Journeyman Life of a Candidate

[draym]

Kilkin heaved a heavy sigh. His free time was even less now that he was not just a Healer, but also a Candidate. That meant that he had actually been staying out of trouble and was only currently in the Infirmary for his shift.

He walked over to his new little personal area. Being a Journeyman was much better than being an Apprentice, that was for sure. But Kilk still wasn't used to all the added responsibility. He knew that since he was now attempting to Impress, that he wouldn't focus any more time on raising his rank in the Healer craft.

That was ok with Kilkin, he liked where he was now as a Healer. He had enough knowledge to treat his fellow humans and minor dragon injuries. He set about taking out a small jar of numbweed and setting it to the side for better access should he need it.

Kilk sighed and peered around, the light leaking into the Infirmary showed that it was about mid-day. Kilkin had a long shift ahead of him.

"I sure need a sharding nap." The Candidate sighed.

[Lotty]

He almost always went to Nephele anymore for his injuries. It was quicker, easier, and it proved his trust in her completely. Apprentice or not, it was his weyrmate that he wanted wrapping up his cuts and scrapes, even if he had to listen to her call him an idiot in the process. He knew she was just teasing. Well... most likely she was teasing.

Whatever.

Regardless, he had made his way then to the infirmary knowing the woman's shift was about to start soon. His timing was impeccable. Fresh out of drills, and even fresher out of some extracurricular target practice with A'emi, he looked for all intents and purposes, good and whole. A closer inspection of his hand however reveled something of an awkward injury. Splinters deep and straight across the palms of his hands and an arrow lodged right in the shoulder of his riding jacket. Luckily it wasn't pierced into his flesh. Instead it just punctured his clothes and sat there goofily, as a testament to the shenanigans that he had participated in. Apparently he had been too lazy to pull the projectile out in the wake of his injuries.

Nonetheless, he was hoping for some help getting needlefine thorns out of his hands. Of course he could just do it himself, but doing it himself would take some time. It was best to swing by in search of his favorite greenrider. Problem was, she wasn't there. He turned around looking, searching, and seeming all in all bewildered. There... there wasn't even an Ae'on to awkwardly harass about this. Across his face a frown grew until he turned on the closest figure he spotted and allowed his dark eyes to burn holes on the back of the man's neck. Not recognizing him, the brownrider threw up his instant defenses, muttering out a call to attention... or a greeting if you will, "Excuse me...." picking up on the candidate's last word's he managed to utter out, "I'd ask you to help me out, but considering your sleep situation I probably don't want you poking your tweezers around in my hands now do I?"

He was trying his best to be civil, but then this was K'sel. He wasn't exactly known for being a ray of sunshine to anyone but those he held close.

[draym]

Perking up at the sound of someone speaking, a male, Kilkin cleared his throat and turned around. He recognized the rider kind of. Of course, when you lived here all your life, a lot of people looked familiar.

"Sorry, been pretty busy lately. I'm awake enough to use some tweezers though." Kilk managed a grin. Then the Journeyman laughed as he saw the arrow sticking out from the riders shoulder.

"I hope that isn't in your shoulder."

The Healer moved to open a drawer and withdrew the tweezers. Grabbing the numbweed as he walked passed it to stand closer to the rider, Kilkin smirked a bit.

"Unless you have another issue, I'll need bigger tweezers for that arrow." Then the Candidate saw the hand that the rider was holding open and palm up. He could barely make out the splinters across the man's palm, but it was enough to make Kilk curse slightly under his breath.

"Shard, man, how did that happen?" Kilk grabbed a small roll of gauze, made from plant fibers, and set it on the edge of the desk.

"Come over here and have a seat." Kilkin dragged a chair out to the more open part of the floor and patted it. "Do I know you?"

