Worn in the Sole (Emeni)

[Invisible]

The weyrling trudged through the lower caverns wearing a scowl on his face. K’mar could have been more mad, but it would have been hard. In his hands he carried a pair of boots. On his feet he had an older pair of boots in better condition. The reason they were in better condition was because Volsteath had decided to chew the soles off the other pair. If he had been mad at anyone but his brown he would have been furious. Since it was Volsteath there was a measure of forgiveness to his anger.

He made his way into stores to find another pair. He liked to have a spare pair in case the other was too in need of cleaning to wear. Clean footwear was important. If people saw dirty or scuffed boots they might think a person didn’t pay attention to details. K’mar had never spent a lot of time in stores before. Truth be told his mother had taken care of most of the clothing needs he had before impressing. But he was a rider now, even if a weyrling one, and he had to appear able to do his own collecting. No asking his mother for help in this.

Hopefully he would be able to find someone that worked in here to point him in the right direction. He had just a vague idea of where to search for boots. Then there was the matter of the chewed up boots. Surely, K’mar thought, they could be fixed for someone else? Maybe? Not being a cobbler of any sort K’mar had no idea. Still carrying the boots dangling from their laces he began to head for where he thought he might find spare footwear.

[Slim]

Sometimes, a bit of bad luck will be balanced out by the good. After having his boots eaten, K'mar was in for a bit of good luck, surely! He didn't have to go far through the store rooms before someone who worked here made herself known, just not in a very professional way, since she did by shouting, "Ow! Shardit, my thumb!"

Backstepping into the main aisle and leaving behind the crates she'd been restacking, Emeni shook her hand to get rid of the pain and, when that failed, stuck her thumb right into her mouth and started sucking on it. She had just enough self-awareness to glance around and see if anybody had seen her doing that - whoops. There was K'mar. After blinking at him a bit, trying to pick the best response to being caught sucking her thumb in public, Emeni raised her free hand and gave him a little wave, slightly abashed.

[Invisible]

The person in pain caused K’mar to stop in his tracks and look around. He thought maybe he should retreat because it didn’t sound like whomever it was would be in the mood to help. Then again he might find someone else and if he just bypassed the in pain person all would be well. This did not work as Emeni appeared. He nearly smiled in amusement as she sucked her thumb, but something kept him from doing so. K’mar didn’t want her thinking he was laughing at her or anything. So, instead he kept his features smooth and free of any emotion. Always a better choice.

“Are you ok?” he asked with concern. “Do you need a healer?” He tried to see if there was blood gushing like maybe she’s smashed her finger off. That would be gross and he’d happily fetch a healer if it meant not having to see it.

[Slim]

Emeni popped the thumb out of her mouth, showing it to K'mar in all its glory. Beneath the nail it was turning a dark shade of red, but there was nothing too gross about it. At least, not by Emeni's standards. "Naw, that's all right. Might lose the nail over it, that's all. Can't believe I got so weak, though." This thought was more frustrating to her than the prospect of having a fingernail fall off, and she glared at the boxes she'd been moving as if to blame them for her flimsy muscles.

Then it occurred to her that she was, per her job description, sometimes here to help people, and she looked back at K'mar. "You here for somethin'?" she asked. Noticing what he carried, she pointed at it. "Boots?"

[Invisible]

K’mar tried to place Emeni knowing he recognized her from somewhere. She was someone he’d seen about the Weyr most definitely. As she spoke more it came to him. The former weyrleader’s daughter. He had not expected to see her here, but then he recalled how she had gone to work for the steward and it all made sense.

The weyrling nodded at her words about his boots and held them out. All there minus the soles where only raggedly leather now was. “Umm, yea. Volsteath kinda got a little carried away while I was doing chores.” He had finished them up and had some spare time. K’mar had thought to go to records and do some reading, but at Volsteath’s prompting he asked, “Maybe I can help you move those boxes after we find me new boots?”

[Slim]

Emeni took the boots from him, holding them up to squint at the ragged edges where the soles should be. She was no cobbler either, but she'd seen her fair share of shoes traded in for better pairs, and these were destined for the scrap pile. "Wow, yeah. He really did a number on them." Her fingers plucked at the laces, quickly unwinding them only to tie the two leather scraps (for that's what they were to her, now) together so she could sling them over her shoulder.

