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Josy - Tuesday, March 23, 1999, 6:00 PM
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The following is a roleplay-log from SouCon MUSH (soucon.godlike.com 4201). The world of Pern is copyright to Anne McCaffrey.
You walk over to the Landing Field.
Whistling merrily, Joslyn rounds the path from the east, swinging her cane about by its knobbier end as she comes. She tosses a wave toward Lecil and then T'dru, adding brightly, "Good day, greenrider, bronzerider. How goes it?"
Lecil looks around T'dru at another approaching rider, again waving in greeting, "Good day Joslyn. I am well, thank you. And you?"
T'dru unconsciously glances in the direction of his weyr, catching Joslyn's familiar figure out of the corner of his eye and directing a nod at her before looking back at Lecil. "He's just waking up. Full stomach you know." One raised brow to Joslyn and he blinks. "Bronzerider?"
Lecil hmmms, leaning back on Veylith's silken green side, giving it a loving pat. "Her too. I'm trying to keep her awake for company, but it's not working."
"You are, are you not, a bronzerider?" Joslyn asks, pausing to consider her own point before she flashes a smile Lecil's way. "I'm just wonderful, thank you. And how fares Veylight - aside from sleepy, it seems?"
Ahem. Veylith.T'dru seems to be considering reaching out a hand and flicking the back of Joslyn's head. Then again, he may just be amused that she's referring to him as a bronzerider. "I'd prefer hero if I had a choice." His glance goes to Lecil. "Company?"
Lecil glances 'round at the green's head, noting that her eyelides are slowly closing, "Well, mostly she's sleepy, but when she's not that, she's fine." She glances up at T'dru with an odd look, "You know, company. Someone to talk to. Surely you know what that is..." she says teasingly.
Joslyn rolls her eyes at T'dru, a dismissive flip of her fingers sent skyward before she wraps both hands round the end of her cane again. "So sorry, Hero. Lapse of memory, y'know." She leans forward onto her cane, then, listening to Lecil's reply with a satisfied nod.
T'dru gives Lecil one of his better sad looks. "Can't say as how I do know what that is." One dark-eyed blink at the cane. "Isn't your foot healed yet or have you taken up another weapon, ma'em?"
Lecil rolls her eyes at T'dru's sad look and manages to her feet, using her dragon to help her up. After all, it's a bit uncomfortable when everyone you're talking to towers above you. "You're foot /is/ healing, isn't it Joslyn?"
"Have you ever tried keeping company with T'dru?" Joslyn asks of the greenrider, turning expectantly toward her with a grin to match her own flippant tone. Then she /sighs/, put upon. "My foot is fine, however, I find it quite reassuring to have a cane about for thwapping folks." She gives T'dru a pointedly measuring glance.
T'dru quirks a brow in Lecil's direction. "I'm sure I could be good company sometimes if I wanted to." Joslyn gets a sideways I dare you look.
Lecil casts a grin in T'dru's direction and nods, "I'm sure you could be. From what I've seen, you're very good company." Now if she means that, or she's just saying it to humor the bronzerider....that's another story.
Never dare Joslyn; the girl has few inhibitions, and certainly none about thwapping bronzeriders. "Someone has been tellin' you awful fibs," she says toward Lecil, gently rapping T'dru's toes with the end of her cane. As in, don't test me, boy.
Lecil dips her head to stiffle a laugh at Joslyn's comment, murmmering, "I don't think he's /that/ bad, Joslyn. Of course, I may have just heard all the wrong stories..."
T'dru lets Joslyn rap his toes. She's done worse no doubt. He doesn't otherwise react and gives Lecil a winning smile. A light comment directed to Joslyn, "Could I borrow that cane after the eggs crack do you think ma'em?"
Joslyn sends an open and obvious smirk at Lecil, saying, "I could prob'ly tell you some pretty good stories." Not necessarily /true/, but good. She reigns her stick in slightly, clutching it rather possessively. Carefully, "Why?"
Lecil whews, watching the two riders with an oddly calm look, smiling at Joslyn, "Oh? I'd be interested in a few stories..." she says, glancing over at T'dru.
