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 Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 8:47 pm
As soon as Vox let go of him, Marko was more than willing to give C'ren a quick, courteous (if abbreviated) nod, and flee with barely a, "Yes, thanks, good-bye."
Of course, Marko's idea of fleeing was more like a somewhat quick saunter right back out the door. He wasn't very good at actually running or dodging quickly; too much in the arm and leg department to coordinate himself into a decent run. But either way, he didn't waste any time getting out of the weyr. That was the important bit. He was halfway down the hall before he realized that he should probably wait for Xeran, and it was a while before it registered in his mind that Xeran had said something.
Stopping completely and leaning against the wall, he rubbed his temples and sighed heavily. "Vera has her own problems and things taking up her time." Not the least of which included Xeran and a flitt that Xeran was training to, apparently, be Xeran when Xeran couldn't be. And fixing instruments. There was that, too.
"I'll....ffff." He exhaled on that single sound, then looked at Xeran and shrugged. "I'll keep it for now. See if I can't find some Candidate to unload it on without that blasted child catching sight of me and spreading some new rumour." Shrugging and reaching behind his head to rearrange his braid, he realized with some alarm that his hair wasn't braided at all.
Letting his hand drop slowly, he looked Xeran straight in the eye. "Tell me how ridiculous I look. And then please tell me I haven't been walking around the entire Weyr with my hair looking like a nest of tunnelsnakes."
Vanity. It existed somewhere deep within the neuroses.
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Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2009 11:41 am
Aww… Xeran was surprised to learn that he was almost disappointed that Marko didn’t want to give the egg to Vera. It had been a good idea, he thought. Vera always needed a chaperone and Bell was doing a fine job of warning people off. Another firelizard would’ve been even better, right? Then again, Marko was keeping the egg for now so maybe it would hatch and he wouldn’t have a choice but to Impress it…
Ha! The Harper’s face broke out into a grin at the mention of the rumors that were being spread about Marko. Oh, yes, he had heard about those and that was simply absurd. What would these kids come up with next?
For the first time in a very long time, Xeran avoided direct eye contact with Marko. The man was not a very good liar and, he had to admit, it looked as though Marko had wandered into a whirlwind. “Well… not exactly like a nest of tunnelsnakes,” he said helpfully. “A nest of tunnelsnakes would be writhing more. And making hissing noises. And probably biting. So… uhh… no. No, you haven’t been wandering through the Weyr with hair like a nest full of tunnelsnakes.” Very, very truthful.
Just not exactly honest.
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Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2009 9:56 am
There was no eye contact. This was Xeran, and he wasn't making eye contact. Marko's expression fell. Clearly, he looked absolutely ridiculous. When Xeran finally spoke, he said nothing. He couldn't think of anything simultaneously sarcastic and distressed enough to convey how he was feeling. After a moment's good hard thought, he pushed off the wall, sighed, and straightened up. Letting his hair down from the halfhearted...whatever style he had thrown it into, he finger-combed it and started a quick, tight braid that would at least eliminate some of how ridiculous he no doubt looked.
"....Shards," he said eventually, twisting the hide thong around the end of the braid and sighing. His head still hurt. A lot. Not as if someone were splitting it with a knife anymore, but definitely still pain. But at least the lemongrass had taken some of the edge off it, he supposed. He took a deep breath and looked at Xeran.
"...Weyrbowl now? Or we can go die now. Both sound all right to me. Actually...I like the latter better. I won't need my tunic if I'm dead."
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Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 9:50 am
Always the bright and shiny one, Marko was. The braid didn’t exactly help, but Xeran didn’t have the heart to say this out loud. Also, he was pretty convinced he’d start laughing if he said anything about Marko’s hair right about now, especially if he pointed out that it looked like Marko had had himself one wild night. In bed. With someone else. And that would surely just send the man into another whirlwind of distress and Xeran wanted to go back to sleep sometime soon.
“Look, why don’t you go on back to your room? I’ll go get your tunic,” he offered, seeing as the older Harper would probably burst into flames from sheer shame if anyone saw him. Xeran, on the other hand, just didn’t care. If anyone commented on his appearance, he thought, he could just grin and say, ‘you should see the other guy’, which was technically true. And hilarious.
“Besides, if you go and die, Vera will never forgive me. She’s still working on a special flute for you. You’ll like it.” Ha! He had better. Xeran posed specially for it.
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Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 10:14 am
Marko started in with a baleful look, but Xeran's generosity was too much for him to manage, so instead he stopped looking baleful in favour of just looking tired instead. "...Thanks," he said after a moment of trying to decide what the best response to Xeran's offer was. When Vera got mentioned, he managed a wan smile.
"Oh, yes...my flutes...." he rubbed his temples and then nodded to Xeran. "I'll try to refrain from dying until I've been able to play those." Then he sighed heavily and looked balefully down the hall. "Try to avoid incurring the wrath of the rest of the Weyr on you when you go down to the 'bowl," he said seriously, looking Xeran in the eye. "I think there's been quite enough adventure for one hangover, today."
"If I don't just...stop breathing in my sleep," one could always hope, "I'll come find you and Vera some time this evening. Need my tunic back, and all." That, and maybe with Vera's help, they could talk some sense into the horrible kitchen woman. "But I think I should probably go fall unconscious now." He gave Xeran a crooked smile.
"So....by your definition," and 'your' was very clearly enunciated, to distance Marko from the scene of people who got so drunk they forgot the night before more regularly than once every few decades, "was last night 'good'?"
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Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 10:30 am
“Good. I don’t want to see Vera all depressed just because you had the bad manners to go and die before getting your flutes,” Xeran said sternly, only half joking. His ‘daughter’ was the most important person in his life, after all, and he really did hate to see her disappointed, especially in a family friend like Marko. “I’ve never incurred anyone’s wrath! Not on purpose! I mean, some people just don’t have a sense of humor…”
Instead, they just had senses of shame. Sometimes Xeran wondered if it might be worth his time to get one of those things, but Marko had enough for three normal people. It balanced out, if a bit badly. “Yeah, we’ll see you at dinner,” he said, conveniently forgetting that he was supposed to have just bread and water for the next sevenday. But, honestly? What else were daughters for if not filching food from the dining hall when you were in trouble? “You look like you’re unconscious now. You just don’t know it yet.”
Now Xeran looked almost cagey; it wasn’t a natural look for the man, normally open and honest as a field. “Welll…” he said slowly, clearly needing a moment to think about this. “Bits of it were good. It’s hard to say if it was good or bad when you don’t remember a lot of it. The game was good, I know that. But, on the other hand, I didn’t wake up with anyone else, so it couldn’t have been that good.”
Yep. Honest.
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Posted: Tue Sep 22, 2009 10:42 am
"And I know you'd kill me if I ever disappointed Vera." Well, actually, in his case, Xeran would probably just maul him. Marko wasn't straight or romantically interested in Vera, which exempted him from most of Xeran's typical punishments.
Annnnnnnnnnnnd...
Cue awkward silence, during which Marko tried desperately to figure out where to look and settled on giving Xeran a thoroughly blank stare while he worked through all the possible replies to what Xeran had just said to him. And blushed. Sort of. Well....it probably counted as blushing. Some day, there was going to be a time when they had a conversation that didn't end in this situation. Marko wasn't particularly optimistic about this, but even he allowed himself some small degree of hope for the future.
"I'll, ah, keep that in mind," he said eventually, trying desperately to regain his composure and failing. Miserably. "Um. So. Don't die," he choked out after another few seconds' thought, before turning and fleeing with all the dignity he could muster. Which was approximately none.
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