Participants:
| Date: | April 11, 2011 |
|---|---|
| Location: | EW - bowl |
| Synopsis: | What happens in the bowl, stays in the bowl… |
| Rating: | PG - some language |
| Logger: | Kaskan |
CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS:
INSERT CHARACTER DESC HERE
ROOM DESCRIPTION:
INSERT ROOM DESC HERE
LOG:
Afternoon has begun to wane but the mid-day heat has not. The bowl is as bustling as ever as weyrfolk and riders move about on their daily business. Kaskan leans on the wall along the bowl, his focus turned on a nearby green, her rider, and a young boy eyeing them both with rapt attention. Having chosen his positioning wisely, the guard stands in a strip of shade cast by the high cliff walls above, taking advantage of the meager drop in temperature it offers. One knee is bent to brace his foot against the wall and his arms are loosely crossed, a stringy-looking reed jutting out from his lips.
Even to this day, it’s not often one catches a glimpse of Jaya outside her bar, and moreso in the bowl. Today must be a rare occasion. She has a tawny-colored bag in one hand, currently rummaging through it for something as she starts crossing the bowl towards where the living caverns were. She seems distracted, more into what’s in the bag than what’s infront of her that she was quick to run right into a laundress walking by with folded towels. Before she could recover, the tower of towels explodes in front of her face, practically landing the plumb, young laundress on top of her. On the ground and on her bum, Jaya collects up her bag and looks around to make sure no one saw the collision before she’s up on her feet mumbling an absentminded apology and is back to looking in the bag and walking in Kaskan’s direction.
As attentive as Kaskan is to his charge's well being, especially around a creature that could flatten him like a pancake with one accidental flip of a wing, there is no way Kaskan is going to miss Jaya's delicious tumble. At first her approach only registers as motion in his periphial vision but the flurry of towels and limbs is enough to pull his gaze to the side entirely.
Recognition is instant, as is the brightening of amusement in his pale blue eyes. Seeing the women rise quickly, he maintains his casual pose but there's no help for the smirk from which his twitching reed dangles. Watching her askance as she draws nearer he waits till she's within earshot to ask in a thick tone:
"Walk much, Jaya?"
The familiar tone stops Jaya from walking, the Bitran looking up with a blink before the voice fully registers along with the sight she sees before her. “Oh, Kas,” she drops her shortened name for him, the attention with the bag suddenly forgotten since she snaps it shut and slings it over one shoulder in one fluid motion as she resumes her approach. Since he greeted with something witty, she takes a good look at him and his pose before returning, “Loiter in bowls, much?” and moving into the shade to stand by his side. Scanning the bowl as if trying to see and determine what his purpose for being there was, “”I believe I just ran into Bila the laundress,” she notes a bit too idly, the young woman having gathered the towels in a heap instead of in nice folded lines and stalked off. “You fucked her once, didn’t you?” which is her crass way of making conversation, but she does tack on right after that, “And what are you doing here, other than watching Bila attack me with fresh towels?” Because she didn’t run into the woman. Nope.
A miniscule smirk tugs at the side of Kaskan's lips, blue-eyed gaze cast askance as he maintains a casual demeanor when Jaya joins him. Her quick retort garners a slight head-bob of approval. Chalk one up for the barkeep. But it's her next nonchalantly delivered comment that blows his cool veneer to pieces. A sharp choking snort leaps from his throat, attention turning fully round on her. Plucking the reed from his lips he flips it about in gesture while replying. "I'll have you know… " he starts in a firm tone, pinning her with a serious expression - one that totally fails when it reaches his eyes. Long pause. Then he flips his hand dismissively and sticks the reed back in his mouth. "Scratch that. You already know too much." Turning to look back toward his ward he pretends to be preoccupied again. Resolve wars with humor, hanging on control and concentration. Don't look at her. Don't look at her. So the chant goes.
A moment is required.
Swelled with success, Kaskan finally lets the mockery go and leans toward her for a brief shoulder-to-shoulder nudge. A playful smile blossoms, bright against his deepening tan. In answer to her last he tilts his head toward the bowl where Jhorn is currently shaded by the green's raised wing as her rider points out the delicate bone structure. "Jhorn's getting a dragon lesson. Don't ask me how but he conned P'ella into agreeing to it."
