| Who | Lendai, Th'seus |
|---|---|
| What | Th'seus wants to help Lendai build her platform. Shockingly she turns him down. |
| When | There is 1 turn 3 months and 21 days until the 12th pass |
| Where | Hatching Sands, Southern Weyr |
Hatching Sands
The Sands are surprisingly soft to the feet and to the eyes: rich grains of gold commingle with the ground basalt-black that mark the shores of Azov's Sea. The whorls of lighter color pattern into the sands, larger-grained and often settling at the top, as golden driftwood against dark shores. … but the moaning from above sounds like the chorus of the damned, lessening the natural beauty here below.
BANG. BANG. BANG. The sound of hammer hitting nail — okay, that's a lie. It's the sound of the hammer hitting wood completely missing the nail. "Sharding stupid piece of fucking junk, I will destroy you!" BANG. BANG. BANG. Good Faranth, Lendai sucks at this. Both hands have the normal sized hammer in her grasp as she's obviously trying to kill the piece of wood hanging haphazardly off of the… erm… platform. It's rather late at night, most of the Weyr has headed to bed while those that haven't are probably at the Tavern, getting drunk. Someplace Lendai would really like to be, except she's here, sweating her nonexistent balls off on the hatching grounds sands and trying to make something. The platform looks dangerous at best, a deathtrap at worst, but there are parts that are generally off of the ground. There are big gaps in the 'floor' of the platform, meaning you take the wrong step up there, you fall onto the sands. Right now, the woman is attempting to make stairs. It is going poorly. Unkempt, her clothes disheveled, her hair a mess, and sweat pouring off of her… Lendai probably smells pretty bad.
It won't be long before Th'seus has to share these sands with Hannah and their dragons as a bunch of eggs harden out here. It'll be an exciting time. Sort of. If you count hours of staring at giant oval things enthralling. Whatever you think of it, he does have an interest in what the fuck that thing is being built out there. So around the time that the banging begins again, the bronzerider swings by the tavern to pick up a pitcher of cheap beer and borrow a pair of glasses. They're mostly clean. Maybe he suspects the 'mystery' person there is going to need a drink. Or a bribe. "So…" He begins awkwardly, arriving on the sands rather quietly during Lendai's ragefest at the hanging piece of wood. "Would you like to take a break and I could perhaps, remove that for you or?" He can also stand around and drink beer and watch her, but strangely enough not his first choice at the moment.
Lendai is not an observant person. Though she is an easily startled person. So the moment the word 'So' leaves Th'seus's mouth she's screaming, turning around, and throwing the hammer in the direction of the voice. Another thing Lendai isn't? A good shot. So luckily while there is a hammer thrown at poor Th'seus, it misses him by couple feet. With her heart trying to beat out of her chest, the Senior Weyrwoman can only stare at the bronzerider for a minute or two. She suddenly frowns at him. Hard. "Don't you know better than to sneak up on someone like that? I could've bashed your pretty face in with a hammer! Hannah would've killed me!" She blurts out, arms up in the air as she wildly gestures all over the place. She finally drops her arms, resumes a normal breathing level, and then flounces over towards the man but stops short where the hammer rests. Leaning over, she scoops it up and finishes the remaining distance between her and him. "You brought a drink? It better be sharding cold as ice. I could drench myself in it about now." Lendai's eyes are just STARING at the pitcher, sad mewling sounds might also be leaving her lips. Can haz drink plz?
Th'seus is a big strong guy, don't be mistaken. But a woman screaming and flinging A HAMMER at him does something to a person's constitution. He jerks back, almost loses the beer and two glasses and ends up bowed at the shoulders as he catches his breath. With his nerves more or less regained after a moment of quiet, he straightens up and directs a crooked, rueful (you almost hit me in the face with a hammer) smile at the Weyrwoman. "I'll know better for next time. I do like my face arranged the way it currently is." He steps towards her platform, inclining his head towards it as if asking permission. Not that he gives her a lot of time if she wants to think about it. The glasses are put on the most level part that he can find and he pours her a tall glass. "It should be cold. Then again, I walked it here from the tavern, so." He can't make any life or death promises, just saying. Stepping forward, he hands the drink off to her with an easier turn of a smile. Even as he's kneeling down to snatch that hammer out of the sands.
