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Conomor smiled and nodded. "Yes, you're in no danger. Queens doesn't especially like you looking at their eggs but they're mostly used to it and put up with it so long as you're quiet and don't hang around for too long. If she starts getting too annoyed with you, she'll let you know quite noisily. Generally though it's easy to tell when she's getting agitated and leave before she feels the need to shout." He'd been roared at once or twice over the turns, and always had the sense to beat a hasty retreat after the warning. He doubted that a queen would actually try to injure someone for peeking even if they didn't leave, but trouble would come from the weyrwoman for disturbing her mount.

"As to hanging around the big eggs," Conomor shrugged, "it does seem foolish to me but people do it. There are quite a lot of boys who would prefer a bronze above anything else, and a few who think that no other colour would do for them. Of course," he chuckled softly, "they change their tune swiftly enough if another colour dragon chooses them. Up until the moment of Impression though, there are plenty who'll focus all their energy on a bronze, or what they think might be a bronze to the exclusion of everything else. I suppose if they're so fixated on getting the 'right' colour, their minds will be less open to any feelings they might get from the eggs." He could name several Candidates already who would try to behave that way to a greater of lesser degree.

"Of course," he added thoughtfully, "the ones after a bronze might not even bother to touch the smaller eggs, or might only brush them for a moment for the look of it. I've never actually seen a Touching so I only know what I've been told secondhand, but I've been told time and time again that the most ambitious boys only care about the bigger eggs."

A wide grin spread across the young smith's features in reference to the boy's who's tune abruptly changed upon impressing a color other then the one they 'wanted.' He could think of a few older journeyman and holderboys who would have fallen under that category. However, he still didn't quite grasp why a bronze dragon was so sought after. To his limited knowledge, brown dragons and their riders could assume leadership positions, and male dragonriders of any color (except perhaps green) were sought after as bedmates among the female holders and women of the Weyr. Were boys really so caught up in the 'metallic' appeal of a bronze hide to seek it at all costs?

"Honestly Ennrik, I just want to Impress the right dragon... though I sincerely hope fate doesn't decide that I ride a green." He said, tensing a little. "Nothing against greens, I like them fine in their own right." Just not for me. Was the unspoken addition. He didn't have anything against green dragons, he just knew that he did not swing the same way most male greenriders did. Were he a woman, he might have sung a different tune, as he could appreciate the lithe grace and speed of the smaller dragons but... well.. he wasn't a woman.

Ennrik had been forced to hold back the bark of laughter and Ghilani's expressed desire not to Impress a green. He'd heard rumors about those who rode greens, the men anyway, but he'd never had any proof offered either way because he didn't know any greenriders personally or generally. He settled for a grin which only intensified when Conomor echoed Ghilani's words about greens. Clearly there was an element of truth in the rumors, because Conomor seemed to have confirmed it. And very tactfully at that. The young man might have the makings of a Harper if he could always be so effortlessly unoffensive. Though Ennrik doubted Conomor wanted any life outside of the Weyr.

"That seems to be the concensus; any dragon is better than none. I admit I'd be the most surprised person on the Sands if I Impressed a green, and have to do some real self-examination, but I wouldn't mind flying on something so quick and agile. Maybe a blue?"

He had nothing against the metallics or browns, but he couldn't imagine that they were nearly as agile as he would want flight to be. Not that he had dealt well with flight the last time he'd been on a dragon, and it had been a blue, too, but he assumed he would eventually grow accustomed to flight in general if he Impressed, and if he was going to fly, he wanted to be able to go fast.

"I think I'd like to Impress a dragon who's clever and appreciates music," he said finally. He didn't think any other kind of dragon would be drawn to him, anyway. He was charismatic enough when it came to people, but dragon's didn't share human senses of humor, did they?

"I suppose everyone thinks his or her dragon is the best, though, and the smartest and the fastest, so I suppose that's a relative term." He grinned and shrugged. He didn't think he'd be Impressing anyway. Not with so many weyrbrats on the Sands. Not with so many choices.

Conomor chuckled and nodded. "Yes, we can go down to the dining hall after you drop your things off if you want. Frankly I could do with something to eat myself; it's been a long day of hard chores for me." As they rounded another corner, Conomor gestured to an entryway at the end of the corridor. "This is the boys' dormitory here," he said to Ghilani as they approached. "It's not the most comfortable place ever, but at least you get your own bunk and a chest for your things." This was what he said to himself every time he made it as far as the Candidate dorms. Could be worse. Still, his private little alcove in his mother's quarters was much nicer.

