Plugging away at the Pool

Writers: Elaine, Emma
Date Posted: 11th September 2005

Characters: Toriat, Teseada
Description: Toriat tries to attract Teseada's attention by plugging one of the bathing pools
Location: Dragonsfall Weyr
Date: month 7, day 11 of Turn 3

Teseada

It was just one of those messy days. There were several hides he had to prepare that day that hadn't been skinned quite so cleanly as they could have been. Then of course half a bowl of brain solution spilt on him, causing anything and everything to stick to him.

At that point the supervising Journeymen relented to give him some time to clean off. Toriat was gratefully when he finally made it to the bathing caverns. He hopped into the moving water, clothing and all.
washing the grime away from him. At one point the water seemed to rise though. After probing around he realized his shirt was blocking the waters exit point. He fished it out, but had an idea.

He hadn't found a way to attract Tesedea's attention again, the girl could be positively single minded at points, but perhaps with something to fix he could get a chance to speak with her again.

So, after getting ready to return to work he took the offending clothing back to the bath and half clogging the drains. He hopped it would do the trick, but wouldn't look obvious. Hopefully no one else would discover the back up issue before he was done for the night.

**************

**drat** Toriat thought. One of the younger candidates had already noticed the problem in the baths. The water had risen a bit more then he had expected it would.

"Toriat, something backed up the bath, and now I have to wait for a technician to arrive and fix it. I don't want to miss the usually dinner crowd."

"Hey its ok, I'll stay and look out for this. So you already called for someone?" Tor was annoyed, he was hopping he could personally seek out Teseada, now who knows who would arrive.

"Oh, are you sure? That'd be great. Yes I asked one of the others here to run down while I watched to make sure the water didn't suddenly begin to flood faster." The boy was already halfway out the door when he finished.

"Yeah its fine, I'm not that hungry right now anyways." With that the boy gave a last wave and left. Now Toriat stood by the caverns, and waited.

***
"Now what?" Teseada listened to the message. "Again?" Someone was always messing with the bathing pools. Too hot, too cold. Not enough water, blocking drains.... Maybe it was just a stuck tap?

"I think I can manage this one Dhanrik," she said to the Journeyman. "Bet there's a someone just thinks its too hot again."

The Journeyman waved her out and on her way. "See you in half a candlemark then, and bring some Klah back with you."

Toriat heard someone approaching so he came out of the cavern to see who it was. "Oh Tesedea, hello."

"Toriat?" she said, "What's wrong here?" Then, glancing behind him she could see the problem, the bathing pool didn't seem to be draining properly. While it couldn't really overflow, they wouldn't want it to get to deep, not if someone were to bring children in here.

"Not exactly sure, someone said the pool's water was rising too high.
Seeing you here has sure made my day" He had rambled at first, making it clear there was something for her to fix first.
But his eyes twinkled a bit. "Even moreso if you can fix it so I can comfortably hop in tonight."

"I'll see what I can do," she said. "Do you know if anything is stuck in the outlet?"

"Well I uh," Toriat sucked up his pride and acted sheepish, "I hadn't thought to check that I guess."

"It shouldn't get like this, might be a bath toy that one of the weyrbrats had down here," she said with a grin. "I've found toy ships down there and made a little boy's day before."

Toriat grinned back, **she does have a nice smile** he thought, agreeing with his earlier sentiments. "I hadn't even thought of that.
We didn't have nice bathing facilities like this when I was young enough to still be using bath toys." He paused, modulating his tone to be more thoughtful. :You must be quite the life saver Teseada, fixing things all around here, so us simple folk don't have to worry about them."

She gave him a puzzled look, was he trying to flirt with her? "I'm a technician, it's my job," she said with a laugh. "How about you check that outlet? I'll just have a look and make sure that the inlet is okay, not stuck on full or anything."

"Aye aye boss lady," Toriat replied giving her a salute before heading towards the pool. He stopped short of the water though, and looked as if in deep thought.

"Toriat?" she queried, looking up briefly from studying the inlet. It seemed fine, not stuck, nothing blocking it at all.

"Sorry, just thinking," he shook his head again. "These are my work pants and all, but this is a nicer shirt, I'd rather not get it soaked. If you don't mind..." He walked a bit away from the pool to remove the shirt in a dry area, before returning and diving into the water. He knew what he'd fine, **why didn't i suggest she check this end and I the other?** He was delaying therefore, taking a few strokes around. "Actually, the waters not that bad, want to hop in for a sec?"

"Maybe I'll just watch you," she said, amused by the fact he felt he'd had to turn away to take his shirt off. Being weyrbred meant that nudity was just that, nudity and nothing was meant by it when it came to bathing.

Toriat gave a sigh and stopped fooling around. "Fine, I'll take a look at this." Before heading towards the drain he tried squirting a stream of water at Teseada. He felt around the drain, and indeed feeling the old clothes lodged in. Much tighter now though the flowing water trying to escape pressuring them in further.

"Found something, clothing of some sort, lodged in pretty tight I think, I could use a hand." He said coming out towards Teseada, outstretching a hand for her to join him.

She gave him a look, as though wondering what he was after. But she did slip off her shoes, and wade into the water.

"Well, come on," Toriat replied with a smile, wading off towards the outlet. "See? Feel in here," Toriat took Teseada's hand, pausing barely, to make sure she wasn't angry, then guided her hand to feel the blockage. "See, cloth of some sort."

"Well let's try and get it out of there," she said, giving the cloth a yank, only for part of it to come away in her hand, obviously ripped.

Toriat also began yanking, only getting parts himself. **Well, at least it won't be recognizable, and a work shirt.**

"Is that all of it?" she asked. It might once have been a shirt, or tunic perhaps. Definitely belonging to an adult, there seemed to be too much to have it belong to a child.

"Think soooo," Toriat responded. He turned to gaze at her for a moment. "You know, you should wait around to make sure that there isn't any other issues." He walked past her and swam out a bit. "Or do you trust me to keep an eye on this?"

"Any reason why I should trust you?" It all felt a bit too neat, like the blockage was done deliberately. Or perhaps she was attributing blame where none was needed.

Toriat shrugged. "There probably are, and of course I can't force you to think of me a certain way, but I hope you see me as someone you can trust. Maybe even get along with."

"Maybe one day soon," she replied, realising that perhaps he was just teasing her. "You'd have to persuade me."

"And how would one go about persuading you Teseada?" He made sure to keep his tone casual, as if asking about the weather. **An off hand question, I'm just curious. She brought it up.** He thought, trying to convince himself.

"Dinner?" she suggested.

Toriat smiled broadly. "Sure, I'd like that, just tell me when."

"How about the day after tomorrow?"

Toriat reached out his hand to clasp hers. "Ok, the day after tomorrow then Teseada."

Last updated on the September 12th 2005

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Plugging away at the Pool