Coldstone Hold - Thea's Quarters
While certainly not spacious, Thea's room at Coldstone Hold is still a little larger than standard guest quarters found at the complex. The majority of the room is dominated by a massive, four-poster bed, complete with a canopy overhead. Unlike those found in fancier establishments, however, this appears to have been built for utility. Heavy drapes line the bed's perimeter to keep cold drafts down to a minimum during the winter months, and the bed itself is raised off of the ground so that coal baskets can be placed beneath for additional heat. Discrete wooden stepstools rest at the foot of the bed on each side to make the very literal task of climbing into bed easier.
Beyond the bed, the room is remarkably spartan for the lodgings normally associated with a hold family member. A simple, dark-wood wardrobe rests against one wall, free of un-necessary adornments, save for a simple, half-height mirror that hangs on the outside of its right door. A small chest of drawers rests on the wall next to the room's main door and a utlilitarian coat rack does double duty between jackets and thick, insulated bathrobes just outside of the small lavatory entrance. Two windows straddle the head of the bed on the wall it rests against, and a third stands next to the wardrobe, offering one of the only views the hold has to offer, given its several subterrainian chambers.
Some warmth has been added to the room in the form of several heavily woven rugs, all appearing to be hand-made and of high quality. They circle the bed and form little paths to all of the frequently trafficked areas of the room, making for less discomfort when one wandered around bare-footed. A simple coal and wood brazier rests in one corner, providing heat.
It is late. The Lord and Lady have retired and the guests from Xanadu are settling. Having been shown to rooms upon arrival and their baggage brought up by servants earlier, they know where to go when they are ready. Soft glows have been left open on the massive dresser, bathing the room in a pearly golden luminescence that is easy on the eyes. Thea has been absent for some time now, but she approaches the room, her feet light upon the staircase and down the hall, entering her old room quietly, head down and in deep thought.
Phylicia has been in the room for a time now, and is actually dressed in a light weight tank top and a pair of shortshorts for night wear. She's sitting cross-legged in the middle of the massive bed reading one of her little novels from Avias' database of old terran historical favorites. Thea may be quiet but the little noise she does cause pauses her to look up and smile slightly. "Finally coming to bed?" She teases, looking to break Thea's thought pattern. "It's late enough."
Thea's head lifts quickly at the question, as if she had forgotten there would be anyone in her room, and in fact that's quite likely given her state of mind. Her expression clears quickly from strained to sheepish. One hand lifts to absently tuck her hair behind her ear. "Yeah." There's a lop-sided smile for her friend as she kneels to dig in one of her bags for her nightclothes. "So… ah, what do you think of my home, Phy?" She's busy shedding her clothes and pulling her nightgown on as she listens.
Phylicia gently folds the corner of the page she's on, shutting the book and looking at the cover while Thea changes her clothing. "Well, some of the servants are real nice, though your gardener is a pain to get a hold of." For some reason it was like a wherry chase finding that gardener. "But the scenery is beautiful." Two guesses where the girl was after she finished talking with the gardener. And 'in the hold' would not be the right answer. She crawls over to the edge of the bed, stretching out to put her book on a bedside table before tucking her legs back under her. "Something up, Thea?" Is asked softly, as if she doesn't want to bring anything bad into bed.
A small commotion from down the hall can clearly be heard. A passing member of the hold's night staff cries out in astonishment as a gold firelizard streaks down the hallway. Cila flickers past grasping hands, cackling like a gremlin until she's managed to flap her way into Thea's room. Her landing on the bed in front of Phylicia isn't graceful at all. It's more of a skidding roll, but she doesn't appear to care in the least. One curled claw drops a brief note right where Phy used to be before she's scurrying towards the heated stones around the brazier's base, whuffling happily to herself. She curls up on the floor, absorbing a little heat before she sighs, hiccups loudly and then vanishes *between*.
Thea's head pops out of the neck of her nightgown to see Phylicia staring at her book. She listens, nodding here and there. "She's always been like that." The mention of the scenery has her sighing and looking towards the darkened windows as she pulls her nightgown the rest of the way down. "Home but a few hours and we all ran…" Cila get s a little blink, but by now she's used to the critter coming and going. It's for the healer, so she doesn't ask. Instead she plops down on the foot of the bed with an unhappy sigh. "My Da wants Tharen to stay and learn to manage the hold. And Tharen… he hates it here!" She draws her legs under her adding miserably, "I would miss him so if he leaves Xanadu."
