[prp] from the bottom up [kaiator + haveli]

[Zaikt]

He's been stealthily watching one of his fellow candidates for about ten minutes now, according to his estimate. Now, peoplewatching was all well and good as a hobby, but it wasn't something Kaiator generally liked to indulge in--far too easy to be caught, and the resulting confrontations didn't do anything good for one's image. As a result, he preferred far more subtle means of observing others, although he was pretty sure he'd only get in worse trouble if those didn't work out. There were plenty of interesting candidates here at the weyr, and he'd taken a little time to try and ascertain just what each of them might be about without getting too close--this time was a little different.

In this case, however, he was simply fascinated.

What was this girl's name? Oh, he had no idea whatsoever, but he'd been keeping tabs on her, in the most relaxed sense possible. She appeared to have a hell of a knack for getting herself into trouble, and Kaiator simply couldn't wrap his head around the why of it. Did she have some kind of greater goal in mind? But that didn't make any sense, considering the effects of her...well, everything. What good did it do her to be so--so...like that? What did she stand to gain?
Probably not all that much, now that he thought of it. He'd seen some of the backlash she'd already gotten, not to mention what still yet lay on the horizon. Where was she hoping to go from here? Being a candidate may not have been the most ideal situation for everyone, but at least for him, it was a damn sight better than the alternative. Perhaps she missed home and was looking for a way to get out of doing this, or some other reason he hadn't yet figured out. He hated to admit it, but trying to piece together just what was going on here had become a brainteaser that he was determined to solve. The thought of trying to crack this case directly seemed less than idea, but--

Ah, shaffit. The only way to find out for certain was to simply do it.

He gives a soft huff as he stands up from his seat, pausing just a moment to pop his back; once he's finished the requisite preening that followed, he wastes no further time in sauntering over to Haveli, already shifting straight into Socializing Mode.
"Pardon me--or don't, really--but I've been wondering something about you for a while." he begins, cocking his head to the side as he fixed Haveli with a carefully appraising look. "You seem to be caught up in the middle of all sorts of problems practically all the time. Wouldn't it be easier to simply let some of that go instead of being--well. Like that?"  

[houllow]

Haveli looked at the young man who'd approached her with an expression that stated he'd suddenly sprouted a second head. Maybe a third, if the way her lips parted a bit had anything to say about it, and her nose crinkled up as her brow furled. "What the shards are you talking about?"

Her, getting into trouble? Haveli was one of, if not one of the better, examples of a proper candidate. Apart from the incident on the sands where she'd gotten herself mauled thanks to apparently thinking too much, she followed rules and regulations to the T. It wasn't like she actually enjoyed them or believed in them but more because following commands was what would help her achieve her goals. She'd do whatever it took to stay here at High Reaches, where her sister was, and to continue being able to stand out there on those sands. Eventually a dragon would come for her, right?

"I've never been in trouble, for word or action. Are you blind and mistaking me for someone else, or are you the type who likes to imagine things about people they don't know?" Her words held plenty of bite while her expression remained the same as that of a person who was disgusted. Normally she would have put in a tiny bit more effort to be friendly and kind and alluring but with Arlie still hurt and recovering she had little room for much else.

And also. "And what do you mean by like that?" Seriously, who did he think she was? Or who even was he to begin with? Having been at the Weyr for nearly two turns among the candidates, Haveli thought she knew most faces. The never-ending cycle of clutches though ensured many people came and went, so new folks slipping in was nothing odd. "I don't even know who you are."

Zaikt

gosh, here's a tag! i hope it's okay? if you need me to change anything please let me know!

 

[Zaikt]

Ooh, there's that anger. Not uncalled for, really--not in the slightest, especially not when his less than stellar approach was considered, so he supposed he couldn't fault her for that. But Kaiator wasn't so easily deterred, even when he absolutely foresaw a punch coming his way, along with who knows what else. Would she actually try anything, though? They were both doing their best to stay above board, and Kaiator himself knew he'd much rather keep his reputation spotless, or as close to it as was possible.

"Oh, my mistake. Perhaps I have you mixed up with another...short, angry candidate with an attitude like a tunnelsnake. I don't know." He shrugs, raising an eyebrow at her. "That's not always a bad thing, for the record. Your dragon is going to be something, I bet."
He's careful to keep his tone as far away from anything negative as he could manage--if anything, he sounded...appreciative, oddly enough. If there would ever be a dragon shelled to match her, he'd have to remember to stay on their good side.
"Genuinely, I'm just curious. You have to have some kind of reason for all this, right?" Vague! Hardly elaborating on anything he meant! Nice going, Kaia. "I've noticed that you're a bit...prickly, shall we say. So, in the interest of making sure our class is suitably socialized and all that, I took it upon myself to figure out what exactly is going on, and thus, here we are!"

