Xanadu Weyr - Forest Pool
Formed by ancient volcanic activity and composed of mostly of a single solid rock, the uneven surface of this island contains little dirt. Tree roots delve into cracks and grip tenaciously while the thin layer of humus provides nourishment for the moss, ferns and sparse plant life of this park-like woodland and cushions the forest floor underfoot. Shafts of golden sunshine slant between the trunks, creating emerald puddles of light upon the moss, encouraging flowers to bloom where insects flitter.
That crack where the bowls falls had drained here opens to a deep, still pool cradled in cliffs of stone, the depths of jade waters therein probed by fingers of light filtering through the leaves overhead. Large enough for a dozen people to swim comfortably in, the rise of rock shelf above provides a thrill for those daring to cliff-dive or a perfect spot to sunbathe upon.
"Well, if it isn't the big boy." Tejra's melodic voice precedes her as she steps into the largest, broadest cliff overlooking the pool below, her pale eyes latching onto the sight of the curly-haired candidate. "Have you figured it all out yet, Riddle?" The flash of bemused smile that still somehow has a sharp, predatory edge says Khavro should be quick about a leap into the pool below rather than stay and talk. Although, seeing as how the Harper's loose, gauzy white cover-up is concealing the shadow of as swim suit underneath, maybe a jump from the ledge would only delay answers. The summer afternoon is a fine one for swimming or sunning, the clouds only passing across Rukbat now and again to cast shade and shadow on those below.
Khavro, sitting near the edge of the cliff, just out of the way for anyone actually wanting to jump from it, with his knees pulled up to his chest and his arms hugging his legs, can only glance back at what he processes as a mocking voice, eyes narrowed defensively. "Does it matter to you whether or not I figure anything out?"
"Wouldn't it? Aren't we friends?" Question for question is hardly fair, but fair rarely plays into Tej's motivations. She walks toward the candidate, pausing briefly on her toes to really take in all of him. Then without hesitation, she moves to sit behind him arms seeking to curl around his middle, her legs on either side, cheek pressed to his back - even if he tries to flinch away. "One of those days?" Her melodic voice is pitched softer, sympathy edging it but not so heavily as to tread into the territory of pity. Then she'll just sit there like that, hugging him who needs to be hugged. Who hugs a cactus? TEJ. That's who.
"Are we?" Question for questioned question! Even if he sounds a little defeated in the way he asks it. Maybe that's why, when Tejra's limbs are everywhere, Khavro's tension spikes, then slowly fades. "Something like that." It's one of those days. One of those sevens. One of those months. You'd think Khavro was some old Healer having a midlife crisis.
"Unless I'm hugging you for a different reason," Tej makes the purr extra in her voice, but the squeeze is all friend - no wandering hands here. "We could be. If you wanted. Talk." It's an instruction, but maybe it's gentle enough to pass for an invitation. She doesn't move from her place, doesn't try to see his expression, she just stays, holding him.
"Talk about what?" It's rhetorical, as though Khavro genuinely doesn't know what he'd talk about if he could talk about anything. "You should talk. Tell me what you'd do if the guy you like is an idiot and you don't want to like him anymore."
The shrug can be felt against his back, but Tejra still doesn't stop holding him, though her embrace is lighter not tighter. "I'd sleep with him and get it out of my system and move on." She gives the best (BAD) advice. "What do you want to do?"
Khavro turns his head just enough to sort of look back at Tejra and her unexpected advice. "How often has that worked for you?" he wonders out loud before admitting, "I don't know. I kind of want to disappear and forget the last few turns ever happened." Okay, that's a little out of the scope of simple boy trouble, potentially. "Why would you sleep with him?"
"We-ell…" Tej starts after a moment's hesitation, letting her arms finally slip from around Khavro's middle and shifting around to sit next to him instead. "There were times it took a few goes in the blankets. Or the hay. Or… wherever." She makes some loose gesture to indicate the world, or maybe just the forest. "I would sleep with him because that's what I do. Then I walk away. It scratches that obnoxious need for closeness and contact and all those awful things." She does sound pretty disgusted by them, generally, very put-upon to have needs. Ugh. "Or I'd sleep with him because I liked him. Because I wanted to. That's usually why I sleep with anyone that I do. The rest—" She shrugs. "Falls where it does. I won't be less myself for sleeping with him. He won't be less him for getting off with me." ROMANTIC, NO? "Then things will go the way they always go. And end. Eventually."
Ugh, indeed, and probably totally relatable for Khavro. To the point he doesn't seem entirely sure she's not mocking him before he shrugs off the thought. It's a few long moments, the candidate soaking that all in, then he says, "I've only ever slept with anyone because I needed something from them, I guess." That sounds healthy. "Your way sounds more fun." But he doesn't actually sound convinced.
