Down the Rabbit Hole (Ivy, Zep)

[Requiem]

He'd only just gotten back to his weyr. The bluerider walked over to the table and straightened the chairs, picking up the blanket she'd dropped there and returning it to a pile on his bed. He then glanced at his silent blue and made for the hide stretched across the frame, taking it down. Worthless now that it had dried hard. Even straps made from this would be subpar. Such a shame.

Keeping his mind on mundane things like straps and straightening his weyr, A'nd set about to accomplish the cleaning he should have done earlier. Clothing disappeared from the floor, clutter on shelves was organized and the paper spill relegated to neat stacks. It took much less time than he felt it probably should have. All too soon the bluerider was sitting on the edge of his bed and removing his boots. He slipped out of his shirt and draped it over the chair, mostly blocking the image of a red-faced, stiff Cairenn staring in muted horror at him as she'd done the last time he'd removed his shirt.

Eh.

[Ivy]

This is not how she envisioned her evening unfolding. She had imagined that after wing training she would have a quick walk with Kainu and then she could enjoy a nice long soak. Perhaps she would even sneak off to M'gnum's weyr for the night if she felt up to it. Before her walk a frantic Cairenn had arrived at her weyr asking for something to wear for her 'date' with A'nd. Despite the fact Roselle wanted to tell her neice that she was too young for dating (in her mind Cai was just a child still, not a teenager, not a full rider) she had found her a shirt and sent her on her way wishing her luck and telling her to be herself. After seeing her neice off she'd gone on a decently long walk with Kainu, longer than she had planned because Kainu needed the exercise. Once back in her weyr she drew a bath and had only been soaking for under a candlemark when she felt a surge of unease from Tsereith.

The green was suspiciously quiet about what had caused the unease, but she managed to get something out about Nildath's. Cairenn.

So instead of relaxing in the bath still, she was taking quick strides with heavy steps as she made her way to A'nd's weyr. She had intended to go to Cairenn's weyr to check on her niece to make sure she was alright - since she couldn't gather what was wrong from her dragon. She assumed that A'nd had said or done something dumb to upset Cai, she was a bit overly sensitive at times since she had been so sheltered growing up. Roselle had been sheltered too - but rather than being sensitive she had lashed out at others when she felt uncomfortable. Rather than crying she had resorted to sarcasm as her best defense against other people. Cai was much softer than she had been, something Roselle sometimes struggled to deal with.

The change of destination occurred shortly after she left her weyr, she'd run into someone - don't ask her who since she was terrible with names - who had asked her if she'd heard about the young couple in the halls earlier. Apparently there had been running. Lots of yelling. And some physical violence.

Roselle's steps echoed eerily in the hallway as she neared the bluerider's weyr. She could check on Cairenn later - right now she was on a mission. It didn't matter to her that she didn't know the full story, nor that the person hadn't explained who was being violent. She had made up her mind, the conviction clear as she practically beat on the door. "A'nd!!!"

[Requiem]

The bluerider had just determined to try to get some sleep, early though the night still was, when the pounding sounded on his door. He blinked, back straightening slightly where he still sat on the bed. What...? Of course he'd only met Roselle once, so he didn't recognize her voice, and he didn't think to send Cootie to check to see who was there. The first thought that went through his head was that this person no doubt was disturbing everyone in the hall and he'd done enough of that already tonight. They'd evict him if this went on much longer.

Rising, A'nd slipped his arms back into the sleeves of his shirt without pausing to button it up. Part of him knew this had to be about Cairenn. He wasn't an idiot. A lot of screaming, door slamming and wailing tended to look pretty bad. The bluerider still couldn't even really explain what all of that had been about and he didn't want to start now.

He opened the door, angling his body slightly to prevent the scratches on his face from being too obvious. They wouldn't exactly help his case any. That movement wasn't quite completed, though, when he recognized Roselle. "You!" No doubt whatsoever that he wasn't very happy to see her. The greenrider hadn't been remotely pleasant at the Gather and he really still hadn't forgiven her for her role in Nildath's Flight, despite what Cairenn insisted.

[Ivy]

Long dark locks, still fairly damp if not wet, clung to her neck and some along the sides of her face as she stood there in his doorway. Due to his angle she'd not gotten a great look at him, though the fact he seemed half dressed did not go without notice. Those dark eyes flashed as she looked at the bluerider, quite annoyed. Hand on the door she gave it a light push, though if he kept it from opening more she wasn't likely to keep pushing. At least not yet. Glaring at him she pokes his chest with her free hand, "What the fuck did you do to my niece? And don't you dare tell me nothing - I heard all about you two getting into a fight in the hallway. Did you hurt her??"

