
Xanadu Weyr - Caverns
A massive cavern in its own right, this one has been skillfully adapted for human habitation. The high ceilings have been painted a light, soft ivory, as have walls hung with numerous tapestries that provide brilliant color and insulation from the stone. The floor has been left in its natural state, pale pink granite speckled through with glittering mica and dark flecks of basalt. The stone is carefully leveled but kept sufficiently rough to avoid slips.
The cavern itself is loosely divided into areas, each one set up to be suitable for some segment of the Weyr's population. The most frequently occupied area is the one near the Kitchens, where tables of varying sizes provide a place to sit down and eat or chat and a buffet of consumables is almost always kept stocked. It's plain that on most days, this area wouldn't accommodate anywhere near the full population of the Weyr, instead feeding people in shifts as they come off duty. On occasions when a formal meal is laid out, tables are borrowed from all the other areas.
There's also a big fireplace set into the western wall, several comfortable chairs nearby providing haunts for elderly residents or riders who like a good view of all that happens. Rugs cover the floor in strategic spots, all of them abstract or geometric in design and most in the softly neutral colors of undyed wool.
Exits lead off in all directions, the largest an archway to the northeast that leads outside. Near it there's an alcove with hooks for coats and shelves for muddy boots. A tunnel to the east goes to the infirmary, and a set of stairs just a little south of that lead up to the offices and administration area. To the south, a long and sloping tunnel leads down to the hot springs. The kitchen is off to the southwest, while the residents' quarters are reached by tunnels going west, deeper into the cliff.
"Only two?" Nessalyn shoots Sylvarin a look of disappointment. "I expected better from you. I think you could've cut off at least eight in the time it took me to fix that light." She elbows him lightly, turning her head to watch as the pirate just walks out of the room without another word. Sorry, Rinian! Looks as though you're finishing those chores alone. "You could have no answered the question. It's not keeping the peace when you participated, it's keeping a secret." A shrug, and then she dissmisses the whole thing with a little shake of her head. "Whatever. Like I said, it's the nice ones who'll let you down."
Sylvarin decides, perhaps quite /wisely/ at this time to stop asking about whatever had happened earlier. He's just going to deftly avoid the subject altogether now. Instead he'll focus on the jokes at hand. "Ah but then you see it'd be far too conspicuous, but I promise…the next chance I get I'll have a suitable number of severed fingers to offer you m'lady." The baker smirks slightly at Nessalyn's direction winces in fake pain at the elbowing. Eyes shift over to the sweeping Rinian now and the baker /should/ offer to help but….sweeping dirt is /not/ his strong point. "Time to take a break from chores?"
There are really big hazel eyes for the pirate guy whom Mathis had passed on his way it, doing more looking behind him than forward as his feet does that delayed stepping thing of someone lingering longer than they should. Blinking in rapid succession, he narrowly misses careening into someone the moment he turns back to face the caverns again, managing not to drop the many heavy fish he was carrying in from elsewhere. He'd been assigned Fish and Game for his chore and been gone since before dawn at the insistence of the old fisherman who'd he was to shadow. Lugging his load in the rest of the way, he hands it off to someone from the kitchen. This done, he's rather quick to skitter off and away, least he further infuriate that woman with spoon and upon spotting some of his fellow candidates, offers a big grin and a happy enough wave.
Rinian sighs and returns to her sweeping in silence, not even noticing Matty's arrival and happy wave. She really just need to stop with the social interacting, as it never seems to go well lately.
"As long as the cleaver isn't in your hand, I don't see how it would be conspicuous," Nessalyn states airily, frowning at Sylvarin like he has committed a true faux pas. HOW DARE. "As long as I get the fingers at some point. I'm making a necklace." She wiggles her eyebrows in a slightly ridiculous way, before she moves away from him to begin restoring the tool kit to its former glory. That's right, she's putting things away. She happens to glances in Mathis's direction just in time to catch that wave, and rather than return it, she simply looks perplexed by his enthusiasm. "I'm done with my chores," she offers with a shrug. That might not be entirely true, but she's done with this chore, at least.
