4/3/99
[Gardens]
Jaden is sitting on a blanket in the shade, sorting through his basket. A pile of wool, that he was obviously carding rests on the ground beside him.
It must be the middle of the evening: The copper-haired Tailor is out with her basket of ribbons and thread - and her own blanket this time, thinking ahead she is. Sans leafy frond, she can only fan her face with her fingers and trundle down the path.
Jaden glances up from his basket at the footfalls, and grins in welcome. "Evening, Rie," he calls. "Fancy meeting you here."
Riessa, hearing what sounds like a friendly greeting, goes hunting about for the source. It takes a good ten seconds before bright eyes find the blanket and the boy and the apprentice beams, toddling on over thataway. "Please tell me you haven't taken to sleeping out here on purpose..."
Jaden's cheeks pinken at that. "No, not on purpose. I was soaked when I woke up this morning." He grins again, not seeming very upset over it all. "And how are you this eve?"
Riessa fibs outright, "I thought about waking you up, but you looked so content I just couldn't bear to disturb you." She makes a point of looking down at the unused portion of the blanket, /obviously/ waiting to be invited. "I'm very well, thank you. Come to while away the twilight, of course."
Jaden scoots over a bit, and pats the spot beside him. "Sit with me, then. I'll try not to fall asleep on you again."
Riessa beams sweetly and nodsnods, dropping herself and her basket onto the blanket and saying, "Thank you kindly. I really don't like being all by myself, but it's difficult to find someone willing to walk even this far." Pause. "I hope you've learned your lesson about sleeping out of doors?"
Jaden nods, his grin turning sheepish. "That I have. Though, it was cooler out here, then in the dorm." He scoops up the half carded wool, and dumps it into his basket.
"Did you want some help, by the way?" Riessa asks, gesturing to the other basket and only noticing it /just/ then. "Is this yours?" she asks next, blinking a time or two for punctuation.
Jaden nods, and flashes a grin. "It is. And look.." He touches the ribbon woven about the rim. "I used the ribbon you gave me in it."
Riessa looks about as pleased as pleased gets as she notes that vibrant little trifle, going as far as bright giggle, even. "I see that. I'm glad you got some use out of that," she adds with an emphatic nod of red ringlets.
Jaden looks pleased at the giggle, sprawling back on his elbows. "It was just the thing it needed," he says, flashing another grin, and giving his head a toss to get his bangs from his eyes.
Riessa, not to pry or anything, sits up straight enough to look over the wall and into the basket. "And what have you found to weigh your basket down, young sir?" she asks, then wrinkles her nose up slightly: "Besides wool, that is."
Jaden wrinkles his nose right back, then sits up again to tug the basket closer. "Just a vest I'm embroidering." He shoves the wool aside, and drags out some red fabric, to show the tailor.
"May I see it?" Riessa asks, trying very hard to look nothing but sweet and hopeful as she eyes the bright red blur. Gauging the competition, more than likely.
Jaden nods, and offers the vest. "It's not done. I was working on it, to wear to the next Gather."
Riessa fingers the fabric as only a true Weaver can, bending closer to examine the stitches already applied to create the half-dragon. "Are you? I should work on my Gather things, except that Declyn always sticks me in that booth." She tugs, experimentally, on the buttons and then hands it back. "I'm impressed," as if it mattered.
Jaden smiles, and tucks it back into the basket. "Thank you. I didn't make the vest itself, though. I'll be out of gold thread, by the time I'm done, thinks I." He tilts his head, curious. "What booth?"
"Why?" comes the quickly blinked question. Realizing how vague that sounds, Riessa amends, "Why didn't you make it yourself? Vests are terribly easy - child's play, really." Booth? "Oh. The Weaver-Tanner booth we erect at Gathers to display our things."
Jaden ahs and nods, fingers fiddling with the handle of the basket idly. Seems he always has to touch something. "I didn't make it myself, because my mother gave it to me just before I left. And if you get stuck in the booth, I'll keep you company."
Riessa does look slightly touched by the offer, smiling a very genuinely sunny smile and saying, "Thank you, Jaden, but that's really not necessary. No point in the both of us suffering at once, after all."
Jaden chuckles, and lifts one hand to flick his hair back again. "I like spending time with you," he asserts. "Of course, you're the only one I know, really, as yet. I met Master Piet briefly today."
And here Riessa thought she'd been complimented and you had to go and amend it. How sad. "Master Piet is... uhm..." The Tailor just trails off, probably more expressive than anything else she'd manage to come up with.
Jaden finishes, "Friendlier then Master Declyn? I noticed that." He flops back on his back, tilting his head to regard the Tailor.
