What Good's an Empty Common Room? (Open)

[Requiem]

Armind looked very much like he'd had the wind taken right out of his sails. The small boy was sitting on the couch in the common room of the candidates' barracks, his small face screwed up into a very thoughtful expression. In fact, he was frowning so hard it looked like his face might just break in half under that sort of intensity.

Northern though he was, the boy wasn't used to seeing death. Granted, Keroon did have capital punishment. But that was a little different and it was something he'd never attended anyway. Beatings and even the removal of hands or...other...offensive organs when crimes were committed didn't have quite the effect of slaying the baby dragons. Hearing the keens. Seeing the pain of the people who'd just Impressed.

People who could have been him.

He was torn between disappointment at no dragon coming to him and very real relief that he hadn't Impressed to any of the slain hatchlings. Either way, these things were not things his young mind was used to dealing with. He was just a bit depressed. In all honesty. It didn't help that there were so few others in the barracks now, making it feel rather large, empty and lonely. He wrapped his arms about his knees.

[InsaneWhitey28]

Gray and gold eyes fluttered open, staring at the dining hall wall opposite them. They hadn’t found their targets that day at all sadly, though the night before had found some very wonderful twists and turns in the Weyr hallways. The owner of the eyes turned her head slightly, eyes glittering dangerously as the flitted about the hall, she had lingered there long enough hoping for those hated riders to wonder in. Alas, none of them had and the staff was starting to get vaguely annoyed with her presence, she had finished her breakfast nearly a candlemark ago and had been working on a mug of khal. It didn’t bother her much that she had to leave, after all if none of them was going to show she had no reason to be there. Disgusted with the fact that she had wasted nearly a candlemark and a half sitting there, the words floating into her ears hardly worth keeping unless she wanted to gossip, the teen stood, tray in hand and handed it to a suddenly very attentive drudge. She wouldn’t be able to linger for a while yet.

Unless of course she was friendly. Sighing faintly, the tall girl made her way into the hallways, her braided mahogany hair pulled to lay over her shoulder. It was an odd style for her, one she didn’t use often unless she was planning on putting the mass of hair in a bun. Today instead of having her normal ribboned and braided strands of hair outlining her face, she had braided her whole mass of hair, adding different colored ribbons here and there for it to look like it was shimmering with color. The strands of hair still outlined her face of course, just no decoration. Today she wore simply candidate apparel, as was custom, but she wore the new colors on her arm grudgingly. The hate and fury were still in her chest, but they had to be hidden down, carefully controlled and cultivated so she didn’t do anything rash and in their absence a deep sadness ached through her soul, causing her to think of the dragonets dying on the Sands the day before. Why hadn’t she done anything, she had watched a fellow candidate, newly Impressed, die right in front of her, the other girl’s throat slit open even as her dragonet disappeared between.

Why!?

The question screamed through her whole being, having woken her from a fit of feverish dreams the night before crying in rage and sorrow. Why did they have to do that? Just so they could win their Sharding wars! Selenitas had been a safe haven before they came and if they had never come the dragonets would still be alive, the other girl still alive and the newly Impressed waking to the joy of their dear new partners. But fate was so cruel, bringing the Wastelanders here, bringing their war with them. Pain sliced through her for the now dragonless, candidates once more probably never to ReImpress and filled with a void for the ones they had known mere seconds.

I could have been one of them… she thought to herself, welcoming the thought once more with a sad smile, surprised to find wetness on her cheeks. Lifting a hand up, she quickly wiped the unexpected tears away, resolving to keep her face blank even if her eyes gave her heart away. The thought that she could have very well been the one dead instead of the other sent chills through her body, a sickening relief and happiness coursing through her body at the thought that she hadn’t been, but then she asked herself: Would she trade places? If she knew the future, and had a chance to trade places, she might’ve, just to stop the pain of another, but it was useless to think like that. Now all she could do was keep their memory alive within her, and pay the Wastelanders back tenfold for the pain they’ve caused.

