Knotty hair
Who: B'kaiv and Chielyth, Hattie and Elaruth, Jantha, Rhodya and Gedroth, W'ton and Dasarth
Where: Weyrling barracks
When: Afternoon on day 24, month 2, turn 19
What: Weyrlings get their knots. Some of them get haircuts. Dasarth offers advice to Hattie via Elaruth.
Afternoon might just as well be night for some of the weyrlings, with naps grabbed at all hours and whenever permitted. On his cot Kai rolls to one side and pushes up to sit, grinding the heels of his hands into his eyes blearily. Chielyth slumbers on, a wing cast over her face to shade her poor, delicate self from the light and sound.
Jantha strides into the barracks with a purposeful expression, coming from her office. She raises a hand in acknowledgement to V'rel: the boss is here now. In her other hand, she's got a wooden box which she places on a bench. She calls to the weyrlings, "Right, we need to get you all fitted out with these. Weyrling knots! Come and get them. You wear a knot at all times, from now on. And if anyone needs a haircut, I've brought the scissors."
Dasarth is wide awake which means W'ton is wide awake. Although neither of them is really relaxing. Dasarth's couch needed cleaning so the freshly minted bronzerider has been doing just that. It's all done and smelling better now though and so the bronze lumbers into it and then twists his head around and around to get a good look at it. It must pass inspection because he curls up and his eyes whirl slower and slower as eyelids begin to close. W'ton lets out a grateful sigh as he comes back from putting up all his cleaning supplies. One palm slides over his head and he grins. "At least that's one thing I don't need to worry about," he tells one of the others by him. But he does step up to get his new knot.
Kai squints at that voice, that call, but doesn't immediately stand. One or two of the other weyrlings, more awake, do head over to Jantha and her box. "What if we don't need it?" calls a long-haired brunette who absently pulls his hair back into a tail and smoothes it. "Sir," B'kaiv grunts at him, reminding, and Hairy appends, "Sir."
Elaruth twitches suddenly awake at a strange raised voice and looks desperately around her; looks for Hattie, who hasn't gone far and pushes herself up to sit on the edge of her bed, hands outstretched to soothe before she's even completed the movement. Hattie's on her feet next, with the gold trailing slowly from her couch as if making one elongated stretch. "Yes, Ma'am," she says, yet her eyes don't leave the gold at her feet and she tilts her head toward Elaruth as though asking whether she's coming along on the short trip too.
Jantha picks out a knot with a bronze thread and hands it to W'ton, then raises her eyebrows as she hears B'kaiv and Hairy. She picks up the scissors and approaches the two young men. Standing before them, she says in a positively dangerous tone, "Do I /look/ like a 'sir'?" The scissors make a distinct snipping sound. "And /you/ certainly need it," the unfortunate Hairy is told. "Sit down and let it loose." Snip!
"Ah, thank you, ma'am," W'ton tells Jantha smoothly before he gets out of the way of scissors and fierce sounding weyrlingmaster. As he goes about putting his new knot in place he watches Hattie, and by extension, Elaruth as they move closer to where he's at. Of course he also cannot help watch the two in danger of snippage. Of hair.
"Ma'am," Kai corrects obediently, with a wry twist to his lips. "Sorry, ma'am. How come we got t' wear knots all th' time?" Hairy looks distinctly less than pleased to be so ordered, but with a sigh - /so/ put upon! - he drops his hands from his hair and back to his lap. "Why do we have to get our hair cut, anyway?" he wonders. Kai mouths at him. "...Ma'am."
"Well, there you go, something to add to the ensemble," Hattie remarks in W'ton's direction, flashing a grin as she pauses a step or two away from the foot of her cot. Elaruth takes this as an opportunity to peer up at the weyrling bronzerider. For the most part she remains behind Hattie, however, and she sneaks more of a peek that makes a proper study of it. Both dragon and weyrling react to the sound of the snip of the scissors, one by trembling and the other by reaching a nervous hand to her hair.
Jantha looks across at the goldrider. "Hattie, would you give out the rest of the knots, please, while I do this? Make sure people get the right colour thread in them." She turns her attention back to B'kaiv and Hairy: that long hair starts to fall as she speaks. "You get your hair cut because you aren't going to have time to look after it long, and because it's a perishing nuisance if it doesn't fit under a helmet, when you get that far. As for the knot, you wear it because you're entitled to it, and to identify yourself. Aren't you proud to be a dragonrider of Fort Weyr? When you get flying jackets, you'll wear a wing badge, as well."
