Tell Me

Writers: Heather, Yvonne
Date Posted: 22nd January 2016

Characters: Saidrene, Alina
Description: Saidrene and Alina spend an evening gossiping about everything and everyone.
Location: Dolphin Cove Weyr
Date: month 3, day 4 of Turn 8
Notes: Mentioned: S'avn, Saibra, J'ackt, N'vanik, Corowal, Felyna

Saidrene

Alina

"I look hideous _and_ I'm grounded until the swelling in my sinuses goes down. At least another day." Alina peered at herself in Saidrene's mirror, dismayed at how her black eyes were going yellow around the edges. "It's humiliating."

"Tell me again what exactly happened? You were on sweeps with S'avn, right?" Saidrene asked from where she sat on her couch with her feet tucked beneath her.

Alina prodded at her bruise with a fingertip, then winced. "The last time I tried I couldn't finish because you were laughing so hard," she grumbled. "I'm not sure you get a second chance."

Saidrene tried her best to look contrite, although the gleam in her eyes gave her away, "I promise not to laugh this time," she held up her fingers in a mock salute, "greenrider's honor."

Alina rolled her eyes. A greenrider's honour wasn't worth an eighth of a mark and she didn't trust Saidrene to be properly sympathetic, but she couldn't _not_ tell her story again. "We were on Sweep when we saw the message flag, so we landed and this Cotholder asked us to take his grandson and daughter to the Weyr since his grandson had been bitten by a tunnelsnake. S'avn took the kid, and the mother rode with me until..." She trailed off and narrowed her eyes. "You're _laughing_!"

Tears were leaking from the corners of Saidrene's eyes and her cheeks were puffed out in the effort it took not to let the laughs bypass her lips. With wide eyes that feigned innocence, she shook her head, and then managed in a strangled voice, "No, really. Continue. Don't stop."

"You're a bum," Alina huffed, then went to sit across from Saidrene with her arms crossed and her pride as bruised as her face. "Pass me the wine."

"Oh come on, Al, finish the story! You would laugh too if I was describing a crazy holder woman flailing on a dragon with me trying to subdue her." Saidrene insisted, even as she grabbed the bottle of wine.

Alina snagged the wine from Saidrene and swigged it from the bottle just to be extra impolite, giving her friend the evil eye as she did so. "How's your dear mother?" she asked tartly, and refilled her glass like a normal person. The burn of the alcohol was making her eyes water and she tried not to blink and give Saidrene the satisfaction.

Saidrene was confused as to how the conversation had suddenly become about her mother. "She's fine I suppose, has a new Weyrleader the last I hear, which I am sure has her tickled pink.... Is there anything else you'd like to ask about my family?"

"Maybe. I'd _much_ rather talk about you than me," Alina said with a smug smile over the top of her glass.

"And here I thought you were going to tell me about your sweep duty with S'avn, since I was sure that would be fairly awkward. First time you'd talked since your flight, right?" Saidrene arched an eyebrow.

"Oh." Alina took a hasty sip of wine. "Well... yeah. It was awkward. I mean, I he seems nice enough, but he's also... And then that stupid woman punched me in the face."

"But he's also what?" Saidrene asked.

Alina flushed. "He... won Imarith's flight." It was easier to say it like that than to talk about what he'd done to her behind closed doors. She sighed. I mean, it's... have you slept with anyone except J'ackt?"

Saidrene shook her head, "No, but I think I could get out of my riding leathers in record breaking time if N'vanik showed even the slightest interest." She flashed her friend a smile. "Why?"

"I was just wondering if you had any tips-- not like that!" Alina held up her hand as Saidrene's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "I mean tips on how to talk to someone afterward! I have no idea what to say to him!"

"Me and J'ackt just talk about the usual sort of things. I think it's easier when you're already friends before you have sex." Saidrene was so comfortable with J'ackt that there was none of that awkward nervousness to get in the way. "Sex can be real good, you know, you should ask S'avn for that round two now that there's none of that flight stuff to get in the way. You might like it." Saidrene grinned devilishly.

"Um, no. I'm not that kind of woman." The thought was terrifying.

"As long as you refuse to have sex between your flights then it's just going to be bad for you every time. Wouldn't you like for it to be better?" Saidrene did not understand why Alina would not try to make her situation better instead of suffering because of her holder views.

"Of course I would. But relationships should _mean_ something. Just sleeping around is... empty." She shrugged and tried to ignore the sick feeling in the pit of he stomach. Imarith would probably rise again next month. "Maybe that's all right for you, but it's not for me."

