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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.


Day off. Wait, let's say it again, this time with meaning. DAY OFF! Mathis could hardly believe his eyes when he'd woken up that morning to see his name clearly posted under the best six letters he'd ever seen in his whole life. It was like his turnday had come early, except it was still three sevendays away and he was still thirteen. He was going to enjoy this and everything else that encompassed a whole day off to the letter. Seeing as he had finished his outdoor project, he decides with the weather being what it was, he would do some whittling by the fire with a biiiiiig mug of something warm and delicious. That is where he's found somewhere between breakfast and lunch, curled up in one of the enormous comfy chairs by the hearth, a large portion of wood in his lap to which he applies the tools of his trade. Carving away, making a mess.

No day off for Meion - and if it were, she'd just have taken the chance to have a day uninterrupted to fulfill her crafthall duties. But instead, she's at work in the main cavern, keeping tables clear of dishes and floors free of… that. She comes up behind Mathis with a pushbroom. "Here to make my sweeping harder?" She has a teasing expression - the sort of approach that she hopes might result in a spontaneous offer to clean up after himself from the woodcrafter.

Sweep. Sweep-sweep. Sweeeeeeeeep. Such a gentle sound, almost blending into the ambient sound of the fire crackling away there beside him. Mathis was warm, so very warm, and that beverage he'd had not that long ago was like drinking liquid love. Oh, how he wished every day was a rest day. The boy hums softly to himself in time with that sweep-sweeping, applying more pressure with his wrist and scooping out another long curl of wood to fall away and drift to the floor. It's Meion's voice that startles him into stark awareness, turning his head quickly her directly and peering upwards at her with a small measure of alarm that vanishes in his very next breath, "Oh hi!" he chirps, a little brown lump nestled between himself and the chair shifting but settles soon after. Bocote was totes here, guys, but he's sleeping right now. Please leave a message after the zzzz. ZZZZZZZZZ. "Oh! Um." Brows moving in a comical slithering motion across his forehead, he looks down at all the wood chips, flakes, and curly-cues he was responsible for. His firelizard nips at him for moving, bringing a soft gasp past his lips, "Stop!" There might be a reason he was still sitting there beyond the fact he had nothing else to do. Grr, eyes darting back to Meion, the woodcrafter flashes too many teeth in a too wide grin and shrugs a little helplessly, "Sorry? You want me to stop?"

A little shrug. "I mean, I'm not going to tell you not to carve. But I'd be awfully appreciative if you swept up when you're done, so nobody yells at me for leaving the floors in a state." Not, Meion expects, that she'd actually incur anyone's wrath. But she's noticed how eager Mathis can be to be helpful to folks he likes, and she's not entirely above taking advantage of that a little. "It would be a big help."

It was what, midmorning? Indeed and on top of that it was winter in Xanadu. Fantastic. Did J'en have timing or what? At least he'd thought to wear his leathers, of which were almost entirely black (aside those crimson accents to be found on his jacket), fitting to his dragonrider physic and finsihed off with a pair of heavy looking boots of much the same. This all perfectly matched that shock of jet-black hair atop his head, all the more responsible for making distinctly golden eyes stand out beyond his skin-kissed tan. Oh, there was so more that made this man stick out like the soreest of thumbs. Tattoos, at least what one can make of them, creeping up one side of his neck and over his knuckles, knuckles that looked like they'd seen more than their fair share of fights. A piercing, steel looped through the flesh of his bottom lip towards the left corner. Two knots, side by side, one in the colors of Monaco Bay Weyr with the twists and loops of a wingrider. A single thread of bronze worked into it. The other, Senior Journeyman of the Computercraft. Patch: Deluge. So, search and rescue, sea division. Tall, he was very tall. Several inches over six feet, possessed of the looks that was fairly typical for bronzeriders. Yet, his expression was nothing. Not that he didn't have a face. He did. There just was no expression on it. At. All. Without bothering to look around that much, the man makes for the serving table for a class of water with citrus of all things. Like he owned the place.