With that final comment, however. Haveli has made the all-too-dangerous mistake of providing Kaiator with the perfect opportunity to introduce himself. Joy of joys.
He straightens up, a sharp smirk settling on his face--it takes plenty of self-restraint to prevent a grin from taking its place, particularly considering how agitated Haveli already was, but Kaiator can be proud of himself for that much. After another brief moment of adjusting his clothes, he makes a note not to extend his hand, instead opting for maintaining the distance between the two of them. Personal space was important, especially when you've already pissed off the other person involved.
"Kaiator. Lovely to meet you, even if I don't think I've managed to catch your name yet. I suppose I should have stuck to a different form of introduction, but the question was a bit too burning to ignore."

houllow

you're good!! i am so sorry for kaia in general!!

 

[houllow]

"I'm not giving you my name." Haveli narrowed her eyes at the pompous motions this Kaiator was going through, introducing himself like he was someone important or would be relevant to her. She knew who he was in the fact she had to see him every day for candidate lessons, but the knowledge of who he actually was had been of little interest to her. She wasn't here to make friends apart from those she felt would benefit her and those she....well. Apart from when Arlie had been there, and a few younger candidates, there hadn't been anyone she particularly wanted to socialize with.

His comment on calling her prickly hadn't been too far off the marks, and she had to close her eyes and take a deep breath to continue. "And as for my....temperament, I don't tolerate fools. You're towing the line and we've already just met. Not a good look for you, Kaiator." Slowly the temper in her voice was lowering down its more natural tone, which was smooth and slightly husky for a woman. Her throat had been damaged when she was mauled after all, coupled with hitting her head, and Haveli had always had a deeper voice. Now she sounded almost sultry, if she wasn't spewing insults left and right.

"Plus, my reason for 'all of this' if that;s what you're asking is I'm a candidate. All of this is for a chance to become a rider, just like you. Or are you here for another reason? I don't exactly smell a bronze-chaser on you, but looks and intelligence can be deceiving." There was no way she was going to say that she was attempting to do more, be better, for the sake of a whiterider still holed up in the infirmary.

He didn't need to know about Arlie. No one did.

Zaikt

 

[Zaikt]

"Well, that's just a shame. Would you prefer I come up with a substitute of my own for you in the meantime, then?" There's a few options already dancing on the tip of his tongue. Tunnelsnake did have a certain ring to it, now that he thought about it... "That aside, I pride myself on having just the right look, but I suppose I can't please everyone. Personal tastes are a bit difficult to account for, after all."

She'd called him a--a Bronzechaser, of all things? Please. Kaiator had confidence in spades, as far as anyone else was concerned, but why would he limit himself to just one color of dragon? It'd be nothing but foolish. Under the surface, however--there was the nagging edge of doubt telling him that perhaps he wasn't good enough for any dragon, and that he might have to go home and face the music alone. Would a Bronze help that? Oh, absolutely. But then again, so would any dragon.
Still, she's not wrong about there being another reason behind his motivation, although that's not for her to know. Kaiator saw little reason to go spreading that information so easily, and certainly not with someone he'd just started speaking to.
"I can't say I'd mind a Bronze, but I'm not so foolish as to be picky. Whatever happens will do so for a reason, and I simply have to be content with that. Better to be a realist and prepare for the world than delude myself otherwise, hmm?"

Great, though! Everything she'd said had brought him absolutely no closer to figuring out a damn thing about her. Wonderful. So much for figuring out...well, anything at all. Kaiator suspected this would take plenty of effort, not to mention--perhaps a different approach.
"We're all here to be riders, of course. But what brought us here in the first place is where things get a little tricky, wouldn't you say? Tends to leave a mark on a person. Or several."

houllow

 

[houllow]

Haveli snorted. "So you say, but you seem the type who'd absolutely wither if you Impressed to a green or white. High Reaches isn't that kind and you...." A hand was moved towards her face, where a finger rested on her bottom lip in thought. Slowly her eyes flicked up and down his frame, taking in all of Kaiator like she was evaluating him over something. Apparently having properly weighed and measured, Haveli shrugged. "Never mind, it's like you said. We'll have to wait and see." There was bound to be another clutch before the end of the Turn so there was no real rush on finding things out; perhaps this time she'd walk off the sands with a partner of her own. It had been mildly mortifying when the last set had nearly seventy eggs and she was carried away on a stretcher.

"Also if you attempt to give me a nickname know you'll get one in return, only it won't be flattering. I can say you won't like it but considering you've done nothing but attempt to prove me wrong I'll believe that you'd find some sick humor in it and cherish it like a badge." Utterly gross but also worth the challenge to find something he wouldn't like hearing out loud. Haveli almost found herself looking forward to such an event but attempted not to get her hopes up. It wouldn't do to be disappointed over something so small.