When Kaskan rounds on her for her response, Jaya is sending him a sweet
smile in return. Eyes wide to show innocence, “No, I don’t know all
there is to the guard from South Boll,” she corrects him, turning her
expression ahead of them with a little smirk in her voice. “You don’t
trust me, so I have to rely on the hearsay of women. A shame, really?”
At least she’s partially joking. Out of the corner of her eye she
watches him watch his ward, waiting for any sort of response until he
gives it. When he nudges her, “You’re letting him get a dragon lesson?”
she puts out there, turning to watch Jhorn with the dragonrider. “What
did he con you with? A new set of knives, or something?” she asks wryly.
Kaskan turns to face Jaya again with surprised confusion plain on his
face. Dark brows furrow over his expressive pale blue regard. The
reed dangles forgotten from his lips but doesn't fall as he appears to
struggle, finally saying, "Don't trust you? Jaya, how can you say
that?" He pauses a second, hand rising to give long-ish bangs a quick
threading with one hand. The layers shift and sway, then fall right
back to partially obscure his view. Male mental processes interpret
her words literally, his tone rising with hopeful doubt as he tries to
clarify, "You don't really want to know who I've slept with, do you?"
The insinuation is there that he'll tell her if she wants though he'd
rather not. That's worth something, right?
As far as Jhorn is concerned, the boy is relatively safe for the
moment. Though still huge, at least a green is the smallest of the
dragons. Being on shaky ground with XXX, he has a healthy waryness of
the massive gold version. So Jaya's questions concerning Jhorn's
finagling skills are skiipped for now, but not forgotten, in the face
of something potentially more serious.
“No, you don’t,” Jaya disagrees openly, but there’s no tint of mockery
nor accusation. She’s merely stating facts, and it wasn’t something she
was looking to argue on. “And no, I don’t want to know who you’ve slept
with,” and a smile shows up, wry. “All I was saying was that you’re the
most guarded man here in this Weyr, next to another one that frustrates
me so.” Turning to watch Jhorn now with his lessons, her chin lifting
almost petulantly, “This is not going to help him forget all about
becoming a dragonrider, you know,” she notes with a light nudge into
Kaskan’s shoulder. “He gets a taste of pure flying? It will be all he
can see. Admittedly, I can see the appeal. Having a dragon at your
call, flying to places in mere seconds as opposed to days, mating
flights…” because surely that would be the one thing that sticks out
for Jaya, and she seems to not mind their end results at all.
A soft huff escapes as Kaskan presses his lips together, obviously not happy
with the turn of the conversation. Relief that she doesn't want to know
details of his exploits - as if there had been many since he's come to the
weyr, met her, then found Rio - quickly dissolves that concern in the face
of something that bothers him much more.
But first his frown deepens, adding feathered lines of shadow around his
eyes as she continues to talk of Jhorn. "He's just curious, as he should
be. It'll make him a better Holder someday. He knows he's too important as
Boll's heir." At least Kaskan hopes so. His tone is firm but his
confidence sometimes wavers, wary of having such a weighty responsibility on
shoulders used to being irresponsible. Jhorn is young and impressionable.
If he strays or things go badly the blame will all fall on Kaskan.
Annoyance flairs as his thoughts review the situation and he turns to watch
the trio of boy, rider, and dragon. Resuming his earlier pose he holds the
reed lightly in one hand, biting down hard enough on it to break off a piece
and then having to spit it out to one side.
The matter of Jhorn is shunted aside as he stubbornly returns to
contemplating the other concern. Jaya is his friend - more than that with
the added layer of intimacy they've shared. Not since the young guard
captain who convinced him to settle at Boll has he let someone new get that
close. Since finding Rio and rekindling long-buried dreams he's begun to
think there might - just maybe - be hope for him here in the south. If that
means he can learn to open up more then - Red Star be damned! - he's gonna
start with Jaya.
"Jaya," he starts without looking at her. "It's not that I don't trust you.
It's just…" Words clog in his throat, not wanting to come out right. A
harper's fluid tongue was never his gift. Clenching his teeth he sighs. "It's just that
there are some things that would be bad for you to know."
Bad for her. Bad for him. Bad for what they might make her think of him.
It's a risk. But… a risk he's willing to take so she'll believe him. "I'll try," he continues,
turning a sidelong look through skewed bangs.
Intensity hangs in the air, churning his blue gaze with storms of graying
silver. "What do you want to know?"