Riessa nodsnods, only too willing to accept that as the completion to her unfinished comment. "Yes. Friendlier. What did you think of him aside from that? Master Piet, I mean," she asks, making herself more comfortable by laying down on her front, elbows propped up so she can fish through her own basket with idle fingers.
Jaden reaches out a hand, seemingly without thought, to attempt to snag a copper curl lightly. "I didn't speak to him long, though he said to let him know if I needed any help settling in."
Riessa just sits still except the eyes that roll to keep track of the hand that's just a bit too close to her face and the brows that furrow attempting to figure out why. "I bet he did," she comments with a light laugh.
Jaden winds the captured curl about one slender finger, staring absently into space. "He must have liked my outfit," he comments. "He kept staring at me, somewhat."
Riessa's not above breaking fingers if her hair gets pulled, by the way, but she's tolerant enough as long as the ringlet is just being toyed with and not tugged. "Yes, I'm sure it was your outfit," she agrees. Something about her tone, though...
The tone draws Jade's attention back, and he blinks at his fingers a moment, wondering how they got into the Tailor's hair. He carefully frees the curl with a murmured appoligy, then tilts his head slightly. "You don't sound sure."
Riessa dismisses the apology without comment, absently putting her red curl back with the rest of them where it belongs. "Well," she drawls. "Master Piet is... special."
Jaden's brow furrows, as his fingers seek something else to toy with, settling for his belt buckle. "Special? In what way?"
Riessa, trying to be delicate as only a hold-bred Crafter would, "He... well, he seems to prefer boys. In his bed." Yes, there is quite the blush in the Tailor's cheeks, now, so be polite and ignore it?
Jaden blinks, then blinks again, his own cheeks flushing. "Oh. Oh, I see." He glances towards the courtyard, then his gaze turns back to his basket, reaching to fiddle with the handle. "Oh," he says once more.
Riessa mms and nods, obviously content to have her point taken without being further explained. That being an effective conversation stopper, she just indulges the silence by crossing her ankles and taking a silent inventory of her ribbons and thread.
Jaden's attention wanders briefly, as does his gaze, trailing about the garden. After a moment, he questions, "Are there many other men about? Other then the two Masters, I've only seen women."
"Ohh, a few," Riessa replies, only too pleased to have some new tendril of chatter to cling to. "Most of them haven't got the stamina for long-term weaving, though, so they tend to come and go without notice."
Jaden nods idly, "I plan to stick about for a long time." A pause, then he asks casually, "Do you know much about Master Piet?" Back to that topic. Perhaps he just likes to gossip.
Riessa shrugs up one shoulder and admits, "Not much, no." She, apparently, does not like to gossip so much. "People talk, of course, but you can't listen too much. He seems like a nice enough fellow to me, though," with another shrug.
Jaden nods and gives it up with a chuckle. He rather likes to listen to the talk. "He did, yes. Seem to be nice, that is." In a quicksilver change of subject, he asks, "What's your favorite colour?"
"I'm sure if you hang about you'll run into him again by and by," Riessa notes, a firm nod as she agrees with herself. And then a pause. "I have to pick only one of them?" she asks, bewildered by the simple question.
Jaden turns his gaze on the Tailor again, grinning. "Yes. If you had to pick one, what one is your favorite?" He lifts a hand, and stifles a yawn.
Riessa gives her head a very somber shake as it rests in her upturned palms still. Serious as the day is long, she says, "I cannot, sir, pick a single color. There are far, far too many of them to single out only one."
Jaden frowns faintly, thwarted. "Well, can you narrow it down to a few, then?" A small leaf meets his questing fingers, and is promptly snagged up, and toyed with.
You may regret asking, but Riessa takes a deep breath and says, "I like teal and periwinkle and scarlet and sugarplum and goldenrod and of course just blue, red, and yellow. Oh, and I like most of the greens - emerald and sea and grass and kelly and beryl and..." Get the picture?
A soft laugh floats through the air, and Jaden grins at the list, and the girl. "Alright, I get the picture. You like all colours."
Riessa nodsnods and lets the ongoing list trail silent. She could have gone on for quite some time yet. "Most of them, yes. I don't particularly care for pink, though."
Jaden laughs again, and sprawls back on the blanket once more. "No pink. I shall remember that. I should have just asked what colours you didn't like, to begin with."
Riessa, again, nodsnods brightly, turning her head afterward to push on her chin and successfully pop the joints in her neck quietly. "There aren't many of them. I don't like the color of Master Declyn's hands, though. Not at all." Her nose scrunches up for emphasis.
