April 6, 2000
Ismaye's Holdbred attitudes are put to the test against the discovery that, indeed, people in weyrs not only have sex - but they talk about it, too.

Previous Next

You follow the stairs upward to emerge in the living caverns.

Jalani chuckles."These things do happen." She perches on a nearby table to watch the clean up operations. "So, how grows the garden?" She waves idly to Isamye as she spots her coming down the stairs.

Katlyn stands up do a little curtsy to the head woman and goes back to cleaning up the mess of spilled herbs on the floor. "Quite well, thank you. It's been good this year."

Ismaye manages to waggle her hand in return to Jalani before making a furtive glance around the room. No one really watching? Good. She dashes towards the serving table, pouring klah, and gulping it down. There. Phew. More sedately, she moves towards the pair she knows, bobbing her head in greeting.

Ismaye belatedly makes a good natured face at Katlyn, "Curtsys? Oh dear me, no!"

Katlyn turns a little red. "Sorry. I forgot."

Jalani chuckles and sips at her own klah, having got the first gulp in already. "I would think Katlyn, you would remember by now?" She looks over at the headwoman. "So why are you secretly downing large quantities of klah in a single gulp?"

This time it's Ismaye's turn to blush. No one was supposed to see that. Before responding, she waves Katlyn off with a waggling hand, "No problem, really." Then, she takes a gulp of air, and tentatively tries, "I needed to wake up?"

Ismaye isn't very convincing.

Katlyn finaly collects everything off the floor and takes a seat to inspect her cargo.

Jalani clears her throat. "You needed to wake up in the middle of the night?" She crosses her legs and gets comfortable."I have to hear this one."

Ismaye isn't having a good time of it. Oh dear me no. It's a problem. "Well, yes?" She apparently tries the innocent look. "Well, maybe I have a klah addiction, and have to have it every few hours or I'll faint?" Tall stories, anyone.

Jalani smirks. "Oh, come on, now, Ismaye. You don't expect me to fall for that one, now do you?" She peers over at the headwoman. "Fess up. What is this all about."

Katlyn listens with out being intrusive.

Ismaye continues to blush, and hazards, "Well, maybe I just wanted to do something un-headwoman-like? Come on, do I need to tell you all everything?"

Jalani giggles. "No, of course not, but I am snoopy enough I will try to get it from you eventually, so you might as well save us both the bother and just tell me now."

Ismaye rolls her eyes at that, hopping further into her seat, and grinning between Katlyn and Jalani. "Well, to be quite honest," her eyes twinkle as she tells the tale, "Myna, one of the asst. Headwomen, dared me to do it. She said I was too..." The Headwoman trails off, and tries, "Straight-laced. Which is totally silly, because I don't lace myself. And certainly not straight. But she dared me to do something silly, so I did." So there.

Jalani chuckles again. "So, she thought that by you drinking klah you would become a -wild- woman?" She looks wide-eyed and whispers. "What would happen if you drank.. lets say .. wine?"

Katlyn says "A dare?"

Ismaye answers Katlyn with a bob of her head, and turns to look quite aghast at Jalani. "Wine? Oh dear me, no! I'm far too young for that kind of thing," says she, almost primly.

Jalani splutters in her klah. "You are.." She looks the Headwoman up and down very carefully. "Seventeen, eighteen turns? Shells, I was drinking wine at fourteen turns."

Ismaye, evidently, wasn't. "I wasn't at the Weyr. At the holds, we don't do that." She does offer a nod to her age, indicating that Jalani has it correct.

Jalani blinks. "I wasn't either.. at the time. I was down at Ista Hold." She chuckles. "Well, whatever. Don't let the thrill of contraband klah excite you too much now."

Ismaye pauses a moment, and then shrugs, "Perhaps we were a little different, then. Certainly, we didn't get much wine up there, anyway." She pursues this thought a moment, and then adds, "I'll try not to. But it's far too exciting to just forget." She's teasing. Right?

Jalani hops off the corner of the table and moves towards Ismaye. "Oh, I am sure there are other exciting things around here."

Ismaye raises a carefuly sculptured brow, "Like what?"

Jalani hmms. 'Let's see. Dragonpoker." SHe looks shocked. "I -hear- some riders play a naughty version of it." She looks innocent as the day she was born. "Can you imagine?"

"Naughty version?" Ismaye closes her eyes shut. "Oh dear. Oh deary me. I don't believe Mamma knew this kind of thing when she agreed for me to come here." She's such an innocent.

Jalani nods. "They actually play for..." She leans over and whispers. "Marks!"

Ismaye's eyes open. The spell is broken. "They bet? Well, I suppose that's not too bad. It could be a lot worse."

