Custard pies
It is a spring afternoon of day 21, month 5, turn 19 of Interval 10.
Living Cavern, Fort Weyr
The interior of the living cavern is luxurious, relatively speaking -- the walls are smoothed and there are wall sconces in addition to the myriad array of glow baskets and lamps used to keep the place well lit. It's a large space, suited to handle large numbers of people, with dozens of tables arranged strategically throughout; serving tables are also conveniently located at various intervals. Tapestries hang on the walls, many of them having been there for hundreds of turns and periodically taken down for cleaning and restoration.
Up a flight of stairs would be the kitchens, where much of the hustle and bustle can be heard, if not seen. Food is transported down via discretely located dumb waiters and dispersed by servers as necessary, but the aromas of food being prepared is as pervasive as the constant chatter of people as they drift through in search of food, drink, or company. Servers are generally available to assist and ensure that cups are filled and tables are cleaned regularly.
To the west is both the main entrance to the bowl and also the night hearth, which is kept stocked with fresh klah and pots of stew. Other hearths are scattered throughout, radiating heat and warmth as well as providing gathering spots for private discussions. To the east, a short flight of stairs leads down to the inner caverns, while a stout wooden door with a purple caduceus to the south leads to the infirmary.
Obvious exits:
Bowl Inner Caverns Kitchen
The verge of apology, only not so authentic, prompts Jaeyi to ask of the man in question, "Am I ruining your don't-kiss-and-tell reputation?" Never mind the whole act will probably get her ostracized from the carefully maintained social structure of teenage girls in the lower caverns. Phara and T'rev sit at some table or another, Jaeyi stands next to the bronzerider's chair like she's his newest bauble. "You've met the elusive father-in-question?" she asks across to Phara, speaking of the envies of teenage girls!
Phara replies to T'rev with a grin, "Well, we'll just have to omit that one the next you speak with him, yes? As far as he knows, he's charming Rodric, the silver fox." She peers into her empty mug with a little frown. "Refill time," she announces, sliding from her seat with a smile at Jaeyi. "Yes. I'm always welcome at the caravan." As if that covers her in.
"Ain't ruinin' a thing," T'rev says with a charming smile for Jaeyi and another for Phara and his arm stays resolutely in place around the baker's waist. "Sure, I like t'take folks to meet the Terrivs. S'fun to hang out with traders," T'rev claims by way of explanation. "Only thing is, Jae, gotta fly to go meet 'em. Though I'm sure Da'll be down this way for the big summer gather. He keeps a cothold over by the Halls." He rolls his eyes a little for any 'silver fox' remarks and gives Jaeyi a little tug of the 'sit in my lap' variety.
Jaeyi and T'rev get a clear view of Kai's skulking approach, up behind Phara and with a decided air of a man who shouldn't be where he is. The weyrling's got a small bit of hide clutched in one hand. Phara's last few words bring him to a halt, and where he clearly -was- planning on joining the others, the bluerider's voice might just change his mind. And yet, after a grimace, here he comes, grunting an, "Afternoon," and hovering near one of the empty chairs.
If the term jailbait could apply on Pern, it would surely apply in this case. Standing about 5'9, curvy, dark hair, dark eyes-- and let's not forget that she's all of sixteen Turns old. Already sultry, she's going to be trouble for some Turns to come, with those long black eyelashes, perfectly curved lips... She has a dark complexion, clean and blemish-free despite the pains of adolescence. Jaeyi's no thin-and-waifish beauty, but curves like hers get away without being skinny. In a purple, summery blouse with ribbon-sleeves and a lightweight cotton weave, she shows a decent amount of skin without being totally skanky about it. Paired with loose khaki trousers, with buckled leather sandals, it's not a particularly remarkable ensemble, but it clings just the way it should. Long black hair is pulled into a simple braid, but a few curls are left to fall across her forehead, eyes, cheeks.
