Half Moon Bay Weyr - Lagoon
A sandy beach running along the edge of the lagoon, between the sparkling waters and the bowl. Given the weyr's tropical climate, riders and dragons can be seen playing in the water nearby or a dolphin can be seen cavorting nearly turn-round. At other times seacraft can be seen coming in under the arch to dock. The lagoon is large enough to fill a quarter of the length of the bowl.
OOC note: This scene is unfinished because J'en had a sick and I had a meeting, but what we did do was good enough I didn't want to leave it to squander unseen. :)
Occasionally, candidates even get breaks. This one is Taline’s, and it’s no surprise that even in the “cold” weather for Half Moon Bay, which is about as wintry as a High Reaches summer no doubt, she can be found enjoying it beachside. While not cleared for diving yet, it hasn’t stopped her from sitting at the shores, letting water run over her bare feet. There is a dolphin swimming not far off, and whenever he surfaces Taline is flashing hand signals in his direction. The occasional clicking indicates that her friend can actually see the signs she’s making.
Wingleaders get breaks too, but only after they’ve finished their work. Their endless, relentless, unforgiving work. Someone from his own wing was chasing him down as he wandered towards the beach, thrusting something under his face, which at first he snarls at. A scathing glance is spared the greenrider, before he grabs the clipboard and practically presses it against his nose. A lot of staring and very little movement and he hastily scrawls something at the bottom of the page, then walks away again. It’s probably not legible, considering the greenrider takes a single step, stiffens and then casts a nasty look over her shoulder at him. “J’en!” she calls back, but the bronzerider waves her off before shoving that hand into his pocket and leaves her to stomp off. Nothing new, really. Golden eyes fall upon the woman sitting on the beach, making gestures at a clicking sea creature and he comes to a stop, watching expressionlessly from a few feet away.
Finishing something endless sounds difficult, and so it’s no doubt that the poor wingleader wants to escape for a little while. Taline does glance over her shoulder briefly at the sound of people noises, then looks back at the dolphin and lets out a whistle. About a minute later, she can still feel eyes on her, so she turns around and glances a little more thoroughly while her sea-friend is back under the water. “Sir,” she says politely, in that respectful-anonymous I-know-who-you-are-but-don’t-know-you-and-you-don’t-know-me kind of way.
There were, what? Thirty? Forty, candidates? No, J’en had never met Taline before, and he really had no reason to be hanging out with her or any of her kind as he wasn’t a Weyrlingmaster. Gaze darting to the woman, he visibly relaxes as she greets him properly, nodding his head once towards her in return. “Candidate.” he says back, his voice utterly toneless. His attention doesn’t linger on her though, already back on the ocean and the fin he may or may not see out there amongst the waves. He lingers there, momentarily, before he turns and starts continuing on his way down the beach.
A lot. A lot of candidates. Though candidacy isn’t strictly where Taline recognizes J’en from; he’s Search and Rescue, so is she, she can place his face from that. Not anything she chooses to say anything about, however, a young woman of few words when not in animated conversation with someone she already knows. She does have a smile for the dragonrider, however, as he comes closer and watches when the dolphin surfaces and does an impressive mid-air twist. Taline applauds, grinning more than most any human can get out of her.
There is no return smile, no flicker of recognition, just that perfect mask of absolute neutrality. Having paused in his unhurried escape from the awkwardness that comes from the very possibility of social interaction, his lashes lower after the jump, as J’en slides his eyes from it to Taline in absolute silence for all the praise. Wordlessly, he lets his feet carry him away and along the shore, leaving the woman and her very large fish friend to their own devices in his wake. At some point he finds a spot a comfortable distance away in which to drop his backside to a sizable boulder poking out of sand, to watch the unsullied ripple of the sea.
Taline can certainly do this wordless thing pretty well. She strives to make conversation where it seems needed, but it’s like we have two people both looking for a moment of peace here. The waters provide that, and so Taline is content to watch the waters along with J’en in silent semi-companionship. Different than with Sevran, where they are close to each other and generally comfortable with each other, but watching the ocean with an outranking stranger is still being alone-but-not-alone. She allows that silence to continue until her watery friend does another backflip and lets out a very different series of chirps and a tail flick, at which point Taline girds her loins (figuratively) and says, “Wingleader, sir? I — she wants to know what you think of her tricks?” in a semi-embarrassed tone. Why is the calf making her do this.
It was possible that J’en had forgotten all about Taline and her fishy friend, considering he doesn’t even turn on his rock perch until there is that sir. Even then, there is something about the way one eyebrow twitches upwards, fleetingly glancing between her and the calf that says inattention. “What?” he asks, turning himself to peer out into the section of water where the creature does all of that splashing around and such. “It’s a fish, why would it want or care about mah opinion?” Flat and even as his tone might be and selecting perhaps not the best phrasing, Jae remains engaged in the awkwardly started conversation. Golden eyes slide from the dolphin to her handler.
“A dolphin, sir,” Taline corrects gently, because it isn’t as if she wants to correct a wingleader. But on the other hand it is — correct. “Who works with your wing, sometimes, that is why she wishes your opinion.” There must have been some way the dolphin could tell who he was, that or she’s just done this a lot and Taline is making the assumption. “Most of them care quite a lot about the feedback of humans they’re ever interacting with.”
Honestly. Wingleader of the search and rescue wing, Archipelago. You would think he would have some sort of clue, right? J’en actually does, of course, he has to organize all sorts of things. That includes coordinating with the Dolphincraft. That brow that had perked up somewhat, does lift fractionally higher. “I’m aware,” he says, but doesn’t specify what it was exactly he was aware of. “If it was trainin’ to pull someone out of a burnin’ ship or somethin’ I might have an opinion.” Looking to the calf, “Its just splashin’ and flippin’ around out there. Seems kinda pointless to meh, but whatever. What do I know?”
Taline assumed, of course, that J’en had a clue. But not exactly about what, and that assumption has been completely verified at this point. “They don’t usually do those sorts of things alone,” she says, ducking her head a little, “or very well at that age. But that sort of dexterity is — growing in to being good at saving people from fires, for instance. She is a baby, though, she just thinks everyone should have very strong opinions about playfulness.” Taline is not laughing or acting particularly playful here herself, just stating facts as if they are serious and important, so … it’s hard to tell if she has any such opinions.