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 Posted: Mon May 03, 2010 4:41 am
"S'like I haven't left," Sevya murmured as she wandered down the halls of the Weyr, tending glowbaskets. The Harper remembered this duty well; there were so many twisting passages in the Weyr that this chore could take forever. And you were normally just assigned one section!
Which was probably why she'd hated it so much when she was given it as punishment duty, back when she was a weyrbrat. That plus she'd had to carry a very heavy ladder everywhere for it, plus the basket of replacement glows. Well, at least the ladder was less heavy now that'd she'd grown up.
Down went the ladder at the next glow; she climbed up, flipped open the basket, peered in. Yep, this one was certainly needing replacement. Sev popped it out into the waste section of the basket and put a new one in, then flipped it shut.
"Okay, that one's done," she said, and scanned down the hall for the next one.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2010 8:19 pm
Tending glows was not Adriaetta's assigned chore. This was a good thing, as it was something she'd never done before in her life. It was, however, Kelos's assigned chore. This complicated things. Because the real chore that Adriaetta had been meant to do involved dung, and, well, she was not overfond of things that had smells like. So Kelos had traded with her, because Kelos was her hero. Unfortunately, she still didn't know what she was doing.
Which was why she had wandered from her assigned section of the Weyr, ladder left behind, fresh glows, at least, remembered. Spotting the girl doing her assigned chore, Adriaetta gave a happy little bounce of relief and stopped walking.
"Yoo-hoo!" A wave accompanied the call, and Adriaetta managed to summon up her usual friendly smile. "Aren't you just brilliant at that! You really are. I swear, every day I spend at the Weyr I learn one more thing I can't do."
She glanced at her own basket, at the other candidate, and back at the basket, "I'm sure you don't mind me asking for a few pointers. I'm just, well, how dead is too dead? I saw a few that were sort of glowing all slightish. Is that enough? And must I check every basket? It seems awful much."
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Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 10:03 am
"Nice pun," Sevya replied with a grin. "And this isn't hard - it just comes with practice. And believe you me, I've had practice."
Flipping open her shoulder basket, she pulled out one of the glows she replaced. "It's really just a matter of instinct. Look." She held up the faintly glowing thing. " They don't last all that many sevendays, and they start to fade when they're exposed to air - s'why we open and close 'em."
The harper jerked a finger at the glowbaskets on the wall as they wandered further down the hall to the next sconce. "It's all dependent on where they are in the Weyr, really," she went on. " Ones in the dining cavern get replaced more often because they dim faster - people flipping 'em open all the time. Mind watching the ladder for me? Just a sec - that bit of stone is uneven."
She flipped the ladder against the wall once more and climbed up to open nother basket, wobbling slightly on the frame as she got midway.
"I've seen some there that last for a sevenday, maybe two if they're lucky," Sevya went on, as she worked. "Down this hall - well, there's less use, so they last longer.
Buuuuuut, sometimes it's just better to replace 'em and not risk someone breaking their neck after they go dark on 'em. Basically, if you think it looks dim to you, go ahead and replace it. Headwoman won't mind, there's more of 'em where that came from.
"You're new to the weyr, you said?" she asked, as she finished the brief task and jumped down. "Name's Sevya. Born and raised here in the crazy confines, but just walked the Harper tables and came back home. And you?"
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Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 6:04 pm
Pun? Had she made a pun? Adriaetta was relatively certainly she'd never done such a thing in her life. It certainly didn't sound like her style. But as the other candidate seemed pleased with the idea that she had, perhaps it wasn't the best of ideas to correct her.
When Sevya began to explain the proper care and upkeep of glows, sounding for all the world like one of the harpers back home at lesson time, Adriaetta found herself quickly becoming distracted. There were, after all, other things to think about. Like how dreadful she looked in this foolish candidate's uniform. And how silly this whole glow changing job was. If they had experts like Sevya to do it, surely they didn't need her? It only made sense to have everyone do what they were best at.
Adriaetta was best at dressing well and providing amusing conversation. Yet not once had that appeared on her list of chores.
Still, she followed along, trying to appear interested, and watching the ladder when instructed to do so. But it was only when the conversation turned back to her that she found herself once again attentive. "Oh, yes. I've been here a sevenday or so. My father is--" but, no. Around here no one knew who her father was. "Well, nevermind that. I'm Adriaetta. I am new here. And all these Weyr chores frankly feel a bit much. It isn't as if dragonriders go about changing glows and scrubbing tables!" A toss of her ringlets, which were, tragically, not quite as perfect as they might be. "I'm sure it's fine for some people. But a harper like you? A woman like me? It seems there might be more... effective management, that's all I'm saying. I've half a mind to talk to the Weyrwoman about it."
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