Xanadu Weyr - Kitchens
It seems that with the fire that destroyed much of the kitchen, care has been taken to restore it to a condition well beyond what it was orignally. And thus state of the art equipment has been brought in from the various crafts to be used - stoves and large ovens replacing the hearths, while thin metal sheets have been installed over each countertop, for both ease of use and ease of cleanup. A large pantry remains generally open, containing a all the nonperishable goods, while a similarly large icechest contains the perishable goods.
R'miel is busy toiling away in the kitchens today! Actually he's just skipping out on work right now. And so he's trolling around in the kitchens as usual when he's skipping out on work and doesn't want to be caught at home. The bronzer is rolling out some dough right now, and getting it ready to cut into squares for little bite-sized pastries. The filling is already made. There's redfruit and mixed berry filling in two bowls next to the bronzer. He's wearing an apron right now instead of his coat, which is black and covered in a bit of flour around the hips where he's been wiping his hands. Still with the glasses though.
Thea is still on double-triple duty it seems and Head Cook has given her all the grungy-grimy work that he can find. Right now the Candidate is on her hands and knees scraping the greasy-black grit that has collected between the cracks of the stone tiles lining the Kitchen floors. *Screeeeet! Sreeeeeeeet!* Thea's using a thin metal thingie to get it out with and wiping the residue into a bucket. Here she comes slowly working her way towards the baking section.
There's a humming that's slowly getting louder until Ysa actually steps through the door. Still humming, surprisingly, and her face just a little flushed. Tipsy again, perhaps? She smirks innocently in the direction of the cooks meandering about, pretending to look like she had to be there. What work? Naturally the junior weyrwoman was leaving piles upon piles of paperwork on her desk to be done another day and it appeared she was on the hunt for something else. Her green eyes linger upon the store rooms for a bit too long before she wanders in the opposite direction, towards the baking section, only to grin widely as she spots the bronzer. "Hey, love," she calls over.
R'miel starts filling all the little pastry squares then folding them over and crinkling their sides together with a fork. Yay little pastries! The bronzer only gives Thea a cursory glance before going back to his work. When Ysa comes in and spots him he smiles to her. "Hey, Ys." Then he frowns. "Are you drunk again? Shards, Ysa… It's the middle of the day!" He's so distracted by the goldrider that he doesn't notice that Thea is RIGHT BEHIND HIM. And so he trips over her and ends up on his bum with the rest of the mixed berry filling in his lap. The bronzer just sort of… looks at the filling he's wasted with a pout. It's not that much though. But wasted filling = sad Ram.
Will you look at that? A Bronze-Rider just did a back-flip right over Thea! The rest of the kitchen may be amused, but Thea is not. "I. Am. So. Dead." This is muttered so softly she may be the only one to hear it. She flashes a glance towards Cook, but doesn't dare look towards where the humming is (was?) coming from. Thea rises and offers the fallen Rider a hand up. "I'm sorry you didn't see me, Sir. Crowded kitchen and all." Eying the berry filling the man has all but wrapped himself around, she adds, "I must say, you make an odd sort of pastry dough."
Ysa's humming can only last so long, especially when she had to open her mouth. "Not drunk. Not one bit, love," she reassures the bronzer, turning her attention to Thea just a bit too late though. She watches the whole mess with wide eyes and then… promptly bursts out laughing! Maybe a little tipsy. "S-shells," she says with a few snorts. "Are ya alright there?" She approaches the two of them, but her eyes are actually on the candidate with squinting eyes before she turns towards her weyrmate with a big grin.
Whee! Ram-flip! The bronzer pulls the bowl off himself and scoops up a bit of pastry filling on his apron. "Aw… shards. It was so good, too." Ram is all like: ;___; Until he finally notices that he's infact tripped over /someone/. "Er… sorry about that. I didn't see you there behind me." He pouts at her pastry comment. "All this wasted filling…" Okay, it wasn't /that/ much,. maybe a cup. But enough to make 5 or 6 more of those tiny tasty pastries. He frowns at his weyrmate, too. She was laughing at his misfortunes! "Hey now… I'm all messy. You girls wanna lick me clean?" He winks at the both of them, even though it might earn him a kick when he's down.
"No thanks, I've already had lunch. And dessert." Thea answers soberly, although she allows herself a tiny smile at R'miel's predicament. She acknowledges Ysa's arrival with a salute adding, "He's fallen for ya, Ma'am." Back to the problem of wasted filling. She tsks, "It's in a puddle on your apron. Nothing in it but a bit of flour. Look, you can scrape it off." There's a knife on the table and she takes that, offering it handle-first to R'miel. "Oh, here, scrape it into this bowl." She extends his now-empty filling bowl.