All about wasn't really the truth since she had just assumed that the pair of young riders the person was talking about had been A'nd and Cairenn. She also had just assumed something had gone wrong because of how Tserieth had been earlier. But he didn't really need to know that.

[Requiem]

He took a step back to allow her in, partly because he'd already fought more than he wanted to today and partly because he didn't need anyone else coming by to witness yet another shouting match with yet another female. Not that he was shouting. Not that he'd been shouting the first time.

That finger poking at his chest was beginning to get annoying though, that was for sure. Why did women do that? If he poked at her chest, he'd get slapped for sure. "If you heard all about it," he commented testily, "then you should already know, shouldn't you? I thought you'd be happy she didn't want anything to do with me. You've made your opinion pretty clear." A'nd started buttoning up his shirt, then.

[Ivy]

Walking into his weyr she glanced around briefly before stopping and arching a brow. Shards. She hated the fact he wasn't a complete idiot, as it would make things a smidge more difficult for her. Still, she didn't need to know all the details - he was the guy so it was obviously his fault. That's typically how things like this worked, right?

Her hand fell down from poking his chest as he began to button his shirt, now it was on her hip as she stood there still glaring at him. While she wasn't screaming, or really yelling, her voice was raised slightly higher than normal, with a definite venomous tone. "Oh, yeah. I heard all right. You two causing a huge scene in the hallway. Did you -" but then she stopped as her eyes lighted on the scratches across his face. Part of her was proud of her niece for managing to stick up for herself, while the other part was racing trying to figure out just what had happened to cause Cai to feel she had to defend herself. "It is not secret I've never been your biggest fan, but this is ridiculous."

She still sounded like she kind of knew what had happened - hopefully.

[Zephyr]

“…” Kai was standing next to his wher, a hand on her neck. He was looking at her with a concerned expression for a moment before he spoke. “You’re okay, right? You can do this? If not we can…” The wher growled and headbutted the boy. Only an expertly timed sidestep kept him from falling over from the initial impact…unfortunately for the clumsy boy, he tripped over something…probably a crack, or a pebble, or his own shadow, and he went tumbling back onto his ass. Kaiusk had to stifle laughter, uttering a pleased croon. It might not be by her own hand, but at least he’d fallen. Relax. She purred into the boy’s mind, offering him her tail to help him up. I’m better at betweening than dragons are. Get up here and stop doubting me. Grumbling, he took her offered appendage and scrambled up onto her back, leaning far over. “Just hurry. I hate between.” Kaiusk made no move to hide her laughing seconds before Kaius gave her the coordinates, and she went between.

They appeared in the weyrbowl, Kaiusk no worse for wear, but Kaius shivering violently. “Fuck. I hate that.” So I’ve heard. Kaiusk started before padding along. It is rather cold here. She flared out her wings, in a sad attempt to preserve body heat. We should go home. Why are we here again. Kai wrapped his hands around her headknobs, silent for a moment. He didn’t know why…exactly. He just didn’t feel like he had enough friends to let any friendship wither…not even a friendship with someone who used to detest him. “I just need to talk to someone.” It’d been months since he’d spoken to A’nd…months since he’d spoken to anyone outside of Kaiusk and King – who gave an angry peep from inside Kai’s shirt, the stowaway that he was.

Now that he’d gotten back on his feet, he wanted someone to talk to, and while he could talk to C’loy, or Sandr even, there was so much bias at Selenitas, that it would be nice to get outside perspective. Well, tell me where we’re going. “I dunno where he lives, ask a random dragon.”

Kaiusk was not impressed by this answer, but a green dragon was able to tell her where A’nd the bluerider lived and she passed the directions on to Kai while he left her at the entrance to the weyrs. Whyyyyy? Kaiusk asked him plaintively as she fell to her haunches. “You’re too fat for the hallway, and you can’t exactly get up the ledge.” I can climb up to the top and glide down! Kaius blinked at her. “No…bad idea, Kaiusk. Just wait out here.” Fine, she pouted, and settled down near the entrance, hopefully not about to scare any weyrfolk who happened by…it wasn’t like they had whers at Inverness, after all.

