The task of redefining (Kidem)

[Sebz]

The scrape of utensills against plates richocotted off the walls, a sound all to common in the dining hall at supper. Casandra didn't mind, the harsh noise was an escape for her; with it disrupting her thoughts, she wasn't able to think deeply. It had been a strange month for the candidate, one which had her riding a roller coaster of emotions. For the first time in her life, Casandra had come to realize that there was a minute chance that she was not the center of the universe, a realization which had shaken her drastically. This might seem petty for some, but for Casandra, her self-importance was her one and only defining feature. And if she was stripped of that...

To put it plainly, the candidate was in a rutt. She had lost her soft features after the accident at the latest hatching- scars now decerated her arms, shoulders, and torso. Because of this, she had lost her power to manipulate. Not to say that she was not pretty, but her beauty was much less captivating than before. Manipulating was about the only thing the girl had done. She could get any of the male candidates to do her chores for her and even had a few lower ranking riders wrapped around her pinky. They were her play things. Or at least they had been.

Now that the teenaged girl finally figured out that she was not the "hot stuff" she had thought herself to be, she was stranded. Most were releived that she had finally lost this childish notion, but for Casandra, it was devastating. For the first time, she found herself being, well, not compliant, but at least following the orders of her superiors with out to so much of a peep in protest. Hard labor, which really wasn't so hard, Casandra did herself, but she didn't complain. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Hopefully. And she needed strength.

What she yearned for was a purpose. Sighing, Casandra leaned against her arms and traced lines in the woods. She needed to redefine herself, but how could she do that? The task seemed impossible to Casandra, but she pursed her lips. She would find away.

[Ember]

The weyr was, in a word, weird. Part of it had to do with Kidem being from a Hold-slash-Crafthall he was sure but another part had to do with the types of people who happened to be at Selenitas. A very odd Wastelander-Southerner-Northerner mix that somehow did not tear the weyr apart. The Council idea was actually incredibly smart in that regard. Each group could maintain control without any one monopolizing too much power. That said, Kidem still wasn't sure he'd ever grow to love the place. Home would always be with Yua, his dolphin partner.

The Dolphineer-Candidate sighed under his breath as he picked up his food and turned to find a seat. Easier said than done since the weyr easily had like a hundred times the number of people at his dolphineer outpost. Eventually his keen, blue eyes noticed a seat across from a rather pretty girl. He didn't particularly need company but he might as well have the company of a pretty girl if he had to have it. better than that seat next to the rather creepy looking old guy anyways. So it was that Kidem found himself placing his plate and glass on the table across from Casandra.

His gaze flicked to her knots and, as he considered what to say, he stuck a forkful of mashed tubers in his mouth. When he finished his mouthful he had formulated a decent greeting. Clearing his throat briefly Kidem spoke, "Hello? Miss? I seem to have gotten the lucky seat in the house today." He figured from her looks that she was roughly four or five turns his junior but that mattered little for Kidem's purposes. He wasn't really a manipulative guy, didn't really bother with it unless he really needed to. Considering he knew no one at the weyr, convincing a fellow candidate that he was an okay guy - and really, he was more than okay - wasn't all that bad, was it?

"My name's Kidem, new here. I don't suppose a pretty lady such as yourself could help me out a bit, miss...?" Kidem added hopefully, inserting a pause for her to fill in her name. As usual, he had no doubt he'd succeed in convincing her to help him eventually. He didn't really do it on purpose but multiple people in the past had described him as charming. Besides, Casandra was very pretty and in his experience pretty girls liked to be the centre of guys' attention. Kind of vaguely pathetic, he supposed, but that was life.

[Sebz]

Casandra looked up when the seat next to her was scraped across the floor. She spared the newcomer a glance, but then turned back to her own food, still fully imerssed in her thoughts. Her reminations were inturrupted when he asserted himself; the blonde turned to face him once more, no trace of her once haughty attitude apperant on her face. A smile ghosted over her lips at his statements, but no more than that. “Casandra,” she instereted as he paused. “Welcome to Selenitas,” she said sarcastically, sweeping a disparging look over the dining hall. You”ll be trapped here forever, she thought with disgust.