"Candidate, Ram," Ysa points out about the teen there, though there's still a few snickers remaining in the goldrider. She shakes her head at him before turning her attention to Thea. It looks like the tipsy goldrider wants to say something, mouth open, before she snaps it shut and gives her a grin instead. "It looks like he has— Thea, right? Look what ya did, Ram, given the candidate even more to clean up. Ya guys have been spending a lot of time on the floor lately, huh?" Funny enough, there's sympathy in her tone, before she reaches down to scrape a bit of filling off of R'miel and sticking it into her mouth. "Still good. I bet it added a bit of flavor. Jus' toss the whole thing into one big pie!"
R'miel chuckles a bit at Thea. "I see." Then looks down at himself. "Apparently it is. All those good berries gone to waste. Heh, I can use this filling now. Who knows what was on this apron beforehand. We're just going to have to eat it. Right Ys?" He looks up to her. "I know she's a candidate." Now he does, at least. "Thea. Yes. Right. And I haven't made any more mess for her!" He checks the floor. "Just more for me." The bronzer works on scraping the filling off his apron and shoving it into his mouth. "Mmm. I'm not baking a pie right now, and there's not enough filling here for one either. Unless you meant toss the whole apron in. And if you did then that would taste horrible."
Thea waits for it, but Ysa grins instead of— whatever Thea might have been expecting. As to where she's been spending her time, "Yes Ma'am. I mean, no Ma'am! On the floor yes, but not with him!" She gestures at R'miel with her floor-tool. She doesn't blush often, but this is one of those times. She really can't do much else but listen in bemused astonishment to the pair of them go on about pies and aprons and apron-pie. "Do I need to call for a Healer?" Since he's still lying there and all.
Ysa blinks in surprise at Thea's quick correction before laughing again. It might be possible she was a bit more than tipsy, too. "Not with him is always a good thing. You're a smart girl, Candidate. Not with him is a good thing." Snicker snort. "The floor's been treating ya better in the barracks than it has here, though? Seems like you're at least getting the big picture, even if half of 'em candidates are gone." To R'miel she shakes her head quickly. "Eat it, toss it… Like you said, if it's not enough to make a pie, why bother." She does swipe another bit of the filling, though, squatting down now to their level. "Mmm… Can ya put wine in pies and filling? I bet it'd taste great."
R'miel blinks at Thea. "What do you mean? Not with me?" He grins at Ysa. "Oh right. They've got you sleeping on the ground in there. Watch out for tunnelsnakes. You better shake out your bedding at night before you climb into it." he snickers. "Whose idea was that, anyways?" The bronzer finally gets to his feet, after scraping the filling into the bowl so it doesn't drop to the floor. "Bleh. A healer? Shards, no. Probably got a bruise on my pasty white bum, though. But no serious damage." He hands the bowl to his weyrmate, and rubs at his backside, then goes back to finishing up what's left of the pastries. "Wine? Probably. But I think you've had enough wine for the week."
Thea nods at Ysa's question about the floors and pictures and all. Oh, she's getting quite the picture right now, too. "Yes, Sir, R'miel, we'll watch out for the 'snakes. Thanks for your advice about shaking out the bedding," she shrugs. "We don't have any to shake out, so… we're good. No comment about his a— behind or the need for a Healer, Mind or other kind. As soon as he vacates the spot, she commences scraping. "Don't forget I'm back here, please Sir."
"Zevida's," Ysa answers R'miel with a grin. "An' I agreed completely with the idea. They needed more than just extra chores to stop 'em from talking back to those ranking. It's not like it's been cold 'nough these days for that to be a problem. Think of it as prep for the camp," she says the last towards Thea. She stands up when her weyrmate does, hovering behind him as well, taking the bowl when it's given to lick at some of the filling. "No worries, love. Ya know I take care of your white bum for ya." Another snicker, and this time she looks down towards Thea. "Jus' leave it there before someone else stomps all over ya. I got a task for ya, anyway!"
R'miel furrows his brow at Thea. "Hey now. What is this 'sir' business. The goldriders might want you to call them ma'am, but I do not respond to 'sir'. Why don't you just cut out the middle man and call me 'old man' or 'hey grey beard' or 'Ram-the-ham'." Then he sticks his tongue out at the candidate. "I won't forget…" Then he peers at Ysa. "Sheesh." He grins when she talks about his bum and pokes at her side. "Hm? A task?" He raises a brow at her. "You better not send her off to get you more booze."