Slowly she crossed her arms, weighing in on the last thing he said. "I would say a searchrider is what brought most of us here, or were you trying to be sentimental? Either way, don't."

Zaikt

 

[Zaikt]

"Wither? Oh, my dear Tunnelsnake, you couldn't be more wrong. A dragon's a dragon! I fail to see the drawbacks of one, Green, White, or otherwise."
He couldn't help it--he laughed, shaking his head at the thought. To come this far and achieve that lofty goal of becoming a dragonrider, only to turn away from the dragon that chose him? That was ridiculous. While he had to admit, the potential problem of status among the rather colorist views of High Reaches was one he'd thought on plenty of times, Kaiator still wasn't convinced it would be enough to change his mind. A Bronze would be great, especially when what that metallic shine would open up for him was considered, but at the end of the day, the hide didn't matter so much as the beast beneath it.
If High Reaches couldn't see his worth simply because of the color of his (imaginary, although hopefully not forever) dragon's hide, then--well, he wouldn't have many qualms with going somewhere else. Pushing back against a lost cause wouldn't do much for him besides waste his time, and Kaiator had plenty of plans to make happen. He couldn't spend however many turns digging his heels in to fight it all when there was nothing he could change.

My, my. Wasn't she...frustrating, though. Kaiator bites the inside of his cheek for a moment, doing what he can to still his tongue--he's trying to be polite and sociable, and at least one of them had to be, even if he was starting to think it was about as effective as throwing rocks at Thread.
"How refreshingly...literal of you." His tone is dry, even somewhat disdainful, but civil all the same. Stick to the high road, Kaia. It'll pay off eventually. Probably. At the same time, though, it's so tempting to just-- Maybe a little-- "Surely you're not such a one-trick pony, right? You do have other feelings in there, I assume? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I haven't seen much evidence to the contrary, and I'm starting to think I've got you pinned already." So much for that round of internal coaching.
"Which would be disappointing, really. I was hoping for more, given what I've seen of you."

houllow

 

[houllow]

"Tunn- ah." So a nickname was it, or was he actually just calling her a tunnelsnake? As far as comparisons went it was one of the nicer things she'd ever been called in both the past and recent turns. Thankfully Haveli had skin thicker than most porcine and could weather insults as though they were comments about the actual weather. "You're right that a dragon is a dragon, but not here at High Reaches. Here there are many drawbacks if you don't have the right color, the right attitude." There was an edge in her voice on how she said that. "You could be one of the most dependable, amazing people on Pern - one of the best to have ever become a rider - but if you so much as don't sport a color that benefits you'll end up viewed as fodder. Left alone to rot in the Infirmary after getting injured fighting for everyone while the Weyr moves on without you."

That....sounded extremely personal and perhaps like she was speaking with experience, but considering Haveli was very much still a candidate what was she saying? For a candleflick or two her eyes seemed legitimately pained with something more than their usual rage. It was as though she was looking past the two of them here and towards someone else, though just as fast as the shadow had come over it was gone. It was replaced with a smirk and a shake of the young woman's head. "I know many tricks, little boy, though it'll cost you if you want to see any of them outside of my delightful surly nature. Pinning me down isn't cheap."

Weren't they supposed to be doing something as candidates right about now? Haveli could just straight up walk away from him and consider the conversation done, but for some reason she felt like lingering a bit. If he was trying to figure her out then where was the harm in returning the favor?

Zaikt

 

[Zaikt]

Well, that's-- There's clearly something else going on, there. Something...he probably shouldn't prod into too much, really. Had she been close to someone who'd been dealt that hand, perhaps? He knows how to handle this, as far as he's aware, and his expression softens along with his tone.
"Then they're wrong for doing so, aren't they." Kaiator wouldn't dare phrase that as a question. He has a feeling he knows what Haveli's answer would be, and he certainly knows what he himself has to say about it. "It's beyond foolish of them. A dragon isn't--fodder, and neither are their riders. You'd think that now, when we need as many of them as we can get, they'd pull their heads out of their asses enough to see that." A frown crosses his face, only slightly hindered by his scars. "What's the point in putting all the time and effort into training them if you're simply going to treat them as expendable, anyway?"

That brief glimpse of deeper wounds under the surface told him far more than he suspected she'd been willing to share. When it fades away, he isn't quick to forget it and move on, but he lets it go all the same; there's something about the look in her eyes that lingered, and while he wouldn't dream of asking any of them outright, there were all kinds of questions brewing in his mind.
"Little boy, is it? I'm pretty sure I'm older than you. Not to mention taller." It's time to switch gears, giving her the space she needed. Kaiator knows he's good at that much. "Perhaps we've both got tricks to share. Who knows? You haven't gotten the chance to see what I'm about yet, just as I haven't quite picked up on the same for you."
This was--interesting. He'd been expecting something different, but Haveli had proven to be more of a surprise than he'd accounted for, and Kaiator was enjoying himself, brief lapse in emotions aside. Surprises were fun sometimes, as it turned out! When they weren't the bad kind, anyway. And hell, maybe she might be useful in some way or another--at the very least, it wouldn't hurt to have a few acquaintances in the barracks here and there.

