Of trinkets, stinkets, and lotions
Nolee, Ailisha, Aiemera
Candidate's Quarters
The wet season oppresses the island with high humidity and sweltering temperatures.
Your location's current time: 19:16 on day 21, month 10, Turn 54, of the Tenth Pass. It is a autumn evening.
The autumn evening brings the usual warm temperatures to the barracks, but they don't seem to be deterring Nolee from her chosen activity: improving the hygeine of the cots closest to her own. "I know one of these is the source," she murmurs, sniffing at first one set of bedding, then moving down the row to sniff another. "That stench has to be coming from nearby."
Ailisha has just come in herself, fresh from the baths, a neatly folded stack of her own laundry accompanying her. As she crosses to the right wall of the barracks, she notes Nolee nosing around and chuckles, "I think more toward the center or even the far wall, although it definitely drifts over here."
Aiemera herself isn't yet present, but a lump of clothing is. Half folded, mostly fresh and clean looking, the clothes none the less aren't where they belong. Nor are her spare sandals which jutt out from beneath her cot. All in all, she /could/ stand to be neater, but then again she's not here to be told as much.
Nolee hunches over the next bed in the line, sniff-sniff-sniffing at its covers suspiciously, her nose almost touching the blanket. "I don't think it's this one either, cause it just smells like feet." Standing up a moment, she smooths down her static-risen hair, approaching the back wall and Aiemera's empty area. Hunching downward, she sniffs the clothing pile, then the sheets, "You think so? Over here?" Unwisely, she even bends forward on hands and knees to sniff the shoes.
Ailisha abandons her tidy pile of recently laundered clothing atop her equally crisply made cot. Someone has a bit of a neat fetish, it seems, that might rival Nolee's hygiene one. She picks her way around Nolee's cot over in the direction of Aiemera's, and stands with her arms folded in front of her, "This one? You think? What's your nose have to say?" She'll maintain her nasal distance.
"Nolee?" A drawn out enunciation of the name, and Aiemera is at long last present. And watching the ex-Smith type girl sniff at her shoes. Hefting what looks to be a lumpy shoulder bag to her opposite shoulder, Aiemera looks toward Ailisha before moving further into the room, "Did you... um, did you lose something, or something?" A half pause and another look at Ailisha ensues before Aiemera moves more purposefully toward her cot, her expression just slightly alarmed as she sends a worried look toward the bottom corner, "Maybe I can find it. If you did and, you know, if you... if you let me look."
"I'm not sure. I can smell feet up close, but not when I move away." Nolee demonstrates, "I've never thought of my nose talking. I should listen to it more! Or," making a wry face, nose wrinkling at the acrid air, "maybe less." She hunches forward, preparing to whuff out the source of the pungence. "Hullo Aiemera!" she even waves from the floor, then blithely admits, "Something stinks. Maybe you can help find it?"
Ailisha lets Nolee do the exposition, although not without adding her greetings and comments, a smile forming as she waves at the approaching cot-holder, "Nothing lost. Just something we'd like to lose," that being the smell Nolee described, "It drifts to the far wall, but it's stronger in the center aisle and over here. Thoughts?"
"So you decide that my cot is the best place to start looking." Puzzled, and slightly offended, Aiemera can't hide either from her tone or expression as she looks between the two. Almost helpfully she adds, "It's not mine... you know, I just washed those clothes there, and those sandles too." Setting her lumpy bag atop her cot, Aiemera drops to her knees before looking under her cot, "And there's nothing under there. Maybe it's... well one of the center cots? Or it could just be something we're suppose to be eating for dinner."
Nolee's crawling quest takes her beneath the cot that neighbors Aiemera's one toward the center, apologetic. "I didn't even realize I'd come to yours? Though you're right, more over here. Though you're right; after hunting, the meat doesn't look as good as it once did." Managing not to bump heads with Aiemera, she scoots one to the front, bumping her head on it as she wriggles out the other side. "Vile!" she exclaims, likely locating the odious source. "It's this one! Ugh! This is revolting, come smell it!"
Ailisha nearly retches at the possibility of the smell being something purportedly edible, swallowing hard and regaining her smile as she wanders over to where the 'Vile!' cot is located, not getting nearly as up close as the much braver or at least stronger stomached Nolee, but still agreeing, "The smell is /much/ stronger over here," before looking back at Aiemera, "And don't go being offended, when I came in, she was sniffing around my cot too...really, she's just following your problem-solving lead by investigating the problem."
