[PRP] The Countdown Begins [Natiri/Oreune]

[ShinosBee]

Kleoth had risen and been caught, and although there was no exact way to know when the eggs would be laid, the mood among the candidates had decidedly shifted. It would be weeks, months even until the hatching, but a thread of anticipation had woven through the barracks, linking them all in slowly growing tension. Of course, their day-to-day routines hadn't much changed at all, aside from much more chatter and half-whispered wonderings. It honestly was a little distracting for Natiri, and he'd found himself growing frustrated more than once. Sure, he could understand the others' excitement, but it wouldn't make the time go any faster, nor would it make the chores get done with less effort. The last thing he wanted to be right now was distracted—what if a mistake cost him the chance to stand? No, he wanted to exemplify the concept of work effort and devotion to the Weyr now more than ever.

That was why when the days came to a close, he very often preferred to relax quietly and then turn in, rather than stay up gossiping and wondering with the others about what eggs might be laid, and how many, and when. It was interesting, sure, but it didn't amount to much to him. Still, Fy often begged him to join in—her excitement was beyond the norm, and exhausting, but it was nice to see her in better spirits. That was how he'd found himself still in the common area of the barracks yet again, lurking on the outskirts of the gossiping crowd. It was enough involvement that she'd be satisfied, but little enough that he could get some peace. He only listened idly, one hand rubbing at Haldi's tiny headknobs as he picked away at a letter to his parents to announce the recent goings on, pausing just long enough to give a soft "Hullo, evening," to another candidate when they sat down at the other chair at his little table.

houllow

Ore can have been gossiping with the rest, or be avoiding it with him, lol XD Hope that's okay

 

[houllow]

Were it possible for a human to teleport between without the aid of a dragon, Oreune likely would have done it on her own the moment someone decided to talk to her. Having been knocked out of her thoughtless stupor by a sudden voice at her side, her face went through several shades of something before her head slowly turned to acknowledge the speaker.

Somehow or another he had been there first and yet Oreune had completely missed seeing him as she went about her usual routine of not paying attention. Was she really that out of it with everything that was going on? Naturally it might be that this was just one of the more bigger deal clutches that she was going to stand for, maybe, and that was why she was zoning out. It wasn't like the last one she really thought about left her gored and scarred and scared or anything.

It was only after Oreune connected the dots that she was looking at him like a fish, mouth open and eyes wide, that she slammed her jaws shut and uttered out a word. "...Evenin'."

Shards.

ShinosBee

oreune was in THE ZONE

 

[ShinosBee]

Ah. Natiri paused in his writing at the sight Oreune made, gawping like a fish. Had... she really been that oblivious as to not have seen him when she sat down? In the barracks there was really no such thing as personal space, so he'd swiftly had to grow used to strangers (and then acquaintances, usually) joining him unexpectedly. He... was fairly certain she wasn't new. Mentally he flicked through his internal list of people he'd met at the Weyr... no, he was pretty sure he'd seen her around before at least, even if they'd never spoken.

Eventually he resumed his penning, mentally shrugging at her apparent pre-occupation. When she finally replied to him, he paused, slowly glancing up and setting the quill aside. The chore rotation hadn't been that difficult as far as he knew, but different people had different thresholds. He didn't know her, and wasn't responsible for her, but if she was sick or over-tired, at least he ought to tell the candidate master. It would be detrimental to the rest of them too if she spread some illness, or through exhaustion got others hurt at tasks. He gave her a cool, steady once-over, no malice in his stare, but she certainly had his attention. From on his forearm the little golden firelizard too peered up, peeping quietly at the girl in a more vocal expression of her boy's curiosity.

"...Long day?"

houllow

 

[houllow]

"Not any more than usual. Just zoning out a bit." Oreune sheepishly shrugged and shook her head at the question, not really sure where to go with it. It was absolutely safe for anyone to assume she'd had a rough day and she probably should have just said something like oh yeah, you too if she wanted to keep the conversation going but of course she had to shove her foot down her throat. Boy howdy did she love the taste of leather.

