Driving Miss Crazy
Location: A Storeroom
Time: Late Afternoon on Day 2, Month 8, Turn 2
Players: Aivey and Roa
Scene: Roa visits Aivey to fulfill one agreement, and ends up making another.
Back here again. At this door. Ashwin was behind there once. Jensen was once. Now it's somebody else, and a person she really has no desire to ever see again. But if that is Roa's opinion on the subject, it remains well hidden by a neutral expression and a small nod to the two guards standing post outside. One moves forward as if he's going to come in with her again, but the weyrwoman holds up a hand and shakes her head. "Ma'am," begins the fellow, horrified. "I can't just let you-" "The door's not so thick. I'll scream if I need help." "Weyrwoman, ma'am, I don't think-" But now Roa has turned on her Look. Cool. Stern. Authoritative. The two guards exchange miserable glances. The one who spoke before speaks again. "Fifteen minutes, ma'am. Then either I'm comin' in or you're comin' out." He waits until Roa gives a nod of agreement before opening the door enough for her to slip inside.
Given the lack of amenities and entertainment, Aivey has been left to her own devises for entertainment. Currently it consists of toying with a small pebble no larger then a mark. Her eyes are fixed on her task and not the door despite the subtle tilt of her head in said direction upon hearing it finally open. She doesn't bother to look up to greet her guest - whomever such might be - doesn't yet bother to stop juggling that one damn pebble.
It's not until the door closes that the visitor speaks. "I thought they'd at least give you a deck of cards," Roa notes idly. And then, more simply, "Bored?"
"Back so soon?" Aivey asks, at once recognizing Roa's voice. The pebble juggling ceases, the feat of tucking it into her palm and hiding it behind her thumb not at all that impressive. She looks at the goldrider while draping an arm across her knee, "I'm actually enjoying the vacation. It's nice. Quiet. How's the trial going?"
"Just couldn't keep away," Roa agrees as she takes a few steps closer. "What with the way we're becoming such fast friends and all." Her booted toe nudges another pebble, encountered as she walks, and she crouches down, briefly, to scoop it up into her own fingers. "Oh. You know. It's going." The pebble is tossed and caught once. And then it's suddenly lobbed up and over at Aivey. She throws in an arc; it's meant to be caught, not meant to hit her. "How do I know if anything you say to me is true?"
Make no mistake, Aivey's every bit of attention is on Roa even as the woman lobs the pebble in her direction. Instead of catching it, Aivey raises her hand to partially deflect it. Her excuse is a lax shrug and half smile, "All this lack of light is a killer on my reflexes. Am I forgiven?" A quick beat brings the remainder of, "Oh, you don't. I'd say you have my word but that probably won't count for much so I guess it pretty much comes down to if you believe I'm a killer." The subtle tilt of her chin upward, the pitch of her tone leaves the question up in the air.
"Not all killers are liars," Roa considers. "Although in your case, I suppose you'd have to be, all things considered." She is still about five feet away when she lowers herself into a sit, knees drawn up, arms loosely draped around them. "So, tell me about Derek."
"Not all liars are killers," Aivey counters with an amused smile. Though she looks ready to say more, she stills at the question, seriousness replacing the earlier amusement. "He's my father. I really think that says it all, doesn't it?"
"That's so," Roa agrees with a small nod. "Everybody's got a father. Most folks wouldn't go out of their way to do what you did...assuming you did it...for theirs. Especially ones they haven't seen for eleven turns and likely won't ever see again."
"Assuming everything I did was out of my way. Which it wasn't but that brings us right back to the whole 'are you a killer or aren't you' question, right?" Uncovering the pebble, Aivey resumes juggling it, dropping her attention upon it and not Roa. "If I don't see him, I don't see him. I've come to terms with that... I've had plenty of time to think in here, you know," A quick look to Roa fixes that mused offering, before she continues, "You answered my question, you know. About what I can expect at the end of all this."
"Did I?" Roa's head cants to the side. "How so?"
