| Characters | Arva, Kitty, Kyzen, Teena |
| Synopsis | Some Candidates go to the lake shore to enjoy some relaxation… until the running begins! |
| Out-of-Character Date | November 14, 2015 |
Igen Weyr - Lake Shore
It is sometimes hard to tell where the bowl ends and the lake shore begins. Fine grains of gold, tan and orange hued sand layer much as the bowl walls in the distance beyond. The sand only gives way to thin patches of grass where the tall fence of the feeding grounds intersects the lake to the south and the smooth curve of the bowl wall rises on the opposite shore. At that intersection one can make out a small building and colorful fabrics where the Weyr's residents go to relax. The shallow lake waters shimmer invitingly, day and night, lapping at the fine grain sands. Engineered pipes are hidden beneath the bowl landscape and feed the lake as well as the grasses of the feeding grounds to keep the water levels from dropping past a certain point which is marked by a waist high obelisk.
When chores are done early and the weather is holding reasonably well (meaning it's not insanely hot out), what better time than to 'escape' a little? Tired of being indoors, Kyzen's taken to wandering… at least as much as a Candidate is permitted. He's always been fond of the lake here. Especially the Moonshine Gardens though he's not allowed to go in to it yet. Right now, the young Candidate is wandering, barefoot, along the shoreline, pausing occasionally to examine something and either pocket it or toss it back.
Since when is being not allowed to do something a gaurantee that candidates won't do it? Rules were made to be broken, after all. Arva certainly feels in the mood to escape, and has in fact beaten Kyzen to the lake. She's already out in the water, lazily swimming around when she spots the familiar face on the shoreline. "Kyzen?"
Kyzen is trying to be good for once and not attract trouble. Not that he's been entirely successful but at least most of his blunders have been chalked up to his age and general bouts of klutziness. It hadn't even crossed his mind that some would be swimming and he'll look up at hearing his name called. "Arva! Hey. Didn't know you came out here too!"
Arva grins, paddling over a little closer to the shore so that she doesn't have to shout too loudly to be heard. "Are you kidding? How did you think I kept my tan up?" She asks with a little bit of a laugh. "Besides, those eggs will be hatching any day now. We need to get in relaxation while we can."
"I don't get it why you need to tan," Kyzen answers back, half teasing and will at least step out into the water until his feet are submerged. There's so much that still confuses him about girls. "Yeah, I heard them say that! You get to touch all of them?"
"You'll understand when you're older." Arva responds with a little grin. She's out swimming in the deeper waters of the lake, floating lazily as she chats with Kyzen. "And yes, I did. It was pretty interesting, wasn't it? A little… overwhelming, with some of them."
Kyzen pulls a face at that answer. "Ugh. Why does everyone always say that! It's like you're afraid of me knowing things!" he protests but only half heartedly. He knows no amount of whining or pouting will get much — at least not with SOME people. "I didn't get to touch them all. There's two I like though, even if one confuses me. You've any favorites?"
Arva pouts a little bit. "You didn't? Was the mother feeling protective of a few of them? That happens sometimes. Usually with the ones that turn out to be golds or bronzes… or so they say, anyways." She shrugs as much as she can while she's still keeping afloat. "I like that really colorful one. You?"
Teena is out for a day at the beach. Barefooted with her sandals in her hand she walks along the waterline. Eventually she comes nearer towards others on the beach, specifically Arva and Kyzen. A little wave is cast to the pair as she draws within sight of them.
"She wasn't protecting any but I think she got tired of us wandering about… I dunno. I was caught up in one egg and when I looked up the others had started backing off so I just followed." Kyzen explains with a shrug of his shoulders. He brightens though when she mentions an egg he remembers. "Is that the one that kind of has a forest-feel to it? I think I touched that one. Kind of felt like home." In a weird abstract way. "One of the darker eggs. It felt lonely and lost at first, like it was trying to find something. Kind of had images like the stars," He points upwards to an otherwise not night-time sky. Catching Teena approaching, Kyzen will return her wave. "Hey! Done with chores too?" he greets.
"I know what you mean." Arva replies as she paddles around lazily. "They made me remember things. Or… experience things that seemed like memories, anyways. It was all very abstract. A little disturbing, sometimes." She peers in the direction of the latest arrival, lifting a hand from the water to wave. "Teena! Hey!"
Teena tosses her footwear further along the sand before stepping into the water until she's along side Kyzen with the water lapping lightly against her ankles. "Done with chores for today!" she says cheerily. "Tomorrow I'm sure they'll be more." her gaze trails along until she spies Arva in the water. Blushing lightly at the unknown of what Arva is wearing ( or not wearing) out in the water, she averts her gaze to Kyzen beside her. "How're you guys doing today?"
"Unless the eggs Hatch by then!" Kyzen points out with a half-grin, oblivious to Teena's discomfort with Arva swimming in the water. "Abstract?" he echoes back to Arva, not at all shy to look at her with a puzzled frown. "Is that a way to say how the images aren't really… images? I didn't think they could be disturbing. There was one I didn't like so much — it was almost clingy and accusing." He gives a bit of a shudder but brushes off that memory quick enough. "Good! I was looking for stuff along the shore. Something to do. You?"
