Xanadu Weyr - Candidate Barracks
Through the turns of candidacy the walls of the barracks has been used as a canvas; now they depict the emotions of those that dwelled here. Though they are gone now, the memories of their time in this room, the waiting, wondering, and bonding, has been painted in squares, and by now much of the walls has been covered. Some squares are quite aged, and parts have faded to unrecognizable blurs, while some stand fresh as if painted yesterday.
The rest of the room is plain, with rows of cots lining the walls, and presses for personals placed at each end. Large windows take up the bulk of the southern wall, and the door leading out into the hall is to the east.
Jeffry waves at Maureen."Hello Reen, How are you today?" He gestures at his large tray piled with meatrolls and sweetrolls and two pitchers of klah and juice and cups.
Maureen eyes the meatrolls and sweetrolls with something /very/ close to utter disgust and revolution. "Did you hear what happened to Jasra the other day?" she asks, cautiously, flopping down on her cot. "About Jasra and her /food/ in the /barracks/?"
Kristoph nods… "Yes…
Jeffry shakes his head. "What happened?"
Jeffry makes the tray ready for immediate removal.
Magicara has been here all along. Yes. She has. Just.. sleeping. Of course, it's hard to sleep with a little golden firelizard tugging on your hair. "Starrrrr." Moans the girl, batting halfheartedly at the flitterby. "Stop that! I'm up, I'm up!" Groan. "Or not."
"Got caught," says Maureen lazily, idly flicking one stray energetic lock of onyx hair back over her shoulder. "By Darianya. There were shards to pay, lemme tell you that much." Well, Maureen's always been one of exxaggerate, but… "It had crawlies'n stuff crawling all over it. Nastiest thing."
Jeffry looks over at Magicara."Hey there." He turns his head back to Maureen. "I'll not keep this here, but if you want some of these we can get the food out faster…" He has the tray on his cot and not anywhere near the door or the floor.
Hotaru enters the barracks, covered in dust, mumbling imprecations. "Sharding runners….why ANYONE considered bringing them along deserves 'em…."
Magicara's eyes slowly open to stare at the other candidates. "Oh, jeez, what time is it?" she asks sleepily, sitting up with a yawn. Hotaru is regarded. "What'd my babies do this time?"
Hotaru snorts as she rummages through her clothespress for something new. "Babies? Those aren't babies…they're _behemoths_! Impolite behemoths! I don't think they'd understand 'whoa' if you tattooed it on the insides of their skulls in glow-paint!"
Magicara blinks. Ah, yes. What a nice way to wake up "Babies." She affirms, glowering slightly. "They're not behemoths. What happened?" She dosn't mention that all of /her/ runners know 'whoa'.
Kristoph chuckles… "What happened Hotaru?
At this outburst, Maureen's eyebrows quirk up. "Really?" she queries in complete seriousness. Oh dear. And she's be the person who would try to /do/ that, just to see if it would work. A flash of a rather crooked smile goes back to Jeffry. "Naw - I just ate."
Jeffry offers some of his meatrolls and juice to Hotaru and Magicara."Want some?"
Hotaru violently retrieves clothes. Off comes the shirt - bother the guys in the room! Hack. Cough. "I was asked to feed the sharding things," she begins, "and saddle the brown gelding….Steps Lightly, isn't that his name? for someone to ride." On goes the new shirt. Add the vest, off with the pants. Darn, forgot shoes first. "Feeding went okay, and then I took the gelding out on a lead rope to saddle him. Tying him up, first, mind. But apparently I didn't tie him up tight enough because the first second he felt the saddle on his back, off he went, with me hanging onto the saddle and yelling Whoa."
Magicara shakes her head at Jeffry "No, thanks." Hotaru is stared at "Well, with Steps you have to tell him what your doing, you see. He get confused if you don't." And of course, the girl knows each runner by heart. "Next time try to tell him that you're saddling him, and he should take it quietly." She shrugs, as if this was common knowledge. Starling has decided she's hungry by now, and flits over to Jeffry, crooooning.
Kristoph averts his eyes, and winces at Hotaru's recounting of the incident. "Ouc. Why didn't you let go? He wouldn't have drug you if you had…
Jeffry smiles and rips up a meatroll for Starling."Hungry?" His own lizards had been fed previously… and one was off somewhere…
Maureen wrinkles her nose, grimacing slightly. "Ouch - just don't trust anything that goes around on four legs." Dragons included. "They tend to get funny thoughts, see. Decide to play with you a bit. Planning on breaking you." Well, someone's a bit paranoid today. "Next time someone tells you to go on beast duty, trade with someone else. 'S easy."
