Xanadu Weyr - Purgatory
While the cottage is not large, the rooms are spacious, the place constructed with an open floor plan and designed with the young at heart. Large windows allow for light to flood the area, while inside shutters may be closed for privacy. The dragon space is slightly concave, slate laid to protect the floors from sharp claws. The rest of the flooring is polished hardwood. A simple kitchenette has a dining area that juts out over the waters below, along with a breakfast nook sort of room. The living room is completed by a low, comfortable couch and a few large cushion-like pillows that when piled together make more of a nest-like seating around a small, equally low, dark wood table. Two other ground level rooms form a spacious and well furnished 'guest' room, while the other is suited more as an 'study'.
The draw for 'young ones' comes with the spiral staircase that leads to a loft bedroom, also flooded with light from the triangular window in the peak of the ceiling. Beneath that very window, rests a circular-shaped bed. Tiny pinpoints of light are imbedded in the ceiling to form 'stars' when the main lights are extinguished. Encircling the spiral staircase is a slide — a fast and fun way to get back downstairs. Affixed from the stout beam that runs the length of the peaked ceiling is a thick rope swing. For those… rainy days.
Mutinous. It's the best word to describe the expression on Risali's face as she comes shouldering her way in through the door to their weyr, booted feet kicking the bottom to HOLD IT OPEN as she stumbles her way inside with hair slick at the bottoms, curling and clinging to each other (and her clothes) in those ever-present loose curls with oil. But those grey eyes are focused, intent, as the goldrider stares at her hands and then wipes them down the front of her tunic, leaving behind a trail of imprints in the shape of dragging hands that go from breast to belly. She doesn't care. She's already past the threshold, past the living room (that's beginning to fill with BABY THINGS) to the kitchen where she retrieves a knife. And then yes, Risali is gathering up so much hair in the fist of one hand, twisting it over her shoulder, and then STARTING TO SAW AWAY AT IT. Not too high up, of course. She's got to leave room for mistakes, but she's starting a mutiny against the bottom four or five inches of it — with intent.
"Risa!" K'vir would be wiser NOT to raise his voice in startled exclamation when Risali is holding SCISSORS to herself (okay, her hair but still!), but the shock of walking in on that has common sense escaping him. He'd been upstairs, but she made a loud enough entrance to bring him out of hiding and down the stairs. Now he's just standing there in surprised awe of the scene before him. MAYBE HE SHOULD BE USED TO THIS? Really, you'd think he'd expect worse! "What're you doing? Why are you hacking off your hair?" Her beautiful hair! Woe. Says the man who keeps his shoulder length; it's currently still damp from a good bath after drills and thus a curly, wavy mess.
Risali pauses, mid-swipe, to turn and face her weyrmate in answer to his exclamation. Grey eyes take K'vir in, focused for a moment too long, and then Risali goes right back at it — perhaps in defiance, perhaps just because she won't be deterred as more strands flutter to the kitchen floor or cling to her clothing in the hopes of remaining, perhaps just because. "Why?" Risali asks, almost incredulous before she slams that knife down on the counter and turns back to K'vir, hands on her hips. The cut she's rendered so far is a little angled (given she pulled her hair over her shoulder), but it's sitting somewhere around her middle now, instead of reaching her hips. "Every time I oil Leirith, it gets dirty. Selene gets her hands and her feet in it, and I have shut it in the sharding door, or got it caught in my straps, or sat on it more times than is reasonable. That is why I'm cutting it." IF YOU TRY TO STOP HER, SHE WILL CUT YOU TOO, BRONZERIDER. And there Risali goes, picking up her weapon of choice once more, going back to work on her hair as FLITS COME UNENCUMBERED AND DELIGHTED, doing an ace job of clean-up so that they can make messy nests for eggs they may or may not have in the future somewhere nearby (THANKS DASH). Risali kicks at them with intent to spook, not harm, and hisses, but it's of little use. Really, she probably should be focused on the fact that she has SHARP THINGS IN HER HANDS and is GETTING RID OF HER HAIR, but she's not. Because she's Risali. Still, there's a pause, as Risali's attention flickers back to K'vir and her resolve wavers (now that it's too damn late). "I'll keep it long. Just, not that long." BECAUSE IT WAS UNREASONABLE, AND SHE'S A DRAGONRIDER. QUICK, CHANGE THE TOPIC! "Ah… we should convert the guest room into a nursery." EXCELLENT CHOICE. "For Selene. And…" A beat, a moment where Risali just STARES at K'vir with her lips forming words that never come, and then HACKHACKHACK. THAT'S RIGHT. EXPERT SKILLS IN PRETENDING LIKE THAT WAS THE END OF THAT SENTENCE. Don't be TOO envious now, ya'll. That amount of awkward took her turns to perfect. "Unless you want to keep it in tact, should you or Dash feel the need to bring home other people." Totally what she was going for.
Well there's a THREAT HE'S USED TOO! So K'vir just ignores it and calls her bluff while simultaneously listening to her perfectly logical reason for wanting to cut off her hair. Shock gives way to bemusement, which then melts to an honest to goodness laugh. He'll wait and carefully circle around her while she resumes HACKING AWAY and (failing to) chase firelizards off. When he's not at risk of loosing a finger or a hand, he'll reach to gently take her by the wrist and then pry the knife out of her hand. One, two, LET HIM EXPLAIN RISA! K'vir's probably anticipating instant retaliation but he'll just be a massive jerk and literally hold her at arms length if he has to; all while hastily talking. "Okay, you've made a good point! And I can help you, if you want it. And… maybe get you something better than this… knife?" That was his GOOD KNIFE, Risa! The one he makes delicious food with! Looking down at it, he'll sigh quietly and merely set it aside (AWAY from her) and go rummaging about for something far more suitable. Has he ever cut hair before? NOPE. But it can't turn out any worse than her doing it to herself, right? RIGHT? "I figured it was agreed that we're making the guest room a nursery?" What was that unspoken sentence? K'vir ASSUMES but says nothing. La la la, where are those shears? "Funny, Risa!" About bringing other people here. HA HA, what a laugh, right?