"You're right, the splatters of blood on my clothes wouldn't give me away at all." Sylvarin shoots a smirk in Nessalyn's direction for that eyebrow waggle, and when she wanders away he apparently decides it's time to bother Rinian. Because there she is, minding her own business, and here the baker is coming up behind her. "Not going to dislocate my arm today, Rin? I'm practically offended." The spark of amusement in his eyes and a quick wink perhaps are a clue that he's joking. Out of the corner of his eye he sees Mathis arriving and there's a wave sent his direction as well!
"Me too!" Mathis cheerfully chirps at Nessalyn, either not having seen her perplexed expression or chosen to ignore it. Dealer's choice, really. "I had a really fun day! We went out on this BIG boat," To emphasize this, the woodcrafter boy extends his arms out really far apart, "And we went out really far…REALLY FAR. I mean, like we couldn't see Xanadu at all anymore…and we caught all these really big fish." Quite happily he prattles on describing the fish and how many he caught which was an impressive three, and how hard they were to pull in but how the old fishman had helped him, " You know, I was kinda nervous this morning, but Gerrif was really nice and explained everything and answered all my questions." Undoubtedly his many incessant questions, 'cause that's how Mathis do. Man must be some kind of saint. Before he can go on, Rinian is noted and her lack of being Rinian. "Rin, you okay?" Maybe Sylvarin's totally got this, but she was his best friend so, he'll just sort of twinkle-toe that direction so he can lean way far over and peeeeeer at her.
Rinian doesn't stop her sweeping and apparently after her interactions with the pirate and Ness she's not feeling very jokey either. Speaking softly she says, "Sorry about that. I hope you're feeling better?" She does hear Mathis and is glad he's had a good day, nor does she want to spoil it for him. "I'm fine, thanks." Sweep sweep sweep.
Nessalyn shrugs. "If you did it from the right angle, there wouldn't be any blood on you," she points out as though she's an expert in such things. Ah, all the fingers she has chopped off in her time! She rolls her eyes in Rinian's direction, much less sympathetic to the woodcrafter than her fellows, but she's also the only one privvy to whatever happened prior to their arrival. And then Matty goes off, and Ness just stares at him like he's some kind of foreign creature she has never seen before. "Why are you telling us this?" she asks after a moment, bewildered and annoyed in the same breath. "You needed exactly one sentence to explain what happened today."
"That I am, all better for the most part." Sylvarin grins for a moment, but it seems this is as far as he goes on the emotionally-supportive scale. It's not /exactly/ relief when Mathis comes over but there's something akin to that, and it certainly gives the baker a nice way to escape the situation. "Well, you'll simply have to teach me the proper art of finger dismembering then, won't you?" There's a smirk on his lips as he makes his way back over the to the engineer. And that whole business about the boat? It seems to be going mostly one in ear and out the other….but perhaps not quite because there's a bit of an unpleasant look at the talk of all that /fish/. "That is a good amount of fish?" Because he honestly doesn't know. The baker certainly doesn't go out and catch the seafood he puts in his evil desserts!
Taking a deep breath, whatever Mathis is thinking about Nessalyn's bewilderment and annoyance with him is surprisingly kept to himself. He sure did look like he wanted to say something but instead he just heaves out a sigh and looks…sorry…for her? Then, he brightens and holds up a finger, the 'wait a sec' finger not the other obvious choice, and rummages around in his too full satchel he always has him. "Because you're my friends and friends should tell each other about their day, good or bad." He comes out with a beautifully carved box that's been stained and varnished with a clear glaze. As carefully as one would approach a rabid honey badger, the boy sets the box as close to the woman as he dared and then gets out of there as fast as his legs will carry him. There's one for Rinian too, but the pattern and stain is distinctly different, offering it over to her with a soft smile. "Here, I made this for you. I hope it makes you feel better." He had no idea what had transpired to make Rinian thus, but he was doing his best to cheer her up. To Sylvarin, Mathis beams brighter than the sun and nods his head repeatedly up and down in bobbling motion. Seriously, if he puffed his chest out any further, "Three is really…really…good. It was my first time fishing ever and Gerrif said that a lot of time people don't catch any fish at all for a while till they've done it a bunch of times."