Mathis blinks and his eyes go huge at the implication, "I was going to, I swear. I don't like leaving messes for other people." See, Meion didn't need to take the boy's good nature to her advantage, he would have done it anyway. There's a little shake of his head and a biting of his lip, "I promise, no one's going to yell at you." He was far too wrapped up in making sure that the computercrafter understood that he was an excellent helper to notice the entrance of that tall, dark, and handsome stranger. Maybe, given his track record, this is for the best.
A nod from Meion, and she looks down at the mess. "Okay - I'm counting on you!" She grins, and gives a quick sweep of the rest of the nearby area. A glance to the rider she didn't recognize - and then a look of slightly more surprise, as she recognizes his craft-knot, if not his face. His weyr-colors seem familiar enough, but she can't put a name to them. She returns the broom to the storage closet, and keeps an eye on the foreign rider, curious what errand has him here at Xanadu.

Glass of water obtained, J'en turns back to face the room as he takes a sip, observing the sights so to speak of which were few and far between. It was clearly between meal times and there weren't very many folks about, save for those busily preparing the next. It's not long before he spots those candidates though, given those white knots that they wore on their own shoulders, and for whatever reason this draws the set line of his mouth into the smallest curve of a frown. The little on? Ugh, no. Dismissed with but a passing glance, but wait…that one. That other knot she wore he knew all too well considering he had one of his own and uncharacteristically the bronzerider's eyes follow Meion as she returns a broom to it's rightful place. The woman may note that his gaze remains, once she's turned round. Everything about the bronzerider said to stay away, danger to those who dare approach, there is nothing to see here that you want anything to do with, but will she head that warning or would her curiosity get the better of her?

Cielo needs no convenient slot in which to return to bed! And return he does, looking a bit tired and in good cheer except for the fact that the blue firelizard wrapped around his neck is ignoring him. Snuggling him, but ignoring him. Perhaps he can feel the slight GUILT radiating off of his keeper on account of exactly one piece of missing fish. Scandal. Boots go *fop, fop* as the young dragonhealer-slash-candidate sleepily passes by J'en and orderly composes his cot. "Evening," He murmurs to the man in passing, giving proper gestures automatically before he looks up from where he comes to a rest. He glances between Mathis and Meion and does his best quiet owl impression.

BIG THUMBS UP for Meion. He's GOT THIS! Mathis is kind enough not to just sit there and watch her work, thinking this rude because he didn't have to. Curling back up, he gets to working again quietly, sans the humming this time. Scraping, scraping, scraping. More little shavings and such to add to the pile which hopefully Meion leaves be because he told her that he's clean it up. He doesn't look up again until he literally hears Cielo's voice, peeking around the chair to see him and offer up a grin and wave. "Oooh, you look sleepy Cee. Were you up late or hard chore?" It's about then that he spots J'en over there, by proxy, going real quiet as he just takes all of that in and slowly vanishes again out of sight. Maybe if he doesn't move, he won't see him. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good plan.

It's not hard to tell that Meion notices the staring. She makes immediate eye contact when she turns back around, and heads toward her craftfellow. "Can I help you?" If there's a rider in her craft here from another weyr, she's quite willing to assume that she's the reason - especially when he ends up looking so directly at her. She pauses along the way to grab a cup of hot klah from the insulated carafe where it's held - then thinks to pour another, noticing Cielo's drained state. She sets it on the arm of his chair as she heads over to see what J'en might be here regarding.

Golden eyes come up and off Meion for a moment with the passing of Cielo, taking everything in that he needed to know with a passing glance, seeing as as soon as he was done eyeballing him a second he returns his attention to Meion. There's a soft sound, maybe a grunt of some sort made in reply to the teen, offering no return gestures (appropriate or otherwise). It was back to fellow watching, including when she goes to get herself a cup of klah as well as one for that ass-dragging dragonhealer. All that watching, no, not creepy at all. Another sip of water and the bronzerider lowers the glass from his mouth on , all that neutrality lingering despite Meion's approach. "Nah. I'm good," he replies, tipping his chin towards her shoulder, "Noticed the knot is all. Dun run into many of the craft much." My, that was one seriously thick Istan accent he had there, which certainly conflicted with his weyrknot.
Suspicious. Too bad Cielo is ultimately a welcoming presence or he'd have to throw some shade. The only shade this time is the shade over his eyes. It takes him a couple of beats to realize there is KLAH at his arm and he wraps his hand around it like is life depended on it. "Thanks, Meion.." he murmurs. A slow sip of the hot elixir of life, and he can smile over at Matti. "All of the above. I'm.. trying to keep pace on my studies too and these sessions are getting closer and closer together." (A soft, inquisitive trill from the creature on his shoulder. Life!) "I'm fine. Really." And then he peeeeks again closer with a smile. "Whacha working on this time? … or should I not ask?"

