Putting The Fun in DysFUNctional
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Xanadu Weyr - Hot Springs
The warmth that flows from this cavern is almost overwhelming for some, the steam rising from the shimmering pools as thick as the morning fog that rolls in off the ocean. Numerous pools are scattered here and there with ribboned walls that are natural in their construction. The water has a somewhat green cast to it, but it is merely a reflection from the ethereal light which is the glow down here that was so noticeable from the tunnel leading here. People can often be found down here washing themselves or just relaxing.
Situated along the walls are various racks covered in fresh towels ready for those who step out of the warm waters. A set of shelves have been installed towards the back wall, allowing people a place to put their belongings while they rest in the pools, and despite the white color that these have been painted, they are cast with that eerie green glow. Then, it's obvious. The ceiling of this cavern is covered in the fluorescent phosphorous matter that glows are made off. The mossy substance almost glitters and appears quite lovely.
A sloped tunnel leads back to the main caverns, a single branch carved out along it to detour down into the laundry room. It allows the passage of people, but even more importantly, it allows for metal pipes wrapped with insulation that run along the ceiling to carry heated water back and forth to where it's needed.


It is early evening, most people are probably at supper but not Zaria. She likes the privacy of a near empty Hot Springs for her bathing. She is leaning up against the edge, head cushioned by a rolled up towel, as the rest of her floats just below the surface. A short distance away, her young green flit is dozing deeply, curled up on her folded clothes on placed on a nearby bench. Zaria's eyes are closed and her face is a mask of pure relaxation as she moves her limbs languidly through the water, letting it run through her fingers and then drip back to the surface. She sighs deeply and a little smile curls her lips.

Apparently tonight is the night for a bath (and probably a good, hot soak to ease up sore muscles after working at chores all day); the fact that there's not very many people (outside, of course, for Zaria and maybe an unmentionable few) makes the fact that Candidate Bath Night is happening right now even better - and it also means that Risali is making her way across the caverns straight to Zaria's pool. She's weyrbred, nakedness ain't no thang to her, and so Risali's pulling her shirt away, and shifting her hips to get out of her pants, and Faranth knows when her boots got toed out of. "Is Folly okay?" the harper inquires, pausing in so-much-disrobing the blink down at the other she-candidate in the pool. Don't mind her, she's just folding her things to put aside.

While womenfolks are otherwise distracted, Brynn slips down to the hot springs, disrobes in a way that could easily be described as 'highly efficient', sets his clothes off to one side, and settles into the hot springs, allowing himself to mentally dissipate into the heated waters. "Ahhh.."

And what is a visit to the hot springs without the presence of someone who truly requires it. It isn't immediately apparent what brings a Half Moon bronzerider to Xanadu Weyr, but it is immediately and unquestionably clear as to what brings said rider to the hot springs: a thick, sticky, pervasive layer of mud that clings to what appears to be every inch of him. Even his trademark hair is plastered against his scalp, crusted around the edges where the mess has already started to dry, perhaps the reason for the rider's haste as he strides into the hot springs with nary a how-you-do or a second look as to who else is there - much to his misfortune, surely, for Zaria's relaxation is noted, Risali's bare behind very much not recognized and swept over without more than a cursory glance, Brynnjan's sigh marked with a snort of amusement, and then he's pushing purloined goggles up his forehead and peeling leathers away from his skin with a sticky squelch and a low-muttered line of swearing that ends with an emphatic, "Faranth" when his shirt finally slogs free so he can drop it to the ground with a sickening splat. "Worst day ever." And probably about to get worse…

Opening her eyes slowly at the query from risa, Zaria smiles warmly at her fellow candidate. "She's fine, just pigged out on some wherry bits. She should be good long enough for me to have a soak, I hope. I had her checked out and the Dragonhealers said she was fine, but no more tunnesnake. I didn't think it would be bad for her, I feel so dumb." She turns so that her chest is now facing the wall of the spring, with arms folded on the ledge and her chin resting on her hands. She watches Risa fold her clothes with an appreciative eye, secretly thankful of the Weyr's lax view on modesty. She makes sure to avert her eyes though is Risa looks her way. As the boys come in, she signs with maybe the barest hint at disapointment but wave jovially to Brynn and the bronzerider. "Wow. Seems like it. Are you ok Sir?" she uses the title since he is obviously a Rider and her candidate training is well ingrained.