Jaya lapses into silence, seeming engrossed in watching Jhorn with the
dragonrider. Despite her quick words to the contrary, the Bitran woman
seems to be more interested in the workings of dragonriders than she
usually lets on. “He knows?” she echoes that one in open disbelief on
Jhorn knowing his duties as a Lord Holder heir, sending Kaskan a
pointed look. Yeah, she’s probably want to hear that come out Jhorn’s
own mouth rather his guard’s. She’s shaking her head, lapsing into
silence once more as she spies on the training with him until he speaks
more candidly. She doesn’t look at him right away, her gaze going
towards a passing girl with covered baskets in her hands. The side of
her mouth twists at something said, “You forget who I am and where I
come from,” she drawls almost dryly, finally looking his way for his
words on hearing things that could be difficult. “I’m not like these
folks around here,” and she flicks a hand about in a gesture
encompassing the whole Weyr. “I’m really the last person to be
judging, or thinking bad of you.” Lips thinning, “Is there a
specific thing I should know?” she asks then when he does, shaking her
head a bit. “All I said was that I don’t know all there is to know
about the guard from Boll, whatever all that means. So,” and her
arms fold, taking to leaning back at angle that keeps Jhorn and the
dragonrider still in easy view, “I’ll leave what you want to tell me,
to you, shuga.” With a wry grin touching full lips, “If I really
knew what made you tick, Kas, then I would have known what to ask,
hmmm?” Which clearly, she doesn’t. Kaskan was just that good at keeping
guarded.
Watching her profile while she speaks, Kaskan does realize he's lumped her in with the rest of the weyrfolk and southerners. Automatically defensive, its a two-fold sword: cautious of anyone knowing too much yet protective of those to whom he's grown closer by keeping them in the dark. Like a sword, it cuts deep.
In typical fashion, Kaskan retreats slightly with humor in the face of such a serious topic. A wisp of wryness draws his lips, expression softening with rugged charm as he tilts his head toward her. “I thought women liked it when a man is a little mysterious?” Teasing lasts only a moment more before being drawn away by the weight of her steady gaze. Jaw working slightly, he uncrosses an arm to raise to his chin and scrub at the dusting of stubble he's let grown. “Leaving it to me.. hm.. if I needed any reminders of what you are, barkeep, that'd do it.” Sneaky woman. Turning a focused blue gaze back on the woman he continues, watching her expression closely. “I got into some trouble before I was at Southern Boll. Moving there was my way of… hiding..” Remembering that she knows somewhat of his history with Rio he adds, “I mean trouble beyond Bitra. I can't ever step foot there again but they wouldn't hunt me down.” Insinuating that someone else would. “So I'm careful. I wouldn't want word getting back to the wrong people and endangering those around me. I… liked it at Boll. And now…” His hand drops to flip a quick gesture that includes her and Jhorn then beyond to others before returning to cross his chest again. His voice softens, slate blue gaze growing slightly unfocused. “Now I'm in a place where I don't want to move on again. I care about people who I don't want to leave. But I know it's coming. Eventually it has to catch up with me. I can feel it. And if any of you got hurt because of me….” A shadow flush deepens the tan of his skin, brow furrowing and lips tightening against the words left unspoken.
“There’s mysterious,” Jaya drawls, keeping her tone amused with the guard, “ and then there’s blatantly evasive.” She chuckles to herself, willing to tease more until she spies his expression turning more serious. At his response to what she was, hands go up with innocence. “Hey, I’ve asked questions before and got nothing but your rugged smile,” she notes with an easy shrug. Turning sober then when he starts talking about his past, “What kind of trouble?” she immediately asks, her interest clearly caught. “And why can’t you step foot in Bitra again? Owe someone from losing too many card games or something?” Arms cross and she leans against the wall, her attention no longer on Jhorn and his dragonriding lesson anymore. It’s only when he gestures toward Jhorn that she looks in his direction. Brows furrowing towards his latter words without looking at him, “If it’s the kind of trouble that I’m in, then you’re in the right place,” she adds with a firm nod. “And you’re right. It will eventually catch up to you, whatever it is, the way all my shit’s going to catch up to me."
