A Trim [FIN]

Mevrit was not an idle individual. She usually had to have her hands into something, so passing the time usually was no issue. However, the morning had been spent cleaning clothes... which hadn't taken that long. So, her morning was spent wandering around pretending like she was doing something. It silently drove her crazy. Mevrit needed to make her way over to the Crafting Hall, but she did not want to arrive too early... and poor planning had left the best part of day with little to do. Her current chores and other duties she picked up along the side, while satisfying, were a bit mind numbing. She wanted a new challenge, wanted to get her hands dirty and feel like she was actually accomplishing something. Her work ethic would always remain intact, but her drive was being made stagnant.

Reflecting on her current situation did help to pass a little more time. She supposed she could go visit her twins, but she had given them up for a reason. The boys were probably far better off with a surrogate mother than their actual one. Mevrit wasn't even sad to reflect upon that truth. It was simply a fact. Mevrit was not a maternal individual, and while she felt something for her babies she realized they were better of without her and she without them. Raising babies would give her something to do, but she would feel too tied down by the responsibility of raising them right. She wanted her life free to achieve whatever it was that she wanted.

Today she was going to achieve a hair cut.

That thought kind of made her regret giving her twins up to the lower caverns.

It was time now to head to the Craft Hall. Mevrit changed clothes in the Candidates Barracks, idly chit chatting with Rhaedalyn about some bluerider she was currently swooning over. Mevrit tried to politely inform her that dragonriders weren't really her type. The girl needed someone who would be steady with her. Why didn't she look towards the men who hadn't Impressed? Or girls. Mevrit couldn't quite confirm that Rhaedalyn was completely into boys, so she liked to be polite by keeping her mind open to the possibility that Rhaedalyn liked both genders.

When she was dressed in an attire she considered resistant to getting hair stuck into the folds of fabric, she made her way to the Craft Hall. Mevrit was early, but it was like Mevrit to be early. She did not understand why some people would want to be late to any sort of event or meeting. The young woman recognized a Candidate, but she hardly knew him enough to know what his craft was. His hair was very nice, and he was standing fairly close to the area where the barber usually was.

"Vian?" she was always very good with names, but she could never tell the twins apart. "You cut hair, correct? I would really like to... chop this all off." She pulled her dark hair over her shoulder to show the length. Mevrit didn't realize she had made the mistake of assuming Vian had a craft.

Ryvian had been interested in doing a whole lot of nothing that afternoon. He had unsurprisingly gone to bed late since the days were in that unbearable state of summer and night was much cooler for being active. Unfortunately he had also been early to rise thanks to Nyvian needing an extra set of hands with collecting some berries and fruit the kitchen was getting low on. Since he loved eating and making his brother happy, Ryvian had dragged his lazy butt out of bed and trudged through the forest all morning.

Of course it didn’t end there. His brother was horribly mean sometimes and he proved it after a light lunch when he revealed he had volunteered Ryvian to help some of the older residents by collecting their clothes that needed mending and bringing it to the tailors. If that was all he had left to do that day, Ryvian would be thankful! He quickly blew through the task but ended up lingering around the Crafting Hall since it was a bit cooler in the building. He was busy nosing about cupboards and papers left lying around when his name was called and he turned with a smile to greet the woman.

Only it wasn’t anyone he expected to find. Mevrit was a mystery to him. She seemed impervious to any flirting Nyvian or he did and she always politely declined everything tossed her way. Ryvian thought maybe she was blind at first but her sight seemed to be just fine. His current assumption was that she was only into women and didn’t want to admit it. He couldn’t figure out why but supposed it had something to do with being Hold bred and her morals. Even though she loved women, she was probably ashamed and worried about being judged by the other Stolen Candidates despite the weyr and how open the residents were.