"Lovely, Elaruth," W'ton says in a low murmur to the gold by way of greeting. He shifts his gaze up to grin at Hattie and then steps out of her way so she can see to passing out knots. "Who wouldn't want to wear their knot?" he asks B'kaiv with a flashing smile. His is quite snazzy on his clothes and he makes a slight adjustment so it's hanging just so. In his couch Dasarth lets out a teeny snort and rolls onto his side.
Chielyth shifts in her sleep and B'kaiv is immediately on his feet, looking down at her as though expecting to have to run get food, or oil, or a shovel. A few blinks and the green settles to stillness, allowing Kai to look first at Jantha, then W'ton. "Ain't never wore one before I come here." A last squint at the weyrlingmaster and he heads over to collect one from Hattie. Meanwhile Hairy sighs the sigh of the much put-upon but only fidgets a little.
Since the voice that she's addressed in is soft, Elaruth doesn't cower further and even sneaks in another glance or two up at the bronzrider weyrling. "Yes, Ma'am," Hattie repeats. She makes to retrieve the knots and heads off several paces before she realizes that Elaruth is still making her slow, steady way after her and not keeping up. The little queen gets an expression that just about manages not to be a grimace shot back at her and she stops altogether to tuck her head more towards her body. Upon retrieval of the knots, Hattie manages to distribute a couple of blue and one brown-threaded one before Kai reaches her and she carefully locates one with a green thread to hand over. "Here you go," she chirps.
Snip. Snip. Hairy actually looks quite reasonable once you can see his face, and Jantha does actually seem to know how to give a reasonable haircut, if you ignore the fact that she's doing it dry. "Well, you've got rank now, in the eyes of most of the planet," she tells B'kaiv. "Even if you're the bottom of the dragonrider heap, still, as weyrlings. People outside will respect you, strange as that may seem to you right now. Make sure you deserve it." Snip, snip. "Do you want a trim, Hattie, once I'm done here? Yours isn't too long, but you don't want it getting any longer." Snip.
Once again his smooth head is given a palm rub as W'ton watches the haircut in progress. Fingers flick once more at his knot, such a lovely thing to add to his clothes, but his eyes drift not to the skittish acting gold baby, but to the not quite sleeping bronze. Dasarth lies somewhere between sleep and awake not quite uninterested in what is going on and not quite tired enough to succumb to the idea of a nap.
Dragon> Sleepy thoughts, but brown and speckled in red none the less, come from Dasarth as he lies on his side. << I recommend >> he rumbles to the gold like a helpful clutchsib << A cut for her. A good leader always leads by example. >> (Dasarth to Elaruth)
B'kaiv says, "Thanks," for the tangle of cords in one hand. A glance past Hattie to Elaruth and he wonders, "She tired, or somethin'? I can carry her back t' her couch, if you want help." Over under Jantha's care Hairy sighs again and plucks disconsolately at a lock of discarded brown. "We can let it grow again, once we're not weyrlings, right? It took me -turns- to get it this long."
Dragon> To Dasarth, Elaruth responds with a ripple of murky water that becomes barely perceptively clearer as the disturbance pans out. << She will if it is the right thing to do. For her. Her own decision, >> she calmly assures.
Hattie's hand strays to her hair again and she nods. "Maybe a few inches," she agrees with Jantha. "I was going to - will - braid it tight to my scalp, Ma'am, so it won't fall everywhere or need washing as much." She shakes her head in answer to Kai and a faint smile tries to curve her lips. "Nah, she's just... her," comes out somewhere between troubled and affectionate. "Thanks, though." Reaching around him, she offers over several more knots to reaching fingers and almost winds the bunch into a tangle in her haste.
Dasarth lets out what might be a satisfied sounding snort or might just be the bronze giving in to sleep and letting out a little snore. Either way W'ton looks over to the bronze and his eyes roll. "Insufferable," he mutters to himself and when his eyes drift to Hattie it's an almost apologetic look she gets before the bronzerider heads to his cot to sit down out of the way.
