Xanadu Weyr - Candidate Barracks
A long, low ceilinged room opens off the entrance hall to the arena. One wall is slightly curved, set against the outer wall of the arena itself. Cots are set in two rows along the length of the room, 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's always warm here when there are eggs on the sands, and candidates seldom need more than a light blanket.
It's early morning, and someone - one of the Headwoman's staff, no doubt - has just come into the barracks to write down the day's chore assignments. A few curious white-knots are already up and looking at what their day's grind will involve, and Quillan is among them, despite only being half-dressed in just his trousers and still rubbing down his bath-damp hair with a towel. He's the first of the lot to groan, getting a sympathetic pat on the shoulder from one of the girls beside him. "Nursery duty. Really? I don't even like kids."
All of this /movement/. Maorin may be awake, but he's not all that keen to be rolling out of his cot just yet. But at least he does move. After all, with people coming in for chore writeups, it would seem that the day has begun. Slowly, he sits up, righting himself with the longer bits of hair falling into his face. A hand swooshed over them pushes them back again, and the teen looks over at the poor lamenting Quillan. "Oh come on, they can be pretty fun. Some even bite!" He laughs then, turning to swing his feet over the side and onto the floor finally. "What am I doing, anyway?" The chore board is just..far too much of a walk for him to manage just yet!
Janaya is brushing her hair out, but at the sound of laments she leaves off that to slide off her cot and head over to look at the chores. She peers in at it, then laughs at Maorin's comment. "Besides, there's always snacktime. All the juice and crackers you want." She grins, then has another look at the board. "Rider intern," she reads for Maorin, then looks between the others. "What's that supposed to be?"
Quillan just groans at Maorin's attempt to be enthusiastic about his imminent doom at the little hands of Weyr's youngest. Not even Janaya's mention of snacks makes him perk up, though he does look from the girl to the board, piecing together enough information to figure out names. "You're Maorin? I had that yesterday. You just sorta shadow a rider, learn what it means to be a rider. It's pretty cool, actually. You'll probably know most of it if you're weyrbred. Are you weyrbred?" The question's to both Maorin and Janaya, the latter of whom gets a curious little look. "You're… I forget your name. Seen you around the caverns before you got Searched, though. Jan-something, right?"
"See? There's even snacks." Maorin shoves his feet into his shoes before he finally stands up, stretching his arms over his head. "Hey, you even remembered! That's good that you can do that, I have no idea who you are. …Not..that I don't care, of course. My memory just isn't as great as yours is." There's a smile at least for that as he makes his way to the choreboard to have a look, nodding, before throwing a quick grin towards Janaya. "Follow someone around? I can do that. I'm not Weyrbred or anything, but I've been around long enough to figure out a few things. Sounds like an interesting day, at least." A hand reaches over, lightly clapping Quillan on the back. "You'll make it through the day alive, I'm almost positive."
Janaya laughs to Quillan. "Jan-aya," she says. "Though I guess Jan-something would work, but Janaya's shorter." She grins, then shrugs. "My father's a rider, but he retired when I was little. So… I probably know most of it, but maybe not all of it." A laugh. "Guess I'll find out when it's my turn. Today for me it's… training." A wrinkle of her nose. "I hope the mud's dried up."
"I'll swap with you, Jan. I'm just gonna call you Jan, ok? It's easier. If you wanna drop one of my syllables, call me Quill." He ruffles the towel over his damp curls again, trying to get them a little more dry. "You're from Xanadu, right? What about you, Maorin? I'm gonna call you Rin. Mao makes me sound like I'm trying to be a feline, or something." He smirks, curling the towel around his shoulders. "You don't sound like you're from here. Which Hold did they get you from?"
"Ah, but they didn't get me from a Hold." So much mystery! Maorin just lets that settle for a moment or two. Really, it's all for dramatic flare despite the..utter lack of drama. "I got picked up at Monaco Bay Weyr. Originally out of Island River Hold..though it's been a number of turns since I've been back. Heh!" At least he doesn't seem to mind his name being shortened down. "Easy group we'll be if we're all so easy to say. Jan, Quill and Rin, eh?"