“Hey, Mevrit,” still Ryvian came the woman a winning smile, convinced that even if she loved only her fellow ladies, he could sway her back to the fence so she could dabble in both sides. At the question, he frowned a little in confusion. He sometimes trimmed Nyvian’s hair to keep it fresh and as sexy as ever just like Nyvian did his but he definitely didn’t have any real training in the area. In fact, he wondered how Mevrit even knew about the trimmings he gave. Oh well, it couldn’t be that hard to hack off some hair, right? “Um, sure. Grab a seat.” He waved to a nearby chair before turning back to the counter and cupboard to find everything that was needed.

So much for doing nothing for the rest of the day! At least this would be entertaining and he might win some points with the woman.

'Umm, sure,' was not one of the more reassuring statements. But, Mevrit decided that it wouldn't hurt to show some faith in Vian. She had to wonder if her few rejections towards his advances had been off putting... but Vian seemed to not mind terribly. The only time she had had sex was the one time she had gotten pregnant with twins. Since she wan't interested in repeating the process she had turned Vian down, and then his brother. And then she had to turn them down a few more times. She wasn't actually that bothered by their flirtations - she simply wasn't interested. There were few things that could spark a fire in her lions, and apparently that was Nirinath's gold flights. Krypth could stir something, but nothing Mevrit was actually inclined to act upon. She really did not want to have to go through another pregnancy. During the last couple of months she had been all but bed-bound. Since sex clearly brought about pregnancy, she wasn't interested.

She walked over to the chair Vian gestured to, and looked over her shoulder to watch the twin rustle around for whatever it was that he needed. Observing Vian now kind of made her relieved that she wasn't going through the trials of raising her own twins. Look at the handful he had turned out to be! He and his brother had a little bit of a reputation, not one that was exactly bad, but wouldn't be appealing if someone did want to move up in the world. Mevrit found them to be tolerable. She had a terrible time connecting with people, and the only person who really chatted her ear off was Rhaedalyn. The other Candidate seemed impervious to Mevrit's stunted social inelegancies.

"Are you sure those are the right scissors?" she inquired lightly, not intending to insult, but rather just wanted to be sure that Vian had everything under control. There was little reason to believe that he didn't... but, well, he was taking a while to find what he needed. It would put any 'victim' on edge. "I kind of want it to be really short. The longest I'd want it to be is down to my chin. No bangs, please." He was the hair connoisseur, not her, so she'd trust his abilities to give her a hair cut that would compliment her awkward features.

Mevrit realized that she should stop talking business now and inquire as to how Vian's personal life was. It felt like the natural step to take, but how Mevrit took it seemed very unnatural. "So, have you been keeping yourself busy?" Her tone was very polite, if not a little distant. The smile on her face never seemed quite-right. With enough time, someone could get used to her kind of smiles - the kind that never really brought any light to her eyes or mirth to her face.

These were the only scissors he could find! “Someone moved them,” he countered, not wanting to show he really didn’t belong in that area of the Hall. He probably should own up to that fact but he had the socially awkward – in fact he’d label her more as someone who wanted to avoid social interaction entirely – woman approach him willingly for something. It was a small step but one all the same and Ryvian had set himself the goal of converting her anyway so he’d just go along with the incorrect assumption he knew what he was doing.

At least he found the right scissors! Or something that seemed right. They were smaller than the pair he had initially grabbed and decided they would work. A towel was grabbed as well and he draped it over Mevrit’s shoulders to help keep her bland clothes clean. He wondered if she would accept fashion hints after the haircut since it seemed she was in the mood to improve on her appearance. That was something to consider before asking her though. Ryvian didn’t want to point out her terribly boring taste without having a good example of what she should be wearing.

“You could say that. I did some chores today and my free time is filled with Nyvian,” he purposely name dropped his brother to help Mevrit figure out which one he was. It didn’t bother him, and he barely noticed she had called him Vian before but Ryvian wanted to be nice and continue to warm her up, “and our friends. You should come by sometime.” He knew the question had been asked out of politeness and Mevrit was trying to seem interested and slightly missing. Still, Ryvian liked chatting and didn’t mind her attempts.

