Xanadu Weyr - Weyrling Barracks
A long and roughly oblong cavern, about a third of the space is open, used for classes or chores as required. The rest of the space is filled with couches of varying sizes, all with plenty of space between them. Some couches are obviously intended for the very young weyrlings while the largest ones at the back are for the older weyrlings.
It's midafternoon, Xanadu Weyr time, and there's mercifully a short break in lessons - at least, long enough for Saige to settle against the camaflouge hide of Ulaekimajith and start writing in one of a pile of stacked notebooks by her side. She's writing intently enough, occassionaly glancing up to see if any of the other weyrlings come in.
Thea has a shovel in her hands, scrape-scraping the muck from the curved stone couch. It's a grating noise, but at least it isn't loud. From the way she's handling the shovel, her Weaver's arms need much strengthening. Seryth is sitting nearby, watching Thea with a cocked head and crooning soft encouragement. Ruin is perched on Seryth's neckridges, enjoying his new throne, while faithful Shep curls about the back of Thea's neck.
Saige peers up enough from her writing to note the scrape-scrape-scrapeing, and then stands up to peer over the top of Ulae. "I… what are you doing?" Saige asks, eyes wide. "… Muck-cleaning, again? Need some help?" Ulaekimajith cracks open one eyelid to let out a lazy croon towards the other weyrling pair.
Hearing Saige's voice, Thea pauses in her movement, leaning the handle of the shovel against her own shoulder for a moment. She smiles faintly back at Saige, obviously fatigued, as they all must be these days. "Oh, no, there's not much here. Besides," she glances down at her reddened palms, rubbing them together, "I'll never toughen up if I keep getting help." She looks slightly guilty, "A'dar keeps offering and won't take no for an answer."
Saige leans against Ulae again, and then grins at that. "He hasn't volunteered for me yet!" She says, playfully pouting before stretching slightly, flexing her palms. "But that might have to do more with the fact Seryth is a gold, rather tahn a green." Ulae lets out a draconic 'sniff', and then wakes up fully, lumbering over to Seryth for a moment. "Fact is, I'm already looking forward to the rest of our weyrling lessons… dragon anatomy, hah!"
Thea snorts, a half-scowl merging with a smile as she gestures at the green, as she mock-growls, "He ought to be. Likely to be chasing her one day." She sighs, "But A'dar's not like one to curry favors. Ya just got to get Ulaekimajith to poop when he's around." She gasps her shovel handle once more, but doesn't resume her scraping quite yet. "They gonna make you sit through them all over again?" She sounds incredulous, "I'd think they'd let you skip that one and use the time to advance in your craft. Or…are you still going into dragonhealing?"
Saige glances at Ulaekimajith, who rears up slightly, wings spreading then shutting almost in protest of the comment about A'dars' Zeituth chasing her, although Saige does give her green a long, speculative, almost odd look. "Meh, not too worried aobut it," and then shrugs. "If they do, easy lesson for me, if not, then yeah, I'm going to continue trying to get my rank four levels.. minor surgery and stuff, that." She then sighs. "That, or I'm helping teach the lesson."
Seryth turns her head as Ulaekimajith approaches her, blinking serene blue-hued eyes and a whuffle greeting. As the girls talk, she remains blissfully unaware, but wing-flare does catch her attention; she merely trills deep in her throat soothingly. Apparently it's all beyond Seryth right now. Thea flicks her fingers, totally dismissing the Flight subject, as she shrugs with studied indifference, "It's their way." She pushes on the shovel scooping the muck into the bucket she's got nearby. "Be interesting, having you teach us. Zevida's got all my spare hours for more training."
Saige chuckles slightly. "I'd only teach if the Weyrling Masters looked at me, went, Saige, you are helping, or, Saige, you need to go work on your craft by helping, or something totally wierd like that." Ulaekimajith settles down with a soft croon, leaning against a wall, glancing towards the entrance of the barracks. "No, I don't know where Zeituth and A'dar are." Saige informs Ulae. "… Why?" At the unspoken response, Saige blinks. Several times.
After resting for a week or so S'ya is back on her feet! The greenie walks into the barracks, a look of curiosity sent to Ulae and Seryth since obviously /somethings/ going on between the two. She glances over the various Weyrlings in the barracks, making sure no ones up to any trouble. When she catches Thea mention 'flights' she grins, moving on over to the girls. "How would you teach us about flights, love? I am assuming just the biological bit between dragons?" She asks with a giggle, finding a seat for herself. "How are you ladies keeping up?"
Thea snorts back a chuckle at Saige's blinking as Seryth is so helpfully filling her in, with all her own innocent spin on the remembered conversation. She braces the shovel against her boot, when S'ya enters. "Afternoon, Ma'am." Her eyes slide towards Saige a curious expression in them. "Lives in a Weyr, doesn't she?" Her tone implies she must know something about the other aspects. But she doesn't say it, instead, "How's the babe?"
