| IC Date: | 2695.1.9 | OOC Date: | October 26 2012 |
| Participants: | Kayla, Jeddia, T'us | Location: | Crafter's Clearing - Eastern Weyr |
| Summary: | Kayla is searched! | ||
Eastern Weyr - Crafter Clearing
Tucked up in the lee of the rocky outcropping that extends from the hatching caverns, the crafter complex is a compact set of buildings and workshops that house the industry that keeps the Weyr running. The buildings ring a paved, octagonal central courtyard which is often used for apprentice lessons. Most of the major crafts have representation: the smithcraft has a squat stone building with billowing smoke rising from its chimney, while the miners and glasscrafters share a two-storied complex next door. Woodcrafters run up against harpers, which in turn abutt against the low-slung apprentice barracks. There's even a small cafeteria located just beside the barracks, for those crafters too busy to go all the way to the commons to catch a meal. To the south, behind a screen of scrubby trees, lies the beastcrafter area and runnerbeast compound, complete with a dirt racetrack oval.
Daytime means the clearing is a veritable hive of activity, with the sounds of saws and hammers vying with the chants of apprentices learning lessons by rote. Autumn is difficult to tell from summer on this lovely coast as the trees in this tropical paradise are given to little change. The days are once again becoming cooler, but the storms are the worst during this season.
A gawky looking fellow built of pale white skin and ginger hair with those ears and that long neck can't be anyone other than T'us, and he's currently loitering some distance away from the technician shop. The familiar sounds and the sights are making him do little circles nearby, deciding at last with a heavy sigh to move away from the building. That was the past. The knot on his shoulder has been gone for at least a Turn now. Kicking at the dirt beneath his boots, his hands stuff into his pockets, gaze sliding one more time back toward the techie shop and then toward the apprentice barracks. The lingering eventually swings toward the weaver complex, though it doesn't go much better than the techie shop. A brief glance in, a nod to someone who strolls by, then a back paddle pace and a shrug to himself. It's the perfect place though to wait for his mentor, whom, if by the stories have told it right, will be getting hand fasted soon.
With lunch time fast approaching, there's little time to be lost in ferrying edibles to the small cafeteria on the premises. In fact, that is just what a tray of sweetrolls with legs appears to be doing, the stack of goodies enough to make navigation tricky at best. Fortunately, the tray/Kayla is led onwards by the chirruping of one rather large bronze firelizard, who hovers in the air just a few steps ahead, warbling away. "Ugh… are we almost there yet, Rocket?" The flizzen flaps his way dangerously close to T'us, letting out a squawk of warning as Kayla, too, draws close, but is it in time to avert culinary disaster?
It's the squawk that has T'us realize someone is coming his way, behind him! He was so caught up in his own thoughts and that of his lifemate's that he just has enough time to turn and put his hands on the tray in some attempt to avoid complete and outright disaster. "Woah!" he has enough time to mutter his surprise, watching one of those sweetrolls try to make for the ground via tumbling off the stack. He isn't fast enough to catch it and there's at least one causality to speak of. "Sometimes I wish we had the ability to *between* and sense one another before crashing into one another…" He hopes the tray is at least somewhat steady before lowering to pick up the sweetroll that went overboard, dusting it off with a finger and a blow of air over where it's collected dirt into it's sticky goodness, "Unfortunately, we'll have to suffer…" A brief flicker of a smile as he looks to be debating eating that roll, attempting to peer over the stack toward the carrier of the sweets.
Kayla peers around the edge of the heap of rolls, mouth open ready to thank the savior of the sweets. Imagine the shocked look on her face when she recognizes the ginger-haired, lanky man who had once been a patient in the infirmary. "T'us? Oh wow, where have you been all this time?" The mention of *betweening* draws nothing but a wry smile, Kayla saying nothing more about the matter. She nods towards the roll in hand. "Alas, it is for some to suffer, and some to take the fall. May its suffering be brief… and thanks. I shouldn't have put so many on the tray at once."