Standing behind Mevrit, Ryvian drew his fingers through her long hair a few times to stall. He had only ever carefully cleaned up the tips of Nyvian’s hair but Mevrit wanted a good chunk of hair taken off. How best to do it? Shrugging, he drew it all back to hold in one hand and reached over for the scissors. The moment of truth! He started cutting slowly above where he held the hair and watched as the newly shortened strands slid free to hang back in place. That seemed to be working out well! It worked well until the last snip and Ryvian placed the handful of hair on the counter. He’d likely have to sweep up after so this made it easier.

Turning back he stared in horror at the jagged hair he had left behind. Long strands and short strands were layered all over the girl’s head and he had clearly missed the mark in some areas about not going shorter than her chin. In fact, he was pretty sure she was about to have bangs as well. That wasn’t good! Maybe he could clean it up and give her a fabulous style anyway? The comb was grabbed and Ryvian brushed out Mevrit’s hair and considered it a moment longer before making smaller snips. He could fix this! “I think you’ll like this,” he stated as confidently as if he actually meant it. Currently he was attempting to make everything a bit more even or at least show the jaggedness was done on purpose.

Mevrit hated the idea of expressing her doubt to someone who was far more skilled in this particular field of work, but when she witnessed the giant chunk of hair that Ryvian had chopped off, she nearly paled. From the cut of the locks it hadn't looked that even... and that was a lot of hair to take off at first. Mevrit never had such a drastic hair cut before, so she wasn't quite sure that this was the right way to go about it. She suspected that it wasn't. "Is that... how you usually do this?" Mevrit finally asked, her voice hesitant. She did not want to inflict some imagined insult... but the young woman was seriously beginning to have her doubts about Ryvian's skill. She was a very control-oriented individual, and she was leaving the fate of her hair into someone else's hands. If she was old and grey, she would have died of a heart attack by now.

"Chores are beginning to become a bore. After doing them for a few turns, I kind of want to be able to do something else." It was her attempt at being personable. She was usually better at it when she was trying to trade or sell something, and since she was doing neither she seemed to come off as fake. It was as if her woes were imagined just for the sake of there being woes to share. She was trying to connect with Ryvian, she just couldn't... get it right. "You guys are always busy - I'd hate to intrude. But, if you want me over, I wouldn't mind spending some time with you and your friends."

Mevrit was not one to turn away a friendly offer! She needed to hang out with more Candidates her age, or people really. She could not restrict her social group to Rhaedalyn and Indivara. Mevrit wanted to be a part of the community. If she was stuck here, she was going to make the best out of it. "I know I'm not the best company, but my roommate has been trying to make me more social." Too bad Rhaedalyn wasn't the adventurous type either, or Ryvian would have had an easier time of convincing Mevrit that sex was a wonderful idea.

Her hair was taking a little longer than she had expected, and curiosity struck at probably the wrong moment. Her head was feeling terribly lighter! She lifted her hand, fingers brushing through the side of her head.

...

"Is it supposed to be this short?" Mevrit's voice resounded with the smallest amount of dread.

Oh, good! Distract her with conversation! “Chores suck. But who says you have to do them all of the time or the same ones over and over?” Ryvian brushed away some of the bits of hair that clung to the towel, more out of a way to keep his hands busy while he surveyed the damage he had done. He was oddly having a lot of fun snipping away more and more and needed to stop before the woman ended up with little to no hair at all. “And you’d never be intruding, Mev! In fact, come by our hut anytime you want to skip out on work for an afternoon. Whether we’re there or not, you can hang out.” It wouldn’t be the first time he returned home to find a random friend hiding out for the day. Several of their friends knew the door was always opened to them and it wasn’t like the twins were overly private. So long as something extremely bad hadn’t happened that day, it was always a nice surprise to see someone sprawled on the couch.

“So no more fretting, okay?” It was almost adorable how she worried over being an intrusion when she had just been given an invitation to come visit. She was a lot like Rhaedalyn in that area as well. Both girls seemed strong against the flirting and didn’t want to step on toes and ended up worrying more than was needed. He was sure both were supposed to be outstanding qualities in women but they just weren’t needed with him! He liked having people around and people that knew how to relax and enjoy themselves were even better.