Casandra frowned, surprised. Until that moment, she hadn't realized that being at the weyr had bothered her in the slightest, but now that she thought about it, she did feel trapped. She knew she could leave at any time she pleased, the Candidate Master took no prisoners, though the girl wouldn't put it past Elisabeta to do it. But she could not just get up and leave. She had nowhere to go. As of now, impressing a dragon was the only thing that she was activly aiming for, and with that gone, she would deteriorate rappidly, into somebody who just existed as aposed to living in full.

The blonde would have been quite happy to leave it at that, but his precense gave her something she needed. He could be her purpose, at least for the moment. Sure, Casandra rarely helped people in the past, but perhaps this new Casandra would find it to her liking. “Where are you from,” she probed, arching her eye to highlight a particularly prominent scar under her right eyebrow. He was handsome she would admit, but he didn't look like he was weyrbred or beholden to any hold she was familiar with. Maybe... just maybe Casandra would be able to befriend him. The thought pleased her, she had never had a real friend before.

[Ember]

Kidem internally filed away Casandra's limited response to his flirting. Perhaps not as shallow as he'd assumed at appearance. Which was why he always strove to judge by second impressions rather than first impressions. He also took note of her sarcasm and it brought a bit of a grin to his face. "Not fond of the place, then?" Not that he blamed her, though he was incredibly biased against any place that Yua could not get to. His dolphin was without a doubt his best friend and he wasn't entirely happy to be away from her for more than a few hours. It was either the weyr or being saddled with a bunch of responsibilities he didn't want though.

His blue, blue eyes flicked towards her scar briefly but he didn't comment on it. Kidem was a firm believer that scars were not things to be ashamed of, no matter what gender they happened to be on. Not that women ought to be getting scars often. He didn't think himself every lady's hero but he frequently helped them out for no other reason than because they were female. He shifted slightly so his knots were in better view before he answered the girl's question. "Blossom, dolphin crafthall, to be more precise." His Senior Journeyman knots were a source of pride to him largely because he was a touch young to have them in the first place. "And where are you from, if I may ask?"

[Sebz]

Casandra smirked slightly. "You can't tell?" She never tried to hide her dislike of the place, and why should see? Nothing bound her to the weyr, at least not yet. She gave Kiden a quick look over- it did not seem that he was objecting to his statement. Perhaps he was of the same opinion. Unlikely though, everybody seemed to just love the weyr.

Dolphin Crafthall? That did catch the candidates interest. She had heard of the creatures, but had never actually seen any. They sounded like lovely creatures though, second only to dragons of course. Because thats why they were all here, to impress dragons and become riders. Or impress whers... She pushed the thought aside, deciding to go back to it eventually.

"So you worked with a dolphin," Casandra pressed, interested to learn more. So interested in fact that she almost forgot to answer his question. "Hyphen, I grew up in Hyphen," she murmured. She hadn't thought of home in quite some time, and the thoughts that home conjured were not one that she relished. Her actions were not ones that anyone would ever be proud of. She had been queen there, and had been treated as one. But now she knew better. Yes, best stear clear of any conversations of home, at least her home. "I'm about to get some klah, would you like any?" She made as if to stand up, and thought it would be rude if she did not offer him, she would not want him to feel like she was leaving because of him.

[Ember]

Casandra's smirk earned one from Kidem in response. "Pretty and smart," he complimented. He wasn't really judging her as intelligent from her opinion on the weyr alone but hey, she might like to hear a bit of an exaggerated truth - she wasn't dumb. His smile and the way he kept his eyes on hers would almost certainly ensure that she thought he was being fully honest. "Really, people seem to have a lot of blind faith towards the weyr. Or loyalty. Whatever they want to call it. I assume it has to do with their dragons or the chance to get a dragon. You seem above that blindness though?"

