Elia is Searched
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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 colour 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 colours 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.


Niva strides in, jacket missing, sleeves rolled up, sandals on her feet and her pants rolled her knees as she heads straight to the table, pouring herself a large glass of water from a jug. Downing most of it, she glances over the room as she does so, flushed face partially obscured by the glass. It may be snowing outside, but the Sands certainly make up for that, even with the short walk.

Elia is already seated at a table. Unlike Niva, she is bundled up for the cold weather, her hair and clothes still dusted with the white stuff. She's eating her lunch, taking a break to look up at the goldrider's interesting clothing choice. She doesn't say anything however, choosing to go back to eating calmly.

Fincayra is, like Elia, bundled up. However, she is not sitting down yet, but rather on her way to a seat with a heaping plateful of food. She's singing off-key about some random scientific topic, and when she notices Elia, she rearranges the words to greet her, "And that's a hey with twenty-three Elias on the end, much to big a greeting for us to comprehend."

Matteo sits just a bit away from the pair. Probably equidistant. He doesn't seem to really care anyone is there, a thick coat wrapped about him and several charts yet again strewn before him. He sips his mug of hot tea in a nervous fashion.

Niva drains the mug of water in her hands, swiveling to refill it before moving away. Glancing around, she heads towards the others already seated, shaking her head as she eyes their garb. "All of you… All bundled up. I just don't get it." And she slides into a seat, taking another large gulp of water and crossing her legs under the table. "Interesting…" is all she directs at Fincayra's song, shaking her head as she does so.

Elia chuckles at Fin's song, motioning for the other young woman to join her. "Not bad." she comments, taking a sip of her wine, "The whole song might be interesting to hear." She continues her lunch, but Niva's comment can't be ignored. "Bundled up? It's snowing outside ma'am." She comes off a little rude, though her expression shows she doesn't mean to be. "It's just because you've been on those sands all day."

Fincayra chuckles. "It's catchy, and all, but I don't get the stuff it talks about. Moles are animals, I thought, " she pauses to slide into a seat, set her tray down, and rearrange her clothes so she'll fit. Then she adds a comment, "I have to admit, I'd rather not be bundled up than be bundled up, but I'd also rather be too cold than too warm, because there's not much you can do if you're too warm."

Elia shrugs, "I suppose you could strip down to almost nothing if it's too hot. I'm sure there would be alot more visitors in the galleries if you did that, ma'am." she jokes, looking over at the weyrwoman, a little bit of a blush coloring her cheeks. "It's hard to believe those sands don't scramble the eggs. I've heard they almost cook candidates' feet."

Matteo glances up for a moment at the others then hunches over his charts, muttering and tracing imaginary lines with his fingers from point to point. He ruffles through soem more papers and pulls out a map. After looking it over goes back to teh chart, reapeating the process a few times. He pushes both back and his eyes roll up to the ceiling as if calculating.

Niva arches an eyebrow at Elia, eyeing her drink of choice for a long moment before shaking her head. "If you say so… At least you picked the right drink to warm yourself up, though." And she leans back in her chair, attention shifting to Fincayra and she wrinkles up her nose. "But… cold is bad. Warm is good, so are coming up ways to stay that way." Although, she'd have to agree that the Sands are slightly overkill. As she watches Matteo for a moment, she's distracted by Elia's comment, grinning somewhat as she shakes her head. "I'm sure there would be…" A wink and she leans back in the chair. "They almost cook me, and I don't have to stand on them.. But with plenty of water its not that bad."

Fincayra disagrees with Niva, " You wouldn't say cold was bad during the summertime, when the air was hot. You'd want it to be colder. And it wouldn't /get/ colder, because it's summer. However during winter you can heat things up."

Elia gives just a little shrug. "I like the cold. It's easier to dress for it. Just put more stuff on." She takes a sip of her wine and smirks. "And drink right. Besides, when it's cold you get fun things like snow and snowball fights."

Niva peers at Fincayra, quickly shaking her head. "If its hot, you can go swimming, and take of clothes and such. But in the winter, its cold. And that means everywhere is cold. And that means that if someone is late getting back, you freeze alone." What nice reasoning, no? A ponder at Elia and she shrugs for a moment. "I think wine is better chilled, though, so its nice when its warm."

Matteo frowns a little now. "That can't be right. That would mean…" He grabs up a pencil and scribbles on the edge of one of teh charts. "Hmm… it is… okay…" He erases his scribbling and gives a heavy sigh. Well… that was done. Now all he had to do was make sure he stayed away from certain jerks for the next few sevendays. This would be hard too due to ship maintenance. Shards…

Striding - without much of a purpose it seems - Lahela comes into the Caverns. And lo and behold, she has another little radio held in her hands, looking much like a beeper, but slightly bigger. She blinks as she looks up, a little screwdriver sticking upwards from the device. "Too full.." She mumbles more or less to herself, getting ready to turn back around.

