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 Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 6:42 pm
"W'ten! W'ten, let's go, let's go!"
K'em bounced on the balls of his feet like a small child about to attend his first Gather. "W'ten, I know you're doing math, or something equally important, but Cordel is getting back today. Maybe he's already back, Faroth was a little fuzzy about the times, I don't think he was really listened when he asked the dragon bringing Cordel back, but if he's not home yet, we can just wait until he gets here. I bet he missed us. I mean, how could he not? No one to take him to dinner, no one to argue with, not one to kidnap him if he's not sleeping enough."
Suddenly K'em remembered to breath. Bouncing again, he pushed messy brown waves out of his face and reached for the door. "C'mon, c'mon, he's back, let's go!" The Wingsecond bounded out in the direction of Cordel's room, leaving the door wide open for W'ten to follow. Of course he expected the older brownrider to come along; why wouldn't he? That's what best friends did, suffer alongside! W'ten even witnessed the beating K'em took after getting too friendly with the Weyrlingmaster's mate and made sure he got to the healers afterwards. It explained the crooked nose and dark rings under his eyes.
"Coooooordel! Coooooooordeeeeeeel~!" K'em sang down the hall.
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Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 7:22 pm
W'ten was, actually, quite glad that the Healer was back, however his reasons (as he had convinced himself) were entirely logical. Cordel was an extremely competent Healer no matter what the brownrider said, and he managed to keep and hold K'em's attention long enough for W'ten to get some peace and quiet. Thus, of course he was pleased to have Cordel back. It would mean that he could have more time to himself and the Weyr regained one of their best Healers. Logic at its finest. But he most certainly had not missed the Healer, with his emotional tirades and arguments guided entirely by circumstantial evidence. K'em missed people. W'ten did not miss people.
Nevertheless, he was unusually patient with K'em's enthusiasm, allowing him to prattle away without interruption. He didn't even feel the need to point out that Cordel seemed displeased with all of the things the other brownrider had listed as the things that he hadn't had while he was away. Perhaps he had even enjoyed the peace and quiet for a chance. But he was decidedly nice this morning, and he wasn't going to ruin K'em's mood. Prying himself dutifully away from his satisfying math problems, the brownrider whistled for Prala and followed K'em to Cordel's room without so much as a quip. He was saving those for when he revaluated the Healer.
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Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 7:56 pm
Meanwhile, Cordel was making friends with the bucket. Flights did not agree with the Healer. Neither did between. Unfortunately for him, going from Healer Hall back to Ista Weyr required a quick jump between and flying. Needless to say, Cordel was not a happy Healer. At least he had the forethought to eat lightly the night before at his Walk the Table ceremony. Or… actually, he hadn’t eaten at all, on the basis that a Healer was supposed to actually get out there and heal people, not sit around and eat big meals.
That and he didn’t want to be a complete and utter wreck during his early flight out the next morning. Once he was finished, he slid the bucket under the table once more and went back to work. Or that was the plan until Tribble started squeaking excitedly at something.
“Tribble, shut up.”
“Trrrirrriri!” The firelizard switched to a particularly quiet trill-purr combination and flapped her wings. Her friend was here! Oh, yes, she still remembered the nice Blue who had given her sausage. He was nice! And… and he had given her sausage! And he was here and Cordel needed to open the door! She was very insistent on this subject, and wouldn’t stop until the Healer got up and actually answered the sharding door.
You know, before K’em tried to kick it down again. “...What happened to you? Did you get into a fight with a hammer?” he demanded as soon as he took a measure of the Wingsecond, taking note of the man’s recently broken nose and blackened eyes. Since, today, he was being polite, he even gave W’ten a slight nod. It wasn’t that he had missed the man or anything. Of course not! It was just… polite.
“Prrrprprrrprprrrp!” Tribble purred at the other two, recognizing them as people who made her person happy.
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Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:09 pm
K'em just beamed at Cordel when he opened the door; the comment about his face was completely expected. "Got in a fight with Weyrlingmaster F'sey, as a matter of fact." Well, it was much more a 'getting beaten senseless' than an actual fight, but one way or another, the brownrider deserved exactly what he got and he didn't need to go into embarrassing details. "Guy that fixed me up didn't do a very good job of it, though."
