Where yer eyes? [Nov. Chores/Open?]

[mierce]

After what felt like forever in that dust trap of a Records Room (an experience that confirmed his distaste for boring reading), Cerdic was madly ecstatic to find himself now on Kitchen Duty. He loved being outdoors, he loved moving around, and he loved chatting up the riders and handlers that came to eat. Especially the riders; he wanted so much to hear stories of their adventures! This breeze September afternoon found him skipping between tables serving meals, picking up dirty plates, pouring water, and pestering anybody who’d talk to him. He even made it a point to flirt with a few cute girls!--- but alas, they were more interested in their food. Phoo.

A tower of precariously balanced dishes on his tray, Cerdic lightly weaved his way back towards the large kitchen. He was glad to not be on dish washing duty today, or any day for that matter. He loved water as much as the next troublesome boy, but only if it involved slimy reptiles and/or getting all wet and muddy. The though brought back a memory of his sister throwing him head first into a pit of mud after he dropped a few tadpoles down her shirt. “Ahh…” he sighed in blissful nostalgia—and promptly crashed into a drudge.

KLING KLANG CRASH KSSSCCHHHHHH HISSSSS

“AAAAHHHH!!! HOT!!!! HOTT!!!!!!”

A drudge carrying a bowl of hot soup at that.

Cerdic flailed his arms, knocking aside the pile of dishes and partially eaten food remains off of him. He was covered in all sorts of sauces and food bits but he paid it little mind as he scrambled onto his knees. Likewise flailing next to him was the young drudge he had ran into. The thick soup she was carrying was now all over her (presumably pretty) face and hair, and dripping in a V-shape down the front of her dress. A moment later she had begun to futilely try to rub the soup from her face all the while making exasperated sounds.

Without a second thought, Cerdic stripped off his cotton vest and began helping her as well. The girl, however, would not have it and pushed him away. “Fool! Don’t touch me!” A glare. Not just any old glare even; this one was enough to stop Cerdic’s heart with some sort of emotion he couldn’t identify. Her amber eyes pierced through his. It felt like a long time---minutes, maybe even hours, but surely it could not have been longer than a second or two when nearby drudges rushed over to help the girl.

Cerdic stared at her retreating back, the look she gave him still whirling about in his mind. It wasn’t until the head drudge in charge of the kitchen yanked hard on his ear that he snapped out of the trance.

“… where you’re going!”

He winced, tears unwittingly forming at the corner of his eye. “I’m very sorry ma’am! I’ll clean this up right away.”

The head drudge yelled at him some more, her words like successive slaps, before she stalked away. Oh noes, he really wasn’t making a good impression at all…

[subtlemystery]

"Uhhhh... You... okay?" Kaerlin's question was hesitent, and even a little bemused as he glanced at the mess, the once milling people and then at the candidate. He liked kitchen chores, he felt terrible about having missed them recently, because it meant more work for someone else. So he was trying hard to make up for lost time, taking dishes, cleaning them, bringing out clean ones and doing whatever he could to help. Seeing another person make a mistake was probably the best part, because for once, he wasn't being the one yelled at.

He'd always been careful not to take too many dishes, knowing that he wasn't an overly strong person and he wasn't very good at watching where he was going, and thus, it made sense - to him - to take a few at a time. Now he saw why. The mess was... Large to say the least and there was little doubt that the drudges were mad, so that left him to offer his helping hand, even if he wasn't sure it was appreciated. Still, after a moment of concern, he couldn't help but let his lips twitch into an amused smile and made a strangled sound that might have been an attempt at smothering a laugh.

"You should see your face!" The snickering began, though Kaerlin was fairly sure that, if not his help, was going to be completely unwanted. He did his best to swallow the laugh after a moment and scrambled to balance the dishes again as his laughter shook them slightly. Breathing a sigh of relief as they steadied, Kaerlin glanced again at the young man. He didn't know him. Or did he? Under the soup.

