StarCraft Courtyard

Cress moves slowly in from the StarCraft Main Hall.

Linora is sitting on the ground, hugging her knees, looking up at the sky.

Cress stops midstride as he sees Linora here. "Hi, Lin," he says, almost whispering. "What're you doing here?"

Linora jumps a bit, startled out of her thoughts. She looks up at Cress, a little nervously. "Watching the sky." Hoping she sounds normal, suspecting she might not. "Where've ya been?"

Cress shrugs, and comes to sits beside Linora, "working.. On my project, you know. And getting a little sleep."How 'bout you? What've you been doing?"

Linora shrugs too, suddenly more interested in the flagstones than the sky. "Mostly watching the stars... " And thinking. And worrying.

Cress releases Idoru, who launches into the air.

Idoru suddenly disappears ::between::!

"Wonder where she's going," Cress says as the green lizard dissapears. He shrugs, not overly worried that she left. Turning his head to look at Linora, he sees her looking into the ground. "There're not a lot of stars in the ground," he says. "What's wrong?"

Linora looks up at Cress sharply, her eyes searching his face for some kind of clue to the way he was acting the last time she saw him, and finding nothing. She squeezes her knees a bit tighter and looks back up at the sky again, hoping to find a little more sense in the patterns than in her friend. She doesn't know how to answer, so she doesn't.

Cress blinks, surprised at the look she's giving him. "Is it something I did?" If it was, he has no idea what it was. Or maybe he does. Leaning forward to fiddle with his boots, he remembers the conversation they had in the Dining Hall. "I know you'd like to have navigation as your specialty.... But I'd really miss you if you leave..." There. It's said. But was it the right thing to say?

Linora drops her gaze to look at the flagstones again. "I dunno /what/ I wanna do." She looks over at him, her eyes big. "I /thought/ navigation sounded like a good idea, but... " Her voice trails off and she chews her lip as her brain registers the rest of Cress's words. "You'd miss me?" Her eyes soften.

Cress nods, while giving her a half-smile, "sure I would. You're my best friend here, right?" He reaches over and puts a hand on her lower arm, giving it a squeeze. "I'd hate it if you left."

Linora smiles. Cress /is/ her best friend. "I'd hate to leave." Hates that idea more every minute she spends with him. Before her eyes can give her away too much, she looks back up at the sky. "I wasn't so sure about living onboard a ship anyhow..." She coulda done that without ever leaving home.

Cress winces at the thought of living onboard a ship. "I couldn't do that either," he says. Although that's probably because he'd get seasick all the time. "How 'bout charting," he offers, as an alternative for her.

Linora considers that, lowering her eyes to stare vaguely across the courtyard. "I dunno much about it... sounds kinda tedious, though?" She looks up at him, her eyes questioning.

Cress shrugs, "dunno really. I never actucally considered it myself," he says. "I just thought it might not be so different from navigation..." But what does /he/ know about it?

Linora sighs. That wasn't what she'd hoped to hear. "I don't hafta pick a specialty right away, do I?" Maybe she can find out more on her own, she's thinking.

Still fiddling with his boots, Cress glances up at her, "you'd need to pick a specialty to get promoted, Lin... And a mentor," he says slowly, almost whispering, since he's not sure it's what she wants to hear.

Linora curls in on herself, visibly becoming smaller, burying her face in her knees. Her voice when she replies is slightly muffled, but audible. "I'll just hafta think of something, I guess..." Or be an appy forever... or get sent home...

Cress almost shivers as he sees Linora's reaction. He's completely lost now and reacts by putting his arm around her, hoping that will help. Putting his head on her shoulder he sighs, and just sits there, trying to come up with a way to help.

Linora sighs too, her head slowly coming up. She's so caught up in her thoughts that it takes her a moment to realize that Cress's arm is now around her. She looks over at him with a kind of halfsmile. "It's okay. I'm kinda stupid sometimes, but I'll figure it out. I just gotta find the right people to talk to."

Cress tilts his head, looking her in the eye, "you sure? I hope you're not too worried about it?" He's worried about her. That's right, he is. So he doesn't want her to get depressed because she can't figure out what specialty to choose.

Linora shrugs. "Well, only a little. There hasta be /something/ I can do, right?" Her eyes find his, her voice trailing off. Yeah, it'll be okay.

Cress gives her a broad, hopefully, reassurring smile. "There must be, right? We'll figure it out, I'm sure," he says giving her a hug, and a wink.

A relieved smile comes to Linora's face, lighting up her eyes. He said 'we'. "So who d'ya think I oughta talk to? I mean, about specialties and stuff?" He's been here longer... he already picked a specialty. He must know something she doesn't...

Cress shrugs, "well... Maybe Riina can help. She gave you the interview, right?" And she's /his/ mentor, of course, and a senoir journeywoman, so she ought to know, right? "And she's nice. I bet she can help, if you need to know about the different specialties..."

Linora nods. "I'll ask her." Just please don't look so worried, her eyes add. She peeks up at the sky again, the dawning sun streaking across it to erase the stars, and sighs. "Guess I oughta go get something to eat..." Trying to remember when she ate last...

Cress grins, "food, yeah. Good idea," he says. "I'm getting a little hungry myself." He just hopes that it's not oatmeal on the menu again.

Linora gets to her feet almost reluctantly, since she's leaving Cress and his arm behind. But she reaches a hand back to him, to help him to his feet. In case he wants it. And smiles.

Cress takes the offered hand and is helped to his feet. Giving her a big smile, which turns into a laugh as his stomach rumbles, he starts on his way to the hold, and breakfast.

Linora laughs too, clearly hearing the rumbling stomach and wondering that he sat with her as long as he did! She catches up to Cress with a half-skip and walks with him to the hold.