"Great!" Arva calls back out to Teena, chipper as ever. "Water's great today." She says, still paddling around. "We were just talking about touching the eggs. Have you gotten to them all yet?" She nods her head a little at Kyzen's question. "That's exactly what that means. Images that aren't images. Feelings. Concepts. Stuff like that."
Teena squats down to let her fingers trail along the water. "No..not all of them." she replies towards Arva. "What kind of stuff have you found along the shore?" is asked towards Kyzen. "I just like walking along the water's edge."
Kyzen peers at the water as if to consider joining Arva in swimming. "It actually doesn't feel too cold," he agrees. "Neither have I, but I'm glad I got to touch some at least." What did he find? He digs into his pocket and pulls out a few small shells, some of which are fractured pieces and one smooth pebble. "Just these." He'll hold them out for Teena to see first, then as best as he can for Arva.
Arva paddles just a little closer so that she can get a peek at Kyzen's finds. "Neat!" She says with a grin. "Got almost enough to make a necklace there." She says, paddling back into the water. "It's a lovely day for swimming. You two should jump in!" She says with a slightly teasing look at Teena. "So. Eggs. Any ones you like?"
Teena says, “Those are pretty." Teena admires the shells on display in Kyzen's hands. "A shell necklace. Be a nice thing to make as something from where you Stood." she shrugs a bit to Arva's questions. "Well I dunno. First time out there.." she hesitates. "It was strange."”
"I wasn't sure what I could make of these," Kyzen admits but the ideas both of them pitch seem to be agreeable. "A necklace would be easy enough. Too bad I couldn't find a tooth or a claw or something!" Yeah, because those are totally lurking about a lake shore. At Arva's suggestion to jump in, Kyzen shrugs and carefully tucks those shells away again only so he can free his hand and pull of his tunic. Then he uses it to create a makeshift nest-pack for the shells, as he's going to swim with the rest of his clothes on. Splashing into the water with a whoop, he'll catch the last of Teena's sentence. "This your first time for Candidacy too?"
"Seems like we have a lot of first time candidates in this bunch." Arva remarks, paddling away from the shoreline to give Kyzen a little room to make his way into the water. She's still making a futile effort to avoid getting her hair too soaked.
Teena doesn't move to join them in the water. Just yet. Content where she is for now her head bobs a couple times. "First time." is her reply to Kyzen. "You two?" her question is aimed for both Arva and Kyzen.
"First one!" Kyzen answers and that should be obvious enough. He's barely old enough to be here in the first place! Arva better move further away as he's not exactly a graceful swimmer and her hair may end up soaked (or damp) by his splashing. "Is that weird that so many of us haven't Stood before?" he questions, only to peer at Teena. "You coming in?"
Teena straightens up and moves deeper in the water. Stopping as it reaches her knees she tilts her head to one side as she watches the other two. "Well…not too weird I guess. After all there's got to be a first time for everyone."
"Same here." Arva admits, glancing upwards with just a touch of a frown at how damp her hair is getting. Unavoidable, despite her best efforts. She shakes it off quickly enough. "I don't know. Maybe? I grew up here, but I left when I was pretty little."
Kyzen shrugs his shoulders and dips under the water for a moment. When he surfaces again, his hair is plastered almost comically over his face, which he hurriedly pulls back. "I dunno. I think it's fun! First time or not. Guess it's best of luck to us all, huh? Think we've a better chance?"
Teena says brightly. "Maybe!" half turning behind her she peers out over the distance before turning back to the others. "I think I'm tired of the water. I'll see you back at the barracks you two!"
Arva ponders Kyzen's question, shrugging her shoulders a little. It makes the water ripple a little. "Hard to say. I don't know if first timers odds are really better than anyone else… if they were that much better, they wouldn't invite others back, would they?" She looks over to Teena. "Have a good one!" She says, waving.
"But you never came IN the water!" Kyzen jokingly answers Teena before giving a brief wave. "See ya!" Back to swimming, he'll float a little calmer in the water now that he seems to have got the knack of it — sort of. "I guess not, now that you put it like that." Kyzen admits to Arva. "Guess it's just all the same odds. You either do or don't Impress. It'd just be cool if we three could, right?"
"Well, she put her feet in the water. Sort of." Arva says with a little bit of a smile, resuming her own lazy floating. "Truth be told, I'm a little concerned she might have some sort of phobia about water. I offered to make her a swimsuit, and she turned me down right away." Another little shrug. "It would be nice, wouldn't it? I like the both of you. It'd be nice to have friends around for weyrlinghood. If that is what happens."
Kyzen smirks, "Suppose that counts." He'll give that much! Though the mention of a phobia of water has his brows lifting. "Oh. Phobia means she's afraid, right? That's…" Sad? Upsetting? Words he could use. Instead he just frowns and as paddles about. "How does she bathe then?" Typical. "It must help to have friends for weyrlinghood… but you'd make new ones too? And you'd have your dragon!" Ever the optimist!
