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Today, Okassis was feeling decidedly lump-ish.

It was strange for him to feel his feet drag. He was one of those sorts that attacked life with as much energy as he could muster. Maybe it was reality catching up with him; he'd been thinking an awful lot about his family recently, and the more he thought about it, the more that the separation was difficult to cope with.

His injuries weren't doing a lot to make him feel better, either, - a fading bruise on his cheek, a stitched gash on his forearm, a slight limp that he took care to downplay - and he was getting tired of explaining them away. At the very least, though, he'd gotten a decree of improving health during his visit to the Healers' earlier that morning. This meant two things to him: First, that he'd be able to attend the Hatching, more likely than not; and second, that he was responsible to pitch in around the Weyr.

Okassis had left, invigorated by possibilities and eager to put himself to use. The Healer he'd spoken to had suggested light work in the kitchen; by the time he got to the workstation that morning, however, it seemed like everything was well underway. Things were busy and fast-paced where the cooking was happening, and even wanting as much as he did to make himself useful, his sluggish self was soon pointed away from the hustle, told to "get in someone else's way".

Somewhat disheartened by his inability to keep up, he headed in the direction he'd been told. Putting some room between himself and where there was a constant stream of work to provide breakfast for the many many occupants of the Weyr, however, his eye caught on a circle of tuber-peelers in the corner. Room for him there, perhaps?

Straightening back his shoulders, he made his approach. Edging into the circle by laying his hand on the shoulder of a particularly talkative member of the group (a young woman about his age, with black ringleted hair), Okassis smiled in as charming a manner as he could and shmoozed, "Sorry to cut in, but could you lot use an extra pair of hands here?"

"Not planning on losing any fingers today, if that's what you mean," Okassis answered her, plucking up a knife and dragging over a stool. The blond youth plopped himself down beside Nandeli, failing to anticipate in the least what he was setting himself up for.

He'd barely gotten the knife unwrapped when she began her questions. His eyes widened, blinked; "Oh, boy. This's the ladies' gossip corner, is it?" Okassis exclaimed. By the judging looks he'd already gotten from several girls in the group, he had to guess that he was right - a boy who spent too much time around this lot would probably get a reputation to regret!

Even so, he smiled and started stripping the skin off of his first tuber, working with methodical thoroughness as he attempted to get the entire peel in one strip. "Can't say that I know so much about any shady business going on anywhere," he began, his gaze locked onto his handiwork the whole while, "but I'm guessing it'll just be a matter of time to find out. And to myself-" the peel broke after just a few inches, and he frowned before discarding it and continuing his work. "My name's Okassis. And I'm not that mysterious, really; grew up with Traders, wound up here. You've probably heard a hundred more interesting stories than that." He sounded modest enough, but there was something about the way he was grinning, his eyes crinkled, that made it ring false.

"We-e-ell," Okassis answered, feigning reluctance. Of course, in this group, it took no time at all to get a round of complaints and encouragements from the kitchen girls. Shaking his head and laughing, he cut through his peeled tuber, quartering it, and tossed it with the rest of the cut potato. "Ha! Somethin' tells me that if I don't start talking, the entire Weyr's gonna be going on about what a bore I am!" Grinning roughly, Okassis swiped his sleeve over his nose and hunched forward, more like a storyteller at a campfire than a new acquaintance around a pile of tubers.

"Let's see... in this company I'm sure, you all must know about Watchwhers, don't you?" Okassis's voice took an a particular booming quality as he spoke now, the kind which carried well over indifferent noise and enunciated every word. "Well, a couple years back, they had a big ol' beast at Greystone Hold called Greystesk. Now, you think regular whers are monsters! The Benden folk liked to say his egg must've been hatched by proper dragons. the way they're talking, it's half the size of a green, with just as much bite, and if you think Thread's got a nasty bite, that's nothing like this guy's jaws. A mouthful for him would be half of you!"

"Then, it must've been Jaenal who hears about this wher, and he's certain that we have to get a look at it. We get someone to show us to it, and Jaenal gets one look at the thing and starts laughing. It's big, all right - not so big as half a green, but bigger than any wher I've ever seen before - but would you believe it, the thing's old enough to've seen the last Pass end! Greystesk takes one look at us and starts bristling, like it doesn't know what we are, and the thing's missing most its teeth. Didn't look like it'd gotten to chew on more than bones in weeks, either. One of the saddest things I've ever seen."