"If you want," Jantha tells Not-So-Hairy. "That'll be up to you; life will be a bit less hectic then, and it's not as if you'll have Thread to worry about - I sincerely hope. But you'll probably thank me, when you really work out how much time you aren't going to have for that sort of thing. So." She glances round the little group, asking, "How are you all doing at distinguishing your dragon's feelings from your own? Hunger, tiredness, and so on. Itches, even." Her gaze settles on W'ton.
The greenrider doesn't look convinced, precisely, by Hattie's protestations, but he nods and heads back to his cot, stepping around the little clot of eager weyrlings. "Think she likes bein' awake at night best," he answers, though Jantha isn't addressing him precisely. He settles down, one leg folded under him, and spreads the knot out on his leg, frowning at it. "How come they do that? T'rev ain't never said Mecaith does that. S'that just 'cause Mecaith's different?" A hesitation, and a glance sidelong at W'ton. "--Or a bronze?"
Knots go out to the rest of the class and Hattie retreats back to her cot to find Elaruth no longer watching her, but looking round at her clutchsibs, neck craning to get a better look when she can't quite see. The weyrling sits down on the edge of the cot and doesn't look at anyone at all when she says, "Feels like she reacts to every tiny little thing and when she starts, I do," in a low voice, like she can get away with saying it and maybe not have everyone hear her.
Hand to his head where he's scratching absently W'ton pulls his hand away and grins sheepishly at Jantha. "Always been hungry all the time, ma'am," he tells the weyrlingmaster. "So, that ain't so different I think." His fingers twitch and while he keeps them in his lap the minute Jantha's looking at someone else he's scratching his head again and looking over at Dasarth who sleeps on.
"Like what? Being awake at night?" Jantha shakes her head, grinning as she glances towards the B'kaiv's little green. "Mostly when they're like that, it's because they're babies. Human babies are just the same: they don't work on the same sleep schedule as adults. Grown-up dragons tend to like their sleep, though you always get the odd exception." To Hattie, she says thoughtfully, "It might help you to practise calming yourself. I'll give you a breathing exercise, and you can use that to calm down if things get tense. If it doesn't calm her too, it'll at least help you to see if it's her or you that's wound up."
"It ain't that," Kai says, stops, at a loss to explain. He gestures in tight, frustrated half-circles and aborted waves as he says, "Ain't /just/ that. I mean... all of it. The... the hungry. The tired. The... whatever it is Hattie got goin' on." The look he sends to the goldrider has a certain rough sympathy in it, but it's back to Jantha and her victim, who's still sitting like he's afraid the weyrlingmaster will remove an ear if he moves. "How come they do that?"
After a second or two more of staring stubbornly at her boots, Hattie looks up and throws her shoulders back just in time to catch whatever sympathy she finds in Kai's gaze and recoils suddenly. "I ain't got-" she sharply begins, but Elaruth flares her wings and fixes her lifemate with an anxious stare that has her falling silent for a few moments. "Sorry," is quick to make itself known and she exhales incredibly slowly. "Thank you, Ma'am," she tells Jantha, looking at her only very briefly. "I'd... appreciate that," she admits.
"Babies," W'ton says all knowingly like he's had anything at all to do with babies before this. "At least we got each other to commiserate with. Suppose they mostly have us which cannot be so easy since it just makes us feel all...what you're feeling." Not him, of course. He's doing just spiffy! Dasarth's no trouble at all. His eyes switch to look at Jantha as he asks, "Something like that at least, ma'am?" he asks with a roguish grin.
Ex-Hairy now has a neat, straight Beatle-cut, and Jantha's in the process of adding some layers, though she's not exactly striving for artistic effect as she trims, and she's answering B'kaiv at the same time. "You mean, how come you're feeling what she's feeling? It's quite normal at this stage. You can feel her thoughts and emotions, and she can feel yours, and you need to work out what's who. Something you can do, though, when you can be quiet for a while: just sit and try to feel with your mind, where you end and where she starts. Try to notice what her thoughts feel like, and how they're different from yours." She nods to W'ton. "Something like that."
Perhaps Kai glanced back at Hattie for that truncated outburst, or maybe he's nodding to whatever Jantha has to say. Either way, it's a single bob of his head, and his hands never stop smoothing the triple-cord of his soon-to-be knot. "Like... now? Or does she got t' be awake? ...And what's com...whatever that word?" he asks suspiciously of W'ton.