Nearby, Jhorn steps under the raised wing of the green and reaches up with both hands as if he's holding it up himself. His delighted laugh, just beginning to deepen with the advance of adulthood, carries across the distance. Kaskan grins at the sight even though his thoughts are on the woman beside him. Dark brows perk slightly as she asks about Bitra, his gaze drawn back to her. “I thought Rio told you about that.” His lips tighten as he shifts his weight against the wall, still balanced on just one leg. The prospect of delving even deeper into his past raises a resistant uneasiness. Her last remarks draw even more surprise from the guarded guard so that he addresses them first; curiosity first, then doubt that it can be as bad as his situation, and even a sliver of relief that she might really understand the weight baring down on his shoulders because of it all. “What d'you mean? What trouble are you in?"
Jhorn’s delight draws Jaya’s interest, the woman turning her gaze from one interest to another without pause. “Last she spoke to me, it was of Crom,” she tells Jhorn’s guard, regarding the dragonrider lesson. “She never spoke of troubles of Bitra, but then, the last time we talked, she was distraught over you walking out on her.” Clearly that was long before Rio and Kaskan has made up. When the guard falls silent, that’s when she looks his way to gauge his expression. She watches his lips tighten, and the way he shifts his weight with interest. His resistance seems expectant, for the barkeep does not push. When he questions her on her own past, however, a hand lifts and she flaps it at him in dismissal of it. “You know a bit of the trouble I have on me. I wasn’t born with this scar, you know,” and the fingers of that hand lift to trace the jagged edges of it running down the side of her face. “But I’m still not sure of you yet,” she notes, straightening up. “You might still be one of those guards looking for the bounty attached to a fugitive. Prove to me otherwise and I’ll share.” It was a challenge – a story for a story as it were.
At a whooping yelp from the bowl Kaskan turns and spies Jhorn, alone atop the green now, sending him an excited wave. Nerves tingle warily for the boy’s watchful guardian, but the sight of P’ella standing in front with one hand on the dragon’s neck is reassuring. Resetting his own stance, back against the wall, he draws in a deep breath that fills his chest and lets it out in a long sigh. "Alright Jaya,” he starts, pointedly eyeing her askance. "I'm more likely to be on a bounty hunter’s list right alongside you than be one myself. S’one of the reasons I joined the guards at Boll. Figured that’d be the last place anyone would look for a runaway thief, eh?” A wry grin lifts a corner of his lips. “I used to run with some very bad people for a while. Ruffians, thugs, thieves… they had no conscience at all. I guess… maybe that’s why I did it. I felt dead inside so became the worst version of myself." He pauses as a woman carrying a closed basket and trailing two children passes, garnering a suspicious look from the weyr woman as his dark expression is observed. Once they’re past he continues, “Anyway, it got worse over time and people started t’get hurt. I looked t’other way at first – I thought I c’handle it.” His tan complexion deepens with the rise of painful emotions, words growing more clipped for the force it takes to spit them out. “I pulled out… one job too late.” A moment then, his unfocused gaze watching Jhorn twist and turn atop the dragon, and then he looks to Jaya again.
The whooping yelp from ahead of them catches Jaya’s attention, eyes slightly narrowing in Jhorn’s direction as she watches. Her gaze is still on him when Kaskan starts to speak, her chin slightly lifting as her lips twist at something divulged. “So you escaped your fate by becoming the very thing that is hunting you,” she seems to sum up, the wry smirk touching lips as hands draw into pockets. “Hiding in plain sight. Clever,” she notes, dark eyes flicking towards the Bollian guard. That amusement slowly ebbs when he talks about the sorts he was running with, frowning a bit before she adds, “I see. Such trouble, Kas.” She falls silent again towards the end, watching his expression, though the last statement has her echoing, “One job too late?” clearly asking for more information. Then it was her turn. Looking back to the dragonrider lesson, it’s a moment’s pause before she starts to speak. “My story is more or less similar to yours,” she says, sniffing with a little shrug. “Got caught up. Bad crowd. Did some….things,” and she doesn’t go into it, not giving details in kind. “Screwed up on a job but it wasn’t due to my actions, and then….” And she looks his way pointedly, “….and then my mouth wrote a debt I couldn’t pay. Had a falling out. Got a souvenir for it,” and hand lifts, letting her thumb slowly trace down the nasty scar on the side of her face visible to him. “Had to get away, and did. Been running ever since,” she tells him, looking away again. “The threat’s always there, though, shuga. People I fucked with are really bad sorts. My family has a history of bad sorts. Been living my life, knowing that eventually, things will catch up to me. Staying here for the last several months isn’t exactly helping my situation, either,” she adds a bit dryly, “but what’s done is done. I have a bar now. I’m attached to these people here. Just packing up and leaving isn’t such a priority anymore, despite the darkness of my situation.”
