RL Date: 4/2/99
[Gardens]
Fanning herself with what looks to be a very broad leaf, Riessa is announced by a flutter of that green frond and the quiet slap of sandals against flagstone. A basket hanging from one elbow, she is the very portrait of leisure with that languid gait.
Jaden is lounging in the shade, fanning himself idly with one hand, eyes unfocused as he gazes into space. He doesn't seem to notice the arrival, humming a tune to himself.
Riessa does notice the lounging figure, though, and favors the scene a rather bright smile as she drags her heels over that way. "Not interrupting, am I?" she asks, coming up a safe distance and never once letting that fan go slack.
Jaden starts slightly at the voice, the returns the smile just as brightly, sitting up somewhat. "Oh, not at all. Riessa... right?"
"That's what they keep telling me, yes," Riessa replies, tucking a curl away and proceeding to stir the air about her face with the frond still. "Are you going to invite me to sit and share my juice and ribbons with you?"
Jaden grins, and pats the spot beside himself. "Oh, of course. Do sit." Another grin, and a playful wink. "Are you going to share that leaf, too?"
Riessa drops with an utter lack of ceremony to the patted spot in the blessed shade, arranging her basket at her feet and glancing a moment at the leaf. "Certainly. There's a whole jungle of them over there," and she gestures vaguely south. "But this is the best of them all so I suppose I'll share it."
Jaden glances towards the south, then lounges back on his elbows, tossing his head to get his hair from his eyes. "I so hope I get used to this heat, soon."
Riessa makes a face, stirring up a nice little gust to keep the hair back from your eyes before she puts the frond away for the moment. "I /so/ hope you don't have to and it cools down soon," she echoes, fishing amongst the ribbons in her basket to find a chilled wineskin - which has the label stripped off and has seen a little wear and tear lately.
Jaden sighs in pleasure at the brief breeze, then props himself up a bit more, to peer at the ribbons, and then at the wineskin. "The sight of you will ever make me think of cool juice, I think."
Riessa gives a little laugh at that, saying, "There are worse things to be reminiscent of than cool juice, I suppose." She rummages in the basket a moment, disturbing a few spools of thread and sending more of the satin ribbons spilling over the edge. "I'm afraid I haven't any cups," she frets.
Jaden reaches to snag a bright ribbon, grinning. "I'm fresh out of cups myself, though I could go look for some, if you like?"
"That," Riessa begins, pulling for all her little fingers are worth at the cork of that 'skin, "would defeat the purpose of lounging in the shade. I can share if you can?" she adds, still pulling on the cork and glancing after that fluttering ribbon absently.
A soft laugh floats from Jaden's lips, and he nods, hair tumbling back into his eyes. "I can share anything cool, in this heat," he says with a grin, fingers feathering absently over the pilfered ribbon.
Riessa nodsnods emphatically at that, having a nice, long pull of the juice in the wineskin and catching a drop in her palm before she hands it over to Jaden on the ground beside her. "I think most of us can," she agrees, and then takes up her leaf again, making certain at least some of the breeze wafts Jaden's way as she fans herself. "Are you going to keep that?"
Jaden tilts his head back, to take a drink from the skin, sighing as the cool juice soothes his throat. He blinks at Riessa. "Keep what?"
Declyn strides in, muttering to himself about apprentices who can't get it through their thick skull's that you have to wash the wool before you try carding it.
Riessa plucks at the end of the ribbon in Jaden's fingers, the broad leaf still waving lazily as the girl tilts her hand idly back and forth. "You're welcome to it, of course, though it is one of my favorites." A footfall? And her in such a languid state? Oh, dear.
Jaden shifts closer to Riessa, perhaps for the breeze, then blinks at the ribbon in his fingers. "Oh.. sorry. I'm awful for touching things." He offers it, and the wineskin back, then glances 'round at the sound of footsteps.
Riessa has two hands and three things to hold, hmm. In exchange for the wineskin, she lays the leaf over Jaden's lap, takes the juice and the ribbon, and then sits up with a more proper posture. "Quite all right," she assures, sorting through the other ribbons just to look busy after that glimpse of a Master.
And here Declyn had been having such a good day until he catches sight of two lounging apprentices. There's no longer any doubt he's here now as he stalks, yes stalks over to both apprentices. A long finger points at the wineskin. "Explain that now."