"I have no idea." Arva replies. "She seems pretty clean, but she could just be using tons of perfume or something." Speculation runs rampant. "I suppose it's true. I'm told that when you impress, everything seems secondary to your new dragon."
Kyzen's nose wrinkles in a funny way and he snickers. "Maybe?" Speculation does run rampant and he's young enough to find the whole thing amusing. Sobering a little, he starts to swim towards the shore again. That's enough for him for one day! "That's what I heard too. Wonder why you never really see the weyrlings too for awhile? I had a friend who Impressed and I didn't see him till he pretty much finished training!"
Kitty's sweeping stride eats across the lakeside shore as she saunters her way over to her favorite shade tent not so very far from the bar. Even as she's flopping into her favorite wicker chair, one of the waitresses is coming out of the building with something frozen, fruity, and most likely alcoholic. "Oh thank you Dian." She moans gratefully. "I really needed that." After taking a lusious sip and sighing softly, the rider finally looks at those gathered. "Hey, you lot! What mischief are you up to?"
"I hear impressing a dragon is like having a baby. Eats up all of your attention until they're older. I imagine that's what makes the weyrlings disappear for a while." When she hears the familiar voice of Kitty, she looks up and waves from her spot in the water. "Just swimming! No mischief here. Come join us?"
Despite the lure of the waters for some residents to relax in the waters, Teena doesn't seem to take that standing invitation. After her departure from the others in the water she doesn't go right to the barracks. Instead she ambles along the sands near where the shore ends and the bowl begins. So she's around when Kitty makes her way to the shore but a good distance still from there to hear her.
Kyzen steps back out onto the shore, crouching where he left his tunic on the dry sand. Grabbing the pieces of shell he nestled there and stuffing them back into his pocket, he'll slip his tunic back on despite not being close to dry. "That would be tough," he agrees to Arva, only to jump slightly when Kitty calls to them. Uh. "Swimming!" he echoes with a crooked half-grin. Mischief? Nah.
Kitty shakes her head, lifting her drink as an excuse. "No, I'm good…" She seems about to lean back before a curious look crosses her face. "Actually, you might want to get out and dry off yourselves." There's a momentary pause before she adds a bit more urgently. "Definately should come dry off."
Arva pouts a touch when Kitty declines the invitation. The comments which follow just have her looking confused. "What? Not another sandstorm, is it?" Still, she knows better than to ignore those sorts of instructions. She scrambles out of the water and grabs her towel.
Close enough to see at least one of them scrambling from the water and the form of an adult near them, Teena stops and watches for a matter of seconds. Quickly deciding that something is certainly up she half hops along as she works on sliding her feet into her sandals as she walks.
"I don't have a towel… I'd have to go back to our quarters?" Kyzen half protests as well. Do they HAVE to go? He was enjoying some sun and water! When Kitty insists, even he knows better than to argue and he'll follow Arva after slipping his sandals back on. Hurrying along, he glances to Teena too. "Think it's something bad?" he mutters as they move along.
With each passing moment, Kitty seems to be getting more and more agitated. "Alright! Alright! I'll hurry them. Tell him we're coming already." She finally bursts out to seemingly no one. "You guys all have your robes around here, right? You're supposed to be carrying your robes." She places her drink down with a pout and grabs up a spare towel left behind in the tent, tossing it at Kyzen. "Dry off! Quickly. We don't want to have to run but if you guys aren't ready he's going to give me grief."
"My robe's in my basket." Arva says, hurrying in that direction. Once dried, she chucks her towel at Kyzen. "Here, you can use mine." Already damp, of course. But beggars can't be choosers. Off comes swimsuit, on comes robe and sandals. Soon, she's ready to run.
Teena's eyes can't help but widen a bit. "Robe…robe." mutters Teena. "Robe! Right!" having nearly forgotten the small knapsack slung over her shoulders and resting on her back she spins in place several times to try to reach said back. "It's in here!" she assures them. "Wait..on now?" she blanches suddenly. But then there's a bared Arva who is throwing on her robe so Teena simply shucks the shorts and throws on the robe over her head and slides it down over her tunic. Maybe no one will notice? She's ready to run though.
This is a drill, right? A sort of funny prank, a bit of a ha-ha moment? No? Crud. Kyzen catches the towel but he gapes for a moment. Robes!? "Huh… uh… Yeah! It's around here. Somewhere." Somewhere!? The boy hastily begins drying off, though thankfully it won't be too difficult once he finds his robe and can change. And 'lo, he gets a second towel from Arva! "Thanks!" he all but squeaks as he hastily runs off, less he's left behind! It must be a record for how fast he returns, slightly out of breath but dryer than he was and all in order. Most importantly, he's ready to run too!
Kitty nods now that everyone seems to be ready and shoos them all on ahead of her. "Go go go! D'ru Cormaith won't shut up! I think Olivith might come get us if we don't move now." And off she runs after just saying they wouldn't have to.