T'dru nods emphatically, dropping a subtle wink at Lecil. "And that's all you'll get out of Joslyn is stories. Remember that. As for the cane ma'em, it might come in handy is all. I suppose I could go get one of my own but if you don't need that one anymore..."
"Remind me sometime," Joslyn says, grinning as she entertains thoughts of just what kinds of stories she could indeed tell about the bronzerider. As long as he wasn't around to defend himself... Anyway. "I don't /need/ it," she notes, "but - well - I am kinda partial to it."
Lecil laughs, looking over and Joslyn and whispering to T'dru, "I wouldn't be suprised if stories were all she had." Then speaking up so Joslyn can hear, "What would you need a cane for, T'dru?"
Coriana pushes through some bushes and steps into the glade.
Coriana walks toward the lakeside meadow.
T'dru stifles a laugh at Lecil's response, directing a grinning look at the pair. "I don't know yet, but I've a mind to see how sensitive certain goldrider's toes are. That and there may be Weyrlings running around here eventually to shake it at threateningly."
Joslyn looks insulted - rather, she feigns insult really, really well. "Hey! They're good stories!" she insists, side-stepping the validity of said stories in favor of a frown at T'dru. "My toes are none of your concern, sir," as if primly. Then she gets around to the really important question, "What'll you gimme for it?"
Lecil grins, cocking an eyebrow at the bronzerider, "Hey, you were a weyrling once too, ya know." With that, she turns to take a seat on Veylith's neck, watching the others with a slight smile.
T'dru ahems loudly, giving Lecil another wink. "Stories. Exactly. Whether they're good or not remains to be seen." He steps back, unconsciously moving into a stand to run if necessary. One brow quirks slightly towards Joslyn as he moves, "What will I -give- you for it? That depends. What're you asking? I seem to remember repairing a certain goldrider's roof with my own two hands and didn't ask a thing but that you not be present to supervise. Surely that's worth a measly stick."
"T'dru was never a weyrling. Duirath hatched knowing everything and instantly instilled our T'dru with all the knowledge a bronzerider should have," Joslyn comments as if sagely, a firm nod at her own fib. Another eyeroll toward T'dru and she says, "First off, it's not a /measly/ stick. It's a very good cane. And I 'member offering to pay you for that and bein' told no."
Lecil perks up at the words 'repairing a roof', and looks over T'dru, "You can do that?"
Joslyn scoffs playfully and mumbles, "He likes to pretend he can..." Then looks innocent - did she say that out loud?
Shadara strides over from the Weyrhall.
T'dru whistles softly, eyes widening in mock wonder. "How -did- you know Duirath knew everything? Sometimes, even I'm amazed at how much misinformation you manage to collect ma'em." His tone's softly mocking, all in good fun. "As for payment, a gift out of the kindness of your heart wouldn't go amiss but I can hardly expect that I suppose." A slight blink goes to Lecil and he nods. "We did have to do a few things around the cothold when I was growing up and then there were times as an apprentice at the Harper Hall that I umm...had to help out with chores." An oblique comment to Joslyn again, "Well, has the roof fallen in on you yet?"
Shadara nods to the others as she heads towards her and E'dar's Weyr.
Shadara heads northeast, into the Northeastern Weyr Clearing.
Joslyn notes, as if it should have been obvious from the outset, "There is no kindness in my heart, dear bronzerider. Only spite and cookies." She winks at him, then, and adds for Lecil's benefit, "Really, he did a nice 'nough job on my roof. No, it hasn't fallen in on me. Yet," being the operative word.
Lecil ahhhs, making a mental note should her roof ever get really bad, of who to call on. "Surely you have some kindness in your heart Joslyn..."
T'dru gives Joslyn an accepting look and murmurs, "I know." That quickly gets followed by a mystified one, "And I thought I'd rigged it so it would..." His voice trails off and he blinks innocently, looking across the Landing Field and giving Shadara's departing form a return nod.
Imara enters from the lush lakeside meadow.
Imara strides over to the Weyrhall.