Hattie shoots an odd look towards W'ton at the word 'commiserate', but then she's gazing right at Elaruth with something like adoration hidden deep, deep beneath a determined frown as she attempts to placate the young gold with low murmurs and gentle hands. Once those little wings get folded and tucked back into place, Hattie turns from Elaruth a touch to set about dealing with her knot.
"Commiserate," W'ton repeats to B'kaiv with a grin. "Means to sit around and feel sorry for each other. To help each other through tough times by being in those same tough times." It's not /quite/ a lecturer's tone, but it's nearly veering there at the end. He just cannot seem to help it. So busy is he on explaining the word he misses Hattie's look wanting to keep an eye on the weyrlingmaster as well in case she takes offense somehow at something he said.
"It would help if she's awake, but you can try it when she's asleep too," Jantha answers B'kaiv, meanwhile frowning in concentration as she gets Hardly-Hairy-At-All's fringe straight. "You can at least feel what's her being tired and what's you being tired." She moves round her victim, lifting hair and cutting successively so that it falls into neat layers. "All right, let's /all/ try this breathing exercise. I want you to breathe in for a slow count of four, hold it for a slow count of four, and then out for four. Then repeat." She pauses for a moment to let them get ready, then, "In... two... three... four.... Hold... two... three... four.... Out... two... three... four. And repeat." She stays silent, giving them the time to do the exercise for themselves. "If you do that when you feel wound up, or when he or she's getting agitated, it'll help to calm both of you."
"I ain't sittin' around and feelin' sorry for -nobody-," Kai starts in a growl to W'ton. You can almost see the hackles lifting. But Jantha's instructions neatly head off that display of temper; he scowls at his knees instead and breathes. Well, mostly following Jantha. With him it's more like in, two, pause, out, two, set the jaw, and always, always flatten his poor abused knot. In her wallow, unattended, Chielyth peeks out from under her wing before yawning with a cute little squeal.
Hattie tries, she really does, to do the breathing exercise, and evidently feels like a fool whilst she does so if keeping her head dipped and her dark eyes aimed at the ground betrays anything of her mindset. A second attempt is made with her eyes closed and she doesn't get to see Elaruth sink gently back to her haunches, or see those wings get a cheerful little flutter. She does smile, however, which is... something.
The reaction from B'kaiv hardly creates a ripple in W'ton's charming calm. He's not worried about the other weyrling at all. When breathing exercises are explained he goes right along with them. No problems here! Of course Dasarth continues to sleep too so that might be helping the bronzerider out.
Jantha watches the weyrlings breathe. "That's it. Four in, hold for four, then four out. Practise that when you remember, and use it when things get stressful for you. We'll teach you other things to do, too, but that's good for a start." She walks right round Looks-Quite-Good-Now-He's-Not-Hairy, takes a few further snips until she's satisfied with his haircut, and then dismisses him with a cheerful, "There you go. Who's next?" She takes herself off to attend to the long thick locks of one of the greenriders, and leaves the rest to themselves.
Not-Hairy-Anymore mutters a sulky, "Thank you sir. ...Ma'am!" and gets up to clean up the mess left behind. Kai stares after the Weyrlingmaster as though he'd interrupt that haircut, but folds his arms over his chest and settles back in his cot instead. Chielyth burbles at him and hides her face again when he turns to look; he snorts and rolls to his feet, letting his knot fall unnoticed to the floor. "Gonna cut some meat for her before she's hungry - anyone else want some?"
Those breathing exercises did their job and then some when it came to making Rhodya relax. Likely unnoticed by anyone but Gedroth, she's fallen asleep right there on her cot, held upright by the wall she's leaned her back against. Tired of watching her, her dragonet marches forward to investigate the hair left behind after the latest cut, and when Not-Hairy-Anymore comes back with brooms to clean it, he'll find Gedroth sitting right in the midst of his mess, snuffling and sneezing at the loose, dry hairs.
Hattie opens one eye and peeks at Elaruth, who tilts her head in response and makes a soft thrumming noise in her throat, eyes dappling a bright, happy green. That all just prompts a silly little giggle from the weyrling, who silences it quickly and lets the laughter linger in her eyes. "I'll come help in a minute, Kai," she calls across the barracks. "Good to get ahead of the game and all."
Dasarth continues to lie on his side breathing in and out and W'ton rather than use any breathing exercises seems to be breathing more in time with his bronze. "We're fine," he tells B'kaiv with a grin. "We'll just commiserate with each other when he wakes up." Again his hand lifts and he starts to scratch his head until realizing what he does and then pulling it back down. He meant to do that. Yep.
