Who | |
What |
Cha'el is considering a change in career and broaches it with Ksenia. |
When |
It is midmorning of the first day of the seventh month of the seventh turn of the 12th pass. |
Where |
Southern Weyr, Haven |
OOC Date | 28 Mar 2016 22:00 |
"Big change? Little change?"
Haven
Middle of the day usually sees the weyr as a ghost town for someone without immediate access to a lift whenever she wants, Ksenia usually does not return home until it's time to GO home. Today is no exception as the day winds from noon down towards evening. Ksenia returns home first, and into the blessed silence of a childless home (their children stay longer some days in the nursuries to give the parents a respite). Dinner ain't happening tonight, because she's about to flop herself into the chair and not move until it's time to raid the living caverns. The hearthfires burn low still as Ksenia pulls out a deliciously scary horror book to read. IN THE SILENCE. THAT COMES WITH NO CHILDREN. While she waits for Cha'el to return home.
Perhaps Cha'el is a mind reader though its likely more that he's aware of how hard Ksenia has been working to rebuild her little shop on the Boardwalk and seeks to give her a break. Thus, when he arrives, he does so with a basket already packed with what he'd sweet-talked out of the head cook in the kitchens. His inward trek is without fanfare and is quiet. Quieter than he'd intended though maybe she'll hear him any way. Setting the basket down on the table he angles over to where Ksenia is sprawled on the chair with her book and comes up behind her. "The winds howled and the sea raged, tossing the helpless ship upon foamy peaked waves…" he says with all due drama strung through is baritone and leans around the chair to place a kiss to her cheek.
Those days that Cha'el returns with dinner are the best ever. Seriously. So when his baritone filters behind her head and her nose takes a whiff of what he's brought, Ksenia smiles. "You want to read to me later, hmmm, baba?" Mischief lingers in tawny brown eyes, and while she's tired after a good, hard day of work - it's the good kind of tired. For the most part, the weyr's woes skip the woman besides the total destruction of the boardwalk. Just when business started to boom too. Tipping her head into that kiss, she grins, "Welcome home." Lately it's not a given for Ksenia to be home before he is - sometimes it's a crap shoot as to who returns first.
"Most welcome sight ever," Cha'el says catching and tucking a wisp of her hair behind an ear. "Quiet too." He loves his girls but given the hectic schedule he's been keeping lately, an hour or two's respite without their rambunctious children is indeed a rare treat to be enjoyed. Leaning briefly into that kiss, he breaks it after a moment to scan the page Ksenia has the book opened to. "So what are we reading?" While interest is genuine there's a certain sift of hesitance in his tone that suggests he has something on his mind as he rounds the chair, seeking to find a place next to his weyrmate.
"Nothing important. Something to pass the time with scary stories about murderers, pirates, and thieves," Ksenia laughs, easily. When he takes his seat next to her, she leans over and pats his knee, perhaps sensing he's got something on his mind. "What's going on, Cha'el?" She turns her eyes on the man, brow furrowing in thought but her expression doesn't change too much, so at least she's not jumping to some terrible conclusion. More and more as the children get older, Ksenia earns more and more of her freedom back, so these times of quiet are becoming the norm rather than exception. "You look like you've got something to say." Lips curve in an expectant smile, brows lifted. Today's flamboyance is held in the ember-fires of orange-red and lemon with fire-colored ribbons woven through her dark hair.
Cha'el's smile isn't quite as full as it could be given the Weyr's very real problems in the past few turns with just the nefarious types that she mentions from her book. Sprawled next to her with his head back and eyes closed for a moment, he does make an effort to meet her light-hearted spirits. "Maybe I should get out my sword." The one they'd found all that time ago before their daughters were born. "And show you what a real pirate looks like." Turning his head toward Ksenia, an eye cracks open and a roguish expression casts into place. One can only imagine what's just gone through that mind of his. For a while, he doesn't respond to her intuitive notation and just sits there absorbing every line and detail of her face until he's riveted by her unusually coloured eyes. "Aye." Cha'el eventually confirms with a short smile. "I'm thinking maybe…its time for a change."
"Oh well." Ksenia laughs and presses her hands to her chest in mock shock, "If you're threatening me with your sword," maybe not the one he found all those turns ago, "show me what a real pirate looks like…" His roguish look is returned with the promise of some play to come later, long after dinner but maybe before they fetch the children. It's all fun and games until he mentions change, and Ksenia draws back with her eyes widening. Then narrowing. "What kind of change, baba?" Maybe it's entirely visible how her thoughts seem to triple in speed across her expression as she tries to discern what this 'change' could be. "Big change? Little change?"
There was of course, a devilish waggle of brows and had he been not about to broach a subject that will impact their lives to some extent, Cha'el would totally have brandished his 'sword'. Possibly even before dinner. Reaching for one of Ksenia's hands, he'll attempt to lace his fingers through hers, rough palm against her softer feminine one. A sort of anchor of reassurance both for her sake as well as his. "Big." He says watching her face carefully then hesitates and amends, "Sort of." Dropping his gaze to where his thumb grazes over the back of her hand, he steels himself and expands. "I'm thinking of stepping down from Weyrsecond." With just enough time to inhale another breath he pushes on. "The girls are growing like weeds. Some days I'm leaving before they're awake and getting in after they're asleep." Especially lately with shouldering the rank of Weyrsecond on his own. "One day I'm going to turn around and they'll be getting married and having babies of their own. And you…" Eyes the rich hue of the ocean lift and touch to tawny brown, "I should be able to help you rebuild. Taking you out dancing and…" Broad shoulders shift and he looks away. "Sikorth wants me to speak to T'zaim." Will she catch the reference?
