First Touchings Are Emotional
PASTE


Xanadu Weyr - Candidate and Weyrling Barracks
Xanadu's barracks are a massive, L-shaped amalgamation of caverns and construction, squared on one end, rough-hewn and oblong on the other, with weyrlings and candidates separated from one another by a large communal area. Wood and stone floors meet in a clever spiral pattern that interlaces and spreads, creating harmony in a space meant for completion of chores, classes, and storage of both dragon supplies and bedding for humans. A singular wooden door leads into an office for the weyrlingstaff.
Windows stretch the length of the candidate barracks, a long, low-ceilinged room that opens off the training grounds. One wall is slightly curved, set against the outer wall of the hatching arena, with a locked door closing off a tunnel that leads onto the sands. Cots are set in two rows along the length of the room, each with its own small press at the foot for personal belongings. It's always warm here when there are eggs on the sands; candidates seldom need more than a light blanket, but a diminutive hearth is available for the warming of beverages or the occasional firelizard-surprise.
The weyrling half of the barracks have been burrowed back into stone. Close and dark when shutters to the outside world are drawn, the ample paths between dragon couches have been lit with dim strips of light. Smaller couches are obviously intended for the very young weyrlings, while the largest ones at the back are for those close to graduation. A second small hearth abuts a massive cavern opening that slopes gently down to the training grounds outside.


Nyvex was the last candidate left on the sands and he really didn't want to leave. But the tall blond is definitely feeling the affects of the heat of the sands. He's got some not too pretty sweat stains on his person. However he is on cloud nine right now. He could spend the entire day exploring the various eggs. When he gets back into the barracks. He is barely waiting to peel off the wet shirt that he is wearing. Only a few feet into the barracks and he is shirtless and wiping his face off with the removed shirt.

Kasle can be found curled up on her cot, knees drawn up to her chest with her arms wraped around them. The garderner-candidate is still trembling, quiet sobs muffled against her knees. The soft chimming of the bells in her hair surrounding her and slowly bringing comfort to the distraught young woman. She seems oblivious to anyone else in the barracks, fully absorbed in processing whatever it was that sent her running from the sands.

Nyvex is in a very good mood. He obviously did not have the same experience that some of the other candidates. Or it is just that the eggs that he touched were not the same as other candidates. He knows a few people had a rough time of the touching. The blond harper hears the sobs before he see's whoever they are coming from. His bright green eyes scan the barracks for the source of the distress. He is hesitant to approach at first, but the empathic side of him can't keep back. He heads over to Kasle's cot and he softens his voice. "Hey." He crouches down to be less impossing on the other candidate.

Kasle startles at the soft greeting, gasping. She flinches, half uncurling, and instinctively scoots back an inch or two on the cot. Her face is blotchy, her eyes red and puffy from crying, "H-hey." She reaches up to take one thin braid between shaking fingers, unconsciously fiddling with the lock of hair to make the bells woven in chime, "I- sorry." She uses the other hand to quickly wipe tears from her eyes, "I didn't realize anyone else was here."

The shirtless harper just offers up a soft smile to Kasle. "Sorry, I didn't mean to impose upon you. But I couldn't help but hear that you are upset." His green eyes soften as he looks at the upset young woman. "You have nothing to apologize for. You didn't do anything wrong. I would give you some space, but part of me could not leave a pretty lady in distress." He stays lower to the ground and his voice is soft. "I'm Ny, Nyvex. That was a lot of overwhelming emotions. Are you okay?"

Kasle shakes her head, gulping back the remnant of a sob, "It's okay." She wipes her eyes again, blinking rapidly to clear her vision, "I just- one of the eggs made me think of something that happened a couple months back." She pulls her knees back up and rests her arms atop them, still toying with the braid. The soft sound already starting to calm her. She flushes faintly at the compliment, looking away for a moment, "Kasle." She flushes a little deeper, her ears turning pink, "You can call me Kas." She nods at his question, "I will be."

The bright eyed blond just offers up a smile to try and help Kasle cheer up and distract her. He listens to her explanation and he sombers a bit. "Oh, I am sorry to hear that. That must have been really rough. But you made it through that experience and you made it through the touching. That's really brave of you." He offers up encouragingly. "It says a lot about how strong you are. Which egg were you touching?" Sometimes talking about it is the best medicine. At least in his bright green eyes.

