Xanadu Weyr - Caverns
A massive cavern in it's own right, this one has been skillfully adapted for human habitation. The high ceilings have been painted a light, soft ivory, as are the walls where numerous tapestries hang to 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, leveled carefully 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, however, 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. Its plain that on most days, this area wouldn't accommodate anywhere near the full population of the Weyr and equally plain that on such occasions when a formal meal is laid out, tables are appropriated from all the other areas.
A big fireplace is set into the wall near the Kitchens as well, 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, a big archway the largest and that leading outside. Shallow stairs to the west lead to the offices and administration area while tunnels to the east lead to the infirmary, kitchen and resident's quarters. Southwards, a sloping tunnel leads down to the hot springs and southwest is a wide tunnel, carefully roped off to avoid accidents.
Ysa felt like she needed another day off of work. She showed up early, started on a bit of paperwork, and then decided to call it quits and head home for a nap. Which was common the last month or two with her leg still in a cast. There were always other juniors that were available to help, anyways. So early dinner finds the goldrider coming into the caverns from the clearing, yawning widely as she makes her way towards the food table as gracefully as she can with crutches, more for the sake of keeping the heavy leg up. "Meat, meat… fruit," she mumbles, staring at the selection. Dropping one of the crutches noisily to the ground beside her, she begins piling the food high onto a big plate. A bit too much for what the woman generally tends to eat. But she hoped to pass word along to her weyrmate to join her, whenever he can.
R'miel has also skipped out on work a bit early today. He was anxious to see his son, who had been suffering from a coldthe past few days and was recovering. And Ysa calling to him to come join her at the caverns was perfect excuse. Had to help his crippled weyrmate of course! But first he headed down to pick up Lyram, who had been with the nannies. He comes in with the boy strapped in a sling on his chest and waves to his weyrmate as he heads towards the slection of food available. She gets a brief kiss hello and an excited squeal from their son. "Hey there love. How's the leg?" Then he picks up a plate. "What's good today?"
It seems that after Vivian and Nicca turning out the way they have - spoiled rotten and troublesome - Niva has decided to do the exact opposite of what she did with them with Cavin. And so, the infant is balanced on one hip as she emerges from the administration hallway, the other hand full of various papers which are being waved around as she talks enthusiastically with one of the assistant headwoman, the young woman nodding and heading the other way while Niva takes herself and her papers into the cavern and settling in the first available seat, without food at least for now.
Y'ki is..hungry. Yes, yes he is. Hence why the teen trudges his way into the caverns, still in the process of shrugging himself into his jacket. With as wet as his hair is, it's probably not a far stretch to assume the dolphincrafter was doing appropriate work related to his craft. …Or bathing. There might be a soapy-fresh smell to him. Maybe. Trekking toward the food, the bluerider simply starts piling items on a plate wordlessly, shoving a few hunks of meat down with as few green items as he can get away with. Somewhere..there's probably an older brother waiting to smite him if he doesn't.
Done with her runs for the day, Laera's first stop was the bathing caverns. Flying here there and everywhere is dirty work. She returns through the living cavern wearing loose pants that sit low on her lips and boat necked sweater that falls off one shoulder, her flight leathers in a bag from her shoulder. Her wavy hair hanging in damp tendrils at her shoulder. She sets her bag down before heading over to grab some food. She walks up behind Y'ki in the line and looks over his shoulder, "Lot of food there, D nagging ya again?" She asks with a grin on her lips as she starts to pile on her own plate.
Ysa smirks back in the direction of the approaching bronzer. "Didn't think ya would make it this early. The leg's dead weight, as usual," she answers quickly with a snort, glancing down at it for a moment before she waves the plate towards the pair. "I don't know. 'm getting a little bit of everything and thought you'd eat most of it." And she was. The plate looked full enough, but she makes sure to add at least one bubbly on the side. The extra crutch on the ground gets a shove with the good one, while she skips on her good leg towards a table. It's slow, but at least it gets everything where it should be. She picks one of the closest tables, dropping her full plate near Niva. "Weyrwoman," she greets her, flopping into the seat whether she wants the company or not.
R'miel's job thankfully didn't involve him doing too much manual labor, but they did involve a fair bit of flying around and playing public relations person for the weyr. Not that he minded, it sure beat paperwork any day. The bronzer smiles and nods to Ysa. "Yeah, skipped out early to see how Lyr was holding up." The bronzer starts making another plate, but this one has tiny proportions on it. It's clearly for the baby strapped to his chest, who complains when his mother starts to move away. After grabbing a couple of cups of klah, R'miel heads over to sit down with Ysa and Niva, giving a nod to both. "Weyrwomen." He grins to Niva's own sprat. "That must be the new guy. Say hi Lyr." Niva gets a sort-of wave, but Lyram has suddenly decided he's too shy to talk. Until he's spotted the food being mashed up - a clear sign it was for him. He points to it and calls lound enough for the whole weyr to hear, "Pudding!"
