The Barracks Brawl
Blame is just a lazy person's way of making sense of chaos. ~Doug Coupland
OOC Date: March 13, 2010
IC Date: Day 11, month 3, turn 22 of Interval 10.
Who: Warucori, Ivana, Gustav, Shad, Silarra, Taikrin, NPC Trahalor, NPC Derrinar, Xeoshen, Saliqa
Where: Candidate Barracks, HRW
Gabe walks into the middle of a brawl in the candidate barracks, and things go downhill from there.
Warucori draws Ivana in closer, hands trembling, "I'm keeping watch. They well.. Trahalor really, is going through Inviere's press to see what's in ther." She cranes her neck now that the trunk is open and the sound of fussing and struggling has gone up in volume. "I just hope no one is going to get themselves hurt."
Trahalor hisses, "Calm downCaaaaalm down Missy-Britches." He still holds onto Saliqa, trying to yank her out of the open trunk when she flings herself over it. "That's itthat's got to be her box of letters. " A quick look in at the other things, he skims over them, doesn't care as it's not theft he's interested in, but what the woman was hiding. "Not going to do anything to harm them, just want to see what is all fire important and get that little priss in such a snit all the time."
"What you're doing is wrong." Shad says. "And it's not tattling to mommy to let people know when you're invading other peoples' right to privacy. If you're willing to do this, what /else/ are you willing to do?"
Gustav's eyes go wide when she goes to snatch that box. There's a noise of frustration in his throat and he hardly notices Taikrin appear there. The yank must be what does it. "Let the damn girl go or you're going to find something a lot more interesting in about a minute. And it's going to be my hand in your damn face." And well, if he doesn't let go or she doesn't twist free it's very likely that this is going to escalate. He's not going to punch per se. But there's going to be some body checking. And Gus isn't a teenager.
Gabrion sails into the candidate barracks, only to walk into the middle of DRAMA. He pauses just inside the door, his good mood dissipating into an expression that shows he's highly dubious about the wisdom of continuing further into the room. He glances back over his shoulder, considering just leaving instead.
Silarra raises her eyebrows and looks over to Shad. "I'm not /doing/ anything. No harm in talking is there?" She even gives Shad a falsely sweet smile. But then she's turning to look over to Trahalor. "Lay off touching the girl. You want to see the letters, tell us all what they're about? That's one thing. But no idiots need to be harmed to make it happen."
Ivana glances back at Durrinar, then at the closed door. "Waste'f good pie," she mutters, her left arm around Cori's shoulders. Silarra's taunts just make Ivana look disappointed. "They're going through /Inviere's/ press?" A quick surprised look at Cori confirms it and then she's staring at Trahalor as if looks could kill.
As Derrinar the Door Goon opens the door for Gabrion, here's what Gabe and, for that matter, Ivana, can expect to see: Saliqa tussling with Warucori's giant, sketchy pal Trahalor, who's kneeling over Inviere's open press; Taikrin and Gustav taking noisy exception; Shad getting up in Door Goon's face and, well, failing; and everyone else looking kind of like they wish they'd been somewhere else about 10 minutes ago.
Shad says, "Gabe, go get the Headwoman, now!" Shad says, diving forward to keep Jurassic Thug from grabbing the smaller boy. "Now!""
"Wasn't kidding." Taikrin remind Trahalor, drolly. She doesn't speak, otherwise: Gustav seems to have that covered. As Saliqa is being yanked backwards, Taikrin sidesteps swiftly around to the Trahalor's other side, moving with sudden violence to kick at the leg he's kneeling upon. It doesn't have enough force to do any damage, but if it lands it'd probably affect his balance at least. "One warning, boy."
With some stroke of swiftness, Saliqa manages to close fingers around the box causing all this trouble just before she's hauled backwards by Trahalor's yank. Aha! So she stumbles with the movement, trying to bring the item close in for a better hold while also straining her wrist against the same grip now stopping her from escaping with the valued prize. "Well, I don't care--what-- you want!" She curls up her fingers and puuuulls but if he doesn't let go then she's not going anywhere, just throwing her own self off balance by it-- not likely a good combination with everyone else's movement around.
Derrinar's hetero lifemate Agathor, who's just as big and mean as he is, has the added disadvantage of being quite a bit more stupid and impulsive -- so it's probably no surprise when he grabs Gustav, who is not a small man, by his pretty-boy collar and hauls him off towards a wall. "HEY now, ladies' man," he growls, "let's not be startin' nothin' we can't finish. Wouldn't wanna bruise your titties."