T'us looks up from the roll that doesn't make it to his mouth but rather just settles in his palm, "Don't suppose your bronze eats sweets huh?" Maybe he should've just left it on the ground? Just the sort of thing to start to day off with, sticky hands, oh the jokes. The question of where he's been makes him shrug one shoulder, "Getting over heart break mostly… You know, typical traveling the world, giving up my old craft, starting a new…" So much has happened and he makes it sound all non-chalant like, as if it were merely a small coincidence of life. "That's ok. I understand the desire to be efficient and save time…" and that's when he decides to plunk the sweetroll back on the tray with a small smirk, "I suggest you try and pawn that one off to the smiths. They're less likely to realize what befell that roll." Or, she can throw it out when she's where she's going. "I um…How've you been?" That sounds practiced.
Kayla balances the tray on one hip, the pose somewhat awkward and not well suited to mobility, but at least with the lack of anywhere else to put down the tray, it will do for now. She plucks the offending roll off of the tray, along with one of its more fortunate bretheren, and offers both to T'us. "He eats far too many sweets for his own good. But he's good at keeping tunnelsnakes down so at least he won't be getting fat." She tilts her head, simply listening for a moment. "I guess nobody could blame you after everything, traveling for a while. Scared the living daylights out of me, never seen a dragon and rider look like that before. But you and yours are doing better now, though, right?" She ducks her head, and smiles. "Doing alright. Been keeping pretty busy, between studying dragonhealing and helping Tarrin out in the bakery. The Weyr will no longer be tortured by my bad cooking."
It figures that when he turns his eyes away for a second, upon glancing back he's offered that offending roll along with a second. It doesn't click into his brain just then as he accepts both that he's taking on the one which sat on the ground. A little dirt wouldn't hurt right. He gives a brief thanks for the offering and mows down on the one, the safe one, at first. He nods at the flavor, "It's good…" muffled between bites. As for the whole disappearing act he pulled he looks a bit uncomfortable, deciding not to speak of the incident that nearly took his life but rather how the health is of his lifemate, "Varugoth is doing well. He's never going to be a competitor at flights, with his bad wing, but he can still fly at least." Indeed, the crash landing didn't help his wing which was never right since day one, during his hatching. As for his own well being, he shrugs, "I'm taking harper lessons now myself. Jeddia is my mentor, outside of me zipping back to the Harper Hall." There's a slight flinch when he does bite into the offending roll, looking down at it and then suspiciously at Kayla, "Nice trick-" he swallows the bite, feeling the grit between his teeth, therefore decides to leave off finishing the rest. There's a garbage around somewhere. Attention reverts to Kayla, "The Weyr may be safe, but I'm not-" he wiggles the dirty roll accusingly at Kayla, albeit with a smirk on his face. "I um… never had the chance to thank you though, for… the help and the comfort you gave to Varugoth." The dragon did spend a godly amount of time in the infirm.
Kayla smiles and nods, a bit of color coming to her cheeks at the offending roll's effect on T'us. "No worries. Initiation by fire, it's something I'd see sooner or later anyways. I'd just hoped later rather than sooner." As she's lingering outside, talking with T'us, a rather irritated, shrew-like voice sounds from the cafeteria. "When are those rolls getting here? Come on, get a move on!" Kayla grumbles, and finds the nearest apprentice to hand the tray off to. "Better hurry up. And watch out no more fall." She breathes a sigh of relief, sitting down on the ground and running her fingers through her hair, a few choice words mumbled about the cook in the cafeteria, and the likely number of branches on their family tree. "You know… the whole thing pretty much confirmed my choice of Craft. I never want to see a dragon suffer like that again if there's anything to be done about it."
The garbage can comes a walking, or rather lumbering over. Varugoth simply cannot let a sweetroll go to waste. T'us side glances over towards the beast as he rumbles his protest to the waste. "It's dirty-" he mutters lowly as if retorting to some accusation, "Fine…" he drawls, lifting his hand up to expose the half eaten roll towards the sky, thereby allowing Varugoth to snuffle downwards until his maw opens and his teeth pinch it neatly from T'us' palm. Drool replaces the sweetroll and that has Tad giving a bit of a sour face to the dragon as he promptly goes to wipe his hand off on his pants. "It isn't good for you, just the one…" and the dragon devours it with a pleasant and most happy croon. Kayla's remarks finally get a delayed response after the interplay between his dragon, thereby missing her tray-pass to the apprentice and all that, "I didn't … want it to happen that way either. Varu… is all I got." Varugoth's wings slide and rasp together as he settles, tongue lolling out as if wanting more, with Tad snorting at some inward joke shared between the two. "Anyway, I'm sorry you and… everyone had to… witness all that… I'm just glad Varugoth healed. He could've been grayscaled for life." Some areas do seem dull now compared to when he first hatched, but, dull was so much better than gray.