With a tendency toward chubbiness, Jaeyi probably has to keep a close eye on her figure, or she'll go from curvaceous to chunky pretty quickly. She speaks with an accented inflection indicative of the warmer climes, the slow speech of warm Boll.
At 'fly,' there's the immediate, "Riiight. I'll pass." Sunnily said. Jaeyi's just followed that sit-in-lap tug toward the inevitable end, drops prettily down across the bronzerider's lap with an arm across his shoulders and-- just a slight straightening of her posture as brawny fellows come hulking up to the edge of the table. Though it's just a little wiggle of her fingers, it's very much a well-hello-there smile and lash-bat; so, yes, she'll subject pretty much anyone to at least one long-lashed once-over.
Phara is fleeing, and make no mistake. PDA makes her ten kinds of uncomfortable. As she turns to head for more klah, she's confronted with Kai's skulking figure. An eyebrow lifts at him, but she doesn't challenge his right to be here. Instead, she sidesteps past the table and doubletimes it out of there. Surly weyrling, flirty girl, best friend: Toxic combination, Hemlock pie.
"Well hey there Kai," T'rev says happily as B'kaiv approaches, hulking and glowering aside. He offers a lowly chuckled: "Mmmhm," to Jaeyi about the flying and settles back comfortably in his chair, clearly unperturbed to have a girl in his lap in the living cavern, nor even for Jaeyi's come-hither look for Kai. He probably expected Phara to come back and thus misses her flight away. "You can meet my Da when he's up for the gathers, turnover at least, though that's a ways," the bronzerider tells the Baker.
That lash and finger combo brings one side of the weyrling's mouth up in something that's as related to Jaeyi's smile as a watchwher is a dragon. He bobs Phara a nod, pulls out a chair and flops into it with a grunt to consider the pair across from him. "You got a Da?" he asks T'rev, immediately shakes his head. "Don't mean it like that. Mean... shells. You know what I mean, yeah? 'M Kai," he adds to the lapful, setting both hands (and that hide) into his lap and offering only a nod across the table. "Don't remember seein' you around."
"I don't remember seeing you around either," answers Jaeyi in a tone that's very sure that's the kind of thing she'd remember. "I'm Jaeyi the Baker, and please tell me you've got more for a name than just Kai?" At that, she shoots T'rev a reproachful look and holds up two fingers from the hand draped across his shoulder. "Twice. Twice with no introduction. How will it be to meet your illustrious father?" Ninety-nine percent of her attention stays with the two men at her table; one-percent flicks a look to notice Phara's hastily beaten retreat, hmmmn.
Phara isn't gone completely, though she does linger overlong on the klah. She returns after introductions are made, looking leery. Finally she settles into a different spot, one not so close, as if perhaps she's rather sure she's suddenly become an unwelcome party at the table with the greenrider's addition. She cups the mug between her hands, looking between them, and then takes a long gulp. Yet more staying out of it.
"B'kaiv, meet Jaeyi, maker of luscious tarts," T'rev says quite seriously, "Jaeyi this is B'kaiv, green Chielyth's. Weyrling. And a good friend," he amends for 'no introductions as the baker holds up those fingers and he reaches out to nab them and give them a squeeze. "If you're meetin' my Da it'll probably be a little less y'know, 'hey how's it goin'' in the living caverns," he says mildly and shifts a little in his chair, looking over as Phara kind of sort of rejoins them, brows up.
"Bal," Kai starts, gets cut off by T'rev and doesn't seem to mind one little bit. "Jaeyi. S'a real pretty name." If he looks a little regretful, well, doesn't he have plenty to regret? He doesn't take his eyes from Jaeyi save to glance now and again at T'rev; certainly they don't roam far enough to spot Phara lurking lurkily at the perimeter. "You make them pies th' other night? The ones with th' custard an' nuts an' all? They was real good. Real good," he adds with emphatic nodding.
