Idle Hands (Open to Candidates)

[Alyx]

Candidate Joia
-- One week after the Worlds Apart Hatching

The common room in the Candidates’ Barracks was horribly quiet. They were down numbers, having so many of their bunks now empty as the new class of Weyrlings moved out into the other Barracks with their dragons and their new lessons. Until they had more candidates to fill the bunks back up or at least a decent class to teach, their own lessons were on hold – without Eggs in the near future, which would be months from now, they were pretty much idle. Well, when not at chores, Joia supposed.

It didn’t make the future look brighter, did it? Joia growled softly, sitting on the arm of one of the couches, then dropping back over to flop bonelessly onto her back on the cushions. Her knees hooked over the arm, her feet dangling off the ground as she gave a soft sigh. She’s done her best to be anyplace but in the Barracks, not wanting to be here when her friends came to collect their personal things; it still stung, hurt like a knife in her chest – she didn’t want to lash out at them, so it had been easier to just avoid the encounter altogether.

Shards, she’d even gotten her chores changed, from Kitchen to helping with the masses of the Weyr’s laundry instead. She was a weaver, after all, it seemed better to get moved to someplace she could use her skills? Plus, it got her out of the kitchen, where she would only continue to dwell on the fact she was there alone or at least without Aleni and Mizao. She’d not let any of the new girls get too close, and for the most part, she’d made it pretty clear to all involved she wanted to be left be.

What a weird week it had been… Joia lifted her left hand up in the air over her face, eyes tracing white bandage the Healers had put on it a day or so before. She’d torn both her hands and her knees up pretty good when she’d blindly fled the Hatching Grounds. Her other hand had healed well enough, and her knees hadn’t even scarred. The left though.. well, it was taking a bit more. At least the healers had just accepted her excuse that she had fallen, rather than questioning more – after all, it hadn’t been a lie. Not exactly.

Flexing the fingers gently, she watched the bandage shift and pondered what to do next. She still had yet to convince S’bol to let her go home, and she had no chores today – but she really had no drive to do anything. Maybe she’d just lay here…. Yea, maybe. Joia frowned. As long as she didn’t start dwelling, then laying here might be okay. For a bit, at least.

(Open to our current Candidates, mostly because we need them to do something.)
Zen Esko

[Zen]

Novarel

This is a queer place if I ever saw one.

That was what Novarel's father initially had to say about Mavros. The Lord of Tidewalk had hardly been impressed by the drama surrounding the hatching, or the fact that the Weyrleader apparently had gotten so drunk he had to be carried out of the feast and put to bed. His mother had spent the duration of the feast fretting over him while his nephew peppered him with questions about what it had been like to be on the Sands, to be that close to hatchlings, and how bad did his wounds hurt? His mother had all but demanded he return home, where it was safe, and he would never risk being trampled by raging hatchlings ever again. Novarel had just laughed at her. The hatchling was hardly raging. She was scared more than anything. Whether the green that had harmed her son had been angry or frightened mattered little to Lady Relwisha, however.

It was when his father came to see him, a serious frown pulling at his lips, that Novarel started to worry. His mother was always fretting, but his father wasn't as overprotective. Lord Divano was good at talking his wife into allowing their children to spread their wings and leave the nest. But if his father wasn't on his side when it came to him staying at Mavros, then his dream of being a rider would be short lived indeed. Lord Divano indeed wanted him to come home, but Novarel's insistence upon staying even after his experience at the hatching gave the man pause enough to sit down and have a serious discussion with him about it. He had decided to delay his judgment, spending a couple more days at the Weyrhold to get a better feel of the place, and in the end, somehow, had decided to allow him to stay. He wasn't sure exactly what had happened, but his father seemed a bit more agreeable after a couple days at Mavros.

