Ties Renewed
Location: North Weyr
Time: Afternoon on Day 10, Month 1, Turn 3
Players: Roa, Penny, and Tialith
Scene: Penny pays an unexpected visit and tries to mend slightly damaged bridges.
North Weyr
This is the sanctuary of High Reaches' senior Weyrwoman. It's been decorated in warm earth tones: browns, beiges, and greens with the occasional blue thrown in. Against the back wall and off to left, a heavy curtain of green and blue hangs, cordoning off that corner of the weyr. Behind this makeshift 'wall' one would find a large, comfortable bed. Covering the sheets is a full-sized rabbit fur blanket, at its center the image of a gold dragon in flight, small dark-haired rider perched atop her. A pair of nightstands are also present, one on either side. In the main weyr, a desk and chair are set a few feet before the impromptu 'second room', and perched on the corner of the desk when it is warm, and in the evenings and nights when it is cold, is a tiny, miniature tree planted in a pot. Against the wall, several bookshelves are filled with tomes and scrolls. A small door leads to the weyr's private bathing chamber. On the opposite side of the weyr is a seating area. Two large, brown couches and a pair of plush green chairs are set around a circular table of pale wood. Behind that is the queen's couch, fresh rushes pressed flat by a lazing draconic body.
On the right wall is the archway that leads out onto the ledge belonging to the Weyr's senior gold. It's large enough for her and for a number of slightly smaller visitors. In the right-hand corner of the ledge is a small pedestal, and on it a tiny greenhouse, perhaps two feet tall and two feet wide, sits. On the colder days, during the sunniest hours, it is inhabited by the miniature tree that otherwise lives on the Weyrwoman's desk. Directly opposite the entrance tunnel is a smaller tunnel hidden behind a thick curtain. The air is warmer around that curtain, hinting at the tunnel's destination.
It's been a few days now since the new leadership of High Reaches Weyr became, well, the new leadership, and things have begun to settle. At the very least, the Weyrwoman's Weyr looks tidied and inhabited. Roa is seated on one of the couches, a mug of something steaming on the table, feet tucked up underneath her. She's reading from a pile of hidework. Tialith is settled on her couch, head raised, whirling blue eyes blinking languidly now and again. On each haunch, a quartet of fairly deep scrapes, healing and crusted in dark scabs, mars the pale gold of her hide.
Penny's progress along the corridor is slow, through a part of the Weyr unfamiliar to her. But she knows where she's going, that much is clear as she moves through the outer office and toward the weyr. There she stops, eyeing the opening of the door rather flatly, a twist to her lips as she chews at one of them. She doesn't move to leave again, though she does stand for quite some time before giving a silent sigh, rolling her eyes upward for a moment and then tapping lightly, the motion opening the door just a little more. "Roa?"
Tialith notices first. Her gaze tips and settles on the doorway as soon as Penny begins to hover outside it. The Weyrwoman's eyes flick up, towards it, and down again tot he hide. She waits until the knock and the name to peek up again, and when she does, she blinks several times, her brows tipping upwards. "Penny?" The name sounds, perhaps, a touch incredulous. "Uhm. Hi. Come in. Please. If you like. You do...I've hot things to drink. Would you like something?"
"Er... hi," is Penny's response, echoing Roa's greeting as she slips inside, closing the door behind her. Her eyes shift over toward Tialith, and though she doesn't bother to hide her wariness, she also doesn't try to give the gold a wider berth as she makes her way into the room. "Oh, I'm fine. Well." She hesitates then, perhaps aware that a drink would at least give her something to do with her hands. "Tea, if you have it? If it's not a good time, I can come back later." A nod to the hide on Roa's lap.
"I've some of the general sort and there's a little tin Kelar sent, if you'd like something more from home?" The hide that Penny looks at, Roa has already set aside as she pushes into a stand and heads over to the hearth. A small table is set before it with several pitchers of hot liquids. A mug is selected from the table's cabinet, as well as several little tins presumably containing the aforementioned tea. "It's a fine time. How have you been?"
"I should be polite and not ask for the good stuff Kelar sends," Penny says wryly. "But I am not so selfless as that. You know, he -used- to send those things entirely to me." But she's found her smile again, and the words lack any real rancor. She sidles around until she finds one of the chairs near the couch, sinking down onto its edge. "Oh, fine. You know how it is." Blah, blah. Penny's watching the small goldrider, mind only half on her own response. "Classes, work, etceteras."