Magicara nods "Next time trade with me. If I'm not sleeping." Right. You wake her up, you get slapped. Simple. "I'll do it." Starling chirrups her thanks at Jeffry and gobbles down the meatroll.
Hotaru looks at Jeffry. "And have to explain to the herdmaster why his favorite gelding was just found in….in…Igen? Dream on. No, I'm not thirsty, thanks." She smirks at Maureen. "I know, it was something I should have done, but I've saddled before. Should have been easy."
Kristoph chuckles… "It's a bit hard for a runner to get to Igen from Xanadu, Hotaru… And he's probably only have gone several dragonlengths…
Jeffry shakes his head."Uh I'd get some finger roots before I had to saddle the runners and have the person who I'm saddling for hold the rein and feed the roots to the creature while I saddled…"
"It's not all that hard," Maureen's next sentence is aimed at Kristoph. "If you're by yourself, it only takes a few days - keeping in mind that pausing for rest is almost entirely out of the question. It's been done before."
Magicara rolls her eyes, swinging her legs to the side of the cot and grabbing her boots "Really, you men are such babies…" She mutters, looking at the clothes she fell asleep in. Ahwell, they'll work for the stables.
Kristoph looks over at Maureen. "AND have a fast ship.
Jeffry looks at Magi and rolls his eyes, glancing at Kristoph, as if to say 'Are we really babies?'
Hotaru glances over at Maureen with interest.
Maureen shrugs. "Like I said, if you've got the connections, it's not very hard at all." Nonetheless, her klah brown eyes seem to be fixed at a spot on the ground during the conversation as her fingers slowly keep twirling that lock of hair.
Magicara sighs "Anyone seen Damian around the weyr?" Nevermind that most probably don't know who he is. "I need to talk with him.. Reen?"
Hotaru nods. "I could see it. Runners would have had to make the journey once - and by that, I mean the people, not the animals - so why couldn't there be a record?"
Maureen shakes her head at Magicara's question, presenting a problem with the hair-twirling issue. When push comes to shove, a grimace of pain flashes across Maureen's face. "Haven't seen him recently, 'm afraid," she answers to Magicara. "I haven't seen him in a very long time…"
Jeffry gets the tray up and takes it out of the room and returns empty handed.
Hotaru flops on her bed and starts going over Harper homework. "Anyone care to help me with this stuff?"
Jeffry steps out of the room and returns empty handed."What sort of help do you need?"
Magicara sighs. "Figures." She murmurs, pulling on her other boot. Hotaru is glanced at "What is it?"
Kristoph looks over to Hotaru, echoing Magi's question.
Maureen nods, untangling her hair from her finger. "Might as well," she says, with the tone of 'because there isn't anything better to do' dripping from her voice.
Hotaru grimaces. "History. For example." She reads. "Explain the history of the Hold Council and how it has affected present day laws and obligations between the Holds and Weyrs. Cite examples and quote, if you can." She winces. "What does he want me to write, an entire book? That's too broad!"
Jeffry looks over at the Harper and moves to near her…"Hmmm… That's a tough question." He winces too, and sits down on the floor.
Kristoph hrmmmms. "Well, the basis of most of it is in the teaching ballads about the compact, isn't it?
Maureen clears her throat. "Use renegades as an example," she says, simply, and in one quick movement, pulls herself into an upright position. "Say, that, oh, renegades were taking advantage of the Holds by stealing and basically abusing their hospitality - which I personally think is a load of dragon dung, but that's a different story - and in order to make Pern a more harmonious world," Hints of scorn are inflicting with those words, "they needed to make laws to eradicate renegades - which is also, in my opinion, loads of dragon dung - so that's where the most stupid laws come into play." Beam.
Magicara blinks, going a bit white. "Umm.. renegades?" Doh. Theres that word again.. "I only heard it from an auntie! I wasn't going to accuse or amything!" And then the rest of her words are filtered "I mean… oops."
Telilaren has connected.
Jeffry looks at Maureen, and then at Magicara.