Janaya lifts her eyebrows at the shortening of her name, then laughs. "Well, I mean, I guess if you're going to be /lazy/ about it…" she says, and laughs. "Given how many chores they want to give us, lazy sounds good to me. Are we allowed to swap?" She looks between them, as if they'll have any more clue than she. "If we are, sure, I'll do nursery. I don't mind kids… or juice and crackers." Aww yeah, snacktime. She listens curiously to Maorin's origins, then nods. "I've been to Monaco. It's nice!" As for the continued shortening of names… "Or, you put 'em all together to talk about the whole group, and you get… Janquillran?" She grins. "Or maybe not."
"Quillranjan sounds better," Quill says with a dismissive sort of shrug. "But it also sounds kinda dumb, so I don't think I'll be using that for all of us. I mean, what're we gonna do if more people come? Quilljanrantomdickharryfooandmore just starts to get stupid." He rubs the back of his hand under his nose, snorting as he does so. "I've never been to Monaco Bay Weyr, but I've been near to it. I'm from Igen Weyr. Both my parents ride there." By now he's back at his cot, and rooting through his clothes to find a pressed shirt. "Jan, we are totally swapping. I didn't sign on to care for babies. Dragon babies fine, but people babies? Nu-uh."
Maorin laughs and shakes his head just a bit. "A baby is a baby, even a dragon one." The way he hears it, everybody poops, including dragons! Fingers comb through his hair a bit though, making sure nothing is sticking out at weird angles. "It' d be easier when they wanted to call us all to attention though. Sure they /could/ just say 'candidates', but if they had one big mash up of names for us all? I'd go with that so much better. But yeah.." There's a pause then, as he heads back to his cot to straighten the sheets out. "It was pretty nice there at Monaco. Started getting all settled in and working and…off I come to this place instead!"
Janaya grins. "At least human babies actually wear diapers," she points out. "If we have to tell the headwoman, you're doing it," she says of that swap, then snickers about the mega-name. "And if it got long enough, they wouldn't ever actually be able to call us out for chores! They'd spend all day just saying… uh… that full combined name!" She grins. "Course, I suppose they also wouldn't be able to tell us to stop doing things… like running laps… so, maybe it's not actually a good idea after all." She hmms to Maorin. "Working, huh? At what?"
Quillan locates a shirt, but doesn't put it on just yet. He starts to tackle his hair again, trying to get that last bit of dampness out. "Maybe someone, somewhere, has created a dragon diaper. Maybe we should create dragon diapers. But I've got a feeling that shovelling a dragon's crap is way better than cleaning up a baby's mess… it's got to be better when you're Impressed to them, right?" Here's hoping. "Yeah, what did you do at Monaco, Rin? What'd you do here, Jan?"
"I'm not sure dealing with poo is great no matter the relationship. But if yours is strong enough to love it, well. I wish you all the best." Maorin laughs, grinning broadly at that, then promptly flops down on his newly made cot. Oops? "Me? Oh, I'd started helping out in the infirmary. Not a healer or anything, but I knew where most things were put so it was easy to help clean up and all."
Janaya wrinkles her nose. "I dunno, I mean… they're bigger than horses and they eat meat, they've gotta be pretty terrible, right?" Things to (not) look forward to. She shrugs. "Anyway… all the riders seem to think it's worth it!" Or maybe they just don't want to scare candidates off and back to being whatever they were before, which for her… "Oh, I was going to apprentice. Techcraft, only… I hadn't quite done it yet."
Still scrubbing at his hair with the towel, Quillan huffs out a soft breath. "I was never too bothered helping to muck out the stables when I was little, so I don't think dragon poo's gonna bother me at all. I just hope I get to shovel it." By which he probably means he hopes to Impress. "Did you have to mop up blood and guts and stuff, Rin? That sounds kinda gross. Techcraft is way safer." He gives Janaya an approving nod. "Why didn't you get to it? I apprenticed as soon as I could… been doing it for about 6 turns or something, now."