The small goldrider pulls out a little tea strainer and grabs a few pinches of the 'good stuff' to settle into the strainer which is set into the mug. "Kelar only sends me things with the edict that I share them with you," she murmurs around a tiny smile. Hot water is poured and and the leaves are left to steep. "I suppose I do know," Roa adds. "I'm glad to hear nobody's been beaten or harassed or bludgeoned for a while. Sort of a nice little breather." She smiles, just faintly, as she waits for the leaves favor to seep into the water. "You want anything in it? Cream? Sweetener? Citrus?"
The offer of cream or sweetener is met with a bemused look. "And pollute Kelar's kind offerings? No, thank you." She winces, just a little, at the mention of harassment. "Sometimes it makes me more nervous when little is happening than when the place is falling down around our ears. Like it's saving up for something horrendous." Yes, way to make the new Weyrwoman feel nice and secure. Penny's still on the edge of her chair, not quite yet comfortable in the new surroundings, but her smile comes more easily as she adds, "Perhaps you will be a good luck charm, now, and there will be no more bludgeoning."
The idea of herself-as-good-luck-charm has Roa's laughing one of those sharp little coughs of a laugh before she realizes it. "I doubt it, but I think, for a while, things will get better. I'm not so worried about internal threats, just now. I think we've smoked them out." The tea ball is pulled free and set aside, and Roa returns, holding out the mug for the journeyman smith before reseating herself. "Was there something I could help you with, Penny?" Perhaps the idea that she has come, just for a social call, is a bit too alien a concept.
Penny reaches out to take the mug, lips quirking at Roa's laugh, a bit of mischief there. She doesn't press the issue, all-too-aware of Roa's track record with misfortune over the past Turns, instead offering a murmured sound of thanks as she wraps her fingers around the mug to warm them. The new Weyrwoman's question brings her to a halt, though, a little wince visible for a moment as Penny's eyes lift toward her. She clears her throat, voice dry in acknowledgment of the other woman's confusion at her motives. "No, actually. I just came by to see you." Touché, Roa. Touché.
Blink. Roa buys a moment by reaching forward and scooping up her mug. She lifts it, taking a small sip. "Well then. Thank you, that's very kind." Sip. She lapses into silence that poor Penny is left to fill.
There's a difference between polite small talk with an acquaintance and conversing with a friend -- the former is something Penny could not have escaped knowing how to do, this far along in her career and her education. The latter, however, is a skill she seems to have let grow quite rusty of late. She looks down into her mug for a while during that silence, not quite uncomfortable enough to subject her companion to polite, cheerful chatter, but also not bothering to hide the fact that she's a little uncertain what to say. Eventually she lifts the mug to her mouth to sip cautiously, testing the hot liquid.
After the stretch of quiet, the Weyrwoman laughs softly and shakes her head. "Yeah," she murmurs quietly. "Me neither." Her fingers tap-tap-tap against her own mug. "I should be better at this, I think. I took all those etiquette classes..."
The laugh brings an answering rueful smile from the smith as she lowers her mug again. "If you try etiquette on me I will pour your tea on your head and leave," Penny threatens, moving back from the edge of the chair a little. At least her smile is warm, if she hasn't quite gotten the conversation back yet. She sighs, one finger tapping on the mug as she regards the goldrider thoughtfully. "It's been strange, not having you in class, you know. First you went who knows where, and now..." Yes, now, why don't we talk about that? Instead the mug is examined again. "Kelar knows his teas," she comments, idly.
"You can't!" Roa protests at the dumping of tea onto her person. Her eyes are wide and she leans forward. "That's the -good- stuff." Then she flops back. The Weyrwoman is, for her travels, markedly tan and she nods faintly at Penny's other comment. "It's been odd not taking them. A bit of a relief, though. I have...a bit of time now and again. Funny, when you think about it."
"Hmm." Penny glances down into her mug. "You have a point. I'm sure I could find something to throw at you instead, this place is awfully nice." Cushions on the chairs and whole tables and things. She smiles, one corner of her mouth lifting a little. "I won't be unhappy when I don't have to go to classes anymore, myself," she agrees, eyes shifting away now to move idly around the room. Quiet for a moment, perhaps thinking on that statement, before something seems to strike her as funny and she gives a silent laugh, a quick exhalation of breath. "I would almost be envious. You look well, for all your adventures." I.e., tanned. And some people are always a little homesick for warmer climates.
