| Characters | R'en, Tivaly |
| Synopsis | Tivaly finds R'en sitting alone in the galleries and attempts to get all up in his business. |
| Out-of-Character Date | September 29, 2014 |
Igen Weyr - Hatching Galleries
From this vantage point, you can look over the balcony to the Sands below. The seating here stretches out around the perimeter of the Sands, the rows of seating rising high above. The benches are wooden, simple bleachers, and the stone steps have been worn down along their center from turns of foot-traffic. Above the bleachers, the ledge of the galleries is pocked and marked from dragonclaws where dragons have perched to watch the hatchings as well.
The sands below have a small clutch of eggs on them, though it seems difficult to pick out where exactly they are. Sand has been sifted to obscure most of them, and while the gold is there watching them, Sindrieth is also around to watch and make sure everything is tended to from one of the ledges nearby rather than on the sands themselves. A better vantage point, one would suspect, as he can get a good look over the whole area rather than being on ground level. R'en, on the other hand, is sitting on the bleachers with a glass of ice water in his hand that hasn't managed to melt down to just being water quite yet. It's quiet, at least for the moment, when candidates aren't rushing over to try and gawk at the eggs and there's a pile of what might be work beside him that he's obviously neglecting in favor of just idling.
A handful of giggling girls enter in a cluster, the way girls so often do, looking as thick as thieves. Three of them are Candidates, and the fourth is the fair-haired Harper, who walks a pace or two behind the ones with the white knots, listening and looking amused and even offering a word or two here and there, but it's clear that she's on the periphery of their little clique. That she doesn't accept the offer to join them in looking at the eggs is only likely to widen the margin of alienation, but Tivaly begs off further gossiping and giggling with a quiet, "Excuse me," detaching herself from their proximity to trail along the front tier and then over to where R'en sits, settling down with his neglected work between them. "I trust I'm not interrupting some pressing industry of yours?" she asks with a pointed look down at the aforementioned work.
The group does manage to grab R'en's attention, as they likely would coming in giggling as they do. He draws in a deep breath, though remains silent as they head over to look at the eggs and thankfully ignore the fact that he exists. That is, until Tivaly breaks off from the group and heads over towards where he's sitting. His gaze lifts to meet hers, and a shake of his head is given in response to the question that's asked of him. "No. No more than it is already being interrupted." He admits, though the paperwork looks to be some sort of trade documentation from what the top page appears to be. When she settles down beside the work he has beside him, he doesn't go to move it - leaving it as it is, a pithy barrier. "Friends of yours?" He asks, glancing at the other girls.
Without pretending she's not reading it, not even hiding the fact, Tivaly looks over that top page for what it's worth, gleaning what she can without actually touching anything, and only then following R'en's glance toward where the other three girls have settled. Their giggling has quieted, now into the territory of near-whispers as they talk about whatever it is that teenage girls talk about, and the Harper has to study them from this vantage point for a long spell before she's able to answer. "Not exactly. But we're of an age, and there are certain social expectations." She shrugs, helpless under the weight of all that societal pressure. "I could introduce you. The brunette," who keeps peeking up toward R'en and Tivaly, "fancies you. Although an introduction might ruin that, she said she likes mysterious men." Considering the girl is all of fifteen or sixteen…
There isn't a whole lot to glean anyways, it's just some document proposing a trade deal with Half Moon for some plants that can't be grown here in exchange for some that can that they don't have. As trade documents go, it's pretty drab, though it seems fair on both sides if anyone knows much about trade - which, R'en doesn't really. It's more likely just something that requires a signature, that he brought with him to deal with later. "So, you're not as interested in knowing them as you should be for your age?" He wonders, then shakes his head as she tells him that he's being fancied by a teenager. He lifts a hand to his face and scratches his cheek a little before he takes a drink from his glass of water. His gaze flicks over the brunette before he returns his attention to Tivaly. "No, thank you. I don't think I'm that mysterious anyways." Not to mention, she's far too young for him.
