Jenna hears rumors about Ember and J'nas from F'niah. So she starts digging, and embarasses herself thoroughly.

jenna - Thursday, August 15, 2002, 2:56 PM
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Hot Springs
The first thing which draws your eye when entering this vast subterranean cavern is the sheer height of it - a massive bubble hollowed out of rock by the pressures of volcanic gases at some time when Fort's volcano still spurted flame. The eye is drawn up and up into the darkness of the ceiling, where occasional flecks of mica reflect the light and catch the eye, flickering like solitary fireflies. Towards the northern end of the cavern, the ceiling disappears and the sky can be seen where the volcano eventually released built up pressure so long ago - now it forms an entrance to the hot springs for dragon and rider, dropping down through the open ceiling to the rocky lake shore or to various ledges high in the walls - from which the more daredevil riders have been known to dive on occasion.

Down at ground level, the warm lake laps the shore gently, never completely still. Steam rises from the surface and ripples stir from the movement of the hot water seeping in from hidden springs. The lakeshore closest to the Weyr entrance is smooth and gently sloping, a safe place to bathe and talk, but further out there are various rocky coves that can be reached by swimming or by dragon. At night, glows set in the walls reflect their glimmer onto the water; by day, the light from the ceiling gives the lake ever changing shades of blue and gold, deepening to soft opal at dusk and dawn, casting shadows that seem to harbor small crevices.
A wide corridor leads off to the southeast, curving back to the Inner Caverns.
Obvious exits:
Inner Caverns
Randoth spirals down from the opening overhead.
Randoth has arrived.

Randoth tries his best to land carefuly.

R'yat slides with ease down from his place between his lifemate's neckridges. As he reaches the ground, Randoth croons happily.
R'yat has arrived.

R'yat stifles a yawn and immediately emerges himself in the warm water. "Afternoon, Jen." He smiles rather tiredly though.

Jenna opens her eyes at her name, sitting submerged herself in one of the smaller sections of the pool. "Hey you two. Rough day?"

R'yat nods and lets out a long sigh as the water finally does its relaxing work. "Spent much time with T'quinn on sweep these days. Learnt a lot. What about you?"

Jenna mms, as T'quinn's name is mentioned, a flicker crossing quickly across her eyes. "Records room again. Ever feel like you're just repeating the same day, over and over again?"

R'yat is now stretching his shoulders. "I even had the time to help in the Record room..." He perks at Jenna's question. "I'd say the whole sevenday gave me that feeling, yeah..."

Jenna mms. She's quiet a moment or two and then asks, "How long've we been friends? Three turns? Going on four?"

R'yat runs both hands through his wet hairs. "I'd say four, yes. Why?" He asks, smiling.

Jenna purses her lips. "I want to know something. And if I'm getting too personal, just tell me." A pause and then, "What's your arrangement with Ember?"

R'yat lets himself sink totally into the delicious water. Did he hear Jenna's question first? Maybe. He pierces the surface again and turns himself to look at his friend, smiling. "What do you mean by arrangement?" He heard it obviously.

Jenna snorts. "I think you know exactly what I mean. Your weyrmating. Is it exclusive or not?" A pause and she reiterates, "And if I'm getting too personal, say so."

R'yat considers the young woman, silently, for a moment. "To be honest, we didn't discus that fact together...yet. There're flights of course but..." He tilts his head and offers a bright smile. "Is it some kind of proposal, Jen?"

Jenna flushes. "Oh, stop being a bronzerider for about two seconds, will you? Randoth's got more sense than you sometimes." The words are biting, but the tone isn't. "I was just wondering, that's all. If it was exclusive or not. But since you two haven't talked about it..."

R'yat blinks several times. Was he acting like a bronzerider? He frowns. "Randoth is the best part of me, that's true." He goes on rubbing his temple now. "Many things changed in my life and one of the brightest is Ember. But I know how difficult it is to _keep_ a stable relationship when one is a rider..."

Jenna says philosophically, "There's relationships and then there's re*lation*ships. I was just wondering is all. It's not really any of my business."