Jalani purses her lips, nodding her head and batting her lashes. "Oh.. I heard -other- things, but they just can't be true." She leans right over, speaking in a sultry whisper. "Very naughty things." She then straightens up and pratically skips to the klah pot for a refill.

Naughty things. Ismaye takes a deep breath. This can't be good. "Not in my caverns, I hope!" Her voice quavers slightly. Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear.

Jalani walks back again, this time with a cookie in one hand. "Oh, I am sure they were -naughty- in their own weyrs. I am sure your caverns are as pristine and in their usual order."

Relief echoes across Ismaye's features. "Oh, good. I would be quite upset if my caverns were in such disarray when I got them. No wonder poor old Nejilia retired, in that case."

Is that a hint of a guilty expression on Jalani's face. No, it couldn't be. "Oh, I hear she is doing well in retirment. That bothersome little nervous tick of hers almost vanished."

Ismaye regards Jalani quisicaly a moment, and then shrugs it off almost visably. "I'm sure she is. Poor old bat, though. I hope she doesn't regret her...tantrum."

Jalani brightens at this one. "Tantrum?"

Ismaye, at least, is on somewhat more safe ground. She looks far more comfortable. "When the floors were all damp. And everything was...you know. After the storm. When she passed on her knot. To me."

Jalani snorts. "You mean she -finally- retired and all it took was wet floors?" She looks amazed. "And after all we did to.." She shrugs philosophically. "Oh well, you are young enough, you should do well around here. Where did you say you were from?"

"Wet floors and a hissy fit, yes. Sometimes the simplest solutions ring truest," affirms Ismaye, with a shrug. "It was only out of sheer luck -- or unluck? -- that I happened to be the one to be pointed at." She blushes slightly, nodding, "I hope so. Oh, I'm from Icy Ridge. Up near High Reaches."

Jalani shivers. "That far North? Oh you shall enjoy it here. You don't have to wear so many clothes. I like that." She grins. "Well, I do, wear a lot of clothes, but I am supposed to be giving the weyrlings a good example and all that."

Ismaye stares at Jalani blankly. "Oh, right, of course." Clothes. Wear lots of clothes. Her thoughts can almost be seen floating through her mind. "But it's hot, here. And I will sunburn." So far she hasn't, but we'll see. "You mean you'd wear less?" She regards Jalani curiously. Oh dear.

Jalani looks down at herself. "Oh, when I am not on the weyrling duty, I wear something a lot more comfortable than this old uniform." She smiles pleasantly. "Filmy shortsleeved dresses, that sort of thing." She looks just as curious back towards Jalani. "I don't sunburn here, usually. Only a fool would be out in the midday sun."

Ismaye nods her head sagely, "Oh, certainly. It's far too hot to be outside." She's a little more than suspicious, however. "Filmy dresses? Aren't they slightly..." she continues in a hushed tone, "Revealing?"

Jalani smiles ever so sweetly. "Really depends on how one wears them. I mean some can look very very sweet and innocent. Just like me." She shakes her head, in deep disapproval and a snort. "While some.." She leans a bit closer. "Some.. well, they like to draw attention to certain assets,if you get my drift. Those soft womenly curves. Showing a knee here, a slit up to the thigh there.. a little low cut at the bust, here.." She demonstrates with her finger, then hops back on her table edge. "Shameless, don't you think?"

Ismaye blushes. Not just a little rosy shade, but somewhere between a setting sun and a tomato. "Oh. Oh! They wear those things here? I thought that was just stories. Oh no. Oh no."

Jalani giggles.

Ismaye grins.

Jalani nods. "I hate to tell you, but it is true. And they find them comfortable. And the men deal with it, and there isn't wild debauchery in the caverns. Amazing, huh?"

"Quite," is Ismaye's somewhat quavery response. Struggling to get a grip on this, she adds, "Not in the caverns. But in their Weyrs?" It's almost as if there was no such thing as the S-word up where she's from. Oh dear.

Jalani shakes her head. "Well, there are rumours..and there are children here. That -might- go on, but you know, I thought I heard that dragonriders hatched their young anyhow.."

Ismaye facepalms, her shoulders shaking. "And to think I actually let myself be dragged into this. Oh my. Things are going to have to change."

Jalani chuckles. "I like you, I like you a lot. And don't believe a word of what I just said, except for the filmy dresses, they -truly- are more comfortable than tight binding clothes. I am off to spoil the plans of two weyrlings I overheard that were going to meet for some errr fun by the waterfall." She winks. "An assistant weyrlingmasters' job is never done."

Ismaye pauses, smiles, and raises a hand in farewell, "Phew. If this goes on, I'll go just as batty as a certain retired Headwoman. Good luck with the Weyrlings."

Jalani giggles. "Oh, don't worry, with me around and a few others, you will be batty in no time."

Jalani disappears through the narrow tunnel to the bowl.

Previous Next