houllow

 

[houllow]

Haveli bristled at the change of tone. "Don't mock or pity me, little boy." She repeated it again, ignoring entirely how he said he was older than her (likely) and taller than her (obviously). "Raising something just to discard it is common sense. You ever heard of herdbeasts? You think people don't put effort into them knowing they're just going to be scrapped and eaten?" Haveli sometimes could remember the feeling of slaughtering an animal, back before Thread came and brought along a whole new level of misery. Maybe that was why she didn't mind helping butcher here, if people asked.

But that was also neither here nor there, and she moved on. "Also I know your kind. I've seen the look in your eyes in faces before, heard the speech and the swagger. You've got something to prove or something to hide and you think being here will help protect you." For as much as Haveli didn't know him she had been watching him in as much as she watched all the other candidates. With her sister no longer there she had....time, and several of the healers had explicitly told her she needed to learn to accept others. "I'm in the same boat, so it's like a pot calling a kettle as it were." She gave a little bit of information there, to let him stew with what he wanted.

Was she hiding here or wanting to be protected? Was Haveli working on proving herself, or something more?

Zaikt

 

[Zaikt]

"Hardly mockery, that. It's called sympathy." Kaiator's lip curls into a sneer, brow furrowing. "The fact that you can't tell the difference is what's pitiable, rather."
The rest of what she'd said, however--that's what he really had a problem with. Kaiator took a slow, deep breath, silently reminding himself to stay on his best behavior; there's just something about her rebuttal that rubbed him the wrong way, and he couldn't bring himself to ignore it.

"My family's been beastcrafters as far back as any of us can remember. You don't have to lecture me on the standards of slaughter." It had been dirty work, but they'd certainly done it--all of them, himself included. While his ambition had led him elsewhere, it was still very much fresh in his memory. "But these aren't herdbeasts we're talking about. These are people. Would you have the same opinion if your life was on that kind of line?" He almost wondered if she'd argue with him more, just to be contrary. Really, that didn't seem too far out of the realm of possibility. "You already made your stance fairly clear on the practice of discarding riders based on such an arbitrary standard of merit, and yet--here you are, defending it nonetheless."

What he hates the most, however, is how quickly she's pinned him down. Did he have to confirm it to her, though? Oh, absolutely not, but the thought of being so easily identified like that was enough to make him balk. This girl was--potentially going to be a massive problem, if he had to guess. She was contradictory, frustrating, aggressive as hell, and just--rude all around.
Oddly enough, he appreciated it. This was someone with plenty of bite--someone who didn't see the need to sugarcoat things and play nice all the time. This Tunnelsnake could be quite useful indeed.

"I couldn't turn down this opportunity. Simple as that." Straightforward, to the point, and not a lie. Nowhere near the full truth, but that would remain kept very close to his chest. He runs a hand through his hair, idly fixing it back into place; it didn't really need the extra attention, but having something to do in the awkward half-silence he'd created was too good to pass up. "We can hardly judge each other for it. I'm sure we both have our reasons."
Whether or not they were good reasons--or good enough for a dragon, even--was anyone's guess.

houllow

 

[houllow]

It had been...a good while since Haveli had found someone willing to go verbal blow to blow with her, and it was amusing that this person had approached her of their own free will. Usually most folks walked away within the first few pointed barbs even if they hadn't been intended that way; the end result had Haveli absolutely piss-poor at basic conversation but downright amazing at chewing people up. "If I'm getting sympathy from you then I'm surely bottom of the barrel at this point in time." Haveli hated sympathy more than most things, if only because it did nothing for her. Sympathy hadn't kept her stomach full - or Arlie's for that matter - when they'd been on the run all those turns ago. Sympathy hadn't made the folks her parents traded with actually step in and try to remove them from the home when the bruises appeared on her face.

Sympathy was useless. So was conversation but that was a topic for another time.

Plus she found it amusing the way he got angry over her analogy of simple beasts. There were many, many riders here in the upper echelons who thought of white and greenriders in the same way - they just weren't vocal about it. There were plenty of older folks who rode the metallics who wouldn't even bat an eye if someone lesser died. They'd simply say it was their duty, good show, pat pat, and all those other platitudes.

"But whatever, I enjoy judging others. How else am I supposed to live my days if I can't look down on folks for imagined slights while they return the favor? You have to understand how someone like me can't survive if I don't get my daily intake of spite." At the mention of the word spite, a sudden pop sounded in the air above the pair as a green firelizard came out from Between. She was pale and lovely, though a sudden hiss erupted as she looked at Kaiator.

Zaikt