Hotaru nods. "Most of it is in the teaching ballads, yes, but I think he wants more than me simply reciting the things. That's not what law is. Law's knowing not just what's right or wrong, but the shades in between." She frowns, looking back down….only to look back up at Maureen's passionate recital. "Well, renegades are different," she begins. "It all depends on whether they actually _did_ something, or were just somewhere and someone blamed them for what happened."
Kristoph narrows his eyes at Maureen's words… "Oh? And are renegades attacking Trading trains a load of Dragon dung as well, hmmm?"
Maureen nods curtly at Kristoph. "Yes! It is! Because renegades are humans as well, aren't they? They are the last time that /I/ checked." A curious glance goes over to Magicara, followed shortly by a, "/What/?"
Jeffry looks at Maureen, and then at Magicara."Renegades….attacked the train when Kris and I were small…I remember being grabbed and hidden with the three baby siblings I had at the time.. and eating sweetrolls that were still half raw…Were you there too Kris…I don't remember…"
Kristoph frowns, and rises. "Try telling that to the renegades who attacked and sacked my family's train ten turns ago. And these people didn';t look poor or ill. If they had, we;d have helped them They attacked us, and left seven of our men injured, after taking many of our goods… They weren't looking for a handout or help. They had planned this, and had done it intentionally.
Noise noise, everywhere, not a place on pern can Teli go where she isn't woken up by a bunch of noisy candidates. From a stray cot somewhere along the back wall a quiet groan can be heard and the sudden shifting of a blanket before Teli's head pops up and dark unfocused black eyes flicker across the room. "Ya know. I thought I'd get away from getting woken up after doing a night's shift of cooking. But I guess I was wrong." Telilaren is just a tad grumpy, don't mind her.
Magicara umms "Um.. nothing?" She tries, scooting towards the door, the firelizards on her shoulders chrring softly. "I just, well, heard something from Ethel in the living cavern about.. people.. being renegades…" Oops. Mabye not the exact right thing to say.
Maureen can play the rising game as well, but she doesn't. Instead, a furious crimson hue stains her cheeks. "Try telling them to a people who are not able to live under the conventions of 'normal' society," she hisses. "Try telling that to someone who has no choice but to do something that he or she has no wish to do. And who knows? Perhaps renegades moan and groan at night because they are /ashamed/ that they had to hurt someone in order to survive. And I doubt that you would've helped them, if they had come out and told you that they were renegades. You would've backstabbed 'em, or turned 'em in, but you wouldn't have /helped/ them."
Hotaru frowns. "Then find _those_ renegades and punish _them_." She scribbles down something in her notepad, then continues. "And it isn't entirely a load of dragondung." Then Maureen gets a Look. "No choice? We all get choices, Maureen. To do right, or wrong. To take one path, or the other. You chose to come here, didn't you? As did I. And why aren't they able to live under those conventions?" A head tilt, and a stare. "You protest this way too valiantly, Maureen. Why can't _you_?"
Kristoph frowns. "They sharding near killed my father! They stole over 550 marks worth of merchandise! They set up in that canyon, then started a rockslide, to trap us. My father was struck by an arrow from a hunting bow completely unawares. They attacked us! And they showed no signs of remorse!" He turns to Hotaru and nods. "They were punished. Exiled to the far Western islands, with the last of the abominationists.
"This is /quite/ enough." The Istan guard pipes up with quite a bit of bite to her rather morning worn voice. "Why are candidates concerned about people who can't seem to live an honest life and resort to raiding and stealing when surely they could be accepted as a helper at a Weyr or Hold. This subject is redundant. They were never /forced/ to resort to violence. They did it on their own accord and have no right to have a bunch of candidates bickering about them. I've caught more then my fair share of them in my life, but it matters not about if they should be punished, if they're doing this to survive, or anything else for that matter. This topic is moot and I don't understand why a bunch of young men and women standing for a clutch of /dragons/ have anything to do with this. The past is /past/ we have /chores/ to do. Stop. Fighting." The pale guard rises up from her bed and near growls the last two words. And yet she's probably only adding to the chaos.
Maureen gets up haughtily, flicking back her hair and coming close to looking Kristoph in the eye - or at least making eye contact. "Then what do /you/ have to complain about?" she asks, coldly. "What gives you the right to gripe about something that you got off so lightly?" Another cold glance goes back to the Istan guard. "And if you'll all excuse me, I'll be leaving now." With that, she stalks out of the barracks.