how things went wrong [eikane]

[Avu]

She was staring.

“So,” Meira blinked at the conclusion of the sniffle-punctuated story, “You…took something of the Harper’s. And ran. And he chased you, and when he almost caught you, you…tripped?” Her lips twitched, a giggle choking off before it could begin, and she continued when she had recomposed herself again. “Into poison ivy.” The child sniffled again, nodding tearfully. “And you…pulled him in with you.” Another nod, the Weyrbrat refusing to meet her eyes. “Is he still alive?” she inquired teasingly, to cheer him up. The boy’s gaze darted up to meet hers, and then dropped again guiltily. “I’m sure he’ll forgive you, it was just an accident. Why don’t you come over here, we’ll see if we can’t make you a little more comfortable…”

The boy clung to her hand, blinking tears out of his eyes again as she guided him into one of the cabinets in the Infirmary. There was no need to get to a private room; poison ivy was easily treated. “’S just my arms,” he muttered haltingly, squirming as Meira sat him down on one of the chairs and opened the cabinet to find a cloth. The information he offered was fairly obvious, given the child was wearing long pants. Meira didn’t point that out, though, instead smiling encouragingly as the child held out his arms.

Soaking the towel once she found it in water, Meira knelt next to the boy to begin washing off his arms, which had the added benefit of cleansing his skin of dirt and stray pieces of grass as well. “I’m sure whoever looks after you will be able to help you with this,” she commented lightly, and he sniffled in response, blinking watery eyes. “For right now, we’ll just try and make this itching stop, but I’m afraid there’s nothing we can really do about it…doesn’t look bad, it should go away in a few days to a week. In the meantime, try to avoid really hot baths, okay?” Another nod. Meira tilted her head up to look at the boy, who fidgeted awkwardly. “Can I ask what you took?”

The child grinned hesitantly through the tears, and shifted to dig into his pocket with his free hand, pulling out a gitar pick with a brand new dirt smear across it. “He looked really mad,” he whispered quietly, confidentially. His eyes widening suddenly, focusing on a spot past Meira’s head, and Mimic’s words (Goldman in ‘firmary!) was all the warning she got before the child scrambled off the chair, rocketing behind her and clinging, itchiness evidently forgotten. “Don’t let him take it, I want it!”

Hello, Eikane.

[Ember]

Eikane was unusually twitchy as he walked towards the infirmary. Quite literally twitchy. New itches kept making themselves known on his arms and he kept jerking to scratch them before remembering it would only make it worse. What was even worse though was the itches erupting on his chin and neck. It was pushing his incredible patience to its limits. He was on the edge of breaking down and simply growling at everyone and everything.

He wasn't sure seeing the boy who took his guitar pick was a good idea at that point. If anything managed to completely shatter his patience it was anything that ruined the order and cleanliness he held so dear. He was rather obsessive. It wasn't the act of theft that had made him angry at the boy but the change in the way his things were. That pick had been placed in a certain place for a reason; to keep Eikane sane so that Eikane could always find it. Just imagine how hard it had been for the man to adjust to living with someone else.

The mandyr hidden in his hair thought seeing the boy was a perfect idea. Nocturne was not a loving salamandyr by any stretch of the imagination. He was typically like a lone wolf in personality. He liked to be left alone to watch the goings on of the weyr. However, the mandyr was loyal to His and intelligent too. e knew who was to blame for having His so miserably itchy and he wanted revenge, plain and simple. His annoyance was only adding to Eikane's thinly controlled anger.

As the goldhandler walked into the infirmary he grimaced immediately. "Shards but the world has something against me, I swear." he muttered to himself, trying hard to ignore the dark eagerness coming from his smallest mindmate. No, he would not let his salamandyr injure a child. Eikane was knew that terrorizing a little kid just because of a guitar pick was not the best option - or the right one. He just wanted it back where it belonged. Oh and to stop the itching of course. He sighed and approached Meira and the boy. "Hello. You have something that is mine."