Lendai gratefully takes the drink in her free hand, the other still brandishing the hammer. She chugs most of the beer with nary a word to the man who supplied it. It's cold enough to parch her throat, though once the remainder is finished, does she withdraw the glass and make a face. "Tastes like runner pee." Eww. Cheap beer for a high maintenance woman. Alas. "My thanks, bronzerider, I was in desperate need of something to drink." Now that all that excitement is over, no more hammers being thrown at people's faces and what not, Lendai can take a few well earned seconds to take full stock of Th'seus. A leisurely stroll of the eyes up and down the length of the big man. Her expression turns tight suddenly, the glass is handed back over, shoved really back into the bronzerider's person. Just in time for Lendai to stand at her full five feet, three inches and putting herself right into Th'seus's face. The hammer is raised, waved to the side of the poor man's head as the words leave the goldrider's mouth. "What are you intentions towards my Hannah?" She likes to just get right to the point.
"Yeah, well. That's what the tavern stocks. Runner piss beer or ovine shit infused whiskey." Th'seus does look sympathetic for exposing her to it. Given that she appears to have a more greatly refined sense of taste than him. It's a good thing he didn't have anything else in his hands when she shoves the glass at him. Which he takes and gently puts down onto the quasi-platform, eyebrows raised questioningly at her. And then at the hammer being waved at the side of his head. Calmly (and with a deep breath taken just in case) he lifts a hand up and grabs the head of the tool, pushing it a safe distance from his face. What she actually asks draws a brief look of confusion from him. It's hard to tell if it's because she's asking that or because she's asking at all. It's a mystery. That puzzlement is what likely leads to a slow and cautiously given answer. "My intentions are to see her through the clutching, waiting for the eggs to harden and help her whenever she needs me." He glances past the goldrider to her platform. "More importantly, right now, I have intentions towards you."
"Your intentions suck!" Just so he knows. Lendai huffs, jerking back the hammer and bringing it towards her own person. A glare at the bronzerider a moment, for daring to lay a hand on what is now and forever will be her hammer. Sucks for the smith she totally stole it from. Might need to burn his name off the handle of it. 'Aaron' or some such. "But at least that sounds better than half of what you knuckle-dragging Nowtimer males seem to say." This bit is grumbled out as Lendai turns semi-towards her work of art. Surely, this this was Earth and not Pern, someone somewhere would comment on the abstract expressionionism of this piece. The way parts of the platform jut into the sky at bizarre angles with no real purpose seem to tell of the angst the artist must have been feeling at the time. Or the fact her dragon was helping and them abandoned her mid-way through the project. Eyebrows raise expectantly now, Lendai putting hammer and fist on her hips and leaning towards Th'seus. "Oh. Oh do you now?" The goldrider is all a twitter for a moment, the two of them obviously with different definitions of 'intentions'. She leans more, lifting the hand without the hammer and reaching up, up, up to pat Th'seus on the cheek. "Sorry, sweet cheeks. I can't. I made a promise. But feel free to say my name the next time your in the throes of ecstasy. It'll help with the disappointment." Lendai would know!
They… do? Th'seus would probably look concerned if that confusion wasn't just growing further along by the minute. Those deep breaths have been meant to steady his nerves the last while, but this last one is done in a show of restraint. Because being called a knuckle-dragger by someone you barely know is bound to churn up some awesome insults. Biting down on his lower lip, he pours beer into the other glass and takes a long drink from it instead of opening his mouth. "…You made a promise?" Dark eyebrows draw together to narrowly regard her. "I think you misunderstood what I meant by intentions. And I think that I'm not quite clear on to whom or why you're making promises about sleeping with me. But, uh." He lifts a hand because that's apparently not as important as why he's actually down here. "Look, I thought I would be diplomatic about this. Since, you know." She's the Weyrwoman and while dragonriders aren't exactly disposable around here these days, he's not one to usually put his ass on the line with his mouth anyway. "You're working your ass off out here and I think you could use some help. It's a lot to do alone, I know that I wouldn't want to do it alone. I want to do it for Hannah, we can say that I was never down here lending you a hand. I know that you don't want the help. But…" He shakes his head, perhaps expecting this is futile as he lifts his hands up. He couldn't not come out here.
