Xanadu Weyr - Candidate Barracks
A long, low ceiling room opens off the entrance hall to the arena, one wall slightly curved as it is set against the outer wall of the arena itself. Cots are set evenly the length of the room, in two rows, each with its own small press at the foot, for personal belongings. Wide windows are spaced along the outside wall, letting sunlight in, while other lights are available for the night time hours.
Hefting an armload of laundry, Delenn appears at the doorway leading out into the hall. He can barely see over the pile of assorted clothing items as he carefully steps over to the first cot nearest the exit and drops his burden on top. Heaving a sigh, the Healer lowers himself to sit on a small bare spot not scattered with freshly washed attire and leans over to rummage in his press.
Orla is a touch on the grumpy side when she stomps into the barracks, she looks hot an sweaty and probably the Pernese equivalent of jet lagged. "Any idea where I can get myself some new clothes?" She asks of Delenn when she spots him with fresh clothing, she looks kind of uncomfortable in the clothes she's wearing. "I still don't know where anything is round here, directions to baths would be good as well if you can help?" She asks him in a northern accent.
Withdrawn from that press is, what looks like a small stuff redfruit with needles and pins stuck in it and a fist sized, highly polished, wooden box. Delenn nearly jumps out of his skin when Orla address him, just about dropping the two things he'd just brought into view. Wide eyes turn to the slightly older female, relaxing a second later. "The baths are off of the main cavern," he starts, providing a simple set of directions that a child could follow. Especially considering the early morning as it is now, with most people already settled into their scheduled tasks, and will be till about lunchtime. "You'll find the store also off the main cavern, I believe you can get clothing there, but I'm not sure." That said with a smile, he opens the small box and selects a spool of common mending thread, white in color.
Orla looks at the younger man and listens to the directions intently. "Thanks, I'm new here in case that wasn't flaming obvious already." She says with a reassuring smile. "My summer clothing isn't really the best to be wearing for doing chores in." She offers by way of explanation to him. "That and it's a completely different kind of hot to what I'm used to." She adds, her gaze flicking to what she assumes is a sewing kit of some description.
Listening as he threads a needle plucked from the pin cushion set beside him now, along with the once again closed box, Delenn only looks up once he can snip the end of the thread with his teeth. "Everyone is new to somewhere sometime." he muses, plucking a piece of laundry from the pile and seeking out where there might be a hole. Upon discovering it, he gets to work, his stitching quick and accurate. "Where are you from originally?" he asks absently, his green eyes flicking upwards to meet Orla's gaze before returning to the task at hand.
Orla watches the delicate work with an interested look showing through on her face. "Yeah I guess, I'm from the Lemos valley, I was sent to the woodcraft hall and that's where I got picked up from the other day." She tells him with a light grin. "Journeyman specialising in heavy construction, so it's a far cry from that delicate work you're doing there." She adds the last as she moves over and sits on the edge of a nearby cot to watch what he's doing. "It's been a while since I worked anything that small, You from around here I take it or just been here long enough?"
Delenn sets the finished item aside after reopening his small box and extracting a tiny pair of scissors to snip the thread after knotting off the mended area. Apparently he's not going to be putting someone else's underthings near his mouth, which should be understandable. "I'm from an area nearest High Reaches, and I've been living at Xanadu for about a turn." he informs Orla, having watched her progression from standing to sitting nearby, but now picking up another item that needs darning. Oh look! A sock. How exciting. "So what exactly does your speciality entail?" he asks, looking briefly to the woman before he's quickly stitching at the big toe placement of the worn item.
Orla waves a thick fingered hand towards the work that he is doing. "Is this what you normally do, or is it part of the candidate chores?" She asks him, a slight touch of worry showing in her voice. "It seems nice so far from what I've seen, just much warmer than I'm used to, Lemos can be hot but it's a lot dryer than it is here." She explains. "How quickly did you acclimatise to the weather?" She checks as she continues to watch, interested in how it's done. "I design, make and help erect barns houses and the like." She tells him. "Most of it's fairly common sense but you've got to make sure that the structure can support itself. You don't want walls falling over or roofs caving in, it'd be a bit messy really."
"I'm a journeyman Healer," Delenn replies, his hands steady as he quickly inserts the needle and pulls the thread through into a row of neat tiny stitches on the inside of the item he's working on. He pauses to point at the knot beside his candidate one, and then gets back to work. Glancing to Orla, he tips his head to the side as she asks her second question and his answers with a soft lifting of his shoulders, letting them fall back into place on their own. "Within a few days. It's much more a shock on the system if you went from High Reaches directly to Ista, which a few candidates have I'm sure." he offers her in return with a smile, snipping more thread and setting another mended item off to the side. He nods at her explanation of her work, that smile deepening genuinely. "You sound very passionate about your profession, is it something you've always wanted to do, or was it chosen for you?"