Maorin nods slowly. "I've gutted a lot of fish in my life. Seeing a bit of blood on the floor? Not exactly a big deal." The teen folds his arms behind his head, resting there while watching the other two. "Worked on a ship before Monaco. Never really settled down for the crafting business, but I was sure thinking about it. I don't really fit too well with all the tech business."
Janaya shrugs to Quillan. "Just didn't," she answers. "So what'd you apprentice in, anyway?" she asks, then grins. "How come blood is gross but dragon poo is fine? I mean, I'd kinda rather the other way around… at least blood doesn't smell as bad!"
"Blood and guts and stuff comes from people and shouldn't be outside of people. At least poo on the floor's where it should be." Quillan gives Janaya a look as if to say that's obvious. Duh. "I don't like fish guts either. They're all inside things." Perhaps he's squeamish? "I apprenticed to the Minecraft. I get to blow things up for a living. It's sweet. And it doesn't smell so bad as Healery stuff does."
"Things blowing up..isn't sweet." For all the cheer Maorin tends to have, that bit comes out rather flat. The teen gives a small sniff though. "You get used to the smell of the infirmary after a while. Then it doesn't bother so much. But then again, I can roll around in fish for an hour and not mind what /that/ smells like." The grin returns, brightening him up again quickly enough.
Janaya rolls her eyes at Quillan. "I'm hardly going to go stabbing you," she retorts to him. "Your blood and guts are safe." …or are they? Who knows what might happen? She looks thoughtful for a moment at Maorin's reaction to the explosion, then grins again at the mention of rolling around in fish. "Ewwww! You do that here, you're sleeping outside!" But she's grinning, clearly teasing.
Quillan gives Maorin a digusted look. "What she said," he says about sleeping outside, jerking a thumb at Janaya. "Why in Faranth's flaming name would you want to roll around in fish?! That's just gross." He shudders, pulling a face and sticking his tongue out. So gross. "Oi, stabby-Jan, you'd better not go stabbing me. Otherwise who's gonna pull your training duty, huh?"
Maorin just laughs, sitting up. "My father is a fisher. Sometimes you just have to get in there and get..fishy once you bring up a net." No, Maorin doesn't get his kicks out of lathering himself up with fish stank. "I promise I'll always take a bath if I smell weird." Because..fishy might not be the only extent of the smells he can bring to the table.
Janaya wrinkles her nose. "I don't think I'll become a fisher," she muses, then grins and nods to Maorin's promise to bathe, seemingly satisfied by it. She heads back to her cot, combing fingers through her hair and then starting to braid it so it'll stay out of the way, then laughs to Quillan. "Hey, you're the one who doesn't want to do nursery. Training's not awful, just the last time there was mud it tried to eat my shoes."
"Yeah, I'm not becoming a fisherman anytime soon, either." Because gross. And Quillan is still giving Maorin that slightly grossed-out look. "Anyway, my job means I can help cut stuff like stone faster for people building holds or whatever. It's dusty and sometimes muddy, and that doesn't bother me at all. I'd choose rolling around in mud any day over fish… who'd mud ever hurt, anyway? I used to do it as a kid just to piss my mum off."
Maorin shakes his head a bit, still grinning, but finally gets back up again. "You two can hash out the details of your training and nursery duties. I'm gonna get something in my stomach before we actually have to get busy with all of it." Maybe they have fish for breakfast! The teen laughs faintly as he heads out for the caverns, waving over his shoulder. "Don't take too long, alright?"
If they have fish for breakfast, it had better at least be cooked! Janaya wiggles a few fingers spared from braiding her hair to Maorin, then grins to Quillan. "Maybe you'll change your mind if you get assigned laundry. Or maybe not, I mean, mud is definitely better than blood and poo…" If you gotta choose!