Tejra's head tips a little toward Khavro, her pale gaze on his face for a long moment before she allows a confidence to slip past her lips: "I did that too, sometimes. Sometimes I wanted something I couldn't afford. Sometimes I just wanted someone to give me something that I didn't have, put a value on me." She's staring at the forest below, now and judging by the way her eyes pinch abruptly shut and she looks briefly displeased, she probably hadn't intended to admit quite that much. Moving on. "It is more fun to have sex because you want to. More focus on what you enjoy. There's always still some give and take because if you're going to get yours, they want to get theirs," Tej has experience with healthy relationships, too, you see. "But when it's just orgasms and not money or whatever else, the tit for tat is usually easy enough to achieve." She shrugs. Then, with a side glance at the curly-haired young man, she offers, "I'm probably not the best person for advice about all this. I've never stayed involved very long. Liking is pretty… Well. Lusting is easier, isn't it." It is for her.
"You're worth at least a couple of pastries to me," says Khavro, feigning romance with an airy voice and an earnest glance. "Your advice is fine. It'd be hard to sleep with him and move on right now, though. Maybe a selfless blowjob and disappearing into the night, never to be seen again." At least there's a quirk of a grin now.
"Oh, my darling, such extravagance," Tej catches the game and plays along without a beat missed. "Will you steal them from the kitchen for me with your own two hands?" The redhead leans to bump her shoulder gently into his. "Why would it be hard? Sex is easy." There's a pause before she qualifies more quietly, "If you can keep the nightmares from haunting you during." A glance toward him checks to see if he understands without her having to explain.
"Whatever it takes to please the lady," obliges Khavro, releasing his legs to stretch them out in front of him and offer as close an approximation to a bow as he can manage. "I don't think he'd sleep with me. And we're sort of trapped in the same barracks until…" The eggs hatch. Or Khavro runs away. Whatever. "Are you okay?" is a somewhat more careful response to the last.
"Fine," Tej's melodic purr draws the word out. "Always." Even, and sometimes especially, when she's not. "So he's one of those idiots." The tone of her voice is a little scornful. "Couldn't you have liked someone not about to jump off a cliff into the possibility of love as they fall? It doesn't seem like dragons would leave much room for people. Doubly hard if you leap and find a dragon on the way down, too." Double trouble. "Even so, there are always places if you want it badly enough." Her eyes are roaming the forest again, expression a little distant. One of those nightmares haunting, maybe? It's hard to say with the set of her lips and face in blank serenity.
"I meant it'd be hard to move on when we're living together. Even harder if we both impress. Anyway, it's probably safest if he just… forgets. Or hates me." Something like that, Khavro isn't picky. "Would you stand for the eggs? Have you?" he asks, perhaps wanting to change the subject to something less… this.
Pale gaze snaps back to Khavro, slight flush touching Tejra's cheeks, "Oh. Well. That makes sense. I suppose you don't have a choice but to see him." Then there's a hesitation and she leans a little into his shoulder, "Remind me why it's a bad thing for him to do something other than forget or hate you? I rather enjoy being liked." That last observation is a little detached, though with her unique personality, maybe it doesn't come up often. There's an even longer silence before she answers his last question. "I've never been worthy of being asked." She rolls her shoulders in a fluid shrug. "I stood in the lines with some on the occasion that a search dragon went to the Hall, but…" She draws a breath before murmuring in a tone edged with bitterness, "To know if one wants to dance, one must first be asked."
"You're damned nosy, you know that," says Khavro, nudging into her the way she's done to him. "Who doesn't like being liked." Even he does, apparently, contrary to all proof otherwise. "I know I don't know you that well, but I'm a little surprised you haven't just shown up on the sands in a white robe and grabbed one of them by the knobs."
"I'm not sure I'd want one. It sounds… uncomfortable, to be bound to one being forever. I might chafe too much at the restraints that come with it. I've never been very good at commitments." Except to her knot. But that's something else and she won't bring it up. What Tej will say of her craft is, "Hazard of the job. Which is really just an excuse because a lot of nosy people end up Harpers. I'm not always nosy though. Just when I'm bored. Or when I care." She flashes a feline smile at Khavro. WHICH IS IT? Well, since she said they're probably friends, it's probably safe to assume. "Maybe I'll think about dancing if I'm ever asked." With the knots and the dragons and all that. "Maybe I'll just see how you fare first though. Are you going to grab one by the knobs when you get out there?"
"It does," he has to admit, which might make one wonder why he's doing it at all. But not making sense and inconsistency is basically his thing, right? "Always happy to keep you entertained," Khavro lies to her face. "Not likely. It'd be hilarious to be gutted by a hatchling when I'm trying to avoid being gutted by scary men, though, wouldn't it?"
That actually does make Tejra grin widely at Khavro. WHAT GOOD FRIEND WOULDN'T GRIN THINKING OF THEIR FRIEND BEING GUTTED IN ONE OF TWO DIFFERENT WAYS? "Perhaps you should avoid that," is obvious advice offered too cheerfully before she's laughing. That bell-like laughter rings and she leans herself against the curly-haired candidate, head to his shoulder. "Keep holding yourself together, Riddle. It'll work out somehow. Maybe." It's about as optimistic as she can bring herself to be. A real effort by a real friend. Maybe. There's probably not enough time to really think about it because she's on her feet in one single sinuous move and without another word to him, she takes off, careful with her footing to where she can leap in a breathtaking show of grace before diving down, down, down, into the pool below. Nice chat, friend! See you later~ She won't be back today.