Yokohama - Research and Development
Tomes of digital information line the walls of the Research and Development Center, allowing any working in or visiting the station to delve into the history of Terra and all leading to the day of landing. A large screen on the far end of the room has been set before a long table provided for those that observe lectures or on assignment. To the left and right of this observation area are shatterproof windows alternating with bookshelves of files, texts and information. Apposing are a series of computers, lights flash from their screens, cast a faint glow to the walls or those before them as they continue the life changing research beneficial to Pern. On the right is a modestly sized testing facility whose windows are doubled panned not only for sound proofing but also to prevent impact into the Library.
It's the morning after the party. At least, that's what the clocks say, and something in the artificial lighting seems to agree; there's an overall increase in brightness as it approaches "noon." Meion has set herself up at the end of the row of computers, and based on the pile of costume-clothes on the floor next to her, she seems to have spent the night using them as a makeshift bed. But for now she's looking intent and curious at what seem to be schematics for some kind of large device, and frequently sliding herself over to the next computer in line to cross-reference them with some sort of database. She is, in short, happily doing her usual job like the change in venue has affected nothing.
Oh no Cielo has to be seen in something other than his costume. At first he felt clever for smuggling a few basic aid supplies into the party. Then he got to swing by the infirmary. Where he pretty much stayed, until forcibly reminded that he should be spending time with other candidates instead of spending the whole time squinting at test tubes. So, the lift swooshes open, the doors pave way, and the bag-eyed healer makes his way in with short and slow steps. A cursory wave is given, if he's noticed at first!
The wonderful thing about the lift doors in here is that they actually make noise. So Meion looks up from her work, and offers a wave to the dragonhealer she met on the way here. "Mm. Hey. You're the first one I've seen come through here." It's unusually quiet in the R&D area today - until Cielo came in, Meion had been alone in the big working bay. "I figured I'd try these out, since we're up here until… Well. Whenever we're up here until, I guess?"
"It's a very… uhm… curious choice. Having us stay here." Yeah, it makes SENSE. But Cielo was going to have a hard enough time sleeping at home after having the candidate's knot dropped on him. Now there's so much going on he can barely keep up. At least it makes him more docilewas that a concern?as he slips over and looks for a place to set himself. "That was my idea… I've been digging in at the infirmary. Thiiink if we linger together they'll let us get away with a bit more poking around before shooing us one way or the other."
"Maybe they just needed someone to help with all those leftovers?" It's not the most plausible reason, but the little cluster of candidates had been parked by the buffet table all night, even if it was more for the view than the food. "Infirmary - you're one of the healers?" A pause. "Don't think I saw you in there after they Searched me, but I wasn't at my best then, either.."
Cielo laughs into the back of his hand. "Well. Regardless, I ~have~ been helping with those…." He trails off, and nods, and then shakes his head. "Oh. I work with the dragons. Most of the parts are different. I—well, I could probably do a stitch in a pinch." But beyond that would probably go poorly. Cielo rubs at his chin a bit. "I wonder if anyone ever gets Searched when they're at their best, heh."
Ah, that would explain the lack of presence in the healers' rooms! Meion looks around before commenting. "I'm sure the folks from Fort do. They look like they've got everything all organized; you probably get an appointment for someone to come Search you." She laughs. "I'm sorry, that's kind of mean. But.. I don't know, they're just so.. together, and we're kind of…" That sentence trails off. We know what we are, right?
Cielo pulls a small macaroon out of his bag and nibbles at it. "Hah. A little. But, I'm sure there's a dragon out there somewhere who is all business. It takes all kinds?" He rubs at the side of his head and smiles a little. "We're… who we are. Growing. Finding our place. Making connections to places like this?" He looks around. Not like any of them could build such a thing, at least… not right away.
Meion laughs at that. "Maybe that's why we're here. Some sort of weyr-politics thing so we're better friends with the starcrafters or something. Though, if that's what they after, they probably should have remembered that we're, um. I don't really think any of us are any good at meeting people." She gestures to the computer. "But hey, I've made friends with this database!"