Feeling the need to illustrate this, K'em reached up and poked the bridge of his nose. He had to bite back a whine as he cringed, pain spiking and tears well up in his eyes. The break was only a few days old and it was still incredibly painful. It would have been a little more beneficial to remember that before he touched it, but hey. This was K'em we were talking about. Waving his hand about, he clapped his hand on Cordel's shoulder and grinned some more.
"But that's not why I'm here, that's beyond help now." So was the sprained wrist (fishing mishap), cut across his cheek (angry boyfriend mishap) and the bruises on his legs (adventures in the wilderness mishap). Okay. So maybe he didn't do well bored. But that was besides the point. "We're here to welcome you home, Cordel! We missed you; W'ten didn't have anyone to b***h at." A wide smile. "C'mon. Stop working a little bit and come visit with us."
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Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:29 pm
"Kriii!" Prala was clearly quite pleased when he spotted his green friend, and flew a circle around the room to show just how happy he was to see her again. Remembering his manners, however, he settled down on the edge of Cordel's bed after his little emotional outburst and tucked his wings in neatly against his body. He had to make a good impression after all.
W'ten returned the small nod, already comparing the Healer to the one that he had seen before he left. Other than a slight decrease in the colour of his face – probably due to the flight over (the brownrider made a mental note of this) – he seemed to be in good health. Perhaps this would serve as a good example that Cordel did not just drink himself under the table every night that K'em wasn't following him around and doing his laundry like a good wife. It was mildly pleasing.
He allowed K'em to explain his injuries, raising an eyebrow at his dismissal of the 'fight' with the Weyrlingmaster but otherwise not adding anything. If K'em wished to speak of the beating he had properly received at the hands of the greenrider then that was his own business. Cordel would probably quiz him later. He would be quite happy to relate the approximate average speed at which F'sey could throw a punch when provoked. But he would save that for later. For some reason, K'em and Cordel seemed to bond better over the sharing of injury stories, and he was not going to interfere. Until, of course, the other brownrider decided to tell Cordel that W'ten missed him and 'didn't have anyone to b***h at.' For a second his brows pinched together in a miniscule frown, before they returned to their previous location.
"I do not b***h at anyone, K'em. And I am sure the Healer is aware that I was sufficiently amused in his absence."
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Posted: Mon Aug 17, 2009 8:59 pm
Tribble was similarly delighted to see Prala. As the Blue flew in a circle, the Green joined him, circling in the opposite direction while making her usual happy prrrping trills. Maybe he had some more sausage for her? No? Well, that was alright too. She settled down nearby and started to groom her newfound friend, still chirruping happily.
Aaaaand of course K’em had to touch an obviously broken nose. He couldn’t just sit there and let the sharding thing heal. He always had to touch and prod. Still, it was nice to see that Cordel’s friends----well, one friend and W’ten----were happy to see him. Or K’em was. But, the mere fact that the older Brownrider was actually there meant he was at least somewhat pleased to have Cordel back at the Weyr, although he probably had a needlessly long and complicated reason why.
“Should I even try to ask what you got into a fight with F’sey over or are you just going to lie about it?” he asked bluntly, moving out of the doorway to let the other men in. “Sit down, K’em, and I’ll see what I can do.” Clearly, the Healer had contracted a case of incipient deafness in which he only heard things he wanted to hear. For one thing, he very selectively did not hear, ‘stop working’.
“Yes, yes, W’ten. I’m sure you had a great many adventures in the realm of mathematics. I knew there was something that I didn’t miss.” Namely W’ten’s habit of… of… just BEING W’ten, when you got right down to it. “So, how has La been handling everything?” He suspected that the older Brownrider at least had been keeping an eye on the Apprentice, if only to let her know how stupid Cordel was.
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Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 11:03 am
"I told you, Cordel, I'm pretty sure it's beyond help now. It's a couple days old, yanno? I thought these things had to be set right away." K'em sat down anyways, fairly certain he might regret it otherwise. It was better to just let Cordel look at that other journeyman's handiwork and decide for himself it was a hopeless cause. He never took K'em's word for anything, anyways. Not that he particularly blamed Cordel for it, but all the same. "And anyways. F'sey is just a really possessive b*****d which I realized one punch too late, so."