Jaeyi's, "Oh probably," is tainted both with vanity and enforced blase; as if she can possibly remember all the lovely things she makes around here, woe is she. "B'kaiv." Long Kaaai, fitting the nickname into the grand scheme of the moniker. "Pie is your particular pleasure, then? And I should hope it will be a little more monumental than hi-how-are-you, yes. Seeing as I've heard such interesting things about the man." From behind T'rev's head, lightly, her fingers beckon toward where Phara's settled, her expression turned questioning, as if she means to deny the bluerider's assumption: she's hardly persona non grata.
"And at th'party, the cream-filled puffy things," T'rev adds to the list of Jaeyi's talents. "Did you know that it's actually really hard t'fill up a puff with cream?" he says to Kai quite earnestly. A moment later he's tilting his gaze back up to the girl in his lap. "I'll leave that to Da to figure out," the bronzerider answers about his father. "He's a harper, they're supposed t'be good at impressive introductions."
B'kaiv shakes his head at this further proof of the baker's talents: no, he did not know that about cream puffs. "Them pies was good," he says yet again, because repeating it will make more pies appear! Or maybe it's because his brain is stuck. Half a second later he blinks and shakes his head briskly, yanks his eyes down to the level of the table and away from the lucious tart. Maker. A sotto-voiced swear sounds like he's spitting acid anyway, but when he asks, "Harpers always got plenty t' say, ain't they?" his voice is back to a good facsimile of his usual more-or-less even.
Something something something. Something Jaeyi drops in to T'rev's ear. Something with a look that's either meant as allure or warning-- hard to say without the words to put it in the proper light. "Obviously, I have some pies to make," she announces with charming brightness and lets herself off of T'rev's lap with a brief pass of fingers-through-hair. Straightening, beaming, "I'll put one aside for you, B'kaiv-- Kai, and we'll talk about the things Harpers have to say?"
"They do at that, harpers, most of 'em," T"rev agrees with B'kaiv. "And yeah, Da's a harper and a trader and he swings through here couple of times a turn," he finally gets around to that tidbit of information then tilts his head to listen to what Jaeyi has to say. Poker faced, he just nods once, to whatever that somethingsomething was. He gives her hip a fond little pat as she slides off his lap. "There y'go, grade A treatment for a hungry weyrling."
At the sound, perhaps, of legs sliding off laps Kai dares raise his head again, gifts first Jaeyi, then T'rev with crooked smiles. "That's real nice of you, Jaeyi - you don't mind if I share? Only we're doin' etiquette," he explains, half-apologetically, "An' if someone finds I got one t' myself I'll get put on, an' probably got t' write somethin' about it. --That's right," he adds to the bronzerider, oddly cheered, "I kinda remember you sayin' now. They don't come through Othana all that often, but every so often they been."
On her way by, fingers reaching not toward the weyrling but toward the arm of his chair, Jaeyi points out in a song-voice, "What they don't knoooow..." She gets halfway up the steps, all hips and cheer, before she has to back-track to collect her apron. At least she's forgotten she was angry enough to burn down the kitchen just a few minutes ago; hum hum hum, time to make pie.
"Yep, every once n' a while," T'rev confirms to Kai with a grin about the traders. Jaeyi's departure earns a little wave and he ducks his head, laughing at her sing-song on the way out. Brown eyes track her out then return to B'kaiv. "She really does make the best desserts."
B'kaiv carefully, carefully does not reach toward those fingers, but keeps his hands in his lap like a good weyrling. He watches her go, watches her return with equal intensity, then go once more for good. "I just bet," he breathes more than says, shakes his head again and turns a rueful face on the bronzerider. "Think I'm gonna go for a nice long swim. In th' lake. Think about blizzards." He stands, carefully, and makes his way out with that as his farewell.
Oh man. Oh man, oh man. What they don't know is right. Only -Chielyth'll- know, and... shells. Snow. Ice. Lots of it. Good thing she's sleepin' today.