"No, no, it's fine. You didn't... yeah, you didn't realize." Aiemera responds with a faint smile. As Nolee moves away, Aiemera stays rooted. Moreso for the later of the other Candidate's statement. Jerking a thumb to the bag atop her cot, she simply defends, "You know, I've got some unpacking to do. I think I'll just take your word for it and, you know, let... whatever -it- is stay there." More enthused about such then the prospects of the Stink Factor, Aiemera reaches up to pull the lumpy bag from her cot to the floor. The sound of thunking metal and other oddities sounds before she begins rumaging through it. "Couldn't help it you know, just put the two together. Her saying stink and sniffing my cot-" An amused look is tossed toward the other two females, "Whatever that is though... good luck with dealing with it."
Nolee tips her head, looking curiously at the light blanket on the cot. "I didn't know bodies could stain sheets like that. Look, it has a yellow sweaty outline shaped like the person who sleeps here." Disgusted, yet somehow fascinated, Nolee pulls back the cover, "Yours smells much nicer, Aiemera. Like leather. I like the smell of leather, just not--ugh. It's like a dead fish over here." Nolee escapes from the reek, crawling back toward the other two. "Whatcha workin' on, Aiemera?"
Ailisha distances herself from the sweaty, fishy-smelling cot, wondering aloud, "Who's cot is that anyway...do you think maybe we should tell someone?" These thoughts are digested quietly in the pause that follows while Ailisha draws nearer to Aiemera's cot again without coming too close. Something about her fellow candidate's defensiveness seems to have the former Igenite a little more reserved than usual, "I'm just impressed that you can fix things so well," she says.
Aiemera's nose twitches in reflex, and her forehead scrunches with shared disgust. "You know, if it's not someone who stinks it's someone who snores. I think it's the same wherever, you know?" Splitting her attention between Ailisha and Nolee, Aiemera quickly shakes her head and resumes foraging within her bag. "Dud dropped some things off of mine and said I should get them moved out before he started using them as anchors." Wryly admitted with only a barely discernable note of dismay, Aiemera finally withdraws from the bag. A small, carefully polished ball is held in hand, which Aiemera palms before lightly tossing atop her cot. "I don't know where I'm going to put it all. Dud says I can't go back to the workarea until I'm done with this 'foolishness'." Ailisha's compliment however, finds Aiemera relinquishing all dismay for a fevered smile. "I... suppose it's just the idea of, well you know, figuring things out that... I guess.. thanks, Ailisha."
Nolee has no such trepidation, though she does stop to sit and brush grime from her knees. "You must be right. This old uncle, back at Red Sands, he could snore so loud it was like a gale in the room." Picking at a loose thread along the bottom hem of her shorts, she frowns. "Are you sad about it? I'd think it'd be great news, to not have to go back to work. Though, you seem to enjoy your work. Does your pop fix things, too?"
Ailisha's posture seems to relax a little as Aiemera's smile of gratitude aims her way, slipping back toward the space she originally occupied near the other girl's cot while Nolee was ferretting out the smell. "Dud? That's your father? Or is he like, a craftmaster?" She's not in the loop on this one, although she's able to surmise, "This foolishness would be standing, yes?" She shakes her head, "Makare was saying Master Jacob is the same way about search."
Aiemera asks, "You interested in this? The girl who asked me to fix it gave up and got herself a new one. Never did figure out how to get the lid to fit properly, I think it got warped or something." As Ailisha talks, Aiemera delves back into the bag, apparently searching for another trinket. Nolee's proffered one now rests atop her cot. "Dud's my friend. We've been in... been sort of working together for a while. And yeah, he thinks it's foolish to even Stand. Says it's not a sure thing...so I have to be foolish to even try."
Nolee renews her frown in the direction of the fish-cot, scrambling to her feet and wandering around the center cots before heading for a press near the front. An extra blanket is claimed, then shaken out with a satisfied snap, Nolee determinedly returning to the stench. "Is it foolish? My pop thinks so, too, though he'd never say to the wrong ears. Oh! I thought he was your pop, but it sounds like not." The old sheets are stripped away and plopped in a pile, the new draped over her arm so she can inspect the offered box. "Ooo, can I?" Her fingers wiggle, her face lighting up. "A new present, and getting rid of the stink. That's almost better than a sure thing."
