==== November 8, 2013
==== Katarina, Nevelyn, Nevach(NPC), Renalde
====Much interesting in the Living Caverns is had.

Who Katarina, Nevelyn, Nevach(NPC), Renalde
What Gossip in the LC
When There are 0 turns, 9 months and 9 days until the 12th pass.
Where Living Caverns, Southern Weyr

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Living Caverns
Grand and spacious, the cavern curves high aloft in naturally-vaulted ceiling that soothes any sense of claustrophiba. Rich woods line the cavern floor, varnished and stained a rich mahogany, while round tables scatter about candlelit and intimate. The largest table lies southerly next the sideboard, long trestles that seem oriented to providing for the weyr's youngest. The rich blue of Azov can be seen from a distance in good weather, when the heavy stone doors covering the entrance are allowed to stand open.


The storms of the past few days are beginning to fade away. Leaving behind a sticky humidity to go with the heat of the afternoon. An occasional bout of rain may fall sporadically to drench the unwary. But here within the living caverns it’s humid and dry. “Nevach stop playing with your food and eat,” Nevelyn is nearly too busy keeping food on Nevach’s plate to bother eating anything from her own. She leans over for probably the umpteenth time and scoops a flapping piece of herdbeast back on the boy’s plate. Nevach frowns at his mother but doesn’t comment, concentrating on managing a bite or two of his food. Leaving Nevelyn a scant moment to shovel a fork full into her own mouth.

It's after a long grueling morning and early afternoon of mandatory drills, Katarina drags herself into the caverns for a late lunch and a cup of klah. She beelines for the tables and soon has a plate piled with herdbeast and tubers and a steaming cup of klah. She sits near Nevelyn and her chewing child. She knots her wayward red hair at the nape of her neck and sniffs at the klah, wrinkling her nose. Without realizing it she thinks out loud. "Shards the klah quality has gone to crud since Yulena was searched." And sip, wrinkle nose and place on table.

Nevelyn follows up her bite of food with a hurried sip of klah from her own mug. “Someone was searched and it caused the klah to go bad?” Apparently she and Nevach had arrived after the fact and Neve is unaware of the correlation. “It’s better than you’ll find on ship most days.” Nevach who feels ignored by the adults looks up from stirring his mashed tubers into his vegetables and smiles at Katarina. “Hi! I’m Nevach and that’s my Mama.” The fork is abandoned on his plate in favor of pointing a chubby finger at Nevelyn. “Nevelyn,” she supplies with a frown for Nevach followed with a smile at Katarina. “Well met lady ‘rider,” she sets her own fork down to salute properly.

Katarina chuckles at the youngster and smiles at him. "Well heya there Nevach. I'm Katarina. Well met Nevelyn. " She smiles. "One of our cooks, she made the most exquisite klah…" She sighs in remembrance and looks over the small family. "And please, call me Kat or Katarina, I really don't stand on all that formality. It's one of the reasons I left Igen."

Nevelyn watches as the ‘rider addresses her son which earns Kat a smile from both of them. Nevach bounces on his knees in the chair. He’d refused to sit with the other kids and tends to follow his mother round like a small shadow. Hence sitting in the chair on his knees. “W..well met Kat,” Nevach latches onto the simpler name. Nevelyn reaches over and taps the boy’s plate so that he’ll remember to finish his meal. “It’s very nice to meet you Kat,” she opts to follow her boy’s lead with a smile. “We never know who’ll be in for the formality and who will be relaxed.” She shrugs her shoulders at trying to learn the intricacies of the Weyr. “We led a very informal way of life before our arrival. So it’s quite nice to dine with someone I can relax around.”

Katarina laughs. "I'm an oldtimer. We were a lot more relaxed than the people of this time seem to be. And women…well, we certainly had more freedom. " She shrugs. "But we live and adapt." She takes a couple of bites of her food and notes the tapping of the boy's plate. "You know Nevach…. Dragons like to eat little boys that don't eat their food. But good boys that eat sometimes get to sit on one and get a ride." She winks at the youngling.