Orla nods her head a touch as she listens and continues to watch intently. "I like it, I always used to be a nuisance around the farm tinkering with the machinery and building things up. After a few turns of that they sent me up to the craft hall to be apprenticed. Turns out I was good at working with the stresses involved in structures and how to best keep them up so that's where I specialised." She shrugs. "It happens, you said you'd been here for about a year, did you get posted here or searched before?"
Delenn, perhaps surprisingly, looks pleased with Orla's response to his question. Nodding his head once with a bob, another item from the large pile of clean laundry in need of mending is selected where he sits with it on his cot. The early morning is ticking away as he talks with Orla who sits across from him. Needle and thread applied to yet another item, he shakes his head at the question posed to him. "Neither. I started my apprenticeship back home, and I moved here eventually when I learned I had a younger brother. I was recently promoted to Journeyman status, and searched soon there after." he says, and looks to the woodcrafter, "How about you?"
Keziah steps in from outside carrying a small skin. "Shards but it's thick out there." she mutters as she heads for the bunk and then lays on her belly and dangles over the side of it as she sticks her hand into a pile of blankets. "How's everyone?" she asks cheerfully. Though it seem almost as if she's forcing the sound of awakeness. Especially with the yawn that comes right afterwards. "'scuse me."
Orla grins a bit at his enthusiasm and listens. She's looking a bit uncomfortable where she's sitting, but not because of the company. "I spent a bit of time at Telgar before as a candidate, out with of that though I've spent the rest of my time in the Lemos valley until now. That's where I worked construction duties most of the time, the rest of it I spent back in the workshops designing and shivying my masters apprentices to get the cut of the beams just right for the projects." She glances round when Keziah comes in and lifts a hand in greeting.
Delenn cants his head to the side, this time because of Orla's obvious discomfort. Taking a moment to set down his work, he shoves the items he has yet to mend aside and offers her a comfortable spot on his own cot. After all, it was more comfortable then sitting on the frame of the things. The already fixed pieces are relocated to his lap, while his sewing box and pin cushion are returned to his press. The scissors are left out as well as the spool of thread. "What's it like?" he asks Orla, brows lifting. "Standing, I mean. The stories of everyone's experience is different, and I find them very interesting." Delenn gives Keziah a smile and wave as she enters, "Well, thank you. Yourself?"
Orla shakes her head at the offer. "Nah, I'm fine, I really need to get some more comfortable clothing, this is fine for nice summer gather rather than these hot climes." She replies to him. "That and a bath would be really good." She shrugs, leaning back by placing her hands a little behind her on the cot. "It differs depending on who you speak to, it's really tense, it's hot and uncomfortable out there, I don't think people really estimate how hot the sands underfoot can be once you've been standing on them for ages, it's really not like wandering along a beach."
"Good." Keziah murmurs and then she sits up with a smile and then she grins at Orla "The lakes really good for coolin' off in and all." she listens to Orla's impressions on Standing and she frowns a little remembering her conversation from last night "It's enervating and can be quite depressing afterwards" she notes and then shrugs a little.
Making his grand entrance is none other than one tall and lanky redhead with pants in earthen tones that threaten to engulf him whole right up to his chest and brightly grass-colored suspenders that cling to his shoulders to make sure they stay well in place. Even if they look to be riding a little high in the back for the young man but he doesn't pay it any mind. One clumsy step after another with large feet, Pareol settles down on his cot and sighs heavily before leaning back, bringing a hand up to push the strands of his firey red bowl cut high on his forehead before scratching at other regions of his anatomy, don't mind him. Bright eyes peer over to Keziah and then the rest as he chimes, "I bet it's not as depressin as this time, I went to the kitchens and the stew we be given made me sit in the privy fer two whole /days/?" There's a brow wiggled in question to Kez at that.
Again, Delenn tilts his head, this time in regards to Keziah. "I can understand that. Though you should look as the entire process positively rather then dwell on the bad. Don't you think?" he asks, and then sets off another mended item in favor for one that still needs fixing. He nods to Orla as well, more quick small equally spaced stitches replacing the hole that once deemed the fabric unwearable. A pair of long underwear this time. "I've noticed a lot of people seem to focus on the heat, the uncomfortableness of it, and the depression that accompanies with not finding a dragon companion. There must be something that drives people to accept to stand again and again, despite the disappointment. Other than the possibility of being chosen."
Orla nods her head by way of response, Pareols actions pretty much ignored as she replies to the others. "I think it depends on how you think about it." She says. "If you go into expecting to impress to a dragon and you don't then of course you're going to be sharding disappointed with how it turned out." She says. "Don't expect anything and remember what craft you could be going back to and you'll hopefully realise that it's not all bad, just a bit of a long holiday with lots of work."
Keziah groans a little, she's had to little sleep to be cheerful and philosophical. A glance down at the floor beside her bed and then she shrugs a little at Delenn. "Yeah, I guess." she murmurs as her attention wanders over to Pareol "Well dang, that's jsut gotta suck. Course, I suppose it's no worse than having your arm stuck up a caprine and all." she states with a straight face and then she can't help but snicker which dissolves into a fit of giggles. Finally she pipes up an answer for Delenn "Survival Camp!" she exclaims at the top of her lungs and then covers her mouth as she gets a bleat from down below. She leans over and whispers "Sorry."
