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 Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 7:19 pm
Marko was not in the best of moods. He had spent the better part of a day looking for somewhere to practice on his real flute, and the search was beginning to seem completely fruitless. There was nowhere in the sharding Weyr that wasn't packed with people every second of every day. Usually, Marko could take frustrations in stride, but the stress of overcrowding, being close to dragons all the time, and complete lack of space to practice in private was starting to really get to him. He wasn't snappish yet...but any longer without a chance to unwind and he might actually make a genuinely rude, rather than sarcastic comment.
The day's search had brought him deep into the Weyr with his flute, and at least he could enjoy the cool air. It was far too hot on the entire sharding island, in Marko's far-from-humble opinion, but honestly, most weather was unbearably hot for someone who grew up in and around Fort and High Reaches. A small glowbasket in one hand, the small fur-lined case that held his flutes in the other, he crept into what must have been some sort of classroom. Tables, chairs, slates. He presumed it was for Candidates, since it was far too small for Weyrlings. Not that it mattered. It was empty.
Grumbling, he sat down on one of the tables, crossed his legs tailor-style, and opened the case. Selecting his favourite flute, he glanced briefly around to make certain he wasn't going to interrupt someone else seeking a few hours of alone time. Didn't look to be the case. Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes, brought the flute to his lips, and began to play scales. It felt good, being able to play his real flute; the sea air that would wreak havoc on the delicate instrument meant he had to make due practicing on cheaper ones most of the time here.
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Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 12:13 pm
Nandeli, surprisingly, was not on kitchen duty. Apparently she had been causing the new candidates too much stress by grilling them about their personal life, and she had been temporarily relocated. Now she was collecting clothes that needed mending, which was supposed to keep her away from as many people as possible and keep her busy. So far, it had been a success. Most people were out and about by the time she brought her basket around, and the side of the Weyr she'd been assigned seemed to consist of the most boring people ever. She hadn't even been able to find anything good when she snooped through their things! Nan was sure that the Headwoman's Assistant had done that on purpose. Spoilsport.
The Nose was making her way through the winding tunnels of the Lower Caverns when the sound of music caught her attention. Balancing her basket under one arm, she crept towards the sound, curious. Who would be playing their flutes all the way back here? And so good too! She was sure she had passed the Weyr's Harper on her way down here. Perhaps it was… it must be! Nandeli's face broke out into a huge grin. It was Marko! The kitchen girls had been the first to alert her to the presence of this new sketchy Harper who was apparently as gay as they came. All this talk before she'd even made a man's acquaintance always excited her. And what better way to talk to him than one-on-one?
Still grinning, she picked her pace and stuck her head in the doorway. "Good morning Harper! You must be Marko! How come you're all alone down here?" Her eyes darted around the semi-dark classroom as though expecting to see some Candidate hiding with his pants around his ankles. Sadly, she saw no one.
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Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 8:12 am
Marko didn't bother reacting to the sound of footsteps, but as soon as someone put her head in the doorway, he stopped playing and looked up. It was all he could do to keep himself from scowling at the girl who appeared, chipper as they came, and started talking immediately. Apparently, there was absolutely nowhere private in the entire Weyr. Ever-so-delicately setting his flute back down in the box, he took a silent deep breath, counted to ten in his head, and then exhaled and raised an eyebrow at the girl.
"I'm not sure whether to be flattered or terrified my reputation precedes me," he remarked, lapsing into an easy drawl and keeping his eye on the girl while he tried to remember if he had heard anything about her. She was nondescript, probably a Candidate, and apparently a gossip. Not that Marko was surprised. Other than Harpercraft, gossipcraft seemed to be the most popular craft among Candidates. Perhaps even more than Harpercraft in some cases. Marko was far too old for the stuff, and why anyone would bother was certainly beyond him.
And now he really ought to answer the girl's question, oughtn't he? Marko almost sighed at the fact that he was going to end up conversing rather than practicing. Maybe he could find some way to shoo her away. If she got too annoying, he'd just beat her with the glowbasket until she fled. "I came down to practice because everywhere else is full to the brim, and sea air murders perfectly good instruments. I needed privacy," he said, giving the girl a slightly pointed look at the last word. She was young and probably an upstart and he doubted that his age or rank (which she must have known) would discourage her from prying further, but he was doubting it.
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Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 7:58 pm
"Oh terrified, I think," Nandeli replied without missing a beat, making the decision for him. "Especially with what the girls have been saying about you and the Harper boys. I would be a little concerned if I were you…" It was normal enough advice, but she was forever hopeful that he might not take it. How else would she get him to do something scandalous in her presence? Perhaps she should study him more during this meeting and find out what kind of man he liked. She could always use Kaskel as bait.
