Xanadu Weyr - Hatching Arena
Large outer doors can be thrown open to allow massive amounts of people into the foyer with ease, the well-lit space both having many thick-paned windows as well as spaced lights along the walls. Smooth tile has carefully been laid on the floor, a variety of orange hues reflecting the pale tan of the walls. Wide areas have been left unadorned - perhaps for future artistic endeavors - on either side of a pair of low, bronze doors which remained closed the majority of the time, as they lead to the sands themselves. Off to the sides are doors to the candidates barracks and the Dragonhealer's annex, and a pair of wide staircases on either side lead upwards to the observation level.
Kacen nods. "My mother is Katlyn of Ierne. She's been weyrmated to two people for longer then I've been alive. Nelali and D'ce. D'ce is my real father, but both have raised me just as much as mom. Actually, as kids we called them Mom and Momma and I didn't know there was anything odd for years. Neamon is really Nel's son. She had most of the kids. Mom says she just let Nel do the work and she got to pla y with the babies. But I'm closer to Mon then to my real half brother."
Jynniphire nods, trying to keep up. "Uh-huh… Well, my mum was just a seamstress or something when she had me, then she got Searched, Impressed a dragon, and, well, it made no difference to me really, because she'd already handed me over to a nanny before that. Then, once she was out of Weyrlinghood, she had more children, all with my dad, so as far as I know I've got no half siblings at all."
Felandre reaches up a hand to rub absently at the side of his jaw as he listens to the lineages, "I got pleanty, can't say I know all - I'm the youngest. My parents are traders, and my grandparents, and their parents way, way back… Some of the Aunties and Uncles say right back to the colonists, but, who's to know for sure. A few got Searched and Impressed here and there, but so far, me and my siblings got the longest streak going. My sister's a greenrider, my brother is a blue."
"How touching, a family history." Snaps V'dim as he stalks in, bundled up to the bottom of his chin despite the continued disappearance of the ice. Glancing around him, he narrows his gaze. "I suppose you are all hiding from the cold, hm? Did you ever thing about that poor girl, lost out there in the cold? I bet not." And there's no rambling preamble from the grumpy Weyrlingmaster as he eyes the candidates and apprentice each in turn.
Jynniphire sits up to attention when she hears V'dim's voice, and looks a little guilty. "Well, no sir, it causes too much pain to think of her lost out there…" Well, it's only a little lie - she does feel bad for the girl, but… well anyway. "It's just… well, warming up's kinda important for us, as we've got to go do all our chores later…"
Kacen visably pales at that. He seems very distressed and finally asks in a voice much more humble then normal. "Is she still not back? She promised me…" With that he trails off, going snow white. Uh oh. His face shifts up to look directly at V'dim and he just waits with the expectant look seen on all naughty children.
There's no lie coming from Felandre, and one can't say he's good at it either. He may not say anything to try and sound innocent, but then, the guilt is evident on her face. His posture droops slightly, eyes glancing down towards the ground. No, apparently he hadn't considered her, what with his big, hearty winter jacket about his shoulders and all.
Neamon looks a bit oblivious as he wanders into the grouping, nodding absently to the few of the candidates that he's gotten to know and he looks around. "Why's everyone so glum?"
"And so warming up is more important than looking for one of your own? Good to see your stance emerge on it." V'dim gaze shifts hurriedly to Neamon, as he starts to ask the newest arrival the same question before Kacen utters words which are enough to get anyone in trouble. "She promised you? And what did she promise you, apprentice?" And, unfortunately for the apprentice, V'dim gaze isn't going anywhere now.
Kacen glups now. He darts a look over to Neamon, a begging hopeless look. This time the trouble may be over his head. "She said she'd be back in just a few hours. She just wanted to say goodbye is all. Cause." He head drops and now he's speaking to his lap, hands twiddling together and all together looking turns younger then his sixteen. "Well, she'd decided to stay a candidate and not run away with him." A last mumble. "She asked me to bring the runner back for her. Said, he'd drop her off after."
Jynniphire looks uncomfortable, and turns her gaze to Kacen and Felandre, shrugging slightly. "What are we supposed to be able to do?" she whispers to them. "I feel bad for her and all, but what can we do?" Hopefully, she says it quietly enough so that V'dim won't hear.
Felandre gives a soft shrug back to Jynniphire and then over towards Kacen, briefly furrowing his brows, like he hadn't know there was a whole story behind it. "Weyrlingmaster?" He turns, questioning V'dim with a clear of his throat. "To be honest, I'm not really sure what I can do." He says, voice quiet, a bit uncertain. "What can we do without getting in the way of those who know what they're doing?"
Neamon turns to stare at Kacen, fidgeting slightly as he tries to get his attention. As he's not trying to be obvious, he's not doing a very good job and he settles for glaring at his brother, even as he moves to step closer in a show of solidarity. A quick look over the others, even as he mutters something under his breath.
"Have you ever considered open your eyes and looking for her? For all we knew, she could have fallen, and injured herself. Though, how it seems that its not the case." While he's speaking, Jynniphire and Felandre are glared at, before he looks back at the brothers, first at Kacen, then Neamon. "Did you know about this, candidate?" Is directed to the later, and then Kacen gets a question of her own. "Who was she saying good bye to, exactly? Or, did you not think to ask."
