Xanadu Weyr - Observation Level
Dark blue seats form a semi-circle around the sands below, the lowest row separating from the sands themselves by merely a railing. The seats climb upwards, each row a bit higher then the previous, and they are broken up into sections by 3 sets of staircases. Lights are evenly spaced along the outer wall, lighting the seats and the sands easily, though they tend to be dimmed unless a major event is taking place. A large balcony looms overhead, darkening some of the seats, providing a place for observers of the draconic kind to watch without obstructing the view for others.
When one looks over the railing, the oddly hued sand below can be seen easily, the circle-shaped area of the sands spread out to the far walls, the sand itself a unique mixture of red and white grains.
Verity is carrying a rather wrinkled lump of cloth under one arm, and a small pouch in the opposite hand. She looks a bit startled to find the galleries already occupied at her arrival. "Hello," she offers. "I thought this would be a good quiet place to sew…" /Quiet/ seems to be the most important word in that sentence.
Kristiana waves brightly to the candidates, "Hello, there. It would, sometimes, Verity. I come here sometimes to paint, though I've been rushing around for a while, what with all those candidates around."
Marhiya perambulates amiably towards the heated place known as, cue dramatic music, the galleries. The absolutely idiotic expression that at least a few of the candidates have seen before is still very much in place, and that constant humming is yet once more a factor in the girl's entrance. As per stereotype, the girl's step even had a certain bounce to it. All of this to see the eggs? Feh, of course not. Kristiana is given a chipper wave; the very same is extended to the one called "Verity," once she's spotted. Curiosity would normally draw her to the conversation, but, so as not to be nosy, Marhi simply seats herself where it's nearest, focusing on… the seats behind her?
Kristiana greets Marhiya brightly, "Hello there, Marhiya."
Qyh jumps lightly up climbing the galleries with a lithe and almost feline grace. She's got a little free time and so she settles into a seat to look down at the sands with pensive interest. The others here are greeted with quiet, distant courtesy although Marhiya in particular is awarded a sleepy, amused look.
Verity unfolds her somewhat-worse-for-wear robe cloth, shaking it out and holding it up to her body in an attempt to guess how long it will be. It's been partly sewn down one side, and the front and back hems don't appear to be exactly even. She frowns, then takes the shears to the longer side in an attempt to even them out.
Marhiya flips her attention quite quickly back down to Kristiana, once her name is picked out of the greeting. Fleetingly blinding smile is donned, and head is bobbed with carefully flippant respect. "'lo there, ma'am." There's no way she's ever going to give up that habit; not a chance in the world her beloved formality will leave her, for that matter. Attention brought back to Pern, Mar looks over towards Verity, taking in what the candidate's doing, in turns extending the same to Qyh and back to Kristiana.
Verity sighs at the now-fraying edge of the cloth, but gamely re-matches the front and back and finds them approximately even. Good enough — she puts a few sloppy stitches in the unsewn side of the robe to hold it in place before returning to work on the first side.
Qyh is doing nothing but leaning negligently on the seat in front of her, eyeing off the eggs and dragons below as well as the other company in the galleries. "Manners. Don't hear them very often." she observes dryly to Marhiya. a faint smile flickering over her face. "Although to be correct, one shouldn't abbreviate words."
Marhiya zeros her attention back in on Qyh for her comment; blinding smiles to a simply debilitating one, and she nods slowly in response to both points. "However," the candidate offers wryly, "as bad as I do realize it can get, I have used abbreviations for such words so long that not using them would take conditioning I don't feel is necessary." A one shouldered shrug, her trademark, is offered. "But then, that's just me."
From the sands, Darianya glances up from reading some papers beside her sleeping queen and notices a small gathering in the galleries. She puts aside her papers and quietly tiptoes away from her queen.
From the sands, Darianya moves over to the Hatching Cavern: Tunnel.
From the sands, Darianya has left.
Darianya moves into the Hatching Cavern: Galleries, from the Hatching Cavern: Tunnel.
Darianya has arrived.
Darianya smiles and waves as she sinks into a seat near the others, "Hi, how are all of you doing?"
Kristiana waves in greeting, actually settled down, painting for once.
Marhiya finally decides to shake her head and leaves things as they lay - it's a better system, and it's likely the best one for a candidate who seems to be on an eternal adrenaline rush. Darianya is considered pensively, then giving a fleeting version of a rather bright smile. "I'm doing just wonderfully, thanks for asking, ma'am. And yourself?" A glance is slanted towards the sands, and she echoes Verity, question style. "And Biancath?"
Darianya looks over at her sleeping dragon, "She's great when she's sleeping. I can't wait til the eggs hatch and she settles down again."