"There's oodles of things good for flinging," Roa agrees. "And you can even put your feet up on the table. I won't tell. It's..." she tips her head to the side. "I'll miss the debates. And the excuse to take to and listen to people. But I can't say I'll miss the homework. I can't say I don't need the time. So." Sip. "My adventures would have been fun, I think. Except circumstances made it hard to relax. They did their best, though, to help."
"So he did send you home, then." Leaping to conclusions, Penny's expression holds a certain amount of undisguised wistfulness, a curve to her lips as she regards the other woman. Suddenly hearing herself, she backtracks a little. "To my home, I mean. That is to say-- not that he sent you, you could've gone by yourself. I don't mean -he-..." She trails off, lifting a hand to brush her hair back from her face in an exasperated manner. She leans back in her chair, settling her mug against her thigh and saying, wearily, "So you went to Boll, then?" Faint amusement for her own antics, and the hint of a certain drawling laziness in her voice that ought to be familiar.
Chuckling softly, Roa nods. After all of that backtracking, her answer is a gentle, "I went to Boll. I asked him to send me and to announce it as his idea. He obliged." She allows herself another sip before she adds, "They're well. They miss you."
Penny smiles a little as Roa nods, as she watches the goldrider, tan and all. "It's a good place to go," she says, mildly. On the subject of the boys missing her, she doesn't comment, simply linking her fingers loosely around the warmth of her mug and looking down for a moment. "Perhaps when all this is over, I'll ask to be posted there. My father certainly wouldn't object -- even now he holds out hope that I'll soften, get distracted by their charms, that he'll see me safely married off to one of the boys." There's a gleam there, a bit of dark amusement at an unspoken joke that Roa, at least, will understand.
The smile now, curls upwards into something tiny and sure. A conspiracy shared. She shakes her head slowly. "Wouldn't that be something," Roa murmurs, "if he managed that." She lifts her mug to take another swallow before she asks the liquid within, "Posted at Boll, then? Not Fort?"
"Something, indeed," the smith agrees. "Fortunately for my ambitions, I believe the boys now consider me somewhat off-limits." But then Penny's mug pauses halfway to her mouth, holds there for a moment, and then comes back to rest on her leg again. She takes a long moment of quiet to consider the question, or perhaps merely to organize her thoughts. Eyes flicking back up to Roa, she says simply, "Boll's my home. I think everyone concerned would agree that it's where I would belong." It's a troubled answer, though, a faint lift at the corner of her mouth acknowledging the imperfection in the plan.
There is a moment of consideration before she adds, gently, "It's his too. Family. All sorts of reasons for him to visit regularly." Roa turns her mug slowly in her hands, her lips parting as if she might say more. But she only shakes her head a bit and closes it again.
Penny clears her throat quietly, quite interested in her half-drunk mug of tea. "All sorts of reasons," she agrees. Eyes flick to Roa and then back again, with a little grimace. "He will visit, but you know the way he is. He doesn't do things that are good for him unless there is someone to force him." A little twist of her lips, her smile not entirely kind. "Over the turns, he will be busier and busier, taking over the continent in his way. And I doubt his wife will urge him to take frequent trips to his home without her in tow."
There are little nods for each point mentioned. "You're probably right about all of that. Still. He's quite adept at getting what he wants, isn't he. I doubt that skill will weaken as he ages." Roa lifts the mug for a final time, swallowing the last of its contents before setting it down on the table.
On her couch, Tialith has lowered her head and dropped off into a light doze.
Despite her gloomy predictions, Penny's smile comes back easily if somewhat ruefully as she listens. She ducks her head, her smile almost shy for a moment; perhaps, if her complexion were not so dark, she might blush just a little. "I hope not," she murmurs in response, fingers tightening around her tea before she raises it to drink and hide whatever might be seen there. When she lowers it again, she pulls her feet out of her boots and curls them up under her in her usual manner, her tone somewhat brisker as she says, "So, tell me. What is it like to have an entire Weyr at your disposal?"
"Aha," Roa flashes her own grin, "I was waiting for that one. Well." She cants her head to the side, peering upwards as she considers. "It's...uhm. Terrifying, a little. Hectic. Exciting. Everything you'd expect, I suppose."
