[PRP] what's the use (of you) [ haveli + k'ienn

[houllow]

Honestly it'd been a bit disappointing, the latter of the two gold flights. Haveli hadn't cared about the first, since what she'd heard about the Gold was that she had a preferred mate. A brown mate, and while browns and their riders were nothing to shake a stick at (sometimes), they hardly were of the more....shiny category. So when Fianth had risen barely less than a sevenday later and the skies were filled with bronzes again, there'd been a small flicker of hope in the corner of Haveli's mind. She dared herself, for a moment or two, to place some bets on a certain bronze and his ability to catch a Queen he'd done before.

When he hadn't, the teen nearly considered writing off the dragon and his rider in a single swoop. She'd been at High Reaches long enough to learn some of the seedy underbelly, the power strokes that came with who did what and who did who, so Yisketh's ultimate failure at catching Fianth set her plans back. Slightly, but not enough that she need treat K'ienn like the fading relic he was becoming. Sad, but true. It wasn't entirely the bronze's fault that a stronger, better (and from rumors, unaffiliated) dragon had swooped in and mated with the Gold, but it wasn't like he was completely to blame. People tended to have wonderful things to say while gossiping, in and out of bed.

But that was neither here nor there, and so Haveli felt the need to seek out a certain rider and test the waters. Were condolences in order for a man spurned yet again, or did she need to rub it in his face?

Teiha

HERE WE GO AGAIN WITH THESE TWO (for the first time)

 

[Teiha]

The Trespassers' Wingleader was sitting on the floor in his weyr, leaning heavily with his head bent back against the edge of his bed. Being at constant odds with the creature who shared his mind, over the very thing he too was troubled by, coupled with the situation regarding his son Falienn, his work for Zheria, and a hundred other minor details... It was draining like nothing else he'd ever experienced. It was something akin climbing up a steep incline for days, and at the top, seeing yet another mountain rising up before him. Then, with no strength to go forward, letting all of his muscles go slack, then falling and just sliding down the hill face first. In a way it was a relief, but also, for him and Yisketh both, an abnormal state of detachment. Some distant shred of him was glad that his wing wasn't scheduled for drills that day. But, for the most part, he just didn't care.

Maybe Zheria had the right of it. Maybe it was better to be a thoroughly heartless b*****d. He had his pick of satisfying bedmates, didn't he? Why settle for just one? Even Yisketh was painfully aware that Fianth had made her choice. Just let the woman do the same. She'd never been of any real use, anyway.

He winced as his stomach turned with violence.

It was enough to make him come up out of his dark mental waters for a few breaths of air. He reached out to Yisketh and felt the dragon's mind slapping him away. At that rate, the length of time he'd be able to tread that water on his own before sinking again was questionable. He needed some kind of distraction, and soon.

houllow

AAAAAAAAAAAAAA

 

[houllow]

Sometimes Haveli felt that she had a sixth sense, a sort of amazing gut feeling that told her when to press forward or when to stop; usually she ignored it and just bulled her way on through. Today was one of those days where it actually stopped to give her pause, her hand raised to knock on K'ienn's door. It didn't matter she was there, many people had seen her going in and out for chores before, but today her arms were empty and her mind filled her mouth with excuses.

The main excuse was 'it's not anyone's business', and that seemed to appease her.

A few sharp raps on the Wingleader's door announced her presence, as did her voice. "K'ienn. It's Haveli." The candidate knew he was inside - where else would he be? His wing didn't have drills and she hadn't seen Yisketh skulking about the skies or harassing the beasts in the feeding pens. Of course the beast and his master weren't attached at the hip, clearly, but K'ienn also hadn't been spotted in his usual watering holes, or barking orders or whatever it was he did to make himself feel better.

Perhaps condolences were in order, but frankly Haveli wasn't sure she even knew how to offer them.

Teiha

I'M SORRY

 

[Teiha]

Dark eyes flicked toward the knocking. The man assessed the priority of the intrusion, and found it lacking. His eyes rolled back up to the ceiling, then closed. He’d have to get up sooner or later, but he wasn’t going to give them the satisfaction of an immediate answer. For all the people who disliked or even hated his personal idiosyncrasies, his private quarters had certainly become the fashionable gathering place of late. Also, the definition of “private” seemed to be looser than it had been when he was a candidate. Even on his day off, those fool kids seemed to expect free access to a High Reaches Wingleader whenever they—

Oh. It was Haveli. He breathed out a sigh through his nose with a growl and pressed his head further back against the bed, his skull scrubbing back and forth into the mattress. He could answer the door, and see what she wanted. But now that he had the opportunity, he really didn’t want to do much of anything. She’d want to talk, and he’d have to put on a face and make nice. It took energy to posture. Energy that he didn’t feel like expending.

