A day like any other... (Vix/Open)

[Rowana]

Once, the infirmary had been the last place T'ke ever wanted to be. Now, however, he found it a refuge from the drills he had to do with his wing. He couldn't deny that they were all good dragonriders, but he wasn't exactly fitting in with the rest of Alpha Wing. Besides, Ja'kin just planned scared him. At least in the infirmary the worst he could do was make Kalierre mad.

Though not an official apprentice or helper anymore, T'ke still liked to lend a hand here whenever he could. Mostly that meant folding bandages, shorting jars, or moving supplies. At the moment, however, he was trying to find Shard. She had slowly gotten over her feelings of being abandoned by her love, and now enjoyed making T'ke's life as interesting as possible.

"Shard!" T'ke groaned, pushing a pile of bandages aside to find empty shelf. "I don't have time for this." T'ke-love, play with Shard! the salamandyr backed, giving no hint to her location. T'ke rolled his eyes and started to move jars. He loved Shard and he was glad sh was feeling better, but sometimes salamandyrs tried his patience.

[Avu]

VixMine pleaaase.

“No means no, and if you can’t shut up and stay quiet, you can go home and sleep with Harmony,” Vix hissed through his teeth at Rook, who nipped his thumb in less-than-affectionate reproof at the tone of his voice, the purple-blue Salamandyr’s frill spines flashing out in indignation. Normally Vix might have felt a little bit sorry for the Salamandyr, no matter how annoying he could get begging for sweets, but he was up in the middle of the day, and considering he was entirely nocturnal, that meant he was exhausted. And honestly, he’d like to be curled up around Tekivisk (who still slept in his bed most of the time) and fast asleep, but he wasn’t. Because desperate times called for desperate measures, and so he had left Tekivisk sprawled out on top of Darmosk, fondly wished his bed good-bye, and was currently eyeing the door to the Infirmary like he expected it to bite him.

Rook chewed on his thumb again for a minute, and then receded into sulky silence. Vix teetered another moment, reconsidered, cursed at himself for hesitating so long to begin with, considered going and cutting himself for a halfway decent excuse, told himself to stop being stupid, and finally just walked into the Infirmary.

It was very anticlimactic.

Vix still didn’t relax, even though he knew that Kostya could not possibly be in the Infirmary at the present moment, it being day and Kostya definitely being a wherhandler, but it was still an intrusion. And he was sure that one of the Healers would mention it to Kostya and then where, exactly, would he be—trying to make an excuse when he was perfectly well aware he had exactly none at all, because it was just stupid curiosity. Wondering what the Infirmary held that was so thrilling, where the fun lay in dealing with people all the time, people who barfed and cursed and cried and bled all over you. He couldn’t see it, and he hated it a little. His hands found his pockets, Vix attempting to look inconspicuous as he slunk deeper into the Infirmary.

It was interesting, in a kind of herbal-scented, alien, too-clean way. Healers in their native habitats, and what have you. He still couldn’t imagine liking it there. Maybe you got used to the smell and the fact that he was sure touching anywhere would leave a smudged fingerprint of epic proportions that would promptly be attacked by some obsessive person determined to make everything sparkle. But that was still a far cry from liking it. He ducked the gazes of a few of the people in the Infirmary, didn’t know if they were patients or Healers and didn’t want to ask because he really shouldn’t even be there at all.

Then Rook sulkily nipped his finger again and Vix’s head jerked sideways automatically, and then he caught sight of T’ke. Whom he…vaguely, vaguely remembered; not as a name but as ‘the boy with the green thing,’ and irony of ironies, now he had a ‘thing’ of his very own. They weren’t friends (Vix was pretty sure you were supposed to know people’s names before you were allowed to call them ‘friends’) but he recognized the kid and he was uncomfortably aware he was getting even more strange looks, so he abruptly turned towards T’ke for an excuse.

“Hey,” he mumbled under his breath, coming up beside T’ke and trying not to catch anybody’s eye if he could avoid it, T’ke included. “What do you even do in this place?” Subtlety, thy name was Vix.

[Rowana]

T'ke was so focused on searching for his salamandyr that he didn't notice Tekivix enter or approach. Shard did, however, and ducked even deeper into hiding between two boxes. B-b-boys! she hissed, eying Rook extremely suspiciously. What were they doing here? They were ruining Shard's fun! Maybe they'd come to laugh at her. Shard shivered worriedly.

T'ke blinked and glanced up. "Oh, hi," he answered slowly. He was trying to understand why Tekivix was here. He remembered bringing him to the Weyr. It was hard to forget the bloody mess the other boy had pulled him into. But he thought Tekivix had become a wherhandler, so why was he here during the day? T'ke straightened, trying to ignore Shard's fear in the back of his head. At least he had plenty of practice. "Not much," he admitted with a shrug. Mostly trying not to faint, he thought darkly. "What brings you here at this hour?"

[Avu]

Boything. Hello.

Rook blinked pleasantly at T’ke from Vix’s shoulder, the chubby Salamandyr wiggling contentedly in Vix’s light grasp before he nipped at the finger under his jaw just because he could. He fell silent at the withering look Vix shot at him, though not before he chirruped sweetly at T’ke, the epitome of sweet as sugar and polite with it. Wasn’t he adorable? The blue hadn’t noticed Shard—perhaps a good thing; Rook was overly friendly at the best of times and excessively hyper at the worst. It was much safer for all involved when he was unable to move and silent—or at least, Vix certainly thought so. Not that the boy was paying much attention to Rook at the present moment, too busy scanning the jars in totally faked interest.

