11.26.08 - Snarky Larky

Location: Redwall Great Hall

Characters Involved: Lark, Taye, and various spectators

Elienna isn't a novice, but she's sweeping anyway. There appears to be some sort of localized mess, and comparing the little shards of ceramic she's collecting to the tea tray on a nearby table might bring you to a fair conclusion. She's humming idly, gathering the broken tea cup into a neat pile with far more attention.

Hum-hum-hum. Taye comes strolling into the Great Hall, whistling. He looks cold, but not /frozen/. It's a fair day out, for once. Scanning the room, he spots Elienna and the mess, idling over. "C'n I help with that?"

Elienna looks up with a smile when the hare wanders over, but shakes her head, raising a paw to keep him back. "Thankee, but I think I've got it sorted... mostly." Her broom darts out to sweep the area right in front of Taye, making sure there aren't any last chips of ceramic to poke footpaws. "If you want some tea, though, the rest of the cups are in fine shape."

Taye doesn't mind if he does! "Thanks," and he turns, sorting out a cup. He stands by the tray, sipping.

Shifts being what they are, Jove is just about to go out, and this means provisions. They're only the leftovers from lunch, anyway. ..well, all the leftovers, from the look of it. There's a hot bowl of soup sharing a plate with a pasty, and a suspicious bulge in her left pocket that might be a few dinner rolls.

Lark comes down the stairs, setting a cloak about her shoulders on her way towards the door. But a few steps past the stairwell, and she sees Taye. The cheerful expression on her face withers instantly, replaced with sparking eyes and a stubborn set jaw. She heads straight for the fire, ignoring the mousemaid completely. "Lieutenant, I'd like a word."

Elienna smiles at the hare before looking up at the doe, about to offer the lady hare tea also when Lark comes across the room. Her jaw drops, mouthing 'Lark?', though no sound comes out. She starts to take a step forward, but the less-than-pleased look on the squirrel's face makes her pause.

Er? Taye pauses mid-sip, glancing up. He slowly lowers the cup, then swallows his mouthful of tea. "Sorry - sorry, yes? What c'n I help you with?" His eyebrows are up - /she/ looks in a bad mood.

It makes Jove pause too; she sort of scoots toward the table, giving a longing glance in the direction of the tea. Separated by cruel fate and awkward situations!

"You owe Tameus an apology," says the squirrelmaid. "And Sivaine, as well. It's not their fault you don't think things through." Today is not the day for polite Lark-squirrels to be out and about. "You've caused quite a bit of trouble, lieutenant," (the title is not exactly respectful) "And I'd like to see that it's amended."

Elienna blinks at Lark, then Taye, then heads for the kitchen. This is one mousemaid who would rather not be around when Lark blows up at Taye. Tea tray forgotten entirely, she scurries out of the hall.

Well, he wasn't expecting that. Taye looks floored, flat-out. He recovers fairly quickly, holding the tea in one paw whilst he tucks his other paw in a pocket. "/I've/ been quite a bit o' trouble, have I? Hm. That's good t'know."

Lark doesn't seem all that surprised by the lack of helpful response. "Indeed, among those of us raised right, treating dibbuns like y'did Tam ain't really acceptable," she tells him idly. "Or maybe ye were too busy runnin' away to see the damage ye did to that poor kid. Not to mention leavin' Harper to clean up your mess."

Scoot scoot. Scootscootscoot. Suddenly, Cavern Hole is looking much more attractive as place to dine. With exaggerated care, Jove attempts a change of direction, soup bowl wobbling as she goes and nose a-quiver. They never covered this in basic training.

Taye stares at Lark in stony silence for several long seconds before he finally speaks, with level tone. "I am not the one who put the boy out for harm. That was all Sivaine, righ' there, 'n' because she was too uncomfortable t'deal with the dibbun herself. So if you want t'go rage at someone for hurtin' some dibbun's feelings, you go righ' ahead 'n' talk to her. Me? I feel bad he was hurt, but there wasn't much else I could've done. /I'm/ not the one that put it into his head that I lied t'him."

Reuben wanders over to Lark and asks "Whatcha be up to?"

Taye is standing before Lark with a cup of tea in paw. He glances at Reuben, but doesn't say anything.

Lark might have a level tone of voice, but her eyes spark angrily. "Sivaine, hmm? Oh, she's not too pleased with how Tam was treated, you can be sure of that. But I seem to remember you telling 'the boy' who happens to have a name, y'know, all about your dream girl. And when you tell kids things, they do tend to take it seriously. And brushing him off with a little 'grownups don't tell dibbuns everything'? Wonderful collision avoidance skills. Really."

And away! With surprising speed borne of self-preservation instincts, Jove disappears down the steps into Cavern Hole. She'll find a nice little table and wait for the shouting to be over.

Reuben gets a glance from Lark, but she's a little too angry with Taye to talk to him just now. He does get a little paw-wave, but that's about it.

Reuben sighs and sits down. When adults act this way, he tends to get ignored untill they're done talking.

"You want an apology? Fine. I'm sorry I don't have time t'do the abbey's job of raising its dibbuns. Silly me, I've been wastin' my time tryin' to keep some bloody owl from eatin' 'em." Taye shakes his head, looking perfectly irritated. "I was bein' /nice/ to the kid. He was askin' me questions 'n' then he got onto this idea of findin' me someone. I told him I was perfectly capable of findin' someone on m'own, but he didn't listen. So when should I 've hurt his feelings? Then or latah?"