Patiently, Aivey launches into an explanation. "Well, you said I'd never see my father. Which means when you find me guilty on everything I've done-" Another pointed look, "I won't be getting exiled. If I did get exiled, well," She stills the pebble juggling to show her hands, the universal gesture implying 'there you have it'.
"Not necessarily true," the weyrwoman disagrees. "Criminals who are exiled aren't sent to the same island as the Instigators, so if you're found guilty, you very well could be sent away. Or, it could be that you'd be staked out for thread. Or, it could be that we haven't got a case on you at all, and you'll go free." Shoulders lift and fall, as if it's not much of a concern for Roa, however it turns out.
"I wonder if that's what happened to him. He did claim he killed someone and he disappeared awfully quick." Aivey wonders quietly, "You know, I think about him a lot. What I didn't get to finish, what I'd like to do... the idea of him tied out for Thread is amusing. Who needs cards when I have that?" She tilts her head and gaze back down, expression mostly calm despite all that Roa's just shared with her, "Do you know what else I wonder? I wonder if you and your people really are killers. Don't you think it's a bit hypocritical... optioning tying someone out to be killed by Thread as a punishment for killing someone else?"
"Well, I suppose if he was secreted away into exile on an abandoned island, then you've won, haven't you." Said so very calmly, Roa's eyes studying the nails of one hand as she says it. "I think at a certain level, any punishment is hypocritical. But if you want to know, I find exile a greater hypocrisy than death. Exile *is* death, except without anyone having to admit they have blood on their hands. So." A tiny smile offered to Aivey, "depending on your own opinions on the subject, I suppose you should be glad it won't be me making the final decision, if you're found guilty."
"They do teach you Caucus students right, don't they?" Aivey asks with a hint of a smile, "It's almost a shame you can't decide what to do with me. I'm interested to know." She lets the pebble drop to the ground at long last and makes a show of dusting her hands free of nonexistent dust.
"Do you? Want to know? Well, there's something I want to know from you too, so how about we trade answers?" Roa's fingers move so one set lightly clasps the wrist of the other hand.
"If we're talking deals... I can go without answers to questions I'll find out eventually." Aivey lifts a hand again, eyes remaining solid on Roa as she motions to the room at large, "I'm lacking the comforts I'm accustomed to. Do you still think we can make a deal, dear Roa?"
"It really isn't the smartest thing, Aivey, to both want something from someone while attempting to annoy them in the same sentence. That depends on what it is you mean by comforts. And I'd want my question answered first."
Aivey concedes the point with a small nod of her head, "Fine. Ask your question."
"No," Roa shakes her head. "We make the deal first, then I ask my question. What do you want in exchange?"
"What I want and what I'll get... I think those are two different things," Aivey says after a small pause, her ever present smile there, but subtle. "Starting tonight: I would like desert with my dinner and you... your visits, to be exact, to continue until the trial is over."
The weyrwoman's expression remains impassive as she considers this request. "Dessert," she agrees, "an a single hour-long visit each seven."
"One visit each seven?" Aivey makes a face, disappointed in its most extreme, "Really, I'm liable to get bored. I expect this trial will take a very long time. I've been busy, after all," She shakes her head and holds up a hand, showing off three fingers, "Three visits a seven, an hour long each and no less. I'll be nice enough and let you pick then when."
"I'm afraid, Aivey, that you highly overestimate my free time. While you may be enjoying a vacation, I have too many duties to devote that amount of energy to keeping you amused. Two visits a seven, I pick when, and," Roa tips down her head so she can peer up and quite intently at Aivey, "if I learn that you've been lying to me during our chats, the visits end."
"Two visits a seven, you pick when and I won't lie so long as you don't force me to. But I'll be sure to tell you when that is." Aivey offers her hand out to Roa, her lips once more pulling with a restrained smile, "Deal, dear Roa?"
"And don't call me 'dear'," Roa adds as a bit of an afterthought. Her hand is partways extended but won't, it seems, fully meet Aivey's until that last bit is settled.
