The Morning After...
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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.


The cold chill of evening begins to fade as the first lights of Rukbat's dawn filter through the windows of the candidates barracks. Sprawled on the cot-less floor are numerous candidates, though clearly a few have found sleep elsewhere. Morlanol is curled into a ball near one wall, a now slightly squished stuffed green flit beneath his head and Agate, Bloodstone, and Tourmaline draped over him. Even with their help, though, he shivers slightly in the pre-dawn chill.

Cenlia is awake, having slept on that lovely ovine rug Thea made for her. Like a few lucky others, she had been around when Jessamin handed out the quilts, and using a pile of plushies as a pillow, the girl seems to have gotten a decent, if somewhat uncomfortable, night's sleep. She stows her belongings in her press while her firelizards groggily stretch and yawn, though they're quiet this time of the morning. Cen's just getting her boots on - proper garden boots, not the candidate sandals she'd still been wearing last night. Standing and stretching, she's already dressed, andis just hooking her garden toolbetly around her waist. One boot scuffs the floor as she bands down to retrieve the garden shovels from the press - 'squeark!' goes her boot. Whoops. Cenlia makes a face at the noise, glancing about apologetically. "Shardin' floor," she mumbles under her breath.

Tourmaline is the first of Morl's flits to stir, glancing up when Cen's boot squeaks, then giving a hearty, hungry trill. Morl, still half-asleep, tries to reach over the edge of his cot for his bag of emergency meatrolls, only to discover that he isn't on a cot! He jumps up, fully awake and spilling his poor flits everywhere amidst their hisses and grumbles of protest. He waves quietly to Cen, pulling on his shoes and gathering his flits. He pulls a meatroll out of his pocket and, breaking off a chunk, offers it to Tourmaline who accepts it with a dainty little cheep. When he first tries to take a step, his shoe slips, then sticks with an odd 'squelch' sound. He grimaces… he'd been trying to be quiet.

When Tourmaline starts up, Rogue is soon to follow. Cenlia nods a tired, "Mornin'," to Morlanol, and then turns to Rogue. She silences him with a glare, though the little midnight-blue flit 'gwerrrs' grumpily at her. WIth a soft snort, Cenlia finishes getting her toolbelt on and fits some small spades in the pockets. Trouble crawls up the outside of her pantleg, sticking his nose nosily into the pockets, and then, finding an empty one, sticks himself in. Cen ignores him in favor of lacing up her boots.

Morlanol nods back, a somewhat sheepish grin on his face. His flits still look… irritated by his behavior. How *dare* he nearly dump them on the floor, surprise or no? Bloodstone aims a harsh chirp at Rogue that seems to creepily line-up with Cen's own dire glare. Morl stretches hugely and a few pops can be haerd from his back. He mutters quietly to Cen, trying not to wake the others, "Tha' was… uncomferble… when d'ya think she'll give us our cots back?"

Jessamin cracks one eye open, her head resting on her bag of fabric scraps like a pillow. A nicely pieced quilt, in a pattern that might once have been called a Double Irish Chain, covers her—along with her four flits, who seem to have crawled underneath sometime during the night. She tries to rub the sleep out of her eyes and straighten herself out somewhat without setting off her flits. " 'morning…."

Cenlia shrugs, closing her press and saying, "Dunno. Figure she's really got a trundlebug up her butt about somethin'. Shards, I hope X'hil dun't turn out that way." Cen pauses, blinking and straightening up, "Hey, X'hil's got a whole loft full of bedding and stuff. Bet he'd lend 'em to us if we asked." But then Cen makes a face and mutters, "If we can get him away from all that work long enough to ask him." Charmer hops up onto the newly-closed press and croons at Cen's hands. She gives the flit some scritches, and nods a, "Mornin'," to Jessamin, "Thanks for lending out the quilts, by the way." The girl moves over to where the chores are posted, Rogue and Charmer flitting up to her shoulders to stand sentry duty, while blue Mizzle makes a little chirping sound and disappears *between* only to re-appear above Cen's head, where he lands and peers down at the list of chores.