Anyways. They were not going to discuss the humiliating F'sey-kicked-the-s**t-out-of-K'em incident. "And you b***h all the time, W'ten. Mostly to me. But you have to fight with Cordel. It's this need you guys have. Needle each other like it's your job, or something." The brownrider nodded sagely. He'd witnessed it many times; they always made needless jabs at each other just to get an argument started.
"Oh, oh, just like that!" He pointed at Cordel as he let a barb fly. "See? I knew you guys missed each other in your own, weird little ways." Not that he cared to understand those weird little ways. That would be ridiculous.
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Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 6:59 pm
Sausage? Perhaps later. If they did something nice that W'ten liked they might be able to have one. He would think of something. But later. Prala made happy noises as he returned the favour, grooming Tribble gently.
W'ten raised an eyebrow at K'em. The brownrider was asking for it. "Using the word 'b***h' to describe a complaint is extremely imprecise due to the multiple meanings of the word. And your implication that I complain to you often is without experimental evidence. You should avoid making statements that you are unable to sufficiently prove." He fixed his brownrider friend with his best Look. If K'em continued to sass him he was asking to have his entire embarrassing fight with F'sey recounted while Cordel poked and prodded him until he ached. He would be wise not to bait the pair of them.
With that settled, he turned his attention back to Cordel, ignoring K'em's outburst about how much they 'missed each other.' As if they could ever miss each other. "I see your retorts are illogical and emotionally driven as always, Healer Cordel. It appears that you have not used your time away from the Weyr to sharpen your wit." A pity, really, but some things could not be expected to change. At the mention of La he offered what could have been a small, approving nod. "Her performance was comparable to that of other apprentices at her age and level of experience."
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Posted: Tue Aug 18, 2009 8:34 pm
“A couple days ol…” Cordel facepalmed at this as he performed a bit of mental math. A few days ago, he had only just left. “Tell me, do you deliberately wait until I’m gone before doing something phenomenally stupid, like harass the Weyrlingmaster? What did you do anyway?” Ok… so there wasn’t anything that could be done for the broken nose at this point. But Cordel would sharding well find something to do. He was not a man who took well to boredom. At least he could clean out the wounds. After a quick examination, Cordel went off to his bags, pulling out a few of the new supplies he had picked up while at Healer Hall. Technically, there were usually waiting lists and these things had to come in the tithes but…
Shards, what was the point of being a Master if you couldn’t pull strings, right?
“That was hardly a retort,” he pointed out. “That was a greeting. By the way, I brought back presents.” Heh. He couldn’t help but feel a little proud of La. W’ten said ‘blah blah blah, most average performance ever’, but what he really meant was, ‘I tried very hard to discover something wrong if only to point out what a horrible teacher you are, Cordel, but I was unable to find anything’. Clearly, La had done amazingly well. “K’em, I got you an actual cot since you kept complaining about it but refused to get a real one. It should come tomorrow since I couldn’t actually carry it around with me.”
And as for W’ten… well, what Cordel really wanted to get him was a smack upside the head or a good dose of common sense, but those weren’t approved cures for being W’ten. After a bit more digging, Cordel offered the Brownrider a package of what appeared to be hides. “I couldn’t bring the book so I had a scribe copy it down,” he explained. Well, parts of it anyway. ‘It’ happened to be a book on mathematics; whatever it had been doing in the Healer Hall library was beyond Cordel but it seemed like W’ten’s sort of thing, so…
Tribble chirruped happily and tried to explain to Prala all that had happened. Through the eyes of a firelizard, this mostly translated to lots of loud people, lots of scary people, Cordel yelling at other people and occasionally food happened. So, it was mostly business as usual, but in an entirely different place.
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 4:33 pm
"Yep!" K'em chirped without hesitation. It was entirely untrue, he just actually seemed to get in more trouble when Cordel was gone. Maybe it was an illusion; the healer had to deal with four or five injuries at once. "Are you sure you aren't just feeling overwhelmed?" he teased, grinning his most charming grin as he watched his friend flutter about with all his new toys. "I mean, I do have that effect on people. I'm pretty awesome. It's a gift, I know."
He glanced back over at W'ten, grin getting impossibly wider in the face of the Look. "Shut up, W'ten, you know you like spending time with me." K'em's eyes brightened as he recalled countless fishing trips gone poorly. The brownrider rarely caught anything, but there was something to be said about sitting with one's friend and just enjoying the day. "And we can totally 'experiment'. I didn't know you were that kind of guy, W'ten. Kinky." He winked. Sure, he was digging himself a nice little grave. But this was fun.