"As you wish," Aivey isn't so shy to go that extra few inches to get the handshake. Leaning away from the wall, keeping her sights settled on Roa, she even throws a broad smile into the mix. "Now your question."
Hand is shook, and once the deed is done, Roa withdraws her fingers and returns to clasping them loosely around her knees. "Before, you told me you killed Sian because she tried to stop you. I believe you meant she tried to stop you from murdering her daughter. So, what I want to know is, why did you want to kill Riann?"
"I killed Sian because she came in when I was trying to finish the brat off. Riann had to go for a number of reasons...for the threat she would have become once, because she was the daughter of a blooded Lady, to annoy Jensen that he couldn't have prevented the death of an innocent baby, so that word would get out that the 'Reaches was in bad order for the very same reason... Did you ever hear of that saying about all the good outweighing the bad?" Again Aivey shows her palms, silently inviting Roa to take her explanation or leave it.
"I haven't really, but I suppose I get the gist." Roa is again studying her nails, blunt as they are, as if she's considering growing them, perhaps. Her eyes move, after a while, back to Aivey, "I should see about your dessert. Dinner's soon."
"It bothers you," Aivey naturally assumes, "It did me at first, but I intended to finish the job and would have if Jensen hadn't shown up. I suppose that's where you and I differ." A quick beat, "Don't forget our arrangement, Roa. I'll be counting the days before I see you again."
"Assuming you can tell the difference between one and the other, in here." Her fingers reach into a skirt pocket and she lowers something to the ground and slides it over to Aivey. Then, Roa rises from her crouch to a stand, without using her hands to push herself upright. "Until next time." The item happens to be a deck of cards. Roa got them off of the guard Heller. They are, in point of fact, the same cards Ashwin was playing with when he was in here. None of this, however, is shared, and Roa has already turned away to rap twice on the door out.
Aivey lets Roa leave in silence, not saying anything or moving to accept whatever little item she's been given until the door is closed and Roa gone. Only then does she lean forward to take the cards, a smile appearing and smoothing away as she picks them up and upon reclining back against the wall, shuffles them in her hands.
Time: Late Afternoon on Day 2, Month 8, Turn 2
Players: Aivey and Roa
Scene: Roa visits Aivey to fulfill one agreement, and ends up making another.
Back here again. At this door. Ashwin was behind there once. Jensen was once. Now it's somebody else, and a person she really has no desire to ever see again. But if that is Roa's opinion on the subject, it remains well hidden by a neutral expression and a small nod to the two guards standing post outside. One moves forward as if he's going to come in with her again, but the weyrwoman holds up a hand and shakes her head. "Ma'am," begins the fellow, horrified. "I can't just let you-" "The door's not so thick. I'll scream if I need help." "Weyrwoman, ma'am, I don't think-" But now Roa has turned on her Look. Cool. Stern. Authoritative. The two guards exchange miserable glances. The one who spoke before speaks again. "Fifteen minutes, ma'am. Then either I'm comin' in or you're comin' out." He waits until Roa gives a nod of agreement before opening the door enough for her to slip inside.
Given the lack of amenities and entertainment, Aivey has been left to her own devises for entertainment. Currently it consists of toying with a small pebble no larger then a mark. Her eyes are fixed on her task and not the door despite the subtle tilt of her head in said direction upon hearing it finally open. She doesn't bother to look up to greet her guest - whomever such might be - doesn't yet bother to stop juggling that one damn pebble.
It's not until the door closes that the visitor speaks. "I thought they'd at least give you a deck of cards," Roa notes idly. And then, more simply, "Bored?"
"Back so soon?" Aivey asks, at once recognizing Roa's voice. The pebble juggling ceases, the feat of tucking it into her palm and hiding it behind her thumb not at all that impressive. She looks at the goldrider while draping an arm across her knee, "I'm actually enjoying the vacation. It's nice. Quiet. How's the trial going?"