Lark smiles politely. "Oh, I'm so sorry, lieutenant. Clearly you're so overworked that common courtesy is beyond you. I'm sure that's a wonderful reason to be horrible to a dibbun. Explanations don't usually require damage to anybeast's feelings, unless you handle them with as much care as everything else I've seen in the past few days."

Eridor grimaces at the reply. Ouch.

Nicodemus walks in and nods to the tapestry.

"Aye. Because clearly Tameus takes 'no' for an answer without any problems a'tall. Because it's not like I didn't try multiple times t'let him down easy." Taye shakes his head, cutting back an annoyed sigh. "But the fact remains, nothin' woulda come of it Sivaine hadn't insisted on paradin' my personal business 'n' dumpin' the whole mess on me because she didn't feel like dealin' with it. But don't you worry, my personal business will stay far, far away from yer lot from now on." He sets his tea cup down, sloshing tea onto the table, and looks about ready to clear on out.

Kolya quietly, and shakily comes into the hall, sighing to himself. the stoat moves to the center of the room, before glancing about to see who is here.

"It had better. Once you'd given Tameus his directive, he wouldn't stop no matter how Siv, Harper, or I tried to dissuade him. Unfortunately, it might've actually required you to say something other than stutter about not meaning Sivaine, or just giving him non-answers." Sparky squirrel. "Not to mention that your little suggestion to him has created quite a bit of a problem for Sivaine, including extra pain while she has been injured."

Nicodemus sits down on the hearth, ignoring the ongoing argument.

Kolya looks about and spots the abbot. Man the stoat is blind, not to have found him in the first place. The stoat slowly goes over and sighs a bit. "Father, can we talk please?" he asks.

"My /suggestion/? What 'suggestion'?" Taye frowns. "What /directive/? He asked me sort o' beast I like. I told him. It wasn't 'til aftah that he went on his little tangent 'bout findin' me someone. I had no way of knowin' he was gonna do that."

Nicodemus waves a paw to the hearth beside him. "Certainly, Novice."

Kolya sighs. "In private? i dont really wish to talk where there's others within earshot" he says quietly.

Nicodemus raises himself, grunting. "Move an old beast from the fire, will you? One day, you'll remember this and be ashamed. OK, let's go over to the cavern hole."

Kolya doens't chuckle or smile, just nods quietly and poofs towards The cavern hole

Lark sighs at the lieutenant, giving him the sort of look that says You're an Idiot. "Oh, well excuuse me," she starts in. "What a surprise that a dibbun actually did something on his own. Grow up, lieutenant, and stop pushing the blame on every other beast. You told him something, whether or not you knew exactly where it led, and we're all trying to deal with the fallout. You could try and act the part," she stabs a finger in the direction of his badge, "And talk to Tam, and apologize to the wounded mousemaid up in the infirmary, both of whom are in a lot of pain."

What the. Taye stares at Lark in clear disbelief, his ears stiffly back against his skull. "Look, I was mindin' m'own business, on /sentry duty/, tryin' to keep your ungrateful arse safe, when you let the kid come runnin' out t'get me, goin' on about some sort o' emergency. And then I get faced with this mess. And pain. Pain. Did Tameus get his face ripped up by some owl? No. He had t'deal with the horror of someone, /finally/, telling him no. Maybe if folks around here did that a little more often, you lot wouldn't grow up actin' like /this/." And, in utter disgust, he /does/ turn to leave, walking towards the exit.

Lark follows the hare, one paw darting out to his shoulder to spin him around. "Don't you walk away from me," she growls. "I'm not one of your hares, that'll kiss up to you at every turn. I do my own turns on sentry duty, so don't think you can hold that over me. I'm ever so sorry that Tam came running to get his hero. Seems like you've never had anyone look up to you before, and I'm starting to see why. I 'let' him run out to you? What, like he's not capable of his own decisions? Wake up, lieutenant, the kid loved you, tried to help you, and you near killed him."

Taye isn't so easy to spin around. He shrugs the paw off his shoulder, rounding of his own accord. Unlike her, though, /he/ is still speaking levelly. "'Capable of his own decisions'? He's a /leveret/, by the Spirits. A smart one, but still nigh but three and a half seasons old. He /made his own decision/ to go outside, climb up the ramparts t'the most dangerous part of the abbey, when there's a crazed owl still on the loose. He /made his own decision/? And here you stand, claiming that I near to killed him. /Seriously/."

Lark doesn't look fazed, she just sneers at the hare. "It doesn't take an owl to kill a beast's spirit. An' the owl in question is blind, thanks to Siv, so I'd worry a little less about him, and a little more about actin' like a sane beast with a heart and mind of yer own. As it stands, I might as well be yellin' at a tree. That sentry duty of yours seems to have addled your wits. Or weren't you paying attention to the beasts within the walls that you say you're there to *protect*? There's no door guard in here. Any dibbun can bolt outside if he gets the chance. You make it sound like I walked 'im to the door, handed him his cloak, and waved goodbye. Sorry, mate, I was actually in the infirmary, helping Siv."

Taye mouths the word 'wow' silently. He... shakes his head. "You do realize that you've just gone from comparin' my tellin' Tameus no to 'nearly killin' him' all the way 'round to bein' shocked 'n' offended when I..." He actually laughs in his disbelief, shaking his head. "Wow," he says aloud this time, and yet again he turns, still shaking his head as he walks away from her.

Rather than go after the annoying hare, Lark heads outside, pulling up her hood. Somebeasts actually have business to attend to.