Seeking Interest and Answers

[Slim]

Emeni suppressed a smile. Holders. So easily impressed. "They've got good stuff," she agreed, leaning back with her sandwich. "Running a bit low now they're stuck here, but what can you expect?" She shrugged. In truth, though, she'd had enough of talking about the Caminar over dinner with her parents the other night. Besides, it was a different subject that had drawn her to Emeni's company in the first place. Trying to angle the conversation back that way, she said with an affected distraction in her voice, "Too bad G'tet's not here to spend his own marks, huh? Or maybe not, if you've got hold of his marks." She smiled wickedly.

[Invisible]

Genet, who was easily impressed, would not have been offended at the remark. She was a holder after all and there was nothing wrong with that. Unless forced to live like that forever. There also was no getting tired of speaking about the Caminar. Especially since some of them were good looking men. “Some are just good to look at,” she pointed out with a cheerful smile. “Even if their stuff is no good.”

But she would rather talk about her brother as well so was easily steered. “Well, he still has marks owed him from the hatching. Not all his friends were just going to hand them over to me to hold onto. So, the sooner he is back the sooner I get that new dress I was promised!” Not that she was completely out of marks to spend, but she saw no reason in waving that fact around to someone she barely knew.

“I won’t spend them all anyway. That would be rude.” Genet, who can often be rude, would never do it intentionally. Well, to her brother she would never do it, but he was in a class of his own. “Traders are more willing to talk to you if they think they’ll make a mark or two.” And she rather liked talking to the Caminar. They were different after all. Besides, she still wasn’t sure she might not find a missing kid or two hiding somewhere. Best to be alert. “G’tet won’t care. He’ll figure he deserves it since he missed the hatching.”

[Slim]

"Yeah, who would've thought they'd be gone so long?" Emeni asked. The meat had started to slip out of her sandwich, and she poked it back in, careless of the rude table manners. "Must be something real important they're working on. Oh, well." She shrugged. "Not like we're ever gonna know, right? Least you get something out of it. More time to pick out a new dress - I mean, that's an important decision." That grin stretched across her face again, conspiratorial thing, before she drowned it out with another bite of fingerroots. Thinking of Genet's comment about the eye candy factor of certain Caminar, she raised her brow significantly. "Requires a lot of looking at the Caminar's... wares." That last word comes out just in time to fix the meaning of the sentence squarely back in commercial territory.

[Invisible]

By now Genet was down to a single piece of bread and cheese with some leftover dried fruit on her plate as well. “It’s ridiculous is what it is,” she said about the length of time. “I mean, two months. And they can’t even send a note?” In the time she’d been looking for her brother she had quickly learned to keep her opinion of the weyrleader to herself. She wouldn’t risk getting in trouble by one of his little sycophants overhearing what she might really think.

“Hey!” It may have come out just in time, but Genet wasn’t buying it. “I just like to look. I wouldn’t…” Words trailed off as tried to keep herself from blushing. She was in a Weyr now and she wasn’t supposed to be so worried about such things supposedly. Not that it changed the fact she was. Genet was still a good holder girl at least in her mind. Taking a bite of her snack to buy time to compose herself she finally said, “At least they don’t try anything unlike the men here.”

[Slim]

Emeni spent a few moments considering what remained of her sandwich. She could finish it off in a few tiny bites, or she could try shoving the whole thing in her mouth and see if it fit. She went with the latter, which left her with quite a bit to do while Genet blushed and mulled over the attractiveness of the Caminar. The sight of her face, puffed out with food and struggling to chew it all, must have been a ridiculous counterpoint to the rest of the discussion.

"Uhm," she said at last, when she was almost finished chewing. She reached for her water and gulped down several mouthfuls, breathing a sigh when her mouth was at last clear. She did not, for all the work it had taken to finish the sandwich that way, feel the slightest bit embarassed about it. "Well, if they're not supposed to say what they're doing - and they weren't, or we'd know - then I guess it'd be pretty hard to send a note. Except one that says 'I'm okay, don't ask questions,' right? But I can't even think what J'fel wanted them to do that would take two whole months, so. Yeah. Weird." She frowned for a moment, then remembered Genet had also said something about men at the Weyr.