R'yat smiles reassuringly. "I'm not saying that you're getting too personal. You know that I like talking with you a lot." He smiles again. "Knowing Ember liks I am, I'd say that it'll be an exclusive relationship and since I only see her, I won't mind at all." He tilts his head and adopts that particular head-position that betrays a nosey Rey. "What about you, Jen? Do you have someone?"

Jenna shrugs. "Kind of. You know Lu and I aren't really seeing each other anymore, I'm sure. And Rodric... well, he's busy. And I don't get much time to go down to the hall."

R'yat aahs softly. "So who is that kind of someone? Lu or Rodric?"

Jenna says abruptly, "Neither. Have you talked to Sef recently?" One could get whiplash from the abrupt change in topic.

R'yat blinks and rubs his cheek as if he felt that whiplash. "Err...Not recently, no. Why? Is he involved too?" Hey don't ask too much from a soaked bronzerider.

You say "That's kinda what I was trying to find out."

R'yat swims to lean on a rocky spot. "Oh." He first says. "I thought J'nas..." He coughs and follows. "Did you notice odd things in Sef's attitude? Now I'm sorry not to talked to him much..."

Jenna pounces on that first statement. "You thought J'nas what?"

"Well I saw him blushing when you're near..." Rey admits, now searching for a towel.

You say "So?"

R'yat errs, mumbles, stammers and all that sort of things. He shakes his head and shrugs. "So nothing...I used to blush a lot myself you're right...I just thought...How do you find J'nas, by the way?"

Jenna sighs. "Confusing." A pause and then she asks, "Why does Ember have J'nas's shirt?"

R'yat chokes.

"J'nas shirt?" Rey frowns. "Well, I guess she has her own reason...I didn't even know that fact though..."

Jenna chews on her lower lip. "Mm." Maybe she shouldn't have said anything. And now, perhaps, the line of questioning she was persuing earlier may be a bit more clear.

R'yat seems to dive in his thought now. "Who told you she had J'nas's shirt? J'nas? Her? You saw them together?" Too many questions for someone who trust in stable relationship.

Jenna says unwillingly, "She mentioned it at dinner one day, with Sef, J'nas and I. It's nothing, I'm sure." A pause. "Though Sef said that she told him that J'nas was mean to her. Kinda upset J'nas, cause *he* said he hasn't really seen her much since she moved into your weyr." Except to give her his shirt for some unknown reason. "I'm sure it's no big secret."

R'yat ponders all the information for a moment. "I only hope he didn't give his shirt for her to wash it." A smile now crossing his face again. "I kinda know J'nas not ot be worried." He does frown though. "It's more the mean part Ember told Sef that bother me..."

Jenna asks, a trifle too innocently, "Oh? Why?"

R'yat shrugs. "Well, It'd be very unusual for J'nas to be mean to someone, no? I mean I just can't picture that...And why did she tell Sef rather than me?"

Jenna shrugs. "Well, you know Sef. He doesn't always make sense. And I think... he may have a bit of a crush on Ember."

R'yat blinks again. Too many revelations today. "Really? Funny." He says. "I thought you were telling he had one on you."

Jenna blinks. "Me? Shells! No! Ember." A pause and then, "I'm pretty sure.

"Pretty sure of what?" Rey is now chuckling lightly.

Jenna frowns. "That his crush is on Ember." A pause, "That or K'fen, and he's in such denial of that..."

R'yat smiles. "One can't be immune to Ember's charm, I can understand that, but that shirt story pinched my curiosity. I think I'll ask her about that. So Sef has a crush on Ember and K'fen? Wow..." And he's laughing now.

Jenna is beginning to look disgruntled. "Oh, stop, will you? It's not funny. And he'd die of embarassment if you said a word about it."

R'yat wiggles one hand in front of Jenna. "Oh, don't worry! I won't say a word, I promise." Hard to tell if he's serious with those sparkling eyes.

