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 Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:44 am
In her turns as a candidate Sileny had learned that some chores were worse than others. The worst chore was cleaning latrines, but that tended to be a chore reserved for punishment. She earned herself punishments from time to time, but she hadn't had to do any latrine cleaning lately. The best chores were those which could be completely quickly and leave a person with spare time. Running errands came under that category. Somewhere in between came collecting laundry from the riders' weyrs, which was how Sileny was currently engaged.
"Excuse me," she called through the skin which served as a door to the weyr. She missed proper doors sometimes, like the ones on the cellars at the Hall, and never quite felt that a skin - no matter how heavy - provided any real kind of privacy.
"I'm here to take your sleeping furs and dirty clothes down to the laundry," she announced.
She didn't wait for any sort of indication that the rider within had heard. For all she knew, the rider wasn't within at all. It was daytime, after all, and he or she might be out practicing with their wing, or off attending to their dragon's needs. Apparently dragons had a great many needs, according to the candidate lessons Sil was required to attend.
The dark-haired candidate strode into the weyr and began removing the furs from the bed. She would bundle any dirty laundry she came across into the sleeping furs and carry the lot down to the laundry room to be dealt with by someone else. It would have been helpful if she knew whose weyr she was in, but she could just tell the women in the laundry where it was located and they'd see the cleaned articles were returned to their proper owners.
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 7:52 pm
"Find anything interesting there?" Keela remarked jokingly as she entered her weyr to see someone collecting her furs and dirty laundry pile. With her she carried her riding gear and saddle. Her green had decided to go for a swim, so it was only the rider returning to the weyr for the moment. "I would think you could find some better treasures than laundry." Ah, the days of Candidacy. How she did not miss them. A little light jesting never hurt anything though. Or so she assumed.
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 8:25 pm
Sileny looked up quickly, her face already forming its habitual scowl. Good humor was almost always wasted on this particular candidate, whose mood always seemed to be dark, no matter what. She didn't need a reason to be unpleasant. It just came naturally to her. In this case, she was scowling because she had been surprised, and Sil didn't much like to be surprised.
"Hardly," she replied in a tone which had occasionally been known to make lustful men wither and happy women wilt.
"I sincerely doubt that a thorough search of this weyr would turn up anything more interesting than some poorly penned poetry, or maybe some rotting remnants of a late-night snack." Now her tone was scornful and dripping with disgust. Clearly this candidate was not impressed or intimidated by dragonriders.
She recognized the dragonrider, even if she wasn't impressed by her. This one was said to have a dragon with a bad temper. Sileny had never interacted personally with either one, and so she hadn't really formed an opinion either way about the pair, but she decided in this instant that Keela was smug and condescending, and deserving of every bit of Sil's venom. People who made fun of candidates just because they'd been fortunate enough to find a dragon just frosted Sil, who sometimes doubted she would ever find a dragon.
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 8:40 pm
Oh joy. She was one of those people. "Well, aren't you just a pleasant little ray of sunshine," she replied, settling the riding saddle down in it's usual place before hanging up her riding gear. "Excuse me for having intruded on your little bubble of joy and cheer. Do carry on with your pleasantness and good humor."
Poorly penned poetry? What a pathetic excuse of an insult. Clearly she knew nothing of her at all. Although though Keela did not relish the thought of what a future dragon might be like who impressed to this little b***h.
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Posted: Mon Aug 09, 2010 9:00 pm
Sileny's scowl became a glower. Sarcasm, like good humor, was something she did not appreciate when it was directed at her. In fact, she tended to appreciate it even less than she did good humor. She could dismiss people who were needlessly jolly as idiots and didn't know any better, people she could set right. The sarcastic people of the world, however, thought they were clever. Sileny did not have the patience to deal with "clever" people, as they so rarely turned out to actually be as clever as they thought they were.
"Oh, thank you. I'm so glad I have your permission to do my job." Two could play the sarcasm game. For now her tone was still normal, though her sibilant sounds were beginning to take on a bit of a critical hiss.
She did, however, continue with what she was doing. In truth, the rider kept her weyr far better than many of the riders whose weyrs she'd had to invade briefly in her search for laundry, but Sil had already decided not to like this rider. She also wasn't sure she knew who this rider was after all. It wasn't as if she knew that many riders on a personal level. She didn't know very many people at all, really. Anyone else might have been lonely, but Sil didn't care.
"The poetry was a guess," Sil said with a shrug when she observed that she'd missed the mark. "Probably there isn't anything interesting at all, and certainly nothing to call treasure. Not that I'd bother to look."