"Oh, and, the men here'll leave you alone more once they get to know you," she assured the other woman. "They're horny bastards, so when they see some strange chick wandering around, 'course the first thing they think of is 'can I hit it.' But when it's somebody everybody knows -" she waved a hand across the table, "like, Genet-who's-been-here-for-months, they get a little more careful. 'Cause they know by reputation, first off, you're not that easy, and second, they don't want to piss with somebody who's got friends around here. A laundry girl in the wrong mood can make a guy's underpants pretty uncomfortable, yaknow."

[Invisible]

The process of Emeni eating got plenty of Genet’s attention. It was, she thought, rather like watching one of her younger nephews try to finish his plate before his brother might steal something. “Yea, well, what would a note saying he was fine give away? Nothing. It would be polite even.” It was annoying was what it was and Genet was no end of annoyed over the whole mess. Again it was hard to not say something about J’fel although it was impossible to hide the way her nose scrunched up some at the mention of the boy weyrleader. Partly because her nose was certainly long enough to get some attention on its own.

“I’m not really worried about it. The men I mean. I’m hardly pretty enough to have to be beating them off with sticks and all. It’s just not the same at home.” Entirely different, but that sort of goes without saying so Genet doesn’t bother saying it. “I hate working in the laundry,” she mentions off subject mostly. “I mean, it’s ok because I don’t have to do it all the time, but I think I’d kill myself if I had to spend the rest of my life washing someone else’s shirts.”

[Slim]

Emeni herself grimaced at the thought of doing laundry for a living - even as a temporary chore, she hated it. Leave that to the Mashas of the world, she thought. "I think the only girls who actually like doing laundry are the ones who do it for the gossip. So not worth it. Give me tubers any day of the week."

But as for those missing riders. "Well, a message could give away where they are, right? You're on some kind of secret mission, you can't go grabbing some random runner dudes: they might turn out to have big mouths. You're right, though, it is kinda weird, 'cause you know what? If they're not sending messages, then J'fel doesn't know how they're doing either, and you don't see him getting nervous, do you? Doesn't break a sweat." The former Weyrleader's daughter is less cautious than Genet about voicing her misgivings about the new one, although if she were wise (and considerate of S'lyn's reputation), it would probably go the other way around.

"So here's the thing. Either he planned for them to be gone this long, and everything's going according to plan. Or. He has no idea what's keeping them, and is the world's biggest jerk."

[Invisible]

“It’s true and there’s not even new gossip every day so it gets horribly dull after awhile.” Genet was not above listening to a little gossip, but it had to be fresh and new or it was as boring as a lecture on how to whiten linens. “I sort of like just doing whatever. I mean, until my brother’s back. Once he’s here I’ll be able to sort out what I should really be doing. Until then I may as well just lend a hand wherever.”

At the other woman’s words about the weyrleader Genet couldn’t help but smile a bit. “Oh, he’s probably in the dark,” she said with a shrug. “But he’s too busy laying the ground to sleep with the new weyrwoman when he can to worry. At least that’s what some are saying. If it’s not her it’s that new harper here or someone else. Always someone.” Her nose wrinkled up again and she shook her head before finishing off her snack.

“But, I shouldn’t speak that way. He’s the weyrleader and can do whatever he wants.” Genet considers these words and then adds to them, “Including sending me back to my hold where some gross old man is waiting to marry me. That’s too gross a future to consider so I am doing my best to not let it happen.” She could agree with the world’s biggest jerk estimation, but is just content to let it be out there. Although even Genet is smart enough to realize the former weyrleader’s daughter is probably not unbiased in her opinions about the current one.