Where: Weyrling barracks
When: Afternoon on day 24, month 2, turn 19
What: Weyrlings get their knots. Some of them get haircuts. Dasarth offers advice to Hattie via Elaruth.
Afternoon might just as well be night for some of the weyrlings, with naps grabbed at all hours and whenever permitted. On his cot Kai rolls to one side and pushes up to sit, grinding the heels of his hands into his eyes blearily. Chielyth slumbers on, a wing cast over her face to shade her poor, delicate self from the light and sound.
Jantha strides into the barracks with a purposeful expression, coming from her office. She raises a hand in acknowledgement to V'rel: the boss is here now. In her other hand, she's got a wooden box which she places on a bench. She calls to the weyrlings, "Right, we need to get you all fitted out with these. Weyrling knots! Come and get them. You wear a knot at all times, from now on. And if anyone needs a haircut, I've brought the scissors."
Dasarth is wide awake which means W'ton is wide awake. Although neither of them is really relaxing. Dasarth's couch needed cleaning so the freshly minted bronzerider has been doing just that. It's all done and smelling better now though and so the bronze lumbers into it and then twists his head around and around to get a good look at it. It must pass inspection because he curls up and his eyes whirl slower and slower as eyelids begin to close. W'ton lets out a grateful sigh as he comes back from putting up all his cleaning supplies. One palm slides over his head and he grins. "At least that's one thing I don't need to worry about," he tells one of the others by him. But he does step up to get his new knot.
Kai squints at that voice, that call, but doesn't immediately stand. One or two of the other weyrlings, more awake, do head over to Jantha and her box. "What if we don't need it?" calls a long-haired brunette who absently pulls his hair back into a tail and smoothes it. "Sir," B'kaiv grunts at him, reminding, and Hairy appends, "Sir."
Elaruth twitches suddenly awake at a strange raised voice and looks desperately around her; looks for Hattie, who hasn't gone far and pushes herself up to sit on the edge of her bed, hands outstretched to soothe before she's even completed the movement. Hattie's on her feet next, with the gold trailing slowly from her couch as if making one elongated stretch. "Yes, Ma'am," she says, yet her eyes don't leave the gold at her feet and she tilts her head toward Elaruth as though asking whether she's coming along on the short trip too.
Jantha picks out a knot with a bronze thread and hands it to W'ton, then raises her eyebrows as she hears B'kaiv and Hairy. She picks up the scissors and approaches the two young men. Standing before them, she says in a positively dangerous tone, "Do I /look/ like a 'sir'?" The scissors make a distinct snipping sound. "And /you/ certainly need it," the unfortunate Hairy is told. "Sit down and let it loose." Snip!
"Ah, thank you, ma'am," W'ton tells Jantha smoothly before he gets out of the way of scissors and fierce sounding weyrlingmaster. As he goes about putting his new knot in place he watches Hattie, and by extension, Elaruth as they move closer to where he's at. Of course he also cannot help watch the two in danger of snippage. Of hair.
"Ma'am," Kai corrects obediently, with a wry twist to his lips. "Sorry, ma'am. How come we got t' wear knots all th' time?" Hairy looks distinctly less than pleased to be so ordered, but with a sigh - /so/ put upon! - he drops his hands from his hair and back to his lap. "Why do we have to get our hair cut, anyway?" he wonders. Kai mouths at him. "...Ma'am."
"Well, there you go, something to add to the ensemble," Hattie remarks in W'ton's direction, flashing a grin as she pauses a step or two away from the foot of her cot. Elaruth takes this as an opportunity to peer up at the weyrling bronzerider. For the most part she remains behind Hattie, however, and she sneaks more of a peek that makes a proper study of it. Both dragon and weyrling react to the sound of the snip of the scissors, one by trembling and the other by reaching a nervous hand to her hair.
Jantha looks across at the goldrider. "Hattie, would you give out the rest of the knots, please, while I do this? Make sure people get the right colour thread in them." She turns her attention back to B'kaiv and Hairy: that long hair starts to fall as she speaks. "You get your hair cut because you aren't going to have time to look after it long, and because it's a perishing nuisance if it doesn't fit under a helmet, when you get that far. As for the knot, you wear it because you're entitled to it, and to identify yourself. Aren't you proud to be a dragonrider of Fort Weyr? When you get flying jackets, you'll wear a wing badge, as well."