Jaden winces at the popping sounds, and shifts slight to rub at the nape of his own neck. "Master Declyn's hands? I didn't really notice the colour, myself. I'll have to look again, when I see him next."
"They are," Riessa beings succinctly, "the ugliest shade I've ever seen. It's from mixing them in dyes all the time, but it still look atrocious."
Jaden nods, taking her word for it. "Mixing colours is something I need to work on. I don't always get the shade I want, and sometimes, I don't even get the colour I want. All in all, I'm rather bad at it."
Jaden is lounging, flat on his back beside Riessa, on a blanket on the ground. An amount of half carded wool spills out of his nearby basket.
Settled in some shady alcove on a blanket are Riessa, Jaden, and two sewing baskets. The girl rests on her belly, elbows propped up and chin in hands as she speaks. "I'm just dreadful at it. But that's what the others are for, I suppose."
Piet, who hasn't gotten this far by being excessively nosy, passes discreetly by.
Jaden's attention wanders so often, one might wonder if it comes back with souvenirs, so he fails to notice the new arrival as he continues his idle conversation, after a brief pause. "One day, I'll get it right, and get the shade of purple I want, and I'll make a ton of it, and be happy."
Riessa wrinkles her nose up slightly, halfway dropping her chin to give one hand a quick once-over, frowning at a needle wrought callous on her thumb. "Why? It's a bother, if you ask me. I've just taken to paying some of the younger apprentices hello, Master Piet," she runs together.
Jaden's gaze turns to Riessa again, blinking in puzzlement a moment, before he works that out, and looks about for the afore mentioned Master. "Hallo, Master Piet," he echos, on spotting the man, and flashes a friendly smile.
Piet nearly purrs "Good afternoon. Paying the younger apprentices for what exactly, Riessa?"
"For..." Riessa begins, her jaw working for a mute moment and something akin to panic edging into her expression. "For helping me with commissions," she comes up with, flashing a smile - proud of herself for that one.
Piet murmurs "How thoughtful." He's not buying it.
Jaden looks from Riessa, to Piet, then sits up fluidly, shifting to sit cross-legged, and drag his basket closer. His fingers toy with the wool idly, staying quiet for the moment.
He may not be buying it, but he's not busting her for it, either, so Riessa just lets her very bad fib remain. "They could use a little pocket money," she adds as if charitably.
Piet nods solemnly. "They could." Yeah, well. He was young once.
Jaden smiles at his basket, risks a peek up at Piet though his bangs, glances at Riessa, then goes back to fiddling with the wool, still quiet.
Riessa, quite ready to shift the center of conversation, points - a little rudely but not THAT bad - at Jaden halfway behind her. "Have you met Jaden yet, Master Piet? He's new." Sorry, Jaden.
Piet draws up his shoulders a little bit, semiconsciously. "Yes.. indeed I have."
Jaden darts another glance at Riessa, then peers up at Piet though his bangs again. "We met briefly," he answers, head tilted slightly, then offers a smile.
Piet smiles back at Jaden. Oh, is Riessa here too? Oops. Yes. Well. Too easily distracted.
Riessa would rather be overlooked than scrutinized. So, having settled the Master's attention on the boy, she takes up swinging her feet idly and watching the other two not keep up the conversation.
Piet's look isn't.. scrutinizing, exactly.
Jaden tosses his head to get his bangs out of his eyes, and stops his fingers in mid reach for one of Riessa's ringlets. "I'm going to weave some fans," he blurts out, to fill the sudden silence. "Riessa said I could peddle them at the next Gather." He casts about for something else to toy with.
Riessa said that in confidence, though. She didn't expect it to be blurted out to someone important. "I said you might be able to," she notes quickly, ducking her head a bit toward her basket in a poor attempt at looking busy.
Piet gives this a slight, crooked smile and murmurs "Did she." And then he smiles again, catching the aborted gesture, and turns to go. "Best of luck."
Jaden fights hard to cover the flash of disapointment in his eyes, as the Master turns away, fixing his gaze on... well, this leaf will do. "Thank you," he replies.
Riessa humms quietly to herself, looking like she's not at all interested in the words that pass around her - but you know she's got to be listening and probably taking notes.
The need to preserve decorum can, in some cases, lead to incorrect conclusions due to unwillingness to pursue the facts. Piet says "I see no reason why you couldn't sell them if you like. You're always free to pursue special projects, for profit or for yourself, as long as you have the time to do them."
Once more Jaden's gaze darts upwards, and he says earnestly, "Oh, of course. I'd only do it in my spare time. It's so hot, you see, and we had a leaf for a fan, but I thought woven ones would be better, to keep cool, so..." he trails off, realizing he's rambling, and bites his lip.