"Wait? Presents!?" Cordel had K'em's attention back in a flash, the brownrider practically vibrating where he sat. "You brought us back stuff? You're such a pal, Cordel." He laughed quietly. "And for that, I think you should break in the new cot with me, yeah? It'll be great!"
Hitting on them both? K'em was clearly forgetting W'ten had a nice bit of blackmail at his disposal.
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 5:13 pm
...
"Perhaps you should show the Healer your fishing injury, K'em. I am sure he would be sufficiently sympathetic to the fact that you hooked yourself in the back with your fishing hook due to your inability to cast properly." W'ten didn't betray a hint of irritation, face and voice completely neutral as he jabbed back at K'em. If the other brownrider insisted on being juvenile then he would find himself in a very poor position indeed. With Cordel here, W'ten intended to use the Healer's natural inclination to poke and prod K'em to his advantage. The more injuries he knew of that he hadn't treated, the more Cordel would harass K'em. It would be most pleasing to watch.
Though he had heard Cordel mention presents, it had not crossed his mind that there would be one for him. They weren't exactly friends, and thus Cordel owed him nothing. Thus he was completely floored when the Healer handed him a package of hides, and explained that it was a book. For him. For a moment, W'ten looked surprised, then the expression changed to suspicious, and finally settled on somewhere near what could have been insecure or uncomfortable. He had not received a gift since his tenth naming day, when his father deemed him too old for that sort of thing. Knowing Cordel, he was quick to assume that the gift was some sort of mockery of his temperament.
Nevertheless, he took the collection of hides, pulling one of the pages down to get a better look. It was a book on mathematics. W'ten blinked at it. Cordel really had thought of something for him. He would have to return the favour. But another time. Right now he wanted to look at this book. "That was very thoughtful of you, Healer Cordel," he replied quietly, eyes darting from the book to the Healer and back as though he loathed to take his eyes off it. "Thank you."
Mellowed completely from his earlier irritation, W'ten proceeded to flip systematically through the hides, skim reading bits as they caught his attention. "Fascinating," he murmured.
Prala was an eager audience, 'listening' intently as Tribble explained to him what had happened. The scary and the loud people sounded very much like him, but he was quite interested in the food that happened. Did it taste different than the food here? It certainly looked better and tastier than sausages. Did Tribble enjoy it?
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 7:01 pm
“Yes, K’em, I’m certain that you overwhelm many with your natural talent for stupid.” Seriously, harassing F’sey? Why not just stick his face into a flamethrower? It would be so much easier and still cause the same amount of damage! Oh, look! K’em had gotten him a ‘welcome home’ present too! Horrific mental trauma, just what Cordel needed right now. The Healer’s eye twitched before he managed to cover his face with one hand. “Thank you, K’em, for that horrible mental image. It’s just what I wanted as soon as I came back home. At least the bucket is close at hand…”
At least W’ten’s ‘present’ was better. An excuse to poke and prod at K’em? Why, thank you! Not that Cordel really needed an excuse. He just needed a reason. Not only that, but the Brownrider’s expression upon encountering a bit of genuine human kindness was… actually, it was sort of sad that it had surprised W’ten that much. Maybe Cordel was too much of an a** to him… “You’re welcome, W’ten.”
…
…
Welp! Time to go bother K’em. “So… fishing, huh? Shirt up. Hooks are pretty much the perfect thing to cause infections. And since when could you eat fish anyway? You know they upset your stomach.” All intent to be a better person to W’ten were forgotten as Cordel went about his job instead, trying to clean up the scratch on K’em’s face. Seriously, this was why he tried not to leave for any longer than a few days. If he stayed away any longer, he wouldn’t have any friends to come back to!
Tribble had to think about this question carefully for many moments, mostly because she kept getting distracted by dust motes or pretty much anything that happened to go by her nose. In the end, she eventually answered with a negative: the Weyr food was better.
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 8:21 pm
"SEE? I knew you guys liked each other."