Living Cavern, Fort Weyr
The interior of the living cavern is luxurious, relatively speaking -- the walls are smoothed and there are wall sconces in addition to the myriad array of glow baskets and lamps used to keep the place well lit. It's a large space, suited to handle large numbers of people, with dozens of tables arranged strategically throughout; serving tables are also conveniently located at various intervals. Tapestries hang on the walls, many of them having been there for hundreds of turns and periodically taken down for cleaning and restoration.
Up a flight of stairs would be the kitchens, where much of the hustle and bustle can be heard, if not seen. Food is transported down via discretely located dumb waiters and dispersed by servers as necessary, but the aromas of food being prepared is as pervasive as the constant chatter of people as they drift through in search of food, drink, or company. Servers are generally available to assist and ensure that cups are filled and tables are cleaned regularly.
To the west is both the main entrance to the bowl and also the night hearth, which is kept stocked with fresh klah and pots of stew. Other hearths are scattered throughout, radiating heat and warmth as well as providing gathering spots for private discussions. To the east, a short flight of stairs leads down to the inner caverns, while a stout wooden door with a purple caduceus to the south leads to the infirmary.
Obvious exits:
Bowl Inner Caverns Kitchen
The verge of apology, only not so authentic, prompts Jaeyi to ask of the man in question, "Am I ruining your don't-kiss-and-tell reputation?" Never mind the whole act will probably get her ostracized from the carefully maintained social structure of teenage girls in the lower caverns. Phara and T'rev sit at some table or another, Jaeyi stands next to the bronzerider's chair like she's his newest bauble. "You've met the elusive father-in-question?" she asks across to Phara, speaking of the envies of teenage girls!
Phara replies to T'rev with a grin, "Well, we'll just have to omit that one the next you speak with him, yes? As far as he knows, he's charming Rodric, the silver fox." She peers into her empty mug with a little frown. "Refill time," she announces, sliding from her seat with a smile at Jaeyi. "Yes. I'm always welcome at the caravan." As if that covers her in.
"Ain't ruinin' a thing," T'rev says with a charming smile for Jaeyi and another for Phara and his arm stays resolutely in place around the baker's waist. "Sure, I like t'take folks to meet the Terrivs. S'fun to hang out with traders," T'rev claims by way of explanation. "Only thing is, Jae, gotta fly to go meet 'em. Though I'm sure Da'll be down this way for the big summer gather. He keeps a cothold over by the Halls." He rolls his eyes a little for any 'silver fox' remarks and gives Jaeyi a little tug of the 'sit in my lap' variety.
Jaeyi and T'rev get a clear view of Kai's skulking approach, up behind Phara and with a decided air of a man who shouldn't be where he is. The weyrling's got a small bit of hide clutched in one hand. Phara's last few words bring him to a halt, and where he clearly -was- planning on joining the others, the bluerider's voice might just change his mind. And yet, after a grimace, here he comes, grunting an, "Afternoon," and hovering near one of the empty chairs.
If the term jailbait could apply on Pern, it would surely apply in this case. Standing about 5'9, curvy, dark hair, dark eyes-- and let's not forget that she's all of sixteen Turns old. Already sultry, she's going to be trouble for some Turns to come, with those long black eyelashes, perfectly curved lips... She has a dark complexion, clean and blemish-free despite the pains of adolescence. Jaeyi's no thin-and-waifish beauty, but curves like hers get away without being skinny. In a purple, summery blouse with ribbon-sleeves and a lightweight cotton weave, she shows a decent amount of skin without being totally skanky about it. Paired with loose khaki trousers, with buckled leather sandals, it's not a particularly remarkable ensemble, but it clings just the way it should. Long black hair is pulled into a simple braid, but a few curls are left to fall across her forehead, eyes, cheeks.