Keziah makes her way into the barracks and looks nice and rested albeit her clothes are a little rumpled looking and are still covered in birthing fluids and the like. Mainly as she didn't see the point of walking nude across the Weyr, it's a little cold after all for that. She glances around a little and hmms somewhat to herself and then just shakes her head.

Morlanol waves a "mornin'" to Jess as well, tossing her the quit that had somehow ended up balled up near his feet during the night. He begins to join Cen at the chore board, which had mysteriously changed overnight without waking them… as usual, but nearly jumped out of his skin when Kez made her entrance. Managing to catch himself, he whispered a surprised oath, "Shards 'n' shells, woman. Y' look like y' jus' walked through a rain o' blood!"

Jessamin winds up with the half-balled quilt landing over her face, much to the amusement of her awakening flits. They chirrup their amusement as they poke their heads out from beneath her own quilt, only to find more of the same. Jess struggles for a moment to disentangle herself from flits and fabric, finally succeeding in dislodging both. "Well, good morning to you too, little maws." Smiling over at Morl and Cenlia, she nods. "Anytime… what can I say, you're among some of the best friends I've had in my life."

Cenlia sighs at the shore list, but looks up when Morlanol swears, the gardener girl glancing at Keziah and blinking, "Uh, hey. What happened to you?" She does have to stifle a snicker at Jessamin getting a faceful of quilt, though, giving the seamstress a grin.

Keziah blinks at Morl and then Cenlia and then a smile quirks across her face "Oh, was out with the ewes most of the night and well, since I didn't come back here to change." She does frown a little at that as she looks around before heading to her chest to get clothes and starts stripping on the spot. They're nasty enough that she wants out of them. Who cares who's watching, albeit she does tend to keep her right side towards the wall. She really doesn't add anymore to what happened last night, but it's obvious she's not thrilled about it. Sorta sucks when you're workin' your tail off and then find you have no bed of your own.

Jessamin winces a little bit as she sits up, nudging her quilt aside. "Yeow… still a little bit tender, there." She rubs the left side of her head gingerly, before pushing herself to her feet. Her stance seems to be steady enough, thankfully. "Think I'll go get something for that. Not dizzy or anything, just sore." She slips her shoes on and pads gingerly across the floor, as if afraid she'll slip and slide again. Her flits take to the air behind her, chittering with mild concern—though they do not seem overly agitated. "I'll be back shortly."

From the back of the room, Yontal lets out a grumbling curse, "Keep it down y' wherry-brains. Some o' us actually like to sleep." Morl glances in his direction, but otherwise ignores him. He nods to Kez's explanation, then politely averts his eyes… mostly… He sticks out his tongue at the chore list, "Dishes again? Bleck." He seems about to say something more when he sneezes loudly.

Cen makes a face at the mention of ovines, though Keziah's stripping doesn't seem to bother her, as she says, "Ech, I'd have jumped in the bathing caverns at least." After all, who wouldn't want out of clothes after that? Eew. She tilts her head and watches Jessamin go, brow furrowed briefly, "Hope she's alright…" Cen gives Yontal a brief look, but otherwise ignores him as she turns back to the chores list, "Washing dragons ain't so bad. Hope I get to wash Siebith again. D'had's said he could take me to South Boll." She chews her lip thoughtfully.

Keziah shrugs a bit "Too cold to jump in with clothes on." she notes. "After all, after I heard what happened here…" she wasn't coming anywhere near. "Figured I didnae need to be clean as I was plannin on sleepin in the forest anyways. Too many people still around the stables and all. Course, ran into Senkyou and helped her oil her dragon and such and she gave me a place to bed down since they had an extra bed." She slips on some clean clothes, no sense really in bathin, she's got dragon washing duty as well. After pullin on her shirt she eyes her vest. It too is filthy but then she shrugs and slips it on again.

Morlanol waits until Kez has mostly finished changing, then levels a light glare on Kez, "*You* got to sleep in a bed???" Tourmaline even favors her with a little hiss, but Agate and Bloodstone are more occupied with Cen. He takes a second glance at the chore list, then calls out, "Hey, Kez… Y' willin' t' switch with me?" The plot thickens… or he just really doesn't like dishes…

Cenlia grins at Keziah, "Senkyou, huh? Lucky." She gives Morlanol a sideways look, ignoring the attention of his flits as she heads back to her press to remove her toolbelt. Can't wash dragons with that on.