"So Jaenal and I talk about these, and we start running our mouths off about what sort of lousy Hold couldn't keep care of a poor wher, and the guy who showed us there gets a bit angry. Talking gets to shouting, gets to shoving, and pretty soon we've got a street brawl. And well, I've been in more than a few fights, I know what I'm doing so I'm not really taking it seriously, and then somebody gives me a good whack when I'm busy shouting at Jaenal not to be too rough on the poor guys, and I wind up by the wher, which is pretty excited by the fuss already."

"Now, that thing might not have teeth, but claws...." Sardonically, Okassis ran a finger over the scar above his right eyebrow. "Knocked me straight down and got my head in one of them, and I'm thinking, scorch it, I'm done for. The poor thing's so old, it doesn't seem to know what to do now that it's got me. Then I figure that if I'm going out, I'd better do it in style, so I ball up a fist and hit the wher right on the nose, and it draws back. And you could just see the look in its eyes where the poor thing mutters to itself, "I'm too old for this fardling mess", and backs down. And I'm out of there in a heartbeat, and Jaenal's shouting something in my ear because I'm bleeding everywhere, but the two of us, we just got out of there as fast as we could!"

By the end of the story, Okassis had barely managed to peel the single tuber he'd started with. Gesturing emphatically as he spoke, the youth had grown far more animated than when he'd first come into the room, neglecting his work. Now that his story seemed finished, Okassis polished it off with a swipe of his blade through the tuber.

"So what about you, Nose?" he asked, picking up the nickname perhaps a little too quickly. "You've got to know some good stories, don't ya?"

Bronzerider trap.... Shards, he'd have to store that pretty little phrase away for later! Who knew, maybe he'd get a bronze someday, and then he was sure he'd get to bandy it about like a "get out of awkward conversation free" card.

Looking up from his spud, Okassis smiled coquettishly and fluttered his eyes, asking, "Aww, is it that obvious, then?"

Breaking immediately into a laugh, he shook his head. "Haven't heard anything about it, but it wouldn't surprise me. A couple of the ladies - with present company excluded! But SOME that I've seen around here don't seem to be looking for anything but - ah, well, you know," he edited his words quickly, deciding better than to finish his vulgar thought in present company. Then Okassis seemed to second-guess himself again, and grinning, finished his thought: "Dragonrider-riding."

Scraping a few stubborn bits of skin off the tuber in his hand, he listened carefully to the run-down of the relationship drama within the Weyr. He didn't know who L'mel was, but made a note to keep the name in mind - and of course he had to grin at the compliment, taking it as gracefully as he could with a swelling ego.

Nodding his understanding of "those" Weyr girls, the conversation quickly turned to his knowledge of the Weyr. "Neither, truth to tell," Okassis admitted. "I came in a bit bloody, so I went straight to the Healers' - and by the time they let me go, I got shoved to the quarters, and I've been finding my way since. They just put me on some kitchen duties today. At least it's easy enough to find them; any Candidate worth their robes ought to be smart enough to follow the smell of klah in the morning!"

"I'll take you up on that, if you don't mind," Okassis agreed readily. Nan seemed like a nice girl, after all, even if she had an obvious vested interest in digging after information - and shards, did he need the help if he was going to be keeping company in these parts!

"Ah, not sick, no," he chuckled. "Just got into a bit of a scuffle when I got Searched, came in a bit bloody." That might have been an understatement, actually; though it had scabbed over a fair amount, the gash in his arm still had a number of stitches holding it together after getting split open. He held it out sheepishly as proof. "It's nothing, though. I'm sure plenty of the Candidates come by with worse - I heard that there was some blood at the last Hatching, in fact?" Okassis turned expectantly to the Nose, sure that she'd know all about it.

To that, Okassis couldn't help but bark a laugh. "Do I seem like a Greenrider to you?" he scoffed with a wide grin. He imagined the perfect dragon, the one that he would Impress, who would suit him in every way - and all he saw was bronze. Sure, the universe might have a laugh at him later, deal him an unexpected hand - but Okassis couldn't believe that it would. Let the smaller and speedier go to the Holdborn, the ones that would need it for dodging Threadfall (should it come). Traders were of sterner stock!

His egotism passed, and he sombered. "Still, I think I'll keep my distance from the girls out on the sands," Okassis mused. He came here to Impress, after all - not to make a dragonling's first chew toy! "I take it that you were at the last Hatching yourself, Nose? What's it like out there?"