"Wait, what?" Gabe blurts, blinking at Shad. He's just not that quick on the uptake, not with all the chaos going on. Amidst the shoving and grabbing and collaring, it's Taikrin he fixates on for some reason, and strides toward, demanding to know, "What's going on?"
"The little lady, I might remind you -boy-, is the one who threw herself at me." Trahalor grunts like a bull when he's kicked by Taikrin. His head rears back, eyes growing dangerously narrow as he fixes her with a cold look. "Thank you Agathor.very kind of you." Though his leg is hurt by that kick, it only makes him look more dangerous. With the threat of Gustav out of the way, his big mit closes on the box and he yanks with all his strength to get it free of Saliqa's hand. "You're making a bigger deal out of this than you NEED." He growls and lets go of the tiny arm he was gripping and does as he's told. He all but flings rag-doll-candidate- Saliqa at Taikrin. A dangerous look is slowly flicked around at the others as he stands, already deftly working the tiny lock as he backs towards the goons by the door. There's a satisfying click and then the lid falls open and he runs a fat thumb over the letters, eyeing them in haste.
Warucori's eyes round and she clings to Ivana, "He ...he's really not that bad. He just...it's all for a joke. He said it's just...to read what she's been writing." The curly haired candidate looks really torn. Between concern for her friends and concern for the crush.
"They're stealing stuff from Inviere's trunk," Shad says. Ok, technically they're not /stealing/, but they're breaking and entering. Close enough. "And you're on /that/ side of the door. GO."
Silarra looks over, giving her cousin a slightly guilty look. "Just trying to see what Inviere's hiding away from everyone." She states. But then she's turning to move towards the goon holding Gustav. "Hey. Let the sissy down. Surely you're big enough to keep him away without needing to leave marks on his pretty skin. He's still got to get something bright pink from Tiriana for me." Silarra still doesn't seem to be taking it all that seriously, though she's watching everything closely.
Taikrin's eyes narrow in response as she prepares to meet violence with violence, the sham of nonchallance fading. Left arm cocks back, preparing to throw one of those off-handed punches she's been practicing. "I ain't playin-- OOF." She would explain to Gabrion, really, except suddenly there's a Saliqa flying at her! Arms instinctively move to wrap around the smaller girl protectively, but the sudden change in momentum is enough to stagger her back a few paces and then, with another 'Oof!' to land flat on her ass.
The letters, once Trahalor gets them out and sorted, are numerous and date back several months, to within a few days of Inviere's arrival. None of them are from Inviere, save for perhaps a few notes she's made to keep track about correspondence, some scattered diary entries, that sort of thing. No, most of the letters are from someone named Vianna -- and most of them are boring. Lots of people's names, who's marrying who, who's impressed a firelizard, what new ships are in port at Misty Hold. It's evident pretty early on that Vianna is Inviere's sister, and that Vianna takes quite a bit of pleasure in bringing her sister up to speed on the gossip at Balen Hold -- not only just because, it seems, that Inviere had some romantic connection to Balen's heir apparent. It's mostly incomprehensible and uninteresting.
No, the REALLY interesting stuff is from the last month or so. The tone of Vianna's letters begin smug, but become increasingly hostile as it seems Inviere is not cooperating. The gist of it: Tiriana has done something with money belonging to the Holds... money from the meteors? And that, it seems, is why Ezalea packed up and left the Weyr. And the Holders -- they are not happy. They're really, really, REALLY not happy.
Gabrion looks at Shad, moving beyond dubious into dismissive territory. "Inviere can suck it," he tells him. "She's nothing but a -- HEY!" That's for Saliqa, when he sees her attacking Taikrin, and suddenly he's sailing across the room to join the fray. "You can't jump someone who has a broken ARM! Let go of her!" He's grabbing for anything he can reach, be it Saliqa's arm or hair or clothes, to pull her away from Taikrin.
"Cori, anyone ever tell ya that y'r entirely too nice?" Ivana turns from her angry regard of Trahalor to give her friend a slightly exasperated look. Saliqa and Taikrin's fall distracts her attention, and then Gustav and his grain fed midcontinent.. what? Her head snaps back again to hear Gabrion. "Hey! She didn't..." and then Ivana's off across the room herself to sort this thing out. "Stop it! Let 'em up! Saliqa just fell."
What--no! Saliqa does her solemn best to hold onto Inviere's property but she's all curve and no muscle and the box is ripped quite easily away, even if not without a fight. In the end, her own shoving and retaliating is probably what helps the momentum. Before she really knows what's going on, the tiny girl-shaped projectile is surrounded by Taikrin and then, just as quickly, on the floor. "Oww.." is muttered, possibly into some body-part of the female (former!) convict before suddenly she's being grabbed all over again. "Ow--/ow/!" Her hair isn't very long for grabbing, but Gabrion manages to yank some before he's got her arm and she's too confused to do much else but be pulled.
