Xanadu Weyr - Candidate Barracks
A long, low ceiling room opens off the entrance hall to the arena, one wall slightly curved as it is set against the outer wall of the arena itself. Cots are set evenly the length of the room, in two rows, each with its own small press at the foot, for personal belongings. Wide windows are spaced along the outside wall, letting sunlight in, while other lights are available for the night time hours.
It is early in the morning before the wake up bells and Briana is sitting crosslegged on her cot in the corner. The mocca skinned teenager has mostly kept to herself during the class and may well be noticed by now not to be sleeping much. She is currently writing in what looks like a journal, a thoughtful look upon her features. Perched upon her shoulder, her little head peaking through the veil of hair is a little green firelizard.
Despite the early hour, Kaede is just now slipping back into the barracks, curly hair hanging damply around her ears, face looking freshly scrubbed and still pink. Tiptoeing, she's sneaking across the barracks to her cot, settling herself down on her cot, and reaching for her assigned craft reading. As she's straightening back up, she catches sight of Briana in the corner, blinking at her for a moment, biting her lip as she watches her write.
It is a chirp from the Green on her shoulder that causes Briana to raise her head. The teen offers a shy smile to the other candidate, biting her lower lip for a moment before lowering her gaze and setting pen to paper once more. There is not really a snobbishness to her, but perhaps more an uncertainty of belonging. Darker circles stand out around her eyes even on her mocca skin. As she looks up again she notes the look on the girl's face and glances to the door and back again, "I ain't gonna tell.." She says in a low voice.
Kaede hurriedly drops her gaze as the green chirrups and she's caught mid stare, hurriedly busying herself with flipping through the heavy book as its settled in her lap as she sits cross legged, trying to look as if she's reading. However, tiny glances are stolen now and again at Briana, before the other girl speaks and Kaede offers a shy smile with a little nod. "Thanks.." She offers finally, letting her gaze linger this time without embarassment.
Even in the early hours, Olarya comes striding in, her hair a complete disarray but it tends to happen when you're running errands quite literally. She goes directly to her cot, still unpacked yet kept neat since her sudden arrival and she begins to undo the braids in her hair to make it something more… visibly appealing. She sighs, glancing around the room to see if Silion is around but he isn't, so she tends to herself.
As another candidate comes in at this early hour, Briana can't help but smile over to Kaede then glancing to the other cots before looking up to Olarya, "Hey…" She says in a low voice as she watches the girl curiously over the edge of her book. "Um…I am Briana..you both new to the barracks?" She asks as she glances between them. Between chores, touches, and crafts she has not exactly met everyone properly.
"Kaede…" The harper girl offers after a moment, glancing down at her book before its set gently to the side and she's slipping off her cot and tiptoeing towards Briana's, settling herself lightly on the edge of the other girl's cot, to avoid waking up any of the other candidates who are still snoozing away until the moment that they *have* to get up. "Been here a while, but.. with craft duties, and all." She shrugs, offering that as an explanation even as she peeks over at Olarya as she works on her hair.
Olarya pauses from reconstructing her runner tail and she glances over to Briana with the little strip of leather hanging out of the corner of her mouth. She smiles the best she can and slowly nods her head before taking up the strip and finishing the job. "Yeah, just came in late last night and before I've gone to bed, already had to run things around. Would be lost if I didn't have family here." And her temper isn't something to provoke when she's lost. "I'm Olarya."
"Well its…nice to meet ya. Where you both from?" Briana says working up her nerve to start a conversation with the pair, folding her book closed in her lap as Kaede joins her on the edge of her cot. Girls of similar ages at least. "Yeah, I am glad they let us keep up with those, I only just got in Bakercraft before I was searched." She says before looking over to Olarya, "Yeah, getting lost occasionally. I lived here when I was much younger, but the memories of a three year old are not the best to rely on when finding the way around."
"Grew up at Fort, mostly. Between the Weyr and the hold, depending on my parents." Kaede offers after a moment of consideration. Pulling her feet up beneath her, one hand settles on her own ankle, dropping her gaze for a moment before she listens to the their mention of finding their way around. "Was posted here a few months, though, before I was Searched." She finally tacks on in a way that makes it seem that at least *she* knows perfectly well where things are around the Weyr.