The peep from the little golden flit on his arm drew Oreune's gaze down, and she smiled a little, lips opening to show some teeth with a puff-like laugh. She was about to comment on the firelizard, maybe change the topic from the fact she admitted she was zoning out when seriously, Oreune, why not lie it is so easy when a pop from above had a green firelizard appear. It landed atop her head with delicate grace, cheeping down at the Gold as if to say It's over, I have the high ground.

Or whatever firelizards talked about, because Faranth knew Oreune had no idea how to talk. Seriously, loving that leather.

"Er, I mean. Kinda easy to do with everything that's going on and all. The upcoming clutch, whenever that is going to happen, and the inevitable standing on the Sands."

LEATHER.

ShinosBee

 

[ShinosBee]

He gave a slow, mild nod at her reply, eyes drifting back to the letter he'd been penning. Since she didn't seem to be sick or under undue stress, then it really wasn't any of his business or interest why she'd been zoning out, was it? She wasn't bothering him, and he had no plans to bother her. He was already quite satisfied with the interaction, neither wanting to avoid nor continue it, but he added on a soft, "That's fair," before letting the topic drop.

He'd already begun writing again when she puffed a chuckle at Haldi, though he paused and glanced her way again briefly at the sound. Her own, apparently—a green—appeared a moment later to join in curious staring, and he gave a little flick of his arm to prompt Haldi to step down onto the table, and a bit closer to the pair. She glanced back at her boy and then took a step forward, peeping softly up at the green. A quiet but confident You underestimate my power. Still her eyes were whirling blue-green and content, unbothered and simply curious, in lieu of her boy, who seemed rather not at all interested in talking more.

...But then, of course, Oreune found her voice and got her tongue untangled, and once again Natiri set his quill down without any outward expression of irritation or bother. "Yes, I suppose so. It isn't your first clutch, though, is it?" She seemed a bit less... overtly excited than the other first-timers he'd seen bouncing off the walls, as if the eggs would be hatching any moment, and not at all that they hadn't even been laid yet. And on that note, he looked towards the larger gathering of their fellow candidates as the volume of the crowd's chatter briefly swelled. They were so very excited... "...It will be a while yet. Do you think they'll tire of guessing at what will happen?" It was going to be trouble if they did. He could understand, of course, but... There was work to be done in the meantime, wasn't there?

houllow

 

[houllow]

Loom peeped at the little queen and tilted her head back,Don't try it. High ground!. She nestled even more into Oreune's hair, eyes whirling a merry and happy blue as she enjoyed whatever it was that the two firelizards had going on. Compared to Oreune who basically was waiting for the sky to fall, Loom was downright jolly and absolutely delighted in carrying out this little play.

"Er, probably not. Gossip is all that keeps most folks here going, with how everything else is." Oreune shrugged at his question and moved a hand that had been resting somewhat on the tabletop to the top of a thigh. She sort of felt like balling up the fabric of her dress in an effort to keep her hands from acting out, but wouldn't that just cause even more problems? Whatever, it could look like she just wanted to rest her hand against her lap and maybe against her stomach because reasons. "And no, this'll be my.....third...or so? My first time standing was for Kleoth's clutch, actually." She hadn't stood for the smaller clutches while in recovery, and while the mindhealer had eventually agreed with her that yeah - she was absolutely okay enough to stand again because accidents happened and it was an accident, she still hadn't really made it out.

She'd make it out for this one though, maybe. Wait, not maybe - for serious. She was going to seriously stand at this one.

"There was...an accident at the last clutch I stood for, so I haven't been able to stand at the others. I'm looking forward to it, but I'm not exactly expecting it to be super life changing for me." This kid.....was it his first? Oreune didn't recognize him but then again he could have snuck in at any time while she was out pretending not to be injured anymore. "And you? Not wanting to jump for joy with the others?"