Gustav is momentarily stunned by the headbutt he got. By the time he recovers letters have been grabbed but there's a much more pressing issue at hand. Gabrion has clearly gone insane. He tries as quick as he can to gather the younger and smaller candidate up and try to haul him bodily away if he can. "She's not attacking her you, you maniac!" And if he has succeeded in detaching Gabe from her he'll move him and set him down somewhere else.
"Sharditall!" Shad snaps. This is getting /entirely/ out of hand. "Out of my /way/." He tells Jurassic Goon, and dives for the door.
Silarra rushes over towards Gustav, trying to get inbetween him and Gabe, even it means grabbing at the bigger man's arm. "Don't you dare touch my cousin." The joking tone is gone now, that bit very serious and threatening. "You lay hands on him, and I'll make sure you don't enjoy looking at a pretty girl f`or a long time."
Taikrin flushes a very interesting shade of pink as her brain catches up with her reflexes and the fact that she's got an armful of Saliqa. Her voice is rather strangled, and it can't all be attributed to the pain of the fall. "Oi, you oka-- HEY!" Her right arm -- now obviously castless -- closes as tightly as the weakened limb can manage around Saliqa, and she bats at Gabrion with the far stronger left. "GABE! /Get off/! Y'gone crazy or somethin'!" A push of her legs against the floor is made, attempting to open some breathing room from the suddenly coalescing fray, and she twists around to try to put her shoulder between Saliqa and the worst of it.
Gabrion realizes something is wrong and lets go of Saliqa, spinning to face Gustav and Silarra. "I saw it, she jumped on her!" he insists, but he looks confused.
The convict reads, passing letters to the goons and keeping an eye on the goodie-two-boots and keeping one ear out for the sound of someone coming. At last he whistles, long and low. "wah wah wah" he passes the letter over, "oohhsomeone's marriedyadda yadda" And another, glanced at and passed. At last he pauses, eyes sharpening. He looks up at the room and then turns away, re-reading. "Well, I'll be a Rich Pretty-Boy-Dandy." Trahalor nudges one of the goons as he taps the corner of the letter against his front teeth.
As Shad jumps for the door, he finds none-other than Cori there, holding up her hands. "No no! NO! Not yet, not yet." She tells him, getting in his way as a last resort to the escape route. She looks over her shoulder, "Well..what is it? What does it /say/?"
Derrinar obviously doesn't have much of a future as a professional bouncer: his attention caught by Trahalor's acquisition of the prize that /started/ this whole mess, he wastes precious seconds on gawking -- and by the time Shad's caught his peripheral vision, it's too late. "HEY," he bellows, diving. He misses, stumbling over one of the many impeding feet and straight into a wall. WHAM. High Reaches Weyr's candidates earn the dubious honor of learning never-before-heard vulgarities.
Gustav is surrounded by crazy people. He hardly knows what to do next. With Silarra pawing at him and Taikrin helpfully trying to deter that he places the young man down safely, so he can do his twirling around thing. "Your cousin is out of his mind! We got enough problems right now. She didn't /attack/ Taikrin, she got thrown at her. Calm the fuck down." If the other teenager makes anymore grabs at him he'll bat her away, push. Whatever but he won't get overtly phyiscaly with the small girl. "Calm down, damn /it/."
Ivana shakes her head and reaches out a hand to help Saliqa up, the other for Taikrin, if she'll take it. "Y'all right?" she asks, leaning down so she'll be heard with everyone shouting nearby.
"Bite me, I saw her," Gabe says to Gustav, but he's not all /that/ interested in the argument - or the scuffle - for he's not jumping on anyone /anymore/, and he's much more distracted by Derrinar's profanity. "I don't actually think that's anatomically possible," he informs the nearby candidates, bemused.
There's so many people in one spot all of the sudden. Saliqa notices Gustav go by, feels that she's released, and then is nudged by Taikrin's shoulder so that some of the mess is finally over somewhere else. The first friendly face she sees is Ivana's, though, and that's possibly just as confusing. "No!" She'd charge forward on this insistence, but it's possible there's still an arm around her-- and a bunch of other people. "Come on! I'm not done with that guy!" Regardless that she did very little but deter Trahalor slightly.
Silarra turns to give Gustav a look. Her hands are off him though, on her hips now instead. "Who gave you the right to badmouth my family?" She asks, but then she's distracted looking over to the convicts. "Well? What's so interesting there? Juicy sexual habits or something? Inviere /really/ did like the runners in a perverted way?"
