Log: Working Late
Who: C'mryn, Milani
When: Late evening, 12/25/17
Where: Resident Common Room, High Reaches Weyr
What: Millie and Cam talk about how to use an abacus and other 'fun' things the evening before the hatching.
Resident Common Room, High Reaches Weyr(#378RJs)
Just off of the main passageway lies the small cavern that forms the hub of the residents' quarters, kept immaculately clean by the headwoman's staff and warmed in cold weather by a stone hearth to the left and well back from the entrance. Comfortable chairs and a plush fur arrayed before the hearth make an inviting spot to curl up with a book or handicraft, or just to sit and chat. Beyond, additional chairs stand in clusters throughout the room, some upholstered with age-softened hide, some plain wood. At the widest point of the cavern, a round table gleams with polish, though its surface is nicked and scarred from Turns of use. Beyond the table, the very back of the cavern often lies in shadow unless the glowbaskets there are unlidded to cast cozy pools of light. The commingled scents of klah, smoke and polish permeate the air along with the sweetness of rosemary and lavender.
Tapestries hang across the entrances to dormitories and more private quarters as well as the exit to the outer hall, colorful protections from drafts.
It's a chilly day out, the light's dying outside and Milani's sitting at a table going through ledgers still. One hand crumples through her hair, the pins that were holding it up scattered on the table. Her other hand is flying across the beads of her abacus, mouth moving silently as she works. There's some others in here decompressing after a long day, but otherwise it's actually a quiet night in the common room. The noise from the Snowasis might point to why.
It's a hesitant Cam that pokes his head into the cavern, glancing around with mild amusement before he moves on. But, in that sweeping glance he catches sight of an all-too-familiar assistant Headwoman, and his 'moving on' turns into 'moving in' as he slides completely into the cavern. Another little glance around on his way to Milani's table and then, without invitation, he swings a chair around and sits in it backwards, arms resting across the back of it. No words, just a curious glance towards her ledger.
His approach, Milani misses. The captured chair and its turn-around, she does not, scribbling down a number and looking up brows raised as that chair moves. And there. C'mryn sits and Millie grins as she notes how he's sitting. "Well hello there," she greets him, leaning her elbow down onto the table top and her head into her hand. The one that was calculating and writing slides the ledger on over so he can look. Rows of figures. Fascinating.
"Hello back," says Cam with a grin. Another glance is given to the figures, but it doesn't seem to be as fascinating when he's *allowed* to look. He gives a bit of a shrug, and rests his chin on his folded arms. "Working? Still? Isn't it a bit late to be working?" One arm unwinds, a finger reaching for her abacus as if to play with the beads. It stops before he actually touches, however, seeing as it might be important to leave it as-is. "Math. Bleh."
"You can move the beads," Milani tells him very solemnly, twitching the ledger back towards herself when he loses interest. "And yes, reconciliation time!" she says making big eyes. "Almost done though and then the rest of the winter should just be ... tracking inventory carefully," she tells him. "At loose ends?"
Permission given, Cam's fingers begin flicking the little beads back and forth, amusing himself the way a child might. First they all get lined up one side, then click-click-click flicked to the other side. "Inventory," and Cam winces. "There's a word I remember. They used to make me count things at the Hall. How do you keep track of the Weyrs stuff? You don't have to go through and... count it all do you?" There's a brief glance up, a look that's feigned horror, at the idea of having to count the contents of the storage cavern.
"Did you learn to use one of these?" Milani asks curiously, tapping a finger along the side of the abacus, then grinning as he lines the beads up so. "Yes. We go through and count. Everything is counted as it's brought in. That gets recorded. The inventory is copied and kept on the end of each row in the storage room, and there's a copy in Hayda's office too. She's /very/ thorough. When we assistants go in to get things to supply parts of the Weyr, we tick off what's being taken out of locked stores. Every quarter and after every large shipment comes in, we reconcile: take the local inventory and match it up against the master and take note of how much /ought/ to still be left and how much there actually /is/ and how much there /was/ when it first arrived. It's an ongoing thing." Apparently counting stuff in Stores doesn't bother Milani. "It's always interesting to see how good we've been at predicting how things will go."
"Nope," says C'mryn cheerfully, now lining the beads up in ascending order, one in the first column, two in the second, and on up. "So, basically, you count lots of things," decides Cam of Milani's job. "What happens... if something gets broken? Or, misplaced. It has been a long time since I did anything with inventory, and I was much too young to care at the time." Not that he seems to be particularly enthusiastic about committing it to memory now.