Still shivering slightly, he was warmer as soon as he got inside and cut the wind off. Hateeee. So much. “Then you shouldn’t have hid in my shirt. I coulda told you it’d be too cold for you here.” The mandyr hissed and made his way up to Kai’s shoulder as the boy made short work of the distance between where he was and A’nd’s weyr. Asshat. Of course he’d have to get the last word in as Kai made his way up…slowing nearly to a stop as he noticed the door that was supposedly the bluerider’s…already open? He had second thoughts about coming now, especially when he got close enough to hear the yelling, but he pushed past and came to stand in the doorway of the other boy’s weyr…seeing him being berated by a very angry looking woman.

What?

Kai blinked several times, while King hissed at A’nd for upsetting the pretty…but Kaius wasn’t inclined to give her the benefit of the doubt like his mandyr was. Surely A’nd hadn’t done anything to deserve the girl’s wrath…he wasn’t who he used to be. So, furrowing his brow, he took a step into A’nd’s weyr and called out to the girl’s back. “Hey!”

And should she turn around, Kai would act on instinct and punch the irritating young woman…right in the chest…his eyes widening as his fist made contact with something soft.

“Um…I…” He stuttered and babbled. So much for being a good friend. “I didn’t mean to hit you there.” The awkward had returned in full force.

[Requiem]

He couldn't help it really. When she stopped, her eyes fixed on his face, he turned his head slightly in a subconscious effort to mask them from her. A'nd wouldn't have been able to explain why. He wasn't really worried what she thought about what had happened; the bluerider was already resigned to the majority of the Weyr assuming he just made a habit of abusing women, and Roselle would likely be the first to jump on that bandwagon. It was more embarrassment than anything. He supposed. Embarrassment for Cairenn...for himself.

A big scene in the hallway. That was all she knew, huh? "Ridiculous," he repeated, muttering. His voice rose a little, though still not loud enough for the words to be made out clearly beyond the still open door. "You know what's ridiculous? You storming over here instead of going to see your niece, if you're so worried. Or did you think I kidnapped her and stashed her somewhere?" He wasn't about to tell Roselle that her niece was upset because Cairenn had thrown herself at A'nd, who had declined. Mostly because Cai seemed scared half to death.

Before he could say anything else, though, a very tall wherhandler the bluerider hadn't seen in months suddenly appeared in his doorway. A'nd could only blink at the apparition. He stepped forward, though, as he saw what was about to happen. Yet there really was nothing he could do in time to rescue the woman's breast.

Whether it was the fact that Kaius had just punched Roselle in the breast, or the man's clearly confused expression afterwards, A'nd really couldn't help himself. He started laughing. "Kaius?" The bluerider pointed to his friend. "What?" He rather failed at communicating while still in the throes of laughter. "Boob punch?" It would take a lot to break him out of this laughing spell now.

[Ivy]

Roselle took a step towards the bluerider, intent on grabbing his face and turning it by force if needed - but then there were footsteps behind her. And a voice. So rather than grabbing A'nd she turned to face whoever the owner of the voice - and the hissing 'mandyr - was, only to have a fist come in contact with her chest. What the ever living fuck was this guy doing? Without even thinking much she turned fully and swung her leg up, her foot coming in square contact between his legs - unless of course he happened to be standing in a way that blocked her foot. Then she would have just kicked him hard in the thigh.

"Shards, is this weyr full of men who hate women?!" Her voice jumped up an octave, she was more than just a little pissed off now. She'd been annoyed, irritable, and slightly angry before. But now, now she was just about ready to blow. Rubbing at her chest slightly she turned her eyes on A'nd who was laughing near hysterically at who she assumed was his friend. They had all lost their damn minds! It was all she could do not to kick A'nd between the legs, she managed to keep herself controlled and instead just turned to the door again. Pushing the goldhandler out of the way if needed she stormed out of the bluerider's weyr calling behind her, "You're both jerks!"

[Zephyr]

Everything seemed to happen very quickly. Before he could take in the look of shock on A’nd’s face at his appearance, the girl suddenly kicked him. The completely stupid expression he’d been staring at her with twisted into pain as he registered where she’d kick him. “The fuck?
The word strangled spectacularly at the end and Kai’s hands instinctively went to his crotch as the pain lanced through him. The goldhandler was on his knees in an instant, groaning as he fell right over, still shielding himself like another kick was coming “Sorry! I didn’t mean to…” But he couldn’t get the rest of the groaned words out because the girl was stomping past him, leaving Kaius on the ground writhing and A’nd over him, laughing his ass off. "Nice to meet you too." He grumbled at her back as she left.

Kaiusk probed the boy’s mind, alarmed at the amount of pain he was in suddenly, when she realized what had happened. The gold exploded in a burst of amusement straight into Kai’s mind. She informed him that he most certainly deserved whatever he got and the handler made a face at nothing, turning that face to King, who had glided down to hook himself on A’nd’s pants at the initial impact and was laughing at his owner. “Traitor.” Kaius grumbled as he chanced getting up.