[Slim]

"Oh, he'll boink anything that moves," Emeni replied off-handedly, quirking a lop-sided smile. "Girls, boys, donuts. All of which is fine for a bronzerider, but you'd think as Weyrleader he'd want to be a little less of a joke. I guess it's okay with me if he doesn't." Emeni had never been on the best of terms with her father - too many arguments about her behavior - but in the public forum, family loyalty had been impressed onto her from an early age.

She reached across the table, planting her elbow on it with her hand open as though inviting Genet to an arm-wrestling competition. It was a handshake she was after, though, the agreement it signified about to be defined. "Hey, look. If you don't want to go back home, and you get in trouble or something, tell me about it. I don't know about your parents or nothing, but I'll bet I could get somebody to take you to another Weyr, or a hold or something if you want. Just, y'know, to keep the gross old men off ya." She grinned.

[Invisible]

“Really? You would do that? Thank you so much!” Genet was much pleased with the offer and a smile lit up her face. She was much too naïve in the ways of the world to think owing someone such a favor might not be wise. How much trouble could it cause anyway? It’s not like she was going to get sent somewhere else. Reaching across the table she shook hands on it. “If you ever need something just let me know!” Open-ended promise never lead to trouble!

As for the Weyrleader, well, Genet thought him not even worth the trouble to continue speaking of his ways. Other than to add, “Donuts?” and giggle like she was half her age. “I can just see it.” Frowning a moment she then lowered her eyelids and gazed with longing at Emeni. “Why, hello there you darling of a cake you. I saw you amongst all the others and…Well, I really think we should speak. Alone. In my weyr where I might make you more comfortable.” The seductive tone of her voice was thoroughly ruined by the laugh straining to escape and she finally let it go, giggling like a kid.

[Omnia Munda]

J'fel would have wished to hear the part about being the world's biggest jerk: he would have added the title to the internalized list of accomplishments of which he was occasionally proud. Being the most and best of something, of course; but inspiring flapping tongue on behalf of his predecessor's difficult daughter might have ranked just as high - however easily it was done.

But the young weyrleader's attention as he came into the cavern was consumed in conversation with one of his wingmates. This was one of the men who had been S'lyn's, a brownrider; he was talking, mostly, and J'fel was mostly listening. He had a manner of listening with a tilt of his head and a slight opening of pretty mouth that made him seem attentive without troubling him to rein in the activity of his eyes, and the taller man was making full advantage of that attention to plead his case to the weyrleader. Whatever his case was.

The pair went on talking from opposite sides of a serving table, each dishing plates as they walked. When S'bron was looking up, J'fel offered eye contact; when he looked down to tend his food, J'fel looked past him into the cavern, making mark of who was where and with whom. Maybe he was just marking targets, for when he caught sight of Genet and heard something to the tune of 'marry a gross old man,' he grinned. S'bron took it as approval.

"I know you're right," he said to S'bron, drawing a sigh on the end of the words. He poured wine for himself and offered the same to his wingrider, turning the weariness into a smile. "And I'll tell her about it. Right now, if you'll excuse me?" The smile turned to a grin, and while the brownrider was still blinking at the sudden biddable compliance his weyrleader was displaying, J'fel threw a light punch across the wine into the other man's shoulder. "Don't stand there gaping. I promised I'd listen. Look, there's Genet. Keep her company for me."

There was a moment of both men looking the same direction while the smaller of them sent a point over the taller one's shoulder to pick the girl out. S'bron, nonplussed, shrugged - but J'fel took that as agreement and, looking perfectly satisfied with his sly self, headed back into the tunnels.

Whatever he'd suggested, asked or demanded of his weyrleader, it was apparently important enough that S'bron was willing to pay the favor back. He strode toward Genet and Emeni, offering a solemn nod to the latter and trying not to look like he'd overheard the former's mimicry. "Genet, aren't you?" It was harder to look serious and pleasant and like one wanted only to introduce oneself and sit down with one's food when the person who was one's hook into the conversation had just been playing at being Rhett Butler to a pastry. "S'bron," he explained with a gesture of his wine to his chest, and then, with a bit of a hopeful look at the surface of their table and a helpless look at his burdened hands, "Mind if I sit?"