Joslyn snaps an accusatory glance at Lecil: "Who told you that? I'll haveta wring their neck..." She shakes an oh-so-threatening fist, finishing the gesture with another rap of her cane on T'dru's boots. "You better not have. Jeuneth sleeps in there too, y'know, and you'd be in awful big trouble if her roof fell down on her 'cause of you."
Lecil rolls her eyes at the pair, sliding off of Veylith and bowing to the both of them. "Sorry Joslyn, all my info on the Weyrfolk is classified. And I hate to say it, but I must leave this," she smiles mockingly, "/beautiful/ conversation, but I have to get back to work."
Joslyn really does look sorry to hear that, Lecil; she does so love idle chatter with absolutely no purpose whatsoever. "Well, don't work yourself too hard," she suggests. "And clear skies to you'n Veylith, too," with a nod byebye.
T'dru moves out of cane reach. Good thing his boots are indeed sturdy. "You're right. I'd not dare upset Jeuneth. You, on the other hand, I'm not quite so afraid of." With a smile at Lecil and a slightly raised brow at something that might sound somewhat secretive - classified information and all, T'dru nods at the greenrider, taking another step back. "Fair skies to you both then."
Lecil grins, bowing out once more to the gold and bronzerider, "I won't. I never do." And with those words, she hurries off in the direction of her weyr.
Lecil pushes through some bushes off to the northwest.Joslyn wrinkles her nose up, noting, "You can't upset me, T'dru. You aren't capable of it." A firm nod for punctuation and she leans over to look after Lecil a little. "I bet she's got the hots forya. /All/ the greenriders do, y'know." And Josy would know.
T'dru gives a slight roll of his dark eyes in Joslyn's direction. "Lecil does -not- have the hots for me...and neither do -all- the other Greenriders." He bends a fierce eye on her. "And this is how all those rumors around here get started you know."
Of course Joslyn knows, and she'd be the first to admit she's a rumor monger - but they aren't vicious rumors so what difference does it make, really? "How d'you know she doesn't? I'm a girl. I know these things." The fierce gaze is returned with a sweet smile. See? Aren't capable of upsetting her.
T'dru clears his throat, folding his arms over his chest. "Well, I'm a man and I know these things. Neither she nor anyone else around here's shown the slightest bit of interest that they don't show to everyone else. Trust me. I think I'd notice if I was the recipient of someone's attention." His gaze is incredibly certain that he would know, of course.
In the northern sky, Duirath lumbers over from the eastern weyrs clearing.
Duirath moves towards the the broad Landing Field below.
Duirath makes a slow glide into the Landing Field. One warble at his rider and the other small thing on the field with him and he trundles off to more important things.
Duirath lumbers toward the lakeside meadow.
Joslyn can't help herself laughing, a childishly merry and rather infectious laugh, at that display. "You just keep tellin' yourself that, dear bronzerider. Maybe someday we'll both believe it." She inclines her head respectfully at Duirath as he passes through, a curious brow raising. "What's he about?"Marila strides over from the Weyrhall.
Marila waves as she dashes out of the hall and towards the meadow.
T'dru sighs heavily. "Dovath." And the name of that one green appears to be enough. He gives Marila a nod as she runs past.
Marila walks toward the lakeside meadow.
Liwellan is green Dovath's rider at Southern Weyr.
Joslyn grins and repeats, "Ahh, Dovath. You know her rider wants you, too." She can't help a teasing elbow in the ribs at that, followed by a wave after Marila that the Candidate apparently doesn't see. "Wonder what she's up to..."
T'dru oomphs some as he gets his ribs poked. "Yeah right. Another one of those Greenriders swarming about me. I'll make sure my weyr's cleaned up nice just in case." He favors Joslyn with a rolling eyed glance though his head turns some to follow Marila's progress. "Don't know. Duirath's got an eye on her but she's not nearly so interesting as Dovath unfortunately."
"Mm, 'cause she's not all bright and proddy," Joslyn notes, nose wrinkled up momentarily before she takes a deep breath thingie. "Which brings me to my next point. I need a favor, T'dru dear, and I think you're the best person to ask."