ShinosBee

 

[ShinosBee]

Haldi gave a little peep, and a soft trill, shuffling a half-step closer and attempting perhaps to lure the smaller green down. likewise her eyes were a brilliantly content blue, the golden lizard having quite a nice time meeting someone new. The Weyr had many faires of course, and more than many individual fire lizards, and being only here a few months, there were still many she had yet to meet one on one. Loom, she had apparently decided, seemed nice and friendly.

That... didn't make sense to Natiri. Sure, he understood that things were more difficult lately, between the lackluster tithes and additional work to secure food they'd had to do, and thread coming faster and thicker by the day... but wasn't that the idea? The point? To give their all to fight thread and save Pern? Hadn't they all known, going into candidacy, that it would be work and not some fun trip to the beach? Perhaps it would have been if they were born in peaceful turns, but they had not been so lucky. This was the hand they'd been dealt, so why had they picked up the cards if they didn't plan to try to play to win? "That seems foolish of them. The eggs will come when they come, and in the numbers they come, regardless of any wishing or wondering. Gossiping about it is irrelevant. And wastes time they could be doing more important things."

He gave her a slightly more thorough once-over at her mention of an accident. He'd heard talk, of course, of maulings and trouble, but having not been here to see it, it hadn't seemed worth much thought. Such things happened, and he had the fortune of distance to keep his feelings impersonal on it. Clearly Oreune had survived whatever had happened, so he decided not to ask more about it. Though perhaps it would count to know what she had done, or failed to do, so that he would not repeat her mistakes, and could replicate her successes. Perhaps another time. That sort of thing wasn't the most comfortable to talk about between new acquaintances, he figured.

"Well welcome back to it. Perhaps it will be worth the wait for you." He eyed the loudly gabbing throng again, their bright eyes, smiling faces, the overabundant excitement for something many sevendays in the future.

"No. I anticipate the chance to stand and serve Pern, but there is work to do between now and then. 'Jumping for joy' about it won't make it come faster, and won't get anything done aside from tiring them out... maybe that's for the best."

houllow

 

[houllow]

"...ah."

Oh. Oh.

Sands and shells on those sands.

This kid was boring. Forget the taste of leather from eating her own shoe, Oreune was pretty sure she was chewing sand. Why hadn't she just said nothing and walked away? She'd expected the conversation to go somewhat better than this, which in hindsight was a mistake, and Oreune cursed herself out in as many words as she knew. It wasn't exactly her fault she sat down at a table that had Pern's equivalent of a stump sitting there - and it wasn't like he was horrible or anything.

Just a total buzzkill. A kill joy. Just because Oreune herself wasn't super duper excited for the hatching for obvious reasons didn't mean she had to magically find the one person in Western who felt the same for very different reasons. Still though, somehow or another she'd gotten herself into this conversation mess and so by Faranth above it was going to continue. Boring didn't mean get up and go, after all.

Plus Loom apparently had some sort of drama going on with the little queen on the table, it seemed. The candidate was only just paying attention to her firelizard from the corner of her eye, catching the swinging of a green tail now and then and feelings of amusement.

In that vein, the green did not leave her perch but rather cheeped out an invitation, offering whatever space was left on Oreune's head for the gold to join. If she wanted, of course.

"I mean, for some folks being excited helps the time pass faster. I know in my case it always worked whenever I had an assignment at the crafthall." Oreune nodded. "Wait, no - I'm thinking of deadlines and those weren't great at all. I hated those."

ShinosBee

 

[ShinosBee]

For his part, Natiri was wholly oblivious to the internal turmoil Oreune was going through over his apparent kill-joy-ness. In his mind, they were simply having a polite conversation, and passing the time in an amenable manner. He wasn't really one to seek out a chance to socialize, but it was important, he knew, to get to know people in a new environment. One day he could be fighting thread alongside this girl, after all, and it would be better to have some sort of rapport than none at all, right? Of course, for him that was still a challenging thing to do. Conceptually, he understood it exactly. In practice, as far as actually feeling a connection...? Well, it just took time, maybe. To him it was going just fine.