Rinian rests the broom against her shoulder in the circle of her arms so she can accept the box with both hands. She takes her time looking it over and tracing her finger over its carvings, "Thank you, Matty, its beautiful, and very sweet of you to think of us."
"The fact that we're candidates together doesn't make us friends, kid." Nessalyn looks even more confused - and even slightly angry - when Mathis gives her the efforts of his craft. "What is this?" she demands, picking it up and shaking it a little (oops!). "Why are you-" It seems she thinks better of this question, instead holding it up for Sylvarin to look at as well. She glances toward him for his take on this strange practice of gift-giving, foregoing further talk about dismembering for now. They can get back to that later. "This is weird, isn't it?" she asks of him, her voice low but not so low as to not be overheard. Given the rattle of objects inside when she shook it, Ness follows the next logical step and opens the lid to reveal a ridiculous number of tools. "Oh." She looks genuinely taken-aback. "Did you steal these?" BECAUSE THAT'S THE RIGHT RESPONSE HERE, GUYS.
You paged Nessalyn with 'I just was telling Sylvarin that it just occurred to me how much Mathis reminds me of Spongebob.'
"Well done then," Sylvarin turns a grin to Mathis, a touch of amusement in his eyes for the boy's enthusiasm. "The real question though is how /big/ was the fish? I'll be disappointed if you say anything less than two feet long." Though again, judging by the one the baker is merely jesting! Who is he to judge the catching of fish? He certainly can't, and doesn't, do such things! Sylvarin is GIFTLESS. But of course he already got something, still that doesn't keep him from wanting to look at the boxes. And you know what THIS is? This is Sylv completely staying out of this whole friendship argument. There's a actually a small part of him thinking about going back into the kitchens given that wistful look shot towards the doors. "It's a pretty box!" But he's /definitely/ not commenting on the weirdness. Look at him being all neutral here!
Again, the boy's mouth opens, but not before he's shrinking back a bit from how angry his gift has seemed to make Nessalyn. Who gets angry when someone gets a present? Apparently, her. NOTED. Oh boy, she was really going to hate the other present he had waiting in the wings. Nothing he could do about it now, other than to gouge it out, but no way he was going to do that. Nope. He doesn't answer either the full or half question, but seems a little on the hurt side for the rest. Okay, so a lot hurt for the last. "It's not weird, it's nice." To give presents that is, or maybe he was speaking of the craftmanship of that box in her hands. It was a pretty box, Sylvarin had got that right. Mathis looks downright offended by the accusation that he stole anything, "I made them for you. Each and every one…well…the handles and the box…." The rest he probably either traded someone in the smithcraft to do or paid for out of pocket. Given he was a kid and probably had no money, likely the latter. Shaking his head at the baker, he sighs and turns back towards Rinian, "No, none of them was that big." BIG, HUGE, ENORMOUS sigh, "Sorry." All the winds had been taken out of his sails, leaving him to gently pat and rub at his fellow woodcrafter's back. "You're welcome, I hope you get to use them a lot." Yep, there was something inside the box he'd given her as well.
Rinian hasn't opened hers yet, instead she's been watching Ness' reaction. And yet..Rin is the rude one. Rin is the disappointment. Normally she'd be the first to try to cheer Matty up, restore that wind to his sales, but she's lacking any in hers too. She opens the box to look inside, and stares in complete surprise. Sylvarin might need to leave the room for this one, because her green eyes start to fill with tears that don't take long to spill out and down her cheeks.
