Scrub-a-dub [chores/ open]

[Kisha-Ra]

Yoalla applied her scrubbing brush to the floor as if she had a long standing grudge going against the boards themselves. They were going to come clean, even if she had to take varnish off them to make it so. Actually these could do with revarnishing already so it would hardly make a difference how hard she scrubbed.

As she caught sight of her reflection in the puddle she’d created Yoalla paused then snorted softly. Would anyone who’d known her back at Bitra recognise the pampered and painted doxie in the girl that stared sullenly back at her now? Possibly not she decided as she reached into the bucket for a rag and turned to wring it out with unnecessary force. She looked like whiny kid she finally decided as she wiped up the water and erased her refection along with it.

She felt like a whiny kid too and she couldn’t quite put her finger on why. It could always be that she was stuck in here scrubbing the sharding, pox ridden, floor, with the tyrant of a headwoman keeping an eye on her when she could be using the opportunities that the clement southern weather provided to be doing something far better. Like anything other than this.

[Ember]

Ugh. She was so tired. Weyrlinghood was hard work! Always feeding, bathing, or oiling her dragonet took a lot out of her. She'd never complain though. Little Nuoth was her life now and she adored the green. She just wished they didn't have to do chores on top of everything else. Some time to relax and be with her dragonet was what she realyl wanted, but no. Floors needed scrubbing and Nephele had been tagged for the job.

At least the manual labour would let her think and clear her head. It was hard to keep her thoughts to herself when Nuoth was awake. As a weyrling still she found the bond a bit overwhelming. Nuoth was asleep in the barracks having been fed and oiled just before dozing off. Everytime she was fed Nuoth seemed to get bigger and grow more hide that needed oiling. What one did for loved ones!

Even if Nuoth was asleep the weyrling girl wasn't alone. Charming and Misfit often accompanied her places. The former was in the barracks though. She'd left him with Nuoth to keep an eye on her. He had other plans though. He was more preoccupied gazing at his reflection in a spoon he'd filched from the kitchens. Nephele promised herself she'd return it....someday. Misfit was with her though. He was perched on her shoulder. Well...slumped on her shoulder fit better actually.

The girl arrived at the place she'd been told to report to and was surprised to see Yoalla scrubbing the floor. So she had familiar company! That was a good thing. While Nephele grabbed what cleaning supplies she'd need Misfit glided down to the floor from her shoulder and scampered to the spot Yoalla was cleaning. He looked from the floor to Yoalla before chirping pleasantly. She was doing a good job. She deserved a craacker, she did! Amused, the recently Impressed Nephele wandered over and said, "I see they pressed you into service."

[Kisha-Ra]

Yoalla was just around to thinking that the common scrubbing brush was probably the worst designed bit of equipment ever (honestly was kneeling essential to the process?) when something brown appeared at the corner of her eye. The something proved to be a firelizard, which chirped at her, making her mouth twitch into just a hint of a smile. Firelizards were so sweet, even Nephele’s little spoon thief.

As if thought was all it took to summon people these days Nephele also came into view. Yoalla smiled properly for the first time all day, on the bad side she was still scrubbing the floor, but now there was a good side in that she had some decent company to do with. ‘They did indeed. I should have stayed a doxie, at least my knees didn’t hurt then.’

Yoalla scrubbed at the floor for a moment avoiding eye contact as she asked. ‘So is your dragon keeping you in your toes?’ She wouldn’t ever admit to a pang of jealousy, in fact outwardly Yoalla had taken a very philosophical view of being left standing, but nevertheless the unwanted emotion reared its head briefly. ‘And where’s your little spoon thief today?’ She added to distract herself further, she was probably always going to think of Charming as the little spoon thief.

[Ember]

Misfit sure could look sweet sometimes but he could be a downright troublemaker when he saw the opportunity. Thankfully there were no 'mandyrs about or he could surely cause havoc with the cleaning supplies. He watched his cracker feeder approach and scrambled towards her to search her shirt pocket for some tasty snacks.

Not at all perturbed by the brown firelizard clinging to the front of her shirt Nephele grinned at the first part of Yoalla's response. Her grin faded quickly and turned to a slight grimace at the mention of a doxie though. It was awfully similar to what Nephele had gone through herself. It became one of her greatest tools, though it was rarely used if possible. At Benden 'if possible' hadn't existed. Here she had never used it. And yes, the girl felt disgusted with herself because she was disturbed over the lack of necessity for it. "I am glad to be here, even if my knees do hurt," she said, perhaps a bit too vehemently.