[Lotty]

Awake enough for tweezers? Well.. perhaps he should be thankful for the little things in life. If only out of necessity. Giving another look around the infirmary, he had finally conceded to the fact that this was going to be his only option for healing. K'sel tried his best not to wear the disappointment on his face, settling into a visage that was near expressionless. Near because he didn't exactly know how to respond to the arrow comment. The corner of his lip twitched in promise of a wry smile but never followed through, "This?" He pointed at the rod that pierced through his jacket, "Nah that's just this thing..." He grabbed it then to pull it out and deposit it on the nearest table, the tip making a subtle clatter against the metal tray.

All the while K'sel couldn't help but find himself staring.... questioning. His eyes lingered for a duration just past polite. There was a faint sense of nostalgia lingering in the air, but from where it came he could not imagine. He'd pass it off as a case of deja vu, but he knew for a fact that he'd never strolled into the infirmary for anything quite like this before. It had to do with him... that healer guy.... but why? With another inward sigh, he determined that he just had to shrug it off, and moved over to take a seat.

K'sel's knee jerk reaction was to tell Kilkin that how he got the splinters was none of his damn business. What came out of his mouth instead had him weaving the illusion of play and jest, even if the words were just plain true, "If I tell ya, I have to kill ya. I hear that the council frowns upon that," he smirked and gave a wink for flavor before turning his hand up for inspection. Yeah, there were some perks to being on Legatus, and he was getting a kick out of shielding even the mundane in secrecy when he could get away with it. Sure, the hanging off of trees and playing with weapons deal... that was one hundred percent unsanctioned extra credit work... but what Kilk didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

Then came the inevitable. The tension was coming to a rise and the only solution was to just ask, but the brownrider being ever stubborn refused to be the one to voice it. There was familiarity, but from where? His head canted a bit, "I dunno... do you? I remember the... your face. Maybe some names will ring a bell," though he didn't know which one to give, in exile he collected whatever moniker would get him through the day. Nonetheless, he'd like to keep some mystery about himself, save identities like Aramis for a rainy day, "I'm K'sel now... used to be Kasella," just in case.

[draym]

Kilk gave a chuckle. "Honestly, I have no sharding clue. The name does sound familiar. But I would remember someone like you."

That was about as close as Kilkin would get to flirting, especially when he was sure that the guy wasn't interested. K'sel could be straight for all Kilk knew. Grabbing a little of the numbweed on a protected finger, spreading it around the line of splinters.

"I'll be as gentle as possible, but this is going to take a while. My name is Kilkin by the way, a lot of people call me Kilk."

The Journeyman gripped the tweezers expertly. Slowly, he positioned the tweezers around one of the larger splinters. Tugging quickly but slow enough to keep from causing too much pain. He did this again and again until the larger splinters were gone.

"These small ones are going to be a pain in the ass, K'sel. It might hurt more than the others." Kilkin looked up and then stood up, going to get himself a chair. He sat down opposite K'sel and gripped the other man's wrist.

Slowly starting to grab the other smaller splinters, Kilk tried to start up a conversation.

"So how long have you been a rider, K'sel?" He glanced up at the rider's knots. "Brown, right?"

[Lotty]

"Someone like me?" he blurted the words out blandly. What was that supposed to mean? He considered briefly that he might have had a tumor growing out of the side of his neck or that his nose was falling off, both places checked by a wandering free hand. Nope... he was still intact, so why on earth would someone say what the healer did? His forehead furrowed a bit in frustration then, though it could just as easily be confused for a reaction to the numbweed being spread out across his hand. That was until K'sel decided that he absolutely needed to press further and ask again, "What do you mean someone like me? I'm not a leper you know..." But he was a former hobo which was pretty darn close.

With the name of the other man on the tip of his tongue, he couldn't help but making a clicking sound when it was furnished to him, and repeated over and over in a low voice for his personal benefit, "Kilkin, Kilk, Kilk... Kilk..." he was assuming that the repetition would work as a magic spell and conjure up the memories. It wasn't until the final reiteration of the name in the softest of tones that the most vague picture came together in the rider's head, "You're my brother's age.... yes I remember now, grew up in the creche right?" His parents were dragonriders like so many of them were, but there was little else he had bothered to remember. K'sel's friends even then were far and few between, and he spent more time talking to himself in the forest than making playmates. Regardless, he'd get Marina to confirm for him, the woman had a mind for names and faces and could recall just about every little brat she came into contact there.