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Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 10:24 am
"Pleasantness and good humor is your job, is it?" Keela replied with a faint smirk, amused by the thought. "Well then, you must tell me where you've received your training. Clearly you were the top of the class." The greenrider had had no intention originally of causing any sort of strife with the Candidate, instead having simply tried to make light conversation. Now she was practically begging for it though.
She chuckled at the remark on the poetry. "Valiant attempt. And I'm sorry if my weyr bores you so. Perhaps some of the others might be of more interest to you." Keela didn't particularly care if her weyr was insulted. It was mostly just a place for her and Taith to rest and sleep after all. The greenrider was never really one for baubbles and such-- although she did have a few nice pieces of clothing that were saved for when the occasion called for it. She may have hated her tailor apprenticeship with a passion, but annoyingly enough the skill did come in handy every now and then.
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Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 10:51 am
Sileny's glower faded into an expression of frank astonishment. Before she could stop herself - if she had been inclined to stop herself, which she wasn't - she exclaimed, "You must have been dropped on your head several times as a child. I didn't realize they allowed people with mental deficiencies to Stand, let alone Impress."
She continued her job - her actual job - of collecting laundry. It wasn't too difficult, particularly once she'd stripped the rider's bed, which allowed her to simply dump everything else atop the furs.
"Hardly matters if your weyr's boring. This is my job. At least for today," she said, gesturing toward the modest heap of tangled fabrics. "Making sure you riders have as much time as possible to spend with your dragons."
She didn't actually begrudge the riders the time with their dragons, assuming it was something like marriage, where the partners had to spend a certain amount of time together, or else fights arose. Such had been her only real experience of life pairings, and that had only been with foster parents. Her memories of her true parents were faint at this point in her life.
"Have I missed anything?" she asked. Candidates were told that they were not to go digging for laundry. Only pick up that which was visible and in the open. Anything more would be an invasion of privacy.
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Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 11:57 am
Hehe, looked like she had successfully gotten a rise out of the girl. It was a rather unexpected exclamation, but it was an amusing one nonetheless. Especially with the expression that had preceded it. "I suppose you learn something new every day then," she replied with a smile, still quite amused by this dark cloud of a person. This was too easy.
"Nope, that should be everything," Keela replied, glancing about briefly to see if there was anything else that needed to go. "Hopefully you'll be able to get in a bit a free-time today." Some chores weren't as time-consuming as others. She didn't even know why was even bothering trying to empathize with this girl, for it was most certainly useless. Still, she did remember quite well what things were like as a Candidate, so she spoke in spite of herself.
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Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 6:37 pm
Sil's astonishment remained. She had very little experience with people who didn't seem to take offense at her sharp, critical tongue, and she wasn't sure what to make of this dragonrider. Initially she had thought it was smugness and sarcasm, and then she had wondered if it was stupidity. Now she really wasn't sure what it was about the rider. It still seemed possible that she was mentally deficient, but there was something else to it. Maybe it was a mixture of all those things.
"So it would seem," she said in response. She didn't know what else she could say. At least not until she opened her mouth again and more words came out. "You probably ride one of those queer atypical dragons, don't you? I imagine those oddities aren't as picky about their humans."
Sileny had never seen an atypical dragon at Benden Weyr, but she was nearly positive that there weren't any to be seen. Nevertheless, the words slid out of her mouth, and once they were spoken, they couldn't be taken back. Sil wouldn't have tried. She lived her life with no regrets.
She shook her head, her well-pinned bun showing no sign of being dislodged. She took great care each morning that everything about her appearance was perfect and neat, and did her best over the course of the day to keep herself as she had been upon waking.
"Thank you," she said insincerely as she moved to tie the bundle.
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Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 7:07 pm
Keela had to grin at Sil's speculation on her dragon. "Atypical? Hardly. I ride a very typical green." Which was without a doubt the most common color among dragons.
I take offense to that statement; On both accounts, Taith replied with a small rumble as she entered the weyr, eyes whirling in mild irritation. I am not a runt, nor am I your 'typical' green.
"Hello, Taith," Keela greeted with a smile, not responding to her dragon's irate remark. "Done with your swim already?" The green's hide was still wet, so she clearly hadn't taken any time to sun and dry herself.
Not entirely, she replied, faceted eyes turning onto the Candidate. But I wanted to see this 'moody' one you've been communicating with before she left. Taking no account for personal space, the green stuck her nose directly in Sileny's face, eyes now whirling with a mix of curiosity and contempt. Bespeaking her, she said, If you keep scowling like that your face will have lines.