About to get worse is the understatement of the century here, folks. Risali's none-the-wiser to Zaria's appreciation of her ass(ets) when she turns go give her an apologetic smile from over her shoulder - OR R'HYN'S (shut up he secretly LIKED IT). "I didn't either, I'm sorry. I feel even worse for bringing her another one to eat." But there you go, they're young, they made a mistake, lesson learned. "I should have known when Potato didn't actually eat it. As long as they're okay, right?" Brynnjan's entrance is noted, and maybe it's with a bit of her father's deviance that Risali's calling out, "Brynn, don't be a strang-" SPLAT. Risali would know that voice anywhere, she really, really would, and the woman goes rigid when grey eyes take the please no, please no, please no trek from candidate, to candidate, to - "R'HYN!" SCREECH. Okay, so weyrbred or no, maybe there are some people Risali doesn't want to be naked in front of, because the harper is scrambling to grab ANY PIECE OF CLOTHING (her pants, fate was not kind) to try and cover some of her body with. "GET OUT." This totally isn't a public bathing place, right? Risali's grabbing her second article of clothing (RIP shirt), to chuck the recently folded fabric at the grossly dirty bronzerider from Half Moon Bay. And then a boot. "OUT!" And a brief enough pause to, chest heavingly, tell Zaria, "DON'T talk to him. You're going to encourage him." HISS SPIT.

Brynnjan blinks, and quickly tries to make himself as small and insignificant as possible, sinking down into the hot-springs as low as he can go. He watches as Risali goes all nutso-zonko when R'hyn shows up, and tries to will himself invisible so as to avoid whatever feminine wrath-ness is being thrown around. Ohcrapohcrapohcrap.

Do not engage, Zaria! Do not engage, donotengag— too late. R'hyn's gaze snaps to the candidate for that 'sir,' some sort of protest for the title coming and going with a brittle smile, one that remains as he gestures emphatically at all of himself. "Do I look okay?" He doesn't. Removal of clothing reveals a series of welts and scratches and yet more mud, which he swipes at with his hands and flicks away with a longsuffering sigh and another snorted laugh to dissipate the sting of the sarcasm. "I'm sorry. No. I'm fine. I just have mud in places I didn't know mud could be and I just—" HAD HIS EARDRUMS BLASTED APART, THANK YOU, RISALI. R'hyn recognizes the error in his dismissal of the woman's figure immediately, shoulders locking up to about his ears, eyes wide in what might actually be terror when they fly back to Risali, then shoot away just as fast if not faster with a, "Faranth, Risali, why are you here." As though he wasn't the stranger here! "What? ME? YOU get out!," gets shouted back into the distance between them, clothing being thrown at his person pawed at in an awkward attempt to one-handedly catch them while his other hand comes up over his eyes. "Stop that! You're being ridiculo-OOF!" That's the sound of a boot meeting his face, by the way, and oh it's on. Down he stoops to pick up his own mud-drenched shirt and whip it back in her general direction (duck, Zaria!) with a growled, "Don't tell people who can and can't talk to me, you seething harpy!" Fingers part so he can aim a plaintive look at Brynnjan. SCAR. BROTHER. HELP ME. "Tell her!" Ohcrap indeed.

Zaria blinks owlishly and backs up a bit from the edge of the pool, standing up so that the water only comes to just under her breasts, but her nakedness seems to not bother her at the moment. She looks concerned at Risali and puts on her best white knight impression, and says, "Are you ok Risa? Did this man hurt you in anyway?" she says in a tone that is a little unsure as to what she would do if that was the case though. And as she stands there, looking most chivalrous, her eyes turned with concern at Risali, when the mud-drenched shirt hits her square in the face with a loud SPLAT! One long beat she does nothing and then reaches up to slowly pull the soiled garment off her FACE. Under the filth the blood rises in her cheeks, causing her normally ivory skin to go bright red. She sputters as she tries to rinse her eye by bringing water up to her eyes in her cupped hands. She holds a hand out in Brynn's last known direction and pleads quietly, "Brynn? Can you be a dear and grab me a towel please? I can't see anything." she says through tightly held lips, trying to prevent any of the dirt into her mouth.

Definitely a whole lot of ohcrap going on here. "Why am I - I LIVE HERE, YOU IDIOT." Risali takes a deep breath, opens her mouth again (probably to counter R'hyn's question with why he's here), and falters when Zaria comes to the rescue. Is she okay? Has R'hyn done something to hurt her? ONLY RUIN HER LIFE AND EVERYTHING IN IT. "He's my -" SPLAT. FARANTH. Grey eyes go wide with horror as Zaria gets a face full of muddy shirt, and some of that mud DARES to depart it's R'hyn-owned filth to splatter Risali with a fine speckling of yuck. It's genuinely hard to tell whether Risali's impending outrage is more for Zaria (it is), or for the fact that now she's dirty (DESPITE BEING IN A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE LITERALLY COME TO GET CLEAN), and then she's all eyes back on R'hyn. "DON'T YOU TALK TO HIM EITHER." Risali will let Brynnjan save Zari, for now. Probably because when she looks back at R'hyn she's realizing - "FARANTH. YOU ARE NAKED." Yep, there goes her sanity. And her eyesight. And her ability to sleep at night. Risali looks up and away, and around, and then braves proximity to the bronzrider to VIOLENTLY APPLY HER PANTS to his nether regions. "FARANTH, R'HYN. I MEAN IT, TAKE YOUR STUPIDLY FANTASTIC ABS - GROSS, I MEAN GROSS - AND GET OUT. Oh Faranth, I just touched your -" Yeah, she's totally drawing back like she's been scalded. EW, MAN. EW.