After that rather tactless comment she gave the floor a violent scrubbing and hoped that Yoalla would take that to be related to her Impression and not her past. As it was, Yoalla seemed curious about Nuoth and she was delighted to talk about the little green. "Oh yes. Dragonets are so much work, you couldn't even imagine!" Nephele paused to consider that statement and realized she had just rammed her foot into her mouth very far. "B-but you will eventually find out," she added in an attempt to spare Yoalla's feelings. With Nuoth in her life she had completely forgotten that Yoalla had been left standing.

At mention of the reason they had first met Nephele giggled. "Charming? He's in the barracks. Can you believe he actually stole a spoon from the kitchens to have with him? He keeps putting it in with my clothes. I keep meaning to return it but forget to."

[Kisha-Ra]

Yoalla noticed an expression of distaste flit across Nephele’s face at the mention of Yoalla’s former occupation, whether it was Yoalla having been a doxie, the thought of being a doxie herself, or just the existence of doxies in general that prompted it Yoalla really couldn’t guess. She didn’t think life had been so bad, at least not at Raasheen’s bordel, but she was prepared to admit it wasn’t for everyone. After this brief moment of introspection Yoalla decided not continue on that topic. It would serve no purpose.

Yoalla had to smile at Nephele’s enthusiasm in talking about her new mindmate, there was probably quite a bitter edge to the expression, and it vanished entirely as Nephele realised she’d put her foot in it and tried to dig herself out. ‘I’m not all that worried. Someone was going to be left over.’ Yoalla repeated her often expressed sentiment with only a hint of the sing song tone that came from rehearsing a speech. ‘There were only thirteen eggs to start with and a great deal more than thirteen candidates. Plus there was the gold and that green running off into the stands.’ Yoalla had forgotten that Nephele had probably missed that since she’d Impressed so early in the hatching. ‘N’-um a friend told me that most candidate end up standing more than once, so I’m probably not that badly off. I’ll wait until my fourth of fifth time around to start fretting.’ Yoalla smiled, to show that had been a joke. She was hoping not to have to stand quite that many times. ‘Besides there was only one bronze in that clutch, I think I’d like a bronze, all those bronzes defending the eggs were so…’ Words fail Yoalla for a moment so she just waved her hands around to express her feelings on the matter.

Yoalla laughed at the mention of Charming stealing a spoon just to have it. ‘Have you ever thought of getting him a mirror?’ She asked. ‘He could stand and admire himself all day then, without stealing any spoons.’ Really Yoalla thought it was quite clever that Charming could even identify a reflection as himself, most animals couldn’t.

[Ember]

Nephele could never fault someone for being in a bordel, or any other similar situation, but she resented the necessity to have such places or instances. Stupid Northern Weyrs and their war! They were dragging this pleasant weyr into their issues too. Her annoyance at the North in general translated into several rough scrubbings of the floor.

Nephele smiled slightly at Yoalla's words. Not a happy smile but at least a somewhat understanding one. Nephele only had to imagine life without Nuoth to at least partially understand what Yoalla must feel. "Oh right, I heard about those Stand Impressions. Must have been surprising..." She trailed off while Yoalla picked up the conversation again. There was something weird about what she said though. or rather, what she had started saying and stopped. Maybe someday Nephele would have the courage to ask but for now she tried to concentrate on what was actually said. She grinned at the joke and actually giggled slightly at the comment about bronzes. "Yes, I can see you now with a little bronze guarding the eggs from crazy weyrs!"

"Hmm, a mirror may work but I honestly thinks he likes spoons. Maybe I could just buy him a spoon. Its cheaper that way," she commented with amusement. "Can you imagine me returning that spoon to the kitchen though? I think someone," emphasis on the someone suggested the headwoman, "would bite my head off for it."

[Kisha-Ra]

Yoalla was briefly amused by the way the floor only seemed to get scrubbed when there was one of those awkward silences that so often turned up in conversations. She wondered if it was only her conversations they arrived in or whether all conversations were sprinkled with such silences. She supposed they must be, otherwise nothing would ever get done.