Jaden pushes up off his elbows, eyes widening as he peers up at the Master. One slender hand snags the leaf from his lap, and just holds it, as he falls quiet, trying to not draw attention to himself.
Riessa blinks up at that finger for a few seconds, pinned there until she realizes what it's pointing to. Meekly, she lifts the much abused skin and replies, "Cold juice, Master?" And she gulps.
Declyn holds out an imperious hand for the wineskin. "It'd better be."
Riessa looks very, very sad to see it go, giving the Craftmaster a very accusatory half-pout, but she hands the skin over and assures, "It is. I filled it up myself. We were just trying to stay out of the heat." She gestures to Jaden to explain 'we'.
Jaden also casts a longing look after the wineskin, hand lifting to fan himself, and less directly, Riessa, with the leaf. "It's awfully hot," he puts in, to be helpful.
Declyn raises the wineksin close enough so he can get a good whiff of the contents, nostrils flaring in the process. After that scrutiny, it gets passed back to Riessa with no other comment. Talk of the weather seems to annoy him, and he looks quite cool himself. "Is it? Doesn't seem all that hot to me."
Riessa all but hugs the cool skin once she's got it back, keeping it well out of Declyn's reach lest he change his mind. "It is," she replies with a quick nodnod, uncertain what to do with herself now except to clutch the skin and sit up straight.
Jaden falters in his fanning, briefly, and blinks up at Declyn. "You don't think it's hot?" he questions incrediously. He swipes at his brow with his free hand, tossing his head to get his bangs from his eyes.
Jaden receives a raised brow in his direction. "No. Do I look hot?" Declyn asks that rhetorically as he knows everything's perfectly in place on him.
Never being good with rhetorical questions, Jaden answers that. "No. You don't look hot at all."
Mumbling something about mad Masters, Riessa flickers her gaze between the Craftmaster and the apprentice and then back again. At a lull in the conversation, she interjects, "It is terribly hot, Master Declyn. To the rest of us, anyway. We're not going to get in trouble, are we?" That last with incredible hope in her voice.
Declyn /almost/ looks pleased by Jaden's answer. "Good." The two receive another piercing look, more directed at their clothing. "You shouldn't be sitting on the bare ground in those clothes you know. Unless you /like/ walking around with dirt on your bums. Next time you decide you're hot and /must/ have a break, get some of that spare canvas out and sit on that instead." A fierce look gets bent on them. "You, Jaden have an excuse as you're new for that mistake. You, Riessa -" A finger gets jabbed in her direction, "Don't." Before he walks away, Declyn responds directly to the Apprentice Tailor, "No. You're not in trouble today but there's always tomorrow."
Riessa frowns at the piercing look, leaning slightly backward as the finger singles her out. She gulps, looking down at her clothes with a silent Eek. "I'm awfully sorry, Master. I'll keep that in mind and never sit in the dirt again," she promises.
Jaden absorbs this all with wide eyes, and a quick nod, bangs in his eyes again. "Yes, Master Declyn. I'll make sure to do that next time." One hand shifts to brush absently at his pants.
Declyn goes into the courtyard.
Riessa releases one pent-up sigh as Declyn departs, sagging back down and wiping her brow with a dramatic swipe of her fingers. "Ice in the desert," she comments, and then takes a good four or five second gulp, relieved.
Jaden flops onto his back, letting out a breath with a woosh. "You can say that again," he replies, fingers spearing though his hair. "Shards."
"And Shells," Riessa tacks on rather absently, wiping her mouth and contemplating the whole scene for a few introspective moments. "I knew he'd get on us for sitting in the dirt," she notes, mechanically offering the half-empty juiceskin back.
Jaden accepts the skin thankfully, and takes a couple gulps. "I'm just glad he didn't take the juice." He licks his lips, and passes it back. "I don't know what the big deal is about the dirt. Clothes wash."
Riessa nodsnods, plopping the loose skin on the ground beside her basket and looking back over her shoulder with that slouched posture. "They do, but the Master has the utmost respect for fine clothes, see. It's like abuse to sit in the ground like this in good fabric," she explains.
Jaden ahs and nods lazily, leaving the leaf on his belly, and linking his hands behind his head. "I'll have to get myself a basket, and keep something to sit on in it. I hate being in trouble."
Riessa rolls her eyes skyward and says rather drily, "You'll get used to it soon enough." Her eyes drop to the leaf with a rather wistful sigh - she'd sure like to have that back, but she can't go grabbing at people's bellies. "But you will need a basket. A necessity," and she drags hers closer.