"Lovely, Elaruth," W'ton says in a low murmur to the gold by way of greeting. He shifts his gaze up to grin at Hattie and then steps out of her way so she can see to passing out knots. "Who wouldn't want to wear their knot?" he asks B'kaiv with a flashing smile. His is quite snazzy on his clothes and he makes a slight adjustment so it's hanging just so. In his couch Dasarth lets out a teeny snort and rolls onto his side.
Chielyth shifts in her sleep and B'kaiv is immediately on his feet, looking down at her as though expecting to have to run get food, or oil, or a shovel. A few blinks and the green settles to stillness, allowing Kai to look first at Jantha, then W'ton. "Ain't never wore one before I come here." A last squint at the weyrlingmaster and he heads over to collect one from Hattie. Meanwhile Hairy sighs the sigh of the much put-upon but only fidgets a little.
Since the voice that she's addressed in is soft, Elaruth doesn't cower further and even sneaks in another glance or two up at the bronzrider weyrling. "Yes, Ma'am," Hattie repeats. She makes to retrieve the knots and heads off several paces before she realizes that Elaruth is still making her slow, steady way after her and not keeping up. The little queen gets an expression that just about manages not to be a grimace shot back at her and she stops altogether to tuck her head more towards her body. Upon retrieval of the knots, Hattie manages to distribute a couple of blue and one brown-threaded one before Kai reaches her and she carefully locates one with a green thread to hand over. "Here you go," she chirps.
Snip. Snip. Hairy actually looks quite reasonable once you can see his face, and Jantha does actually seem to know how to give a reasonable haircut, if you ignore the fact that she's doing it dry. "Well, you've got rank now, in the eyes of most of the planet," she tells B'kaiv. "Even if you're the bottom of the dragonrider heap, still, as weyrlings. People outside will respect you, strange as that may seem to you right now. Make sure you deserve it." Snip, snip. "Do you want a trim, Hattie, once I'm done here? Yours isn't too long, but you don't want it getting any longer." Snip.
Once again his smooth head is given a palm rub as W'ton watches the haircut in progress. Fingers flick once more at his knot, such a lovely thing to add to his clothes, but his eyes drift not to the skittish acting gold baby, but to the not quite sleeping bronze. Dasarth lies somewhere between sleep and awake not quite uninterested in what is going on and not quite tired enough to succumb to the idea of a nap.
Dragon> Sleepy thoughts, but brown and speckled in red none the less, come from Dasarth as he lies on his side. << I recommend >> he rumbles to the gold like a helpful clutchsib << A cut for her. A good leader always leads by example. >> (Dasarth to Elaruth)
B'kaiv says, "Thanks," for the tangle of cords in one hand. A glance past Hattie to Elaruth and he wonders, "She tired, or somethin'? I can carry her back t' her couch, if you want help." Over under Jantha's care Hairy sighs again and plucks disconsolately at a lock of discarded brown. "We can let it grow again, once we're not weyrlings, right? It took me -turns- to get it this long."
Dragon> To Dasarth, Elaruth responds with a ripple of murky water that becomes barely perceptively clearer as the disturbance pans out. << She will if it is the right thing to do. For her. Her own decision, >> she calmly assures.
Hattie's hand strays to her hair again and she nods. "Maybe a few inches," she agrees with Jantha. "I was going to - will - braid it tight to my scalp, Ma'am, so it won't fall everywhere or need washing as much." She shakes her head in answer to Kai and a faint smile tries to curve her lips. "Nah, she's just... her," comes out somewhere between troubled and affectionate. "Thanks, though." Reaching around him, she offers over several more knots to reaching fingers and almost winds the bunch into a tangle in her haste.
Dasarth lets out what might be a satisfied sounding snort or might just be the bronze giving in to sleep and letting out a little snore. Either way W'ton looks over to the bronze and his eyes roll. "Insufferable," he mutters to himself and when his eyes drift to Hattie it's an almost apologetic look she gets before the bronzerider heads to his cot to sit down out of the way.
"If you want," Jantha tells Not-So-Hairy. "That'll be up to you; life will be a bit less hectic then, and it's not as if you'll have Thread to worry about - I sincerely hope. But you'll probably thank me, when you really work out how much time you aren't going to have for that sort of thing. So." She glances round the little group, asking, "How are you all doing at distinguishing your dragon's feelings from your own? Hunger, tiredness, and so on. Itches, even." Her gaze settles on W'ton.