She nodded vigorously about the dragons running off into the stands, although possibly Nephele didn’t know that was what Yoalla was agreeing with as that comment had been right at the beginning, and Yoalla’s tendency to run away with conversations forced other people to grab conversations and run with them lest they be left far behind. ‘It certainly was surprising, but really quite understandable when you think about it. It’s amazing more dragons don’t end up just running off into the stands when there’s so many more people up there.’ She nodded again to emphasise her point and burst out into a bright smile as Nephele mentioned the idea of her defending the Weyr’s eggs with her bronze, it was a beguiling thought but not one Yoalla would actually bank on coming to pass. ‘I don’t think a little bronze, even a fighting, flaming one, would really be quite as imposing as a grown dragon.’ Yoalla smiled slightly at the mental image of a newly hatched bronze facing down a grown dragon but her smile quickly faded as she remembered the dragons who had fought had been hurt, and even killed.

‘Maybe Charming just likes his reflection upside down better.’ She suggested after a few more moments scrubbing the floor, suddenly recalling the way spoons tended to invert things. ‘You could get him a brand new really shiny spoon, I’m sure he’d let go of the old one right away then. But you’re probably right, you’d have trouble returning it.’ Yoalla could only imagine what the headwoman would have to say about that. Nothing good probably, although Yoalla doubted that the headwoman had ever had a good word for any candidate or weyrling at her mercy. ‘I really don’t know if I should be envious or relived that I don’t have a fair of winged friends trailing me around, stealing things, and generally getting me into trouble.’ She mused aloud. ‘Sorry I must sound like an old auntie, always going on about the same old things.’ Yoalla squinted up her eyes in an approximation of an old woman’s squinting. ‘Back in my day youngsters behaved properly, and we respected out elders and did whatever they said without question or resentment.’ She said, trying to keep her voice true to the whining of the elderly.

[Ember]

Secretly Nephele had to agree with Yoalla's opinion that work only ever got done during silence. Be that being alone and working or the awkward silence that had indeed formed between the two girls. Thankfully Yoalla ended and already Nephele could feel the air clearing. Awkwardness was something Nephele preferred to avoid.

She had a very good point. "While its true there are more people in the Stands, most if not all of them are actually not suitable to Impress or they likely would have been Searched." Both of whom from the Stands that Impressed had been Searched before. Heck, one had reImpressed. That...was just abonormal. She tried and failed to imagine reImpressing after losing Nuoth, her other half. No matter what other dragon came along she'd never be whole again, of that she was sure. She could almost pity K'lir having to put up with living with a second bonded. Conversation drifted onto the idea of a little bronze guarding eggs and Nephele grinned along with Yoalla. "I don't know. Maybe it would be more frightening? Here's this little thing that thinks it could take on anything. Vicious little Hatchling!"

Nephele blinked. "Y'know...maybe he does," she said in thoughtful surprise. Nephele let her hand just move with the brush so she at least looked like she was doing some hard work. The idea of buying him his own spoon was both rediculous and yet intriguing. She grinned at Yoalla. "They sure can cause touble but then they're just so loving and loyal most of the time that you can't help but forgive them." The girl laughed at Yoalla's impression of an auntie. Oh how the elderly could annoy her! "You make such a good auntie though!"

[Kisha-Ra]

Yoalla shrugged carelessly. ‘I think at least two dragons from the last clutch would disagree with you there, and it’s bound to have happened before. I suppose it’s one of the many things that depends on the dragon and human in question.’ Yoalla sighed and fished for her rag in the pause that ensued. Personally she wasn’t sure that there weren’t more people in the stands who could Impress, some people had other dreams than flying, odd as it might seem to Yoalla (and never mind that she’d never thought of being more than a pleasure girl until a few months ago). Also it was possible, as proved, for a dragon to want someone who was deemed unsuitable for some reason other than personality, and also for a totally repulsive person to be picked by a dragon. That last bit was hard for Yoalla to wrap her head around; she tended to believe in the unquestionable goodness and purity of dragons, despite all the evidence.

Yoalla smiled again at the idea of a baby dragon frightening people. ‘That would discourage anyone from taking eggs from his clutch I guess. They’d be all “No we don’t want them if that’s the kind of thing that’s going to hatch thank you” and run off.’ Yoalla giggled at the idea of that. It was slightly ridiculous, even if she did want a huge brave dragon.

‘Oh great, if I Impress anything I’ll be able to act like it’s grandmother!’ Yoalla laughed outright, then guiltily scrubbed at the floor in case the sound brought the wrath of the headwoman down on their backs. ‘I might as well just get on and have some children so I can be a grandmother all the sooner.’