While she was looking him over the man put another small forkful of tubers into his mouth and chewed it fully. Women, he knew, did not appreciate disgusting table manners and neither did he. Kidem swallowed when she mentioned his dolphin and it brought an appreciative spark into his blue eyes. If someone remembered to ask about his partner than they were on the right track with Kidem. "Yes, I do work with a partner," he corrected, for he was still very much a dolphineer. "Her name is Yua, my partner of eleven turns." He'd let her make of that what she would. Far be it from him to divulge that Yua was his closest friend.

Kidem didn't comment on Hyphen. Mostly because he didn't really care much for the place. It was far too serious a place (a bit of an ironic thought coming from the usually serious dolphineer/candidate, to be sure). Bright blue eyes caught her movement of standing up and he watched her almost critically for a moment before she offered to get him klah. Usually he'd have been the gentleman and offered to get her some first but it hadn't crossed his mind. Instead he answered, "No, thank you. I'll keep your seat for you."

[Sebz]

The girl brushed off the compliment he paid her, for perhaps the first time in her life the candidate was not interested in being praised. Yes, Casandra was in a strange mood. She did however allow herself to give Kidem a nod of thanks, but did not comment further. Her eyebrow arched further as he voiced his agreement with her. Rare was it to find somebody, especially somebody who was of age to be a candidate, whom agreed with her about the weyr. "Perhaps not above the blindness completely, but I am not so blinded as to fall into the mindset that all should be sovereign to the weyr."

She watched him eat silently, finding herself able to relax a little bit more. His presence was strangely comforting, her angst was dissipating quickly. Casandra listened with interest, as he told her about the dolphin he worked with, albeit the information he provided wasn't very substantial. "You must miss her terribly," she murmured. "Why did you come to the weyr," she asked. Not the most tactful of questions, but she was interested in learning more about his past. Even more so, it was meant to be rhetorical. Yes, she had addressed Kidem, but in reality she was asking the question to herself. Her purpose at the beginning was to claw her way to power, but now that seemed both silly and stupid. So why was she here?

"Thank you," she told him before going to fetch the klah. She wasn't gone for long, and when she returned she settled back down next to Kidem, making herself comfortable. Casandra took a small sip as she watched him thoughtfully. "I assume you are a candidate?" Why else would he have left his partner? It seemed strange to the girl that he would give up Yua in return for the chance to impress a dragon, so perhaps that's not why he was at Selentitas at all.

[Ember]

Kidem was somewhat pleased that the pretty girl wasn't as shallow as he first assumed. Shallow women could get so very tiring to be around and if they were going to be candidates together...yeah, he'd picked a decent first candidate acquaintance. He nodded in understanding of her statement. "Fair enough, I suppose. Why else would you be here if you didn't have some faith in the weyr?" Or were like him and were using the weyr to escape something troublesome. In which case, well, that was too personal.

The dolphineer made a noncommital hum and shrugged slightly at Casandra's murmured comment. Of course he missed Yua something fierce. He totally planned on visiting her whenever he could, forgoing the seemingly pointless chores if he must. Even if they kicked him out of candidacy the Hall didn't need to know that and give him a bunch of annoying kids to teach. He wasn't entirely surprised by her following question and he grinned. "The Masters wanted me to take on a couple apprentices and I didn't want to so here I am," he told Casandra.

He ate some more of his meal quickly while Casandra was up getting her klah. He was a fairly neat, efficient eater. When she returned he once again slowed his pace in order to talk. "Of sorts," he answered her returning question. "It was the simplest way of getting here and having a legitimate reason for being too busy for apprentices. I really couldn't care less about ever Impressing, though." He knew that one day he'd return to the Hall full time again and get apprentices but...he was only twenty-three! Give him a bit of a break.