Kaskan listens, gaze alternating between her and the bowl and an occasional grunt responding to her comments. He’d assumed whatever darkened her past was bad to have gotten such a severe brand, but to hear her speak of it, even vaguely, is still surprising. Women didn’t run in the circles he frequented – at least not for other than abuse and whoring. When she finishes he looks to her, whistling softly. “Is whoever’s hunting you the same that did that to you?” he asks, glancing at her scars. At mention of her bar and being attached he sighs, glance drawn to his young ward. “I know what you mean about that. I didn’t want this assignment but I couldn’t turn it down without telling them why. I worry every day I’m going to endanger Jhorn, and now, as you say, I’ve grown attached to others here.” A little grin hovers about the corner of his lips as he pointedly catches her eye again. “Tell you what, Jaya. Let’s make a deal. I’ll watch your back and you watch mine. No one would dare mess with the two of us combined, eh?” Pale blue catches the light in his sidelong gaze, smugly amused, as he raises the arm closest to her offer a flattened palm."
Watching Kaskan’s face carefully as she speaks, Jaya almost seems to expect the question put to her. Her answer is immediate: “Yes.” Beat. “He wanted me to take the fall for the botched mission, and I defied him. I insulted him infront of his peers. Dicori temper and all that,” she remarks with a faint smirk that has little warmth. “But it’s common for a renegade to be a turncoat, is it not?” Not expecting any answer to that, she waves a hand in dismissal of the last statement, shaking her head and looking back towards the dragonriding lesson. In a low voice, as if not for his ears, “I was his best. I’m good at what I do. An asset. He should have had my back, not sell me out. A Dicori never stands that. I have my family’s reputation to think of, even if that family’s a notorious one.” Dark eyes seek out his stormy ones then for his words on being attached to his ward, inclining her head briefly in understanding. “Does this trouble…know you are here?” she asks then, frowning as she looks at Jhorn. “Are they the sorts to have a tracker, or to hire one at least?” Trackers made it their jobs to hunt down a target, but not to catch them. All the same, they were just as deadly, for they did the dirty work of finding their fugitive for their employer. Vaputero hired many. When the guard catches her gaze again along with his words of helping each other out, a brow lifts on the side of the face that pulls up the nasty scar. That dark gaze drops to the offered hand to seal the deal briefly, flicking back up to his gaze as she clearly deliberates. “And how would we help each other?” she asks this wryly, not yet agreeing. “I have a broad back to watch, shuga. My enemies have far-seeing eyes. You will be risking more of yourself, and Jhorn, by involving yourself in mine.” Curiosity is what fuels her questioning, the Bitran seeming to try to see into his skull.
Kaskan's head bobs slowly as she answers his question. He'd expected as much. When she lobs the same time back he shakes his head the other way briefly. “No. And I hope to Faranth that it stays that way. I've tried not to draw attention to myself or do anything that'd cause people to talk about me.” Lips form a closed straight line and he sighs through his nose, glance sliding out to the young Bollian again. “I was hoping the southern continent was far enough away.”
Her reaction to his offer sifts a touch of humor across his lips. He should have known. He hadn’t meant it as seriously as she’d taken it, but since she did take it that way he sobers up and withdraws his hand to give her a serious once over. There was a time when his word meant something, but for a long time it’s been as meaningless as a whorl of passing wind. Whoever could lie, cheat, and steal the quickest kept ahead. Everyone else ended up dead or in prison. Now he found himself wanting it to mean something again – to be able to stand behind it without having to run away. The problem was, could he? Shadows line his brow as he frowns and turns aside, watching a pair of riders in animated discussion a few dragonlengths away. Rugged features pinch in profile, a warm random breeze sifting dark, longish layers across his view.
Finally he turns back, light blue eyes unreadably serious. “I don’t know,” he answer honestly. “But in general I rather like your back the way it is, so if I saw or heard something that might endanger it I’d be inclined to do something about it.”