Nessalyn continues to stare down at the content of the box for a moment before snapping the lid shut. "Why would you waste your time and marks," or not marks, as the case may be, "like that? You don't even know me." She's still faintly annoyed, but mostly she's downright confused. The box is placed on a nearby table with a shrug. She'll keep it, sure. She's just not sure why she has it in the first place. And then Rinian starts to cry, and Ness attempts to rest her forehead against Sylvarin's arm, mumbling a quiet, "Save me." SAVE HER FROM THE PEOPLE, SYLVARIN. THEY'RE GIVING HER THINGS AND TRYING TO BE FRIENDS.
Time has passed. Maybe more than anyone realizes! Because Teinon is back! (Or maybe he has skipped out on work to check on that situation in the Caverns that he left…) He walks in just in time to catch Rinian bursting into tears. Whaaaat. He frowns and starts walking that direction.
"Clearly we all need have a session of dropping things off the clock tower!" Sylvarin just /looks/ between the three, a slight frown forming on his face. There's silence from the baker before he let's out a sigh and just shakes his head. There's a small pat on Nessalyn's shoulder before he's noooooot so subtly kind of backing away to the kitchen. No one will notice right? He's still looking between the three, hoping that their focus remains on the box. Nessalyn is really the most dangerous one given that her head was JUST resting on his arm. Of course he /isn't/ looking where he's going and isn't going in the right direction and totally just nearly bumps into Teinon. Whoops!
The weight with which Mathis sighs next, was profound, still rubbing Rinian's back even as he slides his eyes towards Nessalyn again, "Just 'cause I don't know you doesn't mean I don't want to, and everyone should have friends and get presents even if it's for no reason at all." The enthusiasm and cheer was gone, but the kindness with which he spoke remained, regardless of the lack of gratitude and suspicion attached. "I think she's going to hate the tree, Rin." is whispered low, about a second before Rinian opens her box and promptly beings to cry. "Oh no! No no no…why?" Now the boy fusses over her completely, even though it seems as if he is at a loss as to what he should do now, and looks helplessly between all present. What had he done?! Back to Rinian now, his hands hover over her and slightly pat at the air around her a little, too afraid to touch her again. "…I'm sorry! I thought you'd like it. They're just like mine, b-but they're yours!" He had put a lot of thought into his gifts for the ladies currently present and so far today he was batting zero for two. Accusation! Sylvarin's not-at-all-subtle escape noticed by Mathis when he looks up again and practically sees a flashing dotted outline of where the man once stood, tracking him down quickly enough. His expression said it all: HEY! You sneaky sneak. And there's Teinon, to whom gets a rapid fire off of hand gestures. Wait. What? Well, someone's been a busy beaver.
Rinian isn't a loud and noisy crier at least. It's all pretty silent. But its not long before she carefully shuts the box, not so carefully drops the broom with a clatter, and then wraps her arms around Mathis in the midst of his hand waving. She hides her face against his shoulder, the box still held carefully only now behind his back.
HEY THERE SYLVARIN. Nessalyn lifts her eyes to scowl hard at him when he starts to back away. "You're supposed to be helping me," she hisses in a low tone. This is betrayal of the most accute kind! HOW. DARE. YOU. But if Sylvarin is making his exit and Rinian is getting all emotional, well, Nessalyn is going to take this opportunity to make a break for it herself. "Look, it's a… gesture, kid, but don't waste time and effort on gifts for me. I don't want it." That's for Mathis, as she begins backing away. "You did great work, I'm sure you can sell it for a good price and get yourself something nice. So." Thumbs up. And with that awkward gesture, Nessalyn is booking it out of there with the toolbox she came in with, and leaving that gift behind.
Teinon side-steps just in time to avoid running /completely/ into Sylvarin, but he puts a hand out to rest on Syl's upper back, just in case he stumbles or something terrible like that. Mathis receives a very puzzled look, his brow furrowing as the brain meats start working to translate the hand-flappy panic signs into something vaguely coherent. He replies with a signed answer, which player-Tei will allow each to translate or not according to their abilities! "What did Nessalyn do?" Cause /obviously/ it was Nessalyn.