Having heard the request for a towel, Brynn rises from his hiding spot and scoots off to grab a towel. He returns in short order and hands over the towel, trying to avoid looking at any nudity unless absolutely necessary. He's not in art class, he can avoid looking at dangly bits, or chesticles. Oh god. Why him, why now.

R'hyn, aghast. "Hurt her?!" And really, it's almost amusing, the absolute shock all over the visible bits of the bronzerider's face and form, fingers pressed into his chest as though to say, 'moi?!' And then those fingers turn right around to point at Risali (or what he thinks is Risali, but is probably the distant wall) with a tight-toned, "Have you met her?!" The implication clear: if anybody was gonna hurt anybody, it'd be Risali doing the hurtin'! Fastforward through a boot hitting him upside the face (SEE?!), and he's back to metaphorically glaring daggers at the poor she-candidate, mouth set in a growl below the hand still diligently covering his eyes. "Yes. You do live here. Congratulations, by the way, candidate." Whoops. And then there's a splat, and tight-lipped words from Zaria, and R'hyn completely forgets that he's hiding his face for a reason, palm sliding up his forehead over wide eyes and a stumbled, "Faranth's tits, I'm sorry! I didn't mean- that is to say- I should have aimed- I just-." A beat. A terrible attempt at containing humor. "I- I mean- you should know- you have a little something right there." Impishness crinkles the mud around his eyes over a shit-eating grin, unable to help himself as he swivels a finger at poor, poor Zaria's face before— SNORT. "Yes, I am, thank you, Risali. That is generally what one does before—" SQUEAK. Because yes, she did just touch his-, and fabric or no fabric he was not ready for it. Cue equally grossed-out gagging noises and a backward stumbled, "What in the world am I supposed to do with your pants?" But we'll never know because there he go, right on back into the pool behind him with a fantastic windmilling of arms and a glorious splash. Leave him in there. Maybe he'll just drown and make this all a lot less awkward for everyone involved.

Zaria feels the towel against her hand and turns in what she assumes the direction he is in brings her "chesticles" right into his eyeline, completely obliviously of course. She takes the towel, wets a corner and very gingerly wipes at her eyes, making sure to use light touches to avoid pushing the mud in further. She takes her time cleaning out the important bits, around mouth, nostrils and ears, holding her hands up to the protestations of the bronzerider and shakes her head in a universal, just forget about it signal. Before submerging in the water to get rid of the rest of it. Only under water a few moments, she surfaces and flicks her hair back out of her face, opening her eyes slowly just in time to see Risali touch him there. This is obviously a very old feud that would not benefit from her interferance. She instead grabs a sack of soap sand and heads to where Brynnjan is and holds the little bag out for him, "Need some?" she asks as she poor a small measure into her hands and starts scrubbing at her arms and chest.

RUDE. THE RUDEST BRONZERIDER. "Thanks, Dad," comes Risali's scathingly sarcastic retort, right before she cuts the apologetic R'hyn off MID-BAD JOKE with a touch to the dingledorf. Totally worth it, even if she's going to have to amputate that hand, because the bronzerider ups and goes DOWN — the water punctuating his arrival with a brilliant splash that rings with VICTORY. Chest heaving, Risali somehow manages to refrain from going in to ensure he's drowning, stomping instead to both Brynnjan and Zaria - Brynn who gets a harsher-than-intended, "Brynn, you don't have to be so shy," as she - FINALLY - joins Zaria in her pool. Still, grey eyes keep straying to the one that R'hyn's gone and fallen into, almost as if she's impatient to make sure - "YOU BETTER NOT BE DROWNING, BRONZERIDER. I WILL KILL YOU MYSELF." One, two… three? Risali cuts her eyes to Brynnjan and Zaria, hesitating before breathing a soft, "Will one of you go make sure he's still breathing? He's my… step-father." OF THE SAME AGE. LOOK. AT. THAT. FACE. "I don't want to have to explain why he's dead to my father." All deadpan, and all in a horrible effort to not let on that MAYBE SHE ACTUALLY CARES SOMEWHERE IN HER (not so) ICY LITTLE HEART OF HEARTS.