"Like this," Milani tells him, laughing a little as he changes up the order of the beads and her fingers move to rest lightly atop his and she moves the beads into a pattern. "Three hundred and seventy," she tells him, pointing out which groups are teaching the beam that divides one group of beads from the other. "And if that happens, there's a whole process. It's part of why inventory is so important. If a snake gets in and knocks something over, that's noted. And then you know, there's the public storage rooms and people can just take from there, there's less control. Things that get misplaced, well usually that means trying to see if we can find it and then putting it where it belongs. And there's a slip to fill out and -- this is boring isn't it?" she says laughingly.
C'mryn's fingers stop rearranging the beads, and he allows Milani to direct him. Shifting in his seat, he scoots forward so he can see with less slouching. "A slip to fill out?" and he gives her a sympathetic face. "To be honest, I never gave much thought to what a Headwoman, or her assistants, had to do. Sounds like a lot of... hidework, actually. And counting." Cam is obviously not down with the counting. "So how *do* you control the public storage and, if people can just take freely, why all the bother with keeping track in the first place? Why not just... not bother?" Be lazy. He grins widely and admits, "Only boring if you expect me to help out next time you're counting. Bit interesting, actually."
"Yes, lots of hidework and counting, that's for the Stores side of things. But not all of the assistants deal with Stores. There's you know, dealing with people too, finding out what they need." Milani pauses and presses her lips together for a moment before going on. "And when there was Thread, a lot of it was about making sure the riders had everything they needed, tidying up, just ... being there." She sighs softly and shakes her head to dispel some of those memories. "Well see that's why /most/ of the stores are /locked/," Milani says laughingly. "And we do keep tabs on the public areas, because if a bin gets empty it's going to need refilling. Like ... spare mittens, you know? It's what so many of the aunties do," and she points one out, knitting away on mittens. "If you go in and get a pair that fits you, then that pair isn't there anymore. We go through the bins now and then to see what sizes we're getting low on, that kind of thing. And trust me, it's a lot easier to keep tabs if it's /organized/ than if you just dump it in a heap and just ... pray you don't run out." A wink there and she flicks all the beads back to neutral position. "Nope, I don't expect you to help out, but if you /want/ to, I can teach you how to use this."
Threadfall is not touched on, though Cam's smile falters briefly. "Oh, nah," he says, withdrawing his hand from the abacus. "I wouldn't be any good at it, I think. I'd just forget." And then he grins, and shakes his head, and wonders, "You don't get all the mittens from the aunties, do you? Poor Aunties! And here I thought all they did was sit and mutter about the 'good old days' and 'that handsome Wingleader'. Never would I have suspected that, in reality, they were working from dawn till dusk to fill our mitten bin!"
That faltering is noted by a brief narrowing of Milani's eyes and her smile shades sympathetic for a moment. Then she slides the abacus a little out of the way. "You sure about that?" she teases him. "Are you /really/ that much of a lay-about?" Her head shakes again though. "Oh no, not just from them, but it's a useful thing for them to do. It helps out around the Weyr and keeps them busy even when they're old and can't get around as much." Beat. "Cam, everyone at the Weyr works on /something/."
"No," says Cam a tad defensively. "But I am not good with this... numbers stuff. Counting, and writing, and checking things... so tedious. If you need a fence fixed, or a wagon unloaded, I'm happy to help. But sorting through bins or counting blankets? Not my thing." His arm is refolded across the back of the chair, and he shrugs. "Oh, I know. I was just teasing. Personally, I can't wait until I'm old and gray and just playing Watch somewhere."
Milani bites down lightly on her lip and her hand hovers over towards the rider's hair, meaning to smooth through blond strands gently. "Just teasing, Cam," she says mildly and the corner of her mouth pulls to the side again. "I tease too much sometimes though," she admits. "And helping to fix things is good. And being a rider is good too." Then she's laughing at his last. "So you're looking forward to /being/ a lay-about someday?" she says, grinning widely. "I suppose there's worse things to have ambition for. Me, I can't see myself ever really sitting still."
"Meh," is Cam's answer to it all. He does grin again, and shrug. "Who wouldn't? I can picture me and Tausreth at a Hold somewhere, hopefully by the ocean, complaining about the weather and arguing about 'back then'. I would win, of course, because Tausreth's memory is awful." He gives her a considering look before deciding, "Nah. Can't see you sitting still, either. Can't see you getting old, really."
"Like a grouchy old couple," Milani teases further, bringing both hands under her chin and leaning against the table, listening. "Is his worse than most dragons?" Curious there and then the last hikes her brows upward. "What? Die young, leave a nice corpse? Or you know, forever young at heart, or whatver?"
