May Cause Drowsiness [July Chores/Open]

[Ruby]

Mikail sneezed violently, earning him evil glares from every Drudge in the Archives, young and old alike. It was all this stupid dust and dryness, paired with the winter cold; it had left him with a stuffed up and occasionally runny nose, and only one of the nasty teas the Healers had given him helped at all. That one dried up his nose all right, but he still sneezed, and to top it off, he was as drowsy as if he'd just downed an entire jug of good Benden wine, and about equally as loopy. He was slightly more aware and slightly more quiet than he would have been if he HAD been drunk, but only by a little bit and only because he was currently sitting alone. He had that slightly uncomfortable feeling that if he started laughing he wouldn't be able to stop.

Adjusting the green and white scarf he was wearing even inside (the archives weren't heated particularly well, as the Archivist refused to have fire anywhere near his precious scrolls), Mik sniffed again, and turned back to the enormous pile of papers he was supposedly organizing by date. Ironically, it was something from the infirmary, detailing the many treatments prescribed over a two month period some thirty turns ago. Boring, certainly; useful? Unlikely. Obviously no one had needed it in the LAST thirty turns, which was why it had been shuffled and tossed into a dark abyss, never to plague humanity again. Good thing Candidates weren't considered human. Mik had to stifle a very girly giggle at that, only managing to stop when the closest Drudge actually started to get out oh his seat. He was a fairly large man, and Mik didn't think it was a good idea to try to take the man out in his current state. Back to business.

The world swam, and went black.

Ten minutes later, Mik woke to a smack in the back of the head. "Two more candlemarks for sleeping on the job, Candidate," the Archivist hissed, barely audible. Mik rubbed his stinging scalp, muttering nonsense under his breath as he scrubbed at a drool stain with his left hand, hiding the procedure with his hair and his right arm. This was going to be a very, very long afternoon. At least he was slightly delirious.

[ace]

Mina walked into the Archives Hall, shivering as the cold air hit her flesh. Why was it so much colder in here than in the rest of the weyr, the girl pondered as the Archivest instructed her to go grab some of the the the records and re-copy them so they were legible. Thank goodness Mina had fair steady and readible scrall, lest she would be rebuked by the Archivist for 'defaming good pieces of parchment,' and probably, she would be asigned another mroe tedious task.

Mina sat down at a table, and took out a pen. Opening the first scroll, she was surprised to see that it was a clutch record from earlier turns. Studying it, she was surprised to see that there were more browns clutched than blues or greens. Well, Mina thought as she began to work on the task, Clutches must be known to differ from time to time. but that absences of green's was rather surprising.

As she finished restoring that particular manuscript, Mina breathed in deeply; the dust in the air made her have a coughing attack which earned her a stern glare form the drudges. Sighing, Mina returned to copying the scrolls.

[Ruby]

Mik sniffled, wiping his nose on a crumpled napkin from his pocket before shuffling the last two papers into place. Well, that was done, he'd been here his allotted time, now he should be free to cause havoc- oh wait, more likely take some more of the horrible stuff the healers had given him and sleep for a while. His nose was running again, after all, and healers misspelling simple words no longer made him have to stifle giggles, so the first dose must have worn off already. Maybe he'd drifted off again.

Wrapping his scarf more snugly around his neck again, Mikail grabbed the stack of organized papers and headed back to the Archivist's desk, already fantasizing about his slightly lumpy and yet no less attractive mattress in the candidate barracks. He stuck the papers on a corner of the desk and drifted towards the door- only to blink as a large, dark shape loomed up in front of him. "Th' Archivist said two more candlemarks, Candidate," the enormous drudge reminded Mik, clearly reveling in his ability to order someone around. A glance back at the Archivist sealed his fate- the man was looking at Mik in a very self-satisfied way, as if he was disciplining a small child for being bad. With a sigh, Mikail returned to the desk and retrieved the next stack of papers the Archivist offered him. More healing records. Wonderful.