T'dru's eyes come back from the direction of the meadow in some surprise. That turns to wariness however as he's well aware what usually happens when Joslyn wants a favor. "Me?"
What usually happens when Joslyn wants a favor is that Joslyn gets a favor; that's just a fact. "That is what I said, ain't it?" she asks, tilting her head a bit as if she really weren't certain. "Anyway. What I need is a pretty big favor. It prob'ly won't take long or anything, and it's not hard work from what I understand, though."
T'dru regards Joslyn gravely. "Yes that is what you said. What's the favor?" His wary tone hasn't changed one bit.
Joslyn can't just say it outright. She has to /explain/. "Well, the thing is, Jeuneth's getting awfully old now - almost three - and Tiarnath's clutch should hatch soon. The Sands'll be empty, mid-pass, and that means a Queen'll prob'ly rise soon. And it'll prob'ly be Jeuneth. And I'm kinda worried about that, see."
T'dru nods silently. "I see and how do I fit here? Worried Duirath'll catch Jeuneth?"
Joslyn rolls her eyes skyward, saying, "Duirath couldn't catch Jeuneth if she let him." But that's beside the point. "What I need is for you to have sex with me, T'dru, so it's not my first time when Jeuneth rises. I hear that can be an awful experience and one I'd really rather avoid. I'd pay you or whatever."
T'dru snorts. "Jeuneth couldn't outfly..." His mouth tightens and for once, the oh so nice T'dru's totally disappeared. His voice is very soft. "Is this some sort of joke, Joslyn?"
Joslyn, as serious as she's ever been, "By the golden shards of Jeuneth's egg, this is not some sort of joke. I dunno who else to ask and I'm scared." She'll deny she ever said that, of course.
Imara walks over from the Weyrhall.
Imara strides over to the lakeside meadow.
Imara enters from the lush lakeside meadow.
Imara strides over to the Weyrhall.
T'dru doesn't even get distracted by Imara traipsing through. His face shows a considerable amount of surprise mixed with understanding. "I see. Umm...you won't be when Jeuneth rises but well, what about C'al or someone who's more umm...well, not you know...like me." T'dru's starting to look slightly embarrassed. "It's just that, you're still well...Joslyn." As if that explains it all.
Joslyn sighs, as if defeated - not that she has any intentions surrendering this easily. "C'al hasn't got time for me anymore," and she kicks the dirt at that, poor kid. "You're th'only person I can think of I could ask. And I /know/ I'm still well-Joslyn, but - shells, T'dru, I /am/ a girl. Would it really be all that bad?" She'll be insulted if she gets a yes, you know.
T'dru bites his lip. "I see. Maybe it's not that C'al doesn't have time for you. You know how things are with duties and all. And yes, you are a girl." Heavy emphasis on the girl part. "I suppose it wouldn't be all that bad." He shrugs some, looking intently at her. "It's just that I'd prefer it not to be so well, you know...mechanical." A faint blush appears beneath his tan.
Joslyn's not sure about part of that, and makes it clear: "If it's not a lack of time, what is it, please?" Then she /sighs/ and proceeds, "Look, it's not gonna happen for me any other way. I accept that and, honestly, I don't really mind." Much. "If you're not gonna help me, just say so and I'll find someone else. Sailors're prob'ly cheaper, anyway."
T'dru frowns at Joslyn. "I didn't say I wouldn't help, it's just I don't know if I can." If T'dru turned any redder, he'd be lighting up the landing field like evil Red Star. "I'll just need well, the right setting and stuff."
Joslyn kicks the dirt some more, sending a stone skittering off out of the way with the end of her cane. "If you want candles or wine or whatever, I can get all that. If that's what kinda setting you need." Kindly, she refrains from poking fun at the blush. Something to tease T'dru about later.
T'dru shakes his head. "Umm...no candles. Maybe some wine but not a lot." His hand runs nervously through his dark hair, stopping to rub at the nape of his neck. "And you'll have to let me pick the time and place and everything. Agreed? Although, really Joslyn, you may want to reconsider this. I mean, when Jeuneth rises, you'll well, be interested and not just wanting to get something unpleasant out of the way." His look softens, "It's really not all bad you know." A nervous twist of his lips in what might be a weak smile. "And if well, if you change your mind, you're to tell me right away and all that."