Now his family had left, however, and he was finally free of the infirmary as well. While the stitches yet remained, after much begging, pleading, and promising, and the threat of a return to bed rest if he caused himself any problems, Novarel finally managed to convince the healers to let him return to the candidates' quarters. He was pretty sure he'd just annoyed them enough that they wanted him gone, but no matter the reason, he was finally free. So it was with plenty of pent up energy that he strode into the common room of the candidates' quarters, hoping to meet someone new and interesting. He'd been at Mavros for just shy of two sevendays, and though they had certainly been exciting, he was looking forward to making some new friends, friends who maybe didn't know who he was exactly and wouldn't treat him different just because he was Blooded.

The common room was rather empty, however, and Novarel frowned slightly until he noticed there WAS an occupant to the room. He grinned and headed over, leaning over the back of the couch to have a look at the girl where she lay, “Hey there! Who're you? I'm Novarel, everyone calls me Nova though. Hey, were you on the Sands? I missed all the good stuff, I tell you. Horrible luck. Bound to have some cool scars to show off though. I've never had stitches before. Have you?”

[Esko]

Candidate Shintagoi

Needless to say, he was in a sour mood.

Two female brownweyrlings, and apparently another one was in the class above. Pairings that -mind you!- only happened at Mavros. Telgar certainly didn't have any, and if the other Weyrs did they were going a swell job of keeping it under wraps. His mother was dying. His sister Impressed a sharding blue, instead of gold like she should've. Shintagoi paced back and forth, snarling to himself. He quite resembled a feline after losing a catch, all bared teeth and angry expressions. Though maybe destiny was still smiling on him; after all, he didn't Impress with female browns and a male goldweyrling. Hopefully, he'd lead a presentable class. But still, the pain of another lost Hatching clung to him. He'd been Standing for five Turns, more than one clutch each Turn. He'd been left every single time. It was a countdown, and he had six Turns left. How much longer would he be able to take it?

Shintagoi felt too angry, so he picked something up and threw it against the wall. It smashed into a dozen pieces, and he didn't care to find out what it used to be. Maybe it belonged to the boy next to him, but that boy wasn't here right now. He then found some other breakable item and chucked that too. Another smashing noise. Then, he decided to try and release more anger by punching the walls. The stone walls. Pain flared through his knuckles after a swing, and he checked them and found them scraped. Shintagoi kicked the smashed remains from the breakables under the nearest cot, then proceeded to punch his pillow. Shards, everything was wrong with this place! Every! Single! Thing! He picked up the neighboring boy's pillow, took a shard of smashed stuff and proceeded to stab the pillow. It felt satisfying in his flash of rage, and after enough stabbings, the pillow was bleeding down. Tossing it aside, Shintagoi made his way to the Candidate common area. It was hauntingly empty.

Except for two people. First, that annoying kid who got mauled by a green during the Hatching. He should have died. Then there was Joia. Oh, pretty Joia. She looked perfect for a gold, and yet...the gold hatchling passed her up! Surely the gold was defective, and would only bring misfortune onto Mavros. But, it was something to do. Talking to a pretty person was a good way to calm down, besides stabbing pillows. Shintagoi plopped down in a seat, a wide grin on his face. "'Ello there, Joia. It's empty in here, isn't it?" He cooed, with all the smoothness he had. And he had lots of it.

Zen Alyx

[Alyx]

Candidate Joia

Joia had been so focused on starting at her hand and not dwelling, she totally missed the sounds of someone entering the common room. The younger boy appeared so suddenly over the back of the couch that Joia barely had time to jump, her hand dropping down over her chest as her blue eyes shifted to focus on him. Fingers curled a little in her shirt, her eyebrow lifting just a bit as the boy all but flung himself into greeting her; the smile, however small it was, caught the edges of her lips.

It took a moment to realize who he was – and why she didn’t know him. The boy her pretty green friend had gotten a claw or two into. Well, he was moving, right? Any wreck on the Sands you could walk away from? She smiled a bit more, relaxing in her flopped out position, and waited for him to take a breath before she spoke. “Hey yourself, Nova. I’m Joia. And welcome to Mavros I suppose.” She felt the greeting was a little late, but… “And yea, I was on the Sands, glad to see you are up and walking.”