"I'd be lying if I said that I have no interest in gossip or fashion," and she plucks daintily at the hem of summer-dress, no hand-me-down borrowed from the caverns but something deliberately made for and selected by the girl wearing it, "but I'm still an outsider in their view." Tivaly doesn't sound especially bothered by the fact, accepting it as gracefully as she can and then dismissing it with a one-shouldered shrug. As for the matter of R'en's mystery level, well, "As far as most girls are concerned, if you're not an open book, then you're a closed one." Pale eyes essay the insinuation that the Weyrleader has not exactly come across as said open book.
"I think it's human nature to want to hear gossip, though I have no interest in fashion." R'en is quick to say, though considering he's a guy it's really not much of a surprise on the last sentiment. His blue eyes glance to where she's plucking at her dress, drawn because of the plucking though it doesn't linger long before he looks away to take another drink from his glass of now dwindling ice cubes. "They aren't all from Igen, are they?" He wonders, looking at the three and trying to figure it out just from their looks, but it's impossible to do really. He obviously doesn't know them, but that doesn't mean anything either. "Are there really people who're completely open books? I doubt it.. though perhaps more than myself. I like my privacy."
Tivaly, lightly, "I think it's human nature to tell ourselves things that make us feel better about our shortcomings." Like gossiping. The Igen-ness of the girls is confirmed with a quick nod, and she goes on to supply, "And each more convinced than the last that her future is out there somewhere, on the Sands, in the eggs sired by your own dragon." She lets her tone sound heady, but it's overdone, as though she takes a guess about how impressed R'en is with that aspect of his circumstances. Which ties right into the question of his openness, which she addresses over another soft shrug. "Some people have essentially shared all there is to know about themselves, yes. Others… not so much." Present company very much included!
"I guess so." R'en agrees, though he doesn't continue along the line of gossiping. He doesn't actually seem to do much of it himself, but then, he doesn't really seem to socialize a whole lot at all. His nose scrunches as she goes on about how the candidates are thinking about how their future lies on those sands, but he simply shrugs in response. "Everyone has different dreams, I suppose." There might be a hint of disappointment in his tone, but overall he manages to keep up the facade. Setting the glass down on the bench, he glances at the stack of papers with sigh, but still doesn't go about picking them up. "What's to know, really? Most seem to know where I'm from, what I did before I ended up here. It's disturbing how many people suddenly think they know me."
It's after the comment about different dreams that Tivaly points out, with light but present amusement, "Comments like that invite further question, you know. For example - what were yours?" There's a pause on her part after the talk about what people think they know, and the amusement is replaced by something thoughtful, something bordering on sympathetic, even, as though she's not completely unattuned to R'en's reaction to the spotlight. "Do they? Certainly, people seem to think they know of you now. But that's very different than actually knowing someone, isn't it?"
R'en can't help but roll his eyes a little when she asks him the first question, shifting a little where he's sitting to roll his shoulders to pop them since he'd been sitting there for a while. "My dreams, or whatever they used to be, aren't to come. So, there's little point in talking what was." He deflects, though there isn't any tone that deem that he's upset or anything, simply that it is what it is. He does watch the girls though, slightly amused at them looking at the eggs where they believe their future to be. "It's still disconcerning. I garner more attention than I ever wanted, and speculation about who I am by where I'm from. Just because people don't actually know me, doesn't mean they don't think they do."
Tivaly points out quietly, sliding in the comment in such a way that R'en is free to ignore it if he'd prefer, "I said, 'what were your dreams.'" If he is insistent on pushing away the question rather than answering it, her tone is conveniently lacking the persistence that makes it seem to demand an answer: she'd listen if he spoke, but she won't pry it from him. "It sounds like you're stuck between a rock and a hard place, if you'll forgive me for pointing out the obvious. You don't want them to know you, so they're necessarily making up their own answers. I don't envy you." But she doesn't blame them, either, that much is obvious. "Perhaps you could dole out little tidbits to appease the masses? Things about the Weyrleader if not the man himself."