"Havin yer arm up a Caprine? I've had me arm up lots of things but I don't recall if I've had the pleasure of Caprines. Had the pleasure of skinnin and cleanin and takin up the brains. I've got quite a collection me 'pprenticemaster says, though he also says I need to be usin more of what's in me own head rather than what's in me buckets. Dunno if that's gonna work though," Pareol says as he scratches at his chin while tilting his head from side to side with a look of pure concentration. Watch out for smoke… "Well, it might. Animals got enough brains to tan 'is own hide and I be a pretty big lad, mayhap I do has a decent 'mount of brains." Look at that grin on his face, it's only something his mother could love in all of it's puffed up squirrel, toothy glory.
"I don't see it that way," Delenn says, applying his scissors to another row of tied off stitches and tossing the completed effort in with the others. Randomly he selects something else, and starts anew. "While I've never stood before, I've decided to apply whatever happens to a learning experience. I have no preconceptions of what will happen when the time comes, but either way I won't come away from this any less of a person as when I came into the experience." he tells the women, snipping and tossing another repaired item. "I don't think a lifemate could make me any better then anyone else, nor would it make me more special than someone who did not Impress. Same goes for if I do not, and someone else does. I can see why someone might see Impression as a way to increase their value, but I can't personally attribute that to myself." Realizing he's babbling, Delenn flushes and goes quiet again, glancing once to Pareol but returning to his own task quick enough.
It's somewhat of a wonder that Arkoss was sleeping all through the conversation, but it must've been Keziah's shout that finally woke him up. Groaning, he sits up and stares blearily around. "It's too early." he complains. His chore is to run errands, so he hasn't been on call yet. He should be /soon/ though. "What time is it?"
Keziah rolls over onto her back from where she's laying on her cot and stares at the ceiling "Well duh. Only you can make yourself better and all, but it's not good to think of yourself as better than anyone else, because it generally means you're not and you're just full of yourself and other things. She rolls back over to eye Delenn and some of us are just born /special/" she states in a tone that can certainly imply other meanings and then looks pointedly at Pareol and then smiles sweetly at him "Course, a critter does tend to have the brains to fit it's body, that can't always be said about people." A pause "Especially guys who sometimes seem to have their brains stored elsewhere."
Orla bobs her head as she moves her arms and pushes herself up to a proper sitting position again. "It'd probably make it easier to cope with the disappointment that way." She replies to Delenn. "You'll do fine with that attitude." She tells him as she gets to her feet. "Thanks for the directions, I'll see ya later once I've got my stuff together." With that she glances round the barracks before she heads for the doorway and her mission.
Alara has been busybusy doing the dishes from the baking that was done during the night, and now that those are finished, she has a break from dishes duty until the early rider breakfast rush. So here she is, returning to the barracks, looking all /too/ bright and cheerful this morning, albeit still her quiet self, mmmm-hmmm!
"Don't be tellin me ye just be gettin up now, boy! Ye missed all sorts of fun things this morning when we got up 'fore sunrise!" Boy being Arkoss…cause he is one? "Got up in the morn, went the laundry and I did a bit o'sewin meself and there, I had to find what had to be the /biggest/ pair of undies I've ever seen! Asked the aunties 'bout it, didn't think they made clothing for herdbeasts." Pareol scratches the corner of his mouth before chuckling softly, turning his gaze towards the rest, "Ayup, felt bad for the critter so I gone an made 'em a tail hole in the rump so it's not all bent awkward while she's prancin bout." Little pink frillies and everything. Keziah is given a wide grin and nod of his head, sending that red bowlcut a'bouncin as he does. He can't agree with her more.
Arkoss is only two turns younger, what's he mean, boy?! "I get up when I get up." he grumbles. "I was up a few hours before dawn because Kira was hungry."
Delenn smiles and nods to Orla as she departs, "Nice to meet you." he says, even if they never quite got down to the exchange of names. Sometimes, it just didn't matter as long as there was a decent conversation involved. He files away what the older woman says into his memories and regards Keziah for a moment, "Exactly. No one can make that distinction. Who you are, is who you are, nothing can shape that. Not your upbringing, not your parents, and certainly not a dragon." A pause, "However, if you want to look at it another way, merely being searched should be enough. Though so many seem to view this experience as bothersome, yet they accept the honor regardless, because it's just that. An honor." Alara's entrance is met with a smile and nod, hello there, but Pareol gets a blink and a gentle shaking of the healer's head. Some boys were just less mature than others. "That's a good point," he tells Keziah, accepting that some males aren't able to focus on anything other than that which dwelled below their navels. "Though some aren't able to think at all. They rely purely on their looks and physic to get them through life, though to be fair, so do some women."