"I'm helping you," Syl attempts a weak protest in Nessalyn's direction because….he's totally not. He's definitely trying to save his own skin on this one. "Look, I'll make it up to you with a clock tower session." ALL THE DROPPING THINGS and dessert! "Just…later." Because Mathis is shooting him a look. There's a split second of relief when Teinon places his hand on the baker's back, but…even that isn't enough to keep him here apparently. "I think a lot of stuff happened…but I don't think I'm helping so…" Here he trails off, quickly dropping a kiss on the herder's cheek and then POOF he is GONE. The kitchens must need him /so much/ given how fast he's disappearing.
"Whoa!" With Rinian throwing her arms around him, it's the clunky sound of the tools inside that startled and stiffen Mathis, awkwardly hugging her back at first before he's throwing down more of those frantic flappy signs, 'I think it was me? I gave her this really nice present and she looked at it and then started crying. I think I broke her!' Hazel eyes wide, he doesn't stop to think even for a minute that Nessalyn might be responsible, taking on all of the blame upon himself. Then, he's hugging the other woodcrafter tight, looking back towards the more likely of suspects. Her rejection of the gift he'd made for her is taken surprisingly well, which will be explained when someday she unearths the very same box amongst her possessions. He merely remains quiet and watches her leave, and the moment she's gone he's back to pleading with Teinon expressively. Where had Sylvarin gone? To the kitchen, probably to be beaten to death by a wooden spoon by that mean kitchen lady (who had not appreciated the fact that the man had pulled strings to get Mathis out of training duty and into the kitchen instead). Serves him RIGHT. Abandoner.
Rinian is making poor Matty's shirt all wet at his shoulder, as if he didn't have enough of water out fishing today. With her face buried she misses all the 'chatter' between him and Teinon. Between his shoulder, and her mane of hair, absolutely nothing can be seen of her expression.
Teinon accepts the quick peck with only a hint of embarrassment, though he gives Syl's bicep a quick squeeze as the baker escapes. He follows Mathis's…unusual signs, complicated by the fact that he now has armfuls of weepy Rinian. After a long moment of consideration, he tentatively signs, "What was it? She either _really_ likes it or _really_ hates it."
Mathis was considerably less concerned with his shirt being all wet with all matters of things that can make his shirt wet, than he was with the one making it wet. A few gentle pats and maybe a little rocking motion is being applied, mixed well with generous portion of 'shhh' and 'it's okay'. Sure, she's not being loud or obnoxious about it, like SOME PEOPLE who shall remain nameless (Totally Mathis), but she was obviously upset. From the way that the boy's face turns from worried to affronted, it's a safe bet that his reading of signs was better than his signing of them, 'It was a really nice set of woodworking tools I made for her, they've got her name and her favorite flowers on them and the box has them on it too!' A nice, thoughtful give, made from love and dead tree parts. Maybe a kidney or a liver. Wait, this wasn't the time to be thinking about that sort of thing!
gift
Rinian eventually straightens up, somewhat getting control of herself, and wipes her face. "Mathis…this is the most wonderful gift I've ever been given. Thank you." Her voice is soft and she still doesn't seem happy despite her words. Though the words themselves ring true.
Teinon grins a little at Mathis's signs. He may not get /all/ of that (maybe not most), but he gets enough to be able to respond. "Then she _really_ likes it. She's a girl." Apparently that's the only explanation Mathis is going to get, because Tei is sort of…backing away slowly as Rin starts to recover. He doesn't want to intrude on their moment.
As Rinian calms to some degree and moves a bit outwards, Mathis gathers her face up and takes a nice long look at it and then the rest of her to make sure she wasn't physically hurt before he perfectly mirrors Nessalyn's perplexed look from not that long ago, "You're welcome, but…I didn't mean to make you cry, Rin. I'm sorry…" He will totes make sure that he was less thoughtful next time. Promise! Glancing upwards towards Teinon. This does not help him look any less confused. 'What does her being a girl have to do with anything?' is roughly signed back, and as crude as his signing was it was way better then awkwardly standing there and waiting for the man to write at him. What is one supposed to do in that time? Whistle? Check the time? Admire the crown moulding? All of the above? Another of those same 'HEY!' looks is sent to the backpeddling Herder, 'Don't be like him, stay here and help me! Or else I'll give your present to someone else.' Oooh, pulling out the BIG threats this afternoon, he must mean business.
