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Carltis looked puzzled for a moment, and then laughed again. "Oh, that. No, nothing like that; we just happened to run into one another and ended up watching each others backs." Getting beaten up by crazy women, and fighting twelve year olds; he was glad they had quietly mutually agreed that those things hadn't happened. "Can't say I actually did much wher fighting," he added, nibbling at his lower lip as he recalled the unpleasant incident, "took a couple of swings at it - I'd given him my whip - but after that he told me to drag bleeding guy out of the way. I wasn't about to disagree, sort of his call to make given the circumstances." He would rather have had the wher; he'd never seen that much blood before, let alone had to deal with it and he was not in a hurry to repeat the experience.

"Anyway," Carltis dismissed the past with a shake of his head, "I suppose you could call that a bonding experience, but I'm not interested in him in that sense." The whole awful time had been a bonding experience really he supposed, with everyone present; he'd even warmed a little to the ponsy wingleader, in as much as he wouldn't mind having her on his side in another fight. He still thought she was a complete pretentious tit though.

Carltis nodded. "That's right, and yeah, Aleck is kind of built like a reed." He was compared to Carltis anyway, although to be fair Carltis was not exactly a standard unit of muscle-measurement.

"I've no idea about him really," Carltis shrugged and raised a hand to his face, working a finger under the bandages over his eye to scratch at an itch. When he noticed what he was doing he pulled his hand back and grunted. "The healers will have my balls if I rip the cut open," he grumbled vaguely before returning to the subject at hand with; "I've seen him around the Weyr of course though, and if he's with anyone he's not obviously so. I didn't see or hear him expressing concern for ladies or gentlemen of his hypothetical harem during the siege either, so if it or a partner of any kind exists I suppose they can't mean all that much to him."

"I suppose I'll ask the wonderful healers tomorrow," Carltis shrugged, "there hasn't been much time to ask about it - they've had much bigger things to worry about than a little cut like this - so I've just been being careful, rather not somehow shaff things up and ruin my eye, which is hypothetically alright at the moment."

...Shards. If he'd lost the eye he might have been banned from standing! That thought sent a look of belated fear flashing across his face and promoted him to touch the bandages lightly again; he'd been even more lucky than he had realised.

Luckily Rochelle quickly pulled his mind back from that awful near miss and he gave an incredulous 'ha!' at the idea of Aleck with the Weyrleaders. "Well, he'd be almost the last suspect on the list which would be ideal in a secret lover. If you do ask I want to be there to see it."

He really had got very lucky indeed if he really thought about it. Material things he could replace, in time he would get used to Trine, he wasn't going to take lasting harm from this and now he was actually around several more clutching dragons than he had been before. All in all he'd come out of the revolution pretty well, even if he did feel like he was on the wrong side when it came to ideology.

"Of course it's fine," Carltis responded with a trace of snap back in his voice, "I was just... thinking was all." It would be fine, and if it wasn't he would lie about it because maybe dragons didn't care quite as much as candidatemasters insisted they did. Maybe they didn't care much at all but candidatemasters were careful to keep 'unsuitables' away from the precious creatures. He didn't like that thought, and so he suspected it and stored it away for later analysis.

"Maybe he does run it all, or did," Carltis went on, still a bit grudging but edging back away from bad temper again. "You know what they say; watch out for the quiet ones. Maybe we can investigate secretly. We can have disguises or something."

"Eye goo?" Carltis stared with one-eyed incredulity and then laughed briefly; the unpleasantly emotive description made him feel much better than coddling reassurances. "Now all I can think of is the herdbeast eyeball I cut up one time to see what it was like inside." The tap of Rochelle's foot was ignored; he didn't feel comfortable returning the gesture, but he didn't feel the need to repel it either.

"I think your shirts might be a bit lacking in shoulder, and a bit too generous in the frontal regions due to you having ample tracts of land," Carltis continued, tossing the stone he was holding into the water; it only managed two hops but he didn't pay it much attention. "You can have a fake mustache if you want, but I'm not sourcing it for you. I expect our adventure and eventual uncovering of Aleck's master plan to take over Pern will be a tale for the ages, mainly because we'll join him in his dark endeavors and will make knowing the story by heart compulsory on pain of pain."

"Course it was dead," Carltis scoffed, lying back and folding his hands behind his head; being prone might be vulnerable, but he was confident that if she tried anything he could kick her in the teeth without trouble. Wriggling a bit to settle the stones under him into a better position he looked up at Rochelle with a smirk. "I was quoting; a rather famous comedy. I think it was written by a man though. Oh, and don't forget about the whips; come a long way with me, my whip, so it should get an important role in the tale just like any other Item of Significance." The capital letters were almost audible, and Carltis rolled his eyes. "Could do with more books with euphemisms like ample tracts of land, and fewer with worn out plot devices like the ring, blade, pendant, insert-other-option here passed down from parent, tutor, ancestor or hard won in combat or Trial that Proves the Hero's Nobility."

Carltis idly scuffed a few stones in Rochelle's general direction, showing her his teeth in what was this time a joking snarl. "I save plucking the eyes out of living things for my enemies, I'll have you know. Drink out of their skulls too, once properly cleaned. Really though, no plays? Not even in the evenings? Don't you have any time for culture? Anyway, flower euphemisms aren't dirty; not even close."

After a moment something seemed to occur to Carltis and he looked at Rochelle's chest thoughtfully. "Have you ever dropped out glass on your chest? Shards, you could almost use those things as a shelf."