08/31/2000

Dining Hall, White Tower, Tar Valon

One may see, here, a huge buffet table full of every type of food
imaginable, from nearly every part of the known world. Occasionally empty
plates are removed and replaced, for there is no common eating time for any
but the students. Most eat when they remember to, or find the time. Other
tables are present. Some have broad cloths thrown over them, in the color
of the Ajah that normally sits there. Others are left plain, indicating a
table at which anyone may sit.

Bobbing lights, produced by the One Power, emit a soft glow, replacing the
need for candles and lamp oil, whose supplies are growing short each day
and which are getting quite expensive. Occasionally as some fade an
Accepted will walk in and replace them. The floor, white, is kept
meticulously clean and scrubbed. No sooner does some morsel find its
accidental way to the ground than someone is along to sweep it up and throw
it away.


Aidou is in the dinning hall, doing what? Um... eating? Actually no.
Considering the late hour the dinning hall actually ended up being a more
quiet place to study than the library. Besides, they don't let you snack in
the library, and she does have a cup of hot cider beside her as she pours
over her books. She's been busy lately, but such is the life of a novice.
Alas, it doesn't give her much time to torment her brother :(

Arg. There are a few things that Neelkan despises more the women. Deep
water and milk aside.. His dreams are one of them. He was barely asleep for
thirty minutes, having gone to bed early after practice, when a /weird/
dream pulled him from his sleep. He doesn't want to go back to sleep, so he
figured he'd head to the Dining Hall, scrounge up a late night snack and
some hot tea perhaps. He heads in the room, barely half dressed, though
still proper in shirt, boots and breeches, but he certainly didn't layer
it. He probably took a root so that he wouldn't have to step outside to get
to the main part of the Tower. There has to be a few after all. He rubs at
his hair, grumbling under his breath as he moves towards the kitchens to
get something to eat. He doesn't notice his sister until he returns with a
tray full of finger foods, bread and cheese and a small bowl of some
yellowish garlic sauce to dip his bread in. And he almost looks tempted to
put the tray aside and head out as soon as he recognizes her. By her hair
of course. But then he steels himself, and walks over to the table and sits
down. He'll have to face her sooner or later. Might as well face her on his
own terms. He checks carefully to see if there's any logs in sight.

Aidou has one tucked away, but it's out of sight of course :) She looks up,
blinking a little sleepily and gets this very evil grin on her face when
she sees him, "Shun'u! What a pleasant surprise!" She closes her book and
folds her hands over eachother, resting her chin in the cradle they make.
"So, old man," she started calling him that when he started getting white
streaks, "what are you doing up so late? Did you have another one of your
-dreams-," she asks in a slightly snide manner. Geez, you'd think she could
be a little sympathetic now that she knows they're not just a child's
imagination, but you'd think wrong. Not because she doesn't care, she does,
she just has a funny way of showing it. She glances down at the food, "Oh!
That reminds me! They're having a cooking contest, so you're going to help
me form a group for it." Nope, no please, no question, he's going to do it,
'cause they're playing Aidou says.

Picking up a piece of bread and dips it into the melted butter mixed with
enough garlic to make his breath smell funny for hours and bites off the
dipped part as he glares at his sister for a moment. After chewing and
swallowing he says in a semblance of calm (or at least it starts out
calm...) "Don't call me Shun'u." The calm slips as he talks about his
dreams though, becoming and grumble, "'n what d' ya care!? It's m' own
business, a'right! Blood 'n ashes." Grrr. Then his eyes widen in outrage at
the last part and he almost goes to the point of yelling, "I will /not/.
I'm not cookin' with ya, 'n I don't give a bloody right hand 'bout the
cookin' contest! 'sides, e'en if I did, I a'ready got someone who asked m'
t' help first." Of course, he turned her down too. Denied that he knew how
to cook even... But Aidou doesn't know that.

Aidou smiles brightly, completely ignoring his protests. "That's fine. The
more the merrier. Let's se... what dish should we make?" Isn't that
annoying? She starts writing things down on a piece of parchment and making
preperations and such as if he'd said yes. Nope, she's not letting him
weasle out of this one. "By the way, who's the other person? Espiria?" ^.^
She gets a rather sly look on her face, that look that says she's plotting
some kind of mischief towards him... except that it's a good mischief, in
her mind. She wrinkles her nose a little at the garlic and shakes her head,
"no girl is going to want to kiss you if you have breath like that. Do I
have to tell you -everything-??"