Jynniphire cringes a little under the glare, feeling thoroughly belittled. "Sorry," she mutters, glancing sideways at Felandre while the attention's not on them. "Perhaps she's just gone and doesn't want to be found - it happens, after all. Maybe someone did something to annoy her, or she did something to annoy someone and they chased her away, but she's fine?"
Kacen has just enough time to shoot Neamon a grateful look while the other candidates distract the Weyrlingmaster.But then he's in the spotlight again and whatever was said by his brother seems to have calmed him some. "The boy her parents didn't like, sir." Ah some respect at last. Or maybe he's just settled enough. "You're right. I didn't think to get his name, but I know he was in that small trader's caravan that just went past. Didn't have anything useful for Xanadu so they only were here that one day." He sighs. "I thought she'd just left with him. That we'd get a note." Which might explain why he's been haunting the candidates barracks even more then usual.
Neamon is working on perfecting his poker face before he shrugs slightly. "Not really. I knew she had a friend that she was after." He shrugs a bit more. "You couldn't help but know it, he was all she talked about. 'Course I didn't think she was dense enough to leave right before a storm either." Then there's another significant look at Kacen, as he stops his telling as his backs up the others.
Felandre offers Jynniphire another, rather helpless shrug. "…dunno." Then he's back and listening to V'dim and Kacen, trying to learn more. But ah, something catches his interest. "Traders? Wonder if I'd recognize them to see them. Any idea what the caravan looked like?"
"Do you know where they were going next, apprentice?" That question is for Kacen, and is accompanied by a glare, though his attention does drift momentarily to each of the others who seem to be filling in bits and pieces, or offering their own advice. And V'dim's arms fold once more in front as he waits for more explanation.
Jynniphire doesn't know any traders really, and isn't sure that she can even remember the girl who went missing all that well. She stays quiet for the time being, twiddling uncomfortably with the hem of her jacket, occasionally glancing up at the males before her.
Kacen stands as if this might help him think. "No." The next comment is a little whiny, with a hint of frustration. "She promised she'd be back. I didn't think she'd leave." He takes on step back so now it might seem to be as if the two brothers are standing against the others. "And I'm afraid I don't know one caravan from another. Dragons, I know. Traders." He shrugs. "Just that they were small and a bit poor. That's why her parents didn't like him. Or so she said."
Neamon nods along, idly reaffirming. "I just thought she was an odd duck. I mean, you finally get searched and then you're leaving to go with a trader just to upset your parents?" He glances at one of the girls. "I mean, you'd not be doing that would you? Doesn't make a lick of sense at all."
V'dim looks rather disappointed, before sighing and shaking his head. "At least its a start", he relents slightly. And as his gaze goes from each candidate and the apprentice, he straightens slightly. "From now on, you will tell someone - like me - when someone leaves. Then we'll at least have an idea of what we're facing." Shaking his head again, he looks at each in turn. "Candidates, I expect to see you doing extra duty in the infirmary, to help with the cold injuries, for your lack of care, and your inability to tell me something important. Apprentice, you're not mine to punish, but you can believe me that I will be speaking with your master."
Jynniphire glares back at Neamon's gaze, standing up. "What, exactly, are you suggesting, huh? That perhaps us girls aren't as smart as you guys are? 'Cos it sure sounds that way from where I'm standing!" She snorts angrily, hands clenched by her sides. "That poor girl was probably spirited away by one of those rough trader-types, she might not have known what she was getting into, if she went willingly!" Then V'dim sentences her to work in the infirmary, and she just barely holds back her groan. "Infirmary work?" she questions quietly, not willing to make it any worse.
Jynniphire's explosion is ignored for whatever reason seems best in that impulsive mind of Kacen's instead he just looks a mixture of glum and relieved to have gotten off mildly. "Yes sir. Probably should ask for Journeyman Loumoin. He's had…ah…the special training of me lately." He whispers something at his brother too low to be heard but stops figeting in place.
Neamon looks rather taken aback and moves to stand even closer to Kacen, as he starts to pay more attention to the ranting going on in the direction of one of the candidates. "Oh, that's a fiesty one." is whispered quietly back to no one in particular before he simultaniously groans with several others. "Infirmary work? I'm not sure that I'm the best sorted to that, honestly. If you want the truth. I tend to have to left hands when it comes to that."
"You can stock the shelves, if they deem you unfit to actually help. Fetch things. There are ways. And, if I discover you're shrinking, there will be something worse." V'dim, surprisingly doesn't comment upon Jynniphire's outburst, though a slight smile crosses his lips for only a moment, before its back to stern. "I will, apprentice, I will. You are all dismissed… I expect you to go to the chores that you've been assigned to, without hesitation." And then, without checking for compliance, he turns to head back outside to the cold, pulling a scarf up a bit more. Time to find those traders.
Kacen nods as his whole body releases the tension. He bends down to pick up his text book and papers and with just an exchange of looks with his brother, heads back out into the cold and towards the crafters' area.
Jynniphire apparently finds stocking shelves more appealing than infirmary work, and smiles ever so slightly, then turns her attentions to Neamon. "I heard what you said," she says sharply, though there's no menace in her voice. "I may be fiesty, but you're stupid for thinking that boys are better than girls in any way at all. Just you watch your tongue, ok?" She wraps her coat tightly around her before she starts heading to the exit into the weyr. "I don't like to be insulted, and by insulting girls, you're insulting me. See you in chores, Neamon." And out she goes, into the cold.
Neamon is grumbling slightly both about brothers and girls as he heads off in the direction that Jynniphire took, walking towards the infirmary.