[Ember]

Nephele nodded in some agreement. The difference between those two people the dragons had chosen was that they had been found suitable to another before. K'lir had reImpressed after his first green was killed. She had been there for that death and it was still a shock when she remembered it. At least the green had taken the enemy green between with her...Then there was Meira. Discreet inquiries revealed the girl had been bonded to a blue wher once. Oh well, point was that they had Impressed against the odds. Nephele did agree that it was likely it happened before...and would happen again.

Nephele caught the infectious giggle at the idea of the other weyr thinking that. "Yeah, I could just imagine them saying 'no queen related to that could be worth it' and running off. Speaking of little bronzes, you saw who Impressed him right?" There was a distinctly cold look in her eye as she asked. The newest bronzerider was the very same guy who had attacked Calistoth during the attempted egg theft. There was some irony to the situation though. The egg they had been intent on stealing didn't hatch the queen at all.

Nephele didn't know whether to be amused or shocked at Yoalla's comment, and this showed obviously on her face. She eventually decided it was meant more as a joke and was indeed funny. An akward, shy smile emerged. Yoalla was now considered something like a friend in the girl's mind.

[Kisha-Ra]

Yoalla snorted disparagingly at the mention of the newest bronze and his choice of rider. ‘I saw.’ She replied, her voice and expression going cold, she’d made sure to find out after the hatching was over and one glimpse of That Idiot with the new bronze had been enough to make her wonder if maybe the hatchling hadn’t been… disturbed somehow by the fight over his egg. ‘It’s a reminder to root for any other bronze in queen Flights certainly, or even a brown. I wouldn’t want to be stuck with some guy who can’t tell which dragons are on his side for weyrleader.’ She commented, a certain fierceness underlying what was, on the surface, an idle spiteful comment.

‘I’d almost think the fighting over his egg upset him but he probably wasn’t aware of that.’ Yoalla shrugged. ‘It’s certainly ironic that the egg they wanted wasn’t even a queen as well.’ She added, frowning slightly. Even though she found it amusing that the supposed queen egg had hatched bronze she couldn’t help wondering what the riders of whichever Weyr that was would do now. Presumably there were still people convinced they needed a queen. ‘So, do you think they’ll be back again or what?’ Yoalla normally didn’t like encourage speculation on such worrying subjects but it crossed her mind that Nephele might have a little more access to information than she did.

Even with her thoughts preoccupied with such a grim topic Yoalla didn’t fail to notice that she’d finally gotten a slight expression of amusement out of Nephele. ‘I hasten to add that I’m not planning on actually rushing out and having children.’ She felt impelled to mention this. ‘I wouldn’t even know which way up to hold a baby.’

[Ember]

Nephele managed a grim smile for the girl's opinion of the bronzerider. "Very good point. Also a reminder of which bronze to try and make sure doesn't go after my Nuoth," she replied. Her voice made it clear that the idea of waking up next to that rider would be quite despicable. At least Yoalla didn't have to suffer living in the same building or going to lessons with him. In fact, candidacy was so much easier than weyrlinghood. She wondered if Yoalla realized that. Candidates only had lessons and chores, and lessons didn't go on forever. Weyrlings had voracious little but not so little dragons to feed, oil, bathe, etc. on top of chores and lessons.

Misfit peeped at the turn of conversation. Egg? Food? Nephele paused to give the flitter a little pet and looked him over contemplatively. Messed up in the egg? It felt almost like a betrayal to think it but she suspected Misfit hadn't formed right while in the egg. His permanently curious head tilt for one...Not to mention his figure in general. Nontheless, she loved him dearly. To show this she pulled a cracker out of a hidden pocket and offered it to him. The brown eagerly gobbled it up. Crackers! Yum! Absently to Yoalla she said, "Maybe the fighting didn't do it but the posibility something happened in the egg is still there."

Eggs. Conversation seemed to still resolve around the Hatching and the failed theft of the bronze's egg. She looked at Yoalla thoughtfully. "They seemed pretty desperate for the queen egg but...we're on guard now, aren't we? At least I hope the weyrleaders are ready in case they do come back. I definitely think they're going to try something again." What exactly they'd try she couldn't fathom. Steal the Hatched queen? Wait until the next clutch to try again? Actually how did they even know there was a clutch on the Sands or eggs large enough to have a queen in them? Oh dear. With the idea of spies in her head she'd be edgy for a little while.