The dark haired young woman takes a trembling breath, "It was worse for Logain, but…" Kasle hides her face against her knees for a moment, "I really don't have any right to be this freaked out about it, still." She shudders, closing her eyes against the memory of that horrible egg, "The one that kind of stands out a little more than the others." She describes the Leader of the Pack Egg, "It was just— How can a creature that isn't even born yet be that… that horrible?" Her voice drops to a half terrified whisper, "There was so much blood…"

The harper turned candidate has not yet touched the egg in question yet. "I am sorry to hear that." He doesn't know Logain or the situation but he does seem to have genuine empathy for the two. "It is alright if you do. That experience was really intense. It's intense for everyone involved. It was for me too." He pauses. "You need to touch the black and yellow egg next time." Definitely talking about, HONEY BADGER DON'T GIVE A EGG. "It will really make you feel better and renew your faith in touchings." He listens to her words and he nods. "Well, you have to remember, dragons are just like people. Each one of them different. From what I have learned just from my experience today. Even in the egg, they are advanced and very different. They have keen insight on the world. But part of me wonders if part of that comes from touching our minds. I imagine they are like human children, sponges. They absorb all around them and then are developed based on that." The talk of blood gets a soft ah. "Well they do see the world differently than we do. You don't hear about vegetarian dragons. But you do hear about vegetarian people. That could be one of those differences between us and them moments. They are apex predators. So maybe that particular dragon is taking that mentality a little too far."

Kasle nods, smiling weakly, "I'll make sure to look at that one next time." If there is a next time. She sighs, apparently done crying, for the moment, "I know that everyone is different, people and dragon, alike, it's just… It hit me a little hard, you know?" She makes a face, "I'd hate to know who influenced that egg, though…" She sighs, again, and gestures to one of the other empty cots, "Logain is my little brother. He's the little blond kid that has the fresh scars on his face." Also a candidate. Her eyes well up again, but she quickly wipes away the tears before they can fall, "We were attacked by a wild feline and one of his firelizards died trying to save us." So blood is not a good thing for her, "It's not that I don't eat meat, but I just…" She trails off and drops her face onto her arms again, "I'm sorry…"

Ny nods and agrees. "Yeah, I get it. I have to put a smile on every day. My father was a rider here. And he died when I was young. The idea of being a candidate hit me hard the first night after I accepted the knot. I may have cried a little. But only one tear. Because as Leirith said, I'm a badass." He isn't even joking about that. "Badasses can cry too, but they are only allowed one. And then they gotta turn it off." He isn't even kidding about the crying part. However it was definitely more than one tear. "But I realized that it was a great honor to be asked to stand. And I grew from the experience." He listens to Kasle as she talks about her little brother. "Ahh, he's a tough kid. Scars give personality. And the ladies love them. He'll break a lot of hearts as he gets older." When she explains the situation, he doesn't make any jokes. "Oh wow. I am sorry. That makes a great deal of sense now. You were attacked by a predator and that dragon is a predator." He understands now that he gets more of an explanation. "It was a lot and the interaction is still very fresh. I think you'll be fine once you get more time between the incident. You just gotta stay strong. I can tell you are capable of that strength. I can see it in your sparkling eyes."

Kasle can't help but give a quiet chuckle at that, "Learith is a very… opinionated queen." She gives him a sympathetic look, "I'm really sorry for your loss." It may have been turns ago, but that doesn't mean that it still doesn't hurt. She nods, "I can understand having reservations about being a candidate here, though. I can't imagine losing my dad…" Or her mother, for that matter. She chuckles again at the notion of Logain being a heartbreaker, "He'll love that." Her faint smile fades and there's another deep sigh, "Yeah… I'm not really sure if it's such a good idea for him to be a candidate, since he's still got to be mourning Orne, and he's just so young, but…" She shrugs. It's not her place to stand in his way, should his dragon actually be out on the sands right now.

Nyvex completely agree's with that statement. "Definitely, I totally love her personality. But I am slightly biased. She called me badass. And she searched me." He accepts that with a nod. "Thank you. It changed my life. But it made me the man I am today. And I know that he loved being a rider. It is a great honor to be asked to stand. I try to stay positive and that's what motivates me going every day. My father would be happy and proud to see me stand. My Grandfather was a rider here too." He smiles. "I'm sure he will love it." He pauses. "I think that is something that he has to decide for himself. But he stood up against a wild feline. That's badass. I guarantee Leirith would say so herself. I'm sure the little man is stronger than you think. He'll always just be your little brother. Even when he's 40 turns old with kids of his own. If the dragon's think he is ready to stand. Then he is ready to stand. It's really sweet that you're so protective of him. Wait until the girls start chasing after him. See how protective you get." He chuckles. "I think you both got this. I'll keep an eye on him. But remember, this is your candidacy too. So try and enjoy it. And enjoy the special experience you get to share with your brother. And maybe in a few months time, you both will be meeting your future lifemates on the sands."