Qyh turns her head to watch Darianya for a moment beforeing offering a quiet smile. "Oh, I'm well too. I'm actually glad to be sleeping in the barracks for once since it gets me away from younger brothers." Dry words but with lively humour behind them.
Darianya laughs and nods in understanding, "I hear younger siblings can be rather.. annoying. I don't blame you. I, on the other hand, had difficulties sleeping in the same room with so many other people. Some of which snored!"
Verity chuckles. "I find the barracks a bit crowded at times… I came here for a bit of quiet, actually. I stab my fingers when I try to sew and someone starts laughing." She does not mention whether or not the laughter is occasioned by her sewing itself.
Marhiya looks faintly amused at the goldrider's response. She shakes her head after a moment, then, and returns to staring at the ground directly in front of her, elbows resting on her knees and her hands holding up her chin. No comment's offered, for a change, and listening commences instead.
Qyh grins for a moment. "Oh, I solved that one. I take the nighttime chores and sleep during the day when everyone else is busy with daytime chores." She rubs her wrist for a moment. "Although that solution wouldn't suit everyone. Papa always did call me a night avian."
Darianya just stares at Verity for a moment, "You came here for quiet, when either one of the queens could wake up and start bellowing for one reason or anotherat any moment?"
D'ars comes in quietly, after getting a bath, some rest, something to eat, and checks up on Gauth. He needs oiling.
Darianya notices D'ars sneaking in and gets up to greet him. He's rewarded with an enthusiastic hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Hello, D'ars!"
Verity glances uncertainly at her fellow candidates. "Not that I'm referring to either of /you/, but frankly I prefer dragon noise to hearing other people giggling all night long and talking all day long. I'm used to being somewhat more solitary. Dragons are a pleasant change of company sometimes."
Gauth, or D'ars? Marhiya, focusing on the ever interestingly pocked ground just in front of her first-row seat in the galleries, glances over towards the bronzerider at his entrance, as a matter of reflex. Something *always* cues her to presences, unless she's too far gone in her own thoughts to pay attention to anything at all. Dari's greeting of D'ars causes Mar to return to studying the ground with a flush, though, and it's back to listening for the candidate.
Qyh shakes her head. "Quiet definately isn't something you find here." she offers softly. "Me, I only ever found it when I was out on the trails, well away from anyone." Something in her tone suggests that she misses /that/ quiet and peace. "And I only came up here to gawk. Hadn't seen them before now but thought I probably should." D'ars is looked to, studyed for a moment before Qyh digs what she knows of him out of her brain. Then she offers him a distant smile.
"Quiet is easy to find, if you know where to look," Marhiya intones with quiet sageness, as only she can. Not that she necessarily knows what it is she's speaking of, but at least she can notify those speaking that she is listening, in case they don't desire an eavesdropper. So fun, being deferential. Ahem.
Verity shrugs a shoulder, eyeing the still largely-shapeless lump of cloth she calls a robe. "I should've known it wouldn't be too quiet here, but I did want to see the eggs as well," she finally admits. "Fewer people than the barracks or the living cavern, at any rate."
D'ars smiles and waves over to DAri, then pulls off his shirt and goes to get a bucket of the nice dragon oil. "See, Gauth, I still love you, too!" He sets about slathering oil on his dragon's side and then spreading it around.
Darianya slips an arm around D'ars' waist and nods to Verity. "That's true, looking at the eggs from this perspective seems.. a bit soothing, I think." She watches D'ars start to oil Gauth, "Do you need a hand, there?"
D'ars smiles over at his Sweetheart. "Oh, by all means!"
D'ars says "You look nice today, Dari."
Darianya hops down the steps and starts spreading oil on Gauth's other side, still within earshot of the small gathering. She smiles at her weyrmate, "Why, thank you, love." Her eyes light up with the compliment and she keeps oiling.
Qyh glances at Marhiya for a moment, her expression touched with a little disdain. "Depends on your definition." she rejoins quietly before looking down at the sands.
Verity settles to sewing her robe, apparently oblivious to the riders or fellow candidates. It takes all her concentration to poke the needle through the cloth and avoid her own fingers, and a good deal of muttering to get it through the other side and pull it tight.
Marhiya considers this in silence before finally bobbing her head. "Naturally. Most does." Neutrally offered, her reply, and given without a glance away from the ground. After yet another moment of nearly brooding silence, the candidate slides herself out of the seat languidly, meandering up to the rail and leaning heavinly on it, flicking a stony-grey glance over the ovoids ever hardening down below.
D'ars sets into the rhythm of oiling, spreading and rubbing the slick fluid over Gauth's dry and dusty hides. He makes a low, pleased crooning sound, his head swinging over the eggs part of the time, and then looking over his shoulder to watch his lifemate and Biancath's lifemate.