Missed all the good stuff? Oh ash, she wished she’d missed like the last half of the Hatching. That would have been wonderful. She shook her head, not bothering to sit up as the two talked. “Nope never had stitches.” She held her hand up, palm toward Nova, the thing still securely wrapped. “I get banged up, but never enough they need to attack me with needle and thread. If they stitched you, best take it a little easy – rip them and they’ll drag you back to the infirmary.”

Motion; Joia looked away from Nova in time to watch Shintagoi flop down into a chair near them. Something about the way he looked at her made her want to throw a pillow at him, but she didn’t. He spoke, his voice with a weird, smooth tone she wasn’t sure she cared for. Play nice, she told herself and nodded her head against the cushions. “Hiya Shintagoi. And yea it is… might be that way for a bit, from what I heard. All the Weyrlings are officially off into their own barracks, and we have to wait until we have more candidates or them to start lessons.” She frowned. “Again.” She was not looking forward to repeating the candidate courses again.

[Zen]

Novarel

Novarel grinned down at her, “Thanks! Nice to meet you, Joia.” He started to offer his hand for a proper greeting, but then, hers was all wrapped up so... maybe not. His curiosity about it was piqued though. Had she gotten in the way of a hatchling too? She continued to explain that no she had never had stitches, and gave him the same caution he'd already heard about a hundred times about his own. He made a face and waved his hand dismissively, “Yeah, yeah, limited fun for me, blah, blah, blah.” And before anymore time could be spent on the matter, “So what happened to your hand? Did it happen at the hatching? Oh, did you get bitten?”

An older boy entered the room then, distracting him from his question as he greeted Joia and promptly ignored him. Well, as Joia returned his greeting, clearly the two knew each other already. Guess he'd just have to introduce himself again, “Shintagoi huh? I'm Novarel, but everyone calls me Nova.” He pondered Joia's words about lessons for a moment, “Have you two been candidates for very long? What sort of lessons are they? The only thing I got to sit in on was stuff about the eggs and the hatching. There's more than that, right? Stuff about the Weyr and being a rider? I've never been to a Weyr before here. Are they all like this?”

Casting a glance between Joia and Shintagoi, he hardly gave either of them any time to answer his question before continuing, “I mean, the candidates quarters are damp here. I've heard it floods in some places, or was that just someone telling tales? And how long do you think it'll be until the next hatching? How many golds does Mavros have again? They sure are huge, aren't they? I'd only ever seen blues and greens before and I thought they were big but woah.” He finally ran out of breath, fidgeting eagerly where he was still leaning on the back of the couch.

Esko Alyx  Anyone up for a game of 20,000 questions? x'D

[Esko]

Candidate Shintagoi

Ah, so was Joia finally the person to treat him with the respect he deserved? She made a remark about starting lessons again, and Shintagoi leaned on the arm of a chair. "Mmm, it does stink to start Candidate lessons after failing to Impress. I've been there before. After five Turns, it just becomes another aspect of life. Hopefully you'll find your dragon sooner." Oh boy, was that a compliment? From Shintagoi, of all people? His fingers rapped on the arm. If he was able to con her into supporting him, he'd have one hot chick on his arm. He coaxed people into things before, surely he could do it again. "Frankly, I'm grateful that-" He was just about to give his grand opinion about how lucky they were to not Impress this time when he was suddenly barraged with questions from the boy who got mauled. Shards, did he suddenly become Thread? Was this boy so enthralled by dragons that he was trying to be one? Were his questions relentless flame?