Keziah glances over at Morl "Yeah, what of it?" she asks and then finishes up with a pair of boots and shuts her chest and sits on it. She then eyes the boy a bit more "Are you nuts? I ain't doin' your dishes. Bad enough you all gave me no place to sleep." she notes and then nods to Cenlia "Yeah, she's pretty decent and all once you get to know her. Course, she may still feel bad from a few turns back and all." she adds after a moments thought.

Morlanol glares at Kez, his young body taking on a hard set, "We didn' do nuthin'! Someone over-waxed th' floor an' turned it into a shardin' ice rink. Then Thea took th' cots away." Tourmaline favors Kez with another, louder hiss while Agate and Bloodstone seem determined to refocus Morl on Cen instead of Kez. They seem to be failing, "An' all I did was ask t' switch. I c'n fin' someone else to switch with if I wanna!" He sticks out his tongue at Kez, his yelling almost certainly ruining his chances of finding someone to switch with as many of the other candidates begin to grumble as well and one even throws a make-shift pillow at Morl, hitting him square in the face, with a loud, "shaddup!"

"Weren't us," Cenlia says with a shrug, waving a hand vaguely at some still-sleeping candidates further down the barracks, "All we did was fall on our butts 'cause the floor was slippery." A moment's pause, and then she adds, "And get dragged around by flits." Charmer croons at Cenlia, apparently still pleased about that. Cen reaches up to her shoulder to give him some scritches. "A few turns back?" Cenlia asks Keziah, tilting her head at the other candidate, "What happened?" Morl's outburst gets a raised eyebrow, but Cenlia can't help chuckling at the pillow the boy gets to the face. "Might wanna keep it down," she advises with a grin, keeping her own voice low.

Keziah eyes Morlanol "Don't be a brat." she notes to him and then ignores him. He's not so cute rigth now "Flits dragging you?" she asks as her eyebrows arch upwards and then shakes her head "In other words you took advantage of the slippery floors." she rolls her eyes and shakes her head a little. At the question, she frowns a little and then just simply says "Felines." and leaves it at that.

Morlanol continues to glare at Kez for a moment, but drops the conversation. He's just grumpy from sleeping on the floor. He digs a pen out of his pocket and carefully corrects his chore from 'dishes' to 'dragons'. It's a little obvious, but not too bad. He grins sheepishly at Cen and goes back to trying to whisper, "More like th' floors took 'vantage o' us…" He pauses for a second, digesting Keziah's statement, "Felines?"

Cenlia snorts and says wryly, "Flits took advantage of it, more like." She gives Charmer a sideways look, but it's hard for her to be mad a that cute little goldeny-bronze nose, especially when he sticks it in her ear. Making a face, the girl prods charmer in the side, leading to him nuzzling her fingers instead. She turns back to Keziah, saying, "Couldn't get up, so these troublemakers here decided they was gonna drag me off. Shardin' nuisances," but her voice is fond. Booze-brown Trouble pokes his head out of her toolbelt pocket as she sets the belt down on the press, the flit making grumpy noises and crawling out to peer around. Cenlia eyes Morlanol briefly, but doesn't comment on what he's doing.

Keziah eyes Morl and is about to say something about him 'fixing' his chores until he asks about the felines. Even if it was just one word. "Yes, felines. As in the large ones that attack and rip you open like a sack of grain." she notes as she fixes her gaze on him. "Any more questions?" Her voice a bit frosty. She glances back over at Cenlia and composes herself a bit before talking again. Though her breath is just a little shallow and tight "They do have a way of taking advantage of things." she notes.

Morlanol gulps softly, "Y' survived a feline attack? You mus' be really strong, Kez." He glances at Cen, giggling slightly when she recounts the flit's involvement in the floor-capades, "Yeah, an' then poor Jess's followed suit… it would've been a lo' funnier if I weren' th' firs' one t' go slidin' cross th' floor."