You just said you needed a distraction, came Yisketh’s sullen voice. Now you have one... and a good reason to go away.

K’ienn mentally pushed back at his dragon, picturing that wide-open ledge of theirs leading to a big, empty sky that Yisketh could go be alone in. The bronze’s walls instantly went up, and K’ienn could hear the faintest keening coming from the other side. Even as he’d responded so harshly, his own heart had cried out in much the same way. Yisketh could sense that he was sorry. It was the fact that he couldn’t say so that hurt so much. He heard the scrape and rustle of Yisketh’s hide sliding along the stone ledge and the snap of wings catching air. He sighed again.

At least Haveli wouldn’t have to see the bronze sulking like a grounded weyrling on his couch. K’ienn pushed himself up, ran a hand through his now-ruffled hair, and went to the table, where he picked up a book and opened it to a random page. “Door’s unlocked,” he called out.

His face would be perfectly composed by the time she got it open.

houllow

COME IN HAVELI

 

[houllow]

With the unmistakable sound of claws on stone greeting her ears, Haveli took the (very) educated guess that either Yisketh had dismissed himself or K'ienn had sent him away. Either worked for the teen, she had faint interest (at the moment) in a dragon who'd failed to arrive for a flight. Yisketh's sired clutches with Fianth had been the talk of the Weyr back in the day, or so Haveli had been lead to understand, but now? A shadow of his former self, spurned so easily.

Like rider, like dragon, yes? If pity were a thing she felt often, or at all, perhaps the bronze would elicit some.

The door opened easily, and Haveli's skirts swept about her feet as she walked in with all the grace of someone who had no shame in their arrival. There was no timidity to be had around K'ienn, despite the rank he wore on his shoulder and the respect he seemed to command whenever he walked the halls and the bowl. Her eyes settled down on him where he sat reading, and the corner of her lip twitched upward in a faint attempt at a smirk. The muscles of her face refused the action, however, but her eyes burned with amusement.

"A pity, it seems I just missed Yisketh. I'd have liked to give him my regards, and see how he's holding up after your trip." There was a jab laced ever so neatly into her words, like the find needlepoint on a garment. "I'll settle for greeting you though," She accented the words with a proper bob needed for his station, though her eyes were not lowered, "and offering you a welcome home. You were sorely missed." That specific point was out and open and brutally honest; her bets had been on K'ienn's dragon and she'd been made to lose.

Haveli never lost.

Teiha

 

[Teiha]

The moment he heard the noise of her skirts, K’ienn became even more turned off the thought of playing gracious host to the young woman. Haveli had her uses, yes, but they were few, and with her presumptuous entrance, the arrogant tilt of her strong feminine jaw… in his current state, his opinion of her was not kind. He had more than half a mind to take her elbow and usher her straight back out the door she’d just come through. He stifled the impulse for the moment, fixing her with a stone-cold look.

“Is that so? Then I’m flattered, I suppose.” He laid the book back on the table and crossed his arms where he stood. “Clearly you have some other, more pressing reason for being here. I’d love to know what it is.”

houllow

 

[houllow]

". . . . " It was almost disappointing to see hyst how much like a kicked canine K'ienn seemed over his late arrival to the Weyr. She didn't know how Yisketh personally felt over Fianth (nor did she care in that regard), but to see the Wingleader clearly strung out over something like this still was....well, as she said. Disappointing. "I don't, not really." Whatever reason she might have had, which involved no small manner of yelling at him for allowing a stranger to lay claim to one of their golds, vanished inside her disappointment. "Believe it or not I did come to just check in, knowing that you'd been gone on a mission. Your timing couldn't have been worse, but that's hardly your fault."

It wasn't but that didn't mean she couldn't blame him deep down. "It's bad enough we'll have a browned clutch, but, ugh." She needed to keep her tone calm and quiet and yet the words spilled.

Teiha

sorry this took so long to reply to D: if you'd like to drop or continue please let me know!