"Oi, buckeroo. Life tip, don't pelt people you meet with more questions than dragons on Pern. News flash, people don't like it." Was he trying to burst the boy's bubble? Yes! "Really, the rest of the Weyrs aren't like Mavros. Mavros is...special. Unstable, rather." It was a brand-new Weyrhold, and the rest of the Weyrs had been well established. Maybe Tidewalk was close in screwery.

[Alyx]

Candidate Joia

The boy was cute, but not too bright was he? Or maybe just too hyper? Joia tilted her head, looking up at Nova. Maybe… 13? 15? No older than 15 turns for sure. When he asked if she’d been bitten, she shook her head. “No, nothing like that. Just ripped my hand up in a fall, that’s all.” She was almost laughing when Nova turned his assault of words in the direction of Shintagoi as the other candidate joined them. You could tell by the rapid-fire queries that Nova was clearly new to this. Joia could relate.

Shintagoi? Clearly not so much. “Yea, well, if it’s all the same to the Candidatemaster, I think I’m going to be skipping another run at the classes.” Yea. Going home, as far from there Weyr as she could get. She found herself frowning a little, almost wanting to ask the older boy how he managed to not be upset after being left standing so many times. Five turns? Ugh, that was… she almost felt bad for him…

Until he lashed out at Nova. “Hey, don’t be an ashcrack, Shintagoi. Not everyone comes from rider backgrounds, remember?” She frowned at the older boy a moment more, and then looked up at Nova. With a soft grunt, she pushed off her with hands and sat up, pulling her legs over the arm to fold them in front of her. “But Shintagoi is right; Mavros seems to be off. Not sure why it’s so different, but it is. Maybe it’s the ashen weather or the water or something, I don’t know.”

Folding her arms over her knees, she set her chin on them, threads of her hair falling a little into her bright blue eyes. “And yea, there are lessons. More after you Impress, I suppose, but most of the ones we get are basics on baby dragon care, Weyr structure and rules, and what you’ll need to know before they let you step on the sands with eggs, like how to act with the Golds.” She smiled, laughing a little, and tilting her head to look at Nova. “And to keep your eyes on the hatchlings and how to dodge.” It was a playful jab, nothing more. “But yea, you’ll be in them too, once they start up again.”

[Zen]

Novarel

Joia and Shintagoi both mentioned the lessons and Novarel frowned slightly, as Joia said she planned to skip them, “Why? Are they really boring? How could they be, you're learning about being a rider, right?” He couldn't fathom how that could be boring. He was in for some disappointment on the matter. Then Shintagoi told him to stop asking so many questions and he laughed and grinned sheepishly, “Sorry. Everyone always tells me to slow down, but I guess I can't help it.”

They both added their own piece to his question about Mavros, and as Joia sat up, Nova hopped over the back of the couch to sit in the space she'd made available, wincing slightly at the weird pulling sensation in his stitches. Oops. Probably shouldn't do that. He did not want to go back to the infirmary. Be more careful, you dimglow.

So Mavros was pretty different huh? He wondered briefly how Tidewalk compared. Oria had left Tidewalk to found Mavros, so were things similar at all? “Hm... you don't like it here?” he glanced between them both, for their words on the place had hardly been complimentary, “Why are you here, instead of some other Weyr?” He was here because apparently the southern Weyrs were worthless in his father's words, and Mavros was the only Weyr that Searched, well, everywhere. The northern Weyrs certainly never came south for Searching, they had plenty of available candidates in their own protectorates. The Southern Continent had only been settled within the last Interval, pickings were far slimmer.

Then Joia returned to the matter of lessons, and he grinned at her teasing words, “Hah, guess I missed that one.” Hopefully he'd remember next time. He had to actually be on the Sands if his dragon was ever going to find him. Dusty chose that moment to pop out of between, chittering a scolding at him for leaving him behind as the brown came to land on the back of the couch and clambered down to him, where he took up his usual spot draped across his shoulders, “Hey, don't yell at me, you were sleeping on my pillow. You would have yelled at me if I woke you up.” He reached up to give the brown some affectionate scratches under his chin and he calmed down, crooning.