His hand grasped in a vice like hold by the other man, K'sel realized there was no escape from the conversation that was soon to ensue. And frowning deeply through the prick of little splinters being pulled from his hand, the man chose to pad the experience of morbidly watching his own injuries be healed with a little bit of the light conversation offered to him, "I Impressed five turns ago. So subtract weyrlinghood... yeah... brown Pettahth," he considered his answers and finding them hard for even himself to build off of offered a few questions of his own, "How long have you been a healer?"

[draym]

Kilk had to bite his tongue to stop from blushing, which meant that he had to stop what he was doing so he wouldn't slip. Shard, now Kilkin had to essentially come out to this man, who he didn't really know.

"Well, I didn't mean it like that, K'sel. I meant, you are pretty easy on the eyes." Kilk gave a shrug and a smile. Try and play it off, like you are just being nice. That's right.

Kilkin resumed taking some of the small splinters out, stopping for a second to wipe a small amount of sweat from his brow with his shirt sleeve. Concentrating always made him sweat. Shard it.

"Ah, so not that long then. I've been a Healer since they barred me from Standing for a few turns, been about seven now. Just became a Journeyman actually." Kilkin shrugged his shoulders as if to say 'look' and then remembered that they had been replaced by Candidate knots. Kilkin's choice.

"Ah shard. I'm a recently new Candidate, wearing those knots today." Kilkin shook his head.

"Anyway, do you have any of those little flits or mandyrs?" Kilkin looked up at K'sel and then back down at his work. He was just about done taking out the splinters. Good thing too, K'sel had some so deep that his palm was spotted with little blood droplets.

[Lotty]

Easy. On the eyes....

K'sel made a truly baffled face as he tried to consider the statement. The idea of him being attractive to another man just was never in his realm of possibility. After all he spent something like two turns with nothing but other men as company and they were both more concerned with how badly he smelled or what kind of things were stuck in his hair and beard that day. So not hot. Now he was being told that he was in fact better than he once thought, and he was left to struggle with which emotion to settle on. Should he think this a joke? A horrible, horrible joke and reacted offended as he should? Should he just be flattered and take the comment as a compliment... explain that he was here to see his weyrmate before thanking the guy and being on his way?

No, those were easy solutions and K'sel did not do things the easy way.

Maybe it was the return of his childhood rushing back to him, but a certain foolish and kid-like streak of shenanigans rushed up through him. With a devilish smile a new dose of endorphins seeped into his system and he found it in himself to ignore the smaller pricks of the tweezers against his skin, "Well, Kilkin..." his voice went silky... or as silky as his brandy torn throat could make it, "thats so very kind of you. You have a certain... rugged charm to yourself as well," the brownrider canted his head and put his act on pause for a moment as he listened to the healer's story about his rise to journeyman status,"Barred from Standing? Whatever for? You can't have done anything that horrible," this was coming from the man who managed to get himself kicked out of a hall. The North was a whole different animal he assured himself...

"I do.... not the mandyrs, they are demon spawn..." his voice dipped again abandoning their sweeter notes before he picked the flirting back up, "the flitters... three of them, a bronze and a couple of blues. I'm sure the bronze, Mojo, had managed to pull a prank on you by now. Usually flies with a green and they do their deeds together..." As the healer looked down at his work, the brownrider took the opportunity to slip his unbloodied hand briefly over the other man's own that held the tweezers, effectively pausing him. Sure he was delaying his numbweed, but he could cringe all he wanted in his head. This was an opportunity not to be missed, "So... the cliche question for all candidates has to be... what color dragon do you hope to Impress?" It occurred to him that Nephele could round the corner at any second and in her hormonal mood swings may take out some anger on the sight of him playing such devious games.