Jaden catches the sigh, and follows the gaze to the leaf, which he blinks at a moment. "Oh. Sorry." He frees a hand from behind his head, and catches up the leaf, offering it back.
Riessa shakes her head quickly, taking the frond with a grateful smile but saying, "No, don't be. Thank you." She takes up fanning the side of her face with one hand and sorting the ribbons out over the basket's handle with the other.
Jaden stifles a yawn, shifting languidly to watch the sorting. "You're going to embrodier them all?" he questions.
Another shake of copper curls and Riessa replies, "Not at all. Just the gold one for now." The long one she's still nowhere near finished with. "I just found the rest of these while I was cleaning out my press. Are you sleepy?"
Jaden nods slightly. "It's the heat. It makes me want to curl up somewhere, and sleep until it's cool." He tilts his dark head slightly. "I'd be interested in seeing the gold one, when you're done."
Riessa says "When I'm done, I'll show you the gold one." Having threaded out all of the blue ribbons, she ties them into a neat little bundle and sets them down in her basket. "I'm afraid there isn't any place cooler than this," she looks at the perimeter of the shade, "to curl up in."
Jaden chuckles faintly, and nods. "I'm afraid to risk napping. If sitting in the dirt is bad, I wouldn't want to be caught laying in it." He continues to watch the sorting.
Riessa continues in the same chatty fashion, "Napping anywhere really is taking your life into your own hands. At least, during the long working hours." She sighs as if whimsically and begins picking out all the red ribbons as the next leg of her tedious task.
Jaden grins at that, and nods. "I'm not sure, yet, what I'm to be doing, when. I'll catch on in time, though, I'm sure. I'm rather fond of red," he puts in as he sees red ribbons.
Riessa chuckles slightly, a rather quiet sound as she lays a few paler bands over the handle. "You'll catch on soon enough. It's all routine after the first few weeks." She pauses, glancing back at you. "Do you? What color red is your favorite?"
Jaden lays back flat again, peering up at the shading leaves overhead. "My favorite? I'd have to say, bright crimson. I love bright, bold colours."
Riessa picks out a pretty crimson one, then, and lays it over whichever of your knees happens to be nearest. "Then that is your ribbon now. It would be a very nice one to embroider if you ever got ambitious," she notes, returning to the task at hand with a nod.
Jaden frees a hand, and catches up the ribbon, smiling brightly. "Oh, thank you!" He admires the ribbon, trailing it through his fingers lightly. "I shall do so. Hmm... in gold, I think."
Riessa shakes an absent finger before it returns to the stem of the frond, lifting it to start fanning herself again. "Mind how you use the gold thread. It's not the easiest to come by." She smiles at the thought of it and adds, "But it would probably look very pretty."
Jaden nods, delighted gaze still on the ribbon. "If not gold, then in white. For the contrast." He stifles another yawn, "Hm. Pattern..."
"Why?" Comes the quick counter, and Riessa blinks at herself for that abrupt question. "I mean, perhaps just something random?" She fans quickly thataway quickly on sight of the yawn and adds, "Don't fall asleep out here. You'll get covered in dew. So will your clothes."
Jaden grins charmlingly, and offers a teasing wink. "You'd wake me, if I fell asleep, wouldn't you? Before I got soaked with dew." He twines the ribbon though his fingers, chuckling softly.
Riessa gives another quick shake of her head, both hands fanning now as the rest of her ribbons remain untouched for a bit. "No, I'd let you sleep if you were tired enough to doze on the ground," she replies, quite seriously.
Jaden's eyes half close, enjoying the cooling breeze with a soft sigh. "Ah." Another soft chuckle. "I'm sleepy, but not that sleepy, I don't think."
Riessa mms, "You hope." Cooling, /lulling/ breeze it is. Not that sweet Riessa would ever set out to put you to sleep on the ground in the garden - on purpose; that would be cruel.
Long lashes droop more, and Jaden doesn't quite manage to stiffle the yawn this time, more covering it instead. "I hope," he agrees. He shifts lazily on the ground, rolling to his belly, and pillowing his chin on his arms.
So whatever Riessa's doing - there is a little rustle of fabric and scrape of dirt - goes without notice so long as the leaf keeps moving. She makes a quiet, agreeable sound so you don't feel ignored, though.
