Fort Weyr - Galleries
The galleries are carved right out of the rock face, the rows and rows of benches rising high up into the air on a slight slant. Stone and wood benches that used to be known for offering little in the way of comfort, are now padded with cushions in Fort Weyr's colors. Placed along the railing at regular intervals are antique looking baskets filled with cheery fabric flowers. The curving walls sport tapestries in warm vibrant colors that seem to add a dash of color to the otherwise dreary stone. Where the galleries curve slightly at the ends, affording those attending hatchings or clutchings a decent view of the sands, shaded laterns offer warm lighting along the rows of benches.
From Xanadu the voices of two dragons speak to Taozyuth, the one brash and confident asks if (implying, 'And of course why wouldn't he') his would like visitors while the other, a gentle rain asks if he is well and is his up to some company, a lingering mist reminiscent of summer conveys how very much the boy is missed. It is, of course after his reply that a blue and gold appear over Fort, trumpeting greetings from Xanadu. Siebith and Seryth land outside of the hatching grounds and the Junior and Weyrsecond make their way up to the Galleries rather than disturb Zuhth the clutch that Taozyuth guard to await N'shen's arrival.
It may be a few moments before N'shen appears in the galleries, but he eventually does, wiping at his forehead with a handkerchief before stuffing it in his pocket. He pauses near the stairway, quickly searching for the rider pair before his gaze falls upon them. Grinning broadly, he stuffs his hands in his pockets and slumps towards them, eyebrows arching upwards as he greets first bluerider, than gold, with a jaunty, "H'llo."
D'had follows a half step behind Thea as he enters the galleries letting her lead the way. Lingering signs of cuts and bruises are visible on his face and knuckles, though riding leathers do much to cover any other signs of the brawl he was part of not so terribly long ago. Dark eyes turn towards the sound of the boy's greeting, "'Lo," the Xanadu Weyrsecond replies with a slight nod.
Thea has her head turned to study those eggs, a look of maternal pride on her face that is quite clearly a partial reflection of Seryth out there who is seeing them through Thea's eyes. When the sound of feet on stone herald N'shen's arrival, she turns with a smile for him and it's then that the yellowing of an ugly bruise on the side of her face become visible - at least the part not covered by her hair. And though it's Winter outside, she's already shrugged out of her fur-lined coat thanks to the heat rising from the sands below. She waits a step back for father and son to greet one another, her manner not quite as buoyant in the past as it might be, but certainly warm. It's in her eyes, the want to hug the boy, her hands twitch in an aborted move towards him, but he's fifteen now and thus she leaves it for him to decide.
Though the imp of the perverse may be urging N'shen to leave the weyrwoman hanging, sight of that bruise - and the marks of fighting on Weyrsecond as well - stop him cold, and he frowns at both of them even as he steps forward, folding Thea in a hug. Then, with one arm still wrapped around her, he steps back and reaches up with his other hand to catch at her chin, trying to get a closer look at the bruising. "I'm barely away from Xanadu and you two are already picking fights? Since I know D'had didn't do that to you, who did?" He glances first at his mother, then father, one eyebrow raising upwards, clearly expecting an answer from one of them.
D'had turns a glance out towards the eggs, but its short lived as he looks back to Thea and N'shen. "Got caught up with some raiders," he explains bluntly, no point dancing around the subject, but he's not going into any more details than that. Those apparently aren't important as far as he's concerned. "How's everythin' here?"
How has he gotten this tall? It's written in the expression Thea's wearing even as she warmly returns that hug, not trying to evade his hand or the searching of his eyes upon that fading mark. Her eyes glimmer, laughter in the ice green as they crinkle at the corners. As to why they didn't tell him though Taozyuth, "We didn't want to worry you-" she begins shooting D'had a sharp look for his bare-bones explanation, gives the boy a little more, "We found D'had's- family and took them back." Her look is expressive, triumphant. It may not seem important to her weyrmate, but she knows otherwise. "I didn't duck fast enough." Her shrug says it's nothing, "But how are you and how are things on the sands? I know the heat can get you."
"Did you notice that it's snowing outside?" N'shen asks laconically as he finally releases Thea's face and waist, stepping away from her. He glances sidelong at his father, but does nothing more than offer the man an off-hand clout to the shoulder and a half-grin. "The sands are nice and toasty - just like home." Where it would, after all, be coming up on summer. He says nothing more on the subject of raiders or his family - the one he still has yet to meet - instead respecting D'had's reticence. Though - "Since I haven't exactly been sharing news with you, can't blame you for not sharing with me. Niva called me home a sevenday ago or so."
"Like she said," D'had starts, though there's a hint of that smirked smile of his for the teen. "Didn't want to worry ya," his voice still holding onto that distinctive accent of his family's trading roots. "Its taken care a now, and" he continues more as an afterthought, "they'll be there when ya get back."