"Then why don't you try to culminate a relationship with someone? Someone that's not J'ackt. He's never going to settle down, not to me, not to you or anyone else."

She ignored Saidrene bringing up J'ackt. "You make it sound so simple, but its not."

"It is simple if you let it be. If you're looking for a storybook relationship, or something that you would find back at the Hold then you're being unrealistic." Saidrene said with her teenage Weyrbred "wisdom".

"Maybe." Alina stared moodily into her wine glass. Everyone said that, but there were occasionally happy marriages-- or weyrmating. Maybe she was being stupid in thinking it would ever happen to her, but she just couldn't imagine hopping from bed to bed and never loving someone. It all seemed so cold, and lonely. "Don't you ever want to fall in love?"

"Of course I do. There at first with J'ackt I thought I had." Up until she found he was sleeping with her mother. She still loved him now, and she knew that he cared about her in return, but Saidrene was looking for someone that would want only her and not a harem of other girls.

"Think you'll weyrmate?"

"I hope too, what about you?"

Alina shrugged. "I always thought I'd marry... what sort of hus-- weyrmate do you want? What do you want him to be like?"

Saidrene lifted her shoulders a little. "I don't know, someone hot of course, N'vanik level hot, you know." She winked. "But I guess, over all, I want someone who only wants me. If I'm going to weyrmate with someone I want to know I'm the only one in his bed, outside of flights of course, those can't be helped. I want to be more than just a line-up of girls, I want to be the _only_ girl."

The other greenrider looked up in surprise. "Huh. I didn't think fidelity would be important to you, since you're weyrbred."

"Well, I guess you don't know everything then do you?" She stuck out her tongue. "By the way, if I'd made an assumption about you and thrown in the word 'holdbred' you would have hatched a dragon. Just because I'm weyrbred and my mother is the definition of promiscuity doesn't mean I want that too."

Alina rolled her eyes. "It's not the same at all." Being Holdbred in the Weyr had a stink to it. It was a mark against your character. "Do you miss her? Your mother."

"Of course I miss her, she's my mother, but at the same time, it's nice being able to be my own person and not be in my mother's shadow all the time." Saidrene was sure her mother understood why she'd chosen to live separately. "What about you? Do you miss your parents?"

The greenrider paused. Part of her missed home so much it hurt, but the ache was getting less. Which was frightening as well. "I... do. Very much," she said slowly. "Family is so important. But I also knew that I'd have to leave them at some point. I wasn't going to marry anyone at Nadol Cothold, which meant that I'd have to move to a strange Holding far away anyway. My sister's begging to foster at Emerald Falls," she added. "My mother's cousin lives there. Her chances will be so much improved if she goes... I would have been begging to go too, if I was still at home."

"What sort of husband do you think your sister will find?" Saidrene asked curiously.

"Well." Alina set down her wineglass. "Who she _wants_ to marry would be someone related to Lord Corowal. A cousin or someone really important. Who I _think_ she will marry...?" She pursed her lips and thought about her red-headed twin. "I think she'll marry a Crafter, or maybe an Understeward. Elana's smart and pretty, and there is no way she would settle for just anyone. She wouldn't be happy if she was stuck with a man who had no prospects or couldn't take care of her. Or who wasn't at least _moderately_ good looking."

"Well, I wish her luck, I wouldn't want to marry anyone from Corowal's clan. Everyone knows he runs around with mistresses." Saidrene said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"No. Really?!" That was _not_ the sort of gossip that made its way to Nadol Cothold. "Does the Lady know?"

Saidrene shrugged, "I reckon so? Everyone says he was seen kissing on his mistress at a Gather a Turn or two ago. Then surely you've heard about how he claimed L'cor as his son, came and watched his Impression and everything. I don't think his infidelity is a secret."

"Huh." Alina was suddenly possessed with the burning desire to go see Elana. Gossip like that would make Elana's hair curl. "L'cor is one thing-- for a Lord Holder to have a child from before he was married isn't _that_ shocking. But kissing his mistress at a Gather in front of everyone... that's kind of awful."

"Isn't it though? To me that says you clearly don't care about your so-called-wife at all. There's no way something like that didn't break poor Lady Felyna's heart. If you at least had some feelings for your wife you would try to hide it in an effort to spare her the pain, I would imagine." Saidrene shrugged a little. "It's interesting gossip nonetheless."

"Marriages." The other greenrider shook her head. "You never actually know what's going on behind closed doors." Agreeing to marry someone was in many ways more of a risk than Impressing. You knew what to expect with a dragon. People knew how to lie.

Last updated on the January 27th 2016

Welcome to Triad Weyrs!

Tell Me