An Apple a Day (Open)

The everyday life of the inhabitants of the Grey Tower. This board is for general daily roleplay around the Tower, in the corridors, rooms and halls that make up most of the building.
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Mim
"The Great Hunt"
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Joined: October 15th, 2014, 4:52 pm
PC: Liolet Belwhyn
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An Apple a Day (Open)

Post by Mim » August 31st, 2019, 7:06 pm

They said that the more things were different, the more they stayed the same. Liolet Belwhyn wasn't a philosopher, though, so she tended to point out that kind of statement as both moronic and oxymoronic. If things changed and stayed the same, then did they change at all? Laying here, staring up at the ceiling over her bed, though, she almost understood what the pundits meant, and she didn't like it a bit. Life hadn't been normal since...ever...and she was tired of change being her constant. It was hard to steer a course clear of the rocks when you had a prow full of granite, perhaps.

Laying there, she was struck with a wave of longing for her too-short year in Tarabon, pretending to nobility and buying small stakes in racehorses to support herself. Of course, she'd tampered with the horses, but no one there would ever accuse anyone of that, because no one there had any idea that Aes Sedai could fit in so easily. She'd played younger than her years, let a few of the prettier men pay court to her, and invested the outcomes - really ugly jewelry, for the most part, and half of a racehorse, likely now delivered and training for the Circuit of Heaven without her input - and it had been such a simple life. She'd been...happy?

Now, she was just...here. It was disturbing to leave a life as structured as the Farm, just as it had been disorienting to leave a self-willed life like the one she'd pretended to in Tarabon. She didn't know what to do with the free time. Not, she mused, that there was much of it. She'd been to the library, and she'd pulled out texts and scrips about random things just to irritate the girls who'd been novices when she'd left and would aspire Brown for far less time than she'd been pretending at being Blue, but that was only good for an afternoon's entertainment. She had scribing, of course: everyone did. You collected your personal library that way, or if you were savvy and had the coin, you paid the novices to sneak your scribing done. Liolet didn’t have the coin. She’d had a fair amount when she’d been discovered in Ebou Dar, but she’d seen not a hint of a copper since, and she doubted she’d see any of it again. Irritating, but well, she’d earned her little fortune once: she could always do it again.

And the morning wouldn’t wait, of course: no one let anyone lie abed anywhere in the Tower, save perhaps in the Infirmary or the cots for the children. Not for the first time, Liolet considered the trajectory of stupidity that was inherent in marrying one’s Warder. It probably wasn’t too bad if you got a great many children: some would channel and possibly, survive. She wasn’t going that route, of course. Neither was she going to go preen at a Dedicated, though: for one thing, the majority of them were half her age - or less, considering that half her age was a good round thirty, and the Dedicated were a well-scrubbed, fresh-faced lot of louts, most with a few youthful spots still on their noses. There were a few exceptions, but Liolet wasn’t having them, either: they were their own individual (and sometimes spectacularly) bad options. It was better, she decided, to aim for the life of the ascetic.

But always, she mused, easier said than done, particularly when your path crossed ever so many pretty young men with their shirts off in the late summer sun. The rains that had heralded her arrival in Hama Valon had cleared for a last gasp of summer heat, and it seemed like pretty boys were everywhere. She realized she was twisting before the glass, trying to work out the best angle to pin back her springy golden curls, and frowned. You couldn’t be an ascetic and still be trying to find the prettiest place to pin back your hair. Still, she moved the knot twice before she approved of it, then clambered into the ridiculous white dress with its wide banded hem. She still had little idea what to do with the day or the hours in it, but someone would find a way to fill it for her, and if no one did, she had an appointment to view the stables in the afternoon. The master of horse from her youth had passed on - he had been elderly when she had been an actual maid - and the new one did things differently.

But a stable was a place that didn’t tend to change over time. Liolet headed toward the relative certainty of horses with an apple in each pocket and a pasty in one hand, snatched as she darted through the kitchen (quickly, because the Mistress of the Kitchens had no problem at all seizing the scruff of an Accepted and thrusting her back into a pot or five to wash.) Nobody would make her muck a stall or the pot-washing equivalent out here: the horses had staff, unlike the Tower’s learning ranks. She considered the implications of that as she settled herself to one side of an open pen to finish her stolen breakfast. Well, horses were valuable.

