Drudgery (Chores, any candidates!)

[avon]

Darnell was not happy. Apparently becoming a candidate entailed doing menial work for the Weyr. This was completely unfair. They were the future of the Weyr; someday, if they Impressed, they would defend Pern from Thread. Yet here they were, doing the basest chores in the Weyr.

He scowled as he scrubbed a pot violently, taking out his anger on the stains and goop stuck to the metal. Other candidates were around the kitchen, also washing dishes, or peeling vegetables or cleaning the floor or doing other undignified things. Definitely not his idea of a party.

[Deleted]

Carmortin
Morry was fine with doing chores, even though some of the Candidates were clearly balking at the work--not that their tasks were hard (at least most of them), but because most of them had probably been sent out on Search and gotten picked out of dozens by a dragon and flown aaaaaall the way to Mavros where a clutch with two queen eggs was waiting.

But they didn't have dragons yet, so what did they expect? Being waited on hand and foot in a Weyr that barely had three wings to go around? Well, maybe the "entitled potential rider" thing was probably what the Candidates in the rest of the South experienced. Back in Mirran, most of the riders had acted more like Lord or Lady Holders than dragonriders.

Morry didn't mind either way, because it was really just his normal cot chores on a larger scale. Unfortunately, S'bol had realized that assigning Morry to chores was much harder than it looked once Godrin had reminded the Candidate Master of Morry's unofficial "stay away from glowbaskets, young children, and anything that would be problematic if he tripped and fell" rule.

"And what if Morry sews himself to his belt knife again?"

"Carmortin did not sew himself to his belt knife," S'bol explained amongst snickers and Morry's groan. "He got the thread tangled up and it HAPPENED to be the spool he was using to--we didn't need to cut out that much... all right, I'll need a few more minutes."

So now Carmortin was peeling tubers--one of the chores that he could still do fairly well, and if he accidentally dropped one back into the basket, they could just rinse it off again. He picked at his left sleeve; the too-dark patch against the rest of the lighter tan shade was uncomfortably obvious. And the wool kept rubbing against his forearm.

[Deleted]

Chores; sometimes it was fun to have new chores. Whenever Belizor wasn’t at the Weyr, he had a whole different set of chores to do that on occasion got monotonous. Of course, he was one of the few that thrived on monotony, but even he could get tired of doing the same exact thing every day for several months. So the idea of something new every week was oddly appealing to the somewhat simple-minded man. Today, he was assigned to the kitchens along with several others and was charged with going through and sanding all of the wooden plates and cups free of any stains.

It was similar and yet wholly different from his usual tasks at home, helping his father, and so it was mindless work. Of course, Bel didn’t really have all that much to think about. His thoughts turned to peculiar things like wooden side tables followed by a curiosity of the state of the clouds in the sky (were there any and if so, what did they look like?) then finally to the destruction of the casket that had been made for the Weyrwoman so that she could be buried in the tradition of her family. While of course he was glad that she’d not been dead, Bel was greatly disturbed by the destruction of such a wonderful piece of work. His family had spent nearly several days working tirelessly on it. And Karredy hadn’t even gotten to see it!

His hands stilled at his task and he frowned. “I’ll make her a new one.” He concluded with a smile then went back to work.

[madb]

It was nice and quiet.

Liesol didn't realize it, but she was humming as she worked, with a tiny smile on her face. She enjoyed the fact that this time, the candidates were all quite silent and no one was being rambunctious or argumentative.

She was scrubbing the floor, which was a nice menial task that she didn't have to think too hard about. It was nice, just to get caught up in the peaceful, repetitive notion. And it was wonderful to her that they could help the dragonriders this way. It was as if even they were important to the weyr. Lieosl felt pleased, that she could do this much, even if she was worried a tiiinsy bit that her hands would be stepped on by one of the bigger candidates... her bones would break... and then she could never play the lute again.

Frantically, Lie pushed that from her mind, and started scrubbing the floor harder to distract herself. In fact, she was so absorbed in the action, that she was not looking where she was going, and ran head-first into... somebody... with a surprising amount of force.

The bucket she'd been dragging around with her was jostled out of her hand, and fell to the floor, the suddy water pouring out everywhere and seeping into the floor as well as drenching the trousers and skirts of several candidates nearby with backsplash.

"Oh, dear," Liesol whispered, too startled at this point to even do her typical squeaky apology.

[Rhush]

Srunae

Like Morry, Srunae got to peel potatoes - and, given her candidate experience, even got to put the newly skinned tubers into a pot of boiling water! What joy! What rapture! What... total boredom. Srunae took to her task well enough, but for the most part she was quite thoroughly bored out of her mind. At least the kitchen crew had allowed the girl to bring Floret and Zeek, provided the two gemgliders didn't interfere with the food or shed on it, for that matter.

Given that Floret was comfortably draped over Srunae's shoulders like some sort of fluffy necklace and Zeek had taken to exploring the ground around Srunae and Morry's feet in ever widening circles, however, it was obvious they were content to stay out of the way. Srunae popped another potato into the pot of boiling water and stirred it into position among a few others she had newly placed in there before she turned to Morry. The awkward young man was, at least, peeling well enough, though the beastcrafter did sort of wish she didn't have to re-wash every other potato he peeled. At least he was a hard-worker, she could give him that.