"Hey, stupid chits. Listen to this:" Trahalor roars out to the general buzz of noise in the room. He crackles the hide and reads:
"' ...Balen's been going on about Ezalea for sevens now. The things she said about that Weyrwoman of yours, Viere, you would not believe it..." And then, a little later, "...so anyway, apparently she and her slimy law expert decided to keep the meteor money all for themselves..." and "...the Holders are meeting in three days.'"
Trahalor look over the letter, growling, "pack that shit up boys and put it back. Hurry up damn it. Sharding Weyrwoman theif!!?"
Taikrin meets Ivana's offer of assistance with mute relief and a smile that's been twisted by all the chaos. Her attention is diverted again, though, by who else: Saliqa. "You're gonna get yerself /killed/ shardit Saliqa!" Taikrin is genuinely upset, now, which generally doesn't bode well. She attempts to hold her grip on the smaller girl, but it's her weak arm and it would take little effort to break away. "It's done, leave it!" Apparently she caught the tail end of the announcement, then, because her jaw drops-- and if she was looking angry before, she's positively poleaxed now. "Did he-- /what/?"
"Weyrwoman" and "thief" are not typically two words one expects to hear juxtoposed, but there they are. The younger lads, previously so very interested in helping their idol achieve his goal, are now drained of color; mere seconds pass before they have utterly disappeared into the secondary sleeping cavern. They were not here. They did not hear this just now. A few of the girls are simply staring at each other, and someone in the back of the room barks a forced, nervous laugh.
"The weyrwoman is not either a thief!" Gabrion insists loudly and vehemently, fists clenched angrily at his sides. "Don't you dare insult her!"
Gustav makes a noise of absolute disgust for the two teenagers near him. "Just shut up al- /Saliqa/." He sounds serious. He hardly ever sounds serious. He also sounds angry and frustrated as he whips around to try and grab her too. If Taikrin fails, the small girl is going to find a much stronger grip on her. And he's going to manhandle her just like he manhandled the last midget that got out of hand. Lift and place.
Real shock appears on Ivana's face at Trahalor's reading of the letter. Her hands are flat, palms outward toward Saliqa, just about to try and convince their newest brawler that it's probably better at this point to take things rather slowly.. but she whispers, "Law expert? Harper Addiene said.. and meteors?" Hurriedly she renews her offer of assistance from the floor, a frown on her face now.
Trahalor flaps the letter at Gabrion with a smirk, "maybe she isn't, maybe she is. This letter here all inked up says...she is."
Warucori obviously can't stop Shad from scamping off. She does give him a worried look. The big, awkward hands of the convicts aren't fast enough for her. "oh, give it to me." Deftly she takes up the letters, trying to be as careful as she can. She even angry yanks the box out of Trahalor's limp fingers now that he's too busy with that last letter. As though he's not going to be reported for breaking into her stuff when management walks in. The girl is strangely faithful to the brute of a candidate, enough to be the one red-handed in Inviere's press. "It must be a mistake. It's got to be.... GOT to be. Please. Stop it now. PLEASE." Trembling she gets the last letter free and runs for the press to get it tucked away.
Silarra considers that for a moment. "Might be a matter of perspective." She offers. "Like whether reading a letter you put back is actually stealing." And now that the violence seems to be mostly over, Silarra will wander back towards her cot, stockinged feet barely making a whisper on the floor.
"Well, Inviere's a stupid, nasty, mean, obnoxious, bratty liar," Gabe says heatedly. With that, he heads for the exit of the barracks with purpose - what purpose, he's not saying.
Saliqa just doesn't make it very far, what with all the hands willing to stop her. But there's also that, just like everyone else, the loud pronouncement means a slow down of action to let it sink in. If she's settled into a new, farther away, spot by Gustav right then, her only brow-wrinkled frown is still for the words hanging in the air. "... with the meteors? But-- it's just a story. See what a lot of good a harmless prank does..."
Xeoshen has been here, really, watching from his perch on his cot, the announcement makes his jaw drop, and eyes widen. "There aint no way the Weywomans a thief." He says. and nods to Saliqa. "Could just be somebody tryin' ta spread a rumor.
In the confusion and their bro-like concern for each other's manly injuries, Derrinar and his pal Agathor maybe aren't doing as good of a job actually guarding the door like they're supposed to be. Because suddenly, Inviere is standing in the entrance. And there they all are, her comrades-in-arms. Her fellow future Saviors of Pern. Her... partners in crime. "What," she says, entirely too calm, "are you doing?"