Also noble, brilliant, beautiful, and dead useful. Your average novice was perhaps one out of five on that scale. Liolet wasn’t even sure she rated that highly, herself. Still, a few of the stable boys gave her the knuckle-to-the-ground sweep of the cap due someone of high rank. Liolet ignored them: it was about all the kindness they deserved. More than one stable lad had warmed more than one bed and ended up in the stupidity-of-marrying-one’s-Warder paradox. Of course, if you ignored all the lads, you ended up with the very bold Gaidar, now and again…

Liolet finished her pasty and sighed. Why was it so hard to be good, even inside her own head? She’d paused outside a familiar stall, although the horse in it was a stranger to her. (Once upon a time, this had not been a possible thing: very young Liolet had known every horse in the Stables, even a few whose owners had declared she’d lose a finger or three for her impertinence.) Digging in her pocket, she turned up one of her apples, and let Air separate it into tantalizing chunks. By winter, the fruit would all be mealy and wizened, but this was summer: it was still juicy and crisp. The horse rubbed its velvet muzzle against her palm, licking up even the remaining hint of sweetness, and the girl who wasn’t really a girl any longer - looks were so deceiving - leaned into its warm bulk.

Thankfully, even when everything else changed, a horse was still a horse.

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Lugh
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Re: An Apple a Day (Open)

Post by Lugh » September 4th, 2019, 5:37 pm

Peyton Peyton was annoyed, and she had decided to slink away for a break. It had been a poor morning, and the chattering of her fellow Novices had grown simply irritating.

It didn't help that many of them were finding their footing faster than her, despite being her junior. She wasn't the oldest Novice in her classes, but she couldn't help but notice that many Accepted were closer to her in age. At home, she would have been getting ready for the next festival, working on the farm and trying to make time to tempt William into the walk he had always mentioned wanting to take. Instead, she had spent the morning failing dismally at the weaves for Delving.

And so she had decided to sneak away, the Stables seeming a likely enough spot to avoid the eyes of Aes Sedai and sharp eyed Accepted wh were eager to find chores to fill a Novice's time.

She startled when she came around a corner, avoiding the grooms as they went about their business and noticed an Accepted standing by a horse. Peyton was tempted to sneak by, but she was worried the blonde had seen her. Sighing, she curtsied, "Greetings Accepted."
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Mim
"The Great Hunt"
Posts: 57
Joined: October 15th, 2014, 4:52 pm
PC: Liolet Belwhyn
SC: Sarkaska Jinlo
Location: State of Insanity

Why's it hating me?

Post by Mim » September 9th, 2019, 6:26 am

Liolet hated to admit when she'd been surprised. It happened, and it was more often than anyone would enjoy, but she was getting better at hiding it. Irritation, though: that was going to be the bane of a smooth countenance forever. People were just plain annoying. People in a space she'd come into specifically to avoid people were going to be extra annoying. She fought back the narrowing of her blue eyes as she lifted her head from the horse’s mane, argued with her body for the proper carriage for a minor annoyance, rather than a sudden stab of guiltiness for being found, as it were, far from her tasks. Never mind that an Accepted answered to very few: the guilt was inbred, a product of bowing and scraping and servility. Whether it was being raised in an inn or raised by the Aes Sedai, one’s place at the bottom of every pecking order was well established and ever-present. Liolet hated that, too.

“Novice.” So many girls in white had come (and potentially gone) in the time that Liolet had been in Tarabon, or after that, at the farm. This one was a bit long in the tooth for dewy-eyed and hopelessly in love with some shirtless lout, but Liolet wasn’t holding her breath for intelligence. Two kinds of women did well in the Tower, and it wasn’t terribly likely this girl was either well-heeled (either in strength or in rank) or extremely docile but backstabbing. In a simple ranking by strength, Liolet herself would have no standing at all: she was at the lower end of the ability pool, but she had the massive onus of an active (and gleeful) Foretelling talent. The Tower kept her because everyone wanted to know the future. Liolet let it because you didn’t survive escaping twice. Once had been sheer luck, paid for in blood. Twice, though...they were watching her too much, and she didn’t have the resources to block up mouths and blind eyes.

“I am certain you have a fine explanation for your time tarrying in the stables,” Liolet said, channeling a particularly icy young White sister who had a tongue so toxic that it ought to poison itself and fall off any day now. “Was it the young men in the loft, mayhaps?” Sex didn’t interest Liolet - fine, she lied, but it was a lie that the Tower liked, and indeed, cultivated, among its young. “Let’s hear it,” she decided, restraining herself from reaching into her pockets for the other apple. Juicy tales often deserved juicy treats, and who knew better than Liolet the implications of being caught alone in the Stables? The little door best for sneaking out was clear across the building, between the arenas, but this novice didn’t seem to know that...yet. Scare her now so she never came ‘round to learn, or let it be?

With her lousy luck, the child had been sent to fetch her, and didn’t deserve a dressing-down, but the day had already been long and it wasn’t even High. You had to find your fun somewhere.

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Lugh
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Re: An Apple a Day (Open)

Post by Lugh » September 9th, 2019, 6:08 pm

Peyton Well this one has a tongue as charming as an adder bite, thought Peyton to herself as she forced herself to keep her features schooled. She had known her share of tart tongued women, and back home she could have given as good as she got, but with the Grey Tower it was never that simple.