Fincayra shrugs, then finishes her plate after nearly bolting the food own, and hops up to return the tray where it came from and plop down beside Matteo. "Hey there, what've you been working now?"

Elia swirls her wine glass, watching the red liquid with a smile. "Warm or cold, I like it any way you can serve it." She finishes her own plate of food, which she'd been ignoring, and smiles at Niva. "It's not cold inside. It's pretty comfortable in here, actually. Besides, if it's hot out and you can't go swimming, it's miserable. At least if you work outside in the winter you can wear more to compansate."

Matteo seems to notice her for the first time. At least, recognize her. "hey… Oh, just more navigation stuff. We've got another ship heading out soon and I've been told I can be on the crew if I do some of this…" He leaves out the other condition.

Niva continues to work at her glass of water. Best thing to drink, after all. Her response is temporarily delayed as she turns to peer at Lah's entrance, inclining her head to her clutchmate with a smile, though she peers at the device in her hand. "Lah, hot or cold?" Don't question it, just answer, really. Gaze drifts back to Elia for a moment as she wrinkles up her nose. "Still, the warm is so much better. And the worse part of the sands is the boredom and how thirsty you get." Bleh.

Fincayra oooohs and nods, then hops up from the seat, pulls back a couple layers to check her watch, and yeeps, "I'm going to be late, catch ya later," she tosses at him before she trots back to Niva and Elia, grabs something she left by her seat, waves, and hurries to go do some random thing that handipersons like herself do.

Elia chuckles, looking over at Lahela and smiling brightly at the recently entered greenrider. "I guess it would get pretty boring out there. Seems like you'd have plenty of visitors. And with candidates coming in all the time…well, you'll have company soon enough, right?"

Lahela stops in her tracks, having had started out towards the door. "What?" Oh, the wingleader /does/ question. "Depends." And a little twist is given to the screwdriver. "What're we talking about?" Yes. She's fragmented today. Apparently her brain is in more than one place.

Tabearin wonders out his head in a book, well drawing pad actually, he's peering through it, looking thoughtful as he scans through some of the drawings. He shakes his head a bit at one and sighs "All wrong, all wrong, he looks flat."

Matteo glances at the man who enters and his eyes gleam a little. Too much of a sailor to keep his mouth shut he calls "Let's hope -he- is flat." Okay… That was bad Matt. He takes a sip of tea and piles up the charts as neatly as he can.

Niva shakes her head slightly at Lah with a grin, eyeing the radio for a long moment before answering. "Whether hot or cold is better…" And then she's glancing back at Elia with a noncommittal shrug, and a wrinkle of her nose. "Long and boring and thirsty work. And, there's some, but not too many. And they have chores." A glance over her shoulder at Tabearin and she shakes her head and then looks back to Elia. "Although.."

Tabearin seems almost oblivious to the comment and then he frowns "Yes he is a bit flat isn't he? I didn't get enough shading to him and the light perspective is just a bit off."

"Warm." Lahela says, just to defy Niva, a little bit of a smile starting to play at the corner of her lips. "But really, I /can't/ tell you, unless you tell me /what/ you're talking about." Yes, she is getting a little testy here, as she just looks at her clutchmate, before a quick glance is spared towards Matteo and Tabearin. Ookie? Stop listening in on others' conversations..

Elia wrinkles her nose. "Ah, yes, the bane of the candidates…chores. I always pittied them when it came to those." She looks over Tabearin curiously, but he seems too taken by his drawing to be bothered, especially since he ignores Matteo's comment. "I guess everyone has a personally preffrence though about the weather. But I still think cold is best."

Matteo's eyes gleam more. The kid didn't get it. Oh well. "Lemme see…" He says, getting over the hilarity of his own joke and holding out a hand towards the pad. He hadn't done any sort of sketching in a loooong time.

Niva turns to grin at Lah. "/Thank/ you." And she turns back to Elia with a grin. "See! Lah agrees, warm is better." And she shakes her head at Lah. "Just whether warm weather is preferable to cold weather." And she taps her fingers on the table, trying to hide a grin as she tilts her head. "Although, I think you should give warm a fair chance. I can prove to you that its not that bad."

Lahela shakes her head slightly, looking vaguely amused. " … Brisk isn't so bad either, Niva." She says before looking over to Matteo, deciding to drag him in on this too. "You. Hot or Cold?" Yes. Decide! Or she will eat you! NYAHA!

Tabearin looks up from his drawing and blinks a little as his eyes refocus. He looks at Matteo, looks at the hand, looks up at Matteo and then down at his pad "Umm I suppose I should have left it back in the barracks." he says thoughfully. "I didn't think it'd hurt though to see about getting a few more drawings. Though Hotohorith looks a little flat against the background of Fort Hold, though I did sorta have to do it from memory, he sorta swept me off my feet before I could actually do hi,."