"Well, how often does a friend of mine get vaulted into a position of such power and influence?" But Penny's smile is amused, rather than calculating, and her manner is much more relaxed now. She rests her elbow on the arm of her chair and leans her head on her hand, lazier now that the tea has done its soothing work. "It seems like it would be... hard," she says then, more quietly, the last word falling a little lamely. "To suddenly have such responsibilities."
Her gaze had lifted to watch Penny, but at the word 'friend', it drops to her knees as a shy, almost embarrassed smile, appears. The rest of the smith's words are heard, but Roa only examines the couch until she quiets. "I've had a long while to ponder it. I set things up to make it happen. But, well, it is. Of course it is. One of the Instructors, Kay, said the best thing I could do for myself and for the weyr was accept that I was going to make mistakes. But..." her hands lift and flop back into her lap as she makes a sound of frustration, "I make a mistake in this, and I'm not the one that pays for it."
If she does not quite know the mechanics of how Roa managed to trigger Tialith's flight, Penny no doubt had some sort of inkling that such was the case; she doesn't display any particular surprise when the goldrider owns up to her share of responsibility for it. She's quiet for a while, first listening and then thoughtful, her eyes now on Roa's hands as they flop back down again. Then, slowly, she says, "I don't envy you that weight. I know I couldn't do it. But," and here she smiles, glancing up for a moment and then back down, as if a little too embarrassed to meet the other woman's eyes for long, "there is also a reason I am not a goldrider. There is, I think, a reason you are."
"I don't know. Perhaps there is. I think, though, that such a thought is easier when you are not." Roa rolls her shoulders and leans back against the couch. "Easier to presume the people with the opportunity to lead are actually adept at doing so. It's harder, when you know your own head and you find yourself in the position anyhow. But. It's an opportunity. I'm going to make the most of it."
Penny laughs a little at that, agreement in the bob of her head as she sips at the last of her tea and sets the mug aside. "That's the spirit," she says in a blatantly condescending way, but with enough warmth to balance it out. She folds her hands together in her lap, conserving the remnants of heat from her mug, smile softening to an almost curious tilt of the lips. There's a few moments of silence, and then: "Sefton has a lot of faith in you. I don't know if you knew that." The first time she's actually called him by name, it gets out with scarcely a hitch. Her eyes are on the goldrider now, mildly intent. "He believes you have the potential to be great." A pause, and she adds, "Sefton is not often wrong."
"Ahhh," Roa's head tilts, her mouth smirking, and one hand raising so a single finger points to the ceiling. "But is what Sefton wants and what I want the same thing? That has yet to be determined. Great what, I wonder." She sobers a little. "He trusts me," she says quietly. "And I understand what that is. We won't hurt each other. When needed, we'll help each other. That does not mean we will not, in the end, disappoint one another. He is..." Roa considers and tosses away several nouns before offering, simply, "...Sef."
"Figuring out what he wants is half the fun," Penny says, dryly, though in this perhaps she has a somewhat different approach than Roa. "You're right. He is just himself." The notion of disappointment quiets her for a moment, and she idly tucks a few pieces of hair back behind her ear. Then, glancing at her again, she says, "For what it's worth, I don't think his trust is misplaced." A beat, and then she's uncurling her legs from underneath her to slip her feet into her boots again. "Thank you for the tea," she says, warmth mixed with politeness as she stands. "Next time I will steal some of his to bring you." Next time.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to..." This at the flicker of disappointment, but Roa falls quiet as Penny continues. Her confidence wins another of those shy smiles and then Roa stands as her guest does. The idea of a 'next time' has her brows hitching upwards, but all she says, as she begins to walk with Penny to the door is, "And fruit. If he has any."
"If he has any," Penny echoes in agreement, pausing at the door to nod. "I will see what I can do." There's the potential for awkwardness by the door, etiquette warring with informality, but Penny ends up just lifting a shoulder and casting a wry smile in Roa's direction. "Well... seeya, then." And then she's reaching for the latch and letting herself out, closing the door quietly behind her.
Roa's reply, oddly enough, waits until after the door closes. "Yeah," she murmurs. "Seeya." The doorknob is studied for a long moment before the weyrwoman heads back to the couch, sitting down, and picking her hide up once again.