Despite Loom's offer, Haldi did not go flapping up to perch on the poor girl's head. The little gold was well trained, and naturally of good manners, and while she bobbed in thanks to the green... it just didn't look like there was room up there for them both. And far be it from her to get in the way, or usurp Loom's little throne. No, she was quite fine, though Loom could always come join her on the table. She trilled up at her, almost dotingly. Little sister, perhaps?

He hummed consideringly, glancing again at the pack of candidates. "I suppose. Though it still seems... I don't know. Like wasted energy, to me. Perhaps that's rude." Still, he didn't take the assessment back. "So long as their chores are done and they focus in lessons, it makes no difference to me in the end what they choose to do with their time, so long as it has no impact on me."

And then. He laughed.

Or, well. Chuckled, maybe. The smallest of puffs of amused air at her. "Yes, deadlines are a different matter entirely. Very motivational, though." ...Was that a smile at the corners of his lips too? What was Pern coming to?!

houllow

 

[houllow]

...what was that sound? Had he...laughed? Oreune absolutely did not expect him to be able to make that noise via the judgement of his character she had over their extremely short period of meeting, so while it was really weird of her to be taken aback by it the whole thing was probably even more weird for him to actually do it. He just.....seemed the sort to never laugh, at least not voluntarily and with actual feeling behind it.

Which was why it was a chuckle or something like that, maybe. If anything.

And was that a smile???

Oruene's cheeks instantly blazed to life, coloring her from ear to ear in a red that only seemed to enrich the already deep nature of her skin. He'd caught her off-guard twice now and her brain was absolutely reeling from it. This was absolutely a hundred percent the reason why she didn't go out of her way to speak to people. That taste of boot had replaced sand in a never ending cycle.

Loom, however, happily moved herself down on to the table as requested. It hadn't been a command so there was no urgency, but maybe the green liked the cut of the gold's jib and thus wanted to see her a bit closer. It certainly didn't hurt anything as she fluttered down, allowing Oreune's hair to get in her face and hide most of her shame.

Now on the table, she scooted closer to the (bigger than she thought, oops) gold and peeped. Equal ground was the happy note, followed by eyes full of blue and green.

Hair in her face, Oreune worked to brush it back and behind her ears, all the while her face still burning. Couldn't she go back to thinking he was boring? He could still very much be if the conversation continued, which she hoped it would to get pass this moment.

"At the crafthall it seemed like the only way to get me to focus was to issue a deadline. Or rather, remind me of it two days before it is due so I'll actually....do...things." She could remember those moments vividly, of her instructor nearly kicking down a door and dragging her to a loom with shouts and papers and all sorts of other wild antics. Oreune could also remember completing the work and turning it in which was the whole point.

Anyway. "I thought coming to the Weyr and being a candidate would cure me of that, but..." Hard to skimp on things when you're told the day of to do them, and chores weren't exactly assignments anyway.

ShinosBee

she doesn't even KNOW his NAME

 

[ShinosBee]

Oreune was having mental flips over the situation, deep stress and mental highs and lows fit to make the head spin... and Natiri was oblivious to it all. He gave a little head shake, still blithely amused at what he'd taken as a small joke from her, about deadlines—such jokes were just his style of humor. Work-focused, work-centric, that was his life, and he could understand that sort of light jesting better than any focused on other topics less near and dear to him. So if you'd asked him this unintended encounter had become quite affable, and hardly the potentially-annoying hassle he has expected at the jump.

And given how Haldi and Loom were getting on, really it was only Oreune who was in a tizzy about things. Haldi gave a little bob and wiggle to the littler green, all charm and politeness as she stretched her neck out to offer a nose boop, and to gently sniff at her new friend. Equal ground indeed, was the feeling. Why would it ever be otherwise? Fair was fair was fair, after all!