OI, OI, OI. Risali looks rather offended by that laugh, her chin going up in defiance as she chops away more hair and — wait a second. Wait one gosh darn, cotton picking second. K'vir starts to advance, and those grey eyes jump, focus, and Risali's expression definitely reads (to those fluent in Risalinese) that she's gonna run. Only, the goldrider spends too much time trying to calculate how fast and where she's going to have to be to dodge around K'vir to actually do it. So yes, the younger rider takes the older captive, earning himself an indignant shriek of protest because UNHAND HER SIR, she has body autonomy and she intends to use it to see her hair cut away to — "DASHIEL! HELP!" WHAT. That doesn't even make sense; D'lei isn't even here, but Risali's trying to hook a booted foot between herself and K'vir, aiming her teeth for his arm until the bronzer speaks again and Risali gives him the kind of exasperated look (FROM AROUND THAT CHOMP ON HIS PERSON) that says she hates him and hopes that all of his bacon burns (and okay, maybe she was being playful the whole time, but shhh). Then she brightens considerably, because K'vir's attempts to keep her from hair cutting are actually just attempts to keep her from doing a hack job, and she can totally get behind that. "Shoulder-blades," she tells him, as he pries KNIVES AWAY FROM FINGERS, and grey eyes watch the setting aside of that abused knife before they jump back to blue. One, two, three… "We're going to need more rooms," Risali says, and then those eyes narrow as K'vir tells her she's funny, and she totally punches him in the back of the arm when he turns away to look for those shears because she's just not Risali if she isn't violently affectionate (or rude). "It was your idea, stupid bronzerider. First it was the, 'D'lei isn't allowed in our room, so this is his and whoever else we decide to bring home's place to sleep with us - in the fun way,' room, and then it was the, 'Just kidding, because my idea of not letting another man get in the middle of my weyrmating is to invite him into that very same bed I told my weyrmate he wasn't allowed in and literally get him in the middle.' So how was I supposed to know, Kyzen?" SEE. SHE IS A COMEDIAN. She's not; Risali's not even a little bit funny, but she is just kidding if the tone of her voice gives any indication to her mood. And it does. She still probably harbors a grudge for them breaking in the weyr before she got a chance though, or she just short-circuits every time she things about that HOT MINGLE OF MANS — "What kind of theme do you think Selene will like, Kyzen? Dragons? Cats?" Shouldn't D'lei be here for this conversation?
Oh, how he never tires of the STORM that Risali is when she's all fired up! K'vir weathers it, from shrieks to calls for help (okay, that earned her a LOOK) and then the potential chomping and the punches to his (not-so) delicate frame. Does she really enjoy hitting walls? Because she may as well go punch one, given how little it seems to affect the bronzerider (he's holding it all inside, like a good man). "I made some decisions that really needed more thought," he explains on the whole D'lei sleeping here or there scenario. That was A LOT for him to cope with, all at once, okay? Give the man a break! Risali should be grateful it didn't end a lot worse. And it wasn't even the bed they broke in but, y'know, DETAILS SHE'LL NEVER KNOW! "That," AH-HA! There's the shears. He'll hold them up and, grin in place, making a few snip-snips at the air. Get ready, woman! You've entrusted him with this task and not even ASKING if he had the skill to pull it off! In a few steps, he's back to her side, regardless of previous violence. And because he's not already toying with FIRE and wanting to die, he'll gently boop her nose with a single finger. "… is something we decide all together." DON'T WORRY DASH! Decor decisions will not be made tonight. Instead? He gives Risa a little nudge, if he hasn't had his arm severed from his body by this point. "Go and sit down, so we can finish this haircut of yours."
Risali might enjoy hitting walls, but she definitely enjoys hitting K'vir. The look he gives her for calling for help earns him a look in return - a challenge, defiance, the lift of brows and the upturn of lips that hint at laughter even if she never lets any slip. But she gives in to her weyrmate's gentle patience, leaning in against his much taller frame with her chin pressed to his side as she tilts her head and finds blue with grey. She holds to K'vir's tunic, going on the tips of her toes, leaning the entirety of her unimpressive weight against his frame as she listens and… bites him somewhere near his ribs. "Actually," she drawls, relinquishing fabric and flesh, "I think it could have used more eyes." Which is to say FOR SHAME YOU DIDN'T LET HER WATCH. Not that she doesn't get plenty of opportunities to watch now (and she TAKES THEM, because HOT DAMN), which is IRRELEVANT to the here and now, where Risali is pushing away from K'vir, and smacking his shoulder as he SPOILS HER FUN and she makes her way to that chair to sit. "Cats and dragons, then." SHE AIN'T NEED NO MAN. FIGHT HER. "Tell me that story again Kyzen. The one where you first met Zekath." And so the night will go: K'vir cutting away Risali's hair (but only to her shoulderblades, if he doesn't want to DIE), Risali asking for stories while he works, and sometimes trading her own. Something she doesn't do often. She might even press the issue of NURSERY DECORATIONS. Because she's Risali and she's gonna do what she damn well pleases (and okay, run them by D'lei later, when he walks through the door, which will be eventually). For now, Risali enjoys K'vir's company, and finds herself feeling lighter than she felt when she stepped through that door, especially when the time of night comes that Risali inevitably asks the bronzerider behind her to dance.