Poking Around

Participants:

Jaya.jpg L'han.jpg Nenienne.jpg

Date: May 16, 2011
Location: The Bar, EW
Synopsis: L'han has returned to Eastern and stops by for a drink along with Nenienne. There's talk of gossip and Landing….and outlaws.
Rating: PG-13
Logger: Jaya


It's at night when the Weyr is settling down after dinner, but the life in the bar still remains going strong with riders, weyrfolk, and travelers alike enjoying the hospitality that is Jaya's bar. And a face that hasn't been seen here in the last few months turns up much to… nothing. L'han smiles at having little recognition here, save for the travelers that he ferried from Landing recently as he makes his way towards the bar.

Life, indeed, remains strong at the bar, with the towering figure of Jaya's Telgari barmaid, Suli looking to be running things. She and the petite blonde, Hayli, are bustling the tables with practiced ease, passing out large rounds of ale (and stronger) to the filled card tables. There is a few vacated spots at the counter from a few dragonriders leaving for the entrance, the shadowy figure of Jaya's bodyguard present and watching them as they leave. As for Jaya herself, she remains behind the counter chatting up a pair of who looks to be dock workers, the two burly men making her erupt to boisterous laughter and the usual witty banter when she's not in one of her darker moods.

Nenienne, who is just entering herself, is one of those who recognizes L'han. Although she doesn't smile, she seems happy enough when she says, "Hello, Watchrider. How are you and Escaeth this evening?"

L'han turns at Nenienne's voice and smiles at her, "Hello Journeyman. I am doing well and so is she… she's finally back in her own weyr where she belongs, I talked to Weyrwoman Ciara about the conditions of being the Watchrider and she agreed something should be done about a more routine rotation of the duty. Escaeth now can sleep here at Eastern and she's snoozing right now by the lack of commentary on what's going on. So I thought I'd grab a few drinks." He takes a breath and inquires, "What about you, how goes your work?"

Jaya is ensconced in talk of north gossip in the meanwhile, the woman moving out of Suli's way as she bumbles past her with empty glasses to set down. "…and then, I still couldn't believe what I heard about Lord Holder Tillek," one of the dock workers was saying, pontificating with his mug of ale loudly. "Lord Elisser wouldn't dare touch a scandal! His own wife! But then, did she look any civilized to you, Morry?" The one called Morry nudges and snorts into his drink, finding amusement in the question before answering, "I've heard the woman spreads her legs for holdless men, even! Lord Tillek was pretty dumb not to have noticed all this time. But then, I heard she was making sure his late night drink was laced with fellis before they went to bed…" - "The two of you are ridiculous," Jaya cuts in, rolling her eyes and reaching over to refill a patron to the left's cup. "Fellis lacing? Screwing holdless men? Next you'll be saying she was Lord Fax's bastard daughter." Eyes sweep the bar then, noting the newcomers along with the old, nodding greetings to those that should catch her eye.

Nenienne ahs. "Good think I ran into you here before my next lesson, then. Any idea who I should look for?" She nods as he recounts the conversation and Escaeth's re-assimilation. "I'm glad she's happy, though — and i imagine you are, too." She pauses at his question, then says, "I haven't been doing much jewelry work, just classes. But the general Smith work I do for the Weyr is going well." She notices Jaya noticing folks and asks somewhat wistfully, "Do you have any of that spiced apple juice left, or have I wiped you out?"

L'han glances towards the gossip of the dockworkers and comments, "Odd… I heard a Hold guard commenting on that woman at Landing too… strange." He glances to Jaya and smiles nodding to her, "And any Benden wine still left or have my fellow riders cleaned you out of that?" He looks back to Nenienne, "Yes, she's very happy… although she spent the last few hours making sure her couch is the way she likes it… even though I'm sure it didn't move while we were gone." He shakes his head before he looks to Neni, "Ahh, that's good to hear about classes… I've been looking up information from the computer in my spare time when no one needs the terminals… mostly to help the Crafters speed up their searches… but some interesting information comes through from time to time."

"I think I heard somewhere that she is," the one called Morry states to Jaya, in which the woman snorts and turns from them to nod in Nenienne and L'han's direction. "I always keep stocked, shuga," she answers them both, moving to place two mugs on the free counter space. "One Benden and one spiced apple coming up." While working on the drinks, the dock workers are snickering over some shared joke - probably along the same lines of the previous Tillek Lord Holder talk.