Time: Afternoon on Day 10, Month 1, Turn 3
Players: Roa, Penny, and Tialith
Scene: Penny pays an unexpected visit and tries to mend slightly damaged bridges.
North Weyr
This is the sanctuary of High Reaches' senior Weyrwoman. It's been decorated in warm earth tones: browns, beiges, and greens with the occasional blue thrown in. Against the back wall and off to left, a heavy curtain of green and blue hangs, cordoning off that corner of the weyr. Behind this makeshift 'wall' one would find a large, comfortable bed. Covering the sheets is a full-sized rabbit fur blanket, at its center the image of a gold dragon in flight, small dark-haired rider perched atop her. A pair of nightstands are also present, one on either side. In the main weyr, a desk and chair are set a few feet before the impromptu 'second room', and perched on the corner of the desk when it is warm, and in the evenings and nights when it is cold, is a tiny, miniature tree planted in a pot. Against the wall, several bookshelves are filled with tomes and scrolls. A small door leads to the weyr's private bathing chamber. On the opposite side of the weyr is a seating area. Two large, brown couches and a pair of plush green chairs are set around a circular table of pale wood. Behind that is the queen's couch, fresh rushes pressed flat by a lazing draconic body.
On the right wall is the archway that leads out onto the ledge belonging to the Weyr's senior gold. It's large enough for her and for a number of slightly smaller visitors. In the right-hand corner of the ledge is a small pedestal, and on it a tiny greenhouse, perhaps two feet tall and two feet wide, sits. On the colder days, during the sunniest hours, it is inhabited by the miniature tree that otherwise lives on the Weyrwoman's desk. Directly opposite the entrance tunnel is a smaller tunnel hidden behind a thick curtain. The air is warmer around that curtain, hinting at the tunnel's destination.
It's been a few days now since the new leadership of High Reaches Weyr became, well, the new leadership, and things have begun to settle. At the very least, the Weyrwoman's Weyr looks tidied and inhabited. Roa is seated on one of the couches, a mug of something steaming on the table, feet tucked up underneath her. She's reading from a pile of hidework. Tialith is settled on her couch, head raised, whirling blue eyes blinking languidly now and again. On each haunch, a quartet of fairly deep scrapes, healing and crusted in dark scabs, mars the pale gold of her hide.
Penny's progress along the corridor is slow, through a part of the Weyr unfamiliar to her. But she knows where she's going, that much is clear as she moves through the outer office and toward the weyr. There she stops, eyeing the opening of the door rather flatly, a twist to her lips as she chews at one of them. She doesn't move to leave again, though she does stand for quite some time before giving a silent sigh, rolling her eyes upward for a moment and then tapping lightly, the motion opening the door just a little more. "Roa?"
Tialith notices first. Her gaze tips and settles on the doorway as soon as Penny begins to hover outside it. The Weyrwoman's eyes flick up, towards it, and down again tot he hide. She waits until the knock and the name to peek up again, and when she does, she blinks several times, her brows tipping upwards. "Penny?" The name sounds, perhaps, a touch incredulous. "Uhm. Hi. Come in. Please. If you like. You do...I've hot things to drink. Would you like something?"
"Er... hi," is Penny's response, echoing Roa's greeting as she slips inside, closing the door behind her. Her eyes shift over toward Tialith, and though she doesn't bother to hide her wariness, she also doesn't try to give the gold a wider berth as she makes her way into the room. "Oh, I'm fine. Well." She hesitates then, perhaps aware that a drink would at least give her something to do with her hands. "Tea, if you have it? If it's not a good time, I can come back later." A nod to the hide on Roa's lap.
"I've some of the general sort and there's a little tin Kelar sent, if you'd like something more from home?" The hide that Penny looks at, Roa has already set aside as she pushes into a stand and heads over to the hearth. A small table is set before it with several pitchers of hot liquids. A mug is selected from the table's cabinet, as well as several little tins presumably containing the aforementioned tea. "It's a fine time. How have you been?"
"I should be polite and not ask for the good stuff Kelar sends," Penny says wryly. "But I am not so selfless as that. You know, he -used- to send those things entirely to me." But she's found her smile again, and the words lack any real rancor. She sidles around until she finds one of the chairs near the couch, sinking down onto its edge. "Oh, fine. You know how it is." Blah, blah. Penny's watching the small goldrider, mind only half on her own response. "Classes, work, etceteras."