“The hell are you laughing at?” He grumped at A’nd as he was tenderly getting to his feet, not at all in the mood for any shit. “I come to save you from a raving madwoman, get kicked in the junk, and this is how you repay me?” He glared viciously at the younger boy, but he didn’t actually mean it…no matter how much he swore he did. "Who the hell was that 'raving madwoman' anyway? What did you do to piss her off so much?"

[Requiem]

He tried to stop laughing. Truly he did. Part of all the laughter was how fucked up this whole evening had gone, honestly, but regardless it was hard to stop once he'd started. It was all like one whacked out fellis-inspired harper comedy. Random boob punch, epic screech and junk shot, dramatic exit and a groaning Kaius on the ground. Maybe someone had slipped A'nd fellis and this was one fucked up dream?

The bluerider choked on his laughter and tried to get a handle on it. "Kaius. Fuck man," he commented breathlessly, managing a somewhat sympathetic look. Hard to look sympathetic though when your face was still scarlet from near-hysterical laughter. "That madwoman is my wingleader's madwoman." Which seemed to kill the last of A'nd's amusement. He was in sooooo much shit. M'gnum would roast a guy alive for hitting any woman, but his own? Maybe the bluerider should consider a permanent transfer...Bad enough that Roselle apparently thought he was beating on or otherwise abusing her niece.

"She's mad cause there was this scene out in the hall with her niece...with lots of screaming and crying. Girl lost her shit but it's not like Roselle would believe me if I even tried to explain. M'gnum's going to break me." He ran a hand through his hair, then squinted up at Kaius. "Do you, uh, want something for your...?" He gestured vaguely at the goldhandler's abused balls.

[Zephyr]

He was getting rapidly more and more irritated by A’nd’s laughing. Not that he could actually blame the guy. If the roles had been reversed, Kaius would probably be laughing his ass off at him. As it was, he was decidedly less impressed by the whole situation. It was a little hard to get up, and the glare he tossed at A’nd could kill. “Well, that seems like your problem, not mine.” If Roselle told whoever it was she was with that Kaius punched her in the boob, it wasn’t like the guy would travel to Selenitas to track him down. That just wasn’t plausible. He’d probably go after A’nd by association.

Perfect plan.

“I would suggest transferring. I don’t know how well your wingleader would take to random guys punching his woman in the boob.” Kai grumbled, half limping over to grab King off of A’nd. The mandyr had had just about enough of being manhandled, bit Kaius until he yelped and let go, and then disappeared into the bluerider’s weyr. “Well then.” Kai snorted, rubbing his now injured hand. If it wasn’t one thing, it was the other. “He’ll…come out eventually.”

Finally, he turned around to face his friend, quirking a brow. “No. I’m fine. No thanks to you, actually. You could have stopped me from punching her in the first place.” Which, no, he probably couldn’t have, seeing that Kai had run in, guns blazing. But he liked to put the blame on other people sometimes. He frowned at his friend, limping further into the weyr and shutting the door on his way, because it’s not like he needed the woman to come back. “So, what the hell did you do to her niece? Doesn’t seem like you to cause scenes with innocent girls.” Most girls weren’t so innocent, but he chose to ignore that in his eternal grump.

[Requiem]

A'nd wrinkled his nose at Kaius a little testily. Yes, yes, his problems kept mounting, didn't they? He really didn't need Kaius to tell him as much. Or to rush in punching his wingleader's woman, either, though it was kind of touching. In a way. If you didn't take into account the fact that apparently Kaius thought that A'nd needed protecting from a woman. (Of course, there were several women he probably actually could use some protection from, but that was neither here nor there.)

The bluerider followed King's progress into his weyr with a raised brow before turning back to watch Kaius limp a little further into the room. A'nd should probably do something host-like. Offer...something. Instead he just kind of stood there and scratched at the side of his neck, a bit at a loss. "That?" He gave Kaius a thoughtful look. The guy was older than him and had that girl...Sena, wasn't it? Maybe he could interpret crazy female better than A'nd could.