Nenienne cocks her head curiously at L'han's admission. "Have you found anything which might benefit a jeweler? Like information on better saws, or how to identify gemstones with no equipment?" She mmmms in anticipation as Jaya fills her mug, and doesn't yet pay, which is a tacit signal that she might indulge in more than one mugful. She gazes at the dockworkers, or rather, through them, in the way she has which can be so discomforting.

L'han shakes his head and says, "Nothing significant no, the core of my work is on Threadfall patterns and the orbital paths of the two halves of the Red Star… just thinking about the math involved gives me a headache. The Ancients sure knew a lot more than we ever will. But I will take a look… I think I saw something in there about gem types, although I'd have to write it down to paper." He looks to Jaya and smiles when the Benden is mentioned and he looks back to Nenienne. "Anything really in particular you want me to look for? Being Watchrider gives me terminal time, even if everything I do is logged and gone over by the Masters to make sure I'm not doing anything I shouldn't be doing."

Passing the drink over to Nenienne first, "I trust things have been well?" Jaya asks her while doing so, catching murmured words to her from a passing Suli before she nods to something said. She turns to the Benden wine then, deftly pouring a liberal glass of the wine and passing it his way. "Nice to see you back, L'han," she states with the casual courtesy she gives all dragonriders that enter her bar, the smile easy. "I trust all has been well with you too?"

Nenienne says politely, "Thank you," before taking a sip. "Things have been well aside from an unpleasant meeting at Landing. I'm learning a lot from Master Jarvys; it makes me realize how much I don't know. Learning is the fun part, though." To L'han she says, "Hmmmm. Not so much anything in specific, just maybe ways to work precious metals?" Seemingly as an afterthought she adds, "And that thing you mentioned about gemstones might be intriguing."

L'han smiles to Jaya once the wine makes it's way to him. "Thanks Jaya… and I'm doing alright… better than alright really. Me and Escaeth are allowed to come home now when we trade off the duty of the Watchrider to another… although we'll still be doing it, just not having to stay out there at Landing all the time now." He smiles before he sips from the wineglass and looks to Nenienne. "Master Jarvys… there's a man I have no desire to get on the bad side of. But he knows his craft." With that praise given the Master he considers the question and nods before he says, "I'll write it down the next time I'm there."

"So I hear," Jaya remarks to L'han's news, nodding as she moves to fulfill another round of ale. "Does that mean you're home is here for good then, instead of Landing?" She gives a wry smile to Nenienne then, though some of that fades when she brings up Landing. Eyes flicking towards L'han, "What happened in Landing?" she asks, clearly not having heard. "What meeting?" - "Another drink, if you will," Morry and his companion bellows, which sends the Eye towards them from the barkeep without stopping her work.

Nenienne nods ruefully about crossing Jarvys. "Even less so if you're a female," she notes. She nods at his offer and says, "Thank you." As for Jaya's question, she answers tersely, "Some men poking around, asking after Ka.. a Weyr guest. They claimed to be his friends, but I didn't buy it for a minute."

L'han nods to Jaya. "Home again to stay… provided Weyrwoman Randi doesn't decide to overturn Ciara's decision. Which I'd hope months of separation would have done enough to let our past go." He shakes his head before he looks to Nenienne. "What did they look like? I can sort them out if they're becoming a real problem, Neni." He doesn't like people poking around in a place he's responsible for, from the expression on his face.

"Men, poking around….?" Jaya echoes curiously behind L'han, a brow lifting towards Nenienne. Ka? She runs through the names she knows of those guesting at the Weyr with that syllable, one choice jumping out at her but she shakes her head at it. L'han steals her question on wanting to know what the men looked like, and so she silences, looking from one to the other, passing a round of drinks over the counter towards the waiting Hayli. "Someone's always looking for someone down here in the south," the blonde barmaid remarks in almost a bored tone, apparently having overheard the exchange. "This place is sure becoming a land of outlaws if I should say so." And she lobs off with her drinks in hand.