Niva takes a long time getting the papers settled, as Cavin seems to think that pulling them off the pile is great fun, for the boy is giggling away, the weyrwoman left to sighing slightly as she resigns herself to detaching fingers one by one until the papers are free and pushed to the center of the table. Of course, they now also show the sign of a struggle with a small fist. As Ysa settles down, Niva nods with a bit of a smile. "How much longer do they think you'll be in that cast?" She questions, even as she's getting to her feet to deposit the boy in Ysa's lap so that she can get her own food, no matter how much the woman may protest, though Cavin seems quite entranced with the slightly older Lyram, so at least hell probably behave. And so she's headed to the table of food, hovering behind the young blueriders, grinning slightly. "That much food doesn't do you any good, if you don't save any room for your desserts." She chides them momentarily, before starting on one end of the table to pick her own meal.
Y'ki tenses, turning his head just a bit to peer over his shoulder at Laera, eyes narrowed. "D'len's got nothin' to do with anything. I'm hungry." Though he does add one more fingerroot for good measure. Now nobody can say he wasn't eating his greens. They're on his /plate/. ..Now whether or not they actually make it to his stomach is a completely other story. He does pick it up though, cringing a bit at the sudden yelling of..little people. Ick. Niva gets a quick look, however, before the bluerider snorts, and starts moving for a seat. "I've got plenty of room."
Zevida moves in from the clearing, hair tied up in it's usual fashion. She has a straight path, right towards the food. Non-stop as she goes, no one is given a wave or so much as a glance until that plate is in her hand and something is piled on it. A nice little array of foods, greens, meat and a bubbly. She turns then, eyeing those in the caverns before she drifts off to settle at her own table and away from the babies, weyrwomen, and bronzerider.
Laera just grins at Y'ki's response "Of course, pardon my mistake." She gives him a little poke in the side before she finishes filling up her plate. As the Weyrwoman comes up behind them she looks over her shoulder, "You underestimate the teengage stomach Weyrwoman." She responds with a wide grin as she adds a bubbly to the side of her plate. She then moves out into the crowded cavern to sit with some of her wingmates.
Ysa chuckles at Niva's dilemma. "That's one of the reasons I refused to keep bringing Lyr to work with me," she notes, pointing a fork towards the crumpled papers. "I tried at first." Lyram gets a grin when her weyrmate brings him closer, holding her free hand out to him, seeing that it was finally free from keeping herself up. "Soon as the Healers have time, they'll remove it," she answers with a roll of her eyes and a frown. "Too busy today." Not to mention she was asleep for most of it. But suddenly there was a strange baby on her lap, and she stares at it in surprise. "Um, Niva? Weyrwoman?" She wrinkles her nose down to Cavin, loosely wrapping an arm at the squirming baby to make sure he doesn't fall off her lap, shoving her plate away from his reach, and finally giving R'miel a look. Help?
R'miel finally notices the rest of the brigade that's entered into the caverns. He gives a wave to the blueriders and when Zevi turns towards him she gets a grin and a wave. "Aw, you don't want to sit with us Zevi?" He does blink a bit at Niva and chuckles at her wrinkled papers. "Can't blame them. As excruitating as paperwork is for us at least we can read. For them it's as dull as staring at a wall for hours and hours." He laughs when Calvin is dumped into Ysa's lap. "Looks like you're on baby detail today." He finishes mashing up Lyram's food, then lets the baby loose from his harness and onto the floor. "Here, let's trade. You can feed your son and I'll watch the other one." Lyram meanwhile is looking confused at the other baby on his mother's lap.
Niva is at least quick at getting her food, shaking her head at the pair of young blueriders. "I'll take your word for it." She does however gather a pie of her own, a small pile of mashed tubers tacked onto the plate as an afterthought, before she's returning to the table, offering to take back her own son, to avoid inconveniencing the other pair any further, pulling the boy back onto her lap and settling him with a spoon to bang on the table while she shakes her head at the others. "Normally he'll just sit.." And the boy continues to bang the spoon - SMASH smash SMASH!
There will be no sitting alone! Even if that /was/ the original idea as far as Y'ki was concerned, he simply detours around a nearby table, and heads around to plop right next to Zevida. Ha. There was no mention of avoiding /blueriders/ after all. "Hey." It's a quick greeting, at least, before the boy just shoves a forkfull of food into his mouth, growling a little under his breath when the banging starts. Oi.