The greenrider doesn't look convinced, precisely, by Hattie's protestations, but he nods and heads back to his cot, stepping around the little clot of eager weyrlings. "Think she likes bein' awake at night best," he answers, though Jantha isn't addressing him precisely. He settles down, one leg folded under him, and spreads the knot out on his leg, frowning at it. "How come they do that? T'rev ain't never said Mecaith does that. S'that just 'cause Mecaith's different?" A hesitation, and a glance sidelong at W'ton. "--Or a bronze?"
Knots go out to the rest of the class and Hattie retreats back to her cot to find Elaruth no longer watching her, but looking round at her clutchsibs, neck craning to get a better look when she can't quite see. The weyrling sits down on the edge of the cot and doesn't look at anyone at all when she says, "Feels like she reacts to every tiny little thing and when she starts, I do," in a low voice, like she can get away with saying it and maybe not have everyone hear her.
Hand to his head where he's scratching absently W'ton pulls his hand away and grins sheepishly at Jantha. "Always been hungry all the time, ma'am," he tells the weyrlingmaster. "So, that ain't so different I think." His fingers twitch and while he keeps them in his lap the minute Jantha's looking at someone else he's scratching his head again and looking over at Dasarth who sleeps on.
"Like what? Being awake at night?" Jantha shakes her head, grinning as she glances towards the B'kaiv's little green. "Mostly when they're like that, it's because they're babies. Human babies are just the same: they don't work on the same sleep schedule as adults. Grown-up dragons tend to like their sleep, though you always get the odd exception." To Hattie, she says thoughtfully, "It might help you to practise calming yourself. I'll give you a breathing exercise, and you can use that to calm down if things get tense. If it doesn't calm her too, it'll at least help you to see if it's her or you that's wound up."
"It ain't that," Kai says, stops, at a loss to explain. He gestures in tight, frustrated half-circles and aborted waves as he says, "Ain't /just/ that. I mean... all of it. The... the hungry. The tired. The... whatever it is Hattie got goin' on." The look he sends to the goldrider has a certain rough sympathy in it, but it's back to Jantha and her victim, who's still sitting like he's afraid the weyrlingmaster will remove an ear if he moves. "How come they do that?"
After a second or two more of staring stubbornly at her boots, Hattie looks up and throws her shoulders back just in time to catch whatever sympathy she finds in Kai's gaze and recoils suddenly. "I ain't got-" she sharply begins, but Elaruth flares her wings and fixes her lifemate with an anxious stare that has her falling silent for a few moments. "Sorry," is quick to make itself known and she exhales incredibly slowly. "Thank you, Ma'am," she tells Jantha, looking at her only very briefly. "I'd... appreciate that," she admits.
"Babies," W'ton says all knowingly like he's had anything at all to do with babies before this. "At least we got each other to commiserate with. Suppose they mostly have us which cannot be so easy since it just makes us feel all...what you're feeling." Not him, of course. He's doing just spiffy! Dasarth's no trouble at all. His eyes switch to look at Jantha as he asks, "Something like that at least, ma'am?" he asks with a roguish grin.
Ex-Hairy now has a neat, straight Beatle-cut, and Jantha's in the process of adding some layers, though she's not exactly striving for artistic effect as she trims, and she's answering B'kaiv at the same time. "You mean, how come you're feeling what she's feeling? It's quite normal at this stage. You can feel her thoughts and emotions, and she can feel yours, and you need to work out what's who. Something you can do, though, when you can be quiet for a while: just sit and try to feel with your mind, where you end and where she starts. Try to notice what her thoughts feel like, and how they're different from yours." She nods to W'ton. "Something like that."
Perhaps Kai glanced back at Hattie for that truncated outburst, or maybe he's nodding to whatever Jantha has to say. Either way, it's a single bob of his head, and his hands never stop smoothing the triple-cord of his soon-to-be knot. "Like... now? Or does she got t' be awake? ...And what's com...whatever that word?" he asks suspiciously of W'ton.
Hattie shoots an odd look towards W'ton at the word 'commiserate', but then she's gazing right at Elaruth with something like adoration hidden deep, deep beneath a determined frown as she attempts to placate the young gold with low murmurs and gentle hands. Once those little wings get folded and tucked back into place, Hattie turns from Elaruth a touch to set about dealing with her knot.