"I'm not gonna change my mind," Joslyn states certainly, a firm nod for that reassurance. "I've thought about it an awful lot and it's th'only reasonable thing there is to do. I can't be a virgin when Jeuneth rises. I have an aversion to pain, and I hear that can be awful painful." Yes, for just half a second she does look truly terrified. But then it's all business again. "So I can agree to those terms. You pick where'n when and I'll bring something nice and Benden-y."
T'dru looks highly uncomfortable at this whole situation. Maybe Jeuneth'll rise before he gets put on the spot...maybe porcines will begin flying. "Well, that's reasonable I guess." He blinks at Joslyn once thoughtfully. "So, go ahead and kiss me. We might as well get comfortable with each other."
Joslyn blinks, too, and actually takes a step backward, stunned as she is. "What?" She shakes her head in obvious confusion. "/Kiss/ you?" Who said anything about kissing?
T'dru's embarrassment fades as he taps his mouth invitingly. "It starts with kissing. Getting to know another person. This isn't a mating flight you know, and I take it you do want to enjoy this some?"
Imara strides over from the Weyrhall.
Imara strides over to the lakeside meadow.
Joslyn looks borderline repulsed - no offense - so twisted is her expression. "But we're not going to do it /now/, so why should we kiss /now/?" she reasons, fidgeting at the prospect. It's one thing to proposition someone for sex, but it's another matter entirely to kiss a bronzerider in public for no apparent reason whatsoever.
T'dru starts looking smug. "Because it'll make this more pleasant for both of us in the long run." His booted foot taps a couple of times. "Well?"
Joslyn really looks like she'd rather sock that mouth than kiss it, her cane bobbing slightly as she ventures a half-step closer. Still a safe distance away, of course. "I dunno how to kiss, T'dru. Maybe you should get someone else to kiss you and pretend it's me?" She /sounds/ serious, anyway.
T'dru leans down helpfully and offers his cheek, a capable finger tapping the spot. "Start here." There's not the hint of a smile on his face but his eyes are dancing with merriment. "Besides, practicing on someone else won't really do the trick you know."
Joslyn rubs her nose first, considering the cheek rather thoughtfully. Before she can second-guess herself again, a really-fast-chaste kiss is pressed to it and she steps back quick like. "There? Happy now?"
T'dru sighs heavily and straightens. "No, I'm not exactly happy and I'm hoping you'll re-think this, Joslyn. But I want you to feel comfortable with me first or it's -not- going to happen, at least not with me. You understand that?"
Joslyn objects to that tone, and it shows in the quick set of her jaw. She is, first and foremost, a goldrider and one with a temper, too. "Yes, /sir/, I do understand that. But I'm a big girl now and quite capable of making my own decisions. If it's going to be /such/ a moral issue for you, then just forget I asked and I'll find someone else."
T'dru doesn't show a thing or twitch a muscle in reaction to the goldrider's temper. His voice is very soft though, tinged with some sympathy. "I just want this to be as good for you as I can make it. Taking you off to my weyr and ..." He waves his hand once helplessly, "...getting the deed done won't be nice for you and it -may- inhibit Jeuneth if you think you'll get hurt when she rises. I know you know that, or I assume you wouldn't have come to me with this so think about it okay? I've uhmm...had more experience than you and well...you'll need to trust me." His voice goes very quiet and very serious, "I'm your friend above all things Joslyn. Remember that when the time comes. Not only Jeuneth but I would never let anyone hurt you...and that includes me." He gives her a tiny smile then turns on his heel, walking slowly back in the direction of his weyr. There's the hint of a droop to his shoulders though it's well-masked as always.
T'dru moves off towards the Eastern Weyrs.
Joslyn looks after him a moment or two, her expression truly puzzled before she just raises both shoulders in a quick shrug. "Whatever," she declares flippantly, and then strolls off along the same path toward her own cottage.
*** END LOG ***