"No worse than most dragons, even if he pretends it is." Cam grins and shrugs. "He makes me write notes. I write notes anyways. I haven't got the best memory either, so the pair of us are hopeless most of the time." His chin goes back onto his arms. "Nah, you'll never die," decides Cam. "Young forever. Although, I must say, you'd be a scary sight with a cane. I'd stay out of your reach."
"Hopeless rider and hopeless dragon, hmm. No wonder you were studying up the other day," Milani teases, though not unkindly, a warm edge to her smile. More laughter and Milani shakes her head. "Would you believe I was a complete and total brat when I was younger? Getting older has been good for me," she says semi-seriously and if I do wind up old with a cane, I'll do my best to remember who you are and spare you shins. Immortal though, wow. That's either the best compliment ever or I should whack you over the head for sticking me at almost-nineteen forever and ever."
"Almost nineteen," muses Cam. "Hrm. Maybe you should get to at least twenty before you become immortal?" He wonders with a smirk. With a sigh, he pushes away from the chair back, stretching his arms over his head. "Done?" he wonders, bobbing his head towards her ledger. "Thinkin' of getting something to eat before sweeps. Want to come? I think I smelled cookies earlier, but that could be wishful thinking."
"Yeah, give it another turn," Milani says laughingly and she eyes the ledger. "Done, no, but I can take a break for tonight," the assistant answers and she pushes her chair back, flips the ledger closed and sets abacus and pencil on top of it. "I'll just put these in the office, hold on a second." Millie vanishes for a minute or two and re-emerges from Hayda's office. When she re-appears she moves to bump her shoulder lightly against the bronzerider's. "And you /did/ smell cookies. They've been baking up a storm since the eggs are so close. All sorts of goodies and lots of rejects. I'll get us a basket, /no/ problem."
"Wonderful!" says Cam, standing and pushing in his chair. He offers his arm to Milani in an exaggerated sort of gesture, complete with wide, cheeky grin. "I never take for granted the benefits of befriending an Assistant Headwoman," he tells her as they head off.
Beaming, Milani slides her hand through that offered arm. "And a good thing too, because you know, those benefits, they can be pretty sweet!" she says with the biggest, widest, roundest eyes she can make as they saunter off for kitchens and caverns and goodies beyond.
When: Late evening, 12/25/17
Where: Resident Common Room, High Reaches Weyr
What: Millie and Cam talk about how to use an abacus and other 'fun' things the evening before the hatching.
Resident Common Room, High Reaches Weyr(#378RJs)
Just off of the main passageway lies the small cavern that forms the hub of the residents' quarters, kept immaculately clean by the headwoman's staff and warmed in cold weather by a stone hearth to the left and well back from the entrance. Comfortable chairs and a plush fur arrayed before the hearth make an inviting spot to curl up with a book or handicraft, or just to sit and chat. Beyond, additional chairs stand in clusters throughout the room, some upholstered with age-softened hide, some plain wood. At the widest point of the cavern, a round table gleams with polish, though its surface is nicked and scarred from Turns of use. Beyond the table, the very back of the cavern often lies in shadow unless the glowbaskets there are unlidded to cast cozy pools of light. The commingled scents of klah, smoke and polish permeate the air along with the sweetness of rosemary and lavender.
Tapestries hang across the entrances to dormitories and more private quarters as well as the exit to the outer hall, colorful protections from drafts.
It's a chilly day out, the light's dying outside and Milani's sitting at a table going through ledgers still. One hand crumples through her hair, the pins that were holding it up scattered on the table. Her other hand is flying across the beads of her abacus, mouth moving silently as she works. There's some others in here decompressing after a long day, but otherwise it's actually a quiet night in the common room. The noise from the Snowasis might point to why.
It's a hesitant Cam that pokes his head into the cavern, glancing around with mild amusement before he moves on. But, in that sweeping glance he catches sight of an all-too-familiar assistant Headwoman, and his 'moving on' turns into 'moving in' as he slides completely into the cavern. Another little glance around on his way to Milani's table and then, without invitation, he swings a chair around and sits in it backwards, arms resting across the back of it. No words, just a curious glance towards her ledger.
His approach, Milani misses. The captured chair and its turn-around, she does not, scribbling down a number and looking up brows raised as that chair moves. And there. C'mryn sits and Millie grins as she notes how he's sitting. "Well hello there," she greets him, leaning her elbow down onto the table top and her head into her hand. The one that was calculating and writing slides the ledger on over so he can look. Rows of figures. Fascinating.