Phylicia starts a little bit as Cila comes shooting into the room. She's still not entirely used to the young gold's antics. Estevan has already made himself at home with Ciaran, taking over one of the pillows in a lump of blue and brown. She picks up the note and squints after a few moments before heaving a small sigh and sticking the note under her book. "Like that comes as a surprise." She mumbles to herself before looking at Thea's misery-laden form. "Well." She says softly, one hand rummaging backwards for a free pillow. Nabbing the corner, she shifts the pillow to her lap and hugs it. "You don't have cousins or anything that'd like it better?" She pauses and eases down the length of the bed as discreetly as she can. "I can't see the hold doing well if the Holder doesn't like Holding." And without any further warning besides a small grunt there's a pillow flying towards the side of Thea's body, with Phy's hand attached to one end of the pillow. Nope. No sulking tonight apparently!
Thea's curiosity is piqued. "What's not a surprise?" But she's shaking her head answering Phylicia's question, "You don't know my Da. He wouldn't take a cous- ack!!" She gets hit with the pillow, an arm curling around it instinctively to snag it, her body falls over onto the pillow to prevent the girl from using it again and she's snickering softly. "Shh… we'll wake them up." She grins through a curtain of hair. "Thadan's a light sleeper and Tharen's room is right next door. We'll be tempting him in to join the fight." Her eyes dance with that warning.
"That a certain mentor of mine has gone walking in the dark." Phylicia supplies with a giggle as she relinquishes the hold of her pillow as Thea flops onto the pillow she was using and propels herself back up the bed to snag another one. Beds of this size can never have too many pillows. Phy's grin is wicked as she threatens with her new pillow, rising to her knees though she makes no move just yet to thwack at Thea with it. It's enough the other is smiling. "Nope." She says cheerfully as she flops the pillow over her shoulder, still holding onto a corner of it. "I don't know your Da. But I know you." She says and takes a few kneeling steps closer. "And I don't like it when you frown." … So she'll resort to smacking her friend with a pillow?
Thea rolls onto her back, drawing out the pillow from underneath her as she moves and lifts it to use as a shield held by hands and braced by her knees. "Hey now! Truce! Truce!" She's still laughing softly. Mentors. Stalking the night. "So he reports to you now?" This seems to cause more snickering, still quiet. "You really -don't- want Tharen in here, Phy. He's merciless with pillows!" She's doing the responsible? thing and trying to end the pillow-war.
Phylicia doesn't release the hold on her new pillow, though she does lower herself to sit on her heels a matter of inches to Thea's side. And Thea's giggling sets Phy off into a fit. "This is one of the first times he's ever done it." She lifts her shoulders in a helpless shrug. The comment on Tharen has her mock thinking for a moment, her eyes rolling up to look at the ceiling while a finger taps her lips before she shakes her head. "No truce." She says as the pillow whirls around her head to come at a sideways sweep again, aimed at her legs as she giggles. It seems like the teenager is a touch restless.
"He's becoming dependant on y-" The pillow thwacks her legs, rendering her shield useless seeing the girl has gone under it to get at her. Oh, the light of war is in Thea's eyes now. Her bent leg shoots out, clamping that pillow to the bed as hers is flipped over with force towards Phylicia with a mock growl. If she's to be a target, she's going to be a moving one. She rolls across the bed and onto the floor with a thump, one hand from below reaches up snags a pillow and disappears. Sudden silence and no movement follows.
Phylicia oomphs audibly as she catches the pillow on her torso, her own ripped from her hands. She giggles as she falls backwards, barely seeing Thea flee off the bed. "Dependant?" The girl asks as she crawls over to one side of the bed where no stairs are, sprawling on the bed to peek over the edge where the other disappeared. Not seeing her, she squiggles a little further over the edge until she's dangling in an upside-down 'L' to peer under the bed, her unrestrained hair brushing the floor. "Don't see how someone could become dependant on me." Well, she may be a little less shy around people but it doesn't mean her self doubts have fled by any means.
That head dangling there is just what Thea has been waiting for. From underneath the bed, Thea's arm swipes with the pillow scooting along the floor in a sideways motion to smack the side of Phylicia's head. "Gotcha!" Soft cackling and snickering follows that, but does Thea stay there? Oh no! The moment that pillow makes contact, Thea is pushing herself out and over the opposite side of the bed, popping up with a lunge over that wide expanse of bed to thump her pillow down upon her friend's tush if she can manage it. And quiet snickering? Has turned to outright laughter. Her elbow bangs the wall between her room and Tharen's. Oops!
Phylicia's tush is an easy target since the swipe at her head leaves her momentarily trying to gather her wits again. As the pillow comes down on her rear she finds the last of her wits and squeaks in shock as she scrunches herself back onto the bed, her hand tightening its grip on her own weapon and sending it towards Thea's side again in a two handed grasp as she twists and sits up at the same time. Girls are allowed to have a good time, plain and simple and Phy's own giggling has turned into her softer - but no less enthusiastic - laughter. And that laughter is letting some stress and tension drain from the apprentice's body. "No fair!" She laughs as the pillow continues on it's path towards Thea's side. "My wits're scattered enough!"