Jenna says quietly, "Seriously, don't. I'm *trying* to get him to talk about it but..." She pauses and then says, "You know Saneth hasn't tried to chase any greens at all."

That new fact worried Rey much more then he expected and he stands up, displaying his bare chest. "Hasn't tried at _all_?"

Jenna shushes him, looking around. "Keep your voice down. No, he hasn't."

R'yat's mind is working fast. "But he reached his maturity now. Like all of our lifemates. Even Niyath..." His voice is still a bit too high for a dicreet talk but also concerned. "How is Saneth? Did you ask Niyath to talk with him?"

Jenna shakes her head, quickly saying, "Niyath's not quite mature yet. She's got her full growth and everything, but queens aren't considered mature until their first clutch. - And you know Saneth. He's just... well... Saneth. I don't think there's anything wrong with the dragon."

R'yat puts one hand on his chin. "So Sef is searching himself?"

Jenna's answer is a trifle evasive. "How do you mean, searching?"

R'yat shrugs just as he sinks into the water again. "Like, 'Do I like women or men?'"

Jenna says, "He's hold-bred," as if that should explain it.

R'yat lifts an eyebrow. "I don't see any explanation here, Jen. Are hold-bred people prone to be sexually stumbling, if I could use that weird expression?"

Jenna sighs. "No. But in a hold, for a man to want another man...."

R'yat aaahs. "Now I understand and I don't any problem with that."

Jenna shrugs. "F'niah has issues with it. And a lot of worries, I think. And issues with just the 'looser morals' of the weyr in general."

R'yat oohs. "Now that's different...It's surely why Saneth doesn't chase. Did Sef talked to you about that?"

Jenna mms. "Well, not exactly. Not in so many words, really."

"So you guessed the whole thing?" Rey asks amused. "Goldrider insight?"

Jenna sniffs. "Don't be rude. I said some things, and just the way he acted. He's not exactly a tightly rolled scroll, you know."

Hanreth spirals down from the opening overhead.
Hanreth has arrived.

Jenna looks up as Hanreth arrives, and sinks a bit lower in the water, so that only the tops of her shoulders and chin are showing. "Hey you two."

R'yat suddenly feels stupid right now. "I didn't want to be rude at all. I also like Sef you know. What do you suggest to...help him?"

R'yat looks up and waves. "Hey J'nas."

Hanreth doesn't give J'nas a chance to dismount before he plunges into the deeper water. Rider sputters as dragon resurfaces, fighting with his straps. After disentagling himself from his lifemate, J'nas swims toward the shore, cursing the whole way. He glances back and forth bewtween the two and quickly offers, "Evening Jenna, Rey."

J'nas unstraps himself from Hanreth's neckridges, sliding down his forelimb to the ground.
J'nas has arrived.

R'yat chuckles. "Juts remove your _shirt_ J'nas. It'll be easier for you to swim."

Jenna shrugs a thin shoulder. "I dunno. I mean, it's not exactly - Hanreth!" She's trying not to laugh at J'nas's predicament. "You're gonna drown him like that one day, boy." Her tone is affectionate, however. "But, Rey, it's not exactly like, um," as their comments merge, she gets quieter, "You can really do anything about it."

J'nas begins to remove his shirt as he wades the shore. "Am I interrupting? I can bathe Hanreth in the lake if you need some privacy."

Jenna merely shakes her head and sinks a bit deeper, getting one of the fallout waves from Hanreth's plunge up her nose and making her splutter.

R'yat eyes that shirt but shakes his head right after. "Oh no, you both can stay." He turns to look at Jenna for some approval.

"Thanks, Rey." J'nas stays within earshot just long enough to spread his clothes out to dry before returning to the water with cleaning supplies. "Sorry about the waves," he offers to Jenna as he wades past her.

Jenna mms. "S'okay." A pause and she mumbles, "We were talking about Sef."

R'yat gives Jenna a quick look and a beginning of a smile.

J'nas snorts as he signals for Hanreth to come into shallower waters. "Sef needs a talking to. He seems to be getting more and more strange."