Zevida tilts her head as Ram greets her, only wrinkling her nose slightly and giving him a nod before turning to nibble on her greens. As Y'ki plops down beside her, her brows shoot up curiously before she offers a smile towards the bluerider. "Hey Y'ki." She greets before turning to look at the other table with the babies and the spoon being banged on the surface. A soft sigh before she turns away, attempting to ignore the noise.
Ysa suddenly becomes aware of all the others as well, seeing that her weyrmate was greeting a few of them. "Apparently not. And neither does that one, either," she says, pointing towards Y'ki with a shrug. She sighs in relief when Niva returns, handing over Cavin quickly. "No worries. Come here, Lyr, and we'll get ya your pudding." She picks up the infant from the ground, squeezing him close before frowning at the banging. "I think he needs some new playmates." She nods towards the two riders at the other table in what appears to be having a peaceful dinner. Or trying to. "Keep him busy and, well, quiet." She stabs through some of her own veggies, nibbling on a bit herself before feeding her son.
R'miel shrugs. "Meh. I guess we're too old and unfun to sit with. Plus we got the kids with us, and most teenagers hate kids." He watches Ysa hand off Calvin back to his mother. "So how old is he now, Niva? Old enough for some pudding?" The bronzer chuckles a bit. "Actually maybe you can help us out. We were trying to decide what age would be good to send Lyram off to sleep with the other weyrbrats. Any suggestions?" He winces a bit at the banging. Could be worse? The bronzer tries to ignore it, focusing on his meal, instead.
Cavin continues to bang his spoon against the table before it seems that even Niva has had enough, for she's pulling it from his grasp, resulting in a quick wail before a spoon full of tubers is shoveled into his open mouth, quieting him for the time being. "Oh, soon enough. Its hard enough to feed him and try and eat. Worse when he's done." But, for now she's taking advantage of the distracted baby, taking a few hurried bites of her own meal, before waving her own fork a bit, keeping it out the way of grasping baby hands. "Hm?" And then she's blinking. "8 months. And, not til he's a couple of years old. Otherwise, they'll resent it." The teenagers get another curious look, grinning a bit.
Yes, the lone, somewhat grouchy people can go off and sit together in silence. For at least a few minutes, anyway. Y'ki just chews for a bit, before he finally speaks up again, resting an elbow on the table. "I dunno why those..things have to be everywhere." There's too many babies roaming about, after all. They're loud and annoying. He does send a little look at Zevida though, brows raised somewhat. "/You're/ not planning on popping one of those out, are you?"
Zevida looks back to the table while munching on a bit of meat to join the greens, her brows perking up again as Y'ki speaks. An attempt to gently rap him on the arm as she rolls her eyes. "Don't be rude in front of the mothers." She scolds, shaking her head. "They aren't so bad when they get a bit older, you were a child not too long ago yourself, Y'ki…" Trailing off she shakes her head. "Never."
Ysa winces when the other baby starts to wail, only to sigh audibly when he gets distracted instead. Nope, she only likes her own son, making sure he gets his food now. Lyram was curious about the other baby, but at least he was eating his food without complaint. It helps having the pudding. She eats her own meal between bites. "A couple of years!? But… well, he's almost one already. I was thinking 'round two turns would be the best time to send him off to the nannies." She frowns down at the infant, who squeals again when he gets his own dessert. She glances back as well to the other weyrwoman and bluerider, arching a brow curiously before smirking.
R'miel nods to Niva. "So he's only a few months behind Lyram, then. And that's what we figured. After about two turns. Which means we get to keep him around for another turn. Figured we'd get him a cot for the weyr when he wants to stay with us and we want to keep him." He does grin to Y'ki though. "Be careful, women are known to change their mind at the drop of a hat." Then he turns to Ysa. "And all the sudden they're pregnant and not telling you." He grins at her.
"You never plan on it." Niva comments around the latest bite of her meal, directing it to the youngest of the weyrwomen. "They just happen. Again and again." Cavin gets another bite shoved in his mouth, though it takes the scraping of his lips with a spoon and a second attempt before it all actually stays there. "Just make sure to let him back whenever." Glancing over her shoulder at the younger two again, she leans closer to the others. "Otherwise they turn out like Vivian." She offers in a hushed whisper, less her daughter's peers hear it.