"Commiserate," W'ton repeats to B'kaiv with a grin. "Means to sit around and feel sorry for each other. To help each other through tough times by being in those same tough times." It's not /quite/ a lecturer's tone, but it's nearly veering there at the end. He just cannot seem to help it. So busy is he on explaining the word he misses Hattie's look wanting to keep an eye on the weyrlingmaster as well in case she takes offense somehow at something he said.
"It would help if she's awake, but you can try it when she's asleep too," Jantha answers B'kaiv, meanwhile frowning in concentration as she gets Hardly-Hairy-At-All's fringe straight. "You can at least feel what's her being tired and what's you being tired." She moves round her victim, lifting hair and cutting successively so that it falls into neat layers. "All right, let's /all/ try this breathing exercise. I want you to breathe in for a slow count of four, hold it for a slow count of four, and then out for four. Then repeat." She pauses for a moment to let them get ready, then, "In... two... three... four.... Hold... two... three... four.... Out... two... three... four. And repeat." She stays silent, giving them the time to do the exercise for themselves. "If you do that when you feel wound up, or when he or she's getting agitated, it'll help to calm both of you."
"I ain't sittin' around and feelin' sorry for -nobody-," Kai starts in a growl to W'ton. You can almost see the hackles lifting. But Jantha's instructions neatly head off that display of temper; he scowls at his knees instead and breathes. Well, mostly following Jantha. With him it's more like in, two, pause, out, two, set the jaw, and always, always flatten his poor abused knot. In her wallow, unattended, Chielyth peeks out from under her wing before yawning with a cute little squeal.
Hattie tries, she really does, to do the breathing exercise, and evidently feels like a fool whilst she does so if keeping her head dipped and her dark eyes aimed at the ground betrays anything of her mindset. A second attempt is made with her eyes closed and she doesn't get to see Elaruth sink gently back to her haunches, or see those wings get a cheerful little flutter. She does smile, however, which is... something.
The reaction from B'kaiv hardly creates a ripple in W'ton's charming calm. He's not worried about the other weyrling at all. When breathing exercises are explained he goes right along with them. No problems here! Of course Dasarth continues to sleep too so that might be helping the bronzerider out.
Jantha watches the weyrlings breathe. "That's it. Four in, hold for four, then four out. Practise that when you remember, and use it when things get stressful for you. We'll teach you other things to do, too, but that's good for a start." She walks right round Looks-Quite-Good-Now-He's-Not-Hairy, takes a few further snips until she's satisfied with his haircut, and then dismisses him with a cheerful, "There you go. Who's next?" She takes herself off to attend to the long thick locks of one of the greenriders, and leaves the rest to themselves.
Not-Hairy-Anymore mutters a sulky, "Thank you sir. ...Ma'am!" and gets up to clean up the mess left behind. Kai stares after the Weyrlingmaster as though he'd interrupt that haircut, but folds his arms over his chest and settles back in his cot instead. Chielyth burbles at him and hides her face again when he turns to look; he snorts and rolls to his feet, letting his knot fall unnoticed to the floor. "Gonna cut some meat for her before she's hungry - anyone else want some?"
Those breathing exercises did their job and then some when it came to making Rhodya relax. Likely unnoticed by anyone but Gedroth, she's fallen asleep right there on her cot, held upright by the wall she's leaned her back against. Tired of watching her, her dragonet marches forward to investigate the hair left behind after the latest cut, and when Not-Hairy-Anymore comes back with brooms to clean it, he'll find Gedroth sitting right in the midst of his mess, snuffling and sneezing at the loose, dry hairs.
Hattie opens one eye and peeks at Elaruth, who tilts her head in response and makes a soft thrumming noise in her throat, eyes dappling a bright, happy green. That all just prompts a silly little giggle from the weyrling, who silences it quickly and lets the laughter linger in her eyes. "I'll come help in a minute, Kai," she calls across the barracks. "Good to get ahead of the game and all."
Dasarth continues to lie on his side breathing in and out and W'ton rather than use any breathing exercises seems to be breathing more in time with his bronze. "We're fine," he tells B'kaiv with a grin. "We'll just commiserate with each other when he wakes up." Again his hand lifts and he starts to scratch his head until realizing what he does and then pulling it back down. He meant to do that. Yep.