"Yeah, guess I need a little help," she admitted, grimacing. She shook her thumb again, and then decided that since K'mar had already seen her suck on it, it didn't much matter if he saw it again. So she stuck it in her mouth once more. "Thing's throbbing," she explained. "But c'mon. Let's go find you some new boots, this way." Grabbing the glow she'd left by the boxes she was moving, Emeni held it up high and set off through the stores.

Guided by her sure knowledge of the place, they reached the right place in a little under a minute. Wordlessly setting an example for what K'mar should do, Emeni placed her own boot on one of the loosely covered boxes and pushed the top of, revealing a whole bunch of boots, each paired tied together by the laces. "Just go through 'em till you find some you like, then try 'em on and see how they fit. Might take a while, but we've got lots of boots."

[Invisible]

K’mar was embarrassed over what Volsteath had done and let out a sigh as Emeni took the boots. “I don’t know what got into him,” he said by way of explanation. “I do hope this is not the start of some habit.” The thought of having to make continual trips to stores to get new boots was a daunting one.

Following Emeni he didn’t say anything because K’mar wasn’t sure what to say to a woman who was sucking her thumb. “What’re you moving anyway?” the weyrling asked as they reached the boxes of boots. He had this idea he’d be lugging the heaviest boxes in stores around after this all because of his big mouth.

But first new boots! He took a pair out of the box and examined them. “I hope it does not take too long,” he mumbled distractedly as he set down one pair and picked the other up. A gentle nudge from Volsteath made him look up hastily. “Oh! Not because of you, miss. I mean, it’s just- Well. I think I’ll try these.” He began to unlace his existing boot to try to put on one that was too small. Well, that’s what he gets for not paying attention.

[Slim]

Emeni was perfectly content to let K'mar take his time, since after all she had that thumb to tend to. Or at least, to wait until it stopped hurting ridiculously. "Uh, don't worry," she said, a little surprised by the sort-of apology he offered. The surprise faded quickly, and she popped a grin. "Don't let my thumb fool ya. I don't get hurt easy, feelings or otherwise."

When the boot he tried on proved not to fit, Emeni set her glow down on a nearby shelf and bent to reclaim the thing from him. "Take as long as you want. Gives us an excuse not to move those boxes right away - which are full of fabric, if you can believe it." She paused to make a spinning gesture with her hand, as if rolling something up. "Bolts and bolts of it. You wind 'em up real tight like that around the spool, let's just say it's a lot more heavy than you'd expect." She retied the boot K'mar had just tried on and set it down next to her, ready to be replaced with the others once he was done digging through them.

[Invisible]

Thankful he had not insulted her K’mar tried to think of what to say. He had to find another boot as the last he had tried was three sizes too big. “Aren’t they organized at all?” he asked before sneaking a peek at Emeni. “I mean no offense. I just thought that- Well, I would think there are some ways to not have giant boxes? It would make work less hard for the people who, well, work here.”

K’mar would never imagine that it was his helpful suggestions that so annoyed people. How could trying to be helpful be annoying? He looked at Emeni and said, “Fabric? Oh, bolts of fabric, yes. That would be quite heavy. Well, I am used to carrying heavy things these days. It should be easy for us to handle it.” Once he found boots of course. "You're Emeni, right? I'm K'mar. I've seen you around."

[Slim]

Emeni squinted at him, already nodding. "Yeah, I thought you looked familiar. I mean, it's pretty clear what you are," she reached out to tweak his knot, "but sometimes it takes me a bit to go oh, yeah, that's the guy I used to see around the caverns. Only now with a pair of wings." She grinned. "But you got it right, K'mar. I'm Emeni."

"Thing about the boots is, everybody needs 'em," Emeni said, taking the next failed pair of boots and tying them up in the same way as the first. "And they need 'em often. So you can get this section about as organized as you like, but a sevenday down the road, you've got a mess again from people trying 'em on all haphazard. No offense." Firing his phrase back at him, Emeni winked at the weyrling. "Believe me, it's more organized than just leaving the boots out in piles, because you can't move that. At all." She flopped her arms out in an imitation of the sprawling mess the boots would become without boxes.

She paused while a wicked grin grew on her face. Dropping her tone conspiratorially, she leaned a touch closer and confessed, "I actually used it once to break in a new guy - you know, just give rib him a bit. He was going crazy trying to keep all the shoes organized like I told him." No mercy for new guys. Emeni snickered to herself as she leaned back out of K'mar's space.