Saige glances at Thea, and grins slightly at S'ya's voice, truning to smile. "Yes, Flights? And yes, just the biological bit. I'm in no place to talk about the emotional part of it.. or the affect it might have on the humans in the area." She says, hastily. "Like the greenrider, or the catching draogns rider, or the loser riders, or or - well." She pauses there, grimacing.
S'ya nods to Thea at her greeting, folding her hands over stomach out of habit. "Misha is doing wonderfully. I will have to bring her by when she is a bit bigger. Though, well, she is huge enough as it is." She says with a giggle, glancing over the young dragons. When Saige goes into a frenzy about flights she just grins. "Well, that is a long way coming for you two. Especially you Thea. We will talk on it plenty when your lifemates are nearing maturity." She takes a moment to think on something before placing her hazel eyes back on the Weyrlings. "Proddiness can be an interesting time. Some dragons change from being fun loving to agressive and vice versa. Some do not really change at all." The joys of being a rider to a female.
Thea just listens for the most part. Yay ignorance! "They might want you to get a feel for teaching Saige?" See, she isn't sure. She reaches for the other bucket — the one with soapy water and the bush inside it, which she applies to the curved inside if Seryth's couch. Whilst scrubbing, she listens to S'ya, then comments in a dry tone, "I came right after Ellamariseth's Flight, so I missed the chance to… observe." She grunts a bit as she presses into the cleaning. Carefully she adds, "I've seen some of the greenriders go proddy. Guess we'll find out when the time comes. Right now I'm just trying to get used to…" She dips the brush into the bucket and returns to scrubbing, "Seryth's presence."
Saige shakes her head. "I'm weyrbred and raised; proddiness isn't anything new, not on top of my dragonhealing training and being uh… involved in some flights myself." There's a half-flush on her face, then she coughs slightly and shakes her head. "Golds tend t take awhile to rise; greens have proddy cycles, to say, more often than most queens." She notes, then takes the shovel Thea was using and starts to clean out Ulaekimajith's couch. "But, for all this is an interesting conversation, no far leaving A'dar out of the loop!"
S'ya looks over to Saige when Thea mentions the teaching bit, acting as if she's giving her a good look over. "Hmm, maybe we can have her do a lecture on all that fun biology stuff after all." Just to torture the new greenie, really! She turns her attention back to Thea, shifting a bit in her seat in order to get comfy. "So normally cannot stand boys, she is scared of them actually, but when she goes proddy she is throwing herself on them." She says with a chuckle, shaking her head at her silly lifemate. "And well, yes. It does take some getting used to, the voice in your head bit." She watches Saige clean up, throwing a few locks behind her shoulder. "Oh, is that so? Well then you will be very prepared for when Ulae goes up." She giggles at the mention of A'dar. "Maybe we should wait till he joins us to continue?"
Thea finishes her scrubbing; now for the rinsing. She reaches for one of the coiled hoses and carefully opens the valve so as not to splatter everyone, but to gently wash the soapy grime from Seyrth's couch down the drain. She directs the stream of water around idly as she points out, "A'dar's not here, neither is half the group." She grimaces, looking over her shoulder at her dragon. "Seryth's asking a lot of questions right now. I can try to answer them, but would have to explain and I -know- she won't understand the explanations I give her." Exasperation tinges her voice as she adds, "I mean, I don't even know why we're talking Flights when most of us don't even know anatomy yet. I don't even know if… if…" She gestures with her brush at Seryth's head, blurting out the first thing that pops into her head, "…I should be cleaning her ears. And where are they? Do they even have ears? And if so, why on Pern do they even need 'em; they can talk in their heads, for Faranth's sake!" It's been a long first week for someone.
Saige shakes her head. "Y'don't want me; I'm only a level three." She protests, loudly enough, eyeing S'ya and Thea. "Get my mentor, K'vin in here, and Rennu to help." She points out. "Meh… Ulae's hard to tell, yet. She's over-protective of my friendships I have now.. f'some reason, which I'm not sure… " At S'yas' giggle, she licks her lips, and then shakes her head as poor Thea starts babbling. "They don't exactly have ears; however, they are able to listen to us, as such things are done." She points out. "Look … at least Zeituth won't ever fly Seryth, y'know."
"Hmm, I think a good portion of them went to the beach to give their dragons a scrub down." S'ya provides to Thea on the whereabouts of half their class. When Seryth is brought up she looks over to the young queen, tilting her head a bit. "What is she asking about?" When Thea goes on about ears and flights she just blinks. "Uh, all in do time love." When Saige takes over explaining she just sets back to relaxing. "Maybe we can have you there just as a supporting member of the lecture?" She's teasing, of course. When A'dar is brought up again she can't help but giggle a bit. "Funny enough, none of my clutchmates ever flew So."