[Slim]

S'bron's dignified approach, and his efforts not to respond to Genet's seduction act, was made all the more difficult by Emeni's howls of laughter. She hadn't noticed J'fel passing through the room, or she might have been laughing louder, obnoxious thing that she was. "S'bron!" she managed to exclaim between howls. Swallowing them down with an effort, she placed one hand over her chest and waved him to a seat with the other. She'd never been familiar with her father's men, but she knew them at least.

"F'ranth, Genet, that was pretty good for a hold girl. There's not a donut in the world that could resist you."

[Invisible]

If Genet had spied the weyrleader she would have not dared to make her joke. The risk of getting caught, getting in trouble, was always there over her head like a pile of rocks waiting to fall. But, she had not seen him so she had felt free to imitate him and mock him to the girl who seemed like she would enjoy it. It was not that Emeni was the former weyrleader’s daughter or the daughter of her brother’s wingleader that drew her to want to impress the other woman. No, the fact she seemed not ready to jump the weyrleader was enough to make Genet want to befriend her.

Her laughter ended with the arrival of someone else. Genet craned her head around to be sure no one else was near. If someone had heard she could be in serious trouble. With no ties to the Weyr she knew she’d be the one punished. Or worse given extra duties because someone told the Headwoman she had too much free time. She already was usually in trouble with the Headwoman over something dumb. It did not help that S’bron knew her name. She blinked at him and then looked at Emeni before looking back at the rider. “Umm. Yea, I’m Genet. But I don’t know you.” How much she sounded like her brother’s dragon in that instance all confusion and desperately trying to recall ever meeting a S’bron.

“Oh, umm. Yea. You can sit I guess. It’s Emeni’s table so if she doesn’t mind.” Not that the woman seemed to mind, but Genet didn’t want to invite him if she did. Emeni’s comment needed a reply so Genet looked at her and grinned before tilting her chin up a bit and trying to look less like any old holder. “Well, it’s not like I don’t have brothers. I heard em using all kinds of lines on girls when they thought no one was looking.” Girls who were not as good as Genet and allowed her brothers to do who knows what after Genet had fled.

[Omnia Munda]

"My apologies," said S'bron to Genet, expression still nonplussed. The weyrleader wanted him to keep this giggling, easily-perplexed girl company? Just another weyrbrat, he thought, and then suppressed the thought on second consideration: he didn't dare underestimate her if she were keeping company with Emeni.

Emeni, who'd been given the ownership of the table. Nevertheless, S'bron took up a post behind a chair, a smile curved on his lips, patient and pleasant. "If I'm interrupting," he noted, not bothering to go on with the predictable offer to stop interrupting. He'd almost be relieved if they took him up on it. J'fel couldn't possibly want for the gossip of girls, S'bron was sure.

[Slim]

Alas for S'bron, Emeni was in a good - and social - mood after that little stint of Genet's. "You're not," she assured the brownrider with a big grin. "I mean, we're talking over our lunches here. What could there possibly be to interrupt?" Well, jokes at the Weyrleader's expense, for one. That thought was the reason behind the glint of mischief in Emeni's eyes as she said the words.

"But, wait, catch me up on something. You two don't know each other?" She looked back and forth between the two, although Genet's puzzlement could not possibly have been more obvious. "So whatcha here for, S'bron? Don't tell me you're flirting." And that would probably be the reason Emeni never got close to many of the men her father had picked for his wing: she always had to needle anyone who reminded her of S'lyn, and stoic men like S'bron, all the more so.

For the Genet's sake, Emeni leaned towards her and added a footnote: "S'bron used to be in my Pop's wing."