He slipped a warning off to Pettahth that could be quickly transferred to the woman's green. He was going somewhere with all of this... he swore it! "So you know... I actually didn't inherit the good look genes in my family. My brother... now he looks... well he is quite finely structured, but certainly something to look at. I image though you're the same age you've probably not seen each other in some time. He ran away from the Weyr for a while, but he came back... Impressed a blue..." Was K'sel setting them up on a blind date against their wills. Yes... oh yes.

[draym]

Kilkin grinned at K'sel. "I was in so many fights when I was younger that they told me I was too unstable to Impress. Banned me for Turns, and told me I could be a Healer or go do drudgery work." He gestured around them. "Naturally I was in here enough as it was, so I chose this."

The Journeyman couldn't help but laugh softly as K'sel called the salamandyrs demon spawn. "I've heard that before. They must be fairly vicious." Kilkin had not yet had to deal with anyone coming in with major injuries from one though, and he was glad for that. The occasional gash or bite wasn't too uncommon though. The patients usually lied about how it happened.

Kilkin shot his glance up at the other man as his work was stopped. The reason made Kilkin clear his throat to hide his embarrassment. "Honestly, I don't care what color. I think a dragon might help me get out of my shell a little more. Or if I Impress high, in a position of power."

Power. That was the real reason. But he couldn't just come out and say that was his only reasoning for Standing. That would be sort of frowned upon, he was certain. No time to reflect on that right now though. Kilk gently shook his hand free of the other man's with a smile.

An eyebrow arched up as K'sel mentioned his brother. Blue usually meant some desire for the same gender. Kilkin blushed. This rider right in front of him was probably completely straight when his dragon didn't say otherwise. Shard it. Kilk would mentally beat himself up later.

"I'm not too sure. I might have sent him to the Infirmary at some time, or he might have sent me." Kilkin chuckled. He had definitely calmed down a bit since he had gotten older, but he was still ready for a fight. And sometimes it was all worth it to start one.

[Lotty]

"Interesting," K'sel replied, "Never was much of a fighter myself... as a kid," not that he took particular joy in it now. It was more so a thing that needed to be done. Something on a laundry list, than something he actively pursued. He much preferred words to fists, and if he could verbally unclothe someone it was preferable to delivering them a black eye. The only problem was that other people did not share many of the same likes as he, and when one is so willing to speak insults they had to have the quick reflexes and smart moves to go with them. Lumps and bruises from his youth added up, and he really did come out all the better for them, "Where as you took up a craft because of your fighting, I rather think that I ended up fighting my way out of my craft. Ended up with Pettahth though, so I'm all that much ahead of my losses." He was silent on details as per usual.

Instead he latched onto the word "power". Now why would anyone want such a thing? K'sel gave the man a suspicious look. Here they had been having the most quaint conversation, and the brownrider felt it stalled by his apprehension of authority. A future bronzerider in his midst? Why that was enough to make the man just briefly shudder, "The vast majority of the people in power on this planet are unfortunate individuals who ascend to their position on the basis of their utter confidence in their hare brained opinions. Unfortunately the people with genuinely good ideas are usually too self conscious and doubtful of themselves to get their bronze dragon or their mastery or their holdership or what have you..." Hopefully that wasn't enough of a diatribe to alienate the guy. K'sel was all smiles to make up for it.

He did want the rest of those splinters out of his hand after all, "Anyway my brother and you. Much more interesting subject! I think you two would be just smashing..." T'ri would strongly disagree, mostly because Kilkin wasn't a pretty blonde dolphineer nymph girl.... that was his brother's type wasn't it? Oh well, hearing the good healer's desire to break out of his shell made K'sel slightly less guilty feeling. If anything could break a man out of his shell it would be this, "Sent you to the infirmary? Oh I doubt it. The only guy he ever got in a fight with would probably be me, and let me tell you, those were usually broken up by our mother before we could gouge each others eyes out. Who knows, maybe he got a little more rough and tumble during his time in the circus or whatever, but I dunno... I'll have to send him this way to meet you."