Neelkan gapes openly at the mention of Espiria, and then goes bright red
along the cheeks at the last bit. Red from anger or...? Probably the or. He
immediately starts yelling denials, "What!? Why in the bloody LIGHT would I
want t' kiss anyone! Yuck!" He stops his protests with a grumble and glares
down at the garlic butter, then dips the bread in again. And a second time,
soaking it as best he can before sticking it in his mouth in defiance.
Hrmpt! Like he cares about his breath! (Then why lately has he been
drinking mint flavored tea after meals?...) Grrrr!! Once that piece of
bread is disposed of in his system somewhere he says pointedly, "I think
Espi a'ready had 'n idea of what t' cook anyway, so /ya'd/ be helpin' 'er."
Espi?...

At first glance, Ian appears quite average. He is just under six feet tall,
with dark blonde hair and pale blue eyes. His body is clearly that of a
laborer, tan from the sun and muscled from a life of labor. He is a young
man, about 18 years from the look of him, and healthy. His eyes have a
distant look, as if he is not really paying attention to the world, and he
seldom appears to notice his surroundings in earnest. He doesn't posess the
slack-jawed look of those who lack intellect, but rather a boyish and
innocent quality as if he is constantly observing some lovely thing beyond
the reach of others' eyes. He wears simple shirts and work pants, and
always seems to smell faintly of hay and sawdust.

Ian walks in looking at the ceiling, a distant look in his eyes.

Aidou laughs as if he'd said some kind of joke or something, "Well I'll
talk to her. I'm sure we can work out some sort of arrangement." Nope, no
mention of including him in the planning, though she clearly plans to
include him in the cooking process. "She -does- know you can cook right,"
she asks mischeviously, glancing sidelong at him. She can play dumb when
she wants to, but she knows. Oh yes, she knows that there are things he
would not like getting out. She has so many aces up her sleeves, so many
embarassing stories to tell. Hmph, well, if he's going to be silly about
the garlic it's no skin off her nose.

It's fairly late in the evening. The Dining Hall is fairly empty. Though
there are a few here and there having late snacks and such. Which is
perhaps what this trainee is doing. Neelkan glares over at the young novice
sitting with him and bites off a piece of cheese as if pretending it were
something that would hurt the young woman. After a few moments, once his
mouth is empty, he grumbles, "No, she doesn't know. 'n I don't... A'right.
I can help ya. I'm sure Espi a'ready found a few people t' team up with."

Ian walks around the room as if looking at something on the ceiling,
something that seems to frighten him just a little. He almost trips over a
bench, but avoids coming anywhere near any person in the sparse dining
hall. He blinks, looks around, and heads for the door.

Aidou eeees and bounces up and down on the bench, clapping her hands
happily. She hops up and leans across the table to give her brother what
she knows will be a most unwelcome kiss on the cheek. In fact she probably
won't even land one 'cause of his silly squirminess. Strangely enough
though... knowing he won't like it is the only reason she does it. She's
not naturally touchy, or feely, as other people have been discovering... "I
just knew you would." She flutters her eyelashes at him in annoying woman
fashion, even if he doesn't let her kiss him. "Don't worry, I'll take care
of -everything- just you watch. All you have to do is help, and we both
know you're such a -good- helper." Ick. She's a little -too- sickly sweet.
Yeah, it's praise, but she's saying it extra specially nicely 'cause she
knows it's not the kind of praise he'll enjoy. Besides, she'll likely turn
right around during the thing and chastize him for being clumsy and lazy.
Oh woah. She goes from sweet to sly again though in the blink of an eyelash
and rests her chin on the backs of her hands again, peering over them at
him. "So... what 'xactly is the story between ya two anyway? 'n don't give
me 'at nothin' business. I saw ya blushin' plain as the nose on yer face."
Hmmm.. this is interesting.. when she's dissembling she has almost perfect
control over her accent, whereas when she stops acting, and is just herself
again it creeps back into her words. Uh oh.. Aidou doesn't even seem to
notice that she does it. An observant person might be able to make use of
that to tell when she's lying. <.< >.> Any observant people around here?
No? Phew. ;)

Hrmpt! Who you calling unobservent!! Neelkan /sees/ things! He just doesn't
always process them... He growls at the attempted kiss and does indeed
dodge out of the way. He was always good at dodging, though he usually knew
better then to dodge hits. He glares and grumbles and his hair almost
sticks up... oh, it does that anyway. Nevermind. And the good helper bit
just makes things worse and he shoves his fists down to press them against
his knees and looks fit to do some beating. "I'm not gonna help ya if ya
order m' 'round!" That's one thing he's gained a little since he ran away.
Though, he was always a little brat. Ok... What he gained mostly was about
a half a hand of hieght, a good deal of muscle, and a few more streaks. And
earrings. And a bigger vocabulary of oaths. His eyes bludge at the mention
of Espi again and it looks as if he might just jump up and flee the room,
but he stands his ground instead and grumbles, "'ere's nothin' 'tween us.
She's m' friend is all. I've known 'er 'most as long as I've been 'ere."