Nephele giggled at the mental image of Yoalla holding a baby upside down. "There's wisdom in more ways than one in the saying 'heads up!'" Nephele did actually know how to hold a baby. Her mother had been insistent on making sure Nephele could be a good mother..if she ever 'chose' to have kids while at Benden. Like choice was part of it!

[Kisha-Ra]

Yoalla was mildly interested to see a firelizard eating a cracker, but although it wasn’t the kind of thing she really expected it wasn’t really worthy of a comment, she tended to show up her ignorance by passing comment on things like that. Besides she had a nagging feeling that this little brown wasn’t like other flitters, and she didn’t want to draw attention to it, Nephele might be offended at a suggestion that her firelizard was odd in some way, and moreover, the brown might understand her and be upset. Probably time to end this line of thought then since she wasn’t really sure just how much of people’s thoughts firelizards and all their distant relatives could pick up, she had a feeling it was variable, kind of like hearing.

Yoalla realised that while she’d been woolgathering she’d missed something that had just been said but nodded absently as if she had been paying attention. She just hoped she wasn’t challenged on it because the last thing she’d been paying mind to was the comment on R’men.

Ah, the attempted theft! Yoalla breathed a purely mental sigh of relief over not having missed too much. ‘It’s… strange how their weyrleaders managed to convince those riders to come here and try stealing an egg. Especially when the northern Weyrs have queens a plenty, or at least I know benden do, maybe not fort. I did hear a while back that one of their queens went missing.’ Yoalla let her mouth rattle on about the topic until she realised how much she’d inadvertently revealed about her past as she did so. This was the very reason no one ever told Yoalla their secrets, she couldn’t keep them.

With a slight flush for all that she’d just blurted out Yoalla did her best to steer the conversation away from the just visited topics with a decisive nod for the comment that they were on guard now. Surely there was nothing like humans and dragons brawling on the hatching grounds to put the wind up everybody. Though it was something of a mystery how they’d even known there were eggs on the sands, let alone that Hepaticath hadn’t been with them. Well anyone could pass on information, inadvertently or otherwise, which meant that everyone from the youngest weyrbrat to the oldest gossiping auntie could be a suspect for such things.

Yoalla laughed, heads up indeed. ‘I’ll have to remember that phrase in case I get chores in the crèche. I don’t really have much experience with younger children.’ That much was true, Yoalla hadn’t been around children in turns, not since she was one of the oldest of a crowd of bordel brats and expected to look after the younger ones.

[Ember]

Nephele noted the attention Yoalla turned to her pet and the girl grinned. "As you've no doubt realized, this little guy's not my Charming. Can you believe he hatched from one of those little 'Mandyr clutches?" Misfit chirped pleasantly as he finished off his cracker and looked imploringly at his cracker-feeder. She had more, yes? "He has a soft spot for crackers. I swear if I find more in my bed again...Anyways, his name is Misfit." She handed him another cracker. "Make it last you glutton, no more from me today!" She was certain he had found a new hiding place for ones he either saved or filched. Perhaps Nuoth would know if he'd been hiding any?

Little did Yoalla know just how much Nephele knew about Benden. She may have had a single inside source in her childhood but the weyrling girl had been on the inside with all the brutality and horrible people. They definitely did not need a new queen. With C'leon gone the queenriders could take over the weyr again as they should. Anyone inside that weyr had known without a doubt that the monstrous bronzerider had been the absolute power in the weyr. A small shudder went through Nephele as she remembered one time when she had seen the unlamented Weyrleader. She also doubted Fort needed queens desperately.

So to answer Yoalla's comments she merely said. "Benden definitely doesn't need any queens, and I highly doubt Fort needs them either." Nephele leaned forward a bit, whispering conspiratorily. "I honestly don't think it was them. I don't know who it would be other than them but maybe it has something to do with that disappeared queen." Also...why was the girl blushing. Then it hit Nephele and she realized her own blunder. Oh bugger. Well really...if both girls were observant all they really knew was that they had some knowledge of benden Weyr somehow. She attempted a comforting smile for Yoalla and for herself. No harm done, right?

Nephele giggled at the idea of working in the creche. That would be...disastrous! "Lets hope neither of us end up in the creche! Goodness knows I'd just walk in and the kids would start bawling." Kids! She had no patience for all the whining and crying and complaining. She had yet to see a well-behaved young child.