"Just couldn't keep away," Roa agrees as she takes a few steps closer. "What with the way we're becoming such fast friends and all." Her booted toe nudges another pebble, encountered as she walks, and she crouches down, briefly, to scoop it up into her own fingers. "Oh. You know. It's going." The pebble is tossed and caught once. And then it's suddenly lobbed up and over at Aivey. She throws in an arc; it's meant to be caught, not meant to hit her. "How do I know if anything you say to me is true?"
Make no mistake, Aivey's every bit of attention is on Roa even as the woman lobs the pebble in her direction. Instead of catching it, Aivey raises her hand to partially deflect it. Her excuse is a lax shrug and half smile, "All this lack of light is a killer on my reflexes. Am I forgiven?" A quick beat brings the remainder of, "Oh, you don't. I'd say you have my word but that probably won't count for much so I guess it pretty much comes down to if you believe I'm a killer." The subtle tilt of her chin upward, the pitch of her tone leaves the question up in the air.
"Not all killers are liars," Roa considers. "Although in your case, I suppose you'd have to be, all things considered." She is still about five feet away when she lowers herself into a sit, knees drawn up, arms loosely draped around them. "So, tell me about Derek."
"Not all liars are killers," Aivey counters with an amused smile. Though she looks ready to say more, she stills at the question, seriousness replacing the earlier amusement. "He's my father. I really think that says it all, doesn't it?"
"That's so," Roa agrees with a small nod. "Everybody's got a father. Most folks wouldn't go out of their way to do what you did...assuming you did it...for theirs. Especially ones they haven't seen for eleven turns and likely won't ever see again."
"Assuming everything I did was out of my way. Which it wasn't but that brings us right back to the whole 'are you a killer or aren't you' question, right?" Uncovering the pebble, Aivey resumes juggling it, dropping her attention upon it and not Roa. "If I don't see him, I don't see him. I've come to terms with that... I've had plenty of time to think in here, you know," A quick look to Roa fixes that mused offering, before she continues, "You answered my question, you know. About what I can expect at the end of all this."
"Did I?" Roa's head cants to the side. "How so?"
Patiently, Aivey launches into an explanation. "Well, you said I'd never see my father. Which means when you find me guilty on everything I've done-" Another pointed look, "I won't be getting exiled. If I did get exiled, well," She stills the pebble juggling to show her hands, the universal gesture implying 'there you have it'.
"Not necessarily true," the weyrwoman disagrees. "Criminals who are exiled aren't sent to the same island as the Instigators, so if you're found guilty, you very well could be sent away. Or, it could be that you'd be staked out for thread. Or, it could be that we haven't got a case on you at all, and you'll go free." Shoulders lift and fall, as if it's not much of a concern for Roa, however it turns out.
"I wonder if that's what happened to him. He did claim he killed someone and he disappeared awfully quick." Aivey wonders quietly, "You know, I think about him a lot. What I didn't get to finish, what I'd like to do... the idea of him tied out for Thread is amusing. Who needs cards when I have that?" She tilts her head and gaze back down, expression mostly calm despite all that Roa's just shared with her, "Do you know what else I wonder? I wonder if you and your people really are killers. Don't you think it's a bit hypocritical... optioning tying someone out to be killed by Thread as a punishment for killing someone else?"
"Well, I suppose if he was secreted away into exile on an abandoned island, then you've won, haven't you." Said so very calmly, Roa's eyes studying the nails of one hand as she says it. "I think at a certain level, any punishment is hypocritical. But if you want to know, I find exile a greater hypocrisy than death. Exile *is* death, except without anyone having to admit they have blood on their hands. So." A tiny smile offered to Aivey, "depending on your own opinions on the subject, I suppose you should be glad it won't be me making the final decision, if you're found guilty."
"They do teach you Caucus students right, don't they?" Aivey asks with a hint of a smile, "It's almost a shame you can't decide what to do with me. I'm interested to know." She lets the pebble drop to the ground at long last and makes a show of dusting her hands free of nonexistent dust.
"Do you? Want to know? Well, there's something I want to know from you too, so how about we trade answers?" Roa's fingers move so one set lightly clasps the wrist of the other hand.