"Maybe," suggests Ailisha, "He's just having a hard time accepting the idea of having someone he was close to possibly never being like that again?" She frowns, twisting her foot oddly against the floor of the barracks like perhaps her boot isn't fitting right. The gesture is at odds with her usually un-fidgety mannerisms. She clears her throat, watching her own boot antics instead of making eye contact with either of the other candidates, "I was used to having my brother around...he's been the one constant in my life, and that all changed when he was searched. I don't think I ever called his accepting search foolish, but all the same, I'm not sure I acted like I thought it was a good thing either." Apparently that's all she has to say on the subject, because when she brings her gaze back up, it's to rest on Nolee with a fixed smile in place, "Changing out the linens? That's a great idea. Or at least a start."
"It's nothing special, you know... I'm... if you'd like it, you're welcome to it." Aiemera reiterates as she withdraws another object from the bulky sack. It's propped into the air, angled and eyed. "Most of this stuff is the things I couldn't fix, or projects that didn't work. People didn't want 'em and I... I hate throwing things out, so..." A shoulder lifts to dismiss the idea, before the new object is proffered toward Ailisha. Unlike Nolee's warped, crushed shell box, Ailisha's gift is a strung together collection of shells hanging at different lengths. Several of the shells are chipped and broke, with one string completely missing. Junk? Possibly, though Aiemera eyes it with a fond grin. Ignorantly, it remains as she responds. "Dud is just Dud.. he'll get over it and if he doesn't, well... I suppose I'll have to deal with it myself."
Nolee listens while examining the shell box, pleased with the trinket perhaps more because the lid doesn't quite close right. "It'll be a perfect place to keep things so I don't have to carry them all around. Thank you." A head tilt toward her own cot, her knapsack resting on its surface. "I hate throwing things out, too! What if one day they're needed, or useful? I couldn't forgive myself if it were suddenly important and I'd lost it." Ailisha's confession is nodded to, "I think Dud might mean you can't know how it'll turn out? Though, how did it turn out for your brother?" Looking at the dangling shells, Nolee shakes her head. "I hope I never have to clean my things out. I'd be at it for sets of sevendays."
Ailisha chuckles, having regained her composure with the focus elsewhere for a few moments. "I'm actually a fairly compulsive cleaner myself," she admits, sounding as if apology of her tone doesn't mean it is something she's looking to change, "However, I don't toss anything of sentimental value, and as this is my first gift received at Ista," she says as she accepts the strung shells, "I shall value it as a souvenir of candidacy, and take it wherever life takes me." Though the formality of her words seems like it might be a mockery, she holds the shells gingerly, and with a bright and genuine smile as she answers Nolee's question, "He rides brown at Telgar."
"Most of this stuff isn't much." Aiemera admits with a warm smile to Ailisha, "Though it... I suppose it has it's place. I guess it's why I couldn't throw it out. I never knew if I'd need it, or if it'd give me an idea." She shrugs again before stilling in her sack ruffling to listen to Ailisha and Nolee alike. "So your brother is a rider... you want to be like him or...?" A quick glance shoots to Nolee, "What about you too, Nolee? Why here... now?"
Nolee sets the shell box back down, patting it fondly, then padding across the floor toward stinky cot, only slipping on the fresh blanket once as it tangles between her toes. Steadying herself, she tugs the blanket free, then flips it up and over the cot. "I'm not a compulsive cleaner of anything," Nolee laughs, her own barely adequate space proof of that. "Except maybe my fingernails. I can't stand having them dirty or peeling." A scowl at them, as chores aren't helping. "A souvenir, that's a good idea. Like collecting one for each different time in your life. Though, I'd only have two. Living with pop, then coming here to live with mum." A crinkle near her eyes. "Why? I thought I'd be getting away from being told what to do, but I was wrong."
"You came here to live with your mother?" Ailisha's finding out all kinds of new things this evening, somewhat surprisingly seeing as the three now speaking aren't among the most recently searched. "That's sort of why D'ar and I went to Igen, although not because of anything to do with our father. Don't really know him." The idea that she might have accepted search to try to be like the aforementioned brownrider makes Ailisha's eyes slightly bug out with her laughter, "I'm hoping Faranth'll spare me D'ar's fate...his lifemate's nasty, although I guess Wingleader Ellery's green didn't think so. Still haven't figured that out. But no, I accepted search to come here because it's a place I'd never been, and," she shrugs, "With him up at Telgar now, I thought it might be time for a fresh start."