With a shake of his head and a shrug, Brynn rises from the pool and goes to check on R'hyn. He rolls the man over to make sure he's at least in a position to get some air. "You alright?" He pokes at the man's shoulder, and then begins dragging him to the pool's edge, assuming he isn't already mobile/conscious by this point, in which case he'll just assist the man however he sees fit.

Bless Brynnjan's intervention, because it looks for a second like R'hyn really might just let himself drown rather than have to face said father. The bronzerider coughs and breathes once he's rolled over, the further poke to his shoulder earning a slow drag of blue-grey eyes over to the male candidate's face. Cue a deep, heaving sigh and unsolicited advice in the form of, "Never fall in love." It's with a certain sense of longsufferingness that he allows himself to be drug to the side of the pool with a grumbled, "Thank you. I can take it from here." But can he? CAN HE?! Because it might be his own muddied pants he drags himself back into, but it's also Risali's very florid, very girly shirt that he tugs over his head, sighing for the realization, eyes flicking over to Zaria's pool. A beat. Two. Nope. Not worth the effort or the proximity to Risali-the-harpy in order to fetch up his own. He'll just own it, pulling at the hem that exposes entirely too much midriff to be comfortable but this is fine. As swiftly as possible, he gathers the rest of his things, hesitates, grins a feral sort of grin that better belongs to a gargoyle than to him, and takes Risali's boot, too. "Well, this has been a pleasure, truly." HAS IT. HAS IT?! "But I think I'll leave before this day can possibly get any worse. Miss. Sir. Daughter." There's a nod for each title as he gives it to Zaria, Brynnjan, and Risa in that order, Risali's accompanied by a flourishing entirely-too-sarcastic wave, and then he's squelching right back out of the hot springs with as much dignity as one can muster whilst barefoot in muddy leathers, a hot pink tunic, and three boots bunched under one arm, whistling merrily all the while.

Zaria narrows her eyes at Risa as she joins them, now working the sweetly scented sand into her neck, turning her head to stretch the muscles with an audible pop which brings a relieved sigh from Zar's lips. With head still cocked to the side, she listens to Risa. "Step-Father? Really?" Then at the mention of her father, Zar gives her a quizzical look, "Wait? don't you mean your mother would be so mad?" She is now officially confused and looks over at where Brynn is helping R'hyn. She starts to scrub the sand into her hair, which still has particles of mud clinging to it, and really scrubs at her scalp as well. Watching the Rider get dressed is entirely too amusing to pass off watching, so she just stares unabashedly and watches as he then leaves. Turning back slowly to the other girl, her eyes about 3 sizes too big for her head, she utters one stuttering word. "W-What?"

The strangled, gurgling noise that Risali is making in her throat is absolutely due to the fact that R'hyn says 'love'; in fact, the woman barks out, "SHUT. UP," in the bronzerider's general not-drowning direction as he piles advice onto SWEET CINNAMON ROLL BRYNNJAN. Thankfully for R'hyn, Risali's grey eyes are using Zaria as a focal point because A) gross and B) the woman is talking to her - and giving her quizzical looks. "Yes. My Dad is weyrmated to him. I don't want to talk about it," Risali hisses out between her teeth, grabbing sweetsand to start scrubbing into her ABUSED HA-"R'HYN." Because she's looked up at the title and caught that STUPID GARGOYLE GRIN, and - "THOSE ARE MINE. R'HYN, I SWEAR TO FARANTH IF YOU WALK OUT OF THIS - R'HYN!" Risali's halfway pulled herself up the ledge of the pool by the time the bronzerider's STUPIDLY LONG LEGS have carried him and HER BOOT AND HER SHIRT out of the bathing caverns. "R'HYN!!" Too late. TOO LATE, and Risali is slipping back into the pool, looking miserable, and leaning onto Zaria in the kind of defeat that says THIS IS MY LIFE, THESE ARE MY CHOICES, I HOPE R'HYN ROTS. "Thank you for checking on him, Brynn. Next time, drown him." She's just going to cling to the other she-candidate for some female, non-communicative bonding - WHETHER ZARIA WANTS IT OR NOT.

Zaria looks sympathetically at her friend and nods in understanding. "Wow, Weyrs really are more accepting of that kind of thing." she remarks idly. Before dunking her head and letting the sweetsand rinse from her hair float away in the soft current of the springs. AS she comes back up, skin glowing after all the scrubbing, she smiles at Risa, "You definitely make me thank Faranth for my own rather boring family." she jests gently. Just as she is settling into to a nice long soak, Folly choose that moment to wake from her nap in her folded clothes, and creel pitifully to make sure her humanpet knows that she is hungry now. "Never ending. I don't know what I am going to do if I impress a dragon if it's worse than this." Swimming to the side, she lifts herself out and grabs a towel that she wraps around her body. The insistant creels get louder so she just bundles the clothes and the green together and hurries off towards the Caverns.


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