Nevelyn has learned quickly the differences between the folks of ‘now’ as it were and what everyone refers to as the ‘oldtimers’. She falls solidly in the ‘now’ category and yet her upbringing in the middle of the Pernese Seas lends her to have a unique personality. “I think women here in the Weyr have a wonderful amount of freedom. Where I grew up women were objects and treated as property.” She blinks at Kat’s teasing of Nevach and has to hide her grin behind her mug of klah when the boy looks at her wide eyed. “Mama says not to bother then dragons at /all/ cause they won’t like it,” Nevach informs Kat as he sinks back to sit on his heels. The idea of being eaten by a dragon is intimidating to a seven turn old. And so after some thought, “I suppose I’d best finish this huh?” That said he shifts forward and digs into the food on his plate like someone might steal it from him.

Katarina nods. "Here at Southern yea. Igen is a different story." She laughs at the boy's reaction to her warning. But yes, he should finish that. "Ill see if Xenok will say hi to you sometime Nevach. He loves kids."

Nevelyn has never set foot in Igen Weyr and from the sound of it she’s rather glad about that. “I’ve grown fond of Southern since our arrival. And wrangling the children of the Weyr isn’t as difficult as I’d been led to believe it would be.” Her duties as Nanny allow her the freedom to raise her own son alongside the rest of the weyrbrats. And that situation makes her happy. Nevach looks up from his plate of food and blinks at Kat. “You really mean it?!” He looks over at his mother, “Can I Ma?” Nevelyn smiles at her young son and shrugs her shoulders, “Perhaps one day Nevach. If you’re well behaved.”

Katarina smiles. "I'd be more than happy. But you've got to mind your mama." Kat smiles warmly at Nevelyn, happy to help. Kat points at the boys’ plate as a reminder to him. "You better eat that before I do." She grins a mock evil grin at the boy. "I'm quite fond of Southern myself."

The beaming grin on Nevach’s face is the reason for Nevelyn’s chuckle. When Kat reminds him to finish his food he bobs his head and obediently digs into his food. “I’ve got to keep a ‘rider in my pocket somehow. You folks are the only thing what keeps him in line some days.” She gazes at her son wryly, knowing full well it would have been a struggle to convince him to finish his plate if it had been left to her. “A lot of folks have been sore at the edges cause of the rain. But he and I haven’t minded a bit.” Water and being drenched in it is a fact of life on a ship after all.

Katarina shrugs. "Wet…dry, it’s all the same to me. I have to be out in it anyways, no use complaining. Xenokkarath has enjoyed it though, he loves rain." Kat follows her own advice and digs heartily into her plate, after all, she's worked up quite the appetite. She swallows some klah and looks over. "I hope I can have children someday… they are a joy, frustrating though they may be."

Nevelyn has never minded the water at all. And her son is something of a shipfish when it comes to being wet. Kid thrives in it. “I suppose that’s true,” she nods her head in agreement. No sense complaining when one has little to no choice. When the ‘rider digs into her food, Neve scoops a couple mouthfuls up off her own plate. Taking the opportunity to fill her belly at least some. Kat’s comment about kids catches her off guard and she sips her klah to clear her palette. “I’m sure if you want children, then you will one day.” Because ‘riders can have kids after all. At least she assumes they don’t lose that ability.

Katarina laughs. "I hope so. Pregnancies are frowned upon for female riders during threadfall." She drinks more klah.

Nevelyn had begun to think the weyrbrats had all been adopted or something. But no, surely not. At least a few of them belong to the ‘riders they claim she’s sure. “Oh,” she murmurs when Katarina reveals the rather sad facts of life in the Weyr. “Well that’s surprising. But I suppose if it’s how things are done..” Then who is she to argue with tradition. But she trails off and keeps the last bit to herself. Probably because she doesn’t quite agree with such a thing. She couldn’t imagine life without Nevach. And glances at the boy happily munching his food in the chair beside her.