Ksenia's eyes widen when he says big, her hand squeezing his. A lot of things are traipsing through her mind, but what doesn't occur to her is what he says. "Oh!" It is this sound - relieved, as if a balloon of tension has been stabbed and all of the sudden pressure has dissipated - that escapes first. She leans over, far more confident now than mere seconds before, and pats his hand. "I support you in whatever you need, baba, with your job." His rank is something never factored into her picture of him. Cha'el is Cha'el, whatever the knot she likes to fling off the edge of their ledge. "You can take me out dancing anytime…" Back is her impish face, though it fades into a blank stare. "Talk to T'zaim?" Cha'el, you give her way too much credit for paying attention to who's knot is on who's shoulder. "Why? Who is T'zaim?" Sorry, buddy. "But if you move us again, you get to pack." That's both warning and threat all rolled in one. Ie, she doesn't want to move. Which might have been on the "omg he's about to move us out of the weyr, out of southern, somewhere" panic list.
Oh? Maybe another man would have been relieved by that singular acceptance of what he's wanting to do but Ksenia isn't just any woman and has often metaphorically slapped Cha'el upside the head when he thinks he's free and clear. As such, he eyes her carefully until she begins to back it up. Then, relief shreds itself across his expression and he even manages a lopsided smile. "Just a fancypants dragonrider, huh?" Lets face it, its because his rank has never really meant anything to her that means the most for it allows him the reprieve of being just a man when he's home with his family. Up pop dark brows when she queries the name mentioned. "T'zaim. The Weyrlingmaster?" He might have, should have explained more on that note but Ksenia has brought up the topic of moving. A grin finally appears. "Even if moving means a weyr with ground access?"
"Precisely," Ksenia gives his chest a fancy little slap, gleeful, as if he's finally getting it. "What's a Weyrlingmaster?" Ksenia should probably have paid attention to her reindeer games lessons, but in truth, everyone comes lumped into "Dragonrider stuff" and then the rest of the world. If there's a dragon involved, it's firmly within the nebulous bucket of "Dragonrider stuff" that she'll never get and so little effort is put into trying. Why try to understand something that will leave a woman wishing that her life were different? So instead, she tips her head to the side and narrows her eyes at Cha'el. "I like my home, Cha'el." Truth is hard bit into these words. "When I throw your shit over the edge, it takes a long time to fall to the bottom, and it forces us to not spend our days cloistered up." Listen, she's not a huge fan of moving, okay?
That slap to his chest draws a wicked quirk to Cha'el's expression that hints at what's to follow later. Bemusement replaces it and he's left staring at Ksenia for a few moments possibly only now realizing just how little she truly understands about his life as a dragonrider. "Uh…" Give him a moment to process this realization. She gets the cliff notes version: "A Weyrlingmaster is the person that along with his team of assistants helps to train and rear new hatchlings and their riders to full fighting readiness for the wings." Beat. "I'm going to apply to be an assistant weyrlingmaster." Of course, he forgets to mention that one of the upsides to this will be only sporadic participation in meeting Fall. A throaty chuckle lifts up next. "Uh huh. And when your daughters start throwing each other's shit over the edge because they saw Mommy do it?" Bringing their joined hands to his lips, a whiskery kiss is brushed over the back of Ksenia's. "I don't know if the position comes with the possibility of ground access and even if it does, there's nothing forcing us to move, aye?"
"Then their father will replace their shit," Ksenia's words are entirely too bright. This is the father's job. He tries to explain his life and his job and what he wants to do and it all glazes over like a lecture and so she gives him her smile-and-nod face. It's not disrespect, it is a patent inability to fully understand what it is he lives. And rather than continue to find herself questioning her own validity, she lets it roll over her like the ocean. "Just as long as you're happy," she murmurs when he brings her hands up for a kiss. And then there is a shark-eyed look to her eyes that's got other ideas on her mind. "Exactly." It's a good thing, too, that she doesn't want to move, since Assistant Weyrlingmasters don't get ground weyrs. Neither does the Weyrlingmaster. "I like my ledge…" And now it's time to show Cha'el just how much she likes that ledge of theirs. Where the howling wind can capture whatever sounds drift away without actually disturbing their neighbors. See? Advantages to height!
Its not often that Cha'el makes a firm stand but on this he does and does so with a snort, "Not bloody likely." She teaches their girls easy disposal of items, then she gets to figure out a way to replace them. That topic is left just there and maybe the Weyrlingmaster and his team aren't afforded the luxury of ground level weyrs but that doesn't mean to say that Cha'el wouldn't have moved heaven and earth to get his hands on one if Ksenia had wanted it. He of course, is a willing participant in this demonstration living at such lofty heights allows when it comes to the bleed off sound.