Xanadu Weyr - Glass Workshop
With sandy beaches, significant forests and sizable mines available either immediately within the Weyr or within easy transport distance, Xanadu Weyr is a prime location for serious glasswork, and the glass workshop in the craft complex reflects that abundance. This vast building, which shares a wall with the apprentice dorms but is otherwise freestanding, is one of the larger structures in the complex. This shop is state of the art, with every new technical advance developed at the Fort or Landing craft halls in use here. The shop is usually busy day and night as crafters take advantage of the strong lighting provided by heat-resistant light fixtures and many windows, most made within this very room or in joint work with other crafters at the Weyr.
The south wall, which adjoins the apprentice dorms, and the north wall are both lined with kilns and glass forges for the glasscrafters to do their work. The eastern portion of the room seems to be devoted to teaching, as a number of mobile diagram boards have been erected there and desks are arranged in semicircles around each. The central portion of the room serves as the production area, with barrels of sand and various additives arrayed beside several long tables and charts. Finally, the west wall is made up almost entirely of cabinets and storage shelves.
The glass shops are warm on even the worst days, but since today is fairly mild it's a pleasant warmth. With the day just past the halfway mark, the majority of the apprentices are currently in the caverns having lunch, leaving the shop to the serious work of journeymen and masters, with the occasional apprentice helping at the forges. Moria is one of the diligently working journeymen, perched at a desk by one of the forges, which has been banked for the moment since the crafter is pouring over diagrams and not currently working glass. She does have a blowing rod and shaft of glass ready, so she's probably just fine-tuning a project before starting.
K'ael heads into the glass shop. He doesn't usually hang around the crafting complex, so it takes him a bit to figure out where it is exactly. He interrupts a journeyman near the entrance to direct him to Moria's location. The bronzer is in his riding jacket with his knot prominently displayed, and so he gets to pretend he's here on business. Which he's quite good at doing. Once he gets to where Moria is pouring over documents though, he leans in over her shoulder to say, "I brought something for you."
Moria yelps in startlement when K'ael speaks right next to her head, jumping back from her desk to keep from knocking anything over. The glass shaft wobble precariously for a moment, but Moria swiftly stills it with one hand. "Shards, K'ael, please don't sneak up on me like that," she says, sounding out of breath from her surprise as she blinks wide eyes as the wingleader. "Make some noise or something, will you?" Nevermind that he probably wasn't raelly 'sneaking' over, she was just too absorbed in her work to notice him.
K'ael chuckles a bit. "Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean to startle you." But nothing is broken, so he doesn't have to feel too bad about anything. Though he is lying, he wanted to startle her a little. Then he looks down at the papers she's pouring over, then back up at her. "Is this a bad time to drop by? I can come back a little later." He points to the door. "After I give you what I came to, at least." He smiles and pulls a little package of jerky wrapped in plastic from his inside pocket. It's wrapped ribbon tied with a bow, and he's stuck a little flower in the ribbon.
Moria shakes her head, managing to smile as her heartrate calms. "It's alright. I was just absorbed in my work, and didn't notice anyone coming over." At his query she shakes her head, smiling. "Now is fine. It's actually a pretty good time, since I don't have any apprentice lessons until tomorrow - the afternoon is my time for work. And my project hasn't been started just yet," she indicates the rod and glass shaft, "so you aren't interrupting anything time-sensitive." Then she actually notices the package of jerky, and blinks at the packaging. "What?" 'Cause she's forgotten about the jerky. Sheesh.
K'ael chuckles and nods. "I'll make more noise next time. Announce my arrival. Ah, no lessons today, hm? Well, maybe for me, though that would be more like a demonstration. So you can just pretend I'm not even here." He grins to her about the package. "Your jerky. It's all finished. Or were you asleep the other night when you told me you wanted some?" He sets the little package down away from the papers.
Moria smiles warmly. "Lessons or demonstration, either can work. It never hurts to know how to do something new." She ohs when K'ael identifies the contents of the package, and shakes her head. "Not asleep, I've just been pretty busy since then and forgot about it. Thank you!" She reaches over and lifts the package, inspecting the ribbon and flower before tilting her head at K'ael quizically. "What's this for?"
K'ael chuckles. "Well, I doubt I can learn how to make glass in just one afternoon. But I'll certainly try whatever you want to teach me." The bronzer was good with his hands, though this sort of thing seemed to take a delicate touch that he might not be capable of producing. He smiles to her. "You're welcome." Then, about the flower. "That's for you." It's tough for K'ael to tell if Moria is really asking, or if she's just playing hard to get. So he's content in just playing along for now, at least.
Moria waves a hand dismissively at K'ael objection. "Making glass is easy. Making something /out/ of glass is hard. And dangerous. But I can show you the basics so you understand the concepts and can ask intelligent questions!" Because sounding like you know what you're talking about is vital! Moria blinks at K'ael simple 'That's for you' and looks between him and the flower again. "But why?" she clarifies, tone puzzled. "Why a flower and ribbons?"
K'ael blinks. "Dangerous, too, hm? Now you've really peaked my interest." He grins to her. "Well, you show me the really basic stuff, and I'll see what I can think of to ask from there." Well, it certainly meant that K'ael wouldn't waste her time asking a bunch of random thinks about glasscraft. He blinks at her question a bit. "I thought girls liked flowers and ribbons. Anyways…" Then he smiles to her. "I was hoping to butter you up a little. So I could ask you out later."