On his way back to the table he'd been at, Mik spotted a familiar knot out of the corner of his eye. Another Candidate, a girl several years his junior but pretty enough none the less. Something about her reminded him of Meagen, but he couldn't say what. He hoped she and Dia were doing well, he missed them both. Anyway, it was enough to make Mikhail change his path, heading over to the other Candidate's table. He took a seat across from her, and smiled. "Hi, I'm Mikail," he whispered, shooting a suspicious glance at the large drudge in case he objected. The man didn't seem to notice, though, so he went on. "Stuck here too?"

[ace]

"Obviously, or I wouldn't be in here," Mina snapped, without looking up. First the drudges lecture her, and then they try to make conversation with her. Couldn't they just mind their minds, the girl thought irritably as she finished transcribing the scroll she had been working on. But as she heard the chair across from her skid across the floor, she glanced up from her tedious job and just stared blankly.

Even sitting down, Mikail towered above her small statue. "H-hell-hello," she stammered in shock. Still taking in his features, she stumbled on to say. "I'm s-sorry, I didn't mean to snap at y-you like th-that." Picking up steam, Mina continued in her usually cheery behavior. "My name is Mina. I got assigned here for chores." A drudge looked over at her and shushed her, causing Mina to duck her head in embarrassment. Changing the subject, Mina asked curiously, "Were you just searched?" The boy was a few years her senior, so he would almost be to old to stand, or that's how Mina understood it.

[Ruby]

Mina's snap didn't even phase Mik- he wouldn't have been offended normally, and he didn't even notice her tone now, distracted as he was. Anyway, being shut away in this freezing hole would make anyone snappish, as far as Mik was concerned. The boy just never had much of a temper- it was Crystoph that had inherited all of that. The thought of his twin made Mikail glance unconciously over his shoulder. He'd picked up the habit in the first round of chores, when he and Cry had been seperated for the first time... pretty much ever. He was constantly checking for his twin, but had no idea he was doing so. It left him feeling strangely unprotected.

"Yeah, it's pretty awful here," Mik agreed, pushing his hair back over his shoulder as he settled down to work. He half wished that he had a tie to keep it back while he was working, but truthfully it probably kept him warmer hanging loose. "And don't worry about whatever snapping you think you did, it's as cold as ice down here- I would expect a frigid greeting from my brother," he added with good humor. Obviously he was only lightly teasing her about the greeting, mainly because she'd pointed it out. "Honestly, I didn't even notice."

Also dropping his voice at the shush, Mik nodded about the chores. "Me too. I am so tired of chores- if only they could be replaced by something fun, like running or something! Even something where we didn't have to be quiet would be better than this," he sighed wistfully. A brief daydream about running along the familiar Benden trails in the summer heat followed, and Mik's eyes unfocused for a second. As a result, the question about his search caught him off-guard. "I've been... yeah, I was searched from Blossom Hold just a few weeks ago. Oops, almost a slip. He had NOT been a candidate since he was old enough to stand, he reminded himself. Only since he'd been at Selenitas. "How about you? And where'd you come from, to begin with?" Another question occured to him as he took in her figure again. "Are you hoping for a Queen?"

[ace]

Mina snorted as Mik easily accepted her apology. “Yes, its rather cold and miserable down here isn't it.” Last time Mina had been assigned to work in the records room, it had been considerably warmer than it was now. It hadn't even crossed her mind that it could get colder in here as the months progressed. A small tremor went through the girl's body, causing her to shiver slightly.

As she continued to work, her ears perked up at the word 'running'. “I love running, I get up in the morning to run daily. I wish I could ditch these chores, but I got in enough trouble last time I did that...” She started to reminisce, but her daydream was cut short as Mik answered her question. “That's what I thought, I haven't seen the likes of you around the weyr before. Blossom Hold you say?” she added as an afterthought. "Your accent sounds like it came from farther up north." The girl was very uncanny, but she usually disregarded her intuitiveness. Mina writing slowed as she answered the other candidate's question in return. “I was born and raised in the weyr,” she answered candidly.