"Hello back," says Cam with a grin. Another glance is given to the figures, but it doesn't seem to be as fascinating when he's *allowed* to look. He gives a bit of a shrug, and rests his chin on his folded arms. "Working? Still? Isn't it a bit late to be working?" One arm unwinds, a finger reaching for her abacus as if to play with the beads. It stops before he actually touches, however, seeing as it might be important to leave it as-is. "Math. Bleh."
"You can move the beads," Milani tells him very solemnly, twitching the ledger back towards herself when he loses interest. "And yes, reconciliation time!" she says making big eyes. "Almost done though and then the rest of the winter should just be ... tracking inventory carefully," she tells him. "At loose ends?"
Permission given, Cam's fingers begin flicking the little beads back and forth, amusing himself the way a child might. First they all get lined up one side, then click-click-click flicked to the other side. "Inventory," and Cam winces. "There's a word I remember. They used to make me count things at the Hall. How do you keep track of the Weyrs stuff? You don't have to go through and... count it all do you?" There's a brief glance up, a look that's feigned horror, at the idea of having to count the contents of the storage cavern.
"Did you learn to use one of these?" Milani asks curiously, tapping a finger along the side of the abacus, then grinning as he lines the beads up so. "Yes. We go through and count. Everything is counted as it's brought in. That gets recorded. The inventory is copied and kept on the end of each row in the storage room, and there's a copy in Hayda's office too. She's /very/ thorough. When we assistants go in to get things to supply parts of the Weyr, we tick off what's being taken out of locked stores. Every quarter and after every large shipment comes in, we reconcile: take the local inventory and match it up against the master and take note of how much /ought/ to still be left and how much there actually /is/ and how much there /was/ when it first arrived. It's an ongoing thing." Apparently counting stuff in Stores doesn't bother Milani. "It's always interesting to see how good we've been at predicting how things will go."
"Nope," says C'mryn cheerfully, now lining the beads up in ascending order, one in the first column, two in the second, and on up. "So, basically, you count lots of things," decides Cam of Milani's job. "What happens... if something gets broken? Or, misplaced. It has been a long time since I did anything with inventory, and I was much too young to care at the time." Not that he seems to be particularly enthusiastic about committing it to memory now.
"Like this," Milani tells him, laughing a little as he changes up the order of the beads and her fingers move to rest lightly atop his and she moves the beads into a pattern. "Three hundred and seventy," she tells him, pointing out which groups are teaching the beam that divides one group of beads from the other. "And if that happens, there's a whole process. It's part of why inventory is so important. If a snake gets in and knocks something over, that's noted. And then you know, there's the public storage rooms and people can just take from there, there's less control. Things that get misplaced, well usually that means trying to see if we can find it and then putting it where it belongs. And there's a slip to fill out and -- this is boring isn't it?" she says laughingly.
C'mryn's fingers stop rearranging the beads, and he allows Milani to direct him. Shifting in his seat, he scoots forward so he can see with less slouching. "A slip to fill out?" and he gives her a sympathetic face. "To be honest, I never gave much thought to what a Headwoman, or her assistants, had to do. Sounds like a lot of... hidework, actually. And counting." Cam is obviously not down with the counting. "So how *do* you control the public storage and, if people can just take freely, why all the bother with keeping track in the first place? Why not just... not bother?" Be lazy. He grins widely and admits, "Only boring if you expect me to help out next time you're counting. Bit interesting, actually."
"Yes, lots of hidework and counting, that's for the Stores side of things. But not all of the assistants deal with Stores. There's you know, dealing with people too, finding out what they need." Milani pauses and presses her lips together for a moment before going on. "And when there was Thread, a lot of it was about making sure the riders had everything they needed, tidying up, just ... being there." She sighs softly and shakes her head to dispel some of those memories. "Well see that's why /most/ of the stores are /locked/," Milani says laughingly. "And we do keep tabs on the public areas, because if a bin gets empty it's going to need refilling. Like ... spare mittens, you know? It's what so many of the aunties do," and she points one out, knitting away on mittens. "If you go in and get a pair that fits you, then that pair isn't there anymore. We go through the bins now and then to see what sizes we're getting low on, that kind of thing. And trust me, it's a lot easier to keep tabs if it's /organized/ than if you just dump it in a heap and just ... pray you don't run out." A wink there and she flicks all the beads back to neutral position. "Nope, I don't expect you to help out, but if you /want/ to, I can teach you how to use this."