Moria opens her mouth to reply to the first part of K'ael's words, but is left gaping at him when the last of what he said sinks in. She open and closes her mouth several times before managing to squeak out, "What?!" Apparently, that was /not/ the answer she was expecting. A few seconds more and she clarifies her statement, voice a little steadier. "Why on Pern would you do that?" So much for the craft, this has her full attention.
This was… quite a different reaction to what K'ael was used to. Either girls continued down the hard to get path, or at this point turned red and either accepted or rejected his invitation. He's never had his own motives come into some sort of strange questioning. But there's only a few moments of blinking before he's back to chuckling. "Well, because I think you're cute. And I'd like to get to know you a little better. Is that alright?"
Moria looks intently at K'ael, raising a brow. "Is this some kind of joke?" she asks with a frown, regarding the wingleader with intense scrutiny. "It is, isn't it? You really shouldn't play these kinds of tricks on people, Wingleader. It's not very nice." Wow, she went from smiling to chill fast, didn't she?
K'ael blinks at Moria. This time he stares for a while, blue eyes wide, and looks more like a scared animal than the suave bronzer he was just a few moments ago. "W-what? A joke? No… this isn't a joke… Why would this be a joke?" He pouts at her now. "I really do take girls out, you know. I don't just seduce them or anything." Okay, so he's taken her confusion the completely wrong way. Hooray!
Moria scowls at K'ael, shaking her head. "Right. You date everyone. That's so much better than this being a joke," she responds. She pulls the ribbon and flower from the package, thrusting them at him. "Thank you but no thank you, Wingleader." Releasing the ribbon and flower, without waiting to see if he'll catch them, the woman turns and storms toward the doors. She /did/ take the jerky, though. It's something.
As Moria storms away, a much older crafter, a master by his knot, moves over to K'ael. "I'm afraid you picked the exact wrong way to go about courting that one," the master drawls, looking after the upset journeywoman.
K'ael blinks at Moria. "I… what? No… That's not what I meant…" He puts his hands up to shield himself from the flying ribbon and flower. "W-what? Hey, Moriana! Wait, I..!" But he's too late. instead he just stands there blinking in confusion. What happened there? And why was she the one leaving? She worked here! He rubs his face with his hands, peering over at the master craftman. "I guess.. shards." He picks the flower up from the floor, sighing a little. Then he sets it down on her table and wanders door-wards.
"You want a bit of advice?" the master calls after K'ael, raising a brow. "Don't call her cute, or attractive, or compliment her looks in any way. She won't believe you. And take things slow. The girl hasn't had a boyfriend since she was a teen." The master shakes his head ruefully. "If you go slowly, you might get her to at least not throw things at you, and maybe even give you those lessons."
K'ael pouts at the master. "Check. And I thought I was taking things slow…" Clearly, be was going to need several pre-date dates before he could officially ask her out. Of course now he's taken two steps back. "Thanks…" He mumbles to the craftmaster. Women!
The master shrugs, eyes glinting with amusement at K'ael's predicament. "She hasn't exactly had the greatest experience with men since the accident." And he motions to arms and chest, where Moria is scarred. "She'll learn, eventually. Maybe you'll help with that. I'd like to see her happy with someone."
K'ael sighs a bit. "Well, I can understand that. I guess I'll just have to try a different approach. Does she have someplace she usually runs to?" He picks up the flower, clearly intent on trying again. Oddly enough, K'ael is not easily put off! Though this sort of thing actually makes Moria /more/ attractive in his eyes, not less.
The master shrugs. "I really don't know. You might look for her friend Tresha. She's another journeyman. She'll probably know where Moria went." And he points toward a girl just entering with a group of apprentices, her knot marking her as the only journeyman among the group. The master calls out, "Tresha, come give the wingleader a hand."
Blinking, the journeywoman excuses herself from the apprentices and trots over. "Yes, Master Erdwin." She raises her eyes to K'ael, giving him a once over before tilting her head. "How may I help, Wingleader?"
K'ael blinks a bit. "Tresha?" There's not much time to wonder though, as she's being waved over. K'ael smiles a bit sheepishly at the journeywoman. "Hello. You can call me K'ael." He rubs the back of his neck a bit. "I er… was wondering where Moria might have run off to. I think I may have gone a little too fast on her."
Tresha raises a brow but doesn't comment on his admission, and nods slowly. "She probably headed to the clocktower. It's been vacant for a bit, and she like's the peace it offers. Even if it isn't quiet, with all the noise from the gears."
K'ael blinks, then nods. "The clock tower… Alright. You don't think she'd be more upset if I… tried again so soon, would she?" He didn't want to just… leave things like this. But if going out there would make things worse he'd rather just… wait for a bit.
Tresha shrugs slightly. "She cools down pretty fast. Most glasscrafters do - they don't promote people with volatile tempers because of how controlled you have to be. Don't give her a chance to become set in her thoughts about, well, whatever it was - she's stubborn enough to decide to not change her mind later."
K'ael nods to Tresha. "Alright then." No explosive glasscrafters! That was good. Maybe K'ael should have letched around the glasscraft sooner? "I'm gonna go look for her, then. Thanks, Tresha!" He probably should stick around for more good pieces of advice, but the bronzer is already running out the door. Well, walking quickly. There wasn't to be any running in a glass shop.
Continued in Misunderstanding, Much?