New Directions [Raebeli]

[Ruby]

She'd dropped her bag on an empty bunk, eyed the clean, standard-issue clothes in her trunk (a fitted shirt, skirt, and tight girls pants, ugh) and headed out to the storerooms. When she asked for a new set of boy's standard-issue clothing in her size, the headwoman took one look at her and handed a new set over. "You're a tall lad, didn't fit the standard issue, eh?" the portly woman had asked, holding up a pair of pants to make sure they were long enough. "Just leave the originals folded - Neatly, now! - on your bed, I'll have someone pick them up. These should do!" With that, Caden had returned to the candidate barracks only long enough to change out of her smelly, travel-stained attire before finding out how to get to the infirmary. S'rei had asked her to see a mindhealer, so she would see a mindhealer. Now.

"S'rei sent me for Raebeli," she told the apprentice at the front desk, totally unashamed. Screenings were standard, if often overlooked, for Candidates in the North; she was a Candidate, she needed to be screened. She might have problems, but she was distinctly sure that she wasn't crazy. She stood 'at ease' in the waiting room, shooting a disdainful look at the available chairs. Raebeli wouldn't make her wait long if she knew how to do her job.

By now, the Mindhealer would certainly have recieved something from the Weyrleader, giving an overview of Caden's many issues as he knew of them: Dragonless, ex-Bendener, some possible from of confusion or delusion concerning her gender. Still, Caden was sure she could convince Raebeli that she was fit to stand, although she never put much stock in the touchy-feely talk women got into if you asked about their feelings. She could get around it.

[Lotty]

S'rei was such a fun man, always entertaining her constant need for new specimens by throwing the odd balls and newbies to the south her way. She would be sure to thank him some how, some day, but until then she would take great pleasure in screening all of the candidates she could get her hands on and it really was for the best that the whole mental part of the process was becoming a bit more mandatory, after a rash of very weird candidates including the sweet if not a bit broken Meagen, it was obvious that some standards needed to be met. Besides if a dragon wants a person they tended to go for that person without much regards as to whether they were wearing robes or not, so in no way did the Mindhealer think of herself as too much of an obstacle to Impression.

This one was going to be extra fun, she just knew, what with all of those hang ups that the Bendenites had and she had something of a gender bender thing going on (she could be friends with Merridan, Rae joking mused to herself) and then best of all she was dragonless. Now that was just about the woman's very favorite subject of them all, and perhaps if she could worm her way into something of a friendship with the woman, then she could case study the whole quest to re-Impression. Oh, the wheels were most definitely turning in her head; cue a giddy and nearly evil chuckle out of the woman as she rounded a corner in the infirmary.

Caden had been spotted. Faranth save her soul, because the woman made a beeline, stepping up to the desk and in front of the apprentice who had barely even a chance to bat an eye. The message to the secretary was clear: shut it, its finally my time to shine. A quip Raebeli would never actually say out loud though and reserved only for subtle non-verbal cues. She smiled and stuck out a hand for a shake all the while running her mouth with introduction in her "chirpy" manner as E'rro would say, "I'm Raebeli...you can call me Rae though. It's so nice to meat you, I presume you are Caden?" She was also presuming that Caden was a...girl? That was what she was told right?

[Ruby]

Caden's eyes flicked in Raebeli's direction when Caden heard the giggle (she didn't miss much, really), but the small woman was immediately dismissed. A foolish apprentice or some such, with a laugh like that. The Candidate glanced around, looking for an older, motherly figure, or at least a capable-looking 30-something, but no. It was the diminutive woman Caden had overlooked who slid in behind the desk, chattering away in a way that made Caden want to stick a hand over her mouth. So many wasted words. Weren't Mindhealers supposed to ask questions and then shut up?

With a stiff, too-firm pump of Raebeli's offered hand, Caden released it, then fixed her eyes over the Mindhealer's shoulder and answered, not bothering to force her voice as low as she usually did. "Candidate Caden, yes." Not exactly verbose, this one. Her eyes flicked back the way Raebeli had come, expecting to be marched off that direction. Of course, she'd follow Raebeli wherever she went until dismissed, but as much as Caden wanted this over with now, she wouldn't be rude about it. Passive-aggressively difficult, maybe, but never rude.

[Lotty]

Sadly enough, the twenty something, chipper, bohemian-type was the weyr's very own mindhealer opposed to the old motherly woman that everyone stepped into the infirmary expecting. Rae didn't exactly understand herself, why did was such a "bad thing" anyway. She had to be much more preferable to the old, balding, spectacled men that had trained her in the hall. What with their goofy insistence on petting their own beards while humming this and that in response to answers...no that was not her. As much as she might love ink blots, phrenology, and hypnotism, she at very least could strive to be something more friendly and so in the face of even Caden's dismissive attitude she was going to keep on going on her merry way. Perseverance was the name of the game.

Pulling back her hand - and very quietly and secretively rubbing the life back into it after being strangled by the candidate's kung fu grip - she sort of bounced her way back towards the tail end of the infirmary where Caden correctly guessed they would be going back to. Raebeli would never call it an office, that little area she had re-appropriated for herself, but it would suffice, and was private enough since very few in the Weyr ever really wanted to get too close to where Cap'n stayed perched. The bird was hardly violent, but with a sharp beak and an equally impressive set of talons, people tended to keep their distance.