OOC Date: March 13, 2010
IC Date: Day 11, month 3, turn 22 of Interval 10.
Who: Warucori, Ivana, Gustav, Shad, Silarra, Taikrin, NPC Trahalor, NPC Derrinar, Xeoshen, Saliqa
Where: Candidate Barracks, HRW
Gabe walks into the middle of a brawl in the candidate barracks, and things go downhill from there.
Warucori draws Ivana in closer, hands trembling, "I'm keeping watch. They well.. Trahalor really, is going through Inviere's press to see what's in ther." She cranes her neck now that the trunk is open and the sound of fussing and struggling has gone up in volume. "I just hope no one is going to get themselves hurt."
Trahalor hisses, "Calm downCaaaaalm down Missy-Britches." He still holds onto Saliqa, trying to yank her out of the open trunk when she flings herself over it. "That's itthat's got to be her box of letters. " A quick look in at the other things, he skims over them, doesn't care as it's not theft he's interested in, but what the woman was hiding. "Not going to do anything to harm them, just want to see what is all fire important and get that little priss in such a snit all the time."
"What you're doing is wrong." Shad says. "And it's not tattling to mommy to let people know when you're invading other peoples' right to privacy. If you're willing to do this, what /else/ are you willing to do?"
Gustav's eyes go wide when she goes to snatch that box. There's a noise of frustration in his throat and he hardly notices Taikrin appear there. The yank must be what does it. "Let the damn girl go or you're going to find something a lot more interesting in about a minute. And it's going to be my hand in your damn face." And well, if he doesn't let go or she doesn't twist free it's very likely that this is going to escalate. He's not going to punch per se. But there's going to be some body checking. And Gus isn't a teenager.
Gabrion sails into the candidate barracks, only to walk into the middle of DRAMA. He pauses just inside the door, his good mood dissipating into an expression that shows he's highly dubious about the wisdom of continuing further into the room. He glances back over his shoulder, considering just leaving instead.
Silarra raises her eyebrows and looks over to Shad. "I'm not /doing/ anything. No harm in talking is there?" She even gives Shad a falsely sweet smile. But then she's turning to look over to Trahalor. "Lay off touching the girl. You want to see the letters, tell us all what they're about? That's one thing. But no idiots need to be harmed to make it happen."
Ivana glances back at Durrinar, then at the closed door. "Waste'f good pie," she mutters, her left arm around Cori's shoulders. Silarra's taunts just make Ivana look disappointed. "They're going through /Inviere's/ press?" A quick surprised look at Cori confirms it and then she's staring at Trahalor as if looks could kill.
As Derrinar the Door Goon opens the door for Gabrion, here's what Gabe and, for that matter, Ivana, can expect to see: Saliqa tussling with Warucori's giant, sketchy pal Trahalor, who's kneeling over Inviere's open press; Taikrin and Gustav taking noisy exception; Shad getting up in Door Goon's face and, well, failing; and everyone else looking kind of like they wish they'd been somewhere else about 10 minutes ago.
Shad says, "Gabe, go get the Headwoman, now!" Shad says, diving forward to keep Jurassic Thug from grabbing the smaller boy. "Now!""
"Wasn't kidding." Taikrin remind Trahalor, drolly. She doesn't speak, otherwise: Gustav seems to have that covered. As Saliqa is being yanked backwards, Taikrin sidesteps swiftly around to the Trahalor's other side, moving with sudden violence to kick at the leg he's kneeling upon. It doesn't have enough force to do any damage, but if it lands it'd probably affect his balance at least. "One warning, boy."
With some stroke of swiftness, Saliqa manages to close fingers around the box causing all this trouble just before she's hauled backwards by Trahalor's yank. Aha! So she stumbles with the movement, trying to bring the item close in for a better hold while also straining her wrist against the same grip now stopping her from escaping with the valued prize. "Well, I don't care--what-- you want!" She curls up her fingers and puuuulls but if he doesn't let go then she's not going anywhere, just throwing her own self off balance by it-- not likely a good combination with everyone else's movement around.
Derrinar's hetero lifemate Agathor, who's just as big and mean as he is, has the added disadvantage of being quite a bit more stupid and impulsive -- so it's probably no surprise when he grabs Gustav, who is not a small man, by his pretty-boy collar and hauls him off towards a wall. "HEY now, ladies' man," he growls, "let's not be startin' nothin' we can't finish. Wouldn't wanna bruise your titties."