They just had to gang up on him to be civil, apparently. Ah, well. Sacrifice he'd half to make, apparently. Besides, there were worse things. Cordel was his healer, after all, he had to do something to keep the man around. And he just asked K'em to remove his shirt. Ask, and ye shall receive! The brownrider removed his shirt in one fluid motion, tossing it to the floor unceremoniously as he grinned up at Cordel.
"Oh, you know I wouldn't eat it. We were just bonding and stuff. And it's not like we caught anything worth eating. Just little things." He'd invite the healer along next time, but to be honest, he liked having that little bit of downtime without W'ten mouthing off and being smart. "See? It isn't that bad of cut. W'ten's just trying to get you all worked up."
He flashed the brownrider a grin. "Maybe he just likes you better when you're all in a huff." Hmm. W'ten looked completely lost in his gift. "Hey, if you're gonna keep makin' eyes at that thing, you should go back to the weyr for some private time." He winked. "Don't worry. We'd understand."
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 8:50 pm
"Your logic is unsound yet again, K'em. Perhaps repeatedly falling off Faroth while catching minnows did more damage to your head than was initially thought." W'ten was still flipping through his book, enjoying the sight of all the neatly printed numbers. Whoever had written out this book for Cordel had had a good hand, and the hides were good quality too. The Healer must have pulled some strings to get that. Another puzzling element about the gift, but he would think about that later. Now that Cordel was back, K'em might actually leave him in peace for a little while to think.
When the shirt landed on the floor, the brownrider moved instinctually, still reading as he picked up the fallen article of clothing and folded it. It was set neatly on the edge of Cordel's cot, hopefully to return to its wearer before they left. Not that it would have mattered, anyways. If it stayed in Cordel's room it would probably get washed long before it would have if it stayed in their weyr. No, he was not sore at all about the fact that K'em felt the need to do the Healer's laundry on a regular basis but ignored his own. He was just irritated by the illogical nature of it all.
He finally looked up from his book when K'em continued to sass him, and raised an eyebrow. "The fact that your mouth is still moving informs me that Cordel is not being thorough enough in his examination of your back. Perhaps he should be informed of all the other injuries you received on the fishing trips. "
Prala was a flit of surprising patience, and used the time between her replies to study the dust motes as well. They really were quite interesting. What would his master say? Oh right. They were fascinating. He liked that word. When Tribble answered his question he chirped his agreement. Perhaps they could go and look for a sausage together? The kitchen staff were usually nice people. If he sat pretty and kept his hands to himself they would usually feed him. Did Tribble want to come?
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2009 9:31 pm
Cordel didn’t even dignify K’em’s ridiculous notions with a reply. Just a snort was enough to show what he thought about W’ten being his friend. They weren’t friends! Well… maybe a little. More like frenemies, really. Or they at least tolerated each other, out of respect for K’em. Or morbid curiosity to see what K’em would do next. As for the gift, there was a perfect good reason for that! It would have just been impolite to give K’em a present right in front of W’ten without offering the older Brownrider something. And, yes, it was a bit expensive for a present, but being a Master Healer came with a bit of an increase in wages and… well… he needed to spend it on something that wasn’t alcohol.
“K’em, I asked you to lift your shirt, not take it off…” Whatever. As a Healer, he had seen worse things before. Besides, it wasn’t even as if K’em was unattractive. “If you were paying attention, W’ten, you’d notice that I’m busy cleaning his face to notice his back at this point.” Honestly, the nerve of that man, to suggest that Cordel wasn’t doing his job properly! And after all the trouble he had gone through to get that present too!
“…What other injuries?” he asked, his voice suddenly heavy with suspicion as he glanced between the two dragonriders. He didn’t like the sound of that. Just what other idiocy was K’em getting up to without someone to smack him upside the head and tell him how stupid it was? He moved over to the man’s back anyway, eyeing the wound. “… Does this hurt?” he asked, promptly poking it.
Hey, it never hurt to ask! But the prodding certainly might. It definitely looked infected…
What’s this? Prala was offering Tribble a chance to go sausage hunting? Why, the Green was all atwitter at the very thought! Actually, she really was all atwitter, since the very thought of sausage made her go off into a chirping storm with the occasional flash of trill and a rumble of ‘prrprrrps!’. Needless to say, the idea pleased her quite a lot. Flapping up into the air, she flew in a brief circle, happily accepting Prala’s most generous offer.
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