"Hey! Hey! Who said anything about a promise to not sleep with you?" Oh that's right, Lendai did. Though she's not against backpeddling and pretending those words never left her mouth. "I made a promise… about… something else… completely." Needless to say, she sounds less than convincing. A sigh leaves her and she wrinkles her nose. "Yeah, your intentions do suck." Cue another sigh, this one much more dramatic. "Listen, I appreciate the offer, I do. But this is just as much for Hannah and Bailey as it is for me. And I'm not completely alone in my endeavors. Talicanitath is helping too." Just ignore the giant lack of the gold dragon. "She holds the boards up so I can hammer them in and is able to lift the heavier ones. And just look at what we've got done so far!" Oh sweet Faranth it's such a catastrophe it's not even funny. Just sad. So very, very sad. Though to Lendai, it looks majestic since her own two hands did it. So majestic in fact, the Weyrwoman walks closer to her creation, crosses her arms across her chest, and leans on her creation. The weight of the woman, however slight, causes the entire structure to shift. Now leaning the other way… but still standing!
"So you didn't make a promise not to sleep with me? So if you wanted to get naked with me on the benches of the gallery right now and I wanted to also, you wouldn't be forced not to by some deal you made with someone?" She's getting the narrow eyes now for sure, along with drawn 'brows. As if this look alone could squeeze the answer out of Lendai as she backpeddles and pretends it never happened. But there are other things to speak about and the platform is leaning in one direction with her weight. The bronzerider catches his breath as he inevitably envisions the three of them falling through the structure when it collapses on them and impales them with nails and broken pieces off wood. On that note, "And what you've done is really impressive. What about if I just did the really shitty jobs? Like… crawled underneath and put in some supports?" Because while his intentions may suck (MAY suck, not DO suck), it's possible that it's becoming clear he's a stubborn ass and he'll keep showing up here. Asking to help. Bringing crappy beer. Talking.
"No! I mean, yes! Wait. No. Yes. No! …yes? Wait, what?" Lendai is confused. There was too many 'not's and 'you's in Th'seus's question that it has the Weyrwoman pausing as she tries to fit the pieces together. But it's late, she's tired, sweaty, and probably smells like a man who hasn't bathed in days. So her face conforms to the bronzerider's, her own brows crinkling as she narrows her gaze and glares at the bronzerider that is confusing her. "I wouldn't sleep with you because I don't want to! Not because I totally promised someone I wouldn't if she promised not to sleep with Q—" And right there Lendai shuts her mouth, her face going pale as she almost spilled the beans. "Out!" She's pointing to the exist now, jabbing her finger quite enthusiastically. "These aren't your sands yet! They are still mine! So out! Off my sands! And no, you can't help! Stay away! Everyone can stay away!" She's shouting now, red in the face and still sweating like a pig. Whether her directions are listened to or not is anyone's guess, as Lendai turns and stomps away, to the other side of the sands. Probably to cry or something. Way to GO, Th'seus.
It's some sort of a showdown until Lendai almost admits the truth of something. He doesn't even know what, really. But there's enough information there that he can probably make some sort of guess, how good of one is for discussion still. Th'seus' eyebrow shoots up and then she's switched to ordering him off the sands before he can even really processed. Frustrated himself now, he throws his hands up in the air. Whatever retort or response he may have had is stifled when she stomps off to the other side of the sands. He stares after her, like he might want to try and fix the problem. But instead decides to cut his losses for the day and make a hasty retreat. Notably, he doesn't take away the beer or glasses that he brought to her to begin with.
I can't stop laughing. I can't stop laughing. I can't stop laughing at Lendai building that death trap… this scene delivered.
Poor Th'seus.