"Wait, what?" Gabe blurts, blinking at Shad. He's just not that quick on the uptake, not with all the chaos going on. Amidst the shoving and grabbing and collaring, it's Taikrin he fixates on for some reason, and strides toward, demanding to know, "What's going on?"
"The little lady, I might remind you -boy-, is the one who threw herself at me." Trahalor grunts like a bull when he's kicked by Taikrin. His head rears back, eyes growing dangerously narrow as he fixes her with a cold look. "Thank you Agathor.very kind of you." Though his leg is hurt by that kick, it only makes him look more dangerous. With the threat of Gustav out of the way, his big mit closes on the box and he yanks with all his strength to get it free of Saliqa's hand. "You're making a bigger deal out of this than you NEED." He growls and lets go of the tiny arm he was gripping and does as he's told. He all but flings rag-doll-candidate- Saliqa at Taikrin. A dangerous look is slowly flicked around at the others as he stands, already deftly working the tiny lock as he backs towards the goons by the door. There's a satisfying click and then the lid falls open and he runs a fat thumb over the letters, eyeing them in haste.
Warucori's eyes round and she clings to Ivana, "He ...he's really not that bad. He just...it's all for a joke. He said it's just...to read what she's been writing." The curly haired candidate looks really torn. Between concern for her friends and concern for the crush.
"They're stealing stuff from Inviere's trunk," Shad says. Ok, technically they're not /stealing/, but they're breaking and entering. Close enough. "And you're on /that/ side of the door. GO."
Silarra looks over, giving her cousin a slightly guilty look. "Just trying to see what Inviere's hiding away from everyone." She states. But then she's turning to move towards the goon holding Gustav. "Hey. Let the sissy down. Surely you're big enough to keep him away without needing to leave marks on his pretty skin. He's still got to get something bright pink from Tiriana for me." Silarra still doesn't seem to be taking it all that seriously, though she's watching everything closely.
Taikrin's eyes narrow in response as she prepares to meet violence with violence, the sham of nonchallance fading. Left arm cocks back, preparing to throw one of those off-handed punches she's been practicing. "I ain't playin-- OOF." She would explain to Gabrion, really, except suddenly there's a Saliqa flying at her! Arms instinctively move to wrap around the smaller girl protectively, but the sudden change in momentum is enough to stagger her back a few paces and then, with another 'Oof!' to land flat on her ass.
The letters, once Trahalor gets them out and sorted, are numerous and date back several months, to within a few days of Inviere's arrival. None of them are from Inviere, save for perhaps a few notes she's made to keep track about correspondence, some scattered diary entries, that sort of thing. No, most of the letters are from someone named Vianna -- and most of them are boring. Lots of people's names, who's marrying who, who's impressed a firelizard, what new ships are in port at Misty Hold. It's evident pretty early on that Vianna is Inviere's sister, and that Vianna takes quite a bit of pleasure in bringing her sister up to speed on the gossip at Balen Hold -- not only just because, it seems, that Inviere had some romantic connection to Balen's heir apparent. It's mostly incomprehensible and uninteresting.
No, the REALLY interesting stuff is from the last month or so. The tone of Vianna's letters begin smug, but become increasingly hostile as it seems Inviere is not cooperating. The gist of it: Tiriana has done something with money belonging to the Holds... money from the meteors? And that, it seems, is why Ezalea packed up and left the Weyr. And the Holders -- they are not happy. They're really, really, REALLY not happy.
Gabrion looks at Shad, moving beyond dubious into dismissive territory. "Inviere can suck it," he tells him. "She's nothing but a -- HEY!" That's for Saliqa, when he sees her attacking Taikrin, and suddenly he's sailing across the room to join the fray. "You can't jump someone who has a broken ARM! Let go of her!" He's grabbing for anything he can reach, be it Saliqa's arm or hair or clothes, to pull her away from Taikrin.
"Cori, anyone ever tell ya that y'r entirely too nice?" Ivana turns from her angry regard of Trahalor to give her friend a slightly exasperated look. Saliqa and Taikrin's fall distracts her attention, and then Gustav and his grain fed midcontinent.. what? Her head snaps back again to hear Gabrion. "Hey! She didn't..." and then Ivana's off across the room herself to sort this thing out. "Stop it! Let 'em up! Saliqa just fell."
What--no! Saliqa does her solemn best to hold onto Inviere's property but she's all curve and no muscle and the box is ripped quite easily away, even if not without a fight. In the end, her own shoving and retaliating is probably what helps the momentum. Before she really knows what's going on, the tiny girl-shaped projectile is surrounded by Taikrin and then, just as quickly, on the floor. "Oww.." is muttered, possibly into some body-part of the female (former!) convict before suddenly she's being grabbed all over again. "Ow--/ow/!" Her hair isn't very long for grabbing, but Gabrion manages to yank some before he's got her arm and she's too confused to do much else but be pulled.