Cenlia blinks at Keziah's explanation of felines, mumbling, "Shards, am glad there ain't none of those back home." She makes a face, and then nods, scooping up Trouble before he can make off with one of her tiny shovels sticking out of the toolbelt. The flit growls at her, and nips at her fingers, but he doesn't actually bite hard. It's too early in the morning to be sat on by Charmer, after all. Cen keeps ahold of Trouble, leaning against the press and saying to Morlanol, "Yeah, 'least ya didn't get hurt. Think Jessamin and that other girl, Lerta, might'a got bumped a bit." Cenlia frowns, and absently scritches Trouble's eyeridges, adding, "Whoever waxed the floor should be set out t' sleep in the meadow. That prank weren't funny if somebody gets hurt."

Cenlia eyes Keziah's scar and shakes her head, muttering, "Shards," and frowning. SHe glances back at Morlanol, eyebrow raised, "Good breeding? She ain't a runner, is she?" Cen grins a bit.

Keziah can't help but snicker a little at Cenlia "Blooded folks also tend to use that term." she notes and then eyes Morl thoughtfully "Your best bet is a crossbow bolt through the heart." she notes "You need to be a good aim. You don't wanna injure it and piss it off. Cubs are easier to kill iffen you've killed the mother." she notes "Course you may not always find one alone. You kill one and may just piss the other off, and they can climb trees."

Morlanol casts a look at Cen, as if divulging a dark secret, "Rei says she's the daugh'er of a weyrwoman an' weyrleader an' tha's why she gets such special trea'men'." He nods to Kez, looking a little confused, "Wha'… Wha's a crossbow?" Hoo boy…

Cenlia makes a face, "Blooded? 'Less her folks're Lord Holder kin, she ain't no more Blooded than us." She glances briefly at Morlanol, rolling her eyes and saying, "Yeah, know who her folks are. 'S life though. She dun't seem too bad, 'least when I met her. Guess she ain't doin' chores like the rest of us." But Cenlia shrugs, apparently not bothered much by that. She gives Morlanol a longer look then, "Y' never seen a crossbow?" There's glance at Keziah, and then Cenlia just shakes her head, "Ask Thea to show you hers. 'S good for shootin' bronzers." The gardener girl smirks a bit.

Keziah stares at Morl "Are ye daft? You dunno what one is?" she shakes her head a little "Ya do know what a bow is. Right?" she asks and before even waiting for an answer "A cross bow is more like a bow on it's side, The big ones have a crank, to pull back the very taut string, while a smaller one as a lever to pull back. It can keep a bolt cocked and ready to go. It's slower than a regular bow, but it can impart more force and is easier to aim. If you're real good with a regular bow and have a string draw, you can kill with those as well."

Morlanol gulps, shaking his head mutely, "I- I think I've seen a bow b'fore… once mebbe." He looks a little dumbstruck, Agate and Bloodstone each stroking an ear, trying to calm him. He blushes a bit, "I don' know a whole lot, y'know." It's a statement, not a question. He pauses, "Bu' I do know tha' Vivy's always mean t' me…"

Cenlia just shakes her head at Morlanol, and then straightens up from where she was leaning on the press, stretching a bit and leaving Trouble to cling awkwardly to the front of her shirt. Cen says, "Well, I'm gonna go get some work in the garden done before I gotta start chores." She stows her toolbelt in the press, and instead pulls out a pitchfork. Yes, a pitchfork. With a wave to Keziah and a, "See ya later," she heads out.

Keziah shakes her head a little "Iffen I were you. I'd live the killin to others. And no shootin' till you can even hold a bow properly." she notes "Not sure iffen I've the patience to teach ya, but I can try. When we've a chance will go see about borrowin' a bow for ya till you can afford your own." she notes and then nods to Cenlia "I outta go see who's wantin' a washing myself."

Morlanol sighs, stroking each of his flits in turn as he watches the girls egress. He mutters softly to his quiet support group, "Whatt'm I s'posed t' do abou' all this? I think I need some Klah…" With that he slowly shuffles towards the door, trips over another sleeping candidate in his thought-filled haze, and gets pelted with another pillow for yelling when he falls. Oh yeah, this is gonna be a great day…

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