"If we're talking deals... I can go without answers to questions I'll find out eventually." Aivey lifts a hand again, eyes remaining solid on Roa as she motions to the room at large, "I'm lacking the comforts I'm accustomed to. Do you still think we can make a deal, dear Roa?"
"It really isn't the smartest thing, Aivey, to both want something from someone while attempting to annoy them in the same sentence. That depends on what it is you mean by comforts. And I'd want my question answered first."
Aivey concedes the point with a small nod of her head, "Fine. Ask your question."
"No," Roa shakes her head. "We make the deal first, then I ask my question. What do you want in exchange?"
"What I want and what I'll get... I think those are two different things," Aivey says after a small pause, her ever present smile there, but subtle. "Starting tonight: I would like desert with my dinner and you... your visits, to be exact, to continue until the trial is over."
The weyrwoman's expression remains impassive as she considers this request. "Dessert," she agrees, "an a single hour-long visit each seven."
"One visit each seven?" Aivey makes a face, disappointed in its most extreme, "Really, I'm liable to get bored. I expect this trial will take a very long time. I've been busy, after all," She shakes her head and holds up a hand, showing off three fingers, "Three visits a seven, an hour long each and no less. I'll be nice enough and let you pick then when."
"I'm afraid, Aivey, that you highly overestimate my free time. While you may be enjoying a vacation, I have too many duties to devote that amount of energy to keeping you amused. Two visits a seven, I pick when, and," Roa tips down her head so she can peer up and quite intently at Aivey, "if I learn that you've been lying to me during our chats, the visits end."
"Two visits a seven, you pick when and I won't lie so long as you don't force me to. But I'll be sure to tell you when that is." Aivey offers her hand out to Roa, her lips once more pulling with a restrained smile, "Deal, dear Roa?"
"And don't call me 'dear'," Roa adds as a bit of an afterthought. Her hand is partways extended but won't, it seems, fully meet Aivey's until that last bit is settled.
"As you wish," Aivey isn't so shy to go that extra few inches to get the handshake. Leaning away from the wall, keeping her sights settled on Roa, she even throws a broad smile into the mix. "Now your question."
Hand is shook, and once the deed is done, Roa withdraws her fingers and returns to clasping them loosely around her knees. "Before, you told me you killed Sian because she tried to stop you. I believe you meant she tried to stop you from murdering her daughter. So, what I want to know is, why did you want to kill Riann?"
"I killed Sian because she came in when I was trying to finish the brat off. Riann had to go for a number of reasons...for the threat she would have become once, because she was the daughter of a blooded Lady, to annoy Jensen that he couldn't have prevented the death of an innocent baby, so that word would get out that the 'Reaches was in bad order for the very same reason... Did you ever hear of that saying about all the good outweighing the bad?" Again Aivey shows her palms, silently inviting Roa to take her explanation or leave it.
"I haven't really, but I suppose I get the gist." Roa is again studying her nails, blunt as they are, as if she's considering growing them, perhaps. Her eyes move, after a while, back to Aivey, "I should see about your dessert. Dinner's soon."
"It bothers you," Aivey naturally assumes, "It did me at first, but I intended to finish the job and would have if Jensen hadn't shown up. I suppose that's where you and I differ." A quick beat, "Don't forget our arrangement, Roa. I'll be counting the days before I see you again."
"Assuming you can tell the difference between one and the other, in here." Her fingers reach into a skirt pocket and she lowers something to the ground and slides it over to Aivey. Then, Roa rises from her crouch to a stand, without using her hands to push herself upright. "Until next time." The item happens to be a deck of cards. Roa got them off of the guard Heller. They are, in point of fact, the same cards Ashwin was playing with when he was in here. None of this, however, is shared, and Roa has already turned away to rap twice on the door out.
Aivey lets Roa leave in silence, not saying anything or moving to accept whatever little item she's been given until the door is closed and Roa gone. Only then does she lean forward to take the cards, a smile appearing and smoothing away as she picks them up and upon reclining back against the wall, shuffles them in her hands.