With a tendency toward chubbiness, Jaeyi probably has to keep a close eye on her figure, or she'll go from curvaceous to chunky pretty quickly. She speaks with an accented inflection indicative of the warmer climes, the slow speech of warm Boll.
At 'fly,' there's the immediate, "Riiight. I'll pass." Sunnily said. Jaeyi's just followed that sit-in-lap tug toward the inevitable end, drops prettily down across the bronzerider's lap with an arm across his shoulders and-- just a slight straightening of her posture as brawny fellows come hulking up to the edge of the table. Though it's just a little wiggle of her fingers, it's very much a well-hello-there smile and lash-bat; so, yes, she'll subject pretty much anyone to at least one long-lashed once-over.
Phara is fleeing, and make no mistake. PDA makes her ten kinds of uncomfortable. As she turns to head for more klah, she's confronted with Kai's skulking figure. An eyebrow lifts at him, but she doesn't challenge his right to be here. Instead, she sidesteps past the table and doubletimes it out of there. Surly weyrling, flirty girl, best friend: Toxic combination, Hemlock pie.
"Well hey there Kai," T'rev says happily as B'kaiv approaches, hulking and glowering aside. He offers a lowly chuckled: "Mmmhm," to Jaeyi about the flying and settles back comfortably in his chair, clearly unperturbed to have a girl in his lap in the living cavern, nor even for Jaeyi's come-hither look for Kai. He probably expected Phara to come back and thus misses her flight away. "You can meet my Da when he's up for the gathers, turnover at least, though that's a ways," the bronzerider tells the Baker.
That lash and finger combo brings one side of the weyrling's mouth up in something that's as related to Jaeyi's smile as a watchwher is a dragon. He bobs Phara a nod, pulls out a chair and flops into it with a grunt to consider the pair across from him. "You got a Da?" he asks T'rev, immediately shakes his head. "Don't mean it like that. Mean... shells. You know what I mean, yeah? 'M Kai," he adds to the lapful, setting both hands (and that hide) into his lap and offering only a nod across the table. "Don't remember seein' you around."
"I don't remember seeing you around either," answers Jaeyi in a tone that's very sure that's the kind of thing she'd remember. "I'm Jaeyi the Baker, and please tell me you've got more for a name than just Kai?" At that, she shoots T'rev a reproachful look and holds up two fingers from the hand draped across his shoulder. "Twice. Twice with no introduction. How will it be to meet your illustrious father?" Ninety-nine percent of her attention stays with the two men at her table; one-percent flicks a look to notice Phara's hastily beaten retreat, hmmmn.
Phara isn't gone completely, though she does linger overlong on the klah. She returns after introductions are made, looking leery. Finally she settles into a different spot, one not so close, as if perhaps she's rather sure she's suddenly become an unwelcome party at the table with the greenrider's addition. She cups the mug between her hands, looking between them, and then takes a long gulp. Yet more staying out of it.
"B'kaiv, meet Jaeyi, maker of luscious tarts," T'rev says quite seriously, "Jaeyi this is B'kaiv, green Chielyth's. Weyrling. And a good friend," he amends for 'no introductions as the baker holds up those fingers and he reaches out to nab them and give them a squeeze. "If you're meetin' my Da it'll probably be a little less y'know, 'hey how's it goin'' in the living caverns," he says mildly and shifts a little in his chair, looking over as Phara kind of sort of rejoins them, brows up.
"Bal," Kai starts, gets cut off by T'rev and doesn't seem to mind one little bit. "Jaeyi. S'a real pretty name." If he looks a little regretful, well, doesn't he have plenty to regret? He doesn't take his eyes from Jaeyi save to glance now and again at T'rev; certainly they don't roam far enough to spot Phara lurking lurkily at the perimeter. "You make them pies th' other night? The ones with th' custard an' nuts an' all? They was real good. Real good," he adds with emphatic nodding.