"Riders need to be riding thread, not saddled with babes. There are plenty of willing women who are working to populate the lower caverns by themselves without any help from female riders." Renalde's smooth voice cuts into the conversation as his purposeful footfalls bring him closer to the pair. Katarina and Nevelyn both get a nod from the tall headman, who folds his arms behind his back as he stops.

Katarina scowls,before she can answer Nevelyn's words, Renalde is butting his way in. "Is that really your opinion headman?" Katarina asks. "Say you were romantically entwined with a rider, and you found out she was with child, and then her wingleader forced her between and into losing the child, you'd be ok with that?" Her voice is hostile, full of acid.

Nevelyn nearly chokes on the bite of food she’s chewing when Renalde’s voice surprises her. Not only with the suddenness of his appearance, but with the words themselves. So what? Because she’s clearly a mother she’s now supposed to breed for the Weyr because ‘riders aren’t allowed to? Oh that doesn’t sit well in her stomach and she takes a sip of klah to mask her frown. “And what of the women who are happy with the children they already have? Or those who simply don’t want them?” She adds her questions to those Kat puts forth. Are women made to breed in his place? When she’d found herself homeless on the docks, this wasn’t exactly what she’d expected of a new home. How odd!

"If females are to put themselves in a position where they must defend this world, they must be willing to make sacrifices for the chance. Pregnant riders are a drain on weyr resources which can ill afford to have any individuals in our employ who are not earning their keep." Renalde does not at all back down from his position, his eyes fixed on Katarina without a single moment of wavering. His back is rail straight. The nanny is not even glanced at as he answers her inquiry, "Did I not say willing women?"

Katarina scowls. "You nowtimers have it so backwards. Pregnant riders can still earn their keep. There is always work to be done in a weyr, and there is some light enough for a pregnant woman to do. And I think you forget that being a rider is only half choice, the dragon picks you, not the other way around."

Nevelyn has lost her appetite and pushes her plate back after setting her fork down atop it. “Mama why’s the mean man mad?” Nevach has abandoned his food and scooted as close to Neve as he can manage while staying in his own chair. Apparently if he gets in trouble for not finishing his tuber so be it, he wants to be as far from Renalde as possible. “Don’t you let it worry you baby.” She pulls the seven turn old off his chair and into her lap. She makes an attempt to keep the scowl from showing, yet it still creeps into her features when she looks up at Renalde. “No, I suppose that you didn’t at that Headman. Forgive the question.” She isn’t of a mood to stir up trouble even though clearly she agrees with Katarina.

"Perhaps. Time will tell what is truth and what is error." Renalde's gaze flickers down to the boy for just a moment, then in a move that for many would be utterly out of character kneels down to look the boy in the eye. When he speaks, it is as if to another adult, though his tone is pitched in that particular way which adults speak to children. "Are you helping your mother with the youngest of kids?"

Nevach is safe and sound in Nevelyn’s lap. That safe place the lucky kids get to have that he now sometimes has to share. Still though he is secure in his mama’s arms when Renalde kneels down in front of him. And the boy blinks his chocolate eyes and gazes into the Headman’s for a moment. “Yes sir I do. Mama has me keep an’ eye on um so’s they don’t wander off.” Nevelyn rubs her son’s arm and smiles at him with love. “He’s a wonderful help most of the time.” Though in truth the child spends most of his time playing with the other children. Still he /is/ in fact keeping eyes on them while doing so. She sighs softly and manages to slip off her chair away from Renalde. Hefting her son onto her hip with practiced ease as she stands to her feet. “Speaking of the other children. We should be getting back.” She smiles at Katarina, “It really was a pleasure dear. You should look us up some time when you’re free.” To Renalde goes a nod, “Sir.” And then they’re off toward the nursery and playroom.

The boy earns a rare real smile form Renalde, his blue eyes managing to not look so icy for just a moment before he puts a hand on the chair to help lever himself up. The action is less smooth then it was many a year ago, perhaps Renalde is not as young as he once was. Katarina gets another nod as Renalde makes to take himself away.

Katarina nods at Renalde and takes off herself, to go bath Xenok and think on things.

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