Surfacing from her thoughts, the teen found herself at the barracks, and opened the door to the common room and quickly slipped inside, shutting the door softly behind her. When she turned, she found herself staring at the form of Armind, his arms wrapped around his knees as he sat on the couch. A frown deformed his features, its intensity so great that the girl actually feared that his face might crack. Blinking, a small frown tipping the corner of her lips only slightly, she walked forward wondering how the whole thing was affecting him. Badly probably by the look on his face, but then she didn’t know his past or where he came from. He could very well be from the North, but that wouldn’t change the fact that he’s a distressed twelve-Turn-old very much reminding her of her younger sibling Lupu, causing her own worry to well up inside of her, eyebrows creasing as she sat next to him, wondering if he’d notice her.

“Armind.” She stated softly, her voice light as she kept signs of her own sadness and distress away, only concern filling her features and the sound coming from her lips, “You okay?”

[Requiem]

The child didn't even see her come in. He started slightly when the girl spoke. There was a questioning look to his dark eyes as he turned them upon her that made it clear the boy hadn't really heard her question. He wrinkled his nose up petulantly. "Don't girlify me," Armind demanded. The boy scrunched back a little. (He was probably already doomed to cootie-induced girlification, but on the off-chance that he'd escaped he didn't want to risk it.)

An accusatory gleam had entered his eyes. "So you didn't run away, after all." Some of them had. He assumed they'd just run away, anyway, and nothing worse had happened to them. Even the new weyrlings and the hurt candidates couldn't account for all the empty beds. (Someone should probably tell Armind to stop invading the girls' barracks. Even the threat of cooties hand't kept him from checking for hiding candidates.)

Tighting the grip on his knees, Armind shivered slightly even though it wasn't very cold. "Rose?" The bratty tone had left his voice, leaving behind that of a scared little boy. "That's not normal, is it? I don't...what if the dragon that I Impress is like them? Maybe we should run away, too." He didn't need anyone to tell him how much it hurt to have their dragons killed; he'd seen it on their faces.

Apparently he'd forgotten his fear of cooties. Or maybe he'd never really believed it all that much since the boys he knew didn't seem to spontaneously mutate. Whatever the reason, Armind snuggled closer to Roseanna. He had been feeling so lonely. It wasn't easy being among near strangers, dealing with all the deaths while the few people he did know had either Impressed or disappeared.

[InsaneWhitey28]

As the younger’s dark eyes turned upon her, Rosanna gave a mental sigh as the questioning look made it clear he hadn’t really heard any of the three words she said… except maybe his name. The wrinkling of the nose warned Rosa to the boy’s first words to her, and she wasn’t disappointed as he demanded she didn’t girlify him and scrunched back a bit. She had thought twelve-Turn-old girls were strange(Lupu), but boys? How in the world would she girlify him? A slight roll of her eyes was the response, a gusty breath of air blowing out her nose in a sigh. Well, at least his priorities hadn’t changed.

Though she couldn’t help but let her fingers twitch a bit as the accusatory gleam entered his eyes, his words striking the resting fury inside her more forcefully than he probably meant. The Fury rose hissing, and the teen’s gray eyes flashed slightly before she managed to sooth her rather loose temper back down. Twelve-Turn-olds will be twelve-Turn-olds, she had had to learn that with Lupu and the other brats back at the Hold, too bad there was never a moment of silence. There was always at least one of two of them around, even if she wouldn’t admit she was saddened when they grew distant from their games and her, she had grown fond without meaning to. But getting back to the matter at hand, no she hadn’t run away, in fact she had been rather irritated by the fact that some had. But she couldn’t blame them she supposed, staying at a once safe Weyr turned savage where you didn’t know if it be your dragon or friend they killed next.

