Xanadu Weyr - Weyrling Barracks
A long and roughly oblong cavern. About a third of the space is open, used for classes or chores as required. The rest of the space is filled with couches of varying sizes, all with plenty of space between them. Some couches are obviously intended for the very young weyrlings while the largest ones at the back are for the older weyrlings.
There are supplies for the care of dragons tucked back against the walls. A barrel of oil sits with scrub brushes and soft clothes, and a thick hardwood table is used to prepare meat in bite-sized pieces for the young dragons. There's also a few supplies for the weyrling humans, like bedding for cots or extra pillows for those sleeping on their lifemate's couch.
Like most 'sessions' with C'iel, all will likely happen out of the blue and with little fanfare. Quite literally out of the blue, perhaps, who is holding his 'captive' Rider oiling between his wings and letting out a lazy rumble from his foreclaws. «Tell me the names of the flying muscles again…» Ceru mumbles. Alas, dragon memory is not holding onto such things, but the rider is such a willing repository. Even his patience has a bit of a catch, though it is expressed in the faintest sigh and a little smile. "In a moment." He needs to gather his thoughts! And he 'cheats' a little by preoccuping the Big Blue with a gentle scritching near the crest. Complex inqueries fade into a warm hush in a hurry.
Meion sits nearby, and she looks up at the sound of faint conversation. "What's in a moment?" She sets the book she was half-heartedly trying to read down, not bothering to mark her place, then nodding faintly as Euclath fills her in on the question asked. "The big ones are the.. pectorals, right? Just like our chest-muscles, except they've got more to use them for…" She tries to remember any of the others, but her learning thus far has been fairly sparse on the subject. "Or am I totally off? I know not all the muscle groups are named even slightly similarly…"
Ceru and C'iel look over as one, though the former rolls back a shoulder enough to give Cee a little tumble. Down safely onto dragon-side, at least. «That is cheating. And I still want to know the answer…» The grump is half-sincere as the distraction was. "That's right," he nods, dusting himself and pushing himself up beside the blue. "The shoulder and upper 'arm' handle half the flight, but the pectorals do play into the upstroke of the wings. Granted, it's not enough to just have bigger, stronger muscles…" He slips over, until legs are dangling over the couch and gives Meion that extra fond look of a favored subject. "Is that a good and proper study you've got going, Mei?" Maybe they can help instead of.. interrupting.
Euclath comes in from Outside, where he had spent Entire Minutes without supervision from Meion. Nevermind that there were other weyrfolk around, or that there's the vague sense that Leirith and Garouth would somehow notice if anything went truly wrong. It's like independence! «Are we getting a lesson?» His control is getting pretty good, managing to all but leave C'iel out of the conversation until Ceru fills him in. "If reading a random book is a proper study…" She laughs. "No, not even that. I flipped through some of the diagrams?"
C'iel might be jealous, if not for his own whispers and shared looks. "I wouldn't mind going over a few things. Proper healers will be down with us soon, but it's always good to be thinking about such things. You are each other's livelihood now, after all." With a reluctant slip of bare feet onto stone, he sways on closer to get a peek at that book. If it's a direct answer to the passed-along-thought, it's hard to tell. "Live models are more exciting. Though I don't know if yours is as.. friendly to poking and prodding is mine." Which earns him a gentle tap of a tail against the side, and an amused dragon smile.
Euclath comes right up to C'iel, bringing his head up to stare at the dragonhealer. « Will we learn something? » He loosens his control for that, talking directly to the other rider. « I will permit many things if they bring knowledge. » Meion just smiles - it's an exceedingly Euclath response, of course. The book, on the other hand, has nothing do do with dragons - it seems to be a beginner's guide to programming for the computers in the craft complex. Meion really ought to be well-past that material, given that she was a journeyman in her field before Euclath had other plans for her.
C'iel smiles and leans back towards Euclath, on his toes. "Every day. If you want to. Though, it was my suggestion that Meion be the one to do the poking and prodding! I do not want your brother to get jealous." A distant, throaty chrrrl. He notices the book, too, and his smile softens. Not that he hasn't been sitting there reviewing the most basic of basic anatomy and treatment for many days. "Ideally, we never get hurt, but… we still stub or scratch from time to time. Hunting will probably sometimes involve a cut or a scrape. And ~some~ of us being more adventurous… well, we should know to care for each other. How familiar are you with dragon(y) first aid?"