He still went an interesting mix of red and white at T’ke’s sudden turnabout question, covering it with a scowl before he flicked his gaze to T’ke, finally actually meeting the other boy’s eyes. “I’m just—” Just what, he had no idea. Just checking out the Infirmary, don’t mind me. “—that’s not an answer,” he said instead, defensively, and crossed his arms. “I asked first. Aren’t you an apprentice here? You can’t possibly do nothing all the time.” Well, Vix supposed they could but that didn’t work, didn’t fit; Kostya was too busy to do much around the actual wherhandlers’ apartments, so what was it that was so thrilling? Nothing was not thrilling. Nothing was just nothing.

“Like—” he temporized, still trying to avoid answering T’ke’s question of why are you here because he hadn’t the faintest idea. Or rather, he did, but Vix wasn’t going to admit it. That would be way out of bounds, and he didn’t know if T’ke talked to Kostya or what and—and that shouldn’t make him irritated but it kind of did. Vix leaned forward, touched the glass surface of one of the jars. “What’s this for? Do you learn to make it or something? Or do they just appear and the Healers and whoever just arrange them in pretty designs?” The jar was labeled as some herb that Vix had vaguely heard of, but he didn’t know what it did. He didn’t particularly want to.

“Who all works here, anyway?” he added. He was more than a little wary of the answer, but he still wanted to know, in a perverse backwards kind of way. And it still got him away from properly answering the question T’ke had posed to him. He still hadn’t the faintest idea how he was going to answer that if it came down to it. Just stalking one of my…friends, why do you ask, isn’t that a normal thing to do?

[Rowana]

"Hi..." T'ke stared at the blue salamandyr uncertainly. Besides Shard, who adored him, T'ke's few dealings with salamdyrs had always ended badly. Akyo, his old darter probably in the belly of a feline somewhere, had constantly tried to eat them, which didn't make their owners very happy. He distinctly recalled Saeo's blue, Baby, and his mind splitting attempts to sing. Compared to all that, Rook seemed almost...normal. It was weird. Shard didn't have the same opinion, however. Nice or not, Rook was neither T'ke nor Rhino and therefore wouldn't like her.

Glad for the change of subject, T'ke rolled his eyes at Tekivix's response. Subtle, the wherhandler was not, but T'ke wasn't in the mood to press him for answers to his problems. It wasn't his business and he had enough troubles of his own. If anything, Vix's stream of questions reminded T'ke of himself when he got nervous. Something that happened far too often. "Me? Apprentice?" T'ke let out a dry laugh. "No sane healer would make me an apprentice." He waved at the jars vaguely. "I just make sure they're neat," he explained with a bored shrug. It was a job and it kept him busy.

T'ke frowned at the next question and crossed his arms. "Healers, naturally," he answered promptly. Who did he thought worked here? T'ke was starting to wonder if Vix was hiding something after all. It wasn't like the names of Healers was a secret or anything.

[Avu]

T’ke seemed completely out of his element with Rook, which did not go unnoticed by Vix—while he generally tended to throw up his walls and defenses and in doing so block out other people’s small discomforts, he was becoming gradually more aware. Okay, then. If he needed a quick exit, he’d throw Rook at T’ke and flee while the boy was otherwise occupied trying to convince Rook that he did not, indeed, require sugar in order to function properly, or whatever else Rook did that so endeared him to most other people. Certainly wasn’t biting, he knew that, which didn’t explain why Rook insisted on biting him but—utterly beside the point.

It didn’t seem like he’d have to resort to such drastic measures; T’ke seemed okay with keeping the topic away from Vix and on the Infirmary, himself, Healers. He frowned at the bluerider’s answer, though, confusion drawing his eyebrows together in disappointment. What, he wasn’t an apprentice? That absolutely nullified anything he could say, then, unless he made a habit of spying on the actual apprentices and Healers. Which was possible. That was what he was doing, wasn’t it? Although really—spying was not a word he wanted to use in reference to himself. It sounded uncomfortable and too forthright and familiar and—and just no.

Instead of saying so, Vix reached up and tapped his fingernail gently against one of the glass jars, tilted his head at the metallic tinkle. “How come?” It felt and probably sounded petulant—Vix was dismayed at essentially hitting a wall so early on. And he didn’t plan on ever doing this again, anyway, so whatever he got now was what he ended up with, the end. Hated this prickling, untrustworthy feeling. Ugh. “I mean, why do you bother—it sounds really boring.” Blunt and frank, that was Vix. It didn’t occur to him that cushioning the blow might have been appropriate—he didn’t see the appeal and it stung bitterly. He wanted to understand it.

He shrugged, looking sideways at the other people in the Infirmary, at T’ke’s evasive answer. “I mean, there are set shifts and schedules or whatever, right?” They had it for the whers and the Guard, Watch, Cadre, Miners—everything all neat and cut and dried into guidelines, so it made sense that the Infirmary would also have set schedules instead of going free-for-all, welcome-chaos. “Who all works night shifts? I mean—am I allowed to know?” He couldn’t help the defensiveness in his voice—why couldn’t he know, anyway, was it some big secret? He supposed he could always say he was interested in Healing, wanted to know who was working here, who he might be working with…

Except that he wasn’t and such a blatant lie when he was already pestering T’ke just wasn’t…no, he wasn’t going there. Not now, possibly not ever; Vix wasn’t heartless even if he tried to pretend it sometimes. T’ke wasn’t his friend, but he still didn’t want to make the bluerider hate him.