Kasle chuckles, "She is a very special queen. She's actually spoken to me before." Though, with Learith, that's not really that unusual. She nods, "My father rides bronze. Mom is a guard. Mom's family has been here as far back as anyone can remember." None of them ever leave! She makes a face at the thought of her baby brother being fourty, "Yeah, you're probably right… He was just so… tiny." She can't help but chuckle again, "Well, he did fire the arrow that finally scared the thing away from us." She starts to tear up again, "I just…" She takes a deep breath and slowly lets it back out, desperately jangling the bells in her hair, "Anyway…" She wipes her eyes once more, shaking her head, "I'm sorry. I'm not usually this… emotional." Plants are so much easier to deal with… "And I'll try to remember that. I just feel like I have to watch out for him, too, though." She isn't sure if her reasoning would make sense to anyone other than her or her other two siblings, but there it is.

"Very nice. It's in the blood then." He ponders this. "Oh wow. So maybe our parents probably know eachother or of eachother." He ponders. "I don't know, he looks pretty big to me. At least for someone his age." It's hard for anyone to be big compared to the 6 foot 4 Harper. "I tell you what Kasle. I will keep an eye out for him, for you." He offers her a charming smile to her. "That way you can enjoy your candidacy. And not have to worry about him the entire time." He is currently crouched in front of Kasle's cot with his shirt off. He is still a little bit sweaty from the time on the hatching sands before. But he definitely has cooled down. And Kasle is on the cot, she looks like she was crying. She is curled up with her knees pulled to her chest and her eyes red from the tears. "It's okay. That was a lot of emotions we were flooded with. But that's why they have us touch the eggs. To prepare for the bond of becoming a rider. It is a weird sensation to say the least. No one can go through a touching without saying they were overwhelmed with emotions. We just have to be strong and not let them overtake us."

"They might have." Kasle shrugs. Anything is possible. Not only does it look like she's been crying, her face the tell tale splotchy that her sibligs are all familiar with, but she's also blushing. It's not every day that the gardener turned candidate has an attractive guy focusing just on her, after all… She smiles, "Thank you, Ny. That means a lot to me. Logain is just so young, you know?" She still thinks of him as the sickly, accident prone little boy that was in and out of the infirmary so much when he was younger. She nods, the desperate jingling of the bells on that one braid slowing to a periodic chime as she absently runs the black lock of hair through her fingers, "Yeah, I guess you're right. I guess it's good to get used to them before they hatch."

Logain strolls into the baracks quielty whistling a simmple melody, a young blue firelizard riding on his shoulder. His eyes lite on his sister's cot, so he stops whislting and remarks, "Oh, there you are! I've been looking every…" His voice trails off when he finally notices she's already in a conversation. "Uh… Am I interrupting?" he asks slowly, already turning to leave if he must. He had kind of wanted to talk to her, particularly about why she disappeared from the sands, but it's not exactly a pressing matter. Slate, the firelizard, tilts his head to one side, studying the pair curiously.

Ny totally didn't take off his shirt to make Kasle feel better. It is just a lovely side affect. "Yeah, but he's also a candidate. And he's not that sickly kid anymore. He's clearly grown big since then. Just try to remember that. Wouldn't want to embarass him. So this will stay between the two of us. And he will never know i'm keeping an eye out." He can understand how that might be embarassing for Logain too. Despite his size, he is a mama's boy. So he knows what it is like to have an over protective woman keeping an eye out for him. And then, speaking of the devil. He didn't know Logain before today but he knows him from description and reputation. The green eyed blond stands up tall when he hears Logain speaking. He totally forgot that he was shirtless too. Not that he seems to mind or is trying to cover up his body. "Of course not. We were just getting to know eachother. And were talking about that really intense emotional experience we just went through. I touched some really amazing eggs. But it was a lot of emotions. What did you think about it the whole thing? Have a favorite egg yet?"

The sound of a very familliar voice has Kasle sitting up and quickly patting her hair into place, hands scrubbing at her face for a moment in a futile effort to remove all trace of the tears she'd so recently shed, "Logain!" She sits up, dropping her legs off the side of the cot so that she, hopefully, doesn't look quite as broken as she feels right now. The question gets her blushing deeper and she shakes her head, "No, you're not interrupting. We were just talking." She gestures from one one candidate to the other, "Ny, this is Logain. Logain, this is Nyvex." She tries to hold back the giggle at the thought of embarassing the young candidate, "But I'm his big sister. It's my job to embarass the little wherrybrain." The insult is said fondly, however mean it sounds.