The small goldrider pulls out a little tea strainer and grabs a few pinches of the 'good stuff' to settle into the strainer which is set into the mug. "Kelar only sends me things with the edict that I share them with you," she murmurs around a tiny smile. Hot water is poured and and the leaves are left to steep. "I suppose I do know," Roa adds. "I'm glad to hear nobody's been beaten or harassed or bludgeoned for a while. Sort of a nice little breather." She smiles, just faintly, as she waits for the leaves favor to seep into the water. "You want anything in it? Cream? Sweetener? Citrus?"
The offer of cream or sweetener is met with a bemused look. "And pollute Kelar's kind offerings? No, thank you." She winces, just a little, at the mention of harassment. "Sometimes it makes me more nervous when little is happening than when the place is falling down around our ears. Like it's saving up for something horrendous." Yes, way to make the new Weyrwoman feel nice and secure. Penny's still on the edge of her chair, not quite yet comfortable in the new surroundings, but her smile comes more easily as she adds, "Perhaps you will be a good luck charm, now, and there will be no more bludgeoning."
The idea of herself-as-good-luck-charm has Roa's laughing one of those sharp little coughs of a laugh before she realizes it. "I doubt it, but I think, for a while, things will get better. I'm not so worried about internal threats, just now. I think we've smoked them out." The tea ball is pulled free and set aside, and Roa returns, holding out the mug for the journeyman smith before reseating herself. "Was there something I could help you with, Penny?" Perhaps the idea that she has come, just for a social call, is a bit too alien a concept.
Penny reaches out to take the mug, lips quirking at Roa's laugh, a bit of mischief there. She doesn't press the issue, all-too-aware of Roa's track record with misfortune over the past Turns, instead offering a murmured sound of thanks as she wraps her fingers around the mug to warm them. The new Weyrwoman's question brings her to a halt, though, a little wince visible for a moment as Penny's eyes lift toward her. She clears her throat, voice dry in acknowledgment of the other woman's confusion at her motives. "No, actually. I just came by to see you." Touché, Roa. Touché.
Blink. Roa buys a moment by reaching forward and scooping up her mug. She lifts it, taking a small sip. "Well then. Thank you, that's very kind." Sip. She lapses into silence that poor Penny is left to fill.
There's a difference between polite small talk with an acquaintance and conversing with a friend -- the former is something Penny could not have escaped knowing how to do, this far along in her career and her education. The latter, however, is a skill she seems to have let grow quite rusty of late. She looks down into her mug for a while during that silence, not quite uncomfortable enough to subject her companion to polite, cheerful chatter, but also not bothering to hide the fact that she's a little uncertain what to say. Eventually she lifts the mug to her mouth to sip cautiously, testing the hot liquid.
After the stretch of quiet, the Weyrwoman laughs softly and shakes her head. "Yeah," she murmurs quietly. "Me neither." Her fingers tap-tap-tap against her own mug. "I should be better at this, I think. I took all those etiquette classes..."
The laugh brings an answering rueful smile from the smith as she lowers her mug again. "If you try etiquette on me I will pour your tea on your head and leave," Penny threatens, moving back from the edge of the chair a little. At least her smile is warm, if she hasn't quite gotten the conversation back yet. She sighs, one finger tapping on the mug as she regards the goldrider thoughtfully. "It's been strange, not having you in class, you know. First you went who knows where, and now..." Yes, now, why don't we talk about that? Instead the mug is examined again. "Kelar knows his teas," she comments, idly.
"You can't!" Roa protests at the dumping of tea onto her person. Her eyes are wide and she leans forward. "That's the -good- stuff." Then she flops back. The Weyrwoman is, for her travels, markedly tan and she nods faintly at Penny's other comment. "It's been odd not taking them. A bit of a relief, though. I have...a bit of time now and again. Funny, when you think about it."
"Hmm." Penny glances down into her mug. "You have a point. I'm sure I could find something to throw at you instead, this place is awfully nice." Cushions on the chairs and whole tables and things. She smiles, one corner of her mouth lifting a little. "I won't be unhappy when I don't have to go to classes anymore, myself," she agrees, eyes shifting away now to move idly around the room. Quiet for a moment, perhaps thinking on that statement, before something seems to strike her as funny and she gives a silent laugh, a quick exhalation of breath. "I would almost be envious. You look well, for all your adventures." I.e., tanned. And some people are always a little homesick for warmer climates.