"Now, you gonna finish this hand up for me?"

[draym]

Kilk wasn't too happy about set ups. He gave a huff and a sigh, setting the tweezers down. "You're just about done, K'sel." He gestured to the splinterless hand.

"You do need a little light bandaging though, and a smidge more numbweed. That hand is going to be sore as all hell if I don't." With that, Kilkin supplied a nice glob of numbweed to his patient's palm. Being sure not to get any on himself, the Journeyman spread the substance over the afflicted area.

"Careful with this hand. You won't be able to use it much today." Kilk gave the other man a smirk and grabbed some bandages. He wrapped just a thin layer over K'sel's palm and sat back. He looked over the bandage quietly for a minute.

"As for your brother, I would say no to any kind of blind date. And I have a strange feeling he would as well. Especially to a Candidate." Kilkin smiled at the rider.

"Well, we are all set here. Anything else you need before I send you on?"

[Lotty]

As thrilled as he was that his hand was just about fixed up, he was inwardly pouting just a little bit at the fact that his plot was thwarted. Damn. It would have been far too rewarding to see the look on T'ri's face, but with this prospect taken away from him, he'd just have to have his whims fulfilled in other ways. Thoughts were being forced together then, as his hand was bound up in the bandages; little gears turning with almost evil delight. By the time, Kilkin's job was done, a smile had alighted back onto the usually somber rider's face, and he hid it only by chatting up the healer and thanking him for the good fix on his injuries, "Oh no... but I'm so good with my hands, its such a shame that someone has to go without their touch for the night..."

Yes, he was overly aware of the innuendo. He made sure that he language was in fact dripping with it.

Rising from his seat and examining the hand again, as if he could somehow see past the gauze that was padding it, the rider leaned over across the table in a friendly manner, "Don't worry about my brother. I wouldn't so blindly set you up. It was just a meet and greet. Besides you won't be a candidate for all that long anyway," or well, he couldn't be. The poor kid was running out of Turns to Impress. K'sel thought waiting until he was 18 made him an old man by weyrling standards, but a lot of them were cropping up in their twenties around Sel, Kilk had to be hoping he was one of them, "But I won't tell him anything about you if you don't want me to. You have my word..." and it was true. The brownrider didn't have a reason to lie often.

Then as if the thought just struck, the man leaned in much closer, practically pouring himself over the table that kept him separate from the healer. One knee even pushed forward to rest against the surface's edge and give him leverage as he craned in close to the other man's personal space. In smoky tones the rider added, "Actually, there is... one.... thing you can do for me..." He was so close to nuzzling Kilkin that he very nearly burst into laughter, but held it all together as best he could instead breathing deeply, intensely, and allowing his warm breath to lap against his victim's skin. Reaching forward to rest his unharmed hand onto the side of the healer's neck he finally asked, "Would you tell my weyrmate Nephele that I came in to see her? I'm sure she's around somewhere..."

Smirking, he pulled away as if not a thing had just transpired, and glanced at the door. Hopefully, Kilkin could handle that one little request for him.

[draym]

Oh shard it. Kilkin turned red. This man was a tease, and he even had a female weyrmate. The old Kilk probably would have smashed a fist into the guy's face. But now, Kilkin narrowed his eyes a little bit.

"You could have sharding well told me she was your weyrmate." He stood, slightly flustered from the teasing. "But yes, I'll tell her." The Healer/Candidate started to clean up the mess he had made patching K'sel up.

"I should have known." Kilkin arched an eyebrow at the man. "You look like her type." And then Kilkin broke into a grin. No harm done really. Nephele would probably just laugh at Kilkin getting flustered by K'sel. And it may be better if Kilkin not mention that part, and just let K'sel tell her.

"Any other parts to that message you would like me to give her?" Kilkin busied himself cleaning up as he spoke.