Mathis leaves Meion to dealing with the foreign rider guy, who was not the least bit scary nor was he hiding from in his big chair facing the fireplace, focusing instead on Cielo. Returning that smile given to him without breaking a sweat about it, "There is a lot," he agrees, but doesn't mention that it makes him appreciate those days in which there were no chores on top of everything else. Cause day off guys, he's totally got one today. "But at least we're never bored." Always the optimist. There was something to be said about falling asleep the second your head makes contact with your pillow, too. Holding up his work thus far as it's asked about, shaping into what was unmistakenly a feline, minus those finer details that were missing. "It's not done yet, but I thought it'd be a nice present for his owner of the feline we rescued." Becote struggles free and wriggles out of that sweet snuggle spot, stretching and crawls up to the back of the chair. "Oh thank Faranth, I need to pee so bad." Shoving all his stuff into his bag, he jumps to his feet and hastily scoops up those shavings, dumping them into the fireplace. Why not? Everything burns there. It wasn't swept, per say, but he could come back and do that later. Shoving his stuff into his bag, he hurries off to relieve himself before his bladder exploded.

Meion notices the sudden rush of Mathis out of the room the moment that his firelizard permits him to rise. She glances over at the fireplace-dumping technique with only slight judgement - there's a bit of stray sawdust on the floor, sure, but at least he made a basic effort. Attention returned to her fellow computercrafter, she nods. "Not so many of us that we're common yet. Don't think we met at the crafthall, though." The ages line up well enough that they might well have been there at the same time, but - "I'm guessing you didn't study infocraft." Which, well - in a small craft, it's an even smaller specialty, with less immediate practical use than programming, debugging or actually working with the hardware.

What is more interesting? Klah, or friendtalk? … well, Cielo should not do a whole lot of eavesdropping. Even if it is woefully quiet at times. "I've never felt terribly bored in Weyrlife," he says to Mathis. "But I've never been this excited. Like.. ever." Finally. Nervouscited is like a pendulum. "That's good of you, though." It's nice to see Mathis giving more gifts! A lovely use of a talent, he thinks, though he doesn't— get to comment much more before the candidate runs like there were snappy cat teeth behind him. "… take care." He peeps, and then settles back in to try to catch his bearings. A fire and a warm drink might have the opposite effect, but… oh well.

J'en too notices the kid making for the exit with lightning speed, but he doesn't dwell on it. Instead he returns to the conversation he's started with Meion which was undoubtedly more interesting than mother nature's call. Speaking of which, the bronzerider fills up his own tank by polishing off the water he'd pilfered from the beverage station, draining the glass while the woman was otherwise distracted. There's a nod, simple and clean. "Not as many as the older crafts." Which made sense, given they'd been around long before AVIAS had been rediscovered. Setting his glass down into one of the bins for return to the kitchens, the bronzerider snorts softly. "Nah, programmin' an' hardware for meh, though info's got its merits." Nothing wrong with a smaller more honed focus for study. The man suddenly pauses, getting a distant look about him that paints the faintest of frowns upon the evenness of his expression. "Ugh, listen. I gutta deal with…something." A twitch of annoyance. "I'm J'en, bronze Leketh's rider. Might come lookin' for ya again next time I'm through." Nodding in place of any proper farewell, he heads right back out the way he came, with but a sweep of golden eyes over Cielo in passing.

Meion nods back to the bronzerider as he departs, and looks around for any additional chores she ought to be doing. She clears the dish-bin with that glass off to the kitchen, and then takes a seat near the fire - and Cielo - for a breather while the cavern is in a semblance of order for the moment. It won't last. It never lasts.


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