Euclath laughs - at least, that's what the enthusiastic whirl of eyes and tangle of approving thoughts probably means in human terms - and slips back to curl around half-behind Meion, wrapping her up in his body. « What do you need to learn? » Meion grins, and shakes her head to C'iel's question. "If you assume I am not properly qualified to handle someone stretching a wing uncomfortably, then you are probably close."
C'iel seems a bit lighter at the 'sound' or feel of laughter, and brushes a bit of uncut bang from his face with a chuckle of his own. "For me, anything and everything. The color of parts that will… hopefully forever remain hidden to the waking world." And such things. Immediately, his attention is drawn to the supply area. Surely someone stocked a basic first aid kit for the Weyrlings! And surely he'd know where to pace over to. "Dragon muscles are a bit more resillient than ours. Provided they keep a healthy and constant diet…" Which means meat, which means hunting, naturally. "Good diet and good exercise. These days most muscle strain comes from…" A pause, a curious face. "… overexertion. Oh, where is it… there are a couple herbs we should be used to seeing…"
Meion nods. "Overexertion. Right." She's got a faintly odd look on her face, as she considers. "I'm glad for that, really. Some of the old records… there's stuff talking about the threadfall injuries." And of course she's read them, because reading everything she can find in the computer databanks is kind of her primary hobby. Not that she has time for hobbies now. « I will be careful. » She laughs a little, knowing Euclath is as capable of making good on that promise as she would be. "I know. But we should learn anyway."
C'iel most certainly does NOT look at Meion out of the corner of his eye, nor does he pause with one hand on a specially marked package for a bit too long before the ~sense~ of a black bird flits from Ceruadharth's nest and chatters conspiratorily to Euclath. Combine a telephone of the pair and the blue is probably left with some vague confusion about Meion's hair and the color of fine flora. "Indeed. Healer's value prevention over all else." Whether he catches only a part of the conversation, he continues. "Let us seee…" He eventually manages to produce a pair of… containers. How disappointing. "Redwort and Numbweed. You'll probably not be handling the raw thing but it's good to know what it looks like. One's a disinfectant and the other… well, does what it says on the tin. Good for topical pain relief and anesthesia." A pause, and he remembers back to something with tightly pursed lips. "… for dragons. You can imagine how fast it kicks into our skin."
Meion takes a look at the two containers, committing their labels to memory, and giving a little laugh. "So, I'm guessing there are usually gloves kept nearby, so we can keep use of our hands while we work?" She laughs. "Or do we just go around numb-fingered any time we need to use it?" Euclath comes up close while she's looking, almost putting his nose up to the tin. Meion nods at something, and rests a hand on his shoulder. "Medical things are usually a little unpleasant-smelling, yeah. But you'll be glad if you need it and it's there."
C'iel smiles a little sheepishly. "To be honest, I'm not sure how often non-healers work with the stuff. And SOME teachers will let you start a whole session with just the numb just to show you what happens…" He sticks his tongue out, which means Ceruadharth sticks his tongue out, for some reason. "Redwort and oil coating keeps you from losing feeling in your everything. Also turns you, uh, red." He lets Euclath explore them thoroughly before he tucks the things back away and scuffs a foot, pacing back couchward. "Some medicines smell nice! Like tea leaves, some, or aloes."
C'iel pauses, and twirls a bit of hair in his finger. "… they're heartier than we are by a longshot. There's a lot I could teach you, but I think our biggest enemy is going to be muscle stress. Rest for most, splints if necessary, and.. it helps them to work up slow and gentle exercises in the water. Saltwater can be soothing, too." A few other things that spring to mind are… beyond first aid. Unpleasant, and shady spectres on the whole that are there for curiosity but perhaps don't merit a full and eager prattle.
Meion nods, considering. "So, really, the biggest thing is avoiding strain when things are injured." Which is easier said than done, of course - but at least when she says it like this she can hope that Euclath will hear and understand, and maybe even remember. "And if I see someone with red hands, they've probably just come from doing something difficult and unpleasant."
C'iel laughs at that and pauses, at the very edge of where Meion and Euclath rest, kneeling a bit. "Probably. Though they might just be applying it for aches and pains, too…" A glance back at Ceruadharth. He cannot imagine having to take the dear's wings away, even for a short time. "At some point I can show you how to harvest it. I guess.. going out and finding things is going to be much more of a possibility for us now." There's a bit of fog in the push of Ceraudharth's mindvoice, the red-purple tinted plant something of a shape among the other faelike pleasantries. "Even if part of me just wants all of us to just stay here like this."