The sheer number of sighs and deep breaths that were coming from the Harper puzzled her, and she took a deep breath of her own. Nope, the air still felt the same as it usually did. Perhaps he wasn't used to the mountain air and felt the need to keep taking deep breaths. Or maybe it was a Harper training exercise! Yes, that sounded much better to her. He really didn't have to practice his exercises around her though. She wouldn't tattle if he didn't do them.
Her ears practically perked at the mention of privacy, the words before it forgotten the moment her brain realized they had nothing to do with secrets or boys. "You can't practice out where everyone else is? Are you sure you're not just waiting for someone down here?" Aha! That was the answer! And the flute had been to call his lover to him! This was totally the best thing that had happened all day.
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Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 8:49 pm
Marko stared blankly at the girl when she spoke. Clearly, he had not realized what he was getting himself into when he had spoken to her. And then he realized exactly what she was talking about and paused. She was.........there was no way she had just said what she had said. He blinked, raised his eyebrows at her, and then shook his head slowly. "I haven't the foggiest what you're insinuating," he informed her bluntly, though the sentence was technically a lie. He knew what she was insinuating perfectly well. But shard it all, he was doing nothing of the sort! An entire class of Harper apprentices had headed off to Ista. Not all of them would Impress. He was there to gather up the remaining lost talent and herd it back to the crafthall.
And as the girl spoke more, Marko came to the conclusion that allowing her to speak to him had been one of the worst possible things he could have done. He was already starting to regret this. "I am practicing down here," he said slowly, keeping his tone completely level and just barely pleasant, "because I have a bit of an aversion to people bursting in on me and interrupting me with noisy conversation. I am waiting for someone to leave, but not for someone to arrive." He shook his head slowly, reaching up to toy with a strand of hair that had come loose from his braid as he regarded her. After a moment, he gave up trying to be stern and silent until she left.
"You seem to be at a bit of an unfair advantage," he remarked. "You know my name and something about me, but here I am knowing nothing at all about you. Not even your name. That's bad manners, that is," he smirked a bit, banishing his irritation with his typical wry humour.
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Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 5:27 pm
Oh she had just said that. She merely raised her eyebrows back at him, in complete disbelief that he would even do such a thing. And to say that he didn't know! The nerve! If he hadn't done anything suspicious then there wouldn't be any rumours in the first place! Didn't he know that? "But I think you do, Harper Marko! I mean, it's pretty obvious, isn't it? Why else would a Harper come to a Weyr full of Harper apprentices where his Masters can't see what he's doing?" She waggled her eyebrows at him. Clearly he needed to get with the program before she made them rumours even worse.
Nandeli simply waved off his comments about hating people bursting in and interrupting him. "That happens all the time here! You can't expect to get very much privacy when there's so many people, now can you? Especially when you go about hiding in dark places. Why, you'd get more privacy sitting in the dining hall than you would down here." She set her basket down on one of the desks and pulled herself up onto it, sitting with her legs dangling over the edge. "Waiting here, alone and in the dark means you're waiting for someone. A secret lover or something." Obviously.
At his final comments she laughed, tossing her curls back from her face. "Not bad manners. You didn't ask." Nan smiled. "But it's Nandeli. Nan if you want. Don't be upset that you don't know me, though. I make it my business to know everything about everybody."
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Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 7:49 am
Marko paused at Nan's ridiculous reasoning, looking at her with a suggestion that was equal parts disbelief, annoyance, confusion, and rather strained patience for the child's words. He wondered if it would be worth his time explaining to the poor, misguided girl that he had been sent to the Weyr by his masters. He opened his mouth to say as much, but getting a look at Nan's expression, he decided quickly enough that it wasn't worth it and snapped it shut again. It wasn't often that he was so perplexed as to how to respond to someone, but this girl was absolutely hellish in her obstinate insistence on the absurd and ridiculous. The Candidates were half his age or younger!
....And there she went insisting that he was waiting for someone.
"Ironically, I was doing fine in the case of privacy before you showed up," he drawled, refusing to completely lose his composure even in the face of this brat. He decided not to even bother responding to her repetition that he must have some sort of secret lover. Marko had been at the Weyr for less than a sevenday. Certainly not enough time to have even decided if anyone was worth pursuing, much less to find himself a bedmate. As if he wanted one from the Weyr; everyone here came with dragons attached!
It wasn't worth the effort explaining that, so he focused instead on her introduction. Well. That was...probably the most unashamed introduction from the local center of gossip that he had ever heard. And Marko tended to end up in the presence of gossips, somehow. "I see," he answered, biting back the traditional 'pleasure to meet you' greeting he had been about to offer. It was certainly not a pleasure to meet her. "So I am to gather," he went on after a moment, "that you are the Weyr's gossipmaster?"
He was never entirely sure when he had first begun referring to gossip as a craft, but he maintained the belief. As long as there were women (and some of the more feminine young men-who-liked-men) about, there would be gossip. There could have been countless halls built to the perfection of it!