Natiri had returned to writing his letter as they kept talking, but almost imperceptibly his demeanor had relaxed. He wasn't ignoring her, not at all, just splitting his attention. A rare enough thing, really, and it showed in how he was not the best at it—he took no note of her blushing or fidgeting, and if he had, he probably would have chalked it up to being surprised that her joke had landed so well. That he could have understood, as he also rarely joked. It was not his area of expertise, not at all. It was brave of her to have tried it!

He gave a soft hum of thought at her admission. "It sounds like perhaps you were in the wrong craft. Talent does not go the whole way as far as it goes. If you cannot focus at it, then you would continue to make mistakes, and lose focus." The quill scratched away at the parchment, steady dark lines of writing flowing out. "Of course, in something like weaving, you'll only ruin the bit of clothing. But in, say, architecture, that could be a fatal flaw." His eyes drifted back to her, suddenly quite focused and intent. "You owe it to Pern to find a craft you can focus on, so you can do your part." His tone was almost ominous. Dramatic. Firm and unrelenting in its determination. "...But I suppose you have done, with being here, now. You were good enough to be searched. Just do your best." Maybe this was him trying to be reassuring?

houllow

 

[houllow]

"....excuse me?" Oreune's voice was a thin hiss, the hands that had been resting on her lap suddenly balling up tightly into fists, handfuls of fabric trapped within. The color of her knuckles clenched so tightly threated on white, the pressure building to where she could feel pain in her palms from her nails threatening to break the skin. All the red from before had run from her face, leaving her with the same ashy pale she knew she hated, that same streak on her face that sometimes covered whenever the pit in her stomach opened up.

It'd been a while since she'd felt like this in all honesty, even as her paranoia loomed around like a bad raincloud. Maybe it was because most folks in the Weyr were the genial sort and liked to talk, or maybe it was because Oreune actively avoided conversations that went beyond surface pleasantries despite actually enjoying talking to people. Either way it felt like someone had very much pulled the chair out from under her, despite the fact she could feel the pressure under her legs.

Loom gave a sudden startled chirp as her eyes whirled yellow, her attention pulled away from the lovely time she'd been having with Haldi. She scampered over to Oreune and sat back on her haunches, worried chirps mixed with comforting croons issuing forth.

It was funny to actually hear someone say all the things Oreune thought about herself, the "maybe you're in the wrong craft" or the simple "good enough" that came with being searched. It wasn't like she probably hadn't been an afterthought when she was brought here for that clutch, and it....well. It was hard to argue with the truth of what someone was saying, and even though it was making her stomach hurt it was...nice.

To know that someone else, a complete stranger, clearly considered her the same amount of failure that she thought herself to be. Or maybe everyone did, he was just the only one polite enough to say it. Maybe she should thank him for that, once she could find her voice again? Everyone liked being told the truth, even Oreune, and they liked it even more if was honest enough that it hurt.

Loom chirped again as Oreune didn't say anything more, though one of her hands did loosen a bit as the fingers tried to creep to the massive scars on her gut. They always ached whenever she thought of anything, like a reminder to her that she really did suck and probably shouldn't be here. It was a mistake after all, even if she had nothing really to lose by trying.

Or, if the way he was saying it happened, Pern had everything to lose if she did try and got selected. Like the Weyr was just wasting time and resources on her, and her best clearly wasn't worth anything.

"....no, you're right." She moved to get up, though perhaps the sliding out of her stool and standing was all in her head, as she hadn't actually moved. "I shouldn't be here." There was no fishing for pity, no sarcasm, nothing - her tone was level and truthful as if she were simply talking about the weather, or about when the next lessons would be. "Sorry for wasting your time."

The tiny green turned to look at the golden firelizard, eyes practically as yellow as the Queen's hide.

ShinosBee