Thea echoes blankly, "'They don't have ears but they can listen.' Wha…?" Her mouth hangs open. She looks to S'ya and there's confusion written all over her face, "Y'see, that exactly what I'm talkin' about." She steps closer to Seryth and the young queen helpfully lowers her head while her someday-rider's fingers dance across her poll. "Where are the…input orbs, or what-cha-ma-call-ums then? And these—" She hooks a finger and pulls one of Seryth's lips down, exposing some of her teeth, "No one has said a word about dragon dental floss, but I swear if I have to sleep with her breath in my face one more night…" There's an edge to her voice now. Then Saige's comment sinks in and she looks totally flabbergasted for a moment there. "A'dar? A'dar?" She just starts laughing, "Can't…breathe…" It takes a few attempts. "Listen, I don't care who flies who. When it happens, I'm just gonna do whatever, not talk all over Pern about doing, going to do or having done it!" She reflects for a moment, "Though if it were A'dar, I sure as Faranth wouldn't have to worry about Ysa and bottle-throwing." Or running from a drunken murdress or…
Saige chuckles. "Who knows what Thea talks about half the times?" Saige teases as much as S'ya is teasing her. "Meh… A'dar, A'dar, A'dar. He may be over five turns younger than me, but mmm." She waves a hand, blushes slightly at that, then ducks her head, even as Ulaekimajith's head comes up and her verbal sentance that follows is quite… audible. « Zeituth is NOT FLYING ME, not even if you like his! » "… ULAE!" Saige gasps, hiding her face in her hands. "I don't - I - you - I - oh eggshells."
As if called by the conversation, A'dar re-enters the weryling barracks, Zei alongside him. A'dar has the supplies for dragon cleaning in a basket, and Zeituth's hide is freshly washed and oiled, so that's a good clue as to where he was. He offers, "Hello," to the assembled crowd. He blinks a bit as he notices the uncomfortable expressions on various faces. Blink. Blinkblink. "…Is something the matter…?" he inquires. Zei looks around as well, tilting his head curiously.
S'ya watches in awe as Thea goes over her lifemates anatomy, her jaw dropping a bit when the gold's less than plesant breath is brought up. She starts giggling, clutching her sides. "Shells, love. You are something else. And if R'miel won your flight Ysa would not care. I mean, flights are flights after all." When Ulaekimajith provides that lovely insight into Saige's mind the greenrider gives her a smirk. "Is that so? I thought you liked Satoris?" When A'dar enters S'ya turns to give him a happy little wave. "Hey there, love! How are you two holding up?" When he asks if something's the matter she just shakes her head, turning to eye Saige. "I do not think so. Do you, Saige?"
Thea blinks as A'dar enters, then gives him a bit of a wave, "Yer ears musta been burning." She looks back at S'ya, one foot tapping the floor. "So. You don't know?" Her interest in Flights right now is painfully obvious. It is zero.
Saige peers up over Ulaekimajith as A'adar and Zeituth enter, and even as S'ya asks, the green moves slightly and Saige sinks behind her dragon, hiding, it seems. "Not really." She mumbles. "Nothing's the matter. Satoris is weird, and off-limits. Ulae won't let me near the other." The green snorts, and levels a clear, long gaze at the blue and rider for a long, long minute.
A'dar nods to S'ya's question. "We're both holding up well," he notes, with a smile. He loops an arm around the blue's neck, leaning to nuzzle Zei's side a bit. Thea's remark leads him to look up and blink a bit. He looks up to Zei - now at least he's not looking like he's startled every time the blue speaks to him - and then shrugs. "Because…someone was talking about me in here." He chuckles. "Just a figure of speech…they're not." He pats Zei's shoulder to reassure him. Saige's response causes A'dar to tilt his head curiously as he regards her. It didn't seem like everything was all right…but he was assured that it was, so he'll take the comment at face value.
"All in do time, Thea." S'ya reassures the fretting Weyrling, passing her a quick wink. She eyes Saige as she goes ahiding, the greenie giggling a bit as she gets to her feet. It's so much easier now that her bun was done baking! "I see. Well, there are plenty of fish in the sea! Though you lot are not to go fishing anytime soon, understood?" And she levels a serious, 'don't be making the whoopie until your lifemate's ready!' look before giggling a bit more. "Misha is probably up from her nap so I had best be on my way. I will drop by later, loves!" And with that she's off to check on her newborn.
Thea mutters something about one-track minds, calling after the departing AWLM, "I meant the teeth. Teeth!" Oh she's frustrated! Grumblegrumble. Something about information they don't need yet and ears. She picks up her two buckets and heads to put them where they belong. As she passes A'dar, she grits, "Actually, we were. Talking about you." Poor A'dar. She's not mad at -him-. He's stepped into, well… the Weyrling Barracks.