can you do' motion. "The book's good by the by."
"Well, I don't make anything very useful. Or very well," Louvaen admits. He looks a little embarrassed at her pointing out that the stone throwing should be fun. Still, he only tosses the rock back and forth between his two palms instead of making any move to chuck it at the lake. Word of the book brightens his expression again. "Is it? I'm glad you think so. My foster sister found it at Harper when we were there. It was one of her favorites. I was glad to find it in the Records kept here."
"I think making something, whether it's useful or not is better than not being able to make anything at all. But I know what I do is good. Not everyone can hold big numbers in their head like me." And her shoulders lift again just a little before she's nodding again enthusiastically. "Oh yes. Thank you so much for pulling it out for me. It's an interesting story. Sad too I bet, though it hasn't /gotten/ sad yet." She eyes the rock being tossed back and forth and reaches out gentle fingers to still it. "Want to go get a drink? Sun's going down." And her head tilts towards the lengthening shadow of a spindle across the lake.
Louvaen gives a sincere nod at her shrug, supportive of the importance of her numerical abilities. A soft quirked smile is given at Millani's guess about the direction of the book. "It is," is all he'll say on that point. His eyes drop as her fingers reach out to stop his fidgeting. "I don't know," he hesitates, but he doesn't pull his hand away. "Don't you think I'm kind of stinky?" His brows go up, nose wrinkling as a half-grin, half-grimace stretches on his mouth.
"Stables?" she guesses, brows lifting a little and shakes her head. "Not really. Unless you don't like that particular smell. It doesn't bother me. Old leather and runners. Firestone's a lot worse." Milani smiles at him warmly now and swings an arm out towards the lake. "Could always swim it off though."
"Stables," Louvaen confirms. His eyes search her face, a grin appearing at the gesture. He looks out at the water, considering a moment. "No," he decides after a moment. "I'd rather not be squishing in my shoes." He turns his back to the lake and offers the crook of his elbow. "If you really don't mind? A drink sounds nice."
"And whyever, would you be squishing in your shoes?" Milani asks, all big round innocent eyes again. But she picks up the abandoned loose hides and ink Lujayn left behind earlier and slides her feet back into her sandals before setting her hand lightly into the crook of his elbow. "I don't. I worked in there often enough myself before I got all knotted up. And I'd be delighted. I'll even winkle them out of the bar tender for free."
Louvaen shakes his head at her dubious innocence, chuckling. He waits as she gathers the writing things, finally throwing his stone as she does so. It arcs high over the water, not a skipping toss at all, and plunks out of sight in the deeper waters. "Free drinks are always tastier," he says brightly, smiling as she comes back to his arm. "I'm interested to see this winkling of yours at work," is added with amusement. The young man leaves the lake behind and leads over towards the Snowasis.
"Sure!" chirps Milani brightly juggling the stuff she picked up, which also includes her towel from earlier. "You know, it's a fine art. Winkling. I'm still learning of course, but I practice /all/ the time." With another beamingly wide smile she drops into step with Louvaen, chattering about random things like how sharding hot it is on the way across to the bar.