Thea doesn't question Ysa as she rises and places her pail and tool in a corner, but she presses her lips together as the pair of them talk about Zevida and the cots, though her face is composed. Not a trace of anxiety shows about the camping trip, either. A quick hand-wash and she's ready. A brow quirks questioningly at R'miel's protest and she shoots a quick glance Ysa's way, but she doesn't argue with the Rider. She's just waiting, one toe ever so slightly taps a few beats before she notices it and stills it.
Ysa pouts towards Ram when he gets all informal with the candidates. "Shells, Ram, it's not like I /like/ being called ma'am, of all things. 'm not as old as ya." She gives the candidate a side-glance before turning back towards the bronzer. "But ya seem to give this lot a handlength and they take a dragonlength instead. Ya know how bad they've been disrespecting us from day one." She pokes him in the side and then turns back to Thea as she seems to just… wait there, and takes that as an invitation to quirk her finger and try to draw her closer. Shooting her weyrmate a look, she leans forward and tries to keep her voice low. "Those sharding cooks aren't letting me anywhere near the stores, and they're keeping the best Benden stock in there for the second hatching. A candidate can easily slip in and out…" Yes, she was asking for more booze.
The camping trip was supposed to be fun! And informative and stuff. Ram works on his pastries while the ladies chat it up. He's almost got them all done, and once they are he pops them into the oven. "So then why be called ma'am? I'd rather be called Weyrsecond, honestly. If you gotta be formal. R'miel is fine though. And I haven't been disrespected." He peers at Thea. "At least not by this one that I know of. Yet. Don't get any ideas." He then furrows his brow at Ysa. "Shards, love. You're a regular drunkard these days. You're going to get her into trouble, you know."
Thea steps forward a pace, wary of that finger. It's attached to a Weyrwoman after all, junior or no. As Ysa voices her request, the Candidate becomes very still. "No, Ma'am." Quietly, but firmly, "Ill not do that." She meets Ysa's eye, then tilts her head towards the cooks, "Ma'am, they haven't the authority to let ya in to Stores. The Headwoman is the one you want. Talk to her. Worked as her Assistant before Search. She's got the keys."
"Well, I ask 'em to call me Junior Weyrwoman or just Weyrwoman, but they're difficult." Ysa eyes Thea up and down with a sigh. "I'd say to hell with all the formalities if they weren't griping and snapping at me during touchings, or running off on Journeymen." When the candidate flat out refuses, her green eyes widen and she stares at Thea for a long time before laughing again. "Shells, ya are taking it seriously. That Aradir fella is flat out boring, but I thought ya were one of the troublemakers." Or at least part of it. She glances towards the storerooms with a mournful look and she gives a few test sniffles. "Fine. I'll share it with ya. They jus' got a whole order of Benden white, last I checked, an' won't notice one missing. Ya can put the blame on my if ya get caught…" Ysa could do the whole ordering thing, but that might have been more wasted effort, especially when she was tipsy. She does pass a pouty face to her weyrmate.
R'miel blinks at Thea, then snickers. "See? She ain't gonna do it anyways, Ys." He pats Ysa on the shoulder. "Sorry, love. We'll just have to go up there and buy our bottles like everyone else." He just shakes his head at his weyrmate's griping about the candidates. Ah well. If it wasn't that it would be something else though, and she was clearly stressed out over the latest batch of impressions. Well, one in particular. Then there's that pout and sniffles. Ram sighs. "Alright, let's go." Thea doesn't have a choice now, the bronzer was involved! He ushers the two women towards the stores.
Thea listens silently. She doesn't attempt to defend her behavior on the Sands, nor does she waver as Ysa goes on. "I don't know why you ever thought that, Ma'am, " she says tartly. "Perhaps we can discuss it over a glass of Benden sometime. Tis quite good and I understand why ya like it." But then R'miel appears to be heading her there anyway. The bronzer isn't getting her near the store room, either. As she pressed, she reaches up and starts to remove her Candidates knot, "I will take verbal abuse, do demeaning work for the honor of Search, but I'll not steal to remain a Candidate." Blasted knot— she can't get it off fast enough.
"I hear what I hear from the Crafters," explains Ysa's views as far as the troublemaking candidates, her eyes continually darting from one side of the kitchen to the other. "If ya think Benden's good, ya need to try Tanner's Friend sometime, though it's not easy to come by." There goes the pouting again from the tipsy goldrider, but her face suddenly brightens up as R'miel gets it into his head to go get her the bottle. She waves him away from the two of them, letting him do it himself instead. She beams after him, turning back to the candidate only after she speaks. "Wait— what? Shells, no! We'd never tell ya to steal, or take your knot just cause you're doing what you're supposed to be doing!" She flails her hands over the girl's shoulderknot after setting the bowl aside. "What possessed ya to think that?"