"And I said that there's no point in talking about what was." R'en reiterates as well, not about to go divulging his dreams to someone he barely knows. He's not exactly snapping, but he's definitely very firm in his tone that he doesn't wish to talk about that subject. Sindrieth shifts on the ledges a little to get a better look at who's with his rider, though it's not long before the bronze is returning his attention to the eggs on the sands. He reaches for his glass and finishes off the water, leaving the bits of ice in the bottom to melt for a while afterwards. "Sounds easy enough, but I doubt it actually is. Words get twisted to fit what people want to hear. I think it'll be amusing to hear the reasons why people think I don't have a weyrmate." He says with a bit of a smirk.
The folded lips answer for the promise that Tivaly will speak no more on the matter, and her pale eyes cast about the cavern for a time - glancing across Sindrieth when he moves - to further indicate that she's looking elsewhere for some topic. Some safer topic. "Mm, true. If you tell them you prefer wine to ale, surely someone will assume you're having an affair with Lady Benden and have lately jilted Lady Tillek," she muses mildly, exaggerating the prospect for the sake of making the point. And then R'en talks about a question that, as a teenage girl, she's undoubtedly heard at least once - after all, the brunette fancies him - and it's written all over her face that she wants to ask, the raised brows and I'm-listening cant of her head. But, bless her Harper's heart, she bites her tongue so hard it probably hurts.
R'en relaxes a little more as the topic of dreams remains in the past where his are left, and he leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees and his head on his hands as he looks forward rather than at the Harper. The comparison does get a hint of a chuckle, and a shake of his head, "Sounds like a dangerous path to tread, though you're right. People do just make decisions with no grounds. Especially those that love gossip." Though, thankfully, not /everyone/ is quite so liberal with their spread of gossip. His gaze does eventually find its way back towards Tivaly's face, and he rolls his eyes a little, "You too, huh?" He adds with a shake of his head. "Maybe I just get some sick joy out of crushing girl's dreams." He teases, though, maybe it's true?
Tivaly, unapologetically, "Knowing the answer to a burning question is always satisfying." And R'en's love-life is probably a burning question among the adolescent girls of Igen Weyr. His glib suggestion has her hmmmmming before she commits, "You don't seem like a sadist, but it is at least less dramatic than tales of love's labor's lost. Although I have gotten partial to the theory that you're in love with a beautiful young Lord's daughter. Forbidden romance." And she flutters her fingers over her heart, heaving a perfectly theatrical sigh.
"There's no answer here that's anywhere as interesting as what others come up with." R'en admits, though the suggestion she gives is just given a bit of a groan. "Come on. Really? Maybe I actually /am/ a sadist." He says with a tone that might make people wonder that he might actually be telling the truth. But, he's quick to add, "Maybe I fell for someone turns ago that I just haven't managed to get over." Another possibility, but rather than answers it's just trudging up more questions as to the real reason. "I don't know any Lord's daughters, but.. it'd be a good story. We can just make something up."
Maybe he's a sadist? Maybe he fell for someone turns ago? Tivaly puts them together, clasping her hands loosely, fingers threaded, to suggest, "Making you a heartsick sadist, then? It has a certain amount of poetry to it. So badly scorned by love in the past that your embittered heart desires nothing more than another's pain." (Give a Harper a rope, they think they're a cowboy.) "Perhaps it was this very Lord's daughter that scorned you? She chose a profitable marriage to some man of power and estate when you were no more than a lowly weyrling, and you've been nursing your grief until it's hardened into resentment." There's a long pause, then a slow breath like a sigh, and she adds, "Alas, the storybook version has some light-hearted darling come along and melt away all your icy exterior. You would be setting yourself up for every girl that can't get enough of what she can't have."