Meion smiles, re-taking her seat and stretching her legs out, as Euclath prowls back toward the door to make another exploratory circuit of the grounds. "Being here is nice, but I think Euclath's got the same aim as me - there's so much out there we could go learn about, but we need to make sure we know enough to go do it, first." She makes an expansive sort of gesture at the door. "I mean, when we can fly… when we can go Between together… Think of how much we can do!" Her definition of "we" seems to be somewhat less than the entire crop of weyrlings - but even so, it's got a definite sense of encompassing both the dragons and riders-to-be who are present.
And who can but resist to explore with their sibling, and conspire, perhaps, Ceruadharth slouching from his rest to explore. Perhaps Euclath can show him things a way he has not seen, and very maybe the other way around. C'iel remains low where he is, enjoying the creature comfort of ground and the looking up. "No, you're right, and I ache for it… now that we're connected I can't help it. The first part is finding it, the second part is sharing it…" That smile takes on more light as he looks up. "Everything," seems to be the answer to 'how much.' "Everything." Almost an exaggeration, that.
Meion sits back and nods, watching as the large blue follows his smaller sibling out. She picks up her book again, and this time it's a bit more obvious that she's trying very hard not to chase after Euclath, and reading the same page over and over again is still better than just sitting here and pretending she isn't fretting about having him out of her sight. "Everything and then a bit." She smiles over to C'iel - he's a better distraction than the book, anyhow. "We just need to get there, first."
C'iel, by contrast, seems a bit more faded and muted with those moments. His coping with the distance, to let Ceru's senses soak into him and not fret much because he is So Close, too close, almost. Drafted back by the raise of a voice and a lift of his head. "Oh, yes. With every bit of growing and learning along the way." And he cannot help his own curiosity, peering at the page. "… maybe I should learn the first thing about comp-utors. At least be able to recognize one and point you at it…"
Meion laughs at that. "Well, there's somewhere between not too much to learn, and way too much to learn. They're not that hard to use, really - it's like…" She pauses a moment and considers on the metaphor. "It's like a big library, but when you find something in the catalog you've also found the entire book. That's how we use them, mostly."
C'iel blinks a couple times. "I—I think I get the metaphor. I've just never had my hands on one. I didn't think they really pertained to what I'm supposed to be doing, but now…" Both hands go up with a laugh, and fall back on the cushion-side. "If they are anything like libraries, then they are treasures, mm."
Meion laughs. "When we get back to the main weyr sometime, I'll show you how to use one. I even know where to get some of the old records from the dragonhealers at some of the older weyrs." It's not as exciting as it sounds, unless you really want a few hundred years of reports from physical examinations and outbreaks of disease.
That certainly gets his attention. "Not that you have to make it relevant to me in particular! But, oh, that sounds like something I could spend days on…" There is a twinge of thought, as if somewhere in the universe, someone has suggested 'I will not be sitting around while you read. Unless it is a good story.' Which leaves him shaking his head a little bit. "… can we make records too?"
That gets an emphatic nod! "Oh yes. That's how they all got in there to begin with." Meion pauses. That's not quite true; there are the automated records that get created by some machines, but… "There's stuff I've seen that they used to be able to directly put photographs into the systems, back in the days of the Yokohama - but we enter it by hand, anyhow." And by we, she means computercraft apprentices. Data entry is good training for typing and other important craft skills!
C'iel may not be a Computercrafter, but there's a whole… youthful practicality of imagionation that kicks off and gets his foot thumping. "How much do the healers use these? Records are a VITAL part of our efforts." Patients to incidents to… the whole thing. "Sorry, sorry, I'm getting off track. It just feels like there's so much that we could do. There must be a catch…."
Meion laughs. "So, here at Xanadu a few of the healers use them a good amount. I think a couple of them do it so not everyone has to learn how. But yes! There's so much we can do, if we get the information into the computer." She nods. "I'm happy to teach you whatever I can, of course. Though there's so much else for us to learn, too.."
C'iel nods at that! "Well, we shouldn't be outdone by our human counterparts, that's for sure…" Meion would find that even if he is a little clueless in things, he is an eager conversation partner (and Ceru would no doubt find the infectious passion a thing of great contentment) to the point where he… probably talks until he just drifts off there. Silly thing.