Cielo thinks about this for a good long while. "Also why they stranded us up here in masquerade outfits. I mean… things to borrow, but still. Quite the maneuver. It's not the worst opportunity though, is it?" He peers over at the gestured computer. "And we'll have something to talk about when we get back home." But is there more to it than that?
Meion's managed to scavenge up some sort of full-body jumpsuit, though sleeves and legs are more than somewhat cuffed. At least it's not a borrowed coat for another day! "We will definitely have something to talk about. And no, I'm not going to complain about time up here with these things." She laughs. "But I will complain about my klah! It's going to be so, so oversteeped if we're up here for too long!"
Cielo spins in his chair. Do the chairs spin? Does he even realize he's doing it? Well, that last one, no. "You may have to start over," he laments. "Is it that difficult to put together? I mean. Hate to waste a good thing.. maybe… hrm…" he considers his hands for a bit. "Maybe someone will look after it."
Rolling chairs are so incredibly weird! But nice for sliding back and forth between these terminals. "I mean, it'll just be really strong, I suppose. I've never let it go that long, but.." Meion laughs. "It probably won't go to waste. I don't think anyone else knows about it, so…" A shrug! "Another learning experience to come out of this."
Cielo lets his feet almost touch the floor but not quite. It helps with the impulse. "Could always cut it with something, as long as it doesn't ruin the experience too much. It had enough of a kick as it is…" Was he up all night for OTHER reasons too? Gosh, it didn't help, did it. "… let someone know about your Klah, just in case you get abducted into space?" He laughs.
Meion laughs! "No, no, I think if people have too much of the klah, that might be why they end up in space!" She grins. "Or something of the sort. Don't let the dragons at it?" She's better at this social thing when there's just two people, and one of them isn't being all threatening and ominous at her, or offering her a white knot.
"Ha. Ha ha. Yeah…" Cielo manages a smile. At least he's managed to accept this isn't some sort of weird fever dream. Probably. "I mean, there is a dosage to consider, but… no. Steeping that long, I can only imagine. The riders are the ones usually doing all the crazy stunts…" He heard something about skis? Ye gods. At least Cielo is the opposite of threatening and ominous. "I mean, it's just.. Searching, right? There's still… so many surprises."
"It's all surprises, I think." Meion laughs, shakes her head. "I mean, two nights ago I was staying up trying to figure out the temperature on the hatching sands, and now I'm IN SPACE and I have to go Stand on them later and I don't even know what tomorrow is going to be anymore." She sits back, only a little stunned. "I haven't even had a chance to send a message to my mom yet. She doesn't know."
Cielo thinks on this for a moment. "There's always a bit of dragon traffic in the hold. Maybe someone could take word back, if they're headed that way?" He wonders, smiling a little. "… come to think of it, my mom won't know either. Not 'less D'lei sees fit to let her know they left us up here. She's not much of a worrier, at least…" For lack of something to chew on, he pulls another snack from his bag and peers over. "… why the temperature, anyway?"
"Oh, mine's not going to worry." Meion shakes her head, grinning. "She's probably off inspecting some new mining site, or identifying some kind of mineral. But I want to see her face when she finds out. It can wait, I guess." She sits back when you ask about the temperature. "Because it was there?" A laugh. "I mean that, actually. I noticed something was putting new data into the storage that's at the weyr, automatically, and I was tracking it down. There's some sort of sensor built into the heater for the sands, and it looks like it reports on its own temperature."
Cielo smiles softly at that. "Well. Good that they have their own lives, yeah. And Auntie, well, I'm too old for her to worry after anymore. Got plenty more to take up that…" He sighs wistfully, and then centers into the topic with a fixed gaze. "… huh. That could actually be really useful. Oh, even if it's pretty convenient, I would want to double check the sands anyway. You can never be too reliable…" Ahh, and there's the doctorly fuss.