"There's oodles of things good for flinging," Roa agrees. "And you can even put your feet up on the table. I won't tell. It's..." she tips her head to the side. "I'll miss the debates. And the excuse to take to and listen to people. But I can't say I'll miss the homework. I can't say I don't need the time. So." Sip. "My adventures would have been fun, I think. Except circumstances made it hard to relax. They did their best, though, to help."
"So he did send you home, then." Leaping to conclusions, Penny's expression holds a certain amount of undisguised wistfulness, a curve to her lips as she regards the other woman. Suddenly hearing herself, she backtracks a little. "To my home, I mean. That is to say-- not that he sent you, you could've gone by yourself. I don't mean -he-..." She trails off, lifting a hand to brush her hair back from her face in an exasperated manner. She leans back in her chair, settling her mug against her thigh and saying, wearily, "So you went to Boll, then?" Faint amusement for her own antics, and the hint of a certain drawling laziness in her voice that ought to be familiar.
Chuckling softly, Roa nods. After all of that backtracking, her answer is a gentle, "I went to Boll. I asked him to send me and to announce it as his idea. He obliged." She allows herself another sip before she adds, "They're well. They miss you."
Penny smiles a little as Roa nods, as she watches the goldrider, tan and all. "It's a good place to go," she says, mildly. On the subject of the boys missing her, she doesn't comment, simply linking her fingers loosely around the warmth of her mug and looking down for a moment. "Perhaps when all this is over, I'll ask to be posted there. My father certainly wouldn't object -- even now he holds out hope that I'll soften, get distracted by their charms, that he'll see me safely married off to one of the boys." There's a gleam there, a bit of dark amusement at an unspoken joke that Roa, at least, will understand.
The smile now, curls upwards into something tiny and sure. A conspiracy shared. She shakes her head slowly. "Wouldn't that be something," Roa murmurs, "if he managed that." She lifts her mug to take another swallow before she asks the liquid within, "Posted at Boll, then? Not Fort?"
"Something, indeed," the smith agrees. "Fortunately for my ambitions, I believe the boys now consider me somewhat off-limits." But then Penny's mug pauses halfway to her mouth, holds there for a moment, and then comes back to rest on her leg again. She takes a long moment of quiet to consider the question, or perhaps merely to organize her thoughts. Eyes flicking back up to Roa, she says simply, "Boll's my home. I think everyone concerned would agree that it's where I would belong." It's a troubled answer, though, a faint lift at the corner of her mouth acknowledging the imperfection in the plan.
There is a moment of consideration before she adds, gently, "It's his too. Family. All sorts of reasons for him to visit regularly." Roa turns her mug slowly in her hands, her lips parting as if she might say more. But she only shakes her head a bit and closes it again.
Penny clears her throat quietly, quite interested in her half-drunk mug of tea. "All sorts of reasons," she agrees. Eyes flick to Roa and then back again, with a little grimace. "He will visit, but you know the way he is. He doesn't do things that are good for him unless there is someone to force him." A little twist of her lips, her smile not entirely kind. "Over the turns, he will be busier and busier, taking over the continent in his way. And I doubt his wife will urge him to take frequent trips to his home without her in tow."
There are little nods for each point mentioned. "You're probably right about all of that. Still. He's quite adept at getting what he wants, isn't he. I doubt that skill will weaken as he ages." Roa lifts the mug for a final time, swallowing the last of its contents before setting it down on the table.
On her couch, Tialith has lowered her head and dropped off into a light doze.
Despite her gloomy predictions, Penny's smile comes back easily if somewhat ruefully as she listens. She ducks her head, her smile almost shy for a moment; perhaps, if her complexion were not so dark, she might blush just a little. "I hope not," she murmurs in response, fingers tightening around her tea before she raises it to drink and hide whatever might be seen there. When she lowers it again, she pulls her feet out of her boots and curls them up under her in her usual manner, her tone somewhat brisker as she says, "So, tell me. What is it like to have an entire Weyr at your disposal?"
"Aha," Roa flashes her own grin, "I was waiting for that one. Well." She cants her head to the side, peering upwards as she considers. "It's...uhm. Terrifying, a little. Hectic. Exciting. Everything you'd expect, I suppose."