Threadfall is not touched on, though Cam's smile falters briefly. "Oh, nah," he says, withdrawing his hand from the abacus. "I wouldn't be any good at it, I think. I'd just forget." And then he grins, and shakes his head, and wonders, "You don't get all the mittens from the aunties, do you? Poor Aunties! And here I thought all they did was sit and mutter about the 'good old days' and 'that handsome Wingleader'. Never would I have suspected that, in reality, they were working from dawn till dusk to fill our mitten bin!"
That faltering is noted by a brief narrowing of Milani's eyes and her smile shades sympathetic for a moment. Then she slides the abacus a little out of the way. "You sure about that?" she teases him. "Are you /really/ that much of a lay-about?" Her head shakes again though. "Oh no, not just from them, but it's a useful thing for them to do. It helps out around the Weyr and keeps them busy even when they're old and can't get around as much." Beat. "Cam, everyone at the Weyr works on /something/."
"No," says Cam a tad defensively. "But I am not good with this... numbers stuff. Counting, and writing, and checking things... so tedious. If you need a fence fixed, or a wagon unloaded, I'm happy to help. But sorting through bins or counting blankets? Not my thing." His arm is refolded across the back of the chair, and he shrugs. "Oh, I know. I was just teasing. Personally, I can't wait until I'm old and gray and just playing Watch somewhere."
Milani bites down lightly on her lip and her hand hovers over towards the rider's hair, meaning to smooth through blond strands gently. "Just teasing, Cam," she says mildly and the corner of her mouth pulls to the side again. "I tease too much sometimes though," she admits. "And helping to fix things is good. And being a rider is good too." Then she's laughing at his last. "So you're looking forward to /being/ a lay-about someday?" she says, grinning widely. "I suppose there's worse things to have ambition for. Me, I can't see myself ever really sitting still."
"Meh," is Cam's answer to it all. He does grin again, and shrug. "Who wouldn't? I can picture me and Tausreth at a Hold somewhere, hopefully by the ocean, complaining about the weather and arguing about 'back then'. I would win, of course, because Tausreth's memory is awful." He gives her a considering look before deciding, "Nah. Can't see you sitting still, either. Can't see you getting old, really."
"Like a grouchy old couple," Milani teases further, bringing both hands under her chin and leaning against the table, listening. "Is his worse than most dragons?" Curious there and then the last hikes her brows upward. "What? Die young, leave a nice corpse? Or you know, forever young at heart, or whatver?"
"No worse than most dragons, even if he pretends it is." Cam grins and shrugs. "He makes me write notes. I write notes anyways. I haven't got the best memory either, so the pair of us are hopeless most of the time." His chin goes back onto his arms. "Nah, you'll never die," decides Cam. "Young forever. Although, I must say, you'd be a scary sight with a cane. I'd stay out of your reach."
"Hopeless rider and hopeless dragon, hmm. No wonder you were studying up the other day," Milani teases, though not unkindly, a warm edge to her smile. More laughter and Milani shakes her head. "Would you believe I was a complete and total brat when I was younger? Getting older has been good for me," she says semi-seriously and if I do wind up old with a cane, I'll do my best to remember who you are and spare you shins. Immortal though, wow. That's either the best compliment ever or I should whack you over the head for sticking me at almost-nineteen forever and ever."
"Almost nineteen," muses Cam. "Hrm. Maybe you should get to at least twenty before you become immortal?" He wonders with a smirk. With a sigh, he pushes away from the chair back, stretching his arms over his head. "Done?" he wonders, bobbing his head towards her ledger. "Thinkin' of getting something to eat before sweeps. Want to come? I think I smelled cookies earlier, but that could be wishful thinking."
"Yeah, give it another turn," Milani says laughingly and she eyes the ledger. "Done, no, but I can take a break for tonight," the assistant answers and she pushes her chair back, flips the ledger closed and sets abacus and pencil on top of it. "I'll just put these in the office, hold on a second." Millie vanishes for a minute or two and re-emerges from Hayda's office. When she re-appears she moves to bump her shoulder lightly against the bronzerider's. "And you /did/ smell cookies. They've been baking up a storm since the eggs are so close. All sorts of goodies and lots of rejects. I'll get us a basket, /no/ problem."
"Wonderful!" says Cam, standing and pushing in his chair. He offers his arm to Milani in an exaggerated sort of gesture, complete with wide, cheeky grin. "I never take for granted the benefits of befriending an Assistant Headwoman," he tells her as they head off.
Beaming, Milani slides her hand through that offered arm. "And a good thing too, because you know, those benefits, they can be pretty sweet!" she says with the biggest, widest, roundest eyes she can make as they saunter off for kitchens and caverns and goodies beyond.