[Log] Shirkers
Who: Berit, Daegan, Ephara, Tiriana
When: Day 16, Month 4, Turn 16
Where: Candidate Barracks, Telgar Weyr
What: New--and old--rivalries are established.
Candidate Barracks, Telgar Weyr
This cavern has a rather low ceiling, with many openings for air, since this becomes an abode for a large number of people before every hatching. Every inch of the floor is kept clean, although little of it can be seen due to the many rows of cots that fill most of the space. The central part of the cavern is rather dim, as most of the glows are on the walls. Little decoration is evidenced except for a few personal effects. It wouldn't be considered uncomfortable unless the unusually low ceiling for a weyr induces claustrophia. On the wall, scrupulously maintained, is a list of candidates and their assigned chores for the day. Tampering with it is rumored to be an offense punishable by death or latrine duty for the rest of one's life.
A large portal on one wall, closed by an equally large door, leads to the tunnel descending to the hatching sands. Another door, covered by a curtain, leads out to the inner cavern.
Contents:
Poplin
Daegan
Berit
Ephara
Stone Ledges
Obvious exits:
Inner Cavern
Through the doorway comes Daegan carrying a pack on his back - looking as though he's here to stay. "Right then. That wasn't confusing." His cracking voice drips with sarcasm as his eyes search the room - mostly the beds, and soon enough he's plunking his pack down on one of the unoccupied ones. He follows the satchel with a flying leap from beside the bed, landing with a -whump- on the reed mattress. "Ahhhhhhh." He sighs once he's sprawled there, using one hand to nudge his pack aside to become more comfortable.
Toward the back of the room, Tiriana has staked out her cot, with her big trunk at the end of it. Currently, she's sprawled out in the floor in front of said trunk, going through it slowly: repacking clean clothes and organizing it better. Slow night. Dressed for bed in pajamas, with her hair still damp from an earlier bath, she pauses when there's the sound of more footsteps arriving, glancing toward Daegan to appraise the new person without offering her greetings.
Since the former apprentice glided into the barracks, and after the dragonrider who came with her left, silence has reigned from that cot. Berit is lying under the sheets, curled up and sleeping. Her eyelashes flutter open at the noise and green eyes, though clouded from slumber, find the source of all that racquet. With a loud gasp, she sits upright, clutching the top of the sheet in her left fist. "*You!*" she says accusingly, eyes narrowed. "What are *you* doing here? You should not be here! Shoo! *Get out*!" The girl refuses to let go of the blanket, using it as a shield of sorts, and pulls it up to her chin as she continues to glower at the healer-turned-candidate.
Females. Angry. This is all in a day's business for Daegan. With a brow raised, the Healer-turned-Candidate flexes lean stomach muscles and pulls himself into a seated position, drawing his knees up half-way, letting arms wrap loosely around them, not even bothering to have taken his boots off. Tiriana goes unnoticed for the moment since she hasn't made a point to be heard yet, and so blue eyes focus on the former Weaver girl. "Oh, are we t'have war here to? Or p'raps its just a different place fer you t'shirk your chores, like ya did back at the Hall, hm?" Amusement plays easily across his face and he nods his head to the left, indicating his new knot, "That says I've got every right t'be here. Maybe y'ought leave if'n I make you uncomfortable." Then there's a sly grin and he slides off the bed, snagging up his pack. "Y'know, I don't think I like that bed." And now he advances on Berit, coming to a halt beside her bed, grinning down at her. His arm extends to one side and the pack is dropped onto the bed beside hers. "I like this'un better."
It's the commotion that draws Tiriana's attention, and she rocks back on her heels, then pushes up to her feet to watch and stroll closer, winding up perching on the end of one of the other cots, earning a blinking look from the young girl who's actually currently lying in said cot. Tiriana ignores her. "You," says the former stablehand, folding arms over her chest. An auspicious greeting, to be sure--but perhaps not so much so as Berit's.
Let's make this one that much worse. Enter Ephara (who's player is so very ill and probably won't be in this scene long), smelling like laundry soap and looking like a drenched canine. She looks around, noticing new faces, lifting h er hand to wave to Berit, "Hello!" and then eyes zero in on Daegan. "Daggert!" She says in a low, annoyed voice. "You ain't supposed to be here."
Berit's glare is steady, even throughout Daegan's witty commentary. She twists the sheet further around her hand and jerks it up, nearly covering her chin, but stopping just short. Color floods her cheeks at his reference to her shirking the chores and she turns her face away, nose in the air. "I do not war with simpletons. I have better things to do with my time. Nor do I shirk my chores! She offered and I let her hold my basket for me. *I took it back.*" She still is not looking at him, keeping her green eyes aimed at a high point on the wall. As she listens to him ramble, a pout surfaces and she suddenly jerks her head back around, intending to yell at him, but then he is right there! Eyes widen and she gapes. "You.. you.. cannot!" Her gaze flies around the room, locking on the first person she sees: Tiriana. "He cannot, can he!?"
There are really only two options that a boy like Daegan has when presented with as unfavorable a scenario with so formidable a force arraigned against him with not one, not two, but -three- of the girls he's managed to figuratively rub the wrong way all about him. He can either put his tail between his legs and quietly submit and apologize, or he can make it worse. Some people are brave because they're brave, others are brave because they're too stupid to know when to call it quits. Daegan is the latter. So Tiriana is the first to receive his grin and one hand moves dramatically to touch his chest, "Me!" He replies, "Great, ain't it?" His tone is cheery for once - but rest assured, its only because he likely seeks to become all the more obnoxious to the girls. "Oh, hey there Miss I-fudged-up-a-murder-twice." He greets to Ephara. "Thought I'd come give you another couple shots at me." And he flicks a finger up towards his candidate's knot. "Belong here just as much as you do." He winks down to Berit then, tapping his knot now. "Can too. See it and weep, shirker." And with that he settles himself into a seated position on the middle of his newly claimed cot, beginning to tug off his boots. "Good thing yer all the way down there," This is to Tiriana once more. "My feet stink somethin' awful after a long day."