Thea oofs softly as Phylicia's pillow hits home, her now-descending pillow clearly unguided at the moment, goes astray. It had been aimed at the girl's head, but now whumps harmlessly upon the bed. That's what she gets for remaining stretched out upon her stomach and trying to aim. "Yeah, he's seems to be feeling sort of lost here. Maybe… it's being away from Xanadu's forests." As to fair… "Tharen says there is no fair in pillowfights or snowfights." She's suddenly limp, just trying to catch her breath. Of course it would help if she could stop laughing.
Phylicia grins widely as she reclaims her pillow, and uses it to cushion her head as she flops into a prone position, likely sending Thea bouncing since she doesn't pull any of her slight weight from the flop. "Well we'd just have to gang up on him to prove his point then." She's also losing breath to giggle-fits. "Ah, I'll send one of the two helpful lumps there with a note back soon." And indeed the blue portion of the unhelpful lump has his eyes open and whirling in slight irritation at the bouncing bed. However no fairness in snow or pillow fights also means there should be no fairness in tickle fights, and with the devious look Phylicia is giving Thea, the weyrwoman might want to either move away or retaliate before Phy gets the possible upper hand. "I don't really blame him for feeling lost." After all, just what was Phy doing while the rest of the group was tumbling about?
Ooh, ganging up on Tharen! Thea is IN. She does bounce a bit as Phylicia flops, then she curls herself up into a ball. It's a reflexive instinct that has her doing that. Too many pillow, snow, tickle fights with Tharen over the years have seen that I'll-get-your-guard-down-with-talk happening for her to not be wary. "Why's he need a reply for him going out for a walk?" This has Thea confused. "Bet he sleeps out there." And to her last comment Thea is looking deeply troubled, "Yeah. He's lost… some of that is my fault."
Phylicia would just remind him to take care, is all. "'Cause I swear sometimes he probably forgets to sleep." She responds as she lets herself relax. "Bet you're right though, he will. If he does." She hasn't been in enough tickle, pillow or snow fights to be wary of the other person. Her shoulders move in a shrug, dislodging the pillow from it's comfy position under her head, so she tugs it back to its proper place. Something in Thea's tone has the girl shifting onto her side and looking at the other woman, her brows furrowed both in concern and perplexion. "Your fault?" She asks as she shifts a little bit, making herself more comfortable. "How so?"
"He's a man, though, Phy. He doesn't need a mama." Thea grins as she says it, though the words are serious. She uncurls, shifts to sit up cross-legged but keeps her pillow hugged to her stomach. "I… we…" Her face looses all humor. "I let a friendship cross the line, Phy. And then…" She sighs, struggling for words, "Then I pulled back and… I've hurt him. He doesn't understand why." Her eyes lower to the coverlet on the bed, her finger moves to trace a pattern. "I shouldn't have ever let it get so far…"
Phylicia shakes her head. "No, he doesn't." She agrees with Thea about Tenebrous needing a mother, but trying to take care of people seems to be almost like a second nature to the girl. "Or, at least if he does, that's Master Fraille's area." Yeah, some mama's like to carry around beating canes. Sure. Her head turns breifly to look at the note tucked under her book before turning back to her friend as her arms curl around her stomach loosely. The humor has since flowed out of Phy's face as well as she looks up Thea. There's no real judgement in her face. "I think all of this would make even Daddy's head explode. And he's a Mindhealer!" There's a touch of smile to Phy's face as she tries again to diffuse the seriousness until her voice speaks, soft. "Hurts happen, Thea."
Thea's finger pauses on that pattern she's tracing, her eyes lift to Phylicia and she snickers in spite of the serious conversation. "Master Fraille is nothing like a tender nurturing mother. She's… tough love, if anything. And SHE would make your daddy's head explode. Your daddy would tell you this mess is a common enough thing when a person becomes too emotionally involved with someone they are trying to help." She winces at that last bit, her voice full of wry chagrin. Her eyes drop and her finger resumes it's movement on the coverlet. "It was innocent, pure and spontaneous… I just… went with it. And D'had… had been so aloof… I was confused." Her finger twists some of the coverlet as her finger bears down and turns, "He of all people, wasn't ready to go through something like this, though Phy." Her eyes lift, "He's gonna need you in the next weeks to come."