Jaden makes himself more comfortable, eyes fully closed now. "So," he murmurs drousily. "Have you been here long?"
"Right here?" comes Riessa's query, a pause in the background noise and a skip in the leaf's waivers before she ohs quietly. "You mean /here/ here. A little over a Turn now. But I was at the Northern Crafthall for a while."
Jaden nods slightly as he listens. "Ah. Where are you from? If I might ask?" His fingers idly stroke the ribbon between his fingers.
Riessa hmms quietly, apparently sorting handing the leaf to one hand and leaning slightly on the other while she thinks. "Benden, to begin with. And then the Crafthall near Boll. You?"
Jaden turns his head some, and opens one violet eye slightly to reguard Riessa. "Karachi Hold," he answers, his tone still lazy. "I spent all my life there, before I left and came here."
"Why did you leave?" Riessa prompts, indulging the lazy tone with a similar one, tilting her head to catch an edge of that leafy breeze. "Where's that?" she adds as an afterthought.
Jaden motions vaugely. "Oh, it's that way. Or so." He shifts again, then answers the question. "I didn't get on well with my brother, so I desided to set out on my own."
Riessa looks off that way, as if she really expected to see it through the garden somewhere. "Set out to the Weavercraft Hall?" She chuckles lightly, switching hands to rest one and thus missing a beat.
Jaden grins faintly, one eye opening again at the missed beat, then closing again. "Not really. I was just wandering, mostly. I kind of ended up here."
Riessa has a quick look around and then drops back to her elbow, not so much tired as tired of holding herself up like that. "It's a nice place to end up, I'd say. Particularly if you like cloth."
Another grin curls Jaden's lips. "True enough. Only thing better, would be someplace similer, but cooler." Again, one eye opens to reguard Riessa, as she lean down more, then falls closed.
Riessa, honestly, "It's normally not this sharding hot around here. We've just had a long spell of this dreadful stuff lately." She blows at a drooping curl and eventually has to rest the leaf long enough to put it away by hand.
Jaden eyes the leaf a moment, then comments langidly, "I should weave one. It would be stiffer then the leaf."
"Mm, you should weave a half dozen of them and peddle them at the next Gather," Riessa comments, taking up that slow, drowsy breeze yet again. Determined little Weaver.
Jaden brightens slightly, and flashes a grin. "You think? I could weave ribbons though them, in diffrent colours."
Riessa nodsnods, dimpling a smile back at the grin just because she can. "I do think on occasion, yes. If you put even an apprentice's seal on them they'll be worth maybe a quarter-mark? You could make them for less than an eighth, I imagine."
Jaden tilts his head, and considers this. "I think maybe I will. When is the next Gather, anywho?" He pillows his head back on his arms, the sleepiness reaturning in force.
"Oh, I don't know," Riessa replies vaguely, keeping the sleepy head nice and cool, though now that it's getting on toward evening it's /almost/ pleasant out. "Soon, I imagine," she adds with a shrug.
Jaden nods faintly, content to languish on the ground, and be fanned. "I rather enjoy them." Then, in a rather quicksilver subject change, "Master Declyn said he dislikes firelizards."
Riessa's nose wrinkles up at that, and one might expect to hear a chirrup save that there's no flash of eyes 'neath her curls - for a change. "Master Declyn is a particularly strange fellow."
Jaden nods his agreement. "Not a very personable fellow, mm? Is he always so cross, or does anything cheer him?"
Riessa lifts the shoulder not resting against the ground in a lazy half-shrug, resting her temple in her hand now and maintaining that rhythmic breeze. "I have no idea. He's not really /bad/, just always like that."
Words come slower now, as Jaden is close to drifting off. "Mm. Maybe if I'm friendly to him, he'll be friendly back. He seems hard to please, though."
A drowsy prelude to sleep? Oh, good. Ever so slowly, Riessa sits up until she's seated cross-legged, still fanning all the whil. "Maybe," she agrees quietly. "You should try that, hmm?"
A soft, "Mmhm," is the only answer, as Jaden's breathing evens out, thick lashes shadowing his cheeks. He shifts slightly, half curling on the ground, cheek pillowed on his forearm.
Riessa is a success and, were the boy to wake up, he'd see the smug smile tugging the Tailor's lips as she finally puts the frond away, scooting over quietly to tidy her things into her basket. Why did she do it, one might wonder? Well... why not? Riessa scampers off by and by - real quiet-like.