"Simpletons, big words," observes Tiriana, lifting a brow at Berit's wordings. She just shrugs to the question. "Guess if you don't like it, you can throw him off. Don't care where he goes long as it's not next to me. Those are--saved." She flips a hand toward her cot and trunk further back. To Berit, "You better not be shirking /here/. We don't tolerate it," she settles for accusing the other girl more than Daegan for the moment.
"I did *not* shirk!" Berit whines loudly, looking from one candidate to the other. When it looks like she is going to get the losing end she falls back on her pillow and pulls her sheet over her head, trying to block them out. Maturity is not her forte and neither is keeping her tongue between her teeth. "You are *the most* annoying, vile creature I have ever met!" comes the insult from beneath the covers, just before she turns onto her side, back to Daegan. But at the mention of his stinky feet, she groans and turns her head into the pillow, further trying to block out all thought of the irascible boy who now inhabits the cot next to hers!
Well! Tiriana seems to be doing his work quite nicely for him while he's busy pulling off his boots - one of which he kicks so it slides neatly under Berit's cot. There's a smug look settled on Daegan's face as he listens to the other girl berate her. There's a snicker from him at Berit's further insult, pride showing in his face. "War it is then, weaver girl." He comments, "Now, the trick'll be if you can fight back subtly enough not t'get yerself kicked on out." He thunks his other boot down on the ground, wiggling his socked toes as legs are extended towards Berit's cot, pushing his toes against the mattress.
"Yeah, you make a real charming first impression, too," snorts Tiriana, with a smirk at Berit. She casts it sideways at Daegan, somewhere between conspiratorial and triumphant. At least for all of a few seconds. Then: "'D watch it if I were you, too," she tells the boy, snorting. "Bet half the Weyr's already itching to send you back to whatever rock /you/ can from."
What a day! Berit squeezes her eyes shut and flips onto her stomach, pulling the pillow over her head, so she does not have to listen to their insults. It is enough to make a girl want to cry. But she starts count from a hundred back down to one, and slowly.. very slowy.. she ceases to hear them anymore. Sleep has wrapped her in its comforting arms.
Berit has disconnected.
As no verbal response comes from Berit, Daegan's full attention turns to Tiriana. He smirks, shifting on the bed to stretch his legs down it, pack getting nudged aside and then shoved under his cot, "Th'Healer Hall is hardly a rock. Really, Fort's a valley not a mountain. Y'ought t'get yer facts straight a'fore y'go tryin' t'insult some folks." He stretches out then on the bed with a lazy yawn, "They'll just have t'suck it up, 'cause I'm here t'stay. Fer now anyway."
"What, don't have any rocks there?" Tiriana retorts, mouth curving disdainfully as she eyes Daegan. "I've seen it before; I know what it's like." She folds her arms back over her chest, eyeing him in return. "Until you get kicked out," she repeats. "Good luck with that. Maybe we should make a pool, see how long it takes." As though she's a shining example of manners herself.
"Nope, none t'all. Ya prolly need yer eyes checked. If'n you want, I can schedule y'sometime this sevenday for a check-up. I'll be here alllllll candidacy. No rush." Daegan responds cooly, using one foot to slip the opposite sock off and then repeating the process for the other. Then he shifts around, pulling the sheet down and slithering under it. "I'll place th'bet that you'll go b'fore I will. An' that y'll impress bronze, just like me." There's a smirk of amusment at his own words for these ideas before a yawn sneaks out through that look.
"They wouldn't dare," Tiriana retorts, voice heating up then. "So which is it, getting kicked out or impressing? Do /you/ understand how this works?" She pushes herself up then, off the edge of the cot she's decided to appropriate for the time being. "Girls don't get bronze, anyway. Smart." The insult--or is it compliment, considering his views on girls?--seems to flit right past her, at least.
Daegan rolls his eyes as he looks up at the ceiling of the cavern. "Duh. That was th'whole point, which you obviously missed, dimwit. Shells. You crazy girls just need me t'spell everythin' out for ya, don't ya. No idea why they let Weyrwomen be leaders. Guess gold drives some sense into 'em or somethin'." He sighs heavily, "Jus' 'cause yer parents are Weyrleaders," Oh yes, he remembers from the clutching, "Don't mean they won't kick you out just as fast as they'd send me packin' if'n you break th'rules bad enough or some such. I ain't no fool." Yawn. Whether its boredom or sleepiness... who can guess? "Since you need a whole end of a room t'yerself, why don't you go occupy it an' let me get some sleep." He suggests.
"You haven't met my daddy," Tiriana counters confidently, chin lifting. "And anyway, I'm friends with the Weyrleaders here, and my boyfriend is--he's a wingleader." But something about that pulls her up, and she scowls at Daegan. "I'm going to bed myself. And watch it, or I might decide it's worth being kicked out for some things." With that grumbly note, she turns and saunters back toward her own bed.
Maybe Daegan heard her - maybe he didn't, but halfway through her little speil, there's a loud snore from the male candidate and to all appearances, he's fast asleep.