"I have some siblings here so I visit them often whenever my father comes down. We're from Ierne Weyrhold, currently. I did start out at Fort, then Eastern before Ierne." As soon as her fingertips finish tying off that little strip of leather, Olarya tilts her head from side to side to let the little stray golden curls fall out from her eyes so she can see properly. Quietly, she glances around before she begins to make her cot and belongings a little more organized. As soon as she moves her blanket, the little bundle of bronze lifts his sleepy little head and regards her with a chirrip before burrowing back under to sleep some more. "Silly lizard."
"My sorta Uncle lives here, so visited a time or two recently, but …well not enough to know my way fully around but slowly getting there with the chores they give us." Briana says in a half smile, slowly relaxing during the conversation with the others. She listens as they speak of their various homes and gives a little nod, "We moved around alot as well, only other weyr I stayed at though was Ista." She says lowering her gaze to her journal for a moment and raising a hand up to her flitter to give it a little scritch.
"Was it… weird? Always moving around from place to place?" Kaede asks, looking from one fellow candidate to the other questioningly, fingers absently twisting in one damp curl as it falls next to her face. "I mean… I guess… what's 'home'?" Eyes glint, curious, as she waits for their answer, smiling a little shyly to each as she does so.
"Home is where your heart is and for me it's where my family is. They're in Ierne and here in Xanadu so it's not too bad moving about." Olarya grins as she finishes making her cot into something more presentable. Her extra boots are lined under her cot and her belongings are tucked away neatly into a little trunk for safe keeping. Cunning, on the other hand, is deposited into a boot, just to be on the safe side. He'd keep her brother from placing unfavorable things in there in the past, so the little bronze is content to sleep inside.
Briana, Kaede and Olarya are having a quiet discussion on the girl's side of the dorm in this early morning before the wake up call is sounded. Briana and Kaede are sitting on Bri's cot and Olarya is fixing hers up. At the question from Kaede she gives a little shrug, "It was just the way of things, I suppose I just never really knew much different. I was planning to settle at Ista though before I got searched, if I don't impress, reckon I will go back. My boyfriend is there and I got some friends there."
"But, before that.. I mean.." And Kaede starts to counter Olayra's point about it only being a few places, before she shrugs a little and seems to give up the argument. Briana's mention of Ista, and a boyfriend seems to draw the Harper's interest however, as she turns to look at the darker skinned teen. "What's he like?" She asks - about the boyfriend of course - nosy for gossip.
Boyfriend? Well, she's never had that uh, part, of a girls life. She's spent most of her time taking care of the house hold and her siblings… Olarya tilts her head to listen curiously, though, eyes blinking brightly with the occassional dart around the room. Still, she wonders if there's anyone else she might know here in the barracks. As the day progresses, she'll find out soon enough.
Briana's mocca skin darkens as Kaede prods about her boyfriend, "He is a handyman at Ista and really nice. When I first showed up at Ista he helped me settle in and took care of me when he didn't have to." She says as she lowers her gaze to hide her blush as she speaks of her young love. "I miss him, but he said he will wait for me and will come to the hatching. He has visited once so far.." She smiles a bit half to herself and gives a little shrug, "He's really nice."
There is a fairly decent amount of snoring going on from Aqueepoli's bed. He's not an early to bed, early to rise type. Instead, enjoying sleeping till the afternoon and being waited on hand and foot by beautiful women. Alas, wake up call and sleeping in a barracks with quite a number of other individuals makes sleeping in hard. "Mrrrfffgraaah." It's a mutter, or a snore. A snoutter. He's now rolling about, an unhappy look on his once peaceful, manly but beautiful man. "MMMRRRFFFFG! GAH! DAH!" Eyes snap open and Pol is flinging his upper body into a sitting position, arms flailing and incoherent words flying free from his mouth. Pillows and blankets go spilling to the floor. It takes a few moments for total awakeness to sink in. But it happens. Aqueepoli sits motionless, just listening in on the conversations around him. An eyebrow goes up and he's turning a head to stare at a quietly speaking gaggle of girls. With only his sleeping shorts on, he rolls towards the lady and strikes what he'd like to think is a sexyman post. "Goooood morning, ladies." Cue the eyebrow waggle. "Are you three a vision for sleep-deprived eyes."