Gustav is momentarily stunned by the headbutt he got. By the time he recovers letters have been grabbed but there's a much more pressing issue at hand. Gabrion has clearly gone insane. He tries as quick as he can to gather the younger and smaller candidate up and try to haul him bodily away if he can. "She's not attacking her you, you maniac!" And if he has succeeded in detaching Gabe from her he'll move him and set him down somewhere else.
"Sharditall!" Shad snaps. This is getting /entirely/ out of hand. "Out of my /way/." He tells Jurassic Goon, and dives for the door.
Silarra rushes over towards Gustav, trying to get inbetween him and Gabe, even it means grabbing at the bigger man's arm. "Don't you dare touch my cousin." The joking tone is gone now, that bit very serious and threatening. "You lay hands on him, and I'll make sure you don't enjoy looking at a pretty girl f`or a long time."
Taikrin flushes a very interesting shade of pink as her brain catches up with her reflexes and the fact that she's got an armful of Saliqa. Her voice is rather strangled, and it can't all be attributed to the pain of the fall. "Oi, you oka-- HEY!" Her right arm -- now obviously castless -- closes as tightly as the weakened limb can manage around Saliqa, and she bats at Gabrion with the far stronger left. "GABE! /Get off/! Y'gone crazy or somethin'!" A push of her legs against the floor is made, attempting to open some breathing room from the suddenly coalescing fray, and she twists around to try to put her shoulder between Saliqa and the worst of it.
Gabrion realizes something is wrong and lets go of Saliqa, spinning to face Gustav and Silarra. "I saw it, she jumped on her!" he insists, but he looks confused.
The convict reads, passing letters to the goons and keeping an eye on the goodie-two-boots and keeping one ear out for the sound of someone coming. At last he whistles, long and low. "wah wah wah" he passes the letter over, "oohhsomeone's marriedyadda yadda" And another, glanced at and passed. At last he pauses, eyes sharpening. He looks up at the room and then turns away, re-reading. "Well, I'll be a Rich Pretty-Boy-Dandy." Trahalor nudges one of the goons as he taps the corner of the letter against his front teeth.
As Shad jumps for the door, he finds none-other than Cori there, holding up her hands. "No no! NO! Not yet, not yet." She tells him, getting in his way as a last resort to the escape route. She looks over her shoulder, "Well..what is it? What does it /say/?"
Derrinar obviously doesn't have much of a future as a professional bouncer: his attention caught by Trahalor's acquisition of the prize that /started/ this whole mess, he wastes precious seconds on gawking -- and by the time Shad's caught his peripheral vision, it's too late. "HEY," he bellows, diving. He misses, stumbling over one of the many impeding feet and straight into a wall. WHAM. High Reaches Weyr's candidates earn the dubious honor of learning never-before-heard vulgarities.
Gustav is surrounded by crazy people. He hardly knows what to do next. With Silarra pawing at him and Taikrin helpfully trying to deter that he places the young man down safely, so he can do his twirling around thing. "Your cousin is out of his mind! We got enough problems right now. She didn't /attack/ Taikrin, she got thrown at her. Calm the fuck down." If the other teenager makes anymore grabs at him he'll bat her away, push. Whatever but he won't get overtly phyiscaly with the small girl. "Calm down, damn /it/."
Ivana shakes her head and reaches out a hand to help Saliqa up, the other for Taikrin, if she'll take it. "Y'all right?" she asks, leaning down so she'll be heard with everyone shouting nearby.
"Bite me, I saw her," Gabe says to Gustav, but he's not all /that/ interested in the argument - or the scuffle - for he's not jumping on anyone /anymore/, and he's much more distracted by Derrinar's profanity. "I don't actually think that's anatomically possible," he informs the nearby candidates, bemused.
There's so many people in one spot all of the sudden. Saliqa notices Gustav go by, feels that she's released, and then is nudged by Taikrin's shoulder so that some of the mess is finally over somewhere else. The first friendly face she sees is Ivana's, though, and that's possibly just as confusing. "No!" She'd charge forward on this insistence, but it's possible there's still an arm around her-- and a bunch of other people. "Come on! I'm not done with that guy!" Regardless that she did very little but deter Trahalor slightly.
Silarra turns to give Gustav a look. Her hands are off him though, on her hips now instead. "Who gave you the right to badmouth my family?" She asks, but then she's distracted looking over to the convicts. "Well? What's so interesting there? Juicy sexual habits or something? Inviere /really/ did like the runners in a perverted way?"