An uncertain look crosses Logain's face, but he does decide to stay for the time being. Glancing Nyvex over, he gives a formal half-bow and politely syas, "Well met, Nyvex." His expression shifts to a far more contemplative one, and he answers after a short pause, "I think I prefer the white and blue egg. It was rather overwhelming (weren't they all?), but it was more raw power than anything emotional." Obviously refering to the Element of Freedom Egg, at least that one hadn't raked through all of his scars, physical or otherwise. "What about you?" he asks Nyvex, curious about how his fellow candidates faired. Any shred of maturity he'd been trying to portray goes out the window as he sticks his tounge out at Kasle.

Nyvex returns the bow at the introduction. "It is a pleasure to meet you as well Logain." He shoots Kasle a glance as she mentions it being her job to embarass him." He just chuckles. "Yeah, I think my mother has said that before as well. However, we don't stay kids forever. And now I tower over her. I'm still her little baby boy." He even blushes a bit at admitting it. It's a welcome change to talk about the eggs. "Oh, there were so many ones that I liked. I had a great experience with all of them." He loved it so much, he was the last candidate standing on the sands. "Each one was so different. They were all overwhelming but I liked them all. Can't I impress multiple dragons?" Greedy? A little, but it's more about having so many favorites. "I touched so many eggs. The black and yellow egg, made me feel the safest though. It was so comforting I just wanted to curl up with it." HONEY BADGER DON'T GIVE A EGG, that he was talking to Kasle about before. "They were all great. And definitely reminded me of Leirith. Very big personalities. Can't wait to see the dragons that come from them. We have a good chance of at least one of us impressing. So it is possible that we could be bonded to one of those big personality dragonets." Which gets the older Harper really excited.

Kasle rolls her eyes in mock irritation at the immature gesture from her baby brother. She gives Ny a significant look that seems to say, 'See? See why I have to look out for him? He's still just a kid!' She chuckles a little, not quite her normal rich laugh, "Mom is really good at embarassing all of us, that's for sure." She rolls her eyes fondly, "And we never got away with anything because the entire guard was always watching." She just sits and listens for a moment, nodding every once in a while, "We can only hope that one of us does Impress." She snickers softly, the sound only slightly forced, "Dragonriders run in our blood, right?" She scrubs at her face again and wrinkles her nose, "I… I think I'm going to go take a bath." Yes. A bath would make her feel better. Maybe. Hopefully… She stands and moves to her press to take out a change of clothes and her hairbrush, "Thanks for talking to me, Ny. You really helped a lot." She waits until her back is to the harper-candidate, so that he can't see, and sticks her tongue out at Logain, "I'll see you later, brat."

Multiple dragons? Logain barely survived the three eggs! Shoving the thought aside, he gives a sloppy half-smile and nods emphatically in understanding of embarassing, overprotecive mothers. A guilty look flashes across the young hunter's face at the mention of the ever-observant guard. "Shards, isn't that the truth," he mutters in response to his sister's remark. Slate carefully watches Kasle depart, and pops her ear with his tail as she passes in response to her farewell. Nobody would disrespect his master on his watch! Logain gently flicks on of the firelizards headknobs, and whispers, "Behave!" Turning his attention back to Nyvex, he decides not to ask what was wrong with Kasle, and instead remarks, "Well, I doubt the AWLMs are going to be very pleased if we sit around idle for too long. It was nice meeting you, Nyvex," using the Harper's full name out of respect.

Ny watches the interaction between the siblings fondly. A smile upon his lips. "Ahh, well we have a good chance, given the large clutch of eggs. They have a lot of dragons that need riders. And we are all young. If not this clutch, then definitely the next." He nods at her as she talks about a bath. "Yeah, I was sweating pretty bad." He lifts an arm up to give a whiff. "I am headed for a scrub myself very shortly." The harper, smiles at Kasle. "It was my pleasure." Then she is off and he is left with her little brother. "It's okay Logain, if it helps I totally made her blush before. I don't know what it's like having a sister. But at least she loves you. Maybe a little over protective. But i'm on your side too." He nods his in agreement about the Assistant Weyrling Masters. "Yes, but I need to get cleaned up. I don't think they would appreciate my musky post heat of the hatching sands smell around me when I do my chores." He laughs at that, it isn't entirely wrong. "You can call me Ny by the way. All my friends do." He offers to the younger blond and then gives him a salute.


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