“The south is never far enough away for hunters,” Jaya states, seeming to have learned that one herself by the grim quirk of her lips. Taking a look about the bowl slowly as she needlessly lowers her voice for Kaskan alone, “Even here, among these people, shuga.” Meeting his gaze sharply, “I was found,” she tells him, the words like steel. “Thanks to someone watching my back here, I managed to slip free, but I know we haven’t found them all yet.” She looks away, searching the faces of the people that walk by them, her dark eyes narrowing. “I can feel them sometimes,” she admits, frowning heavily. “I know they’re still here. Thought maybe after the bounty hunters, the feeling would go away, but…” and she shakes her head gravely at that. “Dunno what they’re waiting for.” Her gaze cuts to the guard again when silence meets her queries of them watching each other’s backs, his final answer and the way it was delivered getting an amused snort and blink. “Sex really does rule a man’s mind,” she drawls to that, a low chuckle touching her lips. “And a diplomatic answer! Well, such sentiments actually flatter me. I don’t want to see my own precious back marred in any way. I think I would say the same, Kaskan, in your case. Fuck knows you don’t need anymore scars on you to attract any more women.” An amusedly pointed look is given to that, light tease underlying those dry words. Turning to him with a firm nod, “I have all manner of folk come through my bar on a daily basis,” she notes, brisk with business in her tone now. “I hear all sorts of things, and if I should hear something suspicious that might have to do with you, I’ll pass it along. Might do the both of us some good, eh?”
"-Were- found?" Kaskan echoes with emphasis, picking up on the past tense. A deeper frown erupts as she details the still existant danger and he automatically glances about the bowl, gaze lingering on each of the weyrfolk moving about. He's used to the feeling of watching over your shoulder constantly, never trusting anyone, but truthfully he'd let his guard down slightly at the weyr in getting closer to certain folk and having the inherent hold-bred reverence for riders, chosen of Pern's great beasts, felt somewhat safer at the weyr. Jaya's comments coat the idyllic tropical setting in a new hue - shades of distrust and danger lurking behind every passing face. Suddenly his amiable jest seems a whole lot more serious.
Some of those dark thoughts cast a rippling shadow across his expression, lips thinning in a straight line and blue eyes narrowing to shades of stormy slate. Her teasing elicits a blinking response at first, focus belated grasping the humor. Then a bit of a grin sneaks into the corner of his lips, though for once he doesn't have a quick retort to give. As she returns to the previous topic he straightens slightly, pose unconsciously imitating the tone of his thoughts. A soft nod is given at the end, but he turns at the waist to face her fully and waits till he holds her gaze to his to add with the same formal touch, "Jaya, my staff is yours if you ever have need. You know that, right?" To the guard who's preferred weapon is the finely crafted wooden staff often found strapped to his back, the offer is not given lightly.
“Was found,” Jaya repeats, nodding. “They’ve been dealt with, but I know the man,” the man that was looking for her. Shaking her head grimly, “No one in his employ walks out on him. It’s like a slap to the face. The ultimate disrespect.” It was a disrespect she caused, too. When Kaskan looks about, she’s regarding him thoughtfully as she adds, “I thought you were one of them. Maybe one of the guards he’s bought. They know I’m on the lists, so…” So. Seeing Kaskan show up like he did, the man of dark mystery and intrigue, it wasn’t hard for the Dicori woman to leap to those conclusions. She falls silent when he does then, watching Jhorn with the his dragonriding lesson without seeing it, her thoughts taking her away for a time before she asks, “What were you known for? What was your worst crime?” without so much as look at him. She clearly appreciates him offering his staff in mark of protection, the barkeep’s mouth curving upwards with a tilt of her head. “I offer the same, guard, though all I have is my knife and my wits. Some would also add my sticky fingers,” she notes, flicking a flash of amusement his way. “I reckon you would do more damage than I. I’ve seen you with that staff.”
Dark brows launch upward as Kaskan gives Jaya a crooked sidelong look. “Me?” He doesn’t say what he’s thinking aloud but his expression tells as much. For a would-be-assassin to knowingly seduce her first would be sadistic. “Glad I convinced you otherwise,” he says with a wry smirk, memory serving up images from their quickly launched relationship.
To her question, he pauses, a thoughtful lilt shaping rugged features. Determination sets in. He opened this door, he won’t close it now. “I was quick,” he starts, blue gaze not meeting hers. “I stayed calm. I was really good at ‘acquiring things’ – and breaking noses.” In other words, stealth and temper. He pauses again, finding the words and speaking in a lower tone. “Like you, I pissed off the wrong people. I went on a job with two others, brothers, not too bright but really bad sorts. While we were there I saw a piece, a carving… it wasn’t what we were there for but it was obviously valuable so I took it too. I was planning on selling it myself and getting out of… that situation.”