"Hey, stupid chits. Listen to this:" Trahalor roars out to the general buzz of noise in the room. He crackles the hide and reads:
"' ...Balen's been going on about Ezalea for sevens now. The things she said about that Weyrwoman of yours, Viere, you would not believe it..." And then, a little later, "...so anyway, apparently she and her slimy law expert decided to keep the meteor money all for themselves..." and "...the Holders are meeting in three days.'"
Trahalor look over the letter, growling, "pack that shit up boys and put it back. Hurry up damn it. Sharding Weyrwoman theif!!?"
Taikrin meets Ivana's offer of assistance with mute relief and a smile that's been twisted by all the chaos. Her attention is diverted again, though, by who else: Saliqa. "You're gonna get yerself /killed/ shardit Saliqa!" Taikrin is genuinely upset, now, which generally doesn't bode well. She attempts to hold her grip on the smaller girl, but it's her weak arm and it would take little effort to break away. "It's done, leave it!" Apparently she caught the tail end of the announcement, then, because her jaw drops-- and if she was looking angry before, she's positively poleaxed now. "Did he-- /what/?"
"Weyrwoman" and "thief" are not typically two words one expects to hear juxtoposed, but there they are. The younger lads, previously so very interested in helping their idol achieve his goal, are now drained of color; mere seconds pass before they have utterly disappeared into the secondary sleeping cavern. They were not here. They did not hear this just now. A few of the girls are simply staring at each other, and someone in the back of the room barks a forced, nervous laugh.
"The weyrwoman is not either a thief!" Gabrion insists loudly and vehemently, fists clenched angrily at his sides. "Don't you dare insult her!"
Gustav makes a noise of absolute disgust for the two teenagers near him. "Just shut up al- /Saliqa/." He sounds serious. He hardly ever sounds serious. He also sounds angry and frustrated as he whips around to try and grab her too. If Taikrin fails, the small girl is going to find a much stronger grip on her. And he's going to manhandle her just like he manhandled the last midget that got out of hand. Lift and place.
Real shock appears on Ivana's face at Trahalor's reading of the letter. Her hands are flat, palms outward toward Saliqa, just about to try and convince their newest brawler that it's probably better at this point to take things rather slowly.. but she whispers, "Law expert? Harper Addiene said.. and meteors?" Hurriedly she renews her offer of assistance from the floor, a frown on her face now.
Trahalor flaps the letter at Gabrion with a smirk, "maybe she isn't, maybe she is. This letter here all inked up says...she is."
Warucori obviously can't stop Shad from scamping off. She does give him a worried look. The big, awkward hands of the convicts aren't fast enough for her. "oh, give it to me." Deftly she takes up the letters, trying to be as careful as she can. She even angry yanks the box out of Trahalor's limp fingers now that he's too busy with that last letter. As though he's not going to be reported for breaking into her stuff when management walks in. The girl is strangely faithful to the brute of a candidate, enough to be the one red-handed in Inviere's press. "It must be a mistake. It's got to be.... GOT to be. Please. Stop it now. PLEASE." Trembling she gets the last letter free and runs for the press to get it tucked away.
Silarra considers that for a moment. "Might be a matter of perspective." She offers. "Like whether reading a letter you put back is actually stealing." And now that the violence seems to be mostly over, Silarra will wander back towards her cot, stockinged feet barely making a whisper on the floor.
"Well, Inviere's a stupid, nasty, mean, obnoxious, bratty liar," Gabe says heatedly. With that, he heads for the exit of the barracks with purpose - what purpose, he's not saying.
Saliqa just doesn't make it very far, what with all the hands willing to stop her. But there's also that, just like everyone else, the loud pronouncement means a slow down of action to let it sink in. If she's settled into a new, farther away, spot by Gustav right then, her only brow-wrinkled frown is still for the words hanging in the air. "... with the meteors? But-- it's just a story. See what a lot of good a harmless prank does..."
Xeoshen has been here, really, watching from his perch on his cot, the announcement makes his jaw drop, and eyes widen. "There aint no way the Weywomans a thief." He says. and nods to Saliqa. "Could just be somebody tryin' ta spread a rumor.
In the confusion and their bro-like concern for each other's manly injuries, Derrinar and his pal Agathor maybe aren't doing as good of a job actually guarding the door like they're supposed to be. Because suddenly, Inviere is standing in the entrance. And there they all are, her comrades-in-arms. Her fellow future Saviors of Pern. Her... partners in crime. "What," she says, entirely too calm, "are you doing?"