Quillan grunts and waves at Maorin when he leaves, watching him get all the way out before he turns to look at Janaya. "Is it just me, or is that one weird? Fish guts? And what's with the wacky hairdo?" He finally gives up on his hair - it's mostly dry not anyway - and pulls his shirt on over his head. "Laundry I don't mind. There's nothing wrong with it, so long's you aren't washing old Aunties' smalls…"
Janaya tilts her head to Quillan, looking from him, to the door where Maorin left, then back to her fellow candidate still here. "Aw, he seems nice," she says. "I mean, everyone's a little weird somehow, right? Don't go and hold it against him." She shrugs, then grins. "Besides, if you ever need a pile of fish cleaned, it'll come in handy!"
"Yeah, but even his face is weird, with all that…" Quill lifts his hand to indicate on his own face where Maorin's is… different. "Like he got too close to the blast or something. Or maybe he got kissed by a fish when he was rolling with them. Ew. Maybe that's what he meant by rolling with fish. Y'know. Rolling." Teenaged minds can make anything dirty! "Gross. Grossgrossgross."
Janaya frowns. "Well, yeah, but…" she begins, and then Quillan goes on with his speculations about how that funny face might have happened. First her eyebrows rise, and then she rolls her eyes. "Uh, or not!" she says, because of course she herself would never be ridiculous, nope! Not her. "I'm sure he didn't do it on purpose," she declares haughtily, tying off her braid and twitching it behind her. "So you shouldn't go making fun of something that can't be helped.
Quillan stands up, straightening out his shirt and trousers. "Yeah, well, unless you ask him and find out what really happened, I'm going to say he snogged a fish and it went wrong. Some of them have pretty big teeth, they could do some bad damage. And if he did go round sticking his tongue into fishy mouths, then it was something that could be helped and maybe he needs help, cos it's not normal." He finds himself a mirror, and begins preening his dark curls. "It's not normal in the slightest."
Janaya rolls her eyes again. "I seriously doubt it's that." She takes a quick look through her chest for socks, then sits on the edge of the bed to put them on. "I mean, if you don't go kissing rocks - or whers! - I don't think he went around kissing fish. I mean, really!" She hmphs. "And I will so ask him, if that's what it takes for you to be less ridiculous. So there!"
"Yeah, but I don't have a wher to kiss. If I did, maybe I would kiss him. People kiss their canines, right? And probably their dragons too, yeah? So kissing a wher is alright, and kissing rocks wouldn't get me into any trouble." Quillan cocks an eyebrow at Janaya - then goes to find socks of his own, inspired by her actions, no doubt. He flumps onto his bed when he's located a pair, and pulls them on, followed by his boots. "I'm gonna call him Fishboy."
"And people kiss their babies, too, so how come you're running away from nursery duty?" Janaya retorts. "I would think a wher would be more likely to bite than a fish. They've got bigger teeth, and everyone knows they've got horrible tempers." She stands up, and rolls her eyes again. "Don't call him Fishboy. That's stupid."
Snorting, Quillan shakes his head to dismiss Janaya's retort. "Whers don't bite who they're bonded to, and babies would probably throw up in your mouth or fart in your face or something if you kissed them. Or they'd poo on you. Besides, I like rocks and whers. I don't like babies, and I am going to call him Fishboy. He probably smells of fish, too. You can't get that smell out, no matter how many baths you take." Now, fully dressed, booted and laced up, he stands up and has another quick preen of his hair. "I'm going to training. Best hurry up if you don't want to be late for the nursery…"
Janaya just rolls her eyes. "Better watch out for the rocks, then. They might like you right back. In your face." Yeah. That's right. She shoves her feet into shoes. "I'll tell the nursery you were too scared to come," she says as she ties her shoes. "And take a bath after training, you'll probably smell awful!" And then… she's off to adventures with babies and poo! Such fun, being a candidate.
"Better than smelling of baby vomit and fish," Quillan quips when Janaya walks past him. He falls in line behind her, turning the opposite direction when they leave the barracks. Training, woo!