Hesitating over gaps he gives her the gist without going into more detail but even that is difficult since he’s only shared his past with one other person. He glances at her briefly before adjusting his stance to brace the other foot against the wall instead. “Later I heard they were looking for us, for that piece, so I ran.” His expression darkens with a deep scowl, anger just below the surface. “Apparently the man we robbed wasn’t just a random mark. He had deep connections with some blasted crimelord and we were pawns. But I made it worse by taking that piece.”
As she mentions sticky fingers he glances at her, a hint of humor lingering in his eyes, but not enough to lift the dismal set of his expression. Another shout pulls his attention to the bowl where Jhorn slides down the side of the green and lands with an easy grace and a lot of youthful energy.
“You,” Jaya repeats with a little smirk, “but I thought you knew that already.” Catching that look sent her way, she adds, “It’s not a far cry to think a man would lure a woman in order to catch her, shuga. I know men that would do worse than that.” She silences when Kaskan admits to what he was known for, the woman watching him with interest as he speaks. “Sounds like me,” she finally comments, amusement lacing her tone. “I smuggled things. Stole things, Broke things, and people. There was a time I even had to …” she stops, eyes flicking towards a passing tall man with the shoulderknot of a dragonrider, whatever she was about to say lost. Pausing then as she looks away, “So where’s the piece?” she asks, non-chalant in her tone as she watches Jhorn. “It sounds to me like you didn’t sell it. Bad move, taking something during a planned heist though. You took a mighty risk, even I can tell you that. You didn’t have any other choices? Robbing a passing wagon would have perhaps been a mercy.” It’s frank the way she speaks, like a child of the lands used to talking about thievery and doing someone in. “Where are the brothers now?” she asks as well, finally meeting his gaze, though she was chewing over all the news given enough for her to add, “Do you know which crimelord? Was this in Boll? Crom? Was it Delaus?” Delaus being the current crimelord over Crom.
Kaskan follows that brief glance that halts her admission, noting at what point she stops. "Had to what?" he asks as soon as hte rider has passed. Her barrage of questions earns a soft grin cast sidelong as he checks on Jhorn's progress. For a second he starts, not seeing the boy, but then as the green shifts to stand on all fours two pairs of legs become apparent below her belly from the other side. Relaxing, Kaskan crosses his arms and turns his attention more fully to Jaya.
"The piece is hidden. I ended up at Boll right away so haven't had a chance to contact the right people to get rid of it." A shrug lifts one shoulder to her comments on his timing, but mention of his ex-cohorts pulls a frown. "I don't know where they are. I assume still in Bitra. Last I heard they'd been…. " Words halt as he changes direction. "….taken severe heat for it." Blue eyes darken to a stormy slate, troubled thoughts pulling his gaze from hers. "I don't know if they survived." Crime doesn't tolerate being turned in on itself. It's not the brigand's suffering that bothers him though.
A shake of his head responds to her question of names, wayward strands of ebony slipping forward to complete the rugged visage of his profile. "I don't know which crimelord he was connected to. It was just a random job - big fancy cothold between Bitra and Igen. I found out later his name was Nogartu."
Of course Kaskan picked up on the dropped statement, Jaya sending a quick look his way before suddenly finding the dragonriding lesson far more engrossing. After a lingering pause, the woman finally shrugs it off, answering with, “I worked for a bigtime renegadelord,” for that, along with a pointed look, it encompassing everything that goes with working for such types. Anything went, in other words. On the matter of the hidden piece, “I know people that could help you sell right away,” she states, looking his way with a raised brow. “Good contacts of mine, though it’s been a good turn or two since I’ve had need of them. They’re where I’ve taken hot pieces to, to get quick payment. Perhaps getting that thing sold may help in getting some of that heat off of you.” She doesn’t look well to hear that the men Kaskan ran with could be in Bitra, nodding before she says, “If they’re good enough, alive enough, I can see them working for my former boss Vaputero there,” with a dark look going his way. “Vaput has a way of….seeing the potential in someone.” But then his later words have her thinking, frowning, and the Bitran states, “Could the Ralka boys in Igen. They’re heavy into theft like Vaput is. Could be the woman, Ritalia, too,” listing the sole female crimelord of Nerat. Nogartu?” That name doesn’t ring a bell, the woman shaking her head but falling silent as she ponders on the information given.