Elia eyes Lahela for a moment, giving the greenrider a dirty look. Well, of course she'd agree with the goldie. "Cold is still my favorite." she says firmly, looking over at Niva with a grin. "However, I might be able to give warm a chance. So long as it's not too warm. "
do him

Niva snickers slightly under her breath at Elia's look to Lah, snickering slightly and then looking back to Elia. "Well, it wouldn't be too warm, at least not for long periods of time. But, I could use someone to bring water and stuff out on the sands. And you need to get used to the heat. And, the best way to do that is for you to stand for Kilaueth's clutch. At least, I think it is, would you agree, Lah?"

Matteo blinks for a moment, looking over at Lahela. "Mmm… Hot I suppose… though with cold you can always apply more layers. But hot you get to swim." He grins lopsidedly and looks back at Tabearin, lowering a hand awkwardly. "Searched, were you?"

Lahela gives Elia a little bit of a smile. "Mildly warm." But then her supernatural *cough* hearing picks up a singular dragon's name. And immediately, without much warning, she's standing directly behind Tabearin. "What about Hotohorith?" Is asked semi-sharply. Protective much? But then there's another brief distraction, by the name of Niva. Again. "Mmm. Drudgery. Though the sands aren't warm. Those're hot." She seems to think for a second. "But a good idea nonetheless."

Tabearin gives a bit of a nod and as he watches Matteo he offers the pad for him to look at. "I did. I was working on a compostion of Fort Hold when suddenly I had this dragon blocking my view. Then he suddenly turned me tpsy turvy, I never realized dragons had such prehensile tails." he says thoughfully.

Elia eyes Niva and Lahela. They're joking right? "But…I'm so old…" she squeaks, looking suddenly abashed. "Aren't you supposed to go for the young ones?" She pauses, but only for a second, like she's afraid the riders will change their minds, "Of course I'll stand for Kilaueth's clutch. And I'll work on my heat tolerance." She shuffles her feet, looking giddy and confused all at once. "I guess I have to now."

Niva arches an eyebrow at Elia, making a face. "You can't be much older then I am, really now. And, that means that you know what you're doing." A soft laugh at the quick acceptance, she waves a hand with a grin. "Good thing, that. When you get a chance, you can move all your stuff into the barracks." And then she eyes the drink of the newest candidate. "And, after you finish that, no more until the eggs hatch. But you'll have a better way to stay warm, afterall." Heh. Mean.

A sharp clap is issued from behind Tabearin's back from Lahela. Yes, it /is/ the short ones you have to beware of. "Drudgery!" She looks at the 'artist' for a moment and rrrms, her lips pursing to one side. A look is given to Elia and her lips purse a little more. Finally, green-blue-grey eyes lock on Matteo and a rather … frightening grins lights up on her face. Uh oh? "You!" Yes. Matteo again. She really does need to learn names. "You said something about ships? You like water?" Uuh?

Elia picks up her wine glass and downs the rest. "I suppose I can live without the wine for a while." she admits, regarding the empty glass for a moment before she shuffles to put it away. "If you don't mind, ma'am, I think I'll start moving right away. And then I have to write home! My parents will be so excited!" Her face is flushed as she bows to the others gathered, then she hurries out.

Matteo smirks, remembering when he was Searched once. "Really now? Turned you other? Must have been bothersome. But here you are. I'm sure taht couldn't have been so bad." At Lahela's sound, Matt arcs a dark brow a bit, glancing upon her. "Er, yeah… That'd be a pretty big understatement."

Tabearin jumps a mile high, okay well not quite that high, but he does jump quite a bit. The drawing pad is held onto tightly as he whips around to face Lahela. Sweet Faranth, he's in for it now isn't he?

Niva watches Elia as the young woman disappears, talking a long drink of water as she turns in her chair to watch the other candidate, the greenrider, and the seacrafter. "See, hot /is/ good." Not that she hasn't already won that argument.

Lahela's smile only seems to grow. "Ha! Good!" Well. So much for an explanation. But y'know, as a WingLeader she can string almost anyone after her own will. "Shi (Pronounced She) needs a bath!" A nod is given as her little radio is stored in a large-ish pouch on her belt. A grin is given to Tabearin. "Mind running for some scrubbing brushes?" And she doesn't pause. "Of course you don't, do you? Softer ones, mind you!" Her gaze is turned back to Matt. "You help bathe. You know what you're doing!" Aka, he won't drown?

"Lahela, scaring new candidates is hardly good protocol. Especially if you want them to stay." Matt's eyes light a little with amusement. He watches the young artist. "Especially if you want his help. But surely I will… not like I have anything better to do." He glances at Tabearin, making no movement to show he's getting up just yet. "Go on, boyo. Gets some brushes."

Niva flinches at Morpheus lands unexpectedly as she reaches up a hand to pet the blue's head, snickering slightly as Lahela recruits people to bathe Shi. At least she's not helping. "I should get back to Kilaueth, before she starts making a fuss. Have fun with that, you two." And she inclines her head to Lahela, refilling her glass with water before heading back to the Sands.

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