[Avu]

There was a pause after Eikane’s approach, Meira blinking at the goldhandler, eyes darting quickly over the extent of the rash currently visible, feeling one tear-damp hand clinging to her own tightly as the child attempted to burrow into the back of her legs. Mimic darted forward from one of the cabinets to coil up the child’s ankle at the first sign of upset, murmuring a senseless litany of comfort as he nuzzled against the child’s face, licking his ears until one clumsy hand groped up to stroke him. After another moment—one in which the boy was obviously unwilling to address Eikane, despite the man having spoken directly to him—Mimic offered a quiet, Sorry?

“Um,” Meira said blankly, unsure how to respond to this—at least Eikane was calm, rash and all—“I’m sorry, I don’t think he wants to give it up—”

“I don’t,” the child interjected sulkily, and Meira really couldn’t blame him for not wanting to give it up after the tumble he’d taken for it, “Can’t I keep it, please please Harperman, my mum won’t let me get a new one and I bet you’ve got tons…” He peered anxiously out from behind Meira’s legs at Eikane, “I could give you my allowance, I’ve been saving up only there’s never a Gather my mum will let me go to, there’s always chores to do, I bet you could buy a new one if you wanted to but I can’t…” He squirmed, clutching Mimic so hard the Salamandyr gave a breathless squeak.

“Look,” Meira forced herself to say, wide-eyed as she tried to figure out how much itching Eikane was probably going through right now, “Let me take care of that rash and then you can negotiate for the gitar pick, but seriously, it’s not going to get better as it is. Stay,” she added, more firmly, to the boy, making sure he knew it wasn’t optional. As much as she wanted to take his side—he had the whole adorable factor going for him—stealing wasn’t going to be allowed if he ever reached Candidacy, not to mention that even as a child the consequences weren’t going to be pretty. Better to just stop it now.

Not fear, Mimic crooned comfortingly into the child’s ear, licking his chin again, Is nice, Meira, goldman not mad, see? And, okay, ‘not mad’ might be a bit of a stretch, but if it made the boy relax just a little…his breath hitched as Meira disentangled her hand from his gently, guiding him towards one of the chairs. The goldrider gestured for Eikane to take the chair that had been previously occupied by the child, closest to the cabinet, “Could you please…? And how much did it touch?”

[Ember]

Eikane tried not to sigh at the child's actions. While he didn't know Meira personally - hard to know any of the dayfolk when you normally slept during their time - but he knew of her. The fact that she was an ex-wherhandler was known to him as well, though he had more tact than to bring it up. If the child was hiding behind one of the Junior Weyrwomen...well, there was little Eikane could do, him being a gold-bonded aside. Whers simply weren't that important in the eyes of dragonriders.

Curse his bleeding heart. The kid had a sob story and he'd be damned if it wasn't working. Yes, he had multiple guitar picks. His stretched-thin patience was not up for this. He shook his head and almost pinched the bridge of his nose before remembering it might not be a good idea. He had rinsed the itchy areas with water but just in case he avoided touching his skin anywhere else. "So just because you wanted a new one and couldn't get one, you decided to steal someone else's? Without thinking to ask them first?"

Okay, he was being more harsh than he usually was. So what? Others would have been far worse than him if their posessions had been stolen. The child should count himself lucky that Eikane was usually a level-headed person. Meira's interruption was a welcome momentary topic change for Eikane to colelct himself again. He nodded to her even though it wasn't really a question. He sat in the recently vacated seat with an audible sigh. "Arms, a bit of my neck and chin."

Nocturne was decidedly unhappy with the turn of events. His was slowly, very slowly giving in to the child and that wasn't right. The blue was out for revenge and he'd have it! He crawled out of Eikane's hair and fixed his slanted eyes on the child darkly. It was too difficult for him to reach the child so words would have to do. Ugly wherryhead, Nocturne hissed at the boy, frill raising slowly. Goin' round sneaking, sniping, Trelling. Quintrell had a reputation in the wherhandler apartments - his name had became synonymous with stealer in the blue's mind. Stupid, stupid. Cry, little child, cry. "Nocturne," Eikane groaned, having the decency to be a bit mortified.