Y'ki just rolls his eyes, sending his gaze toward the table weyrwomen and bronzerider, a singular brow raising upward. "Never plan on it? Oh don't make me laugh. There's plenty of ways to /prevent/ it if people don't want 'em." There's been that red/blue stuff on Pern for ages, after all. "Plus, sure isn't difficult at all to take a few hops between after you go at it. Prevents it from happening." There's a huffy little snort then, and he chews on a bit of meat, shrugging, before he looks at Zevida, blinking. "So, what? That makes me 'not so bad' because I'm /not/ a little kid?"
Zevida gives Niva a look, frowning. "Don't intend to have kids cause there's no one worthy." She points out, chewing on her meat again then nodding her agreement to Y'ki before she glances at him again. "Well, do you want to be bad?" She asks simply, turning to watch the others with a quirk of her brow, not entirely paying attention to them. More or less, just looking.
Ysa rolls her eyes at R'miel. "I never said never… not that I can remember, 'less it was back when we were candidates and that was /turns/ 'go." She points out, making sure to get a bit of wherry into her diet as well. She nods back towards the Weyrwoman. "We won't be keeping him out. Definitely like having him 'round, but it'll get crowded in the weyr if he stays any older than that." She listens to the younger riders over at the other table, chuckling between bites. "Sure there're ways to prevent it, but people forget. Or get grounded. It can happen… or Zevida there suddenly decides she wants one of her own little brats." Said in the most affectionate of tones. Really. "What's worthy got to do with it?"
R'miel chuckles. "They only happen if the girl wants them to happen. Well, usually. Unless they just end up pregnant at a bad time. Like while her dragon is stuck on the sands. Then it's not so hard to between away." He laughs at Ysa. "As I recall you said 'in a few turns' not too long before you got pregnant. While we were at Ierne, you said this." The bronzer pokes at her side a bit, before taking up a bit of wherry for himself. "If you're waiting for Mr Perfect to come your way Zevi, you might be waiting a while. Not that I'm saying you ought to go out and get pregnant right now. But if you got a Mr Tolerable around, you might want to dig your claws in."
"One day, I'm sure you'll change your mind, and want a little you. You may not think it will happen, but it will." Niva reassures the young blue rider with a smirk, as it seems that Cavin has had enough of the tubers, for he's already starting to squirm, spitting out each mouthful that she attempts to give him, before she's giving up, and just wiping off his face, setting him down on the floor, the boy pulling himself into a seated position next to her leg, staring with hazel eyes up at the anti-child duo. "See, you'll change your mind." She comments absently to Zevida, watching the boy's actions with caution.
Y'ki rolls his eyes just a little bit. "Whatever. I don't want anything to do with any little brats." Certainly not one of his own. Bratty blueriders make bratty children, after all. It runs in the family.. Though, at least he's not /too/ much like his father. He rests his chin in a hand, however, shrugging just a little bit before giving Zevida a slight bit of eyeing. "Never said I /wanted/ anything. There's just the way things are and everything."
Laera finishes the main part of her meal, yes the gall can put away the food. By then most of her wing have cleared out, having gotten to dinner earlier. Laera just grabs up her bubbly and heads over to sit across from Zevida and Y'ki, "This seat free?" She asks with a grin and sitting down before an answer could be given, "Kids ain't so bad…well except when they are squawling and puking and stuff." She takes a bite of her bubbly, some of the blue berry inside dribbling down her chin. Mmmms.
Zevida glances at the two insisting she'll change her mind and she shakes her head. "I may want one, but, I ain't changing my mind on the fact that I'm not going to have one." She points out, taking her bubbly now and taking a bite. "Hnn. Never said you did, Y'ki. Was just wondering."
"Well, that would have been the plan. I just didn't expect to suddenly find myself grounded and pregnant." Ysa makes sure to clear up that little bit with the bronzer. She snorts at his comment and rolls her eyes towards the other goldriders, particularly the younger one. "If ya ever do find Mr. Perfect, I'll want to get a good look at him. Cause as far as I've heard, they don't exist really. Near-Perfect, maybe," she quickly adds with a grin towards R'miel. "With a few kinks to work out of him." She cleans up Lyram's face after his meal, laying him back against her comfortably while she finishes up her own.
Puking babies definitely are the worse. And Cavin feels the need to demonstrate, for suddenly the boy is coughing, and there's a lovely mess of cream all over his front, Niva merely closing her eyes and sighing for a second before scooping up to wipe off what she can. And then she's standing, abandoning her dinner, waggling a finger at the young trio. "Think before you do change your mind." And the baby is turned around to avoid too much mess on her clothes, and then she's nodding to the other two, excusing herself while Cavin seems over the earlier disaster, falling into cute baby giggles as she carts him off to clean him up.