"Do you want to sit down?" The woman offered as she dug around for some note taking supplies, "I don't have a whole lot of questions for you, but it would be more comfortable I think..but oh wait..." she - with her writing tools in hand - sat down before continuing, "Do you have any questions for me before I begin? A lot of people wonder why they have to do this and think its silly, and it is certainly sort of new, but in light of some very eccentric weyrlings, it is probably for the best..."

[Ruby]

Cap'n was given a cursory glance as they passed, Caden merely wondering why anyone would allow a bird in an infirmary. This part was different, she supposed - no patients, so to speak, at least not the kind that stayed too long. Fine then, she wasn't about to complain. The infirmary was equally ignored, but that was for it's similarity to Benden's. Slightly different set up, but the same general idea. Lots of white. Not a good choice if you needed to hide out and were wearing dark clothing... but that was beside the point.

Caden smoothly took her seat when Raebeli offered it, perching far out on the edge with her feet planted wide, back ramrod straight. 'More comfortable' wasn't the phrase that sprang to mind. In fact, she looked more ready to spring onto a waiting dragon and flame enemies out of the air than to answer a few simple questions. Even her simple shirt and trousers suddenly had the look of flying leathers. Even then, though, she kept perfectly still, eyes tracking Rae's pen.

Suddenly, Caden realized the chatty mindhealer had trailed off, and was waiting for an answer to her question. The pause had stretched on towards awkward before Caden recalled what had been asked and snapped out an answer. "No," miss? ma'am? "Mindhealer," was what Caden settled on. And then, only because she was a little thrown off by the awkward start of the conversation, Caden continued, "No questions. I was a candidate at Benden; mental screening was standard." With the slightest furrow of her brow, she couldn't help but add, "Eccentric weyrlings?" She certainly wasn't going to stick around here if the Riders were... eccentric. Caden didn't like that word.

[Lotty]

Eccentric weyrlings was the nice way of putting it, but even with all of their oddities, Raebeli was not in the least bit phased by them, instead commenting on Caden's remark without even looking up from her hides, "Oh yes well, it might be the dragons who are aiding in their erm personality traits..." she paused to look up briefly before again slipping through the folder to find the personality test she was looking for. There were so many versions throughout the turns, and more coming out of the hall all the time, but unfortunately she only had the last one from before she left for Selenitas. Anyway, "there is the boy who is bonded to the green-blue dragon. As in, it's half blue and half green. Nice enough, but a little conflicted..."

And she stopped right there, no specifics could be gone into lest she be revealing everyone's little secrets and she never meant to do such a thing, "I think you will come to see that Selenitas is filled with unique individuals," a very neutral sort of way of wrapping up the subject before moving on to the little questionnaire. They needed to get on with things after all, because all things considered it could take a while, even with the mindhealer taking care to cut out all of the extraneous questions.

Luckily, she was shameless even if what she was postulating would cause the average woman to blush. Rae jumped right into it all with nothing more than a quick explanation. Would it need anymore? She understood that tests were standard after all, "These are just some true or false statements for you to reply to as I read down this list, when I'm all done I'm going to tally it up and compare it to a rubric we have developed back in Fort so I might not have it done today, but..." she smiled, "usually I can give you a yes or no for standing by the end of the test. I won't give you the official answers unless yo ask for them...."

Time to start from the top then. Sure enough these were simple and easy, "I have a healthy appetite. I wake up fresh and rested in the morning. I think I would like the work of an archivist...." and then as she went down the line they got a little more humorous, "I am very seldom troubled by constipation. My sex life is very satisfactory."

[Ruby]

Odd dragons? Caden made do with a noncommital "Hmm," making a point to file that information away for later. She'd have to make a point of meeting some of these Selenitas dragons, just to see what she was getting herself into. Benden had had its share of mutations in Caden's time, although Smath had had nothing but his shiny white patches, but strange personalities? And a blue-green dragon? "I see the why," Caden mused, not even remotely seeing the connection between a blue-green dragon and herself. She didn't expect an answer, really; a fairly out of character reaction for someone as spare with her words as Caden. She rarely spoke for no reason, but somehow, Raebeli had managed to calm her enough to get her mouth working.

Then again, it still looked like she might bolt at any second.

Nothing in Caden's stance changed as Raebeli introduced the test, she simply nodded at each of the Mindhealer's explainations. No doubt this would be slightly different than the test she'd originally taken, given that she'd been 12 before, but certainly in the same vein. "A yes or no will suffice," she answered Raebeli's unasked question, resisting the urge to gesture the Mindhealer to get on with it. It's not like Caden had nothing else to do today. Instead, she curled her hands into fists. It was nearly impossible to look more prepared.

The questions were simple enough, straightforward and obviously Candidacy-related, at least in the beginning. 'I have a healthy appetite' "True," 'I wake up fresh and rested in the morning' "True," 'I think I would enjoy the work of an Archivist,' "False," and on and on. "True, false, true, false, false, false..." It was fairly clear that Caden had not only done this before, but had lived as a successful dragonrider for a few turns. Nothing was particularly difficult, and she answered truthfully, although some of her responses were certainly atypical for a female. 'I think that, in some situations, violence is an acceptable form of problem solving', for instance, got a resounding "True". The test felt like it was winding up with 'I am very seldom troubled by constipation' ("True"), and yes, that sounded final. Except... 'My sex life is very satisfactory'. There, Caden hesitated, just for a split second, as she totted that up in her head. She'd never had sex, but then again, she'd never been interested. The girls were floozies, uninteresting to a T, and the men were, well, men. That was where her attractions lay, but what would a boy want with another boy, who was actually a girl? It wasn't something she thought a lot about. She'd simply never had that drive. So... "True?"