Jenna shoots Rey an 'I told you so' look, and says a bit louder, "Oh? What's he done now?"

R'yat slowly crosses his arms over his wet chest. "Lots of people seems to be strange these days...I mean others as me."

J'nas sets to scrubbing Hanreth's brown bulk. "Nothing new. He just seems to avoid me like I've go firehead, or something."

Jenna shoots another look at Rey and then asks casually, "Did you ever find out about that whole mean thing, J'nas?"

"Did you get your shirt back too?" Rey throws trying to look innocent.

J'nas shakes his head. "That's ancient history. Now it's trying to find out where he got the idea that Ember wants me." He snaps a quick look at R'yat. "Actually, no. She still ha- wait a minute. You know about that?"

R'yat nods his chin up and down very slowly. "I knew I should have spent more time in the hot srpings..." He's smiling and his voice is calm. "I juts know the fact, J'nas and with what you said I'm even more curious now."

Jenna is sunk down in the water up to her earlobes now, and being vewy, vewy quiet.

J'nas wades to the far side of Hanreth, ostensibly, to scrub his other flank. "There is isn't anything to say," he calls from the cover of scorched hide.

Jenna chews on her lower lip, remaining silent.

"Anything to say? _Anything_ to say?" Rey says twice. "Oh, yes, of course. Ember told Sef that you were mean to her. Sef kept avoiding you and told that Ember wants you and finally." And he turns to look at the nearly flooded Jenna. "Jenna believes that Sef has a crush on Ember. You're right, there isn't anything to say...And also nothing about one of your shirt in my weyrmate's hands." He doesn't look upset or anything. Just awfully curious. Well, okay, maybe a bit jealous too.

Jenna tries to make herself as small as possible, holding her breath so that she doesn't suck in too much water. Her eyes are a bit large as Rey goes on his little rant.

J'nas peeks around Hanreth's chest. "It's only a shirt, R'yat. It's nothing to get worked up over."

Jenna avoids looking at J'nas and Hanreth as he peeks around the brown.

J'nas frowns as he looks back and forth between bronzerider and weyrwoman. "What has gotten into this Weyr in the past sevenday? Has the entire population just gone crazy, or what? It seems like paranoia is the dominant trait lately."

R'yat sighs and relaxes his body in the water again. "I know that it's nothing more like a shirt, J'nas and to answer your question, I also think that there's something weird in the air. What do you know about Sef exactly?" Lucky Jen, Rey is changing the subject. No more shirt-talking, for now.

Jenna lets out her breath, blowing a few bubbles and sits up just a bit so she can breathe.

Apparently off the hook for now, J'nas resumes his scrubbing duty. "I don't know anything specific when it comes to F'niah. I've given up on trying to read him."

Jenna puts in, "I've given up trying to read any of you at this point."

"What about Ember then? her name was mentioned a couple of time today and...Oh c'mon, Jen. That's not what you told me before J'nas came." Is rey spitting oil on the fire?

"That's it!" J'nas splashes a hands into the water. "It's time to stop dropping names and speaking in innuendos. What in Faranth's name is going on around here?" Hanreth rumbles what can only be construed as a warning to his lifemate.

Jenna had just opened her mouth to retort a trifle hotly to Rey, when J'nas speaks out. She closes her mouth and sits back against a rock, staying well underwater. Finally she says, "I just was talking about Sef. And how he seems to have a crush on Ember. That's all." A pause and she says, trying to sound deliberately offhanded, "Even though she ended up with your shirt."

J'nas pushes off of Hanreth and swims back toward the shore. "Truth be told, I loaned my shirt to Ember because Hanreth soaked her clothes last time we came here." He comes up just short of dry land, remaining waist deep in water. "There was no reason for her to traipse through the living cavern with only a towel."

R'yat looks from Jenna to J'nas and then again from J'nas to Jenna and bursts out laughing.

Jenna frowns at Rey. "Stop laughing." She's starting to blush. "Oh, just hush you!"