Rinian shakes her head and another wipe to her face makes her miss Matty's signing. "It's not your fault, and I love them." She crouches to pick up the broom, and with a sigh looks at the partially swept floor. She wants more than anything to get out of here, but there is still work to do. She goes to set the beautiful box with its amazing contents near her firelizard, where she's been sleeping somewhat near the fireplace. Thankfully she slept through the emotional part there, so she didn't have to deal with an upset baby lizard. Hands now free but for the broom, she gets back to work.
Teinon glances to either side, uncomfortably. He doesn't want to /abandon/ Mathis, buuuuut…. "It's a good thing," he signs, with a broad, forced smile. "She likes your present. This is really a private moment…" The signs kind of devolve into gesturing vaguely at the exit. He has /very important business/. Of some kind. Over /there/.
Color Mathis completely confused then because what the actual heck? It wasn't his present that had moved her to tears like Teinon had said? An accusatory albeit brief glance back towards Teinon before he goes to stop Rinian from getting back into that forlorn sweeping again, reaching out for her broom. "Wait, then why were you crying?" The woodcrafter girl might have climbed a tree (and stayed there leaving Meion to clean up the mess) the last time he'd been as upset as she had been just a moment ago, but on one hand he didn't know that and on the other that sort of thing wasn't in his nature. "Come on Rin, you're always there for me. Let me be here for you." Yeah, call in a chit, she must have about a billion of them in the turns they'd known one another. Darkness that didn't really suit the boy's face flitters across it for Teinon's oh so discreet disappearing act. Frowning, "Hold on a sec, I have to go end Teinon a second. I'll be right back." But he's taking that broom away and drags it along behind him as he chases after the next of many escape artists that he'd seen lately, pulling something out of his bag and seeming as if he was going to slam it down onto the table beside him, but it's gently placed at the last possible second. One of the classic 'and I hope you choke on it' sorts of looks tossed his direction before he turns on his heel and stomps back Rinian's way. If the bristle end of the broom just so happened to smack into the side of one of Tei's boots along the way? SO BE IT! Muttering beneath his breath, he returns to Rinian while tossing her crutch away in the process. Goodbye broom. "Okay, lets go…somewhere else and talk because…" He was mad at everyone, except her right now. See those cute little plumes of steam puffing up above his head right now? No? Huh.
Rinian blinks, watching that entire display without a clue as to what its about. "I…I can't. I have to finish my work first." And Rin always finishes her work.
At this point, little Matty's brain is headed towards overload. Sighing in such a way as betrays his age, he tracks down the broom and the points to a chair nearby. "Sit. No room for argument, she was going to sit or something he hadn't thought so far of would happen by gum! He spends the next little while doing her chore for her while she rested and petted her firelizard or that box he gave her or whatever it is that she does while she sits and lets him help her. Sure, he'd been up most of the night finishing up the candidate class gift and then awoken before dawn to go fishing till late morning/early afternoon, but this was fine. Everything would be fine.
Rinian starts to argue with him but one look at his expression changes her mind. She sits, shifting miss sleepy to the sling she keeps her in..won't it be nice when she stays awake long enough to stay on her shoulder? The box is opened again, and each and every tool is taken out and inspected. That she likes them is obvious despite her less than cheerful mood.
Okay, so, sweeping up the rest of what Rinian had left unfinished takes a bit longer and a whole lot more energy than Mathis was expecting. He gets there, eventually, but his ass be dragging along with the broom by the time he finishes. He was really glad he wasn't the reason she had cried and that she liked his present, but now it was time for them to go so they could talk. Very single minded, as always, he sets the broom aside somewhere out of the way and herds his friend out of the cavern in such a way that even Teinon would have been proud. That is, if he wasn't dead to him right now. Which he was. Who needed more than one friend? Not Mathis. Nope.