"If you want, I'm happy to help. If you want, I'll take the dishes in and then come back out... Like... I mean... If you want." Flushing faintly with embarrassment at the way his words struggled to trip over themselves, Kaerlin forced his gaze to go elsewhere, other than on the candidate.

[mierce]

Cerdic was still in a daze as he turned his heads towards Kaerlin’s general direction. As such, he gave the other candidate a somewhat blank stare for an awkward handful of seconds before he was able to gather his wits about him. The other was chuckling at him, Cerdic knew it was certain, but instead of being upset he started laughing as well.

“I’m all right, thanks.” He ran his arm across his face, the sleeve coming away smeared with all manners of food. The food the drudges cooked were all tasty as far as he was concerned but by Faranth whew! did they smell downright bizarre when all mixed together! “Help would be great,” he said apologetically with a self-depreciating smile. Kaerlin’s stumble of his words was entirely loss on Cerdic; after all, the boy had just made a complete fool of himself. He certainly had no right to be judging others so soon after the disaster.

They began sorting through the mess of plates, bowls, flatware, cups, and slop of food remnants. There were a few broken items, surprisingly not a whole lot more considering how everything went down. Cerdic was sure he’d get yelled at again but it could have been a lot worse, that’s for sure. A few fire lizards had also betweened out of nowhere to lick up morsels of the food. Cerdic, of course, found this all the better as that meant he didn’t have to be so concerned about cleaning up every last crumb and splatter.

As they dropped the last of the dishes into the long trough sink, Cerdic held a hand out towards Kaerlin, then panicked and quickly withdrew it when he noticed how dirty it was. He wiped it on the seat of his pants (the only clean part), and held his hand out again. “I’m Cerdic!” he announced with a broad smile. “Pleasure to make your acquaintance. Thanks for all your help, too.”

[absinthe]

Scrub scrub scrub. Bubbles and foam drifted against the sides of the basin in which Junaes was washing dishes. He really didn’t understand why everyone else hated to wash them so much. It wasn’t that bad; there were certainly far worse jobs within kitchen duty. Like cleaning up after people. Disgusting. It was quite possible that since being rotated to kitchen duty, Junaes had become a neater diner. Seeing the crumbs and bits of half eaten food scattered across tables made the candidate wonder where these people learned their table manners. Of course he supposed that the numerous firelizards and salamandyrs could be to blame for such messes as well. But still. It really made him rethink how he ate.

He was almost done, scrubbing the last plate when he heard the tell-tale tinkling crash of dishes hitting the floor and the raised voices of a couple of the drudges. Whoops. Sounded like someone had an accident out there, and no doubt the results were all his for the taking. Great. Junaes wiped the plate dry and set it down on the growing stack next to him before tossing the damp towel over one shoulder and ambling out towards where he heard the crash. His path was impeded by the angry drudge who’d had the soup spilled all over her and the candidate quirked an eyebrow. For a moment he was torn between trying to help the girl clean up and going out to see the damage. The drudge in question didn’t look too friendly right then so… damage it was.

By the time Junaes approached the other two candidates, they were already picking up the dishes. It looked like it had been a pretty spectacular spill, and the lad propped his hands on his hips and looked at the food all over the place. As they picked up dishes and cutlery, Junaes went back to fetch a rag to start the cleanup of food. Several flits were sorely disappointed with the thorough cleaning, taking to the air and scolding when the tanned young man scrubbed up their unexpected snack. But the candidate wasn’t fazed; instead, he carried on until it was cleaned up then got to his feet and wandered back into the kitchen. He was somewhat dismayed to see all the dishes in the sink again but what else was new? It wasn’t like washing dishes was that bad. Really.

The rather quiet young man glanced toward his fellow candidates as he brushed past inconspicuously. He knew them from lessons and sharing the barracks with them but he didn’t /know/ them. He dumped the dirty water from the basin before replacing it with fresh, steaming water and more soap. A clean rag was also retrieved before he started on the stacks of dishes. He was content to listen to the other two candidates talk for a bit while quick hands made light work of the dishes. At one point he glanced up at them and went back to what he was doing without a word although he did wonder which of them had caused the spill and why. His inquisitive nature got the better of him in the end, as it almost always did.