R'en just buries his face into his hands, still leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. The suggestion, and continuation of this fictional story just makes him shake his head. "Well, you certainly ran right off in some direction with that, didn't you?" He asks, pulling his hands away from his face to give her a look that suggests that she ought not share that fantasy with other people - at least and not relate that it in any way pertains to him. "Really, it's none of anyone's business what my personal life is like. It wasn't when I was a healer, and it certainly isn't any more now that I'm a Weyrleader. I don't ask you who you're interested in, because it's really none of my business. If you were interested in me, maybe it would be, but otherwise, no."
Tivaly might ought to be embarrassed about going full-tilt into a fictional romance novel about the man sitting next to her, but she just smiles with a small apology in the expression and points out, "I read a lot." Only once R'en has stopped hiding behind his hands will she try to catch his eyes to offer the necessary, "Sorry. I won't tell anyone about your make-believe romance, I promise." She starts an almost immediate argument to answer his talk of personal lives, but she bites it off before she's done more than take a breath to start speaking, letting out that breath more slowly and distilling the whole problem down to one simple statement: "You're a public figure now."
"Couldn't tell. Though, not the kind of things I'd be found reading." R'en says with a grin, though he does collect the small stack of papers onto his lap to give them a bit of a look over. The next page looks much like the first, but that's probably to be expected even if it's only a glimpse that's seen. "That's appreciated, though do tell me if they come up with some interesting tale. It'd amuse me to hear it." He says, glancing at the girl who is claimed to like him before he looks away from her and back to the papers on his lap. "That's true, but it doesn't make me any more special than any other person and prehaps I'll be replaced soon enough. Weyrleaders come and go. It's the Weyrwomen that are subscribed to staying."
With another small, sympathetic-seeming smile, Tivaly concludes, "Perhaps you will be. If so, I do hope you find your long-lost anonymity once more. It must be awful to hate the spotlight so much and yet have it turned on you so often." She looks at R'en's papers as if just remembering that they exist, as if just remembering that she may or may not have been keeping him from his work for all this talk of his love-life (or lack thereof). "I'll tell them that we talked of certain legal issues concerning trade negotiations with Half Moon Bay. So if you hear the term 'dreamy' drifting back this way, don't blame me?"
"Oh, I'm sure they'll get bored of me soon enough. I'm a novelty right now, all shiny and new like the eggs on the sands. Once they hatch and things go back to normal, maybe I'll just be in the background again." R'en seems to think that's a possibility, anyways, once the newness wears off and he bores the masses with his lack of giving information away. He flips through a couple papers, before pursing his lips and leaving the pile alone on his lap. "Nosy, hmm?" He did notice she has read the first page, at least, with her comment, though it's the last comment that gets a bit of a glower.
Tivaly is actually taken aback (congratulations, it's no small feat) and has to blinky-blink at R'en a few times after that last question. She can't argue anymore about his profile, having said her piece more than once, but the additional question catches her off-guard. It's a rare position for her, and it takes a second before she's able to frame any sort of response. Nosy, huh? "I'm sorry, I thought that would be obvious by now. Given that I've been trying, albeit unsuccessfully, to pry all this while. Not to mention… Harper…"
"I guess that'll teach me to bring things without covers." R'en says, though it's nothing too sensitive she was reading anyways - not unless she's in on some bets on how much trade is going to happen between Igen and Half Moon. But, it's also not surprising that R'en gets a little uppity about things being read when they aren't anyone else's business either. "I'm sure not all Harpers read things that aren't theirs to read." He adds, lest anyone think that all of one type of person can be categorized.
It's not a denial of his remarks, per se, but Tivaly does say, "I'm sure you're correct. Not all of us." And if she stresses the 'all' in that remark just a touch heavily, well, at least she does it with a smile. "And now, before I give you further cause to relay a grievance to my journeyman, I believe I'm needed for some belated gossip-and-fashion. Will you excuse me?" while she stands, looking very prim and professional, all part of convincing the other girls that the whole conversation was dry as Igen itself.