He wasn't entirely sure where his other three were, but he knew they were together and Copper was annoying them... well Minty mostly. He could feel the green's irritation vaguely through their bond. He thought about having mercy on her and calling the bronze back, but... he still needed training, and he didn't want him causing trouble with Joia or Shintagoi. Sorry Minty, looks like you get to babysit. He recalled something Shintagoi had said then, “Oh, you've been standing for five turns? Wow, does it normally take that long to Impress?”

[Esko]

Candidate Shintagoi


Shin frowned at Joia when she tried to defend the wherry. "You don't have to have a rider background to have some manners." Or at least, there was no excuse for it. He listened to Joia's agreement about Mavros "Mavros is different because of how it was founded. Nobody approved of it, but Oria and her gang of riders tried to separate from the ashen Southern Weyrs who were too lazy to prepare for Threadfall. The Northern Weyrs don't care for it, but we never cared for the Southern Weyrs for their stupidity, anyway. It's more the Southern Weyrs who hate Mavros for their founders having sense. So...props to Mavros for that, I guess. It's also different for being unstable, like I said. It needs a proper Weyrleader to help fix it up." Nobody asked him to launch into a lecture but he did, and settled back into his seat with a smug grin.

"Firts couple of rounds of lessons, it's thrilling. But it gets repetitive. It becomes too much of a chore, and Hatching Day seems to take forever to arrive. It's worse for people who didn't wait till the last minute to join up, anyway." That was definitely meant as a jab, please and thank you. He watched as the kid scolded one of his many firelizards. Seriously, who needed that many pests anyway? "Yeah, I've been standing for fire Turns. Really, it depends on the person. Sometimes, it takes you that long to find your proper dragon. Or, you could be like that dirty girl who Impressed brown, who stood once. You missed that part; two girls Impressing twin browns. One of them looked like some kind of a proper girl, but the other just screamed 'dirty pirate'." He really couldn't be sure if she was pirate spawn or not. "Or, even worse; Holdless."

Alyx Zen (Short post is short  Also Shin rant)

[Alyx]

Candidate Joia

Joia fixed Shintagoi with a look. Should she inform him his jerk was showing? “Manners go both ways. He’s just asking questions.” She glanced over as Nova vaulted the back of the couch, claiming the spot her moving had opened up. She didn’t miss the mild wince and shifted her foot, poking the toe of it against the younger man’s leg playfully. “Hey, stitches remember? Do you want them to drag you back to the Infirmary?” Joia decided very quickly she didn’t want them to – Nova might talk a mile a minute and has way too many questions, but he was a nice break from her own thoughts. And he wasn’t Shintagoi. Double pluses for him.

She didn’t interrupt when Shintagoi went off on Mavros’ rather oddball history. There wasn’t much she could say, seeing as she’d almost heard nothing about the place before she showed up here; at least, being from Telgar she guessed, the other candidate knew more than the little information they were tossed in their candidate lessons. He did take a chance to… well, be Shintagoi. Joia rolled her eyes, openly, and frowned. “If you get past his attitude, he sometimes has good opinions.” She looked over at Shintagoi. “But that’s only sometimes. Rest of the time, he’s full of gas and ash.”

If she had been in a better place, emotionally and mentally, Joia might not have snarled at him. But.. well... “Oh Shove it, will you, Shintagoi?” She gave Shintagoi a darkened look, forgetting for a moment that Nova was there. “Dragon chooses who they choose. Karo and Mizao don’t need your ashen approval to be riders. Weyrborn or not, you are such an ashhead sometimes. Like… most of the time.”

She was tired, clearly. The past week made her feel like she’d aged turns. “Lay off my friends or go back to Telgar.” Crossing her arms over her knees, she gave him a closing glare, clearly signaling the other boy to drop it, then focused on the younger, more pleasant male in the room. “So what about you, Nova? Where you come from before they carted you here to play with baby dragons?”

