Dust Off the Benden, Tag T'nar

[Tawny]

K'in set out two crystal glasses on the little round table between a pair of comfortable high-backed chairs. He liked his new quarters, they were beautifully spacious and offered a lovely view of the weyrbowl, whilst being far enough down the caldera to have access by foot through the winding passages of the Weyr. Ilyath would prefer a weyr right at the top, but was willing to compromise there in return for being at the top in other respects. <Darling, would you as T'nar up for me please? Tell him I've got something special.>

Giving a soft rumble of acknowledgement, the white reached out to address Garonath. <K'in asks if T'nar would care to come up for a drink; he says he has something special tonight.> Celebration was very much in order, there was no argument from her on that score; at long last all of their hard work had paid off, they had achieved what she had longed for, what she deserved, and what Her's and Garonath and Her's deserved. Victory was sweet.

[Dragonfire]

On the other hand, having new quarters meant having to mold someone else's vacated space into a proper configuration. T'nar had gone to work with a vengeance, bustling around clothes, furniture, books, his crafters' tools... everything needed to be in its correct place, scorch it.

(The fireplace in this new weyr was almost - almost - big enough to set up a small forge in. Of course, he wouldn't do so - everything he owned would be covered in soot and ash if he did, and he would be having none of that. Still.)

Garonath had been idly watching her rider hustling about (for T'nar wouldn't trust anyone else to put his things where he needed them, of course), making small suggestions here and there as they came to her. Just as he was putting away the last pile of dress-tunics, Ilyath touched her mind. She paused, and stretched her neck out while considering the invitation. Ilyath says that K'in invites you to his new quarters for drinks. 'Something special', she says. If a dragon could wrinkle her nose, she was doing it. Alcohol, feh. She didn't see what was so special about any of it, besides how stupid it made some of the weyrfolk.

"Hmn. Special, is it. Probably something he's been hiding away for turns, looking for just the occasion," T'nar remarked, with a touch of amusement, shutting the drawer neatly. "Tell her I will be by momentarily."

T'nar will be there in five minutes, Ilyath, she replied, adjusting the 'momentarily' to what it would actually be. She paused, as her rider finished his personal adjustments and departed the weyr at a clipped pace, and then sent a rather sardonic feeling along. Please feel free to remind him that he does not need more than two glasses of 'special', if it comes down to that.

And, indeed, five minutes later of expertly navigating the corridors, T'nar knocked briskly on the doorframe of K'in's new domicile, striding in without waiting for a further beckoning, being expected, after all. "Hmph. I do have to wonder what price it is we'll be paying," he remarked, folding his arms as he gazed around the weyr, "For comforts such as these." But he was smiling, faintly. "...A congratulations is in order, I believe, Weyrleader."

[Tawny]

IIlyath acknowledged the other dragon with a feeling of thanks, adding; <You are welcome to come to my ledge if you wish, for company or keeping an eye on your rider's alcohol consumption.> She did not trust her own rider to stick to two glasses of anything, but she did trust his alcohol tolerance.

<I may have the body of a weak and feeble human, but I have the heart and stomach of a golden watchwher.> Grinning at his dragon's feeling of resigned annoyance K'in added a platter of cheese and savoury biscuits to the table. <Perhaps I should have been a vintner,> he went on, sauntering out onto the ledge to stroke the white dragon's face.

<You would never have been sober, and you would have drunk all the wine before you could sell it.> Ilyath replied sourly.

<Sobriety is overrated, I've had some of my best ideas after a glass or three. I'll give you it's not exactly conducive to productivity or logic though.> Ah, and here was his partner in crime. K'in turned around and offered a grin to the greenrider. "Hard graft, and the blame for bloody everything," he predicted cheerfully, "and congratulations to you too, Weyrleader; do have a seat." Gesturing to the pair of chairs the white-haired man moved across the room to a polished wooden cabinet, from which he took a blue glass bottle. "Benden's best," he said with a nod, "from the year of Ilyath's hatching; it should be aged to perfection now, which is rather good timing on our part don't you think?"

[Dragonfire]

...Go visiting? Garonath did not do much of visiting. Ilyath's invitation hung at the back of her mind as she considered, weighing the pros and cons. Her balcony was rather nicely situated in the sunlight...

Oh, do be social. You're going to have to get used to it, T'nar admonished, feeling that hesitation of hers. We did not angle for this position to avoid the company of other people, nor dragons.

She sent a wave of irritation at him, all the best feelings of you-think-I-don't-know-that and thanks-for-the-comportment-lecture-mom. But he was right, even if she didn't like it - and besides that, if she couldn't be social with Ilyath, who could she be? Perhaps I will do that, then. Thank you, Ilyath.

T'nar drew back one of the chairs K'in had waved to, resting his knuckles on the top rail for a moment. "Hah! I ask costs, and you give me gifts. A bit of hard work has never done anyone harm." And as for blame, well, let them find things to blame them for, first. He had no doubt something would come up - sooner rather than later, probably. He always had liked a challenge.

He took the seat, then, and leaned over the table slightly, steepling his fingers together. Hiding away for turns, indeed! He appraised the bottle with a raised eyebrow, and then nodded. "What, nearly twenty turns, if I'm not mistaken? Too much longer and you'll have naught but vinegar, my friend." He smiled. "But I believe I can help you hide the evidence before then, hrm? Here, do us the honours."

'Hide the evidence' my tail, Garonath grumbled to all concerned, as she touched down on Ilyath's balcony, giving a gracious - if not very graceful - dip of her head to the white.

[Tawny]

K'in chuckled. "Well of course we wouldn't wish to be bored! They say work keeps you young, or at least I think they do. Not sure who 'they' are mark you, but they certainly dispense a great deal of popular wisdom, some snippets of which are wiser than others." It was indeed going to be hard work, and whenever anything went wrong they would be the ones given the blame whether it was under their control or not. Still, they were big boys, they could take a bit of unfair criticism here and there, and possibly there and there too.

Taking a corkscrew the white haired man opened the bottle with a promising 'pop', pouring slowly first for T'nar and then for himself. "Twenty turns exactly, well twenty turns and a month and a bit anyway," he affirmed with a nod. "Most wines won't stand up to aging like that, but this variety can be kept for up to twenty five years and I personally believe it should be a capital offense to drink it before it has aged for ten." Setting the bottle down on the table K'in sank down into his chair and picked up his glass, holding it out for a toast. "To the future," he grinned, "and whatever costs and gifts it may bring us."

As the other dragon landed Ilyath hummed a greeting and dipped her head in return. <I wonder how many other things they will feel the need to hide before the end of the evening?> she said with a distinct note of disapproval. She did hope the humans wouldn't make themselves so sick that they were useless tomorrow.

<I know my limits!>

<And you ignore them,> the white said privately.

<You're no fun at all, you know that Ilyath?>

<Humph.>

<Oh come now, I do know how to be responsible when it's required of me.>

<Just make sure you recall it tonight..>