Kaskan frowns slightly at her vague answer, surmising she either killed or slept with someone to warrant that depth of reluctance. Her offer, however, turns his frown around with a look of interest. “I may take you up on that. I’ve got to… do something with it first. I doubt it’ll matter as long as they think I have it and I’m not about to let them know where I am. But I’ll be glad to be rid of it.” A thoughtful tilt meets her surmising of names. He doesn’t know enough of what happened after he left to be more specific, only that what was supposed to be a random theft wasn’t at all. Kaskan can’t help but be impressed with her obvious knowledge of the seedier elements of Pern. While he ran with some really bad criminals they were small-time compared to the organized levels of renegade lords with whom she was directly involved. While he merely ran the outskirts of it for a while she was born into it.
“Do so,” Jaya agrees on Kaskan taking him up on her offer, nodding in a decisive manner. “What are you going to do with it? Make a copy?” Because apparently, she may know someone that does that, too. Yeah, Jaya has an interesting circle of friends. She still ponders on the given name though, watching the guard when he falls silent before she finally turns her regard back towards Jhorn and his riding lesson. Letting the silence fall for a moment, comfortable in his presence, “Thanks for telling me,” he finally says soberly, flicking a glance his way with an incline of her head. “For trusting me. I suppose, those of us wronged, we gotta stick together, you know? So, I got your back, shuga. Don’t forget that.” It’s a strengthening of their friendship that she speaks, whatever last vestiges of the threat she thought him to be to her, vanishing into the smoke of the day.
“No, no,” Kaskan grumbles with a shake of his head, tone turning thoughtful as he muses through the possibilities. “I just want to get rid of it. I can’t give it back - they’d kill me on the spot. I’ve got a good thing going at Boll. I don’t really need the marks anymore, but if I don’t make a realistic deal I could easily land in just as much trouble.”
Hearing a shout he pushes off the wall. Jhorn’s lesson is apparently finished, the boy chatting animatedly with P’ella as the two walk toward Kaskan and Jaya. Turning toward the barkeep Kaskan draws a tight smile for the seriousness of their conversation, over-long layers slipping forward as he tilts his head acknowledging her thanks. “Thank /you/, for listening. I should’ve done it a long time ago, Jaya.” Lips tilt to one side as his light blue gaze takes on a knowing glint at her renewed offer. Leaning further he presses a quick, warm kiss to her cheek, “You got that right, babe.” A mischievous grin lingers on her a few seconds longer over his shoulder as he turns to move out into the bowl, there met shortly by the incoming pair.
Moments later the greenrider is thoroughly thanked and the Bollians are headed on to Jhorn’s next lesson, the boy excitedly regaling his guard with every detail of his dragon lesson as if Kaskan hadn’t been there watching the whole time.
“Well if you don’t need the marks,” is all Jaya counters on that, the smile bright and quick like a whip before adding, “I agree though – realistic deals and whatnot. A shame you ran into them instead of me, Kas.” In other words, the Bitran wouldn’t have caused him the trouble he found, but what’s done is done. She grins fondly at the kiss to cheek, the words accompanying it getting a wry, “Trust is hard-earned with those of us from the lands. Feeling’s mutual, shuga.” Eyes light on the approaching Jhorn and she finally peels away from the wall, slapping hands to skirt before she throws up a hand in farewell to them both. “Take care the both of you,” she sends their way as he heads off, going the opposite way from the pair, and vanishing into the inner caverns of the Weyr.
RELATED LOGS:
Two Thugs and a Computer Geek – The thugs arrive and start asking questions.
Two Thugs and a Gem Girl
Two Thugs and a Little Kid
— (side log) “Walk much, Jaya?” – Kaskan tells Jaya his history with the thugs.
— (side log) “C’mon little man, show me what you got.” – Max gets to know Jhorn.
“Can you keep a secret?” – Kaskan gives Nenienne the carving.
“I like the way you negotiate.” – Kaskan and Max make a plan.
“Where’s Jhorn?” – Jhorn’s disappearance is reported to Max.
“Now, let the lady go.” – The thugs go after Nenienne.
“Kas, you down there?” – Max and Wayne rescue Kaskan.
You are gonna die, little man. – Everyone races to rescue Jhorn.