Mina glanced at the boy, startled as in inquired as to which color she was hoping to impress. “A queen?” Mina snorted. “Not likely. That's way to much responsibility for me to handle, I would much rather impress a green. If I impressed a Gold dragon, I can assure you that the weyr would be in havoc in less than a week,” the girl concluded in a matter of fact tone. Mina thought of some of the other girl candidates, who were all vying for the queen. They all tried to be dignified; the thought of it made Mina sick. Mina would be honored if any color dragon chose her at all. Looking questioningly at the other candidate, the girl asked, “What color are you hoping to impress yourself?”

[Ruby]

"Really? So do I!" Mikail exclaimed, plainly excited. And also too loud, if the stares aimed his direction were anything to go by. "Well... usually. I haven't been out since I caught this cold," he continued in a lower voice. "Where do you run normally? We should meet up one morning, it's always nice to run with someone else sometimes." He was beginning to like this Mina... nothing like Sasheen of course, but that girl was an entirely different story. But she seemed sweet and pleasant, more and more like Meagen the more he chatted. Much better company than a sniffly nose, for chores. Speaking of sniffly... he dug out the handkerchief at the last second, sneezing into it instead of all over his pages.

Mikail had to snicker a little at her assessment of her leadership abilities, though. "I highly doubt that. You seem capable enough, and clearly you are doing an excellent job of copying these..." he snagged her pile of papers, "Clutch records. Clutch records?! The archivist must think you're a beauty, giving you clutch records to copy. At least those are interesting. I got ancient Healer's records to organize," he practically moaned, passing her papers back. At least clutches had to do with Candidacy! "Anyway, I'm sure this is what Queenriders do anyway, right? And oil those fat lumps of theirs," he added with a smirk. A girl not pining after a Queen- refreshing.

The question about his chosen color, however... interesting. "I'm not sure, really. I mean, every boy wants a Bronze, right?" he mused. Of course, he DID want a bronze, just like every other sensible male alive- the rank and the power were simply irrisistible to any man with an ounce of ambition, especially one with Mikail's sexual preferances. Really, though... "I think, if I couldn't have a Bronze, which is certainly unlikely, I'd like a Brown. They've always struck me as versitile creatures. And... well, I'm not really... um, interested in boys, so to speak. That has always made me a little uncomfortable, and I wouldn't look forward to riding a Blue or a Green and ending up in a flight with... boys." This DID make him uncomfortable, despite his Weyr upbringing, and it made him uncomfortable to admit it. It was true, though, as much as he wished he could get over it.

[ace]

Mina grinned as Mik exclaimed his love of running. Still smiling, the girl said, “I usually sneak out of the candidate's barrack and go running down at the beach. It gives me time to think, ya know?” The girl snickered as Mik sneezed. “You have some nasty cold,” the girl joked. “I'm sure that the chill in here isn't helping it much though.”

Snickering, the girl retorted, “You obviously don't know me well. I may be capable as you say, but it's an entirely another matter when and if, I choose to be capable.” “Mmm, the archivist says I have and extremely neat scrawl,” Mina said as Mik looked at what she was copying.

Mina snorted as Mikail stated his chose. “Bronzes are extremely coveted by most boys, so I can see the appeal.” She almost laughed as the boy stated his trepidation about riding blue or green. “Well, there are male green riders, and female blue riders, so you might not end up with sleeping with another man,” Mina stated in her matter of fact manner. “But, I can see why you would feel that way...” Mina shied away of the idea of sleeping with another girl She would rather not lose her virginity like, that...

[Ruby]

((I'm gonna wrap this up since we both impressed (!!), if you don't mind))

"Oh, I usually run after breakfast." He sounded truly dissapointed by this; having a running partner would have been nice. "Maybe after the clutch hatches and my cold clears up, we can meet up some morning." If one or both of them impressed, of course, that would be more of a challenge, but Mik figured they could work it out. "If you want to, that is. I know running can be kind of a personal thing." He sniffed, then launched into more sneezes, trying and failing to cover them up.

"I-" Mikail started, about to launch into a discussion of blues and greens, when the Archivist came over. "If you can't keep your bodily functions under control, Candidate, I suggest you visit the Healers and come back to finish your last candlemark and a half at a later time. I will make a note for the next time I see you." Mik half-bowed awkwardly to the much shorter Archivist, handing over his papers. "I guess I'll see you around..." he said to Mina, looking a little shamefaced.