Thea's snicker brings a lightly wicked smile to Phylicia's lips. "Never said she was nurturing." The girl points out. "Oh shards, but I've heard stories about her. I'm just happy that she hasn't tracked me down yet." That thought brings a shudder to the girl's body. Master Fraille might make her semi-new-found courage scurry into a dark hole and hide. She never interrupts Thea as she listens intently and when the other finishes, her slight smile is back if a touch saddened. "I just hope that I can be strong enough." She says softly. And without a warning Phy rolls onto her stomach before sitting up onto her knees and leans forward to wrap Thea up in a hug if the woman lets her. As much for her own comfort as Thea's. Yes, Phy truely is too grown up for her own good sometimes.
Thea laughs outright at Phylicia's commentary on Master Fraille. "She's… managed to set the Weyrsecond aback. She's something else alright." Her smirk fades off into a blink of surprise at her friend's hug and her arms come 'round her to return it. "Thanks, Phy." She leans back with a lop-sided smile. "I do love him, but I needed to sort it through and my conclusion is that it's more a protective mother-friend kind of way." She takes a deep breath, adding, "I love Donn in a different way." She doesn't go into that but the look she has on her face is one of peace mingled with sorrow. There is honest assurance in her next words, "You will be, Phy. You have an inner strength to you. I see it."
Phylicia is putting more of her weight onto Thea, sort of clinging to the slightly older woman. She pulls back enough to look at Thea's face as she talks of D’had. "I'd say you confuse me too, but I think I might know how you feel." Ever since they've gotten back from helping Thea with her head Phy's been a little unsteady, trying to find safety and humor where she can it seems, but falls all too easily to thoughts. Thea's last statement has her half frozen before she just goes partially limp against her friend. "Nol said that too, awhile ago." She states quietly.
Thea's arms tighten for a moment as Phylicia leans on her, then her hands move soothingly upon her back, "/I/ confuse me." She laughs quietly. "It's the first time, but likely won't be the last time." The mention of M'nol has Thea releasing her friend and leaning to see her eyes, "Yeah? See, others can see it too. Tenebrous said it once as well." She pauses then asks, "Did… you two get yourselves sorted out yet? Or… are you still needing some time away, or…?" There's soft concern in her tone as she watches Phylicia's face carefully. "Sometimes feelings just… change, you know. And if it happens it's better to figure it out and…" Go separate ways is what she'd have said, but she doesn't.
Phylicia shakes her head slightly, looking a bit more downcast than she did before. "Tenebrous has been letting me use the room Fraille set up for him turns ago." She says softly. So it's true, she hasn't been sleeping at M'nol's weyr with him, dispite the other youth's tendancy to proclaim them weyrmates. "I try to spend time with him, but it just all turns out awkward." If Thea were to ask, she's not even sure they have common ground in interests. Things just sort of fell together. There's a sort of half-not-quite-smile on her face which speaks of frustration as she looks at Thea. "He really wanted to take me away for a few days, but I kept hesitating."
Thea listens quietly, noting the grave expression on her friend's face. "Ah yeah, you mentioned that you were staying there. Hey listen," she has a conspiratorial smile on her face, "D'had is building on a new room onto his weyrbarn. He's been staying at my place. We've been waiting for it to be finished before we move in." She adds, "It'll still be my place. If you need a place to stay you're welcome to use it." She nods to the awkward, "That's normal, given the circumstances, Phy. Sometimes you try to get it back and… you just can't." She considers for another few moments then adds, "Hesitating… might go with your heart on that, Phy. If you aren't comfortable going off, just… don't." Her wry smile speaks volumes. She's the last person who should be giving advice right now and she knows it.
Phylicia will still take advice where she can, given that she's never been in a relationship before, really. She's gone back to leaning on Thea, quiet as she thinks. A few minutes actually do pass before the girl laughs, deciding to mull over all of this at another time. "And here I was trying to distract you from depressing thoughts!" She leans far enough away where her flopping backwards back onto the bed won't end her her smacking Thea, though the woman gets a somewhat forced grin. "I told Ten, I'd go back to the dorms before kicking someone else out of their place." Oh, and there's a pillow right by her head again, she grabs a hold and weakly poofs it up at Thea. "Thanks though. I'll… keep it in mind."
Thea snickers at the backflop Phylicia does, the pillow lobbed at her takes her totally off guard and so smacks her in the face. The light of battle once again flares in Thea's eyes, only this time, she's calling in reinforcements. Her knuckles rap-tap-tap on Tharen's wall their long-known code and while she's waiting for him to get his butt in here, she's pouncing her friend, using that pillow to smoosh her with. Tickle-fights? She hasn't seen what a pair of mountain ruffians can do!
Phylicia blinks at Thea as she taps on the wall. "I thought you said Thar-" And then it dawns on her. Her face pales for a moment but she laughs as she smushed underneath Thea and a pillow. Lacking one of her own, she fights back the only way she knows: go for the ribs!