A soft sigh left her lips as she turning away, gazing about the empty common room, noticing the open doors left carelessly ajar as candidates made their escape back home. But why bother? They couldn’t escape the war back home now could they? So why bother? They’d die eventually. A bitter smile swept across her face before the scared tone of Armind’s brought her back to him and out of her mind, his frightened condition causing her to let the ‘Rose’ version of he name slide, it wasn’t that far away from ‘Rosa’ anyway. Her eyebrows creased in concern and sympathy, her arm moving around the boy’s shoulders as he snuggled closer.

“No, Armind it isn’t normal.” Rosa stated gently, leaning her head down to look at him. The dragon he Impressed… it wasn’t a thought she had considered herself as of late, with how filled her thoughts were on making the five riders live living hell(Her against five riders… She better hope to not get caught and to keep Armind out of it), it was understandable. Giving Armind’s shoulder a slight squeeze, she smiled kindly, though her brows furrowed with faint sadness and continued, “And if it is? No matter whether you run away or stay, if the dragon is meant for you then it will between with your absence even if is fated for a death minutes later. If you stay, and the dragon that chooses you is in fact like the others, then I will promise you this: I will protect both of you from the Wastelanders.”

Rosanna smiled at Armind, a warm comforting smile with none of her earlier bitterness or sadness, and pulled him into a hug. She was growing fond again, but perhaps that wasn’t so bad, she had been so selfish all her life apart from Lupu, this may refine her in a way. Growing fond. How many more would she grow fond of, unwilling to see them die? Faintly troubled by the pang in her chest at the thought of her little companion being torn apart inside by the lose of his future dragon, possibly now if he chose to run and in the future, Rosa turned her mind elsewhere with a lightly humored comment, “Besides, I’ll doubt Millieth will let them back on her Sands anytime soon, I doubt a dragons memory is that short.”

[Requiem]

Armind really wasn't quite so young as to not realize it when people were saying things to be comforting. He also knew that often they would...soften...the truth in such instances. It made what Roseanna said right then highly suspect, but he didn't really mind at this time. Her arm around his shoulders and the reassuring words were helping to calm his nerves. He'd take that for now.

Then she started into the real truth. (Armind knew that Roseanna probably knew as much about what was normal for a hatching as he did. Caden was the one to ask. If (s)he wasn't still mad at the boy for touching her girl lumps.) He swallowed at the thought of the dragon meant for him going the way of that poor blue.

Her next statement caught his attention. Armind's eyes rose up to fix on the older girl's face with a questioning that wasn't (quite) doubt. Did she mean that? Could she do anything to protect him? He wasn't sure, but since he wanted to believe her, the child took her at her word. He let Roseanna pull him into a hug, sliding an arm around her waist and just resting there, his eyes on the wall across from them.

"She seemed really angry," was his only observation. Armind still sounded a bit shaken, though it had been days. He hadn't seen dragons up close like that other than the one that Searched him, and Millieth was so huge. Seeing the fight right in front of him, nearly being trampled by her..."Maybe she really won't let any of the mean dragons come back," he agreed hopefully. "Even though she scares me more. I know she was afraid for her babies, but she would have killed us if we hadn't moved."

Perhaps he really was just a little too sheltered, despite his northern upbringing. "Do you want to be a dragonrider? My uncle hates them. He hated me, too, so I thought I might as well give him a reason." It really was that shallow, his agreement to go with the Searchrider. "I think that might be a stupid reason to want to be a dragonrider."

[InsaneWhitey28]

Rosanna raised an eyebrow at the question in Armind's eyes as he looked at her, but she couldn't really fault him for it even if her expression seemed to say it, it was an expression she was used to, the one that asked, Are you doubting me? Questioning me? But the arrogance in her own expression was covered over briefly by doubt before she masked it. Could she do that for the boy? Could she sacrifice her life to save his and his dragon? She could say it easily enough, certainly, but when the time came what would really she do? Keep her promise, or run? She wasn't sure herself, and feverishly hoped that she would never have to find out.