Another snip was given before Ryvian realized too late that Mevrit was reaching for a preview via her fingers. Not good! His masterpiece wasn’t done yet! He lightly tapped at her fingers, attempting to shoo them away, “I thought something a bit more… edgy,” literally, going by how choppy some of the pieces were, “would be fun and suit you. Trust me, Mev!” The pressure was on now; he had to make something that wouldn’t leave the woman screaming and ready to kill him. He knew how important hair could be to a person since he himself had a fabulous head of hair. It always looked like he just rolled out of bed after some great sex but that usually wasn’t far from the truth and he totally rocked the look as did Nyvian.

As he stopped cutting and started styling by swooshing some of the front shorter pieces to the side for some sort-of-but-not-really bangs, Ryvian almost laughed at the realization that he gave Mevrit a style somewhat similar to his own. Well, if it worked for them, then it could maybe work for her as well! Standing directly in front of her, Ryvian busied himself with running hands through the dark locks to see if he had managed to make everything even. Nope, not exactly! He wouldn’t attempt to any further though since he had a feeling Mevrit would end up with no hair soon if he did.

“I think we’re done! I like it,” for the most part, he did. It wasn’t something he saw a lot of women sporting but it seemed to work well enough on Mevrit with her quirky features. Even so, perhaps he should leave before she found a mirror. It wasn’t entirely what she requested and given the length he cut off, it would no doubt be one heck of a shock!

Ryvian took off the towel around her shoulders and slowly backed away a few steps.

"It's an obligation. We kind of do need to earn our keep here, and I've never been good with remaining idle. I'm not used to doing nothing, and I'm fairly certain that I don't want to get used to it." Mevrit was one of those people who couldn't sit still for long. That she was sitting through this haircut with an extreme amount of patience was a miracle in itself. But, she was also likely scared of moving even an inch with Ryvian cutting her hair. She didn't want to make the other Candidate make a mistake. "For the first few weeks I had my twins I just about drove myself crazy. Babies are work, but I felt like I could do nothing else but tend to them." Someone else could do that job better, and so she let someone else do it. She was sure her children would understand when they were older, and probably would be better off for the lack of her presence. Mevrit still stopped by to see them every now and then, but it was hardly the motherly visit. She checked up on them, played with them for a little bit, and then moved on to the next task she had set for herself.

"I should be inviting you to come work with me some time. I'm sure you'll feel more accomplished if you set yourself to doing something." ...other than fooling around with whomever came his way. Mevrit was not unaware of the twins' lifestyle. It didn't really bother her, but she could never quite understand it. She supposed there was some charm in just doing nothing every day and having parties every sevenday but... she couldn't see it. Mevrit found work to be far more satisfying. Maybe in the future she'd stop in on one of the parties, though, to try and have the twins' type of fun and socialize.

Knowing Mevrit, the party would turn into a dull one for everyone else.

Obediently Mevrit rested her hand back over her lap, but doubt was already whirling in her mind. She thought she had made it fairly clear that she didn't want it this short! Ryvian was having a fair amount of trust placed in him, especially since she wasn't stopping his rampant attack on her hair with the scissors. "Well, if you think it'll look okay. I just wanted it short in the case I Impress one day. I imagine flying around on a dragon's back with long hair would be annoying. Besides, the heat down here can be unbearable at times. Shorter hair will probably help to keep cool." It would probably also leave the back of her neck to get terribly sunburned. But, her skin would adapt in time.

At the very least, Mevrit was a patient subject. She watched the twin as he ran fingers through her now short hair. The Trader could tell almost how short it was by how it moved against Ryvian's finger. A pit developed in her stomach from dread, and when Ryvian backed up an announced that he was done, Mevrit tried not to make her search for a mirror too quick or obvious. In the end, it probably was. She found a mirror in the cabinet Ryvian had been rooting around, and quickly held it up so she could observe the cut.

"It's... very nice."