"So... you're basically here for the same reason. Just...well that's interesting." Aiemera states, pushing the bag beneath her bed before climbing atop it. Settling a pillow on her lap, she tilts her head in thought, "My brothers and sisters are all doing their thing... Some don't even live here anymore, you know. It's just mostly me and my parents. Another sibling, and that's it." After another light pause, "Either way, it's interesting. I'm... I can't wait to see how things turn out, you know? I want to see if all the pieces fit."
Nolee nods, the blanket spreading out over the putrid cot, "I did come to live with her, but I never really started. Since the volcano came, pop hasn't been able to catch a trip back around the north tip of the island, and he's restless enough that I'm glad to be holed up here, away from his fretting about the cothold." Nolee tucks one corner of the blanket in, leaving it wrinkly around the rest, calls it good enough. "Here, and not Telgar, Lish? You said yourself that its our job to listen and do as we're told, Aiemera. Why'd you agree?"
Ailisha continues to talk to the other girls, but meanwhile crosses over to her cot uttering, "Good thing I got one by the wall," as she holds the strung shells up against it, trying to figure out how to hang them. "Honestly? I hadn't really decided what I wanted to do yet, and following my baby brother to Telgar wouldn't exactly have been branching out in my own direction. I was thinking about seeing if I could take some classes at the Healer Hall on herbalism, since I have the gardening experience, but then one day I was lunching on the beach, and Qensith came along," and as any candidate knows, the rest is history. "It'll be interesting to see how things turn out," she agrees with Aiemera, "Though I admit I'm starting to get a little...not nervous, but...not in a hurry for it to happen either. It'll be a decision time, most likely. Unless I Impress, I guess."
Aiemera's smile is wane, "I was threatened to be licked if I didn't say yes?" A half pause later as she stands, abandoning her pillow to the head of the cot, "Really... I just... I don't know. Impulsive answer, I guess. I mean I was already here and, I wasn't really going to be going anywhere else. I suppose... I suppose it was just, you know, my own version of an adventure." Taking a few steps toward the door, Aiemera none the less nods in agreement. "Anxious, but.. not really. Like you want it to be done with because you want to know but... you don't really, just in case." One side of her lips quirk upwards in a half smile, though her hand falls over her stmach as it rumbles. "I suppose that's my cue to get something to eat... I'll see you two later?"
Nolee abandons the remade cot to retrieve the shell box, "That's true; especially if he outranks you there now. Herbalism is flowers and plants and things you sprinkle on them to make them grow better, right? Or is it making medicines? I keep getting them mixed up." Another scratch at her messy hair, the blonde nodding. "I know what you mean about the licking. It does make a good adventure, and without getting insect bites or leeches or anything else truly awful except for dirty." Her free hand lifts in a wave, "See you soon. The wherry's fresh, at least, though I miss the fish. Less, after smelling that cot, though."
Ailisha finally finds a way of lacing the shells about the headboard of her cot when the wall fails to provide anything to attach them to, and calls over a, "Thank you again for the gift, Aiemera," before turning her attention to putting the clean clothes she'd stacked on her bed earlier away into her press. "Herbalism can be medicine-type stuff, and that'd be what I'd expect to get out of classes at the hall, but it can also be used for other things too - perfuming, dye making, etcetera," she explains to Nolee as she finishes putting away her laundry and resmooths the blanket of her cot when it'd previously indented.
Nolee watches the lacing of the shells, fascinated. "I don't think I could put the box up like that, though it'd be handy." It is set down on her cot, and she kneels again, digging another ragged blanket out from underneath it. That's opened up, the collection of objects within regarded fondly. "Would you go to the Hall for the classes?" Ceasing her affection for the junk collection, she looks up at Ailisha, hope in her brown eyes. "How did you know what you want to study?"
Ailisha nods, "I'd worry about it falling and shattering," she agrees, bending down to unlace her boots and tuck them neatly beneath her cot as she crosses her legs under herself. "I'd go to the hall if they'd let me...I'm not sure how it works for people who don't want to apprentice per se," she shrugs, "Like I said, I was just starting to think about it, from working in the gardens at Igen. So many of the plants have special properties."