Kayla lofts one eyebrow, stifling a chuckle. "A dragon with a sweet tooth. Ha. Well at least someone appreciates less than perfect cooking." Indeed, she does cast a critical eye over Varugoth, who seems vastly improved over the last time she saw him. "Hold on to the ones you care about because you're right, in the end they're all you've really got. You know, I could ask a senior Dragonhealer if they think there's anything to be done for those dull patches." She reaches out with one hand towards a particularly matte-looking bit of hide, but thinks better of it and pauses. "May I?"
Jeddia walks into the crafter clearing, from the southern clearing.
Jeddia has arrived.
"He doesn't get away with it too often… But he took on tasting different things after he was let out of the infirmary. I… think it just was one of those things that he grew into," T'us tries to explain and fails at why his dragon has a taste for things other than meat and blood. Varugoth shifts his wings with another sharp rasp of sail and wingbone against his hide, his neck turning and his attention settling on Kayla who approaches. There's something about the way he watches her which is quite abnormal, maybe like a canine tensing up, or simply a strong curiosity to her intentions. T'us considers the dull patches and nods, "You could try talking to them… I just haven't had any luck bringing back his shine there. They may be um… damaged beyond repair." As for her permission, his eyes bounce up to his lifemate before returning, granting her the okay to go ahead with a bob of his chin.
Jeddia rushes in, or at least rushes in as best a woman in the middle of a pregnancy can. It's actually more akin to a waddle. "Um, T'us?" She addresses the Bronzerider, not recognizing him, but knowing that Kayla is definitely not him. "I'm sorry if I'm late. Just some last minute planning for my handfasting."
Kayla brushes her fingertips lightly upon one particularly stubborn dull patch, right where Varugoth's neck meets the rest of his body, near his chest area. "Feels almost like scar tissue, in a way. I'd have to ask, but I wonder if some of the usual treatments for reducing scars might not help bring back healthier tissue. But I'm still just an apprentice, you'd do better asking in the infirmary." With a light chuckle, she reaches up to offer scritches to the sweet-eating bronze. "Just go light on those sweets, I'd rather not see your rider coming in for thick-tail remedy." Jeddia waddling in brings an outright grin to her face, and she calls out, "Just about ready for the big day there? You're going to be beautiful, I know it!"
It wasn't hard to recognize T'us. He was the pasty white fellow with a long neck, big ears, and red ginger hair. That description alone takes many out of the equation and leaves guessing to a minium. The young man turns his attention toward the name being asked from a rushing pregnant about to be handfasted woman. "Ahh… Jeddia," he does put the pieces together because handfasting is not a big thing in a Weyr. "It's fine. I had some company… I mean, Kayla's kept me company while I was waiting." This whole talking business, he's trying to get used to it. "Are things going okay with your planning? Anything a dragonrider can do to help out?" Varugoth is after all, a quick way to get around. Though, not like the dragon is paying much attention to where his services might be offered, since he's carefully watching Kayla as best as he can, which isn't very well, until she offers those scritches. Oh that's when she might get a chest full of dragon nose, as his muzzle drops for her to rub it, nostrils blowing hot air against her torso. Then when the distraction of Jeddia causes Kayla to look away, Varugoth makes a little noise to recall her attention.
Jeddia smiles, and offers her hand to T'us. "It's nice to meet you, and Kayla's definitely good company." She immediately finds somewhere to sit, taking a breath as the baby picks that moment to kick. "Oh! And yes, everything's going well. Although we may need you to go to pick up people to bring to the handfasting. Thank you for asking. How are the two of you doing today?"
Kayla bursts out laughing as she is almost knocked off her feet, wobbling a bit but thankfully regaining her balance to tend to scritching duties. "A sweet tooth and a big softie. Okay okay… hold your runners there, I've only got two hands!" Both of which seem to be occupied tending to the big teddy bear of a bronze who, despite his strong and fearsome appearance, almost appears to be melting with the attention. "You'd swear you never got any attention!" With Varugoth hopefully amply distracted by scritches, she steals a moment to call out to Jeddia, "Doing alright, saved from the onslaught of hungry apprentices by these two. Who would've thought dragons had such a sweet tooth?"