Thea's lips press into a line at the mention of the Crafter. "Satoris most likely. "The man's a workaholic to an unhealthy degree . Apparently thinks he can read minds, too. He did get rather a tongue-lashing the other day, but t'wasn't from me. 'Wasn't right, but… we're a group, so we all pay. I understand." She flicks her hand, dismissing that. Ysa's next words cause a confused wrinkle to furrow her brow. "But, you did, Ma'am. Sneakin a bottle or two of wine out of the Stores is stealing; I won't do it. If being less than enthusiastic about working all day and all night too brings such ire, I've no idea what befalls a Candidate who refuses to do as bidden by a Weyrwoman."
"Satoris, well… Yah, he's a whole other problem," Ysa agrees with a slow nod. The junior was lazy to an unhealthy degree sometimes, and she did snap at the Miner when he was taking the cots out, too. "Well, he isn't too wrong on the fact that y'all need to work when they ask. It's easier than raising a dragon hatchling, let me tell ya that." She grins at the memory, and when the girl doesn't toss the knot at her feet the goldrider visibly relaxes. For a moment. But her green eyes, slightly red from drink, was staring at her in shocked surprise before she smirks at her. "We make ya work, Thea, but we're not going to take away your free will. Ya work cause it prepares ya if ya Impress. You're not here on vacation, but what I do doesn't reflect on ya." She winks and spares her a chuckle. "So ya don't steal. Booring. I mean, not like you'll tattle me out to Niva… Will ya?"
Thea snorts at Ysa's last question, "Of course not! Ma'am, what you do is your business; I could care less, nor do I think less of ya, either. I dont want to be dragged into that' is all." She thinks for a moment, then with some asperity, "Meaning no disrespect, but I understand that. No one told us we were to be worked day -and- night. I'd worked all day, worked hard and it was it was late night; I was tired. He called; I went. Wasn't all 'Oh Joy' about it, like the man thought I ought to be, but I didn't complain. Miner thought he could judge my motives for accepting Search and my work ethic. He goaded those girls, Ma'am."
Ysa looks relieved when the candidate wasn't going to give her away. Not that Niva would really care… "That's good to know. Shells, how long does it take to a new bottle of Benden?" Her eyes trail towards the store rooms, where it has been quiet ever since her weyrmate went in there. Maybe he had trouble finding it? She doesn't appear to care much, as she turns back to take the bowl of filling, sweeping a finger along its side before offering the bowl to Thea. "Candidates need some space and freedom, I agree with that. Is he taking up every night? Though most of ya got double duties… I think most of the problems have stemmed off of that Neferennu, from the reports I've heard. Those straight from a Hold are better behaved even if I refused to have 'em be Searched."
Thea waves the bowl away with a bit of a chuckle. "Too much spit in it now for my taste after the two of ya had at it, but thanks." She looks towards the store room. "How about I go finish my chores while you find out?" She hesitates, then comments thoughtfully, "He was taking Candidates on their day off, volunteers anyway. Then sorta browbeating those who didn't want to give up theirs. Makin em feel guilty, the like. Nef'd had a bad day, he goaded and she let loose." A shrug niether a defense nor a condemnation. "It's a learning experience for us all, Ma'am. But the younger ones…they're exhausted and I can hear some of them crying in the night. They're gonna get sick."
Ysa sticks the finger into her mouth and makes some mmmm sounds. "Well, you're the one missing out," she says, sweeping her finger once more in it before setting the bowl aside. "Part of candidacy is to jus' do as you're told, though it's got to be reasonable. Jus' cause it was one person's bad day didn't mean much…" Maybe that was her dislike towards Neferennu speaking. "If he's taking ya /every/ night, then ya come to me and I'll deal with him. You're going to face that and worse if ya were riders." At the mention of the little ones, there was a slight sympathetic wince there and then a shake of her head. "Ya shouldn't be getting that much more duties from the headwoman. No worries, we'll see about blankets and cots after ya come back from survival camp! Think of it as preparation for it, I hear it's really rough. Mountain climbing, cold nights, wild felines…" She leaves those thoughts and nightmares on the candidate as there's a sudden clatter and her weyrmate comes running out of the stores with their plunder. "Ram!" With a giggle, she turns to Thea and says, "Jus' think, those eggs are hatching at anytime." Hopefully. With that, she starts making her way after her weyrmate.
Thea nods and re-adjusts her loosened knot. "I'll do that. Thank you, Ma'am." As R'miel and Ysa head off to enjoy their booty, she heads the other way, taking her knot with her.