“So what happened?” Junaes glanced toward the pair again even as he rinsed out a glass, startling blue eyes standing out in his gold-bronze face. “That was possibly the best spill I’ve ever seen.” The best? Well, if that’s how he wanted to think of it. It had been pretty impressive from a spectator’s point of view, that was for sure. Too bad he hadn’t gotten to see it in progress.

[subtlemystery]

Happy to get down and help, Kaerlin was quick to put the tray down carefully before picking up the mixture of utensils, and placing tehm ever so lightly on teh tray, making sure to attempt to keep it balanced, before he even attempted to pick it up. He could just see it going 'smash' on the ground again, when he picked it up, so it was with extreme care that he levered it up into his arms, both steadying and attempting to watch the other candidate at the same time. He didn't want to seem rude, because generally, he wasn't.

Seeing the hand offered, Kaerlin moved to balance the tray so he could hold his own hand out, only to attempt to retract it as swiftly as the other had done. No use seeming over eager, unfortunately that movement nearly unbalanced the tracy and Kaerlin yelped as his hands struggled to steady everything, only to breathe a large sigh of relief as the plates settled with little more than clanging. The next problem came that when he glanced back at Cerdic - now he knew his name - he was holding his hand out, so again the balancing act followed and this time, Kaerlin reached out to grasp his hand warmly,
"I'm Kaerlin!" Obviously eager to make a new friend, Kaerlin almost reluctantly drew his hand back.

"Nice to meet you-" Startled by yet another arrival, Kaerlin spun to look at the new boy, and his eyes widened slightly. He, was cute. To say the least. Unfortunately, the spin, accompanied by his surprise at the attractiveness of the other male, was the last straw, and he promptly fell backwards, he didn't have time to throw up his hands before the first bowl clobbered him, but after that he was quick to throw his hands up - shard saving the plates, he was saving his head! - to sheild himself, and then peeking up at the newcomer with a sheepish smile.

"Well, hi there! See, Cerdic slipped or something, and like all the dishes fell, so I came to help and then you came and ... I dropped the dishes." Another sheepish smile before Kaerlin actually moved to gather the now fallen dishes once again. Strange, he didn't know this candidate either, but he wouldn't mind knowing this candidate. Not at all.

[mierce]

Cerdic helped Kearlin and Junaes to (again) gather the (again) scattered plates. The poor things just don’t get a break –- no pun intended –- from the abuse, do they? Once the plates were back in the trough, he brought a hand to the back of his head and laughed sheepishly. “Eh.. heheh… Yeah, I uhm… slipped. Or something. Buuuuuuuut…” The sheepish smile was quickly replaced by one of enthusiasm. “If I hadn’t, we might not have had a reason to introduce ourselves until the next lesson!”

He sidled up to the other side of Junaes and began to help with the dishes. No, he didn’t like it, but he also felt bad dumping all these dirty plates on his new friend. “Well, you know my name is Cerdic, and Kaerlin over there is Kaerlin.” He tilted a chin towards the candidate in question. “What’s your name?” He pursed his lips in thought, scratching his memory of the past week. “Actually, I don’t recall seeing you in lessons. Are you in Candidate Master Emoyan’s second rotation?”

[absinthe]

“Are you guys really that clumsy?” Maybe it wasn’t the most sensitive thing to say but at least it was accompanied by a small smile and a shake of the head instead of a frown. He couldn’t fathom how two separate people could be having so much trouble with a stack of dishes. Really. These guys should be smarter than the dishes, right? Of course maybe they just didn’t have the sense of balance that Junaes had, so he quietly helped pick up the latest spill. It wasn’t that big a deal anyway; it was hard to break pewter. He went back to the trough, but glanced up when Kaerlin began to speak again. “Nice to meet you guys. I’m Junaes.” He would have offered a hand but he’d gotten them sudsy before he’d thought about it so the other two candidates would have to settle for a nod instead.