She noticed the smaller arm around her waist with a start, blinking slightly in surprise, she has not expected the boy to take to her hug, more like push her away. But his observation washed away her surprise in a bright moment of amusement and she let it color her words.

"Really angry? She was furious!" Rosa replied once Armind had finished, "I doubt she'll let those mean dragons or their riders back on the Sands for quite some Turns. They may hold sway over the Weyr but Milliath is a queen after all. A queen with every right to be feared and respected. She certainly would have killed had we'd not moved, and I believe I have you to thank you for that Armind, for pulling me out of the way of her charge."

Rosanna gave Armind a small squeeze of thanks, even as the boy began talking once more. His confession of why he wanted to be a dragonrider brought mixed feelings for her. Amusement, annoyance and, sadly, a little bit of disgust. She had never thought much of those who chose to become riders for such reasons, even vaguely annoyed by them, but with Armind's confession she had felt amusement. Why? Frowning slightly as she hesitated before she answered, not only to gather herself for her answer, but to think. She had felt this thought brush he mind many times before when confronting people who made their choice for the same reason as Armind did, but now she had to confront it. Thanks Armind.

She do the same in their situation. Just to vex someone, she'd go for no other reason than that if she hated them enough. Hated them like she did those five riders. But she was different, she chose for a different reason and never had the chance to vex someone. But... if she would do the same, why was she judging? Feeling slightly ashamed and yet defense, Rosanna answered after only a few seconds hesitation that for her seemed like minutes.

"Yes, I want to be a dragonrider. I love the dragons very much..." the last sentence she murmured was so quite that surely Armind only heard vibrations in the air? "The thing more stupid than something like that, is your uncle hating you for no reason. I can understand the riders. I would do the same, even if I don't like to admit it."

Pulling out of the hug, she held Armind at arm's distance to study him a moment, before grinning, "But no matter the reason I'm sure your uncle was furious when you left."

[Requiem]

Armind did turn his gaze away from her expression. Not because he felt bad or wrong about questioning her, but because...well, he didn't really believe her. Not really. He'd been told such things before, after all, by various people. People who were ever so earnest at the time but never seemed to be around when they were needed. Perhaps it was just how people were, making promises they couldn't - or wouldn't - keep to fit the moment. Rosanna might be different. Was it likely, though? No. She probably didn't believe she'd abandon him, though, so he tried not to let his doubt be too obvious.

The child bit his lip lightly. Yes, she'd been furious. And the dragons had been furious. But he didn't know that this really meant anything. "Didn't they kill dragons before?" he questioned softly. She hadn't stopped them then. She hadn't stopped them at the Hatching. The Queens didn't stop them on the northern continent, either. Maybe Queens weren't really all that powerful, in the end, even if they were scary. Armind didn't want to put his faith in something that wasn't likely to come through.

The child hadn't really thought about it. Maybe he had saved Rosanna. It wasn't to be nice, of course. She was a friend - as much as a girl could ever be a friend of his - and he didn't want to be alone. Or to look at her squished to jelly. That would be gross. But as he watched her face when he admitted his reason as to coming here, the girl's face shifted and he got the sinking feeling that she probably wouldn't like him much anymore. Why should that matter? Probably shouldn't. But he was alone, and even girls seemed like good company when you had no other.

Armind wasn't sure what she was talking about. "It wasn't really for no reason. But it wasn't a good one," he added, with just the slightest defiant lift to his chin. (Her ambiguous comment made him think...but no, she'd just said she loved them. He definitely thought he must not understand what she was trying to say.) A small smile crossed his lips. "Yes. I hope so." He thought he would have been. Though...maybe not. Maybe he wouldn't care at all.

The child shifted uneasily. "I didn't run," he added. Just because he wasn't feeling good at all about why he'd come here in the first place. "They ran, but I didn't. Might not have the best reason for coming here, but I stayed." Armind wasn't really sure what that meant, himself, but he knew that it was significant somehow. "You're going to stay, too?" he asked, a note of uncertainty entering his voice.