R'miel grins at her. "So you say. But I didn't hear you asking for contraceptives while you were working at the healers' at Ierne." Now that Lyram is done eating, R'miel scoops him up from the goldrider. "Heh. She's working through all my kinks, she says. Then Cavin is spitting up all over the weyrwoman. "Aww. Aww. Don't you start now too, Lyr. I'm going to take him back before he spits up or falls asleep. I'll see you at home." He leans over to give Ysa a kiss, before strapping Lyram into his harness. He gets up and waves to the other riders.
Y'ki smirks a little bit to himself, fork pushing around a little bit of food on his plate. "I dunno…some people /like/ 'em with kinks." It's the truth! He shakes his head somewhat though, finally chewing on a bit once again. Laera gets a faint blink when she sits down though, nose wrinkling in distaste. "Yeah. And the pooping." Babies are /gross/. He was never a baby. He sprouted out of the ground somewhere. Yeah.
Zevida rolls her eyes at the leaving riders, "bah.." She mutters, shrugging her shoulders and finishing off her plate. "Meh." She grumbles out, "don't like babies anyway. just like the kids.." She waves it off dismissively, frowning. "Well, I think Ava is getting pissy…"
"But if they aren't letting force boddily functions, they smell nice and are so sweet to hold. Maybe one day…but figure I would grow up first." Laera says with a laugh before she takes another bite of her bubbly. Funny she should talk about 'growing up' with the rumoured amount of bedmates the girl keeps. She wipes away the bubbly on her cheek with a finger and sucking the finger cclean.
Ysa suddenly looks a bit green around the edges at Cavin spitting up, and she quickly hands over Lyram without any complaints. She turns away from the Weyrwoman, offering her a wave even as she pushes aside her plate. All done. Definitely. "Generally, I like a bit of kinks. But that one's got a few I still got to work with." She points in the direction of her weyrmate's departure. She leans down to pick up her crutches before straightening up, balancing on her good leg as she turns towards the more crowded table. "Kids," she says with a nod, and then heads out slowly.
Y'ki tilts his head just a bit, and then grins slowly at Zevida, crossing both arms on the table in front of him. "So let her have a tantrum." He does shake his head though, not really caring much about baby..smells. "Yeah, well. It doesn't matter anyway about what they /smell/ like. Don't want one. Zev here doesn't want one either." So far.
Baby talk? S'ya is so there. The green rider comes into the Caverns, her rather noticeable baby bump in tow, not like she could leave it behind. In one hand she holds a brown paper package and in the other a pair of knitting needles and yarn. "A tall glass of juice please," She asks a drudge. "Oh, and some pie, and some heardbeast stew… Are you still serving that fish with tubbers?" The drudge just looks at her, nodding before fleeing. S'ya stands there for a moment, looking for a spot to sit, and her eyes just happen to fall on Laera and Ysa so she waddles that way. "Hey there, loves!"
It's been sometime since the time had come and gone when Mellonath should have clutched and didn't… and so has the lack of seeing Ethne around either outside of the Dragonhealer's Annex. Ethne hears a bit of the conversation staying still for a bit and then walking over to get herself some food. She gives a yawn as she does so.
Zevida glances at Y'ki, frowning. "I'm afraid she'd smash her eggs… Or something.." She trails off, shrugging and giving Y'ki a smile. A glance to the others who enter and she lets out a soft breath. "I think I should go check on her…"
Laera scoots over on the bench as S'ya arrives, "Here is a spot…how is the bump doing?" She asks with a grin, reaching a hand out to stroke over the woman's stomach ever so lightly. "Well I ain't ever heard a gold who ever smashed her eggs, but I know they can get all weird on the sands. Maybe its a bit of 'cabin' fever along with everything else." She says before stuffing another bit of her bubbly in her mouth.
Y'ki blinks a little bit, looking to the side as Laera invites S'ya to sit. Thankfully though, the bluerider is finished with his own food, at least by now. He goets up, shaking his head just a little bit, and shoves his plate forward on the table. Someone else can clean it up later. "Yeah yeah, check up on her. Sounds like she has worse tantrums than the little brats." He, however, heads right out of the caverns. Flee!
S'ya takes the spot happily, smiling at all those present. "Gold talk? That is right, Avaeth's brood is on the Sands now, I cannot believe it, seems only yesterday we were walking off the Sands." She gives Laera a quick peck on the cheek before making space for the first plate of food that arrives, the stew. "Baby is doing fine, Tonny came to visit us yesterday, I think he liked that." She gives her bump a loving pat before digging in, starved by the way she drinks the stuff down. Y'ki and Zevida's departure is noted with a wave but she manages to keep shoveling the food down. So hungry!