"Aww.." Kaede offers in that young teenager way, sighing wistfully as Briana talks about the boyfriend left behind at Ista Weyr. "Maybe he'll get Searched, and then you can go through it together.." She comments softly. And then, whatever else she's going to say is cut off by Pol's epic awakening, Kaede's eyes darting hurriedly to the manlyman, before she's dissolving into giggles again, and shaking her head. "Pol!" She protests as loud as she dares, lest she wake the remainder of the sleeping candidates who will be awoken soon enough. "I don't know.. are we?" She asks, taking his words as a question.
Iessrien probably wasn't any earlier a riser than Pol, but his cot lies empty, blanket tossed lazily over it without having been bothered to straighten out the wrinkles. And at the foot of his bed, the clothes press is covered in a small pile of random jars and one or two fabric scraps that might stink just slightly of numbweed. The holder boy himself appears at the entry to the barracks, quite shirtless, but with a pair of sweatpants instead of shorts, a towel draped unceremoniously over his shoulders. He's just in time to catch the spectacle of Aqueepoli's waking, and eyebrows arch up toward his hairline in obvious amusement, lips twitching on one side in a barely-restrained grin. The three girls across the way are given a cursory glance, Iess wandering over to his own cot and chuckling a wry, "Chasing tail straight out bed? Now that's dedication, man," to Pol, though despite someone's talk of a boyfriend, the girls are given another, more appraising look.
All Olarya can do is sit there and ponder in silence, what it could be like to fall in love with someone but she never gave herself the opportunity to open up throughout the turns. She sighs, offering a crooked smile as she glances down at her boot. Looks like the only other male in her life she covets is her little bronze flit. He's always been there when she needed him and sometimes… when she didn't. That's how males are in any case. Except for a certain bluerider she wants to see vanish but that's a story for another day. Aqueepoli on the other hand is only given a rather large quirk of a brow and a look of confusion. "Mornin," is all she offers to the other candidate. Are all guys like this? Iessrien is given a look as well and she just shakes her head. "Special." Not in a mean way, though, she does manage a little giggle at the two.
"Maybe…" Briana says hopefully to the other teen's words about her boyfriends, then she hears the resounding echo of snores and the awaking of Pol brings a giggle to her lips as well and she brings her book up to hide her face for a moment, "Goodness…" She murmurs before dropping the book from her face and sliding it under her pillow, "Suppose I should get a bath before chores begin for the day." She says and finally rises from her cot, looking perhaps a bit more relaxed then she has for a few days. "Nice meeting you two." She says before looking up to the Arriving Iessrien, "The water warm?" It seems bare chests are not quite effective on the girl.
Kaede gets a long, looong look. The cogs within the confines of Aqueepoli's mind turning a bit slower than normal. His mind obviously still fuzzy. One plus one equals two, and suddenly the lad is nodding his head. "Why YES. Yes you all are." Leaning forward, he rests his head on his hands, his elbows on his cot. Each girl is looked at dreamily (but manly). "I'd almost say I was still in the middle of the dream, what with how hot you three are." Romantic words really aren't his specialty. "Y'all be smokin'." An appreciative wolf whistle is given out, along with a 'hubba hubba' thrown in for good measure. His current position on the bed doesn't last long, as Pol is adjusting and now stretching. Arms going up over his head as a rather large yawn is forced out. So bodily scratching goes down, it's better not to ask where. "S'what is it that y'all are talking 'bout? Some hot studs you left back at home? Cuz I'll have you know, there are some studly men around here." Both thumbs come up and jab into his own chest. Iessrien gets a nod of good morning, "Ya know how it is, bro. I've got a reputation to uphold. The Pol cannot be contained."
The harper candidate did not have a restful slumber, so when people start making a racket, the blond rises from crypt, er, cot and glares at every single person who is talking. Foremost, Aqueepoli. Without a single word otherwise, Pyriel grabs his pillow and chucks it full force across the space between him and the tallest of the holder boys and fwaps him in the face. "The Pol must be contained. Too early for this shit man." he grumbles, clearly not awake. He rubs his hands over his face, trying to force himself to some state of alertness just on irritability alone. Not that he was particularly a morning person anyway, but this morning, he was setting a whole new record for 'I will so eat your face'. The keen observer would see that Py's earlobes weren't holey anymore. In fact, seems that last night he'd gone and had them repaired. Now a few black stitches grace where the gauged openings once were. Which might explain why the boy was both miserable and ticked.