Amused, "Yes, it's very pretty on the mountains. Like a harpers painting." It's almost immediately after N'shen withdraws his arm that Thea sits, the movement appearing casual as she shifts forward, placing her forehead on the rail to admire the clutch, at least what she can see of it. It's a few moments before she leans back, tilts her chin to indicate D'had with a smile, "He gets a little more rest these days, though if he'd let them do the repairs to the Vega Run themselves, he'd get more." Clearly tolerant of his habits, her eyes laugh silently at something that goes unspoken between them before a dark brow raises and she tilts N'shen a look that's frankly curious. "Oh?"
"Mmmhmm." N'shen himself moves to the rail, leaning on it and gazing out over the clutch. Taozyuth moves amongst the eggs, nosing sand around a few of them as he passes - every inch the doting papa. "Apparently, V'dim had been in to see her. As I'm still a turn away from being eligible to actually enter a wing, he decided he wanted me for his assistant. Gave me a bag full of paperwork to bring back with me when Tao and I returned to Fort," he adds, nose wrinkling. "Dunno where he's going with this, but beats having to run messages all over Pern like some green Weyrling when we're nearly two turns out of the barracks already."
D'had snorts. Whether it’s to the notice of snow outside and the commentary on such, or the eggs on the sand, some other comment shared between weyrmate and son. Hard to say for certain really. "Work ain't gonna do itself," he notes, so perhaps that noise was to do with that. As for N'shen's announcement of sorts, "Just don't let 'im give ya it all." Paperwork that is, one of his least favorite tasks of his own position. "You'll do good." At least he seems certain of that.
Absently, "Has it been… that long already?" Thea leaves that for a more enthusiastic response, a wide smile that lights her face, obviously proud of the boy. "N'shen, that's wonderful! It'll be good training." She ignores D'had's snort in favor of a snicker about the paperwork. Yeah, he would say that. "Muir and Marella are reveling in all the attention they're getting from their grandparents, cousins and aunts. Learning some of the dances already, too." Chattery, perhaps filling in for D'had, "You'd like them, N'shen. They're fun folks." She shifts, leaning her head back against the seat, "How was your turnday? I'm so sorry we missed that."
"I missed it too," N'shen snickers at Thea, "especially since it was only a few days after Tao down there caught Zuhth. I think I was still a little addled by it all." Shaking his head at the weyrwoman, he returns his gaze to the clutch below, smirking slightly as the bronze on the Sands noses at first one egg, than another, trying to get them in a spot that suits him just right. "I'm surprised he hasn't driven her insane yet." A sidelong glance at his father, and the young bronzerider shrugs. "I don't mind paperwork - what I mind is I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with it. Find the slackers, he says. Figure out which ones need extra training. How'm I supposed t' know that kind of stuff?"
Choth is the ever vigil one on her pearch on the highest peak of Fortian's crown, the highest bowl wall hosting her ghostly pale shine. For the arrival of another gold, foreign to the airs of Fort, she doesn't physically greet as is norm for this silent queen. Instead Choth had likely greeted Seryth with a wash of her cool mind voice, a gathering of fog that is ethereal in nature. That is all the other gold is likely to receive as the Senior's queen goes back to observing, as is her nature. For her rider, well, Choth seems to delay the announcement of the coming guests. For that reason alone, it seems that as Thea and D'had arrived, they failed to find any party waiting them. Delegates of Fort were not there to attend them as they should have been. Instead, some time later with the appearance of a frazzled Senior, Kessa races up the stairs of the gallery when she finally pulls out the location of their Xanadu guests. Hair quickly tied in a knot behind her and a jacket hastily thrown on (to a point that a button seems skewed and put through the wrong hole). Still, even as she hesitates on the threshold of the galleries, she calls out in a friendly manner, "Hello." Still not formal, mostly informal at this point to see if she can be included in their conversation, then the formalities can unravel.
D'had chuckles. "You're a smart boy," D'had replies to N'shen, tossing a wink the boy's way. "You'll figure it out." Words holding the distinctive hint of his trader roots. As for the twins, he cuts a glance towards Thea, "She's gonna spoil 'em yet if ya let her." His mother that is, and with them both gone today - well that's liable to happen sooner rather than later. The greeting from the threshold catches his attention and he quickly turns a glance towards Fort's Senior. He snorts, mostly to himself, and says nothing, though he does return a silent nod of greeting back to Kessa.