"Well, how often does a friend of mine get vaulted into a position of such power and influence?" But Penny's smile is amused, rather than calculating, and her manner is much more relaxed now. She rests her elbow on the arm of her chair and leans her head on her hand, lazier now that the tea has done its soothing work. "It seems like it would be... hard," she says then, more quietly, the last word falling a little lamely. "To suddenly have such responsibilities."
Her gaze had lifted to watch Penny, but at the word 'friend', it drops to her knees as a shy, almost embarrassed smile, appears. The rest of the smith's words are heard, but Roa only examines the couch until she quiets. "I've had a long while to ponder it. I set things up to make it happen. But, well, it is. Of course it is. One of the Instructors, Kay, said the best thing I could do for myself and for the weyr was accept that I was going to make mistakes. But..." her hands lift and flop back into her lap as she makes a sound of frustration, "I make a mistake in this, and I'm not the one that pays for it."
If she does not quite know the mechanics of how Roa managed to trigger Tialith's flight, Penny no doubt had some sort of inkling that such was the case; she doesn't display any particular surprise when the goldrider owns up to her share of responsibility for it. She's quiet for a while, first listening and then thoughtful, her eyes now on Roa's hands as they flop back down again. Then, slowly, she says, "I don't envy you that weight. I know I couldn't do it. But," and here she smiles, glancing up for a moment and then back down, as if a little too embarrassed to meet the other woman's eyes for long, "there is also a reason I am not a goldrider. There is, I think, a reason you are."
"I don't know. Perhaps there is. I think, though, that such a thought is easier when you are not." Roa rolls her shoulders and leans back against the couch. "Easier to presume the people with the opportunity to lead are actually adept at doing so. It's harder, when you know your own head and you find yourself in the position anyhow. But. It's an opportunity. I'm going to make the most of it."
Penny laughs a little at that, agreement in the bob of her head as she sips at the last of her tea and sets the mug aside. "That's the spirit," she says in a blatantly condescending way, but with enough warmth to balance it out. She folds her hands together in her lap, conserving the remnants of heat from her mug, smile softening to an almost curious tilt of the lips. There's a few moments of silence, and then: "Sefton has a lot of faith in you. I don't know if you knew that." The first time she's actually called him by name, it gets out with scarcely a hitch. Her eyes are on the goldrider now, mildly intent. "He believes you have the potential to be great." A pause, and she adds, "Sefton is not often wrong."
"Ahhh," Roa's head tilts, her mouth smirking, and one hand raising so a single finger points to the ceiling. "But is what Sefton wants and what I want the same thing? That has yet to be determined. Great what, I wonder." She sobers a little. "He trusts me," she says quietly. "And I understand what that is. We won't hurt each other. When needed, we'll help each other. That does not mean we will not, in the end, disappoint one another. He is..." Roa considers and tosses away several nouns before offering, simply, "...Sef."
"Figuring out what he wants is half the fun," Penny says, dryly, though in this perhaps she has a somewhat different approach than Roa. "You're right. He is just himself." The notion of disappointment quiets her for a moment, and she idly tucks a few pieces of hair back behind her ear. Then, glancing at her again, she says, "For what it's worth, I don't think his trust is misplaced." A beat, and then she's uncurling her legs from underneath her to slip her feet into her boots again. "Thank you for the tea," she says, warmth mixed with politeness as she stands. "Next time I will steal some of his to bring you." Next time.
"I'm sorry I didn't mean to..." This at the flicker of disappointment, but Roa falls quiet as Penny continues. Her confidence wins another of those shy smiles and then Roa stands as her guest does. The idea of a 'next time' has her brows hitching upwards, but all she says, as she begins to walk with Penny to the door is, "And fruit. If he has any."
"If he has any," Penny echoes in agreement, pausing at the door to nod. "I will see what I can do." There's the potential for awkwardness by the door, etiquette warring with informality, but Penny ends up just lifting a shoulder and casting a wry smile in Roa's direction. "Well... seeya, then." And then she's reaching for the latch and letting herself out, closing the door quietly behind her.
Roa's reply, oddly enough, waits until after the door closes. "Yeah," she murmurs. "Seeya." The doorknob is studied for a long moment before the weyrwoman heads back to the couch, sitting down, and picking her hide up once again.