[Invisible]

“You came into records running errands. I remember,” K’mar offered with what passed for him as a friendly smile. He found he was still uncomfortable around those who had known him before he impressed. It was his old life and K’mar sometimes wished no one would remember him then now. He was not Konamar anymore and as best he could he wanted to put that part of himself behind in the past and just find the future. Still he did remember Emeni as well and knew she was S’lyn’s daughter so it would not be good to get upset with her.

As he tried on a new pair of boots he let out a sigh. It seemed like a hopeless quest. He wondered if his mother had been through this all before and if maybe he shouldn’t have asked for tips. K’mar listened to the steward’s assistant and nodded his head. “I guess that makes sense. People can be awfully messy and inconsiderate.” Not him who carefully made sure any boots he tried were loosely tied together and set down in a neat row to define which he had already tried. Fussy it had always been called before.

Emeni’s confession made K’mar uncomfortable and not just because she leaned closer to share it. To the man who had often been the butt of just the sorts of pranks she seemed to delight in he wasn’t sure at all what to say. He tried to smile and couldn’t do it so he ducked his head to lace up a new boot. On the wrong foot. “I guess that would teach him, yes,” he managed to mumble. His tone was not disapproving, but it held a certain misery to it. Yes, he knew pranks well.

[Slim]

Emeni noticed K'mar's sudden discomfort, her eyebrows raising as her snickers faded to a close. Not because she'd stopped laughing for his sake, which was not something she would consider, but simply because she was done getting her enjoyment out of the memory. "Oh, I wasn't trying to teach him anything," she said, tilting her head so she could get a better view of K'mar's face. "Just sort of welcome him to the place. Show him it's not all serious." It seemed like it'd be a good lesson for K'mar as well, and she bumped her shoulder into his to show as much.

But she took pity on his increasingly hopeless quest to find the right pair of boots. "Here," she said, grabbing the boot he'd worn into the stores, the one he'd had to take off to try on others. "Just put the ones you like up against this one and see if they're the same length. Then it's just finding one that has the right width," she tapped the flat of her finger across the toe of the boot, "and heel to be comfortable."

[Invisible]

Aware he’d done it wrong again K’mar did his best to suppress an annoyed sigh. He rather thought a steward’s assistant would make a good acquaintance. At least Volsteath, with what he understood of such things, thought it would be good. Once more into the breach then he asked, “Have you worked long for the steward?” He couldn’t remember and thought it was ok to ask since he wouldn’t be expected to know. Asking about others was supposed to be the way to getting to know them to know if you wanted to try to talk to them again. He’d been told that by his mother.

At Emeni’s advice he ducked his head. He should have thought of that. K’mar was no idiot, but he sure felt like one some times. “Oh. Yea, I guess that would make more sense. Sorry, I’ve been doing so much lately I don’t feel like my brain keeps up with me.” There, that sounded good. He had been real busy with weyrlinghood so if he was a bit frazzled it should be ok.

[Slim]

Emeni forgave missteps easily, so she went along with it easily when K'mar changed the subject away from the merits of playing pranks on people. "Oh, yeah," she agreed breezily. "Like, two full turns. Just got a promotion, though." She tugged her shoulder: the actual knot she wore didn't reflect her status within the Steward's hierarchy, of course, but the gesture itself was a symbol of rank. "Normally that means I don't have to move boxes any more, but there wasn't anybody around and I wanted to look at what fabric we had, so." She shrugged.

Sticking her legs out in front of her, she bent her knees and rested her chin on them. May as well get comfortable while K'mar was trying on shoes, especially since he seemed to have picked up the correct way of tying them back together when he was done. "So how is weyrlinghood? Seems kinda weird that it's not I'den teaching you guys, but I hear I'dalyn's doing all right. And I guess he keeps you busy if you can't figure out how to try on shoes," she teased him.

[Invisible]

“Oh. Congratulations then,” K’mar offered with what he hoped was a friendly smile. He had never had much practice with those. “Are you going to keep working for the steward? What are your plans for later?” Again with the asking of questions designed to keep Emeni talking so he does not have to. Meanwhile he continued checking boot soles against each other trying to find one that matched. Alas for K’mar he has pretty standard sized feet so boots in his size, in a shape he will accept, are hard to come by.

When asked about weyrlinghood he wondered what to say. To buy some time he tried on a boot he thought might work only once it was on he noticed the seams around the sole were quite frayed. As he pulled it off he said, “Weyrlinghood is going well. It is quite different than what I imagine it was like with I’den.” He would not dream of saying something against the current weyrlingmaster. He settled for a simple, “I believe I’dalyn was a good pick to fill the role.”