Jaeyi's, "Oh probably," is tainted both with vanity and enforced blase; as if she can possibly remember all the lovely things she makes around here, woe is she. "B'kaiv." Long Kaaai, fitting the nickname into the grand scheme of the moniker. "Pie is your particular pleasure, then? And I should hope it will be a little more monumental than hi-how-are-you, yes. Seeing as I've heard such interesting things about the man." From behind T'rev's head, lightly, her fingers beckon toward where Phara's settled, her expression turned questioning, as if she means to deny the bluerider's assumption: she's hardly persona non grata.
"And at th'party, the cream-filled puffy things," T'rev adds to the list of Jaeyi's talents. "Did you know that it's actually really hard t'fill up a puff with cream?" he says to Kai quite earnestly. A moment later he's tilting his gaze back up to the girl in his lap. "I'll leave that to Da to figure out," the bronzerider answers about his father. "He's a harper, they're supposed t'be good at impressive introductions."
B'kaiv shakes his head at this further proof of the baker's talents: no, he did not know that about cream puffs. "Them pies was good," he says yet again, because repeating it will make more pies appear! Or maybe it's because his brain is stuck. Half a second later he blinks and shakes his head briskly, yanks his eyes down to the level of the table and away from the lucious tart. Maker. A sotto-voiced swear sounds like he's spitting acid anyway, but when he asks, "Harpers always got plenty t' say, ain't they?" his voice is back to a good facsimile of his usual more-or-less even.
Something something something. Something Jaeyi drops in to T'rev's ear. Something with a look that's either meant as allure or warning-- hard to say without the words to put it in the proper light. "Obviously, I have some pies to make," she announces with charming brightness and lets herself off of T'rev's lap with a brief pass of fingers-through-hair. Straightening, beaming, "I'll put one aside for you, B'kaiv-- Kai, and we'll talk about the things Harpers have to say?"
"They do at that, harpers, most of 'em," T"rev agrees with B'kaiv. "And yeah, Da's a harper and a trader and he swings through here couple of times a turn," he finally gets around to that tidbit of information then tilts his head to listen to what Jaeyi has to say. Poker faced, he just nods once, to whatever that somethingsomething was. He gives her hip a fond little pat as she slides off his lap. "There y'go, grade A treatment for a hungry weyrling."
At the sound, perhaps, of legs sliding off laps Kai dares raise his head again, gifts first Jaeyi, then T'rev with crooked smiles. "That's real nice of you, Jaeyi - you don't mind if I share? Only we're doin' etiquette," he explains, half-apologetically, "An' if someone finds I got one t' myself I'll get put on, an' probably got t' write somethin' about it. --That's right," he adds to the bronzerider, oddly cheered, "I kinda remember you sayin' now. They don't come through Othana all that often, but every so often they been."
On her way by, fingers reaching not toward the weyrling but toward the arm of his chair, Jaeyi points out in a song-voice, "What they don't knoooow..." She gets halfway up the steps, all hips and cheer, before she has to back-track to collect her apron. At least she's forgotten she was angry enough to burn down the kitchen just a few minutes ago; hum hum hum, time to make pie.
"Yep, every once n' a while," T'rev confirms to Kai with a grin about the traders. Jaeyi's departure earns a little wave and he ducks his head, laughing at her sing-song on the way out. Brown eyes track her out then return to B'kaiv. "She really does make the best desserts."
B'kaiv carefully, carefully does not reach toward those fingers, but keeps his hands in his lap like a good weyrling. He watches her go, watches her return with equal intensity, then go once more for good. "I just bet," he breathes more than says, shakes his head again and turns a rueful face on the bronzerider. "Think I'm gonna go for a nice long swim. In th' lake. Think about blizzards." He stands, carefully, and makes his way out with that as his farewell.
Oh man. Oh man, oh man. What they don't know is right. Only -Chielyth'll- know, and... shells. Snow. Ice. Lots of it. Good thing she's sleepin' today.