"Really, Kaius...what were you thinking, anyway? We were just talking. I couldn't have looked that scared of her," he concluded on a more playful note. "You do seem to be a pretty good Roselle repellent though, so thanks?" Now there was the matter of that pesky question. A'nd continued scratching at his neck, apparently as a nervous habit. He'd forgotten to be self-conscious about the obvious scratch marks on his face. "Cairenn's my...friend...kind of...it's weird. Xina caught her dragon Nildath, right? And there was this huge mess, and she's still a virgin and apparently Nildath likes to keep her mates so she asked me to...but that was just weird for me. So we've been friends. And she wanted to try this dating thing, but got here all late then was acting super weird and going all red and stiff. All I did was take off my shirt to change it and she was acting like...well like she was terrified? Most awkward thing ever."

He rubbed his toe along his ankle, then. "She kind of threw herself at me after dinner? Like, stripped off her shirt? But you know she'd seemed scared all night and I had to stop her before you know it got a bit too distracting so I gave her a blanket to wrap up in? But then she was all throwing herself at me, and I wasn't very nice when I told her to back off. She like screamed and waved her tits at me, something about not being big enough or pretty enough but she was hard to understand over all the crying and she ran out into the hall. I tried to catch her to...you know, explain or something? She was way too upset to listen though. I guess it looked kind of...bad...just a bit." He rubbed at the back of his neck sheepishly.

[Zephyr]

Kai was only really half listening to A’nd when the other guy started speaking. And really, who could blame him? Not only had he just been kicked in the – delicates, for lack of a better term – by some crazy lady with strong legs, but he’d just had the shit ripped out of his hand by his own mandyr…that’s added onto the fact that one of his only friends decided that they found the entire situation hilarious. Why was this actually his life?

Anyway, once A’nd had started talking, and Kaius had started paying attention to the words coming out of his mouth, he just stared at the guy…and stared. His face was emotionless, but his eyebrow quirked and just kept getting higher and higher as he kept going. Really? And Kai thought his own love life problems were the worse. While A’nd might not have him beat, the other guy’s issues were pretty bad and maybe they’d distract him from the mess he had waiting for him back at home.

He snorted when A’nd had finished, rolling his eyes with a smirk. “Wow, A’nd. You really seem to get the crazy ones, don’t you?” Then he blinked, tilting his head. “Are all Inverness women insane, or is it just something that runs in the family?” He shrugged at A’nd, giving him a look. “I know you didn’t ask my advice, but if I were you, I just wouldn’t get involved in that. This girl? She actually seems kinda crazy.”

He huffed, falling down onto A’nd’s couch and tilting his head back against the back with a dramatic sigh. “And here I thought I’d be able to escape stupid love life problems for a little while…only to have to punch some chick in the tits and get kicked in the junk.” He lolled his head to the side to look at A’nd with a smile. “So. How’re things been going besides crazy girls trying to get into your pants?”

Maybe he wouldn’t have to think about his stupid love life problems. Kai was perfectly willing to listen to the bluerider’s.

[Requiem]

"Probably the family thing," he muttered, more to himself than Kaius. "Hopefully." A'nd frowned slightly at Kaius. The guy was probably right. It was...hard to explain, really. Cairenn was fun normally and not...quite...so demented. Though asking a guy to sleep with you in the same breath as apologizing for causing problems when your aunt squirreled you away during your Flight probably wasn't the most sane thing either. Meh. He'd worry about the crazy stuff later.

The bluerider heard Kaius well enough, but rather than answering went out to collect some snow from the weyrledge, slipping it into his softest rawhide flask. He crossed over to the couch and held it out to the goldhandler. "For your junk." As if that wasn't obvious. "Still not sure why you felt you had to punch her in the chest, but..." He shrugged, amusement tugging at the side of his mouth.

A'nd slipped away again to heat up some water and go rummaging through his cupboards. "Well...douchebag wants to skin me? Cause his daughter Rio actually likes me, from what I can tell." Only one guy he consistently referred to as douchebag. Er'ani. "Been doing courier stuff. That can be fun. Get to see all the people scattered to the winds. Though last time we were trying to get out before the blizzard, this wherhandler Sydney chick stopped us, and I ended up spending the night in the wher quarters with just her wher while she walked around salamandyr possessed and bitchy. Somewhere else at least."

Bringing the bowl of warm water mixed with redwort over, he took Kaius' hand by the wrist and simply plunged it into the bowl. Probably should have warned him about the sting but there was a reason that A'nd wasn't a healer. You know, apart from not being nearly smart (or bored) enough to do all that studying. Setting the bowl down, he held out his hand for Kaius' wrist again, a strip of bandaging in his other hand. "Have you seen the wher quarters at Fort Hold? It's ridiculous. They all live in this common room that would be tight just for the handlers, but they somehow squeeze the whers in, too. How do they get away with that?" A'nd continued conversationally.