Nenienne nods. "I reported them to the guards at Landing, and I also mentioned it to Max and the person they were looking for." She then rattles off, in the tone of one who has repeated this information a time or three, "Big, rough-looking, reddish hair and one with a beard. I'm to point them out to Yaron if I see them again, as per Max." Hayli's remark is met with… something. Possibly a bit of concurrence, but more overtly dubious, at least in her final claim.

L'han glances at Hayli with a frown and says, "Outlaws… I hate outlaws." He shakes his head before he looks back to Neni when she describes them. The greenrider nods and rubs his chin and says, "I think I'll have words with them if I should spot them in Landing again. And besides, Max did want to know if anyone is acting suspicious in Landing."

Jaya's brow twitches at Max's name though she says nothing. "I see," she states, nodding a few times, thoughtful at this bit of news more than the gossip of Lord Holders and their Ladies up north. Something about the news clearly unsettling her, but she doesn't give open words to it. Eyes cut to L'han when he mentions anyone acting suspicious, her expression growing dubious. "There's really been that much trouble down Landing way?" she asks no one in particular with slight unease. Though, with a sardonic touch to tone for L'han's first remark, "As I'm sure the outlaws hate you," and with a pointed look to his dragonrider shoulderknot. More casual, "There's no proof that these men are outlaws, besides. Could be men looking to settle some debt. Plenty of those types here."

Nenienne says wryly, "Only if you can be outlawed for not bathing." She hmmmms at L'han's comment on Max. "I wonder if he made the request before or after the incident," she muses. She seems surprised to hear about debtors, though the puzzled look vanishes in short order. She has been nursing her juice, and now she finishes, then politely asks for another.

L'han smirks and says, "Yeah… they made that clear at Fort Jaya. I know enough of shit to know there's a helluva lot we dragonriders miss out on just because we are dragonriders." He looks to Neni and says, "Before… he just wanted to know anything that was odd… people acting weird." He shrugs and says, "Well outlaw or not, they need to be looked at. I'm probably the one they won't mess with there… Eastern may be a small Weyr, but Escaeth would go nuts if there was a problem and wake up every dragon here."

At Nenniene's quip, Jaya actually snickers - impressed. "As it should be," she remarks to L'han on dragonriders missing out, moving to refill Neni's glass with more spiced apple. "The lands are unforgiving as it is to be adding more fire to the blaze." One would think she seem sympathetic to the outlaw cause, the way she speaks. "All the same," she continues to say, passing Neni back her filled glass, "I agree. It should be checked out, in the case it's something serious. Especially if Max suggests it should be looked for."

Nenienne gives a dubious nod, her expression troubled. "I'm not sure they should be approached, though. I don't know that Max or Yaron wants them tipped off that someone is onto them," she muses. She gratefully accepts the fruit juice and takes a rather larger gulp than she'd intended, or perhaps it just goes down wrong, but she ends up giving a few choked coughs, fortunately not the type which sprays.

L'han glances at Nenienne and says, "Well… I should probably talk to Randi too about it. She'll want to know suspicious types are in Landing… it's not something I fancy telling her -after- the fact." He then shrugs and says, "And Jaya, I dunno, it seems that life can be hard all over. Riding a dragon is probably no harder than life on the road or off the land. I just find people that do whatever the heck they want with no rules to be the worst kind of dangerous. It's bad for a Hold and bad for the Weyr." That's his view anyways, which he finishes off his glass of wine to.

A tradergirl Jaya would counter as quick as a tunnelsnake to L'han's views, but this current Jaya chooses to only twitch a smile that could be taken as disagreement. "Anymore?" she asks the both of them far too lightly, lifting up the red bottle of spiced apple before Suli appears with more discarded mug, mumbling a few words towards her and nodding in the direction of one of the card tables. Jaya sends her sharp regard there, frowning slightly before she finally steps away. "Suli will see to your drinks," Jaya sends to Neni and L'han, nodding her pardons, her eyes once again shifting towards the card table in question before she sidles off.

Nenienne finishes coughing and wipes the tears from her eyes, then meekly finishes the rest of her drink. She fishes around in her pouch for payment and slides it toward Jaya, saying, "I think I've had enough for tonight. Thank you." She gets up and begins to head out, still coughing lightly a few times.

L'han nods to Nenienne as she heads out before he sticks around for some time afterwards drinking. He eventually departs with questions and not many answers to them.



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