"Taith, be nice. She's just doing her job," Keela said calmly, although she was rather curious as to how the other would react to her overbearing dragon. Greens may have been the smallest dragon size, but Taith was quite large for her color and very muscular to boot.
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Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 7:44 pm
"Ah," Sil said. Once again, she didn't have much else to say to the rider. There were insults she might have thrown out there, but her ire was receding. She was much too bemused by this whole encounter to respond with her usual venom.
Besides, the weyr had quite suddenly been filled by the arrival of a large green. Sil had been Searched by a bluerider while she was already at the Weyr, and so she'd had very little cause to be near dragons since then. In the between, she'd forgotten how large even the smallest dragons were when compared to humans. She wondered if maybe Taith might be a little larger than the average green.
She looked very, very large indeed when she shoved her snout in Sil's face. The candidate's first thought was that the dragon's breath was absolutely foul, which meant that those were also her first words, due to the lack of a mental filter.
"Your breath reeks," she told the green as she took a step back, more in an attempt to distance herself from the carnivorous breath than because she was intimidated by the beast's size.
"I thought dragons don't usually speak to people who aren't their bonds. Are you sure she's typical? That breath could kill people."
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Posted: Tue Aug 10, 2010 7:55 pm
Keela actually laughed, and even Taith appeared somewhat amused by the cheeky one. "Considering what she eats, did you expect her breath to be sweet and flowery?" she asked, highly amused. "Firestone doesn't help it much either."
Taith didn't care much about how her breath was, but she did wish to straighten up a few things concerning herself. I bespeak whomever I wish. And no, I am not 'typical'. I am far superior to the average green. She puffed herself up proudly at this, raising herself to her full height to display herself. No one bests me or Mine at anything. Well... there were times when they didn't come out as number 1, but her conveniently short memory helped filter such occasions out. As far as she was concerned, she and Hers were the best at pretty much anything.
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Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2010 6:42 pm
Sil actually grinned, startled by the greenrider's laughter. She didn't consider herself an unreasonable young woman, and unless she had actually been angered by a dragon, it wouldn't occur to her to take it to task for having the breath of a predator. Not seriously, anyway. It wouldn't stop her from making blunt observations, however. It just meant she made them without intending offense or hurt.
"No. I'm not surprised her breath stinks. I guess there's no way to clean her teeth and make sure there's nothing caught between them and rotting?"
Dental hygiene, like all other forms of personal hygiene, was something important to Sileny. She had once heard a story of a man whose teeth were so rotten that he couldn't tell the difference between a fine wine and rotgut liquor because of the generally foetid nature of his own breath. To an apprentice vintner, the idea was beyond foul. To not have a distinguished palate was one thing, but to be so filthy that one's own filth hindered something as simple as tasting...Ugh!
"I don't know many dragons," Sil said, addressing Taith as she tied off the bundle of furs and laundry. "But other than your size you look pretty much like any other green dragon to me."
This was also not meant as an inflammatory statement, but given that Sil did not know much about Taith's nature, she had no way of knowing how the dragon would take it. She didn't worry about it, though. Dragons didn't hurt humans. That was one of the first things candidates were taught.
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Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 5:29 am
"Her teeth are plenty clean," Keela replied with a dismissive wave of her hand. "Can't do much about the breath though." After all, firestone made for clean teeth and foul breath all in one.
Taith snorted at the girl's comment on being just like any other green. You haven't seen us in action. If you find Yours I will be glad to show you why we are the best. For there was no arguing that point in her mind. The poor human before her was simply too ignorant to be able to recognize the greatness before her.
"You won't be winning any argument against her," the rider replied with a smile. Not to say that she wasn't very much in agreement with her dragon, but that was another matter altogether really.
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Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2010 4:12 pm
"For a dragon, I suppose," Sileny allowed with a shrug. She didn't like to admit that she was wrong, but she didn't see this concession as admitting to being wrong. The dragon's breath still stank, which had been her original point, and the cleanliness of her mouth was not really under discussion.
"We'll see," Sileny said, and it was ambiguous whether she spoke to the human or the dragon in saying so. Quite possible she answered both at the same time.
"Anyway, I think this is everything. It'll be returned to you when it's done. You know the drill."
She hefted the bundle and moved to the hallway, this one task completed. Only hundreds and hundreds more to go until her future was decided once and for all. She wondered how long it would be until the next hatching, and hoped it wouldn't be too long. This sort of labor was not really the sort of thing to put her in a good mood and make her jump out of bed with eagerness to start her day.
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