Zen Esko (Joia is a little snappy sowwy!)

[Zen]

Novarel

Glancing over at Joia as she prodded at him, another sheepish grin crossed his features as she scolded him about his stitches, “Hahah, yeah... forgot.” He stuck his tongue out at the notion of being dragged back to the infirmary. Bedrest was so boooooriiiiing. He definitely did not need to go back there, no thank you. But impulse control and holding himself back were not exactly things he excelled at either. Shells, this might become difficult. Oh well.

Shintagoi went off on a tangent about Mavros and Novarel honestly lost interest about half way through and took to studying his surroundings. It really was rather damp in here. Even the air felt damp. Half amused, he thought maybe going back to the infirmary wouldn't be so bad, it was far drier there. He refocused on Shintagoi briefly. Wow, was he still talking? And people said he talked a lot. But he was talking about lessons now. He didn't miss the jab, but he took it more playful than as an insult so it hardly bothered him. Like when Joia teased him about missing the lesson on keeping an eye on the hatchlings and getting out of their way.

The other boy continued on about Impression, which was a far more interesting topic. Five turns with no dragon to show for it.... Novarel frowned slightly. He didn't have five turns. His father had only given him two. But then, as Shintagoi said, some people Impressed on their first Standing. Not him, obviously, he'd gone and gotten trampled instead, but maybe, hopefully, next time? As long as he didn't let himself get trampled again, he was sure his dragon would find him next time. For sure.

Shintagoi seemed utterly disgusted by the girls that had Impressed browns at the hatching and Novarel raised an eyebrow over at him. Of course he knew it was weird. He may not be weyrborn, but he knew that girls didn't Impress browns. Or... weren't supposed to anyway. In the end he didn't really understand why it really mattered though. But before he could voice any opinion on the matter Joia all but bit the other boy's head off. Novarel just stared at her for a moment, until she turned to him and asked him where he came from as if all that hadn't just happened.

“Pfff...,” he did his best not to laugh at the entire situation, but didn't hide it very well. “Erm... I mean.” Wait, she'd asked where he'd come from? Oh. He chewed his lip briefly. Well, there was no harm telling her that, it wasn't as if he had proclaim his Bloodline along with his home, “I'm from Tidewalk. Hold.” He specified, as he didn't have any particular desire to be associated with the Weyr of the same name. It was hardly only his father that hated them. “Lived there my whole life. Never left it honestly, before now. Well, once, for my sister's wedding, but I was only... five? Six maybe. I don't really remember it much. Might have left on my own by now if I'd decided on a craft, but nothing ever really stuck. And then I was Searched and... now I'm here! Nothing special, really.”

Recalling what Joia had said to Shintagoi, he looked over at the older boy, “You're from Telgar?” And... and she'd said something about rider backgrounds. He jumped on that thought, “Oh, does that meant your parents are riders? What's that like? Did you get to ride their dragons a lot? I have a cousin that's a goldrider, she's just-" he cut himself off before he let slip a connection to his family. He shouldn't have said that. "Er, and another cousin that's a brownrider I think? I've never met them though. And my nephew was Searched too, but my brother didn't let him come 'cause he's his 'only son' and all, which is stupid but-....”

It was harder than he'd thought it would be to not talk about his family. He trailed off before he started on about heirs and what nonsense all that was. His brother had daughters who could inherit the Hold just as well. His mother had inherited the Hold, after all. Maybe his father did most of the running of it but there wasn't any reason one of his nieces couldn't find a decent husband for that too. Inheritance stuff was dumb. He was pretty glad he was a fifth son and didn't have to worry about it at all, ever. Delvish was welcome to it. It didn't stop him from feeling bad for Delvirin though. The boy had his whole life planned for him just because he was the 'only son'. He shook his head, looked over at Joia, “You didn't say where you're from. Are you from a Weyr too?”