Oh dear. It was also very short and choppy! She had no idea if this was the kind of style that was in. Mevrit was vaguely embarrassed, but kept her composure. Ryvian at least managed to... get the essentials done. The main principle of the cut was there, and it didn't look too bad. If it had, Mevrit still wouldn't have told Ryvian he did a bad job. She was polite! "A lot shorter than I expected but not... bad." Mevrit would wear a hat if she wasn't concerned about Ryvian finding out that she was walking around with a hat on to cover the cut.

It was a lot shorter than he expected as well! At least he had tried to clean it up and make it look presentable. Ryvian was slightly proud of his job and thought it would be easy to maintain for someone who didn’t come across as the type that spent a lot of time on appearance. He didn’t point that out though since he was trying to earn points, not lose more. Then again, he probably lost a lot with his choice of styling since he didn’t believe any of the polite words Mevrit gave him. It was clear she had been raised to always be kind and while she was good at saying the words, the sincerity seemed a little off at times. Saying her hair was very nice was one of those times.

So long as she didn’t come after him with scissors, he’d take what was given and be happy with it!

“I think you look good, Mevrit!” Ryvian closed the gap between them again since she was weaponless and came up behind her to play with a few strands again, setting them just right. If there really was a ‘right’ to be had. He wasn’t lying though when he said it looked good. It likely needed a skilled hand to clean up parts but he was an artistic genius with what he had created! Being the touchy-feely sort of person that he was, Ryvian slipped his arms around Mevrit’s waist and dropped his chin on her shoulder. “I hope you do like it but I won’t be offended if you get it changed soon. Some styles are a bit drastic for a sudden change.” His playful mood was taking over and a quick kiss was dropped on her cheek before Ryvian danced away from the woman.

“And maybe I’ll take you up on your offer to help you work sometime. Ny’s always volunteering me to help with extra tasks to keep me busy but I’d rather help a pretty woman I want to be around.” His grin widened as he upped the flirting he suspected still wouldn’t have an effect.

Ryvian's closeness should have garnered some extreme reaction, especially from a young woman with little personal experience with men... but Mevrit didn't seem to be terribly bothered by it. She didn't quite enjoy Ryvian resting his chin on her shoulder and wrapping his arms around her, but it didn't really give her anything to be alarmed over. It simply seemed like this was the type of person that Ryvian was, and well, she could tolerate his hands-on approach to their friendship. "To be honest, I may get some of the ends touched up, but you did a really good job." Something about the way she spoke did not relay honesty - after awhile someone would eventually get used to the manner she spoke with. "I could get used to it," the twin was playing with her hair, and instinctively she reached her hands to smooth down the ends that he had just pulled at.

A more professional look was desired, and she was sure that she could get what she wanted out of the hair cut. Ryvian had done well enough to give her a change, and well... she did not hate it. Shorter hair would be easier to manage, and if she did ever manage to Impress, short hair would make flying far more enjoyable. She'd hate to have long locks flicking against her face, even with a helmet on. Mevrit was too busy musing over her hair to put in a proper protest to the kiss on her cheek. She was sure it was a friendly gesture, but it had stepped mildly over the line!

The young trader turned around, perhaps the smallest trace of a disapproving frown on her face. Ryvian was fortunate that Mevrit was putting forth an effort to make friends, and also that he had skittered back away from her quickly. "Oh, thank you," she added as sincerely as she could manage at his compliment. "I would surely enjoy your company. Working alone, while satisfying, is nothing more than a chore."

"I'll stop by some time, and we can hang out and perhaps actually accomplish something." Mevrit smiled, clearly dismissing herself from their conversation. Mevrit had practically promised to spend some time with him, which was more than most men got. But, it was also clear that she was not remotely interested. Ryvian hadn't even earned a blush out of her! "Hopefully, I will be able to tell you and your brother apart when I stop by. I'd hate to force the wrong man out on a trip. I'll see you later." She lifted her hand, giving him a short wave before walking off to find someone else to fix the messy ends of her hair.