As she turned to ask the young man for another few potatoes, however, Liesol's undignified squeak and a frigid splash of water over her ankles and lower legs captured her attention. With a matching squeak to Lie's, the older candidate jumped a little in surprise before blinking down at her newly wetted boots and skirt hems with mild amusement- and silent resignation. And here Srunae had been quite happy to finally have gotten that stain out of her skirt...

Oh, but wait. It was soap and water - not soup and water. A much, much easier ignored (and fixed!) spill. Taking a fistful of her skirts, she attempted to wring some of the liquid out of the light fabric, glancing over at the apparently stunned Liesol. Floret had taken to scolding the slowly spreading water on the floor, her minty green form sitting up from scarf-mode only so that she could comfortably scold the bubbles.

"Oh, don't worry about it. A little soap and water never killed anyone." Srunae said amiably to the speechless Liesol, chuckling. Zeek, silly blue gemmie that he was, took to curiously exploring the now slick floor, sniffing at the water and soap before attempting to walk on it - and ending up sliding across the floor in a rather comical manner before he crashed into Liesol's leg. Stopped, he crooned apologetically to the girl, and Srunae stifled a giggle. Zeek always was getting into mischief, wasn't he?

[avon]

Darnell was mostly ignoring the other candidates, especially the inept curly-haired one, but he glanced up when Belizor muttered something to himself. However, before he could say anything, there was a crash and suddenly water was seeping across the floor.

Darnell made a face and stepped away before any of the water could get to his shoes, which were custom made from a Bitran leathercrafter. Shooting Liesol a withering look, he dropped a towel onto the floor and mopped up the water closest to him with his foot. Shards, he didn't like chores, but at least he could do them with some modicum of competency.

There was a squeaking sound from his tunic pocket and Strider peeked his head out. Jumping down, he scurried over to join Zeek. That looked fun! The little bronze screeched as he slid in the soap, and Darnell rolled his eyes. I am surrounded by idiots. Even my own gemlizard!

"What were you going to make?" Darnell asked Belizor, speaking over the squealing girls and gemlizards.

[Deleted]

Carmortin
Was it bad for Morry to feel relieved when someone who wasn't him spilled something? Because he kind of did, even if it was that cute harper girl who always looked like she needed a hug when something went wrong. Like now.

Did not think that, did not think that, did not think that! Morry thought frantically, and dug his belt knife into the most recent tuber with a vengeance. Naturally, this meant he gouged a chunk out of the poor vegetable and nicked a finger in the process. "Ow." He grabbed a rag for his cut realized that calling her (shard it, what was her name? Lissar?) not-cute would usually mean calling her ugly, and he DEFINITELY wasn't calling anyone ugly, it was just that--that--

"SOMETHING IS ON THE FLOOR FARANTH'S EGG WHAT ARE THEY?" He drew his legs up before realizing that the sudden arrivals were just some of the weird new pets that some of the Candidates had Impressed. And that he said the last part out loud.

Very loud. But at least the girls' giggling and squealing covered up some of it.

"Oh. Th-they're the... things." And he'd already seen at least one of them roaming around the kitchen, so... Shard it, he felt stupid. On the other hand, they were kind of adorable--slipping around like canine pups. (The fur helped a LOT.) "What are they, again?"

[madb]

"Oh, don't worry about it. A little soap and water never killed anyone."

Liesol forced herself to look up. She smiled shyly. "I am sorry though," she said, her voice only heard because of how quiet the room was. "I-I didn't mean to do that..." She ducked her head sheepishly, and tried to start the process of mopping all the soapy water up with a cloth. If she noticed her skirts had gotten completely drenched, she didn't say, just kept scrubbing.

Then the blue gemglider that the other candidate had--Lie had been admiring the creatures while she was working, but had not had the courage to ask if she could pet them--well, he made quite a funny little skid across the floor and then hit Lie's leg. "Oh, dear!" she said, giggling, and reaching out to pet him before drawing back. "Are you alright?"

She looked up at Srunae. "H-he's gorgeous..."

Then another gemglider slid in, and Liesol fell into a fit of giggling as she was soaked by the excess water. The girl didn't seem to mind that there were now suddy bubbles all of her hair and clinging to her clothes. Her cheeks reddened with laughter.

"Eeep!" Liesol squeaked as one of the guy candidates got quite loud all of a sudden.

She glanced up. "They're gemgliders," she said softly, reaching out absentmindedly to lay a hand protectively on Zeek's head, even though he wasn't hers. After all, the boy had been so loud... Liesol tilted her head and a worried line formed on her brow.

"You're hurt," she said, seeing the bleeding on his finger where it had soaked in the rag. "Oh! Oh, I-I know where the kit is! I-I'll go get you something for that--" Liesol said, excited to be helpful.

The girl stood up quickly. Her feet slid on the slippery surface, and she promptly fell down again, so fast that she didn't have time to even think about how embarrassing this was.

"Ouch," she winced, holding her head.

Whoever knew the kitchens could be so full of disasters...

[Deleted]

Carmortin
"You're hurt. Oh! Oh, I-I know where the kit is! I-I'll go get you something for that--"

"N-no, wait, you--you don't have to... it's not that--are you okay?!" Morry broke off the vague protesting when the girl slipped and fell. Oh, what was he going to do now? He stood up and walked tentatively over--avoiding the wet patch of floor like the plague--and bent down (very far down) to help her up. With his non-cut hand, in case anyone was wondering.

First Egg help him, she was tiny. Or maybe she just seemed that way because he was growing like a weed now. "I, um... it was just a nick. It's not even bleeding anymore."

Cue the awkward silence.