Meion starts laughing. "Oh no. Oh, no, was that you?" She grins, staring at you appraisingly. "When I asked around the dragonhealers' if they had any kind of measurements, they said they'd had someone measuring them at certain times each day, and they let me copy the readings. Were those your notes?"
Cielo points up at himself as if processing the accusation for a while. "T-they could have been. I'm not the only one that takes them! It's important, but also hard to screw up… and conventional wisdom is easy to follow when you have a record and all that." Says the man who brought a notepad to a party. "I hope they were… helpful?" Legible, even?
Another laugh. "Yes. Yes they were." Meion turns to reach for her notebook before she remembers it's a very, very long way from here. "It was enough for me to figure out that one of the fields of the data changed exactly in sync with it, and then I was able to convert that field into the temperature." A triumphant grin. "And that's how I figured out it was a temperature sensor."
Cielo looks positively perplexed. "How long has that BEEN there?" he wonders. "It's not like we can go tearing the place up, but I wonder what else is buried there…" Wonder, worry, a sword that can cut both ways. But before he goes off on a frantic flurry he scratches the bridge of his nose and draws a breath. "That is. Exemplary though, isn't it? And how long have you been at the Weyr again…?"
An interesting question! And one Meion could probably answer. "I bet we could figure it out, by looking back to when the data first appeared. At least, we could tell as long as it's newer than the main storage system." She stretches back, putting her feet up on the chair next to her. "I bet it's actually part of the heater. I mean, if they used something from up here to set it up - or plans from here - that might just have been normal." She looks across at Cielo. "I, um. I got here a bit more than a week ago. Just made journeyman in computercraft, and I wanted to come where all the fancy systems actually got put in. The old weyrs have so much less…"
Cielo taps his finger in soft rhythm on the nearest surface. "… well. If there ~is~ a connection between this station and the equipment at the Weyr, it suddenly makes a lot more sense why they put us up here. Though wild speculation isn't exactly appreciated in my hall." He grimaces and looks over. "Normal is very good though. Especially for the hatching sands. Oh, but there's so much that could be there. I grew up in Xanadu and I didn't even know there was a sensor there. What else am I even missing…?"
Smug is apparently an expression in Meion's repertoire. "You know who else didn't know about it?" A beat. "Everyone. I just told the Weyrleader and weyrwoman about it, when they came to find…" The smug fades a little, as she puts the facts together. Right. They probably had _not_ been coming to find her in order to randomly learn the secrets she had not even told them she knew. "Huh. They really were coming to Search me, weren't they?" It shouldn't be shocking to her, but she still half-felt like she'd been Searched as some sort of reward for having found such an interesting tidbit out, even after they'd assured her otherwise.
If Cielo ever found that one, it might be cause for worry. Instead he laughs warmly and sighs. "Oh, I suppose that makes me feel a little better. Not TOO much better. But I'm just going to have to make up for it. Imagine not knowing your own healing halls… that's trouble in the making. Still, if we have people like you around, it should not be an issue long…." But there is a more important piece. One he turns attention to with a little tilt of a head. "… our fellow candidate was worrying about… dragons making mistakes. And I would not say that they are completely immune to misfortune." He closes his eyes a moment. "But I think these decisions are made with more foresight and consideration than we are ever aware of…"
There's a long pause as Meion considers that one. "I want to say that I can't believe it, but…" She shrugs, looks up at the ceiling. "They're really different, aren't they? I mean, yeah. Maybe they're looking at things we can't see. Who can say?" She shakes her head. "I'm just going to have to go out there on those sands and find out. We both will."
Cielo laughs. "I'd like to say I'm going to just let what happens happen, but I know I'm not going to stop worrying about it." He trails off for a moment. Nods a bit. There really is just a good time for silence, airflows, databanks rolling. "We will."
A bright, sharp laugh from Meion. "Oh, I'm gonna worry about it like nobody ever worried!" She grins. "We can see who worries most. Try to get the worry-prize."