T'us regards his mentor with a curious eye toward her belly, before his gaze reverts back toward her face. "I can do that for you, no problem… Just tell me when and where to go and whom to deliver to your handfasting." That was the least he could do for the woman. There's a glance toward his lifemate and Kayla for a moment before he answers Jeddia, "I'm okay. Thanks for asking. As for him, I think he found himself another interest." Indeed, Kayla would be getting a few more butts of his muzzle to scritch, while T'us speaks for him, "He wouldn't mind another sweet and he promises not to get a thick tail…" T'us rubs the back of his head at the remark of not getting enough attention, "He doesn't get enough, not from…well.." he points at Kayla, indicating, "from girls…" Oh that's where he puts on the blush of his own. The big old bronze is doing his best to immitate a feline's pur, though it's delightfully hoarse with rumbles and croon like rolls. "So… about your craft Kayla, um… did you want another chance to stand? You can continue your craft of course, just, you know… stand for the eggs, the hatching. You didn't find yours last time…" but there's always that next opportunity.
Jeddia is about to say something, but when Kayla is asked to stand, she goes silent, and smiles at the younger woman, waiting for the answer, then all of the sudden, a distressed expression crosses her face, and she struggles to her feet. "Um, excuse me, I need to go. I'll see you later, T'us…" And with that, she waddles off, in a distinct trundlebug line towards the nearest privy…
Kayla is distracted by the odd purring and keeping her balance what with all the headbutting, eyes twinkling, and very nearly misses the import of T'us' inquiry. "Oh, I know I can continue my craf… wha….?" For a moment, there is dead silence, save for the sound of her jaw hitting the floor. "You're serious, aren't you? Oh wow…" A few heartbeats later, the smile returns, her jaw pieced back together, and she simply nods. "You're right, there's always another chance. Who knows, this could be it!"
T'us is about to chase after Jeddia but… the woman is off for something more urgent than dealing with him, besides, he's sort of stuck here now with Varugoth all but drooling on Kayla for more attention. Thankfully with T'us waltzing up to the bronze and shoving Varu's muzzle away, Kayla get's a moment without a dragon's snout in her face. "Sorry, he um… well…" there is a shrug, since he really doesn't know how to explain it. "I am serious yah…" the ginger isn't joking and has a hard time joking as it is. "It could be, you don't know if you don't try, right? There -are- twelve this time," he looks about, sighing for the fact that he couldn't meet up with Jeddia as he wanted, "Well, if you want, I can take you to the barracks. I'm… uh… I'm pretty sure you know the way already, but, well, if you want. Unless you have to talk to you crafthead."
Kayla shakes her head. "I'll just have to swing by the infirmary and let the staff know what's going on. I'm pretty sure they'd understand but it's a courtesy. I'll just have to let Tarrin know he's probably going to be a little short-handed for a while, and pick up my things from there." Her cheeks do take on a bit of color but she has the grace to say nothing more on the matter. "It's been a pretty long time since I've been to the barracks, not since Varugoth broke shell. Maybe a refresher wouldn't be a bad idea."
T'us licks his lips a bit, fidgetting through the Tarrin subject matter and then nods with some relief when Kayla mentions wanting a refresher, "It has been some time…" Varugoth is already three Turns old and a lot has happened in those three Turns. "It's through the common caverns… I nearly forgot myself if it wasn't for J'em demoting me for a time," something suggests he'll never forget that harsh lesson. Clearing his throat, he indicates for her to follow, "Varugoth, you can't fit in there anymore. You go find something to eat that's not sweet, ok?" The bronze gives a sad toned whimper but he tags along despite T'us saying otherwise, proud of his choice perhaps?
T'us licks his lips a bit, fidgetting through the Tarrin subject matter and then nods with some relief when Kayla mentions wanting a refresher, "It has been some time…" Varugoth is already three Turns old and a lot has happened in those three Turns. "It's through the common caverns… I nearly forgot myself if it wasn't for J'em demoting me for a time," something suggests he'll never forget that harsh lesson. Clearing his throat, he indicates for her to follow, "Varugoth, you can't fit in there anymore. You go find something to eat that's not sweet, ok?" The bronze gives a sad toned whimper but he tags along despite T'us saying otherwise, proud of his choice perhaps?