In the galleries are two people sitting talking quietly to a younger rider (standing), one Weyrsecond (standing), one a Junior Weyrwoman (seated), all of Xanadu. Thea's glance to the sands is fondly amused. "Well, his very first time clutchdaddying, he can be forgiven?" As for the paperwork, her advice is, "It should be all there, just take it one sheet at a time, see who's checked off for what. Compile a list." She's in the middle of an understanding nod for the boy and his missed turnday, "D'had brought you something-" Running footsteps interrupt that thought though, pulling her attention towards the stairs and the woman's knot is noted. Reaching for D'had's hand, perhaps as an assist, perhaps in silent response to that snort, she rises slowly, inclines her head with a smile, her words are formal enough but the tone is warm, "Hello Weyrwoman Kessa, it's good to meet you, Seryth's Thea." She's learned the important names of Pern, yay!
The woman is as observant as her lifemate is silent, the two similar in such ways. It's likely then that despite the distance, Kessa does notice the snort from D'had and the hand moving to still him less he speak out further than that dismissive snort would. Alas, actions often times speak louder than words. Her eyes squint at the corners in her moment of contemplation over this, a rider she had never before seen and yet her appearance now has some how caused the reaction seen. She doesn't mask her attention toward him either, her eyes on him in a piercing way. At least until Thea's words recall her attention respectively, her words now strictly taking on a formal tinge - the silent greeting from the one Xanadu rider immediately causing her to tighten up her show, shoulders squaring, chin rising up, a more confident poise as she speaks: "Forgive me for not seeing you as you landed," a bob of her head as she moves closer, "With all the on goings in Fort these days, mine delays some of the messages. Welcome to Fort Weyr, duties to Xanadu and her queens-" all traditional now. She slowly undoes her jacket, noticing now the mis-buttoned button. It doesn't make her fumble though, since the heat makes her pull her jacket off and sling it over her arm. "Good to meet you as well, Thea, if I may call you by name?" Her eyes shift between the other two, catching N'shen in her quiet inspection, "Is there anything I can get you to make your stay more comfortable?" This to Thea.
"Weyrwoman," N'shen greets Kessa easily enough, grinning at her even as he nods from where he leans on the rail, overseeing the clutch. "Seems I brought an invasion down on you, hope you don't mind." Since D'had isn't going to introduce himself and Thea's gone all formal, he'll be his cheeky, teenaged self. "My parents," he offers in introduction. "My father, D'had, Weyrsecond and Siebith's rider, and my mother's gone and introduced herself." He'll leave Kessa to wonder how a woman not even 10 turns his senior can be his mother. He's clearly amused by all of this - most likely because it's got to making the bluerider hella uncomfortable, and he's in just that quirky frame of mind tonight.
D'had never has done well with Senior Weyrwomen. Its a wonder he received his knot at all, much less that he still has it given the relationship between him and Xanadu's own senior. Thea's hand is given a light squeeze as it finds his. That gift she's about to mention all but forgotten with Kessa's arrival. "Ain't official business or nothin'," the bluerider replies even as N'shen introduces him. They did at least announce their arrival to the weyr. "Just visitin' family." Relations made clear enough by the teen.
"Please do, Kessa" Thea's reply is easily given, her nod understanding of all the Senior has to see to, her flurried state graciously overlooked. "Thanks, it's kind of you to offer, we just popped in to see our son. We can't stay, really." That snort of D'had's receives nary an eye-twitch but N'shen is given a warm smile for introducing the man. "Xanadu's duties to Fort as well." Formalities dispensed, as far as she is concerned, she adds, "I've never been to Fort; it's lovely."
Kessa seems to react more favourably to N'shen's quirky attitude, her smile real for him, not masked by the formalities and strictures of titles. She even finds her free hand coming up to her mouth to cover a smile that would be too bold to be proper. In either case, once her hand settles on her opposite arm to hold the jacket slung over it, she gestures vaguely, "Of course I don't mind-" she does pause to allow the mention of them being related, "-especially since they are your parents.." a seemingly questionable look thrown to Thea, eyeing her up as if sourcing out her age. She looked relatively the same age as Kessa and yet, her eyes were snapping back to a teenaged boy. Rolling her lips together in thought, she doesn't speak what could be considered a rude question. Instead: "You're certainly welcome to return as often as you want, as this is your son's first time watching his lifemate brood over eggs." Yes, males do brood as well! Just watch Tao. She adds a little, "Don't let the politics get in the way of things. I'd rather his friends and family come support him just as well." Her shoulders lift up casually, her mood swinging to a less formal display. For Thea's response, she does sway her head with a snort of her own, "Lovely if it weren't so cold. At least there's heat in here." She shifts a little on foot, eyes again returning to the sands, "Would you let me know if you require anything? Even if you cannot stay for a while?" At least she came by to greet them, "If there's nothing I can do for you now, then I'll let you enjoy your time as you have it with N'shen." She doesn't want to over extend her own intrusion.