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Posted: Fri Apr 17, 2009 3:17 pm
It probably would be a waste of time for Marko to explain his true purpose. To Nan, everyone had an ulterior motive of some kind, especially when they were doing something that she decided was scandalous. The fact that the Harper Hall had sent this Journeyman all the way out here to the Weyr meant that there was obviously something going on here they wanted in on. But that didn't mean that Marko couldn't also be here to get himself a harem of male Candidates to do his bidding. Clearly you had to think through things a little more carefully.
"Well, like I was saying, the best privacy you can get is where everyone else can see you! If you see someone busy in the dining cavern then people will generally let them be. You see them doing secret things in a dark classroom..." That's when things started to get messy. For all Nandeli knew the flute playing could have just been a disguise so that passers-by would just think he was a practicing Harper. In realty he could be doing all kinds of crazy things in the dark. Did you need two hands to play the flute? She'd have to research that.
Nandeli laughed at his question, amused by his choice of words. "I guess you could say that, yes. Most of the rumours, the really good ones at least, are up kept by me and the kitchen girls. They usually pick it up from the Lower Caverns staff, and then I go investigate and report back. That's one of the reasons I'm interested in you, see. They keep talking about you in the kitchens. They say you've got you eye on that Erisi fellow. Is that true?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 1:42 pm
If Marko had been granted a glimpse into Nan's head, he probably would have run off screaming...or at least wept. As it were, she was just really beginning to irk him. Frowning, he counted in his head to compose himself as she went off on her little lecture about privacy. He wondered if it'd be worth it to argue that when there was loud noise, he found it difficult to concentrate, and decided it just wasn't worth it with someone this obviously set on her ideas, as harebrained as they were.
In fact, he had just decided that bothering with Nan at all wasn't worth it. Shaking his head slowly, Marko began to tune out her speech and reached for his flute. He wasn't quite rude enough to ignore her completely and start playing, but he inspected the instrument while she spoke, and had brought it to his lips to test a note when she asked her last question. Was he after whom?
"What? Who?" he asked, obviously alarmed that there was any sort of rumour circulating about him. "Is that one of you Candidates?" he asked suspiciously, fixing Nan with the least impressed look he could manage. He didn't manage a very unimpressed one at all; the obvious shock in his expression more or less overrode anything else he was trying to look.
He didn't even bother to ask how she knew he looked into men. The odds were reasonably good that they'd either caught him flirting with one of the beastcrafters he'd run into when he checked on his runnerbeast or rejecting the advances of some Lower Caverns woman for whom a newcomer was a novelty not to be passed up.
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Posted: Sat Apr 18, 2009 6:40 pm
If he had a hard time concentrating when there were loud noises around then he clearly needed to go back to the Harper Hall. With probably close to one hundred Candidates, more than enough riders, and all of the Weyr staff, the fact that he had managed to find an empty classroom was astonishing. Marko should consider himself lucky that he had actually managed to start playing before someone found him. He definitely needed to get used to the loud noises thing though. How else would he deal if his partner was a screamer?
The look on his face nearly made her laugh again, but Nan managed to compose herself and keep a somewhat straight face. "Erisi. Sort of skinny fellow, I've heard. Dark hair." She simply ignored Marko's failed attempt at an unimpressed expression. Unless he was getting up to come over and do something she wasn't going to budge. He could look at her all he wanted. "And yes, he is one of the Candidates. Quite handsome, from what I've heard. You're one of those ones who like tall, dark and handsome right?" Of course he was. All gay men liked their partners tall, dark, and handsome.
"Anyways, you didn't answer my question. And if it's not him, then I've got a couple more people I want to run by you as well. Apparently you've been around a lot." If you know what I mean.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 12:33 pm
He wondered briefly if Nan would have come and harassed him if he had sat somewhere in public and played and was absolutely certain that she would have. A personality like hers was the same everywhere, and though Marko had avoided them for nearly a decade, he supposed it was high time for someone to be prying into his private life. If he resigned himself to his fate now, maybe he would be able to put it out of his mind and not have to worry about it later. Although one look at Nan seemed to suggest that he would be stuck with this nonsense as long as he was at the Weyr. As she explained what this...whateverhewas to him, he snorted quietly. So she thought he was into children?
For some reason, he couldn't be surprised. It seemed to be the common conception that all gay men liked young, pretty girly things. Would it be worth it for him to explain to Nan his actual taste? Somehow, he doubted it. But nonetheless, when the words 'tall, dark and handsome' left Nan's mouth, Marko actually burst out laughing. People actually used those phrases? Shards! He had not been paying attention to the world at large, apparently. Laughing heartily for a good two minutes before he could get himself under control, he eventually ground to a coughing halt and looked at Nan as he wiped one of his eyes. "Tall, dark, and handsome?" he asked incredulously. "You are saying this dead seriously to me. You used the phrase 'tall, dark, and handsome' in all seriousness."