“Yeah, I’m in second rotation.” He was already several plates in and a stack growing on the tabletop beside him. “That’s probably why you haven’t seen me in lessons; I don’t think I’ve seen you before either.” He glanced over at Kaerlin. “You look familiar though. You’re in second rotation, right?” Junaes thought he remembered seeing the other candidate somewhere, at least. If not lessons, maybe in the barracks. Of course Junaes didn’t really spend a whole lot of time in the barracks. Usually he went there to sleep and that was about it. He found other places in which to keep himself occupied after chores and lessons. There was too much to explore around here to just hole up in the barracks, in his opinion.

“It’s nice to meet both of you.” The tall youth glanced once more at his companions as he set another plate on the stack. “Where are you from?” He wondered idly if either of them were weyrbred. There was no reason behind it, except perhaps to learn some of the differences between being holdbred and weyrbred. “I’m from Hyphen; I was Searched about a sevenday ago.” Yep. He hadn’t been at the Weyr very long… which might have explained his unwillingness to stay in the barracks when he had free time. Junaes would much rather explore and learn his way around given the opportunity.

[subtlemystery]

"Uh... Well... Only sometimes." Grinning easily at teh question, Kaerlin didn't appeared bothered by it at all. They probably seemed clumsy, yeah, that was it. After all, tehy had dropped two loads of dishes but that wasn't entirely Kaerlin's fault. Technically because this new boy had been the subject of his surprise, which then lead to his falling over and spilling the plates... Well, technically it was his fault, not Kaerlin's. He didn't make such silly mistakes, but if he wanted to blame him, that was okay too. Kaerlin knew how embarrassing mistakes were, it would be their little secret.

"That's true! See, always looking on the bright side, that's the way to do things!" Kaerlin wasn't annoyingly optimistic, not at all. Though not as overly enthusiastic as they seemed to be, Junaes didn't seem against conversing with them either, so what that - to Kaerlin - meant, was that they had to keep him talking, or keep talking and hoping they listened. Eager to pounce in on the subject of lessons, Kaerlin nodded quickly,
"Yup, I'm in the second. I'm usually late though cause, uh. Well, yeah I just am. Full of energy though, heh, eager to... Learn.." Trailing off and losing steam towards the end of his sentence, Kaerlin shifted his gaze away from tehm both and to the plates almost awkwardly before bounding right back with the next answer.

Waving one hand airily as he bent to pick up the plates, one shoulder shrugged slightly in answer,
"Oh a hold, you know, somewhere. What about you? Hyphen, really? What's it like? ahhh so you're new? Probably shouldn't have told you I'm always late then, what's your family like? Do you have a craft? Are you a dragon or wher canddiate? Am I asking too many questions?"

[mierce]

Cerdic made a sheepish face at Juneas' question. He didn't think he was clumsy, but somehow ever since arriving at the Weyr, Murphy's Law was always following him around. Kaelin answered on his behalf though, so Cerdic happily let the topic slide elsewhere.

"You probably aren't missing too much from lessons," Cerdic said with an enthusiastic thrust of his arms into the trough to dig out the next dish. He ran his washing rag over with every intent to do a decent job, but the conversation proved to be quite distracting. "The Candidate Master is very nice, but it's just a lot of talking. Rather booorrrinnnggg." A sigh then a playful smile. "Alas, it's required business."

When Juneaus started talking about their origins, Cerdic's attention towards the dishwashing deteriorated even more. He had never been outside of Blossom before until coming to Selenitas, and he was quite intrigued to hear about how life was elsewhere. He wondered where Kearlin was from, as well. Why did he sound hesitant to divulge that information? It was just a place name, after all.

[ooc: sorry! been busy with work and trying to juggle 5 threads.]