That's okay, N'shen is happy to do it for her. "You don't have to go," he tosses towards Kessa over his shoulder, sneaking in another grin before his gaze is inevitably drawn back to the clutch below. Though, of course, if she insists - he's hardly going to stop her. "So, what kind of gift?" he asks, tilting his head to glance inquiringly at D'had.
Kessa gives a friendly wink to N'shen, "It's okay. I've got a lot to do before the candidates go camping. You wouldn't believe the amount of paperwork that comes with the addition of white knots." She nods to Thea and then to D'had, "Enjoy your stay. Make a bet or two in the living cavern. We've got a Bitran whose taken charge of keeping tally of what color comes from what egg. Might make you a mark or two in return." Then with a lift of her hand, she turns then with formalities out of the way and with the discovery that it wasn't a formal visit. All in good time too, since at the bottom of the galleries, a messanger rushes up and delivers her some news, of which she's quickly distracted away from the arrival of the Xanadu riders.
"Nice meetin' ya," D'had tosses towards Kessa with a wink, but soon enough she's turning and on her way and he's looking back to his son at that question. Gift? Oh, right. "Thea reminded me ya had a turnday," Faranth forbid he remember such a thing on his own. "Wasn't quite sure what ta get ya but…" And there that plain looking tube that's been inconspicuously set against the line of seats behind him is pulled out and presented. "Here."
Thea nods to Kessa, her sea-green eyes twinkling, "Certainly, or I'll send this scamp running to you with some outrageous request to brighten your day." Laughingly she ignores the comment about politics in favor of a simple assurance, "We had hoped to come see the clutching, but-" and here she agrees with N'shen, "-you're not interrupting. It was good to meet you, Kessa." Her free hand lifts as the woman moves away, slides N'shen a glimmering look, "You've become quite the charmer." It isn't until the Senior is out of earshot and well away that she grins at D'had. "Couldn't have winked twice instead of snorting once?" Amused, very. But then, she's seen Niva and D'had go at it more times than she can count.
"Charmer?" N'shen appears torn between amused and offended. "What, because she's nice to me, and I'm nice in return? She's been very good to me while I've been here, she and Yuni both." Snorting, he wrinkles his nose at his mother, before leaning towards her to press a kiss to her unbruised cheek. "Anyway, you know it's going t' be hard to find a woman to match you, Thea." Snickering, he straightens up again, then reaches out and takes the tube, frowning thoughtfully over it.
D'had chuckles. "Would ita made a difference?" he returns the question to that Thea asked him. Wink, snort, whatever. Not that that snort was exactly for Fort's Senior either, but that's over and done now. "You'll find one. Might take awhile, but ya will." He obviously did. "Now why don't ya open it."
"You know what I mean, Young Man," Thea notes, one eye flickering in a barely-there wink after he kisses her cheek. Aww, she goes all melt-y inside, but outwardly? It's a smug, "That's why I'll have to be the one to fix you up." Adding insult to injury, "When you're old enough." She's kidding. Maybe. To D'had, "Would you have cared if it did? Didn't think so." Still amused, the fingers she has laced with his tighten imperceptibly, but her eyes are on N'shen and his gift
When N’shen does open the forearm-length tube he'll find a raider's cutlass, the heavy brass blade curving wickedly and razor sharp. The shaft is simple, but the handle has been intricately made and etched in fine designed detail. There's a red stone inset at the end of the handle with a finger guard that curves all in one swirled piece. It's a finely-crafted weapon, valuable.
Allowing the tube to fall away - though N'shen's foot does come down on it to keep it from going anywhere, he hefts the cutlass in his hand, his expression indecipherable. Wrist twisting, he offers a few clumsy passes with it, then lowers it, eyes flickering first to his father, then his mother. "This is an incredible gift," he says softly, though fortunately without any protestations of how it's too good for him or any such nonsense. "Thank you. Though," he adds, "I think I'll send it back to Xanadu with you, if you don't mind? Just leave it in my weyrbarn - I'll find a good place for it."
D'had chuckles, "Ya'll get better," he comments with an amused sort of grin for the boy's testing of that sword. "But yah, ifin ya want us ta keep it at home for ya ain't a problem." They can take it back as easily as they brought it. "Should probably be headin back though," he comments towards the pair of them. "Shouldn't leave the twins alone with my ma too long."
“ He-" Thea's head tilt D'had's way ends up with her leaning against the man and for a moment she pauses, finishing a beat later "-took it from one of the raiders during a fight." She says nothing further, which is uncharacteristic of her. "I'm sorry N'shen, to cut our visit short, but I think D'had is right. For entirely different reasons, of course," she says quietly after another pause. Leaving him with another quick hug and a "Be back soon, if not for the hatching for sure." And when she tucks herself under the Weyrsecond's arm as they depart it's not all that an unusual move for her, though only her weyrmate might note she's leaning on him just a bit more than should be necessary.