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.
Late evening hours finds the days chores done. Zak's most recent chore? Fish and Game. Well to be honest that was yesterday but perhaps he is till recovering from his fishing boat trip with Esiae. Certainly the desert bred weyrbrat is /not/ used to being on a rocking boat in the water. Rocking. And moving. With more rocking. So now that there is free time this evening he's enjoying spending it flat on his back on his cot with a tiny gold hatchling curled up on his chest. He doesn't appear to be sleeping. At any rate his eyes are open as he stares at the ceiling.
That's one thing the Igenites have in common - a dislike of boats. And so when Quillan comes into the barracks and sees the chore he's been assigned for tomorrow - fish and game, as luck would have it - he lets out a massive, attention-seeking groan. "Can't believe it," he grumps, stomping down the row of cots to grab himself a glass of water. This takes him past Zak, who he throws a wave at. "Hey. Candidate Z. You did the fishing thing today, right? Bloody fish are everywhere this candidacy."
"It does seem to be a theme." drawls out Z towards the ceiling. Such a fascinating bit of the building it is. So…unmoving. Finally he rolls over to face Q, which draws an unhappy squeak from the sleeping Nazneen. "Heya Q." he'll toss a greeting out there as well. "Did fishing. It /started/ off just fine. But then we ended up on a boat. With fishing poles. And line. And bait." granted it /was/ a bit of an adventure to procure all those things but the less the said on that the better.
"Yeeeeah, I'm not so keen on the idea of that. The whole… boat. Thing." Quillan's expression says it all: terror, and nausea before he even gets anywhere near the coast. "I hate fish to eat, let alone to catch. Maybe I'll just stick with the game side of things." He gets his glass of water, and brings it back to sit on the end of Zak's bed. "So, uh… you got your eye on anyone here?" Wink wink.
Fish. Boat. Thing. Zak's expression is one of total agreement on Q's opinion of the whole thing. "Fish are kinda of ugly. But what if we do find out life mates here and that's all they want to eat?" evidently this is a serious concern of the Zaks. Scooting up a bit he sits up and scoops up the still indignant Nazneen. At the question he gives a bit of a smirk. "Aside from the whole boating thing there /are/ quite a few lovely ladies here at the weyr."
Perish the thought that the clutch hatches fish-loving dragons. Quillan shudders. "I've never seen a weyrling dragon eat fish before." Because he's seen oh so many of them. "Y'know what? Maybe a dragon'll see in our heads that we do not want fish, and so it'll say 'hey, ok, they don't like fish, but I like fish, so I'm going to choose Fishboy over there because he smells like fish.' That could happen, right?" How many times can you get 'fish' into a sentence? Quill probably just broke the record.
Zak shudders. "That sounds fishy." he'll stop with that one. In an effort to steer the conversation towards land once more he also asks. "You have your eye on anyone?" a nudge of the foot. They should coordinate this kind of thing after all.
"What should she coordinate? I mean, not that there is a she. I mean there are shes here, and all, but like, there's not one particular she for me. That I've got my eye on. Right?" Quill might be blushing a little there after that blustering. "Most of them are older, anyway. Then there's Jan who's too young… she's alright, though. What about you?"
A bit surprised at the blush and blustering from Quill, Zak grins roguishly. "So you like Jan." he pounces on that cause well…he did name a she within all those blustering words. "There are other riders though outside of the candidate class too." he reminds him without answering the question.
"No. I said she's too young, but she's kinda cool. I don't fancy her." Quill pulls a face, which he then hides behind his glass. "She's like what, 12 or something? She's like a baby sister, man. Gross. You don't fancy your sisters." He takes another sip of his water, watching the other Igenite over the rim of his glass. "So which rider d'you fancy? Spill the beans, Candidate Z. Let the kittens outta the bag…"
"Well I certainly wouldn't fancy mine. I've two sisters my same age and countless other half siblings." Zak evidently has a large family. "Oh no, candidate Q! I won't talk /that/ easily." he laughs.
Quillan smirks. "Well then. You know I don't fancy her." And that's that hopefully put to bed. "Yeah, well, fancying folks is off the cards for ages anyway, especially if we've got dragons out in those eggs." He shrugs, looking out towards one of the windows - not that it allows him to look anywhere, given that the curtains are drawn at this hour. "You reckon you're going to Impress?"
"Chances are good but.." Zak shrugs. "Dunno. There are a lot of eggs down on the sands." though which way that swings the odds in his favor is hard to say. "When I was younger I was certain I would impress a bronze just cause my father's a bronzer. But…eh. I'm older now. Color doesn't make a difference so much as a like mind out there for me." Zak's gaze follows Quill's briefly. "You? Think you'll find a dragon out of one of those eggs?"
"My da rides blue, mum rides green, I'm going to ride bronze." And that seems like something Quillan is certain of. "Maybe he's out there? Maybe he's somewhere else. Hopefully he's not at Igen, because can you imagine the ew if I had a dragon that decided to chase my mum's? EW."
Zak says, "Awkward!" Zak intones in a singsong voice. He'd say more on the subject matter but just then the sound of his voice being hollered from outside the barracks comes floating in. "Ah shells and shards! I bet I left a mess in the garden." Zak pops up, thrusting his feet into boots as he stands. "Gotta run. You didn't see me!" because of course instead of facing the consequencws he's gonna…go somewhere else!"
"Yeah, didn't see you at all," Quillan agrees, getting up and going to flop down on his cot. His happily fish-free cot.