He shook his head and chuckled before looking at Nan. "I'll have you know that height and shade mean approximately nothing to me. It's just a tad hard for me to find anyone who is 'tall' by my standards, and I'm not so shallow to have decided a certain skin or hairtone is my type. Though I'll give you handsome," he added thoughtfully, then chuckled again and shook his head. Tall, dark, and handsome. Poor, delusional girl.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 2:01 pm
The laughter made Nan tilt her head, curious as to why he laughed. When he repeated her words she simply nodded, continuing the gesture as he asked her if she was serious about it. "I am. I know lots of men who like tall, dark, and handsome men. Is it a bad thing?" She knew a lot of girls who like that too. It was the sort of phrase you could say to anyone, and generally half of them would agree it was their ideal man. Still, she wasn't too surprised that Marko felt the need to deviate from such traditional views. He had come to the Weyr in order to build his own harem.
Apparently he liked people shorter than him, and he also apparently liked fairer haired men over their darker haired companions. Handsome, however, he seemed to agree on. That was to be expected. "I wouldn't call it shallow to like a certain appearance, you know," she pointed out. "There has to be something about their looks that attracts your attention in the first place before you try and get to know them. You have to be looking something about other men." She fixed him with her trademark 'I will find out everything about you' look.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 2:59 pm
Well, she was persistent. He'd give her that, he supposed. And she was....no, mostly just persistent. And made things up off the top of her head, it looked like. Oh dear. Marko shook his head again, gave a rueful chuckle, and almost reached out to pat Nan on the head. After a moment, he realized that she would probably disapprove of such patronization, and shook his head. Her words were actually nearly insightful, and Marko would have agreed with her if she hadn't added that last comment and fixed him with that infuriating look. So instead, he rested his hands on his hips and shook his head at her.
"I like what I like," he answered simply. It wasn't as if he was intending to answer any of Nan's questions at this point. She was too interested in things Marko prefered to keep personal, and she would no doubt spend more time starting rumours or trying to fix him up with one of her agemates than actually being interested in Marko's legitimate taste in men. Marko was mildly repulsed at the idea, to be honest; they were half his age, or less! The same age as...no. He was fairly certain the girl couldn't read thoughts, but the last thing he needed was her to find out about that. No, that could remain happily secret forever.
"Why so curious about my love life, dear?" he asked, somewhere between gently teasing and miffed. He wasn't upset, necessarily, just...perplexed? Perplexed worked, yes. He wasn't used to people prying into his private life.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 3:49 pm
"Of course you do," Nan replied easily. If he liked having a harem of Candidates at his beck and call then that's what he liked. She certainly wasn't going to think badly of him just because that was his goal in life. Everybody had to have something they were striving for. She would just want to know who was involved, and make sure that none of her favourite Candidates got carted away without saying goodbye. That certainly wouldn't do. But if he was going to let her keep tabs on what he was doing then Marko was free to do as he pleased. Who was she to stand in the way of manly love?
"But you didn't tell me what you liked at all," she continued, resisting the urge to put her hands on her hips. "Because if you don't like the whole tall, dark, and handsome thing – which is only an example not the be all, end all of types of men – then you should at least admit to liking something else, even if it isn't a type. 'cause you never know, there might be the perfect man or men here at the Weyr for you and you could pass them right by!" Unless, of course, you had the stellar help of the infamous Nose who knew all the eligible bachelors in practically the whole Weyr. There were benefits to being her friend.
At his question she blinked. "… Do I need a reason?" She seemed quite perplexed by that question. Of course everybody always asked why, but she could always just say "Because!" and that seemed to cover it. Somehow she wasn't sure that Marko would accept that as a valid reason.
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Posted: Sun Apr 26, 2009 4:35 pm
"It's really none of your business," Marko answered Nan with a shrug, although he felt a sudden urge to put her off the strange trail she seemed to be wandering down. This might be his only chance to stop her throwing every young gay, sexually confused, and straight-but-pretty boy in the Weyr at him...although why she would do that, he didn't know. Women as a whole didn't make much sense, teenage girls even less so.
"I like men who aren't young enough to be my children," he said dismissively, more or less ignoring the rest of that sentence. If there were someone he was genuinely interested in, he would approach them himself. And he was certainly not looking for the perfect man, or...men? What? Men? Marko wasn't against casual relationships and one-night stands, but...polyamory? Not entirely his style. If he only knew how mistaken about him Nan was...
Apparently, his question confused her? It shouldn't have. It wasn't that difficult of one. "I didn't know people meddled in other people's lives for no reason," he answered breezily, inspecting his fingernails while he waited for an answer. Hopefully she'd either be able to give him a good one or make up a good one.
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