Piet says reasonably "Actually, that's a fine project. And I'm sure you'll sell many."
"I'm sure you will, too. You should get to work on that, Jaden," Riessa comments finally, unwinding herself from the ground and double-checking the contents of her basket before she tands. "I really shouldn't dawdle like this. You gentlemen enjoy the shade, hmm?"
Jaden blinks at Riessa as she stands, pausing in what he was about to say. "Oh. See you later, then, Reissa." He smiles brightly up at her.
Riessa nodsnods at the other Apprentice and says, "Count on it." A quick smile for Piet and she adds, "Goodday, Master." Then she and her basket wander back out along the flagstoned path.
Piet relaxes slightly but visibly once there's no one else around. "How are you finding the Craft?"
Jaden watches Riessa go, then turns his gaze back up to you. "Oh, fine, sir. I'm still settling in, and finding out what I'm supposed to be doing, and such."
Piet says "Well, you feel confident enough to be taking on a project already. That seems to be a good sign."
Jaden grins brightly, eyes dancing with sudden amusment. "You could say the heat is inspiring, sir."
Piet chuckles softly. "If it's the heat that's bothering you, you're in the right place. The gardens just got replanted after the hurricane, you know."
Jaden grins again, and moves as though to lounge back on his elbows, then recalls whom he's speaking to, and sits a bit strighter. "I spend as much time as I can in here. I wish there was a lake, or a river. I'd even settle for a stream, if I could sit in it."
Piet makes a sympathetic noise. "The ocean's not too far if you can get the time to get away from it. Otherwise, you just have to get used to the heat."
Jaden nods and sighs faintly. "I suppose I shall. Get used to it, that is." Another toss of his head gets those wayward bangs from his eyes again.
Piet tilts his head slightly. "Have you thought about getting that cut?"
Jaden blinks, then shakes his head. "I've thought of it, but I never do it. I'm used to it."
Piet says "Fine. Just be careful. Some girl got her hair caught in her loom last year."
Jaden winces at the thought, and lifts a hand to finger his bangs. "Well.. perhaps a bit of a cut."
Piet smiles faintly. "No, I like it like that. As long as it isn't in your way or causing a danger to you. They had to cut the girl's hair off to get her free in the end, but it did her a world of good. She was much more sociable without all of it to hide behind."
Jaden's mind catches on the liking it part, and he all but beams up at you. "Thank you, sir." Then his mind catches up, and he winces again. "It's not usually in my way when I work, really. I just toss my head a lot."
Piet has a very hard time suppressing his smile, but he turns it into something that looks almost professional. "Just don't hurt yourself, then."
Jaden smiles back, and nods. "Oh, I won't, sir. At least, I hope I won't." His eyes dance with amusement again.
Piet folds his arms momentarily. "Oh, I believe it. What are you working on there?"
Jaden drops his gaze to his basket. "Oh. I was carding some wool, and working on my embroidery some. I'm embroidering a vest to wear for the next Gather."
Piet crouches down nearby. "You know, you just got here. You don't have to be doing all of these things your first sevenday."
Jaden's fingers wander aimlessly, seeking something to fiddle with, and settling on a pebble. "I just want to make a good impression, sir. I rather like it here, so far, and I don't want to make any mistakes."
Piet watches your fingers, almost forgetting for a second to answer. "You're more likely to make a mistake by doing too much than too little. Give it a few days to at least settle in. You'll pick it up."
Jaden nods, lashes lowered almost shyly. "Yes, sir," he answers. "People always tell me I try too hard."
Piet laughs gently, visibly restraining his own hands. "There are worse sins in life. Just try to take it easy just at first, and we'll see how it goes, all right?"
Jaden peeks at you though those lashes, and nods. "Yes, sir," he says, offering another smile. "I'll stop trying to do five things at once."
Piet finds himself caught looking at those lashes. "Not yet, anyway," he says with a little smile, pulling himself to his feet. "When we need you to do five things at once, you'll know."
Jaden watches you stand, head tilted back somewhat as he laughs softly. "I bet I will," he agrees. "I don't mind it, really. Though I'm sure that's easy to say now."
Piet grins, a remarkably soft-edged and bright-eyed grin. "I think it'll be easy enough to say then, too," he says, and turns to leave. "I hope you'll be with us for quite a while."
Jaden nods quickly, one slender hand shoving his hair back again. "I hope so too, sir. Have a good night, it was nice to talk with you."
Piet says "Have a good night, apprentice."