"Shattering on me isn't what I'd like to wake up to," Nolee says wryly. "Though I've had enough of that working on glass with Pop. Can't get it too hot or too cold or it just--" For lack of expression, she holds out her scar-lined hands, then wipes them off as if to forget again just as easily. "I've thought a little since coming about what I /should/ do. I'd like to have a boat, and sleep on deck all day in the sun, but I /should/ find something, and hoped you had an idea how." A dismal shrug and a soft sigh. "Even Naemyr's said the work has done him good. How can work be good?" She puts on a smile, though it is weak. "What kinds of special properties?"
"Ah yes, I've heard Naemyr's lecture on the virtues of hard work too," Ailisha chuckles at the remembrance, "Although I didn't need to have...I don't mind working, in some ways, it's relaxing to do something where you know you're doing some good. Like what I said about some special properties of plants - I know some of the plants I helped cultivate have moisturizing properties that the healers use to make salves for sunburns."
"You have?" Nolee sounds rather startled. "He's preaching it on tour, now?" The crushed shell box is opened, its battered interior padded with a scrap from inside the under-bed bundle to keep the next trinkets from falling out the holes. "You sound like a healer, that's true enough," Nolee almost laughs, but wallows for a moment in her career uncertainty instead. "Maybe I just haven't found the chore for me yet. If there even is such a thing."
Ailisha reaches underneath her cot into a neat storage bin, taking out a small jar of lotion, "Well, other than laying about in the sun enjoying the back of your eyelids, what do you like to do with your free time?"
Nolee transfers a few items from her hoard into the battered box, then wraps it in the cloth and stuffs it under the cot. Rising clumsily, she nearly tugs the untucked sheet off the cot, settling for sliding it close to its place. "The back of my eyelids?" A moment is spent puzzling this one out, Nolee doing unpleasant twisty things to try to see under her lids by pulling on them. Eventually, she blinks, and it becomes clear. "That's funny. Very funny." Flopping back on the bed with a flump, Nolee shrugs. "I like helping people. As long as helping doesn't become work."
Ailisha almost doesn't notice Nolee's eyelid experimentation as she salves her arms. Almost. When she does see, she hastily coughs, covering her mouth with her hand to hide her smile. "Does playing with children seem like work?" she asks, "Or helping out with the old aunties or uncles?"
"Of course it does. Those are work." Nolee's words are accompanied by a laugh, though it lacks any hint of disdain or sarcasm. "I like littles well enough, but don't think I could care for them daily. Maybe once a sevenday wouldn't be too bad. And the elders?" Nolee looks around, worried someone might overhear, lowering her voice to a guilty, pathetic hush. "They often...stink." Louder, she perks back up again, "Did you make that salve? I've got itches from the bushes still, outside in the jungle. Or maybe from the insect repellent goop. Would you have any salve for that I could borrow? Well, have, unless you'd want me to scrape it back.
Ailisha contemplates the quandry there, "Okay, so no stables duties either then," She notes, "This one is mainly moisturizing, so, try some of this instead," she slides the storage bin back out to sort through its contents, "And it doesn't smell too awful either. What about if you had some sort of rotating schedule, so you didn't get too bored of any one thing? Or maybe there's something you really like to do, like drawing or singing?"
Nolee ughs softly. "Stables are the worst!" She sounds surprised that the other girl guessed it, sitting up on her cot to gladly accept the creme. "Thank you sooo much. Anything'll be a help. I think the more I itch, the worse it gets." With a flip of her toes, she kicks off her sandals, pulling them up onto the bed and starting around the ankles. "Ahh, better already." A nod, seizing the idea. "That would be ideal, having changes. As long as I don't get asked not to come back, like I think Gustive did in the kitchen. I've only broken a few things by accident. Have you been asked to not come back to a chore yet?" As though everyone gets it.
"Not that I know of," Ailisha seems to keep her composure at the unusual query, "Although I suppose if there's a sudden attack of tunnelsnakes overnight, they might think twice about letting me do that again." As she finishes lotioning her limbs, she relaxes back onto her cot, lying atop her blanket. Although she doesn't appear ready for bed, the position seems to trigger her fatigue as she starts to yawn, eyes half-lidding.
Nolee's nose wrinkles. "That'd be unpleasant. Wonder if we have enough firelizards to attack them all? Though mine's not really smart enough." She rubs the lotion over her legs and arms, preoccupied with it for a while. Finishing up, she notices that Ailisha's drifting off, and very quietly places the creme near her supply box, managing to only make a racket in catching her ankle on another cot as she passes it. A silent ow is expressed mostly in her face, then she's returned her focus to the shell box, allowing Lish to nap in peace.