J'nas narrows his eyes as he watches the laughing bronzer. "What is so funny about this?"

"I only pictured the scene in my mind, J'nas. That's all." Rey is now giggling. "Quite unusual for Ember to do so though...Ahaaaa." He takes a deep breath. "I know what's going on in here. It's spring!"

Jenna is beginning to lose her temper. "What's *that* got to do with anything?"

J'nas back pedals toward his lifemate. This is a new aspect to Jenna that he isn't incredibly familiar with.

"What? Spring? Oh, it only reveals all the concealed emotions and feelings, Jenna. That's why everybody has a crush on everybody. It's no big deal." Rey can't help but smiling in front of the quite angry weyrwoman.

Jenna says sharply, "I'm not concealing anything, thankyouverymuch."

J'nas knows better, but chooses not to mention it. Instead, he reaches up to climb up on to Hanreth's neck, without his clothes. "I'll leave you two to your discussion," he calls out. "Don't do anything drastic!"

R'yat baaahs and wiggles one hand up at J'nas. "I didn't mean to chase you, J'nas..."

Jenna's mouth works a moment or two with no sound coming out. Finally: "You can't go out there like that, J'nas!"

J'nas glances down at his lack of clothing and blushes. After looking across the water at his garments, he responds, "Who's going to notice from the bowl? We'll just go straight to our weyr." His words don't flow as smoothly as they generally do.

Jenna says, with a hint of exasperation, "Oh, don't be silly. I'll go." She starts for the shore, turning her back on both maleriders.

"I can go in my weyr and bring your shirt bak, J'nas?" Rey asks shruging.

"One of you can bring my stuff up later," J'nas blurts as he swings up between Hanreth's neckridges. "I need to get up to my weyr, anyway."

J'nas climbs up Hanreth's forelimb, and finds a secure spot between his neckridges.
J'nas has left.

R'yat snorts and waves. "Catch you later, J'nas."

Jenna doesn't say a word, though her shoulders slump slightly.

From atop Hanreth, "I don't care which one of you brings them up," J'nas says, though his eyes linger on Jenna. "Just have your dragon bespeak Hanreth before you come in."

R'yat's eyes falls on Jenna and he gives her the 'I told you so' look she was given to him not long ago.

Jenna has ber back to both maleriders, and has stopped in the shallows, missing any gazes on her or any significant looks.

Up on Hanreth, J'nas offers a slight smile to Rey before slapping Hanreth on the neck. He waves once before taking a firm hold as the brown lurches skyward from the water.

Hanreth launches into the sky, banking through the aerial entrance to the Bowl.
Hanreth has left.

Jenna says brusquely, "You take his clothes up." She wades out and gets her towel.

R'yat is still smiling as he stands up too, saluting Jenna. "As you wish Ma'am."

Jenna scowls. "Don't do that, will you?"

R'yat perks just as he bends to grab J'nas's clothes. "Do what?" He asks, trying to look as innocent as Zak could be.

Jenna frowns. "Salute me. All right? There's no need to do that. Next you'll be saying that you like me but you're doing it despite the fact that I'm a weyrwoman."

R'yat grins. "I was just responding to your orders...and teasing you, all right. I must admit that." He winks.

Jenna suddenly looks unsure. "Orders? I didn't order you, did I?"

R'yat giggles. "And it always works. Sorry, I was acting like a bronzerider again."

Jenna is abruptly serious, "I didn't order you, did I? I didn't mean to."

R'yat comes closer, a towel across his right shoulder and J'nas's things under one arm. "Nah, you didn't, but just so you know, I don't think if you order things in the future, it'll be contested."

Jenna's gaze flickers down to J'nas's clothes and then she says, a trifle bitterly, "I'd take 'em, but he can't get over the fact that I'm a weyrwoman." Then she turns and is gone, despite being in a towel herself. Seems to be the night for leaving the springs naked or nearly naked.

R'yat's look follows Jenna as she leaves. "So J'nas is also concealing his feelings?" He calls. "I'll do my report to you, if you want, Jen."