"Wouldn't worry about doing greens down," he went on with a smile, "I know what you mean. If a green chose me I would be very... confused. Happy no doubt, but also confused." He knew very well that his interests did not lie with other men, and having been raised within the ever-accepting environment of a Weyr he didn't even need to worry that he really did but was fooling himself out of fear of what people might think.

"Well, here we are," Conomor said as he stepped inside the dormitory. "Any of the bunks that have an open chest beside them are free, you can pretty much take your pick. My bed's down there," he gestured off the the right, "I'm just going to get myself a clean shirt, back with you in a moment."

Following docilely enough behind Conomor, Ghilani took careful note of the Barracks exact location, also noting with a bit of curiosity that there were a quite a few empty bunks at the moment when he entered. Putting aside that question for later, he weighed his available options and chose a bunk rather close to the door. He knew himself well enough, and his habit of sleeping through Master's bellows had only been cured by a strategic position at the door to every room he had ever had. Between the door slamming, the bellow itself, and the door slamming again, there was no way for his mind to compensate enough in dream state to allow him to go on sleeping.

Slinging the satchel up on his cot of choice, he closed the lid of the chest to signal to any others that this cot was taken, and turned to locate Ennrik and Conomor. Admittedly, he was a little surprised to see Ennrik's position in the room, for some reason he would have thought the other older boy would have chosen somewhere in the back, though he wasn't sure where he had gotten that assumption from. That, and his trained Smith's eyes noticed, with a mild twitch, how untidy the underside of his cot was.

Politely averting his gaze before Ennrik noticed, Ghilani studied the rest of the barracks while he waited for Conomor to return.

Ennrik watched as Ghilani chose where he would sleep without much interest. He had already conducted a thorough investigation of the dormitory, and determined that they held little interest for him unless he was going to go against his personal inclinations and start going through others' things. Which he would not do. He valued his own privacy greatly, and tried to respect others' privacy similarly. It wasn't easy in a dormitory setting, but he'd lived in a dormitory for much of his life at this point, and had learned to compensate. Mostly by vanishing on a regular basis. He'd probably fall back into that habit once he found some places to vanish to.

Ennrik cocked his head to one side as he heard a decidedly inhuman sound from the general area of Conomor's cot. When Conomor returned to them with a gold firelizard on his shoulder he was hard-put not to stare at the little beauty. He had never had the opportunity to see a firelizard so close before, and for the first firelizard he saw to be a queen seemed like a stroke of good luck. She was definitely the most graceful, attractive thing he had ever laid eyes on. He didn't begrudge the Weyr-native the firelizard, but if asked, he would have willingly admitted to envying Conomor the gold, but he was succeeding fairly well at keeping it from his expression. Awe came just as easily, and was a more acceptable reaction.

"She's magnificent," he said truthfully. "You are very fortunate."

A smaller, more practical part of his brain that wasn't completely smitten with the flit reasoned that a firelizard might potentially explore where a human couldn't or wouldn't, and that he should make certain his guitar was secure in its case, and that its case was placed so as not to interest the little queen. He doubted firelizards had the same destructive tendencies as the vermin that plagued Pern, but he didn't want to risk it. Years of Harper training eventually overwhelmed the firelizard's effect on him and reminded him that he'd had a purpose when he set out exploring that morning, and he'd not yet fulfilled it: he was looking for a place to practice where he wouldn't be heard.

"I don't think I'll join the two of you for lunch. I should really work on organizing the clutter around my cot before someone authoritative decides to take an interest. I am glad to have met both of you, though."

Conomor smiled at the praise to his flit and reached up to stroke her. Seemed Nathail was right; people did pay attention to her. "Thanks," he said with a nod, "I was very lucky to get her... Yes," he added, turning to Ennrik, "some other time; we'd must all get to know one another given we could end up as wingmates pretty soon."

Perhaps it would be better not to make solid friendships until the Impression was over. It might be logical to do that, so that you associated either with other new weyrlings, or with other people who would have to try again next clutch but in this instance he wasn't too interested in logic. Nothing wrong with having friends within the other group, even if it might sting his pride to be friends with someone who had succeeded where he had failed. He had a few rider friends already, it should be no different just because he was going to stand for this hatching.