She answered to Accepted, Aes Sedai, and was quickly learning that she would be expected to defer to stronger women even when their rank was the same. She was about to reply with a half baked excuse, when she heard the woman's comment about the young men in the hayloft, her face coloured.

Not because she'd been there to do anything like that, but she couldn't help but imagine a fellow that would be fun to sneak up into the hay, away from watching eyes.

Coughing in surprise, she shook her head and took a breath to compose herself. "No Accepted, nothing like that. I steered clear of too many of my father's farmhands to trip here. They can keep their stolen kisses for someone who wouldn't know better," Peyton finished, some of her own tartness sneaking into her tone.

"I was overcome from heat and my last chore, so I thought perhaps a moment of fresh air would help Accepted. When I saw the horses, I thought I could work here as I have some experience with them," Peyton finished, trying to put conviction she didnt feel into her lame explanation.
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Mim
"The Great Hunt"
Posts: 57
Joined: October 15th, 2014, 4:52 pm
PC: Liolet Belwhyn
SC: Sarkaska Jinlo
Location: State of Insanity

Re: An Apple a Day (Open)

Post by Mim » September 10th, 2019, 5:51 am

Liolet's eyebrow flickered up: it was a tiny movement, but when you learned from Aes Sedai, it said much. Perhaps too much. She'd not expected the girl to give back at all: most Novices caught out of place were apologetic to the extreme. Still, it was a reasonable argument, reasonably given. And she'd been properly addressed, although she was no stickler for that. As weak as she was, she should cling to every propriety, but it had never been her way to strut about like a bantam rooster. She knew her place. This novice skirted the edge of being improper about it all, but Liolet supposed that was her own fault. She'd hardly been civil, and you couldn't get civility from one you had ill-treated. Well, you could with the proper rank about this place, but Liolet didn't possess that, and the novice knew it. Still, an apology was impossible.

"The horses are well kept," Liolet said. The same wasn't true for novices, of course. They were woken early and worked as hard as proud little housewives, with less to show for the effort than even a farmer's wife. The Tower was spotless, flawless, faultless, but it wasn't gentle with its youth. "It does not look as though the same is true for you." Her skirts were clean, so whatever she'd been doing, she'd had the sense to tie them up. That meant that she was at least a year out of whatever village her pa had farmed in, at least. The newest novices were too busy editing the dresses for the Gaidin and their trainees to keep in mind how serious a task keeping a white dress clean was. Older Novices learned tricks. Liolet's favorite had been stowing a "lost" dress (stolen from the laundry) in a tree in the Gardens so she always had a pristine dress, even if it wasn't the one she'd originally worn in the morning. And she couldn't be outed by drawer checks or inventory, because there were all her dresses! It wasn't even the most clever of novice tricks, though.

"Actually," Liolet said, examining the girl critically, "you seem quite flushed, novice." She nodded toward the cistern, which supplied clean water, drawn from the aquifer below the city and the Tower. "You should have a drink." Perhaps because she harbored a secret inclination toward Healing (but lacked the strength for people, and the patience too) she felt the inclination to Delve the girl. Some would consider it impertinent to run the One Power through a perfect stranger, but they weren't students here. If you weren't careful, you'd get snatched off breakfast stools to be examined by Accepteds aspiring Yellow. Liolet practiced her weaves on the Tower's cats, dogs, and horses. They were much the same weave, though - just tinier. You would think a horse required a large one, but actually, they were so neurotic that the feelings of cold tended to spook them, and they preferred her to use weaves tinier than she would channel for a kitten!

"I would not linger here too long," Liolet said, "but the water is cool and fresh. And the horses can be good company."

Shame it wasn't true for people, but you really couldn't have everything.

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Lugh
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Re: An Apple a Day (Open)

Post by Lugh » September 10th, 2019, 4:13 pm

Peyton Peyton sighed in relief when it became apparent that the Accepted was not likely to throw her to the Mistress of Novice. She moved to the cistern the Accepted had mentioned, and when she saw her reflection took a moment to clean her hair. There was little sense in letting her hair lend credit to the notions the Accepted had mentioned.

"Thank you Accepted. The water was quite refreshing," she said as she finished drinking, and with a small chunk of cloth washed the heat from her face. She had grabbed the fabric from a pile of mending, after all she had learned early on that a cloth was useful for many things.

"I will take your advice, I would hate to disturb the horses without need. We had a couple of riding horses, but nothing as fine as the Grey Tower. The horses are truly incredible here, and as you said they make better company than overstressed Novices," Peyton said with a small grin. She knew they worked the Novices hard to teach them discipline and stamina, but it also kept many of them from getting to know each other, or becoming more than acquaintances.

"I should introduce myself Accepted. Peyton Sain, and thank you again for understanding. If you need help one day, I am a fair hand at scribing, though I do not think it likely Brown will be my future Ajah," Peyton said as she thought of the hours spent pouring over dusty books and scrolls required for such a calling.
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